A/N: I decided in the end that it was worth it to edit this chapter a bit: I'm obsessed with keeping this story consistent, and I realized that it would be very worth it to change that just a bit by setting it one month back. While small, I intend for that to create a better, longer, and more complete story!

Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy waited anxiously at Platform 9 3/4 for the Hogwarts Express to pull in. Narcissa, clothed in a heavy, long white coat stood close to Lucius. Though it was still impossible to infer her condition by appearances alone, Narcissa self-consciously pulled the winter coat around her middle with every glance the pair received from other parents awaiting their children's arrival.

"Lucius, I'll need to make the announcement public just as soon as we tell Draco," she said in a whisper after determining no other witches or wizards were within earshot.

"In order to prevent any rumors from spreading, and so I don't feel so terribly…ill at ease, whenever we go out."

"A wise choice." A smirk formed on Lucius's face as he continued. "In fact, I've been dying to -"

He was interrupted by train's ear-piercing whistle slicing through the air. Narcissa immediately looked toward the entrance of the station, no longer paying him much attention at all. Dying to let the news slip in front of Arthur Weasley to take back to that ever-expanding family of his, he had wanted to say, but knew any trivial matters of his own would be lost on his wife entirely with her attention focused on Draco's return home.

When the train came to a stop and the students began to file out, Lucius as well made an effort to spot Draco as soon as possible. The two of them watched what seemed to be all of Hogwarts, the two youngest Weasley children included, much to Lucius's annoyance, exit the Hogwarts Express before they laid eyes on their son, still with the pin identifying him as Head Boy attached to his robes. Narcissa caught his attention with a wave, and he quickly bid farewell to the younger students he had been speaking with to join his parents.

"Oh Draco, it's so good to see you!" Narcissa said, pulling him into a tight embrace.

"It's good to see you too, Mother; Father," he replied, nodding to each of them in turn.

"I can't wait to hear all about the latest happenings at Hogwarts…"

"Mother, I write to you at least once a week! Believe me, you've heard most of it already," Draco said with a small laugh.

"Nonsense. With you being Head Boy and all now, I'm sure you've got plenty more to share." She stretched to kiss his cheek, as Lucius concealed before the public the fond smile he wanted to give his beloved wife and son. Seeing the way his son had interacted with the other, younger students leaving the train was reason enough for him to believe he'd make a wonderful elder brother in the not so distant future; the thought alone was enough to please the man.

"So do you have anyone you'd like to say goodbye to for the holidays, or are you ready to go home?" Narcissa asked.

"No, I'm ready to leave. Are we to Apparate, or…?"

"Of course, now that you've mastered the skill," she said with a proud smile. "Let's be off."

With that, the trio Apparated from the station to the gates of Malfoy Manor, which turned to a fine grey mist as each Malfoy passed through them and over the snowy grounds into the mansion.

"Draco..." Narcissa addressed him quietly once they had removed their winter outerwear. She had hardly said anything yet, but she was already beginning to regret it. "Wh-Why don't you go change out of your school robes and take those books and things to your bedroom? Then you can come down to the sitting room and we'll talk, alright?"

"Certainly," he affirmed. The change in Narcissa's demeanor did not go unnoticed by her son, though he couldn't place exactly what that change was, nor did he see a reason for it. She seemed off somehow, despite the enthusiasm she always had for his brief returns home from school, and rarely would she be so eager to talk with him about the goings-on of Hogwarts. It bothered him; he knew his parents had suffered in the war more than most, and he feared it could be very much related. He tried not to think about it as he ascended the stairs. After all, he decided, a brief change in manner from his mother could have been caused by a great many things, very few of which involved the past they continued to distance themselves from.

"Narcissa," Lucius said critically once Draco had left their presence, "You could've done it, you know."

She lowered her eyes, aware that his words were indeed the truth. "I'm sorry, Lucius. I know. And I will, just a soon as he gets back."

He shook his head at her apology. "I shouldn't be saying anything. You've got it much harder than I do. I suppose I'm just anxious, is all."

