"Savage," Lucius Malfoy drawled at the Auror standing in his parlor, arms folded. "We weren't expecting an inspection. I'll have one of the house elves bring down Draco."
"No, it's not an inspection." The man held his hand up. "It's a Family Notification."
"What are you talking about?" Lucius frowned. "All of my family that survived the war is here, under house arrest."
An odd look crossed the Auror's face. "Maybe not. You see, we have quite a number of people who were injured at the final battle who have been treated at St Mungos over the past several days. One of them is Luna Lovegood."
Lucius snorted inelegantly. "Her father and I may be fourth cousins twice removed, but I hardly think the matter warrants sending an Auror here to notify me. Especially since his grandfather was disowned."
Savage continued, ignoring him. "She sustained relatively minor injuries in the battle, but they've kept her in the hospital for an extra few days for observation. She was found to be ... in the family way. About two months along. She has named your son as the father of her ..."
"If you're here to accuse my son of assaulting the girl ... " Lucius stepped forward threateningly.
"No, no." Savage shook his head. "Miss Lovegood states that their, um ... relations, were consensual. The problem is that her father has been admitted to the psychiatric ward at St Mungos, and the girl has no other relatives. She is just turned seventeen years old, so she is of legal age, but has no place to go, very limited funds, and in her condition ... we had hoped ... "
"That we might take her in and provide for her and the child." Narcissa finished, stepping up beside her husband.
The Auror shrugged and nodded.
"Indeed we shall." Narcissa offered. "We will not have our grandchild homeless and penniless."
Savage seemed to visibly relax. "She's being released from St Mungo's this afternoon. I will bring her around. It would probably be, say around four?"
"That would be fine." Narcissa nodded. "It should give us enough time to have a room arranged for her."
"Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy." Savage smiled, turning toward the floo. "I'm sure that Miss Lovegood will appreciate this."
Lucius waited until the green flames subsided, then kicked the nearest chair violently.
"He has been raised to control his base urges." He fumed. "And what does your son do? Allegedly impregnated a half mad blood traitor. He had better hope this is not true."
Narcissa smiled deviously. "If it is true, his base urges may have just saved him from Azkaban."
Lucius looked at her in disbelief. "And how would you arrive at that conclusion?"
"People love a good love story." She smirked. "Tristan and Isolde. Layla and Manjun. Paris and Helen, if you will. Star-crossed lovers, on opposite sides of the war. Now expecting a baby. There will be so much public sympathy the Ministry wouldn't dare send him to prison."
Lucius snorted inelegantly. "We don't know for certain he is the father of the child. We had Death Eaters in and out of this house daily for months. Any one of them … "
"No, if she's two months along, it's Draco's child." Narcissa shook her head confidently. "I charmed the door to the cellar. I didn't want a steady stream of perverse reprobates in and out of there. The only males who would not have suddenly remembered they had something else to do would have been the Dark Lord, Draco, and Wormtail, the last two only because they took food to the prisoners."
"That still leaves Pettigrew." Lucius argued.
Narcissa gave him a withering look. "The girl had nothing to worry about from Pettigrew."
"How do you know?" Lucius persisted.
"Didn't you ever know why he betrayed the Potters?" she rolled her eyes. "Jealousy over Lily. He was in love with James. He would see James dead rather than with someone else."
"Oh." Lucius' eyes widened.
"Dimpy." She called one of the house elves. "Please ask Draco to come down."
Their son made his way to the parlor, where he obediently seated himself facing his parents, even if his eyes were filled with hostility and defiance. He looked to his father as if expecting a lecture.
He visibly started, just barely, when his mother spoke instead. "We've just had a visitor from the Auror office. As a result of the conversation we had with him, we will be having a houseguest arriving later."
"We're to babysit homeless war heroes now?" Draco huffed.
"Miss Lovegood will be here this afternoon." Narcissa watched her son like a hawk. "She is expecting, and states that you are the father of her child." she continued. "Is that true, Draco?"
He didn't meet his parents' eyes. "It could be." He murmured softly.
