Chapter Text
3rd November 2008 -
Draco stood just outside the door to the interview room down in the lower floors of the Ministry. Three corridors and four more cells away from the courtroom.
It was cold down here, always bloody freezing. The last time he had been down here was for his, his father's, and his mother's trials just a few short months after the war. He was sort of having a sense of déjà vu being back here.
Coming down here with his hands magically tied behind his back. His head low between his shoulders until his chin had almost been touching his chest. Being separated from his parents and dragged down further into a cell that was an exact replica of the ones in Azkaban to prepare him for what he had been to face.
Cold, pitch black, and a cranky old bed that he barely managed to fit in with his tall frame. The cells only had a pathetic thin slit, with a magically enhanced outside view of what he would see at Azkaban. Dementors, the deathly crashing waves of the stormy sea, and the drizzling, thick, stormy clouds up above with lightning crackling every two minutes.
He shuddered whilst he waited for Theo and Harry to come out of the interview room. They were currently talking to her first and giving her her orders whilst he waited outside and prepared himself for it.
Four days he had been in that cell, freezing cold as though he had hypothermia, bags under his eyes, too terrified to sleep, and thin as a bag of bones. Four long days of waiting for his trial that he was grateful was a lot quicker than Astoria's trial was going to be.
In his top five, four days was the worst he had ever experienced. The next was sitting in his cage with his wrists and ankles chained tightly to the chair and listened to his crimes being shouted out in front of the entire Wizengamot.
The third was doing what he did to Hermione that last night. The fourth was marrying the bitch, and then the fifth was finding out what he had been through that day he had been fired.
Though that was in the past. Today, Wednesday, and Thursday this week, he would be able to put his past behind him.
For good.
Draco smoothed down his navy blue smart robes, ready for Kingsley later, just as Harry and Theo stepped out of a black iron door and pushed the magically bolted gate to the side with an ear-ripping scratch and creak.
Okay, now he was nervous. He wasn't scared, just nervous from the way that his hands shook deep in his pockets at his sides. How his heart skipped a beat, seeing her face again.
Theo walked up to him, carefully eyeing him up and down, and then placed his hands on his shoulders when he stopped in front of him.
"Are you all right?"
Draco nodded, keeping his expression neutral. "Am I doing the right thing?"
"This was your decision," Theo shrugged his shoulder lightly. "Me and Hermione both said to you that it's up to you. It's not too late if you want to go home and stay away until Wednesday."
Draco hesitated, looking at the door behind him with his eyes narrowing. He quietly raised his occlumency walls without Theo noticing, and the tremor in his hands slowly eased off until they stilled completely.
He took a deep breath, glancing back at Theo. "No. No, I'll stay and get this over with."
Theo nodded, adding a light pressure to his shoulders as he squeezed him gently. "Do you want me in there with you? Or on your own? There will be an Azkaban guard in there with you to watch her, but I don't have to be."
"I think I'll be okay," Draco smiled thinly. "But you'll be able to see us. Right?"
"You see that room there?" Theo turned around and pointed to a silver brass door next to the interview room. "That's where I and Harry will be. We'll be able to see you, but you and she won't be able to see us." He said, turning back to face him. "It's new; it only got installed last week. It's a bit like what the muggles use. Kingsley's idea."
Draco nodded, taking a calming deep breath as Harry disappeared through the door that Theo was just talking about.
"I got you this," Theo continued, showing his palm to Draco. He looked down and saw a small ear canal-shaped object in his hand. "It's an earpiece. So that if you need to say anything, then we can hear you. A code or something to get you out if you're not comfortable. Then we'll know, and she won't understand, or I can simply talk to you. Your choice."
Draco took it with narrowed eyes, turning it over in his palm. It was an odd, naked, colourless little object. Small enough that Astoria wouldn't even see it, though it looked like something he would more than likely forget that it was in there. Or lose it.
"How do I?"
"Here," Theo took it from him and cupped his jaw, turning his head to the right and gently placed it into Draco's left ear for him. "Brace yourself." He warned.
Draco went to ask when it snapped, slotted, and adjusted to his ear size with a bruising pinch. "Ow," he deadpanned at Theo. "Whose idea was this?" He said, rolling his head from side to side.
