Belong (D.M)

Part sixty

People can change, right?

Yes most definitely, for he learned and he grew. He rebounded from all of his mistakes, and he rose from the ashes of who he once was.

People can change, she had seen it.

....

A few years later;

The sun danced over the garden, and the willow tree bloomed. Summer was here, and the lake hidden behind their two story house glittered as the waves softly rolled into the shore. The kitchen smelled of pumpkin pie and banana bread, and the radio was on in the living room, playing a Celestina Warbeck song.

The newspaper laid open on the kitchen counter and in the hall stood two pairs of muddy wellington boots. Toys laid scattered around the living room and laughter echoed through the painted walls of the house.

Family photos hung in each room, and on the fridge were painting hung up with magnets. In the fireplace crackled a fire, and on the window sills stood all kinds of potted plants.

Above their bed hung a thin silver frame with the dried flowers from her wedding bouquet, and every morning she gazed upon it before she woke her husband up. Some mornings she did not need to wake him, for their children would come running into their bedroom and jump on their bed, begging for their father to get up and play with them.

"Good morning my love"

"Good morning Draco"

The day he changed was the day he quit trying to fit into a destructive world that never really fitted him.

Draco Malfoy had been running from his demons all his life, afraid to stop and look behind him. However, he was not afraid anymore. He held love in his heart and nothing in the world could disrupt his inner peace. There was no more darkness and no more despair, light and hope had taken a permanent spot in his life. And with his family, he felt joy each day.

"You're as beautiful as ever Ellie" he mumbled, rolling over to his right side as he stroked her cheek.

"You never fail to amaze me" she laughed "still after all this time"

They stayed underneath the covers for just a moment longer, laying close to each other in their soft bed. At the foot of the bed laid the deep green and black knitted blanket that she had made for him so many years ago. He still held it close whenever he had a nightmare, and it still smelled like her.

He was her warmth, and she was his peace. He was her future, and she was his home. He was her adventure, and she was his safety.

Later in the afternoon she found Draco with their son in their small at-home Alchemy lab in the very back of the house. Draco, who had always loved the subject of the elements, had become heavily invested in Alchemy after he left Hogwarts. He was mostly fascinated by alchemical manuscripts, something she could not understand a single thing of. However, his obsession with Alchemy was pure and honest, for he wished to use it to become a better man. He always strived to be a better man. And his interest had seemed to spread to his son, for she often found the young boy sitting in his father's lab with wide eyes and a bright smile upon his lips.

Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy

Draco loved their firstborn child more than he had ever imagined he would be able to, and he took great pleasure in teaching the intelligent boy everything he knew. Scorpius was a spitting image of his father, with icy grey eyes and silvery blonde hair. He had his father's clever brain and his mother's kind heart.

In the evening she found her husband dancing with their daughter in the living room, twirling her around to the same slow Celestina Warbeck song they had danced to on their wedding day. The young girl laughed, looking at her father with adoring eyes. There was not a single thing in the world that could tear them apart.