A/N: Heyo everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the last chapter because I know I did! Anyway, I hope you wholeheartedly enjoy this new chapter. Love!

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all. ~Emily Dickinson

It was nearly an hour until the low voices stopped and He left, then Lucius finally came back upstairs.

"Narcissa, are you asleep?"

"No, I am in Draco's room. Come in please," even a fool could notice the icy chill in Narcissa's voice and fortunately Lucius was not a fool.

"Narcissa what's wrong?" he asked with a gentle voice coming into the nursery.

"'What's wrong?'" she hissed quietly, she didn't want to wake her baby who had just fallen asleep in her arm, "What's wrong is that our son is not even a month old and you are already offering up his life."

"You should be proud, honored in fact, for our son to have a chance to serve Him."

"You disgust me. I would never be proud to have my son put into imminent danger. I want a better life for my child."

"Soon, there will be no other life for Draco. When he grows up he will want this for himself, and he will be honored to be a part of something so great."

"Lucius," she growled, "I will never willingly let my son take part in such atrocities."

"Well, he is my son too and he will be a part of this. I do not see why it bothers you now; you had no problem knowing that I do this. Is our son's life so much more precious than my own?"

"I couldn't stop you from doing this and I love you so much that at the time it didn't matter to me. Our son has a choice, he was just born. You cannot condemn him to this life that we live."

"I am not condemning to anything. If you love me so much, you will listen to me. Our son WILL do this," his voice was bitter and with every word it got louder.

"Lucius, get out. I do not want to sleep in the same room with you tonight," her voice was hurt but also dripping with malice.

"You are my wife and this is my house. You will not order me around; you have no power or no right to do as such."

"Fine, you stay here. I'll leave," Narcissa stood up, grabbed some of Draco's things and exited the room, Lucius made no effort to stop her. Narcissa strode through the house until she found a bedroom that was far enough away from theirs. It was almost pure white room with just some emerald green accents. There was a fairly sized bed pressed up against one of the walls, and there was a small bassinet near it.

"Well, that's continent," Narcissa muttered placing Draco down. She wondered what this room was used for, if maybe Antonia ever had trouble with Abraxas and this was where she went. She stripped off her gown and cleaned off the remnants of her makeup. The bed was cold and strange to her, and she missed not feeling her husband at her side.

After nearly forty minutes of trying to go to sleep with no avail, she dragged the bassinet right next to the bed and put her arm in it and rested her hand on her baby's stomach. Draco only woke her up once that night, and it was because he was hungry. When the sunlight began streaming through the large window, Narcissa finally woke up. When she went to the dining room for breakfast, she found that Lucius wasn't there and he didn't leave his customary note.

This pattern continued on for nearly a year. The couple hardly ever spoke and when they did it was only about Draco or family business. Outside of their home they kept up appearances as a happy couple who had just had a child. Inside the home they ignored each other's presence and remained sleeping in separate rooms. Narcissa never let Draco stay with Lucius, and the only time Lucius ever saw his son was when their paths accidentally crossed.

It was the fourth of June, a day before Draco's first birthday, when the two started talking again. Narcissa was sitting in the informal sitting room playing with her son, and Lucius was working on something in his study nearby.

"Mama," a happy little voice came from her son.

"Oh my god, Draco, you said mama. Oh my god, Lucius! Lucius," Narcissa scooped Draco, who was trying to crawl away, up and walked with her squirming baby to her husband's study.

"Is Draco okay?" Lucius asked, that was the first thing that came to his mind because they hardly ever spoke anymore.

"He's fine; he just said his first word. He said 'mama,'" Narcissa said looking at her husband with happy tears in her eyes.

"That's wonderful, may I?" He asked looking at Draco and putting his arms out. It felt so strange that he needed to ask permission to hold his own child.

"Yes of course," Narcissa said placing Draco in Lucius's arms.

"I'm sorry," they both began at the same time, and then began to laugh. Lucius shifted Draco in his grasp, put one arm out, and pulled his wife into a warm embrace. Narcissa wished that everything would go back to normal, the way it was before the fight, but they needed to rebuild their relationship slowly.

