Later that night, Draco was walking upstairs to his room after coming from a meeting in his father's study. They had changed the wards to keep Daphne and Constance out of their home and to also shut the floo off to anybody that wasn't a Malfoy or going to become one by marriage or adoption. They had even made it impossible for anybody to apparate outside of their property and walk onto the grounds of the manor without alerting a house elf to their presence, who would then let a member of the family know what is going on.
Teensy, of course, was in charge of keeping Lila, Sabrina and the new baby when it arrived next spring safe with permission to use her magic to stun anyone who tried to harm any of the little ones. That was also true of the older three boys when they were home from Hogwarts, which they were returning to the next morning. The house elf took her new responsibility seriously because in a lot of ways, she loved those children as they were her own. Draco almost felt sorry for anybody who tried to harm his children after the very feisty house elf got done with them.
He heard Lila giggling from down the hall and saw that the door to the room where Luna and her sons things from their cottage had been moved to. His mother and Molly Weasley had worked together in the past couple of days to get everything but the furniture out of the cottage and let in the wizards who were going to clean the master bedroom. The two older witches had then proceeded to bring the boxes to an empty room in the wing where Draco, Luna and the children were at so she could start to go through and figure out what to keep.
Draco stepped into the doorway and saw Luna sitting on a chair with a box beside her on the table, going through the contents of it. Lila was sitting on the floor at her feet, holding her doll that she had named Luna, talking to Bree, who was sitting in what looked like a muggle seat that rocked and bounced every time she moved. The baby was cooing and smiling at the five year old, as fascinated with Lila as the other little girl was with her.
The three boys were going through some of Lorcan and Lysander's things, the latter slamming anything his father had given him into a trash bag without a second thought. Draco could see that Luna was concerned about her youngest twin but was at a loss as to how to help him. He went over to where she was sitting and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, which Luna covered with her own, squeezing it gently.
"I see that you have decided to go on ahead and get started on this. Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes. Your mother and Mrs. Weasley, who is coming over tomorrow, are going to help me deal with all of these boxes. I just though I would let the boys go through their boxes before they went back to Hogwarts after breakfast in the morning."
"Do you know what you are going to do with the cottage now that it has been cleaned up and all of you personal belongings have been moved out of it?"
"The same thing Rolf and I did with my father's house. Hire somebody to do what is needed to put it up for rent. I will go into my office at The Quibbler soon and meet with my solicitor about taking care of that for me. Once we get the boys back into school tomorrow and Lila set up..." She smiled lovingly down at her daughter, who was still playing with her doll and jabbering at Bree, who was still cooing back at her. "with her healer appointments and a tutor to help her get accustomed to our world, I want to meet with you and your father at my office. We need to discuss what we are going to do to keep as much gossip out of the papers about the two of us and our children. I have an idea on how to handle the press we will most and likely get about our wedding and put a stop to any rumors that Daphne and her mother might try to start."
Before Draco could respond, the sound of glass breaking and screaming brought the both of them to their feet. When they went into the walk-in closet, Draco and Luna were expecting it to be Lysander who was having a fit because of how fragile his emotions had been about his father but to their surprise, it was Lorcan. The little boy was slamming pictures of his father and Astoria that had been hidden in a box in the closet and calling his father's horrible names. Scorpius had joined him in tossing the pictures, not saying a word but Draco could see the anger brewing in his son's silver eyes. Lysander was leaning against the wall of the closet crying, which is most and like what set off his brother and Scorpius in their quest to try to destroy the pictures.
Luna rushed to Lysander's side, wrapped him into her arms and started to whispering softly in his ear to calm him, while Draco went to stop the destruction. He felt a hand grab him and saw his father standing there, the noise had brought him and Narcissa, who was with Lila and Bree, over to this side of the manor to find out what was wrong.
"Let them get it out of their system, son. I had a strong feeling that this was coming for the both of them given how stoic they have both been throughout this whole situation. Let them be."
"What if they get cut by the glass?" Draco was worried at the glass flying as it hit the floor and that it might hit any of them that were standing there.
"I've put up a non verbal shield charm to keep that from happening."
As soon as Lucius finished speaking, Scorpius stopped slamming the pictures to the floor and rushed into his father's arms. Draco picked him up and held him the way he had when his son was little, tears filling his eyes at the pain his little boy was going through. At what all of them were suffering because of Rolf and Astoria and their need to think only about what they wanted. Seemingly without a thought for their spouses and the children that they had conceived with them.
Lucius walked over to where Lorcan had stopped throwing the pictures and was sobbing with his tiny hands in front of his face and picked the boy up into his arms, who threw his arms around the older man's neck. After a few minutes of crying like his heart was breaking, Lorcan looked up with tears falling down his cheeks and a defiant glare.
"I hate him and I'm glad that he is dead! I don't want anything that belongs to him, throw them in the garbage or burn his things in the fireplace, I don't care."
Lucius hugged the boy to him and then looked him in the eyes, hoping that what he was about to say would help him.
"Son, fathers aren't perfect. We make mistakes just like everybody else does and sometimes they are so big that their sons end up paying for or being hurt by them." He looked up at his own son, both remembering the war and the decision to offer Draco to Voldemort at sixteen for him to take the Dark Mark. Which both men still paid for to this day, despite everything they had each done to make up for it. "I know that you hate your father right now and that might not ever change but there is a possibility that it will. So instead of destroying everything your father owned, how about you put them up somewhere where they will be safe? That way if the anger and hate for your father ever goes away, you have the opportunity to have something that was his."
"I'll have them sent to your great grandfather's house where everything has been stored after both Newt and my father died. That way you and your brother can deal with his things when the both of you are ready and at an age when you can handle this," Luna stated, motioning for her son to join her and his brother. Lorcan went over to his mother and she held him in her arms, tears falling down her cheek. She glanced over at Draco, who still had Scorpius in his arms and saw that he was also very visibly upset at what had just happened. "I think we might need to get them into bed and leave their packing for school until tomorrow morning. I'll deal with the rest of this after we get them back to Hogwarts."
He nodded his head in agreement before turning to carry his son out of the closet. Luna took both of her sons by the hand and followed him while Lucius used his wand to clean up the glass and put the pictures back into the box. As he came out of the closet and closed the door tightly behind him, Lucius noticed the room was empty and was grateful that his wife had taken the younger two children out of the room, especially Lila. That little angel had been through enough already.
AN: I'm sorry that this chapter is shorter than usual and has taken so long to post. While babysitting my youngest niece and nephew for my sister: me, my sister and our grandmother have all gotten sick with the flu with the added pleasure of a sore throat and laryingitis for our trouble too. So I have spent the last few days mostly sleeping. I have a bad feeling about this winter if I have already been sick twice and the really cold weather hasn't gotten here yet, although the rain we are getting from what's left of Hurricane Ida isn't helping either.