AUTHOR'S NOTE: My vacation got pushed back a week. Lucky you. Unlucky me -I was actually looking forward to getting away from this place for a few days... :pouts:
He Was Just A Boy
Capricious Purple Clarity
Chapter Two
"I feel like a trussed-up turkey in this get-up."
Aedri smirked at his son. "Get over it. Merlin, you bitch more than Rodriguez about your abysmal grades in Herbology, Sinclair."
"Don't call me Sinclair," Sinclair muttered, distracted by the last small button at his collar. When he succeeded in buttoning it, he found his wind-pipe halfway choked off. "Can't... breath..."
"Don't be ridiculous," Aedri said casually, checking himself in the full length mirror of the bathroom. "If you couldn't breathe, you wouldn't be talking. Oh, good gods above," he said when he actually turned to look at his son. "You look like a trussed-up turkey. Honestly, does that sister-in-law of mine have any taste at all?"
"It's decided," Sinclair choked out, finally relieving himself of the one stubborn button and breathing deep. "The woman's out to get me. Bet she blames me for her son's rebellion and everything -someone should point out the idea that if it's rebellion that's the case, it's really all Will's fault."
"Why bother?" Aedri replied in long-suffering amusement. "He won't feel bad about it or anything."
"Damn skippy," William said as he breezed in, his azure blue robes fitting his form to the T. "Can you believe that woman? I don't do bright, chirpy colors! I knew we should have gone out and bought our own dress robes for this ridiculous notion of passing on outdated patriarchic bullshit. The feminists in this country must be frothing at the mouth over this gross injustice."
Coming from a man who claimed he wanted to donate his testicles to a lovely feminist group after his death, Aedri didn't take his comment with much salt.
"Christ, Sin, you look worse than I do," William said in disgust before he turned narrow eyes on his former teacher, current debate partner, and forever mentor. "And how the hell did you manage to land an outfit that actually makes you look good?"
"Because my dear sister-in-law knows I'm not above burying her up to her neck on the shore of a beach during low tide," Aedri said sweetly. He wasn't going to tell them that he'd actually gone shopping with the overenthusiastic woman, and he'd approved of both robes despite her protests simply for entertainment value.
He'd told her they'd never forget the sentiment. He never mentioned they'd never forgive her for it either.
"Close the door behind you, William. There's a word I'd like to have with the two of you."
"A word, Uncle Aedri?" William said innocently, using the heel of his boot to kick the door shut. "Hell, let's go all out -why don't we make it two?"
Aedri hated that his patent Glare of Doom had long stopped working on the insolent yet loveable git. He supposed after being on the receiving end of it since he was in nappies dulled the impact such a stare had after a prolonged period of time. "You two have that look. That look that says you're about to stir the cauldron to the brink of explosion. When it's just you, William, that's worry enough. Proving my fear that you would eventually corrupt my son was not unfound is disturbing. William, how could you do this to me?"
"You say corruption, I say education," William shot back with that ever-present smirk that always inspired a certain amount of unease in Aedri. "Relax, Dri -your son's finally realized that chaos is the only way. Down with Establishment!"
"Go boil your head in hot wax," Aedri said lazily. "Now. What's going on?"
"Should we tell him?" Sinclair asked William mischievously.
"Hmm. Yes, I think Uncle Aedri will appreciate the irony of the situation," William said solemnly. "We saw Green Eyes yesterday. Turns out, he's a wizard."
Aedri felt his eyebrows raise. Then he glanced at his son, who seemed a little too calm about all of this. "And... he's still breathing? Sinclair, your exercise in patience astounds me."
"We also eavesdropped rather shamelessly on a conversation between Green Eyes and his friend," Sinclair said quickly, avoiding the subject. Aedri found himself smirking at his son's unwitting admittance that, yes, his cool had been close to being lost. "Turns out his name is Harry Potter. Ring any bells?"
Oh.
Oh, buggering hell.
"You're pulling my leg. No, wait. William's involved," said Aedri. Despite his charge's habit of pushing his sanity to the brink, William never really outright lied to Aedri. "Harry Potter? The bloody Boy Who Lived himself is Draco's Green Eyes? Draco is the bearer of the Boy Who Lived's children?"
