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It sits on the shelf, dusty and disused. Its owners have long forgotten that this old relic ever existed. Its pages are grimy and its ornate leather cover is inscribed. ‘Malfoy’, it says in a curly, almost unreadable script. It is a photo album. It has not been touched for a long time but that changes when a little child, a Malfoy by name but both a Weasley and Malfoy by nature, comes looking for a suitable place to hide during hide-and-seek. Abraxus Draco Malfoy is a mischievous, curious child, and hide-and-seek is soon forgotten in the excitement of this rare find.
Abraxus pulls open the album, coughing slightly from the dust. When he sees the first picture he realises that it is of a wedding. The photo is moving because it is a wizarding photo and wizards tend to do things a little bit differently than the rest of us. In the photo a woman with bright red hair is dancing with her head resting on a tall blond man’s shoulder. The long white dress and sunflowers in her hair mark her as the bride as surely as his blond hair and grey eyes mark him as a Malfoy.
‘I love you so much,’ Ginny whispered as she leaned her head on Draco’s shoulder. He smiled and lowered his head to kiss her tenderly. They circled the floor again as the band started up another song. The music wafted out from the pavilion and filled the night air with the sound of merriment. Floating amongst the trees were tiny little fairies carrying different coloured lights. The whole effect was magical. Molly Weasley was sitting in a corner, dabbing at her eyes surreptitiously. Draco smiled gently at his new mother-in-law as he danced past her corner. He had tried to bury his longing that his parents could have been at his wedding, but even with Potter’s support, the Ministry had not deemed a wedding a suitable excuse for a day trip out of Azkaban.
With a knowing look in her eye, Ginny glanced up at him and said, ‘At least you know they support you now. Thank Merlin your mother and father have changed sides. Azkaban seems to have shown them the truth about Voldemort. Your mother even started hinting about grandchildren in her last letter to me.’
Draco grinned. ‘What did you tell her?’
Ginny smiled the seductive smile that had first grabbed his attention at Hogwarts. ‘Why don’t you come with me and find out,’ she giggled.
He snaked his arm round her waist, pulled her roughly against his body and Apparated into Malfoy Manor before Ginny could blink.
‘You idiot. I was teasing. We can’t just leave like that. That was our wedding, in case you hadn’t noticed. Take me back now!’ she demanded.
He covered her mouth and expletives with his own and pushed her onto his, no their, bed. It was his wedding night and Draco didn’t really care if he was being rude, and he was determined that Ginny wouldn’t care either. Malfoys can be very determined.
Back at the pavilion, the shocked guests looked around in, well, shock. ‘Umm,’ said Ron, in his usual loquacious manner, as he stood up to gain people’s attention. ‘I suggest we continue dancing. They tend to do this a lot.’ He laughed nervously and some of the more free-spirited guests joined in. Soon, everyone was dancing, eating and talking, mainly about the wedding couple’s abrupt disappearance, but then this was a Malfoy and a Weasley. They were often doing weird things, just look at the twins’ ties.
The next photo is of the same couple, except now the beautiful (and expensive, if truth be told) wedding dress and suit is replaced with old jeans and loose, almost identical shirts. Their clothes are splattered with blue paint, and their faces are covered with huge grins. Behind them stands a pretty half-painted blue house. Purple smoke is puffing out of the chimney, and the garden bed is filled with sunflowers.
‘Why couldn’t we have done this the normal Wizard way,’ complained Draco, as he half lifted Ginny so her legs were around his waist and their faces the same height.
She smiled and tapped her finger on his nose, leaving a smudge of blue paint behind. ‘Because then we wouldn’t have had half as much fun, would we now? And besides, I wanted to.’
Draco laughed out loud. ‘And what my lady wants, she shall get.’
‘You better remember it, bucko. It does look pretty good though, doesn’t it?’
