Thanks for the positive feedback you guys! Love you all!
A lot of you have PMed me and reviewed that you really want Dany to have a boy or girl so keep leaving those! It won't change the outcome, but it's still really interesting to see if people want a little boy that's going to raise hell or a little girl that will have her parents wrapped around her finger!
Read and Review!
Love, Essie
If I was the question would you be my answer?
If I was the music would you be the dancer?
If I was the student would you be the teacher?
If I was the sinner would you be the preacher?
~A Lot to Learn, Luke Christopher
Five more days passed and nothing happened. Dany spent the vast majority of that time biting her nails, going to work, anxiously shaking her leg, helping her child with his homework, pacing, shagging her husband, trying not to think about Rhaegar's precarious position in the Ministry, and taking pregnancy tests—getting a negative time after time.
"It's been a month. Why isn't anything happening?" She asked Sirius in bed one night. She had just taken another test that afternoon and it—yet again—had been negative.
"Conceiving can take time, Dan. We're going to have to be patient." He said soothingly, rubbing her back.
"What if I can't get pregnant?" She whispered, sitting up to look at him. "What if I just wasn't made for it? Maybe something's broken in me or—" Sirius put a hand over her mouth.
"Alright, we're stopping that logic right there. Love, some people try for years to get pregnant—you know that. There isn't anything wrong with you and there certainly isn't anything with you that's broken. It takes most people much longer than a month. It usually takes about six." He said, removing his hand from her mouth. She nodded and settled back down onto his chest.
"How do you know that it usually takes six months?" She whispered.
"I saw this coming as soon as we decided to start trying and looked it up." He said and Dany smiled a little to herself.
"Thank you." She whispered and Sirius was infinitely glad he had bothered to look that up if it made her feel at all better.
Watching her take test after test was pretty heartbreaking. It always went the same way. She would watch it hopefully, practically begging to have more than one line appear on the display. When the magical second line indicating pregnancy didn't show up, her face would fall and she would irritably throw the test away after staring at it for far too long, only to go take a walk outside for the next half hour, where Sirius strongly suspected she either cried or blew things up. He didn't care to know which although he suspected it was a combination of both.
At this point, he didn't just want the baby for the sake of the baby, although he wanted that too; he wanted the baby for the sake of his wife, to see her face when the second line did appear on one of those stupid tests. He was sick of watching her walk outside to go cry on her own where no one could see her.
Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe it was him. It wasn't unheard of, after all. No, there was no way that he was the one that couldn't conceive. Nothing seemed wrong with him. High sex drive, normal orgasms, everything was normal with both of them. It would just take time, Sirius figured as he looked down at the woman that had fallen asleep in his arms. He hoped it took as little time as possible though.
Before any of them knew it, they were being forced into dress clothes and were being forced to learn the proceedings of a tradition inauguration because—as Dumbledore had predicted—no one else was nominated for Minister of Magic.
Rhaegar was Minister. Well, in a week, after he was formally inaugurated in the middle of the Ministry's Atrium.
As his predecessor had been impeached, he wouldn't be able to swear Rhaegar in as fathers had done for their sons for hundreds and hundreds of years in the Masters family. So, instead his closest blood relative within the Ministry would. Dany was to swear him in and she was about ready to have a mental breakdown she was so stressed. Sirius was becoming legitimately worried about his wife, hearing her mutter the Oath of Office to herself in the shower, as she cooked, as she did paperwork. She was practically saying it in her sleep.
The night before inauguration, the family was sitting around the dining room table when Rhaegar suddenly looked up, panicked. He—like his sister—was about ready to crack under the pressure of the frantic preparations and the feeling that at any given moment something was about to implode.
For people who did well under pressure, this was a surprisingly violent response to the situation.
"Shay. You don't have a dress." Rhaegar blurted out. She raised an eyebrow at her husband. Shay and Sirius had agreed at the start of this shit-show of a process that it was their job to keep the siblings from feeding off of each other's panic and that it was imperative that they both keep level heads until Rhaegar was sworn in.
"Yes, I do. Dany and I took the kids shopping over the weekend." She said. "Everything's taken care of, Rae." Shay added soothingly. "And yes, we bought Mason and Harry new dress robes and Lynn a new dress." Sirius looked over at Dany, who nodded. "We also picked up new dress robes for Sirius and yourself."
