Cause and Effect

"When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to hear '27 months.' 'He's two' will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place."
― George Carlin

The baby came in the time between Winter and Spring.

Guiomer wasn't exactly useless during the childbirth. Draco had slipped calming draughts in his hip flask and he carried out Luna's orders with startling efficiency.

Draco, in his role as the not-exactly-errant uncle, settled in for playing with a set of cards and a pair of dice. Occasionally, when the orders for linens, towels and hot water temporarily ceased, he distracted Guiomer by calling out the different sword sets. When he ran out of that, because his knowledge of swordsmanship only went so far, Draco started asking about herbs and fungi. It distracted Guiomer enough that he did not wear trench on the floor and he only fidgeted. Because even if he had his mother's gift, it was one thing to see it in the future and another thing to hold a baby.

Only Phobos assisted Luna, because someone had to stay in the hospital, and Heather held on to Cailyn's hand. Hermione, because Cailyn asked for conversation, talked about the different pastries that Earth had that Middle-Earth had not yet developed. Cailyn was listening because in-between gasps, pants and pushing, she kept saying, "Really? How do you make that?"

Among all of them in the birthing room, only Luna and Phobos really worried. It amused Heather even as she held back her wince of pain when Cailyn squeezed particularly hard. Hermione and Cailyn had impeccable trust in Heather when she said that it would be alright the moment she touched her bare hands to Cailyns'. That Cailyn did not let go was just another thing.

Luna was focusing on the birth and was at the same time 'listening' to the state of the infant and the mother, so she could be excused for worrying. It had nothing to do with her faith in Heather…Right. Heather chalked it up to disbelieving healers who had to see results.

And then a loud wail rent the air.

There was a shocked silence among the adults and then there as a sudden rush to see how he looked like. Even those not in the birthing room came rushing up the stairs to get a glimpse of the boy.

Heather used her speed but she only did that to snatch the child from Luna's bloodied arms and then she plopped him in Cailyns'.

"Well?" Draco drawled from the doorway.

Luna gave a satisfied smile. "I counted all toes and all fingers. Everything is there. No problems and no complications."

"Not that, Lovegood," Draco said. "Who does he look like? I have a bet riding on this."

The women, with the exception of Luna, sent him mild looks of disgust.

"He looks exactly like his father," Cailyn whispered in awe.

Everyone ignored Draco when he groaned.

"Looks like he fell asleep" Hermione pointed out. "Cailyn, my dear. You ought to get Luna to clean him up for now. Then you can cuddle him all you want."

Heather gave a sheepish laugh at the look Luna sent in her direction. Well, maybe she was a smidge bit impatient.

"What are you naming him?" Phobos interrupted before things could get too far out of tangent.

That actually caught their wandering attention and even Luna stopped folding blankets. Guiomer scratched the back of his head and blushed while Cailyn beamed at him. 'Go on!' she mouthed to Guiomer.

"We're calling him James," Guiomer said with his eyes on his mother, who dropped the roll of bandages she had been holding.

"What?" Heather asked dumbly.

After a quick glance at Phobos, who quickly pretended to be deaf, Guiomer said quickly, "We have two names, right? Almost everyone in this room has two names. I'm thinking that it could be like a family thing."

Everyone watched how Heather would take that. And then they relaxed when she gave a heartbreakingly bright smile.

"Oh, brilliant!" she gasped. "That's a brilliant idea." If her eyes were suspiciously bright, no one mentioned it.

"So that's his first name?" Hermione broke in. "And the second?"

"Yeah, uhmm.." he trailed off, looking extremely embarrassed. "His second name is Aedan."

Draco and Hermione broke into laughter even as Heather groaned.

"Really, son? I didn't brainwash you when you were younger, right?" she said.

"It's all those dragon stories," Luna said somberly, even as her lips gave an upward quirk. "Sir Aidan, dragon slayer."

"Well, I like it," Guiomer said defensively. "So stop making fun of my son!"

Okay, there was the temper.

Heather herded everyone outside to leave the new parents alone with their child. She stopped to give Cailyn a kiss on the cheek and to pat her son on his shoulder. Her last stop was to get her first really close look at Baby Aedan.

And in that same moment, the baby opened his eyes for the first time and Heather felt her heart squeeze. They were as green as her own, if a bit unfocused.

