The stirring of the small body next to him woke Draco from his deep sleep and a sort of growl escaped his throat as his eyes flickered open. He stared at the light from the rising sun leaking through his balcony doors through half open eyes as his senses came back to him.

Had he actually slept through the night?

Draco reached for his wand tiredly and waved the curtains closed so that he and his current sleeping companion were embraced with darkness again. He certainly was not ready to get up yet. He rolled over to his other side to find his sleeping wife curled around his pillow, her face shining slightly from the sex they had under the small amount of light that was sneaking into the room. It was hard to remember his previous resentment for the resting girl as he watched her now, looking so at peace and vulnerable.

Pure.

It was odd for him to wake up next to a woman and not feel irritation that she was still in his space. It was also odd that she had tried to give him that courtesy and he hadn't allowed her to. He had wanted her to stay. Strangely, she had been a comfort to him that night. He usually wanted nothing more than to be alone, but he had felt different with her. She didn't push him. She didn't prod at him. She didn't throw herself at him, but she still wanted to please him.

Which she wouldn't want to if it weren't for his name. She was only with him for that fact alone.

It was how they were all raised to work, yes, but it did not change the fact. She had wanted his title and she had received it. It was not him who she desired and not specifically him that she wanted to please. That had been evident in how she had acted when he had brought her home for the first time. She was devastated to be stuck with him.

He studied her sleeping form for a moment longer before he entered her mind, searching deeply for her earliest memories.

"Mother, I don't like dancing so I'm never going to be good at it," Astoria huffed, six years old, distaste in her light colored eyes as she crossed her arms defiantly.

"You do not need to like something to be good at it, Astoria. You will practice and you will improve. I am not above smacking your face in public if your attitude does not end now."

The little girl grunted but didn't reply. Freya Greengrass pushed her daughter further into the room where children of many different pure-blood families were practicing formal dance and towards young Theodore Nott. "Here. I'm sure he will be kind enough to show you how to do it properly. Pay attention to him."

"I can't, mother. He's older than me," Astoria said, blushing shyly.

"Learn to deal with it. You will have to dance with much older than him," Freya told her daughter sternly, looking slightly frustrated at how difficult her child was being.

Astoria scowled and walked up to Theodore reluctantly. "Hi. My mother is making me learn to dance and she said you could teach me... Even though you're older than me. But it's okay. Daphne is stuck dancing with Draco and he's mean and boring. So I think you're better," she told him, her voice smaller than when she had spoken to her mother.

Theodore grinned widely, his eyes shining wickedly. "I like you," he told her, taking her hands and helping her get into the proper form. "Now just watch what I do. I lead so it makes it easier for you. Ignore the instructor. She makes it seem harder."

Astoria grumpily tried to follow his lead without putting much effort into learning and her mother began to lose patience from where she was watching on the side. "I know you aren't trying, Astoria. You are, however, trying my patience. I hope you don't think I was bluffing about smacking you," Freya snapped at her, walking up to the two children. "The fact that I have to come over here and scold you is embarrassing me! Do you see anyone else's parents doing the same?!"

"Mother, I told you. I'm not good at it. I don't see why it matters anyway!"

"Look, Astoria. Look at your sister. You see how well she is doing? She's better than you. Is that what you want? For your sister to be better than you at everything?"

"Daphne is not better than me at anything." Astoria glowered, glancing at Theodore in slight embarrassment.

"Oh yes she is, and right now she is proving it."

"But who cares about dancing?"

"All of the parents of suitors in our community care. This young man's mother cares, and you are embarrassing yourself - and the Greengrass family - in front of him now by being a brat. I will not explain this to you again. If you want a good future you will have to do as your told."

"I don't care about suitors."

"Your father cares. Would you like me to go get him?" Freya stood up straight as she threatened her daughter, her eyebrows raised.

Astoria seemed to deflate slightly. "No, ma'am," she replied, her voice soft now.

"Then stop talking back to me and do it."

Astoria turned back to Theodore and pursed her tiny mouth. "Okay, we are going to play a game. It's called the 'Beat My Sister' game."

Theodore laughed at her and looked over at Daphne dancing with Draco, who the instructor seemed exceptionally pleased with. "I don't know if that's a game we can win right now. I like you, but you're a really bad dancer. Plus, you're little. It's hard to be better than someone who has two years on you. Don't worry though, I won't tell my mother you were talking back to yours."