Draco heard the hopeful question in her voice. For all her bravado, Ginny was actually very concerned that the house look perfect. Ginny had chosen the colour herself, and he knew her mother thought it was too bright. It wasn’t, it was just perfect, like his Ginny. They had only been married for a few months, and Draco still felt almost in shock. His Ginny. His and nobody could change that.
‘It looks wonderful. The blue paint looks almost as good on the house as on you,’ he said as he stood her on the ground and proceeded to kiss all the blue splotches on her face and neck.
‘Get off, it tickles.’
Ginny fell to the ground with a thump, flattening some of the sunflowers as she pulled Draco down with her. Draco continued to kiss her, purposefully finding all of her most ticklish places. He nibbled at her ear and the dip in her neck while his fingers continued their assault on her stomach. Ginny tried not to giggle, she really did, but eventually she was rolling in the flowerbed as Draco pulled off her shirt.
Their elderly neighbours, needless to say, were very shocked. They never did know what to think about that Malfoy couple.
The woman with the red hair is in the next photo. She is sitting in a hospital room filled with bright, happy sunflowers, cuddly baby toys and congratulations balloons. Her hair is sweaty and pulled messily back from her face, and in her arms is a tiny baby girl. The baby is wriggling, and her face is screwed up in a pout. The woman and her child look radiant.
‘Jesus, Ginny. She’s so beautiful. Look at that, she’s already smirking at me. A true Malfoy there,’ said Draco while he moved to the side of the hospital bed and kissed the side of Ginny’s head gently.
‘A true Malfoy? Ha, she’s going to grow up into the spitting image of her mama. Aren’t you, darling? So beautiful,’ Ginny murmured as she pulled her baby close. ‘And she’s got all ten toes and ten fingers. The healers said she was absolutely perfect – other than a being a tad underweight, which is expected when she’s a month early. She’s the picture of health.’
‘Of course she is. We made ourselves a beautiful baby girl.’
‘Which reminds me, you owe me ten galleons,’ said Ginny with a smirk of her own.
‘Damn it. I was hoping you would forget. I still don’t know how we managed to have a girl. With our family’s track record, you would think a boy was in the bag.’
‘And you said I was stupid for taking a bet about our child’s gender. I knew it was a girl. I told you I did. Mothers know everything, which is something you need to remember, my darling,’ added Ginny as she looked down at her child who was now suckling at her breast. ‘Can we call her Molly? Mum would like that so much.’
‘Of course, but the next one is going to be named after my side of the family.’
‘Fine, that seems fair.’
‘Talking about fair, don’t you think it’s my turn to hold our little Molly? She’s the most beautiful baby in the entire world. We sure do make beautiful babies, Gin,’ whispered Draco as for the first time ever he held his child in his arms.
The red-haired woman is holding an obviously newborn baby in the next photo. The blond man is standing at the door watching as she introduces the baby to a red-haired toddler. The toddler is sitting in a cot, sucking on a large, plush, smiling toy sunflower while she watches the little intruder with small grey eyes.
‘I’m a bit scared,’ whispered Ginny. ‘Molls can be a bit stubborn. What if she doesn’t take to Druella?’
‘We can only try,’ said Draco from the door.
Slowly, Ginny edged forward towards her young daughter in the cot. Molly placed her favourite toy carefully aside, and then pulled herself up using the bars to better see her new sister.
‘Her name is Druella, after Daddy’s grandma. She’s your new little sister. You two will be very good friends,’ informed Ginny.
Molly cocked her head to one side and examined Druella in an almost clinical and detached sort of way. Draco laughed nervously as he made his way into the room. ‘She’s just unsure. Your mother said it always takes time for children to accept a younger sibling.’
‘I know. It’s just that she’s looking at her like she’s some sort of specimen. It’s scary. Molls’s far too mature for a two-year-old.’
Suddenly, Molly reached out a curious hand and pinched her sister soundly on the cheek. Druella started to wail like only a young baby can. It was an earsplitting shriek that Ginny and Draco had unfortunately become far too familiar with during Molly’s infancy. Molly frowned her displeasure at her sister, and then declared, ‘Noisy, mummy. Stop, stop.’
