The door opened and Jack looked up immediately.

Mummy!

His heart was doing that crazy drum thing which Auntie Hermy says happens when you have done lots of super fast running.

But he hadn't done any running; hadn't moved from the chair where he sat waiting for Mummy, counting to all the numbers he could think of in his head, afraid that if he stopped then she would never come back.

"Jack," she said, beaming over at him with her brilliant smile that made him feel happy because she didn't do it often and when she did it was like the whole world was suddenly brighter. "I've found someone we've been missing very, very much."

Mr Dog? Jack felt confusion because the Bad Man took Mr Dog and wouldn't give him back.

Drum-drum, drum-drum. His heart again.

He didn't like thinking about the man who had made him feel so frightened that he'd wet himself like a baby.

Drum-drum-drum-drum-drum-drum.

White lights were flashing in front of his eyes because the Bad Man had suddenly appeared behind her shoulder and if he didn't shout then he was going to take her, take away his mummy forever.

But he couldn't get any sound out because he was so frightened and everything started tipping around him just like the times when Uncle Ron would somersault him in the air.

"JACK!"

It was the last thing he heard her cry out before the darkness came.

******

Earlier

I could scarcely believe this was happening, scarcely believe that this was real.

But here he was, Draco Malfoy, the boy whose face I once threw sand in; the boy who had been, without a doubt, my everything,

My fingers clung into the fabric of his cloak as I held him tightly to me, waiting for his sobs to subside.

My heart broke for him and I found myself crying too, our bodies shaking together in shared grief as I explained to him how Hermione had saved us and we'd been hiding out for the past six years underground.

"I'm so sorry," he kept saying over and over again as he pressed his lips hard against my temple and clasped his hand to the back of my head, bunching up my hair in his long slender fingers. "I should have known, should have tried harder-"

"Drac, it's okay," I assured him. "I'm here, I'm safe, and we've found one another again like I always knew we would."

"You don't understand," he choked, his voice sounding more pained than I'd ever heard it. "I- I'm married, Blaire. I married another woman."

The words hit me with such a force that I felt momentarily winded. I stilled, letting my arms drop a fraction, but I didn't let go; I couldn't.

He wasn't to know, I told myself, trying to ignore the awful ripping pain in my heart. It's not his fault.

I looked up into his face, at the hollowness of his tired sunken eyes and the gauntness of his cheeks; and it suddenly hit me how much he must have suffered all those years ago thinking I was dead.

"It's okay," I said, the tremble in my voice saying otherwise. "Of course you had to move on, it's been six years-"

"I didn't want it," he said at once, panic flitting in his grey eyes as his arms tightened around me, "I never stopped loving you, Blaire. But I was forced into it and I tried to make it work, because I thought you were gone."

I let go of him completely now, taking a shaky step back, fighting with myself to think of words to say, but I was numb and couldn't think straight.

"Who?" I asked, my voice sounding strange and unnatural to my ears.

"Astoria Greengrass- well, Malfoy, now..."

The girl who wanted a prince. She had been so frightened and all I had wanted to do was comfort her, to tell her to think of her dreams so that she'd have something to live for. I felt as though I'd been slapped hard across the face.

"Daphne's little sister..." I breathed. And I couldn't help but think of how pretty she was and I hated myself for imagining him in bed with her; fucking her. Hated that, after all this time, Draco being with someone else still had the capacity to hurt me.

Get a grip, I scolded myself. It's been six fucking years and he thought you were dead.

"I'm so sorry, Blaire," he shuddered, his voice breaking with emotion as fresh tears spilled down his face.

"Do you-" I paused, swallowing; not really wanting to ask the next question but knowing there was no avoiding it. "Do you have children?"

His face crumpled. "She's pregnant."

I closed my eyes as the words sunk in, trying not to let the pain suffocate me.

"I'm sorry," he choked, reaching out to pull me back into his arms. "If I'd known you were still alive then I would never have married, never have touched-"

"Drac, there's something you need to know," I said, twisting myself out of his embrace, feeling truly awful that I was about to hit him with news I now knew would not be in the slightest bit welcoming.

But he needed to know. And, as he threw me a quizzical look, I took in a deep shaky breath. "There's someone who's been waiting to meet you all his life."

His brow furrowed in confusion, but not for long; my words evidently sinking in as a look of horror flitted across his face.

"No," he said, giving a strangled cry as he drove both his hands through his hair, "no, no, no."

I felt like I was being pummelled by bullets; each 'no' jolting my entire body.

"Drac?" I asked, my heart racing uncomfortably in my chest.

"The thing is," he explained, as he delved his hand in his pocket, retrieving - to my shock - the Scottie dog. "I think I may have already met him."

*****

"JACK!"

All thoughts of the Slytherin stood behind me left my mind as I threw myself across the room towards the crumpling body of my son.

I managed to catch him in my arms before he hit the ground and I was horrified to hear a low soft wail as I scooped him onto my lap; his eyelids flitting rapidly, showing only the whites of his eyes.

"Jack," I persisted, frantically trying to shake him awake as absolute horror filled my heart.

To my relief, his eyes finally opened and focused upon mine.

"The Bad Man, Mummy," he trembled, speaking his first words in over a week. "The Bad Man."

******