A/N: Happy Father's Day!
This has not been beta'd or seen by anyone! Just a little look into a father-son moment in the Malfoy family. Sorry if the POV is a little off at times.
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The Safe House
~ Future Shot ~
Chapter Forty-Three
Thuban Severus Malfoy lay in bed, thinking over the newspaper article he had found. He didn't understand why it said so many nasty things about his father. His father was perfect. He was smart, funny, and really powerful. And he was the best dad. He loved his family more than any other wizard that Thuban had ever been around. Or he thought he did. Maybe he really wasn't everything he seemed to be.
Thuban got up from his bed and stood in front of his mirror. He looked just like his dad, and that was something of which he was usually very proud. The moonlight shining through his curtains made it easy enough to see the grey of his eyes and the paleness of his hair. He was the only one of the five that had inherited all the Malfoy traits. The dimness of the light also made it easy for him to see himself as his father, maybe not quite as he looked now, but as he had as a teen. Thuban frowned. Was he living proof of who Draco Malfoy really was - or at least what he was capable of doing? There was only one person he trusted with his questions.
Slowly, he crept down the long, dark hall. Being the oldest had afforded him the most distance from his parents' room, but tonight it only made him more nervous that one of his nosy siblings or a house-elf would catch him. Finally reaching the double doors at the end of the hall, he squinted his eyes shut as he carefully gripped and turned the handle of the door. Halfway to getting it opened, his eyes popped open with the thought that his parents may be doing adult things. He had forgotten to listen first. Frozen in place, he leaned forward and pressed his ear to the door. Nothing. Breathing out a soft sigh of relief, he continued with his mission. The door opened soundlessly and revealed the large, dark room. He could hear the soft breathing of his sleeping parents and awarded himself with a small smile. He tiptoed over to his mother's side of the bed and was just about to tap her shoulder when eyes just like his own were levelled at him from above her head.
"Thuban?" his father whispered. "Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?"
"No. I need Mum." Keep it simple, he decided.
"She's had a rough day. You know she doesn't feel well. Let's not wake her up."
He narrowed his eyes. That was something else he was upset about. His mum had been sick all week, and he had a sinking feeling he knew why. He stared back at her pretty face, willing her eyes to open and save him from facing his father.
Draco sat up carefully, slowly slipping his arm from underneath Ginny's neck. He motioned to his side of the bed with a quick nod of his head. "Thuban, come over here."
There was no way out now without getting in trouble or giving up. If Thuban thought he could sleep without knowing, then he would have just bolted from the room. But he wanted answers, and reminding himself that he was much more like his Gryffindor mother, he calmly walked around the large bed.
His father yawned a bit and shifted to face him. He was waiting for an explanation.
"Dad … Mum's having another baby, isn't she?" He frowned at himself. That was not what he wanted to start with.
He watched his father slowly smile. A smile Thuban would have just yesterday considered loving and sweet and comforting, but now it only confirmed what he feared.
"Can't hide anything from you. Don't say anything, okay? Your mum wants to tell you all together." He continued to smile. "Is that what you wanted to ask her?"
Thuban lowered his eyes. This would be a good way to end the conversation, but he still wanted to know the truth. After all, it concerned him. Summoning all the courage he had, he looked up into his father's happy face and asked the dreaded question. "Do you keep making her have babies so she won't leave you?"
Draco looked as if he didn't know what to say for a moment as he continued to just stare at his son. "What did you just say?"
Even in his half-whispered voice, Thuban could hear that he had upset his father. Surprised at his own ability to shock him, he continued with more determination. "Are you making Mum have another baby so she has to stay with you?"
"Why would you even think something like that?" his father whispered more urgently.
"Because that's why you had me. To make her stay with you at the Safe House. So she wouldn't go back," he paused, and with a sudden flash of all the times his father had complained about the other man, he added with a sneer, "to Harry Potter." He jutted his chin out and held his father's darkening gaze.
Suddenly, Draco sat up completely and strode from the bed. He headed towards the adjoining sitting room and stood at the open doorway, quietly waiting for Thuban to follow him.
Thuban briskly walked past his father and sat in one of the large leather chairs by the fireplace. He didn't watch, but he could hear the two pocket doors being pulled together, shutting him away from his mum. He was beginning to worry about what he had started.
Draco sat down in the other chair across from his son and flicked his wand to start a fire. He took a few deep breaths and watched as his oldest child tried very hard not to make eye contact with him. "So, Thuban. Why would you ask me such a ridiculous question as that?"
"I don't know."
"It's after midnight, and I have a long day tomorrow. Don't waste my time."
Thuban finally looked at his father, and he was surprised to see him looking disappointed instead of angry. With great trepidation, he asked, "Why did you have me in the Safe House?"
"Because we wanted to – no, because we," he stopped and rubbed his forehead. "We loved each other very much and … We didn't plan on having you, Thuban. You were a surprise."
