"I'd do it for You"

Disclaimer: is this necessary? I don't own the Harry Potter franchise

BEFORE YOU READ: I want to inform all readers that until a year ago I had no working knowledge of anything Harry Potter related. One day my daughter came across the Harry Potter series while browsing through Hulu. I should forward this information with the fact that I was a teenager when the HP series came out, and even though I tried to read them, they just never caught on for me. I had several friends that LOVED it, and they drug me to the first two movies, but after that I never gave it a second thought. Anyway, fast forward and my daughter wants to watch these movies, I say sure whatever. And me and my husband end up spending an entire weekend basically gathering dust on the couch as we watched all 8 movies. My daughter was in love and when the last movie ended she looked like someone had stolen all the candy in the world. She wanted to know everything there was about this series so I enlightened her to the fact that these movies were in fact books before they were movies. She went nuts and begged to get them. Now, my daughter is ADHD and dyslexic. Reading is her mortal enemy because it takes too much time and focus and because the letters loom 'ridiculous' as she puts it. So, when my daughter, who we didn't think would make it to 3rd grade because of her reading difficulties, you bet your ass we peeled ourselves from the couch and headed to the book store! So, while all the other 2nd graders in her class was reading Dr. Seuss, she was carrying around HP and the Philosopher's Stone; and better yet, she was trying her hardest to read it! I have never been more grateful for a book series like this. It has totally changed her perspective on reading.

So, since she embraced it, so did I. That being said, I still don't know the ins and outs of all the characters and most of my knowledge is coming from the film series (I promised we would read the books together and that I wouldn't skip ahead and we are only on book 3 at the moment). That being said, if I write something that is out of character, it is purely out of ignorance. Some characters may not belong to certain groups or certain details may not be totally accurate. I apologize in advance for that.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, hope you enjoy.

Part I

It had been 6 years since the war ended, and for six years he had yet to carve out a home for himself. Although, to be fair, he did have more of home than many had nowadays, thanks to the bloody aftermath of the war. He had money, a manor, his parents, and now he had a wide eyed little angel holding his hand tightly as they maneuvered the streets of Diagon Alley. His parents, although he was grateful for their lives, offered little support to his emotional well-being; and since most of his friends had either died or ran off during and after the war, he had few people to turn to. Though, through a series of unusual incidents, he had forged a small but meaningful group of people he could almost describe as friends. But of what he did have, the closest he could attribute to a 'home' in the most meaningful sense of the word was the blonde haired boy at his side, looking up at him with a toothy grin, his hand resting fully in the protection of his fathers.

He had been married for a while. An arranged marriage, of course, to the lovely Astoria Greengrass. She was not without her charm, and her looks left nothing to be desired. She came from a family similar to his in wealth and social stature. Their union was made not out of love, but rather, carefully chosen by their parents to fulfill a duty - produce an heir. Not just any heir would do either, as the population dwindled, the few pure blood families left were desperate to continue forward with their names untainted by the half breed and mudblood filth left over from the destruction. The Malfoy's were absolutely one of these families. They acted as if the war changed nothing about their prejudicial views. Lucius and Narcissa had maintained their stance on the pure blood hierarchy and they intended to keep it that way. Draco, on the other hand, had been deeply changed since the war ended. Although he disagreed with his parent's viewpoint, he could hardly say he blamed them. The world they grew up in, fought for, and still somehow managed to cocoon themselves in still, did not lend itself to conditions wherein they might see the folly in their thinking. But Draco saw it. He partook in a battle next to peers he sat in the Great Hall with. He saw pure bloods, half breeds, and mudbloods all fight, protect, and die together in a place that should have been safe. A place that welcomed all. He was too prideful to see it then. But he saw it now.

