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Narcissa smirked to herself as she kept a close eye on her young son. Diagon Alley wasn't very crowded today, so she felt confident to let her adventurous 5 year old walk ahead of her. Draco, being so much like his father, always wanted to do things on his own and today, that included walking by himself as they did some shopping.
They were just passing Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour when she heard Draco gasp before he took off running. Her heart sank as she immediately went after him. She was just about to scream his name when she saw a small, red-headed boy curiously turn into Knockturn Alley. Her brisk pace then turned to a walk as Draco reached out for the boy's hand, pulling him back into the main alley.
"Hey!" the little boy shouted, trying to pull his arm free from Draco's grasp.
"You can't go in there!" Draco yelled back, not letting go of the boy until they were a few feet from the alley's dark entrance.
The boy looked back, confusion written all over this face, "Why not? It looks normal."
Draco shook his head, "My mummy says it's very dangerous down there. You could have gotten hurt."
Narcissa had stopped a few steps back from the boys to watch the interaction. She had half a mind to grab her son and reprimand him, explaining how dangerous his actions could have been, but she couldn't bring herself to. It warmed her heart to see how caring Draco was. He didn't know this child, yet he felt the need to save him from possible harm. It made her feel like she was doing something right as a mother, something which she struggled with at times. She decided to keep her distance for now, just content to watch the two young boys.
The red headed boy shuffled his feet for a bit, then turned his gaze back to Draco, "Do you like chocolate frogs?"
The little blonde nodded with a smile, as the other boy reached into his pocket, withdrawing his hand in a closed fist. With his other hand, he reached out for Draco's, before turning it palm up. Opening his fist, he released the frog causing both boys to break into sweet laughter as they watched the frog jump to Draco's open hand and give a small croak.
"RONALD WEASLEY!"
Before the boys had time to react, a short, slightly plump, red haired woman appeared almost out of nowhere. She quickly reached for the boy and pulled him behind her, allowing him to be swallowed into the brood of 4 other similar looking children. Her attention then turned to the blonde boy, who looked quite shaken by the woman's seething look.
Sensing her son was no longer safe, Narcissa stepped forward, gently bringing her hands to sit on Draco's shoulders. The little blonde quickly turned into his mother's embrace when he realized she was there.
"Narcissa," the woman hissed.
"Molly," Narcissa responded, raising her head to look down on the woman.
"Why am I not surprised to find your son trying to lure mine into Knockturn Alley with a chocolate frog?" Molly accused.
"Mum…" the little boy started before being pulled back by one of his brothers.
Narcissa scoffed, "If you had been watching your son, you would have known that he was about to wander into the alley before my son stopped him."
Draco pulled his face out of his mother's robes, "And he gave me the chocolate frog! You can have it back, if you want it."
He opened his hand to give the chocolate frog to the woman, but it quickly jumped out of his hands, hoping further into Diagon Alley. He looked back up at the woman who had shifted her menacing gaze back to him.
"Look, no harm was done. Just make sure you inform your children of the dangers here and we won't have to have this…unpleasant..conversation again." Narcissa sneered, bringing Draco closer to her.
"You're giving me parenting advice now? You have one child, Malfoy! It's a wonder how you managed to keep him alive this long!" Molly yelled, clearly thrown in a rage by Narcissa's comment.
Feeling his mother stiffen, Draco looked up briefly to see a confused, almost hurt look on her face, before being crushed against her body again by his mother.
Molly also seemed to notice the change in Narcissa and immediately wished she could have taken the comment back.
"Narcissa, I…"
"Don't," she started, quickly slipping back into her superior persona, "I think we're finished here."
As both women turned to leave, Draco looked back to see Ron wave goodbye to him with a sad smile on his face. Draco waved back at him, whispering a tiny goodbye as his mother led him away by the hand.
As the Malfoy's returned to the manor, Narcissa led Draco up the stairs. The little boy was still confused about the interaction in the alley and he wanted to ask his mother about it but judging by the firm grasp she had on his hand, he didn't think he would get any answers.
Narcissa continued down the hall on the second floor. She stopped briefly and sighed when she saw Lucius's study doors open, but she continued onward.
