Title: A Mother's Farewell
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: LuciusxNarcissa
Other Character: Draco
Rating: G
Word Count: 761
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: Last story of 2007! Since June, I've managed to get almost 60% finished with this challenge... sheyesssss!!!!! Have a super fantabulous New Year, my friends! I'm going to go party now... hope you have a great party to go to as well! >:D
<33333Alyssatheamazingmezzoluciuslover
His trunk was packed and she had stowed several handkerchiefs away in her purse just in case. She had made sure, despite his protestations, to get enough pictures to wallpaper the house until her husband insisted that it was enough. He laced his hand with hers as they got in the Ministry muggle vehicle for King’s Cross Station.
Because the car was enchanted much like the Knight Bus, it took almost no time to get to London from Wiltshire—perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. Draco talked animatedly the whole short ride, telling his parents that he was excited to finally be a Slytherin like all of his ancestors before him. He turned his wand over in his hands and talked of the spells and charms he was going to try when he got to Hogwarts. Lucius looked at his son with pride in his eyes but Narcissa looked at him with a jumble of feelings.
Draco had rarely been away from her for more than 48 hours since he had been born—only more than that when her and Lucius had taken a private vacation. She was excited for him to begin training as a wizard, but the thought of her precious son being away from her for months on end, growing up without her near, was hard to swallow. As if he had read her troubles, Lucius wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
They were dressed in muggle attire, which disgusted the three of them equally, but shifted through the traffic inside the station with relative ease. Lucius carried Draco’s trunk and the small boy carried his new eagle owl, Macbeth. They broke onto the platform with almost a half hour to say their goodbyes.
Almost as soon as they had gotten onto Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, Draco had run into his good friends, who would surely be in Slytherin. Draco ran off with Vincent, Gregory, and Theodore to stow their trunks away and reserve their compartment for the journey. They returned only after they had changed into their school robes.
Most of the people around them had several children with them: some going off to school, some staying with their parents for another year. Sending one child off to school wouldn’t be so difficult if you had more to stay at home with you. For those who only had one precious child, perhaps it was more difficult to send them off.
Draco returned ten minutes before the train was to leave to say goodbye to his parents. Narcissa and Lucius did their best to slip in all of the tips, secrets, and warnings they could remember before the whistle sounded from the scarlet steam engine. Narcissa swept her precious son into her arms and whispered, “I love you” before he could run off to the train.
“Hold on,” Lucius said, grabbing the back of Draco’s robes. He slipped a ring off his pinky finger and tapped it with his wand before slipping it onto Draco’s left hand. The ring was shaped like a serpent, winding around his small finger with its glistening emerald eye staring up at him. “That’s been passed down through a long line of Malfoys, every one of them a Slytherin… which you are going to become as well.” Draco looked at the ring, turning his hand over and back again. Lucius clapped Draco on the shoulder, “Write us after you’ve been sorted, understood?”
“Understood,” Draco repeated, hugging his father briefly and saying a quick goodbye before running off to the train and disappearing into the crimson interior. He was eager to embark on the journey to school, much more ready than his mother was for him to leave.
Narcissa pulled a handkerchief from her purse as the train pulled from the station and disappeared into the distance. She sniffed back tears and Lucius wrapped an arm around her waist comfortingly.
“He’ll be home again before you know it, Love,” He said as they stood on the emptying platform. “I’m sure he’ll be terribly homesick, considering he’s never been away from home like this before.”
Narcissa smiled tearfully and leaned her head against his shoulder. She would send him a large package in the morning, perhaps more to comfort herself than anything.
“Anyway, he’ll have to write at least once,” He said, absentmindedly stroking the snake’s head wand on his belt. Narcissa looked up at him, a bit confused. Lucius smiled deviously down at her, “He’ll have to inform him whether he can remain part of our family or if he got sorted into anything other than Slytherin.”
hyper
jubilant
indifferent
annoyed
hopeful
exhausted
lazy