PROLOGUE
It had been nine years since that summer, nine years without hearing his voice, feeling his touch or seeing his face. Nine cold years had the summer sun chilled her to the bone and the merry songs of birds ceased where she tread. Though her body lived, something inside of her had died, he had left a gaping hole where she had loved him, and he had taken her reason for living with him when he left.
She had begged him, pleaded and importuned him to stay and fight, but he had left her alone and cold, as though she'd never to feel warmth again.
Or that's what she thought.
Two agonizing months after Draco's disappearance she had found something that filled the cavernous hole he had carved in her. The thing that made her push onward, the only thing she could depend on and love with all her heart. It was the only piece of him he had left with her. She cherished it and cared for it like nothing she ever had before because it was her last hope, her last tie to him. Maybe if he knew, he would come back to her and this little treasure.
Because unbeknownst to him, Draco Malfoy had a son.
CHAPTER ONE
"Felix Marcellus Malfoy-Weasely! Get down here this instant!" Ginny Weasely fumed as she surveyed the once clean kitchen now destroyed by the effervescent nine-year old boy. She had been five minutes in the shower and already he had caused chaos to erupt in the middle of their small flat.
There were pots and pans, metal spoons and spatulas in the middle of the floor, Muggle crayons, whole and broken, were piled by the now very colorful cabinets, chocolate frogs leapt about, little chess men ran here and there hacking each other to pieces regardless of their color, every few seconds the deck of exploding snap cards gave a feeble pop and Ginny stood in the middle of it massaging her aching head.
A tiny silver haired boy poked his head cautiously around the corner surveying his mother's annoyance before sheepishly stepping over a knight battling a charging chocolate frog and showing himself. He looked up into her brown eyes with his silver ones and put on his best innocent face.
"Yes, mummy?" Ginny crossed her arms trying her hardest to look stern and angry, but the wide gray eyes and pouting mouth was almost too much for her. How could she stay angry with a boy that looked so much like her Draco? Felix could have been a clone of Draco if it wasn't for the freckles strewn across the bridge of his round little Weasely nose.
"Don't 'yes mummy' me. You know exactly why I called you down here, look at all of this!" She said gesturing to the chaotic mess. "How did you manage to turn this kitchen into a war zone in less than five minutes?" She cried.
"I was bored," he muttered as he scuffed his foot against the tile floor refusing to meet his mother's eyes. "I just…I wanted to play like all the other kids." At his soft abashed words she softened and knelt talking the small boy into her arms and brushing his long hair out of his eyes.
"Oh, my little luck," she soothed. She had called him this ever since he was growing inside of her because he was her lucky child, without him or Draco she would have become a soulless shell. That's one reason she named him Felix, it meant luck. "What am I going to do with you?"
"Not punish me?" He said hopefully snuggling into her dressing gown. She had to suppress a giggle.
"You can't get away with it that easily young man. I know it's hard for you to make friends, but I bet there's a little boy or girl out there wishing they had a friend just like you." She kissed his forehead, "But next time you want to play, try not to give mummy a heart attack." She said ruffling his hair. "Lets see, for your punishment you can clean this mess then take a bath and go to bed without a fuss for the next week." Felix's mouth dropped open in protest but she gave him a stern look and he snapped it shut grumpily. Pouting he began to clean his mess.
Ginny finished getting dressed which proved slightly difficult while keeping one eye on Felix and she had to re-button her shirt three times before getting the alignment right. She pulled on worn jeans that she had cut into knee length shorts and a pair of tattered brown sandals, it was summer after all, her least favorite time of year.
When she was finished she came out of her cramped room and inspected her son's work. He was going dreadfully slow just to irk her, but he was cleaning even if it was at the pace of a snail.
She stood in the doorway to the kitchen just watching Felix as she did sometimes. He looked so much like his father He had the same aristocratic features, high cheekbones, thin lips, silver hair and gray eyes. He had inherited only three physical features from Ginny, her freckles, the slightly upturned button nose and the sparkle in his eyes. Where Draco's was cold and distant at times, Felix's was always alight with mirth, like everything had a hidden joke that only he knew the punch line to.
Sighing she moved away from the kitchen and went into the drawing room. She mechanically moved towards the small oak desk by the open window, a small summer breeze stirred the parchment on the writing table causing some to lazily drift to the floor.
She picked up one piece that had landed by her feet and read the contents, smiling inwardly. It was an invitation to Wendy's, Harry's daughter, birthday party that Saturday.
She was turning four and was so proud to add another finger to her age. Hermione, Harry's wife, was pregnant with twin boys and needed all the help she could get, so Ginny had agreed to oversee all festivity preparations along with Harry.