"Kingsleys," Harry's voice came directly into his ear. It was so loud and too up close that it made Draco jump and look to his left, but he couldn't see him. Or anywhere, as a matter of fact. "His idea."
Draco looked around confused with his brows knitted together.
"Potter? Is that you?"
"Yup! Pretty cool, huh?" He laughed once again too loudly into his ear. "I sound as though I'm right next to you. Yet I could be all the way upstairs, and you'd still be able to hear me."
Draco gave his own ear a sideways glare. "Making me go deaf? I highly doubt it." Theo snorted at his disgrace. "Being around you is bad enough. I don't need you yapping in my ear too, Potter."
"Don't be crude, Malfoy."
"I'll be however I want around you, Potter. You should know me better than that."
Harry cleared his throat. "Silent Night—"
"Shut your mouth." Draco snapped before he could finish.
"Hey, I love that song." Harry grumbled.
"It's not Christmas yet." He rolled his eyes and huffed a ragged breath, shaking his head at Theo.
"Are you ready?" Theo asked him, straightening out his robes for him.
The amusement vanished from Draco's face. "As ready as I'll ever be." He held his hands out in front of him and turned them over, making sure that they weren't as shaky as he felt inside.
Theo took a step closer to him, taking his hands in his and squeezing them at a gentle pressure. He then brushed his lips against Draco's, placing a chaste kiss there for ten seconds.
He pulled away as Draco tried to chase his lips and smirked smugly at him when Draco frowned at him. "Later." He winked. "Come on, let's get this over with." He gestured to the door.
Draco walked ahead, with Theo right behind him, and opened the gate. Two steps later, they were right outside her door. Theo gave him one more certain look, and Draco nodded, pushing his walls up just that little bit more further. It was now or never.
Best to get it over and fast. Like ripping off a bandage fast.
Draco nodded at Theo as he waited, and then the next thing that he knew, he was walking into a dull, blue room with nothing but a stainless steel table in the centre, no windows, a musky blue colour on the walls, and there she was as Draco stepped in.
Astoria sat in her chair away from him with her head down low to her chest. Dressed in plain, grey, shaggy clothes. Her hair was down past her shoulders, messily, knotted, and greasy; her face bare, and when her eyes met Draco's, she no longer looked like the representative Lady Malfoy.
Her eyes were shallow, deep bruising around the circles. Her cheeks had sunken in, her skin a greyish pale. Lastly, she had a nasty slicing scar all the way down the left-hand side of her face, dipping under her jawline.
Draco almost didn't recognise her for a second as they stood there staring at one another. She looked fucking awful.
He was glad he came, because he had hoped that she was suffering just as much as he had been. Only her fate was worth it.
He almost smirked. It was that amusing to see her in these conditions.
Just as he took a step forward to sit down, her eyes rounded, and she stood and went to reach for him. Draco immediately halted his steps, with Theo putting an arm out in front of him with a warning look settling across his features.
"No touching!" The tall, hard-faced Azkaban stepped in front of her. "Sit back down, Greengrass."
"It's Malfoy," she sneered with a scratchy voice.
"Not anymore it isn't," he spat. "Sit back down and keep your hands to yourself. Otherwise you'll be detained."
Astoria glared at him, making no move to sit down at his commands.
"Sit down, Astoria," Theo said this time. "We've been over this; you're not permitted to touch him. Or you can forget this meeting. Your choice."
Astoria glared at Theo the entire time as she slowly sat back down in her chair and put her hands neatly in her lap as she was taught to do. Though it was useless, she really didn't look the part anymore.
Theo sighed softly in relief and was about to step back when Draco snatched his wrist and was looking more at the ground than at anyone in particular.
"What's the matter?" Theo whispered.
"Is she stripped of all her magic?" He whispered back under a low breath. He kept his eyes trained on Theo's smart shoes, catching her watching him closely out of the corner of his eyes.
"I believe so. Why?"
"Someone's trying to look into my mind. I can feel it, a gentle prodding trying to break my walls."
