Happenstance

Chapter 30: Start Spreading the News

"Lucius," Narcissa Malfoy said to her husband, as she sat across from him in his office, reading that mornings edition of the Daily Prophet. Though it was two o'clock in the afternoon, Narcissa had only gotten hold of the paper a few minutes earlier. Lucius was very particular about being the first one to read the paper. He hated getting it second hand because then the pages were wrinkled; or so he said. Not wanting to argue with him, for the last twenty-three years, Narcissa had always allowed her husband to read the paper first. "That box on your desk is glowing," she informed him, pointing at the trinket box on his desk. Whipping his head around, Lucius turned his attention to the small platinum box that sit on the corner of his impressive desk. The box, which was no bigger than his hand and had the Malfoy family crest engraved on each side and was heavy ladened with emeralds and onyx gems, had been past down to the head of the Malfoy line ever since they'd come to exist. Excitedly, Lucius picked up the family heirloom and looked over to his wife expectantly.

"What is it?" she asked. That box had been on Lucius' desk for as long as she could remember, and no matter how many times she'd asked him what it was, he would always avoid the question. "Why is it glowing like that?"

"Did you give your engagement ring to Draco already?" Lucius asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes," Narcissa replied, hesitantly. "You told me years ago that he was supposed to use it as you had. When he told me how smitten he was with Luna, I gave it to him, just in case he decided that she was the one he wanted. Was that wrong?"

"No," Lucius said, happily. "That was perfect." Leaning over, he kissed his wife. "This is the jewelery box that has always been paired with that ring. They were made to go together. The trinket box is passed down to the head of the Malfoy family, while the ring is given to his oldest son and eventually to his bride. The moment an engagement takes place, the box emits this lovely green aura to alert the Head of the line that its time for the box to be opened, at least that's what Father said."

"Is that why you would never let me open it?" Narcissa asked. "Because it hadn't starting glowing yet?"

"You can't open it until its ready to be opened," Lucius informed her. "Trust me, I've tried." Eager to see what would happen, Lucius turned the tiny clasp that had held the box shut all those years. Suddenly, a bright green light was cast upon his entire office and the box shot from his hands, landing on the floor at his feet. From within the velvet green interior of the box, the sparkling silver image of the Malfoy family tree grew. The sight of his family tree growing root by root, branch by branch, was an amazing moment for Lucius Malfoy witness.

For several long minutes, Lucius and Narcissa watched as the name of every ancestor of the Malfoy line was laid before them. Both were quite excited to see their own names appear, and even more so when they saw Draco's. Once Draco's name had been inscribed on it's branch of the silvery hologram, something strange happened. Another tree sprouted up next to the Malfoy family tree and began listing the names of people that Lucius and Narcissa had never heard of. It wasn't until they saw the last name, Lovegood, that they realized who's family tree was growing next to theirs.

Once all of the Lovegood ancestors had been accounted for, Luna's name on her familial tree appeared. Without warning, the branches that contained Draco's and Luna's names grew towards each other, and once they were close enough, they began twining themselves together and caused a bright white burst of light, which forced Narcissa and Lucius to look away.

As the light dimmed, they opened their eyes. To their astonishment, the two trees had combined themselves, making one large family tree that contained the names of every member of both families, including the newest branch that stemmed from Draco's and Luna's branch, which read Landon Cooper Malfoy.

Stunned, Lucius looked over to his wife and said, "Now, that's not something you see everyday."

"No," Narcissa whispered, shaking her head. "It was beautiful, wasn't it?" Lucius nodded in agreement. Suddenly, Narcissa started to giggle.

"What are you laughing about?" Lucius asked, not exactly thrilled that she'd chosen to ruin the moment. "I fail to see what's so bloody funny."

"Its just that I'm kind of surprised that your family tree didn't try to get away from Luna's, that's all," Narcissa giggle. "I half expected the Malfoy tree to uproot and run away. You are a pretentious bunch."

"Have you met your family?" Lucius asked, flabbergasted that she had the nerve to call his family pretentious when she was a member of the Black family; you didn't get much more pretentious than that. "Your mother even looked down her nose at me... me!" Narcissa looked at her husband, still annoyed by the events that had taken place more than two decades ago. "Either way," she said, seriously. "I'm just glad that it went smoothly."

