lucius malfoy 🐍 (leucistic) wrote in raveled, @ 2017-08-20 02:13:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | ! decade: 1970s, ! decade: 1980s, ! log, lucius malfoy |
WHO: Lucius Malfoy; appearances by Abraxas, Narcissa, and Draco
WHEN: 1970 to mid-1980s
WHAT: White peacock husbandry over the years
"Father, as a school governor, can you force Dumbledore to let me have a peacock at Hogwarts? I think Zeus would really improve the grounds' aesthetics. I mean, toads, really?" "Absolutely not, Lucius." "I know you think he's ridiculous, but –" "Would you trust that Hagrid oaf not to feed it to one of his beasts? Accidentally or purposely, one's just as likely as the other." "... you're not wrong, I suppose." "I've never been wrong, I know. Now bring that ridiculous thing in here. We have trade laws I want revised, and the Head of the International Magical Trading Standards Body loves it, Merlin knows why." "Is that Evan Rosier's blood again, Versailles?" The white peacock tilts his head to the side and nods once. "Good boy." The two of them are alone in the rose garden near the vineyards this morning. Lucius sprawls across the warm stone bench, his head in Narcissa's lap as she strokes his hair off his face. Sometimes, he sits up to tuck a lock of her own hair behind her ear, lightly brushing her cheek with a kiss as he did so before lying back down. "Father isn't going to like it, of course. But it isn't his wedding, so we should go ahead with it anyway. Unless –" Druella "– your mother disapproves, that is." Narcissa smiles, but doesn't say anything at first as she plays with his hair, twisting a thin braid around her slender fingers. "She's going to have a fit if Zeus and Versailles get more attention for their beauty than I do." Lucius sits up suddenly. Instead of smirking as he does with most, he smiles back, a mirror image of her. "They would never, darling." He's tempted to Incendio the cheque Rodolphus sends him as an apology for Zeus' untimely death. He even gets as far as a cold blue flame flickering at the tip of his wand, very slightly singeing the corner, before he remembers money is money in the end, no matter the means. The gold goes towards a bribe for the Senior Minister of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement instead. It only takes three days for the official blocking a bill he wants passed to resign in disgrace. Abraxas even buys him a new white peacock as a present for it. "Peacocks are not for riding, Draco." "My son breeds peacocks when he isn't wasting time on his hair, for Merlin's sake. How could he be a Death Eater?" Abraxas usually saves his speeches admonishing his son's less austere interests behind closed doors at the manor. In public, the Malfoys are always to present a proud, united front ("We're not Blacks, if there are even any left"), though there is truth to it behind the politics. But Lucius can't help but feel relieved for it this time. His frivolity – peafowl husbandry included – and his father's ridicule of it is one of many reasons he's not sitting in an Azkaban cell right now like so many of the other Death Eaters. Not that he would give his father all the credit for that. When the Ministry finally releases him, he and Narcissa make sure to schedule photo-shoots for Malfoy Manor and the peacocks to appear in Witch Weekly and ENCHANT. A sack of gold here, a threatened curse there, and it's almost as if Lucius had never been a suspected Death Eater at all. Arthur Weasley doesn't buy it, but who cares about his opinions anyway? "I'm not writing a letter to the Auror Office about this, Versailles. Don't look at me like that. But if Moody ever stops by, do feel free to peck his remaining eye out." When Draco whines he wants a doggie just like the one in the photograph of Aunt Bellatrix, it's one of the few times Lucius says, "Never" to him. One talk with Narcissa later, and he gives him one of Grand-mother's winged ponies and first pick from the latest brood of newborn peachicks. Draco excitedly names him Brutus, after their ancestor, but then sighs – "Daddy, I want a dragon now." |