Title: The Perfect Mother
Author: slytherin-nette
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters you recognize from the HP books in this story. All I own is the plot. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. She rocks.
Pairings: DM/femHP, GrM/?, GbM/?, HM/?
A/N: I honestly had so much fun writing this chapter so I hope you guys enjoy reading it too. As a challenge, take a good look at these three little munchkins and try to predict the direction each one of them will take after a few more years. *GIGGLE* So enjoy the chapter, everyone! :D
Chapter 3 – Angel, Devil and Princess?
"Can we get a dog?"
"Dogs are unsanitary."
"Is that a no?"
"Yes, Garrett. That's a no."
"Then can we get a cat?"
"I don't like cats."
"How about a spider? Can we get a spider?"
"Garrett, why the bloody hell would you want a spider?"
"So I can scare Uncle Ron." Garrett declared in a matter-of-factly tone of voice.
"Huh."
In spite of himself, Draco actually entertained the idea for several seconds.
"So I can have a spider?"
"On second thought, no. Your little sister is afraid of spiders."
"But she's afraid of everything—"
"I said no, Garrett."
"Fine." Scowling in disappointment, Garrett scuffed his shoes against the floor a couple times before an idea crossed his mind again and he grinned, glancing back up at Draco and tugging insistently on his arm.
"Can we get a hippogriff?"
"Over my dead body!" Draco glared down at his innocently grinning expression, his gray eyes narrowing accusingly into tiny slits. "Those blasted creatures are nothing but dangerous, bloodthirsty beasts!"
"But Mom said hippogriffs are harmless and really gentle—"
"Your mother is Harry – bloody – Potter. She thinks all dangerous beasts are harmless and gentle!"
"…Can we still get one anyway?"
"No!"
"But Mom said—"
"A hippogriff once mauled my arm right off!"
"Did you get a new arm then?"
"Shush."
"How about a snake? Can I get a pet snake?"
"…"
"Father?"
"I'll think about it."
"But you always say that!"
Ignoring his son's insistent whining, Draco gritted his teeth in annoyance and tightened his grip on Garrett's wrist as he led the seven-year-old down the crowded lobby of the Ministry of Magic that morning. Somehow, they managed to step into the elevator situated at the farthest end of the lobby just before it closed, but Draco couldn't help but feel even more irritated when he saw that it was crowded with people.
As the doors closed and the magical elevator suddenly began twisting and turning in different directions, Garrett lifted his chin and glanced curiously at the other people around them. Unaware of his father's quelling glare, he stared up at the tall, uniformed wizard who was standing just a few feet behind him.
"Why are you dressed like that?" He asked bluntly, his bright green eyes wide as he inspected the man's distinct uniform. Shaking his head in exasperation, Draco was just about to reprimand his son for his rudeness when the uniformed man suddenly chuckled and he answered Garrett's question with a small grin.
"I'm a Patrolman from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. This is actually my uniform." He explained, causing Garrett's eyes to narrow in thought. Then, nodding once, he spoke again – causing the rest of the listening occupants in the cramped Ministry elevator to chuckle at his loud, impenitent tone of voice.
"What do you do as a Patrolman?" Garrett asked, giving the man a suspicious glare.
"Well—" As the elevators stopped at one floor to let a few of its occupants out, the uniformed man chuckled to himself again before answering Garrett's question. "—we make sure that all witches and wizards follow the law. We arrest those who don't and we punish them so that they don't break the law ever again."
"But what if the laws we have to follow are stupid?" Garrett arched an eyebrow and sneered in disbelief at his answer, giving him a challenging look. "How do you makes sure those wizards don't get away?"
"We use enchanted handcuffs." The patrolman explained, reaching into his robes and pulling out a gleaming pair of handcuffs. "These cuffs are special and they'll keep them from using any magic against us."
"Hey!" At the sight of the handcuffs, Garrett's green eyes widened with recognition.
He let out a gleeful smile before glancing up at his father and tugging pointedly at his hand.
"I know those! Father, don't you and Mommy have one of those handcuff thingees at home?" He exclaimed loudly, instantly causing the Patrolman – as well as every single person listening to their conversation – to raise an eyebrow and stare pointedly at the Head of the Malfoy Family standing in the middle of the elevator. For his part, Draco was struggling to keep a blank expression on his face despite his mortification. Faking a cough and pretending to busy himself with fixing his collar, Draco carefully averted his gaze so that the nosy people staring at him wouldn't notice the heavy crimson that stained his pale cheeks.
"You must be mistaken, Garrett." He drawled after a long moment of awkward silence.
"No, I'm not." Frowning, Garrett scowled and tugged impatiently on his arm again, pointing insistently at the handcuffs. "I saw a pair just like that hanging from your bedpost! It had leather too!" He pointed out.
"Garrett, hush." Draco tightened his grip warningly around his eldest son's wrist, feeling the flush on his cheeks darken with embarrassment when he saw the knowing smirks of the other people in the elevator.
"But I did see it—"
"I said that's enough, Garrett."
Scowling, Garrett yanked his hand away from his father's grip and crossed his arms over his chest.
As the elevator stopped at another floor and a few more people climbed out, Draco reluctantly lifted his gaze and accidentally caught the eye of the uni-browed, largely built female Auror who was standing beside him. When she gave him a rather suggestive wink and inched a bit closer against him, pressing against his side, Draco grimaced nervously when he suddenly realized that the woman was several inches taller than he was.
Not to mention the fact that she has more muscles than Crabbe and Goyle. Combined! She looks like she could easily rape me if she wanted to! As that thought crossed his mind, Draco broke out into a cold sweat.
Bloody hell how many more floors to the Unspeakable Department anyway?!
As more people climbed into the already cramped elevator, causing the uni-browed female Auror to inch even closer towards him, Draco stiffened when he suddenly felt a large hand crawling up his thigh. With wide, horrified gray eyes, Draco swallowed nervously and lifted his gaze again just in time to see the female Auror leering down at him as though he were a piece of meat. She leaned down to whisper right into his ear.
"I like it when a man likes to play rough." She purred seductively in a low, masculine voice.
Bloody hell…Just…No.
"U—uhm excuse me! Hold the doors please! I believe this is my floor!" As Draco spoke up loudly just before the elevator doors slid shut, he decided to ignore the way his voice ended up as a high-pitched squeak.
"But Father, isn't the Unspeakable Department still on the next—"
"We're getting out here, Garrett. Now!" Draco interrupted his son's confused protests and frantically shook his head. Ignoring the angry protests and complaints from the other occupants in the elevator, he jerked himself away from the large female Auror and began shoving his way as fast as humanely possible to the doors.