"Don't worry, I understand. It can't be much easier for you now either, after all, you've never had to have this sort of discussion with anyone, let alone your own son. Now why don't you go sit down and let me pour you a drink? Goodness knows it'll only help calm your nerves…"

In silence, he obeyed and watched as she filled a glass half full from the decanter kept near the sitting room mantle. He knew it was foolish, making an ordeal out of what should have done nothing but make them happy, but he truly could not stop himself. Not after everything the three of them - and only the three of them - had faced in the past year alone. That in itself would be something he and Narcissa could only share with Draco; something his second child would never be able to comprehend. Lucius sighed and accepted the drink when his wife took a seat next to him. The baby was still more than six months from being born and he was already finding ways to distance himself from it.

"Lucius," she said quietly, "try to-" She stopped abruptly when she heard Draco's approaching footsteps. Instead of continuing, she reached out and placed a gentle hand upon her husband's wrist, a gesture that to him was worth more than any words she could've said.

As Draco joined them, he noticed his parents sat more stiffly than they were usually apt to do in the comfort of their own home, and his suspicion that something was amiss was heightened.

"Draco," Narcissa said bravely, though not meeting his eyes, "before you say anything, your father and I… We have some news to share with you as well."

At this, Lucius felt her grip on his wrist tighten.

"By all means," he replied, his features an equal mix of curiosity and concern.

"I suppose I can't very well put this elegantly, so… Draco, I…" She raised her brown eyes to meet his grey ones. "I am with child."

For both of the elder Malfoys, in that one moment it felt as if the world had been temporarily lifted from their shoulders. At last, they'd gotten over with the very thing they'd been dreading for days.

"…What?" Draco was certain he hadn't heard her correctly. His mother had already given the Malfoy family its heir, and that heir was sitting right in front of her. Not to mention the problems of the woman being more than a decade past her prime years for bearing children, and the fact no Malfoy had fully recovered from the war that had ended not half a year prior.

"I'm pregnant, Draco," she said softly. "You'll be an elder brother by the autumn."

A feeling of plain incredulity came over him. Hearing that his mother was pregnant, of all things, was the last thing he had expected her to tell him.

"I… I don't know what I should say…" he mumbled, and found his gaze drifting to her midsection, as if seeing it would be the only way he'd be able to accept it.

"January marks the beginning of her second month," Lucius interjected. "It won't become noticeable for a little while now."

Embarrassed, Draco stood up from his chair, and moved to leave the room, but paused as he neared the doors. "H-how long have you known…?"

"…Since the start of the month," Narcissa admitted quietly.

It was still much too difficult for the boy to believe what he was hearing. A whole month, and not a single mention of it to him? He couldn't help but feel betrayed in a way, not only that they'd withheld something so important from him, but also that they had conceived in the first place. He felt inadequate, as if he had proved himself insufficient as the family's heir; as if they had felt they had no choice but to have another child because of his own shortcomings…

"Excuse me," he said, and quickly left the room.

They waited in silence, holding out some hope that he would come back, ready to speak to them about it. The clock continued to tick, and their wish did not come true.

"Cissa, don't for an instant think you did anything wrong," Lucius said with authority. "You knew his first reaction would not be a particularly positive one, just give him some time."

The hurt look that she wore in her silence was enough to make him experience the same pain he knew she must have been feeling. He set down his empty glass, and pulled her close to him, both of his arms tight around her. He placed kiss after kiss atop her head, whispering to her the same things that, deep down, she already knew - both he and Draco loved her unconditionally, that would never change, and all it would take was some time for her son to get used to the idea of being a brother. All the while, she never tried to speak a word to him, but allowed herself to be held close and accept every gesture of affection from her husband that he was willing to give as she held back the tears that had begun to form in her eyes.

"I'd like to go talk to him now, Cissy, if it's all right with you. I think perhaps this is one time that I can actually be there for him when he needs his father."

She nodded, and pulled away from him when he relaxed his hold on her. "Take as long as you need. I'll be here when you return, I'm sure."

"It'll be fine," Lucius reminded once more, and left her with one more soft kiss before leaving her on her own.