"Wait, what?" Sirius asked and Dany looked over at him.
"You don't honestly think that you don't have to wear dress robes, Sirius Orion Black." She snapped.
"I didn't think about it, actually." He said, shrugging. "Where are they?"
"Upstairs in my closet with my dress and Harry's dress robes." Dany said, returning to meticulously picking her pot roast apart.
Sirius woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of vomiting in the bathroom. He checked the time to see that it was about one in the morning and then stumbled out of bed and into his bathroom, where his wife was throwing up. He sat down next to her on the floor and pulled her hair back from her face, rubbing her back as her dinner made a reappearance. She stopped vomiting after a minute or two and let go of the toilet, looking at him miserably.
"You okay, love?" He asked still half-asleep. She nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just nerves." She said with a half-smile. Sirius nodded, still not understanding why she and Rhaegar were so panicked. Yes, it was stressful. Yes, it was a big deal. They did stress and big deals for a living. "I know you don't understand why I'm being like this." She said softly, as if she was reading his mind.
"I don't. I really don't. I've tried, but I've never seen you react to pressure like this and I don't know what it is about this that's making you so—so—" He said, trying to think of a word that wasn't "mental" or "crazy".
"Insane?" She prompted dryly. Sirius nodded, relieved that she wasn't going to start berating him for it. "Ever since we were kids, Rhaegar and I saw our dad being Minister and my mom by his side they did it so perfectly. Now, it's Rhaegar's turn and Shay doesn't really quite understand the weight of what he's doing yet and because of that, I feel partially obligated to help him carry some of it—at least until he's in office—and the pressure of carrying on a family legacy that's almost two thousand years old is pretty crippling. Not only are we both trying to live up to the legacy in the Ministry that our family has left behind, but we're trying to live up to our parents as people." She said quickly, practically all in one breath.
"Dan, you aren't your father and you certainly aren't your mother. You'll never be just like them because you aren't them." Sirius said and she nodded a little.
"I know that. I just really want to make my dad proud—if he was still here, I mean." She whispered and Sirius got it. He understood the lunacy.
This was about her constant craving for her father's love and approval—even after he was dead. She was afraid of messing up something that her father had deemed important. "I know Rae feels the same way about Mom and you know how she was about tradition." Dany said with a watery smile. "Put even a toe out of line in a public setting and that was it—you were done for because Mom was going to have your head for it." She said, the tears starting to drip.
"Dany, love, do you really think your dad would want to see you this worried over him? Of course being Minister was important to him, but he loved you so much more than he loved that job. He wouldn't want you to be making yourself vomit because you're so anxious—especially if he knew it was because of him." Sirius said carefully, making sure not to accidentally say something that could be misconstrued to insult her father, who Sirius actually had liked very much; Daniel had always been kind to him and Sirius liked his head on his shoulders, thank you very much.
"I know, but I can't really help it. I mean what if I do mess up? In front of all of those people." She said and Sirius wrapped an arm around her.
"You're not going to Dan. You know it and you know you do."
"I know…sorry I woke you up." She said and he shrugged. He was quite sorry that either of them were up at this hour, but wasn't all that surprised. He suspected something very similar was going on in Rhaegar and Shay's bathroom.
"It's okay. Someone has to talk you off the edge of insanity, huh?" He said and she smiled a little, wiping her eyes. "But, I think it's time to go back to bed. It wouldn't do to have bags under your eyes tomorrow. Imagine what Witch Weekly would say." He said teasingly and she smiled, rolling her eyes.
"Ass."
"Don't I know it? Come on, Dan. Let's go." He said and she nodded, hastily brushing her teeth before crawling back into bed.
Sirius woke up at about eight the next morning—the inauguration was set to start at eleven and they were supposed to be there at ten—and his wife was, yet again, missing. He got out of bed and checked the bathroom and she wasn't there. There was no way she'd be down in the kitchen eating—not after throwing up last night. Sirius slowly peeked into her closet and there she was, in her bra and underwear, painting her fingernails, obviously already showered.
"Morning." He said and she didn't even jump.
