(SPOILER Alert: The story begins where Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ends, but you don't have to know it to enjoy this story. It just was a good point to start my story. I don't think the few references to the play spoiler anything if you have not read or seen the play.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Read, enjoy and review :)

Prologue

Draco was rummaging through the attic of Malfoy manor. It had to be here somewhere. He hadn't thought of it before, but it had to be here somewhere. He tossed aside an old teddy bear and dug into a huge pile of old stuff. "Ouch!" he hissed and pulled his right hand back. His index finger was bleeding. It was the needle of an old brooch of his mother. He put it aside and went through the pile again. He was tense. He could feel the knots in his back. Every single one of them. He couldn't remember a time when they weren't present. Or the constant throbbing pain in the back of his head absent.

His hand went over rough leather and something that felt like a hair brush. His fingers kept roaming. "Yes," he whispered. This felt like metal. Round metal. With something smooth in the middle. He closed his fingers around it and pulled it out of the heap. How could he have forgotten about this until now? He remembered having it in one of the glass cases of his family's old Dark artifact collection. For all his father's talk about the good old times and his complaining about the "mudblood minster", he never used it to change anything about the status quo. After the final battle, the Aurors would regularly visit Malfoy manor. Check up on their Dark artifacts and whether any of them had been used. What he was looking for now had been the one artifact that he could not in any way, shape or form explain and it was illegal enough to warrant a stint in Azkaban. So, not willing to part with it completely, he had hidden it where no one would look for such a powerful object, in plain sight. Not quite hidden at all. Right where no one would ever look for such a valuable object. In the middle of plenty of worthless, long forgotten trinkets. He had hidden it there, and forgotten all about it, until this very moment, in which his hands closed around the invaluable object.

With a sly smile he eyed the time turner. It gleamed like gold, just the way the Malfoys like it. With this, he could save his son, Scorpius, who had unfortunately ended up stuck in the past with Albus Potter, one of the sons of Harry Potter. He went for the door but came to a sudden halt when realization hit him:

He could save Astoria too.

Astoria… His face fell at the thought of his beloved wife. A deep sense of loneliness washed over him, the pain and longing catching him off guard.

Then, suddenly, he felt guilty. Why hadn't he thought of this earlier? He could go back a few years and work on a way to counter the curse which had taken from him his one and only true love. Astoria, Scorpius and him could be a real, happy family again. Or he could at least spend some more time with her. Tell her how much he loved her. Just see her beautiful smile one last time.

But he had to save his son first… or did he? If he just traveled back and made sure his son never went back in time? But he would arrive in an already altered timeline, wouldn't he? And that meant his son might not even be born in that new time. His headache grew stronger.

Although extensively studied, there was still much unknown when it came to time travel. There were theories and laws for small scale time travel and theories and laws for bigger jumps back in time. The problem was: it was seemingly impossible to combine the different theories. There was not one that would explain everything and the theories already in existence contradicted each other in a way that not more than one could be true at the same time.

He could not risk it. Save his son first and then Astoria.

Determined and with more hope than he had had in years, he left the attic in search of one Harry Potter.

ooOOoo

"Scorpius," Draco held his son tight.

"Dad," his son mumbled into his chest. They hugged each other. It was finally over and he had his son back. Back in the right time and place. The original timeline restored.

"I love you, son," Draco eventually whispered. He did not show affection like that often but he had just realized that that had been a mistake. His son deserved to hear it as often as he could.

They were in the Auror office at the ministry. The Aurors were dealing with Delphi, his, he shuddered, cousin. Did that mean, he was actually, in some way, related to the Dark Lord? He did not want to think about it.

The rest - Ginny, Harry, Ron, Hermione and so on - were talking on the other side of the room. They had their own family reunions to celebrate.

His son left his embrace and walked over to the others. This gave Draco the time he needed to do what he felt had to be done. For his son. For his wife. For his family.

He felt bad for leaving his son behind. But he reminded himself, that he wasn't. His son would never know he was gone. He would grow up with his mother by his side and he would never even get into this whole time turner mess.

He grabbed the time turner, which was on the desk, unattended. He slipped out of the room unnoticed and left the ministry. Then he apparated straight back to Malfoy manor and went up to the attic again.

Before he could change his mind, he started spinning the time turner.

TBC

AN: Let me know what you think. Even if you're reading this when more than 70 more chapters have already been written, I would still appreciate any and all feedback. Even if you stop reading after a couple of chapters, let me know why.

I think time travel (at least in this story) is a bit like physics. There are rules for the big things (Einstein and his theory on relativity) and theories about really small things (quantum physics), but there is not one single theory that would explain everything (theory of everything). Although I do have my own theories which I use as a basis for this story so it is in itself coherent, but Draco isn't likely to figure that one out anytime soon.