Lucius's eyes suddenly snapped open. When had he fallen asleep? How could he have fallen asleep? He had promised Narcissa that he would stay awake and watch over her as she slept.

Despite the Healers' insistence, Lucius had refused to leave Narcissa's side at any point since her arrival at St. Mungo's the night before. So, he had taken a chair and had placed it beside Narcissa's bed. He had then taken Narcissa's hand in his own, and he had not released his grip since that time.

He may had fallen asleep, but at least he had not lost his hold on Narcissa's hand.

Lucius looked down at the bed where Narcissa had slept for the night, and he noticed that she was awake and looking up at him. There was a slight smile on her face. It was weak, understandably so, but it was a smile enough to indicate that she was glad to see her husband.

"I'm sorry," Lucius said. "I did not mean to fall asleep."

"That's all right, Lucius," Narcissa replied. "I know you haven't been getting much sleep lately. Just feeling the touch of your hand all night was enough for me. Besides, I love the way you look when you're sleeping. It's not often I get to see you actually resting for once. You've always been such a restless sleeper." Another weak but fond smile. "But now that you're up, could you go get one of the Healers? I'm ready to leave this place."

"Of course." Lucius finally released his grip on Narcissa's hand as he stood up. He took a moment to stretch his limbs (clearly falling asleep in a chair was not the wisest decision he had ever made in his life) before leaving his wife's hospital room.

Outside in the hallway, Lucius noticed one of the Healers (a witch) that had treated Narcissa the night before.

"My wife wants to know when she can leave," Lucius said.

"Let me perform some spells on her first to make sure that she isn't having any more complications," the witch replied. Lucius nodded his head. He then followed the witch into Narcissa's room.

"Morning, Mrs. Malfoy," the witch greeted. "Was the Sleeping Draught effective? Did you sleep all right?"

"Yes, I slept very well, thank you."

"I just want to do another quick check-up on you before you leave," the witch then spoke. "You shouldn't be bleeding any more, but I want to make sure that you're not."

"Of course."

Lucius walked over to Narcissa's bedside and once again took her hand as the witch waved her wand.

"Everything seems to be just fine," the witch said a few moments later. "However, I will be giving you some Blood-Replenishing Potion, Mrs. Malfoy. I want you to take a two doses a day, one in the morning and one at night, for a week. Then, I want you to come back for another checkup."

"All right."

The witch handed Narcissa a bottle of Blood-Replenishing Potion from out of her robe's pocket.

"You can drink half the bottle now," the witch suggested, "and the other half before you go to bed tonight."

Narcissa took the bottle from the witch's hand and drank half of its contents.

"Once again, I'm really sorry for your loss, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy," the witch then said.

Narcissa just nodded her head. Lucius frowned, but he didn't say anything.

The witch then walked out of the room.

"Let's go," Narcissa spoke to her husband. "I'll feel better as soon as I'm out of this place."


"Why don't you sit down and rest a little while?" Lucius suggested to Narcissa when they had entered the main drawing room in Malfoy Manor. He could tell that Narcissa was still a little tired from her terrible ordeal the night before.

But more importantly, he had to clean up their bedroom. There was blood everywhere.

But even worse than all the blood, their dead child was in the room.

Lucius didn't want Narcissa seeing their dead child again. It was enough that she had lost it the way that she did. She didn't need any more pain, and it would pain her if she had to look at their dead child again.

Narcissa just nodded her head as she took a seat.

"Would you like something to drink?" Lucius asked.

"Dobby can take care of that," Narcissa replied.

Lucius gave Narcissa's hand a gentle squeeze before letting it go. He then Disapparated out the drawing room and Apparated outside his and his wife's bedroom. He had placed an Anti-Disapparation Jinx on their bedroom to keep his father from being able to enter without warning. And he had also placed the jinx on the room because as quiet as his Apparition was (and it was very quiet), he was still afraid it might be loud enough to wake Narcissa if he had to return to their room in the middle of the night because of his duty to the Dark Lord (and that happened a lot).

To Lucius's shock, the room was not the bloody mess it had been the night before. Instead, it was completely spotless.

There was also no sign of the dead baby.

"Brenan," Lucius called out in a sharp voice.

There was a snap and suddenly his father's house-elf appeared at his side.

"Yes, Master Lucius," Brenan spoke with almost a sneer.

Lucius resisted the temptation to throttle the old, spiteful house-elf. Old and spiteful like his father, he couldn't help thinking. No wonder Abraxas Malfoy seemed so fond of the creature.

"What happened here?" Lucius demanded.

"Master Abraxas came to check on you and Mistress Narcissa this morning," the house-elf answered, "because neither of you had come down for breakfast. He saw the blood everywhere, and he ordered me to clean up the mess."

"And the baby?" Lucius pressed. "Where is the baby?"

"Master Abraxas told me to get rid of it."

Of course his father would be behind all this. Of course his father would do something like this.

"Get rid of it?" Lucius bellowed. "It was a baby, not some piece of trash! It was mine and Narcissa's baby! Go find my father and tell him to come here! Now!"

Brenan gave Lucius an almost mocking bow before he disappeared with a snap.

Lucius's body was shaking uncontrollably with anger. His father was going to have to answer for this. He was going to kill his father. This time, his father had went too far.

Lucius fought back a sob when he suddenly realized that he had no idea whether or not the baby had been a boy or a girl.