"Morning. How'd you sleep?" Dany asked, not looking up from her nails. It had gotten to the point where Sirius wasn't offended by the lack of eye contact; he was just glad that she wasn't screaming, crying, or looking like she hadn't slept. Deranged wasn't a good look for his wife and he would be glad when this was over.
"Okay. Yourself?"
"Better after I threw up my entire dinner." She said, finally looking up. "About that…thanks." She added, biting her lip. Sirius smiled a little and nodded.
"Don't worry about it. So, do I ever get to see these dress robes?" He asked and she nodded, waving her wand at each one of her hands and her toes before getting up from the floor and walking over to a rack that was mainly empty. She handed him a garment bag.
"They're just classic black and white, so you don't have anything to worry about. I promise. Also, would you mind getting Harry into his? I never figured out bowties, honestly." Dany said and Sirius nodded, taking the much smaller garment bag and leaving her alone for now. "Sirius!" He poked his head back into her closet. "Don't forget your family ring." She added and he fought the urge to groan. "Don't give me that face; as much as you don't like it, you're Lord of House Black and you need to wear it. I left it on your chest of drawers."
"What about Harry? He is the last Potter left. Do we even know where his ancestral ring is?"
"I have it in my jewelry box. He's not of age yet though—we'll explain once he's older." Dany said, shooing Sirius out without a further explanation. He ran into Rhaegar in the hallway. He actually looked calm for once.
"How's Dan doing?"
"She threw up last night and is now meticulously painting her nails. Shay?"
"Convinced that everyone's going to think she's fat and ugly." Rhaegar said and Sirius sighed. That was hard—being in the public eye was particularly rough on the women in the family and Shay wasn't used to the attention.
"You're married to a beautiful woman. She'll be fine. How are you?"
"Holding it together. Shay talked me down last night. The only thing I can say is at least Dan only threw up." Rhaegar said and Sirius winced. "Yeah. Those aren't my dress robes, are they?" He asked hopefully.
"Sorry, mate. These are mine and Harry's—yours are in Dan's closet I think. She's in there so don't worry about facing her wrath for breaking in." He said and Rhaegar nodded before walking off. Sirius walked to Harry's room and opened the door. Harry was already awake and it appeared he had showered.
"Hi, Padfoot." He said with a smile. Sirius smiled back.
"Hey. Have you eaten breakfast? I know Dany and Shay are all wrapped up in getting ready and they usually make breakfast." Harry nodded.
"Yep. Uncle Rae made breakfast for Mason, Lynn, and me. What's that?" He asked, pointing to the dress robes.
"These are our dress robes. Now, I know they're uncomfortable, but they're better than daring not to wear them in front of Dany today." He said and Harry nodded, eager as everyone to avoid her anger until her brother was officially Minister. Sirius unzipped the garment bags and helped Harry get dressed, even doing so himself so the boy wasn't so uncomfortable getting dressed up. "Are Mason and Lynn getting ready?" He nodded. "Why don't you go hang out with them? I need to go make sure that my wife is still sane." Sirius added and Harry laughed before heading down the hallway to play with his cousins.
Sirius slowly walked back into his own room, checking the time: 9:15. He hastily put on his stupid ancestral ring on his right ring finger before peeking in the closet again, not daring to let his wife see him again without it. Dany still—weirdly enough—wasn't dressed. She was in one of Sirius' button downs and her panties. She was turned around from where he was standing, so he could only see that her hair was done into a curly, partially up, style—he suspected that makeup was firmly on her face as well.
"Dan?" He asked and she looked up. Sure enough, her makeup was applied. She looked even more beautiful than usual between the way her hair framed her face and the makeup. "You're still in one piece and everything? Sanity intact?" She nodded with a small smile. He slowly walked over and looked at whatever she was staring at on top of her vanity. "I remember those diamonds."
The diamond necklace was an heirloom from one of her dead relatives: Lucy Masters, sister to the Minister of her time, frequent presence in Victorian British court, and consort to an unnamed duke who had given her priceless diamonds.
"I never got the chance to wear them at our wedding like Mom wanted me to. They didn't look right for the neckline of the dress and I figured that now would be just as appropriate." She mused, running her fingers over the diamonds worth more than most people's houses. "Right?" She asked him. He nodded.