Using his free arm, he shrugged the collar of his coat upwards and readjusted his green scarf. The November weather was settling in and today the temperatures had plummeted low enough to call for snow. Looking down at his son he noticed the cap meant to cover his ears had been pulled nearly off his head. He stopped them and bent over to readjust his hat and scarf. The little boy was comical in the way he was dressed. He wore so many layers he had trouble letting his arms rest to the side. Draco smiled at the disgruntled noise his son made as he tightened the scarf. He was new to dressing him alone and was terrified he would do something wrong. He would hate himself for allowing his child to catch a cold, or worse, on his watch. As he made his final adjustments and straightened back up, his eye caught the papers displayed at the nearby newsstand. The article was titled **POSSIBLE MARRIAGE LAW TO BE ENACTED**. Draco shook his head and scanned the front page, gathering all the information he cared to know about.

"Figures they would lead with this story and not the one we need to be concentrating on right now" He said to no one in particular. His son grunted in reply and Draco let out a soft laugh.

"Come on then, we are almost there. Would you like me to carry you the rest of the way?" The toddler gave, what Draco assumed to be, a head nod under the hat and scarf. Quickly Draco scooped up the small child and placed him on his shoulders and headed towards the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with his lunch dates. His mind raced with the uneasy topic he would soon be discussing at his upcoming meeting and, although he disagreed with the Ministry's proposal for repopulating the wizarding world, he dismissed the marriage law nonsense the papers were going on about to concentrate on the more important matter at hand.

Still though, he couldn't shake the lingering thoughts of war's destruction. The truth of course was that the war had depleted the population of the wizarding world, and the Ministry made no secret that the newest agenda for all wizards and witches should be to work towards replenishing the population as quickly as possible. In fact, the population had dropped so severely that there had been rumblings of a marriage laws being proposed for nearly a year now. Draco paid little attention to the matter as he had already done his duty, but if memory served him correctly, the latest census yielded less than satisfactory results, and the minister of magic was currently working on the wording of a 'new aged' marriage law to present within the month to the wizarding community. That must have been what the article he glanced through was detailing. But who could tell nowadays what fact was and what was mere talk. This marriage nonsense had been discussed for a while now and he figured it would stay in the headlines as long as it provided fodder for interesting gossip.

Draco doubted very little it would have any effect on his life however. After all, he had produced a son, and should that not be enough, his family and their status could ensure he would not be expected to follow such an archaic rule. He did however feel a twinge of sympathy to the poor blokes and distressed ladies who would surely be up in arms about having to marry what would in all likelihood be a complete stranger - and then be expected to immediately fuck them and pop out as many kids as possible. He shuddered at the thought - mostly at the idea of getting married again.

He felt relieved for a moment that he was no longer married, but his relief was soon replaced with guilt - as it always did when thinking of this subject. Marrying Astoria, while not his ideal plan in life, had not been all together that bad. She was a very lovely woman and she bore no resentment to him for their forced situation. But she didn't love him and he didn't love her. They settled into married life with a mutual respect for one another. They performed their expected marital act on many occasions, before during and after Scorpius was born. They grew to enjoy one another's company but never yearned for the other when one was away or out. Their lives resembled that of flat mates who occasionally shared a decent shag. They were pleasant; nothing more, nothing less.

The guilt of feeling relieved of his arranged marriage always tore at him when he thought of the reason as to why they were no longer a couple. She had passed away three months after their son was born. She had turned her wand on herself and unleashed an unforgivable. The wizarding doctors didn't know what to make of it and after ruling her death an obvious suicide, they buried her and nothing more was ever said about what drove her to such lengths. Her passing ate at Draco for months. He may not have been in love with the woman, but he did care for her as a friend. In any case she certainly deserved better than what she got. She was, after all, his wife and the mother of his child. Something about her demise seemed too off putting and completely out of character. Draco turned his attention to his family's vast library looking for any sort of answers; he felt he owed her that much. He found none. The wizarding world, while amazing in its own right, needed to catch up with the muggle world on their knowledge and treatment of health - particularly women's health. He found very little in his expansive collection that aided him in the understanding of mental health and female suicide. When he finally exhausted all his resources and still had no answers he turned to an unlikely source.