Draco Malfoy sat in his bed, quietly scared out of his wits. The nightmare he'd experienced had made him completely sure that sleep was out of his reach tonight. He felt himself beginning to whimper, but tried to stifle it as best he could. He was a Malfoy for goodness sake! And a seventeen year old at that. Realistically, he shouldn't be scared right now- and yet he felt as if he were two years old, wanting to cry and get a comforting hug from one or both of his parents.
The nightmare was not an unreasonable one. In fact, Draco knew he was one hundred percent entitled to the terror that was consuming him. After all, dreaming of real events that had happened to him with the Dark Lord were definitely something to be scared of. Despite his best efforts, his cold and calculating Slytherin mask began to crack. The cast-iron Malfoy will had been breached, and Draco began to cry. For what reason, though, he was not quite sure. For the dream itself, for the pain it caused, for the guilt it burdened him with were all viable excuses. Perhaps he simply just wanted the freedom to feel his own emotions.
He had just graduated from Hogwarts a week ago. The final battle had taken place a week before that, and the scars were still fresh in his psyche. The guilt, pain, and sense of violation had taken the form of a nightmare. Knowing there was no one there to judge him, he sobbed and wailed into his hands, trying to purge himself of the misdeeds he'd done with salty tears that ran down his face like rain.
Narcissa Malfoy was a beautiful, brilliant wife and mother. That being the case, every mother had some level of consciousness of their child while asleep. It was a silent alarm that went off, alerting the mother of something, be it their child not being home yet, knowing their child had snuck out, or various other things. For Narcissa, the alarm rang clear and true, and she shot straight out of bed.
Something was wrong- very wrong.
Her sudden movement had stirred her husband as well. Lucius Malfoy regarded his wife with sleepy eyes.
"Cissy?" Came the slurred question.
"Something's not right. I need to check on Draco. You can go back to sleep. I'll take care of it."
With every bit of strength he had, Lucius dragged himself out of bed and threw on his silk robe.
"I'm coming with you." She nodded- she hadn't expected anything less. With slippered feet shuffling against the dark wood floor, they made their way down the long hallway to the first door that marked the west wing of the Manor. Narcissa could already hear sobs through the door, and knew her Maternal instincts had served her well. From the intensity of his sobbing, she knew she had to be very gentle with her son. She looked to her husband in silent communication. He nodded. Ever so gently, she pushed open the door.
With the thunder raging outside, Draco hadn't heard his parents approach his bedroom. When the door began to open he nearly jumped a foot in the air, almost instinctively groping for his wand. He relaxed when he saw it was only his parents. Heart beating at two hundred miles per hour, he somehow managed to stumble out:
"W-what are you doing here?" His instant thought after saying it was that it sounded disrespectful, clearly not his intention. In truth, he felt his parents being there was some sort of Godsend. He hoped and prayed that they wouldn't be angry with him for waking them.
When Narcissa and Lucius heard the stuttered statement, they heard ill-concealed terror, making them worried on their son's behalf. Narcissa moved to sit beside Draco, just as she did when he had nightmares as a child.
"We were worried about you." She said in a voice that instantly made Draco feel four years old again. She wrapped a comforting arm around him, and was surprised to see how quickly he leaned into her touch. For a split second he really was a child again, begging to sleep with his parents after a bad dream.
Oh Draco, my poor boy...
"What's the matter, sweetheart?" She asked as gently as possible. She could feel him shaking with fear, and it made her hold him tighter. Lucius could literally feel the terror radiating off of his son. After being distant from his son for so long, his final encounter with the Dark Lord had opened up his eyes to all he could have lost. It had radically changed the way he viewed his family.
Looking through the glass of time, he was reminded of the many times that Narcissa had gotten up to soothe their upset son, and that every time he'd rolled over and gone to sleep. He realized in that moment how deeply his high expectations had affected his son. He understood now, that being there for his son was the most important thing he could do. He moved to sit behind his son, surprising both him and his wife when he put both hands on his son's shoulders. This subtle sign of support encouraged Draco enough to get him to speak. He tried his hardest to push his pride to the wayside, and imagined a time before he'd learned it, before he had been shaped to be heir to the Malfoy name. In a voice that was small and quavered, he said,
"I had a nightmare." He looked down, ashamed despite himself. Lucius shared a look with his wife. The subject of such night terrors belonged to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was easy to see from the dark circles underneath Draco's eyes. The grey eyes he'd inherited had taken on many casts over the years, but the downcast layer of guilt and pain was new and fresh like a wound.
Lucius stroked his son's hair. Draco shut his eyes, unfamiliar with his father's touch. It certainly wasn't unwelcome, and for a moment he tried reigning in his emotions again, just as his father had taught him. This time, he didn't feel like a failure when he couldn't. He could feel his father's acceptance now. New as it was, it opened the door for him to feel emotions without worry. He curled up in on himself and cried, for the first time feeling like the pain was going away.
"Darling, none of what happened was your fault." Narcissa soothed.
"Dragon, you've done nothing wrong. You did what you did to protect what you saw most important: your family. We're so proud of you. I'm proud of you- as always." Lucius finished quietly. The sentiments surprised him so much that he stiffened in shock. He looked from his mother to his father, and embraced them both, still crying. Narcissa kissed her son's temple, still whispering soothing sentiments into her son's ear. Lucius held onto his son tightly, acutely aware of what he could have lost.
"Mommy and Daddy love you, Draco." The words that had been locked inside Lucius' head for over fifteen years were finally released. After years of emotional distance and anal retentiveness, he was freed of the traditional way by his son's choice to do what was right.
For a moment, the entire Malfoy family was suspended in time in a pivotal realization. The Dark Lord had almost torn their family apart, but they were stronger.
"I love you, Momma. I love you, Daddy."
Suddenly, Draco wasn't scared anymore.
Yes, for one moment the Malfoy's were what they had always pretended to be: Perfect.