Draco's eyes met mine; rife with wild panic.

Jack looked up at us frowning, and I tried desperately to recall the words that had just passed our lips.

"It's no one for you to worry about, Jack," I said guiltily, hating having to keep such a thing from my own son, "just someone from Upstairs."

"You said a bad word, Mummy," Jack scowled disapprovingly. "You mustn't say words like that. Uncle Ron says your tongue will go green and fall out if you say bad words."

"It's alright, buddy," Draco said gently, crouching down to meet his height. "Mummy's just a bit upset because she misses Upstairs. I miss her Upstairs, and I want you both to be up there with me. There's lots of people who would love to meet you."

I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, wondering if Draco was going to tell him and fear of how Jack would take it if he did.

"You mean like Scorpius?" Jack asked in a small voice.

Draco glanced up at me, his look questioning. I didn't hesitate to respond with a brief nod of my head, relieved that Draco was taking it into his hands.

"Jack," Draco spoke, pausing to clear his throat, "the thing is, Scorpius is your baby brother."

Jack looked up at me, confusion etched across his little face.

"Daddy has a wife Upstairs and she's just had a baby," I explained, trying to keep my voice steady and light. "Isn't that wonderful?"

I choked on the last word, and I had to turn away as, to my horror, tears began to swim in my eyes.

Because this was anything but wonderful.

I busied myself with the coffees, trying desperately to get it together whilst a surge of emotions ran through me.

"Oh," I could hear Jack say, "is he going to come and live with me and Mummy when he's bigger?"

"Uh, no Jack," Draco said, giving another awkward cough, "he um... lives with his own mummy. My wife."

I could almost hear Jack's brain ticking in confusion. Being down here in our sheltered existence, his only idea of what a family consists of is what he's taken from the stories I've read him; stories where the mummy and daddy live happily together with their children under the same roof.

Shit, I should have thought about preparing him for the world a lot better than this.

"Is Mummy not your wife?"

"No, son," Draco said, his voice strangled and full of regret. "I thought Mummy had gone, I didn't know you were down here. I'm sorry."

The second his voice cracked, I whirled round without hesitation and knelt down on the floor to join them.

"It's okay," I said, putting one arm around Draco, who had started shaking from his effort of trying to hold back the tears, and scooping Jack, who looked utterly baffled by what was going on, into my other. "The main thing is that we've found one another now and your daddy and I both love you so very very much."

"And Scorpius?"

"Yes, and Scorpius," Draco said, wiping his face as he brought his own arm up around my middle, squeezing me tightly to his side. "And your mum, I love her so very much too. I love you both."

"What about Scorpius's mummy?"

A silence fell. I felt Draco stiffen as he tried to think of how to answer our son's rather awkward question.

"She's my wife. Of course I- I care about her," he said diplomatically.

"Oh. Can we play Blackjack now?"

"Sure thing," Draco said, and I felt his body sag in relief, "let me just help Mummy with the drinks first and we'll be with you in a moment."

Jack nodded before skipping happily away. Without looking at Draco, I stood up, turning my attention back to the coffees.

"Are you okay?"

I froze, briefly closing my eyes tight shut as Draco stepped up behind me.

"I will be if Jack is." I whispered.

"You know I hate this, don't you? I wish so much it was different."

A hand on my back. And this time, I couldn't stop myself. I turned to face him and let him embrace me, his arms circling me at once as he pulled me against his body. I nuzzled my head into his chest, bringing my hands up to clutch his back, loving the feel of his taut muscles beneath my fingertips.

"Please, Drac." I implored, my voice muffled against him. "You need to stop beating yourself up over something that isn't your fault."

"I hate seeing you hurting like this," he murmured softly, sighing into the top of my head as he held me tighter.

"It's not easy for me to see you upset either, Drac." I said, tilting my face up to look into his sad grey eyes. "But everything we do from now on needs to be in the best interest of the boys. They need to come first."

A look of shock flitted over his face. "You really mean that, don't you? Both of them, I mean-"

"He's your son! I don't need to meet him to know I love him."

Draco stilled, his lips hesitantly twitching up into a wistful smile. "You're amazing, you know that?"

"Yes, I do, I've been trying to tell you that from the moment I sat in your sandpit and threw sand in your face."

"IT WAS ME-"

"Shush, our son is waiting to play cards with us," I said, silencing his lips with my finger, "let's not keep him waiting any longer."

And with that, I pulled out of his arms, grabbed the coffees off the side and walked away smirking.

******

Draco watched Jack carefully, looking for any signs of disappointment in his features.

But amazingly, his son seemed to take the news that he had a baby brother in his stride, even asking the odd question about him every now and then ("Does he like playing card games too?" "He's too little, Jack." "What's his favourite colour?" "Again, too little.").

