A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any related characters
This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
word count: 732
The third ballroom of the Manor was the most extravagant. The vanilla walls were painted with golden flowers, their petals outspread. The floor itself was a golden oak hardwood, polished and buffed regularly despite the fact the Malfoys no longer hosted lavish balls in this particular room.
That fad had fallen out of favor after the war. Instead, the new owners of the Manor, Lucius and Luna Malfoy preferred private gatherings in the smallest of the ballrooms. It was used frequently for their small parties with heavy oak tables lining the wall. The floor was a soft blue carpet that stopped halfway through the room, leaving the back of the room hardwood for dancing.
It was in this room Lucius found his wife one Saturday afternoon. Luna was leaning against one of the tables, looking out onto the empty space where she and Lucius typically had chairs and small tables set up for their guests.
"Luna?"
"Oh, Lucius, there you are. I was just thinking about the third ballroom, the one we no longer use."
"What of it?" Lucius asked. He had been debating turning it into something else, but it was such a large space he hadn't found an idea that fit.
"I was thinking, the ceilings are very high, there would be room to put just about anything in there."
"Did you have something in mind?" Lucius asked, knowing Luna almost always had something in mind when she brought up a subject. More times than not, she was merely asking his opinion on something she had already half decided.
"A swing set, with a giant twisting slide, perhaps a club house and a rope bridge connecting them?" she suggested.
"You want to build a child's playground in our third ballroom?" Lucius asked. He'd known she'd had an idea, but he's never would have guessed it was this.
"Yes, exactly!"
"And why exactly would we need to build such a thing, not to mention building it inside the manor. I was lead to believe that such activities were more acceptable outside in the dirt."
Luna smiled as Lucius wrinkled his nose slightly at the idea of playing outside, of getting the slightest bit dirty. He'd been raised to stand there and not do anything. Luna, however, had been raised the exact opposite and it was days like this where it showed.
"Because our little one will eventually need a play area, and our friends are starting to have children, it would give them something to do while we host our parties in this ballroom."
"That is true, it would- wait," Lucius paused, Luna's words starting to sink in.
"Our little one?"
"Yes, our little one," Luna replied with a smile as Lucius stared at her.
"We're going to be parents."
"We are," she answered, reaching out and taking Lucius' hand. "I know we never actually discussed it, but I do like the idea of having children. I know you've already raised Draco."
"The elves and Narcissa did most of it," Lucius commented, looking at the ground. It was one of his biggest regrets that he hadn't been there for his son as a child, not in a way that truly mattered.
"Then this is a second chance," Luna stated. "Now, I was thinking about a climbing wall, I know the baby won't be old enough for it for a bit, but-"
"I think it's brilliant," Lucius stated, pulling Luna to him and giving her a kiss. "Whatever you think it is perfect. I want this child to be raised as you were, with the love and curiosity about this world, our child will not be raised in the tradition I was, the tradition Draco was," Lucius vowed with a firm nod of his head.
"Good, because I might have already hired someone to do the construction work and drawn up a few blue prints," Luna admitted sheepishly.
"Good, then that is settled, have you started designing the nursery, or picked out a room for it?"
"Not yet, I was hoping you'd help me?"
"I would love to, now, let's take a tour of all the empty rooms and find the perfect one!" Lucius announced, putting an arm around Luna's waist and sweeping her from the room much as he would sweep her across the dance floor in the extravagant ballroom that would now be an extravagant playground for their future child.