"Mama! Mama!" she heard and turned to see Aries waving his arms around at her as he rushed over to her. She sighed and then went to him, smiling softly at him.

"What are you doing my little prince?" She asked sweetly. The five year old laughed as he clambered onto her lap, her lifting the linen she had been sewing just in time to avoid his muddy feet. She smiled as he rested against her, babbling to himself. So much had happened in five years.

She hadn't managed to tell Sirius Black of his nephew. He had been arrested nearly a year after Aries's birth, and though she had always found the circumstances to his arrest odd, and even hard to believe, she had very little evidence and no reason other than being the mother of his nephew that he had no notion of knowing.

She had changed as well, she mused, playing with the tips her shortened hair. After an episode with Aries involving a pair of scissors, she had had to cut her hair. Now it reached just below her shoulder, and she tied it up to a low ponytail, the end flopped over her shoulder. She wore a simple light green dress that reached just below her knees, a white apron tied over it. She smiled slightly to herself. She wondered what Regulus would have thought about her and her new appearance.

She blinked, returning to reality when something was placed on top of her head. She looked at Aries who was smiling broadly at her, his chubby cheeks a light pink. She delicately felt the top of her head. A crown of flowers. She blinked again and then smiled.

"Who knew my little prince was so creative." She stated, running her hand through his hair. He laughed happily, curling up to her.

"Can you read the Raven?" he asked. She looked at him.

"But I've read it twice. Just today."

"But it's my favorite." Aries argued in his five year old voice. She sighed and then laughed, reaching to the basket that held their lunch, and retrieved the aged book. She flipped through the pages, finally landing on Edgar Allen Poe's poem the Raven. There she began to read the verses over and over again, feeling Aries relax in her hold, his breathing lightening as sleep began to take its grip on him. She smiled and then after a few minutes when sleep had fully taken its hold, set the book quietly down, just cradling her son to him. It was so quiet, so peaceful.

"Regulus, I hope you're watching over him." She whispered softly as she brushed Aries's bangs with her hand. He shifted in his sleep, murmuring softly. She smiled. The wind began to blow hard. The threat of a thunderstorm was becoming more and more eminent. She sat up and managed to collect everything with Aries still on her lap, then she slowly stood up, clutching Aries with one hand, pressing him to her. His tiny head rested on her shoulder, one arm wrapping around her neck, clutching the back of her shirt with his tiny fingers. She began to walk back towards the cottage that she lived in, just adjacent from Cornelia's home. She and Aries resided there, a small family. That was all she needed. As long as Aries was happy and healthy she didn't care. The wind began to blow, causing goosebumps to slide up her bare arms, the heat of the summer day slowly ebbing away with the promise of rain. The humidity stuck to her though, making the trip back to the cottage from the field slightly annoying. Finally she arrived back home just as the first drops of rain began to fall, soon after the torrential down. She stared out through the porch as the roar of the rain became a steady beat, a thunder clap echoing seconds after a flash of light streaked through the sky.

That awoke Aries up with a startled squeak. She chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Don't worry Aries, the thunder won't hurt you." She commented softly. He nodded into her neck, peeking out to stare at the yard in front of the house, being saturated by the rain.

"Mama?"

"Yes?"

"Is the skwy swad?" He asked, causing her to look at him. "Is that why it's crwying?"

"That's a good question." She murmured.

"Does that mean where Daddy is, Daddy's swad?"

She snapped her attention back at Aries, staring at him though he seemed to be unaware of her startled look. He was just looking out into the world beyond the porch, with inquisitive grey eyes. She swallowed, a sudden lump in her throat making it difficult to breathe. She blinked rapidly.

"I don't know my little prince." She finally whispered. "Maybe he is."

It was later that night, the rain still falling as hard as it had that afternoon, though the thunderstorm had long since passed. Cordelia stared into Aries's room, looking at the little boy that lay asleep in the cot, clutching a plush animal that Cornelia had made for him years ago. He murmured softly in his sleep, curling up under his blankets. She silently closed his door, staring at the wood, the abnormalities in it, the grooves that had been made when the tree had been standing, the rings that had marked each year it stood tall, growing until its life was cut short and it was knocked down, logged off and made into this door. Those markings were the only proof that it had once been more than door at one time.

