He watched his mother dictate his reality with cold precision. Oh, he knew very well she was attempting to protect him. Not unlike you trying to protect her from things recently.
He forced the thought away with grim acknowledgment. She was denying him his family. She was cutting him off, and leaving him alone again, but this time, she was asking him to do it to himself. After the last few years, Draco wasn't sure he believed isolation was protection.
The crisp relief that his parents' reactions and position of isolation were how they reacted to anything that didn't fit their world view, blood traitors, traitors and Muggles, didn't bode well for the further conversations he would need to have.
"With all due respect, I'm not any better. I was a child trying to play among the big boys as well." His voice showed far more deference than his words. "I wanted it to be that way as well. I wanted to be granted glory and power, and felt it was my duty as a Malfoy."
He stepped away and leaned down briefly to smell one of the roses, then turned back to her.
"Aunt Bellatrix never learned of mine, though I know full well she resented my failure. However, Regulus was only one thing I wanted to discuss with you." He took a breath before landing this bomb. "Lucius is creating an identity with which to wander proper society. Louis Malfoy, father's non-existent bastard."
Draco had never been good at outright defying his mother. He'd never really needed to as a child, but now, as a man, he found himself unable to pull on prior experience. Diversion seemed the best tactic.