Theodore Nott and I had been married for nearly ten years now. I was thirty years old, and he was thirty-two despite our having gone to the same school and being in the same year. My brother, Harry, hadn't been the happiest over this union, but there was nothing he could say about it – the hypocrite.
Theodore was calm, sweet, and extremely intelligent. He kept a calm head whenever there was a tragedy, and kept me calm as well. He was handsome, tall, and he filled out his frame after the Final Battle, with golden eyes, high cheekbones, and wavy chocolate brown hair.
He towered over me, by like a foot at the least. Theodore was nothing like his parents, whom disliked the marriage due to the blood-purity that they still believed in. Theo always managed to make me forget about his parents as well as keep our children away from their prejudices.
We had two children – Jason Theodore, whom would be eight in two months come August, and Allure Reign, who would be five in December. I was pregnant with our third child, though I had yet to tell Theo – wanting to wait for our anniversary which was two weeks away.
Draco Malfoy came over with his wife – Astoria, on a beautiful June morning. Astoria and Draco both took the two children with their own child Scorpius to the local park. Astoria promised me that it would give me some down time so that I could rest. She knew about the pregnancy and the horrible morning sickness I was going through at that time.
I agreed, knowing that the children would be alright. I was able to finally go back upstairs and fall into a light sleep. Though I was awakened about an hour later by my bedroom door banging open. I startled awake and looked up to see Draco standing there with a stricken look on his face.
"Jason. He's missing." I felt my heart drop at that simple statement and I scrambled out of bed and down the stairs. Astoria was in the foyer with Allure and Scorpius. She shook her head.
"No!" I cried out. "Harry. We need Harry." I was incoherent and Astoria led me into the kitchen while Draco went to firecall Harry and then Theo.
"Drink this, love," Astoria gave me a mug of steaming tea, which I took automatically.
"Jason. He's just hiding." I said, shaking my head. Astoria looked at me with a sympathetic look.
"Aria, we even did a point me spell. He's not there." Draco said, coming into the kitchen followed with Harry and Theo. Theo gathered me up into a hug.
"Theo. Our baby boy. Our Jason," I cried, sobs wracking my body. Theo clutched me tightly to his body. He ran a hand down my back.
"Sis, I have to go and file a report. Then we will go out and search for Jason." Harry said, standing up and flipping shut a booklet. I looked over from Theo's shoulder. "We will find Jason. Don't worry."
But how could I not? Jason was missing and no one knew where he was. No one could find him. They found a piece of his shirt on a bush in the surrounding wood line around the park. I cried all that night.
Theo simply held me and rocked me, while Allure spent the night sleeping in our bed, simply because I couldn't bear to let her out of my sight. Theo didn't say anything, just kept a hand on her at all times, as if to make sure that she was still there with us.
We spent all that week, not sleeping, crying, and searching the surrounding areas for our little boy. Harry had even made sure to alert the Muggle realm to the situation. He said that it would help, especially if someone had seen anything. Though they had gotten several tips, they were mostly for prank calls or something that didn't pertain to the abduction.
I was so scared, not wanting to let Allure out of my sight for a moment. I panicked if I didn't spot her in the living room – if I didn't hear her in the kitchen. Theo tried to keep me calm, though this wasn't exactly helping.
"You have to tell him," Astoria said, a week and a day after Jason's disappearance. That was how I was counting the days – a day since Jason disappeared, etc. "Honey, quite frankly you look like shit. And you are going to hurt yourself and the baby."
"No!" I cried, tears beginning to fall from my bloodshot eyes. She handed me a handkerchief.
"Honey, he needs to know." She soothed, rubbing my back.
"Who needs to know what?" Theo's voice came from behind us. I jumped and looked at my husband startled.
"Theo." I said, breathily, dabbing at my tear stained eyes.
"Aria. What are you two talking about?" Theo asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
"I'll leave you two to talk." Astoria slipped out of the kitchen and pulled the door shut behind her.
"Theo, please sit." I said, getting up and pouring another cup of tea. Then I took my seat next to him.
"What's going on?" Theo asked, taking my hand in his. I shook my head wordlessly.
"This was supposed to have happened in a couple of days on our anniversary. It was to be a joyous occasion." I laughed, a little hysterically. "Not when this happened." I made a little motion with my hands.
"Aria." Theo enfolded me into a hug.
"I'm pregnant Theo. Congratulations!" I said, in a fake tone, with a fake smile that melted away almost instantly. Instead it left in its place a pale face, eyes swollen and red, and the look of helplessness that I had gained since the disappearance.
"Oh, Aria." He began to rock me. "I love you so very much, you know that right?" I nodded.
"I know, Theo. But why did this have to happen to us?" I asked, the why question again. Theo brushed away the lingering tears and shook his head wordlessly.
