Lucius Malfoy died of pancreatic cancer.

Cancer of any sort, save the occasional lung cancer from smoking muggle tobacco, was a muggle disease, extremely rare in wizard society. Especially in pureblood wizard families. They had a genetic predisposition against it.

Lucius had laughed when the healer had told him, had remarked that there was a God and He had a wicked sense of humour. Four years gone in a five year sentence to Azkaban, he learned it would be a life sentence instead. He had refused treatments, other than potions to "make him comfortable" as the healers delicately phrased it, as anything else was merely prolonging the inevitable.

He handled his death with more grace than he had handled the last few years of his life before being sent to Azkaban. He met with the solicitors to set his affairs in order. He even had the mortician come to the prison to secure his "final arrangements". Another of their gentle euphemisms.

When he breathed his last, with Draco on one side and Narcissa on the other, they had nothing more to do than to make a floo call to set everything in motion. Every detail, the casket, the flowers to go on top, the food and firewhiskey for the wake, had all been laid out on paper and paid for weeks earlier. A representative from the solicitor's office had arrived at the Ministry as they opened the following morning to submit Lucius' will and wand.

Draco and Narcissa stood in the drawing room with clenched jaws and bitten lips because Malfoys do not cry in front of others, and accepted hollow words of sympathy from a steady stream of people who were probably secretly glad the man was dead.

They sat in the front row holding hands, as the Minister of Magic lied to the assembly about what a devoted family man and brilliant Ministry employee the deceased had been at some point in his life that no one there could quite remember.

Lucius was laid to rest in the family plot, at the feet of a father he loathed and a mother he didn't remember, next to a child he had never held.

Robert Greengrass had come to Draco after the service and agreed that they should postpone Draco's long arranged nuptuals to the youngest Greengrass daughter for "a decent mourning period". Draco was relieved, not because he didn't want to get married with his father recently departed, but because he really wasn't enthused about the idea of marrying some silly little girl fresh out of Hogwarts at all.

On the morning after the funeral, Draco received an owl asking him to come to the Ministry at his earliest convenience concerning his father's estate. As he had nothing to do other than watch his mother packing for her return to her self imposed exile at the Malfoy villa on the coast of Italy, he left immediately.

He was directed to the head of the probate office. He expected to be told sign here, here, and here, and initial there, and everything would be settled. After all, Lucius had spent more than a week ensuring the verbage of the document was proper for the Wizengamot.

Life was never that simple.

"Mr. Malfoy, as I'm sure you are aware, there are protocols and procedures that must be followed in the settlement of an estate, especially one as large as your father's." the pinched looking man with wiry ginger hair began. Probably some Weasley cousin. "One of those matters is to ensure that anyone who may have a claim against the estate was properly notified."

Draco nodded. "My father paid off all of his debts before his death, and did not incur any further charges on any of his accounts to ensure that the estate could be settled as quickly as possible."

The probate officer bobbed his head in agreement. "Yes, yes, your father was debt free at the time of his death, so we assumed that the estate could be settled immediately. However, there is a matter of another heir."

"What do you mean, another heir?" Draco's brow creased in confusion.

"Strictly routine, you understand, the reason we ask for the decedent's wand is to run a simple charm to check for any heirs who are not named in the will or specifically excluded, to ensure that there are no attempts to defraud family members." the redhead tugged at his collar uncomfortably. "You can imagine, we were quite surprised to learn that your father had a second son."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Yes. My younger brother was stillborn. It wasn't something my parents liked to talk about."

The man peered at Draco over the top of his glasses. "No. Your father has a second living son."

"That's impossible." Draco growled. "My mother was never able to have any more children."

The man shuffled some parchments and pushed one toward Draco. "The spell was performed three times to make certain. The results matched each time. Your father has a son born 15 December 1998."

"Who?" Draco demanded.

"The spell gives us a date, not a name." the man shuffled a few more parchments. "I have taken the liberty of compiling a list of magical boy children born on that date according to the files here at the Ministry. They're sorted alphabetically by the mother's name. Perhaps you would recognize someone of your father's acquaintance."

Draco took the list the man offered, mentally counting backward nine months before looking at it.

March.

The spring before the fall of the Dark Lord.

A sickening thought came to his head, accompanied by a sinking feeling in his stomach. Draco immediately flipped to the middle of the list and found the name he had been hoping not to find.

Luna Lovegood.