A/N: I cannot thank you all enough; thank you to all of you who continue to read the story and wanting to read the sequel.
Happy me!
So, here we go – the sequel to "A new start for the two of us" (and to anyone stumbling across this fic without having read the first one, I strongly recommend you to read that, or the story won't make much sense.
As usual, thank you to me lovely beta, without you I wouldn't have managed to get this far.
Please review – and enjoy it!
Disclaimer: All belongs to J.K Rowling and all that.
Draco had been fuming for an hour – not wanting to see his wife, daughter or anyone for that matter. He had a feeling that his father had been involved in the disappearance of his oldest daughter and of course Draco had known. But what he thought about right now, while a persistent knock intruded his thoughts, was how on earth all of this had actually happened, making him turn towards the door.
"What!?" He shouted, anger seeping through his words. The door opened and his oldest daughter stepped inside the room – the only place Draco really felt as if he could be himself – the library. Rose stared at him.
"Are you angry with me?" She asked timidly. Draco sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"No. Well, yes, in some way I am. But I'm not… my anger is directed at someone else." He answered, finally giving up is angry stance and he sat down in a comfortable chair next to him. Rose nodded.
"Mum is talking to Professor McGonagall. She thinks I should go to Hogwarts even though I missed out on three years." She said, staring off into the room, not wanting to look at her father. He kept quiet. "You… You're angry at him, aren't you?" Rose asked and sat down, cross-legged on the floor.
Draco nodded. "I just…Rose, you must understand how painful the last decade or so has been for us. I thought my father had died, a long time ago and now…" He threw his hands up. "Now, he's possibly alive somewhere, trying desperately to undermine me and tearing my family apart. He already did it once, so nothing is stopping him now." He said. Rose scooted closer to him, resting her head on his knee.
"Dad... Do you want to know what really happened? Or at least as much as I can remember?" She whispered against his clothed knee.
He hesitated – he was sure Hermione would want to know as well, but he was so curious and for all he knew, she could have been in a house next to them all these years. He rested a pale hand on her shoulder. "Please." He simply said. Rose lifted her head, a slight smile on her lips. Draco suddenly saw just how much she looked like him and he couldn't help but to smile back at her.
"Okay, here goes. See, I can't actually remember anything from before I was five, so I'll take it from there. I know I told mum that an old hag had me up until a year ago, but that's not really true. An old hag was involved, but she had only been my caretaker." She drew a deep breath and continued. "I was in some sorts of woods. I can't really remember much other than the green and brown colours surrounding me. I was in a cottage with three people. The old hag, who most just called "Marl", which must have been some sort of nickname, a boy, maybe a year older than me and… Lucius." Draco almost snarled at the name, but Rose merely looked at him and continued her story. "Lucius had a plan. Or so I gather now, because as a five year old, all you can think about is how much you miss your parents. When I got older, I realized how the plan would have gone, if the boy and I hadn't run off. Anyway, Lucius, dear old granddad, wanted to make sure that the old regime would ensue again. He knew I was half-breed, or that's what he called it and the boy was pure. He wanted to start the Dark Lords bidding again, destroying the Wizard community as well as the muggle one; which he would do with a powerful spell he himself had created, with the boy… And me."
She paused, seemingly unsure if she should continue. Draco stared at her.
"Go on. I promise, I won't get angry with you." He said and she nodded.
"When Lucius left us with Marl one day, she sat us down and told us about the plan. We knew nothing, really, but she had fallen in love with us – she didn't want us to hurt. Anyway, Lucius believed that if he… Forced us to… Do stuff when I turned fourteen, we would create a super-breed that could potentially destroy the world – of course, his mind must have been wobbled(/warped), because it would have never worked. But his spell did. We saw how bad it was when he was practising one day. Several animals, strung up in the trees, were all but vaporized by it." She sighed.
"Marl told us to run. Run and never look back. She told me as she packed a bag for us, that my parents had buried an empty casket, believing I was in it. She knew nothing about the boy, but he didn't care. He just wanted to run. And then we ran. Lucius tried stalking us, but we had became adapt in the woods – we knew how and where to hide, and Marl had lead him on a different track." She paused briefly. "I hope she's still alive, though. Anyway, we reached the end of the woods after three weeks and it lead us straight into the little muggle town – we went to the train station, asked for a ticket to London and then we left. We split up when we reached Kings Cross – he wanted to find someone, I wanted to see you. And then I did. Along with my sister."
Draco had been quiet. He didn't say a word and Rose let him digest the story.
After almost ten minutes, he spoke. "Lucius tried to make you… Have…?" He hissed.
Rose nodded. "I didn't do it, though. We left before it would happen. My problem now is the fact that Lucius still has the spell and he's most likely really sodding pissed." She said with a smirk.
Draco chuckled – Rose was indeed the spitting image of her father.
"You leave that to us. Go fetch your mother for me, will you?" Rose stood up and left – as she stood in the doorway, she turned to him.
"I missed you. Even though I haven't really known you. I missed your voice." She smiled and left. Draco smiled as well. He was still angry, almost pissed at Rose for not trying to contact them earlier – and of course, angry for her to be such a drama-queen. Someone cleared their throat and he looked up. Hermione stood in the doorway, beautiful as ever with a ray of sunlight streaming onto her from the window.
"Rose said.." She started, but Draco patted his knee, motioning her to come to him. She smirked. "One day, that's not going to work for me anymore." She said as she sat down on his lap.
He chuckled and looked at the mantelpiece in front of them – a picture placed neatly in the middle from their wedding day. "So… Rose is going to Hogwarts?" He asked, smiling slightly at his wife.