Almost instantly, Druella ceased the sound and returned to staring glumly at her sister. Molly smiled and gave vent to her feelings on the subject. ‘She can stay.’ And with these few magnanimous words, turned back to her toy.
Draco let out a sigh of relief. ‘I’m so glad that’s over. Now all we have to do is get them to actually like each other.’
The next picture shows two teenage girls – one blonde and the other red-haired – holding onto each other and leaning out a window in a puffing steam train. They are both wearing uniforms, but the blonde girl has a red tie on and the redhead a green one. Except for their hair, the girls are identical down to their grey eyes and freckles.
‘I am so excited, Dru,’ exclaimed the redhead as she and her younger sister turned away from the train window where their younger brother and parents stood waving. They started looking for their friends. ‘Seventh year is going to be so much fun. I can’t believe I got Head Girl.’
‘I can,’ her sister replied dryly. ‘You’re the Princess of Slytherin. Pretty, smart and kind,’ declared Druella while she ticked off her sister’s qualities on her fingers. ‘Professor Longbottom would have had to be crazy not to pick you. Plus, both our parents were Head Boy and Head Girl. I think it’s so romantic how they started dating when Dad had to repeat a year.’
‘Of course,’ replied Molly snarkily, ‘repeating your last year at school because of an evil old bat who tried to use you and your family as pawns in his plan for world domination is just so romantic. Anyway, I got the position through my own work. It has nothing to do with mum or dad.’ Molly looked down her nose at her sister as if daring her to disagree.
‘Oh, don’t get so high and mighty, Molls. You still can’t do the whole sarcasm thing as well as dad. And don’t you raise your eyebrow at me. You know full well it pisses me off that I can’t do it. Anyway, I didn’t mean you didn’t work for it. You deserve it. Plus, that cutie Matthew Finch-Fletchley is Head Boy this year. Life doesn’t always have to be all work and no play,’ teased Dru.
‘Shut up. He’s not even that good looking. We’re just friends.’
‘Sure, that’s why you’ve been sending owls back and forth all summer. And seventeen-year-old guys usually send jewellery and sunflowers for their ‘just friend’s birthdays. Anyway, I’ve got to go. Your non-existent love life just isn’t that interesting, and I promised Roxanne and Rose that I’d meet them. We have some new ideas for pranks this year. Better watch out, sis. Head Girl’s always a target,’ shouted Druella as she dashed away.
Molly was left standing in the corridor, shaking her head at her impetuous younger sister.
In the next photo the still mostly red-haired woman is sitting on the veranda. Her eyes are closed, but you can see the tears and the trails they make as they slide down her face.
‘I can’t believe she’s gone. I knew it would happen eventually, but God, I didn’t expect it to happen now,’ said Ginny quietly as she turned to face her husband, who was walking through the door behind her, carrying cups of tea laced heavily with brandy. He acknowledged her statement with a slight nod as he placed the warm tea in her cold hands. He shuddered slightly, looking at the desperation on his wife’s face. He didn’t know what to say, and Draco knew that she was depending on him to say something, anything, to make the pain go away.
He leaned down and kissed her before leaning back and looking into her eyes. ‘I don’t know what to say, Gin. I’ve never had to feel the loss that comes with losing a parent. Thank God. Ginny, she loved you, and she was happy when she died. I know that can’t make it better, but maybe it can help.’
Draco stammered to a close as he looked into the pools of absolute sadness that were his wife’s eyes. ‘Come here,’ he murmured and picked her up and sat her down on his lap. He stroked her hair while she curled her body into a small ball on his lap. Slowly, the tears he had held back at the thought of his adopted mother’s death trickled down his face. Ginny’s arms came up to wrap around him, and they sat as one on the porch, looking out at the bed of sunflowers they had planted so long ago. Stars slowly lit up the sky, and the sound of the cicadas and Ginny’s sobs filled the night air.
