Disclaimer: The Harry Potter world is the property of JK Rowling and all relevant copyright holders.

-o0o-

She had spent two days with her parents, her mother's birthday included, and she had no idea how she could have ever been able to stand living there. She knew it was different, they seemed to be so in her face the entire time when she visited them now. They weren't like that when she actually lived there.

Her mother had taken her to the side to talk in private. Even if she wasn't a witch, being married to a wizard she'd been kept in the loop the entire time. She knew who Malfoy was and had been horrified when the letter came from the ministry. She'd been crying for days, and now she was rather relieved that Alma seemed to be fine. So, taking her to the side she'd blushed a little.

"Is he treating you well, you know, in bed. Is he gentle?"

She couldn't tell her mom the truth, that he spanked her, whipped her, called her names and did his best to fuck her brains out. It wouldn't even help if she tried to explain that she liked it, that he did it because he wanted her to enjoy the two of them having sex. So she took the easy route.

"Yes, Mom. Don't worry about it." She seemed skeptical and Alma took hold of her shoulders. "Mother, I'm not sure how to say this... but I'm satisfied. He makes sure that I... reach... completion."

Her mom simply laughed. "Okay," she said and gave Alma a kiss on her cheek. "I won't ask again."

Hermione, Ginny and Hannah had all replied and accepted the invitations and she was just then walked down the stairs to the hallway to meet them.

The six of them were curiously looking around and when they noticed Alma they smiled. She'd asked Minni to set the dinner in the smaller dining room, where they usually had breakfast. The dining room with the huge table would only feel strange and they'd all be uncomfortable.

"Hi," she said as she walked towards them. "I'm so glad you decided to come. This huge house can really drive me crazy when I'm on my own."

"It is huge," Ron agreed and looked around. "What do you do here?"

"There's quite a nice library."

"There is?" Hermione asked with great interest.

"That caught her interest," Harry laughed.

"I can show you, if you'd like..." She got insecure when she saw the other's faces.

"Maybe Mione can come here some other time and see the library because if you show her now, she won't be having any dinner," Ron said and when Hermione glared at him he shrugged. "You know it's true."

They did take a small tour. Ron was mostly impressed with the big bath, but they all seemed pretty impressional with that one and comments about it being nicer than the prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts. Since she'd never been a prefect or anything like it, she'd never actually seen it.

When they finally came to the breakfasts room, the six of them stared again.

"This is an awesome dining room," Ginny whispered and Alma could feel herself blushing.

"It's actually our breakfasts room." When they turned around and stared at her she cleared her throat. "The dining room is just... ridiculously big so I thought it was better to have the dinner in here."

Hannah was the first one to find her voice. "So... do you have a lunch-room as well?"

"Yes," she answered and bit her cheeks. "It's a middle sized room." Then she laughed. "I'm kidding. Lucius usually eats lunch in the study and I eat wherever I am."

They all settled down and after the awkward first half hour, it became really pleasant. Alma slid into her usual behavior and slipped into the background and mostly listened to the others talk. But it was enough, she laughed so hard her tears were falling on more than one occasion and when Harry was describing the feeling of finding out that he'd have to fight a dragon during the triwizard tournament, she was folded over the table since Ron and Neville kept filling in with comments of their own. Then Neville described the horror of thinking he'd killed Harry when he dove into the water after chewing gilly weed.

"I mean; I'd forever be known as the boy who killed the boy who lived!"

While Alma was still laughing, Minni showed up.

"Master is home," she informed Alma who stared at her for a few seconds before she understood what she was saying.

"Where is he?"

"In the hallway."

"Excuse me," she said to the others and got up. "No, please wait, I'll be right back."

Lucius was standing by the stairs and smiled when he saw her.

"It's good to see you," he said and reeled her in by her waist, looking down at her with a tired smile. "I thought the dinner was yesterday."

"No, I thought you were coming tomorrow evening."

"I was done early and I decided to go home." He leaned down and gave her a kiss. "What's with the tears?"

"Laughing. They're telling me stories."

"Good. Would've been such a mood killer if I had to go in there to curse them for making you cry. I'll leave you all alone, I'll finish up some work in the study." He held her chin and gave her one more kiss.

"You look tired," she said and put her arms around his neck.

"Long couple of days. Go to your friends, have fun, and I'll see you later, darling." He drew her even closer and leaned his forehead to hers for a few moments and finally gave her nose a kiss. "Missed you."

"You did?"

He chuckled and turned her around. "Go to your friends." And he smacked her behind. When she turned around and glared at him he laughed.

The atmosphere was really weird when she got back to the room and when she sat down they all stared at her. Finally she had to ask.

"What?"

Hannah was the first to speak up. "The sound travels fairly well so... we heard you."

"And?" The six of them kept staring. "What?"

"Well," Hermione looked embarrassed. "Is he always so... sweet with you?"

"Um, yeah?" She felt rather confused. "Was he sweet?"

"I was more expecting him to, you know, smack your rear and—" Ron started, and Hermione slapped his arm to stop him. "Sorry."

"Please," Alma laughed. "Keep telling me about the gilly weed!"

