Abraxas Malfoy

When Draco's eighth birthday was just around the corner, his parents informed their son that they decided to spend the summer vacation in France, where Draco's grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, lived.

After Draco's birth, Abraxas handed down his lordship and family matters for his son, Lucius, to manage. It had been done during the time, when Voldemort and his Death Eaters still terrorized Magical Britain. Lucius, as part of the Dark Lord's Inner Circle, was a promising young man, fighting for what was 'right' and ensuring the family's future during the new reign.

However, after Voldemort's fall, just months after Lucius became the Lord of the Malfoy Family, Abraxas and his son had a heated argument, which resulted in the older man resentfully leaving the country.

At that time the family was still in a precarious position - as a known and identified servant of the Dark Lord, with a Dark Mark on his hand, Lucius faced a lot of scorn and suspicion from the public. Narcissa's sister, Bellatrix Lestrange, and her sister's husband were also taken away to Azkaban with a life sentence, for cruelly torturing the Longbottoms. So the whole new generation of Malfoys was implicated and the former Malfoy family Lord was furious with his son's choices.

Didn't he tell Lucius not to fight directly?

What glory could there be in becoming someone else's servant?

Wasn't it enough to support the Dark Lord with money?

Even if money was lost, at least there would only be minor suspicions and nothing could be proven. Money could be earned, however reputation, once tarnished, would forever be hard to recover.

As someone, who attended Hogwarts when Tom Riddle was still a student (though Tom had been in a lower year), Abraxas knew best about the rumors circulating through the Slytherin circles at the time.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was a mudblood.

Sure, he was smart and knew how to charm his teachers as well as other students. However, that didn't change the fact that the boy grew up with muggles and had dirty blood running through his veins. Besides, Abraxas remembered that Tom, when he was first sorted into Slytherin, had been bullied by other children and didn't stand out much from the crowd. It was only later, around the third year, that the boy began to get his 'brilliant and charming student' reputation. By that time Abraxas was already out of school and didn't concern himself much with children.

It was only years later, when there had been circulating rumors about a new rising power, gathering all who valued traditions and wanted to practice magic freely, that Abraxas remembered the small mudblood boy.

Privately, he was amazed by the youth's quick rise in power and reputation.

Who would have thought that the muggle spawn actually had Salazar Slytherin's noble blood running through his veins? However diluted it was by muggle germs, no one could deny that they felt the pull to get to know the wizard. And what a powerful wizard he turned out to be!

Not only his Dark magic, but also his magical core's power, could attract people to the new Dark Lord's side!

At that time, Abraxas had personally seen countless purebloods, some of whom he was friends with, bow their heads to the new lord. However, unlike others, the Malfoy Lord was proud and cunning. Others may not have known who the man, calling himself Lord Voldemort, actually was.

Abraxas also hadn't connected the dots at first - who would actually remember some mudblood pipsqueak after 20 years, even if he was sorted into Slytherin?

But, as a pureblood lord with extensive connections, he had acquaintances who went to school and shared same classes with the mysterious wizard - they informed him of the man's true name and identity without much fuss (because how could they refuse?).

Abraxas, like many others, was dismissive of the wizard at first - it would be good if old families weren't suppressed by the Ministry, however, he wouldn't put much faith into this 'Lord Voldemort', who had been bullied at school (even if he grew out of it).

After all, Malfoys reached their glory not because they acted like passionate and stupid Gryffindors - all of the family's previous generations were smart enough to play both sides, when it came to wars and similar business. It wouldn't be good to support one side, while the other won, and be left out to be scorned as a result.

However, as years passed by, the self-proclaimed Dark Lord gained more and more support from influential families. After Grindelwald's war and Dumbledore's coming into power, the Ministry ruthlessly suppressed traditional witches and wizards. Even a mudblood was elected in the run for the position of Minister for Magic!

