AN: For the Doctor Who Appreciation Category Competition (Wilf: write about grandparents)
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"The marks humans leave are too often scars."
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"Lucius? Don't you want to see him?" Narcissa asks, holding the sleeping, still pink child in her arms.
Lucius hesitates. It's been so long since he's held a baby. Not since Draco, and he'd been so inexperienced and afraid that he'd nearly dropped his own son. He had tried not to touch such fragile things since.
But Narcissa sets the boy- "Scorpius," she tells him.- in her husband's arms before he can refuse. "Shouldn't Draco be doing this?" he asks, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. "It's his son."
"And your grandson," she reminds him stiffly. "Draco is with Astoria. They're both exhausted and need their rest."
Lucius tries to return the child to his wife, but Narcissa has already slipped out of the room. He sighs, left with little choice.
Scorpius squirms in his arms, and Lucius carefully adjusts his hold. "Careful," he whispers, rocking him gently in his arms.
So young, so small, so frail. Draco had once been the same. Lucius had distanced himself from his son for fear of hurting him. Ironic that Draco still ended up scarred and broken after trying to follow in Lucius' footsteps. In the end, Lucius had still left his mark without even laying a finger on the boy.
Scorpius whines, squirming again. Lucius makes shushing sounds, smiling sadly. "There, there," he soothes. "I ruined my son, but he won't do that to you. He's good. So much like his mother."
Lucius had failed Draco, in the end. But now he makes a promise to himself not to leave another life scarred. And as Scorpius falls silent, drifting once more into the world of dreams, Lucius thinks that maybe he can keep his promise.