I am so so so so sorry, I know this story feels discontinuous to you guys, but this Muggle world just won't let me update! I haven't even edited this chappie properly, so you guys gotta forgive if there's anything wrong with it! (I love you!)

A HUGE HUGE THANK YOU, to all of you lovely readers, who read and follow this story. Thank you so much.

And here is chapter 2!

Please do RE&R!

Oh and also, Disc:: I am not JKR, and I never will be. So in short, I have nothing to do with this amazingly awesome universe of Harry Potter, except for the fact that I keep re-re-re-re-reading it.

And this Disclaimer shall stand for all the chapter of this story, because I seem to be running out of creative ways to say I do not own Harry Potter.

Let's go!

Life After the War

"Today, we raise our wands to all those souls who sacrificed themselves for the future of this world. A very bright future. And on this day, we shall promise to them, wherever they may be, that we shall work hard to the best of our abilities to build that future."

Draco Malfoy slowly raised his wand along with everyone else at the gathering. He exhaled deeply, trying to relieve the tension inside of him. To an outsider, he'd look perfectly normal. But only a person who knew him in and out would be able to make out the turmoil of emotions inside of him right now. There was grief. Guilt. Shame. Disgust and hatred towards a certain now-dead dark wizard. That deranged... thing had caused heartbreak to so many people. The one thing Draco had always considered important and close to his heart was his family. His father and mother. He vaguely heard Kingsley starting to speak again, but his mind was now elsewhere.

His parents may have been rich and prejudiced pureblood snobs to the society, but to him, they had been wonderful parents. The Dark Lord had taken all that away from him. And worse, he had made Draco a Death Eater. The idiot had a logo that he tattooed onto all of his crazy followers. And Draco knew that taking that mark was most probably the biggest mistake of his life, but given the circumstances at the time, there was no other alternative.

Voldemort had set Draco up because he was mad at Lucius for his failure at the Ministry of Magic. Lucius. His father who was now half deranged and in Azkaban. But Lucius' predicament would have been worse than it was today, if Snape hadn't stepped in that night, at the Astronomy Tower.

Because of Draco's failure to kill Dumbledore, Voldemort would have tortured him along with his father until they were both completely deranged and insane, or dead.

His eyes now moved to his mother who was standing beside him.

She was the only thing he had left. The only thing he now held close to his heart.

He was brought back into the present when he suddenly felt the crowd moving around him. He shrugged mentally. The speech must have ended. Draco looked to the fireplaces waiting for everyone else to leave. Pushing through the crowd now to get to the fireplace would attract attention, and that wasn't something Draco really looked forward to. And then, he saw them. The ones that had ended it all. Actually, he was quite grateful to the three of them, but he would never admit it out loud. There they were, The Golden Trio, making their way to one of the fireplaces. They looked grim, and Weasley's eyes were shining with unshed tears.

Draco felt a sudden shiver of guilt run through him.

Fred Weasley.

Oh, the Death Eaters had taken so many innocent lives.

He shook his head as if to shake off his thoughts. This was not the time or place to mull over those things. Seeing that the crowd had dwindled a bit, Draco grasped his mother's hand and led her towards one of the many fireplaces.

Draco and Narcissa tumbled out of the fireplace into the former headquarters of You-know-what.

Narcissa looked around the huge Manor. It had lost its beauty, its charm, everything. Just like her family. All the Manor held now was the ugly stench of grief from all the people who had... who had been murdered and tortured to insanity in there. Tears formed in her eyes, threatening to fall out, but she stopped them, just as she had always done. She would never cry in front of her son.

People may think of him to be a cold and despicable person, but only the ones he cared for knew the real him. Just like his father. Lucius.

The Malfoys were known to be highly cruel and rude. But one thing Narcissa had learnt after marrying Lucius was that Malfoys always looked out for their family. Always. They had two roles to play. One for the outside world and one for their own world.

Narcissa felt a slight smile make it way onto her face at that thought. Right then, she made up her mind. Her most important aim right now would be to get Draco on track. Bring back the reputation the Malfoys once held, but completely turn the game around this time. Destroy the image of them that the world had built.

She replaced her little smile with a wide one and turned to face Draco, who was dully examining an empty portrait.

"Draco!"

Draco jumped at the sound of his mother's voice. It had been a long, long time since he had heard his mother's 'happy voice'.

"What is it mother?"

"We will now redecorate the Manor." Her voice was now commanding.

"Get rid of all these gloomy decorations. And that huge dining table? We don't need that thing for just the two of us. And it has been... tainted, anyway. Get rid of that as well. And by get rid, I mean burn it, or if you have anything worse, that would do just as well. We will transform the Dining room into a Music room."

Draco had always been very good at playing the piano. But once Draco got to his fifth year, it had been taken away for good. Lucius had insisted that Draco needed to spend more time in his preparation for his O. to get ahead of that 'Mudblood Girl'. It wouldn't do well for him if the Dark Lord found out that Lucius' son stood second in class, defeated by a 'Mudblood'.

