To Forgive But Not Forget

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Prologue- 2067

" I'll be finishing up my will today," said a voice. The whole room

looked towards Draco Malfoy. The once proud and strong Malfoy was sitting upright in a pouf. The room of children and adults were gathered in the Malfoys' library. With Draco sat a lovely looking woman with brown hair and warm brown eyes. She smiled and clasped Draco's hand in hers. Although they had not been showing it, both Draco and his wife Hermione Granger were getting old. They had six children, April, Dawn, Juliet, Bradley, James, and Julian. They were all married except for Dawn and Julian.

Bradley married Faith Capulet, a shy Ravenclaw after they left Hogwarts and had two children, Emily and Melody. The couple shared a loveseat and the two girls sat at their feet. Emily played with her dolls and Melody sat quietly, fingering a lock of her silky blonde hair and blue eyes fastened on the pages of the spell book she was reading.

Juliet married Bryan Abbott, a handsome Hufflepuff and had three children, twins named Franklin and Thomas and a girl named Ariel. Ariel sat on Thomas' lap, peering up at her older brother from under a cluster of red curls. Franklin sat with his parents on the sofa. Juliet was quietly talking with April, her twin sister. April Malfoy was the wife of Charles Finnegan, with two children, Rose and Harmony. Charles was fondly petting Rose's hair while Harmony sat in he mother's lap.

After James and Serena Nightingale from Ravenclaw tied the knot, they had three girls: Anne, Raven, and Charlotte. Anne and Raven were both poring over one of Melody's spell books. ("Oh, look here, Anne, there's a spell to make a person dance the tango!" "You prat, that's the salsa, not the tango!" "It's tango, not salsa, can't you tell?") Charlotte, who was ignoring her sisters, sat in her aunt Dawn's lap happily.

Dawn, the only Malfoy who entered Gryffindor, was single at the age of twenty-three, the youngest of the Malfoy children. She patted Charlotte's arm while whispering and laughing with Iris Carlyle, Julian's widow. Julian fell in love with a Gryffindor named Iris Carlyle and had four children. But Julian died after the youngest child was born. Iris listened to Dawn with a faintly distracted air, patting Aurora's golden hair. Artemis and her twin, Selene were sitting on a sofa with William, who was quietly talking with his father about Hogwarts' foul Potions teacher. At the time, every person in the Malfoy family was sitting in the large library.

" As I said, I shall be finishing my will today, and I hope that you can fare well without my presence at lunch today. William?" He called and the handsome dark-haired boy of thirteen rose out of the crowd.

" Grandfather?" He inquired. " Come with me," was the sordid answer he received. " The rest of you, go and have lunch." The rest of the family scattered. William followed Draco outside the room and walked through the dark halls of the manor. He watched the steady back of his grandfather stop at a landing and turn into a dark corridor. He stopped in front of a large family tree.

"Here," He whispered, pointing out the prominent bloodlines from his

great-great-great-great grandfather down to William Malfoy. " William, my boy, you are my heir!" It was true. He was the only boy in a family of girls.

" Your father was my only son who managed to produce a grandson…"

Draco breathed. William stared at the expressionless face of his grandfather. Something flickered in Draco's silvery gray eyes.

" I am not as worried and concerned about blood and Muggleborns as your

great- grandfather, Lucius, was, William," Draco spoke. " But I want the family line to continue on, my boy!" William nodded.

"Find some nice girl and settle down as soon as you are of age, won't you?

And have lots of sons, boy. Your would be proud, I know." He smiled at William.

" Now go and have some lunch. I need to go up to my study and

finish my will," Draco smiled and turned to walk up the staircase slowly. When he finally settled in his familiar leather chair, a house elf tottered up with tea and biscuits. Draco smiled at his old house elf.

" Thanks, Dobby," Draco took the tray and the house elf bowed, hurrying

out. Draco took a sip of tea as he arranged a new scroll of parchment. Loading up his eagle feather quill with fresh silvery green ink, he started writing in an italic script.

Perhaps no one will ever read this. Perhaps. After

all, it is just another stack of yellowed and aged parchment

on a sagging wooden desk. But it is anything but a useless

piece of material. For it is a record of the most important

experience in my life. If a curious child finds this sometime

in the future, it would be interesting to see what they

would make of it. Or perhaps they will just toss it in a fire

and let it burn itself into a pile of hot white ash without a

second glance. But whatever the fate of this document may

be, I will not cease to write down my experience. Perhaps,

it will help another to learn to forgive and let go of vengeance.

But it is important to remember as well. For the lesson that

is most important is to forgive but not forget.