A/N: It's short and it's a cliff hanger but I'm not sorry! I'm not sorry 'cause I'll be posting another chapter tomorrow. (So don't yell at me.) :D

The next morning Narcissa woke nearly crushed to death by her husband's body. She huffed out a baffled breath as she tried to figure out how in Merlin's name she'd wound up underneath him. She was lying on her stomach and his front was pressed into her back along her entire left side, leaving only her arm and leg free. They must've been spooning and he just rolled on top of her. Well, it wasn't so bad to be honest. It had been quite a while since she'd woken to find the weight of a man pressing her into the bed. She needed the loo though and began slowly extricating herself, sliding her slightly numb limbs out from under his larger ones. He made a quiet sound in his throat and rolled over, freeing her completely. She took a welcome deep breath and scooted to the edge of the bed where she gently transferred her weight to her now-tingling left foot and looked down at her husband sprawled in their bed. He needed a good meal... several in fact. She'd go down and have one prepared… they'd eat out on the balcony; he also looked like he needed to spend a few weeks in the sun. She stifled a giggle when she unintentionally compared him to a plant left in a dark place or grass that had something left sitting on it for far too long… all pale and stringy. Oh, Merlin, he'd be so angry if she said that out loud to him. She started to the loo and let out a very unladylike groan as her body protested the movement. Wow, she had sore muscles in places that she'd never had before… the insides of her thighs… her bum… even some of her abdominal muscles. A satisfied smirk crept across her face and she didn't bother to stop it: it had been worth the sore muscles. They hadn't had a night like that since before she'd gotten pregnant with Draco. She limped to the loo, wincing slightly. Maybe she'd take a bath later that would ease the aches… she was barely forty, she was too young to feel this way!

She was sitting in her dressing gown sipping tea when he entered the kitchen. She put down Witch Weekly's quarterly fashion edition and looked up at him. Surprisingly, he hadn't bothered to get fully dressed yet and was also in a dressing gown. She frowned at his exposed and prominent collar bone.

"Kipsy has some French toast and bacon ready. Are you going to insist that the two of us eat in the formal dining room?" She got up and poured him a cup of tea without thinking, missing his eyes widen and then dart about looking for a house elf.

He sat on the stool next to where she'd been and waited for her to finish with the tea. When she sat back down he pulled her in for a kiss. "Not today I think. If we sit at the large table I can't reach you. Besides, I was thinking that after we eat we can just go back up to bed…" he ran his fingers through her hair and gave her a small smirk.

"That's a little optimistic, don't you think? I'm not sure about you, but I can hardly walk this morning." It was her turn to smirk when he looked shocked at her blatant reference to their activities the night before. A lady didn't say such things. She'd discovered being a lady was quite boring. Running around with her youngest son and joking with her oldest was much more entertaining.

Kipsy served their breakfast and saved him having to make a response and they ate in relative silence. He finished his plate and requested seconds from the slightly flustered house elf. Narcissa was glad to see that it must've been the food in Azkaban and not his appetite that caused the weight loss; he looked like he'd lost two stone.

When Lucius had finally eaten his full he turned towards her and pulled her into his lap. She allowed it and even took a moment to enjoy the embrace. He tipped her chin back and pressed his lips to hers in a slow, thorough kiss. She tried to quell the rising emotion and remind herself that they had some serious things to talk about and it was not going to be good. She gave in for a couple more moments before she pulled away and smoothed his hair where her fingers had mussed it.

"We have some things we need to work out, husband." She gathered her courage.

"Do we, wife? What are they?" He looked politely curious, he had no idea what was coming.

"Draco is happier than I have ever seen him." Lucius raised an eyebrow, she knew he was wondering where she was headed with this. "Hermione stays." She said succinctly. She swallowed her nerves as Lucius slowly removed her from his lap and stood. He paced a couple steps then turned back to face her.

"She stays?" He asked in a quiet, deceptively calm voice.

She nodded. "He's a different person with her, a better person." She continued over him when he opened his mouth to argue. "You know how his teenage years were… the influences that he had. Death Eaters and the most evil wizard to ever walk the earth! At sixteen he was commanded to murder a man to save our lives! He had to murder one of the most powerful wizards the world has ever seen or watch his parents murdered! How is a boy supposed to handle that?" She took a calming breath; trying not to get wound up… emotions were not the way to handle Lucius.

