Epilogue

"Why are you making me do this Jane?"

"Because you know as well as I do it is the right thing to do. Come on, Lucius, just think of the brownie points it is going to give you with the little man."

"Well I suppose it is my fault he did not get much of a birthday this year."

The rational part of him could not believe he was even considering doing this. But life had got so complicated of late that the other side of him said that Jane was right and this was the right thing to do by his son.

When he had given that diary to Ginny he had ensured his life was going to change forever. He just hadn't known it at the time.

So while Jane's suggestion at first had seemed ridiculous at the same time it made perfect sense.

Picking up the quill, he begun to arrange a birthday party for his son with what he thought of as hardly an exclusive guest list.

Jane was careful not to let on to Draco that they were planning a party for him. Though she was well aware he knew something was up (he was a smart boy after all) his guesses had hardly been spot on.

What he was asking a lot about though was when they were going to go to France.

Lucius had been reluctant to mention it before Draco had. He hadn't wanted to overpower his son and he had got it in to his head that Draco would like a quiet summer at the manor after the turbulence of the summer and year before that he would enjoy the creature comforts he had loved from his babyhood. But then one of those creature comforts had been France. And it seemed it was that one he wanted to enjoy the most.

Lucius longed for the days when they could flu off for a couple of days when ever the mood took them. It had been so easy. All he had had to do was book the time off work and they were away...

"Why don't we leave for France the day after tomorrow?" he said to Jane and Draco after dinner onc evening.

"Are you sure?" asked Jane.

"Yes." He said quietly. That day of all days he wanted to go - leave the house so he did not have to think about...

His eyes went to the window so he did not have to look at either of the as he thought of his beloved governess... A year since he had lost Eliza.

He felt a hand squeeze his and he smile at his son. The boy had been surrounded by death since he had been born and he wished he could change it all so he did have a mother and he had not had to watch his nana fade away from them. He was too young to be comforting his fool of a father over the people they had lost and yet that had been his job since he had been born.

He remembered how he gone into his son just hours after he had been born and how he had been so scared of him. He had been so young and he had known nothing about children. And yet his son had taught him more and more with each passing day.

"We are going to go to the grave in the morning and then we are going to go and get a bit of a rest. God knows we all deserve it after everything that has happened to us of late."

Draco went to bed that night still not having worked out what his dad and Jane had been up to. He was sure they were plotting something but the question remained as to what. He was sure it was going to be something nice but as to what something nice remained a mystery.

However, it all became clear when he got up.

Having had quite an exhausting time to say the least when he had been at school, since he had been at home he had perfected the art of as it were lying in bed all morning. When he had been a child he had hated it when his father had had a day off but he had wanted to lie in for a while; now, he completely understood and he thought his father was grateful for that.

But when he woke up there were voices downstairs, which he had to say was weird in itself. Normally Jane was the first one to get up to make sure breakfast ready but she was pretty quiet generally.

Sighing as he got out of bed, he got dressed. Not being sure who was going to be waiting for him when he got down there the last thing he wanted to do was to go down in his pyjamas.

Wondering down the stair case he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and was about to go into the living room to read for a while before he ate when he identified the voices in the dining room.

It couldn't be...

But it was. The faces he saw when he went into the room were not those of his Slytherin friends, the ones his father had made him play dates with when he had been a child but the faces of the Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's.

Ron, Hermione, and Harry along with his dorm friends and the Ravenclaw girls were tucking into their breakfast with Jane supervising.

"Well, you did have a good sleep this morning young man," she said to him with a smile at his shocked expression.

"I don't get it."

The other kids laughed at his confusion. "Seems Jane thought you did not get much of a birthday this year mate." Said Ron as he enjoyed his sausages. "So we are having a kind of party day to make up for it."

He looked as Jane for confirmation. "You deserve it, sweetheart, so why don't you sit down and have some breakfast and then you and your friends can go and play some Quidditch."

