Happenstance

Chapter 19: Run to Mommy

Taking her father's advice to heart, Luna took the day off from work. She'd stayed at her old house for an hour or so after her father had left for the office, just so she could re-familiarize herself with her surroundings. Apparently, Rosmerta had been spending a great deal of time at the house, as a lot of stuff had been moved around and some rooms had been completely redecorated. Surprisingly, not even Rosmerta's presumptuous behavior was enough to force Luna's mind onto a topic other than her not being pregnant. The real reason why Luna was roaming aimlessly through her childhood home was because she was trying to work up the nerve to head over to Draco's office and break the news to him. Nearly an hour and a half later, Luna realized she was as ready as she was going to get, and headed out of the house.

Luna really wished there was another, much slower, way of getting around, as apparating brought her to her destination a lot sooner than she would have liked to have gotten there. As she walked up the many stone steps leading to the massive building that housed Malfoy Enterprises, Luna found herself in awe of the impressive structure. When Lucius was twenty-five his father turned over control of the family business to him, and with that turnover he inherited not only a great deal of responsibility, but an enormous amount of power. Being the Malfoy that he was, Lucius was quick to settle into his dictatorial role. Within just three months of being in control of the company, Lucius had already contracted one of the Wizarding World's finest architect's to design a complete re-haul of the entire building. If his father had lived long enough to see the completion of the project, even he would have been impressed.

Just as Luna was pulling the handle of door that led to the lobby, she felt someone on the other side pull in their direction, jerking the lithe girl forward. As she looked up to see who it was that had nearly yanked her arm out of her socket, Luna was quite unsettled to see the President of Malfoy Enterprises, Lucius Malfoy smirking down at her, clad in his usual exquisite apparel. For several moments, all she could do was stare up at her son's grandfather, frightened half to death. The last time she'd seen Lucius was at their housewarming supper, and he certainly hadn't been in a very good mood when he'd stormed out of the house.

"What?" he asked, coolly. "Surprised to see that the President of the company actually comes to work?" Realizing that this was actually Lucius making an attempt at joking with her, Luna laughed awkwardly. "You can let go of the door, Miss Lovegood." Her cheeks blushing, Luna lowered her hand from the door handle. "I believe congratulations are in order. I read the article in the Prophet this morning. Another baby... impressive."

"I... um..." Luna didn't know what to say. Part of her wanted to pretend like she was in fact pregnant, just because she knew that it probably grated Lucius' nerves. The only thing stopping her was her dislike of lying.

"My son seems quite... thrilled by the news, as is his mother," Lucius continued, ignoring the young witches attempts at speaking to him. "I, on the other hand, must say that I'm surprised that you allowed my son into your bed again. You seemed positive that you didn't want him to have anything to do with your first child, so for you to have another one so soon is interesting, not to mention, unhealthy." Luna was only half listening to Lucius' tirade. The more he spoke about babies, the harder it was for her to maintain her composure. Noticing the girl trying to fight back her tears, Lucius huffed loudly and rolled his eyes, before placing his hand at the small of her back and leading her towards his huge office.

Once inside, Lucius directed Luna towards one of the rich leather armchairs across from his massive desk. As she sat down, Lucius went over to the mini bar that was positioned a few feet away and poured her a glass of wine, and himself a glass of brandy. Luna was half tempted to sniff the drink for poisons, but thinking that he would be offended, she took her chances and sipped the delicious beverage.

"Is there a problem, Miss Lovegood?" he asked, as he settled into his own chair. "You don't seem a quarter as excited as my son. He was so overjoyed that he forgot he was upset with me long enough to ask if myself and his mother had heard the good news."

"He is quite thrilled," Luna agreed, nodding her head as she downed the rest of her wine in one gulp.

"Would I be correct to assume that you had nothing to do with this mornings article?" he asked, sipping at his own drink. "It doesn't seem your style. Definitely Draco's though."

"No, I didn't know about it."

