"Can I come?" Draco asked the witch quietly while the boys ran up the stairs. Theo was at his lawyer's with Blaise and she had decided that getting them out of the house and busy was the only solution for the anxiety Tray, and now Scorp, were showing at Theo's absence.
He knew this because he had heard her talking to Snitch and heard the elf ask if they needed a collection bucket. What they might be collecting or whatever wasn't important but he wanted to know. He had been dutifully trying to get through some of the paper that had been piling up from the bank and the lawyer.
The three of them had been doing school and he wanted to go and sit in the lounge with them. Find out what that meant and why both boys seemed content with that instead of the not terrible weather outside or any one of the other activities they seemed to ask to do.
This was perfect and he wanted to go with them. With her and the boys, without his friends. To see them and not be seen while he did it.
"Of course." Was her quiet answer and after a second she looked at his sock feet and then back up at him with an expectant look. Just like she did the boys, he grinned at her and went to grab his shoes while she made sure the boys had their things. Then she shouldered a small bag opened the front door. The two smaller ones were gone in a second and she didn't seem surprised by this as she closed the door behind him and headed in their direction.
"Have you tried warming charms wandlessly?" She asked without looking at him and he watched the blonde head duck behind a tree and looked for the darker haired one. He couldn't see Tray but she was looking to the left and he eventually found the head darting from tree to tree toward Scorp, hiding maybe.
"No." Was his short answer and she didn't ask anything else but he felt her magic roll over him and he wanted to react. To look at her and see her eyes, but he didn't and instead asked a question. He had hundreds of them stored up in the time they had been together and the days before.
"Tell me about school." It was a question, even if it didn't sound like one, and she was quiet for a moment before she started speaking. Math and the curriculum for their age with a few things added. More geared to arithmancy and runic work that weren't in the muggle textbooks.
Then writing and he listened to her as she talked about pens and quills. She used pens, so did Blaise though not for letters or anything. For scrap work and general use though. He liked them and Blaise had mentioned taking him to a stationary store and refused to show him the nice ones he had, the prat.
"So we use pens and pencils generally but practice some with quills. I think if we take them and they pick one maybe they will like it more. Neither are a fan of the answer being because it's always been done this way, Tray especially. Questions like, 'if they can charm an ink pot to refill then a pen could be the same right? You've been using your pen, the red one, for the whole time. It's the same one with the same scratch. So you did it and why is a quill any better. It doesn't have a lid and you have to carry a separate ink bottle.'" All Draco could do was listen and marvel at the fact that she was speaking to him like this. Never, not once had Granger spoken so freely with him. He had watched her do it with others been jealous. Now it was him and it was as brilliant as he had thought it might be. So he allowed himself to smile and then laugh when she quoted the boy and his tone.
"Like Theo." He said quietly after they had both stopped laughing and she looked up at him then. The brighter light out here on the hard snow and her pink cheeks made the colours of her eyes brighter and it was one of those moments that he couldn't believe.
"My! I need my gloves. We found a nest on the ground." Tray was running toward them and he looked to see Scorp bent over under a tres a ways away from them.
"We're coming." She answered for them both and then jogged toward the two, one coming and one waiting. All he could think to do was follow her and so he did. Watched Tray accept the gloves and container she pulled out of the bag and then Scorp's gloves and assure him they were coming and to wait.
"It is a birds nest." The quiet words answered the unasked question when he reached her and he felt better. He hadn't known and the way the two were bent over and the addition of gloves made him unsure. They were only a few seconds behind Tray and he listened while the two younger ones talked about how it was like ones they had found and how it was different.
"Did it sit like this My?" Scorp asked and he watched her bend down, making himself watch her hair instead of her ass. Then moved so he could see and remove the temptation. It felt wrong and he was immediately distracted by her small hands gently taking his son's and helping him turn it.