Theo looked at Astoria, with narrowed eyes, to find her concentrating hard on Draco without blinking. His jaw clenched, and he snapped his fingers wordlessly, putting a protection barrier around Draco to avoid her having any access. She wouldn't be completely stripped of it until the court's decision. Which meant she could still use the power of Legilimency.
Unfortunately.
"That's enough of that," Theo told her coldly. "No Legilimency for you."
"What's she doing?" Harry called through.
"She's trying to look into Draco's mind." Theo discreetly told him through the mic.
"Damn it," Harry huffed. "Malfoy? Do you want to stop? Or continue? That's the only thing that we can't take away from her until the Wizengamot makes a permanent decision. We're only authorised to take her wand and wandless magic."
Theo looked at Draco, waiting as he kept his hand clamped around Theo's wrist. "I know, and it's fine. I'll keep my walls up hard if necessary."
"I've put a heavy barrier around you, so she can't access and break your walls. If anything, she'll be in pain if she tries."
"That's fine." Draco finally lifted his eyes and met hers, staring at him with an expression he couldn't quite understand. "Will you stay, Theo?"
"Of course I will," he pulled a chair out and sat down as Draco sat down next to him and folded his arms across his chest. "Nathan, you can go. I'll keep an eye on things here."
"Are you sure, Auror Nott?"
"I'm sure. Go get some lunch or something. I can handle her if she steps out of line."
Nathan nodded and stepped out of the room, leaving just Draco, Theo, and Astoria all on their own. Theo was watching her closely, watching her body language to see if she was going to try anything. She didn't; she just sat there with a thin smile on her face, keeping her focus on Draco the entire time, whilst Draco just sat there staring back at her with a cold expression thanks to his occlumency.
No one said anything.
It must've been a good five minutes of them just staring at one another without making a single move.
"How are you?" Astoria finally said with a hoarse voice. Draco didn't respond.
"You look good," she said, ignoring his intense, cold expression. "Better, actually."
All Draco did was shift in his seat.
"Thank you for seeing me." She cleared her throat, glancing at Theo for a second, then back to Draco. "I didn't think that you were going to."
"How's your mother? Is she well?" She tried casually. Nothing. "Is she coming on Wednesday? What about Granger? Your daughter? Is that all going okay?"
Theo looked at Draco to see if he would respond, but he didn't. He just sat there continuing to stare at her as though she was a stranger.
She sighed then. "Are you going to speak or just keep staring at me?" His mouth twitched at that. "Please, Draco. I just want to talk."
Draco looked at her through hooded lids. His knee began bouncing under the table anxiously, and he took a deep breath as Theo placed his hand over his thigh to keep him calm.
"Theo? Is he all right?" Harry spoke into their earpiece.
Draco's leg slowly stopped bouncing as Theo brushed his thumb across the top of his thigh. The longer he stared at her without saying anything, the more Theo could see his walls starting to crumble. Completely normal, due to the dark magic hazy in spaces and waiting for her to do her work on him. Theo put a hand up to Harry without looking to let him know he was okay.
"What do you want?" Draco finally said in a sharp tone.
Astoria looked relieved that he had finally spoken to her. "Well, there were a few things, actually." She took a deep breath. "I want you to defend me at the trial."
Draco's eyes immediately narrowed. "Defend you?"
She nodded. "That's correct. Along with retracting your statement. Getting Granger to retract hers or even Theo's," she gestured to him. "To declare that what Granger saw in my mind was completely false."
"Are you being for real?" Theo cut in.
"Not a chance," Draco scoffed before she could speak. "You don't have a leg to stand on. There's too much evidence here in your memories, what Hermione saw and then when Potter and Blaise put you under veritaserum." He said bitterly. "Plus my healer has managed to pick up bits and pieces of you and father using the imperious curse on me."
"Doesn't matter," she shrugged a noncommittal shoulder. "I know that I did nothing wrong. I've been nothing but a generous wife to you, and you know it. This was all your father's doing." She smiled a sickeningly sweet one, as though butter wouldn't melt on her.
"And lying about the baby?"
"I didn't lie about that," she frowned. "I was pregnant. I just lost him before my appointment."
