TIME

XX

After the war, she had moved to France, and Draco had stayed in England to train as a healer. When she had left, Draco was just moving into his new flat, and he was on the way to rebuilding himself and who he was before Voldemort.

He was still snooty, and fussy, and prickly, but he was also curious and funny and affectionate and so entirely himself that it made Narcissa's heart swell.

These days he wore his hair long, and he liked wearing muggle clothes and reading muggle novels and watching muggle sports with his muggle friends. And he enjoyed cooking, and hosting parties, and going out for dinner, and he loved his job because he could help people in ways he needed people to help him but no one understood him the way he needed to be understood.

Six years had passed, and he was now a fully-grown man. He'd had his Dark Mark tattooed over. He now smiled more than he ever had before, and every time she saw him he had even more laughter lines.

And it was all Harry Potter's fault.

He had gone on to become an auror and a good friend of Draco's, and spent his life saving people's lives. Draco became his go-to healer, and they'd spent quite a while pining for each other before Harry had been in a terrible accident and had apparated straight to Draco's apartment at 3am one terrible night. Apparently he nearly died, and so had spent a month in the hospital.

Draco didn't leave his side once. When Harry finally came around, he found Draco holding his hand. Allegedly, her son had called him a "stupid suicidal idiot" and kissed him right there and then.

Well, whatever the story, they had been together for three years now, and engaged for a year.

Time soldiers on, Narcissa supposed.

As she gazed out at her rose garden, she's struck with a feeling of fleeting sadness. Seeing her son grow was the greatest pleasure and the greatest pain of her life, and she thanked Merlin every morning that she had Draco.

Her Floo roared to life, and out stepped Molly and Arthur Weasley, dressed in their finest. Molly was already sobbing into her handkerchief, and Narcissa welcomed her with open arms. Watching a child grow into an adult was a remarkable thing, especially when you had bucket loads of motherly love for them.

She could ponder life and remember things fondly later.

Now, though, she had her son's wedding to go to, and she wouldn't have missed it for the world.

~fin.