"So, how have you been?" Lucius asked his wife that night at dinner. The question sounded so absurd coming from her husband that Narcissa couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"I guess I have been doing well," Narcissa said stifling her giggles, "How about yourself?"

"I've been doing okay, I've been busy with work and other stuff, and I've missed you."

"I missed you too."

"I'm sorry I was such a bastard."

"It's really okay, but you really should not being saying stuff like that around Draco. I have no idea how much he picks up on, and I would hate for him to have such a limited range of vocabulary." They finished dinner with some more basic conversation, Narcissa was so glad they began talking again.

"Narcissa?"

"Yes, Lucius?" Narcissa had gathered up Draco and his things and was preparing to go to bed in her new bedroom.

"I was wondering if you would be willing…if you wanted to come and spend the night in our room, like we used to."

"Lucius," she began and then looked up into his eyes which were so full of regret and promise, "Of course I will." He smiled at his wife and kissed her on the head.

"I'm going to put Draco to bed, I will see you in a little bit," Narcissa said, walking away. Draco's room looked exactly the way it had the night of the fight, everything had remained clean and dusted properly so all Narcissa had to do was put Draco in his crib. Draco was relatively easy to put to bed, he hardly made any fuss. She left to change into her nightclothes and heard Lucius getting ready for bed.

Narcissa changed into a pale lavender negligee and walked back into the room, where Lucius was lying underneath the blankets. Narcissa slid under the covers and turned to face her husband.

"Goodnight Lucius," Narcissa whispered to her husband.

"Goodnight Narcissa," Lucius put his arm on his wife's waist and pulled her into a hug, kissing her temple. She twisted in his grasp so she was lying in her customary sleeping position, she back pressed up against his stomach and his arms were wrapped around her torso.

The next morning Narcissa felt refreshed and happy, waking up in her husband's arms.

"Good morning love," Narcissa said as she rolled over and she kissed her husband's nose, "Oh my goodness! I almost forgot what today was."

"What's today," Lucius asked groggily.

"It's Draco's first birthday, our baby is one!" Narcissa sprang out of bed and almost bounded to the door of Draco's nursery and opened the door. Much to her surprise she saw Draco sitting on the floor playing with one of his toys.

"Mama!" he exclaimed when he saw her, "Mama play!"

"Lucius, what is Draco doing on the floor? Did you let him out in the middle of the night?"

"No, why would I do…" he stopped short when he saw his son on the floor, "What is he doing on the floor?"

"That was exactly my question, are you sure that you have nothing to do with this?"

"I'm completely sure."

"Draco, come here. Come to your mother," Narcissa said kneeling down and putting her arms out to her son. He came over, holding the furniture so he wouldn't fall, on wobbly legs. Narcissa wrapped her arms around him and yanked him off of the ground; she backed out of the room and shut the door.

"Do you think that he possibly could have just gotten himself out of the crib? He is starting to learn how to walk, so maybe he climbed out."

"I'm sure that's what happened," Lucius said. He pulled his wife against him and kissed his son's head.

"Mama! Mama play?"

"Yes baby, your mama will play with you. Let's go downstairs first, okay baby?" Narcissa was still a little bit worried but she tried not to let it show, and just played with Draco instead. There was a small family celebration later that evening, with Antonia and Abraxas, who looked worse than he had the last time Narcissa saw him.

The rest of the summer and most of the fall passed without incident. Draco learned more words and could almost string an entire sentence together and began walking everywhere and getting into everything. Lucius and Narcissa repaired their relationship and were back to normal. Everything was going very well for the small family.

It was October 31st and Narcissa was running all around the manor preparing things for the evening's festivities. For the first time in a very long time, the Malfoy's were having a social gathering a very large one in fact. It was going to be a very grand masquerade ball and everyone who was anyone was going to be in attendance, that is, except for Lucius.

"What do you mean you aren't going to be in attendance?" Narcissa asked that evening as she was fixing up her hair. She had already gotten in her dress, a black off the shoulder ball gown that had a corset back and was accented in gold, and was just finishing her hair and makeup.