"Yeah. I think now would be good." She smiled a little. "What's that? You can only wear one." He asked, pointing to a necklace laid in the box next to it. While Lucy's necklace was strictly diamonds, the other one had an obviously goblin made silver chain. Hanging off the chain was a teardrop shaped emerald the size of a baby's fist, surrounded by layers of tiny diamonds.
"That used to be Mom's, but it was never really me. It's hard to be a Gryffindor and wear emeralds, you see." She laughed and Sirius was glad to hear her laugh. "All of her jewelry became mine when she died so…I was going to give it to Shay. I know she's worried about what everyone's going to think about her—she isn't from one of the old houses and she thinks that everyone's going to be saying how Rhaegar is above her and all that. Maybe this would help." Sirius kissed her cheek, purposefully not touching her hair.
"I ran into Rhaegar and he said she was worried about just that. It's a gorgeous idea, love." He said and Dany smiled before closing the box and leaving.
Sirius took another look at the necklace and noticed that her wedding band and engagement ring were laid out right next to it, along with a pair of simple yet sizable diamond studs—Sirius recognized those as a gift from him, for their first anniversary—and a diamond bracelet from (Sirius thought) Rhaegar. He poked around a bit more and found her dress. It was dark blue. The neckline—unlike her relatively conservative wedding dress—was right for the necklace she was wearing; it would leave her neck, collarbones, and some cleavage exposed. It would be stunning on her.
"I'm back." Dany said, walking back in. Sirius jumped. "Either leave or go sit on that ottoman." She added and pointed. Sirius quietly sat on the chair and watched her start to unbutton the shirt she was wearing in order to slip into her dress. She took her bra off and Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Shut up. It's tacky to have your bra showing." He continued to stare. "Later. I'll need to work off some of this tension once this is all done." Sirius grinned as she stepped into her dress. "Can you zip me up? I know it's much less entertaining than unzipping me." He pouted, but he did, kissing her shoulder and neck.
"Oh, it can still be fun, love." He murmured and she turned to kiss him lightly on the lips. She pulled away and giggled.
"You have lipstick on your mouth now." She whispered and wiped it off with a thumb. She walked over to her vanity, quickly reapplied her lipstick and tapped her face with her wand—probably to get it to stick.
"We can't have people thinking we're running off into corners and shagging, huh?" He chuckled and she smiled a little.
"Of course not. Imagine the scandal—oh wait, I don't have to imagine because that's actually happened." She said sarcastically, putting on tall nude heels.
"Tall enough?" He asked dryly.
"Okay, I don't want it to look like a midget is swearing Rhaegar into office." She defended as she put her earrings in. "Put this necklace on me." She said shuffling her hair around. Sirius was actually quite terrified to touch the jewelry as it was worth probably more than this entire house. The earrings were by far the simplest things on the vanity—except for maybe her wedding band—and those had been a pretty penny. "It doesn't bite, Sirius."
"It might." He muttered as he picked it up and carefully put it around his wife's neck. It was as heavy as he expected it to be. He gently clasped it and let go of her. "There you go." He said and he saw her quickly put on her bracelet and then her wedding band and then her engagement ring. She turned towards him, biting her lip.
"Alright, be honest. How do I look?" She asked—looking like she was expecting an answer she didn't want to hear.
"You look stunning." She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "No, really. You look gorgeous, Dan. I think you're beautiful all the time, but this is exceptional. It's right up there with our wedding." He said honestly and she smiled at him gratefully.
"Thank you. Thank you for being so good about the entire week. I know it's been hard on you and Shay—trying to keep Rae and I sane, I mean." She said and he kissed her forehead.
"It's almost over. Well, for us. Shay and Rhaegar are just getting warmed up, I'm afraid." Sirius said and Dany smiled. "How did Shay like the necklace?" He asked.
"She cried. I had to redo her makeup." Dany said and looked around her closet one more time before putting on perfume and turning towards her husband.
"Ready?" He asked and she thought for a minute.
"Yeah, I think so. What time is it?" She asked. Sirius checked his watch.
"9:45. Right on time. Let's go start wrangling up the kids." Sirius said and they left their room together, heading for Mason's room, where there were sounds of laughter escaping. Dany knocked on the door.
"Come in." A voice said. Lynn. Sirius opened the door to see the kids all sitting on Mason's bed, Harry and Mason in their robes and Lynn in a light pink dress that fell to her knees. "Hi, Uncle Sirius. It's almost time to go." She said smartly.
