Voldermort's Grand-Daughter

Chapter 32: Family Meeting

Bit of a longer chapter since it's pretty dialouge forward. 

Draco is walking up to the owlery, a letter to his father in his hand. The letter reads as:  

Dear Father,

Lilith and I were told some information that we really need to talk with you and Uncle Sev about, possibly also with Tom. Blaise told us that he ran into Daphne Greengrass over the break and she told him that her father is planning on arranging betrothals for her and her sister. I was one of the choices that was discussed.

Something also happened a couple days ago when we were in the Forbidden Forest for a detention (which I think is absolutely ridiculous that that was even allowed), that we would like to discuss with Tom. Please reply soon, this is very important.

- Draco. 

He finds Ulysses, the Malfoy family owl, giving him the letter, "Give this to my father and wait for a reply".

Ulysses hoots and starts flying off towards the Malfoy Manor. The next day, Draco is sitting with Lilith and their friends eating breakfast in the Great Hall. Ulysses enters the hall, holding a letter which he drops in front of Draco. He picks it up and opens it, recognising his father's handwriting.

Draco,

This is definitely unprecedented. I promised you years ago that I would never agree to arrange a marriage for you unless you asked me to, and you know how I feel about my promises to you. Severus, Tom and I want to speak to you and Lilith in person. I know you are going to Hogsmeade this weekend, so we will meet you at the Leaky Cauldron around noon.

I promise we will get to the bottom of this.

- L. Malfoy 

Draco hands the letter over to Lilith for her to read. She grabs it, looks over it and nods to Draco, handing it back. He pockets the letter and turns back to talking with the others.

The Hogsmeade trip arrived and Lilith and Draco separated from their group of friends to meet up with Lucius, Severus and Tom. Entering the Leaky Cauldron, they notice Severus sitting at one of the tables and start walking up to him.

Lilith smiles, "Hi daddy".

Severus looks up and smiles at the two, "Hello, baby. Dragon". He stands up, "The other two are waiting in a room upstairs. Come along".

The two follow Severus upstairs to one of the reserved rooms. Opening the door, they see Lucius and Tom sitting at a table, just talking amongst themselves. They notice the other three entering the room and greet them with a hug. Sitting on the table, Draco begins explaining the letter and why he and Lilith wanted to talk. 

Lucius turns to Draco, "Draco, considering you're the one who wrote the letter I think it would be best for you to start explaining why you wanted to talk to us".

Draco nods, "Well, when we got back from the break, we met Blaise on the train. He was telling us that he ran into one of Lilith's friends, Daphne Greengrass. She told him that her father was starting to look into arranging betrothals for her and her younger sister. And she informed me that...I was one of the people he was considering marrying off one of them to".

Severus widens his eyes, "What?! You can't be serious, Draco". 

Lilith sighs, "Unfortunately, daddy, it's true. She even showed me a letter her father sent a couple days later that told her to keep an eye out for potential husbands".

Severus rubs his forehead and turns to Lucius, "Something definitely needs to be done about this, Luc. He cannot expect you to easily give up your son". 

Lucius shakes his head, "You know I wouldn't, my friend. And you too, Draco. I made a promise to you that I would allow you to choose your own spouse and I stand by that". He rubs his hand gently on Draco's head, "Trust me, son. I will have a strong word with that man and set this straight".

Draco smiles, "Thank you, father".

Tom interjects, "I also saw in the letter, Draco, that you wanted to ask me something that happened a couple days ago".

Draco sighs and turns to Liltih, "Yes, there was. But I think Lilith is the best person to ask about that".

Lilith nods, "Well, you see grandpa, we were given detention by Professor McGonogall for being out after hours. The detention was in the Forbidden Forest, looking for a unicorn. We ended up finding it, but it was being eaten by a cloaked figure. To me it looked sort of like the dementors in the books you showed me as a child. But..."

She pauses and thinks back to the events that happened, trying to put into words to what she felt coming from that creature. 

"...when I made eye contact with it...I felt a familiar aura around it and it actually seemed to be calm around me. It wasn't as hostile anymore".

Tom nods, "What was the aura you felt?". 

She turns to her grandfather, "Yours".

Lucius and Severus turn to Tom, who has a slight confused look on his face. They could see him searching his mind for an answer.

Draco interjects, "Potter was with us and when the figure started approaching us, a centaur appeared. They both made the assumption that the cloaked figure was...". He made air quotes with his hands, "...Voldemort".

Lilith nods, "But I knew it wasn't actually you, grandpa. What I felt was almost like a part of you but not the true 'Tom' that I know and love".

Tom nods, taking in the new information. He had a hypothesis of what it was, but he needed to confirm it first. Severus noticed his adoptive father had a slight look of determination.

"Father? You ok?".

Tom snaps out of it and smiles at Severus, "Yes, everything is fine, son. I have an idea of what it could be, but I want to do some investigation before getting too ahead of ourselves". They all nod at him, "Thank you for telling me, sweetheart. And thank you, Draco, for talking to us. We will get to the bottom of these two...situations".