"I'm done, mummy. What's for dinner?" Ginny couldn't hold back her giggles this time as she looked at Felix's mercury pools emanating careful curiosity. He had chocolate splattered all down his green jumper and little black blotches on his face where the exploding snap cards much have discharged on him.
"How 'bout we go out to eat? How does the Dancing Werewolf sound?" She took his whoop of joy as an agreement.
The Dancing Werewolf was an inn like the Leaky Cauldron, but newer and just down the street from their flat. As they entered they were met with a rush of sound: music, laughter and the chattering of people as they enjoyed each other's company.
Felix pulled her anxiously towards an empty table- well; more like a round slab of wood cut roughly from a tree- and sat on one of the rickety stools. Ginny sat and listened to Felix as he enthusiastically told about a dream he had the previous night.
"…and your ugly! I said to the vampire 'cause I wasn't scared like he thought I was and then I pulled out my sword and hacked him to pieces, I used a sword cause I'm not old enough to use magic! But then, the floor collapsed and I fell into the ocean and there were mermaids and I turned into one swam with dolphins and fishies, but then a shark came and I beat him up too! And…and it was so cool." He finally took a breath and gave Ginny an elated smile, "Is Hogwarts like that, mummy?"
"Better because there you learn how to use magic, my pretty!" She said in a cackling voice waggling her fingers and scrunching her nose like the witch she saw in that one Muggle movie, The Wizard of- something. Felix broke into gales of laughter as she ticked his sides and wheezed out, "You're so weird!"
Finally their food came and Felix proclaimed loudly in a broken Transylvanian accent, "Where is my blooood, I asked for blooood." This earned a scolding, but amused look from Ginny and a blank stare from their server.
"A negative or O positive?" She asked in a slightly nasally voice and Felix burst into more laughter.
"I was kidding!" He said between thumps of his hand on the table. The server just shook her head and walked off mumbling something that sounded like "undisciplined" and "brat." It was all Ginny could do to not whip out her wand and hex the brunette into oblivion.
"Felix Marcellus, you know better than that." He quieted enough to eat his dinner, but ten minutes later he leaned over the table and whispered, "That man over there has been staring at us for like and hour and its kind of creepy, Mummy."
Ginny slowly, and what she thought as slyly, turned around to catch a glimpse of this mystery observer. He was in a far corner, shrouded in darkness from lack of lighting and a hood. The only distinguishing feature she could see was a few strands of long dark hair protruding out from under the hood. Even though she couldn't see his eyes, she could feel then boring into her making her stomach clench.
"Felix, love, why don't you go to the play room while Mummy goes any talks to the nice man." Felix nodded his compliance and bounced away. Ginny stood and straightened out her robes flicking away imaginary lint and calmly strode over to the hooded man.
She towered over his sitting form and spoke in a low threatening voice.
"I don't know who you are or why you're staring at us but I would warn you now to leave us alone and never show your hooded face around my family again." She thought the man might look up at her or at least get up and leave spluttering apologies, but what she didn't expect was for the man to chuckle softly and pull back his hood.
"Ginny Weasely, I've been looking for you for quite some time. Still got that spit fire personality I see." He looked up at her and she saw his sapphire eyes and black long hair as he pulled off his hood in one sweeping movement.
"Blaise Zabini?" Try as she might she couldn't stop the surprise from being evident in her voice and on her face. "I haven't seen you in nearly seven years, why are you here." She said icily.
"Please, have a seat. I would like to speak to you without drawing unwanted attention." He gestured to the empty seat adjacent to him and frowned in thought as she sat stonily.
"I am not going to harm you so don't look so guarded. You know me, Gin and you know I could never hurt you." She shot him a look that could have curdled milk. Why was he here now? He hadn't been there seven years ago, when she needed him most and now, when things were starting to go well, he shows up, bringing back a part of her life that she had buried long ago. He hadn't answered her question and if it had been anyone but Blaise she would have been suspicious. The raven-haired Slytherin had a knack for avoiding questions and topics he didn't want to discuss and due to his reputation not many pressed it. But she could care less about his sodding reputation.
"Why are you here." She said, determined to get an answer. He finally met her eyes and what she saw shocked her. His once mischievous and sultry eyes were now lined with worry and fatigue, in one moment they looked lost and cornered the next cold and reclusive, so much like Draco's had been.
"It's been so long, Gin," his voice almost cracked before he cleared it reaching for her hand across the table, "I have so much to say and I fear I don't have much time." He glared at the occupants of the nearby tables as if daring them to eavesdrop. His hand finally met hers and she recoiled from his arctic touch. She felt all the resentment, hurt and longing she felt towards Draco begin to bubble and boil to the surface. All the times she had cursed him for leaving, all the times she had cried herself to sleep wishing in vain that she would awake from this nightmare to find him sleeping next to her, all came spilling out onto Blaise.
