Have and Have Not

Later, he and Hermione discussed the Plan. Draco had been rendered pensive at a comment from Mrs Granger about his mother. He had naturally told Narcissa about the Plan. She would need to keep the public image of acquiescence if not acceptance. But Louise had pointed out that Madam Malfoy would want grandchildren too. It was the ‘too’ which struck Draco as significant.

This illusion of domesticity would end but the lie would continue. And his wife and family would expect him to outdo the muggleborn or at least repeat ‘his’ virility. He would be cursing himself if he ever told an arranged marriage spouse about the Plan. She would hold it over his head as blackmail forever. He had not considered his own children, and that was a telling oversight.

He had been thinking with his dick but not in the usual sense. How far was he prepared to go? Hermione asked him that same question. He could either bow out soonish as they had anticipated or entangle himself for the duration. They needed to arrange their separation. Hermione outlined a strategy, straightforward and logical of course. She meant to deal with everything head on and the Devil take the hindmost. She was a modern woman.

But Draco found himself to be a traditional man. He had everything he wanted. It would not take much to ensure he kept it. He knew himself to be greedy and self-indulgent. He expected to get what he wanted.

He told Hermione he would let Narcissa know about the pacing of the ‘Resolution Phase’ as she called it. Now Madam Malfoy was back in the social milieu she would have a part to play. Draco took himself off to Stockholm.

The calm of Iceland had soothed his father and to further his recuperation Narcissa had booked herself and her somewhat amnesiac husband on a fjord cruise, which had just reached its final berth in Sweden. Draco found his mother in a cafe. Lucius was asleep in their hotel. He slept a great deal, mentally exhausted from the stress of the past years. He had always been volatile but this burnout looked to be long term.

Draco put to his mother his version of the resolution, which resembled Hermione’s only in a mirror. Narcissa sipped her latte and was silent for a long while.

“She is healthy?” Was all she asked finally.

“Entirely. The Healers were impressed with her stamina and assured me there would be no lingering damage.” Draco had not mentioned to Hermione his inquiries about her health. He knew what his mother was thinking. “In a year or two, easily.” He answered her unspoken question. “With a little persuasion.”

“You would have to marry her and she would have to take your name. None of this Draco Granger nonsense.” L’Oracle had not pleased her with that little titbit.

“Of course.” Draco assented easily. Narcissa’s eyes were sharp on him.

“Consider if this works and you have a passel of sons to your name, what will you say when her eldest does not inherit? She will not like that.” Narcissa had been reared with the expectation of carrying on her husband’s lineage. She had endured her father’s recriminations to her mother over the production of three daughters. Before her cousin Sirius’s birth there had been grave fears of the Black name dying out. Which of course, it had.

“They’re illegitimate. It is that simple.” Draco knew historically families on the Continent had legitimised heirs born out of wedlock when they had run out of spares but doing so in Britain was very difficult. The Ministry statues were quite different. Birth before marriage made a bastard even if the parents subsequently married.

“You must have a son.” There was a certain yearning in her voice that Draco interpreted as a legacy from her own efforts to fulfil her obligations.

“I’ll wait until she is enceinte before proposing.” He assured. “There is a muggle procedure called an ultrasound. It can tell the gender of a baby as accurately as a charm. I’m sure she will have one done without any suggestion from me.”

“There are other women; pure bloods.” Narcissa was new to hiding her prejudices. The world was changing. She wanted her family to survive, which was why they talked of desperate measures. “Just because you want to bed her now does not mean your infatuation will last.”

“If it doesn’t, we’ve lost nothing. None of the old families are mentioning a marriage alliance yet and I’ll be damned if I’ll take Pansy back.” Draco was not a forgiving man.

Narcissa contemplated him, thinking how much he resembled his father in the good days before his obsessions had consumed him. She gave her son a nod then presented her cheek for a kiss.

Hermione Granger was not a pureblood but she was the best and it would be a very suitable revenge on those who had snubbed them. Lucius would not like it but Lucius need not know the whole of it. She had been considering her husband’s health and the small estate near Berne that had been part of her dowry. Perhaps it was time to hand over the reins.