"Cool," he said, still bewildered, as he sat down between Hermione and Ron. He could not believe they were the at the Malfoy manor. It was so surreal.

And his dad and Jane had done all of this for him. His dad had agreed to have the friends he had which he did not approve of in the house. That was more than he would have asked of his dad. Not so soon anyway.

"Where is dad?"

It was then that Jane looked a little tense. If Draco was not wrong then she and Ron made eye contact when he had asked.

"He had to go to work darling, but he and uncle Sev are going to be back for a dinner for just the four of us again this evening."

So he had let them in the house but he had not stayed to see them. Draco could not decide if that took away from the good he had done or not.

But things became quit clear later on that day when he was out in the grounds having lunch with the others. Jane had made them a picnic.

"Sorry about my dad, Draco. I told him it was unfair but he was not listening." Said Ron to him.

"I don't follow you."

"Well, what he said about me only coming if your old man wasn't in the house."

He doubted whether his father had gone without a fuss and he was sure Jane had had a part in making him go but the fact reminded. Arthur Weasley had said he was not going to let his son go to Draco's party unless Lucius went out for the day and he had gone.

He had not let his pride get in the way.

Suddenly, the fact that they were all there was even more magical but at the same time he was ready for the party to be over so his dad could come back and he could thank him.

He remembered how it had been when he was a kid and when his dad had been a work. He just couldn't wait for him to get home and it was the same thing then.

He did make sure to enjoy the day though. He might want to be with dad but he knew they were going to be off to France the next day and he was not going to get to see his friends in a while.

Together, they ate breakfast and lunch. In the morning they had gone flying and on the afternoon when the sun made it to warm to stay outside he showed them about the manor. The tour lost a member when they got to the library though.

"This is arguably better than the Hogwarts library!" said Hermione enviously as she looked up at all of the volumes.

Draco, as a fellow book worm, nodded. "All the first editions are over on that self." He pointed to her before the others and he went on to the third floor.

It went without saying that she would met up with them later.

All in all, Draco already knew had the best day he had had in a while before they left.

He realized he had real friends in all of them. If they had wanted to abandon him after what he had done that year, then so many people would have understood. Instead, they had made the choice to stand by him.

"He really went out because Ron's dad did not want him here when Ron was?" he said to Jane as soon as his friends had left.

"He did."

Draco nodded. It was all he needed. As much as he knew he was not going to trust his father as he had, perhaps ever again, for he was no longer so blind to his faults, he forgave him in that instant and he wanted him to be there right then.

Draco sat by the fire place with a book to read even though he knew Jane realised he was using it as a cover to wait for his dad. He used the time to reflect. That his father had screwed up was undeniable. But even when he had been in the hospital wing he had known deep down that he was loved and now he thought on it, he did not know another lad who was as close to his dad usually as he was. Maybe it was because of the death of his mother.

His mother. He wondered what would have happened if she had lived to raise him and whether he and his dad would be the same. He wondered what influence she would have had over him. He missed her despite the fact he had never had her. He knew his father longed for her still.

His dad had had to grow up a lot when he had lost her, Severus had told him that much. How successful Lucius had been at that was still up for debate. But he had done the best job he could. Draco believed it.

"That's a deep frown young man." He heard a voice ask him.

He had been so lost in his thoughts that when his dad had made it home he had not even noticed.

As soon as his father spoke to him though, he got up, walked over to him, and through his arms about him in which would be the warmest embrace the pair had had since Christmas when his father had snuck not his uncles to see him.

Not needing to be told what had brought on the rush on emotion, Lucius just sighed happily and kissed his sons head.

"Thank you." Draco mumbled into his father.

"You are so incredibly welcome."

As Draco stood there in his father's arms, for just a moment, all the hurt for the both of the washed away. It had been a long time since the two of them had been able to communicate in such a way. Kneeling down Lucius looked at his son. He saw a wise child, but a child none the less. Draco may be a teenage but only just.

Thirteen was a child.

Pulling him back into his arms he sighed. How he had missed him.