"Convenient." Draco scoffed, shaking his head.
"I'm telling the truth—"
"Yes, well, somehow I just don't believe you." He curled his lip up into a sneer. "Nobody, not Potter, Blaise, Hermione, or any other Aurors that interviewed you or searched your mind, saw the evidence of a child on the way. It was just an excuse to keep me."
"I know my body, Draco," her eyes narrowed into thin slits. "I was pregnant."
"And how did that happen then?" He cocked his head to the side. "Because I certainly don't remember sleeping with you to let that happen." Theo squeezed his thigh, under the table, to calm him down when he started shaking.
She laughed softly as though he was an idiot. "We had sex, of course."
"Rape," Theo corrected her. "You raped him."
Astoria scowled at him. "Oh please! Have you seen the size of me?" She gestured to herself all over. "How can I possibly rape a man of his build?"
"I don't know," Theo sneered, keeping one hand on Draco's thigh and his other curling into a fist against the table. "Drugging him and then, when he's having sexual dreams of Hermione, that's when you strike."
"That's not true," she shook her head, wetting her lips.
"Isn't it?" Theo lifted his brow, and she nodded. "Give it up already. We've seen what happened in your memories. Draco was sleeping deeply because you drugged him into an almost comatose state. He thought that you were Hermione in his sleep, so in your brain, because he wasn't interested in having sex with you, you decided to take him however you pleased. Because he was showing a side that he never showed to you, and you wanted it whilst he was unaware at that time."
"He was making himself sick after we had sex!" She finally admitted, waving her hands at him. "Which, by the way, hurt my feelings. He couldn't last two minutes with me, but when he was asleep, he could go for a good hour, and I orgasmed every single time. I did what I thought was best. I have needs just as much as anyone else."
"Maybe that's because I didn't want you," Draco said, keeping his tone sharp. "I had to use an arousal potion just to get myself hard. You're not who I wanted; Hermione was who I wanted at the time. And you and father did your fucking dirty work to make sure that that's what happened!"
"Your father started it; I just carried on after he passed."
"You poisoned my mind—"
"I had to keep you in line, to make sure that I knew where you were at all times." She said coldly. "If I had stopped after your father died, who knows what you would've done?" She scoffed with a sarcastic shrug of her shoulders.
"Going to find Hermione." He gritted through his teeth.
"Exactly," she leaned forward against the table. "Which is why I did what I had to do. You couldn't love me, even when I showed you how to love me."
"Which you knew already," Draco sat up, leaning his elbows on the table and folding his arms across each other. "I said in front of you, father, yours and my mother, that I would never love you. I didn't, and you knew that; you just couldn't handle it."
"Because you were thinking about her." She accused bitterly.
"Correct." He smirked cruelly at her. "Hermione has always been on my mind. Regardless of you and father making me forget what I had done to drive her away, she was always there in the back of my mind."
"Good job we did too," Astoria sneered, her eyes darkening. "You never could keep it in your pants."
"Hard to keep them on even more now." He licked his lips with mirth.
"What does that mean? She's with Theo now." Astoria dipped her head at him.
"Who says Theo's the only one just fucking Hermione? Or not just her at all?" His head cocked to the side. Her eyes squinted in confusion at his question.
It took her a moment to work out what he was saying. Her eyes searched about his face looking for the obvious answer. Then, it smacked her across the face when she caught Theo's hand still clasped around Draco's thigh under the table.
Draco, on purpose, placed his hand over Theo's and guided it to his crotch. Theo's breath hitched with a stifled groan as Draco squeezed Theo's hand over his cock through his trousers.
"Mm," Draco moaned, on purpose keeping his gaze locked on hers and quirking his lip up into a thin smirk at the horrified look across her face, following their hands. "Theo's fucking me too." Once again he purposely ground his hips up into Theo's palm.
This time, however, Theo squeezed by his own accord on purpose, loving the look across her face. And this time he felt Draco's length harden at the touch and bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from moaning at the feeling.
"I'm fucking Hermione. I'm fucking Theo," Draco continued, making a show of it by helping Theo stroke his own cock over his trousers. He shouldn't really be doing this, but at this point, after everything she's done, she deserves it. "Theo's fucking me and her. Hermione's fucking us too. That witch spends a lot of her time screaming one of our names. Sometimes both of our names at the same time."
