Chapter Four
"You're listening to the Beatles?" Neville mused as he stepped into the nursery of their new home in Old Sparrow's Landing. Lyra was spotted with paint that had gotten onto her in the process of turning the nursery, once a dismal forest green to a bright and lively yellow.
He chuckled and reached up to pull a piece from her ponytail as he stepped behind her, humming along to the record player she had going next to her. "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you…tomorrow I'll miss you…"
She smirked to him and turned in his arms to give him a soft kiss, but she didn't want to hug him and mess up his outfit. "You look good…no more scruff." She eyed him a moment, seeing that he had finally shaved down completely from the usual stubble he kept and he shrugged.
"I want to make a good impression at the interview." He told her and she rolled her eyes.
"The Headmistress used to be your head of house, Neville. You were a key in destroying the largest threat to the Wizarding World. And you know more about herbology then Professor Sprout. As if you really need to worry about appearances to get the job." She kissed him again and went back to painting and he grinned.
"Maybe not, but I do want to say I tried at least. Just so I made the effort. The room is looking nice. Sure you don't want me to finish the painting later?" He asked her and she shook her head, getting back to work.
"Nope. I can handle this. You're getting the really hard stuff. Like putting the crib and pram together."
"Easy…" He muttered and she shot him a look with her keen eyes.
"Without the use of magic, remember? We made a bet and you lost."
Neville grimaced and nodded to that. That was right. He had made the bet with her that he really was a useful handyman and to prove it, he was going to put together the baby furniture without the aid of magic. He had not even opened the boxes yet to see the instructions. That was going to be headache enough.
"What time are you leaving?" She asked him curiously as she moved the roller over the wall for a second coat.
"Shortly. It's going to be a long ride by broom. Thought I would just take the train."
"It runs this time of year?"
Neville nodded. "Yeah, the other teachers have to get back and forth before start of term to prepare." He explained and she nodded to that before setting the brush down and stepped back towards him.
"You'll do great today, Neville. I know you will. Just be the man I love and she'll hire you on the spot." She told him and it swelled his confidence. He kissed her again and put a hand on her stomach softly before he bent and softly kissed her there as well.
"I'll start working on the furniture soon, okay? Daddy loves you, little Bump."
Lyra laughed softly, blushing as he talked to her swollen stomach. She was only four months, but the growth was clear now and Neville had been talking to her belly from the first moment he had noticed it. He wanted to be there for every step of his child's life. Though Lyra could see him being quite the overprotective father, but she let it go for now and let him have his way.
He liked talking to the baby and she had no problem with that. Especially when he referred to it merely as the Bump.
He kissed her again and said his goodbyes before slipping out the door to head towards the train station. The Hogwarts Express was eerily quiet and he rode alone save for the grounds keeper that occasionally peeked in with a grumble before heading off once more.
When he arrived at the school, he took the carriages and took a deep breath as the castle appeared before him as he drew closer. It was just as he remembered, but better.
The Battle of Hogwarts had left the place in near ruins, but with some work, it had come around. They had restored it to former glory and added a new wing for Defensive Studies. As the carriage stopped, he headed into the courtyard and through the double doors of the school.
"Neville Longbottom! What a surprise to see you here, my boy. Come back for a haunt?" A voice came from the hall next to him and he turned to smile at the ghost.
"Good to see you again, Sir Nicholas." He nodded to the ghost who gave a nod of greeting of his own. "I'm actually heading to the office of the Headmistress. Care to join me?" He asked and started down the corridor, the ghost at his side.
"Always happy to escort one of my former house-kin. How do you fair?"
"Fairly well in all actuality. I'm here to apply for a job as a professor of Herbology and I'm getting married in the fall as well."
"Splendid! I always knew you were a lad with his head on his shoulders…unlike me." He grumbled and Neville couldn't help but laugh as they came to the entrance of the office and Sir Nicholas floated on ahead of him. "I'll alert Professor McGonagall of your arrival. It was pleasant seeing you again, Mr. Longbottom."
"And you, Sir Nicholas." He nodded again and waited once the ghoul had disappeared, looked around the castle corridor quietly. The place seemed still so…dismal with no students there for the summer.
As his mind wandered back to his own years here, he did not hear the stones of the statue moving and when a familiar voice called to him from behind, he couldn't help the warm smile that spread across his face.
"Neville…"
"Professor." He turned to greet the old woman who stood before him. She looked just the same as he remembered and she smiled to him brightly before pulling him in for a hug.
"My goodness, I am always surprised to see how grown up you all are, but you will always be that young wizard with the toad in my mind. I heard you have been up to quite a bit of trouble lately." She held him at arms length to inspect him and he nodded once.
