Author's Note: I would like to thank Ern Estine 13624 and DRARRYLOVR4EVERINMYHEART for the reviews! You are awesome!
During the water break, Draco announced that lunch would be served shortly out in the garden. This was the cue for the parents of the Ballerinas to shepherd their children into the lavatory to change into outdoor clothes.
When Hermione and Rose returned, Rose now wearing shorts and a t-shirt, Hermione said, "I'm going to run Hugo home to Ron. Can you watch Rose?"
I agreed and we exchanged children. I saw Hermione head off in the direction of the fireplace, before being lost in the crowd.
"Come on Rose, let's go find Teddy," I said, taking Rose's hand, before turning back to Dromeda. "Are you going to be alright here or do you want to join us in the garden?"
"It's too sunny today. Actually, I think I will venture into that sitting room. I saw several other people my age headed that way," Dromeda replied, reaching for her cane.
I let go of Rose's hand in order to go to Dromeda, one arm around her back and lifting from under her armpit as I helped ease her to her feet. She could get down alright, it was the getting back up she struggled with.
"Andromeda," Narcissa called, coming up to her sister's side. "A group of us usually take tea in the sitting room. It gives us a break from all of the noise." She seemed to be assessing her older sister, possibly wondering if she should move to help support Dromeda too, or if me and the cane were enough. Then she noticed Dromeda's purse left on the ground and bent to pick it up.
Once steady on her feet, I let Dromeda go and Narcissa slid the purse over Dromeda's head. Dromeda adjusted the purse, nodded, and made a step in the direction of the sitting room. Narcissa stepped along with her and I let them go, retaking Rose's hand and heading for the garden. Most of the other children were already out there, waiting in line at a buffet table or running around rambunctiously. I got into line for food with Rose, and Teddy came running over.
"This is sooo much fun Harry!" Teddy proclaimed.
"I'm glad you're having a good time," I said, but Teddy was already distracted again, talking to another boy in the line ahead of us.
"What about you Rose, are you having a good time?" I asked, bending down a bit to hear my god-daughter over the noise.
"Why can't I wear my pretty clothes?" Rose asked in a whine, by way of answering.
"Because we're outside now and we don't want them to get ruined," I answered.
"But Cepheus is wearing a pretty dress!" Rose said, pointing to where Cepheus was indeed wearing a short sundress, which flapped in the breeze as he spun around, enjoying the bright sun. It usually wasn't noticeable that he was a boy in girl's clothing, but as he spun his skirt lifted up, revealing a pair of flowery Y-fronts. Where Draco had gotten Y-fronts covered in pink, yellow, and purple flowers, I had no idea. Knowing the Malfoys, Draco had probably custom ordered them.
"Mummy said I had to wear this and it's not fair!" Rose continued.
"Well you're better off wearing shorts, trust me. You are going to be running around and you wouldn't want your panties showing, would you?" I asked.
"Hmmp," Rose replied, crossing her arms.
The foul mood, however, was forgotten when we reached the food and saw the spread the Malfoy elves had put out for the event.
Teddy, Rose, and I soon found ourselves seated at a long table filled mostly with the Ballet kids, including Cepheus. I'd tried to excuse myself to sit with the adults, but Rose had started to cry at the thought of being left alone. So Teddy and I had both agreed to sit with her at the Ballet table, making me the only adult and him the only Hip-Hop kid in the bunch. The children chatted away as they ate, mostly saying how cool this was.
"You're so lucky you get to have a party like this every month," Teddy said to Cepheus.
"Every month? No, it's just the dance children once a month. We do this every Saturday. Next week it'll be our theater group," Cepheus replied.
"Theater? Like in plays?" Rose asked.
"Yes, we're doing Romeo and Juliet this year. I auditioned for Juliet yesterday, but stupid Director Morgan said he wouldn't give me the part. He said I should come back next week prepared for Romeo. Why would I want to be Romeo? I'm much more of a Juliet, don't you think?"
Rose and the other Ballet girls agreed, although Teddy looked confused and said nothing.
"Romeo is a big part. It's the best part after Juliet," I put in.
"But he has to kiss a girl! That's gross," Cepheus said with his arms crossed. Either he didn't realize that Juliet had to kiss a boy, or he didn't mind the idea of kissing a boy the way he did a girl.
A chorus of agreement echoed around the table as pretty much all of the children agreed that kissing was gross.
"And he doesn't even get to wear a pretty dress," Cepheus added, straightening his short sundress in his seat. "Juliet wears the prettiest gown. Last year I got to wear a pretty dress, but I wasn't old enough for a lead part. This year Director Morgan said I'm good enough to play lead and it's supposed to be an honor or something. But how is it an honor when the lead part wears an ugly costume?"
The little girls at the table murmured their agreement, while Teddy looked like he felt out of place at this table.
"Will your sisters be in the play too?" I asked curiously.
"Quila will, Quuleus goes to Puppet Story Time instead. Quila might get Juliet, but she doesn't want it. Can you believe that? She wants the part with the swordfight. Girls," Cepheus said with a harrumph.