"Excuse me! Coming through! Move it! Get the bloody hell out of my way—"
Once they had managed to make it out of the elevator and only after Draco had seized his son's hand and began storming as fast as he could down the corridors towards the stairs did he realize that he was still shaking and that beads of utterly panicked sweat had formed above his brow. As they reached the stairs, Draco suddenly jumped in alarm when he heard a sharp ringing sound. In his disoriented state, it took the former Slytherin a few seconds before he actually realized that the sound was coming from his cellular phone.
Cursing under his breath, Draco searched through his robes for the muggle device.
"H—hello?" He squeaked in a slightly shrill voice into the receiver.
"'Co, Is that you?"
His wife's voice sounded worried on the other line.
"You sound a bit weird. Are you okay?"
"No, I am not okay!" Wheezing for breath, Draco tightened his grip around his smirking son's wrist as he began climbing the remaining flights of stairs towards the Unspeakables Department. "Did you know that – because of YOUR bloody son – I was almost taken advantage of inside one of those bloody Ministry elevators?!"
"What?!" Jaimee sounded both amused and incredulous at his words. "What happened—"
"I'll tell you what happened, Potter!" Draco growled back, his eyes narrowing when he saw the way Garrett was sniggering at his father's high-pitched screeching. "Because Garrett blurted out loud, in front of everyone inside the elevator – that we have handcuffs, this large, muscular Auror woman with a single eyebrow decides she wants to try and feel me up! And I am telling you, Potter, this woman had more bloody muscles than Crabbe and Goyle combined! She looked like she could overpower me – Potter, are you bloody laughing?!"
"I—I can't help it!" Jaimee gasped out, trying to answer him through her hysterical giggling. "I think I know who you're talking about! Tall, very big-boned woman, a bit masculine looking, one thick eyebrow—"
"YES!"
"Merlin's Beard!" Jaimee giggled again, oblivious of the murderous scowl that was forming on her husband's face. "That's Syd. I got the chance to work with her during my first year at the Ministry. She's nice but if I remember correctly, she has this really freaky S&M addiction or something when it comes to sex—"
"She tried to molest me, Potter!" Draco screeched, practically hyperventilating.
"Draco, calm down. I hardly think she could do that in a crowded elevator—"
"She was staring at me like I was her next bloody meal or something! It was terrifying!" Draco blurted out, his voice growing ridiculously shrill again. "I feel completely…violated! And disrespected! And objectified!"
"Oh really? Try being a woman." Jaimee drawled back in a sarcastic voice. "Then we'll talk, Malfoy."
"Potter, I'm serious! I was absolutely disturbed back there! I think I have PTSD now!" Draco growled as he and Garrett finally stopped their ascent up the stairs and pushed through the doors back into the building.
"Aren't you even worried or concerned that your husband was almost molested by a scary woman?!"
"Aw…Poor baby." Jaimee cooed obligingly, the exaggeratedly feminine tone of her voice instantly dispelling Draco's mortification and causing the former Slytherin's lips to twitch into a small, reluctant smirk.
"I'm sorry for laughing at you. Now why don't you tell me what I can do to make you feel all better." She teased, still using that overly feminine, sultry voice of hers that she knew would drive him completely crazy.
"That's more like it." Draco grumbled under his breath, ignoring the way Garrett was scowling up at him and was trying to yank his phone away when he had recognized his mother's voice. "You can start by wearing that—" Pausing, Draco flicked his eyes cautiously at Garrett and wisely decided to choose his next few words very carefully. "—new dress I bought you. And you'd better be in character when I get home, Potter."
"That maid outfit?! Really?! Malfoy, I thought we agreed that Saturday is role-play night—"
"Well, I want one tonight anyway!" Draco huffed, his features creasing into a childish scowl. "That woman traumatized me, I feel emasculated! So I'm wearing both my crown and my Head Boy badge tonight!"
"But—"
"Tonight, Potter!"
Before his sputtering wife could utter another word in protest, Draco scowled and ended the call abruptly, shoving his phone back into his robe pockets. Then, ignoring the confused look on Garrett's face, Draco grumbled and tugged the seven-year-old towards the entrance leading to the Unspeakables Department.
"Gabriel! Why are you still in your pajamas? I have to get you to your art class is in fifteen minutes!"
Jaimee nearly stumbled as she froze in the middle of her panicked racing back and forth between the bedroom and the bathroom and gaped at the sight of her son sitting calmly on the edge of his parents' bed, staring up at her with his wide green eyes. To her further dismay, despite the fact that he could clearly see the way his mother was panicking – if her drenched, uncombed hair and the towel wrapped haphazardly around her slender frame was any indication – Gabriel just smiled back sweetly at her and answered her with a shrug.
"Don't you remember, Mom?" He asked, looking adorably confused at her frantic rushing.
"Huh? Remember what?!" Jaimee answered distractedly as she raced to her closet and began rifling through her clothes for something to wear. "Riel, sweetie you really have to get changed. After Mommy drops you off, I have to go meet your Aunt Hermione and Aunt Luna to go somewhere—" She cut herself off midsentence when she finally found the outfit she was looking for and began wrestling herself into her clothes.
"But I don't have art classes today, Mom." Gabriel told her, his aristocratic features creasing into a slight frown as he watched his mother digging through her closest for a pair of boots. "My art teacher, Mrs. Halliwell, is on vacation with her family so she said that she had to cancel art lessons today." He reminded her.
"Oh bugger, was that today?!" Harry finally stopped with all of her frantic rushing and jerked up in realization, accidentally hitting her head against the top drawer in her closet. "Ow! Bloody hell, that hurts—"
"So I don't have art lessons today!" Gabriel interrupted her cheerfully as he swung his feet a few times from where they dangled above the floor. "Can we stay in today, Mommy? We can spend the day together!"
"Oh no, sweetheart. I'm so sorry but we can't stay in today." At her younger son's words, Jaimee's pained grimace suddenly melted into a chastened look. After lacing up her boots and finally stepping back out of the closet, Harry sighed and walked over to where Gabriel was still sitting on the edge of their large bed. Then, kneeling down onto the carpeted floor in front of him, Harry bit her lip and stroked his disheveled hair.
"I'm really sorry love, but as much as I would love to stay in with you today, Mommy has to go to Hogwarts. To be honest Riel, I really did forget that you didn't have art lessons today." She admitted ruefully.
"Oh." Gabriel's shoulders slumped slightly in disappointment at that. Then, he frowned and stared back up at her in question. "Does that mean that you have to call a babysitter for me?" He asked her glumly.
"Well." Jaimee fell silent for a few minutes as she considered her options. "I suppose I should call a babysitter to watch you for a few hours…unless of course, you'd want to go with me but I doubt that you—"
"Really?!" Gabriel's eyes suddenly lit up at that and the frown melted away from his handsome face as he glanced up at her with a bright smile. "I can really go with you, Mommy?! Can I?! I want to see Hogwarts!"