"Yes, ma'am. No doubt you read all about it in the Prophet." He explained and she pursed her lips.
"It is still such a wonder to me that Lyra Lestrange was alive in the first place, let alone nearly killed by Blaise Zabini." She shook her head in astonishment. "How is she holding up after all of that?"
"Surprisingly well. I left her at home finishing up painting our new nursery."
McGonagall turned to him at that and then chuckled as she took off her reading glasses. "Congratulations, Mr. Longbottom. Seems you really have been up to a lot in the past few months." She beckoned him to follow as she headed for the stairs to her office.
His ears went red at that, but he followed the headmistress up stairs for the interview with a deep breath. He could do this.
Lyra finished up with the painting and sighed lightly, running a hand through her hair. It had been a chore, but it was done.
What had once been a boring green office was now a glowing yellow center of warmth. She had painted the walls with scenes from her favorite children's stories growing up. On one wall the Hopping Pot was skipping happily on his hairy little foot, Babbity-Rabbity was asleep beside her cackling stump, and the three witches and their knight were cresting the hill of the Fountain of Fair Fortune.
It all looked perfect. Smiling at the job well done, she stretching, hands going to the small of her back for support. Neville would be home probably around seven in the evening, which gave her some time to think about getting dinner ready. She went to get a shower and change of clothes before she slipped onto her broom and headed for Diagon Alley.
She took a walk up the street until she came to an area known as the Witch's Garden and she slipped into the market.
It was packed with vendors and shoppers all searching for a deal. Small auctions taking place at the stalls as people bargained and bartered over everything from vegetables to jars of newt eyes.
She found herself with enough stock and veggies to make a decent pot of Dragon's Heart soup and headed to the stall for the last ingredient. It was not actual dragon's heart, but dragon's blood. Just a few drops from a vial was enough to season anything to the point of unbearably hot, but she had learned to make it years ago from Nymphadora so that it was hot, but also sweet.
As she was paying for the vial, something caught her attention and she looked up, but whatever it was had gone. Shrugging it off, she thanked the vender and put the vial in her bag as she stepped out of the market back toward the alley to collect her broom and leave.
Just as she was crossing Knockturn, she bumped into someone and she apologized quickly a hand going to her stomach and she looked up just in time to see a familiar face looking back at her. "Pansy?" She asked softly, but the girl was gone in a flash into the crowd.
Furrowing her brow, Lyra moved through the crowd a little, trying to see if she could spot Pansy again. She had not seen her former roommate since the Battle. When she caught another glimpse of her, Lyra found herself moving off the beaten path and deeper into Knockturn's dimly lit alley. She was running? She wondered for a moment if Pansy was in league with the Dark Wizards and she got her answer seconds later.
A hex came blasting from behind her and she heard it screamed out through the crowd, but before it could connect, someone was there, pulling her out of the way of the hex and into a side street. She struggled instantly, but went still when she looked up and caught a glimpse of gray eyes and slicked back hair.
"Draco…" She said, a bit stunned and he shushed her, holding up his wand as three Dark Wizards ran past their hiding spot without so much as a glance.
"Invisibility charm…" He whispered to her and she nodded slowly, still shocked that he of all people had just saved her. "What are you doing here alone? You know those prats are looking everywhere for you."
Lyra shook her head at that. "What? Why are they still looking for me? They already know I'm not Voldemort's child. I can't bring him back." She told her cousin and he shook his head in turn.
"This isn't about that anymore. This is revenge. Why isn't Longbottom with you? Or Potter?" He almost spat that last name, but he managed to keep complete distaste from his tone. Then he glanced down slowly and arched a brow. "…put on some weight there, Lestrange…?"
"Haha, I'm pregnant. We need to get out of here…"
"Not til they've stopped combing the area. Longbottom's?"
"Not your business." She cut to him and he shrugged.
"Just curious." He muttered and then swore lightly. "They're about to blast a dispelling charm…hold one."
"What?" She barely got the word out before he was apparating them and she held her stomach as he kept his grip on her and when they landed outside of Malfoy Manor, she rushed away from him to throw up, completely sick from the tossing of her stomach and she knew the baby inside her had not liked the experience much either.
Draco grimaced as she threw up, but once she was done, he took her arm and led her inside and to a chair. "You should not be out on your own like this. Longbottom must be more of an idiot than I thought. Letting a pregnant woman wander their the allies without anyone with her. Unless he's just wanting you to end up at the end of some Dark Wizard's wand."
"He didn't know I was there. And what were you doing there even?" She asked him suspiciously and he sighed.
