His Love

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"Lucius what ever are you looking at?" the voice was deepened with sleep and confusion but the arms that wrapped around his waist were as strong and supporting as ever. He allowed a smile as he felt his wife place her dozing head on his shoulder.

"Nothing Narcissa, just admiring our backyard," Lucius said, the smile layering his voice with the emotions of joy and love.

"Yes, I know you're glad that the ministry did not take our house or our lands. In fact I remember you being ecstatic when all they took was a small portion of our money." Narcissa said with a smile at the memory of her husbands face when he found out that he would not have to be locked up in Azkaban. She was almost sure that her face reflected the same type of joy at that moment.

"And they also took some of our time with community service and all that, over all we did really well with the end of the war, almost unbelievingly so." Lucius leaned his head against the window so that he could get a better view of outside.

"Hmm, but that still doesn't explain why your up at nine in the morning looking outside as the snow falls."

"That is because it is not the snow the grabs my attention." Lucius told her as he reached behind her to grab her arms and turn her around until she was against his chest instead of his back. He stood there letting her sent wrap around him like one of his finest cloaks.

"Then what is it that you are looking at?" Narcissa lifted her head from his chest to look out of the same fogged up window. When she finally looked beyond the smudges and out beyond the frosted land that was laid just beyond the manor, she smiled at the sight that reached her.

"Our son of course, I'm surprised that he's willing to go out in the snow that he used to hate so much. Especially when the clouds are low like today and make him stranded on the ground." Lucius explained while he rubbed circles in Narcissa's back, liking the way a shiver ran down her spine and then back up again.

"Well, it seems like he had a little motivation."

Lucius snorted in agreement to his wife statement as he looked at her blond head before turning back to look out the window. The trees were weighted heavily by the frozen water that clung to their branches. And in the freshly fallen snow there were tracks moving all along the ground, some were easy to point out like a deer or the familiar human prints, and some were harder like the small steps of a mouse or chipmunk. But one thing that was not hard to see out on the white land was his son and his girlfriend.

He watched as the young black haired woman prodded the young blond haired man to roll the particles of snow into a ball. It was interesting to see how Draco all but disappeared, without his black coat he feared he'd never have seen his son outside playing with the woman who was so easily spotted with her black hair falling behind her in a wave of silk.

He might not have done many good things in his life; in fact many people might say (including himself) that he had done things that should have landed him into a cell of Azkaban with no visitors. And not for the first time he wondered what exactly it was that he had done right that had landed him with such good fortune.

But like always he was drawn a blank, nothing he had ever done had been good enough for him to be in this exact moment. With his wife securely snuggled into his arms, with her warm head resting against his chest, where he could easily lie his head down, nothing came up that was better. And his son down below living like he should have before any of the Voldermort stuff happened.

His family had been saved from the enslavement that Voldermort had placed upon them. And for this calm he now found he would always owe Harry Potter more than he could ever give. Not that he would ever tell that to the young auror that his son worked with, but it was nice to keep the hidden knowledge.

It had only been one year since the falling of the dark lord, and already things were returning to the way they were supposed to have been all along. He had no lost love for the man that had been destroyed; in fact he couldn't help but feel glee at his death.

"Hey Lucius, how long has it been since we've been playing out in the snow?" Narcissa asked tilting her head to the side to look more closely at the figure that was being constructed up on her lawn. She had to suppress a giggle when one of the peacocks started to knock down one of the smaller balls that were sitting close to the bigger double. She laughed when she watched the two start chasing after the peacock across the yard and away from their snow pile.

"Narcissa I believe the last time we played in the snow was on our way back to Hogwarts, where you threw a ball at me exclaiming that I had killed your cat, and that is the last I saw of you till our wedding day." Lucius reminded with a smile, how was he supposed to know that he would later marry the girl with the flaming temper. Not that she ever really showed that temper again unless she wanted to get what she wanted.

Narcissa snorted "Lucius you totally killed my cat, and I had a right to revenge, it was much better than what Bella had planned out, I assure you."

"No assurance needed," Lucius said as he watched as the two below walked up to the manor. Seeing this he pulled away from Narcissa and grabbed her hand to lead her out of the room.

"Where are we going?" Narcissa asked in surprise tightening her hold on Lucius as he led her down their stairs and into the area of the house that was used for food preparation, otherwise known as the kitchen. She couldn't guess what Lucius would want to do in the kitchen besides breakfast, which was served in the dining room anyways.

But she wasn't about to complain about her husbands sudden change in moods. She was just glad that the haunted look in his eyes, which used to reside there ever since his stay in Azkaban, was long gone. She had been worried about her husband, but she was glad that he was strong enough to pull through.

The only thing she was worried about was where he was taking her. But those worries were quickly appeased at the sight of her smiling son. Seeing her child's eyes clear up from there moody indifference and painful look to the new joyful sparkle brightened her mood considerably. And it was just as fulfilling as seeing her husbands carefree expression.

