DISCLAIMER: HP belongs to JKR. The storyline, all new characters, new character development, new developments are my intellectual property. Glorioux

Pixies' Woes

Hermione bit her lip and sobs robbed her whatever else she was going to say...

Lucius knew exactly what all the other adults where thinking, for it was in his mind too: *oh, dear*.

Draco wasn't pleased for her tattling on him. After listening to Kreacher, he knew that those who did 'bad' things went to the place his uncles had been. Nevertheless, his Veela was unhappy to see her so sad.

Grant was miserable; he could have never imagined raising Hermione would be so involved.

He remembered that spring day at the park when Draco had wondered straight into Mimi, and had started pulling her hand, intent in taking her away with him. "Darling, you were right, Mimi is going to be our death, just look at her first suitor."

They had both laughed enchanted, and Rose, class conscious, was going at how well dressed the little boy was. All had been so simple then, and he wished it all back.

Moody, who had met his son and his family during the Summer Holiday, had a soft spot for the curly haired witch. He wanted to hold her hand, not only to comfort her, but for personal reasons.

Since she had touched him, the ghost pains had improved. They went away for months, and they were coming back. He held her hand, and the warmth coursed through him; she stared at him, through sad tears, yet knowingly.

She liked Moody. She could feel his pain and wanted him to feel better, hence her desire to grow him an eye. They had a peculiar empathic relationship; it wasn't like that with everyone, but she felt Moody's pain.

Alastor wasn't a particularly friendly person with the adults because he had grown in an Auror family. He had, however, a soft spot for children, and had liked Hermione since the moment he saw her, same with Harry. This was the start of a long friendship between them.

He put his hand on her cheek and wiped the tears with his knuckle, and Hermione looked at him with love, it made Alastor's heart expand.

"No darling, little witches are good, and they never go to prison. I promise to make sure you that the four of you are safe as long as I shall live. Now, here, let me see, my dears." He took the bundle away from the children hands, and the adult residents held their breaths.

Hermione's eyes saw Moody's eye, and Draco and Harry did as well. Their young eyes were fascinated with the possibilities of owning the eye.

The magical eye still held the same attraction as before, when they first met the Auror.

"Here sir, me and the boys we are Healer Pixies, and like to fix things, like hmm, sick people." Draco nodded his head emphatically and so did Harry and Frankie. All eyes glued on Moody's eye.

Lucius caught on to what the wee ones were up to, and his migraine worsened. What was his little enchantress doing? She sounded like was selling something.

"Yes, sir, we aksed permission to fix the eye. We are Healer Pixies, I am Light, and he is Shadu.", Draco added pointing at Harry. One little sentence which made all the adults cringe.

"Daddy and Uncle Lushus didn't say yes or not." Harry sounded conflicted, just realizing that they had been bamboozled. "Maybe they were kinda of tricky." He sighed. Some of the adults had to smile, these children were too smart.

Draco had been right; asking for permission sometimes wasn't a good idea. Harry thought, because he also wanted to get Moody a new eye, and maybe Moody would give them the weird eye for them to play with. He wanted to scare that Miss Rose.

Moody, whose son had two children, knew all about the Healer Pixies. After all, he had read the books to his grandchildren, well, they were his grandchildren, but his son didn't know Moody was his father.

Thinking about the books, he smiled to them. He had a son, sweet Poppy, his secret wife.

"Ooh, yes, I know who they are. You have done nothing wrong. Let me see… And maybe later, you can try to fix my eye. I hear Healer Pixies are exceptionally good healers."

And before any of the adults could do anything, he opened the handkerchief and looked inside.

Sirius couldn't believe his ears. Tough as old nails, Alastor Moody, saying 'dear', 'darling', and being so tender with the children… Talk about surreal! Maybe this was an alternate life after all. Plus the children had their grubby little hands over him checking his uniform and the rest of him.

"How can this be? This is a trick or what," Moody exclaimed looking inside the handkerchief. He shook his head, and looked up to the children as if asking.

The children started crying and sobbing, "I am sorry…the birdie was almost deader…" Harry's voice was hard to hear in the midst of his sobs.

The adults couldn't help it, and a groan was heard around the room. This was a disaster. They decided to raise birds from the dead while an stranger was there.

The children had rescued a bird that must have been badly torn, judging by the mess in Moody's hands. The poor bird had lost great many feathers, and children not knowing how to grow feathers, had probably cut some of the Kneazle's hair with their play scissors.

Hermione, or the bunch of them, had attached the hair to the bird's skin. The injured bird had Kneazle hair growing in half of his body, and the head had been attached backwards to what was left of the mangled neck.

It was obvious, the body was rejecting the hair implants, and the little bird was in shock because the damage had been too extensive.

The bird was barely alive with its head hung to the side, not bleeding but the neck half gone, not enough muscle support and the neck probably broken.

They must have tried to conduct an impromptu surgery, instead of allowing the body to fix itself. Perhaps if, they had used their everyday healing magic, they could have saved it. As it was, there was only one thing left, to put the creature out his misery.

