Three-year-old Scorpius Malfoy began to rub his eyes. He had had a pretty long day running around in the garden playing hide and seek with his father while his mother soaked up the sun. After just finishing tea he was ready for bed. The small blond boy turned around and glanced at Draco. "I'm tired, Daddy!" he moaned as little fists rubbed his eyes once more.
The patriarch looked down at his son and smiled. "Come on then, Scorp," Malfoy said as he stood up and held out his hand, waiting for the boy to take it. Seeing the small blond shake his head, Draco sighed and took pity on him. Bending down, the former Death Eater picked Scorpius up and carried him off to bed, his wife following.
After quickly cleaning the young boy's teeth, the three of them went into his bedroom and Draco lowered Scorpius, who seemed quite tired now, into the bed. "I want a story!" the child demanded with a grin as he saw Astoria grabbing The Tales of Beedle the Bard. He loved the fairy tales and could listen to his father reading them all day.
Draco sat on one side of his son with his wife on the other. Flicking through the book, he soon arrived at Scorpius' favourite story, the one that was always first choice; The Tale of the Three Brothers. "There were once there brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight," Malfoy began in a clear voice. "In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across."
By the time he had finished the story, there was no way Scorpius was waking up; he was in such a deep sleep. Getting up, he slipped the book onto the bedside table before helping Astoria into the living room. Once on the couch, his wife turned to him.
"You could have stopped once he'd gone," she said with a light laugh.
"You know he always wakes up if I stop halfway through," Draco replied. "It's like a sixth sense."