The Lion and Serpent

By

TheBigEmeraldPeacock

Synopsis-

Set several months after the end of 'The Order of the Phoenix' (Book 5)

Voldemort has delayed his plans to kill Harry Potter after the incident at the ministry. Umbridge's 'Wizarding Preservation Act' is forcing young purebloods to marry one another. And due to a mishap Draco finds himself betroved to not only a boy, but a Weasley.

Will they be able to stand each other and what will happen when they return to school

Chapter 1 – Wizarding Heritage Preservation Act 1501

To- Mr L Malfoy, Mrs N Malfoy

From- The Department of Wizarding Culture

Subject- Wizarding Heritage Preservation Act 1501

As you may have read in the Daily Prophet as of May 15th all those who have, or will soon, come of age; and are members of families with at least 5 generations of Pureblood classification to their family name; must enter into a marriage with another Pureblood wizard or witch within a month of turning 17 and register their engagement with our office.

As your son came of age 3 months before this act was passed he has already missed the 1 month deadline for choosing a partner with the correct pureblood credentials. The procedure which is followed in this case is for the office to assign a marital partner who has also missed the deadline to the Pureblood in question.

Unfortunately due to your son's file being misplaced in the office, his case has only recently been processed by which time only a few applicants remained non of whom were female (your son's registered orientation being heterosexual you see the dilemma).

However as these marital proceedings are mandatory there was little choice in the matter. We therefore made sure that your son's assigned *Husband* was at least similar in age.

The marital partner chosen for your child is – Ronald B Weasley – You have 6 months from the day this letter arrives in order to perform the marriage ceremony. If the ceremony is not completed in this time yourselves and your son will be summoned to court and if found guilty of disobeying the Wizarding Heritage Preservation Act 1501 you will be imprisoned in Azkaban for a minimum of 10 years.

Congratulations

D Umbridge – Cultural Minister

Narcissa Malfoy finished the letter just as the sun had fully risen. The only tell of the fury which now filled her was a slight twitch in the corner of her eye and the fact that her manicured nails had ripped through the letter as she gripped it in her hands.

'The Ministry telling a Malfoy what to do! My son, be assigned a marriage partner! My son, a Malfoy, being forced by the Ministry into marrying a Weasley!'

A house elf apperated next to the bench where she was seated in the palm house, holding a heavily laid tray with her breakfast.

"Tilly has mistresses breakfast" the elf squeaked.

The elf noticed the twitching in her mistress's eye and the way she stared off into the distance as if not really seeing.

After working for Lady Malfoy ever since she moved to the manor, Tilly knew that mistress was either very angry or having a stroke.

"Is something upsetting mistress?" the elf asked tentatively.

At the elf's words, the last bit of self control holding the Malfoy mask in place broke. In one fluid motion, she stood and kicked the breakfast tray out of the elf's hands. The tray flew a good 5 metres into the air, scattering toast, jam, and several pieces of expensive china as it went skywards; eventually coming to fall with a resounding splash in a fountain of Narcissus from Greek mythology.

'Someone's head is going to roll for this' she thought a vengeful sneer marring her flawless features.

"Tilly clear this up, I'm going to the Ministry" she said as she marched through the French doors, back into the manor.

Molly's POV

Molly Weasley held an identical letter to the one delivered to Malfoy manor in her hand as she sat in the empty kitchen in the Burrow. Her mind was working overtime simply trying to grasp what this letter meant.

'My youngest son is bound by law to marry Draco Malfoy, son of a deatheater, and generally the polar opposite to everything this family stands for'.

She exhaled a long breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and gathered her thoughts. 'Alright, this might be a deatheater trick to get someone close to Harry and torture them for information' she held her emotions in check, this was not the time to burst into tears, Ron wasn't dead yet.

'On the other hand this could be entirely coincidental and we simply have to find a way to either get Ron out of this or at the very least change who he has to marry'.

She drummed her fingers nervously on the long wooden table in the centre of the kitchen as she mulled over what to do.

'No one else knows at this point and it would be foolish to worry them before I have at least tried to fix the situation myself; I mean Arthurs busy with work and the order and Ron will throw a fit when he finds out'.

The clock on the wall behind her chimed 6. Molly had been an early riser ever since Arthur had started working at the Ministry and now with more children than sensible she like having time to herself between her husband leaving and before the rest of the family awoke.