"Kreacher told us we are bad, that the birdie should be left to be deader. I don't want him to die. We tried." Harry was the group's spokesman, and he wasn't doing well. "Poor birdie."

Grant's father gathered him in his arm to console him. Harry held on to him while Grant's lips curved in a smile. He shouldn't but laughter was bubbling up inside.

Lucius didn't want to comfort them, he wanted them punished; they had promised no Healer Pixies and no Doors. The Dark Wizard sometimes forgot that they were little children. Or maybe he forgot he was no longer a child. He looked crossed, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Like he had been a stellar child… He hadn't been one, and Narcissa would remind him soon enough. She was already staring him down, and he just didn't look in her direction. He knew her, no sense in tempting fate.

Everyone had mixed feelings at the sight of the poor bird in such a shape. The bird wouldn't be able to eat, and flying would be awkward with the head pointing the other way.

Sirius smiled and was about to laugh at the mess the children had done, and Remus was avoiding looking at Sirius knowing he would lose it.

Rodolphus and Rabastan had their hands in front of their mouths, their bodies shaking with laughter. The witches weren't happy with the wizards since the majority were in the verge of not being able to control their laughter. All but Lucius.

Wallburga was eyeing Sirius with displeasure, and the little children as poor victims. Marguerite and Thallia wanted to gather them into their arms.

"Honey," Sirius talked to Hermione, keeping a straight face, "I have an idea. I think the birdie needs to take a long nap. I will take care of him, and put him up in the tree. Just promise all of us that none of you will do this again. Sometimes we need to let injured animals go, and the same has to be done with people," he looked at all of them with tenderness.

It was the wrong thing to say. He almost had them almost convinced until saying the 'let go' part. "No, we don't want him gone, we can do more pixie magic and fix him betters," Draco pleaded. Big fat tears rolling down his cheeks.

Mimi and Harry each nodded, agreeing with the youngest Malfoy. Their tears nearly gone, a new wave of hope coming their way, they were looking at each other and drying their faces with their robes.

Harry squirmed in Grant's arms; he wanted down and to rejoin his brothers and sister pixies. There were plans to be made.

Lucius felt panic build up inside him. He didn't want the kids 'abilities' known outside their family group. Moody was one of them but only in the Silver Shadows, in the fight, Moody wasn't a family member.

He needed to do something fast. Thus far, it had been one of the best periods of his life. With the Dark Mark gone, the closeness and camaraderie of their training group, it had been a great experience. He saw it as chance to grow as a wizard and a warrior, and mostly, he liked the love and friendship shared. He was very close to Severus, but Grant was a brother.

He'd grown attached to the relative peace that had encompassed his life since they arrived to the Loire. Now, in just one day, chaos threatened to bring it all to an end. The tiny bit of insecurity that he carried since childhood whispered to his soul that his happiness had been too good to last.

To compound to his growing stress, Kreacher was at the door, with Dobby and Jeanie on tow; Jeanie had left Evie outside. "Kreacher, I told you not to go in there." Jeanie was chasing the ornery house-elf. But the door had opened already.

Kreacher was talking the moment the door opened. He addressed Sirius, now that Wallburga was pleased with her son. Whatever the Mistress wanted, Kreacher complied. He talked very fast, not breathing. W

"Lord Black, the childrens are naughty. They cuts the mistress' Kneazle's hair; it be wrong. I says, 'no, you bad'. They tolds me, 'yous nosy Kreacher' and Dobby laughs. He helps and gives them scissors. They do a thing to sticks Pepita's fur to poor birdie's the head. They is bad. They make bads; and dead is dead. Dobby lets them, says they are little and is okay. It be wrong, the bird was dead. I sees it, not moving. And they started to do the pix—"

He was stopped by his mistress before he could blurt out any more. At this point they're all horrified, and the children were hiding behind Grant and Sirius' legs. They were crying again.

Wallburga was already distressed that an outsider had been allowed to learn so much about the children. Thus, she channeled her frustration, not towards Dobby or the children, but to the upset house-elf.

She resembled 'Portrait Wallburga', and Sirius cringed at the similarity. "Kreacher – out, now! You miserable elf! We don't intrude when visitors are in the house, you have a second to get out - NOW"

Her voice was cold, and Kreacher looked deeply hurt but obeyed, a pop, and he was gone. Dobby also went away in a pop, with a grin brightening his face.

Jeanie ran to Grant and whispered in his ear, he shook his head and put his finger over her mouth.

Finally, it was Serpens who saved the day and Lucius' head from metaphorically exploding. Serpens kneeled in front of the children. He gently took the creature away from Moody. With a wandless gesture, he took all the discomfort away from the bird.

With this bit of magic, he convinced the children of Sirius' initial intentions. "Chers, I am going to try to heal him, but he is terribly sick. I just made him go to sleep. I will put him up on a tree, and if he is well, he will fly away."