"I wish I could be a better father to you."

"Doesn't matter dad; It's like I told you when I was a kid. I don't want anyone else; I just want you. And you are you, if that makes any sense."

Lucius nodded.

For the first time in a long time, Draco was reluctant to let his father out off his sight and so when he went to his office before dinner, Draco followed with his book to read it in the corner while his father answered the various owls which had arrived for him while he had been out. As for Lucius he was only too happy to keep him by his side. Ever since the Chamber incident, he was not happy unless his son was in his eye sight.

And it was there his son found he was able to relax. All the worry he had had about coming home to him for the summer melted away. All the bad stuff was at the back of his mind and all the good at the front.

He had missed the comfortable silence.

The two of them went to dinner together where they met Jane and Severus. Lucius knew the Potions Master was going to be the one whose trust was hardest to regain. Unlike Jane and Draco he did not live with him and so he had more time to brood over what he had done wrong and he did not have to put it to the back of his mind, other than the time they were with Draco.

But they were going to get their friendship back. That he did not doubt. He had agreed to come out to France with them for a few days which had to be a good sign.

Dinner was as ever a civilised affair for the family.

Draco still felt emotional at the end of the day though, he could not get it out of his heart so he left the table early and went to his room to think rather than stay with the others in the mood he was in. He had done a lot of thinking that day and he was ready to have a sleep by the end of it – or so he had thought.

He had just been on his way to the bathroom, having changed into his pyjamas, when his father called him into his own room.

When he got there, he saw there were butter beers and a jug of pumpkin juice on his father's bedside table and there were all their favourite sweets covering Lucius' bed.

"Feel like a midnight snack son?"

"It's only ten." Said Draco with a cheeky smile.

"How about a ten o'clock snack then?"

"Now you're talking!" said the boy as he wondered over to the bed. "Uncle Sev is right; you never did get this whole dad thing. You see, the idea is me and my friends have the feast and then you come in and tell us off; not you arrange it."

"See prince, I would, but then you'd need friends to have the snack with first."

"I have loads of friends!"

The two of them were laughing softly as they cleared a space where they could sit on the bed, both reaching for a chocolate frog.

"In fact dad, some of them were here today."

"I know."

"I know you know. Letting them come over - Ron, Hermione, Harry and Michael – that was cool dad."

"I told you, you don't have to thank me. You can have your friends over whenever you like. As long as you're here I don't care a fig who is with you anymore. There are a lot more important things in life," Lucius said from the heart.

A silence once more came over them both as they got lost in thought.

Draco was pensive in that moment. "What is it prince?" asked Lucius noting how he was frowning. He was sure his son had had a lovely day... he did not know what could be bothering him.

"Dad, can I tell you something?"

"Anything in the world."

Putting down the sweets, Draco made his way to the top of the bed. Fidgeting his hands about, he contemplated what he was about to do. But he felt so close to his dad... and he had always wondered...

"Well, you know when I was in the chamber?" a shadow crossed his father's face but he nodded. "Well, it happened before then to – at my sorting – and on the night before the wedding. It's weird because it has happened more than once so I don't think I am making it up but, it is like... I see mamma. When I'm scared, or sad, or really, really happy, she's comes dad. She's comes, I see her." Lucius nodded to tell him understood that he was saying though he did not know how it could happen. Yet Draco seemed so sure of what he was telling him and there was so much truth in his eyes. "Though see, I don't know how she comes; I just know that she does."

"Well, if I ever knew anything about your mother it is that she was a truly sensational woman. If anyone could cheat death and return to see her child then it would be her."

Draco nodded. "Have you ever – "

"No son. If she comes, then it is to you alone. And quite right to. You are her baby, you need her." He said to him with more of a smile was convincing.

He was glad for his son but it made him feel more lonely for her than he had in a long time.

"Still miss her?"

"Draco, I am never going to stop missing your mother." He sighed. "I just have to live with it – like you do."

