Lost Image | dramione

49 | the horcrux

Draco hadn't expected his mother to pull out the pensieve. She said it was easier than having to actually say the words, and based on her tone Draco agreed on the principle that he didn't want his mother to get all emotional on him. At least, not in present day. He wasn't sure what would be in the pensieve, but no assurances against crying were provided.

He fell into a rather dark scene- literally. The room was nearly pitch-back, if not for the cool blue moonlight seeping in through the open window. It was summer, and the night air smelled strongly of the firelillies planted in the back garden.

This was the Manor. Just a small whiff of that scent and Draco was sure of it. This was what the Manor smelled like in June. Draco didn't realize before just how well he knew this house.

He wanted to call out in the darkness, to see if anyone was there, but then he remembered that no one would hear him. This was a memory, nothing more. He couldn't interact with it or change it in any way.

He could only observe.

Then, a sound pierced the darkness. It was a cry... a baby's cry.

Draco watched, his confusion only building as the form of a woman ran into the room, waving an arm and turning on lights with a flick of her wand. It was his mother- he saw that now, her pale features glowing in the lamplight. But it was his mother as he had never seen her before. She was... well, she was his age! Certainly no more than nineteen or twenty. She was moving with much more urgency and purpose than her usual graceful self, almost running to the crib near the open window. She scooped up the baby, bouncing it against her as she bobbed back and forth across the room, humming. Her humming wasn't very soothing- there was too much stress in it. She sounded more like she was crying, her eyes trained on the ceiling like she was begging an unknown deity.

The baby was wrapped in a blue blanket. It was a boy... and it wasn't Draco. The picture of his mother at the end of the Photo Album really was true- his mother had had a baby before him, when she was much younger. Draco had a brother.

That thought almost floored him, because he knew he didn't have a brother. He had never heard anyone speak of this ever, in his entire life.

Which could only mean that something horrible must have happened.

He didn't have a brother... anymore.

Into the now brightly-lit room came his father, also looking far too young to be his father. Lucius walked up to Narcissa, putting an arm around her shoulders and touching the baby's head. "I'll take him Narcissa- you have to sleep."

Narcissa shook her head almost violently, pulling the baby up tighter against her bosom and continuing to bounce him. He was still crying loudly. Every once in a while he would make a strange gasping sound that seemed a little... abnormal. "No. He needs me. He needs both of us."

And then, just as Draco feared, his mother burst into tears quite suddenly, still rocking the baby. "I don't know what to do Lucius! I don't know... why is this happening? What did we do wrong?"

Draco really didn't want to hear about this. He was perfectly aware of what his parents had done "wrong" to have a baby at such a young age... though for pure blood families, it wasn't exactly unusual to get married and start a family early. The more he thought about it, he was sure he had heard that his mother was still at Hogwarts when they first got married. 7th year, so she was of age...

This would probably be why.

"Maybe we should try some of the Sleeping Draught the Healer gave us," Lucius offered, attempting to rub at his crying wife's back while she continued to move around. "At least then he'd rest."