"Hey, how was your trip?" Lucius called out, looking up from his paperwork when the pair tried to pass.
Narcissa forced a smile, stopping in the doorway, "It was quite tiring actually. I'm going to lay down for a bit. Draco, why don't you sit with your father?"
Lucius narrowed his eyes, watching his son nod and shuffle to the chair adjacent to his desk as Narcissa made her escape to the master bedroom. He looked Draco over for a few minutes, before sighing and removing his reading glasses.
"What happened?"
Draco looked up with concern, "I don't think Mummy wants me to talk about it."
Lucius gave a small chuckle, "When your mother doesn't want to talk about something, it's normally something that should be talked about."
He then got up from his desk, moving to crouch in front of Draco so that he was at eye level, playfully poking the boy's chest, "Now out with it. You're not good at keeping secrets anyway."
Draco gave a big sigh before recounting the interaction between Molly and Narcissa to his father in detail. After he was done, he looked up with teary eyes to see that Lucius was wearing a concerned expression.
"I don't get why she was so mad. I just wanted to help. He didn't know the alley was bad and I told him so he knew and then he shared his frog with me. He was nice. Why was his mummy mean?" Draco asked his father, finally letting his tears flow.
"You didn't do anything wrong, Draco. Adults are pretty complicated. Sometimes when we disagree on things, it makes us treat each other differently." Lucius explained, trying his best to make sense to the little boy, reaching up to wipe away his tears.
"So she yelled at me because her and Mummy aren't friends?"
Lucius gave a small nod, "but that doesn't make it okay. You didn't do anything wrong, so she shouldn't have yelled at you."
Draco sniffled, "Why did it make Mummy sad when that lady said that stuff to her?"
Lucius had to take a minute to answer that one. How do you explain to a child that his mother was sad because she had wanted a large family but for some cruel reason, wasn't able to? Not only that, but Narcissa had been taught from a young age that her main purpose in life was to have children, which she couldn't physically do no matter how hard she tried. Lucius knew that she felt like a failure, she had confided that to him many times over the years. No matter how many times he tried to soothe her doubts, he knew they still stuck with her, and hearing someone else voice their concerns would only serve to amplify Narcissa's own terrible thoughts about herself.
Deciding against answering, he instead pulled Draco off the chair and onto his lap, forcing himself to sit on the floor.
"Do you know how lucky you are, little dragon?" Draco looked up and gave Lucius an inquisitive look as he waited for his father to continue, "I have traveled all over the world and met just about every person there is to meet. And you know what? I've never met anyone like your mummy. She is the smartest, kindest, bravest person I know." He then dropped his voice to whisper, "I've also never met anyone more beautiful than her."
Draco giggled at the comment as Lucius pulled his young son into a comforting hug.
"You have the best mummy this world has to offer, don't you ever forget that, Draco."
Draco thought about what his father said for a couple seconds before blurting out, "Mummy does give the best hugs and kisses."
"I think I would have to agree with you," he said with a smirk.
Now knowing what had happened today, Lucius was sure that Narcissa was in their room running Molly's comment on a loop in her mind. He didn't want to leave her alone for too long so he decided to put a small plan in motion.
"Draco, why don't we show Mummy some extra love so she knows how great she is?"
"We should give her cuddles!" He responded excitedly.
Lucius just laughed as he watched Draco take off down the hall towards the master bedroom. He was able to catch the little boy before he could go bursting into the room, allowing him to take the small child by the hand and lead him calmly to the large bed.
"Hello, my love." Narcissa whispered, turning over and reaching out for Draco as she saw her two boys enter the room.
Lucius carefully picked up Draco and passed him to his wife before he moved around to the other side to lay beside her.
"I love you, Mummy. You're the best mummy in the whole world." He said happily, immediately snuggling into her chest.
Narcissa gave a small smile, wrapping her arms around her sweet boy and kissing the top of his head.
"He's right, Ciss. I couldn't dream of a better mother for our son." Lucius confirmed, pulling the pair of them closer so he could properly hold his small family.
She turned her head, giving him a smile as well, before puckering her lips as a motion for him to kiss her, to which he was happy to oblige.