Author's Note: Hello fellow readers and fans of Harry Potter. This story takes place three weeks after The Battle of Hogwarts (excluding the prologue), is epilogue compliant, and is 98% based solely on the Malfoy family. The rating is Teen for swearing, violent and suggestive scenes, and minor gore. This will be a slow-ish moving fic as to give it a semi-realistic feeling and keep the plot from feeling rushed. I also will be updating slowly, sorry! Check back on Wednesdays and Saturdays for new chapters. For more information regarding The Malfoy Secret, please refer to my profile for exclusive original character, original spells, and original potions information mentioned in this fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own the World of Harry Potter. I thank J.K. Rowling for creating such a wonderful Magical World, and for allowing us to use our imaginations to write fanfiction using her creation as a base.

Special Thanks: I'd like to thank StoryWriter831 and MirandNack for being my betas. Without their advice, support, and assistance, I wouldn't be sharing this story today. Also, a special shout out to Expedite and my mom, who have also helped me out in the beginning stages of writing this story.


Prologue

Evening of February 18th, 1987

Malfoy Manor was shroud in the cold winter shadows of nightfall. The only light that flickered within the manors walls were dying flames that faintly licked at charred and crumbling wood in the fireplace of the drawing room. Narcissa Malfoy was curled up under a cashmere afghan on a cream colored overstuffed sofa, a book lazily grasped in one hand. Her head rested on a large caramel throw pillow propped against the sofas arm with closed eyes, feet tucked under her to keep them warm. The quiet evening was a rare gift in the manor the last couple months, but all too soon a faint cry could be heard from afar, echoing within the corridors.

Narcissa's motherly ears were attuned to the soft cries, even while slumbering. She jerked awake immediately, dropping the forgotten book. Listening to the silence for a moment, knowing that she indeed heard crying, but when nothing came she began to wonder if it was all in her head. Several quiet minutes went by, the fire beside her were now red embers. Faint cries were once more, prompting her to abandon the room; she found herself just outside of Lucius' study moments later. Instead of knocking as she knew she was expected to do, she let herself in with no warning; leaving the door ajar, which had never happened before that night.

Lucius Malfoy was sitting by a much livelier fire than the one she left behind, reading his own book while sipping a small glass of red wine. He lowered his reading material to look to his wife as she approached. Observing her body language, he knew what she was going to inquire long before she spoke, yet he kept his impassive mask on. He stole a sip of his wine before placing it on the side table along with his book. This was all done in silence, looking away from Narcissa only briefly to complete the task; waiting for what he knew was coming.

"I... I can hear him crying again," she half whispered, scared that if she dared speak any louder it would come out as a sob instead.

The witch's whole body mimicked her upset, sad-filled eyes. Lucius said nothing and quickly looked away to instead stare at the fire, knowing what was going to be asked next. Narcissa rested a hand on the arm of the chair and blinked back several forming tears.

"Please, Lucius, please do this... if not for him, than for me. It is killing me knowing he is suffering and… and I feel..."

She was not able to admit she felt helpless to her own child; the mother was supposed to protect her children from being scared and in pain, it deeply hurt she was failing at both. The wizard closed his eyes at this, the agony-laced words that came from his wife struck a knife right through him, as it had done the last four times she had asked and was denied by him. He swallowed down the lump forming in his throat, trying to find lost words.

"Try a for–"

"You and I know it won't work!" she snapped at him before he could bother finishing his statement, venom filling each word. "The amount required to drink in order to help with something of this magnitude will be toxic to a boy his age, you know this! It. Won't. Work!"

He could not find the courage to look at her, he knew they'd exhausted all their other options to help their son, but he did not want to resort to this. Tears fell freely from Narcissa now; she used the wing-back chair he sat in to lean on to keep her upright. The feeling of helplessness ripped through her over and over whenever she heard Draco Malfoy's cries throughout the night, every night for months, knowing that her comforting coos and soothing songs no longer helped her little boy sleep, no longer helped battle his night terrors and horrible dreams. It was slowly destroying her, knowing she was failing him as a mother.

"It's been almost three months. Three months since the accident, Lucius. He's still suffering. I've tried everything..." she trailed off, not knowing what else to say to convince her husband to oblige to her pleading request.

Letting out a sigh, Lucius cautiously rose from his chair and pulled Narcissa in a tight embrace. Her tears quickly soaked his white dress shirt as she buried her face into his chest, letting out a hard sob she had contained well until now. Kissing her temple, he gently stroked her hair in silence, pondering on what he should say and do as she cried freely and quietly.

