AN: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 8.2
Lucius sat at his desk, reading over his accounts, statements and the businesses he either owned or had stocks in. Hearing the door of his study open, he glanced up to see Narcissa take a seat on the loveseat in front of the fire and checked the clock sitting on the corner of his desk. "I'll be done in a moment, darling," he says scrawling a few suggestions down on the parchments from Gringott's before tapping them with his wand and sending them to Ragnok. Finishing up the work he had to have done today, he stood up, stretching, and walked over to sit next to Narcissa
"Luc," she murmurs leaning into his side and placing her head on his shoulder. "You know how I've been sick the last couple of days?" He nodded and rubbed her back as she continued, "I went to my appointment at St. Mungo's and, well uhm, here you go." She set a small, wrapped box in his hands and leant against him as he stared down at the box in his hands.
"You still don't like telling me things, health-wise, anyway, do you?" he asks smirking down at her as he starts unwrapping the box she'd handed. "I wonder what could be good enough news to warrant a gift?" Lifting the lid off the box, Lucius stared down at the pair of small, white booties lying among the tissue paper at the bottom of the box. "Cissa?"
Narcissa laughs softly at the questioning tone to his voice and nodded. "The Healer says I'm about a month along, the both of us are in perfect health and to take it easy for the next nine months, like I had to do while pregnant with Draco," she breathes and Lucius placed the box on the arm of the couch before kissing her.
Pulling back from the kiss, he cupped her face and kissed her forehead. "This is amazing," he murmurs against her hair. "We should write a letter to Draco and his friends."
"Yes, we should," she murmurs leaning against his shoulder. "His letter for this week is a little late."
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AJ stared from her spot in the center of the shadowy, circular room at Percy, who was sitting in his chair, reading. "Is there a reason you're observing me so diligently?" he asks glancing over the top of the book and she raises an eyebrow before looking around the room.
"Well," she snickers as her gaze moves back to him, "I could stop, but you're the most interesting thing in here."
He made a humming noise, returning to his book and AJ shook her head, moving around until she was lying on her stomach with her head propped up on her arms, watching him read. "It's extremely creepy, AJ," he murmurs and she sighs turning her head to stare at a painting of a rose garden that had appeared sometime while she'd been in here because the room had been empty, except for Percy's chair at the beginning. "If you're bored, why are you still here?"
Pushing herself up off the floor, AJ made her way over to his chair and glanced at what he was reading, pulling it from his hands. She flipped through it before checking the cover and rolling her eyes, throwing it over her shoulder. "Why're you reading that rubbish?" she asks sitting on the arm of his chair. "That person isn't even real."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "Don't know, they were left on my bed at the burrow one day so I just started reading them," he murmurs staring up at her. "They were the only books I had that even mentioned what I was, even if it wasn't all true."
It was AJ's turn to raise an eyebrow and she ran a hand through his hair as a frown pulled at the corners of her lips. "And just what in that book of absolute rubbish was true?" she asks standing up to walk over to the shelf to the left of his chair. Looking over the books that were on the shelf, she couldn't help but to snort in derision and pulled them from the shelf, chunking them in the same direction as the one she'd taken from him. "All rubbish, those are."
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"Really?" he asks leaning against the arm of his chair, head in hand as he watched her throw his books across the room.
AJ glanced at him over her shoulder and nodded as she continued going through his books, removing the ones that weren't even real. "Do you think you're a monster, Percy?" she asks as she finally reached the bottom of the shelf, having weeded out all of the rubbish books she was sure someone had given him to fill his head with nonsense concerning his Creature Inheritance. He opened his mouth to speak and she turned to face him, a blank look on her face as she interrupted him. "What do you think, not the books and not anything anyone has ever told you, but what you think?"
He'd stood from his seat as she spoke, blue eyes blazing as he made his way over to her and stopped just a couple of feet from her. "No," he breathes staring down at her as the blue of his eyes darkened to indigo, like the night sky. "I don't believe I'm a monster, not since I was younger."
===============POV=Change=================
A red glow through his eyelids caused Bill's eyes to shoot open and he sat up, looking over to see that his father had been moved back to his bed. Looking back to Percy's bed, he saw the red glow was coming from the circle of runes on Percy's chest, runes that were lifting off his skin and disappearing. AJ took a deep breath and her eyes flew open, fingers tightening around Percy's hand as she looked around, giving Bill a small smile when her gaze landed on him. "Hi," she whispers as she notices the lights are off to allow those in the Medical Ward to get some sleep. "What time is it?"
Bill cast a quick Tempus and AJ saw the shining 9:23 floating above the bed before leaning back to stretch, standing from her chair to stretch even more, leaving her hand on Percy's. "Is he okay?" Bill asks as shadows emerged from underneath the hospital bed to wrap around Percy.
AJ smirked, "Yeah, he's just beginning to wake up," she says retaking her seat and startling a little when Percy's hand flipped under hers to entertwine their fingers.