"You don't want this baby?" Lucius asked, quite sure that he already knew the answer.

"It took me a little while to get excited about the idea, but eventually I did."

"So this is you excited?" Lucius asked, sarcastically. "I've seen Severus show more enthusiasm than you are right now."

"I wasn't pregnant. The medi-witch was wrong," Luna blurted out, wanting his endless questioning to end. "So you don't have to worry about me further contaminating the Malfoy gene pool."

"You presume far too much, Miss Lovegood," Lucius drawled, shaking his index finger at her disapprovingly. "It seems that you're under the impression that I am not fond of my grandson. I can assure, my dear, you couldn't be any further from the truth. I'm sure Landon will serve the Malfoy name well, not to mention, improve any less than favorable opinions brought on by my dalliances with the Dark Lord."

"Than why are you such an ass?" Luna asked, not really believing his claiming that he liked Landon.

"Perhaps, it's just my disposition," Lucius replied, laughingly. "By the way, I really wasn't trying to kill you that night. You just happened to be in the way."

"Well in that case, all is forgiven," Luna snapped, sarcastically.

"If only it were that simple," Lucius whispered, his eyes glued to a spot on the wall just over Luna's shoulder. "Would I be correct to assume that you're here to speak with Draco about you're not being pregnant?" Luna nodded, solemnly. "This article in the Prophet will prove to be rather bothersome, won't it?" Luna nodded again, this time slumping down into her chair and holding her head in her hands. "Don't concern yourself with the article. I'll take care of that. You just make sure you break the news to my son as carefully as possible. He's in the boardroom; fourth floor at the end of the corridor. You can't miss it." Lucius waved Luna off, signaling her to leave. As she stood to leave his office, Luna couldn't help but wonder how exactly he was going to handle the situation with the Prophet, but she did know that she was eternally grateful for not having to deal with it herself.

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Draco was bored senseless. This was the second boring meeting he'd been forced to sit through that morning and he was more than ready to get the hell out of the office. As VP of Malfoy Enterprises, Draco was responsible for giving the okay on almost all of the ideas presented by the staff. He hated his job, there was no doubting that, but he'd never had much of a choice in the matter. Lucius, the President of Malfoy Enterprises, had been grooming him for this position since he was thirteen. His father had even brought him to work everyday during the summer before his third year at Hogwarts and all summers thereafter, to give him an idea of what to expect. At the time, the job seemed interesting, but now that Draco actually had to do it day in and day out, he was quite sure that VP of Malfoy Enterprises was the single most boring job in the world. Truth be told, his job wouldn't seem so lack luster, were he to even make an attempt at paying attention to the presentations, but that was too far outside the scope of his current attention span. Part of him just wanted to tell his father to take his job and shove it, but that was merely a fantasy he'd never be able to see play out, much to his chagrin.

Needless to say, when Draco saw Luna standing outside of the large glass walls of the board room, he nearly jumped for joy. It took every ounce of self control in his body to keep him from jumping out of his chair and dashing out of the room. Just as Draco was getting ready to politely bring the meeting to a close, his father's head appeared in the fireplace informing everyone in attendance, except for Draco, that he needed to see them in his office right away. Not even considering that his father had known that Luna was there and was trying to give him a way out of the meeting, Draco considered it all a great big coincidence. As soon as all of the employees had filed out of the room, Draco rushed out to the hall to meet Luna.

"Hey," he said, leaning down and kissing her on the cheek, before doing the same to her stomach. Luna felt her heart drop. He was so happy to think that she was having his child, and in just a few minutes time she would have to tell him she wasn't, and that was something that Luna was crushed to have to do. "What brings you here? Are you feeling alright?"

"I took the day off from work," Luna said, softly, noticing the worried tone in Draco's voice. "I'd hoped that we could spend some time together today. Maybe talk or something..."

"Sure," he replied, happily, glad that she wanted to be with him. "Let me grab my things from my office and we'll head out."