"I don't know, sweetheart. But I do know that we will find Jason. Let's just focus on that." I nodded, and he put a hand on my stomach. "As well as our new baby."
Astoria kept me company for much of the weeks to come. She would sit with me and Allure while we made posters, banners, and flyers. Theodore wouldn't let me go out and search, knowing that the stress wasn't good for the baby, but there was nothing he could do to stop that.
We were all stressed. I snapped out at Harry yesterday for not finding my son yet. Harry had just nodded, tiredly, and kissed the side of my face. He knew that I couldn't control my temper – I never could, but he knew that he wasn't the cause of my blowing up.
Harry was stressed, for he had said to Theodore, when he thought I wasn't looking, that the time frame for these sort of cases wasn't the most promising. He thought that we likely wouldn't find my baby boy alive. Theo nodded his head, his heart breaking, but he kept his composure.
Theo was stressed, trying to keep everything together for the whole family. He had to keep me calm and then had to keep reassuring Allure. She had no idea of what was going on – she was only four and it kept breaking my heart whenever she would ask where Jason was.
I kept asking every single day where Jason was as well, but no one seemed to know. I prayed to every god I could think of to bring him home to me. I was exhausted, frantic, stressed, and nauseous. Astoria kept trying to cram food down my throat, but between the stress and the baby there was no way that I could keep food in my stomach.
"This is Potter!" Harry said into his mobile phone, one night, three and a half weeks after Jason's disappearance. We all looked up, as everyone who was friends or family of us were crammed into the living room. It was pouring outside so there was no way that we were going to be able to search today.
"Harry?" I asked, standing up. He walked out into the hallway after raising his hand up to me. I sank back down onto my spot on the couch and began to nervously bite my nails. It had been a habit that I used to have while in Hogwart's, but had outgrown. Now though, I seemed to have picked back up the habit since Jason disappeared.
"Malfoy. Ron. Finnegan. Thomas." Harry barked coming back into the room. He tucked his mobile into his pocket. "We have to go."
"Harry?" I asked, hopeful. Theo stood and walked over to him. Harry said something in a low tone and Theo nodded his head.
"Aria, let's hope that this will actually lead somewhere." He gave me a pained smile before the five men left our home.
"Theo?" I questioned. He came and sat down next to me, clutching my hand tightly between his own.
"Let's continue with the flyers." Theo said, his voice sounding quite restricted. I looked at my husband puzzled, knowing that he knew an element that he wasn't sharing. But I nodded my head, after a moment of careful observation.
Three hours later, Harry's patronus bounded into the room. He needed Theo and I to come to Saint Mungo's immediately. Astoria gave us a nod and I knew that Allure needed to stay here.
Theo held out his elbow for me to apparate with him, which I did gladly. Though when we landed with a snap in front of St. Mungo's I felt sick, and my stomach was whirling. After giving me a moment to settle my stomach we both strode inside the hospital.
"Aria. Theo." Draco greeted us. I nodded at him, though looked at his pained expression a little suspiciously. "Harry's waiting for you two by the elevators."
"Oh." I said. Theo led me over to the elevators where my brother was indeed waiting by the lift. We wordlessly got into the elevator and Harry took us to the basement level of the hospital. "What's down here?" I wondered aloud, but no one answered me.
"Theo, Aria, I'm sorry." Kingsley was standing in the middle of the dimly lit room by a metal table with a sheet covering a small body.
"NO." I breathed, tears burning my eyes. "NO!" I screamed, digging my fingers into Theo's coat.
"We don't know for sure. We need one or the both of you to confirm his identity." Kingsley said, apologetically. I shook my head.
"No. That's not my little boy. You have the wrong person." I said frantically. I felt hands try to pull me away from Theo, but I just clutched at him harder. "Theo, tell them."
"Aria, we have to look." Theo tipped my head back. "If you don't want to, Harry will take you - "
"No." I cut him off. "I want to prove that – that body isn't my sons."
"Alright. I'll pull the sheet off now." Kingsley said. I turned my eyes back to the covered body and watched as Kingsley pulled the sheet off. It was my little boy. I could tell just by looking at the body.
"There's a scar on his right hip." Theo said, his throat swallowing air, hard. Kingsley pulled up the blue shirt that my son loved, and sure enough there was the scar on his hip.
"No." I breathed. "Theo. Jason. That's, that's."
"I know love." Kingsley pulled the sheet back over the body. Theo gathered me up in a tight hug.
"I'm sorry." Kingsley said, his voice soft.
"What happened?" I asked, feeling Theo's hot tears fall and hit my shoulder.
"We found him on the river bank of the Thames, Ar." Harry said. "They will perform an autopsy on him, and then we will leave him to you to make the funeral arrangements."
"Find him, Harry. Find the bastard who did this to my little boy." I said, my voice cold. Harry met my green eyes with his own.
"I will. I promise you Aria. I will find who did this to your son and my nephew." Harry promised. "I will make sure that they get their due."
