The sound of the glug glug of wine as it sloshed out of the bottle was like music to his ears.

"Here," Draco murmured, moving across the kitchen to press a glass into his wife's hand. "It's been a long time since it's been just you and me."

Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes as she accepted it, taking a small, reluctant sip before placing it on the side and hugging herself. "It's quiet without the kids."

In an unusually charitable move, Pansy had offered to have Lyra over for a sleepover so that he and Blaire could fully appreciate the peace and quiet of their home ("Make it count before you just end up becoming housemates who share the same bed.").

Draco would make it count alright. He'd already bought Blaire some new lingerie which was waiting for her in a little gift bag upstairs on the bed. He was almost tempted to a scatter rose petals over the bedspread, too, but quickly dropped the idea when he remembered that Diggory had done the same thing all those years ago.

He was worried that maybe he was trying too hard, but he wanted Blaire to feel special, and wasn't that what he had always done best? He loved cheering her up with gifts. Okay, so it was no arcade, and if he was to be completely honest, the sexy underwear was mostly for him, but didn't it show her that he still fancied her?

Seeing her sad eyes, though, he realised what she needed right now was comfort and reassurance. So, putting down his own glass of wine, he pulled her into his embrace, wrapping his arms tightly around her as he rested his chin on top of her head.

"They'll be fine, my love," he murmured, soothingly rubbing her back. "The boys will write to us once they have settled in, and no doubt Pansy is ruining our little girl with ridiculous makeovers as we speak."

"Am I that transparent?" She said with a smile to her voice, tilting her face up to kiss the underside of his chin, her lips leaving a pleasant tingling sensation on his stubbled jaw. "I'm sorry. It just seems so empty without them here."

"Don't apologise, you're their mother," he said hoarsely, suddenly longing to take her upstairs, "of course you're going to miss them."

"And what about you? You're their father. Do you miss them too?"

Draco hesitated, wanting to be honest without sounding callous. "It's been... difficult, these past eight weeks, I mean... with Jack back."

He felt Blaire stiffen in his arms. Draco's heart sank, dreading another row on a night when he especially wanted them to get on.

She pulled out of his embrace, his arms suddenly feeling empty without her, and all he wanted to do was grab her and pull her back to him. He didn't want to get into an argument, not tonight.

"Draco, from where I've been standing, the only person who was making the past two months difficult was you."

"Please, don't start, Blaire," he gritted, swiftly snatching back up his glass so that red wine sloshed everywhere. "You know he hasn't exactly made things easy for me-"

"You want him to make things easy for you?!" She let out an exasperated laugh as she wrung her hands through her hair. "Merlin, Draco, he's your son!"

"Yeah, well try telling him that." Draco sniffed, taking a generous swig of wine.

"Maybe if you just communicated with him a little better. Write to him... ask him how he's doing at school. It's not difficult, Draco."

Having had enough, Draco slammed his glass back down on the side and began to stride from the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" she called after him.

"To take the dog for a walk," he muttered, angrily throwing open the door and whistling for Orion who came plodding out very heavily from his bed and looking less in the need of a walk than ever.

"Great. I'll just sit here and eat dinner on my own then!"

He responded by slamming the door behind him, the loud bang echoing throughout the Manor which truly did feel horrendously empty.

******

To Draco's surprise, when he eventually turned in that night, she was lying on the bed wearing nothing but the new underwear he'd bought her, coupled with a smile.

He glanced in confusion at the clock. It had just gone midnight. Blaire usually liked to turn in by eleven, claiming she needed her beauty sleep.

Like fuck she did. She was the most beautiful woman in the world, and the sight of her laying there in the red lacy lingerie, waiting for him, gave Draco an instant boner.

"What's this?" He asked suspiciously. "I thought you were angry with me?"

"Oh, I still am," she said, seductively running a hand up a long, firm leg as she raised a knee, a twinkle in her dark eyes. "But I don't believe in not saying thank you when someone buys you a gift."

Her hand left her thigh to pat the empty space on his side of the bed, sweeping the tip of her tongue sensually across her upper lip as he hastily began to loosen his tie, his blood suddenly rushing south.

He couldn't get his clothes off fast enough, ripping off his shirt in haste and kicking off his trousers. His lips crashed against hers the second he fell onto the bed, and they got straight into the heat. It had been so long since they'd fucked, that Draco found he was very, very thirsty and was pleased to note that so was she.

The new underwear quickly found it's way to the bedroom floor, and he lay back and enjoyed the view as she climbed on top of him and enjoyed his goods, his hands greedily stroking and groping her perfectly sculpted body.

It was just as he was building up to his own orgasm, his body literally thrumming in pure ecstasy, when words gasped out of her mouth that he really had not been expecting.

"Let's have another baby."

His eyes widened in confusion, and he couldn't think straight because he was so close to his release, his fingers digging ardently into her hips as he continued to pull her hard down on his lap.

He parted his lips to ask her what the fuck she was on, but instead of words, he emitted a loud groan as the mad tightening in his lower stomach finally ripped, and his orgasm rushed through him in one ginormous wave.

