"Are you done with your fruit or are you just going to keep playing with it?" Draco's voiced drawled breaking the silence in the breakfast room that morning. He had been sitting at the head of the table, hiding behind the morning paper under the false pretense that he was reading the morning dribble. To anyone besides the other occupant in the room, normal visitors to his London town home, such as his mother, Astoria or Potter, would have called him out on his bullshit, but since not one of the three were currently present, he was able to avoid eye contact of the bright green eyes blaring into his skull.
It was unnerving how much her eyes reminded Draco of her fathers.
He folded the newspaper pages down at the corner to gaze at the child, who now had her green eyes trained on the Malfoy heir. This had been a start of a routine for the pair. Draco would start each morning raising with the sun, do his normal personal grooming, work for an hour and then go wake the slumbering child. She was a late sleeper, Harry always said that if he allowed it Eilley would sleep the day away. He and typically pajama clad child would make the walk to the breakfast room and have a silent and peaceful breakfast. Breakfast would be a half hour affair until Eilley would get to the point she was pushing food around her plate, typically causing it to fall onto the floor or table. This would distract Draco and he would force himself to engage with the child.
But trying to engage with a child that was practically mute was a difficult thing to do. It was yet another phase, according to some child physiology specialist. Harry had reached out for all sorts of opinions and at this point, it was just another contending with difficulties mechanism Eilley was going through to deal with the change.
Eilley was staying with Draco for the time being, that is how he explained it to friends and family as if there was no end in sight, and he was the only person the child had left in the world. But truly Eilley was spending a few days at Draco's house because he was the only out of the few in Harry's trusted circle that was able to keep her at his house for the entire time Harry was gone on a business trip. He was also the last one Harry approached, but since Astoria was busy working two of the four days, and Narcissa was traveling to France at the end of the week, and the Weasley's were a sensitive subject, Harry turned to his mate for a favor.
"Look, I will only be gone for a few days. Four tops, and Doctor Rassamus said that keeping her in a stable setting, not much change would be best. She knows and loves you, and you are the only one that could keep her for the entire time without needing assistance from daycare." Harry said trying to persuade his friend to take Eilley for the time.
Draco had been skeptical the first time Harry had posed his request, shaking his head, "Harry, Eilley hates me."
"Draco she is only three, she has no idea what hate is." Harry said letting out a frustrated breath.
"Have you ever seen her say three words to me?" Draco asked.
"No, but since she is going through her phase, that will be perfectly okay." Harry said with his finger to his chin as he thought about his daughter and her godfather's lack of relationship. "This might be good for you. To carve out a relationship with your god-daughter."
"Potter, the only carving that will happen is Eilley will do to my patience and growing dislike for me." Draco muttered.
It was not that Draco had any ill will towards the child of three, no he had ill will towards all children in general. Especially the ones younger in age. He didn't understand how to cope with their lack of verbal skills and inability to express their needs through means sans crying. It was nerve racking trying to level with a child, let alone trying to interpret what their wants and desires were. But that was all good because Draco Malfoy was the consummate bachelor-er, man of relationship leisure with no child-like baggage.
His relationship with Astoria was confounding on any level. She spent nearly eighty percent of the week sleeping in his master bedroom, had about thirty percent of her personal belongings in his closet and had her post forwarded to his house. Yet they had no official title, and the idea of marriage made Draco's throat constrict. The level of maturity and idea of putting another person before himself was a foreign idea he had no desire to learn.
So taking Eilley for the week was a big step in the growing up department for Draco. He did, of course, have help from Astoria, Narcissa and the friendly Mrs. Butter but it was sparingly. The first day, he had done as much as he could think of, he dragged the child to three amusement parks, and a zoo, he had stuffed her full of sugar and junk food to the point of her booting the contents of her stomach down his back when he was carrying her home from the last park. The slimy residue still caused him to shiver when thinking of the feeling.
After a severe scolding from his mother and Astoria, he promised to lazy second day, but the silence was maddening. So plugged in the muggle television contraption and spent the entire morning watching cartoons and children's programs until Astoria got home and saw what his plan was, she let out a bit of shriek when she saw Eilley was still wearing her pajamas, and had yet to be bathed. Astoria took control of the rest of the day.
