I'll Be There When The Sun Rises, But I'll Be Gone Before You Wake.

"Hurry, Mr. Malfoy, you have moments only."

Draco nodded to the nurse, and lifted Davy into his arms. The three year old was light, and made it easier to move faster. The little boy's weight was reassuring, an anchor in the confusing trembling world around him. It was easier to concentrate on the reason Harry Potter's son called him Daddy than on why he was hurrying to see his wife and . . . he couldn't bring himself to even think it.

Harry and Luna Diane did not survive the final battle, leaving an orphaned three-month-old son, and a devastated Severus Snape. The Professor's precious daughter had been taken from him yet again by Voldemort. He remembered Snape just freezing and staring at the two bodies while the battle went on around him. Then he heard the words that would ensure the fate of wizarding kind everywhere. "Avada Kedavra!" Ginny's anger had spilled out of her, and the slight control she had on her power vanished taking Voldemort by surprise-and from behind-leaving a third body to fall into the water, and a light from above falling on the scene as Dumbledore came too late. Ginny had fallen apart then, he had caught her as she fainted. Looked up and lied as bold as brass to the headmaster. "Harry Potter finally did it. Voldemort is gone." He knew without asking that Ron and Hermione, the only other witnesses, would back him up, and he forced his way into his professor's mind to explain the events to him. It was the one secret that Dumbledore would never know. And Draco never regretted keeping it from him. Funny how six students and one Professor could take out the Darkest Wizard of the century when the ministries of the world, all of the aurors could do nothing.

The only thing that got through to Ginny during that time was Davy. Snape himself had placed the cooing infant, his only grandson, into Ginny's arms. Unable to care for the baby, and unable to soothe it, he offered them the child. "I'm trusting you, Draco. Protect your girl, and protect my grandson. I'll take care of the rest." Draco had agreed, unable to bear the pain in Ginny's eyes. And the pain disappeared, life resumed, and for all intents and purposes, David James Potter became Davy Malfoy the same day Draco married Ginny. Some bonds of friendship go too deep to do anything else for a deceased friend's son. Draco had wondered if Sirius and Remus had felt this way about Harry and if they did, then why had they let the muggles raise him? Dumbledore probably held that secret as well. Had to hold all the cards, Dumbledore did.

Now he was free of Dumbledore, free of his father, free of Voldemort, free of Harry, and free of Snape. Sometimes he wondered how much truth the words he and Ginny whispered before he left on auror assignments held. "I'll be there when the sun rises, but I'll be gone before you wake." Someday would he whisper those words, and allow Ginny to be awakened by news of his death? Terrible thoughts, but after the news arrived three months ago, most of his thoughts were terrible. The prophecy promised a powerful child, but it never promised that the child would live long.

The doctors had offered to terminate it, hopeful that the Malfoys could try again if the weak infant was never born, but the idea had disgusted him. That night he sat with his wife, rubbing her aching back as she cried, shedding a few tears himself. He was unashamed of it. His child was dying, and for all his gold and power, he could do absolutely nothing. "I can't get rid of her, Draco. She's ours." The words rang in his ears, the final decision that they both knew from the beginning in simplest form. They had created her. She was theirs and they would do everything they could for her.

No time was left for thoughts. This was the room, the door, the bed. Here was his daughter, lovingly cradled in her mother's arms. "Here, Davy, is your little sister. Her name is Adriana Diane Malfoy."

"Mine?"

"Your little sister." His voice was cracking and he knew it. He had longed for so long to say these words, but it was so hard now. "She's small, but she's a fighter." He touched the pale blond fluff, smiling as her hazel eyes blinked sleepily. Her breathing was slow, and ragged, but she looked absolutely perfect. "She's ours." The room reverberated a little as if little Adriana was agreeing with the statement, her powers strong even if her body was not.

"Mummy? Where's the baby gonna sleep?"

Ginny tried to smile through her tears. "In heaven. That's where our little angel belongs."

"I'm you angel, mummy," Davy protested.

"All children are angels, Davy-boy. I was blessed with two, even if I can't keep one of them. Would you like to hold her, Davy? Draco, take a picture of them." He picked up his camera and focused it on the children and Ginny. All three were his angels in one form or another.

After a few minutes, Ron and Hermione came to take Davy for the night, leaving them alone for a little while with their daughter. They watched the sunrise, before dozing off. The baby smiled, cradled between them and closed her eyes, fluttering the long eyelashes one more time, before closing them forever.

"I'll be there when the sun rises, but I'll be gone before you wake."

The End.