"He's a Malfoy. He'd have handled it just fine."

"No, Lucius. It would've broken him. Hermione saved him."

"I thought the idiot saved her? Could've gotten us all killed…" Lucius paced across the kitchen and back, a stormy expression on his face.

"He saved her life, she saved his humanity… she saved his soul." She desperately wanted Lucius to turn his back on the past and outdated traditions, even knowing that he wouldn't.

"Be that as it may, she's not good enough for him."

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's a mudblood!"

"Besides her heritage. Name one flaw the girl possesses that has nothing to do with her blood." She placed a hand on her hip and waited patiently for him to answer. It took a moment.

"Her hair is hideous."

"Not anymore."

"She's only after his inheritance."

"She has her own money. The ministry rewarded her for defeating the Dark Lord and she's a published author now. She doesn't need our money." She shot him down again.

"She's… she's a bossy little swot! She talked back to me when she was twelve!"

"I imagine you deserved it. Yes, she was a bossy little thing but Draco has mellowed her some. He teases her until she gets off her high horse… it's quite adorable really. If you watched them together you'd see immediately that they bring out the best in each other." She was wasting her breath and she knew it. He was already shaking his head.

"It doesn't matter. I will not allow him to stay with her. I will not allow them to bring a half-blood child into this family. It's utterly unacceptable." He said with a sense of finality and a glare that said he was finished discussing it. He was in for a rude awakening because that look wouldn't quiet her anymore.

"Lucius." He turned back to look at her. "If you do something to harm their marriage, I'm leaving." She said it quietly, and it was all the more impactful for it.

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." Now she took a menacing step toward him. "She is the only person who's loved him the way he deserves. You and I both failed him. I will not allow you to ruin this for him. If you truly care for your son, you will accept Hermione into this family. You don't have to like her, just tolerate her."

"You expect me to overlook the fact that she comes from muggles." He stated flatly.

She sighed and felt sadness begin to creep over her. "No. I don't expect you will. I expect that you'll begin your manipulations immediately in an attempt to pry her out of his life and our family." She looked at him a moment, he made no reaction. "Do you deny it?

"The house of Malfoy must remain pure." He said in perfect imitation of his unlamented father. Her shoulders drooped.

"Let me ask you something. How many truly pureblooded families are left in Europe?" He hesitated so she answered herself. "Very few. If you succeed in separating Draco and Hermione and manage to pair him with a pureblood witch, how many purebloods will there be in their child's generation? Even fewer. Even if Malfoy remains pure for one or even two more generations, that'll be the end of it. There are so few left, Lucius." She prayed that logic would work when emotion didn't. "No family will be truly pureblood in fifty years. Let's call it for what it is and let the best option for a non-pureblood be the mother of the future Malfoys. Hermione is the smartest, most powerfully magical witch of her generation. There is not better mate for Draco. All the pureblood daughters his age are idiots and any offspring they'd produce would, more than likely, be a few feathers short of a hippogriff. Honestly, Lucius. Do you not see this?"

"That girl and blasted Potter ruined everything we ever stood for. She is responsible for our downfall." He ground out, glaring down at her.

"That girl and Mr. Potter saved us from the clutches of a mad man. Your greed was our downfall." She retorted, poking him in the chest for added emphasis, surprised at her own audacity.

He blinked, his lips pulling back into sneer. "This is your stance then? You'll let that little hussy come between us?"

She shook her head, frustrated. "I'll not let you come between my son and his happiness. It's your greed coming between us. Do you love your son enough, do you love me enough, to set aside the prejudice and accept this girl into the family? Or should I make arrangements to take Scorpius and move into the chateau?"

He hesitated and she felt hope stir in her breast. "You ask me to choose between generations of honor and the love of my wife?"

"No. I'll love you, but I'll not have a life with you. Draco's happiness is more important to me than politics and posturing. I can't condone it."

"I see. And when do you plan on leaving?" Her heart sank.

"The moment you tell me that you choose archaic tradition over the love of your wife and sons." This gave him pause and he tilted his head to study her. For a moment, she saw sadness and regret in his eyes, but it was gone before she could examine it.

"What if I don't want to answer that right now?"

