A U G U S T U S R O O K W O O D :
“Really? I hear your night was quite eventful.” Perhaps it was dangerous to adopt such a casual, teasing tone with one of his superiors, but he’d always been too laidback for his own good. Augustus waved him off, tone dismissive, even as his eyes hardened. “Just a disagreement with one of our own, nothing to worry about.” Without thinking about it, he reached up to gently poke at a bruise on his cheekbone. There was nothing he could say that would get Lucius to drop the next line of questioning, though, and he really wished his foggy brain would come up with a satisfactory excuse. “Nothing worth missing the excitement over,” he shrugged. “Some of us just needed to take the edge off after everything at the festival, and we figured firewhiskey would do the trick.”
The tattoo on his arm was a constant reminder that everything he said came with a risk. There could be no doubt, no insubordination - or else. Usually, he was the perfect little soldier, and today was no different, but still, he couldn’t help but ask. “They didn’t ask you first, I take it?” On the one hand, they had to know it would put the Malfoys at risk, but on the other hand, they were more than capable of handling themselves if it came down to it. “Who’s been taking care of the kid, then? I can’t imagine there are many of us with strong parental instincts, aside from yourself.” As much as Augustus loved children, it was really more of an in theory type of thing. They were great from afar, in small doses, but he was truly blown away by Lucius’ ability to care for a child day in and day out. Morbid curiosity had him half tempted to take him up on the offer, but he shrugged it off anyways. “I think I’ll take your word on it.”
“Careful now, I can take that breakfast away from you just as quickly as I gave it to you.” It was a playful threat but nonetheless a reminder of the hierarchy. He liked the younger wizard well enough, could see he had potential, but he was never one to let someone forget when he was above them. “Disagreements between one of our own is something to be concerned with.” “The fact that you missed the excitement would suggest otherwise.” While he was far from a saint he’d always managed to keep any fall outs to a minimum. After all, they were the best of the best - what sense was their in fighting one another when they should be focusing on the real enemy. “Some of you? Having parties without me now are we Rookwood?” Brow raised as a smirk flickered over his lips, light but demanding words leaving his lips. “Tell me, who was lucky enough to get an invitation to this little soiree of yours?”
At the question he ensures he remains relaxed, jaw not tightening as it so wants to. “No. But we have the space so it’s not all that much of an imposition.” A lie of course, something he would make known soon enough but he saw no reason to ruin pleasant company with is own bitterness. “Anyone and everyone. I can get them to let you take a shift if you’d like.” Eyes narrowed slightly at him in partial warning before he was quick to clear up the notion that he was soft for just any child. “Those parental instincts, as you called them, extend as far as my son and no further. Certainly not to the child of a mudblood.” It wasn’t entirely true, he did feel something towards the other child under his roof. He wasn’t completely heartless after all. It was simply the case that he would always care about his own child more. Infinitely so. There wasn’t enough room left in his heart for any child that didn’t bear his name.