"I know. Your aunt and I are coming by to collect you lot. Come on, down to the family room." He said and opened the door all the way to reveal Dany standing back slightly. Lynn gasped.
"Aunt Dany you're so pretty!" She said, getting up and hugging her aunt. Dany bent down to hug the girl carefully.
"Thank you. So are you, Lynn. I love your shoes." She said, pointing to the tiny heels she was wearing. The girl beamed.
"They're my first pair of heels! Mommy's been helping me walk in them." She said proudly.
"Yeah? Let's see then. If you can walk downstairs, you can walk anywhere in those." Dany said, watching the girl walk slightly ahead of her.
"Lynn won't stop talking about her shoes." Mason said, getting up.
"It's getting a bit dreadful." Harry agreed, looking past Sirius to make sure the girls were gone. Sirius suppressed a smile, making sure that the boys hadn't done anything to their robes.
"I know, but I'll tell you now while you're still young that women care a great deal about shoes and you just need to let them talk about it until they get tired of it." Sirius said, motioning the kids out of the room. They walked out and the three started walking downstairs. "Rhaegar!" He shouted down the hall. Rhaegar popped his head out of the door down the hall. "I have your children. They're in the sitting room with Dan and I." He said and he smiled gratefully.
"Also, be ready in five minutes!" Dany shouted from downstairs. Rhaegar rolled his eyes and vanished back into his room.
"Why do girls care about their heels so much? Lynn's aren't even tall." Harry said and Sirius laughed.
"Don't tell her that. Girls have to work their way up to high heels or they'd be tripping everywhere and hurting themselves. Besides—do you want her to be taller than you?" Sirius asked and they both shook their heads. "That's what I thought. Just give them lots of compliments and you'll be fine." He said as they walked into the sitting room to see Dany talking to Lynn, whose white hair was perfectly curled. She looked like a cherub with her heart-shaped face, curly hair, and sweet smile. Dany and Lynn looked up and for a second it felt as if he had walked in on Dany speaking to their daughter—not their niece. It was a very weird feeling.
"You look really pretty, Aunt Dany." Mason said and Harry nodded.
"Really pretty." He added quickly and Dany smiled, obviously a bit surprised.
"Thank you, both of you. Sirius, where's my compliment?" She asked jokingly and the kids laughed.
"You look beautiful, love. You too, Lynn. I really like your dress." He added and the young girl's face lit up.
"Thank you." She said softly and Dany smiled at him with a quick wink.
"You lot all look very dashing in your dress robes, if I may be so bold." Dany said, looking at all three of them, standing up only to bend down and adjust Harry's bowtie. "You'll probably want that to be straight though." She added with a smile, poking Harry on the chest lightly. He grinned, looking down at his bowtie. Dany stood and checked the time. "Oi! Rhaegar get your wife down here now." She yelled up the stairs.
"I'm trying but she won't stop looking at her makeup!" Came the reply. Dany rolled her eyes a little.
"I'll be back." She said before leaving, apparently in an attempt to pry her sister-in-law away from the mirror.
Dany returned a couple minutes later with a victorious smile on her face. Moments later, Rhaegar and Shay appeared and Sirius wondered why Shay had been at all worried. She was in a green dress and the necklace Dany had given her hung around her neck, her hair curled much like Dany's and her makeup obviously having been done by his wife. Shay wasn't much for makeup through what Sirius had gathered through the time they had all been living together. And although Sirius only had eyes for his wife, he had to admit that his brother-in-law had married a truly beautiful woman.
"You look really pretty, Aunt Shay." Harry said and she smiled gratefully.
"Yeah you look beautiful, Mommy." Lynn added as Mason nodded.
"Thank you, now is everyone ready to go?" She asked. Dany walked over and took Sirius' hand, looking over at him with a small smile. "Kids? Everyone all set?" The kids nodded. "Okay, Mason, Lynn come take Daddy's arm." She said and the kids ran over. Sirius reached for Harry, who took his arm immediately.
"Dumbledore's office, yeah Sirius?" Rhaegar asked and Sirius nodded. "Right. 1…2…3." Both men Apparated with cracks, taking their families with them.
