"Daddy, do you have parents?"
Draco Malfoy looked up at his four-year-old daughter and internally cringed. He knew this question would come; he just hadn't expected it to come today. It made sense, though—Hermione's parents had been over for a visit, and Cassie had had a ball showing off her magic and playing teacher to her muggle grandparents. Hermione had left to take them home a few minutes ago while Draco had lain on his side on Cassie's bedroom floor to play with their small blonde bundle of joy. All had been going well—they were building a castle out of Hermione's old blocks—until the wheels in that overactive brain of hers started turning.
The question was so innocent, Draco didn't know how he'd explain the answer.
"I did," he finally settled on, examining the green block in his hand. "When I was little, like you."
Cassie watched her father's face carefully. "Did they die?" she asked in a quiet voice.
Yes, to me. "No." The blond man carefully levitated the green block up, up, up until it gently set itself on the next row of the castle's wall. "No, Cass, they didn't die."
The small child tilted her head, causing one of her springy curls to fall over her shoulder. "Then why don't they visit us?"
Oh, Salazar, this was painful. Draco would bet his hard-earned galleons his little princess had already sensed this was a touchy subject for him. If it wasn't for his Slytherin genes in her DNA, he'd have thought she would one day be sorted into Ravenclaw.
"Because they weren't very nice people, sweetheart." He watched his daughter stand on her tiptoes to place her purple block next to his green. "They didn't like that I fell in love with Mummy."
Cassie's gray eyes, identical to her father's, widened with shock. "But Mummy's the bestest witch in the world! She's pretty and smart and really nice!"
Draco smiled sadly. "I know she is, Cass. I think deep down they knew, too. They just…" He swallowed hard. He and Hermione had done a great job of raising their daughter in a prejudiced-free home; even their mini genius wouldn't understand what he was about to say. "They just didn't let themselves like her because she had muggle parents instead of wizard and witch parents."
Cassie's pale eyebrows crinkled. She walked around the castle and plopped herself down on the carpet next to her father. "But that makes Mummy special," she said, confused. "She wasn't even born to a magic family and she's a witch! A really good one, too!"
Draco reached out and scooped his daughter up in his arms. He laid her stomach-down on his chest and fully relaxed onto his back. "See, the thing is, Cass, my parents believed in this really old, really bad idea that said muggle-born wizards and witches weren't as good as pure-blood wizards and witches. They even raised me to believe the same thing."
The small child on top of him gasped. "They did?"
"Mmhmm. But then I got to know Mummy." He smiled and hooked the stray curl back behind his daughter's small ear. "I saw how good and amazing and beautiful she was, and I realized my parents had lied to me. I hadn't always been so nice to Mummy, so I told her I was very sorry. She forgave me and we started dating."
"Was there kissing?" Cassie asked with an impish grin. Draco could've sworn he'd heard the little girl on that show Hermione played on the telly, Full House, ask her aunt that exact same question. Might as well steal her reply.
He smirked and tickled his daughter's stomach. "Yes, there was."
She squealed with laughter, and Draco was certain there wasn't a more beautiful or pure sound on the planet. He saw the exact moment a light bulb went on over her head. She stopped laughing and asked him nervously, "Were your parents mad?"
He nodded solemnly. "Yeah, Cass, they were very mad. They told me I had to break up with her or they weren't going to let me be a part of their family anymore."
Cassie looked sad. "But… that's so mean."
Draco rubbed his daughter's back and asked, "Do you know what I told them?" When she shook her head, he said, "I told them I'd start a new family with your mummy. And I did." He pulled his daughter close and gave her kisses all over her face, causing her to squeal with more laughter. "Your mummy and I got married and had the best little girl the Wizarding World had ever seen. She was so lovely, we named her Cassiopeia, in honor of—"
"The beautiful queen in Greek mythology."
The father and daughter turned toward the sound of the feminine voice. Hermione was standing in the doorway, smiling softly and watching her family. She took off her coat and joined her husband and daughter on the floor, curling in toward the love of her life and taking their little girl's small hand in her bigger one. "As well as one of the most breathtaking constellations in the northern sky."
"Ooooh!" Cassie bounced up and down, causing Draco to protest the movement on his sternum. "Astronomy! I'll go get the book Grandma and Grandpa Granger got me!" She climbed off her father and raced to the living room where she'd left her new gift from her grandparents.
Hermione swung her leg over her husband's body, hooked it around his hip, and pulled herself on top of him. She rested her forearms on either side of his head, her amber eyes lovingly locked onto his own gray. "So you told her."
Draco placed his hands on the small of his wife's back. "Her brain's already nearly the size of yours," he murmured, trailing soft kisses up her jaw. "She never stops asking questions."
Hermione hummed and gave him a slow, sensual kiss. "I love you."
"I love you, too."