Astoria lifted her chin in the air stubbornly. "I don't care if she has forty years on me. I won't let her beat me."

"Well, then you better pay attention this time!"

Astoria giggled sheepishly and nodded, studying his movements carefully before quickly falling into her own rhythm and catching on impressively fast, executing the steps flawlessly for such a young girl. The instructor in the other corner of the room noticed the two and looked at Freya to nod at her in approval. Astoria stopped when the song ended and walked back over to her mother, looking up at her for her approval. "You see, you aren't really terrible you just weren't applying yourself. Now go take your sister's partner," Freya said, watching Narcissa enter the room.

Astoria gasped angrily and looked over at Draco. "What do you mean?! I did what you asked me to and now I'm being punished! What kind of prize is he?!"

"Hopefully the ultimate one if we are lucky. Now go, and if you don't stop being a brat in the next few moments I swear to you you will be very sorry," Freya growled at her.

Astoria looked at Theodore - who was looking quite annoyed himself - reluctantly before walking over to Draco, smiling innocently at her sister as Daphne glowered at her. Daphne stepped away from her partner and went to her mother irritably, looking slightly defeated. Draco looked at her, bored and uninterested. Astoria took his hands obediently with a polite smile on her face and danced with him gracefully before returning to her mother again where her father had joined her and was watching Astoria with approval. Astoria beamed up at him.

"Good, Astoria. We are going home in a moment, girls," Aldrich told Astoria and her sister, escorting his wife over to the adult couples that were chattering amongst themselves. The girls followed behind, only a bit of distance away from their parents.

"Oh stop glaring at me just because I took your boyfriend away," Astoria muttered. "You can have him back."

"That's not why I'm glaring. I'm glaring because you're annoying and nobody likes you!" Daphne growled to her sister under her breath.

Astoria looked genuinely hurt and offended at her comment. "That's not true! Theo said he likes me," she insisted, looking down at the ground.

When Draco drew back from her mind, Astoria was awake and looking back at him quietly. She didn't look angry at his intrusion, only curious.

"Well weren't you quite the brat," he told her, searching her eyes. "Do tell me, what kind of prize am I exactly?"

She pressed her lips together for a moment. "A much better one than I ever expected," she told him softly, her eyes affectionate.

He didn't reply as he pushed himself off of the bed. He went to his wardrobe to dress himself, taking note of her blush when he got up and was exposed to her again in full. "I have to go out today. I shouldn't be gone too long. You will stay here. Stay in this room actually, as this room has the most wards. Just as an extra precaution."

She frowned and sat up, holding the bedding to her chest modestly. "You don't think we really have anything to worry about, do you?"

"I do," he replied without giving any other explanation, buttoning his suit. He left as she opened her mouth to express her worry, ignoring her and locking her in the bedroom.

Draco arrived at the hidden home his parents resided in and exhaled slowly, fearing for the worst state of his father. He was sure being locked up in the stuffy place with only his mother to speak to did not help. Though his mother kept him sane, he also had the habit of taking his anger out on her.

Draco watched as his mother's head poked out from around the door to the room she was in, a warm smile spreading across her face as she came quickly to greet him. "My Draco," she said, kissing his face. His spirits lifted a small amount at her touch. "It's so good you are here. Why didn't you bring your new wife? If you are worried about her knowing our location, blindfold her or anything of that sort. I would like to see my daughter-in-law," she said, scolding him and swatting at his arm.

"You know why I did not bring her, mother," he replied quietly, looking beyond her towards the room she had come out of. The last thing he wanted to do was bring a young girl near his father in the shape he was in.

"He is doing better, Draco. It will just take time. He is just quite... paranoid. It would actually be better for him to get some social interaction." His mother's voice was sad as she fiddled with his sleeve, not meeting his eyes. Her sadness made his heart twinge with regret. His mother had no fault in what his family had become.

"Exactly. He is paranoid. The last thing I need is for him to attack my new bride in some conspiracy that she is dead Bellatrix in disguise or some nonsense."

"Do you like her then? She's quite smart I believe. Much less horrid than some of those other girls that know absolutely nothing of the true responsibilities of being a wife in our family."

"She's a wife," Draco said dismissively.

