A/N: The IWSC writing comp has a little grammar school drabble each round. I haven't done one yet this season, but this round I gathered up the time and some inspiration. As a special treat, those who read my series, That's Life Together, this falls in that universe (March 2021)! This story takes place shortly after the conclusion of Family Matters (Alex's Story).

Competition Info: ↜↜o↝↝

Story Link: Wall-Rugs and Magic Trees

School: Beauxbatons

Year: 4

Topic: Kinship address and Compound Words

WC: 955 words

A/N: This is an alternate universe after Hogwarts where the epilogue never happened, and Harry and Draco eventually married and have children (though they don't make an appearance in this story). It's the year 2021 if that makes any difference for you.

Wall-rugs and Magic Trees

"Come on. It's up here."

Alex followed his sister down the dark hallway of the manor. He didn't like it very much up here, the portraits murmuring as he walked past. "We're gonna get in trouble, Lyra."

Lyra put her nose up into the air, pretending to look like Papa. "We will not. It's our hermitage."

"That's heritage, young lady," the portrait of an old woman with pale-blonde curls, like Lyra's, corrected.

"Yeah, that," his sister agreed cheerfully, before turning to Alex. Her green eyes were crinkled on the sides, like Daddy's always did when he was happy. "Found it."

Taking a deep breath, Alex looked at the large, looming double doors. He wasn't sure if he could do this. He was only five, after all, and five-year-olds were too young to get into trouble for sneaking around manors.

"Oh, Alex, don't be a scaredy-cat," Lyra said with a huff, sounding just like Aunt Hermione as she pushed open the door.

The room was dark, the only light filtering in through the drapes hanging over the floor-to-ceiling windows. Alex stood at the threshold, watching his sister run over to the windows and pulling back the heavy fabric.

"Wow," he let out, trying to keep his voice quiet. The room was even bigger than he'd thought. They could fit every single person he knew — and he knew a lot of people, especially people with red hair — in this room.

Lyra ran back to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him across the room until they reached a large rug hanging on the wall. "This is it."

"Why would they hang a rug on the wall?" he asked his sister. She was two years older than him and seemed to know everything.

"Because it's a trapestry, silly. They are made to hang on walls and make them pretty and stuff."

"Oh." Alex couldn't help himself, his fingers giving in to the itch to trace the lines of the long branches that swirled across the trapestry, ending in the faces of people he didn't know. He tried to read the names of the people he could see. "Who is Reg… Regu…" He couldn't pronounce the name, and he gave up helplessly.

Lyra came over to look. "Regulus Black. Daddy told me about him. He was a hero who helped Daddy stop the bad guy."

"Wow."

"Yeah. And he's our cousin. Well, he was Grandmother's cousin, so that makes him our…" Lyra scrunched up her face like she always did when she had to think hard. "...first cousin, twice removed, I think? Papa would know."

Alex nodded. Papa always knew about that kind of thing.

"Daddy said the trapestry used to be broken, but he and Papa had it fixed and gave it to Grandmother when they got married. Over here is what I wanted to show you, though. I saw it when I came to visit Grandmother with Teddy last week."

"Where was I?"

"At the Healer, remember? Anyway, come look." She was squatting near the floor several feet from where they'd seen their cousin Regulus. "There," she pointed, and she looked really excited, which made Alex's heart beat quickly.

He got down really close and could see several familiar faces. Below Grandmother were Papa and Daddy, a beautiful golden branch tying them together. And below them was a young girl, her hair the colour of Papa's and their aunt Luna's — Lyra had grown in Aunt Luna's tummy, after all — and her eyes the colour of Daddy's, a grass-like green. But next to her…

Alex reached out and traced the name and picture. "It's me."

"Yeah," Lyra said quietly. "It wasn't there at Christmas, but it was there last week."

"But…" Alex felt his throat get scratchy and his eyes water. "But how did it know?"

"Magic," came a woman's voice behind them.

They both jerked around, and Alex just knew he was going to be in trouble.

"Grandmother! Look! The trapestry knew Alex got adopted and added him to it! Did you see?"

Alex's grandmother knelt between him and Lyra and put a gentle hand on each of their shoulders. "The tapestry is magical and automatically knows when a new person has joined our family." She didn't smile very often with her mouth, but Papa was teaching Alex how to watch her eyes, and they were smiling.

"But, I don't look like anyone else on the wall-rug," Alex said, thinking about his sister and how much she looked like the other Malfoys and like Daddy. He didn't look like any of them because he was different.

"You look like Daddy," Lyra pointed out. "Your hair is the same colour, and it's just as messy," she added with a giggle.

His grandmother's voice was gentle as she laid a kiss on his forehead. "You look just like you, which is simply perfect. And," she said, standing and gliding her finger along another tree branch, "you look a good deal like my uncle Alphard." She pointed to a darker-skinned man several branches higher than where Alex's family resided. "He was a very kind man, and he loved your Daddy's godfather, Sirius, most of all. So it's special to look like him, I think."

"Really?" Alex asked, staring at the man.

"Really," Grandmother answered before turning to his sister. "Now, I will overlook this running off this time since it was for such an important event, but Miss Lyra, next time I'll have our tea and cakes without you."

"No!" Lyra cried, her eyes wide.

Grandmother winked at Alex and took his hand as they left the room. The room where he was now part of his Papa's family tree.

It was definitely worth sneaking away.

Finis

A/N: This story is part of a series: That's Life Together. Links to the other stories in the series IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER and more information can be found on my Author Profile. Subscribe to my profile for notifications of future updates to the series.

Next in the series is That Christmas.