"You're going to marry this girl." His mother continued. "You're going to convince the wizarding world that you're head over heels in love with her and thrilled beyond words that she is presenting you with an heir."
Draco openly gaped at her before turning to his father. "You can't let this happen. I'm too young to get married."
Lucius looked at him scornfully. "You were old enough to stick your rod between some little bint's legs. You're old enough to accept responsibility for your actions."
"I thought I had an arranged marriage." Draco said with a hint of panic in his voice.
"Robert Greengrass has requested to break the contract based on the fact you are currently pending trial before the Wizengamot." Lucius frowned at his son. "Criminal activity is an acceptable reason for breaking a marriage contract. Of course, so is producing an illegitimate child with another person."
"Draco, you must understand how important this is!" His mother's sharp tone drew his attention back to her. "This is your best chance for avoiding prison!"
"What are you on about?" he raised one eyebrow, clearly not understanding.
"Young love!" she flung her hands wide. "You convince the wizarding world that the two of you are madly in love but were kept apart by the war. That all you want in the world is to live happily ever after with Luna Lovegood and your baby. All of the little old women who read the romance serials in Witch Weekly will champion you! If we work this properly, there will be so much public sympathy that the Wizengamot wouldn't dare send you to Azkaban."
"I'm not in love with the girl and I have no wish to spend the rest of the week with her, much less the rest of my life." Draco grumbled.
"How many times have I told you that the truth is not as important as what others perceive as the truth?" Lucius' appeared dangerously close to losing his patience. "What you really think and feel doesn't matter. You have to convince the outside world that you are in love with her so they will sympathize with you."
"Draco, darling," his mother laid a cold hand on his cheek. "We're talking about keeping you out of Azkaban. Azkaban is full of Death Eaters who would kill you for what they see as our family's failing the Dark Lord. If you are lucky, they will kill you quickly. If not, you can't imagine the horrible things they will do to you first. If by some chance you survive the Death Eaters, then you have to contend with the Dementors. Draco, you can't go to prison."
His eyes widened as he obviously considered some of the possible tortures that could await him. "What do I do?" he asked softly.
"Marry this girl." Narcissa urged. "Make the world believe you are madly in love with her."
"No, I mean about Luna." he shook his head.
"You don't have to convince her you love her." a hint of a smile played around Narcissa's lips. "Not yet, at least. Convince her that you are her friend. That you want to be with her and raise your child together. Make her want to keep you out of prison so she will go along with the story." She smoothed his hair as she used to do when he was a child, only now she had to reach up to do so. "You can do this. Just turn on the Malfoy charm."
Draco was waiting when the Auror arrived with Luna that afternoon. He stepped forward as they came through the floo. He took Luna's hand and kissed her cheek.
"I'm glad you're all right." he murmured, looking into her eyes. He then turned and shook the Auror's hand. "Thank you sir, for escorting her here safely."
"My pleasure." The Auror handed Luna's trunk to the house elf who stood by, and turned to Luna. "All set, Miss Lovegood?"
Luna curiously looked down to where Draco had taken her hand again before smiling at Savage. "Yes, very well. Thank you again."
The Auror nodded and stepped into the floo as Draco led Luna to sit with him on the loveseat. He snapped his fingers and asked a house elf to bring tea.
"Are you feeling well, Draco?" she wrinkled her brow. "Are there wrackspurts here?" She looked around the room. "I believe my spectrespecs are in my trunk."
He smiled at her. "I am fine. I don't believe there are any wrackspurts here, but if you find any evidence of them, let me know and we'll have them removed."
She tilted her head. "Does that mean you believe in wrackspurts now? Because you didn't when I lived in the cellar earlier this year."
"My beliefs about a lot of things have changed over the past few months." He dismissed the elf who had returned with a tray and poured tea for both of them.
"What else?" she regarded him with open curiosity.
"The night in the cellar, when we ... " he trailed off, flushing slightly, gesturing between the two of them. She nodded and he continued. "You said you would be my best friend. Is that offer still on the table?"
She narrowed her eyes before withdrawing her wand from her sleeve. "Finite!" she cried, pointing it at him.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Making sure that you were really Draco Malfoy and not someone else in disguise or under the influence of some spell or potion." She answered, seeming confused.