But what now? The rest of the album is empty. Abraxus flicks hurriedly through the rest of the pages in search of more memories, but there are only empty slots waiting to be filled. But the album is not sad. It knows that soon more pictures will fill it. Soon the Malfoy clan will grow again, expanding so that little Abraxus is not the only grandchild of Draco and Ginny Malfoy.
Abraxus pulls open the album, coughing slightly from the dust. When he sees the first picture he realises that it is of a wedding. The photo is moving because it is a wizarding photo and wizards tend to do things a little bit differently than the rest of us. In the photo a woman with bright red hair is dancing with her head resting on a tall blond man’s shoulder. The long white dress and sunflowers in her hair mark her as the bride as surely as his blond hair and grey eyes mark him as a Malfoy.
‘I love you so much,’ Ginny whispered as she leaned her head on Draco’s shoulder. He smiled and lowered his head to kiss her tenderly. They circled the floor again as the band started up another song. The music wafted out from the pavilion and filled the night air with the sound of merriment. Floating amongst the trees were tiny little fairies carrying different coloured lights. The whole effect was magical. Molly Weasley was sitting in a corner, dabbing at her eyes surreptitiously. Draco smiled gently at his new mother-in-law as he danced past her corner. He had tried to bury his longing that his parents could have been at his wedding, but even with Potter’s support, the Ministry had not deemed a wedding a suitable excuse for a day trip out of Azkaban.
With a knowing look in her eye, Ginny glanced up at him and said, ‘At least you know they support you now. Thank Merlin your mother and father have changed sides. Azkaban seems to have shown them the truth about Voldemort. Your mother even started hinting about grandchildren in her last letter to me.’
Draco grinned. ‘What did you tell her?’
Ginny smiled the seductive smile that had first grabbed his attention at Hogwarts. ‘Why don’t you come with me and find out,’ she giggled.
He snaked his arm round her waist, pulled her roughly against his body and Apparated into Malfoy Manor before Ginny could blink.
‘You idiot. I was teasing. We can’t just leave like that. That was our wedding, in case you hadn’t noticed. Take me back now!’ she demanded.
He covered her mouth and expletives with his own and pushed her onto his, no their, bed. It was his wedding night and Draco didn’t really care if he was being rude, and he was determined that Ginny wouldn’t care either. Malfoys can be very determined.
Back at the pavilion, the shocked guests looked around in, well, shock. ‘Umm,’ said Ron, in his usual loquacious manner, as he stood up to gain people’s attention. ‘I suggest we continue dancing. They tend to do this a lot.’ He laughed nervously and some of the more free-spirited guests joined in. Soon, everyone was dancing, eating and talking, mainly about the wedding couple’s abrupt disappearance, but then this was a Malfoy and a Weasley. They were often doing weird things, just look at the twins’ ties.
The next photo is of the same couple, except now the beautiful (and expensive, if truth be told) wedding dress and suit is replaced with old jeans and loose, almost identical shirts. Their clothes are splattered with blue paint, and their faces are covered with huge grins. Behind them stands a pretty half-painted blue house. Purple smoke is puffing out of the chimney, and the garden bed is filled with sunflowers.
‘Why couldn’t we have done this the normal Wizard way,’ complained Draco, as he half lifted Ginny so her legs were around his waist and their faces the same height.
She smiled and tapped her finger on his nose, leaving a smudge of blue paint behind. ‘Because then we wouldn’t have had half as much fun, would we now? And besides, I wanted to.’
Draco laughed out loud. ‘And what my lady wants, she shall get.’
‘You better remember it, bucko. It does look pretty good though, doesn’t it?’
Draco heard the hopeful question in her voice. For all her bravado, Ginny was actually very concerned that the house look perfect. Ginny had chosen the colour herself, and he knew her mother thought it was too bright. It wasn’t, it was just perfect, like his Ginny. They had only been married for a few months, and Draco still felt almost in shock. His Ginny. His and nobody could change that.
‘It looks wonderful. The blue paint looks almost as good on the house as on you,’ he said as he stood her on the ground and proceeded to kiss all the blue splotches on her face and neck.