Astoria was practically red in the face with steaming anger as Draco chuckled under his breath, rolling his hips up into Theo's hand, fucking loving this too much. (Also because Theo's hand was like magic.)
If he could, he'd fuck Theo on this table right in front of her to prove a point of what he's earned from her power of doing what she had done. If Hermione hadn't been pushed away or gone in some sense, then Theo more than likely would've never gotten with her. He probably never would've admitted what he feels for Draco, and they probably wouldn't be where they were today. All three of them together and happy.
In a way, she made this happen.
"All right, that's enough." Harry grimaced in disgust through their earpiece. "Let's stop this. One, it's inappropriate, and two, I think she gets the point." He took a deep breath, pausing briefly. "And also that's my best friend; I don't need to imagine her in that way, and I can't watch this anymore." He gagged through the other side with what sounded like a shiver of disgust.
Theo squeezed him one last time, then let go and then clasped his hands together in front of him on the table. He tried to suppress the smirk creeping onto his lips, but it was useless. It still appeared because at that moment, they both felt powerful, and she was going to spend an eternity alone in the cold waiting for the Dementor's kiss.
(Hopefully.)
"You're fucking disgusting." She looked them up and down in disgust as though they were poison. "Look at you. You're pathetic. You can't handle Granger being with another man; you just have to go and shag her boyfriend too just to keep her."
"Oh, I'm not just shagging them; we're all in a relationship."
Astoria's jaw went slack with her eyes almost popping out of her skull. "What?!"
"You heard me." He glowered.
"That's against the rules!" She stood up from her seat, pushing her chair back in the process. "Your father would be turning in his grave if he knew what you're doing!"
"Good! I hope he is!" He glared up at her, the amusement vanishing completely.
"You're vile!" She shouted at him. "Not only did you sleep and have a secret relationship with a mudblood, now you go and break the Black and Malfoy traditions by being with her and fucking another man! Your ancestors would banish you and burn your name off the family tree if they saw this happening!"
Draco stood fast, knocking his own chair flying, and slammed his palms against the table, making her jump. "I don't give a fuck! I stopped caring about the family bloodline long before me and Hermione even happened! You just can't handle the fact that I've got her back along with Theo to add to it!"
"Draco," Theo placed his hand on his forearm and slowly stood, watching them carefully. "Calm down."
"You're a disgrace to the Malfoy name!"
"At least I didn't have to go around using the imperious curse to get those that I wanted to love me! They did it of their own accord, and they have accepted me for who I am!" He shouted with his chest rising and falling rapidly.
"If Granger hadn't found me that night, then I would've continued to do it," she leaned across the table, dropping her voice low, and her eyes went black. "I would've loved to see her six feet under with her parents and that half-blood breed."
Theo's weary expression dropped at the mention of his son. But before he could do anything or even give her a load of abuse, Draco had already ripped his arm out of Theo's grasp, launched himself across the table, grabbed her by the throat, and slammed her up into the wall. The back of her head smacked against the wall, and she gasped, grabbing at his arm wrapped around her throat, wheezing and coughing as he squeezed.
"Draco! Let her go!" Theo rounded the table and came to his side, eyes wide at Astoria struggling to breathe.
"I hope you spend an eternity in Azkaban crying your dark little heart out." Draco's hand was shaking around her throat with his lips by her ear, talking in a tone enough to make her whimper with fear. "I hope they lock you up and give you the Dementor's kiss."
"Dr. Draco, please..." She choked out as he squeezed her windpipe, blocking off her oxygen.
"No, it's my turn to talk." He hissed in her ear. "You've taken everything from me. The woman I love, my daughter, who I missed seven years of her life." He throttled her, making sure it would hurt but not enough to kill her. "You controlled me, took away my friends, and you made sure that I would be alone. You buried my mind deep in dark magic to the point I could've been put in St. Mungos for the rest of my life!"
"Draco, please let her go." Theo tried raising his hand to calm the situation, but he wasn't listening. Draco was in the room, but he wasn't here with them at this moment. He was someone else, letting out everything that she had done to him.