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After retrieving his things from his office, Draco and Luna left Malfoy Enterprises together and headed towards the house. Luna had suggested that they apparate back to the house, but Draco had wanted to walk back home since it was so nice out that afternoon. Luna hadn't really been fond of that idea, especially since she knew that they were bound to run into people who'd read the article in the Prophet and she didn't want to have to answer a hundred questions, but Draco seemed to be enjoying their walk, so she agreed.

"You want to go get Lanny from Gwennie's house?" Draco asked, once they were about halfway home. Ever since Luna and Draco had returned to work, Gwennie, Luna's childhood nanny, had been watching Landon during the day. Draco was usually the one who was responsible for picking Landon up from the sitter's house, unless he had to work late, so she wasn't surprised that he'd mentioned it.

"Actually, my Dad is going to pick Landon up and keep him for the night," Luna said, nervously taking hold of Draco's hand that wasn't holding his briefcase and blazer. "I thought we should have some time to ourselves tonight. To talk about stuff, you know?"

"Talk?" Draco said, disbelievingly, as he cuddled up next to her, which made it nearly impossible for them to continue walking. He didn't believe for one second that she wanted to spend the evening talking to him, but he'd play her game if that's what she wanted. "What are we going to talk about, Love?"

"What were you guy's meeting about this morning?" Luna asked, in a rather poor attempt at changing the subject. "It looked pretty interesting."

"Trust me, it wasn't," Draco replied. "Now, as I asked before, what are we going to talk about... and don't change the subject again."

"We'll talk about it later, okay..."

"What is it?" Draco asked, planning on badgering her until she admitted that she just wanted to shag him. "Something important on your mind?"

"Not now, Draco," Luna whispered.

"What is it?" he asked again, standing in front of her, so that she couldn't get around him. "What it is?"

"The baby, you idiot!"

"Oh," Draco said, not having expected that to be her answer. He'd hoped she'd say that she just wanted them to have a romantic evening together, but if she wanted to talk about their baby, he was fine with that too. "What about her?'

"Wait until we get home. Please," she pleaded, not wanting to tell him that she wasn't having his baby after all. "Just wait until we get home." Luna noticed that Draco had said, her, instead of it, when referring to the baby. Obviously, he'd already made up his mind about the sex of their non-existent child.

"All right," he said, shrugging his shoulders. Draco figured he was about to get what he deserved for having that article in the Prophet published, and she just didn't want to make a scene in public. He couldn't help but be impressed that she had lured him home under the impression of having a nice afternoon shag, when in reality he was going to have his ass handed to him. Quite frankly, it was devious and he hadn't thought she had it in her.

The rest of their journey home was spent in tense silence, as Luna went over how she would go about breaking the news to Draco in her mind, and Draco tried to figure out a viable excuse for why he went behind her back and told the entire world that they were having another baby. As they neared the house, both wished there was some way to avoid having the conversation, or in Draco's mind, the argument, that was fast approaching. They both knew it was unavoidable, but that didn't mean that they couldn't dread it.

Once they had gotten home, both went upstairs and changed from their work clothes into something more casual and comfortable. Both dreading what was to come, they took a great deal longer than was necessary to get changed, but after nearly forty-five minutes, both met up in the kitchen.

"You want something to eat?" Draco asked, as he settled onto one of the stools at the breakfast counter. This had become Draco's way of asking Luna to make him something to eat. Instead of just asking, he asked her if she wanted something and then told her what 'sounds good'. Standing, Luna headed over to the refrigerator to see what would be quick to make. Seeing that she'd picked up on his hint, Draco moved on to another topic. "I was thinking that Chloe sounds like a good name. What do you think?"

"Shit," Luna muttered. She knew there was nothing worse than for Draco to name the baby, the baby that didn't even exist. It was like when you found an animal wandering the street and brought it home with the intention of finding it's owners, but after a while you had to just go ahead and give it a name, and once you did, it was yours and there was no hope of giving it up. "Draco, you can't name her."