"Of course you can, angel." Laughing at the infectious smile on Gabriel's face, Jaimee rolled her eyes in fond amusement. When Gabriel let out a cheer, however, and made to hop off the bed to race to his room, she stopped him when she reached out and gently took his hand in hers, forcing Gabriel to stop in his tracks.
"But Riel, I need you to listen carefully to me first, sweetie." Her voice took on a slightly more serious tone of voice at that and, when he noticed his mother's sudden shift of mood, Gabriel paused and nodded. When she was sure that she had his full attention, Jaimee sighed and continued. "You should know though that we're not visiting Hogwarts for fun today, okay? This is going to be a very different, special type of visit."
When the young Malfoy son looked confused at her words, Jaimee reluctantly explained further.
"There was a…very bad thing that happened today, love. You see, there were a few Death Eater copycats – some very bad wizards and witches." She clarified when she saw the confusion on her son's face. "They went on a rampage and just started randomly attacking a poor wizarding community outside London." Gabriel's eyes widened in horror at that and for a few seconds, Jaimee hesitated and tried to choose her next few words carefully so as not to frighten him. "Your Uncle Neville and the other Aurors were able to catch the bad men already, but a lot of people in that neighborhood still got hurt. And since there were so many of them, and St. Mungo's couldn't accommodate all, some of them were transferred to Hogwarts' Hospital Wing. Your Aunt Hermione and Aunt Luna are there right now, helping them out. I'm heading over there to help out too."
Jaimee paused again after she finished and took that moment to gauge her son's reaction, noting the genuine confusion that was marring the young Malfoy son's features. She sighed in dismay at that, worried that she might have actually frightened Gabriel in attempting to explain to him where she was going. And it wasn't like she could really blame Gabriel if he didn't understand either. Given how every Malfoy son was raised and nurtured in luxury his whole life, it wasn't like she could really expect him to understand such a situation.
"Do you still want to go with me, sweetheart? It's really okay if you don't." She asked him softly.
To her utter amazement, however, although Gabriel's green eyes had dimmed noticeably, he stared at his mother in understanding. When she glanced worriedly at him in question, he bit his lip and nodded at her.
"I still want to go with you, Mommy." He assured her in a quiet but certain voice.
"You got it, little angel." Harry gave him a small, proud smile and, after dropping a kiss onto his messy mop of platinum hair, ushered him towards the doors.
"Go and get dressed. We'll leave in fifteen minutes."
As soon as they had arrived at Hogwarts via the floo-connected fireplace in the Headmaster's Office, Harry clasped tightly onto Gabriel's hand and hurriedly led the seven-year-old down the familiar corridors of the school towards the Hospital Wing. Just as they happened to pass by the small courtyard outside the Hospital Wing, however, Gabriel looked up and caught sight of his childhood friend, Daniel Longbottom, playing a game of exploding snap with a few more kids their age that Gabriel didn't recognize. Before Jaimee could comment on it, however, Hermione Zabini was already calling her over to where she stood by the hospital wing entrance.
"Harry! You made it!" She rushed out, sounding exhausted, as she hurried over to them while balancing a tray of medicines and healing potions in her arms. "Neville and Luna are already helping Madam Pomfrey with the children, you can help with the elderly. Ron said that he's already on the way." She told her.
"Got it." Jaimee nodded and managed to give her a quick thumbs-up in affirmation before Hermione hurried off again, rushing over to an injured, elderly wizard calling to her from the corner of the room. As soon as the Zabini Mistress had gone, Jaimee turned to Gabriel and knelt down quickly to give him a reassuring smile.
"Mommy's just going to go help Aunt Hermione for awhile, okay? Why don't you go over there and play with Daniel and his other friends while waiting for me? They look like they're having fun." She suggested.
Gabriel cast a glance at Daniel and the other kids again, hesitating when he saw the way they had stopped playing Exploding Snap and were now chasing each other, laughing boisterously and shoving each other roughly around the muddy field. Biting his lip, Gabriel shook his head and gave his mother a worried look.
"Grandfather says that a Malfoy son should never act that raucously in public." Gabriel answered uncertainly, though Jaimee couldn't help but notice the wistful expression that lingered on Gabriel's young face as he watched the other kids playing in the field. At his answer, Jaimee just sighed in exasperated defeat.
"Very well then, Riel." Leading him over to a small bench, Jaimee sat her blonde son down before she leaned down and dropped a kiss onto his forehead. "Wait for me here, okay? I'll be just inside if you need me."
She waited until Gabriel nodded back at her in agreement before she gave him one last smile and took off, rushing inside the cramped hospital wing. As she left, she failed to notice the small, thoughtful frown that continued to linger on Gabriel's face as he stared after his mother's retreating back in contemplative silence.
As father and son turned the corner, Draco had just about lost himself in his self-induced musings of exactly all the things he could do to his wife that night when Garrett's voice broke him out of his thoughts.
"Father, why are we even here again?" He complained, trudging along behind him.
"I'm here to talk to your Uncle Byron. We're just going to drop by very quickly before we go back to my office." Draco explained as they entered the Unspeakables Department lobby. The new, timid-looking secretary seated at the front desk recognized Draco instantly and she began stammering in her nervousness.
"Oh good morning, Master Draco! U—uhm, I'm afraid Master Byron is just in a meeting with the Minister of Magic right now but he should be done in a few minutes. Would you mind waiting in the lobby?"
"I beg your pardon? Do you know who I am?" Draco sneered at her, looking visibly insulted at her words and he walked right around her as though she were a mere inanimate object. "I'm the Head of the Malfoy Family, I will not wait around in some lobby like a commoner! Now get the hell out of my way, peasant."
Without another word, he strode past her and began making his way to the Head Unspeakable's Office at the end of the room. As he walked past the offices of the other Unspeakable Agents, he noticed that several of them were glancing curiously at him in recognition and whispering quietly amongst themselves.
"Why couldn't I stay with Mom today?" Garrett whined loudly, scowling to himself.
"Your mother has to go somewhere this afternoon." Draco answered as he pushed through the doors of his cousin's office and, without any hesitation whatsoever, plopped himself onto the large seat behind Byron's desk. "Besides, shouldn't you be happy that you get to spend the day with your father for a change, Gar? There are a lot of things you can learn from me, you know." Smirking, Draco leaned against the backrest of Byron's chair, propped his expensive leather shoes up onto the table and crossed one ankle over the other.
Grumbling under his breath, Garrett plopped down onto the seat across from him and wisely chose not to say anything. As he was too short for his shoes to touch the floor while he sat, Garrett leaned back against his seat and swung his legs impatiently from where they dangled from his chair. As Draco helped himself to reading the Daily Prophet laid out on Byron's table, Garrett began fidgeting in his seat in agitation.
"I'm bored."
"…"
"This is boring."