Harry burst, but Theo put his hand up to him to halt him, silently telling him that he's got it. Although he wasn't entirely sure about that in this moment in time.
"You made me Astoria," he laughed darkly, making her flinch. "You raped me; you and father forced me to marry you. You took away everything that was important to me. My job, my family, my friends—every single fucking thing. So I hope that you have a long and miserable life in Azkaban, then eventually join my father in hell where you belong." He let her go, standing back, and she dropped to the floor, clawing at her neck, fighting for oxygen that he had cut off.
Astoria looked up at him as he towered over her, his grey eyes glittering in rage. "I—I'm sorry..." She shuffled back as he took a step closer. "I just... wanted you to love me... why couldn't you love me?"
"Draco, stop... please..." Theo grabbed his shoulder, but he just swiped his hand off him, focusing only on her.
His eyes locked on her hand clasped around her throat, and he bent down on one knee and grabbed her wrist in a harsh grip. She winced and tried to pull it back, but he twisted her arm in the wrong direction until she was sobbing in pain.
"Malfoy! That's enough!" Harry warned.
Draco ignored him, focusing on her hand right in his face. "I knew you still had it." He crept his lips up into a vile smirk. "That's the only reason that I came today, to bring back what belonged to me." He locked eyes with her, and she shook her head, with her eyes watering.
"What are you talking about?" Theo looked over his shoulder to see what he was talking about.
Without saying anything, Draco ripped at her wedding finger and pulled at the invisible object on her finger. With a harsh twist and pull making her wince and cry in pain, he pulled it off and laid it in his palm, his eyes softening for a moment as the object came into view.
A marquise teardrop-shaped 1-carat diamond ring with emerald jewels around the ring band with an engraved inscription on the inside.
Toujours et pour toujours—always and forever.
"This isn't yours," he looked back at her with his expression hard, on edge, and unforgivable. "This was my mother's. Which was supposed to be Hermione's. I only came to get it back." He let her go harshly, letting her fall to her back, and he stood straight, eyeing the ring in his palm with a satisfied smile across his face.
"Th—that's the only reason that you came?" Astoria sobbed pathetically on the floor.
Draco glanced at her with a blank expression. "What did you think I came here for?" He arched his brow.
Astoria didn't have an answer as she looked down, staring at her now empty finger.
"You can keep this one though," he dug around in his pocket just as she looked up at him with tears streaming down her cheeks and carelessly chucked his wedding ring at her. She caught it, with her lip trembling as she stared at it in the palm of her hand. "Now that's me and you officially cut off. Our marriage is over. The contract has been disconnected, magic unlinked, and I have my mother's ring back. That's it now, no more ties to you. I don't want that ring; I wouldn't be surprised if there's an imperio in that either." He scoffed as he walked away, heading towards the door with Theo right behind him.
She sobbed through a choke, and he stopped in the doorway, tilting his head over his shoulder to look at her with a cruel smile. "I'm going to enjoy Wednesday and Thursday." He drawled, and she met his eyes, whimpering. "I'll never have to see your face again after that. Have a nice life in Azkaban; I'm going to celebrate it with my family."
And then he left her satisfied with himself, his family heirloom back where it belonged and finally free from her completely.
~♡~
"Well," Kingsley placed the parchment down on his desk, looking at Draco's notes. "After careful consideration and looking at your health notes from Healer Jeffrey's, the incident involving Miss Greengrass and your father, I've come to a decision, Draco."
Draco waited, holding his breath with his throat tight. Theo had promised that neither he nor Harry would say anything to anyone about what had happened to Astoria back there. Harry had even managed to tweak her mind (which was against the law, mind you), but he had made it seem as though Draco had just leaned across the table and said what he had wanted to say to her.
Thank Salazar for that. Otherwise he would be in deep trouble for strangling her.
Kingsley looked at Draco over his glasses, which sat on the bridge of his nose. "It would be my honour if you would rejoin the Auror department and resume your old position." He smiled.
Draco frowned. "But Theo has my old position."