"You don't like Chloe?" Draco asked, slightly offended that she didn't like his suggestion. He thought that Chloe was a beautiful name, befit a Malfoy. "I think Chloe Malfoy sounds lovely. It even sounds good when you say Chloe and Landon Malfoy. They go quite nicely together."

"Landon Lovegood," Luna reminded him. Inwardly, she cursed herself for saying that, but she didn't know why he couldn't accept the fact that their son had her last name, not his. "And it's not that I don't like the name Chloe. I think its beautiful. But the reason you can't name her is because she doesn't exist. I'm sorry, Draco. She just doesn't." That wasn't how Luna had planned on telling him and she couldn't believe that she'd just said it that way, but he'd backed her into a corner with that whole name thing and she really hadn't had much of a choice.

"I know, I know," Draco mumbled, waving his hand at her dismissively. "We could always end up with another boy, but if we do then we can just try again. I'll love him just the same. I just won't be able to use those cute dresses that I bought."

"No, Draco," Luna groaned, unable to believe that he didn't get it. "I'm not pregnant. There is no baby."

"What?" Draco asked, his head jerking round to face her. Luna knew that he'd heard her, so she didn't repeat herself, figuring that he wouldn't want to hear it again. As he sat in front of her, Luna could see his icy blue eyes filling up with tears that she knew he'd never actually let her see him cry. "But the medi-witch said that you were pregnant. I was standing right there." Luna knew that Draco was trying his damnedest to rationalize what she was telling him, but the lack of information made it all but impossible, so she explained exactly what had happened.

"Two days after we were told that I was pregnant, I got my period. I knew that if I was pregnant, I shouldn't have come about my cycle's, so I went to see the medi-witch. She said that I'd never been pregnant. The test was wrong because of something having to do with the excessive hormones from my pregnancy with Landon. I'd actually been sick, not pregnant. That's why I was nauseous and dizzy. That's why Landon got sick. Because of me. I'm sorry, Draco. I would have told you sooner but I didn't know how. You were so happy and I didn't want to be the one to ruin that," she whispered, staring at her hands sadly. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

"So, there was never a baby," he muttered, processing what she'd just told him. "They just assumed that their initial test was correct?"

"I'm sorry," Luna said, not knowing what else to say to him. She knew that there were no words that she would ever be able to say to console him, because at this point she wasn't just telling him that someone had been wrong about something, she was telling him that his child, the one he'd already named and had probably already pictured exactly how she'd look in his mind, didn't exist. It would be like telling him that Landon was dead.

"You don't have to apologize," he mumbled. "You didn't do anything wrong. Look, I've got to dash back over to the office and pick up a couple of things. It should only take about an hour or so and then I'll be back, okay?"

"Alright," Luna stammered, not having expected him to leave after she'd told him the news. "I'll see you in a little bit." Quickly, Draco stood and grabbed his jacket off of the back of his chair before making to leave.

"You okay?" he asked, turning back just before he'd reached the doorway. Luna nodded and offered him a weak smile. Nodding back, Draco headed for the front door, leaving Luna to herself. The moment she heard the door shut, Luna slid down the wall she was resting against, curled her knees to her chest and cried. She wasn't exactly sure if she was crying because she wasn't pregnant or if she was crying because of how badly she'd just had to hurt Draco, either way, she didn't care, it just felt good to get it out instead of holding it in like she'd had to do almost all week.

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Draco hadn't had any intention of going back to the office. There wasn't anything that he'd forgotten to grab before he'd left the first time, he just needed to get out of the house. His entire life his father had made it clear that Malfoy's don't cry, while his mother told him that it was okay to cry, just not to let anyone other than herself see him do it, otherwise, his father would throw a fit. After nineteen years of hearing it, it had been ingrained in Draco's mind, so when Luna told him that 'Chloe' didn't exist he'd done the only thing he'd known would make him feel better.