"Smoothly?" Lucius laughed. "This may have gone off without a hitch, but you seem to have forgotten that Luna will still have to run the gauntlet; and by that I mean my living relatives. When they hear that Draco's engaged they'll be expecting an invitation to an engagement party. And you know from experience that the sole purpose of a Malfoy engagement party is to make the bride-to-be's life a living hell."

"Boy do I," Narcissa scoffed, recalling the torturous evening that had been her own engagement party. She'd nearly hexed Lucius' grandmother because the old witch had spent the entire evening tormenting her. "Thank Merlin your grandmother is dead."

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Lucius said, laughing. He knew how hard the old bird was to deal with, so he wasn't bothered by what his wife had said. Besides, he'd hated her too; luckily, she'd been an insanely wealthy old hag, so she'd more than atoned for her transgressions. "Everything will be fine," Lucius assured his wife. "Surprisingly, I like Luna, and I'll make sure that everyone knows it. Since they're all terrified of me, they'll keep their words as gentle as possible."

"You're a cocky bastard," Narcissa said, shaking her head, but secretly loving his attitude.

"Yes," Lucius agreed. "But not without reason. What do you say we go pay Luna's father a visit. We can share the good news with them. I'm sure her father will be thrilled."

"Sounds lovely," Narcissa said, kissing her husband before heading up to her room to get change.

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When Lucius and Narcissa had shown up at Lovegood Estates, Luke Lovegood was more than just a bit surprised to see them. At first he'd thought that something was wrong, but when Draco's parents delivered the good news to him and his new wife, Rosmerta, they'd been overjoyed. He knew that things had been going very well between Draco and Luna as of late, and he was sure that his daughter was absolutely head over heels for Draco; but he hadn't expected them to get engaged so soon. Luna had made it pretty clear that they were going to take things slow, so hearing that they were already engaged came as a bit of a shock. Nevertheless, Luke was thrilled that his daughter had finally agreed to the inevitable, and was going to become Mrs. Draco Malfoy.

Unable to contain their excitement, their parents decided to head straight over to the kids' house and congratulate them. Just as they were heading out the door, a thought came to Narcissa.

"Maybe we should wait for them to tell us," she said, grabbing hold of her husband's arm to stop him. "This is their news to share. We probably shouldn't just barge in and tell them that we already know."

"Perhaps..." Lucius began, trying to process what his wife was saying. Maybe she was right; it would be quite rude.

"I can see where you're coming from Narcissa," Luke interjected. "But I know my Luna, and she's the sort that likes to wait for the perfect moment to give the good news, and there's no telling how long that'll be from now. I don't think I can keep my knowing about their engagement a secret, and I don't think either of you can either."

"True," Narcissa laughed. "Well, we can just blame Lucius if they're upset about it."

"I beg your pardon," Lucius piped in, glaring at his wife. "Blame me?"

"Yes, you," Narcissa repeated. "You're responsible for ninety-nine percent of all meddling that takes place in their relationship, therefore, it's only natural for you to shoulder this blame also."

"Maybe I'll blame you," Lucius countered, cockily.

"Who do you think Draco's going to believe? You or Me?" Narcissa asked, cocking her eyebrow at her husband. Lucius knew she was right. No matter how hard he'd tried during the boy's youth, and no matter how devoted a son Draco had been, Lucius had never been able to change the fact that his son was Mama's boy through and through.

"Damn it," Lucius hissed, storming past his wife. He wasn't really mad, he just knew he'd been beaten and he hated it with a passion. "Well come on, will you," Lucius griped, holding out his hand for his wife, so they could sidelong apparate to Draco's house.

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As the afternoon had progressed, Luna and Draco had finally put some clothes on and had moved their game of Scrabble, if that's what you want to call spelling out inappropriate things on a game board, downstairs into the sitting room, so that Landon could play with some of his toys that were kept down there. Even though the pair had just gotten engaged, little changed in their behavior towards one another. Inwardly, Luna had felt that things would feel different after they'd made it official, but they didn't, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Deciding not to dwell, she proclaimed it a good thing and went on with their game.

"So, Mrs. Luna Malfoy... Mrs. Draco Malfoy," Draco said, liking the way the words rolled off his tongue. It just sounded right. "Beat that." Draco lay down his tiles on the game board, spelling out the word, boobs. "That's a lot of points for such a small word, huh?" Draco gloated.