‘Get off, it tickles.’
Ginny fell to the ground with a thump, flattening some of the sunflowers as she pulled Draco down with her. Draco continued to kiss her, purposefully finding all of her most ticklish places. He nibbled at her ear and the dip in her neck while his fingers continued their assault on her stomach. Ginny tried not to giggle, she really did, but eventually she was rolling in the flowerbed as Draco pulled off her shirt.
Their elderly neighbours, needless to say, were very shocked. They never did know what to think about that Malfoy couple.
The woman with the red hair is in the next photo. She is sitting in a hospital room filled with bright, happy sunflowers, cuddly baby toys and congratulations balloons. Her hair is sweaty and pulled messily back from her face, and in her arms is a tiny baby girl. The baby is wriggling, and her face is screwed up in a pout. The woman and her child look radiant.
‘Jesus, Ginny. She’s so beautiful. Look at that, she’s already smirking at me. A true Malfoy there,’ said Draco while he moved to the side of the hospital bed and kissed the side of Ginny’s head gently.
‘A true Malfoy? Ha, she’s going to grow up into the spitting image of her mama. Aren’t you, darling? So beautiful,’ Ginny murmured as she pulled her baby close. ‘And she’s got all ten toes and ten fingers. The healers said she was absolutely perfect – other than a being a tad underweight, which is expected when she’s a month early. She’s the picture of health.’
‘Of course she is. We made ourselves a beautiful baby girl.’
‘Which reminds me, you owe me ten galleons,’ said Ginny with a smirk of her own.
‘Damn it. I was hoping you would forget. I still don’t know how we managed to have a girl. With our family’s track record, you would think a boy was in the bag.’
‘And you said I was stupid for taking a bet about our child’s gender. I knew it was a girl. I told you I did. Mothers know everything, which is something you need to remember, my darling,’ added Ginny as she looked down at her child who was now suckling at her breast. ‘Can we call her Molly? Mum would like that so much.’
‘Of course, but the next one is going to be named after my side of the family.’
‘Fine, that seems fair.’
‘Talking about fair, don’t you think it’s my turn to hold our little Molly? She’s the most beautiful baby in the entire world. We sure do make beautiful babies, Gin,’ whispered Draco as for the first time ever he held his child in his arms.
The red-haired woman is holding an obviously newborn baby in the next photo. The blond man is standing at the door watching as she introduces the baby to a red-haired toddler. The toddler is sitting in a cot, sucking on a large, plush, smiling toy sunflower while she watches the little intruder with small grey eyes.
‘I’m a bit scared,’ whispered Ginny. ‘Molls can be a bit stubborn. What if she doesn’t take to Druella?’
‘We can only try,’ said Draco from the door.
Slowly, Ginny edged forward towards her young daughter in the cot. Molly placed her favourite toy carefully aside, and then pulled herself up using the bars to better see her new sister.
‘Her name is Druella, after Daddy’s grandma. She’s your new little sister. You two will be very good friends,’ informed Ginny.
Molly cocked her head to one side and examined Druella in an almost clinical and detached sort of way. Draco laughed nervously as he made his way into the room. ‘She’s just unsure. Your mother said it always takes time for children to accept a younger sibling.’
‘I know. It’s just that she’s looking at her like she’s some sort of specimen. It’s scary. Molls’s far too mature for a two-year-old.’
Suddenly, Molly reached out a curious hand and pinched her sister soundly on the cheek. Druella started to wail like only a young baby can. It was an earsplitting shriek that Ginny and Draco had unfortunately become far too familiar with during Molly’s infancy. Molly frowned her displeasure at her sister, and then declared, ‘Noisy, mummy. Stop, stop.’
Almost instantly, Druella ceased the sound and returned to staring glumly at her sister. Molly smiled and gave vent to her feelings on the subject. ‘She can stay.’ And with these few magnanimous words, turned back to her toy.
