Empire (D.M)

Part ninetynine

To think about how such beautiful things had grown out of nothing. Draco spent a lot of time wondering how he got so lucky as he sat in the armchair in the living room holding his one week old daughter in his arms. She was small, fragile. She had his silvery blonde hair and cloudy grey eyes. Her eyelashes were just as light as his and his mother had cooed over how alike little Lyra and Scorpius were. They were a spitting image of how Draco had looked as a child she said.

But little Lyra, oh she had her mother's sweet smile. She had that same look in her eyes as Alice did, the one he loved. The kind one, the welcoming one.

"Is she sleeping?" Alice asked lowly as she walked into the room, just having put Scorpius down for a nap. He always had a nap in the afternoon, the two year old boy needed it.

"She is yeah" he said, gazing down at the little girl who was sleeping soundly in his arms.

"Good" Alice said, sitting down on the couch not too far from him "cause I need to talk to you"

"Sounds serious" he hummed as he lifted his head and took a look at his wife, noticing the way her dark eyebrows furrowed and how her eyes shone of bewilderment.

"It is" she sighed, crossing her legs "that's why I wanted to talk to you after the kids had fallen asleep"

"Well I hardly think it matters if Lyra is asleep" he said with a faint smile, trying to lighten the mood "she can't understand your words anyway my darling"

"I know that" Alice mumbled, staring directly at her husband "but I don't want the tone of my voice to upset her"

Draco knew that Alice got easily worked up over things, especially since becoming a mother. He knew that things upset her and he wanted to make sure she knew that he was always there right by her side, for he had not been for a prolonged part of their upbringing. He had changed, and she knew that, yet it was easy to slip back into old habits.

"What is it then?" ha asked calmly, watching Alice move closer towards him as she pulled something out from behind her back.

"The Daily Prophet"

"Oh Merlin" Draco huffed, rolling his eyes "not that garbage again"

"Yes, yes" she said, holding the newspaper up to his face as she vigorously pointed her index finger towards the headline "I swear our children are cursed"

"Our children are not cursed Allo" he said, looking directly at her "I love you, and you know that, but you're being ridiculous right now, Scorp and Lyra are just fine"

"For now" Alice huffed, lowering the newspaper to read it "but listen to this... breaking news from a reputable source of the Daily Prophet say that the fourth cursed child to join the Serpent Dynasty that is to come has been born to a mother and father marked by darkness, the dark lord is one step closer to arising again"

There was a moment of silence as those words sank into Draco's chest. Alice lowered the newspaper, peering over the edge of the parchment at her husband. She could see the conflicted look upon his pale face and she knew that he didn't know what to believe these days.

"It could all be a ruse" Draco finally spoke, gripping onto his daughter a little tighter "just because it's in the newspaper that a cursed child has been born doesn't make that child our little Lyra... no, this could all be a set up from some bored old death eater"

"They're all in Azkaban, you know that Draco" she mumbled, putting the newspaper down "first that article after Scorpius was born, then another one right after Phoenix and Electra and now this... I mean she's barely a week old"