Chapter Ten

Anastasia, Lucius and Draco stayed in hiding with Fiona for several months. Voldermort and his Deatheaters were still in her mansion and Anastasia had told Lucius that, if this war ever ended and Volermort was vanquished by Harry Potter, there would be no way she was move back into the building once they were gone. To her it wasn't their home any more. Anastasia wanted to sell up and move somewhere else; anywhere apart from that house. It wasn't her home anymore; it was tainted.

Despite her better judgement Anastasia had decided to give Lucius one final chance. Lupin had actually been extremely supportive of her decision despite his own feelings that he thought she was crazy. Being with Tonks had obviously had a positive influence on him as he would've gone crazy at Anastasia once upon a time. But Lupin also knew that Anastasia still loved Lucius, despite everything, and she would let him have that one last chance if he proved he wanted to change and would actually stick to it.

"Yes, I know you think I'm completely out of my mind Remus, you don't need to pretend to me," Anastasia said with a smile, tapping the side of her head to remind him of her mind reading abilities. They were sat in Fiona's front room in front of the log fire. Since Voldermort had come back to power, the weather seemed to be stuck in perpetual cold wet weather. But the hot chocolate Fiona always made for them helped to keep their spirits up.

Lupin chuckled. "I should know better by now than to try and keep things from you, shouldn't I." But then he became serious. "But seriously though, Anastasia, I want you to be happy and if giving Lucius one final chance is what you want then you should do it. There will always be those that will tell you not to do it or that you are mad. But you should do what you want to do if you think it's the right thing to do. I trust your judgement even if I don't always agree with you."

Anastasia was hearing talk about the Potter boy and his two friends were looking for the Horcruxes with the intent of destroying them so that they could finally defeat the Dark Lord. She didn't envy him but she admired his courage for doing it. But it was part of the prophecy; one of them had to die in order for the other to live. Anastasia really wanted Harry to bring an end to Voldermort's reign once and for all. She was sick of his evil now.

When she thought about the three friends looking for the Horcruxes, she often found her thoughts wandering back to her days of being a student at Hogworts. It was often said that Harry was like his father, James. Unfortunately Anastasia didn't have very good memories of James. He had been one of the people who had been mean to her due to her being rich, friends with Severus and a Slitherin. Due to Lupin being one of James's group she had been rather surprised when she had ended up becoming friends with him. This had caused problems on both sides with both Severus and James and his group not approving of Lupin and Anastasia being friends.

Word had it that the Ministry Of Magic was now under Voldermort's control and speaking Voldermort's name was now taboo as it would summon Deatheaters if you said it. It made Anastasia sad and angry at the same time. Things were sliding back into the bad old days. She remembered those days all too well. Anastasia had spent too much of that time period terrified and alone and in hiding with her baby son back in Russia where her family was originally from. Lucius had made no secret of the fact he was a Deatheater at the time. But at least this time around his conscious had gotten the best of him and he had come back to his wife and son.

The Order Of The Pheonix were thinking of banding as many people as possible together to launch an attack on Hogworts in the hope of beating their common enemy once and for all. There were those who wanted Anastasia to join them but she was in two minds as to what to do. Yes she wanted revenge for their attack on her, for imprisoning her and her family and for taking her home from her. Being part of the battle for Hogworts might result in her death and Anastasia wasn't prepared to leave Draco motherless. But there were innocent children trapped in that school and she wasn't sure if she could live with that on her conscious.

For a time, Anastasia contemplated leaving the country again. She had friends and some family still in Russia, so she knew she would have somewhere to go. Anastasia procrastinated for a very long time. Knowing that she could die if she joined the battle for Hogworts was what was making her think this.

Lucius knew this situation was bothering her and he wasn't sure how to help. He, personally, wanted to join the battle for Hogworts as he wanted to try and make up for what he had done in the past. He knew Anastasia probably wouldn't approve as he was well aware of the fact she was toying with the idea of leaving the country.

