Chapter Text
Ther her betreuthe went in a frosty night;
In hope to stonden in other ladies grace.
Her eyen twinkled in her hed aright,
She shall make him suffer tomorn.
With the magique ring she shall bryngen;
The curse to make his ful words treu.
History of the Malfoys 1250-1500, by Chretian Malfoy1
There were three facts the Malfoys were particularly proud of.
The first, was their long family history in Britain. Armand Malfoy first landed in Britain as part of the Norman Conquest. He gained the trust of William the Conqueror and started a family almost as soon as he was granted a large piece of land in Wiltshire in 1068. This made the Malfoys one of the oldest, if not the oldest, wizarding families in Britain.
The second, was the way the family had not only maintained but also built on their wealth for nearly a thousand years. Kingdoms rose and fell, governments formed and disintegrated, industries grew and died, but the Malfoys managed to come out on top. Though many outsiders considered the Malfoys shady backroom dealers, the Malfoys themselves liked to think they were practical investors, especially good at diversification and taking advantage of loopholes.
The third, was their large collection of rare magical artifacts. From manor security, to fraud prevention, to mind control avoidance, the Malfoys had hundreds of useful artifacts that served the family. Some of these were so dangerous they were on the Ministry’s restricted list, but the Malfoys had a rather cavalier attitude towards such dangers. If a descendant couldn’t survive the artifacts aiding the family, he or she obviously wasn’t strong enough for the bloodline anyway. Malfoy childrens were taught at a young age not to randomly touch things in their home, and those that didn’t listen suffer the consequences. Draco, for example, was five when he severely burned his hands after pressing his fingers to a bronze phoenix statue his parents warned him not to touch. He learned his lesson after that.
Of course, given the collection started ten centuries ago and many of the artifacts were undocumented (some of the Malfoy family’s dealings were better not documented), the exact intent and function of the more subtle artifacts were lost to time and distorted by traditions and lores.
One example was the Dice of Luckutus which sway probability and either improved or worsened the outcome of an event for the user based on his or her roll. Although later generations mistaken it as a simple decorative dice, back in the 13th century, Nicholas Malfoy used it to escape censure by the Wizards’ Council after he was caught dispatching Muggle tenants under the guise of the Black Death. He rolled a six the day before the Wizards’ Council were supposed to debate his case, and the dice influenced the son of the town’s best baker to pick the one bag of flour at the mill that was tainted by a rat, which was then used to make the loaves served for lunch to the four key witnesses, and subsequently the witnesses never made it to the debate due to food poisoning.
Another example of forgotten artifacts, as Draco found out after a horde of acromantula, a manticore, and a dragon appeared out of nowhere, was the Malfoy heirloom engagement ring.
Draco blinked to make sure he wasn't seeing things. “Did the ring just summoned…”
The dragon shot up into the air and sent a column of flame his way. He dodged, barely, he could smell the tips of his glorious hair getting singed. “Bloody hell!”
“What the hell did you do to the ring?” his father asked, throwing a shield up just in time to block the manticore’s sting.
“Me? You were the last person to use it! Maybe—”
Another beam of fire left the dragon’s mouth and landed just behind the son and father.
“For Merlin’s sake,” his mother’s stunning spell connected with one of the acromantula and sent it flying toward the ward. The acromantula bounced off the ward and landed frozen on its back. “Looks like they can’t exit the ward so can the two of you children hold it until we regroup outside?”