INSTEAD, james potter [1]

Chapter Seventy-Two

Lyra had known love for years, and she was sure she was a master in it. But she realized she was wrong as she raised her son. Draco was a wonderful little boy, letting her feel a kind of love she never had before. 

He grew a lot quicker than she had imagined. He was absolutely beautiful, at least in her biased opinion. He had blond head of hair along with his father's grey eyes. He did take more after his father than his mother, which some would call a shame. Lyra didn't care. He was perfect, no matter what. 

She had had a lot of time to spend with him as she tried her best to ignore the war raging around them. Dumbledore had advised her to, and whenever she felt the urge to go out and fight to protect those she still loved, she remembered herself promising James that she would do her best to stay out of trouble. The least she could do is keep her promise after all the heartbreak she had caused him.  

It was for the best, she supposed. If the Order of the Phoenix wins the war (like Dumbledore believed they would) and Lucius would go to Azkaban for being a Death Eater, her son would still have his mother. It was strange for Lyra to think of herself as a mother, even now that her son was over a year old. 

Draco was just like any other child. He played and he laughed and he was loved. Lyra couldn't remember what she was like at his age, but she couldn't imagine she had been as carefree. She was happy he could be though. She needed him to grow up happy. 

Lyra found herself sitting in the parlor of the Malfoy Manor, her home for three years, as she watched her little boy play with the new toys she had gotten him. She was sure she was spoiling him too much, but he deserved it. He deserved the entire world. She could give it to him, so why wouldn't she?

They weren't alone in the house, though. They usually were, but Lucius was home. He walked into the parlor, looking at them sadly while holding his Death Eater mask and wearing dark robes. "I'll be off then."

"Do you have to go out?" Lyra asked desperately. She felt Lucius barely knew Draco at this point, which she was sure wouldn't help give her son the loving upbringing she wanted. "You've already missed Draco's first birthday, but now you're missing Halloween, too. You could at least stay for this. He misses you."

Lucius looked pained as he looked at his son, who was a lot happier to see his father appear. He knew he would cry the moment he walked out. He always did, and Lucius always pretended not to hear. "I'm sorry, but tonight's an important night. The Dark Lord needs us."

"Your family needs you," Lyra retorted, casting a quick, comforting smile to their son to tell him everything was alright. She tried to keep the anger out of her voice so their child wouldn't start crying. "You always seem to forget that we're here, too."

Her husband was sick and tired of them having this same argument every time he went out. She had seemed angry with him ever since they had their son, feeling that he wasn't doing enough. "Don't be bitter, Lyra. Be thankful you're not out there with us."

"Which I do for him," she said. While she had always used the fact that she was singlehandedly raising their son against him, he always used that he was keeping her out off the Death Eaters against her. "Can't you even try to do the same?"

"You think I don't do this for him? For you?" the blond man asked, trying to control his temper. "I don't want him to grow up in a world filled with filth trying to ruin the world around him. He deserves better than that."

She rolled her eyes dramatically, although she knew it would only make him angrier. Him and his prejudiced ways were only getting more annoying as the years went by. "He deserves his father. And to not grow up in a world ridden by war."