"Well…" This surprised her as she had expected him to immediately send her on her way. "Well I suppose we try to get used to each other again and I'll hope that you love us enough to not tear the family apart."

They stared at each other across the kitchen for several moments, each waiting, hoping that the other would relax their position. When neither yielded he sighed and crossed the kitchen to her.

"Come, Narcissa. I've been… away… for three years. Can we just… not do this today?" He asked, reaching for both her hands.

She swallowed against the ache in her throat and nodded, feeling a small measure of relief that things weren't resolved yet. She knew how it would end; she wasn't so naïve as to assume that he'd bow to what he probably saw as a whim. When it came down to it she didn't want to walk away from him. But she would do it, for her sons. But for now she would allow the inevitable to be delayed just a bit.

She cleared her throat daintily, willing the ache not to evolve to tears. "Let's get dressed and spend the day out in the garden, shall we?" She imagined that if his pride would let him, he'd admit that feeling the wind and seeing the sky after spending so many months incarcerated was something he desperately wanted.

He squeezed her hands. "That sounds lovely."

"I'll have the elves pack us a basket. Would you like to select a wine?" He nodded and pulled her in for another kiss. It was like they were newlyweds again with all this affection. "I'm going to floo Draco and ask him to keep Scorpius until later in the afternoon. Go on out without me, I'll find you."

Hermione and Draco stayed away from the Manor for the next two weeks, Narcissa having warned them that Lucius was undecided as to how he wanted to move forward. Draco had had a couple of terse run-ins with his father during pick-ups or drop-offs with Scorpius, but it was more frosty silence than arguments. Draco had no desire to talk about his feelings regarding his father and she was content to leave him alone about it. When he sorted it out for himself he'd let her know.

At the moment she was packing up a box of off-season clothing, slowly getting ready to move into their new house. They weren't moving for a couple more weeks, but she decided to do it a bit at a time instead of all at once. Plus with all the slouching over the computer she'd been doing while writing the book, the slightly physical task made her feel less lazy. Draco always rolled his eyes when she did things by hand… one would think he would be used to it by now.

She hummed to herself as she folded and packed, she was in a good mood today; apart from the drama with Lucius life was really excellent at the moment. They were exciting about moving to a new home and building their life there and they'd heard or received nothing from The Arsehole since before the wedding and while she was quite glad about that she couldn't help but wonder why. She had thought for certain that when they'd published the short story about the wedding last week he'd respond quickly. But there hadn't been anything so far. Actually the response had been overwhelmingly positive. They had allowed a young reporter, much to Rita's dismay, to write and publish the article and Hermione was so happy with the draft that she'd approved it to go to print without any alterations. She'd even framed a copy and she was planning on putting it on the mantle when they moved into the new house. Dennis' photos had been a brilliant addition to the article and every piece of post they received commented on them. He'd selected one of them facing the congregation from the altar, huge beaming smiles on their faces and then another that she hadn't known he'd taken. She and Draco were dancing and Dennis had apparently caught him in a moment of weakness because love was etched on every inch of his face. Draco had not been super thrilled to see it published as he'd have preferred to keep it private, muttering "look like a sodding Gryffindor…" to himself as he read the caption.

She closed the now full box of clothes and moved to stack it in the corner out of the way. It was heavier than she expected and she winced slightly as she held the box to her chest to top her hands from slipping under the weight, she'd moved it too quickly and had accidentally crushed her own breasts. That was painful; she rolled her eyes at her own clumsiness. She set the box down and held her forearm to the protesting area. Merlin, it wasn't like she'd bashed herself, why was it so tender? Must be getting close to that time of the month…

She cast the thought aside and checked her watch… she had an hour until she had to start cooking dinner for Harry and Ginny to come over. What to do? She didn't really feel like packing anymore… if she worked on the book she'd lose track of time… instead of deciding on something productive she grabbed her keys and handbag and headed out the door. She'd just pop down to the newsstand on the corner and find a magazine or something to read.

In a few short minutes she was perusing the travel magazines looking for honeymoon inspiration, between purchasing the new house and Lucius being released they still hadn't planned their trip. She glanced up, her concentration broken when she heard her name, "Ms. Granger," spoken softly just behind her. She turned and felt her breath catch as she looked up into the cold face of the man who might actually be the bane of her existence, Lucius Malfoy.