"A mistake," he mumbled and felt his eyes start to water.
"No, a very, very happy surprise."
Like the tears sliding down his cheeks, the words fell from his lips before he could stop them. "So you could keep Mum locked away from her family."
"Okay, who told you this?" Draco asked quietly. He sounded upset and maybe even a little worried.
"No one." Thuban wiped at his cheeks and held his father's gaze. He took a strange sort of comfort in the fact that he wasn't technically lying.
"Thuban Severus Malfoy, I will not have you upsetting your mother tomorrow when I leave for work. We are having this discussion now whether you like it or not. Who told you this?"
Thuban froze as he watched his father's jaw start twitching. There was the anger he had expected. But the last thing he wanted was to hurt his mum so he decided to come clean.
"I read it. At the Burrow."
"What did you read?"
"A newspaper." He dropped his head again, suddenly afraid to hear more about what he had read.
"And?"
"It was really old and hidden in a book. It said you took Mum and made her marry you and have me." His lip started to tremble, and he bit down on it. He did not want to cry.
His father sighed loudly. "Thuban, look at me." Grey eyes slowly met their match. "I did not do any of those things. I promise you. Don't you think that your mum and I love each other?"
"I don't know."
"I love your mum more than anything on this earth besides you and your brothers and sister."
"So? That doesn't mean she loves you."
"No, it doesn't. But this does." He held his left arm forward and pointed at the faded scar that Thuban had often traced when he had been younger and held in his father's arms.
"Did she do that?" Thuban felt his mouth open wide with the thought, but he could see his father repressing a smirk.
"No. A very bad man did that to me. A man who called himself Voldemort. And I almost died because of it, but your mum saved me."
Thuban swallowed with a gulp. He knew there had been a war and had heard his older cousins talking about the evil wizard, but he didn't know anything about his parents during that time. He had no idea his father had ever been hurt by the evil man. He glanced once again at the closed doors keeping him from his mum. He was afraid of what his father was going to tell him.
"Come here, Snitch." Draco patted his lap and smiled warmly, and the gesture made Thuban want to trust him.
He felt embarrassed to sit on his father's lap, but he also wanted so badly to feel safe again and to know that he was loved. He crossed over and awkwardly situated himself on edge of his father's knees.
Draco laughed softly and pulled the little boy back to him, leaning him against his chest. He held his arm in front of his son and waited for the tracing to begin. Once Thuban started touching the old Mark, Draco started. "Some day soon – before you go to Hogwarts - I promise to answer every question you have about me and the war. I promise. But right now, I'm just going to tell you about the Safe House."
"Okay."
oOo
The next day, Thuban was the last down to join the others for breakfast. He had barely been able to sleep after hearing the story of how his parents had been trapped in the house, scared of the world awaiting them, and yet somehow had fallen in love and made a life together. He had been surprised that what he had been so afraid to learn about had been a really wonderful story. There had been shared moments of quiet laughter and also a few moments of silent tears the night before beside the fire in his parents' room. It was a memory that he already knew would never leave him.
He smiled to himself when he recalled the part about his mum telling his dad she was pregnant with him. He started to pick up his pace in anticipation of the announcement of the newest Malfoy. When he turned the corner and entered the dining room, he was surprised to see his father still sitting at the head of the table.
"Morning, Thuban." His dad smiled at him and winked, his voice still gruff from sleep.
His mum carried a plate of food over to his usual spot and leaned over and kissed his head. "Good morning, Snitch."
"Morning," he said happily and received a mixture of responses from his siblings. "Are you going to be late for work, Dad?"
"I decided to make it a family day."
His mum stood up and walked over to the head of the table. "We've been waiting for you to join us. We have an announcement to make."
"Yeah, Thuban. We've been waiting for you For. Ev. Er." Lyra rolled her big blue eyes at him, and he smirked at her.
"It's okay, Thuban." Dziban smiled sleepily and then continued eating his toast.
"What's an annunsent, Mummy?" Tamin asked. Eltan stopped elbowing his twin and shot their mum an angelic look. Thuban shook his head at the twins and looked back at his parents.
"It's an announcement," she said slowly. "And it means we have something important to tell you."
He watched his father pull his mother into his lap and place his hand over her stomach. She closed her eyes as she leaned back into his chest, the look of pure happiness on her face only matched by the one his father was wearing. His father kissed her neck and they shared a brief glance. Thuban started to remember all of the other moments he had witnessed so like this one. All the times his father had made him and his brothers and sister feel special. All the other 'family days' he had taken. He really was the best dad. Thuban could feel his face break into a broad grin as he waited for the news that only confirmed how much his parents truly loved each other.
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A/N: Thanks so much to all of you who keep adding this fic to your faves lists! It means the world to me and I try to thank you individually when I can. Now please leave a review because it's nice to actually get some feedback along with those faves - or even without the favourite! :)
One more future-shot coming soon. :)