Sirius simultaneously steadied Dany in her heels and prevented Harry from falling over when they landed in Dumbledore's office. Rhaegar appeared to be doing roughly the same thing, trying to keep his wife and daughter upright in their heels, although Mason appeared to be completely fine with Apparating and had solidly landed on his feet.
"Thanks." Dany murmured to him.
"Don't all of you look absolutely spiffing?" A voice said, making them all jump.
"Albus. It's good to see you." Rhaegar said, shaking the other man's hand. "Thanks for letting us use your office. Apparating into the Atrium would have been a nightmare." He said and Sirius had to agree with him on that. It was an hour before Rhaegar was to be sworn in and there would be plenty of people already in the Atrium waiting to witness it.
"Of course. Now, because of the…high profile nature of the event, you all will have Aurors with you when you walk from here to the Atrium. Shay, Mason, and Lynn will have three Aurors with them at all times and Sirius and Harry will have one with them—there isn't as much security needed on a man who's an Auror himself and only one child." Dumbledore said and the family all nodded. "Ah, it appears that your escort is here." He added, making them all turn. It was Moody, Parker, Simmons, and Kingsley. They were in traditional Auror clothing—even Moody who usually just wore whatever the hell he wanted.
"Alastor." Rhaegar said, clapping the older man's back. Moody gave up on any kind of manly professionalism and hugged him. Lynn ran forward and hugged him too before anyone else could get a word out.
"You'll do your old man proud, Rhaegar. Parker, Simmons, and I will be with your wife and children while you're being sworn in. I don't trust anyone else to protect your little ones except for myself." He said gruffly to Rhaegar who smiled gratefully. "Kingsley will be with you, Black." He added to Sirius who nodded, exchanging looks with Kingsley. "You'll all be together though at the ceremony so it won't be an issue. Danilynn, we're trusting you to protect your brother although there will be Law Enforcement nearby should you need assistance." Dany nodded and Sirius suspected that she was armed in some capacity.
"Masters? Is that you under all of those diamonds and makeup?" Parker asked. Dany rolled her eyes.
"No, it's the other woman you know with white hair and a relation to this family." She said sarcastically and Simmons snorted.
"Yeah, it's her alright." Parker muttered. "You can't hide that sarcasm under all the diamonds in the world." Dany said nothing, catching his eye and silently telling him to shut up before she impaled him with one of her heels.
"Danilynn, when you stand to swear in your brother, there will already be a copy of the book waiting for you." Albus added and Dany nodded. All four Aurors' eyes slid to her.
"You're swearing him in?" Kingsley asked. Dany nodded.
"I'm his only blood relative in the Ministry. Normally—if this had been ten years ago—our father would have sworn him in." She said. "What book did you choose, Rae? I never asked." She added curiously. Rhaegar suppressed a smile.
"Great Expectations." He said and Dany actually laughed.
"Dad's favorite. Also, very fitting." She said and Shay rolled her eyes a little at the siblings.
"You're being sworn in on a copy of Great Expectations?" She asked.
"Well, yeah. I got to pick and that's what I picked." Rhaegar said with a shrug. "Now, don't we have somewhere to be?" He asked and everyone nodded.
"I'll see you all there." Dumbledore said before the family left his office with their Auror escort. Sirius kept one of Harry's hands in his and Dany was holding onto his other arm. He noticed in front of them that Rhaegar had offered Shay his arm as well and their children were holding hands with each other, which was adorable. The halls of the Ministry were deserted and Sirius realized that it was because everyone was in the Atrium, waiting. Waiting for them. Holy shit.
They all stepped into the lift and waited silently. Once it declared they were at the Atrium and the doors opened, Sirius felt Dany's hand on his arm move. He looked over at her and she appeared to be completely calm and collected—if not for the fact that she gave up holding onto his arm for holding his hand, which revealed that her hand was clammy. Rhaegar and Shay walked out, then Mason and Lynn, then Sirius, Dany, and Harry.
Once all of the people seated were visible to them, they all stood, turning to watch them walk towards the front of the room. He could hear people whispering.
Sirius supposed this is what brides felt like when they went down the isle. It was oddly stressful.
