For the first time in years, time passed quickly. Dreariness and pain no longer occupied Lyra's everyday life, though it still shone through in moments. But it wasn't the most important part of her life anymore.

Because she no longer had her husband breathing down her neck. Actually, more than ever, she was breathing down his. She was telling him to be careful out in the secretly warring world and trying to fish out information as stealthily as she could. She was quite good at that.

She had her sister again, for the first time in almost twenty years. Her sister, her niece and her brother-in-law. The only pure, warm family she had seen in ages. Not since she had spent a summer with the Potters had she seen such a loving family.

Of course, she had spent a lot of time with Sirius and Remus. She wanted to catch up on all the years they had missed. She wanted to try to make up for the pain she had caused. While they weren't happy about her blaming herself for it all, they could see that it helped her to try to atone. All they wanted was for her to feel better. She loved them more for it.

She missed the kids though. The ones who had hung around Grimmauld Place all the time, of course. But most of all, she had missed her own son. That was the worst part of the autumn, the only part she that hat pained her throughout the past few months.

But she knew he would be back and they would celebrate with all the happiness they could. He was her greatest happiness of all, after all. The only light she had for so many years. She wouldn't ever dare give it up.

The happiest time to celebrate was Christmas. It was a time for family, which had been ingrained in Lyra's mind for as long as she could remember. The Blacks may have had their faults, but they had family loyalty to some extent.

That's part of the reason Lyra was so excited to pick up her son from King Cross Station during the Christmas holidays. Last year, he hadn't been able to go home because of the Yule Ball and she had missed him so.

Lucius wasn't there this year. He wasn't there most years, actually. This year was different, though, and Draco understood that. He wasn't gone because he didn't want to be there. In fact, she thought that he had never wanted to be there more.

But Lucius had become obsessed with trying to protect his family and bring glory to their names at the same time. The less involved Draco was with everything, including his father sometimes, the easier it would be to keep him out of trouble, and it would be easier to keep his promise to Lyra. The promise that their son would be safe as long as he was around.

While he didn't say it, the promise he made to Lyra when she was eighteen was still as important to him. She wouldn't need to be Death Eater as long as he could prevent it. It wasn't an easy task, as the Dark Lord was as interested in Lyra's gifts as an Occlumens as ever. But Lucius was a sly man.

There were many Death Eater meetings as Malfoy Manor, but he always sent her away and coming up with some silly excuse about her being at a tea party or something. That usually worked out in Lyra's favor, as she could easily go to Twelve Grimmuald Place then.

Lyra's mind was racing with a million ways to protect Draco (and herself) if there was going to be a meeting at the Manor when he was home. She wasn't about to let Lucius worry about that on his own.

But all doubts and worries disappeared from her mind as she saw a glimpse of familiar platinum blond hair in the crowd. That was definitely Malfoy hair, and she wouldn't expect Lucius to walk around the train station after he said he had things to do. She didn't want to know what those things were.

"Draco!" Lyra called out her son's name, watching him search the station for her. Once his gaze met hers he quickly brightened up and smiled slightly. But it didn't take long for him to catch himself showing emotions (the horror) and straightened up, making sure to suppress his smile.

"Hello, Mother," he greeted Lyra coolly once he finally reached her. Behind him were his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, and the girl who had been in love with him for as long as anybody could remember, Pansy.

"Hello, Vincent, Gregory, Pansy," Lyra smiled politely at each of her son's closest friends. She wasn't the biggest fan of any of them (though Pansy sometimes reminded her of a close friend of hers from her school days, Lucinda, so she had a soft spot for the girl. Didn't mean she liked her, though).

"Hi, Mrs Malfoy," they all greeted her separately. Crabbe and Goyle with their usual gruff voices and Pansy with her high-pitched, sickly-sweet tone. Her voice sounded like she was always passive-aggressively mad about something.

Lyra sort of wanted them gone. She wanted to have time with her son, and she was sure that their parents wanted time with them as well. "I think I saw your parents to the left over there. They looked like they were waiting."

"Thank you, Mrs Malfoy," they all said once again, seeming to lack any individuality. It was quite rare in the Pureblood families nowadays.

Draco tried to suppress his smile as he looked at his mother, but she could see that he had missed her just as much as she had missed him. "It's good to see you, Mother. It's been a long term."

"Far too long," Lyra agreed, smiling softly. She frowned as she noticed some hairs that had gone astray on his head. She reached out to fix it, but he pulled away. She rolled her eyes at his teenage ways. "I'm just trying to fix your hair."

"My hair doesn't need fixing," he retorted, but quickly reached up to fix it himself. Lyra could only chuckle. "Where's Father? Isn't he coming?"

"Not today. He has some..." Lyra wasn't sure what to call what Lucius was doing. She wasn't about to tell him the truth, especially when they were trapped in a big crowd of people who didn't want to believe the Dark Lord had returned. "Business."