Narcissa sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, resting her hand on his chest. "Please, Draco. You can't keep everything to yourself. Holding all of your thoughts and feelings in is not healthy. It's okay to have someone to confide in."

"There are more pressing issues to discuss than my romantic relationship with a silly woman, mother."

"I'm a silly woman, Draco," his mother said softly, looking up at his eyes.

"Do not try to manipulate me into buying your point by comparing Astoria to you. It is not the same. The situations are not the same. You two are not the same. Father would have never survived this without you."

"Precisely my point."

"She's not you," Draco ground out harshly.

"That does not mean she can't-"

"All she cares for is the title I have given her. She barely speaks. All she knows how to be is a trophy wife. What she was bred to be," Draco cut her off, growing more agitated.

"As that's all I was bred to be! That's what we are raised to care about!" Narcissa cried, throwing her hands up in frustration. "And I am sure she thinks that is all she is as well, but that's not all she is. We are human beings just as our husbands are. You are not a woman. You do not know."

"You don't know her-"

"Neither do you," Narcissa snapped, moving from the hallway to the kitchen. "You refuse to try."

Draco followed her, shaking his head. Why must she torture him with such nonsense?

"The first night at the Manor she slept in the gardens. Outside."

Narcissa's brow furrowed oddly, grabbing cups from the cupboard. "Ah. Well. That's an interesting place to sleep, but-"

"Then she was wrapped half naked in Nott's clothing."

"... Well, I do remember those two as children being somewhat friends, and you know Theodore is quite charming, Draco. I am quite sure the situation was not as simple as it had seemed, and knowing you you are not explaining it the exact way it was either."

"Ah, yes. I saw that she was quite friendly with Nott as a child. She didn't like me at all actually, the brat she was," Draco said, snorting. "Actually, what I saw proves that all her and her family cared about was getting her married off, whether she liked me or not, even before she could barely recite the alphabet. Leeches."

Narcissa smiled slightly. "Now, Draco. Do you think it's fair to be accusing others of being brats when they were children? Do you recall yourself? Remember, my parents and I were 'leeches' as well. As you will be if you have a daughter. Besides, I do hope you weren't rummaging through her head just right after marrying her. It's very overwhelming and people don't tend to like that."

"She didn't seem to care. She's brainless, mother. She doesn't care about anything as long as she's safe in an expensive mansion with a rich man."

"Or maybe she wants you to know she trusts you to be in her head," Narcissa said gently, preparing him a cup of coffee.

"Or maybe she's just an idiot like I told you!" Draco exclaimed in exasperation. He needed this subject to be over. Anything else but this.

"You know that isn't true, and even if you didn't know I would be offended that you thought so little of my ability to find you a suitable wife. I know you don't believe her to be brainless. If you wanted brainless I could have given you Parkinson."

"She is a suitable trophy wife. Nothing more. You should have seen her last night. Practically a storybook image of what Mrs. Malfoy is meant to look like. She almost looked more suited than you, mother," he said bitterly.

"You know I meant suitable in other ways as well. I wanted you to have a wife you could love, or at least come close to loving."

"Can we move on to what is important now?" Draco said slowly through his teeth.

"I grow tired of talking about these new Death Eaters," she said with a sigh, handing him the cup of coffee. "Besides, she is valuable in that sense. If she is anything like her father - and she is from what I have seen - she knows a lot about all of us. The Greengrass family is a highly political one and they are powerful in their knowledge of people and they know how to how play their cards just right. Even in school Aldrich Greengrass had something over everyone..." His mother trailed off, staring at her own coffee that she had made.

"Don't tell me you had sex with my wife's father, mother," Draco drawled. "That's practically incest."

His mother's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. "How dare you! No, I absolutely did not have sex with him, and may I remind you that I am still your mother who you will not speak to that way again!" Narcissa hissed furiously at him.

Draco didn't reply as he drank the hot coffee, watching his mother add sugar and cream to her own while shaking her head angrily, muttering about how disrespectful of a son she had. It was giving him a sense of comfort to see his mother in a fit that he had witnessed so many of throughout his lifetime.

"As I was saying, have you ever heard anything about that family having many scandals or anything other than a squeaky clean history? No? I thought not. Even though they did have one with their son-"

"I wasn't aware they had a son."

