It was near the end of April, and the residents of Malfoy Manor were rather quiet, especially Lucius , Narcissa and Draco. They were silent whenever in the presence of Death Eaters, even more so when with the Dark Lord.
They were sitting in the drawing room once again, doing nothing but thinking and pondering about the current state of things, but their trains of thought hit walls when a magically magnified voice spoke:
"All Death Eaters and followers are to gather in the Forbidden Forest near the grounds of Hogwarts, we will attack the castle if its residents do not acquiesce to my request. I will expect you all in one hour."
The voice of the Dark Lord was not only magically magnified; it was enchanted to carry out to his Death Eaters.
When the voice faded away, the three Malfoys anxiously stood up and went to prepare.
They apparated exactly 10 minutes before the hour was up; they were situated in the near front of the other Death Eaters. They all waited for the Dark Lord's command.
After what it seemed to be like days; the Dark Lord finally spoke:
"It appears that those fools are not going to hand over Potter to me; very well, we shall attack, come."
They marched forward to a cliff that faced the grand castle, several enchantments were cast in order to protect it, Lucius and Narcissa could not help but feel the tiniest bit of admiration for its denizens as they are doing all that they can to protect the school. The elder Malfoys were also saddened that they were going to attack the place where their first meeting and romance occurred.
"Those fools…" said the Dark Lord softly, "Attack." He commanded.
With no other choice, Lucius, Narcissa and Draco raised their wands like the rest to cast offensive spells against the barrier that protected the castle.
Once the shield was broken; the Dark Lord ordered half of the Death Eaters to attack, and much to the elder Malfoys' terror, Draco was also included in this half; while he commanded the other half to stay.
"Lucius, what are we going to do? Draco will probably get hurt there, or worse, he could…" Narcissa trailed off, not wanting to think of her only son dying.
"I don't know, Narcissa." He replied worryingly, "But I'll try to persuade the Dark Lord to let us look for him, but not right now," he said whilst looking at the Dark Lord, who was gazing at the castle fiercely, "He seems preoccupied." He finished.
"All right." She replied on the verge of tears.
Several hours have gone by, and Lucius had talked to the Dark Lord about calling off the forces, but the snake-faced man saw through him, and coldly refused his suggestion, much to Narcissa's great horror.
More hours went by, and the Dark Lord called off the Death Eaters and magnified his voice to tell Harry Potter to surrender himself to him, unless the Potter boy wants his friends and loved ones to die, in one hour. Lucius and Narcissa were greatly worried about their son, and would do anything to be able to reunite with him.
The hour went by slowly, and when it ended, the Potter boy was still nowhere to be seen, and because of that, anxiousness and worry filled the atmosphere that was around them.
"It seems… that I was mistaken." The Dark Lord said.
"No, you weren't." said a voice.
All heads turned around to see the source of the voice, and then out of the darkness came Harry Potter, looking determined.
The Dark Lord raised his Yew wand quietly, and then he cocked his head to one side before softly speaking:
"The Boy Who Lived has now come to die…" he paused before screeching maliciously,"Avada Kedrava!"
As expected, the Potter boy fell down to the ground: no longer moving with his eyes shut, and with a blank expression that replaced his earlier unwavering appearance, but what shocked all of them was when the Potter boy went down; so did the Dark Lord.
Everyone was too stunned to move for a few moments, but when the Dark Lord stirred, some sort of relief washed all over them.
"My Lord!" screeched an extremely worried Bellatrix, "Are you alright?"
The Dark Lord slowly sat up straight, and Bellatrix became even busier with fussing over him.
"My Lord, let me help you."
"I am fine; I do not need your assistance." Said the snake-faced man coldly.
At his words, Bellatrix became disappointed.
"The boy…" he started abruptly, "Is he dead?"
No one answered him, and after a few moments:
"You…" he said pointing to Narcissa, "Examine him."
