Halloween Gift for Snax0
Gift for: snax0
From: hikarievandar
Title: Preservation
Characters: Severus, Lucius, Narcissa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:I don’t own Harry Potter and I am making no profit from this story.
Warnings: References to human sacrifice
Summary: The Malfoys will survive. Draco will survive. They will do anything to ensure it.
Notes: Thanks to S for her beta work - any remaining mistakes are my own. Hope you enjoy
your drabble, snax0!
Candles flicker, casting ghastly shadows in the sunken hollows of Lucius’ eyes and cheeks. If not for the
glittering of his eyes, Severus would have thought Azkaban had killed him. He looks like an Inferius
rather than a nobleman. Between them, Narcissa places an ancient book - the leather of its cover is
cracked and withered and, Severus notes, suspiciously marked. The...thing used to provide the binding
had been tattooed with protective runes, which had failed upon their final encounter with the Malfoy
family long ago.
Narcissa’s long nails tap over the cover, and Severus tears his gaze away. Her face is grim - a twisted
reflection of her departed cousin. He shudders and looks again to Lucius, half-mad and mostly-dead, and
the frightening twist to his smile.
“My line will not end,” he says. “The Malfoys will survive.” He glances at his wife. “Draco will survive.”
The book is opened. Its pages have the dry, rotten scent of blood and ink. Dark magic crawls from it; a
malevolent insect poised to sting. Passing centuries and charitable donations have done a lot to mask
the true power of the Old Families, but not enough.
“All we need,” Narcissa says, “is a sacrifice.”