"Fuck-" he rasped, as he emptied the last of his load inside her, his heart racing at full pelt, his breathing strangled and fierce.

It wasn't until she climbed off him and his cock flopped pathetically onto his stomach, did he turn to her to demand an explanation.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Blaire?! A baby?! Tell me you haven't stopped taking the pill?"

She shrugged, not meeting his eyes. "Not tonight yet, no. And I don't have to. I can flush them down the toilet-"

"Don't you fucking dare!"

She looked hurt, as though he'd slapped her, and then he immediately felt bad.

"Look," he sighed, driving a hand through his hair, "we're only just beginning to get our lives back-"

"Our children are not a burden."

"That's not what I meant. What I mean, is, since adulthood, we've never had much time to just be you and me. I miss us. Is it so bad I want you to myself again, like when we were in Hogwarts?"

"Oh, you mean when it was you, me and Pansy?" she seethed, leaning heavily back against the headboard as she crossed her arms furiously over her breasts.

"No," he said, trying to keep his temper in check, "when it was just you and me in the treehouse, playing games together and gorging on Muggle sweets."

"Draco, we're thirty-six years old, not twelve!"

"Exactly, aren't we a little old to be dealing with screaming babies and dirty nappies? I thought we'd put all that behind us? Jack's almost eighteen, the same age we were when we first became parents. Doesn't that say something to you?"

Her eyes narrowed. She looked furious. "Are you seriously saying I'm too old to have your baby?"

"No. Not at all, I just meant that I do not want to wait another eighteen years to get you to myself!"

"Fine," she grumbled, unfolding her arms and leaping from the bed, completely unabashed by her nakedness.

"Blaire, wait-" he started. But, ignoring him, she swept across the room, straight to their adjoining bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Sighing, he tucked himself beneath the bedsheet and settled down, hoping that she was at least taking that fucking pill.

*****

The following day, he couldn't resist checking her pill packet when he went for his morning piss, sighing in relief when he saw the previous day's pill had gone.

He felt bad... really bad, but he had meant it when he said he was done with it. Just the very idea of him and Blaire going through all of that night feeding palaver and nappy changing business exhausted him.

And wasn't what they had enough for her? He couldn't help but feel a twang of hurt, knowing that Blaire alone would have been all that he needed to be happy.

Wanting to make amends, he made her breakfast in bed, bringing it up to her on a tray, complete with the two unopened letters that had arrived in the morning owl post.

She was already sat up in bed when he entered, rubbing cream into her hands as she hummed softly to herself. She looked up at him in surprise, a smile twitching at her lips as her eyes landed on the white rose he'd picked especially for her from the garden.

"Drac, what's all this?"

He placed the tray down on her lap and kissed her forehead. "This is a man just showing his wife how much he loves her."

"You know, if you really want to show me how much you'll love me, you'll let me have another bab-"

"Blaire, don't," he said firmly, climbing into bed beside her. "You know I love you, don't use that to guilt me into letting you have your way. You're better than that. I'm saying to you I really, really don't want another child. What I want to do is move forward with the life we've got, not stand still."

She sighed heavily, reaching out to pluck the two letters from the tray. He could see the disappointment rife in her face, and he hated that it was him causing it.

But he was never going to budge on this, and he was hoping she'd soon see it his way too.

"Which one?" She asked, offering him both envelopes, one with Jack's untidy scrawl, the other with Scorpius's neat handwriting.

Without thinking, he took the second one, and tried to ignore the lift of her eyebrow, instead concentrating on getting to Scorp's letter, expertly running his finger beneath the envelope, tearing it open.

"He got into Slytherin," he announced in a drawling unsurprised tone, but inside glowing with immense pride.

"I hope he's not too disappointed he's not in Gryffindor," she sighed heavily, not tearing her eyes away from their eldest son's letter. "Jack says Rose got into Gryffindor. No surprises there though. Oh-" she paused, her eyes going wide, "apparently there's a new boy in Jack's year, a transfer from Durmstrang."

Draco looked up with interest, recalling how his father had always wanted him to go there. "Name?"

"Greyson, Edward Greyson. Ever heard of them?"

Draco narrowed his eyes, thinking. The name sounded familiar but he couldn't quite place it. Most likely he'd come across the family back in the days when he'd worked at the Ministry. But, of course, he hadn't been in a very fit state at the time.

He put Scorpius's letter down which contained very little detail of how his son actually was... just facts about his Slytherin quarters which Draco already knew about, and he pulled his arm around Blaire, hugging her tightly to his side.

"Are you okay?" she asked, looking up at him questioningly.

"I just got reminded of how shit my life was without you," he said vehemently, kissing her eyes, her nose, her lips. "I never want to lose you, Blaire, never."

"You won't," she said smiling, kissing him back, dropping Jack's letter to clasp the back of his head. "I'm not going anywhere, Drac."

That morning, he gave her a bit more than breakfast in bed. And Draco thought, that maybe- just maybe, everything would be alright, after all.

*****