Loud dissention swept the table as the girls insisted that they didn't want to swordfight and that it was only Aquila who would want that.
"No, no, no! It's not the swordfighting that's stupid! It's the ugly costume of the swordfighters!" Cepheus corrected, a hint of exasperation in his voice. "Fencing is cool. Quila and I have swordfights all the time, but you can't fight in a pretty dress."
"I want to swordfight!" Teddy exclaimed, looking at me excitedly.
Here I was thinking I was doing a pretty good job being a dad, but apparently I was failing in comparison to Draco. "Are you all taking fencing lessons too?" I asked Cepheus, wondering if this was yet another thing I should be signing Teddy up for.
"No, just Gymnastics, Painting, Ballet, Theater, and the YPGB," Cepheus answered. YPGB stood for Young Purebloods of Great Britain and was an organization for Pureblood children to get together and earn merit badges doing various traditional wizarding activities. "Sometimes we go fencing with the YPGB."
"Perhaps Teddy and Rose could join the group and go fencing with us sometime," Draco said, approaching the table with a pitcher of water to refill glasses. It was somethings the elves had been doing inside the house, but they seemed to be busy setting up trays of desserts, so he was doing it.
"Ah, Pureblood, Malfoy. Doesn't the P in YPGB stand for Pureblood?" I asked annoyed.
"Not anymore. Now the P stands for People; Young People of Great Britain. The organization opened up to all magical children a few years ago. We are trying to recruit a more diverse membership as part of the new order you were so kind to begin for us," Draco answered, continuing to refill glasses.
I raised my hands in protest. "Hey, I didn't begin it. All I did was end the war." I did not want a single extra iota of credit thrown my way. I had enough of it as it was, besides, "I hate politics."
"Then Rose's mother started. Equal rights for all and wages for house elves. We toe the line here at Malfoy Manor and that includes our Friday YPGB meetings," Draco said.
"You pay your house elves?" I asked surprised.
"Of course. I even give them fifteen minute breaks, which is why you see me here with the water," Draco replied, raising the pitcher slightly to emphasize his point, before moving on down the line to the next child.
"I thought it was because your elves are busy over there?" I asked, pointing to the elves preparing the desserts.
"Different elves," Draco answered with a shrug, and topping off the last glass of water. "Let me know if your children are interested in joining. I'm troop leader and we are always looking for ways to diversify and modernize, which is something I'm sure you or Rose's mother could help with. We have to reinvent ourselves or die out, you know." And with that, he nodded to me and took his pitcher to the next long table.
Just as Draco left, the elves approached our table, each with a platter of sweets. The children, naturally, went crazy with excitement as they picked out more than they should.
The desserts were delicious. Afterwards the children stayed outside and ran around, working off the excess energy from all of the sugar. Hermione came back and reclaimed responsibility for watching Rose. That was good for me, because my god-daughter was not used to being allowed so many sweets and was thus on a sugar high. I was more than happy to leave Hermione to deal with the situation I'd created while I focused on Teddy.
Having grown up with me, Teddy was immune to sugar highs and even tended to put his own limits on dessert consumption. He was the only child I knew who would refuse a third helping of dessert on the grounds that it usually led to a tummy ache. He also complained when I served ice cream for dinner after serving treacle tart for an appetizer and was always telling me he wanted more than biscuits and digestives for lunch. Kreacher was thus an indispensable part of our household.
At one point Aquila, Teddy, and another boy from the Hip-Hop class sat down on a bench to rest and have some water. It was then that I heard her mention her mother. Up until this point, Draco was the only one who'd mentioned the witch, the Malfoy children not seeming to notice her absence.
"I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. Mummy's taking me," Aquila said, giving her head full of platinum blond braids a shake for emphasis.
"Your hair is already short for a girl," Teddy replied.
I was thinking that is was already shorter than her brother's, over a foot shorter, but I said nothing, staying out of the conversation.
"No, it's too long. It bothers me and Father is always braiding it to keep it out of my face. Do you know what it's like to have all these braids put in?" she asked the boys, who both shook their heads. "Well it hurts and it takes forever."
"Is ya dad bad at doin' hair? Does ya mum do it better?" the other boy asked.
"No, my mummy doesn't do hair! That's Father's job. Mummy is taking me to have someone else cut it. My mummy is a healer. She saves people who are dying. She's getting an award for saving people tomorrow, so we have to dress up and go to a big bankit. Even Father is going. That's why I'm getting my hair done."
"Are your brother and sister getting their hair cut too?" Teddy asked.
"They'll get theirs trimmed, but Pheus won't let his be cut. His hair is straight. It doesn't cause problems like mine, so he can have it long. He got the good hair; me and Quuleus got the curly hair from Mummy." She started swinging her legs back and forth as she sat on the bench.
That was an interesting take on the situation. I had assumed Cepheus' long hair went with his crossdressing, but maybe it didn't. On the other hand, Draco might've armed his children with non-gay excuses for his son's eccentricities. Since Cepheus was too young to label as gay, I thought this was a good idea and silently applauded Draco's parenting.
