Draco Malfoy did not envision that his Saturday afternoon would be spent mourning the loss of his first born child. He was planning to spend a quiet evening at home with his wife and said child. Or rather he was going to try really hard to have a quiet evening at home and the aforementioned witches were going to make it impossible for him to so much as breath quietly. But these plans of his had all gone down the metaphorical toilet when Hermione had gotten one of her brilliant ideas, to take their child to experience yet another Muggle childhood classic, a ball pit.
He personally found the activity unnecessary but being outnumbered two to one, there he was sitting by the muggle contraption and observing various small children play amongst the many hollow orbs of plastic. Everything had been going according to plan, him and Hermione had sat with the parents and they had consumed the rubbery and mildly greasy food that one could find in such an establishment as the one they found themselves in now. Anya seemed to be enjoying herself amongst the other children and despite his initial reluctance to go on this outing, he was on the border of enjoyment upon seeing his daughter's smile.
Everything was going fine until Hermione decided to go to the restroom.
"I'm going to the loo" she said as she got up. Draco looked at her with mild panic in his eyes.
"Surely you don't intend to leave me here…"
"It's not as though you can come with me." she said "I highly doubt you are going to find your demise within the five minutes of my absence…" with a roll of her eyes she walked away.
Draco glared at her as she disappeared into the women's restroom. He turned back to the ball pit and looked for the telling blonde mane that constituted his child's hair and that is where the nightmare began. His child was gone, not a trace of her remained in the colorful pit. Draco felt his pulse quicken and he narrowed his analysing the situation. There was no possible way for her to be gone, he was sitting right by the only path of entry. Despite this she had completely disappeared, he couldn't hear her laughter and none of the children were saying her name.
Maybe it was a conspiracy, maybe they had all plotted against his daughter. He started glaring at what he now considered the enemy, the evil minions that had attacked his child. It wouldn't be a far fetched idea, after all Malfoy's inspired jealousy wherever they went with their good looks and charming personalities. This was the logic that Draco carried as he scanned the pit one last time before finally resigning himself to his true fate. He had done it, he had actually managed to fuck up the one good thing he had in his life.
His whole life he had been surrounded by darkness, tension and anger surrounding his earliest memories. He had finally managed to break that cycle, he found love and acceptance and he had promised himself he would be a better father than his ever was. Here he found himself however having lost his child at the age of six.
Draco put his head in his hands and willed himself not to cry as that would be unbecoming of someone like him. He couldn't believe he had lost Anya and to the muggle world no less.
"Draco, what on earth are you doing?"he heard Hermione ask from behind him. He looked up to see her face furrowed in confusion
"Wallowing in self-pity and hatred" he deadpanned
"Excuse me?" she replied confusion evident in her voice
"You trusted me and I failed you and I failed Anya and now she is lost in a void of plastic and I am sitting here lamenting my idiocy" he looked towards the pit "If you don't mind I would like to continue reflecting upon the many errors I have committed"
"Malfoy what are you going on about? What did you do this time?" Hermione also looked into the pit
Malfoy opened his mouth and then closed it again when he saw a blonde head pop out at the back corner of the pit. His eyes widened and he sighed with relief.
"Do you plan to explain to me which of your many failures you speak of or shall I start rattling them off until I hit the right one?" he heard his wife say, her tone of curiosity mingled with slight irritation.
"I thought I had misplaced our child but now I see her continuing with her existence and so there is no more failures upon which I shall reflect…"
"Draco Malfoy!" Hermione's eyes widened "Do you mean to tell me that you thought Anya was lost and instead of looking for her or using your wand or yelling her name or doing anything, you sat on your ass and contemplated your failures" she finished with a huff of indignation.
"I…"Draco wished he had a response but he felt like the biggest idiot to grace the planet. How could he have just sat there while his child was missing, what sort of father was he? He put his back on his hands and made a noise that vaguely resembled "kill me"
"If you don't quit your performance of a sulky ten year old child, I just might" he felt her take her seat beside him. He looked up and found her staring at him with a look of condescending irritation. He suddenly felt more annoyed than ashamed.
"Well if you hadn't decided to drag us down to this odd activity of yours, none of these shortcomings of mine would've ever happened"
"I can not believe you are blaming your negligence on my attempts at broadening your horizons"
"Broadening my horizons" Draco's tone pushed on insulted "I would hardly consider this the most culturally enriching experience"
"That might be because you are so closed minded that thoughts have to put in a code before they enter your head" she said "which explains why you have so little of them".
They both continued to bicker until they saw Anya approach them, her eyes shining and her face flushed from the amount of playing she had been doing. She took a seat between them and leaned her head against Hermione.
Hermione stuck her tongue out at her husband and he rolled his eyes but put his arm around the both of them.
Despite the bickering and the scare he had, Draco found that he was more at peace at that moment that he could've possibly had if he had managed his quiet evening at home.