"Sleep well, James Potter," she whispered. "Sleep well, Aedan of Haven."

A month's paternity leave for Guiomer had Heather so busy that she barely had time to comb her hair. She had gotten so used to Guiomer taking up her workload that she had forgotten how tiring half of them were. Added to the rest of her other duties, it became a delicate art of juggling time, making her feel like a bloody circus clown. The only good thing she found in the entire thing was the discovery of several things that needed improvement.

Guiomer may have been good, but he still needed experience. A quick establishment of two assistants and three permanent errand boys had it becoming bearable.

It wasn't completely about work. Even if Baby Aedan could only wave his pudgy arms around and look cute, he was still a fussy baby. If he woke up and saw no one around him, he wailed like a banshee. Cailyn, being the brilliant mother, developed a method that would allow her to keep an eye on him at all times.

She commissioned Fenny the Fox to watch over him.

Right, maybe not exactly brilliant. But she offset this momentary lapse of judgment and commissioned Kreacher too. And he looked enough like a human that the baby did not wail.

These matters, however distracting, were not enough to take Heathers attention from the visions she was receiving. So she pursed her lips and went to her siblings to call for a real Sanctuary meeting – the first in nearly seven years.

[break]

The wards of Haven, the runes that were carved deep into the earth, took their strength from wizards. Mainly, the four of them. And recently, Guiomer and little Aedan. But if two or three of its creators were not in Haven, the wards were only at half of its strength. That was so that the ones who remained would not get their strength sapped.

Her idea was to tie the wards to Guiomers blood so that it would never fall, even if none of them were there.

"Blood wards," Hermione exclaimed. "I think there are several books on that in the Library."

Luna's protuberant eyes were closed and she nodded slowly, "Yes, because there may be times that one or all of us will have to leave. We have a contingency for the people."

All of them felt the same way, anyway. Because once you save a life, it was your responsibility to see them live.

"We already have the tunnel network under the city, and the courier service. And if you want to get down on the details, there's the hawk messenger birds," Draco pointed out. He was looking at several maps and had a dozen notes scattered all around him.

Hermione sighed and Heather wanted to fidget. The meeting had been the longest that all of them had ever had in the Sanctuary. Usually, most of their ideas came quick and fast, like liquid mercury.

"What we need," Hermione said as an idea occurred to her. "Is the security that the wards would not fall as long as Guiomer's blood line survives. Even if none of them are in Haven."

Okay, now that was a breakthrough.

"And in case there are bastards, or estranged children," Draco added with amused eyes.

"The wards need to react to their entry visibly or it needs to be felt by the rest of the wizards, so that no one can refute it," Luna finished.

Heather managed a weary giggle at that. The both of them really looked at all angles. Fussy purebloods. They probably had handbooks for that.

"It will not take all of its strength from Guiomers blood," Hermione pointed out. "As it is now, with only two of them, it will cripple them, especially Aedan."

Draco nodded. "Place a clause on the runes that would prevent it happening immediately. There must be a certain age, or it could be a gradual change."

And just like that, they were back on track. Parchment flew as they traded information and schedules via wandless summoning charms. Ink splattered on several things, ending up with inky casualties that were usually hair, or clothes. Body parts were not spared, eventually. By the end of it, only Draco's hair still shone with energy and cleanliness. (How does he do that?)

The end result, however, was completely worth it.

The modified ward runes ran on several pieced of parchment, connected by sticking charms. It encompassed half of their living room. It was also one of the most powerful things she had ever felt; it hummed even if it was only on parchment.

"Brilliant!" Heather remarked gleefully.

Only silence answered her and that was uncharacteristic of Draco to be so quiet. Turning to her siblings, she found Draco and Luna cuddled together, asleep. Hermione was no better since her head rested on top of a pile of books, light murmuring coming from her mouth.

A quick check to the window explained why. It was nearly dusk and they had started at around dawn.

With an affectionate sigh, she casted Cushioning charms in quick succession and then summoned several blankets. After she draped it over all three of them, she got her own and settled in the sofa with another sigh.

Sometimes, their new life was hard. But Heather would see Draco laugh, Hermione expostulate on a new theory and Luna's newer, more aware smile and she knew she would not change it for all the magic in the world.