"Mum," Draco called out, his voice cracking as he struggled to maintain his composure. Closing the front door of his childhood home, Draco headed towards his mother's lounge, where he knew that she spent most of her day. "Mum!" he shouted again, after getting no response. This time his mother heard him. Just before he reached the door to her lounge, it swung open and she appeared in front of him. Narcissa didn't have a chance to say a word before Draco's head fell to its familiar spot at the crook of her neck, as he let out the tears he'd been fighting back ever since Luna had told him she wasn't having his baby. His poor mother didn't have the slightest idea what had come over her son and she didn't care, all she knew was he was hurting and he needed her. It took mere seconds for her to switch back over to Mom-mode, as she liked to call it. As a child, Draco had always hated it when she would baby him, unless of course he was upset, so Narcissa had been forced to learn to turn it on when he needed it and turn it off when he didn't.

For nearly half an hour, Narcissa and Draco stood in the doorway of her lounge, while he cried over the loss of the baby that had never actually been conceived. Due to his upset state, Draco hadn't yet told his mother that Luna wasn't pregnant, but Narcissa knew that her son would only be this upset over something serious, so she was sure it was either the new baby or Landon that had him so distraught. Once he'd calmed down enough so that he could speak, Narcissa led Draco inside of her lounge and made him sit down on the settee while she retrieved a calming draught and a cup of tea for him. After administering the draught and fixing his tea exactly how he liked it, Narcissa sat down next to him and waited, as she always did, for him to tell her what was bothering him.

It only took about five minutes for the full effects of the calming draught to take hold, but once they did, Draco was finally able to explain.

"She's not pregnant," he whispered, leaning back and slumping down against the back of the settee, his mother mimicking his actions so that their heads rested against each other. Narcissa was stunned by what she'd just heard, but she knew that if she reacted to it badly then Draco would start crying again. It took her a few moments to compose herself and hide the tears that were beginning to well up in her eyes, but once she did, Narcissa asked for a bit more information about the news her son had just given her.

"Did she have a miscarriage?" Narcissa asked, reaching up and taking hold of Draco's hand, stroking the top of it with her thumb.

"No," he replied, his free hand coming up to wipe away a few stray tears that had started to form again. Surprisingly, not even a calming draught brewed by Severus Snape, Potion's Master (and asshole) extraordinare, could completely quell the distress felt by the young wizard. "She just wasn't pregnant. When we took Lanny in because of his fever, they'd asked to examine Luna so they could figure out exactly what was wrong with him. When Luna said that she'd been nauseous and dizzy they assumed that their test was absolutely correct, and that she was pregnant. They completely ignored the fact that she'd only had Landon like five months ago and that she was still nursing. Apparently, that can sometimes make pregnancy test results misleading because of excessive hormones or something."

"Draco," his mother said, sitting up and taking hold of both of his hands so she could pull him upright. Wrapping her arms around him, Narcissa gently pat his back in much the same manner she had done when he was a child and was upset. "I'm so sorry, Darling. I know how excited you were about having another baby. I know how badly you want Landon to have a little sister."

"I don't think you have any idea how much I want another baby," Draco said, shaking his head. "Boy or girl, I don't care. I just wanted another one. I wanted to actually get to be there while Luna was pregnant instead of popping into the baby's life three months after he's born. I love Landon to death and I wouldn't change a thing about how things have gone with him. I've grown so much as a person because of Luna and how she handled the situation, but I still missed out on so much. I should have been able to watch her get fat, hear her complain about swollen ankles and sore nipples..."

"You must drive Luna insane with the stuff you've read about in those books you bought," Narcissa said, laughingly. Ever since his journey to the 'Baby Depot' with Blaise and Goyle, Draco had been throwing out various bits of information that he'd read in the baby books he'd picked up, at very random intervals. Lucius had told Narcissa that he was even doing it at work during board meetings, which proved to be very awkward and difficult to recover from. After all, when you're talking about branching out into outside markets, you don't really except the VP to announce that 'sex is often a quick, easy, and not to mention, enjoyable way of inducing labor'. Everyone at the meeting was so unsettled by Draco's proclamation that Lucius had to call a ten minutes break, so they could compose themselves.

