For Alys.

The first few hours after their return to Malfoy Manor, neither of them speak. They sit in tense silence, gazes meeting for fleeting moments.

It's nearly an hour after Draco has gone to bed that Lucius finally breaks the silence. "I'm sorry," he says.

Narcissa considers telling him exactly where he can shove his apology. Those words are not enough to erase the hell she and Draco have gone through, all because of her husband. Those words cannot give her back the hours she has lost, fearing for her son. Those words cannot repair the damage.

But he touches her arm gently, so gently, and he looks into her eyes. He is a different man now. Changed. Haunted. Broken.

She is not the only one who has suffered.

Narcissa takes his hand, kissing his knuckles. She does not say that all is forgiven, but she hopes that the gesture is enough to let him know that they will mend somehow.