"Why do you think birds here might have closed nests like this?" Was her question as the two heads bent on either side of her and then Scorp sat back and looked up at the bare branches of the tree above them, then around the bare forest and he did the same. Trying to see what those eyes just like his were. Then he watched her look at Tray and saw him staring at the nest and the way the hole was in the front, his gloved fingers touched it gently.
"It's cold." Tray said and he looked to Scorp and watched him kick the ground.
"It's windy too. That makes sense." Scorp answered and then looked at him. As if he wanted to know and Draco could only grin at the sure look on the boy's little face.
"That's exactly right. You will notice it more in the spring when they build new nests for the babies. In Italy it was warm then." The two on the ground were carefully putting the nest in the container and Scorp was looking around.
"It must be nice here. In the Summer." His son asked and Granger looked at him. Then up and could see her suggestion he answer his son's question.
"Bit too hot down there in the summer. Nice here though. All green and the heat doesn't push at you the same. We used to like to go to Blaise's during Easter break. Felt like summer had already come." He said and Scorp nodded at him. Accepting that and then he looked around differently. As if he were back to scouting for something to find and he waited while Granger got her bag back together and then noticed the way the boy still beside her was watching him.
When she stood and dusted herself off the look was clear. You should have helped her, and for a second he was stunned at the rebuke in the hard eyes. Then he nodded seriously and met tray's eyes while he did. Lighter than Theo's but just as judgemental, just was watchful and he was glad he knew how to honestly show him that he understood. It all happened in a few seconds but it was expressive and he smiled before Tray smiled at the witch and headed off toward Scorp.
"This is school too then?" He wanted her to talk to him and he liked walking through the forest with the boys and her. She treated it like this was a normal thing and he wondered at the life she thought was just that, normal.
"Life is school but yes. Sometimes we come out here with the bag and they just run around. That's fine too and it's their choice really. Both are curious though and I am too. If they want to find things and then learn about them I am all for it. I've learned lots, I spent more time reading than tromping through forests at their age." Her tones were so expressive and he heard the truth in her life is school comment.
"You went to school right? Muggles do that." He didn't know how to ask without maybe offending her but he was curious and as he had thought she just met his eyes for a second and then answered him.
"Yes, from five. Nursery school from three. I liked it, somewhat but if someone had offered me to learn the basics and then basically whatever else I wanted, at their age, I would have taken it. For some school is needed, for others we would learn regardless. More and faster than the basics set out for our peers." The two boys were climbing up a rock and she was watching them but didn't seem concerned. He had noticed this, that she reacted quickly but didn't stop them from trying things within reason.
"Like if they dropped you into Hogwarts with Mcgonagall or something." He considered her words, the way she spoke and their peers.
"I've thought about it a lot. Of course not all people should have access to all information but school is for everyone, it is the basics and fundamentals. Education is different. I was alone though, they have each other. A lot of school is for that too." It was as interesting to speak with her as he had thought it might be. He had been alone and she had been alone. He would have loved to go be with others his age at the age the boys were now. He seen a friend maybe once a week then.
"Do you think they need to be with others?" He watched her glance up at him and then sit on a rock. Then her hand flicked and she settled down, as if she had spelled the rock and she probably had.
"Yes. I mean they need to meet more people, it was only me and Blaise. Now it's you two but none of us are regular people to them. We have connections and I'm sure, I mean, I know that the life they have led and the hiding, that will have left trauma. How can they go to school of none of us are alright with them getting on the train? They need to be able to judge people and know when it feels like things are alright and when it doesn't. It can't always be that it doesn't or they won't know when to react. Maybe they won't and that's scary." Her eyes flicked twice to the boys while she said this but when it was her meeting his, he could see the real concern. The last sentence was accompanied by near panic in her tone and he knew she was right.
"I'm so glad you've thought of any of this." He blurted it out and she blinked at him and then nodded seriously before she turned her attention to the two collecting sticks. Why he didn't know but they were having fun.
"Not a big rush. They've got five years before school." The soft tone made him sure she was trying to reassure him that it wasn't an immediate problem.
