Their marks burned deep. Scorching black skulls and snakes that seemed to reach for their bones, through skin and muscle alike.
And then they were gone. A pinkish shade on both men's forearms. The child cries in the distance.
"Has he summoned you, Lucius?"
"I do not think so. He... He is gone, feels gone. The same as after Halloween all those years ago"
Draco is barely breathing when he stumbles into the living room. A look of fright in his ice blue eyes. Pale, pale skin over bones more and more evident over the last months.
"Is he coming, Father? For her? For us?"
"He won't come, Draco" Narcissa runs a hand through his soaked-in-sweat hair "We would be dead already. The Dark Lord has fallen. Light will come for us now."
Lucius' mind is running wild. They have to get rid of the girl. She is family and that kills him but she is also him. Narcissa lays her other hand on his shoulder when he paces past her.
"He is gone" she whispers, soothing both her husband and her son. Both her men and her boys. Relief is all she can feel. For a few moments that is. Then the sleeping child comes to her mind. She is family and she wants to keep her but what if Bella's madness is in her? What if her Father's darkness is too?
"Father, stop thinking of ways to send Delphie away "Draco can't believe he said that without being blasted across the room". She is family and he is not allowing anyone near her. Not if they want to take her away. Not even if they want to cuddle her. He has seen what happens when unwanted people approach the pearly bundle. People hurt and things shatter, and it wasn't always her parents. She has both of them in her and he will not deny it.
"I will go to Potter. I'll tell him the truth."
"There is no need for that, Draco. We will simply raise her a Lestrange. That is how we keep everyone safe" And the world safe from her, she wonders.
"No, Cissy. Someone must know the truth. If something happens to us, if they send us into Azkaban... they will have to care for her and they must be ready" For what he knows not, but he fears the answer and so does not dwell in it. "Draco, bring him here. Now. Before the Aurors come"