"She chucked a few of my books in the fireplace a few days ago," Draco said, he too finding it quite amusing. "I think she got that move from Snape."

"How is she taking this," Narcissa asked her son, after kissing him of the forehead.

"She said she was okay, but I don't know. I don't think she wants me to know how she really feels about it," he replied, recalling his conversation with Luna earlier that afternoon. "She'd found out that she wasn't pregnant two days after they told her she was. She didn't tell me until today because she didn't know how to say it without upsetting me. She knew how excited I was." It was then that Draco realized that her behavior over the last week, that he'd taken as her not being excited about the baby, was actually her trying to keep him from knowing that she wasn't pregnant. He couldn't imagine how hard it must have been to hold something like that inside and not be able to talk about it . Draco didn't doubt that his going on and on about the new baby must have been really hard on her. Suddenly, he felt like a real ass. Here he was, cuddled up on the couch with his mother, crying his eyes out, while the woman who had been led to believe she was pregnant when she wasn't, was at home all by herself. As the pieces of the puzzle started falling together, Draco also figured out that her seeking him out that afternoon and asking him to come home early, was most likely due to Luna's needing to talk about what she'd been holding in.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Narcissa asked, genuinely concerned about the young witch. No matter what Lucius had said to her, Luna was undoubtedly the love of her son's life, and if Draco loved her than she would love her too, no questions asked. "Maybe she should see one of those counselors at St. Mungo's. A friend of mine went to speak with one when her son died during the final battle, and she said that he was wonderful."

"I don't think Luna's much for sharing," Draco said, shaking his head. He knew his Mum was right, Luna did need to talk to someone. Unfortunately, when she had come to him to try to talk about it, he was too busy wallowing in his own self pity for him to notice. Draco officially felt like an ass. A great big, uncaring ass. As he berated himself, a thought struck him, "Shit! The article!"

"Language," his mother chided, never having approved of her son's use of bad words, a habit he'd picked up from his father at a very young age.

"You don't need to concern yourself with the article," a very familiar voice drawled, causing both Draco and his mother's heads to jerk around. They were greeted by the sight of Lucius Malfoy leaning against the door jamb, his arms crossed over his chest."Just make sure that you take care of the child you do have and his mother. You can have another one later on, but if you don't make sure Miss Lovegood's happy, you can pretty much count on it not happening."

"What do you care?" Draco snapped, still agitated with his father for what he'd said about Luna at the housewarming supper. "I really don't think you're in any position to advise anyone on how to handle their wives or children."

"Perhaps, that's exactly why you ought to listen to me," Lucius replied, tensely. He wasn't sure if he was proud that Draco was learning to stand up for himself or angry that he was questioning him, either way, Lucius was being as emotionless as possible, so as not to further agitate his son. "I'm not asking you to do as I've done. I'm asking you to learn from some of the mistakes I've made."

"How did you know Luna wasn't pregnant?" Draco asked, curiously. "Have you been eavesdropping?"

"No," Lucius said, smiling. "Miss Lovegood informed me of the news just before she came to see you. That's why I called an end to your board meeting."

"Why would she tell you before she told me?" Draco asked, angered that Luna would go to his father before she came to him.

"I saw that she was upset, so I offered her a drink to calm her nerves. She blurted out that she wasn't pregnant of her own accord," Lucius informed his son. "She wanted to assure me that she wouldn't be further contaminating our gene pool... I believe those were her words."

"Did you upset her?' Draco asked, warningly.

"Did she seem upset when you saw her?" his father snapped, growing tired of his son's acting as if he'd done something wrong. "I simply told the girl to make sure that she told you the news as gently as possible and that I would handle the issue with the Prophet. So, I would appreciate it if you would soften your tone when you speak to me. After all, your inability to keep a secret, even after promising to do so, just cost me a great deal of money and Rita Skeeter her job."