"I am really Draco Malfoy, and I promise you that I am not under any undue influences." he smiled.
"I really don't know what's happened to you." she scooted back away from him slightly. "I rather feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole."
"What are you talking about a rabbit hole?" It was his turn to be confused.
"Have you ever read Alice in Wonderland? You really should, it's a lovely story. Charles Dodgson wrote it, under the name of Lewis Carroll. He was a Ravenclaw, you know. He was some relation to Elphias Doge, Professor Dumbledore's friend. They changed their family name after some sort of scandal." she informed him and then took a sip of her tea.
"Well, I haven't read it yet, so you'll have to tell me what a rabbit hole has to do with anything." Draco said, smiling again.
"See, here we are again." she tilted her head once more. "Curiouser and curiouser. That was a line from the book. I don't think I've ever seen you smile so much, and particularly not directed at me. You see, Alice falls down a rabbit hole, and meets all sorts of fantastic creatures, such as a rabbit in a waistcoat with a pocket watch, a disappearing cat, a ... "
"Crumple horned snorkack?" Draco offered.
"No, but that would certainly have been interesting." she agreed. "A caterpillar who smoked, a talking lizard, and a queen who is actually a playing card who paints white roses red."
"That's not curious, that's mad." he looked at her a bit uncertainly.
"I do believe the author had a horrible infestation of wrackspurts." she shrugged. "Or maybe he was just on drugs."
Draco laughed. "I think I might be more inclined to believe the second one."
"You haven't answered me, Draco." She took another sip of tea and looked at him expectantly.
"I didn't realize there was a question." He looked up, as in thought. "I do believe I was rather distracted by rabbits in waistcoats and smoking caterpillars."
"Why are you acting like this?" she asked softly.
He reached over and took her hand again. "I need a friend, Luna. I don't believe I've ever had a true friend, just hangers on who wanted to attach themselves to the Malfoy name or money. Or Death Eaters, who really weren't anyone's friends. You're about the only person I know who will still speak to me."
"That's very sad, Draco." she looked concerned for him and squeezed his hand.
He looked down at their linked hands. "And then I found out today that we're having a child."
"Would you like to see him?" she reached into her bag without waiting for his answer and withdrew a photograph.
At least, Draco supposed it was some sort of photograph. The image was grainy, light grey around the edges, with a dark irregular round shape in the middle. In the dark shape was another lighter shape, which looked like a sprouting bean with arms and legs.
"That's what it looks like?" he frowned at the paper, trying to remember what he had learned in the Human Development two week course that all Hogwarts first years had been required to take.
Of course, he had been eleven years old, and far more interested in the drawings of female anatomy that what goes on with a developing baby.
"Him?" he asked, his mind catching up with what she had said.
"It's too early to tell for certain, but the healer said from the way I'm carrying, his heart rate, things like that, she believes it's a boy." She smiled.
"A son." Draco said. He glanced at her stomach. "How big is he?"
"About the size of from the knuckle to the end of your thumb. He's still quite tiny yet." She looked at him uncertainly. "I really didn't think you'd be pleased about this."
He sighed. "There's a good possibility I'm going to Azkaban for the things I did during the war. This may be the only chance I have to have a child."
"Oh." Her eyes and mouth were both round. "I suppose that makes a difference."
He sighed and reached for her hand again. "I didn't mean it that way. He's my child, my son, and family is very important to me. Hopefully I won't go to prison, but if I do, I want to be with him for whatever time I can. And I'd like to think I had my son and his mother waiting for me."
He looked up at her from his bent head, giving her the look that made Slytherin girls fight over who got to do his homework.
"I want my child to have his father." Luna answered, barely above a whisper.
"Then marry me, and let's give him a family." Draco offered.
"All right." Luna agreed.
Draco smiled and kissed her cheek again, suppressing the urge to shout.
Step One of the plan complete.
A/N - Okay, so here's chapter one of the sequel due to popular demand. I'm just warning you now, I'm moving this weekend, and have no idea when I may get the second chapter up.