"…"
"I'm dying of boredom."
"…"
"I have an incurable disease called boredism."
"…"
"Father? Father! Fatheeeeer!" Growing tired of being ignored by the Malfoy Head, Garrett hopped off his chair, walked over behind the table to where Draco was seated and began kicking repeatedly at his chair with every single annoyingly spoken enunciation of 'Father' that issued from the young Malfoy son's mouth.
"Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father—"
"WHAT?!"
Draco finally set down the newspaper he was reading and glared down at him.
"For Merlin's sake, Garrett! Can I get a moment of silence from you for just five bloody seconds?!"
"…"
"Well?!"
"That was five seconds." Garrett pointed out smugly.
"Why you arrogant little—"
"I'm a Malfoy! I don't want to wait in the lobby—Draco! What are you two doing here?!"
A cheerful female voice suddenly broke the rest of Draco's creatively worded tirade, causing both him and Garrett to look up just in time to see Lorraine Weasley walking into the large office, completely ignoring the poor, panicking secretary who was trailing right behind her and trying to protest her intrusion. At the sight of the two Malfoys staring back at her in surprise, however, the female half-veela rolled her eyes. Pointedly slamming the doors shut in the secretary's' face outside the office, she walked over to greet them properly.
"Raine. What are you doing here?" Draco asked in confusion as she set the basket of cookies she was carrying onto Byron's desk and leaned down so she could give her older cousin a customary peck on the cheek.
"Ron forgot his lunch this morning so I came to drop it off in his office. And while I was already here anyway, I wanted to visit Byron. What are you two doing here?" Lorraine asked curiously as she leaned down and also rewarded Garrett with a kiss on his cheek. The seven-year-old made a face at this but he obliged by scowling to himself again and plopping back down onto his seat, crossing his arms across his chest. Rolling his eyes at his son's behavior, Draco sighed and leaned back against his seat as Lorraine sat down beside Garrett.
"I was going to ask Byron about something. But while we're at it, maybe you could help me out too, Raine." When he saw that he had his cousin's full attention, Draco cast a wary glance at his firstborn son again before he continued. "Did you or the Weasel – er – I mean—" He managed a nervous laugh when he saw the way Lorraine's features morphed into hostile form. "—Weasley,I mean. Er, did you two ever have trouble—"
He was interrupted when they both heard a set of arguing voices outside the office.
"—Sir, I really must protest against this intrusion! I'm just doing my job—"
"Did you not hear me the first time? I'm a Malfoy, I don't just wait around in lobbies! Now get out of my way! I'll wait in here – Lorraine? Draco?" As the doors to Byron's office swung open again, Anton Malfoy's handsome, smirking face suddenly popped into the room, causing both Lorraine and Draco to blink up at him.
"What are you two doing here?" The male half-veela drawled, winking at the thoroughly exasperated secretary behind him as he ignored her protests and strode into the office, slamming the doors in her face.
Outside, they heard her barely muffled scream of frustration – along with a mixture of interesting swears intermingled with the words 'bloody Malfoys', and 'arrogant blond pricks'. Smirking at each other, Draco, Lorraine and Anton just shrugged and went back to their conversation. However, just when it looked as though the secretary was going to try one last time to shoo them out, Garrett smirked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a fake, rubber spider. Then, walking over to stand directly in front of the doors, he waited until the secretary attempted to enter the room again – and at the very right moment, when the secretary had peered into the room, Garrett tossed the rubber spider directly at her face, causing her to let out a shrill scream.
As she jerked away, she inadvertently ended up bumping into the person approaching from behind.
Rifling distractedly through the thick reports and confidential mission requests in his hands, Byron Malfoy failed to notice the look of sheer terror on his secretary's face as he strode past her to enter his office.
"Penny, what did I tell you about letting uninvited guests into my office—"
"Arghhhhhhhh!"
"Wh—what?" As an enraged scream reverberated throughout the entire Unspeakables Department, Byron accidentally dropped all of the papers he was holding in his hand and glanced up, gaping at the sight of his hysterically sobbing secretary storming out of his office and shoving past him, running back to her desk.
"Penny? What in Merlin's name is the matter—"
"YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY INTOLERABLE, MASTER BYRON! AND IT MUST RUN IN THE FAMILY BECAUSE YOUR WHOLE FAMILY IS INTOLERABLE! EVEN YOUR HUSBAND IS INTOLERABLE! AND I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" She screamed at him, ignoring Byron's utterly flabbergasted expression as she began dumping all of the things on her desk into her bag. Then, before Byron could utter another word in protest, she stalked back over to him and, with a contemptuous glare on her face, she slapped the stunned Head Unspeakable right across the face.
"I QUIT!"
As he continued to gape uselessly at his now ex-secretary's retreating back, completely bewildered as to why she suddenly decided to up and leave her job after only three months, Byron couldn't help but redden under all the amused smirks and stares he was receiving from his entire department. In particular, when he saw the way Spencer Addison was laughing at him, Byron's eyes narrowed and he leveled the other Unspeakable Agents with a murderous glare that was reminiscent of his husband's. Fortunately, the "Vincent Ashford" glare seemed to work and within a few seconds, everyone – including Spencer – coughed and went back to work.
As he strode back into his office, however, Byron eventually figured out exactly what it was that had caused Penny to quit so abruptly when he came upon the sight of three – or make that, three and a half – smug-looking Malfoys waiting for him in his office, all of which were wearing such perfectly innocent smiles on their pale, aristocratic faces that Byron's eyes narrowed suspiciously and he glared back at each one of them in turn.
"Alright. Which one of you did it?" He asked bluntly, shutting the his office door behind him.
"Did what?" Lorraine asked sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes innocently back at him.
Then, trying to change the subject, she shot up from her seat and handed Byron a large basket of cookies. "Oooh, look I brought you some cookies, Byron! I baked these myself this morning!" She declared.
"Out with it." Byron accepted the basket of cookies from Lorraine but he refused to be deterred as he narrowed his eyes and subjected all three of his cousins with another knowing glare. When neither of them cracked, however, Byron shifted his glare to Garrett instead. To his exasperation, the seven-year-old Malfoy son, who was pretty much a miniature version of his father, just smirked back haughtily at him and shrugged.
"We didn't do anything." Anton drawled pointedly as he settled back against his seat and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing one ankle over another. "That idiotic secretary was incompetent anyway. I'd say we did you a favor. Now you can hire a new one." He added, causing Byron's left eye to twitch in irritation as he walked over to the high-backed chair behind his desk and glared down pointedly at Draco in impatience.
He cleared his throat, causing his older cousin to look up and answer him with a smirk.
"Yes?" Draco grinned back smugly and arched an eyebrow at him.
Byron matched his look easily and narrowed his eyes at him.
"Get out of my chair, Draco."
