Late Night Conversations
Draco Malfoy sat in his office in front of the fire reading as his wife and twin girls slept. He had been working late and when he got home didn't want to disturb them after getting home. He wasn't tired so he had eaten a light snack, taken a shower in one of the guest rooms, and after donning a pair of sleep pants went to read.
He acted as if he hadn't heard the office door open or the tiny feet that snuck over to him. He continued reading until just before his daughters made it to him he spun around and growled at them sending them in to a fit of giggles.
"Daddy" they attacked him around his neck and waist dragging him to the floor where he wrapped them in his arms kissing their faces.
"What are you two doing out of bed? Your mummy will have a fit." He said as he sat them up holding them in his lap.
"We heard noises." His oldest, Arya declared. She was blessed with curly dark hair like her mother, as well as her desire for knowledge, only her eyes matched his.
"You heard noises and took it upon yourselves to investigate, without Mummy, me, or even Gunny?"
"You weren't home, mummy was asleep and you've told us to never wake her it's all bad, and Gunny said it was just you and to go back to bed." His youngest, Lyra explained. She was all him, from her hair and eyes to her quiet playful cunning nature.
He hugged them closer to him. Next to his wife they were his whole world. He never wanted anyone to hurt them and heaven help them if anyone did. Between him, their mother, and their friends no one would live if they caused these girls harm. The same could be said for any of the daughters in the circle of friends.
"Now that you two terrifying young witches know that it is only me are you ready to go back to bed?" Draco stood taking them by the hands and heading toward his door. Lyra stopped him when she asked for the first ever in their six years, "Daddy, what's that on your arm? It is different then what mummy has."
Arya chimed in, "Mummy's is a bad word she said."
Draco froze. He knew one day they would explain their youth to their daughters he just never expected to be alone when it happened. It had been almost eleven years since the war and their parts ion it.
He took them to their bedroom, climbing the stairs slowly. Placing each one in their own bed and kissing them on their foreheads he took the reading chair that sat between their beds then just sat there. The girls knew to wait for him and not badger him with questions until he was ready to talk.
"The word on mummy's arm is a word we do not use in polite society. It is a bad word. It means that her blood is dirty and not worthy of magic. This is completely wrong. Her blood is the same as yours and mine. Now with that said I am going to tell you two a story, an ugly hateful story, but it is a true story none the less. I warn you now that after this story both of you may be very cross and mad at me. I tell you know that I understand. I also want you both to know that you two and your mummy are the most important people to me in the world and I love all of you so much that I would do anything in my power to make sure all you three ever do is love, laugh, and feel happiness."
He was quiet again before he started, "I was eleven when I met your mummy on the train to Hogwarts. She was helping Uncle Neville find his toad. I thought she was nice to help, but she had really bad hair that went all over the place and these huge buck teeth. When we made it to the castle and sorted she went into a different house…"
"GRYFFINDOR!" they cheered.
"None of that now, I went into Slytherin. We were not friends. I picked on mummy and Uncle Harry, Ron, and Neville. Aunt Pansy, Uncle Blaise, and Theo were good friends. I did have two friends that are both gone now that I hung out with as well. We as a group did our best to make those silly lions' life rubbish. I was jealous of them though. Uncle Ron was funny and made his friends laugh all the time. Mummy bested me in most subjects, not all but most. Then you have Uncle Harry that seemed he could do no wrong, even when he was breaking rules left and right and getting away with it."
The girls both sat up straighter as they listened to their father explain all the mean things he did. "It was second year and your mummy thought your grandfather Lucius paid for me to get on the Quidittch team for my house. It hurt my feelings and that was the first and not the last time I called your mother a Mudblood."
"Daddy you didn't?" Arya asked as tears formed in her eyes.
"I did my little girl and I have to say at that time in life I wasn't sorry for it. I was raised to think I was better than her in all ways. In third year though I was overly mean and mummy slapped me across the face. I still called her a Mudblood, but I don't think I meant as much. I just couldn't let my father or friends know that after she slapped me, I began to look at her differently.
"The next year we hosted the Tri-Wizard Tournament at school and we had our first dance that Yule. I went to the dance with Aunt Pansy and mummy went Viktor Krum."
"She did not!" Lyra exclaimed.
"She did and she was the most beautiful girl of the night there. I couldn't find one thing wrong with her. I had nothing bad to say or to pick on her about. The next year things were different. The Dark Lord had returned at the end of our fourth year. I believed that things were going to be better and that people like your mummy would no longer be around. Muggleborns would know their place next to us Purebloods. She would finally know where she belonged."
"Daddy?"
"Yes, Arya what is it?"
"Did you ever like mummy while in school?"
He shook his head. "No, I really didn't. I really wanted mummy to go away and if that meant her death then that is what it meant. I would be alive and that is all that I cared about. I was rude, selfish, spoiled, and hated anyone not like me. The Dark Lord was living in my home now and I was learning firsthand how to be a Death Eater and before I went back for my sixth year I was given the Dark Mark."
"That's what is on your arm?" They asked together.
He raised his arm and showed them the faded but distinguishing mark. "I didn't know that the magic in it would affect me the way it did. It was like having a dementor with you all the time. I was to do my studies, fix a vanishing cabinet, and kill our headmaster at the time, Albus Dumbledore. It was a task that if I failed to do I would die and Nana Narcissa would die for as well. I couldn't let my mother die."
"Did you hurt people?" Lyra whispered her question.
"I did. I hurt a nice girl named Katie Bell. I hurt Uncle Ron with poison. I hurt students I don't even know about when I let Death Eaters into the school."