She carefully folded the letter and slipped it into her dressing gown pocket, she needed to get to the Ministry as soon as possible; all she needed was a suitable excuse as to why her family had to dress and feed themselves.

Grabbing a piece of parchment from a nearby draw she began to scribble.

Dear family

I have gone to Diagon Alley to buy industrial grade spider acid, as I think I have identified the cause of the smell in Fred and George's old room and its not going to leave without a fight.

I should be back by Lunchtime at the latest, so don't let Ron cook (we don't need another chemical fire) and just generally behave.

Mother

Satisfied that she had spun a convincing ruse to stop her children becoming suspicious, she transfigured her dressing gown into a suitable set of robes, accio'd her hand bag, and headed out of the door to apperate to the Ministry.

Narcissa's POV

Narcissa had been storming towards her and Lucius's wing of the manor for the past 10 minutes, the manor was so big that she was only now passing the half way mark. As she walked her immediate anger began to fade and her mind wondered to when she had first gotten married.

She had been the young, very young, too young in fact. At 16 she may not have been able to use magic outside of school, but her parents were certainly able to sell her off to richest and oldest family that had an eligible heir.

She remembered the first time she had walked into Malfoy Manor; it was nothing like the castle where she had grown up; it wasn't ancient or damp; it was absurd in both grandeur and scale.

She could almost hear her name being announced as she descended the stairs into a crowded ballroom; 'Miss Narcissa Black'; she chuckled as she recalled the number of eyes which immediately locked onto her, mostly men, and mostly very married.

She pulled herself out of her nostalgic day dreaming and focused on the issue at hand. Her main concern was that this was punishment from the dark lord for Lucius's failure at the Department of Mysteries several months ago. However the dark lord had simply said at the time that Lucius was a disgrace to his cause; that he was obviously not fit to be a deatheater anymore; and that the only reason he was not going to kill him was that decreasing the number of Purebloods was counter productive.

Hence Lucius had been carted off to Azkaban for trespass and assault, and his dark mark had (very painfully) vanished. He was no longer a deatheater and now his only duty was being a financial supporter of the dark lord; albeit an imprisoned one.

All in all the past months had been quite an improvement; she of course missed Lucius; but it was comforting to know she wouldn't wake up to find he had been killed by an auror and the house was no longer Voldemort HQ.

She knew exactly where her husband was 24/7, her furniture was no longer at risk from werewolf scratch marks, and she was quite enjoying it.

'Bella would have told me if this was some scheme by the dark lord.' She remembered several weeks before the Wizarding Heritage Preservation Act 1501 had been passed Bella had told her that the Umbridge woman had been made cultural minister and had been ordered; by a very imperioused Thickness; to create a new law forcing young purebloods to only marry those of equal blood status.

At the time she had asked her sister if Draco would be affected by this and Bella had assured her it was only for those who were too close to that muggle-loving Dumbledore's side.

Narcissa sighed; one of the things which made Bella so dangerous was that not only was she cruel, she was also very stupid, which is a potent combination in any situation.

It didn't help she was completely moonstruck. Of course it was entirely her husband's fault; Rudolphus was living proof that evolution can also reverse.

It seemed that this letter was simply the Ministry interfering where they had no right to; and the quickest solution to that was to go directly to the source of the problem and lay down the law …. and maybe a large sack of galleons.

Draco's POV

Draco was awoken just after dawn by a crash, a splash, and several slamming doors. The only person it could be was his mother as the dark lord and the scum who followed him had all left when his farther had been arrested.

Of course that didn't stop them from holding meetings here after dark, but those were only for the top ranking deatheaters who would at least respect their slightly unwilling hospitality.

No in the past year Draco had come to realise how meaningless this conflict was; it was about preserving proper wizarding society and yet the same people acted like animals, torturing and killing those who disagreed with them.

It had become glaringly obvious after Voldemort and his death eaters had moved in; that his farther was not any good at being the head of the Malfoy family. As leader you should always put the family first; and try to stay neutral in a conflict so there is always an exit strategy.

His farther had chosen the loosing team twice, invested a lot of money in them, and allowed them to have free access to his property. As a result he was in prison, the house had been ransacked, and they now had a house elf graveyard in the garden for all the servants who cooked themselves on the deatheaters orders.