It took them nine hours arguing and debating without break and only three hours to create the new ward runes. The application only took them five hours. That was an extremely long and exhausting process that Heather wanted to evanesco from her brain.

The effects of it, however, took them four days to recover from.

Guiomer, of course, noticed the changes immediately. He felt the tingle and change right down to his very veins. After some hurried explanation – and some minor worry because they completely forgot to tell him the details, only that they were adjusting the wards – his expression ranged from shocked to worried.

"Are you alright then?" he ended up asking them more than once.

Heather smiled at him. "We'll be fine. We're just a little tired." Then she frowned a little. "You're not angry, are you?"

It was his blood and nobody asked him. It made Heather a smidge bit guilty since it reminded her a bit of that Tournament fiasco and the Order of the Phoenix.

"My instincts told me," he reassured her. "It's fine."

Instincts was what he always called his own gift of foresight.

Baby Aedan had no complains and made their recovery very interesting. There were several incidents that occurred with the others in the four days they took turns in babysitting him. Hermione even took to the Sanctuary to recover herself in solitude. Heather suspected that it had something to do with books. The incidents regarding Draco and Luna remained a mystery but Draco twitched every time the little tyke got too close to a cauldron and Luna established a "no potions within reach of children" rule.

As for Heather, it was the first time she considered seriously cutting her hair after Aedan had choked on the fine, colorful strands after putting it in his mouth. It resulted in the baby regurgitating his breakfast all over her hair, and then bawling his eyes out.

"You're crying?" she said, aghast. "What about me? This is my hair you vomited on, you fire breathing dragon!"

Heather ended up cutting it anyway after she shared a bath with Aedan, which he completely enjoyed. She swore he was bipolar.

"You're not developing psychological issues this early, are you?" she asked him seriously. "I swear I told Cailyn that Fenny was not a suitable nanny material."

Aedan only gurgled at her, wearing Guiomer's face and having Cailyn's smile.

Things eventually returned to normal and it soon became a common sight to see Aedan riding on top of Fenny, squealing his glee at being so high up. They all knew that Kreacher was invisible and watching over him because he never fell down, no matter how fast Fenny moved.

Still, it gave several of them gray hairs – figuratively and literally. It was one thing to know and another thing to see.

But then all of that got temporarily pushed a bit to the side when Lord Faramir of Gondor arrived in Haven.

OMAKE:

A New Citizen's opinion regarding Haven

Cabhan was very happy he had chosen to follow the rumors he had heard when he was younger. It was said that Haven was a place to go when you're looking for a fresh start and so far, everything he'd heard about was true. Added to that, there was the feeling of safety that he got when he entered the city. This reinforced the stories too, that Haven had some of the best warriors that could fight on par with the elves.

"The young Lord has finally gotten an heir," one of the gossiping old biddy's said loudly. Everyone heard and Cabhan was curious enough to eavesdrop.

"Really?" another gossiping woman asked dramatically. "I wonder if the child can wield the Sword."

Even to his ears, Cabhan could hear the capitals.

He forged on to his new house, trying his best to ignore them. He was only a block away when he saw something that made him freeze. What was a fox doing in Haven? And a really large one at that?

And then he realized that there was a child riding on top of it like you would a horse. He blinked his eyes several times and found that the image was still there. Nope, he wasn't dreaming.

Okay, maybe Haven wasn't all perfect. It probably caused hallucinations, but that was okay. At least he was safe, right?

Aaand that is it for the Fluff Arc.

Questions:

The Dwarves in Haven?

Tricky. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the situation. I'm still plotting that bit in my brain.

The fellowship bit?

Okay dudes, I wrote this at around chapter one, so if you keep asking, you suck. Just to reiterate, yes, I will add the fellowship in this, but probably in a way that none of you will expect.

Heather in a relationship?

Okay, I will try. That's not my main goal, though. Seriously, people. Is that all you think about?

Will Hermione tell Elladan the truth?

Uhm, first clause in a good relationship is honesty, so yes? Do you seriously have to ask that? Ah well.

Any others will just have to wait. I am a bit busy. For the one who requested the list, I'll add it next chapter, I promise. School just got in the way.

R&R.

~Hallen