Figuring it Out }Open{

[lexy]

Alexis was wondering around the lake trying to figure out how to talk to Lucius Malfoy. She had to tell him what she had found that she was his half sister. It sounds like it would be easy just to tell him but it wasn't. Every time she seen him in the hall he was always with his other friends or he was just acting like a git and wouldn't give her the time of day. She had the letter that she had found on her birthday in her mothers room in her pocket. She had read it more then a few times since she got back at Hogwarts.

She sighed as she sat down under her favorite tree near the lake. She took out the letter again and opened it just to read it again. She had a million thoughts and questions running through her head. One of the questions was why her mother didn't tell her who her father was and that she had another half-brother somewhere out there, one that might even like her more then the she lives with now. She didn't get along with either of her half younger brothers or her half younger sister. Her younger half brothers actually hated her because they didn't have the same father.

Why can't I just get the nerve to go up to Lucius and tell him that I'm his half-sister. I should just owl him with this letter and ask him to meet me either out here or somewhere else. Alexis thought to herself. Her emotions were all over the place since she found the letter. There were days when she wanted to cry since she found the letter from her real father, then there were other days when she wanted to yell and scream that her mother didn't tell her.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius sighed to himself as he walked down the front steps of the castle, swinging his backpack over his shoulder as he did so. It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning and a nice cool breeze was blowing, and he didn't want to waste a day like this inside the stuffy old library. Instead he decided to take his work outside, to his favorite spot by the lake, underneath an ancient tree. But, for once, the things Lucius took to the lake were not for homework, they were for detective work.

For a little over three years Lucius had been working hard to try and find out who his half-sibling was. So far he hadn't found anything out by himself. But now he had hope. The following January he'd be celebrating his seventeenth birthday. He'd finally be considered an adult in the wizarding world and would be able to officially hire a detective agency to find out where his sibling was. But first, he needed to fill out the appropriate forms, which was going to take a lot of time since he was hiring three separate companies to help him.

He walked impatiently to the lake, not wanting to waste a second of his precious time. But as Lucius drew nearer to the lake, he saw the outline of someone sitting under his favorite tree. It stopped him in his tracks. It was far too early for a student to be out, wasn't it? It must be a teacher. Nevertheless, Lucius quickened his pace, frustration rising. However all signs of anger disappeared as he recognized the Ravenclaw under his tree. It wasn't as if they were friends or anything, but they'd had classes together for the past six years so it was a bit hard to ignore her.

Slowly, Lucius came closer to the girl so he was now standing at her feet. "Hello," he said, trying to sound as calm as possible. "Mind if I join you?" Sometimes it pained Lucius to act so ... nice. But he quickly reminded himself that it was what people expected of him. Plus, he added, his sibling could be anyone.

[lexy]

Alexis looked up when she heard a voice asking if they could join her. She was shocked that it was just the person she was thinking about and wanted to talk to. "Of course. Have a seat." She replied as she folded the letter that was from her father and put it in her pocket. She was hoping that he didn't see the letter since she wasn't really sure how to tell him about it or how he would take it. She didn't know that he had known about having a half sibling out there.

"How have you been doing?" She asked Lucius after a minute of silence as she watched to see if he would sit or just stand there. She was just trying to start up a conversation with him so she could at least get to know him before she even told him about the letter and that they were related. She honestly wanted to get to know her brother that was now next to her. She turned to look out over the lake and watched as the giant squid lazily waved its tentacle at them. She had to smile a little at that. She love how the Giant Squid would know that people were near the lake with out taking its head out of the water.

(OOC ~ Sorry its a little short right now but I will make them longer when I have a little more time then I do now. Again I'm sorry.)

[Lucius Malfoy]

(don't worry about it. I'm not the greatest rp-er in the world. I just got lucky with the post above.)

"Thank you." Lucius put about a foot of space between himself and the girl and sat down, leaning against the trunk of the tree. He shrugged off the backpack and became so busy unpacking the papers, quills and ink that he didn't notice Alexis putting away the letter. Setting to work on the forms, he completely forgot anyone was beside him until she spoke again. He looked at her, wondering why she was speaking to him. Most people in his year didn't unless they were Slytherin. And the few that did talk to him didn't sound as friendly as this girl did.

"All right ... I suppose. Well, who can really be all right with this stack of work to do?" Lucius pointed to the papers on his lap and gave a little chuckle. When the laughter died, he wondered why he'd just said that. It wasn't something he'd normally say in this situation. Normally he'd try to draw the girl's attention away from the forms, in case she asked what they were for. But there was something about her, he noted, that was very welcoming. And her smile was so beautiful and contagious. He could feel the corners of his mouth twitching upward as he looked at her. Quickly looking away, he cleared his throat, then asked quietly: "And yourself?"