"Exactly. Though you were never the most observant, Draco, as you were quite self absorbed. Most were aware, but the fact that the matter just… disappeared as soon as it happened is odd. The boy was just… gone. Disowned. Everything was very hush. Though it's polite for us to not speak of these things when they do happen, people still normally talk when they do. After my sister was found to be a blood traitor and disowned there was a fair amount of gossip and scandal. Not with the Greengrass son. Why? Because Aldrich knows the right people and knows enough about the right people so somehow it never spread much further than our community and those who knew were too afraid to speak much of it. It's quite interesting. He's a very calculated man."

Draco shook his head, having a hard time following. "A blood traitor?"

"Yes! He married a mudblood! Oh, could you imagine? His only heir? I'm sure Aldrich was a terrifying sight to see when that went over. The boy was… sixteen or seventeen when he was disowned. I believe Astoria and Daphne were seven and nine. Around there, at least. Truly unfortunate. He was a talented and handsome boy and Astoria was rather attached to him from what I remember," his mother said, an odd look mixed with empathy crossing her face.

Draco considered this carefully. Perhaps she was right. Astoria did claim to know things and the more he remembered her from growing up outside and inside of school, the more he could remember her lurking about in the shadows. No one had paid too much attention to her. There was quite a bit she might know with her ability to sneak around unnoticed.

"Perhaps," Draco mused.

"Perhaps that family is dangerous and could mean terrible things for us," Lucius growled, limping in behind him, causing Draco to jump slightly. "You had better break that girl, Draco. Break her into a thousand pieces if you have to. Just as long as she's a whimpering, bloody mess at your feet so she would never betray you to her father. You need complete loyalty."

Draco watched his father struggle to come in silently. He was such a different sight than what he had grown up to know with his hair hanging limply by his poorly shaven face and his grey eyes horrendously blood shot. "Father. You are looking better."

"Don't lie to me, Draco," Lucius snapped, bracing himself against the counter. "And don't ignore what I said either."

"Lucius. There is no need to worry about Aldrich coming after our-"

"You will be quiet, Narcissa! I am speaking to my son," his father spit out, looking at Draco's mother angrily.

"I don't think that will be necessary, father. She is already very submissive to me as it is," Draco told him calmly as he gave his mother a pointed look, as this was precisely why he hadn't brought Astoria along.

"You don't think it necessary," Lucius said softly, chuckling madly. "The boy doesn't think it necessary. Ha! He knows better than his father now, I see. Tell me Draco, why is it in your sixth year at Hogwarts I received an owl from Aldrich Greengrass that stated 'Your son is lucky my daughter is quite talented when it comes to memory charms. I doubt he desires it to be public knowledge when he decides to leave an opal necklace in bathrooms. Perhaps he should tread more carefully before his secrets are exposed to the wrong eyes.' Explain that to me, Draco, if your precious wife is so trustworthy."

Draco froze, his breath catching. His mind searched through the happenings of that year, wondering how anyone could have possibly seen him, let alone two people. Draco's eyes flashed with anger.

His wife had spied on him.

"Lucius, you didn't tell me-"

"I don't have to tell you every damn thing, woman," Lucius croaked out.

Narcissa quieted, thinking to herself. Draco fumed without speaking at the idea that the stupid girl had been reporting on him to her father through his sixth year or perhaps more in order for her father to gain leverage on his family and imply a threat to his father.

The little snake.

"This is good for us," his mother said slowly. "This is good. This just proves what I have been saying. This could keep us safe. The Greengrass family is tied with ours now and I would be surprised if Aldrich didn't know at least half of the whereabouts of the new Death Eaters-"

"I would be surprised if Greengrass wasn't leading them himself," Lucius snarled, his eyes flashing in and out of focus.

Narcissa pressed her lips together to avoid arguing with her husband.

"I will take care of the girl," Draco said coldly, causing his mother's face to cloud with worry.

"Draco. Please. Remember what I said. Use your head. Don't be angry over what she did or might have done. She was doing as she was told, and she did apparently help you. She's your wife now."

"The girl is a snake, Narcissa, and you've married her to our son. Which is only a good thing because now we have something to hold over Greengrass's head. To threaten him with. Yes.. We can get whatever we want out of him this way," Lucius went on, a slow, mad grin spreading across his face.

Draco kissed his mother on her temple before turning stiffly to leave, ignoring her protests. His jaw ticked and his eyes were dark with fury as he walked away.

Yes, he would take care of her indeed.