Kingsley dug around in his drawer and placed down Draco's old Auror badge and pushed it towards him with one long finger. "Luckily for you, there's a second Deputy Head Auror position going." He chuckled. "So, here's your badge." He stood up and walked over to his closet and took out some folded-up Auror robes, turned around, walked over, and held them out to Draco. "Along with your new Aurors robes and wand holster."
"Sir," Draco stood on shaky legs, hardly believing that this was true. "Are you sure?" He asked, reaching out and placing his hands over the fabric with a breathless smile on his face.
"Only if you feel healthy enough to come back," Kingsley placed his hand on his shoulder. "I always knew that you would come back. I didn't expect the reasonings behind your past behaviour, but now that we know why you were the way that you were, I think we can put that behind us and start fresh."
Draco met his eyes, lost for words.
"You don't have to start straight away, not until you're one hundred percent healed. I'm aware that you have weekly appointments. Theo told me all about it. You can come back whenever you're ready, and your desk will be waiting for you in Theo's office."
"Thank you."
Kingsley held his hand out. "Welcome back to the team, Auror Malfoy." He said with a genuine smile on his face.
Draco shook his hand, grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you for giving me a second chance. I won't let you down this time."
"No," Kingsley let go of his and patted him on the shoulder. "I know you won't."
~♡~
"Dad!" Charlotte ran over to Draco, dropping her parchment and coloured pens all over the floor, and bolted at him just as he came through the floo. She crushed herself into his arms, and he lifted her up into his arms, grunting at her weight, but he didn't care. She loved him now, and that was all that mattered.
"Hey beautiful," he kissed her cheek, tucking her curl behind her ear. They rubbed noses, which was their new thing to do, and she laughed.
"What am I? Chopped liver?" Theo joked at her with a joking frown on his face and poked her in the ribs with a small pout.
Charlotte stuck her tongue out at him, flinging her arms around Draco's neck. "You're my dad too! Don't worry!" She reached out, ruffling his curls.
"I think I'm the favourite dad now," Draco winked at Theo.
Theo rolled his eyes, gesturing for them to sit on the sofa as he smoothed his curls down. He flopped on his back, crossing his ankles together at the end of the sofa, and clasped his hands across his stomach, watching them with a smile on his face as they sat on the opposite sofa.
"What have you done to your face?" Draco asked her as he settled her beside him.
"Drawing," she said, reaching across to the table in the centre and showing him the picture. "That's me," she pointed to herself in the drawing. "That's Mum," she pointed to Hermione next to her, holding her hand. "You're there," she showed him Draco himself standing behind Hermione. "And then there's Dad," she pointed to Theo standing next to Draco. "Caleb up there," she pointed to the little boy with brown curls with a halo above his head sitting cross-legged on a cloud, looking down at them all. "With Nana and Grandpa, of course." She laughed.
Draco smiled, resting the side of his head against hers, looking at the drawing of Jean and David side by side with Caleb.
"Then there's baby, TJ or Lyra," she pointed to the roundish part of Hermione's belly on the drawing. "Then there's both of my extra nanas standing either side of us outside of Nott Manor all together." She beamed up at him.
"You didn't want to put Uncle Harry or your cousins in there?" Draco arched his brow at her, tugging his lip up into a smirk.
She scowled at him in the same way that he does. It still freaked him out when she did that. "There's only so much drawing I can take in one day. I'll do them separately," she waved him off with a rough huff. "But for now, this is my family. All of us together, even if not everyone can be here, then we know they're watching down on us."
"Of course they are," he tapped her nose, and she wrinkled it.
"Will you and Mum have another baby? Just like she is with Dad?" She asked, with hope.
"Well, I don't know," Draco started teasingly. "Would you want another brother or sister after this one has come?"
She nodded. "As long as I'm still the favourite child, then I don't care how many you two pop out with Mum," she grinned, snatching the drawing off him and settling into his arms.
"Like father, like daughter," Theo muttered, grinning at them.
Draco glared at him playfully. "You'll always be my favourite." He kissed her head. "But don't tell your mother or father that." He whispered, slotting his hand around her arm.
"Lips are sealed," Charlotte made a zipping motion across her lips, grinning up at him with a wink of her big grey eyes.