He didn't promise that the bird would be healed, but instead told them whatever was destined would happen. He took the bird, moved with it outside the room, and with another wandless gesture put the animal out of its misery, and then changed him into the seed of a flowering tree.

One day he would tell them but now. Children should be protected from the harsh realities of death for as long as possible.

Marguerite and Wallburga took the children outside, and the moment they were out of hearing range, the wizards' guffaws filled the room. The bird incident provided comic relief for some of them, and concern for a few.

Alastor had heard enough and wouldn't relent. He wanted to know how the children could have done such feat. Luckily, he had ignored Kreacher's claims and so had the others.

They all imagined that Kreacher was wrong, the bird was injured, about to die, but not dead.

He didn't tell them about Hermione's touch, and how it made him feel better. He wanted the truth, and being astute, he didn't want Lucius and Narcissa or Grant and Jeanie to hide it from him.

At the end, Lucius compromised. Only a partial telling of the truth would suffice. Even then, what he would tell the seasoned and scarred Auror would be heavily edited.

As it was, Alastor had heard and seen too much; a wand oath was in order. Moody had to keep the Malfoy's and the Granger's secrets. He only had to say the word 'Albus,' and Alastor willingly complied with Lucius' stipulations.

Lucius looked around the room and only saw approval from those grouped around him. They didn't need to say the words out loud to know that they all agreed it was the thing to do.

"The children have shown promising healing abilities, and they have healed small wounds. Their magic is too weak, and who knows how they did it." Never had his silver tongue been smoother.

"I think that, more than likely, they used Muggle glue to paste the hair. The head is a mystery." He shrugged his shoulders, as if to say that kids were creative when they needed to be.

The others nodded and pretended it was silliness, just a little something that kids did.

Alastor laughed and believed him - for the most part – because because any other explanation would have been too bizarre.

Lucius and Grant hid their sighs of relief. Sirius, Serpens, Wallburga, Jeanie and Narcissa locked their emotions behind a façade for the sake of supporting Lucius' tall-tale. The children were learning and growing fast, but they were children, and for now, their secret was safe, but for how much longer? They all hoped that they would outgrow their Healer Pixie ways, but there was no way to know. And did they truly wish for the children to forget such healing magic?

Before leaving, Alastor gave Lucius and Grant the latest coordinates he had for Azkaban, security for the prison dictated that coordinates were changed often. He drew a floor-plan of Azkaban, complete with all the details of the guards, lay-out of the grounds, everything he knew of the vile island. He highlighted on the map the area where Rodolphus was being held.

"You need to be careful. Azkaban hasn't earned its reputation because of it warm balmy weather and friendly service. Send me an Owl when you are near Azkaban. I will have the guards ready to assist you."

Alastor assumed the plan was as originally discussed, and nothing had changed. He wouldn't have been in agreement.

Before he left and before Lucius had chance to send him off, Hermione dashed back into the room with Draco second, and Harry and Frankie little farther back. They were not alone. Miss Delacour, the nanny, was running after them.

Hermione was talking at the top of her little lungs. "Sir! Sir! When I am older, Daddy and Mommy said I will be allowed to tell you that I can make your eye grow again. Do you like yellow and pink?"

Draco skidded to a halt next to his mate. He cut in, and spoke even louder than Mimi. "You promised, remember? Only yellow, he is a boy. Mr Muddy– you said 'later'. Now is 'later'. Do you want to try us now?"

Draco's face brimmed with hopefulness, completely disobeying once more, and not looking at his parents' direction. Serpens chuckled at the children's antics, and at Lucius' displeasure. It was good to be around the young ones, and to be able to leave the discipline to the parents.

Alastor laughed heartily. He gave the little pixies a hug and stood by Hermione. "Sure, darling. If you can make it grow again, you can make it pink, purple – whatever color you want. It is your choice. But if you promised Mr. Malfoy and your Mum and Dad that you'd wait until you were older; so, we wait, okay?"

Alastor didn't want to be an experiment, and besides he knew that it was a pretend game, or he hoped. Lucius had mentioned the kids were trying their hand at healing; surely, he thought, it was a parental exaggeration, or was it? Though, in a way he hoped that it was true.

Lucius joined the laughter, "Alastor, you'd better be careful what you say around them; these children don't forget anything!" In his mind's eye he saw Moody with a pink and yellow eye, and laughed harder.

At this, everyone laughed – each for different reasons than Alastor's. The children were ecstatic to know they had carte blanche to heal Mr. Muddy.

As for Alastor, the pains he had felt earlier were all gone, and that is all he cared about. He wouldn't share the information with anyone; he was good at keeping secrets.

In the back of his mind, he suspected Lucius hadn't been honest with him, but who told all their secrets?

Now with Alastor gone time to decide if they should use Hermione to find Azkaban.

a.n. I found out Chapter 47 was cut in half during the saving. If you have time read it. Of course I am not sure when it happen, anything is possible. Yup, they are a handful, good children but way too smart and powerful.