Then I inwardly cringed as I heard Teddy ask, "Is your brother, er…normal?" He was a good kid and I'd done my best to raise him to be open minded, but this was his first time meeting a little boy like Cepheus. I guess I probably should've had a talk with him about it, but it hadn't crossed my mind to do so until just now. I could only hope that he wasn't about to say something he'd regret and that I wouldn't have to step in and embarrass him in front of his new friend.
"Yes. Why?" Aquila asked.
"Well, it's just, um…he's wearing a dress," Teddy said, shrugging.
"So?" Aquila asked.
"He's onny four," the other boy sitting with them put in, shrugging. Up until then he'd let Aquila do most of the talking, but she didn't seem to realize what Teddy was getting at and this other boy did. "My mummy say it's fine, 'cause he's pra'ly a baby."
"He's not that bad. He's almost five," Aquila said, sticking up for her little brother, although she still didn't get what Teddy was on about.
"Yeah, but is it like having a little sister?" Teddy asked.
"No. Quuleus is what a little sister is like. Pheus is just a brother," Aquila answered, Teddy's implications going over her head.
"Pheus play cars an' trucks wi' me sometimes. He wear dresses, but he play like a boy," the boy added.
"So he is a normal boy, then?" Teddy asked again.
"Normal and boring!" Aquila exclaimed. "They go on and on about how pretty the cars are, like I care. I couldn't give a flying peacock about your cars, Henley. I do hope you don't like cars Teddy." I smiled at her childlike cussword; given the peacocks that could be seen roaming the grounds, it was an appropriate swear for a Malfoy to use.
"Erm, I do."
"Typical. Boys," Aquila said, sounding exasperated at the mere mention of cars.
The other boy, who I now suspected was named Henley, went on to rave about his toy cars with Teddy. The theme seemed to be the bigger, the faster, and the shinier, the better.
Feelings of pride welled up in me as I realized that the topic of Cepheus' fashion sense had been forgotten without incident. Sure Teddy had asked the rude question, but then he'd accepted Aquila's answer on his own, without me having to tell him to. He'd made the right decision and that was always a good feeling for a parent.
Aquila crossed her arms and waited out the boring car talk for a few minutes, but the moment there was a lull in the conversation, she interjected, "What about your father, Teddy? Is he normal?"
"Yeah, what do ya mean?" Teddy asked.
"What's it like living with the Harry Potter?" Aquila clarified.
"Boring, mostly, but sometimes he takes me to Quidditch games," Teddy answered with a shrug.
"My father takes us to a Quidditch game every year too," Aquila boasted.
"My uncle took me last year," Henley put in.
"No, Harry takes me all the time. Aunt Ginny gets us free passes. When it's Quidditch season, we'll go to most of her games," Teddy clarified.
Henley and Aquila both agreed that was pretty awesome.
"Do you get to do other cool stuff with him?" Henley asked.
"No, just Quidditch. Like I said, he's boring," Teddy replied.
"What do you guys do on the other nights, when you're not at Dance class?" Aquila asked.
"Nothing. He works," Teddy answered.
"My father works too, but we still go somewhere every night," Aquila said.
"Sometimes he takes me flying. We like Quidditch and flying a lot," Teddy added.
"Everyone likes Quidditch and flying," Aquila replied.
"Yeah," Henley seconded.
"What about those Ministry Galas?" Aquila asked Teddy. "You know, when he's in the papers."
"Those? Those are sooooooooooo boring!" Teddy exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "They are like the most boring thing ever! We hate them. We both almost died of boredom at the last one. He promised me we won't have to go to ano'er one until next year."
A hatred of official Ministry functions was something Teddy and I had in common. Sometimes I considered having mercy on him and leaving him at home. But then I needed him as my escape, as in, "Sorry Minister Shacklebolt, I can only stay half an hour, because my godson will die of boredom if we stay a moment longer." Children were certainly good for that.
"My parents never get invited. We only go to the hospital parties and those are fun. We get to play healer and stuff and make giant ice creams with all the toppings we want," Aquila said. I had a feeling that she'd inherited Draco's sweet tooth.
"The Ministry has dessert too, but not all the treacle tart in the world can make me want to go," Teddy said.
"I'd go for ice cream and treacle tart!" Henley exclaimed. I had the feeling that his parents had never dragged him to a grownup party.
"Not me. I'd rather play. Are we gonna sit 'round all day or what?" Teddy asked.
"Race you to the broom shed; we can toss my Quaffle around!" Aquila exclaimed, jumping up and running across the grass.
Teddy and Henley followed excitedly.
By the time Draco called an end to the party, Teddy was filthy and exhausted and Dromeda had long since ditched us in favor of going home.
Author's Note: Perhaps I should mention that Draco's wife is not the ex mentioned in the summary. They are still quite happy with their marriage arrangement and not exes. The problem ex is Draco's formerly live-in ex-boyfriend, but I won't get into that for another chapter or two.
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