Draco wasn't dumb. He knew exactly what she was talking about, he just didn't know it was going to affect him in the way it had. He already had very little time with his father and now there would be even less. "Oh. Alright."

"So, how's school been? Has O.W.L.-year been killing you yet?" Lyra asked as they started moving towards the exit. Lucius had gotten the Minister to drop Lyra off and pick them up with Ministry cars after all.

"It's been alright. A bit stressful but I'm keeping on top of my work," Draco answered, not wanting to seem like a slacker. It was a good thing his father wasn't there. He wouldn't even admit to being stressed in front of him. "And the new Defence Teacher is great."

"It's Delores Umbridge, isn't it?" the blonde woman asked, frowning. In the letters both her and Sirius had gotten from Harry, they'd talked about how much the children hated the woman with all their might. She didn't like the idea of her son liking that sort of woman.

"Yes." Draco nodded as they finally left the platform and was now surrounded by muggles on their way out. "She's quite brilliant. She shuts down the Gryffindors when they try to grab all the attention and pretend they're better than everybody else just because they're louder. Finally someone does."

Lyra could suddenly remember the toad-like woman, having met her several times. Sometimes, she'd even been invited to their home. "Right, we've had her over for dinner a few times. I'd forgotten."

She neglected to mention how horrid Umbridge had been. She'd always found her rude, annoying and a bit nasty. Harry's hatred of her had only confirmed her feelings about the woman. She'd always been civil towards the woman. She couldn't really do anything else without being labeled Lucius's crazy wife. If anybody was crazy, he was.

"I'm glad you're happy with your school year, at least," Lyra then said, trying to find the bright side of things. She didn't want to burden her son with her hatred of the woman, and definitely didn't want that to end up as a discussion on what she'd heard from Harry, because that would lead into why she knew Harry so well. She didn't want to open Pandora's (Lyra's?) box.

Lyra knew she had missed her son, but she hadn't realized how much she had missed just talking to him. Because the minute they got into the Ministry car, they couldn't stop chatting about whatever had been going on at Hogwarts. It was like Draco had once again become her little boy.

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The Malfoy Christmas celebrations were always rather grand. They were one of the most prominent Wizarding families of the modern age, after all. That was an accomplishment they weren't willing to give up either.

They weren't going to stop themselves from having a party just because the Dark Lord had returned and war was looming over their heads. No, that was definitely not the Malfoy way. It all had to be greater, bigger and more magnificent than usual to cover up all the fear.

It was mainly Lyra's responsibility, of course. More now than usual, because Lucius had to use all his sly, Slytherin ways to try to convince the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters that it would be a bad idea for him to show his face at the party. To do this, Lyra had invited many Ministry officials. They weren't going to allow him close to their son again if they could help it.

It was a success. There were 150 people on the guest list and barely any of them dared to refuse. Many of them came up to Lyra, thanking her and saying they were surprised by the invitation but were enjoying themselves.

The Minister was there, of course, which eased Lyra's mind even more. The Dark Lord wouldn't ever dare show up and reveal himself to the Minister of Magic himself. It would be foolish. And if there was one thing the Dark Lord was not, it was foolish.

The music was amazing and the food delicious. People were laughing, dancing and getting drunk. The kids were pretending not to notice, though she caught them all giggling with each other in corners.

Narcissa had just finished berating a stupidly drunk Marcus, who had fallen on a House Elf and spilled several glasses of firewhiskey. Lyra couldn't help but chuckle a bit to herself. She hoped she wouldn't ever have to do the same for Draco.

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to do about that boy. I don't get where he gets it from! Hector and I are always so well-behaved," Narcissa huffed as she walked back to her sister, grabbing a glass of wine and downing it in one sip.

"I have no idea where he got his love of alcohol from," Lyra teased, swinging her own glass as her sister grabbed a bottle from a House Elf, filling her own glass to the brink. Narcissa glared and she looked away, trying not to laugh. "Sorry."

"Do you have to be playing so much Celestina Warbeck?" the older sister complained, glaring at the record player. "You know I can't stand that cow ever since she refused to sing and mine and Hector's party a few years back."

The Malfoy woman couldn't help but let a few chuckles out. She loved when Narcissa was drunk because all of her complaining was always so extremely funny. "I've got a bit of a soft spot for her music."

"Please. You detest some of her music," Narcissa scoffed, spilling some wine on the table they were leaning on. She didn't even seem to notice. "You can't even bear to listen to You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me."

Lyra froze a bit at the mention of that particular song. Her smile was definitely a lot more forced. She had specifically put that song on a no play list. "Yeah, it's a bit... much for me."

"Ugh, look at our husbands over there," Narcissa then groaned, pointing to Lucius and Hector who were laughing heartily about something with the Minister. "So smug and enjoying the night. You know what, I think I'm going to go shag Hector. I'll find a room."

