Chapter 10
Narcissa and Severus married quietly at the beginning of the summer holidays, after the upper two dozen had agreed to the unilateral divorce. Part of the wedding ceremony was of course a bloodbonding of Severus to the family Black, a more complex ritual than the adoption of Dobby or Remus, and requiring Severus to sign the marriage bond in his own blood for the magical artefacts of House Black to recognise him.
And then there were to be several children's parties as the twins met the children of their own age, and in the case of the Weasley children, those a little older, in the persons of the Weasley twins. Percy was due to start Hogwarts in September and declined to have anything to do with 'the babies'.
Many of those invited had had it impressed on them that being invited to Malfoy Manor was an honour and that they were to be on their best behaviour. Children like Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were rather frightened of Narcissa Malfoy, who had been brave enough to denounce their thuggish and brutal fathers as Death Eaters, and were overcome when she smiled at them and gave them a hug. Neither of them missed being a punching bag for their father, and were glad to be able to relax. Theodore Nott was a quieter boy with a shrewd face who politely thanked Narcissa for both the invitation and for making life safer for people. Presumably he meant himself and his mother, though Narcissa did wonder how much of a sympathiser his mother had been. Pansy Parkinson was also missing a father, but did not seem to care; Daphne Greengrasse came from a family which held aloof from Death Eaters as did Blaise Zabini, but Narcissa was far more willing to embrace a friendship with the Greengrasses, who were pure blood and of the upper two dozen, than with Madam Zabini, who, as she said to Severus, went through husbands like most women went through shoes. Blaise was rather self-possessed and sneering.
"And it may be armour, you know," said Severus.
"You will have time to find out, if not now, when he's likely in your house at school," said Narcissa. "I didn't like Jocasta Zabini at school, and I rather think it shows how permanent she considers marriage that her son bears her maiden name. She's on the seventh at the moment."
"Poor boy," said Severus.
"Possibly," said Narcissa. "Well, sort him out then, if you must."
"Thank you, my dear," said Severus with heavy irony.
Unlike the largely subdued or quiet children of traditionally Slytherin families, the Weasley contingent were loud and rather hearty. Ron was the same age as the Malfoy twins but was rather relegated into the background when his older brothers shouted,
"Hey, Gred! We've got another set here!"
"They ain't identical, Forge," said the other.
"Are those really your names?"asked Orion.
"Nah, we're Fred and George, but nobody can tell us apart, so it don't matter," said the first.
"Which is which?" asked Draco.
"I'm Fred," said Fred.
"And he's Fred," said George.
The Malfoy twins exchanged a quick look, and nodded identical little nods.
"We shall know now," said Orion.
"Bet you won't," said Fred.
Orion and Draco smiled.
"We shall," said Draco.
They had taken the opportunity to use Uncle Severus's tagging spell to place the name of each twin on his forehead for people of only Malfoy blood to use. After all, there was no point giving an advantage to all the Black family; and even if the elves got confused because of not having been obliviated, Orion was Draco's brother under Narcissa's blood bonding and spells to make him so. Had he not been, his hair would not have remained blond.
And they were the last Malfoys.
There were another pair of twins, the Patil twins, who were not pure bloods, and the solitary muggleborn child whom Severus had thought worth contacting, Hermione Granger.
The Grangers were dentists, and had been a trifle put out at the idea of magic, until Narcissa had said scornfully that one talent was like another, and the idea of a child being able to pick up a French Horn and play from music a Horn Concerto was as laughable as expecting a child with magic to manage reproducible results. Hermione's efforts in blacking out the street lights when she was frightened by a man dressed as a clown was, said Narcissa, the same thing as the sounds like sheep being strangled that a novice got out of a horn.
Hermione was delighted that magic could be reproducible and that the casting of spells and the brewing of potions would proceed according to what might be described as scientific method. Her curiousity had only been stilled by an impromptu trip to Diagon Alley under the aegis of Narcissa to buy children's books about the wizarding world. She had been horrified when Narcissa had told her not to believe everything she read in books, wizarding or muggle, and had gasped when Narcissa pointed out that all history books were written by the winner, and all historical facts skewed to the viewpoint of the writer.
"Moreover," said Narcissa, "My sister, who is married to a muggle, told me that she read a quote by a writer that if an elderly scientist says that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong; and if a young scientist says that something is possible, he is quite often right. It applies to wizards as well."
"Arthur C. Clarke," said Mr. Granger. "He also said that technology so far advanced of any observer will appear as magic."
"Frankly, some of your technology appears to be moderately magical to me," said Narcissa. "My sons are learning computer sciences and what they can do with it is quite unnerving."
"It surely has come a long way from playing Pong on the University machine," said Mr. Granger.
Hence Hermione was also there and was asking the twins if she would be able to keep up her computer studies with them.
"If you would like," said Draco. He received a shy smile.
"What's this computer studies?" demanded Ron Weasley, feeling left out.
"Computers are very advanced adding machines," said Orion. "And because you can use adding to multiply using logarithms, they can do anything with numbers. You can use them to find prime numbers for arithmancy, and factorials."
"Well what's the use in that?" demanded Ron.
"Because arithmancy is important in understanding some spells, and in deciding how many stirs you have in a potion, and in ritual," said Draco, rolling his eyes.
"What do I need that for? The spells and potions we use are in the text books. I've seen them in my brothers' books," said Ron.
"Well what if you want to invent a new potion or reverse engineer a new spell or stuff?" said Orion.
"Why would I want to do that? It's a waste of time and a headache for nothing," said Ron.
Both the Malfoys and Hermione Granger rolled their eyes at that, and Fred and George exchanged looks.
"Talk to us about arithmancy, fellow twins…."
"… and about computers," they said.
Ron, bored, wandered off.
On the whole, the twins enjoyed meeting people, but the ones they hit it off with most were the Weasley twins and Hermione. They understood that it was their duty to be kind to Vince and Greg, whose fathers had been arrested, and who had worked for the twins' own father. They had noblesse oblige towards them. And none of the little guests turned a hair at Lutie, now free, as Dobby's powers had not diminished, and taught firmly by the twins to use simultaneous equations to look perfectly human. Even as animagi did not lose their understanding, so Lutie had not lost his ability to do Elf magic in a human shape.