Red II

Past the corridor, in the dining room, Draco was gleefully smiling in his chair at the successful return of his most trusted advisor and beloved reptile. It did not matter that she was scolding him again, for to Draco results were all that mattered.

Once Lucius had reached the dining table, he sat down on the seat he previously sat on. Cold silence penetrated the air, and Draco was getting more worried by the second.

With a wave of his wand, Lucius accioed tea set from the kitchen. A soft wingardium leviosa softly placed them on the table and scooped two tablespoons of black tea leaves into the teapot. A well-controlled aguamenti filled the teapot with water, and a tap of his wand caused a burst of steam to issue almost instantly from the teapot.

The aroma slowly permeated through the air, warming it up with a delicious scent. Draco could almost pick up the scent of Madagascar vanilla, lavender, and almonds.

Another wave of Lucius' wand lifted the pot and tipped it to pour the warm tea into the two cups. Wanting to impress his father and lighten the mood, Draco lifted his hand and cast a wandless wordless wingardium leviosa to send each teacup and saucer to their drinker.

With this, the silence ended and Lucius gazed up at Draco with eyes gleaming with pride, but also almost anticipatory for something.

"Tom. As you already know. I cannot stay here any longer."

Lucius' eyes searched Draco's, asking to have all of his attention and Draco nodded in agreement.

"And I have a proposal."

Reaching into his cloak, Lucius pulled out an ivory envelope with gold calligraphy on it.

"You were correct. The safest place on earth is not in Britain. Tom. Will you go to France with me? I have contacts you can stay with. Powerful enough to protect you, and obscure enough that neither the Death Eaters nor the Dark Lord can reach you. Though I cannot stay with you, I may visit you every now and then when it is safe."

Going to France? He was almost ready to part with his father once again, but suddenly getting a proposal to leave everything behind was something Draco had never considered. All this time Draco had been doing everything in his power to come back home, suddenly being told to do the opposite had left him befuddled.

No matter how tempting it was to leave everything behind, Draco knew that there was much more to lose than if he stayed. Who other than him can coax the idiot trio and the barmy old man to make the correct decision and defeat Voldemort? After all, Draco knew the future, and if the wizarding world had any chance at defeating Voldemort, his knowledge may have enough power to tip that scale to victory.

There was also that. That which he had gained in this life and was already deeply buried in his heart as much as his mother and father were. Draco reached for his wrist sensor that was softly starting to beep and gently rubbed it with his thumb. His cortisol levels were steadily rising while his adrenaline levels plateaued slightly higher than his average resting levels.

Draco took sips of his tea to calm down his rising nerves, but the close proximity of the tea allowed him to smell another ingredient he hadn't noticed before. 'Valerian sprigs? How peculiar' The bitter taste of the tea together with an all too familiar scent caused memories to flashed through his mind. One of a cold grey stone below a common tree that was surrounded by Valerian sprigs all year-round. Nothing was remarkable about the rock other than its slightly large size, but Draco had remembered every mark on that stone. Every chip, stain, and indent. A crude memorial stone with no names and no bodies, just two wands buried maybe 2 or three feet under for that was all his bare hands were capable of digging at that time.

*beep* *beep*

'but they will be alright' Draco convinced himself. 'if I set everything right, father will never go to Azkaban and never take his own life upon news of his wife's death.' Remembering the day Bellatrix cackled with laughter while telling him this made dread creep through his heart, sending tendrils of cold numbness down his limbs.

'Mother has always been father's strength. Father would die to protect me, but he cannot live without her. Before they could be together again, Voldemort can never find me or he will use me as a hostage to make father bend to his will once more.'

Draco pondered deeper, looking for a question within himself that will guide his decision

'Unless… Even if I come face to face with Voldemort one day, if he doesn't know I am their son then he cannot use me. However, father seems to want to bring all the dangers of the world to his doorstep just to keep me by his side. I can't let him do that. I can't stay by father's side any longer.'