"I wish more than anything that there was a way for you to have us both. Dad, I wish she hadn't died."

"So do I. But we can't spend our lives thinking that or we are going to go mad – I nearly did." He said as he made a space next to his son and lay beside him. It did not take him long to put an arm round his son. Draco was reminded of how they had been when he had not gone to Hogwarts, how he snuggled into his dad at night, put his head on his chest and twisted his fingers round the grey vest.

"Do you know something though Draco?"

"What?"

"These past thirteen years – I've lived on without your mum. I am not saying it hasn't hurt or I didn't cry or long for her or get angry because you know better than anyone I have done all of those things; maybe more than I should have. And you know I continue to love and cherish her. They have been thirteen long years. But I could not last thirteen seconds if you were ever taken away from me." Pausing, Lucius pushed his lips to his son's forehead. "When you were in that chamber, I thought I'd lost you." He whispered and Draco looked up at his dad. He knew Lucius had never been so honest with him. It didn't matter about Ginny anymore. This was about the two of them. "And it killed me son. You are everything and you must never forget it. You're my everything."

"I know dad." He said as he shut his eyes and forgot the sweets.

Lucius shut his eyes to. It had been near a year since he had turned his son away when he had needed to be comforted after he had lost Eliza. He was not going to make the same mistake twice.

Draco was thirteen. For the second time that day he was reminded his son was a child still.

With a wave of his wand, he put out the lights. And then he fell asleep with his son in his arms, and slept all the better for it.

On the way to her own room Jane put her head round the door and saw the two sleeping Malfoy's side by side.

With a gentle smile, she sighed.

Happiness filled her heart. Everything was just as it should be once more.

Everyone in the house slept well that night.

Despite the fact he had not been there in two years everything in France was the same as how Draco remembered it and returning felt like another home coming. An emotional trip to Eliza's grave preceding them leaving which made them all the more happy to be there.

Having all of the adults there was also a plus and slowly he could see that Severus was coming round to his father again as he and Jane had. The two of them had not had there chats so much as they had when he had been young but then they were going to be alright in the end, right?

In an attempt to bond them back together after they had got to France, he got out the wizards chest table and the three of them went out to the patio to have a tournament, Draco playing Severus to begin with and then Lucius playing the winner.

"And you can't play badly just to get me and dad playing one another!" warned the potions master to the boy as they sat in opposite side of the table.

"Me? As if I would do something like that. I am far too competitive."

"Touché."

Lucius had been sitting under the sun enjoying it as the other two begin their game when Jane came out of the châteaux. The Daily Prophet was in her hands and she had a distinctively worried look on her face.

"What is it Jane?" he asked alerting Draco and Severus to her worry as well.

Laying a hand on Lucius' shoulder, she gave him the paper.

"Bloody hell."

"Dad?" asked Draco as he and Severus exchanged an anxious look.

Knowing they were going to have to find out some time, he turned the paper towards them.

Severus was the first to recognize the face of his old enemy, Sirius Black and to grasp the implications of the caption 'Mass Murderer on the Run after breakout from Azkaban.'

The End.

Author Note: That all folks – for now anyway! Hope you enjoyed reading the ending as much as I enjoyed writing it! Happy Fathers Day. I only realised earlier on this week that it was going to be the perfect day to post the epilogue on!

Sequel news: Firstly, there without a doubt will be one; I am so not done with the FS universe yet. There are far too many loose ends (including the one added on there at the end just for good measure!) for me to leave the plot for long. However, I do want some time to plan/write the first few chapters so I am going to say the first week of September provisionally for FS II coming up on the site.

Can I also say a HUGE thank you to you all of you for reading/reviewing, and especially to my constant reviewers (you guys know who you are) for sticking with me/discussing the plot with me and just making the story for me. It's been so much fun! Love to you guys, seriously.

Anyway, I'm off to get planning!

As always, please Review!

Love Jess xxx

PS: if you want me to PM you when I post the sequel, just say so in your review and I will do so!