In the few weeks between the time Scorpius came home from hospital and Christmas, Draco and the Malfoy family got into a routine of baby care. Severus came by just after lunch to spend an hour with the babies and Druella covered the rest of the afternoon. Narcissa helped out all morning and Lucius was up with Draco during the night. Draco always needed help, because he was juggling two babies.
Draco was on baby duty pretty much twenty-four hours a day and his breaks were usually spent sleeping or bathing, but the rest of the family had several hours of free time each day. Lucius used his time to work on the gifts he was making for his family with woodworking spells; a coat rack and two cradles. Narcissa spent her time making ornaments for the tree; she specialized in intricate designs made out of crystal beads. And Druella spent her free time the way she always spent it: telling stories about how things were back in her day and spouting racist tripe.
The family was looking forward to the holidays and was delighted to have Severus over for a few days. They didn't have a lot of presents to go around that year, but there was a lot of love and cheerfulness. Druella even got the old turn-style working and playing traditional pureblood winter solstice tunes. And Narcissa had surprised everyone by having a present for each of them hidden away in the storeroom.
The one gift Draco gave his sons for Christmas that year was the muggle soothers. He wrapped a box up of blue and white soothers for Hyperion and a box full of Green and yellow soothers for Scorpius. They had a storeroom full of unopened things he could've given the babies, but they were too little to open presents or to be excited about them and everything they were old enough to use, was already out in the nursery. Except for the soothers, which they were supposed to be two weeks old to use and they were only just over three weeks old on Christmas day.
Scorpius and Hyperion seemed to really take to their gifts. Hyperion was quite excited about his and took to waving one in each hand and saying, "Uh!" Scorpius was a bit less active and still slept most of the day, but now he did that with a soother in his mouth and was easier to put down in the first place. Not long after bringing Scorpius home from the muggle-hospital, Draco had discovered that Scorpius was even worse than Hyperion when it came to falling asleep on the teat and wanting to suck on something when he was asleep.
Quite often the soothers had the problem of not staying in the baby's mouth, because little baby hands would grab them and pull them out and not be able to find the hole to shove the soother back in. Then the baby would grow frustrated and cry and Draco would have to guide the hand with the soother back to the mouth. And while doing this for what must've been the hundredth time that Christmas, Draco began to think that he could improve the muggle toy with a bit of magic; a homing charm would help the hand get the soother back in. There might even be a market for them after the war, what with the tendency being to have more babies after a war.
Two days after Christmas the family, including Severus, was sitting around the breakfast table enjoying the scones Severus had brought from the Hogwarts house elves, when Draco's coin burned in his pocket. He was once again carrying the coin in the pocket of his robes and it usually just said, "I love you." The simple message always made Draco smile and helped him get through his endless days filled with repetitive baby care. But today when he took his coin out it read, "I broke my wand."
Draco repeated the message to the table and then said, "He really ought to have a wand to defend himself. I'll give him mine; I've got the other one."
"If you can find out where Harry is, I will take it to him. I have the Sword of Gryffindor I have been trying to get to him," Severus said.
"Alright, let me get my charmed parchment. We can meet in the study and go over the details," Draco replied, before getting up from the table and going upstairs.
Draco was just coming downstairs on his way to the study with his parchment when his father approached him, falling in line beside Draco as they walked. "I should still like to apologize to Harry. If we are communicating with him now, this might be just the time to do it. And the Sword and the wand cannot be known to come from Severus. It is crucial that Severus not be compromised, but my position is already forfeit. I think it would be best if you were to tell Harry that I'm bringing the sword and the wand."
They were entering the study now where Severus stood near a desk upon which he had set out an opened bottle of ink and a quill. Severus heard the end of Lucius' statement and agreed. The three of them discussed their plan and then Draco wrote to Harry. And because Harry had not noticed the parchment right away the first time, Draco sent a message through the coin too.
Harry was skeptical and took far too long to reply. At one point Harry took so long that Draco had been convinced that something had happened to poor defenseless wandless Harry. But then Harry had replied and Draco had slowly talked Harry into it. Severus left the villa sooner than he had planned, but he had a sword and a wand to deliver, so he interrupted his last Christmas holiday and went. It went off with the slight hitch of Harry almost being drowned by the horcrux around his neck, but the Weasley boy was there and saved Harry, so Severus left without being found out and Harry was made to think it was Lucius.
Severus went back to Hogwarts to check on the school and the children, but mostly to check in with the Death Eaters and keep watch on said Death Eaters, because he couldn't have the Carrow siblings harming his students. The Dark Lord seemed utterly unaware that a piece of his soul had been destroyed, fixating instead on Harry's escape from Nagini, and all was well with the school. And it was still the winter holidays with most of the students gone, so he went back to the villa and spent a few more days with the Malfoys.