Two hard knocks sounded upon Draco's bedroom door. "Draco, open the door. I'd like to speak with you." Lucius heard his son's hesitant footsteps, and slowly, the door creaked open. "Ah… May I come in…?" he asked, in an awkward attempt at politeness. He couldn't even begin to remember the last time he attempted to talk to his son in such a manner. A sick feeling began to rise in Lucius's chest. He shouldn't have felt uncomfortable at all speaking to the boy who, despite his eighteen years, was in some ways still a child. Draco had, without a doubt, had similar feelings before and, Lucius realized, rarely, if ever, was he there for him when he could have used someone to talk to. Was he so hopeless, he wondered, that it would be the same for his next child as well…? He did his best to shake the thoughts from his mind when Draco wordlessly opened the door further for him. Lucius sat down at Draco's desk, and Draco upon his bed.

Several moments of uneasy silence passed between them.

"I'm not here to berate you, Draco. I came here to… Well, to help you, if I may. So please, ah… If you want to talk, go ahead."

"…" Draco felt just as unsure as his father. Part of him wanted to tell him everything he was feeling and ask him the things it would be impossible to ask his mother, while another wanted to tell him to save the "good father" act for his other child. Inside, Draco knew his parents both must have been feeling conflicted just as he was; that they probably didn't know how to handle it any better than he did, yet his anger at both his parents and himself got the better of him, childish as it may have been.

"Draco…?"

He took a deep breath and steeled himself, his questions and thoughts nearly bursting from his lips. If he didn't speak now, after all, there was no guarantee his father would make himself available for conversation again "I suppose what I'd like to know more than anything is… How long have the two of you been planning this?" Draco felt his cheeks flush, embarrassed at the very question.

"Planning…?" Lucius asked with genuine confusion in his voice. "You believe your mother's pregnancy was something we intended? Draco, that is certainly not the case, at least not on my part! What on earth lead you to that conclusion?" Draco being under the impression that he and Narcissa would deliberately conceive for a second time was not on the list of possible scenarios Lucius had envisioned, and it made him even less sure of how he ought to respond.

Draco turned to face his father, incredulous. "You mean to say it wasn't…? I had thought that… That maybe I'd proved myself to be an unsatisfactory heir, after everything, ever since my sixth year… I mean, that's certainly how I felt, no matter what Mother has said…" Once he had begun, he found it hard to stop himself from revealing his every concern and instead give Lucius a chance to respond.

"Draco, believe me when I say you've proved yourself to be everything your mother and I could want in the scion of this family and more. The thought of you being 'inept' or 'unsatisfactory' as my heir… It's positively absurd, as I know you're already aware. And I assure you, raising a baby is certainly not the way I planned, or even had any desire, to spend the next twenty years." Lucius offered the boy a small, awkward smile.

"A-and what about Mother, then…?"

"Narcissa, well… She's confided in me her desire for a larger family ever since you were very young. But, due to my being away on the battlefield so very often during your infancy among other complications, the chance for that passed her by fairly quickly, I'm afraid. Still, I can't imagine she would intend to conceive, not without discussing it with me, and certainly not after seeing how very worried she was in recent days about how you would react to the news. "

"She was worried about me… Other way around…" he muttered, looking anywhere but at his father.

"Is that what's upset you so? You're worried about her?"

"Not just Mother… I mean, I'm not the only one who still has nightmares, am I? Who still thinks about it every day, as if You Know Who could still come back at any moment?"

The root of Draco's troubles had made itself apparent.

"…No, you're most certainly not. It hasn't exactly been easy for either of us, your mother and I." He hated to recall the sleepless nights he and his wife had spent in the days following Voldemort's downfall, the nightmares that would still occasionally wake him in the dead of night, the way his memories of what had happened in Malfoy Manor could suddenly become all too vivid. The fact that Draco was suffering from these very same ailments... As a father, that was enough to hurt him even more than his own post-traumatic suffering.

"Are you both all right to bring a child into a world where its parents are still facing those kinds of demons? Years afterwards, I would understand, but mere months… I'm not saying I don't think she should go through with it, but just that it worries me, I guess."

