"Would you pass the sprouts please, dear?"

Astoria was addressing her husband, so she found herself feeling a flicker of irritation when instead it was his mother who got up to move them over to her.

"Thank you, Narcissa," she said, perhaps a little too sharply, trying to refrain from snatching the bowl out of her mother-in-law's hand.

Narcissa offered her a thin lipped smiled in return, her eyes giving away her concern as they darted apprehensively towards her extremely preoccupied looking son.

Christmas seemed to get worse every year. Since becoming a Malfoy, it was expected of Astoria to spend the Yuletide season at her in-laws. It really was a tedious and trying affair.

Narcissa clearly didn't think she was good enough for her precious little son and treated her with imperceptible disdain. Lucius was about as talkative and useful as a dried up old vegetable, and Draco looked as though there was somewhere else he'd rather be; his eyes glazed over as if he were somewhere else.

Although that was hardly new.

And to top it all off, she was just a week away from her due date and felt as though some horrendous beast had completely taken over her body, leaving her constantly exhausted, swollen and as good as immobile.

This brat couldn't come out fast enough. Thank Merlin it was a boy or she might have found a way of killing it by now. Last minute abortions could be done if you knew the right people.

The first thing she was going to do with the Malfoy fortune was pay for a decent private Healer to get her body back. Screw diet and exercise; she wanted a quick fix - maybe even a breast enhancement, too.

Theo would definitely come crawling back to her then. And maybe even Draco might start taking an interest... although she somehow doubted that all it'd take was a new pair of tits to get him to snap out of his constant trance.

She'd already contacted an agency about the most expensive nanny hire, too; assuring them that money would be no issue once the baby was out. No way was she going to waste her time rearing and nurturing it; not when she'd already sacrificed her body for nine months, thank you very much.

A body that was clearly not cut out for pregnancy. Astoria had been alarmed to find that the exhaustion had been getting to her so much lately that there were moments when she just blacked out without warning.

The episodes never seemed to be for long; not long enough for anyone to notice, at any rate. For instance, one time it happened when she was on the toilet; one minute she was in the middle of having the worlds longest piss, and the next she was waking up face down on the bathroom floor with her knickers still around her ankles.

She didn't tell anyone about it because she just assumed it was a symptom of the pregnancy.

Besides, it's not as though anyone would even care. Well, Draco might, but only for the baby's welfare.

She avoided Daphne these days, ever since Theo stopped coming round for hook ups. He claimed that now Daphne had her figure back, he was going to make more of an effort with staying faithful to her.

It made Astoria just mad to look at her sister; so she shut her down every time she made the suggestion of a sister catch up over a coffee.

And Draco... well. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something had changed in him of late. When she had first married him, he was almost always in a zombified state, not much unlike his pathetic lump of a father.

But lately she noticed he had a slight spring in his step and his normally sharp features had softened; his eyes seeming less sunken and his frame no longer astonishingly thin but slightly bulked up, as if he'd finally gained an appetite.

To put it simply; he looked like the Draco of old again. The person he'd been before Blaire died.

It was suspicious, but the idea that he was fooling around with another woman was simply laughable to Astoria. He was about as interested in sex as she was in dogs.

"What did you get Astoria for Christmas, Draco?" Narcissa asked, obviously a desperate attempt at making conversation to kill this ice cold atmosphere. "Anything nice?"

Draco blinked, looking surprised to find himself at his parents dinner table. "Uh- oh, you know," he mumbled, "just a necklace."

Generic piece of unoriginal expensive tat, more like, Astoria thought snidely. Just like he did for every fucking occasion. No doubt he just picked the first item he came across upon walking into the jewellers.

"Oh, how lovely," Narcissa beamed falsely. "More turkey, darling?"

Draco declined and Astoria couldn't help but feel bitter that she didn't get offered any.

She knew Narcissa wished it was Blaire sitting where she were. After all, apart from their wedding portrait, there were no photos of Astoria in the entire mansion. So she couldn't believe it when she came across a silver framed photo on the side in the sewing room; a photo of Draco and Blaire cheek to cheek at what looked like the nineteen ninety four Quidditch World Cup.

When Astoria mentioned quite pointedly to Narcissa that it was strange to keep photos of your son's ex-girlfriend around the house, she had been rather clipped in her response ("On the contrary, I don't believe there is anything strange in keeping photos of someone whom I once considered as a daughter.")

Saint precious Blaire.

Astoria couldn't wait to inherit Malfoy Manor and get rid of everything that that bitch may have touched. That skanky treehouse would be the first to go. She knew it's where Blaire used to stay with her husband in the summer; it made her feel simply nauseous to think about.

Sadly though, she could be in for a long wait; Narcissa was looking far too healthy. Perhaps Astoria could persuade her to give up the Manor and move to a Granny flat once Lucius popped his clogs; which, by the looks of him, could be any day now.

Fingers crossed.

******

"This time next year, you and Astoria will have a little bundle of joy to share it with," his mother had cooed sympathetically after the excruciatingly strained dinner was over. "It changes when you have children, they bring back that magic. Christmas will suddenly seem like a wondrous, joyful occasion again. You just wait."

"Yeah," Draco answered gloomily, trying to ignore the heavy feeling in his heart.

He'd already missed out on so much of Jack's life, and here he was, forced to spend another Christmas Day away from him... away from Blaire. It made his gut wrench.

He'd hated himself when he informed Blaire that he wouldn't be able to get away, that during his entire Christmas leave from the Ministry, he was expected to stay at Malfoy Manor with Astoria.

"It's okay, Drac," she'd assured him, "Jack will understand. We can always celebrate Christmas after. He'd love a second Christmas, actually. It'll probably be top of his Christmas list."

He loved how understanding she was, how she never once made him feel guilty about having to return to his wife.

His wife who was soon about to give birth to his second son.

Draco tried not to think about the implications of this. He had a sneaking suspicion that Astoria already knew everything there was to know about the Malfoy fortune.

He tried to tell himself that there was no need to be alarmed. After all, he'd always allowed Astoria to have whatever she wanted; never denied her a single Knut of his fortune.

She may never need know that there is another heir out there; not until Draco finds a way to get them safely out of hiding, at any rate.

But something was troubling him; Astoria had always seemed to resent coming to him and asking permission for gold. There was every chance she would try and get a hold of it for herself, believing in her entitlement as the mother of the heir.

Except, of course, she wasn't.

And if she discovered that the title belonged to someone who had supposedly been dead for six and a half years, questions were going to be asked.

Questions that could very much put Blaire and Jack's lives in serious danger.

******