*beep* *beep* *beep*

Draco softly smiled and pressed a button to put his sensor in silent mode. 'There is also that troublesome fellow. Despite the world calling him a genius, I would classify him an idiot given that he has yet to take Pepper as his wife despite his obvious dependence on her for both his personal and professional lives. For now, he needs me and… I need him. I need Tony. I need my dad. I could also never quench the penitence in my heart if I were to allow Pepper to develop eyebags and white hair if she was left alone to pull Dad out of his man cave and convince him to drink pina colada in lieu of stronger alcohol. She's already in charge of supervising 90% of Stark industries with Dad dumping all of his work on her, I can't possibly in decent propriety allow myself to let her work THAT hard… In hindsight, I should also probably hire a president to take care of Estragon Laboratories… Am I a bad son?... No, no. I'm perfect.'

Draco lifts his head and with all sincerity, spoke in his most apologetic tone. "I'm sorry Father. I cannot go to France and nor risk staying with you any longer. You were right in hiding my identity and not registering me. No one must know I am your son so that all of us can live."

Panic rose within Lucius which caused him to rise in his seat. He took a deep shaky breath before kneeling down and grasping Draco's hands. Feeling as though he was about to lose his son, the desperation he was trying to hold down had leaked into his voice and quickened the pace of his breath. "No Tom. Living unknown is no longer an option. Listen Tom. An owl came with your name on the envelope. I have already burned it to erase any trace, however; it is already too dangerous for you to stay here. If any identity revealing charms were placed on you, everyone would know that you, my son, my wife's son, exists."

Draco felt conflicted but believed his decision to be the best for everyone, despite the agony separation would bring. "You don't have to worry about me father. My adoptive dad will protect me. I also made several friends who can take me in when the need arises. There is also something I haven't told you, father. I have another identity and a new name that I can use. I was actually born and raised in America, all my papers and magical registration are all legal and under that other name."

"Don't joke around Tom. Do you honestly believe a mere muggle can protect you? I can't even guess what made you believe that anything received from that destitute barbaric country would account for anything in Britain. Did a yank tell you that? Listen to me Tom, I knew far more as a child than any Yank could ever know in a lifetime. Such bottom-dwellers could never understand the depth of knowledge and power that pure-blood wizards such as myself have been trained with since birth."

Lucius' scolding was far worse than anything Draco had expected. Not because it had been unanticipated, but because the derogatory terms his Father had used stirred up emotions in his heart which he never thought were there. Never had he expected to be so flustered and have a retrospective moment in this critical time.

Draco could not help but think that his father right now, was a reflection of his past self and his face flushed a deep cherry red. Not because he was angry or hurt, but because he suddenly became self-conscious of his past actions. The Draco Malfoy, who like an adolescent that never grew up, finally understood the juvenility of his 'showcase of power and elitism'.

Was it the leftist influence of California? His Dad's teachings about vocabulary sensitivity to the media? Both? Draco didn't exactly know. All Draco knew was that he was currently deeply and ruefully embarrassed.

Gripping tightly the hands that were holding onto his, Draco bit his lip to control his embarrassment for himself and his father.

"Father. I'm truly sorry, but…"

"No. You have no choice Draco."

'What?!' Draco looked up at his father, startled at the words that tickled his ear. 'That name shouldn't exist' he thought. An almost eerie smile graced his father's cold face and the mismatch of his expression was perturbing.

Lucius began to speak in an almost pacifying and hypnotic manner. His eye's milky and glazed over. Draco hadn't noticed when Lucius' eyes changed, but in lieu of the silver-gray irises he had been all too familiar with, were cloudy, almost cataract-like irises and dilated pupils. Lucius had used the fraction of a second Draco had been overwhelmed with embarrassment to convince his body to 'sleep'. It usually wouldn't have worked, yet Draco without any suspicion had been previously and continuously spiked. The unspoken charm and the chemicals swirling within Draco's system had worked in synergy to create an immediate and frightfully effective reaction.

"You do not have to worry Draco. By this time tomorrow, the only thing you would remember is I as your father and life as a proper pure-blood."

'Of course. Valerian sprigs and Lavender.' This was his thought that could fully take shape before Draco had been lulled into the cold embrace of slumber.

At the corner of the room, was a grey rat effortlessly blending into the dreary colors of the manor's wallpaper and drapes. Its red beady eyes reflecting the dull affair before scurrying off into the shadows.