"You can't take that tone with me! Did you forget that I'm the Head of this family?" Draco huffed back, scowling and stubbornly settling himself even further into the chair. "I'm also older than you so you can't—"
"Well this is my office, so get the hell out of my chair." Byron growled back warningly.
"Aren't we touchy?" Draco scowled back at him but obliged, grumbling and rolling his eyes as he stood up and walked around the desk to sit down between Garrett and Lorraine. Sighing in defeat at their unexpected intrusion, Byron finally sat down behind his desk and he leveled them with an exasperated look.
"You know, as much as I enjoythese lovely family visits from my favorite cousins – and I do—"
Byron's lips twitched with mirth when Draco rolled his eyes and Anton snorted at his words. "—I have a lot of work to do. Not only do I have an undercover assignment later but I apparently have to find a new secretary too so, busy day ahead. In the interest of time, why don't you all tell me what you want?" He quipped.
"Oh Byron." Lorraine laughed at his words and stood up, walking over to him and giving the dark-haired Malfoy a warm hug. "I actually really did just want to visit you, you know. I haven't seen you around in the Manor for weeks. You're always so busy with all these missions all the time that you hardly every get to visit." She told him and in spite of himself, Byron gave her a sheepish smile and hugged her back in apology.
"I know. I'm really sorry, Raine. I'll make it up to you, I promise. Things have just been really crazy lately with this series of undercover political assignments that I've been overseeing." He winced and shook his head. "I'm not allowed to go into the details exactly but there's this one politically volatile country right now that we're monitoring closely and until we're at least assured that no civil war is suddenly going to erupt—"
"Would you be referring to the Kingdom of Yashka?" Anton interrupted him with a smirk.
"What? How did know about — I mean, no! That's not it!" Byron colored at his words and shook his head hastily but Anton just chuckled and shrugged, reaching out to play idly with the trinkets on Byron's desk.
"Relax, By. I don't know anything about your mission. I'm a diplomat, of course I'd know about turmoil in other countries." Anton told him, looking amused at Byron's panicked expression. "It's a small, peaceful country with a lot of beautiful women but I'm afraid, I don't agree with their political customs." He drawled.
"You wouldn't." Lorraine quipped at Anton, rolling her eyes at her twin brother. "Well, I think it's a beautiful country. If their political system values strong women leaders, then good for them." She told them.
"You mean the fact that they distrust men and allow only women to run for government? Isn't Yashka that small kingdom that only allows a female monarch to sit on the throne?" Draco asked, rolling his eyes in annoyance and grabbing the rubber spider that Garrett was tossing up and down before putting the toy away.
"You all do realize that I never said anything about the missions involving Yashka, right? Ugh, I can't believe you'd make that connection right away." Byron groaned to himself, covering his face with his hands.
Smirking, Draco looked as though he was just about to comment when Garrett suddenly jumped down from his chair and turned to glare up at his father, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling up at him.
"I'm boooooooored!" He complained loudly.
"Garrett." Clenching his jaw, Draco ignored his cousins' amused smirks and turned to give his son a calm, quelling glare. "If you're so bored, why don't you entertain yourself with that new snitch I bought you?"
"I broke it."
"What?! We just bought that yesterday, why did you break it?!"
As he watched Draco and Garrett's little exchange, Byron couldn't help the amused smirk on his face as he thought about how Garrett reminded him so much of exactly how utterly obnoxious Draco used to be at that age. No doubt, from the similar smirks of amusement on Lorraine and Anton's faces, Byron could tell that they were thinking the exact same thing. After all, all three of them had experienced firsthand exactly how horrible Draco was as a child – and each one of them had their own personal share of memories to prove it.
At Draco's words, Garrett let out an exasperated sigh and glared up at him as though he was stupid.
"Because I got bored? Honestly, Father! Were you not listening?! That's called neglectful parenting!" Garrett enunciated in a loud, sing-song voice – as though he was purposely trying to agitate the Malfoy Head.
"Garrett."
Draco growled in a low voice, his gray eyes flashing at his eldest son in warning.
"Quit being such a smart ass."
"Uh-oh. You said the A Word, Father!" Garrett's emerald green eyes went exaggeratingly wide at that and he pretended to cover his mouth with both of his hands as he stepped back from his father in shock. "That's called neglectful parenting and being a bad influence! My teacher said I can report you to the school!"
"Garrett?" Pointedly ignoring the way his three cousins were sniggering at him, Draco's eyes narrowed very slowly and very dangerously as he leveled his unrepentant, smirking eldest son with a warning glare.
Completely undaunted by his father's frightening expression, Garrett smirked back up at him.
"Yes, Father?"
"How about I make you a deal?" Apparently, Draco had said the magic words because Garrett perked up instantly and he straightened, his green eyes bright with curiosity. Finally realizing that he had his son's full attention, Draco smirked and leaned down, offering younger Malfoy his hand. "If you promise to go outside and wait for me, I'll buy you that newly released broomstick in Diagon Alley. How about it, Gar?" He offered.
Garrett frowned in thought as he considered the terms of Draco's offer for several seconds.
Finally, after a few moments, Garrett shook his head and gave his father a pointed look.
"I wait outside for thirty minutes only. But I also want that matching Quidditch Set." He challenged.
"Deal." Draco smirked.
They shook on it before Garrett nodded his assent and, hopping down from his chair, he began making his way out of the room. Just before he reached the doors, however, he frowned and turned back around.
"But…what am I supposed to do outside?" He asked his father in confusion.
"I don't know. Surprise me." Draco shrugged and waved him away. "Go and hex someone."
"But Fatheeeeeer." Garrett whined at that and let out an overly dramatic sigh of exasperation. "I'm not even allowed to use magic yet! I'm only seven you know." He drawled flatly, scowling and shaking his head.
Draco rolled his eyes and reached into the pocket of his robes, grabbing his wand and tossing it at him.
"Here. Use mine. Knock yourself out."
Catching the wand expertly in his hand, Garrett grinned to himself and was just about to run out of the room when Lorraine suddenly called out cheerfully to him, causing the Malfoy son to glance at her in question.
"Oh Garrett, sweetie! While you're outside, you might want some of the cookies I baked. Here, go ahead and grab some. You don't mind do you, Byron?" Lorraine glanced at the metamorphagus in question.
Fully aware of exactly how horrible Lorraine's baking was, even as much as everyone tried to pretend otherwise, Byron managed to give Lorraine a forced smile and nodded, gesturing for Garrett to take the basket.
"Sure. Help yourself, Garrett." He offered, laughing nervously.
As Lorraine offered the basket of cookies to him, Garrett suddenly froze for a few seconds in thought. Eventually, when he eventually looked up, Byron couldn't help but notice the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
"Can I take the whole basket?!" Garrett asked, looking up and flashing Lorraine an angelic smile.