"There is somewhere I need to be tonight, somewhere He needs me to be. He is doing something tonight and needs me near, just in case."

"Fine, I hope you enjoy yourself. I'll make up some sort of excuse that you are sick or something, have a good evening," Narcissa brushed past her husband and blatantly ignored the outstretched arms that were for her.

"Millie," she called for the house elf, "Come here, now."

"Yes mistress?"

"Is Draco ready? Have you bathed and dressed him yet?"

"Yes, he is ready. He is in his room waiting for you."

"Thank you very much, Millie." Narcissa swept from the room, her skirt sweeping the floor as she left.

"Draco, come out here now. Come see your mother," Narcissa ordered from the hallway.

"I coming mama!" She heard her son's angelic voice come from his room. He toddled out, taking little fast steps to his mother.

"Hey baby," Narcissa cooed, wrapping her arms around her baby. It really was a wonder that he learned to walk, because Narcissa always carried Draco around everywhere she went.

"Are you excited for the party?"

"No, I wanna go bed," Draco said burrowing his head in his mother's neck.

"Well, too bad. You need to make an appearance at this party, especially because your father will not be there. Also, it will be the first time anyone has seen you, so you need to make a great first impression."

The party was relatively boring and Narcissa couldn't wait until it was over and she could lay down in her bed and go to sleep. The endless stream of "Where is your husband?" questions were getting rather tiresome.

"Narcissa, you look lovely. Would you like to dance?" she heard a smooth voice from behind her. To her horror it was her sister's husband, Rudolphus Lestrange, asking her to dance.

"Rudolphus, a pleasure to see you, I am actually taking care of Draco right now so while I would love to…" she trailed off, thanking everything that she knew that she had her son as an excuse. Narcissa turned back around and began walking away when she heard a wince from Rudolphus.

"Are you okay?" Narcissa asked whipping back around and shifting Draco around so she could help Rudolphus into another room.

"What's wrong?"

"I have no idea, my arm; it feels like it is on fire."

"Let me see your arm," Narcissa said and Rudolphus stuck his left arm out, "Of course," Narcissa muttered. She rolled back his sleeve to inspect his arm.

"Rudolphus, it's gone."

"What's gone the dark mark?"

"Well, not exactly gone, but so faded that I can hardly see anything except for the outline. Isn't it normally black and writhing around?"

"Yes, let me see it," Rudolphus sat up looked at his arm, "What?"

"What does this mean?"

"I have no idea, is Lucius here?"

"No, he is out. I have just told everyone he is sick because he was doing something for the Dark Lord."

"I hope he comes back soon, so we can make sense of this."

"I need to go back out to the party, or people will talk." Narcissa stood up and secured Draco in her arms. As she made her way into the grand ballroom she saw Millie disappear with someone, someone who looked a lot like Lucius.

"May I have everyone's attention?" Narcissa called out, "I am sorry to cut the party short, but Draco isn't feeling very well so I need to devote my attention to him. I hope everyone had a wonderful night, and I hope to see you all very soon." With that Narcissa turned and walked up the stairs, the train of her skirt sweeping the floor.

"Lucius, what happened?" she said seeing her husband covered in soot, she set Draco down and rushed toward him.

"He's gone."

"Who is gone, Lucius? What are you talking about?" Narcissa said dusting some of the soot from his face off with the back of her hand.

"The Dark Lord is dead."

"What happened?" Narcissa tried to hide the elation from her voice; she knew that Lucius was probably hurting. Lucius went on to explain why He went to Godric's Hollow and what happened. How He was such a coward and tried to kill a baby and that baby was His very downfall. Of course, Narcissa's thoughts were paraphrasing the things he said, but that didn't matter.

That night after she cleaned Lucius up and him to bed, and Draco was tucked in and sleeping Narcissa sat in her study contemplating what would be her new life. She knew that the ministry would probably be after Lucius, that someone panicked and went to them, but now that didn't matter. It took nearly ten years to be rid of this menace in her life, her family was finally safe. For the first time in almost three years, she poured herself a glass of wine and silently toasted Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.