Draco let out a sigh of relief. ‘I’m so glad that’s over. Now all we have to do is get them to actually like each other.’
The next picture shows two teenage girls – one blonde and the other red-haired – holding onto each other and leaning out a window in a puffing steam train. They are both wearing uniforms, but the blonde girl has a red tie on and the redhead a green one. Except for their hair, the girls are identical down to their grey eyes and freckles.
‘I am so excited, Dru,’ exclaimed the redhead as she and her younger sister turned away from the train window where their younger brother and parents stood waving. They started looking for their friends. ‘Seventh year is going to be so much fun. I can’t believe I got Head Girl.’
‘I can,’ her sister replied dryly. ‘You’re the Princess of Slytherin. Pretty, smart and kind,’ declared Druella while she ticked off her sister’s qualities on her fingers. ‘Professor Longbottom would have had to be crazy not to pick you. Plus, both our parents were Head Boy and Head Girl. I think it’s so romantic how they started dating when Dad had to repeat a year.’
‘Of course,’ replied Molly snarkily, ‘repeating your last year at school because of an evil old bat who tried to use you and your family as pawns in his plan for world domination is just so romantic. Anyway, I got the position through my own work. It has nothing to do with mum or dad.’ Molly looked down her nose at her sister as if daring her to disagree.
‘Oh, don’t get so high and mighty, Molls. You still can’t do the whole sarcasm thing as well as dad. And don’t you raise your eyebrow at me. You know full well it pisses me off that I can’t do it. Anyway, I didn’t mean you didn’t work for it. You deserve it. Plus, that cutie Matthew Finch-Fletchley is Head Boy this year. Life doesn’t always have to be all work and no play,’ teased Dru.
‘Shut up. He’s not even that good looking. We’re just friends.’
‘Sure, that’s why you’ve been sending owls back and forth all summer. And seventeen-year-old guys usually send jewellery and sunflowers for their ‘just friend’s birthdays. Anyway, I’ve got to go. Your non-existent love life just isn’t that interesting, and I promised Roxanne and Rose that I’d meet them. We have some new ideas for pranks this year. Better watch out, sis. Head Girl’s always a target,’ shouted Druella as she dashed away.
Molly was left standing in the corridor, shaking her head at her impetuous younger sister.
In the next photo the still mostly red-haired woman is sitting on the veranda. Her eyes are closed, but you can see the tears and the trails they make as they slide down her face.
‘I can’t believe she’s gone. I knew it would happen eventually, but God, I didn’t expect it to happen now,’ said Ginny quietly as she turned to face her husband, who was walking through the door behind her, carrying cups of tea laced heavily with brandy. He acknowledged her statement with a slight nod as he placed the warm tea in her cold hands. He shuddered slightly, looking at the desperation on his wife’s face. He didn’t know what to say, and Draco knew that she was depending on him to say something, anything, to make the pain go away.
He leaned down and kissed her before leaning back and looking into her eyes. ‘I don’t know what to say, Gin. I’ve never had to feel the loss that comes with losing a parent. Thank God. Ginny, she loved you, and she was happy when she died. I know that can’t make it better, but maybe it can help.’
Draco stammered to a close as he looked into the pools of absolute sadness that were his wife’s eyes. ‘Come here,’ he murmured and picked her up and sat her down on his lap. He stroked her hair while she curled her body into a small ball on his lap. Slowly, the tears he had held back at the thought of his adopted mother’s death trickled down his face. Ginny’s arms came up to wrap around him, and they sat as one on the porch, looking out at the bed of sunflowers they had planted so long ago. Stars slowly lit up the sky, and the sound of the cicadas and Ginny’s sobs filled the night air.
But what now? The rest of the album is empty. Abraxus flicks hurriedly through the rest of the pages in search of more memories, but there are only empty slots waiting to be filled. But the album is not sad. It knows that soon more pictures will fill it. Soon the Malfoy clan will grow again, expanding so that little Abraxus is not the only grandchild of Draco and Ginny Malfoy.
The End.
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