"Thank you." I said, before Theo and I left the room. When we arrived home, Astoria took one look at my face and knew.
"No." She said, her hands raising to her mouth in horror. "Please tell me."
"I'm sorry, Tor." I said. I felt oddly numb. Theo had put his stoic mask up once again.
"Oh Merlin." She gasped. "What can I do?"
"Nothing." I said, feeling as though I was walking and talking through water. "Nothing."
"She looks like she's about to faint." Astoria said, watching me with a frown on her face.
"Pale . . . Eo. Catch her!" I felt my body begin to fall as I lost consciousness and the black spots multiplied over my eyes. I felt a pair of strong arms catch me, before I lost all feeling and hearing.
"Stress. It's too much." I could hear voices say.
"I know. But what can we do?" Theo said. I opened my eyes and looked. My husband was standing with Draco and Harry in the doorway.
"I don't know. And her being pregnant." Draco said. Harry looked shocked.
"She's pregnant?" He looked flabbergasted. "No one told me?"
"Harry, when have I had the time to tell you?" I asked tiredly, sitting upright. The three men all looked chastened at my sentence as well as the fact that I was actually awake.
"Sis, are you alright?" Harry asked me, walking over towards the bed. I swung my legs over the edge, and felt the chill on my bare legs.
"How can I be alright?" I asked, my eyesight blurring with tears. "Jason is dead. We had to identify his body! By a bleeding scar, because he was so unrecognizable. How alright do you think I actually am?" I was shouting by the time I was done.
"Aria." Theo said, with a warning tone to his voice. I just rolled my eyes at my husband before I stood up.
"Have they found the person responsible Harry?" I asked my brother.
"No. There wasn't any trace of magic on his body, Aria." Harry stated. I nodded.
"How did my baby die?" I asked, turning to face the window.
"Sis, I don't think - "
"How did he die Harry? Or do I need to go and get Kingsley to give me a copy of the report?" I turned to give my brother, ice cold eyes. He shook his head miserably.
"He was strangled, Aria. After he was beaten with what appeared to be a metal pipe. His whole facial structure was crushed, which is why you couldn't identify him with his face." Harry explained. I closed my eyes, in pain for what my little boy had to go through. "Then they dumped his body in the Thames where he lay for several days, before being dumped on that bank until today."
"Theo." I whimpered. Theo immediately pulled me into his embrace.
"Harry." He warned, but that was it. I could almost feel my brother protest at the warning, but he said nothing at all.
"Why wasn't it me?" I whispered into his broad shoulder. Theo clutched me tighter around my waist.
"We'll be going." Draco said, not hearing my comment, but wanting to give us privacy.
"Yeah. Call me if you need anything. I mean anything at all." Harry agreed. "I'll be back in the morning, love."
"Astoria put Allure in her room." Draco said, before he closed the bedroom door. I heard them walk down the stairs and then moments later the front door slammed.
"How dare you say such a thing!" Theo said, pulling away from me. "How dare you wish that you had died!"
"Theo, I just – He must have been so scared!" I sobbed. Theo sobbed as well, we both buried our faces in each other's shoulders and held each other tightly.
"I know, love. But please don't ever wish that you died. I don't know if I could have handled that." Theo admitted, pulling back from me. I nodded, feeling exhausted. Theo led me over to the bed, where we cuddled underneath the covers.
Theo held me tightly, while I rested my head on his chest. He could feel the tears trailing down my face and nestling into his shirt. My eyes felt hot and swollen, my nose was so full, and my whole body was wracking with the sobs. I was sniffling and choking on the tears when our bedroom door opened just a crack.
"Mummy? Daddy?" I looked up to see my four year old daughter peeking into our room.
"Allure." I said, not making any motion to sit upright.
"Can I sweep with you t'nigh?" She asked, sticking her finger in her mouth. I nodded and opened the bedding on my side of the bed. She scrambled into the bed and I wrapped an arm around her, while Theo wrapped an arm around the both of us.
"Love you, baby," I said, pressing a kiss to her fine hair. She rolled over.
"Loves you too. Jason saids he loves you forever." She said quite simply before falling asleep quickly. Theo and I exchanged looks, incredulously. Was there some way that she had a dream in which Jason had manifested? Was it possible that we had some type of seer blood in our family?
"I love you too Jason," I murmured. Theo tightened his hold on the three of us.
"I love you as well Jason. I'm proud of you." He muttered, burying his head in the top of mine. I felt a couple of tears trail down my head, over my forehead until they reached the pillow beneath us.
Even though I knew that our pain was too raw to even contemplate beginning to heal, I knew that one day we would be able to heal. Maybe Theo and I would continue to be too protective over our family, especially Allure and our future Nott. However, we would always make sure that we remember our son, Jason, as well as tell our children the best memories we have about him.