"Oh—well of course you can, sweetie! That is, if your Uncle Byron won't mind—" Lorraine glanced questioningly at Byron again but Byron shook his head and, stifling a grin of relief, nodded hastily at Garrett.
"By all means, you can have them all if you like, Gar!" Byron chirped cheerfully.
"Yay, great! Thanks Aunt Lorraine!" Garrett grinned back at them before he seized the entire basket of cookies in his arms and strode quickly out of the room, leaving the three adults staring after him in amusement.
As soon as he was gone, Anton whistled to himself and shook his head in amazement. He turned to Draco and smirked at him. "I do not pity you when you have to deal with Garrett all hyped up on sugar later."
"That was strange, actually." Draco thought out loud, his features creased into a frown. "Garrett's not usually fond of sweets or pastries. I wonder why he took off with that entire basket of cookies like that—"
"Well, obviously, he likes my baking! Isn't that reason enough?! All of you like all the stuff that I bake too, right?" Lorraine admonished, causing Draco, Anton and Byron to suddenly stare very intently at the floor.
In an attempt to divert Lorraine's attention away from them, Byron finally turned to stare pointedly at Draco, arching a single eyebrow at the rather sheepish expression that lingered on the Malfoy Head's face.
"Draco,if you're not even going to watch your son, why did you bring him with you in the first place?"
"Shush. Keep it down, will you?! He might hear!" Draco's eyes widened in alarm and he glared at Byron for a few seconds before glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Garrett was already out of the room.
"Are you afraid of your own son or something?" Anton asked bluntly, snorting in amusement.
"I'm not afraid! It's just that—" Draco grumbled and lowered his voice into a whisper so that Byron had to lean across the table to hear him. "—I really did offer to watch Garrett today. Otherwise, Harry was going to take him with her and Merlin knows how clingy that kid's been with his mother lately." He admitted.
Byron, Anton and Lorraine all stared blankly at him.
"So?" Anton asked again, raising an eyebrow.
Wincing under his cousin's stares, Draco reddened and slinked down into his seat in embarrassment.
"I'm just trying to get Garrett to spend some time…apart…from Harry to distance him. You know, since he's been spending so much time with her he's gotten quite possessive and—why are you all laughing?!"
"I—I can't help it!" Byron burst out into laughter at Draco's words, clutching onto his sides. "Merlin's Beard, Draco…You're jealous of a seven-year-old! You're jealous of your own son even! This is just priceless!" He blurted out, laughing even harder at the embarrassed blush that darkened the Malfoy Head's pale cheeks.
"I'm not jealous! I told Harry that I wanted to show Garrett around MMC today so that she—"
"So you lied to your wife?" Lorraine asked him, her eyes narrowed as she glared at Draco in accusation.
"Technically, I didn't lie. I just omitted information!" Draco retorted, rolling his eyes.
"That is the very definition of lying." Anton pretended to look shocked and shook his head at him. "Shame, shame, shame on you, Draco." He smirked, causing Draco to flinch again and give him a dark glare.
"I didn't lie—"
"Liar." Byron interrupted him again with a cheeky, impenitent grin.
"And who are you, the truth police?!" Draco growled back, clenching his jaw in annoyance.
"Right." Byron snorted at that and leaned back against his chair, turning back to the thick stack of papers and reports on his desk. "How about Gabriel and Hailene? Where are those two other little munchkins?"
"Gabriel has art lessons that Harry's supposed to take him to this morning. And Mother already took Hailene to her ballet lessons. Since Garrett has no flying lessons today, he's stuck with me." Draco drawled.
"And you decided to visit me." Byron quipped, letting out an exaggerated sigh of exasperation. "Draco, how many times do I have to tell you that my office is not a consultation center? I am not your shrink!"
"Well, you're the only one in the family who actually took psychology!" Draco argued, scowling.
"It was one elective, Draco! And I can't even remember half the rubbish I learned from it, much less am I qualified to give you any advice! Honestly. If your son has a bloody Oedipus Complex, then why don't you—"
"A what?" Draco froze in shock and he stared at Byron, one of his eyes growing bigger than the other.
"Oh, a Mother Complex! I think I know what you're both talking about now!" Lorraine suddenly quipped in realization, giggling at the bewildered expression on Draco's face. "If it helps, Draco…Garrett will eventually grow out of it. I know because Chessie had something like a Father Complex on Ron." Smirking to herself at the memory, Lorraine's eyes warmed with laughter and she shook her head. "Until she was about nine years old, Chessie didn't want to let Ron out of her sight and it was almost like she even kept trying to compete with me for her father's attention. It was adorable, really." Lorraine mused to herself, still chuckling.
"It's not adorable at all, Raine! It's disturbing!" Draco blurted out as he shot up from his seat and glared at his laughing cousins as though they were crazy. "And if I'm getting your story right, are you telling me that I'll be competing with my own damn son for 2 more years?! I don't want to wait that long!" He groaned.
"You do realize that Garrett's probably so emotionally attached to Harry because, between him and Gabriel, he's the one who really takes after you the most, Draco?" Byron pointed out, giving him a pointed look.
"Wow." Anton suddenly interjected, grinning at Byron in amusement. "Draco's right, By. You're actually not half bad at this psychology rubbish. Maybe I should start using you as my shrink too." He teased.
"Very funny, bird-face." Byron growled back warningly.
"So what, I'm just supposed to…wait this stupid phase out?" Draco grumbled again as he slumped back down onto his seat and shot a helpless glance at Lorraine. "Is Garrett just supposed to grow out of it?"
"Maybe you could bring Garrett out more so that he could meet other children? Girls, in particular?" Lorraine suggested with a shrug. "I mean, I know he's still young but even children at this age have crushes—"
"I just enrolled Aidan in one of those traditional and formal dancing lessons I used to take when I was a child and now he's been meeting girls from other pureblood families like crazy. Maybe you should consider signing Garrett up for that too?" Anton smirked smugly at that and turned to Draco with an arched eyebrow.
"So my son can end up an obnoxious man-whore like you? No thanks." Draco retorted with a scoff.
Anton's eyes flashed at his words and his lips immediately twisted into a hideous snarl.
"Pot calling the kettle black, Draco." The blonde half-veela growled dangerously at him.
"Did you just call me a man-whore, veela-boy?!" Draco sneered dangerously at him.
"If the shoe fits?" Anton taunted back.
"Guys!" Byron waved both of his hands in front of them so as to avoid another infamous cursing and shouting match between his two most volatile cousins. "If you're going to fight, please just not in my office!"
Fortunately, Lorraine took that moment to sigh at them and pointedly began gathering her things.
"Before you two kill each other, I should probably get going. I left both Chessie and Natalie with Molly at the Burrow and I'm worried that if I leave them alone with her too long, she'll just keep feeding them until I wake up one day and realize that my two beautiful daughters are obese." Lorraine rolled her eyes at that. She shook her head at the thought and finally stood up, allowing Anton to help her shrug back into her formal coat.
