After School
Author: verus_janus
Title: After School
Characters: Lucius Malfoy, Abraxas Malfoy, Horace Slughorn
Word Count: 450
Rating: G
Warnings: manipulation, of course
For:
darkarts_ldws
Prompt: Lucius, Magical Coercion
"Come," his father had said, "and bring your friends. I'll be expecting you."
It had been said with a wink and a smile at the corner of his father's mouth. This told Lucius it was a test of ingenuity, of strategy and praxis. Of course they both knew he and his young friends were virtual prisoners at Hogwarts. It was Lucius' last year, and he would soon take his place as his father's heir.
Lucius considered. Saturday night. They would all be playing The Minister's Cat for sweets, the First Years letting Slughorn win for favour. They did this because it worked. Lucius and those who did not need anything from him would lounge around the edges, smirking but idle. And so did those who saw him for what he was. He needed them. He had nothing to offer. Well, they would take freedom, and Slughorn had more to lose than Lucius did for casting an unforgiveable.
He came early to class.
"Imperius!" And he saw the focus of Slughorn's eyes turning unwaveringly to him, open to his next words. "You will have a little Slug Club party on Saturday. Invite all your favourites. Plan a soiree! Late into the night. Food, revels, luxuries. And you will not ask where we are. You have no need to know. Have a good time."
The man's round eyes widened, then narrowed in a disapproving frown, then slid to the side in resignation. There was nothing he could do in any case.
Horace hated the way they sneered at him. He hated them. Malfoy, with his damned lazy confidence. He had everything he wanted, and anything he thought he wanted he would be able to arrange. Except at school. And now...
There was nothing he could do. His beautiful children. And that little Gryffindor girl, so happy to be invited, with her muggle parents. If the children knew... he could picture their innocent faces closing against him, sneering.
And then they would grow up. He wanted them... oh, damn him... he wanted them to love him. He wanted them. Photographs? Just photographs. Of course, but... perhaps photographs did take a portion of the soul. His children. But only as long as they agreed. So long and no longer. He could not lie to himself if they sneered at him.
So, he had his little party, and the children pretended to sophistication, innocent and happy. And someday they would really be sophisticated.
And Lucius, the Lestrange brothers, the elder Black sisters, the Rosier boy, and a stringy new half-muggle named Snape clicked glasses and smiled in the Malfoy dining room. In one year Lucius would be free to enter the family business. Politics.
first posted to my dreamwidth account.