TBGC

Call It Love
Chapter Nine

The fruit smells turned out to be six different smelling soaps, shampoos, and conditioners. There had been strawberry, pumpkin, kiwi, orange, cherry, and Evan’s favorite, banana. Harry had never even seen a banana smelling soap, much less contemplated using one, but at his son’s insistence he had bathed himself in it as well. It wasn’t bad, just strange and now he was having the strangest urge to eat peanut butter.

While they had been in the bath the house elves had taken their dirty robes and left clean ones. Part of Harry could not help but be grateful for the change of clothes, even if they were from Lucius Malfoy.

The robes left for him and Evan were a green so deep it could have been black, but varied otherwise. Evan’s was thick and made of soft cotton that hung to just above his ankles, making the bright red and gold socks more apparent that normal, the clasp at the neck was black with a silver lion imprint. He was rather surprised with that little detail; it had pleased Evan to no end.

Harry’s robe had been long enough to sweep the floor when he walked and the material was probably silk; shining when the light hit it and molding against his body every time he moved. The clasp was slightly larger and depicted a lion with a snake coiled at its feet. Another interesting detail, but it was slightly disturbing, not that anything about Lucius was otherwise, but it made Harry wonder how much time the aristocrat had spent planning for them. The clothes, both Evan’s and his own, were tailored to fit. Then again, for all Harry knew it could take a true seamstress only a matter of hours. He had never really thought much about it before.

As they walked into the parlor Harry could not help but be slightly impressed. It was a large room, with numerous chairs and sofas, built in bookshelves, a rather expansive looking gold magazine rack, and a patio with a small table and chairs already set for dining. The pale yellow, white and grey pin stripped walls lit the room and made it feel even larger than it’s nearly two-story height.

Lucius was seated at the table on the porch. He set the Daily Prophet he had been reading onto the table in front of him and raised an appreciative eyebrow as they walked across the room towards him. Harry fought the blush in his face, no one, not even Draco, had given him that kind of an appraising look. It was as though he were a rather valuable object.

Evan seemed to sense the tension and grabbed his father’s hand, glaring at the elder Malfoy protectively. Harry was slightly taken aback by the gesture, but only for a moment. He had forgotten Lucius dared to hit him in front of Evan. Anyone who seemed a danger to the child’s father was fair game for unobscured hatred. They had learned that when Cornelius Fudge had come to the school, claiming it was ludicrous to hire Harry Potter as a teacher.

‘The-Boy-Who-Lived was needed on the battle front, to boost the moral of the wizards fighting against the Death Eaters and Voldemort.’

Harry hadn’t been that upset by the proclamation, Dumbeldore had ensured him that Evan and he would both be staying inside Hogwarts grounds unless Harry wished it otherwise. Evan, however, had taken the beady little man rather seriously. At two years old he had grabbed a chunk of the Minister’s short curly hair and yanked on it for all he was worth. Since then they had been very careful to keep Evan away from anyone who persisted in acting aggressively towards Harry.

Lucius, however, took no notice of the death glare being sent to him by the young child. Instead, he waved his hand at the table and several platters of food appeared on it. Harry eyed the array, but said nothing as he motioned Evan to sit in the chair across from Lucius and put himself between them.

The look on Evan’s face while Harry put food on his plate was rather disturbing, but not entirely uncommon. It was the way he looked when he was planning revenge of some sort and it never lasted long. Sure enough, as soon as his plate was full he relaxed and picked up his fork, delicately eating his eggs.

If Lucius had thought Harry’s eating habits were abysmal when he was in a hurry, he was utterly horrified at the display he was watching now. In sharp contrast to his son, Harry seemed determined to pile everything on his toast; from eggs, to tomato sauce, then sausage, and, to Lucius utter horror, a small portion of oatmeal topped with brown sugar.

“I thought you said you ate that way because you were in a hurry.”

Harry gave a rather demented looking smirk, far too like Draco’s to please Lucius. “Oh, no, I always eat like this. It’s just that, when I can, I take my time.”