"Weasleys." Draco made a face and muttered under his breath so that Lorraine wouldn't hear him.
"I should probably get going too, By. I only dropped by to give you this. It's from Ginny." Anton stood up and dropped a sealed brown folder onto Byron's desk. "She said you asked her to gather some gossip information regarding something? Though she wouldn't tell me what it was." He frowned to himself at that.
"Great, thanks!" Byron took the sealed folder from him and tucked it inside one of his desk's drawers.
"Aren't you going to tell me what's inside?" Anton asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Sorry. Confidential information, you know." Byron smirked back at him and shook his head.
"Fine." Rolling his eyes, Anton sighed and, after shooting a quick glare at Draco, he followed Lorraine and began walking towards the doors. "Anyway, I'm going to go back to work. I'll see you both in the Manor."
After the two half-veelas left the room and a frowning Draco was left mulling over Lorraine's last words in thought, Byron finally let out a sigh of defeat and gave Draco a reassuring, albeit exasperated glare.
"Draco, you're really making too big a deal out of this entire issue. Like I said, the only reason Garrett's attached to his mother so much is because he's like you. And like Lorraine said, he'll grow out of it eventually. The worst than can even happen is that he ends up marrying a girl who reminds him of his mom." He offered.
"I suppose you're right." Draco grumbled as he reluctantly stood up from his seat and began shrugging himself back into his formal coat. "I guess I'll just have to cope with the fact that I'll be competing with a seven-year-old for my wife's attention for the next two years." He added sullenly, scowling to himself.
"You competed with hundreds of idiots for your wife's attention ten years ago during your hunting season, Draco. I'm sure you can handle a 7-year-old kid." Byron quipped, giving him a knowing grin.
"He's not just a kid." Draco ground back, gritting his teeth. "He's…the human incarnation of evil."
Laughing at Draco's disgruntled reply, Byron stood up as well and escorted the older Malfoy as he began making his way to the doors. As Byron yanked the doors open to walk Draco out, however, both men suddenly froze mid-step and gaped at the sight of one gleeful looking Garrett Malfoy who was, at that moment, sitting in one of the plush couches in the lobby outside Byron's office – several generous mounds of galleons and sickles scattered all around him. Arching an eyebrow at Byron's gobsmacked expression, Draco shot him a look as though to say 'I told you so' before he walked over to his eldest son with a knowing smirk on his face.
"Garrett?"
Draco waited until Garrett lifted wide green eyes up very slowly to meet his father's amused mercury orbs. When the Malfoy Head arched an eyebrow, Garrett's handsome face broke out into an innocent smile.
"Father?" He grinned cheekily.
In spite of himself, Draco felt his lips twitch at the decidedly Slytherin expression on his son's face.
"Where exactly did you get all this money?" He asked, glaring down at the younger Malfoy.
"Oh, that." Garrett shrugged and held up the empty basket of cookies that Lorraine had given him.
"I went around and sold Aunt Lorraine's cookies to the Unspeakable Agents. They all bought one!" He told them.
"What? B—but those cookies were absolute rubbish! How on earth did you manage to get anybody to buy them?" Byron blurted out, glancing up and staring in shock at the sight of his entire team of Unspeakable Agents around the department, all of which were unhappily chewing on one of Lorraine's choco chip cookies.
"I know!" Garrett agreed cheerfully before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his father's wand. "That's why I threatened to hex them if they didn't agree to buy one!" He added, causing Byron to scoff at him.
"Garrett, you honestly expect me to believe that you were able to just threaten my entire department – a department of fully trained Unspeakable Agents into buying your Aunt Lorraine's atrocious cookies—"
"I told them that I was the son of Harry Potter." Garrett answered bluntly.
"…Oh."
At the look of stunned amazement on Byron's face, Draco shook his head at his son's antics. Laughing in spite of himself, Draco shot his sputtering cousin one last smirk before he finally led Garrett towards the exit.
"Riel?! I've been looking for you everywhere! What on earth are you doing out here?"
Looking up at the sound of Jaimee's disapproving voice, Gabriel lifted his gaze up from where he had been staring intently at the lake in front of him and found himself meeting his mother's identical pair of green eyes. When Jaimee saw the way her son's emerald orbs were glassy with unshed tears, however, the admonishment on her face instantly melted away into concern and she knelt down onto the grass beside him.
"Sweetheart, what happened? Are you okay, are you hurt—" Harry never even got to finish the rest of her sentence when, instead of answering, Gabriel just shook his head jerkily and launched himself into his mother's arms, sniffling and burying his tearful face against her shoulder. As Harry frowned and hugged him closer against her, raking her fingers gently through his hair in an effort to calm him down, she finally noticed for the first time that Gabriel was no longer wearing the thick winter cloak that she had made him wear that morning – not to mention the fact that he was no longer wearing his small, tailor-made leather black shoes.
"Er…Riel? Honey, where are your shoes? And where's your cloak? You're freezing, sweetheart." She said worriedly as she noticed the shivers that wracked her son's small frame. When he didn't seem to want to answer her at first, Jaimee sighed and tried to use her own thick cloak to cover Gabriel as he stayed in her arms.
It took the young Malfoy son a few more minutes of sniffling quietly in his mother's arms before he finally managed to get himself together, but once he did, he reluctantly pulled away and stared up at her with a hesitant expression in his eyes. Before he could say anything, however, Jaimee noticed his violent shivers again and she unfastened her own thick cloak from her shoulders, wrapping it snugly around Gabriel's small frame.
"Mom?" He whispered quietly.
"What's wrong, love?" Jaimee waited patiently as Gabriel looked down again, sniffling to himself a few more times before he finally swallowed and stared up at her, giving his mother a sad, genuinely confused look.
"Why do some people do such bad things?" He asked softly, biting his lip slightly as more tears sprung to his eyes. When his mother glanced uncertainly at him, unsure of how to interpret his question, he went on.
"I went inside and saw all those poor people. They were all hurt…and crying…and sad." He sniffled again and looked away, his fingers playing idly with the grass as he stared off at the Hogwarts Lake in thought.
"And it's not fair, Mom." To Harry's surprise, he suddenly turned to her and gave her an accusatory look. "Why do we have so much while others don't have anything? Why do people have to get hurt? Why do those bad people have to hurt other people who can't fight back?" He asked, his eyes bright with angry tears.
Her features softening at his words, Harry gave him a small smile and gestured to his feet.
"You gave your shoes away to one of those poor kids inside, didn't you?" She asked gently.
Gabriel nodded slowly, his pale cheeks flushing at his mother's knowing tone of voice.
"And your cloak?"