"I was tracking Pansy. Hard to believe, but I'm not the enemy anymore." He told her and she eyed him again before sighing lightly herself. "Pansy is a Dark Wizard too then?" She ran a hand up into her hair and processed that a moment as he nodded. "Why are you hunting her then? Last I checked you weren't an auror…"
Draco shrugged and moved to his fireplace, picking up the poker to move the wood inside around. "No, I'm not. They were never give me a job like that after what my parents and I did…but I can help in my own little ways."
"Speaking of which, where are they?" She asked as she glanced around the house. Surely her uncle would have been on her by now, snapping like dog on an intruder.
Draco looked up to the painting of his parents above the fireplace. "They're living in Bulgaria now. We moved there just after the war, but I came back here a couple years ago to take over the estate and try to mend things for our family."
"Our family? I thought you disowned me from your family?" She arched a brow and he rolled his eyes. "I was fourteen when I said that. You're still my cousin, Lyra, which makes you family. I'm different than I was back then."
She was silent at his words, looking him over. Perhaps he was. He certainly was acting grown up…which was quite the change in and of itself. She was about to make a comment on that when she heard someone coming and she moved her hand to her wand, but paused when a woman came out with a tray of tea and biscuits, setting them down before them.
"Hello…" the woman greeted her and Lyra glanced to her cousin to be introduced.
"Lyra, this is my wife Astoria. Honey, this is my cousin Lyra Lestrange. The one I was telling you about." He introduced them and Astoria smiled to her, offering her a hand in greeting.
"Lovely to meet you…oh. You're expecting? Our son Scorpius is five months old…" She smiled to Lyra and she glanced to her cousin then.
"Son? Good to know I'm not the only one."
"Seems like we all had a bit of a baby boom after the war." Astoria smiled to her and when she heard crying from down the hall, she quickly excused herself.
Lyra nodded and when she was gone, she looked back to Draco over her cup of tea. "So, you're trying to make amends for what your parents did?"
"And what I did…don't forget that I was a Death Eater too, Lyra." He told her.
"I remember…" She whispered, sipping her drink slowly.
Draco watched her and paced away after a moment, crossing his arms as he did. He wore casual pair of jeans and a white shirt, an old brown suit jacket over it all. "Our families screwed us over quite a bit…" He muttered and she hung her head in agreement.
"Yeah…they really did. All we can do though is just…move on and try to fix the damage."
"Exactly. And that isn't going to happen if we just sit back and watch. That's why I'm out looking for the Dark Wizards. If I can aid in this fight, then I will, though they would never let me to the front lines." He ran his fingers up into his slicked hair. "Hopefully I can do something in the end that won't make the Malfoy name such a dirty one anymore…"
She thought about that. The Lestrange name was just as dirty…but she could take Neville's name and be gone from that stigma. He seemed to sense her thoughts though and he eyed her a moment.
"Just because you get married doesn't make it go away. You're still a Lestrange, Lyra." He told her and she shook her head.
"Maybe so…but even still I'm a more Tonks than I am Lestrange." He chuckled to that and reached for his cup.
"Guess that's right…" He smiled and when Astoria swept into the room with a white headed child in her arms screaming, he got to his feet concerned and took the boy from her.
"He wants his father…" Astoria sighed as she settled Scorpius into his father's arms and Lyra watched curiously. Her cousin shushed the baby, rocking him, but still, he would not quiet down. "Lyra, would you mind? I need to just get some milk from the fridge…"
Lyra blinked and opened her mouth to protest, but Astoria was quickly shuffling the baby from Draco to Lyra and she found herself suddenly holding the infant in her arms and she could feel the delicacy of what she was doing and that caused her fear to spike. What if she dropped him? What if she dropped her own child? How was she going to change diapers? Feed the baby? What if it got sick?
Her mind was numb from thinking, but when Scorpius opened his eyes and she looked down into his blue grey eyes, Lyra suddenly felt the world stop. He reached up to her and she lightly touched his tight fingers with one of her own until she wrapped his fingers around it. Perhaps it was maternal instinct, but she softly shushed him and bounced her arm softly under him where he lay until he quieted and fell back asleep.
That wasn't so hard, she thought to herself
"Think you're ready to be a mother, Lyra?" Astoria asked softly as she came back from the kitchen, seeing her husband smiling softly at his cousin and child.
"I…I think so…" She whispered and held the baby a little longer before she handed him to his mother once more. Just that one glance had given her new confidence.
"C'mon." Draco finally said as he got to his feet. "…Neville is probably going to be looking for you…how about I take you home?"
She nodded to that and got to her feet. Going home sounded like a solid plan. Neville would be home anytime and if he did not find her there, he would not be too thrilled.
With her cousin's hand on her arm and a pop, they were gone from the Manor.