'However, Farther is no longer a deatheater, the house has been repaired, and he is now serving a nice long sentence in Azkaban which should teach him not to be a self serving egotist.' Draco smiled into his pillow, things were generally looking up. 'Still, what could have Mother riled up this early in the morning?'

He cracked open one eyelid and looked around. The sumptuous bedroom he slept in was still dark; however a crack of sunlight shone on the Malachite mantle piece through a gap in the green satin curtains.

"SOTY!" he yelled, the shout somewhat muffled by the pillow his face was still buried in.

The elf apperated instantly at the side of the bed "Is there something master is needing?" it squeaked.

"Open the curtains and bring me breakfast" he mumbled.

"Yes master Draco sir, right away sir" the elf smiled stupidly then disapperated.

Draco sat up as the curtains slowly parted; filling the cavernous room with morning sunlight. He blinked several times against the bright light, deciding that the floor to ceiling mirrors on the opposite wall were more of a nuisance than a necessity as they reflected most of the sunrise directly in his face.

He slowly crawled towards the edge of the gigantic bed, swung his legs over the side, and walked over to the nearest mirror.

He critically observed his reflection in the looking glass, turning this way and that, admiring himself from different angles.

He was not vain; it was simply that his mother had always taught him that being beautiful made life a lot easier; and so it was not really a selfish pursuit, but more of a duty to be attractive.

He was what the Malfoy family would become, and when people saw him he wanted them to know that and be filled with admiration.

Alright he was a little bit vain, but in his opinion, entirely deserved.

Still the last year had been hard, and he had lost some weight due to stress and missing meals. Deatheaters had no table manners and there dinner conversation was inappropriate to say the least.

Still he was not skeletal and if anything it had simply defined his slim quidditch physic.

He smirked, satisfied with his appearance and headed towards the walk-in wardrobe, slipping off the briefs he had been sleeping in.

Narcissa's POV

After arriving at her bedroom Narcissa walked straight through the spacious salon and into the wardrobe.

Standing in the centre of the room she spun on the spot, scanning the hundreds of garments for something suitably intimidating.

Her gaze eventually fell on a Basilisk skin Blazer with a floor length black satin skirt; the outfit was dark but it would make a nice contrast with her marble skin and light blond hair.

She quickly changed, admiring the way the skirt clung to the lines of her legs, and showing just the right amount of bare skin.

Satisfied with her choice, she turned and strode out of the wardrobe and over to her writing desk.

She would of course have to write to Lucius to inform him of the events, he may still be in prison but he has some connections left at the ministry.

Quickly making a duplicate of the letter from the ministry and drafting a note of what she planned to do; she enclosed both in an envelope and gave it to an elf to be sent.

She then picked up her handbag and headed to the entrance hall.

Draco's POV

Having eventually chosen to just wear some grey slacks and a T-shirt; Draco decided it was time to find out what was bothering his mother this early in the morning.

Putting his fork back down on the breakfast tray Soty had brought him; he finished the last of the black coffee and headed down towards the sitting room his mother usually read in.

As he was crossing the entrance hall he heard the tell tale clicking of high heels, and turning, his mother appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Good morning mother" he said his eyes travelling over her unusual choice of clothes.

'She only wears things like that when she knows she is going to be picking a fight with someone'.

She had faltered at the sight of him but had immediately recovered and smiling sweetly answered, "Good morning darling, you're up early".

"Indeed I am" he said smirking "I was woken by the most unusual noise, it sounded like someone kicking something into a fountain".

'Lets see her get out of this one' he thought amused by his own cunning.

"Really ?" she said in mock curiosity, "What do those house elves get up to when our backs are turned I wonder" she drawled, wearing an identical smirk to her sons.

Changing tack he asked "Where are you going?"

His mother shifted uncomfortably "I'm going to Madam Malkins; the woman completed eviscerated that gown I sent her to be re-hemmed; I figured I should convey my displeasure in person so it won't happen again."

Draco sighed. That was his mothers life after all, clothes and dinner parties. He almost felt disappointed that it wasn't something of more consequence; the summers were always boring.

His mother smiled, kissed him on the cheek, and walked over to the fire place.

As she floo'ed away Draco thought he heard her say Ministry of Magic.

'Im up too early' he thought, heading back to his bed chamber to shower.