Lyra didn't even have time to react before Narcissa had already left. All she could do was laugh, wondering if there was going to come a new baby Flint from Narcissa's drunken splendor. "Alright then!"

But then she met Lucius's eye. The Minister had walked off with somebody and Narcissa was dragging Hector away. He was all alone, smiling slightly at her. Her happy demeanor quickly faded, though she didn't look away.

It didn't take long for him to walk up to her, as stiff and proper as usual. "Perhaps we should dance? You know, to make sure that nobody suspects there's something wrong. We need to keep a strong front."

Lyra hesitated. Her and Lucius hadn't danced in at least five years. She wasn't sure why he dared to ask now. Perhaps their separation had made the heart grow a bit fonder. "Oh. Alright. Sure, that sounds like a good idea."

He held his hand out for her to take. She could feel the eyes on them, many of them people who would love to see her reject it so they could gossip about the Malfoys' failing marriage, which they had already done for years.

Once they got on the dance floor (already occupied with several couples, and a few who weren't with their significant others), he started swinging back and forth. It was strangely not like him. She didn't complain, and only started laughing instead.

She barely cast a glance to the side, where she noticed that Draco was standing. He was staring at them, smiling only slightly but as genuinely as he could. It was the first time in years that he had seen his parents almost look... happy with each other.

Some of the other couples followed their lead and didn't try to do some slow ballroom dancing to the upbeat song they were playing. It had looked ridiculous before Lucius and Lyra had started dancing.

That only lasted for another minute before the song was over. Then, the music slowed down, into the kind of dance people would only want to do with their sweethearts. Lyra was about to leave, not feeling comfortable doing this dance with Lucius, but decided to keep going as she looked at Draco.

She rested her cheek against his chest as they swayed back and forth, like they were any other couple in the crowd. If people didn't know either of them well, they might even have been fooled to think they were in love.

Lyra didn't smile, though. She didn't even try. She just rested against her husband, feeling the music and thinking about how happy her son had looked. She wished all the happiness in the world for him, especially when the war was looming.

Lucius quickly noticed her sullen mood, and seemed a bit concerened. This wasn't the type of behavior that would convince people that they were alright. He spoke quietly, so she barely heard him. "Lyra..."

"Can we just be happy tonight?" she cut him off before he could say another word. She didn't want a fight, or a scene, or anything that could come back to hurt Draco. "Can we pretend to be a normal, loving family for just one night?"

He was quiet for only a moment, thinking it over. He followed her gaze to look at Draco, who still hadn't been able to take his eyes off his parents. That's when he quickly understood. Anything for him. "Alright. We can do that."

"Thank you," she whispered, not sure if he could even hear.

Lucius then pulled away from their dance, deciding that he did want Draco to have the best night possible. He wanted him to have the illusion of his parents loving one another at least.

He reached out to put his hand under her chin, then leaning down to kiss her softly. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling for either of them, but one that they weren't used to. They did only kiss at parties such as this one, though they were usually only pecks then.

But in the middle of their kiss, the song changed. It was the last song Lyra had wanted them to play. She had specifically told them not to play that song. She pulled away from the kiss. "Why are they playing this song?"

Lucius never understood his wife's hatred for the song. "I don't know."

"I- I have to go. I need a moment." Lyra smiled slightly at him to let him know she was alright. She just needed a few moments to herself. She quickly walked out of the door to the room the party was in.

It only took a moment for her to get to her bedroom, where she could still hear the music playing. She reached into one of the bedroom drawers, which had been spelled to only open to her touch.

There was a small, brown box. She hesitantly opened it, not having done so in very long. The first thing she saw was a number of vials. Memories. She had collected them for years, in case there ever was a need. At first, she did it because she was scared Lucius would take away her memories. She now knew he wouldn't, but they were still there.

On top of them were a few photographs, ones she hadn't looked at for years. Mostly because they had hurt too much. Now, she felt like she was in pain if she didn't look at them. The longing was too much.

The picture right on top caught her eye first. It was a night she wouldn't forget. The night of James Potter's 17th birthday. They were all super wasted, James more than anyone. But they still managed to squeeze a picture in.

James with his arm around Sirius's shoulders, Lyra kissing his cheek with Remus and Peter (gross) standing in front of them. She could vaguely remember Lily Evans (later Potter) having taken the picture.

Her and James hadn't even officially gotten together at that point. Their relationship consisted of snogging in broom closets and Lyra being terrified of what people would think, and what would happen if they got too serious.

She smiled as she looked at it, hearing the music in the background as she was reminded of exactly what she was fighting for. That happiness, that joy that James had brought her. She wanted that for everyone in the Wizarding World. And she needed to fight for it, that's why she was in the Order of the Phoenix.

She hummer along with the music, deciding to sit there for a few moments before going back down to the party. "You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me," she quietly sang to herself. After all, he really did.

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A/N: This chapter came out unusually quick! We have one more chapter during Christmas time, and then (if you remember) something VERY important happens afterwards ;)