"Shut up," Luna griped, not liking the fact that he was beating her senseless. He had almost twice as many points as she did. Luna wasn't sure if that was because he knew twice as many inappropriate words, or if he was just better at the game than she was; either way, she wasn't keen on losing. "Maybe we should play something else."

"So says the loser," Draco laughed, pushing up onto his forearms so he could lean across the game board and kiss her. As he did so, he felt something tugging at the leg of his pant. Begrudgingly, he broke their kiss, so he could see what it was.

To Draco and Luna's astonishment, Landon had managed to crawl from his spot on his blankey a few feet away, to reach his parents. This was a big deal. Landon was just seven months old and he'd never once crawled before.

"Did you see that!" Draco shouted, more excited then he could ever recall having been before. It seemed funny to him that after everything he'd been through, even after Luna had just accepted his proposal hours earlier; if someone had asked him what his favorite moment ever was, Draco would have named that very moment. "We gave birth to the smartest baby ever! My mom said he shouldn't start crawling around for another month or two!" Luna could hardly contain her excitement either. Draco was right. Landon still had a while before he was supposed to start crawling.

While Luna and Draco rather loudly doted over Lanny for crawling across the room, their parents stood outside the front door, impatiently waiting for someone to answer it. They'd been knocking for nearly two minutes and still there was no response, so Lucius, being the impatient man he is, just opened the door and went inside. All the way in the foyer, their parents could hear them carrying on, so they followed the sounds of their laughs to the sitting room.

"What on Earth are you doing?" Lucius asked, cocking his head to the side, as he tried to figure out what was going on. Draco, who was holding Landon against his chest, and Luna, were standing on the couching, dancing around giddily, while Lanny giggled uncontrollably. At the sound of his fathers voice, Draco stopped, rooting himself to his spot on the couch. Luna on the other hand, quickly dismounted from atop the furniture and took a seat next to Draco's feet on the disheveled cushions.

"Landon crawled all the way from over by his blankey to there," Draco said, pointing to the game board that lay in the middle of the floor. "Me and Luna were making out," he hadn't actually meant to say that part, but it had slipped out, "and he just crawled over and started pulling on my pants. He did it without any help. He's the smartest baby ever."

"He crawled," Narcissa said, excitedly, rushing over and taking Landon out of her son's arms before pulling him down off of the furniture by the leg of his pants. "That's fantastic!"

"I know," Draco said, sitting down next to Luna and putting his arm around her shoulder. "I taught him that."

"You did not," Luna said, turning to him with a look of disbelief on her face. "When did you teach him that?"

"I crawl around in front of him all the time," Draco lied.

"Bullshit," Luna said, before she could catch herself. Her father and Narcissa shot her a look that said, 'watch your mouth'. "You do not. He figured it out all on his own." Luna stood to go stand by Narcissa, who held Landon, and kissed the boy repeatedly. "Don't try to take credit for his cleverness."

"Fine," Draco muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I just don't see how this day could get any better," Lucius said, moving from his place in the doorway to stand in the middle of the room by the Scrabble board. "First you two get engaged, and now Landon's crawling. I'd say its been a very productive Saturday."

"Yep," Draco agreed, smiling broadly. "Wait... how do you know Luna and I are engaged?" Draco knew that neither of them had even had a chance to bring it up yet, what with the hub bub over Landon crawling for the first time. Immediately, in typical Draco fashion, he jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Have you been spying on us? Do you watch us when we think we're alone, because we think no one's watching us?"

"What?" Lucius asked, his son's last statement not having made much sense.

"Of course they're not spying on us," Luna interjected, not exactly sure if that were true or not. She couldn't quite figure out how Lucius had found out they were engaged either. "How did you hear about it?"

"I can't say," Lucius said. "It's something that's passed down generation to generation, and until your engagement ring has been replaced with your wedding ring, I can't even tell Draco about it. Hell, I didn't find out what it was all about until today."

"Damn Malfoy's and their secrets," Draco grumbled, forgetting that he was talking about his own family. "Way to spoil the surprise."

"Its not spoiled," Narcissa said. "We're all thrilled by the news. We couldn't be happier." Narcissa said, handing her grandson over to his grandfather. As she walked over to Draco, Narcissa stepped past the Scrabble board. Glancing down, she was shocked to see what it said. "What on Earth!" she exclaimed, reading over the various and rather explicit words and phrases. Curiously, Lucius, Luke and Rosmerta glanced down at the board; their eyes widening with shock.

