12 November, 1984.

It's dark and cold and you are lying on your back, staring vacantly up at the high ceiling of your room. Although it is the middle of the night and you are dead tired, you cannot sleep, you daren't even shut your eyes for fear of the monsters that dwell under the bed; monsters that, so your daddy says, will come and get you when you're bad. There is nothing you can recall, today, that could be considered 'bad', yet still you have this feeling in the back of your mind that the monsters still want you, it's hardly like monsters are considerate of the circumstances, are they?

You shiver and pull the heavy bed covers tighter around you for that tiny bit of added protection. You swear that a shadow just moved over by the wardrobe, but it was too quick for you to be certain. You know you're being silly, you know that the monsters shouldn't come for you today. Then again, you don't always know when you've been bad, sometimes you just are without realising it and that just makes things worse when he punishes you and asks you tell him what you've done, and when you can't answer it just makes him angrier and he hits you harder because you're being ignorant and if there's one thing your daddy hates more that disobedience is ignorance…

Suddenly, a tingle runs through your neck and you let out a yelp, sitting bolt upright. There was definitely something there now! Absolutely no doubt about that whatsoever.

Then it dawns on you- The monster wants to eat you!

You scramble out of bed as fast as you can, wincing as your feet hit the cold ground. But there is no time to care about your feet, you have to get out of there now! You leap for the door and tug it open, it takes a few moments to get it open, though, as the hard wood is heavy and your four-year-old strength is barely enough to match it, let alone get it open. The time you are wasting merely services to frustrate you more and more and hot tears of tiredness and fear prickle your eyes.

Finally, the door relents and graciously relents, allowing you to pass. You dash from your bedroom, running and running out into the long halls of your home as far and as fast as you can, your bare feet pounding along the dark carpet, causing imprints to form in the deep material. Usually, you would take care not to make such marks, especially ones that are as blatant these, as it upsets your mama which makes your daddy angry and…

Gradually, your pace slows and you draw to a halt. A small hand is held up to the wall, so that you do not fall from exhaustion. You are out of breath from running so hard and you are starting to wish that you had taken the time to slip on your dressing gown over the top of your thin pyjamas. Ah well, it's too late now, you realise and continue your journey at a slower walking pace.

When you finally reach your desired destination, you pause, now unsure of what you should do. On one hand you think you should go to your mama, who certainly won't care but will also not be angry with you for disturbing her. More likely than not, she probably wouldn't even notice you're there. On the other hand, you could go to daddy, who will either be nice and comfort you, telling you stories and letting you sit on his knee or he will be furious with you for being so weak as to be afraid of monsters, wither punishing you or pushing you back to your room, leaving you to fend off the monsters alone.

You decide to risk it and opt for Daddy.

Taking a deep breath and biting your bottom lip hard, you raise a fist on knock hesitantly on the doorway into the forbidden room. You have never seen Daddy's bedroom before, having previously been forbidden to enter it without permission, so, being the inquisitive child that you are, you're positively itching to finally have the excuse to go in.

But there is no answer to your knock. So, you try again. Harder this time and more persistent, yet still nobody answers your plea. You decide, then, to go in. Maybe Daddy was asleep or couldn't hear him, maybe you should check just in case he is dead… You push the door open with both palms pressed hard against the heavy wooden boards and slowly but surely, it creeps open.

Your daddy's room is similar to your own in ways such as it's décor is green and silver- Slytherin colours, as Daddy is very patriotic in terms of his house. Slytherin is not just a schoolhouse, it is an adjective, it determines who you are, who your family is. Daddy is a Slytherin, so, naturally, you are also a Slytherin. It is irrelevant that your mama was a Ravenclaw. His room is dark also, but is lit by two candles on either side of Daddy's bed.

Daddy himself is awake. Sitting up, wearing his reading glasses, he is doing the crossword in that day's Daily Prophet, he was clearly stuck on something as there was a deep frown set into his face.

You push the door a little wider, in the hope of catching his attention. It looks as though he's in a relatively so you're not the remotest bit afraid, instead you are, in a way, glad that the monster was trying to eat you as it gave you the opportunity to be near Daddy when he wasn't cross. And, at the moment, it was so rare to catch him a in good humour during the day that this was certainly not an opportunity to be passed.

Finally, he sees you and sets down his paper. Or maybe he had noticed you before but was at a crucial stage in his crossword puzzle and couldn't possibly pay you attention just then. Nevertheless, now he was looking at you. Straight at you, in that way he does where you just know what's going to happen simply by the look in his eyes. And you know it's okay now.

"Draco, what are you doing here?" Daddy's voice is low, hardly more than a murmur. You step in, pausing only to turn and shut the door softly behind you,

"I couldn't sleep, Daddy." You reply, "The monster was there." Daddy sighs and removes his glasses, setting them down on the table beside the bed. Then he beckons to you,

"Come on, sit down here." Hardly able to contain your eagerness, you walk over and clamber up on to the bed, tucking your freezing feet under your legs. When you are settled, Daddy asks,

"So what about these 'monsters', then?"

"Monster, Daddy." You correct, "It was in my room an' it was making shadows on my walls an…an' it was scary, Daddy. It was going to eat me all up." You watch him nervously, now unsure whether he would tell you that you are being stupid…But he doesn't.

Instead, your daddy draws you close and wraps his arms around you. You lay your head against his chest, secretly pleased, and put your thumb in your mouth.

""Don't be scared of the monsters, Draco." He tells you, "Malfoys aren't scared." You look up,

"Sorry Daddy." You whisper, but Daddy just smiles and picks up his paper. You try and read it too, but the words are long and dull, too difficult for a child such as yourself to even begin to comprehend. So, you content yourself with looking at the pictures and trying to decipher what the article means by them. Once in a while, there might be a joke or a funny story that your daddy will read to you and, although you don't get it, you laugh anyway because Daddy thinks it's funny and if daddy thinks it's funny, you should too.

Soon, you begin to get sleepy, your head lolling on Daddy's chest and your eyelids begin to droop. Daddy looks down from his paper, whispers something to you that you can't quite hear and picks you up, settling you comfortably in his arms.

As he carries you back to your room, sleep overcomes you and you doze all the way back. Strangely enough, the halls don't seem as long or scary as they did before…but it doesn't matter…you're too out of it to even care that the monster will still be there, in fact, you have forgotten it completely.

When you get there, Daddy lays you gently back into your bed and tucks the covers tightly around you to keep in the warmth. Your bed is you soft and comfy you fall asleep the instant your head touches the pillow, the last thing you recall is your daddy places a soft kiss on your forehead and whispering.

"Goodnight, Draco."