"Do you worry a lot?" Draco wanted to know and didn't know if she would ever talk to him like this again. Her sideways glance at him was surprised he thought, maybe not though.
"I don't know if I worry more than anyone else responsible for children. I haven't had much experience. Teddy a few times but not like this, someone else decided how he was cared for and I just played and did what I was told." The genuinely unsure tone told him she was being honest and he wondered who that was.
"Teddy?" He asked and realised the boys were making some kind of pyramid or something.
"Lupin and Tonks' son. He's Harry's godson. Your cousin of some kind." The quiet tone in her voice was different and he thought about that while he thought about the answer.
"Scorp was maybe six months old when I heard she had a baby." It was an answer and she only nodded and didn't meet his eyes.
"Harry showed me a picture and he has gotten so big." There was a warmer tone now and he thought she was genuinely fond of the boy. Who she hadn't seen since she left England with his sons. Before that, as they had been here for some time.
"Maybe they could play. It's not Harry's call but Andromeda's so we might be able to swing it." The witch sounded as if this would be excellent and he could only nod once when she looked up at him. Asking what he thought, he wasn't against it and thought that if she thought something was alright then it probably was.
This was as good a time to broach something Theo and him had talked about. It wasn't easy to articulate but he thought she would get his drift.
"Do you think they will always be their last names?" He asked, this was the best and shortest way he had to phrase the question and he was watching her so saw her still. He did look away after a few seconds and watched the two building a second structure of some kind and was thankful for the warming charms. Feeling comfortable was still surprising and the feel of the cool air on his face was just the right amount of temperature difference, not cold like it had been in there.
"Yes. Scorp will always be your son. Your Mother's grandson too." He didn't close his eyes but wanted to, wanted to try and push away how that felt.
"You don't want that not to be important to him, do you?" It had been a minute of silence and he heard the real question. Then looked at her and she looked surprised or something close enough.
"Not as important as it was to me." He pushed the words out and she nodded as if they hadn't been nearly tortured sounding. They watched them abandon the towers and then pick up the sticks and move to an open space.
"His family should be important to him. The people and what it means more than the name." It was quiet and she said it right after Scorp called her to come and see what they had made.
He watched her hair swing as she moved and then looked at his son, on his hands and knees on the half frozen ground with his best friend and looking up at the witch. She stopped and he couldn't hear what she said but Scorp looked up again and called for him.
"Dad, come see." The two stood beside the witch with smiles and she looked fierce. Not as if she were angry but in her Gryffindor way.
"It's the constellation shape for my name, see?" Then the small hand was in his and he looked down at the shape his son had been named after and then at his proud expression. It was made of sticks but that worked for the way they were often drawn. He had done this before, and with that thought he looked at the witch.
"It's a beautiful tradition. We've been thinking about naming his pet in the same way. Though I have been trying to keep the best names, incase he wants them for more important things later." Those honey eyes flashed at him, nearly a dare and he knew she could see more than he wanted her too.
"It's great Scorp. Been practicing?" He said as casually as he could but didn't drop her eyes and she lifted her chin, it wasn't much but it was stubborn. All he could do was nod once, acceding to her point, he could think about her stance on it later, other things too.
"Think we could do mine?" The smile both she and Scorp shot at him made him sure that he was right to have asked and the way Tray began looking around made him think they knew what it looked like.
"Have to do yours bigger. Maybe we could make my knot shape after My." Tray answered and Scorp was pulling away with a smile at him before he could ask what that meant.
"Nott is Celtic in origin, he likes the knot shapes. We've made some out of rope and things. One is hung on my stairway. We should get it and bring it here." The easy way she spoke, though she didn't meet his eyes, while she began making scuff marks that marked points was humbling and he knew Theo would be floored.
None of this had been mentioned and the easy way the boys spoke, the way she spoke as if this were all a part of her life, he couldn't think about it and do this. He wanted to do this with them and so he just started picking up longer sticks he thought might work for the wings at the size she had indicated.