Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters

Of Temptation and Redemption

Chapter 1

It's hard to forget the day you came and set everything in motion, I had hardly even thought of you since the war, I wanted to try and forget that whole period of my life so it wouldn't poison the life I was trying to create anew and so you were left in the past. You must have had other plans however, you wanted to create a different future to the one I had envisioned, one of reconciliation, of redemption. I'm not sure whether I'm grateful for that or the opposite but wither way it happened.

It was a day in August when you came and turned my life upside down.

The air was humid and stifling and I worried vaguely about little Rose getting too hot as she ran around the garden. I sat on a small patio just by the back door, watching her as she found a source of fascination in the smallest of things, a tiny caterpillar that was diligently making its way across the ground, a flower that was so pretty she simply had to have it and struggled briefly with the plant to make it give up its bounty before smiling victoriously. My husband, Ron, was inside, in the shade, as he did some work for the ministry, he was lucky to have a job he enjoyed so much, I was slightly vague on the small details and mechanics of it but I knew it involved Quidditch, his passion.

I sipped quietly at my cool glass of pumpkin juice and contemplated how much trouble Rose could get in in the time it took to nip inside and get a book from the room I had reserved as my own personal library. It was then that I heard the faint sound of the doorbell jangling in the front hallway. The sound drifted through the open window by me and I wondered whether it was Harry and Ginny come for a visit with little James.

However the muffled snatches of conversation that reached me told me immediately that it wasn't them, frowning I decided to go and find out who it was, I glanced nervously at Rose, hoping she wouldn't get into too much mischief while I was gone, as it was I wasn't sure if I could even trust her for the five minutes I planned on staying inside for. She may have inherited my smarts but she had also inherited the Weasley gene for mischief.

I had realised before I rounded the corner that far from it being our friends it was in fact someone that Ron evidently didn't like at all, I could tell as much from the slight gruffness of his tone, the somewhat curt responses. Even more confused now, and equally burning with curiosity I turned the corner only to come face to face with the very last person I would expect, still standing awkwardly in the doorway, obviously in the middle of entreating Ron to listen to him.

"Malfoy" the name slipped between my lips in an involuntary gesture of surprise, it had been so long it sounded almost foreign, something half-remembered from another time, another life, "What on earth are you doing here?"

"Granger" he nodded his acknowledgement and with a glance at Ron, began his rehearsed speech again, "I've come to make amends of a sort, apologise" he winced as he said the word and I knew that it grated with him to ask for forgiveness from us whether he felt it the right thing to do or not, it was breaking a lifetime of habit. "For all that passed between us," he continued, "I..I didn't know any better, it was how I was brought up." I noticed that he frowned at the mention of his parents, as if he hadn't meant to bring them into the conversation at all, "Not that it's entirely my parents fault of course, I'm not blaming them, I'm just, I guess I'm just trying to explain that I'm not like that anymore, having to serve under Vol- him, scared me, a lot and some of the things I saw" he shuddered, "let's just say that I think it permanently knocked out any sadistic or cruel tendencies I might have had"

"That's all very well Malfoy but what exactly are you expecting from us?" Ron asked, I just stood there as the words sank in, I had heard from Harry about his hesitation when it came to killing Dumbledore and I had understood implicitly about the situation Malfoy had been in, in regards to the threat hanging over both his and his parents heads at the time, that was why he had been allowed to walk away comparatively free when all the other Death Eaters had been punished in the aftermath. He was pitied, though he was still shunned, the association too difficult for most of the wizarding world to bear.

I don't think I had ever fully understood what he must have gone through until I had seen that brief shudder, that reluctance to say the name Voldemort, even after all these years, only now that I did, I didn't feel pity, in fact pity was what I had felt beforehand, now it was almost..admiration. To have survived all that, then have to face the vigilant scrutiny of the wizarding world, the relative isolation that I was aware he had lived in if only because no-one I knew spoke to him, no-one mentioned him with anything but vague prejudice and suspicion.

All of this washed over me within a brief moment of clarity, which I was sure that he must have noticed as his piercing blue-grey eyes met with mine before shifting back to Ron.

"I am asking for a certain amount of forgiveness and understanding Weasley but I don't altogether mind if I don't get it, I'm apologising all the same, for the sake of my family, I don't want my child to have to live in the shadow of mine and my parents mistakes, this seemed the best way forward." Ron's expression became a little less harsh, he looked at me for a moment and we communicated silently that we seemed to think he was being genuine, on my part I was convinced of it, that was no longer an issue, something else had caught my attention.

"Child?" I asked

"Yes, a small boy, we named him Scorpius" I saw how his expression softened, he would probably make a better father than his own had been and I smiled at the thought almost unconsciously, he smiled back. I was actually momentarily shocked by it, it had been so long since I had seen Malfoy but even then I don't think I had ever seen him smile this naturally, this freely and sincerely. From what I remembered it was usually a self-aware smirk.

Almost as soon as it had come though, it was gone again and he turned back to Ron who still had a vague look of suspicion, "I spoke to Harry and Ginny yesterday and they asked me for a few days to mull it over, I can give you that too" Ron nodded his agreement to the proposal, "Harry knows how to contact me if you're ready to talk to me so I'll leave you two alone now." He started to make his way out of the door but paused and glanced back at us both, with me now by Ron's side, "I..I'm trying to atone for everything the best way I know how" he swallowed nervously, "I would like it if we were no longer enemies." We both looked at him, silently acknowledging his request before he turned again and briskly stepped out of the door, closing it behind him as he went.

Ron exhaled loudly and his hand automatically went to mine, softly entwining our fingers, "Well that was definitely something, I thought hell would freeze over before Malfoy ever admitted to doing something wrong." he looked at me, his eyes searching mine, "What do you think of it all?" I considered the question carefully before answering,

"I think that we should discuss this with Harry and Ginny, its essentially a group decision but in my opinion, I think he truly is repentant and I think that maybe we should give him a chance, something that I don't think he ever really had growing up the way he did." Ron smiled softly at me,

"Always so rational and compassionate" he stroked my cheek and kissed me softly before we were interrupted by a small shriek from the back garden, evidently I had left Rose on her own for far too long. Oddly enough though I was a little bit glad of the interruption, I needed some time on my own to really think over all that Draco had said.

The next day Harry and Ginny came over and we sat around the kitchen table whilst the kids played in the living room, only half watching the cartoon we had put on for them. We discussed what we should do for a long time before coming to the conclusion that Draco should be given another chance and we would organise a way to all meet up together with him and his new family.

Let me know what you think :) ~xx~