Behind them a strong voice from the doorway interrupted, "What he isn't telling you is that Katie was only hurt because she was nosey and looked and touched the gift she was only supposed to deliver to Dumbledore. If she hadn't she would have been fine. Uncle Ron was only poisoned by the mead because Slughorn poured it for him to celebrate getting over a powerful love potion. Those things were out of your father's control. While yes he was the reason for the items he was not the reason for the causes of harm they entailed."
"Mummy he let Death Eaters in the school."
"He did. Now let Daddy finish his story. Let him tell you were he was at that point with how he felt about that decision." She sat on the edge of the bed and reached her hand out to her husband. Draco took Hermione's hand and squeezed it tightly.
"Mummy's right the night I let them in I had already changed my mind about how I was raised to believe. Dumbledore was offering me help, I was lowering my wand I had on him, and then they were beside me. Telling me to finish him off when my Godfather showed up and finished it for me. He took me from the tower at the school and we left. WE went back to the Manor, where I gave the news of Dumbledore's death but I was ruthlessly punished for not having done it myself."
"Girls, Dumbledore had been cursed and was going to die very soon. He had asked Snape to kill him so your father, who he knew was assigned to, wouldn't have to live knowing he killed another person. You need to give them all the facts." She admonished.
"As I was saying, the Voldermort was living in the Manor and still trying to find a way to kill Uncle Harry because Uncle Harry was the only one that could stop his rise to full power. He held prisoners in my home, killed them in front of us at the table, and thought nothing of it. It was horrific. I was sent back to school my last year, but not as a student really, but more of a solider in his army of evil. I was worried when your mummy, Uncle Harry and Ron didn't show up for school that last year. I didn't know what happened to them, except I did know that Uncle harry was still alive. If he wasn't life would be very different."
"Mummy where were you?" Lyra asked.
"I was with Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron figuring out how to get rid of Voldermort. We had to find all these horcruxes that needed to be destroyed. We found one, a locket. We needed the sword of Gryffindor to destroy it. I will tell you the longer versions of this later but know that we found the sword and were able to destroy the locket."
"It was around Easter I think that they were caught by snatchers and brought to the Manor. They wanted me to identify the three of them. While Mummy and Uncle Ron looked like they always do, Uncle Harry was a mess from a stinging jinx Mummy placed on him. I lied and told when I told my Aunt Bella I wasn't sure who they were. She put the boys in the basement and then she hurt your mummy trying to get her to talk about where they had gotten the sword from. Mummy was so brave and strong. She never said anything. My Aunt carved that ugly, nasty, vile word into her arm." Tears were flowing down his face at this point that both girls came over and wrapped their arms around their father. Hermione rubbed his back as he continued.
"They escaped the Manor and then they were at the castle by May. I found Uncle Harry. I wanted my wand back that he had. In another fight that started my friend started a fire, he died in the fire but your mummy, Uncle Harry, and Uncle Ron saved me and my other friend. I couldn't fight for that man any longer or his beliefs that had torn my father apart."
They all sat in silence when he was done speaking. Tears were falling from all their eyes. Lyra sat on his lap while Arya choose her mother. The look he saw in Arya's eyes was one he had never seen her look at him with before. He couldn't tell if it was hate or distrust or something a kin to pity.
"Arya, tell me what you are thinking." Draco spoke quietly.
"You are a bad person."
"Arya, no, Daddy isn't like that anymore. He was young and when you are young you make mistakes and learn from them."
"No, he hated you, was mean to you, he let someone hurt you."
"Arya, listen to me and listen well, yes that was who your father was. It is not who he is now. He went through a lot to become the man he is and people still today will judge him for his past."
"If you hated mummy so much, why are you married to her?" Lyra asked.
Draco smiled at Hermione before saying, "I did hate your mother. Then something really great happened. She and I ended up locked in a lift together at work and we talked. Had a real conversation about school, our past, what we were doing now. I asked her to forgive me, she told me she already had. Then she asked me to dinner and I accepted. She didn't tell me it was at Uncle Harry's house. I picked her up and we landed there and I almost ran."
"He did I had to hold his arm with a threat of being hurt if he apparated and splinched me." Arya laughed slightly at her mother's tone.
"We had dinner and I made more apologies. Uncle Ron and I threw a few hexes at each other to get over some of our differences. I hated the whole night, but at the end of it your mother surprised. She told me how proud she was of me and wanted to know when she could see me again. I told her only f the next date I got to plan. It was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Arya asked, "Why keep them on your arm where people can see them?"
"It reminds us that no one can define you. Someone put brands on us, both with dark magic and it doesn't matter. We became so much more than they ever thought we could be."
They placed the girls back in the beds and Draco said, "We can talk more about this later, it's late. Know that if you have questions for me or you mum we are here." He bent placing a kiss to Lyra's head. She reached up and kissed him back smiling brightly up at him. He turned to kiss Arya but hesitated before he kissed her then asked, "May I kiss you goodnight, sweetheart?"
Arya nodded but she didn't kiss him back. He nodded and turned the lights down walking with Hermione to their room. They could hear the girls talking through the monitor Hermione had set up when they were born.
"You were rude Arya."
"He was mean."
"Never to us he wasn't and mummy loves him."
"Mummy loves everyone."
"He was little."
"He had a choice."
"So, did you and you choose to hurt him?"
"He still loves me."
"Do you still love him?"
"Of course, I'm a Malfoy and Malfoys love their family no matter what. I just get to be mad about this right now."
Draco pulled Hermione into his arms and smiled, "Yes, you do baby girl, yes you do."