"What did you do?" Draco asked, not really caring what his father had done, but just touched by the fact that his father had taken it upon himself to do anything at all.

"Luckily, you only personally informed six people of Luna's pregnancy, so it didn't take too long," Lucius began, as he crossed the room and made himself and his wife a cup of tea. Seeing that Draco already had one, he didn't bother to make one for his son. "I offered each of the people you spoke with about the baby, one-hundred thousand galleons for any and all memories that pertained to the situation at hand, as well as, the conversation that they and I were currently having. Naturally, they all agreed, and with the assistance of a pensieve the memories were extracted and have been destroyed."

"But you said that Rita Skeeter had lost her job," Narcissa interjected, setting her tea cup and saucer down on the table. "How?"

"After speaking with Mrs. Skeeter, I determined that she was the only one at the Prophet who had spoken with Draco about the pregnancy, and since all of the other people he'd spoken with had been justly compensated for their memory of the event, that left no one, other than Rita, who could deny the claim I'd made to her boss."

"What did you do?" Narcissa asked, not sure if she even wanted to know.

"I told her boss that the entire article was farce and that Mrs. Skeeter was a sorry excuse of a journalist," Lucius said, laughing. He'd hated Rita Skeeter for as long as he could remember and he simply couldn't miss out on the opportunity to finally let her have it. "I informed him that Miss Lovegood was not pregnant by Draco again, but that the two were happily raising their only child together. I also made it very clear that I would not allow for my family to be used in so blatant a manner, just to ring up paper sales. I demanded that a retraction and apology be published immediately. Her boss called Skeeter to his office and informed her of what I'd just said. Naturally, she denied it and went to retrieve her notes from the interview. Nothing on the papers could be proven to have come from your mouth, so I simply said they were fabricated and that you would never have spoken in such a manner. I also threw in that she was an illegal animagus, and within moments, Rita Skeeter no longer worked for the Prophet and she is currently being investigated by the Ministry for her animagus status." Draco and Narcissa were stunned. Neither could really figure out why on earth Lucius had gone to such extreme measure to cover up the fact that the article contradicted the truth. It would have been so simple to either print a new article that corrected the previous one or have just done nothing and moved past it, clearing up the matter with only those who took the time to ask about it.

"What if they go to the medi-witch?" Draco asked, knowing that the old witch wouldn't have taken a bribe.

"She was particularly vexing," Lucius drawled, a smug smirk on his face. "After turning down my offer to purchase her memories regarding the situation, I informed her that the Ministry would more than likely have her removed from the hospital were they to find out that she had been so neglectful a practitioner. It is well known that a suspected pregnancy so closely following a pregnancy must be handled differently than others due to hormonal fluctuations, especially if the mother is still nursing. St. Mungo's protocol requires that multiple tests over the period of two weeks must be performed before a witch can be declared pregnant. This was not done, so pregnancy should never have even been mentioned until it had. It was pure laziness on their staffs part. After I reminded her of her lacking services, she quickly offered up her memories. I've also removed any mention of it from Miss Lovegood's medical records, so you have nothing to worry about. If anyone asks you about the pregnancy, you and Miss Lovegood need only deny that it ever happened or that you ever spoke to the Prophet about it."

"Thank you," Draco said, still unsure of why his father was going to such lengths to help him and Luna. Granted, this certainly wasn't how Draco would have liked to have handled the situation, he wasn't about to question his father's tactics, especially since it seemed like this was Lucius' way of trying to make amends for his previous behavior towards Luna.

"Not a problem," Lucius said, nodding. "I must say, Miss Lovegood wasn't nearly as grateful when I informed her that the situation had been tended to."

"When did you see her?" Draco asked, not liking the idea of his father being alone with Luna.