And now he would never get the chance to find out. Thanks to his father.

A moment later, Abraxas walked into the room through the open doors.

"Is there a problem, Son?" Abraxas smirked.

Lucius roared in anger as he leapt at his father and grabbed him by the throat.

Lucius had lunged at his father with so much force that he caused both of them to fall down to the floor. The younger Malfoy, however, did not lose his grip on the elder Malfoy's throat.

"Lucius," Abraxas tried to choke out, but his son's grip was too strong for him to say much of anything.

There was suddenly the sound of a crack. It was Brenan, and he was not alone.

He had Narcissa with him.

Lucius's eyes widened at the sight of his wife, but he did not loosen his grip on Abraxas's throat.

"You should be resting," Lucius told his wife.

Narcissa looked around. It was clear that she was also surprised by how clean the room was.

"What happened here?" Narcissa demanded. She then met Abraxas's bulging eyes. "What did you do now?"

Abraxas tried to respond, but he couldn't.

"Let him speak, Lucius. Please. You can finish killing him after he explains himself."

Lucius gave his father's throat one last squeeze before finally releasing his grip.

Abraxas made some choking sounds. It was clear that he was trying to get his breath back.

"Well?" Narcissa pressed.

Abraxas ignored Narcissa. His only response was to glare at Lucius, the hatred and the anger in his eyes a match to that in his son's eyes.

"Lucius?" Narcissa spoke in a softer voice.

Lucius's eyes softened slightly as he looked up at his wife. His angry eyes were now also sorrowful.

"I'm so sorry, Narcissa," Lucius said in a trembling voice as he slowly made his way back to his feet. "Father came up here this morning to check on us because we had not come down for breakfast, and when he saw all he blood, he ordered Brenan to clean it up."

"And what about our baby?" Narcissa cried. "Where is our baby?"

Lucius just shook his head.

Narcissa glared angrily at Abraxas, who by this point had also made his way back to his feet, even though he was rubbing at his throat.

"You heartless bastard!" she screamed. "How could you? How could you have had our baby thrown away as if it had been trash?"

Narcissa began to make her way towards Abraxas, intent on doing him great bodily harm. But she was stopped when the old man pulled out his wand and pointed it at her.

Lucius pulled out his wand as well and pointed it at his father. Lucius's face was completely livid.

"You shouldn't be acting like this, Master Lucius," Brenan suddenly spoke. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Lucius pointed his wand at the house-elf.

"Say another word," Lucius snarled, "and I will kill you."

"You are taking your anger out on the wrong people, Lucius," Abraxas spoke.

Lucius pointed his wand back at his father.

Narcissa, meanwhile, was torn between anger and completely falling apart. Seeing this, Lucius walked over to his wife and wrapped his arm around her waist. His wand, though, remained pointed at his father.

"Explain yourself, Father," Lucius hissed. "How am I taking my anger out on the wrong people? And lower your wand. I don't appreciate you pointing it at my wife."

"I was merely trying to help you," Abraxas insisted as he lowered his wand. He, however, didn't put it up. "You didn't need to be seeing that dead baby again."

"Stop with the lies, Father. There is no way your intentions were noble."

"Isn't it enough that you buried that stillborn?" Abraxas growled. "Isn't it enough that you tainted the resting place of our noble and ancient family by burying that defect in the ground of Purebloods?"

"Ara was not a defect!" Lucius bellowed. "And this baby wasn't a defect either!"

"Well, the baby was much too small for a casket anyways," Abraxas responded in a matter-of-fact voice. "And it didn't look right either."

"That's because it had still been developing!" Narcissa snapped. She then seemed to falter. "We don't even know if it was a boy or a girl." She wanted to cry, but she was also determined not to cry in front of her father-in-law.

"Blame the Muggles and the Mudbloods," Abraxas said. "They're polluting us more and more with each passing day."

"Just tell me what you told Brenan to do with our baby," Lucius demanded, his wand still pointed at his father. "I need to hear it from you."

"I told him to burn it," Abraxas replied in a matter-of-fact voice, "and to get rid of the ashes completely."

Enough was enough. Lucius was just about to cast the Killing Curse on his father when he suddenly felt Narcissa's hand on his wand-arm. She had clearly seen the murderous look in her husband's eyes.

Narcissa then looked at Lucius with sorrowful eyes. "I understand why you want to kill him, Lucius. A part of me wants to kill him as well. But killing him won't bring our baby back or give us a body to bury. Don't risk getting sent to Azkaban because of him. It won't serve any purpose. It won't help anything. It would only make things worse. And I would be left all alone. And I couldn't bear the thought of not having you by my side."

Lucius slowly lowered his wand, but the angry look in his eyes did not fade away.

"Go Father," he snarled. "Just go."

"Come, Brenan," Abraxas sneered. He then walked out of the room, closely followed by his house-elf.

Narcissa collapsed into Lucius's arms. "I don't even know what we should name our baby," she sobbed. "And even if I was able to pick out a name, it wouldn't matter, because we wouldn't be able to bury our baby anyways. Oh, our poor baby."

Lucius didn't say anything. What could he possibly say to make things any better? There was nothing he could say.

All he could do was hold his wife as she continued to cry.

Lucius, however, didn't shed a single tear. He had to be strong for Narcissa.

Besides, another part of his soul had died along with his and Narcissa's second lost baby.