In the days following sending his wand to Harry, Draco found himself trying to bond with his new wand; the wand of Armand Malfoy, complete with walking stick and snake ornament, which he had inherited along with the title Lord Malfoy upon his father's incarceration last year. The wand and walking stick always went with the title, along with the responsibilities as head of the Malfoy family. He had thought about giving it all back to his father when Lucius was released, but inheriting was never done in reverse and they hadn't bothered to work out how to go about arranging it; it would take a lawyer for certain.
Draco had a bond with his old wand, the one he lent to Harry, and the Malfoy wand just hadn't worked as well for him before, probably because his father was still alive. Thus he had kept the Malfoy wand, but continued to use his old one. When his father got out of Azkaban and Draco wasn't there to hand the wand over, Lucius searched Malfoy Manor and came up with his old wand, the one he had had before Abraxas' death, before Lucius inherited the title Lord Malfoy and the Malfoy wand. And when Lucius finally did rejoin the family, he did not mention the wand or the title and Draco didn't even think of it. But now Draco was thinking of it, because he needed the Malfoy wand to work for him.
There were lots of things Draco used his wand for every day, such as summoning soothers, levitating soiled nappies, and various baby paraphernalia. His old wand had felt like an extension of his hand and without the connection, this new wand was like trying to operate a prosthesis. It worked, but it was slow, inaccurate, and imprecise; he desperately needed to bond with it to get it functioning properly.
Draco tried using the Malfoy wand for several days, hoping to break it in through use, but when that didn't work, he began to think about why this wand wasn't responding to him. The answer to that was obvious: its previous owner, his father, was still alive. The wand was still recognizing his father as its rightful owner and there was only one solution he could think of to solve that problem. And no, it wasn't to off his father.
And so Draco challenged his father to a duel, gave Lucius the Malfoy wand to use and took Lucius' old wand for himself. They went out to the patio in front of the snow-covered trellises of the dormant grape vines and cast warming charms to extend the area available for the duel. And the two Malfoy men dueled.
In all honesty Lucius was not really trying to win. He knew his son was the rightful possessor of the Malfoy wand and that his son needed it. He was concerned for Draco's health after giving birth not quite a month before and as such he absolutely refused to cast any dangerous hexes or curses. He considered his son inexperienced and without the option to seek help at St. Mungo's, he would only cast spells he knew the counter to, if he cast any at all.
Draco was determined to win. He knew he needed this wand to recognize him as its true owner and that his father was skilled and could handle himself. He did decide to limit himself to non-fatal spells that he knew the counter to, but other than that, he was going all out. Physically he felt fine. His stomach was completely flat again and showed no signs that he had ever been pregnant. The only sign there was of that was his pectorals that were ever swollen with milk. But he had just fed the babies and his breasts really weren't that big, not even A cups, so that shouldn't get in the way of his duel.
Draco began with a serpensortia and the snake lunged for his father, before Lucius vanished it. Then Draco went with the jelly-legs curse, which Lucius blocked. He tried an expelliarmus, which Lucius dodged. By this time Draco had noticed that his father wasn't casting any offensive spells, only defensive ones and clearly wasn't trying. That made Draco mad, so he flung a levi corpus at his father, which took Lucius by surprise because of the speed of the attack and promptly turned the elder Malfoy upside down, leaving him hanging in midair by the ankle. Draco walked up to his father, recast expelliarmus again, and grabbed the Malfoy wand as it flew out of Lucius' hand.
"Well done," Lucius said with his robes scrunched up under his elbows, revealing his trousers and undershirt.
"Thank you, father," Draco said, before using the Malfoy wand to cast the counter curse and letting his father down.
Once Lucius was back on his feet, Draco handed over Lucius' old wand, the one Lucius had been using since getting out of Azkaban, and set about testing the Malfoy wand. He worried for a moment that the duel wouldn't do the trick, because his father hadn't really been trying, but that worry was alleviated when the Malfoy wand obeyed his every command and began to feel like an extension of his wand arm. It wasn't quite the same as his old wand, because although it worked beautifully, the magic hummed at a different frequency and with a richer tone; somehow stronger from the thousand years of use.
Author's Note: Have you ever noticed how all of the wands disappear during the war? Even if Ollivander is gone, where did his shop full of wands go? If Voldemort took them, then why didn't he give Lucius a wand? It really doesn't make sense that Lucius wouldn't have a spare wand, given that Abraxas has only recently died and Lucius is using a wand inherited from his father. If it were me, I would've hidden my old wand away for a rainy day, so that is what I had Lucius do here. Then when Draco wasn't there to return the Malfoy wand, Lucius pulled out his old wand. This way Draco is free to give his wand away to Harry, the way it is in the books.
Next chapter Bellatrix will go looking for the Malfoys. She's staying at the Manor guesthouse, so how much damage might she do?