"We actually had to do some research to find out this whole Boy Who Lived nonsense," William said with a casual flick of his wrist. "Defeater of that Lord Voldemort guy and all. Actually deflected a Killing Curse, if the books we read are telling the truth. Gutsy, refusing to die and all. You'd think he'd have some sort of honorable mention in the States, but relations between the British and US Ministries have never been really good. Another way the Establishment's screwed us over."
"Anyway, Narcissa's gone and invited Green Eyes to this whole coronation stuff," Sinclair said eagerly. "He has no idea that the coronation is being held in Drake's honor, and Drake thinks Green Eyes is a muggle, so he's not expecting anything either. We're sort of going to sit back and watch the fireworks."
William smirked devilishly. "Wanna spectate with us, Dri? I promise, once you get a taste of observing bedlam, you'll never quite get the same fix twice."
"And if this all blows up in your face?" Aedri honestly wanted to know. "What if it goes south, and this isn't the happily ever after we've quite been hoping for our little Draco?"
"Funny thing, chaos," William said with a shrug. "Tends to work itself out. So? You in?"
"Your infatuation with the concept of complete disorder and confusion both astonishes and alarms me, William Black," Aedri said with an arrogant toss of his head.
William grinned. "Sounded like a yes to me."
A house-elf popped in to inform them that guests were beginning to arrive before popping back out again. With one last look at William's grinning pleasure and Sinclair Malfoy's eager anticipation, Aedri Malfoy decided that, for once, he wouldn't meddle in the affairs of his children any longer.
Harry felt like he was seconds away from being eaten alive. There seemed to be a calming illusion about safety in numbers -on one side of him stood Ginerva and Ron Weasley, and on the other was Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood.
"I apologize for our tardiness," Hermione said. Behind the Malfoy woman and through a wide, expansive doorway was a ball room filled with finely dressed wizards and witches, some familiar and most not.
"It's no problem, Hermione. Thank you for coming," Narcissa whispered to them in confidence, relief evident in her voice. "My brother-in-law convinced me to purchase some unfitting robes for his son and his charge -I saw William shoot me a nasty glare in the corridor earlier, and from what I know of him, that's never a safe sign. I could only hope he wouldn't do something that would ruin Draco's night."
"Of course he wouldn't, Narcissa," Hermione said warmly. She and the woman had, upon first meeting, hit it off. As it turned out, Narcissa wasn't as cold as she made herself out to be, and she and Hermione miraculously enough shared a common love affair with books. It wasn't uncommon to see the two deliberating over something they'd read somewhere.
Harry found himself slightly boggling at the surreal sight of two adorable little blonde children with wide green eyes clutching at Narcissa's robes. Hermione, always joyful at the sight of children, immediately knelt to their level and smiled.
"They're absolutely darling, Narcissa," Hermione said with a note of pleasure in her voice. "My name's Hermione Granger. And you are?"
"Valorie," the little girl piped, a clear note of an American accent in her voice as the girl hid half of her face in Narcissa's skirt. "Valorie Vonzell Malfoy. I'm five." She announced this with all the solemnity a five year old could muster.
"I'm Journey Harrison Malfoy," the little boy added shyly. "I'm five, too."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Valorie and Journey," Hermione said kindly. "You have such pretty eyes -I don't think I've met a Malfoy who didn't have silver or blue eyes."
"Kind of remind you of Harry's eyes, eh?" Ginny whispered to her brother.
"Valorie, Journey," Narcissa said, "these are Miss Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, and Miss Lovegood."
"Hello," the children said sweetly before stuffing their faces in the folds of Narcissa's elegant robes. Harry felt a smile tilt the corners of his mouth slightly, a bit envious at the sight of the children. It had always been a dream of his to raise a score of children, but... with his sexual orientation as it was, it was a vain dream, at best.
"They're my grandchildren," Narcissa added, a note of sad pride in her voice. Harry supposed that if the strain in relationship between her and her son was as bad as Hermione made it out to be, the older woman didn't have much in the way of an opportunity to spoil her grandchildren as much as she wanted.
"They must get their eyes from their mother," Hermione said.
Narcissa appeared surprised for a moment before she laughed ruefully. "Oh, yes... from one of their parents, though not a mother. Draco was the carrier of the twins, in this case."