Now Astoria was at work, his mother was in France and Mrs. Butters was visiting her sister up north, and Draco was in a eye standoff with a three year old that had grape jelly smeared across half of her face mixed with break crumbs, egg bits and pieces of watermelon.
"Well Doll what would you like to accomplish today?" Draco asked setting the paper down and Eilley put her hands up to her face resting her elbows on the table and responded to his question with a stare.
"I think we should cut off all your hair." Draco supplied an answer to his question. Her eyes widened but only by a fraction of a sliver. "You know a nice bowl cut, I could completely manage it."
Draco reached forward and tipped a bowl containing various pieces of fruit onto the table. This caused apples, oranges and bananas to roll to various points of the table top, and Draco held it out to Eilley. The child took the menacing flatware and looked at it disdainfully, letting it drop to the floor. Draco chuckled and stood up from the table and picked up the kid.
"Okay Miss Potter, lets go get your presentable for the day." Draco said and then muttered to himself, "Seems its a big deal to your Auntie Astoria."
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It was later that afternoon, and all was silent on the main floor of the townhouse. Draco had put Eilley down for a nap after a pretty normal morning, they had walked to the park, and Draco watched on as she interacted with kids her own age, silently but still played with others on the playground and digging in the sand. After a quick bite to eat at the hotdog vendor, they returned back to the house for her favorite afternoon program during which Eilley fell asleep.
He was working in his study when he got a bit restless. Her afternoon nap was typically a short affair, depending on the amount of endurance of the morning, but it had been a good three hours. Harry had warned him to not let her over-sleep in the afternoon because then she was a right mess the rest of the night. So he quickly trotted up to the second floor east wing, where all the guest rooms were located, and he quietly opened the door to the converted child's room.
It was empty.
"Shit." He muttered and rushed about the rooms remaining on the floor. All were standing empty, no child in sight. He moved hastily back down the stairs in search of the miscreant.
"Bloody hell, is shit like this I warned everyone about." Draco snapped as he walked from the dinning room to the living room. It was there he heard the audible gasp and he knew he had found the child.
Hiding beneath the grand piano. Her legs sticking out from below was the give away. "Eilley, come out doll." He said trying to engage the child to come from her hiding spot. He saw the shake of her body and he took it as her declining his request. He sat down besides the piano and surveyed the room.
Sitting right next to the couch was a bowl, a pair of scissors and a shock of black hair.
"Blood hell." Draco whispered. He gently tugged on Eilley's foot dislodging her from the space and pulled her into the sunlight. About three quarters of her long hair was cut at odd lengths. The best way to describe it was as if a weed whacker had gotten a hold of her hair. "Doll, what did you do?"
He reached forward and touched her hair, and she shied away from his touch and large tears began rolling down her face. 'Oh bloody wonderful' Draco sighed he reached his arms out for the girl but she look at the blond her eyes shinning with tears and distrust. "Eilley, come on, be a good girl. Come to Uncle Draco and we will sort this out."
"NO." Eilley screamed the moment he reached to pick her up and Draco fell back. She dove back underneath the piano, and Draco brought his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Eilley, if you come out, we will go to the toy store and you can pick out anything you want. But Doll you must come out from the piano, so we can fix your hair." His offer was met with silence.
Oh bloody hell.
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Draco was pacing about the emergency ward of St. Mungos. He had made it past the first round of wards a place call triage. The battle ax of a Healer's assistant was skeptical about the emergency aspect of the little girl in Draco's arms, but after enough name throwing, he was able to enter the emergency ward.
Now he was impatiently waiting for Astoria to make her presence, after paging her two times and prompting the nurse to reach out for the third time he heard his name being called.
"Draco Malfoy, what are you doing here?" It was a voice he had not heard in possibly a decade. Standing behind him, covered in paisley pink robes stood Pansy Parkinson. Her blonde hair was pulled into a tight bun, her face was covered in make-up and her eyes were trained directly on Draco. The last he had heard any news about Pansy Parkinson was that she married an older pureblood wizard with a vault full of money. Then about three years after their nuptials, the wizard passed away in his sleep.
Pansy had conveniently been vacationing in Majorca at the time of his untimely expirations, but no one raised a hair at foul play. Since his passing, Pansy had the capital to afford the lifestyle she had wanted and became accustomed to, and now was the ultimate social light trouncing about the pages of the social rags and magazine covers.
