...

"Hurry up, Daddy!"

Draco chuckled softly as he tried to keep up with the sweet, dark haired little girl racing ahead of him.

"Don't climb over the hedges, Dora!" He called as he watched her disappearing over the top of the green shrubbery, "Nanny Cissy will kill us!"

As if, he thought smiling to himself, Pandora had his mother wrapped around her little finger, not much unlike he himself once had. Still had.

He wasn't as fit as he used to be, Draco thought, as he eventually caught up with his five year old tearaway, breathless from exertion.

It was funny, he realised as she looked up at him with her sparkling blue eyes - she was exactly how he had pictured what their daughter would look like. Astrid's hair, Astrid's eyes - but everything else was him.

Especially her personality.

"Let's climb the tree, Daddy!" She grinned mischievously, looking up at the same tree that Draco had once use to climb to do this very journey a long time ago now.

"You know, we can just as easily go through the gate," he drawled, gesturing towards the driveway's entrance.

"But that's no fun, Daddy," she said, stomping her foot slightly as her blue eyes flashed fiercely into his.

Draco rolled his eyes, sighing. He never could say no to his little girl.

He helped her climb up, scaling the wall and dropping down to the other side.

His wife and mother would surely kill him if they caught them, he chuckled to himself.

Laughing together, he held onto his daughter's hand as they made their way up the road.

"Here we are," he murmured, his heart thudding in his chest slightly, as they turned into the playground.

The very playground that he had entered for the first time fifteen years ago.

He hadn't been back here since the day he had made his way to Hogwarts for his seventh year, during the time when Astrid had been stuck in the darkness of her father's soul.

This place conjured up strange and daunting memories for him. But it'll always be the place where he had first laid eyes on the love of his life. The place that had eventually made him a better person.

"I can see her! There she is, Daddy!" Dora cried excitedly as she tugged urgently at his hand.

And sure enough, as he looked towards the swings, there sat the dark haired woman waving and smiling from her usual spot.

Waiting, as she had done so many times, all those years ago, for him.

Too excited to wait for him to hurry up, Dora let her hand escape his, as she pelted forwards towards her mother.

Draco, however, wanted to saviour this feeling. He didn't take his eyes of his beautiful wife as he sauntered slowly towards her, his heart filling with love, as their little girl flew into her arms, giggling delightedly as Astrid scooped her up onto her lap and gently swung them back and forth.

It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

"How did it go?" he asked as he took the swing next to her, frowning slightly with concern, knowing it couldn't have been easy for her.

She smiled sadly up at him as she cuddled Dora in her lap. "Difficult, but I'm glad I did it. I had to face it sometime."

"I wish I could have been there with you," he murmured softly, reaching out a hand and intwining his fingers in hers.

"And I love you for that, Draco, but I think it was something I needed to do on my own," she reassured him, squeezing her fingers gently against his.

They exchanged a knowing glance, not needing to say anything further. Astrid had finally gotten around to clearing out the flat she had shared with her step father. Although Draco had begged her to allow him to send the staff in to do it, she had insisted on doing it herself.

It was his mother who had eventually made him let her go. ("It'll be cleansing for her, Draco. Sometimes we need to face our past to be able to truly get over it.")

He realised just how right his mother was. There was something about Astrid that looked... free.

"Mummy, did you really come here when you were a little girl like me?" Dora asked looking up at Astrid in wonderment.

"Yes," Astrid smiled, and Draco saw her blue eyes glisten as though recalling memories, "my own mum used to push me on this very swing."

"Is that the lady that has the same name as me?" Dora asked, her features turning into a slight frown. "Your mummy?"

"Yes," Astrid breathed, her voice wobbling slightly, "Pandora. She was beautiful just like you, too."

"Can I play on the slide now, please?" Dora begged, glancing up at Draco, knowing he would never deny her her wish.

"Go on, beauty," Draco nodded, "Mummy and I will be here, watching."

He watched as Dora scrambled down from Astrid's lap and went skipping over to the nearby slide.

"I'll never forget the first time I saw you," Draco murmured, glancing down at his beautiful witch, giving her hand a gentle squeeze, "sat right where you are on that very swing."

"Back when I was just a Muggle," she smiled, her blue eyes twinkling up at him. "I remember thinking how peculiar you came across. But I liked it. I liked you."

"I'll take that as a compliment," he smirked, his eyes wandering back to their dark haired daughter who was squealing with delight as she slid carefreely down the slide.

"You should," Astrid laughed, "there'll never be anyone quite like you, Draco Malfoy. And I count myself as the luckiest woman alive to be able to call you mine."

Draco's heart gave that familiar swell of love, and he wrapped his arm around Astrid's waist, pulling her to his side so that their swings bumped up against one another.

"I'm the lucky one," he murmured into her ear, as he placed a hand upon her swollen belly. "I'm the luckiest wizard in the world."

And, as the sun started setting around them, Draco knew that walking into that playground all those years ago was the best decision he had ever made.