Thinking of Miss Hermione Granger, Narcissa remembered Draco once ranting about her organisation for the welfare of house elves. Her mind also brought up the one memory that she would never be able to forget. Something that had happened in their own home, in front of their own eyes. She continued to speak again, trying to banish that image from her head.

"Oh, and yes! Our house elves will now be paid regularly for their services, and, they get to wear clothes!" she finished.

Draco just stared at his mother blankly. How could she just turn away from everything like that? But, on the other hand, she was probably right. It was all over. They shouldn't be dwelling on the past right now, they should be moving on. He would try hard, but only for her. He nodded and attempted to give his mother a slight smile.

"Whatever you say, mother."

Narcissa grinned, then called out, "Minnie!"

The tiny house-elf appeared in from of them in a curtsy.

"Ah! Mistress and the Young Master is back! Is the Mistress and the Young Master wanting anything to eat? And Master's potion is almost ready, Master must check!"

Draco swore and started running towards his potions laboratory. Narcissa gave a slight giggle at her son's antics.

"Draco, son, you do know that you could simply apparate, don't you?"

Draco came to an abrupt halt as he reached the foot of the stairs. He quickly turned and gave his mother a sheepish smile as he vanished with a crack.

Narcissa felt as if her mouth muscles couldn't stretch anymore. This was the first time in ages that she had seen her son smile.

"Is Mistress wanting anything to eat?" Minnie asked.

"No, not right now Minnie." Narcissa said. "Let us wait for Draco to come back. In the meantime, I would like you to start preparing a wonderful lunch for the both of us."

Minnie curtsied again. "As Mistress says."

Just as the house-elf was about to apparate away, Narcissa remembered something.

"Oh wait! Minnie!"

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Henceforth, we will not be eating in the Dining Room. Set up the table in the kitchen."

"Minnie will do that, Mistress." As she spoke, Narcissa could see that Minnie's eyes had clouded a little. Minnie remembered everything just as well, it appeared. Narcissa kneeled down to face Minnie.

"We will transform this Manor into a glorious place, Minnie. And also, I have a surprise for you and the other elves. We will discuss that after lunch."

Minnie nodded excitedly. "Yes, Mistress! Minnie is doing her best!" With that, she disapparated.

Narcissa kept smiling, determined never to cry again. No more living in the past for them!

Lunchtime,

Narcissa sat waiting at the table as her son walked into the room.

"What happened to your potion Draco?"

"Just saved it in the nick of time, all thanks to Minnie."

After the war, The Minister for Magic; Kingsley, had asked Draco to manufacture potions for various potion stores in England. But none of the shop-owners knew where their stock came from. It would cause a riot if they did. All they knew was that the Ministry was taking care of everything. Knowing full well that Draco couldn't be given a job at the Ministry, at least not just yet, Kingsley had come up with this.

As of now, he was the only person alive who understood Draco and his mother.

Oh heck, Draco owed him big time. Someday, he would pay Kingsley back for everything he had done for him.

"Come on, Draco! What are you thinking about? Eat up, now!"

His mother's voice broke his train of thought.

Draco gave Narcissa his second smile that day as he picked up his fork.

Laughing and talking every now and then, the mother and son duo finished their lunch.

"I think it is high time that we inform all of our elves about the changes they will be experiencing, don't you think Draco?" Narcissa asked as she wiped her mouth with her napkin.

"I suppose you're right, mother." Draco answered as he mimicked her actions. "The problem here is getting them to agree. Dear Merlin, this feels like the thing Granger started back then!" he exclaimed.

Narcissa smiled yet again, still surprised at how many times she had been smiling that day.

"Alright, then." Narcissa gracefully set down her napkin, calling out for Minnie as she did so.

Just as she was about to speak, there was a thud at the locked kitchen window. Waiting outside, was a lightly brown coloured owl. It looked a lot like the ones Hogwarts and the Ministry used.

Minnie ran up to the window to let the owl in. It fluttered up to Draco and landed quite clumsily, knocking over his goblet. Draco slowly untied the attached letter on which the Ministry seal was quite easily visible.

"What do you think it is, Draco?" Narcissa asked, a little nervous. They had made a wonderful start, she didn't want anything to mess that up for them.

"I... don't know." Draco replied as he unrolled the letter and started to read.

Narcissa and Minnie watched carefully as Draco's eyes followed the script, and his expression slowly began to change.

"WHAT THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEY'RE DOING?!" Draco finally exploded. He stood up and hurled the letter to the ground. Then he started pacing furiously around the room.

"Draco, calm down, please!" Narcissa tried. "Minnie, hand me that letter, will you?"

As Narcissa read, Draco finally sat down, exasperated.

Great. Just great. Now he had to live like a caveman for an entire year. In a place he most certainly wouldn't be welcomed into with flowers. The dolts at the Ministry couldn't come up with anything worse.

What do you guys think was in the Ministry letter? Tell me what you think was in there!

And with same promise of updating within the week, which I don't know if I will be able to keep, I would like to sign off for now. :-(

So long!

Sasha.