[lexy]

"It's no problem" She said with a small shrug of her shoulders. She watched him as he sat down and leaned against the tree behind them. She watched as Lucius pulled out papers, quills and ink. She wondered what he was going to be working on since she had just about all her homework done but Potions. She might like doing Potions it was just she hated writing Essays on them. She was great with the hands on work but when it came to the book work she sucked at it. Which is why she normally left all her written Potions work for last.

"I agree. The professor's seem to like to pile work on us lately." She replied with a small laugh of her own. She looked at the papers that Lucius had pointed at. She noticed that his writing was almost like his fathers. There were things that were different between the two writing styles. "I've actually been better then I am now." There was a minute of pause between the two of them before Alexis looked up at Lucius. "Have you ever wondered if you had other family out there hat you don't know but you want to?" She asked all of a sudden. She wasn't sure why she was asking him that but did it anyway.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius could only nod his head in agreement to her comment about the professors. Though it wasn't school work he was doing, it did seem like he was getting quite a bit of extra work to do lately. "I've actually been better then I am now." Lucius wondered if he should say something - perhaps ask her what was wrong. But he stopped himself, remembering that her life was none of his business. And why should he care anyway?

He began to write again. He was just filling in the answer about who he wanted found when he heard her ask about his family. Lucius looked up her. It was an odd question, but there was no way she could have known about his sibling, so he quickly relaxed. Putting down his quill, he thought hard about how to answer. "As a matter of fact, there is someone I would like to meet," he said slowly, but he didn't elaborate. He looked back at her. "Why do you ask?"

[lexy]

She wondered what he was filling out since it didn't look like any kind of homework. It didn't look like anything that she had ever seen before. She was going to ask him what they were for but decided not to since it really any of her business and she didn't want it to seem she was being nosy about his business.

She sighed as she ran her hand through her hair to get it out of her face. That was one of the things that she really hated was when her hair got in her face. Oh, anyone good you trying to find?" she asked him. "I was just curious. You see I don't know my biological father. I have a step father and my mother. I also have 2 half brothers and 1 half sister that my mother had with my step father." she said with a small shrug of her shoulders and a frown on her face as she paused. She wasn't sure if she really be telling him any of this right now but it seemed like a good idea since he said that there was someone he would like to meet, though she didn't know who it was. "Then I learn that I have another half sibling out there and my mother didn't tell me. I had to find out for myself in a letter that I found that was from my father." she said as she pulled out the letter. She wasn't sure if she wanted to show him the letter now or not. You could tell that it was looked at a lot since it was really wrinkled and the paper was faded. You could see writing on the front and the name Merissa on it.

[Lucius Malfoy]

He didn't want to answer her. He thought he'd said more than enough about himself for the day - and to a near-stranger, too! But, then, the need to tell someone about his efforts to find his sibling was nagging at him. It wasn't as if Lucius had never told anyone about the letter he'd found when he was twelve. There were three people he'd told. His father, his girlfriend, and a house-elf at the Manor. The house-elf was the only one he still spoke to.

As Alexis talked about her family, Lucius gazed at the lake. He watched as some owls flew by and sat by the water. But the more he listened, the less he payed attention to the scenery. Her story sounded familiar, but not because he'd heard it before. It was everything he thought about his sibling's life. Lucius knew his father's mistress had married and allowed her husband to adopt the child. And he imagined they probably would have had their own children too. This was the type of profile he'd been putting together for the detectives. But, then, Alexis had found a letter from her real father. Surely Abraxus wouldn't have written to his old mistress. He was cold and heartless, in Lucius' opinion.

He heard some rustling as she pulled the letter out. Lucius turned his head slightly and saw that there was writing on the front. But he wasn't sure if wanted to know what it said. After three years of waiting and searching, he wasn't sure if he was ready to know who his sibling was. 'You're going to have to look sooner of later,' he reasoned. Gathering up his courage, Lucius looked at the letter and gasped as he read the name Merissa written in his father's unmistakable handwriting. Then he looked up at Alexis. "What does it say?"

[lexy]

She really wasn't sure where she was going with this. She was just rambling she knew but she was hoping that with what she was saying that maybe he would get a hit that they were siblings. When she heard him gasp she looked up at him and seen that he was staring at the letter that she had taken out of her pocket. She looked back down at the letter and opened it before she read it to him.

Merissa,

I really want to get to my daughter and have her meet her half brother one of these days. I know you said that I don't get to have any say in her life but I think that we both know that she should know her real father and that she has an older brother, though by a few months, out there.

