Longer
She was three days old when he first held her in his arms. He was two. "Hers swells power." Her mother told him, "That's what new babies smell like." And so, he held her longer.
The next time she found herself in his arms was three years later. He was five. He had been a ring bearer at his father's wedding. All the kids were running around playing tag. She had fallen and scraped her knee. He held her, "Don't cry." And so, she clung to him longer.
At eleven she threw her nine year old arms around him demanding he write to her. Hugging her back he agreed to write as it allocated, "Learning to be a proper wizard takes a lot of concentration. " Stomping her foot and folding her arms, "No excuses, I want letters." And so, he wrote her letters compared to his parents were longer.
Her tears fell from her eyes of thirteen years as his arms of fifteen held her close trying to comfort her. A boy broke her heart. His father told him that fighting was against the rules and it didn't matter why. She later found herself pulling him off the boy with the broken nose and bloody lip. "He'll never hurt you again." And so, he took to privately holding her longer.
It was her fourteenth birthday. His hands shook slightly, despite being sixteen, as he held her in his arms to give her a kiss from him for the first time. She smiled up at him sighing, "Finally!" And so, they stayed hidden, holding each other just a bit longer.
She rushed to him throwing her fifteen year old arms around his seventeen year old neck, as he and the other graduates exited the boats. Her lips found his just as his arms pulled her closer into his embrace deepening their kiss. Neither one cared as their families stared with wonder. His father looked to her father smirking, "I think we can give them just a little longer."
He looked at the woman of nineteen perched on his lap. He thought he would be nervous. He wasn't. This was the calmest he had ever remembered being in his twenty-one years on Earth. She was laughing when she turned to him seeing the ring waving at her from his left hand ring finger. "Fancy marring me and making me smile longer?"
Everyone watched as her father walked his twenty year old daughter down the aisle very slowly. He watched her face light up as she saw her groom of twenty-two waiting for her. He wasn't ready to let her go yet. Wrapping her arm around his she placed his pinky in her hand. It was their secret. He was her hero and she was his Princess. She was content to walk at his pace to give him a few minutes longer.
He never thought in all his twenty-four could think his twenty-two year old waif of a wife could crush his hand to the point of almost breaking it. Still he was amazed she was doing the hard work pushing with every contraction as their family paced in the waiting room to see the newest addition. He was speechless when the Healer placed the tiny pink angry little girl on his wife's chest. She reminded him to breathe. Three days later, with his daughter clean, feed, and smelling of baby powder, he told his wife, "I've got this, go and rest longer."
She was thirty and three days old the last time he held her in his arms. He was thirty-two. No one was around as she rested peacefully in his lap as his tears fell with their last kiss. "I love you Lily Luna Potter Malfoy, I wanted longer."