Aries was still too young, she thought as she walked around her home. Too young to be told that what he had said that afternoon had affected her more than he could ever imagine. Too young to learn that his father would never come home. That he was dead. How could she tell a five year old that?

"When he's a little bit older." She finally decided. When he was a little bit older he would be told the whole truth about his identity. His father's identity. But how old? She stared out the porch window, staring at the falling rain. Slowly, if not a bit timidly, she opened the door, and exited. The rain immediately began to soak her as she just stood in the rain. She looked up in the black sky. The rain dripped down her face, sliding down her cheeks and chin.

"Reg, what am I supposed to do?" She whispered out, her voice broken. Nothing answered her and she bit her bottom lip as the rain fell to the ground, the only sound that substituted the silence was the roar of the rain.

It had been raining for a few days now, when Sylvia arrived at the household. Cordelia offered a glance to her mother before looking at her grandmother in question. Cornelia could only shrug, she didn't have much idea either.

"Mother…what a pleasant surprise." Cordelia stated coolly, as Aries ran over, standing behind her and staring up at Sylvia. The older woman offered a cool look to the toddler boy, who sunk further behind his mother's skirt. Cordelia glared angrily. "Mother." Sylvia looked back at her, a strict look on her face. Cordelia glanced at Aries and offered a soft smile. "Aries, why don't you go and play in your room?"

Aries hesitated, before nodding and walked slowly away to his room, glancing at his mother. Cordelia waited until she heard the door close, before looking at her mother.

"What do you want?"

"I came here to talk."

"About what?"

"About Aries."

Cordelia blinked in surprise, and then narrowed her gaze, her protective instincts beginning to rise.

"Aries is my son. Not yours."

"He is just as much my grandson as he is your son." Sylvia said with a sniff, as though she abhorred that idea. "I came here to discuss what boarding school he will be placed in."

"When he's of age, he will be going to Hogwarts. Just like every ten or eleven year old wizard and witch."

"I mean from his age now till he is nine." Sylvia corrected. Cornelia looked at her daughter-in-law in surprise. Cordelia did as well, her eyes wide. "You did when you were younger and-"

"And if you remember correctly, I HATED it." Cordelia snarled. "I begged you both for you to take me home. And you expect me to subject my SON to that?" she exclaimed in disbelief. Sylvia sniffed.

"He'll be fine. Besides the fact he's a bastard son." Sylvia stated. "Who would miss that unwanted piece of flesh-"

Cordelia snapped.

She swung her hand up, smacking her mother hard across the face, sending the older woman stumbling and slamming into the nearby wall. Sylvia held her cheek as though it had shattered off, staring at her daughter in what looked to be muted fear and shock. Cordelia was incensed.

"Don't you dare call my son that word. He may be a bastard to you and Father, but he never was or is to me. He is my son. Someone I carried for nine months inside of me, someone I've loved for five years. And if you expect me to discard him like you discarded me, you must be more moronic that I thought." She growled. "Get. Out. Before I go and retrieve my wand and force you out."

Her mother stared at her in shock, before her eyes narrowed at her daughter. "You won't be able to protect that little bastard forever, Cordelia. Soon he'll have to learn the cursed blood that runs through his veins. He'll-" She stopped when Cordelia pulled out her wand from her apron pocket, the danger obvious in her eyes.

"I'm not going to warn you again." Cordelia said in a cool voice. "Get out." Sylvia stared at her before letting a sniff of indifference, and tightened her grip on the ends of her coat, before turning on her heel and storming out of the doorway. Cordelia gritted her teeth.

"That…that horrid woman." She growled out. "She doesn't visit for nearly five years, and she comes here to try and force me to send my son away! I bet you the moment he was gone, she would start trying to find people for my hand."

"Cordelia?"

"Am I being swent away?"

The women turned to see Aries standing there, clutching a muggle action figure toy, his grey eyes becoming glassy with the warning of tears, and his bottom lip was quivering. "Did I do swometwing wong?"

"No!" Cordelia exclaimed, rushing to her son and picking him, cradling him to her. He clutched her shirt, pressing his face into the crook of her neck. "No, no, no Aries. You did nothing wrong." She whispered. "Mummy would never send you away."

"Pwomise?"

"I promise my little Prince." She said. "You aren't going anywhere you don't want to go." She soothed. He made a small whimpering sound. She shushed him softly, rubbing the back of his head. "I won't let you."