By Scorpius's first birthday, Draco and I had managed to purchase our own home; a four bedroom Cotswold cottage in a market town on the outskirts of Oxford.

"It's marvellous," Narcissa gushed, as we showed her around. "And I can just picture Scorp running around and playing in that beautiful garden with his friends... or maybe even with a brother or sister?"

Draco squeezed my hand as he clocked the look upon my face. It had been six months of trying and I still hadn't fallen pregnant.

"That's the plan, Mother," he murmured, kissing the top of my head as I looked sadly out at the garden.

Draco remained a lot more optimistic than me, convinced that the new home was all we needed.

"We'll have a garden, and the fresh country air will help." He had assured me. "It's not good you and Scorp being shut away in that flat in the city."

But I felt the fear; the fear that something was very, very wrong, especially when six months turned into a year.

"We made Scorp without even trying," I sobbed in Draco's arms after hearing the announcement of the arrival of Ginny and Harry's third child; Lily Luna. ("Why the fuck is Potter naming his daughter after our business partner?!")

"It's okay, baby," Draco soothed, clutching a hand to the back of my head as I wept against him. "We've got Scorp, we've got each other. Sod the Quidditch team; we're all we need. You're all I need."

But I couldn't help but feel like I was failing him, and failing our son too. I wanted Scorp to have siblings so much, especially as he was estranged from what would have been his closest age in cousins thanks to fucktard Harry.

But that was another thing; I missed my old best friend. I missed what we had when we were at school. In a way, as the days went by, I missed him more than I missed my sister.

"Do you want me to have a word with him?" Draco asked, when he found me weeping uncontrollably over an old photo of Harry and I, taken from that first summer together at the Burrow after we had rescued him in Dad's car.

But I just shook my head, shakily replacing the photo back in my old Potions book from where it had fallen out. "If he won't accept you and our son, then I refuse to have anything to do with him."

It was at that point that Scorpius came toddling in, dragging an uncle George giant teddy behind him.

"Dadda," he babbled, reaching a chubby hand out for Draco.

"Hey little man," Draco said, swooping him up in his arms. "Let's cheer Mummy up shall we? Let's tell Mummy how much we love her."

As if understanding, Scorp immediately thrust his soggy, chewed up, filthy soft toy towards me.

"Mumma teddy," he burbled, his bright silver eyes sparkling up at me as he again urged the bear in my face.

"Thanks, Scorp," I laughed, relieving it from his grasp as I kissed the top of his head where a thick mop of platinum blond hair sat.

He really was a miniature version of his father.

And, as I looked at them both, my heart flooded with such a fierce love, and I realised just how fortunate I actually was.

It didn't matter, I told myself, if I couldn't have any more children. And it didn't matter, that I'd long ago lost my childhood best friend.

Because I had everything I needed right here; Draco and Scorp.

I was, without a doubt, the luckiest witch in the world.

*****

"What the fuck are you doing at my desk?"

"Good to see you too, little sis," George grinned as he span round and round on my chair. "I take it Daddy Malfoy is on babysitting duties, then?"

"Why the fuck is it called babysitting when the father does the parenting?" I snarled, throwing my bag on the desk, glaring at George to move his arse. "I bet no one says anything to Draco when he comes in and I'm the one staying at home with our son!"

"Alright, alright," George said, holding his hands up in the air. "Obviously someone got out of bed the wrong side this morning."

He sidled over to Luna's empty desk, whom I guessed must have been out back.

"You still haven't explained why you're here," I muttered, switching on my computer, wondering what new jobs we'd have to add to our already long waiting list.

"Luna and I have got some news," he said eagerly, his face beaming with joy. "And I'd hoped you'd be in today because I wanted you to be one of the first to know."

It turned out I hadn't imagined the spark between George and Luna after all, as they'd been dating for the past year, ever since Scorp's christening.

"Oh god, please don't tell me you've got her up the duff." I said, instantly panicking at the thought of having to see Luna's growing stomach everyday at work.

I mean, I would be happy for them, of course. And even though I had accepted that it probably wasn't going to happen for me and Draco again, I couldn't help but feel a horrific ache in my chest every time I saw an expectant mother.

"One day... hopefully," George said, a coyness to his voice I'd never heard before. "Maybe after the honeymoon."

I looked up at him, startled, just as Luna herself emerged from the kitchen. My eyes instantly fell to her left hand.

And sure enough, there, on her ring finger lay a... a...

"What the fuck is that?!" I spluttered, pointing to the large cork protruding from her hand.

"I did insist on a diamond," George shrugged, "but you know our Luna."

"Butterbeer cork," Luna said serenely. "You can never arm yourself with too many, Daddy always says."

"Well, at least it matches your necklace, I suppose," I said dryly, biting back a sarcastic retort. "I guess congratulations are in order, then?"

"Well, that depends on you," George said, his eyes glinting over at me as he draped a loving arm around Luna's shoulders. "Because we absolutely refuse to get married without our godson being our page boy."

*****

They married just six months later, Draco and I watching proudly on as our two year old son followed Luna down the aisle alongside my nieces.

All nieces except for Ginny's daughter.

Her and Harry refused to attend the wedding upon discovering George's choice to include my Malfoy child in the ceremony.

Their hatred towards Scorp hurt me more than the fact that they couldn't accept Draco; hurt me more than the fact that I still couldn't get pregnant.

And when George and Luna announced the upcoming arrival of their first child only three months after the wedding, I was beginning to think I'd been cursed.

*****

"The fact is, Miss Weasley, all the tests have come back clear. I'm afraid we just cannot fathom why you are unable to conceive naturally."

It had been three and a half years of trying now. Scorp had just turned four years old.

"I just wanted him to have siblings," I whispered quietly to the Healer before me. "I didn't want him to be alone."

Draco grabbed my hand in his, squeezing his fingers gently around mine.

I could barely bring myself to look at him. I was failing him. I was condemning our son to the same childhood as he had had; one that Draco had confessed to me was a horribly lonely one.

"It doesn't matter," Draco tried to reassure me. "We're happy, aren't we? Scorp's happy. That's all that counts."

But I knew he didn't want that for our son; that he'd dreamed of the Quidditch team we were supposed to 'produce' together.

"I think maybe it's time we stop trying," Draco suggested gently as we made our way out of the hospital. "Accept that it isn't going to happen for us. It's killing me to see what it's doing to you."

I looked up at him in surprise. "What do you mean? What is it doing to me?"

"You look ill, Ronnie," he said, frowning as he cupped my face in concern. "You're paler than me these days, you've lost so much weight and you're exhausted all the time. It's time we stop trying to have another baby and time to start putting you first. For Scorp's sake if anything else; he needs his mummy," he paused, looking at me sadly, his expression pained, "and I- I... I need my Ronnie."

A single tear rolled down my cheek as I nodded my head. "Okay, Draco," I choked, my voice breaking along with my heart, "we'll stop trying."

Draco closed his eyes in relief and immediately booked the three of us a holiday by the sea in France.

And when we arrived back home two weeks later, not only had I gained a bit of colour back in my cheeks, but I had gained something else too.

I was pregnant.

*****