"He's just a baby... and he's hurting... suffering... my fault..." Narcissa mumbled, most of her words nearly impossible to comprehend. He strained his ears to try and hear their son's cries, yet was unable to over his wife's own quiet sobs.

"Okay..." Lucius found himself finally saying just above a whisper in her ear.

Narcissa frame stiffened at the single word, trying to decide if she heard him right. After a moment she pulled her face away from his chest and looked up at him; her red-rimmed, blue eyes searched his molten, grey ones for reassurance. He cupped her face in his hands and used his thumbs to wipe away the tears, holding her gaze as he did so.

"I'll do it..." he said again, assuring her he meant what he had said.

Fresh tears sprang from his wife's eyes but she blinked them back as he lightly kissed her forehead while slipping her hand into his. She squeezed her husband's hand tightly while he collected his cane that rested next to his chair before leading her to their son's room with nothing more being said. The crying was barely audible in the corridor as they climbed the stairs leading to his room, but to Narcissa it was like a banshee's scream. Her baby needed her and she has left him alone too many times recently for him to just cry himself to sleep, it filled her with a heavy guilt.

Releasing Lucius' hand as they entered his room, she rushed over to pull Draco into her arms. Lucius went stock still in the doorway, staring at nothing, as he wrapped his head around what he was about to do.

"Shh, sweetie. Shh," she cooed, rocking her son gently after he climbed into her lap.

Stroking his blond hair gently, she gently kissed the boy's forehead before muttering quiet comforts and hushing his cries until his tears started to cease and his sobs were less frequent. Lucius could faintly hear his son's whispers to his mother. They were apologies, said in various ways; with a few "It was my fault" and "I didn't mean to" sprinkled among them. He recalled the first time he and Naricssa realized the accident had affected him far worse than they anticipated; he awoke screaming a scream that could wake the dead not even two days after the incident.

He was harsh with his wife then. When she first asked him to help Draco forget, he answered with the detached, impassive Malfoy attitude; at the time he'd assumed Draco would learn to forget on his own.

His own words echoed through his mind.

"He will learn how to cope with it eventually, in his own way."

"He will get over it soon enough. You can't always take away his pain and mollycoddle him when bad things happen."

"He needs to learn how to handle it on his own."

"He will stop this nonsense when he realizes what happened was done to nobody of importance to us or him."

Lucius also recalled the harsh slap from Narcissa that followed the last statement. She was in denial over the whole situation and still was even now, he knew; she'd just learned to hide it from everyone. The witch still hoped she would get the letter that would make everything okay so the past could be swept under the rug and never speak of it again.

The Malfoys were always skilled at this sort of thing; she just needed a little more time to realize that the letter was never going to come. He, however, handled it much differently by simply pretending the accident never happened to begin with, or that it simply happened to someone he would never be caught speaking to. It wasn't far off from the truth.

Letting out a soft sigh, he forced himself to step forward, hearing Narcissa's quiet words of comfort to their son as he approached them.

"Your mother and father are going to help you, sweetie. You won't have any more bad dreams about it ever again." she whispered to Draco.

The boy turned to look at his father with a tear stained face. His stifled sob stopped Lucius dead in his tracks only feet away.

"You have to trust your father okay, Draco? He's going to make it all go away," Narcissa continued in a reassuring tone before looking to Lucius with pleading eyes, silently telling him to do it.

Draco stared back at her; his hand grasped stiffly on the top his cane where he hid his wand. His head lowered a tad, sending a look asking her if she really wanted him to do this. They both were aware of the possible risks the spell could entail, yet he knew she was desperate to help their son; she just wanted to protect him from the night terrors and pain.

She gave a slight nod and he gripped his cane tighter, twisting the snake head to slide his wand out from its resting place. Lucius watched Draco's body go rigid at this and turned away, but Narcissa's whispered reassurances had him look back at his father. Although the boy attempted to show he was now calm, his eyes were etched with fear. Narcissa moved Draco to sit on the bed before moving away, only holding his hand that she squeezed to provide comfort. Raising his wand, Lucius closed his eyes to concentrate hard at what he was doing and nothing more, letting himself relax. He opened his eyes and looked down the length of his wand now pointed at his son and saying in just above a whisper,

"Obliviate..."