After realising that Scorpius literally did nothing other than eat, sleep and shit, Jack soon lost interest, instead preferring to talk about Fox the Explorer.

Draco and Blaire exchanged relieved glances when it was clear that Jack wasn't as upset as they'd anticipated.

He even excitedly informed Granger and Weasley when they came back from wherever they'd been.

"Guess what?!" Jack had said, jumping up into Weasley's arms.

"Don't tell me," Weasley answered, "your dad's bought you an entire Quidditch team and dressed them up as foxes?"

Draco rolled his eyes, resisting the temptation to make a scathing remark about the Weasley's lack of gold. For try as he might, he could no longer feel any disdain towards the people who had literally saved Blaire and Jack's lives and had kept them safe all this time.

"No, silly!" Jack laughed, throwing his head back as if Weasley had just said the funniest thing in the world. "Daddy's got me a baby brother!"

"Oh," Weasley said in a startled tone, his eyebrows raised to the ceiling. "That's... nice?"

"He's called Scorpius and he has his own mummy but that's alright because it means I don't have to share my mummy although maybe I'll let him cuddle my mummy sometimes because she gives the best cuddles. Daddy likes Mummy's cuddles too, I know because I saw him cuddling her in the kitchen."

The entire room fell silent. Draco exchanged a guilty look with Blaire. He hadn't realised that Jack had been watching them.

"Well, that's lovely," Granger said in a falsely bright tone as she protectively stroked a hand over her bump. "It's good to share cuddles. Tea, anyone?"

"Hermione, no," Weasley said sternly, placing Jack back down to his feet, "you've been having pains. You heard my mother, you need rest. I'll make the teas. Or the cuddle monsters over there can."

"You've been having pains?" Blaire frowned at Granger, ignoring Weasley's remark. "How long for?"

"Oh, it's nothing," she replied dismissively, sitting down heavily in the armchair, "just a touch of wind."

"I told you to leave those baked beans alone last night, woman," Weasley tutted, pulling a face at Jack and making him giggle loudly.

"You don't think it could be anything else, do you?" Blaire asked, and Draco noticed the deep look of concern etched upon her face.

"There's still two months to go," Granger shrugged, "it can't be anything else. Although Ron did give me a perineal massage last night. Maybe he just got a little over enthusiastic."

"That was supposed to be a massage?!" Ron spluttered, "I thought we were just... you know."

"Uh- you know what, I think I'll just go and make that tea," Draco said hastily, really not wanting to bear witness to this conversation.

When the day eventually came to a close all too soon, Draco found it harder than ever to say goodbye.

Kissing Jack on his forehead once he'd read him his bedtime story, he promised to give Scorpius a kiss for him too.

"You're a good father, Drac," Blaire whispered to him as she saw him out into the tunnels. "Jack loves you to pieces, you know."

"I hate that I have to keep leaving you both, though," Draco murmured, the familiar ache of his heart becoming unbearable.

Yes, Monday was his favourite day, but in a way, it was also his worst day too. For from the moment he left, it would be the longest time he had to wait until he would see them both again.

"As long as we know you're going to come back, then we'll be okay," Blaire said softly, touching her fingertips to his face.

He closed his eyes, sighing at her touch, not being able to resist pulling her in to his embrace once again.

Fuck, he loved holding her in his arms so much. He wanted to hold her all the time, to kiss her and lie with her in bed every single night for the rest of his life. He yearned to peel off her clothes and drink in the sight of her beautiful body; to feel it pressed against his own and hear her longing moans in his ear as he fucked her over and over again.

But he couldn't because he was married and the pain that he couldn't be hers literally tore him apart inside, breaking him piece by piece to the point where he was afraid he could never be fixed again.

"Goodbye, Drac," she whispered in his ear.

And when he leaned down to kiss her brow, he found in fact that his lips had found hers instead, as though they had life of their own.

She pulled back as though he'd burnt her; her eyes searching his in confusion.

And then suddenly she was kissing him back, their lips meeting in a joyous reunion as their hearts raced frantically in sync.

"Blaire," he rasped as he breathlessly pulled his mouth away from hers, resting his forehead down upon hers. "Shit, I'm sorry."

"Go back home, Draco," she panted, her chest rising and falling heavily against his. "Please."

Her eyes were breaking and it was breaking him. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he didn't love his wife, never had, that he hadn't once lain with her in bed since he discovered Blaire was alive, because he was Blaire's and he always would be.

But instead he just nodded sadly and walked away.

As he exited through the main tunnel and came out from under the tree, he hadn't noticed the figure who'd been patiently waiting in the shadows all day long.

Cedric Diggory came out of his hiding place in the tunnel, a large smirk plastered across his face as he stared at the wall that only moments before Draco Malfoy had appeared seemingly out of nowhere from.

So that's where the little bitch was hiding, he thought smugly as he ran his hand along it.

Well, not for much longer.

******