Narcissa cast a wary glance at her husband before doing what she was told, she stepped down towards the boy; feeling more and more fearful and worried as she took a closer step after the other, she couldn't stop herself from thinking that this could also be the fate of her only son while in the midst of this blood-shedding war, and she also dreaded to imagine that her son might be in a worse state than the Potter boy.
When she finally approached him, she was shocked; when she placed her pale hand over his chest, she felt his heart beating frantically; she also noticed that his skin was warm instead of being cold, she was taken aback that the Boy Who Lived has yet again escaped the clutches of death.
After a moment, it dawned on her that this could be her one chance at finding her son, so she decided to take the risk.
She shifted her body so that she was covering his face from the others; then she whispered softly:
"Is he alive? Draco? Is he in the castle?"
"Yes." He breathed back hoarsely.
At his reply, hope instantly filled her, but she kept her face impassive.
"He is dead!" she exclaimed.
At her words, everyone roared in triumph.
"Let us go, and show those at Hogwarts what has become of their hero." Said the Dark Lord after a few minutes with a cold smile on his face.
As they marched out of the Forbidden Forest, Narcissa caught her husband's arm so that they would fall behind.
"Narcissa? What's wrong?"
"I need to tell you something, Lucius." She paused before adding, "The Potter boy is still alive."
"What!" her husband inquired in shock, "Why would you lie to the Dark Lord? You could be punished! Or worse…" he trailed off in horror.
"I know the consequences of my actions, darling, but if that was the only way we could search for our son, then I'm glad that I lied." She stated bravely.
Lucius raised his hand to rub her cheek.
"You really are dedicated to our family." He said.
"I would do anything for you and Draco."
As he smiled, she smiled, and they silently sauntered towards the others in their supposed victory march.
It was almost near the crack of dawn when they arrived at the castle, they entered the Great Hall, where all its denizens stood shocked and agape at the sight of their hero; the great Harry Potter, in the arms of a sobbing Hagrid, supposedly dead.
"Harry Potter is dead!" the Dark Lord cried triumphantly.
At his cry, several denizens cried in sadness and despair; their champion; their friend was defeated.
After a few moments, everything else became a blur to Lucius and Narcissa; and it was only when the battle resumed and the Potter boy revealed himself to be alive, did they act in order to find their son.
They kept running through the halls, occasionally bumping into other people, calling for him, desperately hoping to hear their son's response.
"Draco? Draco? Where are you?" they both cried repeatedly.
They kept doing the same thing for what seemed like hours, as they were about to lose hope, they saw a boy with short, pale blonde hair wearing a once handsome, slightly filthy black suit, they were momentarily relived until they noticed that the boy was sprawled down on the floor unconscious.
"Draco!" they both screamed running towards him.
When they reached him, they noticed that his suit looked like it was burnt, and to their great horror, they noticed that he had not only bruises on his face, but dried blood as well.
"Draco! Draco! Son! Please wake up!" Lucius said while shaking his son roughly.
"Draco, dear. Please, don't leave us!" said Narcissa with tears rapidly rolling down her cheeks.
After a moment or so, Draco finally stirred and slowly opened his grey eyes, and at the sight of his parents; he began to mumble:
"Mother? Father? Is that you?"
"Draco." Lucius said in relief whilst pulling his son into an embrace.
"Draco. Thank goodness! We thought that we lost you." Said Narcissa while hugging her son herself.
"Well, you didn't lose me. I'm still here." Draco said weakly.
"What happened to you?" Asked a concerned and worried Narcissa.
Draco recounted the events of what happened to him; when he apparated inside the castle: when he, along with Crabbe and Goyle, fought Harry Potter and his friends in the Room of Requirement: when Crabbe unfortunately lost his life due to being unable to control the Fiendfyre he created: when the Potter boy and his friends saved him…
"But how did this happen to you?" Lucius interrupted his son worriedly, referring to the blood and bruises on his son's face.