"That's my girl," he chuckled. "You'll make a fine Slytherin one day."
"Don't tell Mum that," she groaned. "She's hoping I'm in Gryffindor when I go to Hogwarts."
"Then let's hope you get placed in Slytherin just to wind her up. Because both I and your dad were in Slytherin."
She seemed to like that very much. "Deal!" She laughed.
Theo laughed, sitting up slightly to rest the back of his head against the arm of the sofa, just as Hermione walked in looking as though she had just woken up from a nap and her small bump on show. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, walked over to him, and pressed a kiss to his lips with her hand on his jaw.
"What are you three talking about?" She stood straight, puffing out a sigh of relief as Theo rubbed a hand on the small of her back.
Draco and Charlotte shared an identical look at one another, up to no good, and the same identical smirk across their faces. They looked back at her with mischief. "Nothing." They said at the same time.
Hermione gave them a suspicious look. "Why do you two look like you're up to no good?"
"We're Malfoy's mom," Charlotte scoffed as though it was obvious. "Did you expect anything less?" She rolled her eyes, shaking her head, and hopped off Draco and made her way over to Theo, climbing into his side as he held his arms out to her for a hug.
Theo snorted as Hermione blanched at her on her way past. "No, I guess I walked right into that one," she sighed and sat down next to Draco, draping his arm around her and entwining their fingers together. "How did it go today?" She asked, looking up at him.
Draco pressed a kiss into her hair and then stroked the side of her face with the back of his knuckles. Her eyes fluttered at his touch, with a small smile on her face. "It went as well as I expected." Hermione frowned. "I'll tell you later, when little Miss isn't around."
Hermione nodded in understanding.
"But I did get what I went for in the first place," he shifted his hips up and dug around in his pocket and held out Narcissa's ring from the Black family in the palm of his hand. Hermione's brows furrowed as she took it from him and eyed it over. "She still had it, and I wanted it back before she went to Azkaban."
"It's beautiful."
"It was supposed to be yours," he said, and Hermione looked up at him. "Before all of that happened, I was planning on proposing to you and getting married in secret, then announcing it once our magic was tied. So that they couldn't force me. But... I was too late..." His lips twitched into a thin smile. "Astoria got there first. I wanted it back."
Hermione turned it around in her fingers, eyeing Theo over it, and he smiled back at her, stroking Charlotte's head on his chest. "I'm really sorry, Draco."
"It doesn't matter," he shrugged, pulling her closer to him. "After all, I got something out of all of this, didn't I?" He gestured to her, their unborn baby, Theo and Charlotte. "After all the pain, I still got more than just you back. I got three more additions to my life."
Hermione didn't know what to say as she looked at the ring between her fingers. "I suppose that's true. But I believe we would've come together in another way if that hadn't happened." She looked between her men. "Fate has a way."
"She's right," Theo laughed, putting his arm behind his head and grinning at the way Hermione glared at him.
"When isn't she?" Draco laughed with him, and Hermione rolled her eyes. "I will propose again. Maybe even Theo and I will do it at the same time, making it more special." He held his hand out, and she placed the ring back in his palm, and he put it back in his pocket. "If you want us to."
"I can wait," she sighed, entwining their fingers once more over her shoulder, and rested her head against his shoulder. "We don't have to rush this."
"Sounds good to me," Theo yawned, closing his eyes with a smile on his face and cuddling Charlotte with a soft sigh. "I can't wait to marry you both one day." He said quietly.
Hermione and Draco stayed quiet for a while, watching Charlotte grow exhausted, and then finally she fell asleep curled in at Theo's side, with her head on his chest. Next thing they knew, they were both asleep with only the sounds of their sleepy breaths filling their side of the room.
"Hermione?"
"Hmm?" She hummed, growing tired herself.
"Thank you for giving me a second chance." He said, and she craned her head to look up at him to find his eyes deep with adoration. "I love you."
"I love you too," Hermione whispered, pulling him down for a deep kiss.
They fell asleep later on the sofa, in each other's arms together as a family, one step closer with Astoria gone for good and never to hurt Draco or their family again.