Despite the absurdly sloppy manner in which he ate during the next twenty minutes, Harry never once got food on his clothes, though he did have a nasty habit of licking his fingers rather than using a napkin. By the time they had finished, Lucius needed to get to the Ministry. The investigation into Potter’s disappearance would be well under way and he couldn’t afford to be missing if they decided to question him for some reason. His son was, after all, very close to The-Boy-Who-Lived.

Getting up from his seat, he nodded to Harry, who seemed slightly taken aback by the sudden movement, and ignored the very vengeful looking five year old once again glaring at him from across the table. “I’ll be going to work. You may spend the day with Evan; use his sitting room, if you like--it’s through the hidden door in the bathroom.”

Harry scrunched his nose up curiously, “He has a sitting room?”

“Every child’s quarters in Malfoy Manor is equipped with one, so yes.”

“Why does a child need a sitting room?”

“Its purpose varies. Usually it is the nurse maid’s quarters until the child goes to school, then it becomes a study and small library as needed. Unfortunately, I do believe that hiring a nurse maid to tend to Evan would be a particularly self defeating move on my part, so it will just have to remain a sitting room for the time being.”

Harry stood and picked up Evan, looked Lucius in the eyes and tried to come up with something to say. Half of him wanted to announce that, no matter the circumstances, no child of his would be raised by some nurse maid; the other half had the insane notion of saying ‘have a nice day at work.’ Deciding that nothing he said was likely to come out the way he wanted, he simply nodded and walked out, breathing a deep sigh of relief as the door closed behind him. He was fairly sure he was losing his mind and it hadn’t even been forty-eight hours.

____________________

That evening found Lucius sitting in his office, lip giving an uncharacteristic twitch every so often as he went through the last of his paperwork. After nearly ten hours in the office he was finally catching up and, with any luck, he would be able to get back to the manor before nine.

A few of the death eaters, probably newer recruits, had decided that The-Boy-Who-Lived’s disappearance was a cause for celebration, and what better way to celebrate than making a general mess of things. The halls of the ministry, even in these late hours, were filled with people from every department, working on various aspects of muggle relations. It was all rather ironic to Lucius. He was frustrated and angry at the amount of paperwork he was currently signing and filling out because it was keeping him away from he object of his obsession, while, in turn, that object was the cause of all the Ministry’s mayhem.

He was setting the large stack of finished paperwork to the side for filing when a deliberate throat clearing caught his attention. No knock, no ‘hello,’ just a rather annoyed little noise that made Lucius eye twitch again. There were very few people with bullocks enough to make that noise in that tone, and none of them had any reason to be visiting him at work after hours.

Turning toward the door, the glare on his face froze. Of all the possible people he could have to deal with at the end of this particular day, why did have to be Snape? Lucius took a deep breath and forced a cordial smile to spread tensely across his face, “Good evening, Severus.”

“Good evening, indeed.”

The two had not gotten along since the second rise of the Dark Lord, and their tenuous ‘friendship’ had turned into utter disdain after Potter was returned to Hogwarts a little worse for the ware. Apparently Severus had been given quite a bit to do with the recovery process and he had never really forgiven Lucius for the amount of time Dumbledore had forced him to spend with the traumatized teen.

Not that Lucius could blame him entirely, he was not fond of children, let alone ones that break into bouts of unexplained tears, start screaming for no apparent reason, and went from seemingly comatose to completely hysterical in a matter of seconds. He probably would have been slightly perturbed as well, but he doubted he would have held the grudge for this long.

Then again, Severus was known for his grudges.

“I’d love to stay and chat, but I have pressing matters to attend.”

Severus held a hand out across the door before Lucius had even stood up, his other arm still crossed over his chest, “Where is he?”

Bugger. If Severus knew, then the Dark Lord knew. In fact, given the Potion Master’s contempt for Lucius, he was probably here on their lord’s orders.

The silence agitated Severus, who’s glare hardened, “Lucius, where is your son?”

Lucius held in the relieved sigh. While he had no qualms about turning Evan over the moment he was ordered to, he was not looking forward to the sniveling, disobedient mess Harry would become afterward. Better to put it off as long as he could manage.

Now, how to answer that question without outright lying? Severus was, unfortunately, very good at telling when he was being lied to; it was one of the many things that made him so perfectly suited as the Slytherin Head of House.

