## Chapter 263: Father and Son
"*Bang!*"
The sound of the door closing wasn't actually loud, but Draco still involuntarily flinched.
He didn't dare to look into his father's eyes.
And his mother had been left outside, as had the professor.
A slightly cold hand rested on his shoulder. Feeling his child's body tense, Lucius's heart softened slightly.
"You know what I'm going to say, Draco."
He said in a low voice.
"Yes."
Draco lowered his head. "I'm sorry, I know I was wrong."
"Wrong about what?" Lucius asked.
Draco stared at the floor, stiffly repeating what the professor and school nurse had told him several times before—
"The Entrail-Expelling Curse is a very dangerous spell. I shouldn't have used it on my classmate… Even though Vincent is annoying, I didn't want him to end up like that…"
"Wrong, Draco."
Lucius patted his shoulder lightly, saying:
"Your biggest mistake was presuming to learn a spell you knew nothing about—"
Draco looked somewhat resistant.
He knew that his father had also learned many Dark Magic spells before starting Hogwarts, and that his grandfather had personally taught him.
Even when Draco himself started Hogwarts, Lucius had taught him some "little tricks for self-defense."
Then he heard his father say:
"—You only saw the harm it caused Vincent, but did you ever consider what if this spell was used on yourself?"
The boy looked up in horror, blurting out instinctively, "Can it really affect the wizard who casts it?"
"Of course."
Lucius said calmly, "There was a wizard from the Avery family whose intestines were blocked. He wanted to take a shortcut and use the Entrail-Expelling Curse to solve the problem directly, but he ended up emptying half of his own stomach."
Thinking of Vincent's miserable state, Draco shivered violently.
"So, do you understand? How worried your mother and I were when we received Severus's message… worried that you were the one in trouble." Lucius said.
Snape, for some perverse amusement, had been vague in his message, deliberately misleading them into thinking that Draco was the one who had gotten into trouble.
At that time, Lucius was ready to kill, and had already planned how to use the power of the twelve school governors to oust the incompetent Headmaster Dumbledore.
However, upon arriving at the school, he ran into Crabbe, and after almost being hit, he finally understood the whole story.
Lucius Malfoy's imposing demeanor instantly vanished like a deflated balloon, and he began to calmly consider how to mitigate the incident's impact.
Facing his clearly trembling son, Lucius ultimately didn't punish him severely as he had wished, but instead gently warned Draco of the worst consequences, and repeatedly emphasized to him—
Don't casually learn dangerous magic, even the most ordinary kind. Historically, a significant number of wizards have been killed by their own magic.
Father can resolve this matter (26,000 Galleons), but you must be careful in the future and not be so impulsive. Spend more time on your studies or Quidditch.
You are a Slytherin student; you must be like a snake… Snakes are carnivorous creatures that slither in the shadows. The time they expose themselves to the sun is also their most dangerous time.
Don't worry about Vincent retaliating when he returns to school; Father will always have your back.
And when facing conflicts with classmates, don't retaliate directly. You can handle it this way…
Lucius imparted much of his own experience.
And during this process, Severus Snape's name was repeatedly brought up as an example, letting Draco know that his formidable Head of House once had awkward experiences of being targeted and bullied by classmates, which made him laugh out loud from time to time.
So, forty minutes later, Lucius emerged from the empty classroom, supporting his son by the shoulder.
Snape was somewhat surprised to see that Draco's lips still held a slightly relaxed smile, and his cheeks were flushed because of it. He didn't look at all like he had just been lectured.
He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the elder Malfoy.
—Was this still the Lucius Malfoy he knew?
Seeing Snape's expressionless face, the slight mockery and even disdain that had just arisen in Draco's heart instantly vanished.
He realized that this tall man in front of him wasn't the pitiable figure from the stories (Lucius had only told the parts where Snape was bullied), but a mature and powerful Head of House with a terrible temper.
Draco's smile immediately disappeared.
He watched his parents exchange a few words with the Head of House, their tone intimate but their manner distant.
As they left, Lucius also said, "Then I'll leave Draco's detention to you, Severus."
Draco stared in astonishment at his father, who had just been so patiently guiding him.
"No problem." Professor Snape's lips curled into a mischievous smile. "I happen to have a lot of Potions ingredients that still need processing."
Such as bat wings, beetle eyes, cockroach antennae, and so on…
Draco's face paled once more.
How he wished his father would take him along!
But Draco didn't know that as soon as Lucius stepped out of the castle, his expression darkened.
Narcissa quietly walked up to him and asked, "How did it go?"
"He didn't say."
Lucius said with a grimace, "Draco isn't willing—or rather, isn't able to tell me who taught him that spell. They might have signed some kind of magical contract."
Lucius knew Draco was lying when he claimed to have learned the spell on his own at home, but he didn't expose his son's lie in front of everyone.
In reality, with so many dangerous Dark Magic books in the Malfoy family, some of which were dangerous just to be near, how could Lucius possibly let Draco come into contact with them freely?
The truly dangerous books were hidden where Draco couldn't reach them.
While many of the books in the study also documented Dark Magic, they weren't too dangerous, and certainly not without corresponding warning cases.
The most Draco could have seen was a spell called the Entrail-Expelling Curse.
Malfoy had initially thought Draco had snuck into the Hogwarts Library's Restricted Section; the ancient castle held too many secrets, and finding a forbidden magic notebook wouldn't be unusual.
But when Draco denied it, Malfoy realized the matter was more complicated than he'd imagined.
"Then…" Narcissa frowned, "How exactly did he…"
"Let Dumbledore handle it for now! Even if someone pulled some sneaky tricks before, not much in this school can escape his notice… not even the Dark Lord…"
Lucius suddenly realized he had said something he shouldn't have and immediately shut his mouth.
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