They mercifully reached the front of the room and Dany let go of Sirius' hand, as she was to follow her brother to the very front of the room, in the chairs facing the audience. Sirius offered Shay his arm and she gratefully took it, mouthing 'thanks'. Sirius felt Harry's hand vanish from his own and saw him join his cousins. Moody sat in a chair in the front row and Sirius and Shay ushered the children towards him. Sirius pushed Shay in after them and sat down on the isle himself, noticing Parker, Kingsley, and Simmons sit behind them.
No one was getting near those kids or Shay. Dany took her seat next to her brother, the one with the book under it, and members of the Wizengamot soon joined her. She looked every inch the woman her parents had wanted her to be. Calm, poised, strong, and alongside her brother in front of the Ministry. Rhaegar touched her arm lightly and she looked over at him as he whispered something. She nodded and said something back quickly. It had never been so obvious that they had been born for this. Dumbledore arrived and everyone stood again. He took his place in front of the row of chairs that Dany and her brother were in, looking deathly serious. Everyone sat down, taking their cues from the Masters siblings, who knew this ceremony like the backs of their hands.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We have come here today because the Ministry of Magic is in need of leadership and the Wizengamot has elected Rhaegar Nathaniel Masters to take up the mantle of Minister of Magic in our world." Dumbledore said and then proceeded to start talking about the responsibilities of the Minister, what the job entailed, the importance of strong leadership. Sirius began to zone out and started inspecting the people sitting behind Dumbledore. The people from the Wizengamot looked very bored indeed except for a young man who appeared to be a scribe. Neither Dany nor Rhaegar looked anything less than attentive at any point whatsoever. Dany seemed to have become a statue in her chair. Her posture never waivered, her hands never moved from where they were folded in her lap, and her eyes never moved off of Dumbledore.
"Now, I will ask Rhaegar's next of kin within the Ministry to come forward." Dumbledore said and Dany stood up, Rhaegar handing her the book under her chair as she stood, and stepped forward to stand next to Dumbledore. "I present to the Ministry—and to the record—Rhaegar Masters' sister, Lady Danilynn Charlotte Black." He declared. Dany nodded at the audience, many of which were whispering. Sirius heard a couple women a couple rows behind him because of his dog hearing.
"Look at that jewelry…they must be family jewels…I could have sworn she was shorter than that…it must be heels…"
It went on that way for another few minutes at least.
"And now I present Rhaegar Nathaniel Masters to take the Oath of the Office of the Minister of Magic." Dumbledore said, gesturing to Rhaegar, who rose and stood next to his sister. Sirius felt Shay shift uneasily next to him. No one was probably more nervous about this than her. This was going to change everything for her and her kids and at least Rhaegar knew what being Minister looked like, but there was no going back now.
Dany turned towards her brother as Dumbledore took the seat Rhaegar previously had been in. She held the book out.
"Place your left hand on the book and your right in the air." She said, projecting her voice with what appeared to be next to no effort. Rhaegar did so.
"Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath: 'I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of Minister of Magic, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Law of the Ministry of Magic'." Dany said, staring her brother dead in the eye and daring him to fuck this up. Rhaegar took a deep breath.
"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of Minister of Magic, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Law of the Ministry of Magic." He recited back to her.
"So help you God?"
"So help me God." Dumbledore stood up as Rhaegar dropped his hand and Dany stopped holding out her copy of Great Expectations. Sirius could almost see the stress falling away from his wife.
"Now, I am proud to present your Minister of Magic, Rhaegar Nathaniel Masters." Dumbledore said and people started cheering. Dany caught Sirius' eye and winked. Rhaegar took that time to turn back to his sister and engulf her in a tight hug. People started to cheer even more.
Rhaegar let go of his sister smiled and without any hesitation walked over to where they were sitting, pulled his wife up by the hand and kissed her before hugging both of their kids. Dany smiled, following her brother towards them, kissing Sirius quickly and hugging Harry, watching her brother.
"It's over." She whispered and Sirius put an arm around her, watching Rhaegar, Shay, and their children walk back towards the front of the room. Moody, Parker, and Simmons moved with them.
"It's over." Sirius repeated. "Thank God that isn't us up there." Dany laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, thank Go—oh no." She said as Rhaegar motioned them over. Mason and Lynn waved to Harry, who looked to Dany and Sirius for approval. "Go ahead." She told him and he ran up to his cousins. Dany and Sirius followed at a reasonable pace and Sirius was quite taken aback at all of this positive attention. He was used to being scorned, not liked by the general populous, but now he was related to the Minister of Magic. That apparently changed things. Dany smiled at everyone in general and waved, smiling at people she knew.