“I really have no idea, Severus.” Not a lie, he had not asked the elves the location of his son’s body. “I haven’t seen him in days, but he did seem rather distressed when he left. I can’t imagine why.”

Severus scowled down at him, as Lucius had not bothered to stand yet. The last had been an obvious lie, Lucius knew very well why Draco had been so upset upon his ‘departure,’ but he had also found it impossible to resist that last little barb; just something to let Severus know he wasn’t telling him everything.

There was a period of stretched silence before Lucius’ cordial smile turned itself into the trademark Malfoy smirk, “Perhaps he’s wherever your little Potters are.”

Severus went back to glaring, a little spark of actual anger igniting behind his eyes, “Speaking of which, I spoke with our Lord earlier this evening and he expressed quite a bit of… unease at not knowing their whereabouts. You wouldn’t happen to have gleamed any possible leads today? I know Fudge is doing his utmost to locate his savior.”

“Of course, but no, I spoke with the Minister this afternoon and there are no leads. Should I assume that Dumbledore has had little luck, as well?”

The glare intensified, “Assume no such thing, he hardly trusts me enough to give me such vital information. I have, however, heard through other sources that there was an intruder in that wing of the school. Whoever it was, was successful in disarming every one of the traps and wards the dear” twitch, “Professor Potter put around his room, however, there were a few harmless charms he may have forgotten. Indicator charms for instance.”

There was no denying the suspicion in Severus’ voice, or the way he emphasized the word ‘he.’ It was a good thing the Potions Master was so thorough. Until he had absolute proof he was unlikely to take what he knew to anyone, the Dark Lord or otherwise.

Then again, if those rumors were true he had something far more terrifying than the Dark Lord Voldemort to fear--Albus Dumbledore.

____________________

Dumbledore sat pensively behind his desk, hands folded in his lap, sucking on a lemon drop as he listened to a practically livid Severus Snape relay the events of that evening; the veins in his too thin neck were straining against his overly pale skin and he had been repeatedly chastised for slamming his hand onto the desk with more than necessary force.

“He knows where they are. If he had nothing to hide he would not have tried to get me out of that office so quickly. Albus, are you even listening?”

Dumbledore nodded leisurely, “Of course, Severus, please continue.”

“Continue? I tell you that Potter and Evan are stowed away in Malfoy Manor and all you can tell me to do is continue? “What would you have me do, Severus?”

Snape stopped short of hitting the desk once again, “They need to be gotten out of there. Malfoy could have them locked in the dungeons, he could starve them, he could hurt Evan, god only knows what he’s doing with Potter. He could hand them over to the Dark Lord while you just sit on your…”

“Severus!”

Snape’s mouth snapped shut. He hadn’t realized he was shouting, but he was having a great deal of trouble controlling his anger when visions of Evan and, Merlin help him, Potter in various devastating states kept flashing through the back of his mind. “I apologize, Professor.”

Dumbledore smiled sadly, no trace of twinkle in his blue eyes, “I understand your concern, but I must take other things into account. If Voldemort knew the whereabouts of the Potters he would have already acquired them and, had that been the case, you would be the first to know. I do believe you when you say that Lucius has them, but I can not act rashly.”

“Whatever reason he has for keeping them, it has nothing to do with Voldemort, of that I am sure. However, should he fear imminent capture, Voldemort is the first place he will go and I do fear that he will take them with him.”

Severus sighed deeply. Damn the old fool for being so insightful. Why couldn’t he just storm the manor like anyone else would have done?

‘Because he, unlike so many others, is thinking of their safety.’

He sat down abruptly, folding his arms over his chest, “What do you intend to do?”

“Whatever is necessary, Severus. I will watch the manor and Lucius Malfoy until I have come up with a suitable means of rescue. Until then, I do believe you have had a rather long day and perhaps it would be wise to turn in for the evening.”

Nodding to the headmaster, Snape left the office hurriedly, his mind whirling in thought. While he could safely say that he had no intentions disobeying the headmaster, he also had no intentions of standing idly by while Lucius did Merlin knew what to the last of the Potters.

-tbc-

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