Neville nodded and started talking again, soon the mood was no longer awkward, and she was laughing again. When they were all full and slightly drunk she followed them to the door.

"Are you sure I can come and see your library?" Hermione said

"I don't think it's a problem."

"Talk to him to make sure." Then she stunned Alma by throwing her arms around her. "I had such a great time, promise we'll do this again."

"Absolutely," she agreed and then quickly had hugs from all the others. Neville was the last one.

"You won't be in any trouble now, will you?" he asked with a serious face.

"Don't worry, cousin," she answered and held his cheeks. "I won't. If you're more comfortable with us being somewhere else next time, I'm fine with that."

"Think we could use the bath if we come here?" Ginny asked.

"I would say 'absolutely', but I'm sure you'd want me to check with Lucius first, so I'll do that and let you know."

As soon as they were out the door she ran up the stairs and found Lucius sitting in the bed. He smiled again and caught her when she crashed into the bed.

"So you missed me?"

"I have become accustomed to you being all over me when I sleep. I don't sleep well alone anymore."

"Maybe it's the evening exercise that's missing as well?"

"I'm sure that's part of it," Lucius said with a tired smile.

"You're tired, we can make it morning exercise instead, and I'll still be all over you during the night."

"I missed your little pink perfection as well, I want some of it," he said and grabbed her, flipping her around. "Tell me, did you miss me?"

"I did."

He mumbled a few words and with that, they were both naked. She felt him rubbing his cock in her slit and she moaned.

"How much did you miss me?"

"A lot."

"I'm betting that my dirty little girl has missed my big cock more than anything," he growled into her ear and then he pushed inside.

"Yes!"

She pulled him down and claimed his mouth, moving her hips agains him, meeting his thrusts. She knew this would be a short one. These intense ones always were, he'd come right along with her. When she felt herself getting closer, she opened her eyes to look at him, knowing that his were fixed on her as they always were when they had sex.

"I'm close," she whispered.

Lucius was resting on an elbow above her, holding her eyes and when the first wave sneaked up on her he leaned down and kissed her, circling her nipple with his thumb to make her pleasure last. His kisses got more intense as she felt him harden inside of her. She wrapped her legs around him and he groaned into her ear when he came.

He gave her another kiss and rolled down next to her. She moved closer and rested on his chest. She smiled when he stroke her hair.

"Did you have a good time today?" he asked with a yawn.

"Yes. Can Hermione come and look at the library?"

"As long as you make sure they're not in this room or the study, they can come."

"And the bath?"

"I don't have anything private in the bath," he mumbled and held her closer. "I'm falling asleep now."

She gave his cheek a kiss. "Night."

-o0o-

Lucius realized that they'd fallen into some sort of a routine, and it was pleasant, not just because of the sex. They had breakfast and dinner together, she followed him to business dinners, and they talked—a lot. About everything. Or, he thought it was everything. He just hadn't known how many sides there were to her.

One evening they were at her parents' house for dinner. He accompanied her on occasion, but often let her go alone. Her parents might know she was doing okay with him, but they still didn't like him much. He wandered off into their living room, which was small, and his eyes fell on a picture of Alma and Neville. They were both covered in mud, her blue eyes sparkling, holding a bucket and laughing. Neville mostly looked uncomfortable, the way he seemed to always do.

He picked it up. This wasn't the sort of picture he'd ever seen framed before, if he'd every seen anything like it, which he wasn't sure he had. Two dirty children, but he could still see why they had kept it, it was... endearing. Even if Neville looked uncomfortable, they both looked happy.

"We'd caught tadpole in the stream not far from our summer house. We fell in the mud a few times. Mom couldn't stop laughing at us when we came back and took that picture." He turned around and saw Alma in the doorway, smiling. "She said she wanted picture proof of why she had gray hairs."

He laughed. "I take it you often did... things like this?"

"We were almost always dirty, but sometimes it was because we'd done a bonfire, or climbed trees... or just... playing."

"And she framed it?"

"Dad loved that picture. Said it summed up our childhood perfectly."

He looked down at the picture. He would've never dared to look like that when he was a child, and he would've gone insane if Draco had. Suddenly his own parenting seemed... lacking. It would've been nice to see Draco with a smile like that one. Happy and... proud. Alma looked proud at the picture, probably because they'd managed to catch a few tadpoles.

After that night, he started asking, and she told him more about her childhood, and he was stunned by how different hers was compared to his. It was just filled with love and... wonderful memories. Playing with cousins, wading though streams catching tadpole, fishing, bonfires, just... being a kid, without any pressure. He understood why she was so close to Neville, they seemed to have been important parts of each others lives.

She tried to ask him about his childhood, but soon understood it was nothing like hers, and she stopped asking. He didn't want to talk about it, and he started to see his own parenting as... lacking, to put it mildly.

He wasn't thinking about the two of them having children yet. They weren't even close to it, but he started to see the how it would be different to have a child with her, how she'd be a very different mother compared to any mother that had been a part of his life, and he was looking forward to it. He was really looking forward to seeing those kinds of smiles on his own child's face.