"I assumed that you would be at home, so I went there first. When I found that she was alone, I told her of what happened. She said that I'd done things the hard way, instead of just being honest about it. I told her that clearly she didn't know a thing about keeping up appearances, and that she would need to pay attention were she to make it in this family. By the way, you may want to mention to Miss Lovegood that she really doesn't have much of a choice but to marry you. She's under the impression that she's not a part of this family. As you know, the Malfoy family does not allow for children from multiple women, therefore, if you ever plan on getting married or having another child, it's going to have to be with Miss Lovegood."

"I need to get home," Draco muttered, as he stood to leave, not really wanting to get into another debate with his father about Malfoy family principles and rules; Merlin knows there were enough rules to keep them arguing for days. "Luna's probably really pissed."

"She didn't seemed angry," Lucius said, moving to sit in the seat next to his wife that Draco had just vacated, his arm resting on her shoulder. Apparently, Lucius was quite pleased with himself and figured that his wife would be too. "When I got there, she looked like she'd been crying for quite some time. When I went to leave, she kept trying to find some reason to get me to stay. I don't think she wanted to be alone." Lucius looked down at his wife the entire time he spoke, playfully winking at her from time to time. "I think this is harder on her than you may have imagined it would be. You may want to go home and talk to her."

"So, she didn't seem mad?" Draco asked, wanting to make sure that he wasn't walking into a disastrous argument blindly. "You're sure of that?"

"Grow a backbone," his father scoffed, toying with a lock of his wife's hair. "Can you leave? Now?" No more needed to be said. Draco knew exactly why his father was so anxious for him to leave, and he certainly didn't want to stick around to witness it.

"That is really gross," Draco muttered, a disgusted look on his face. "You're putting the moves on her right in front of me."

"Well, if you would leave, we wouldn't be having this problem, now would we?" Lucius replied, still not looking up from his wife, who simply sat there with a knowing and slightly embarrassed look on her face, as she stared at her tea cup.

"Bye." Fighting the urge to gag, Draco left his parents to their... business.

"If you never made it a point to tell me when you did things you knew you shouldn't have done, I'd still always know because you get so damned excited when you do bad things," Narcissa said, once she knew Draco was out of earshot. She was quite surprised that Lucius had heard a word she'd said, since the moment Draco had shut the doors he'd had begun removing his clothes as quickly as possible. It never ceased to amaze Narcissa, that the only time her husband ever forgot that he was wizard was when he was tending to his baser needs. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to just use his wand to disrobe, but Narcissa wasn't about to bring that to his attention.

"Shut up," he said, playfully. "You like it when I do bad things... or when I make obvious exertions of power."

"Well, you are your father's son," Narcissa replied, thoughtfully. It was a little known fact that Narcissa had been quite taken with Lucius' father when she was young witch. That was one of the reason's why she'd even agreed to meet with the Malfoy family to discuss a possible marriage between their families when she was just twelve years old. She'd had such a big crush on Lucius' father that when he'd asked her to consider marrying his son once they were older, she agreed. When Narcissa wanted to poke fun at Lucius she'd bring up her childhood crush on his father. It was one of their little ways of toying with each other, that no one else would be able to pick up on.

"Well, let's just hope the same pertains to Draco," Lucius replied, seriously, the playful tone to his voice gone. "If not, I'll certainly be hearing about it from Father for all eternity, once I'm dead."

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SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG. THE GIRL THAT FILLED IN FOR ME AT WORK DURING MY VACATION TURNED OUT TO BE AN IDIOT, SO I CAME BACK TO A DISASTER. I PROVIDED STEP BY STEP NOTES ON EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAD TO BE DONE AND EVEN TOLD HER WHAT ORDER AND WHAT TIME TO DO THEM, YET SHE STILL MANAGED TO MESS EVERYTHING UP.

FYI: I'M NOT SURE HOW LUCIUS AND NARCISSA GOT TOGETHER, SO I HAD TO MAKE IT UP. IF THEY DO MENTION IT IN THE BOOKS, WHOOPS : )

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