[HP Comprehensive UK and US] Platinum Stark

"Xia?" At the dining table, Lucius asked with concern as he saw his little daughter looking absent-minded.

Alicia put down her fork in a daze and responded in a daze: "Huh? What's wrong, Dad?"

Forgive her for still spending most of her time processing the news she had heard in the Portrait Gallery not long ago.

At that time, after the ancestor Septimus Malfoy uttered that strange word, all the ancestors in the other portraits put on serious expressions.

That word was "Horcrux".

Septimus was a wizard with profound knowledge of the dark arts, and no one would doubt his decisive answer.

If, before that, their stance was still wavering, after Septimus explained what the Horcruxes were, the Malfoys began to express their opinions one by one - one ancestor even suggested that they might actually stand on Dumbledore's side, and the reason he gave was that Voldemort would lead the Malfoy family to destruction.

There is no doubt that the Dark Lord has become a madman who can tear his own soul apart.

Listening to the various decisions, Abraxas remained silent with a complicated look in his eyes.

The word Horcrux was not unfamiliar to him.

He originally helped Riddle with the intention of investing, but who would have thought that the man would end up like this?

As glorious as Riddle was back then, as crazy as Voldemort is now.

The discussions around them had already stopped. Alicia was the first to break the silence. She looked at her grandfather, who seemed to be thinking about something, and whispered, "Grandfather, are you thinking about that?"

Abraxas sighed and gave his granddaughter word for word instructions on how to deal with the Dark Lord as a young man.

Fortunately, the portrait corridor is protected by the family blood magic, so it is an absolutely safe place.

At the end of the conversation, Alicia asked a question that was out of context: "Grandfather, what do you think...Tom Riddle, what kind of person is he?"

Abraxas looked straight at his granddaughter, his eyes filled with a helpless warning: "Xia, he is very dangerous. Don't have any expectations of him. Tom Riddle and the Dark Lord are essentially the same person."

Seeing his granddaughter staring at him stubbornly, as if she would not give up until she got an answer, Abraxas pierced through her unrealistic fantasies with one sentence: "He is a man who can make himself very charming when he needs to."

The memories came to an abrupt end. Lucius saw through the little girl who had no appetite for the meal and had a serious expression.

Draco was the first to notice that his sister was in a bad mood. He kept looking at Alicia, but he didn't know how to start talking. So, after hearing his father's question, Draco also looked at his sister with concern.

"Huh? What's wrong, Dad?"

Lucius didn't say anything. As expected, Draco put down his knife and fork, frowned slightly, and looked at Alicia in confusion: "Xia, are you...are you sad? What happened?"

Before the girl could retort, Draco said, "I can feel it, Thea. I'm your full brother!"

Obviously, he was very unhappy with his sister's determination to conceal the truth.

Lucius and Narcissa looked at each other, and the meaning was self-evident - the effect was indeed better when Draco asked the questions.

"Are you heartbroken?" Just when Alicia was trying to figure out how to deal with it, Draco said shockingly, "I was wondering why you couldn't wait to go back to your bedroom after dinner every day. Did you go back to read the letter? Damn, was it Nott? Zabini? Or Ser..."

"Draco Malfoy!" The girl was so surprised that she lost her composure and shouted in disbelief, "What nonsense are you talking about! I don't have a boyfriend!"

Narcissa was about to stop them when her husband held her hand, signaling her not to stop them for now and to wait and see what the children would say next.

Lucius said that he really wanted to hear where his youngest daughter's "broken heart" came from.

Across from them, Thea turned her head without hesitation and gave her brother a hard elbow.

Just as Draco cried out in pain, Alicia muttered softly, "I just suddenly realized that maybe I was the only one who took this inexplicable, ridiculous friendship that never existed seriously - it was simply an illusion."