"You don't have much time? It's been almost nine bloody years and you don't have the time? May I remind you that you're the one who sought me out so that means I get the privilege of deciding how much time we have." She dug her nail into the soft skin of her palm and felt blood, "Where were you when I needed you most? Where was Draco? Friends don't leave friends in their most dire times of need. I was pregnant- pregnant- and the moment I told you, you disappeared. I know why he left, but as far as I'm concerned you died the day you walked away."
As she progressed through her tirade, a speech that expressed feelings that had lane dormant for nine years, Blaise's face remained neutral with his mouth hanging slightly open and his eyes flashing regret.
"Gin I-I didn't mean- I'm so sorry." He looked down, examining the pattern the wood made in the table. "Please, hear what I have to say. Can't we just get past this and be friends again?" His eyes were so pleading that Ginny almost sighed in resignation. She wanted to pound her fists into his chest, slap the indifference off his face ask him why he had left, why Draco left. Instead she stared at him, mercilessly willing herself to stay calm and not to scream, cry and hit him.
"Friends?" She spat, "What would you know about being friends. You have one minute to talk. Go." She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back waiting skeptically. He took a deep breath and then spoke five fatal words.
"I know where Draco is."
"Mummy? Wake up." Ginny drifted through the darkness to the ray of light that was Felix's voice.
"Mmm, what happened?" She was lying on her side and in order to sit up she had to roll over on her back, causing a sharp stab of pain to be sent through her scalp where she had hit her head on the ground. She was lying on the butterbeer-coated floor of the Dancing Werewolf, robes tangles around her legs and Blaise kneeling beside her.
"You fainted." Blaise said close to her ear as he helped her shakily to her feet. How did I end up here? Then his voice echoed though her head.
I know where Draco is…Where Draco is…
Draco…
She shook off Blaise's helping hand and turned to face him abruptly, making her head spin, she felt his hand steadying her, but before she could shake him off again or say anything he thrust something into her hand and whispered "Noon, tomorrow." Then he turned on his heals and was gone.
"Mummy," she felt a tugging at her shirt, "Who was that man?" Ginny looked down at her son and smiled.
"That was one of my old friends from school, that's all. Do you want some dessert?" Felix nodded vigorously and grabbed Ginny's hand, pulling her toward the small ice cream bar in the back of the inn.
"Two strawberry ice creams, please." Felix's head didn't quite reach the counter and he had to stand on his tiptoes to see the clerk. "And make it snappy!" He said, trying to sound authoritative.
"Felix, mind your manners." Ginny said absently. She opened her hand revealing what Blaise had left inside it and found a white business card. It had one line of writing printed on it in loopy metallic blue text.
538 N. 2nd StreetShe frowned. Should she go? Part of her thought she should stand him up just out of spite, but that part was strongly overpowered by her curiosity and hope that maybe Draco had finally been found.
Felix handed her a melting cone of pink ice cream while he was already licking furiously at his own.
Some how she made it home without falling over. The pain in the back of her head was almost alarming. She went into her room and took her wand out of her pocket to inspect the wound. It turned out to be a small cut that only needed a minor charm and some Tylenol.
Felix stayed true to his word and didn't fuss while she gave him a bath and put him to bed, all the while chattering about vampires, the mysterious man and Wendy's party the following week.
"Little luck?" She said as she tucked him in with his stuffed lion, Shaggy.
"Hmm?" He muttered sleepily.
"How would you like to go to Uncle Ron's tomorrow?"
"Mm'k" Was the only response she got as he rolled over and squeezed Shaggy. She closed the door with a soft click and walked lightly into the drawing room, kneeling in front of the fireplace. Taking a small handful of floo powder she flung it into the dying flames.
"The Burrow." She said as the flames turned green and stuck her head in.
"Ron?" She called into the empty sitting room. "Ron!" She heard footfalls from the kitchen, a loud bang, swearing then finally her brother's face appeared before the fire, rubbing his nose.
"Lousy owl." He muttered, and then finally noticing her said, "Gin? What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Ron. Can't I floo my brother without it being an emergency?" She asked innocently.
"Yea, you could, but you haven't yet. So what do ya need?" He said checking his hand for blood.
"What happened? Run into the doorframe? I'm telling you, if you grow any more you won't fit into the house."
"Har, har, very funny. No I did not run into the doorframe, Pig just got excited hearing your voice and ran into my face. No depth perception that bird. And you're avoiding the question, I swear if you weren't my sister I'd think you were a Slytherin, the way you do that." Ginny rolled her eyes and plunged on.
"I was just wondering if Felix could visit his favorite uncle tomorrow. That's all."