So Abraxas also followed others and secretly supported the man's cause. Because he only provided with the financial aid, the Malfoy Lord wasn't attentive enough and relaxed his guard around Voldemort, thinking that he could control the man if needed.

Like many others, the proud pureblooded wizard regularly attended various events and parties. Some of them were also attended by the rising Dark Lord, in the man's attempts to gather support. Abraxas usually went there with his son - to let Lucius learn from him and experience the political and social scene. However, the Malfoy Lord wasn't as cunning as Tom Riddle, who understood his own position in the Nobility's hearts, and secretly concentrated his attention on the younger generation. The Dark wizard spun lies mixed with truths, which old families instilled into their children since young, and charmed the naive wizardlings.

Then these children grew up, and before Abraxas knew it, his son had a mark of a servant on his hand and was fighting out on the streets with only a hooded robe and mask as his disguise.

As a Noble, pureblood and a father, he couldn't approve of Lucius' actions. But, as situation progressed and escalated, the Wizarding World had been thrown into chaos of war and Voldemort became a power to be feared. Most of the purebloods rejoiced - they were stupid enough to not see the warning signs, which indicated that with the end of the war, and the Dark Lord's victory, they would lose their positions of power and would have to bow down before someone else - someone, who had dirty blood.

Abraxas wasn't sure, whether he should be happy, or not, that his son was in the man's Inner Circle, when it seemed that the Ministry would finally fall down. At least the Malfoy family would be treated better than others, he thought resignedly at the time.

At around the time that his son finally settled down and married Narcissa, who quickly became pregnant, Abraxas' wife suddenly got sick and died. He had truly loved his wife, and yet - she was gone just like that...

He was also tired of the ongoing war and, seeing his son handling family matters of business and politics well enough, the Malfoy Patriarch transferred the lordship to the younger generation and withdrew to the sidelines. In the end, he felt that with Voldemort coming into power, the family would be safer with Lucius taking control, as the man's direct subordinate.

But then came the news of the Dark Lord's fall. The Ministry put all of their forces into hunting down the Death Eaters and restoring the peace. They caught many wizards, who belonged to some of the most prominent pureblood families, and Lucius was one of them.

That was the last time that Abraxas took the matters into his own hands. He freed his son by claiming the Imperius curse and the Ministry let him - it wasn't only because the family bribed almost every seat in the trial (like most of the others, who weren't caught red-handed), but also because when the war with Voldemort really broke out, Abraxas provided secret support to both, the Ministry and Dumbledore's Order as well as the Dark Lord.

He financed the other side of war not because of some misplaced guilt or love for mudbloods, who were being killed left and right. No, it was mostly done because Abraxas wanted to have a way out, in case the other side won - which, in the end, really happened.

The Malfoy Patriarch never forgot his roots, which lied in Slytherin house - famous for its members' ambition and cunning. However, the same couldn't be said for his son.

When Lucius found out what his father had done behind his back, he was furious. Abraxas tried to instill some reason into his son, quoting the values of the family and teaching about not putting all of the eggs into one basket, reminding him of Slytherin politics.

However, Lucius wouldn't see reason - his closest friends had been sent into prison for life, and his leader was dead. All that he tried to achieve over the past few years was erased.

Abraxas was a person, who could admit, that maybe he touched a fresh wound, when he tried to guide his son to the correct path this soon after the war. He thought that eventually, Lucius would come to terms - his son wasn't stupid, after all.

So the old wizard left the country and settled down in France, where he lived for the past seven years. The Malfoy Patriarch sometimes contacted his family and knew that his thoughts were correct back then - when Lucius calmed down, he forgot about other matters and strived to improve the family's standing and reputation. The new Malfoy Lord played politics like an expert and soon he once again made place for the family to stand proud on.

Even though they didn't contact each other much, over the years the father and son duo came to terms with what happened and forgot the entire matter. They were family, after all. And blood was thicker than water.

Then, one day, Abraxas remembered that his grandson would soon be eight and he wanted to meet the child.

It was time for family to come together.