Abraxus Malfoy

After she finished reading the letter she looked at Lucius who was sitting next to her to see what his reaction was going to be. "I just found this letter on my birthday that just passed. I knew that I wasn't Jeremy's daughter since he has dark hair and I have blond. Plus my mother told me that he wasn't my biological father when I was 6 or 7 years old." She said with a shrug of her shoulders. She really hoped that Lucius would want to get to know her since she really didn't get along with her other step siblings and she's known Lucius since they were 11 and she didn't think he was all that bad. Not like her other brothers.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius listened patiently as Alexis read the letter to him, but it felt as if a million billywigs were in his stomach. After she finished reading, he tried to think of a way to tell her that Abraxus was his father. But too many thoughts were already swimming around in his head for him to properly concentrate on one. Did she already know that he was her brother? Did she want to know? Surely the fact that she'd been carrying that letter around meant that she did. But then, would she like what she found? She was a Ravenclaw, a enemy of Slytherin. They'd attended school together for six years. It was impossible to think that she hadn't heard what a jerk he was to everyone. So why would she want to know a brother like that?

A part of Lucius got defensive and said that he shouldn't waste anymore of his time with her, if that's what she thought of him. But the truth was that he didn't really care what she thought of him, just so long as he got to know her. "Abraxus is my father," he said finally, looking down to avoid seeing the look of disappointment that he was positive would be there. "I've been looking for you for a long time."

[lexy]

Alexis really wanted to know what was going through Lucius had as she read the letter to him. Was Lucius looking for her or was he looking for someone else that was a family member. She sat there watching him to see what he was going to do. She knew that Abraxus was his father, well their father now that she knew. She really wanted to get to know Lucius if he wanted to get to know her at all.

"I kind of thought that he was your father." She murmured to him. She wasn't sure what else to say to him. She wanted to get to know him and she didn't care what other people say about him. She never was one to listen to rumors about people. She had to find out herself to see what they were like. She smiled a bit when he said that he had been looking for her. "I'm kind of hoping we could get to know each other. I mean I don't really get along with my other siblings. The only one I talk to out of the 3 is my baby sister and we even don't get along all that good." she said as she looked over at him.

[Lucius Malfoy]

"That's great. Not about you and your siblings not being close, I mean about you wanting us to get to know each other, because so do I. And, well, you're kind of the only family I have." Lucius stopped to take a breath. He hadn't said that much in one breath since he was five. Then again, he hadn't been this excited since he was five. He continued, a little more calmly now. "My - our dad isn't around that much. Neither is my mum. And I've never met any of their family."

Lucius smiled at his sister. It was the first time he'd smiled in a while. There were so many things he wanted to ask her, he wasn't sure where to start and if he'd sound too nosy if he asked too much. After a minute he decided that he should let her go first as she probably had more to ask, not even knowing their father. Which, in his opinion, was quite a blessing.

[lexy]

Alexis sighed as she felt like something was lifted off her shoulders. She was happy that Lucius wanted to get to know her. She really didn't know what she would have done if he didn't want to get to know her. She knew she would have probably would have gotten up and went to her dorm and cried her eyes out if Lucius said that he didn't want to get to know her. "I'm glad. I wasn't sure if you would have wanted to get to know me or not." she said as she smiled at her brother.

"Ever since my mother had another kid she hasn't spent as much time with me as she used to. We used to do a lot together and do a lot of things together. Now though we hardly see each other. Like I said before, I only really talk to my baby sister even though we don't get along with each other." Alexis said with a small shrug of her shoulders. She was really excited that she was going to get to know Lucius and find out what her father was like through him before she met him. She would have to tell Lucius that when she was around her family she acted different then what she does when she was here at School.

[Lucius Malfoy]

"I'm sorry. I always figured you had it better than I did. When I was twelve I found a letter your mum wrote to dad. She said that she was getting married. I was actually worried that you wouldn't want to get to know me, if you had a family." It pained Lucius to think that he and Alexis were alike in all the wrong ways. He wished she'd had a good family, even if it meant that she didn't want him. At least that way it wouldn't be so bad when she found out what her real father was like. Abraxus was something that needed discussing soon. The last time Lucius had brought up his lost sister to Abraxus, he'd narrowly escaped getting a broken nose and settled for a black eye. He could just imagine what he'd get when he came home for Christmas break with Alexis.

"There's something I have to tell you about our father," he said slowly, not entirely sure how to continue. Most of Slytherin house knew how terrible Abraxus could be, it was the reason most of them never crossed Lucius, but he wasn't sure that the news had spread to the other houses, and he doubted it did. In the public's eyes, Abraxus Malfoy was a perfect gentleman. Always donating money to the Ministry and St. Mungo's while running thirteen highly successful hotels around the world, and raising a family to boot. "He's just ... not the greatest father in the world. He's gone most of the year, on business trips, and whenever he's home he's not exactly involved. He usually shuts himself in his study, actually."