"Oh, that's nothing," Luna said, her cheeks having turned a bright shade of red. "Its just this stupid game Draco found at the baby store."

"Baby store?" Narcissa asked, still in shock over what she'd read. "What exactly are you trying to teach Landon. Its a bit early for sex education don't you think?"

"Its never too early for sex education," Lucius laughed, Luke joining in as well. Seeing that both his father and Luna's father found it funny, Draco felt that it was okay to laugh at his mother's being appalled by what they'd been playing.

"Yeah," Luke said. "I'm sure Lanny's first girlfriend will appreciate it."

"For the love of Merlin!" Narcissa gasped, shaking her head. "Thanks Luke. The last thing my husband needs is a partner in crime. At least, Severus was a bit more restrained with his antics."

"By the way," Rosmerta chimed in, pointing at the board. "Whoever put vagina down, spelled it wrong."

"I did not," Draco said, lunging towards the board to inspect it. Sure enough, he'd spelled it wrong.

"Deduct those points from your total," Luna said, quickly, tossing the score card at him. "You don't get the points if you spelled it wrong."

"What's the matter with you two!" Narcissa said, her prudish nature coming through.

"Lighten up," Lucius said, placing his hands on his wifes tense shoulders. "It's just a game. And I have a sneaking suspicion that this isn't how its actually supposed to be played, its just the manifestation of their overactive imaginations." Lucius gave both Luna and Draco a knowing look. "But with all joking aside, we are all absolutely thrilled that you two have decided to get married."

"How did you propose?" Narcissa asked, her mood softening now that her husband had changed the topic. Luna and Draco burst out laughing, at her question.

"It was really romantic," Draco said, once he was able to quell his laughter. "First we apparated to the coast and had this really romantic breakfast that I had set up right on the shoreline, and we watched the sunrise. And then, just as we finished eating, I cast a spell that made the stars form the words Luna Lovegood, will you marry me?"

"And I said yes," Luna piped in, barely able to get it out due to her still laughing quite hard.

"Oh, that's beautiful," Narcissa and Rosmerta said in unison.

"Really?" Lucius asked, skeptically, unable to get past some of the parts that didn't make much sense. Lucius was almost positive that there wasn't a spell that would make the stars line up in that fashion, and he was also sure that the stars wouldn't still be out if they were watching the sunrise.

"No," Draco said, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm lying. It actually just sort of slipped out during Scrabble. I had just spelled out blowjob, and Luna put down scrotum, and I blurted out, 'will you marry me' and she said, 'okay'."

"Are you joking?" Narcissa asked, not quite sure if he was just screwing with her again. Draco shook his head, laughing.

"That is the lamest proposal I've ever heard of," Lucius said, joining in on his son's laughter.

"I know," Draco said, flopping back down next to Luna on the couch, who was also laughing uncontrollably. "I wasn't even sure she'd heard me right the first time, so I had to ask again a few minutes later."

"But... you can't tell people that!" Narcissa exclaimed, annoyed that everyone but her found this funny "When someone asks how you proposed, you cannot tell them that!"

"Why?" Luna asked, seriously. "I wouldn't have had it any other way."

"But it was so rash, so unplanned," Rosmerta agreed, unable to understand why Luna wasn't at all bother by the impromptu proposal.

"That's why I liked it," Luna explained. "If you'd been there you'd understand. It wasn't like he just asked me. It was more like he couldn't help but ask me, and that makes it all the more meaningful. He could have made a big fuss over it, which I'm sure he'd planned on doing when he'd thought about asking me; but in that moment, he just couldn't help himself, he had to ask me. Now that's passion; that's love... and that's why I said yes. If he'd made a big deal about it, I probably wouldn't have said yes."

"Why?" Draco and his mother asked, at the same time.

"Because then it would be like you were trying to sell yourself to me, and I don't want that. I don't need that. I just need you, and that's what I got," Luna said, as if it ought to be common knowledge. "And that's all I'll ever want."

"More kids right?" Draco asked, worriedly.

"Reasonably so," Luna agreed.

"Well, regardless, we've got to keep going until we have a girl," Draco said, hoping she'd agree. "If not, one of our boys is going to have to be a cross dresser, cause I've got a bunch of cute girl clothes that someones going to wear, damn it."

"Calm down," Lucius said, patting his son's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll get your girl."

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