"Oh, now I'm his favorite, huh? When did this happen? When Harry said he couldn't watch him?" He said scornfully.
"Oh, Ron. When are you going to forgive Harry? It's been almost five years."
"I'll forgive him when I get to steal his girlfriend and get her pregnant." Ginny was silent for a moment while Ron stared at the ground clenching his jaw. "Yea, I'll watch Felix while you go do whatever you do."
"Thanks Ron. And you were the first person I asked to watch him, promise. Good night." She pulled her head out of the flames and sat back on her heals. Poor Ron, she thought for the millionth time. But she shouldn't be the one talking to him about forgiveness when she herself still hadn't forgiven Draco.
Draco.
Did Blaise really know where he was? Did Ginny really want to know? What would she do when she found him, if she found him?
I'll deal with it tomorrow, she said and forced herself to go to bed.
Staring up at an abandoned warehouse in the worst part of town she felt he stomach start to clench up again. Taking another deep breath she pushed open the rusty door and walked into a dark room that smelled like rancid fish. Gagging she put a gloved hand to her mouth and pulled her wand out with the other.
"Lumos." She said, the words slightly muffled in her black leather gloves. The light bounced off the metal walls showing a figure cloaked in blue off in the right corner. He took his hood off just enough for her to know it was Blaise. He gestured for her to follow then turned and vanished through a wall. Running to catch up she reached the corner to find a hidden stairway going downwards. She descended after Blaise.
The walls were close and the stairs were narrow, but finally they reached a gleaming iron door with no knob. Blaise stood before it, waiting for her. When he saw her he put his hand on the door and it vanished revealing a large room. Entering the room she noticed immediately that the fishy smell was gone and the walls were stone, not rust covered metal. Upon closer inspection, she noticed a desk covered in parchment, small sconces that lit the room, a lumpy red chair in front of the desk and a latter back one behind, a file cabinet and an owl.
"Your office? Interesting location, pick it yourself?" He didn't answer, just took off his cloak and tossed it on the back of the wooden chair behind the desk then sat. He gestured for her to sit also. "Can't speak either? What a pity."
"You know why Draco left." He said bluntly. Taken slightly aback she just stared for a moment.
"Yes, he told me why he thought he should leave. But I never agreed with him. You know that. That's one reason I came to you, to convince him to stay and fight."
"If he stayed the Deatheathers would have killed him, you and your unborn child." She shook her head. She didn't want to have this argument again.
"You said you knew where he was." Blaise shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, more or less. You see, I have been trying track him down for the last nine years and I finally have a lead that might mean something. I thought you should be the first to know." Ginny felt her heart sink to her toes.
A lead, not a definite answer.
"I, uh, appreciate it. Thanks." She said weakly. "But why all the secrecy?"
"People out there still want him dead, I couldn't take any chance. Do you want to know the lead? It's a good one; actually it's the best I've ever had. I would call it something more than a lead though, that's why I told you I knew where he was." She nodded, afraid if she spoke her voice would break. He took out a worn folder from beneath a pile of parchment and pulled out a picture. He handed it to her.
It was of a man in a tattered dark blue cap with a large brim in the front and some kind of white "NY" logo. He had black matted hair, dark skin and a nose that looked as if it had been broken a few times and never properly fixed. He was buying a hot dog from a roadside vendor. In the picture he was handing the vendor money with one hand and taking a hot dog with the other then walking away.
"So what?" She asked uninterestedly.
"Look at his middle finger of the hand giving the guy the money." Blaise said with a small smile. Ginny looked closer and let out a small gasp. On the middle finger of the hand giving the guy money was undeniably the Malfoy signet ring. This was big. If it was any other ring it wouldn't have mattered, but the Malfoy ring could only be removed willingly by the person wearing it and Draco would rather be Avada Kedavra'd than take that ring off. Even if the person died, the ring still couldn't be taken off. This person had to be Draco.
"Where was this picture taken?" She said looking up. He shifted again, looking even more uncomfortable.
"Well, you see…I, uh…don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" She yelled angrily.
"The guy who took the picture was killed right after he owled this to me. I don't know where this picture was taken. But there are a few clues. In the other pictures he sent, there are landmarks, things that might tell us where he is. Here, look. Maybe you'll know." Ginny took the rest of the folder and set it in her lap.
"Can I take these home to look at?" Blaise nodded.
"Just disguise them, alright? Don't want any unnecessary attention." His eyes darted about warily.
"I will, thank you again." She stood and made for the door.
"Hey Ginny," She turned, "It was nice seeing you again." He stood and walked over to her and gave her a small hug. "Here is my address, in case you want to talk or something." He handed he another business card.
"You live in muggle London?" She asked reading the card.
"Low profile, you know?" She nodded, gave him a small smile and left.