Not a day went by that she didn't thank god for her split choice decision to lie to the Dark Lord. And in doing so she had saved not only her own families futures but those of the everyday witches and wizards, and especially the muggle born ones. She had everything thing she had ever wanted and now all she was waiting for was a grandchild.

"Good morning mother and father." Draco said with a smile, no longer bothering to keep his expressionless face up. Just another thing that the woman beside her son had been a factor to, it helped that she had her won blinding smile on.

"Draco…Astoria…what exactly are you doing on this dismal day?" Lucius asked trying to hide the smile that was creeping up on his face without his permission.

Astoria brushed the snow flakes out of her hair and onto the tiled floor beneath her boots. She then lifted her head up to regard both Lucius and Narcissa, the whole time giving them a happy grin. "Well Mr. Malfoy, were making a snow man on your front yard." Astoria paused and started tapping her chin with her finger. "That is if your birds stop eating the carrots and stop roosting in the head."

Draco laughed at her explanation of what they were dong. "I told you peacocks are vain they just don't enjoy having the spotlight taken off them."

"Draco, were making a snowman not a snow peacock they have nothing to worry about there just being spiteful now." Astoria said as she used her wand to levitate the last of the carrots to her waiting hands.

"Is that's what you call it," Draco allowed before he looked back at his parents "Do you want to join us?"

"To go play in the snow?" Lucius asked rising an eye brow in question

"Well duh what else?" Astoria rolled her eyes and smiled at Lucius

If Lucius was perfectly honest he quite liked little Astoria Greengrass she had a spark for life that the Malfoys had desperately needed. And she was unafraid of ex death eaters which was quite refreshing. "Aw I see, than I'm afraid we'll have to decline."

"Alright, then we'll see you once we fend of the peacocks." Draco laughed as Astoria took a hold of his hands and proceeded to drag him out of the house and back to the deformed snowman that they had been working on for hours now.

Lucius laughed once they were gone before he turned to Narcissa "Narcissa you do not think they will harm one of my birds do you?"

"I'm afraid there's no way to tell." Narcissa sighed as she shook her head as if to say the birds are now in god's hands. Narcissa smiled before she went over to the counter to pick up a few pieces of fruit. It was now Narcissa's turn to grab a hold of her husbands hand to drag him out of the kitchen and across the halls.

She led him across the house until they came upon Narcissa's favorite library. The walls were covered in shelves that held all types of different books. The room itself smelled like new books and cinnamon, a smell that Narcissa had come to love over the months of sitting up late at night with little Draco. There were comfortable chairs and sofas in the middle of the room placed there if guest were ever to come. It was on one of the sofas that Narcissa sat patting the cushion next to her to signal that Lucius was more than welcome to sit with her.

Lucius smiled and grabbed a book that he had left sitting on the end table last night before sitting down to join his wife. He watched from the corner of his eye as his wife took a grape and popped it into her mouth as she leaned back till her head was resting on his legs. Lucius shifted his fingers through her hair as he opened his book to start reading from where he had last been.

Narcissa was perfectly content to lie over Lucius's knees as he massaged her scalp. Every so often she would stretch her hand to grab another piece of fruit. She was just taking comfort in his presence just like he was.

And both were perfectly happy with where they were at this moment. Their past may not be a clean shiny pure slate but it had been necessary to get them to this point. Lucius smiled as he once again looked out a nearby window to see his son racing through the snow laughing with Astoria hot on his heels. It still surprised him how different Draco was in front of public or even at his job, while when ever he was with the family he always tried harder to show what he was really feeling. But it was only around Astoria that his son ever succeeded in showing those feelings and he wasn't even trying.

War destroys people and rarely do people ever talk about the things they have to go through during that time. If you were to ask any of the Malfoy's what had happened during a certain time during the war they would clam up in a shell that was impossible to penetrate, just another little thing that war brings.

But there were also brought good things hidden in the cracks of darkness. As if the light piggy backed the darkness so that it there was something left when all that darkness finally disappeared. And war had brought him an understanding of how precious family was, it also brought along the wonders of how far someone was willing to go for love.

Perhaps the Dark Lord would have known that he was set up to be betrayed if he had known a little bit more about love. Because in the end the emotion that he hated the most was the emotion that killed him. Through every point or turn the dark lord had always been thwarted by love.

Lucius leaned down and kissed Narcissa not liking the way his thoughts had turned. It was enough that he knew the power of love and how it could preserve and heal. It was enough that he was surrounded by it every day. Loved had saved him just like it had saved many people and he would never tale that emotion for granted again.

But then again Lucius was no philosopher all he knew was the he loved his family very much and there was not a day he wasn't going to thank god that he still had them together.

"I love you Narcissa," Lucius whispered, but no matter how low the voice was Narcissa still turned around and smiled up at Lucius eyes before she reached up with her hand and gently touched the back of his neck.

Gently tugging she brought his face down until his lips were merely a hairs breath away from her own. "I love you to Lucius, forever and always." She whispered just as low as she drew his lips down sealing the oath with a kiss.

~.~.~.~

A/N: One more chapter before this one-shot collection is done!