"After I was saved by a stranger from a Death Eater who wanted to kill me…" at the words: 'Death Eater' and 'Kill', Lucius and Narcissa became even more scared for their son and for themselves, "I kept running in order to find a safe place to hide, but then some falling debris fell on me, I was able to protect my head, but some rocks scratched and hit my face; causing blood to draw out, and as I continued to run; a running passerby accidentally hit my forehead with his elbow harshly, and because of the impact: I fell unconscious." Draco finished.
"I see. But why didn't disapparate immediately back to us instead?" asked Narcissa.
At his mother's question, Draco bowed his head shamefully.
"Draco? What's wrong?" she asked.
Draco looked up to his mother with a sullen expression. "Mother, I'm so sorry. But during the fiasco at the Room of Requirement, your… your wand was accidentally destroyed. I'm so sorry."
When her son finished speaking, Narcissa stared blankly at the wall in front of them, not being able to accept the fact that her wand, the one she used throughout her whole life was destroyed.
"Mother, I don't blame you if you're infuriated with me, but please forgive me. I didn't mean for it to happen. I'm sorry." Draco apologized again after seeing his mother's expression.
Narcissa turned her head towards her son, seeing that her son was on the verge tears at what happened to her wand, she immediately got rid of her dead-pan expression.
"Draco, I know that you didn't mean for it to happen, and although I am saddened that I no longer have my wand, I am not one bit mad at you, it happened in a dire situation of life or death that you could not control, and I'd rather be wandless than childless, remember that I love you, Draco, and I would do anything to protect you." She told her son passionately.
"Thank you for understanding, Mother. And I love you too." Said Draco.
She smiled at her son, and her son smiled back as well, but her smile was soon replaced with a look of great worry as her son and husband started to writhe on the floor in pain.
"Lucius? Draco? What's wrong?" She asked worriedly.
"Nar-cissa… the… Dark-Mark." Her husband stuttered painfully.
It was only then that she realized that her husband and son were clutching their left forearms.
After the passing of several minutes, Lucius and Draco finally stopped writhing and were now panting heavily.
"Lucius? Draco? Are you alright?"
"Yes, Mother." Her son breathed back hoarsely.
"We're alright now, Narcissa." Said Lucius whilst wincing.
"The Dark Mark… The last time that happened was when… Lucius, does this mean that…" she trailed off.
"Yes. It means that the Dark Lord has finally been defeated. The Potter boy finally vanquished him." He said softly in awe.
"Does this mean that it's all over?" asked Draco, his eyes shining.
"Yes, Draco. Everything will finally be alright again." Said Lucius.
"Well, let's not spend all day in this dark corner when it's such a beautiful day." Said Narcissa indicating to the bright blue sky of the horizon that a nearby window was showing.
"Your wish is our command, my dear." Said Lucius, teasing his wife slightly.
"Lucius." She said while shaking her head in amusement.
They walked to the Great Hall, where they sat at the Slytherin table, they huddled together in order to conceal themselves from other people,
"Narcissa, Draco, I just wanted to apologize for all the pain and suffering that I put you through." Said Lucius after a moment of silence.
"Lucius, like what I said before, I do not blame you, none of us knew that this was all going to happen, so don't blame yourself." Said Narcissa.
"Thank you, Narcissa. What about you, Draco? Do you forgive me?"
"Yes. I do, Father. I know that none of this was your intention." Repied Draco.
"Thank you both so much. I promise that I'll be a better man for all of us."
Draco and Narcissa smiled at Lucius; they were still huddled together as they did not want to be harassed at the moment, and even though they know that they will have to face the harassment eventually, for now they just wanted to enjoy each others' company in peace, now that the terror of the Dark Lord has finally ended, they can now rebuild their lives.
A/N: I apologize for not updating for so long, I was busy with schoolwork as well as my final examinations, but now that summer has finally arrived, I plan on being more active on , I would also like to thank all those who have supported this fanfic, once again, I am sorry for updating so late. This is the chapter before the epilouge, I will update soon. Thank you all for the support that you have given me. :)