"I understand your meaning perfectly." Lucius had, after all, shared very similar thoughts, even right up until he began talking to Draco. "And let me tell you, there are things the three of us have seen that this child will not be able to truly comprehend, and I hope with all my heart that it never will. In fact, I've been thinking very recently that perhaps your sibling, never to be so much as looked upon by the Dark Lord, will give us an even greater reason to leave those demons behind us, and I believe that's how Narcissa feels as well. Don't forget, you were the primary reason she and I were able to emerge from the first war and sever our ties with Voldemort as we did."

Draco remained silent in thought, turning over in his mind this new perspective his father presented.

"I won't lie, Draco, I'm thrilled to become a father again. No, it's not what I had wanted, but after your mother told me she was pregnant and in the days that followed, I recalled just how happy having you in our lives has made the two of us, and that's something I want to experience even more, both with you and our new charge. I promise - and this is one promise I think I'll be able to keep - that everything will turn out for the best, should you allow it."

Draco had no response. Everything the two of them had said and discussed, it was too much for the younger Malfoy to sort out all at once. Just like his parents, what he felt he needed was time. "Father, I appreciate this, but might I-"

"I'll let you be. I know you're not a child, but… Please speak to us should you find you have anything else to say on the matter," Lucius said as he stood up. Discomfited as he may have been having such a conversation, Lucius noticed that in helping Draco sort out his thoughts about his mother's condition, he himself left with a much clearer mind about it as well.

He reached the bedroom door and moved to leave, but stopped short when he heard Draco's voice once again.

"Father," he said quietly, "…On your left arm… It's still there, isn't it?"

A jolt ran through him. It had been weeks since he'd thought about the Dark Mark that still tarnished his pale skin. "I'll remind you that it's only grown fainter since he was killed, but yes, it is indeed still there."

"Don't you think it'll ask about it at some point…?" Draco whispered the question, his right hand covering his own offending mark.

It was something even Lucius had not considered. After speaking to Narcissa several times about it, he had become convinced that as Voldemort's presence continued to fade from their lives, the scars upon his and Draco's left arms, magical contracts of sorts that bound the two of them to the Dark Lord, would as well until they could no longer be seen. However, his eyes could not help but be drawn to it. He could still make out the skull and serpent without much difficulty. "No, I don't," he said at length. "Because by the time my child is born, I have every certainty that we'll no longer have these stains upon us." There was simply no way he could accept what he knew his son to be thinking; that those tattoos would become constant reminders of what they had done.

The question was on Draco's lips, whether or not he could truly believe they would just disappear after everything, but the rigidity his father's tone had taken in his reply kept him silent.

"Get some rest Draco; you just got home and I can see you could use it." The man shut the door behind him, louder than he may have intended, and proceeded to the sitting room where his wife awaited, Draco's unspoken question weighing on him more than it had a right to.

"How was he?" Narcissa asked immediately upon his arrival, her dark brown eyes wide.

"He'll be fine," he told her reassuringly. "Right now, he just needs some time to think through things - just like I said."

"Thank goodness… And thank you, Lucius, for talking to him. That was good of you."

"I'm glad I finally got the chance… To be quite honest, I think it helped me, in a way, as well."

His words were like an elixir to her; the more he told her the more she knew her worries and anxieties would soon disappear. Her dream of many years had come true, and now had the approval, at least, if not the support, of the two she loved the most. For now, that was everything she could possibly ask for. Narcissa smiled, and stood close in front of him. "I'm glad. I'm proud of you, too, and I'd very much like to kiss you for it, though I'm afraid you're just a bit tall for that."

Both her infectious grin, and the fact that for the first time in how many years things were going exactly as he wished, it was enough to distract him for the moment, from his thoughts of his Dark Mark. "Allow me," he told her, and softly touched his lips to hers, placing a hand on her waist to keep her close by.

"I suppose this means our only concern for the moment is making the news public, then… But don't worry, that's something I can take care of myself."

"Our only concern…" he muttered to himself.

"Hm?" A questioning glance.

"Nothing, Cissa," he said with a shake of his head. "Nothing at all."