"I'm not sure, Lucius," Anastasia admitted when he finally found the courage to broach the subject. "What if we don't survive this battle and Draco ends up as an orphan? Just because I'm part vampire now, doesn't mean I'm completely indestructible."

"We could do with all the help we can get, Anastasia, and you would be a valuable asset," Lupin chipped in.

"If we don't strike now, how can we be sure that the Dark Lord won't come after us," Lucius added. "At least this way we can meet him head on, come what may. After my betrayal it's probably a given that eventually he will have us tracked down and killed."

After more soul searching, Anastasia eventually agreed to join them. Both of them were right, it didn't really matter if they challenged Voldermort now or ran, he would find them and kill them. Why delay the inevitable encounter? Anastasia asked Fiona if she would agree to be Draco's legal guardian, should the worst happen and she and Lucius didn't come back. Without hesitation Fiona agreed. With that comforting thought Anastasia made plans with her friends and the Order.

Looking back on everything that had happened in the years that followed, Anastasia had mixed feelings over the Battle For Hogworts. The school had been reclaimed and Harry had defeated Lord Voldermort. The wizarding world was now safe from the Dark Lord and, hopefully, nobody like him would appear again in the future. Many of his Deatheaters were either dead or were now in custody. On the downside, Anastasia had lost friends that day. Both Severus Snape and Remus Lupin were dead. Burying the two people she cared about and had been friends with for so many years was extremely difficult.

Anastasia was given the opportunity to stay on as Defence Against The Dark Arts professor. After much deliberation she decided she would stay but that, whilst the school was being rebuild and repaired, she would take her family away to Russia for a while. Anastasia and Lucius agreed that time away from England and everything that had happened would do them and Draco some good. So they did just that.

The time away did wonders for their marriage and it helped Anastasia to grieve for her friends. They found that, now they were away from everything that felt connected to Lord Voldermort, the Deatheaters and the battles, they could focus on repairing their relationship. Draco finished his education through the finest private tutors Russia had to offer. The change of culture did him the world of good.

Upon returning to England, they temporarily stayed with Fiona Pepper again whilst they looked for a new home. Anastasia kept to her threat that she wouldn't return to the old Malfoy Mansion. Finding a similar looking house near Loch Ness in Scotland, the Malfoy family settled and were finally happy. Anastasia continued as a Hogworts teacher and played up to the stories and rumours about her. She made no secret about being a half blood vampire-witch and the fact that she never aged because of it. Anastasia worked on for many years in the position; the first teacher to ever last longer than one year as Dark Arts teacher.

Draco eventually met a young woman, married and had children. Lucius and Anastasia enjoyed becoming grandparents although Anastasia worried about how she would explain to them how Granny always remained looking younger than Grandpa and Daddy.

Ill health was to eventually take Lucius from Anastasia. In those later years Anastasia nursed him and it was heart breaking for her to see him slowly deteriorate, knowing that there was nothing she could really do to prevent it. She had offered Lucius the opportunity to be "turned" like she had but Lucius refused. Whilst there would be advantages to becoming a half blood and being able to control the vampire side but enjoy the advantages it gave, like rapid healing and a longer life, Lucius just couldn't bring himself to do it. For him it didn't feel right.

"This is how it was meant to be for me, Anastasia," he had told her one night as he lay awake thanks to the insomnia caused by his illness. "It wouldn't be right for me to cheat death. For you, it was different, you had little choice in what happened to you."

Anastasia was sat on the bed with him, cradling his head in her lap. "Am I being selfish?"

Lucius let out a small chuckle. "Not at all. We all do crazy things for love."

"You can say that again. I agreed to take you back, remember."

Becoming a widow seemed to come far too quickly for Anastasia. With no husband and her son married with his own family, Anastasia decided to take advantage of her remaining years to travel again and take up the studying that she had been doing before she was turned into a vampire. She still had so many places she wanted to travel to and so many things she wished to study and document. Maybe she would come across the vampire that turned her again...