Harry frowned, puzzled. "Carrier?"
"Oh, well, yes," Narcissa said carefully. "My son's not interested in women, Harry. The Veela in his blood was strong enough to give him the ability to birth children."
Before Harry could ponder that anymore than necessary, a cheerful voice called down from the winding steps, "Oh, yes, and Draco had a night of torrid passion with a green eyed tempter and, well, I guess it goes without saying. Hello, precious darlings. Come give Uncle Will shared skin surface and that odd thing you do when you press your lips to my cheeks."
The twins burst into giggles, and the little girl said in admonishment, "Hugs and kisses, Uncle Will!"
"How should I ever get used to these things?" the man named Will said with an exasperated wave of his hands, not pausing in his venture down the stairs. Oddly enough he was dressed in formal muggle attire, along with the young silver-eyed, blond man that followed him. He, along with the older man with the same hair and eyes had the definite look of the Malfoys. "Aedri never showed me such tenderness growing up. You're a beast, Aedri!"
"You're repulsive, William," the older Malfoy said easily and without ire.
Will planted his hands on his hips and tapped his foot expectantly once he reached the base of the stairs. "So? Are you going to do that kugs and hisses thing or not?"
"Hugs and kisses," Journey giggled, detaching himself from Narcissa's robes to throw himself bodily at the dark-haired, blue-eyed man. Valorie was not far behind.
"Oh, dear," Narcissa sighed despondently. "I knew those robes just weren't to your liking. Aedri, how could you ever convince me to buy such things?"
"What?" the younger Malfoy said in horror, staring at the older one as if he'd done something unbearably horrible. "You sick bastard. You tried to asphyxiate me!"
"Your suffering shall be legend, Aedri Malfoy," Will promised firmly... which couldn't really be taken seriously, what with two giggling children in either arm.
Aedri Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Sinclair, you could still breathe. If you couldn't breathe, you couldn't have possibly griped about not being able to breathe. William... well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see you get what was coming to you."
William narrowed his eyes grudgingly. "Touche, old timer." He allowed the children to slide from his waist to the floor, and he approached the group with a disarming smirk and calculating eyes that fairly screaming 'up to something'. "Aunt Narcissa, are you going to introduce me to your guests?"
"Of course," Narcissa murmured. "These are Ron Weasley and his sister, Ginny."
William clasped Ron's hand in a firm pump of hands before transferring his grip to Ginny's hand. Ginny smiled slightly at the solid handshake.
"Nice grip. Most men shake my hand as if I'd break."
William flashed her a knowing smile. "Most men don't know that women have this amazing ability to kick men in the naughty bits when they underestimate women." He repeated the same firm handshake with Luna and Hermione when they were introduced, and turned quickly to offer Harry his hand as well.
"And this is Harry Potter," Narcissa said finally.
"So what's the N stand for then?" Will asked, a note of innocence in his voice as his eyes traced over Harry's scar.
"N?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"Yeah -you know. The N thing." The man jutted his chin toward Harry's forehead pointedly. "Middle initial? Or did you get on someone's bad side when you were a sprout, and they decided to carve N for nitwit into your head?"
Silence. In the ballroom, a woman laughed rather shrilly, and there was a tinkle of glass above the murmur of the group. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Aedri Malfoy slowly place a hand over his face with a soft, disbelieving groan.
"Mr. Potter, disregard his ignorance as I have for most of his life," Aedri said tiredly. "The relationship between the US and British Ministries has never been up to par -you and the whole Dark Lord situation wasn't as important in the States as it was over here. My son and my wards are... not as familiar with the significance of that scar as most British wizards are."
"Weird," Ron said, obviously boggled by this statement. "Harry can't take a walk without being accosted by someone asking for an autograph."
"That's not necessarily true," Hermione argued. "Muggles have no idea who Harry is."
It was settled, then. Harry was moving to the Colonies to become just another face in the crowd.
"This is my nephew, William Black, my brother-in-law Aedri Malfoy, and his son, Sinclair," Narcissa rounded off serenely.
"Sin," Sinclair announced quickly. "Only the old timer and Aunt Narcissa calls me Sinclair."
"Black, you said?" Hermione questioned. "I thought Sirius..."
Harry barely resisted the urge to flinch violently, still sore from the loss of his godfather, even after so many years.