"Um Pansy." Draco toned not particularly excited to see his old classmate. Especially one that had tried to drug him into marriage the last time he was in the same room as her. It was a long night, a mix of potions and compromising positions. None was which happened to Draco, just Pansy.
"The last wizard I thought I would be bumping into today would be you." Pansy smiled and glanced at the child in his arms. Her eyes travelled to his fingers, and noticed no ring. "And you catch me in such a disarray."
"You look quite well put together Pansy." Draco replied falling into her trap. He knew if he had not given her a compliment it would be improper and he didn't need her to have that to hold over his head.
"Ahh such a charmer, Draco you were always a doll." Pansy laughed and reached forward to touch his shoulder. "Who is this little angel?"
"Um, Eilley." Draco said, focusing on the finger nails that trailed down his arm. He refrained from shivering from disgust. "My goddaughter."
"She is a adorable." Pansy said. "Eilley my name is Pansy." Eilley who turned her eyes to observe the witch that just mentioned her name. Her green eyes penetrating the tall blonde but Eilley's face remained like stone.
"Yuck." Eilley finally spoke.
Draco had to do everything in his power to stop from laughing in Pansy's face. "Sorry Pans- Eilley has had a rough morning."
"Oh that's alright." Pansy's voice was acidic. "Draco lets get together sometime!" Pansy smiled at Draco, glared at Eilley, and moved past the pair and out the door.
"Malfoy!" He turned on the spot and saw Astoria standing in the middle of the ward with her hair pulled back and dark blue healer scrubs with prancing unicorns. She spent the majority of her time on the pediatrics ward, an explanation for the theme on her scrubs.
"Bloody hell." He muttered and after hearing Eilley giggle. "Shit, I mean shoot, sorry Eilley, Uncle Draco will take you to the toy store after this and buy you a new toy."
He walked over to his girlfriend who was watching him suspiciously from the nurses station. "Hi Doll." He said with a handsome grin on his face. Her face showed no emotion to the normal observer, but since Draco had been seeing the Greengass gal for quite some time, and he knew how to read her moods. Her eyes were a bit wider then normal, and she would flare her nose every fifth or sixth breath. These were the telltale signs that she was either angry or jealous. Most of the time it was when she was angry.
"What do you want Malfoy?" Astoria asked tucking the errant curl around her ear. This was another sign to show she was mad, avoiding eye contact and fidgeting with her hair. That and she was avoiding the use of his first name.
"We have an emergency." Draco said. He shifted Eilley in his arms and turned the girl so Astoria could look at the girl straight on. It took a moment for Astoria to look up from the chart and looked at Eilley. Her eyes moved about the little girls face.
"She seems fine." Astoria said holding her arms out to Eilley who fell into her embrace. Eilley was a sucker to snuggle.
"Fine, did you see her hair?" Draco said tufting the girl's hair.
"Yeah," She kissed Eilley on the forehead.
"What took you so long to get down here?" Draco asked.
"It's Eilley's hair. She will be fine, it will grow out in time. Go take her to a salon." Astoria said still not looking into Draco's eyes. "Nurse Hallie explained what your big problem was, and I was busy at the moment."
"So it was the nurse." Draco glared in the nurse's direction.
"You will not do anything to effect her job status here Draco." Astoria snapped cutting off his brain and the idea that was percolating within. "She is a fabulous asset to St. Mungos and besides you don't have that much clout. Well maybe if you are sleeping with someone on the board, the Parkinson whore could get it done."
"Sleeping with the board?" Draco held his arms out to Eilley once more. The two exchanged the child. "Are you jealous Astoria?"
"Get out of here Draco." She sighed and walked away. But she got only three steps before hearing.
"Doll you know you are the only witch I am banging." He said it loud enough for everyone within the vicinity could hear. A few giggled, a couple coughed and the nurses were blushing, although Nurse Hallie was glaring in his direction.
Astoria just continued to walk away.
"Come on Eilley, lets go get you a toy." Draco said and side apparated away to his favorite toy store on the Alley.
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Potter, just sending you a quick correspondence, hope your business travels are getting along well. All is alright here, Eilley finally said something to me today. She had quite the determined voice when she speaks. But that is not the point of this owl, I wanted to know if you know the side effects of a hair growing potion has on a kid, or is it safe to use one at all. There is nothing in my potions book that says otherwise. But if not, how attached were you to Eilley's hair?
Draco