Chappie Three

Be careful! There is boy/boy kissing in here!

As Araminta came to the bottom of the stairs, she saw her daddies waiting outside the library. They were entertaining themselves, as they often did, with a spot of kissing. Daddy Harry had Daddy Draco pushed up against a wall, his hands twined in the blond's hair. Daddy Draco will be mad that his hair was mussed, thought Araminta. Daddy Draco was always cranky after he'd been kissed, actually. Only Daddy Harry looked happier afterwards. Now, he turned a bright smile, and a pair of startlingly green eyes, at his daughter. "There you are, love. Everything packed?"

"Yes, Daddy Harry," Araminta replied. "Everything except--"

"Your owl!" Daddy Harry smacked himself on the scar. "Of course, darling. I forgot. Let me make a cage...." He Transfigured a teacup into a gilt cage and Araminta raised her arms.

Slowly, she tipped her head back and inhaled, filling her lungs. She stretched her fingers wide and let pure tones ring from between her lips: Lux aeterna, luceat eis. She sang with a voice lovelier and more thrilling than the finest phoenix song, and this brought one to her.

Fawkes-Iolanthe was the daughter of Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, and had been born the first time on the same day she had been. She'd been allowed to take her present home on her seventh birthday, and she and Fawkes-Iolanthe had been fast friends ever since. For a few measures, Araminta and Fawkes-Iolanthe indulged in a duet finer than anything heard on the Wizarding Wireless.

Daddy Draco scowled. "That's enough," he said, finally. "Malfoys do not sing."

"Potters do," contradicted Daddy Harry with a smile. "Sing your heart out, my darling. It may be a source of your strong magic."

Daddy Draco picked up his cane, which was topped with a silver snake's head. He kept a sharp sword inside so that he felt armed when he went into the Muggle world. Secretly, Araminta thought that he liked the affectation because he looked good with a sword in his hand. "That's all, then, except for Bollocksy."

"Hermione won't like you sending Araminta to Hogwarts with her own house-elf," cautioned Daddy Harry.

Araminta looked between her two daddies as they scowled at each other. Whenever Daddy Harry mentioned Auntie Hermione, Daddy Draco looked like he wanted to cry. In fact, whenever she came over, which was often, he hid himself in his room and wouldn't come out until she had gone. When Araminta asked her other daddy about it, he would only shake his head and say that Daddy Draco felt 'bad.'

Daddy Draco saw Araminta watching him and his face softened. "I just want her to be safe, safe from..." He didn't say the rest; he never did. Instead, he opened his arms wide, taking the family, luggage, pet, and servant into his embrace. Squeezing his eyes shut, he muttered a magic word and the lot of them disappeared and then reappeared in the alley behind King's Cross Station.