"William is my cousin Regulus' son," Narcissa seemed to explain tenderly. Knowing of Regulus Black's untimely fate, Harry looked at the man intending to apologize for his unfortunate loss. Surprisingly, the man's whimsical grin caught him off guard.
"My dad died before I was born," William explained in a tone that almost bordered on cheerful. "My mom died during childbirth -Uncle Aedri here raised me since I was knee high to a crab louse. As much as he claims to despise me, I like to think of him as the closest thing to a father I've ever had."
Aedri looked at Will with a long suffering look on his face. "William, I don't despise you. You were a very difficult student to deal with back in your schooling days. I stopped giving you detention every time you challenged my knowledge, didn't I?"
"You stopped giving me detentions because you were horrified when you realized you'd mapped out exactly where you were going to bury my mutilated corpse," Will said with a winning grin. Aedri appeared startled for a moment, and then a gleam of approval entered his eyes. "The difference between you and me is the fact that I'm horrified by nothing I do, as whatever I do is obviously human nature, and to be horrified with human nature is condemning the entire race. You should have kept giving me detentions purely to see if you could resist your human instinct, which was to remove a problem from the situation, i.e.: an insolent child was debasing you in front of your inferiors."
"Touche, boy," said the man in appreciation.
"You teach, Mr. Malfoy?" Hermione asked quickly. Harry could see, out of the corner of his eye, Hermione was giving William Black a shrewd frown, obviously disapproving of his attitude.
"Dad's the Defense professor at Sarvis Academy for the Gifted in Salem," Sin announced with a sly grin. "He absolutely hates it."
"Nonsense," Aedri said casually. "I love force-feeding intolerable brats like Will knowledge, something most young people that age abhor and avoid like the plague. It shows me exactly what hell is going to be like."
Right.
Americans were weird, yet slightly quirky in a sort of pleasant, can't-wait-to-see-what-he-says-next way. Harry couldn't wait to move there himself. He was just pondering the price of such an expenditure when Narcissa led them to the ballroom. Will and Sin immediately branched off and made a beeline for a passing tray filled with champagne. Aedri Malfoy was a little more formal with his departure when he excused himself to go speak with someone Harry recognized all too well -it was hard to miss the sour disposition of his former Potions Master and fellow Order member, Severus Snape. The brief, offhanded description Aedri provided on just what he thought of his job reminded Harry of his erstwhile professor of Potions, and Harry wondered vaguely if Aedri Malfoy was the Snape of Sarvis Academy.
"Mimi," a bright, inquisitive voice popped in, and Harry immediately turned his eyes to the blonde child who spoke the word while tugging gently on Narcissa's robes. "I need to go to the bathroom."
Journey looked grateful that his sister had voiced her needs before he piped that he required the same facilities. Harry supposed Valorie was the more outgoing of the duo -Journey seemed like the shy one.
"Mrs. Malfoy," said a breathless woman, clearly dressed in well-kept servants' robes, "there's a situation that needs your attention in the kitchens."
Narcissa looked torn between taking her grandchildren to the lavatory and dealing with the minor crisis in the kitchen when Harry volunteered, "I'll take them, Narcissa."
The blonde woman looked at Harry gratefully. "Thank you, Harry. Little ones, Mr. Potter will help you to the lavatory. Be good little children for him, all right?"
"Yes, Mimi," the twins chorused obediently, immediately slipping their small hands into his own. He was already being led out of the ballroom and away from appraising eyes when he realized that he had no idea where one would go about locating a privy.
"Hope you two know where you're going," Harry said cheerfully, trying to hide his nervousness at dealing with young children, "because I've never been here before."
Journey nibbled on his bottom lip shyly before Valorie came up with a solution. "Our suit has a private bathroom," the girl volunteered carefully, peering up at Harry through her blonde eyelashes. "It's on the third floor. We're sharing a suit with Daddy."
"Can you make it that far?"
"Uh-huh," the twins said, nodding their heads in unison.
"Lead the way," Harry said, and the twins were dragging him up two flights of stairs hurriedly.
END CHAPTER TWO
Chapter 2 down. Author is a whore for reviews; however, if you have something bad to say, please do so coherently. I like for you to list reasons to back up your beef with what I've written.