Not an uncommon one mind you as most pureblood families have one a single child to their name. The only exceptions were the Weasleys and Greengrass families. The first because they had NEVER produced a squib and had incredible virility. The second because of the family blood curse. The details of that curse were public knowledge since the family had an outstanding reward on offer for whoever could solve this problem. The curse was both insidious and simple at the same time in how it worked.-
Anyone who was born into the Greengrass name had the curse but it was inactive until the fifth birthday. If no other child was born into the family within that time the curse will erupt and that person in particular is doomed to a short and painful life. The key here is that only the youngest childs curse activates and only one curse is active in a set of siblings. This forces the Greengrass family to have at minimum two children every generation to keep the family going. The curse only cares for those who bear the Greengrass name though so if anyone marries out of the family their children didn't have it.-
The curses purpose was pretty obvious with this in mind, the end of the Greengrass family. One would think they could just change their name then to solve it but unfortunately many of their ancestral contracts and vaults are only useable with the name. A real damned if they do damned if they don't type situation. As for why the other pureblooded families don't have more children there are a few reasons. The first was that for some reason the more children they have the higher the chance of a squib coming out.-
The first child was guaranteed to be magical but after that it was a dice roll on if they'd get that lucky again. The second reason was that only the eldest child with males taking priority can inherit the families estate. This meant any extra children would get pretty much nothing and that bred envy and murderous thoughts since after all the estate moves on to the next eligible living heir in the case of the currents death. Finally was control, extra children had this bad habit historically of breaking off from the families to create rival families.-
The pie was only so big so having to share with others meant a smaller slice for you, not a preferred idea. The single child per family idea was fine in peaceful times but in rough ones it backfires spectacularly. Ever wondered how there were only so few pureblooded families despite the VERY long history of the british wizarding community? It's because the heirs sometimes died before they could set up the next generation thus causing that family line to end if no closely related extra "cousin" existed to pass the name onto. Draco happened to be in that situation right now.-
He had both the Black and Malfoy names attached to him since only he qualified to create the next generation of Blacks that were otherwise gone. Sirius was in prison for life and Bellatrix was the same. Technically Nymphadora Tonks would have counted as the daughter of Andromeda Black but her mother had been stricken from the Black genealogy records for marrying her father, a Muggleborn. While technically Sirius was the current "Lord Black" he couldn't create an heir in Azkaban so the line would pass to the second born of Draco in the future. A second child he was required by tradition to try and have.-
If Narcissa Malfoy and Lucius were to somehow create a second child naturally that one would directly inherit the Black name but otherwise both the Black and Malfoy names were pressed solely on Draco. A dangerously easy to cut off line if he perished. That got rather long winded but it was important to know just how this whole system ran and Draco's place in it. If I were innately malicious I might just directly "vanish" the boy to save me the trouble he'd no doubt cause in time but luckily for him I wasn't. -
Don't get me wrong if he became a true enemy I'd have no hesitation to snip that thread. I'd consumed more than enough media to know that more often than not sparing your enemies was more trouble than it was worth. Having to personally off someone would definitely mess with my head but I had already steeled myself for the inevitability of that act. This world had a dark side to it and since I fully planned to explore the entirety of it I'd have to fight and eventually kill.-
For now though I would focus on studying and trading to build up my magical powerbase. With that in mind I attended herbology class and deftly pruned the plants that Sprout had us attending, snake vines. A sort of bean producing plant that was usually found coiled around the sides of rocks and buildings with deep green small scale like leaves and been pods that shook when the plant was disturbed which is where it got it's name. The beans were used in draughts of skelegro, the potion used to regrow bones. At the end of class I hung back since I had to speak to Sprout.-
"Something I can help you with dear?" she asked kindly when I approached.
"I happened to recently obtain a unique plants seeds from a business contact of mine and don't quite know how I should raise it. I was wondering if you might help me cultivate one to figure it out?" I asked hopefully.
"Oh? What sort of plant is it?" she asked intrigued.
"The plant is known simply as "Species X" and fills a similar niche to venomous tentacula with toxic projectiles it can launch. The biggest difference is that the plant can actively identify allies and thus can be used as defenses against foreign parties. The problem is I am unsure of the exact growing conditions for the plant beyond a steady water supply and fertile soil." I explained as I reached into my pocket and produced a seed that i secretly took from my inventory.