That was the Masters trick: personable even from a distance. Even from way up here, they somehow were everyone's personal friends.
That led directly into a reception with snacks, which led into an inaugural ball that started at five. Dany was exhausted by the time the reception was over—let alone by the time she got to the Ball.
Most people weren't invited to the Ball, just the Wizengamot, so it wasn't held in the Atrium, instead in the ballroom of a hotel somewhere in London.
If Dany thought she was tired, she didn't even know how exhausted the kids were. They were only eight and nine and this was a long day for them.
"Time for the real work to start, huh?" She asked her brother, who had pulled her from a conversation with some Wizengamot member or another for a dance.
"Yeah, I guess. I'll be starting with going through Fudge's personal staff." He said and Dany grinned.
"Get rid of his secretary. He was shagging her." She whispered and he raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know that?"
"Sirius is a Legimens and Fudge was thinking about it on the day he was released from Azkaban. The blonde secretary needs to go." She said and he chuckled.
"Dan, you know I really couldn't have done it with without you." Rae told her and she shrugged.
"I wasn't the one that had Fudge impeached. That was David." She said, making a point to omit the fact she had actually spoken instead.
"Dumbledore told me that you spoke in David's stead, Dan. I'm standing here because of you. David couldn't have pushed this through the Wizengamot on his own." Rhaegar said and Dany felt her mouth drop open slightly. "Why didn't you tell me that you delivered the speech?"
"I didn't really want you to know. I knew how you feel about me getting involved—you told me that I'd gone mental when you found out that I'd even revised David's grammar. I didn't want you to worry." She admitted. "Obviously, my fears were unfounded as everything's fine."
"Next time you're going to make a power play on my behalf, tell me first, okay?" He laughed and she smiled.
"Of course. Enjoying your big night?" She asked, changing the subject as he changed directions they were dancing in.
"I guess. I just want to get to work. So much has to be done before everything's back to the way it should be."
"Hey, Rae? Can you promise me something?"
"Yeah, course. What is it?"
"Shay's really worried about losing her husband to this job—understandably—so just please keep her involved in everything." Dany said.
"Of course. We've talked about it and I think she's going to just ease her way in, but eventually she wants to work with the social programs like the Department for the Protection of Magical Children and all of those." He said and Dany nodded.
"Good. I don't want to see her missing you." She said and he smiled a little.
"Don't think I didn't recognize the necklace around her neck, Dan. It was nice of you to let her borrow it." Dany shrugged.
"She's not borrowing it. I gave it to her to keep. I figured she needed something of Mom's and it's not like I'll be missing it; emeralds were never for me, I'm afraid." She said and suddenly her brother pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. "Wow, okay. Love you too." She mumbled, patting his back.
"Thank you so much." He whispered and she nodded.
"Of course. I should give you back to your adoring employees; I see Sirius waving me over." She said and let go of her brother, leaving him on the dance floor.
"We have a very sleepy child, Dan." Sirius said, indicating a bleary-eyed Harry. "It's almost eleven after all." He added.
"I know. We can probably just get the kids and take them home. I think I'm done as well." Dany said and waved to Shay, who was with Mason and Lynn. "Hey, we're going home—Harry's exhausted. Do you want us to take yours too?" Shay nodded gratefully.
"Please. I think they're about to collapse. I'll see you both tomorrow morning." She said and Dany hugged her quickly before taking the children's hands and Apparating home with them, Harry Apparating with Sirius.
Within half an hour, all three kids were in bed and soundly asleep and Dany was pulling her jewelry off as Sirius undid his bowtie.
"Hey, Sirius?" Dany called. He looked up from where he was unbuttoning his dress shirt. "Can you unzip me?" She asked and he nodded, unzipping her dress. "Can you shag me?" She asked just as casually. His hand froze on the zipper down near her hips. She turned to look at him. "What? It's been a while and I have a lot of bottled-up tension from the past week." Sirius didn't actually answer, pressed his lips to hers and pulled his own shirt off before dropping her dress to the ground.