He hung his head, looking down at the ground so that he wouldn't have to meet her gaze.
When Jaimee couldn't find the words to say at first, Gabriel misunderstood his mother's silence for disapproval and he looked up at her again, his eyes wide and his cheeks flushing as he tried to explain himself.
"Th—there was a little girl inside, Mom! She said her entire family's house was destroyed by fiendfyre and she was shivering so badly – I couldn't just let her freeze so I gave her my cloak! A—and this other boy, he didn't have any shoes or slippers so I gave him my shoes!" Gabriel swallowed the nervous lump that had formed in his throat and glanced up at his mother again. "Y—you're not mad at me are you, Mommy? I have dozens of cloaks and shoes at home and dozens more at the Manor! I promise to be the one to tell Father if—"
"Come here, you." In spite of herself, Jaimee felt such an overwhelming urge of tenderness bursting inside her chest as she managed a soft, tearful laugh and pulled him back into her arms in a tight, warm hug. "You are, without a doubt, my little angel." She told him, chuckling softly as she dropped kisses onto his hair.
Gabriel managed a small, shaky smile at her words, though he was still sniffling slightly when Jaimee eventually pulled away. Cupping his cheek gently, she used her thumb to brush away the tears from his eyes.
"I won't lie to you, Riel. There are a lot of bad people in this world who hurt other people. But on the other hand, there are a lot of good people too. You should know, you're one of them." She told him, giving the seven-year-old an encouraging smile. When Gabriel just blinked and stared uncertainly up at her, she went on.
"The important thing you have to remember is that there are some people – just like those people you saw in there – broken families, orphans, elderly people who have no more families. They may not have the strength to fight back, and that's why they sometimes need people to protect them." Harry explained gently.
"But you were an orphan too…Right, Mom?" Gabriel realized, looking up at her with wide eyes.
After a second's thought, Harry nodded and managed to give him a small smile.
"Yes, I was."
"But you were strong and you didn't need people to protect you. You always fought back and defeated a lot of bad people." Gabriel mused loudly, more to himself than anyone else, and at his words, Harry couldn't help but chuckle. She shook her head at him and reached down to ruffle his blonde hair affectionately.
"That's not true, Riel. I wasn't always strong. Like you said, I was an orphan too and at one point in my life, I thought I was always going to be an orphan. But then, things happened. A lot of kind, wonderful people helped me get to where I am right now. So you see, I also needed other people to help me too." With that, Jaimee gave him one last smile and wiped away the last, remaining tear that lingered on his cheek. "And that's the best part about it all, you know. The fact that these poor people – those children you helped back there? As long as people like you continue to help them and speak for them, I'm sure they'll end up as lucky as I was."
"I think I understand." As he listened intently to his mother's words, Gabriel's eyes finally seemed to dawn in understanding and he nodded slowly, flicking his gaze back up and glancing uncertainly at Jaimee.
"I want to help them, Mom." He told her, thinking about all those people he saw inside the hospital wing. "I want to keep helping people who are weak. I want to give them a voice one day." He whispered softly.
Jaimee smiled at him, leaning down and kissing his forehead.
"I know you will, angel."
"Excellent work today, young ladies! Keep it up and I shall see you all next week!" Madame Giselle, Hailene's middle-aged ballet instructor, announced cheerfully as she dismissed their ballet class for that day.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Hailene smiled to herself as she finally released her tiny feet from her last few attempts at perfecting her pointe technique. Following the throng of other little girls who were racing out of the ballet room towards the hallways leading to the dressing rooms, she was just about to run after them when a loud chorus of shouting male voices from one of the adjacent studios caused Hailene to freeze in place.
Her mercury gray eyes bright with curiosity, Hailene broke away from the rest of her other ballerina classmates and began following the strange sound, tiptoeing hurriedly down the long, narrow corridors. When she finally got to where the strange, shouting male voices were coming from, she tilted her head slightly and peered her head into the slightly ajar doors of the studio – only for eyes to grow wide with genuine amazement a few seconds later when she saw what looked to be a magical self-defense class inside the room.
Wow. They're all so good and they all look so strong. Just like Mommy. Hailene thought quietly to herself as she tried to take in everything that she was seeing before her all at once. I'm going to be just as strong as they are, one day. Maybe even stronger. And by that time, I won't be afraid to fight that scary monster anymore.
For a few minutes, she continued to stare at the sight before her with big gray eyes, her delicate features looking completely mesmerized and enthralled as she watched all of the young wizards, most of which looked slightly older than her – maybe ranging from 7 to 10 years old – practicing all sorts of self-defense maneuvers against one another. As she watched one of wizards near the front of the room – a handsome boy with aristocratic features and sleek black hair – slam his opponent easily down onto the mat, the boy suddenly looked up at her and Hailene instantly felt her cheeks flame in horror when she realized she knew who he was.
"Hale? Is that you?!" James Regulus Black froze and turned to gape at her in shock.
"H—Hi James!" She managed to squeak, waving shyly back at him. Flushing even darker at the bewildered stare he gave her – if that was even possible – Hailene didn't bother waiting for his reaction before she whirled around and bolted down the hall, running as fast as she could back towards the girls' locker rooms.
Fortunately, before Hailene even got there, she didn't have to do anything else because she was immediately accosted by her grandmother, Narcissa Malfoy, who was, at that moment, shaking her head and glaring down at Hailene with a frown marring her elegant features. Before Hailene could say anything, Narcissa let out a 'tut' of disapproval at her granddaughter's disheveled state and reached out to grasp Hailene's wrist.
"Darling, what on earth took you so long? I was told your class ended ten minutes ago, I was waiting for you inside the locker rooms." She told her in a light, admonishing voice, causing Hailene to hang her head.
"I'm sorry, Grandma—"
"Come. Let's get you showered and changed quickly, it isn't seemly for a lady to linger in any sweaty apparel." Narcissa told her as she gave another tut and hurriedly ushered Hailene towards the locker rooms.
"But Grandma, I saw James! He was fighting and he was really good and I—"
"Hush now, sweetheart. We can talk after you've showered and changed. Your grandfather is waiting for us in Diagon Alley. And remember, it's always rude to keep your elders waiting." Narcissa reminded her.
Her shoulders slumping with disappointment, Hailene grumbled to herself but nodded reluctantly at her grandmother. Then, without another word, Hailene sighed and rushed off towards the dressing rooms.
A/N:! Have I mentioned how much I absolutely love this beloved little family? I would love to write about these kids like this forever but unfortunately, I have maybe about one (maybe two?) more chapter/s left while they're at this age before we do a time skip of 10 years and jump to Garrett and Gabriel's seventh year in Hogwarts. That's where most of the plot takes place. Next chapter will feature that little family outing they were talking about so do stay tuned! :D
Please do leave a review and let me know what you think! Cheers! :D
