A/N: Hello! So, finally, I give you the long-awaited Chapter 14! I know that the story kind of has a slow pace, but that was the plan, so just bear with me. We are getting closer to the climax, I promise!

Anyway, on with the story, and please don't forget to leave a review!

EDIT: Thank you AFLlover for spotting that mistake. I was already rather sleepy when I wrote that part. Sorry. On with the story then!

Apollo and Hades stepped out of the fireplace in the Slytherin Common Room as quietly as they could, brushing the soot from their robes. Artemis and Poseidon were looking at them anxiously, which made the two brothers frown in confusion.

"Why are you looking at us like that?" Apollo asked.

"What took you so bloody long?" Artemis exclaimed. "You were supposed to just pop in there, retrieve your wand, and come straight back! Dad didn't catch you, did he?"

"No, but it was close, no thanks to Hades and his letters," Apollo replied.

Hades rolled his eyes. "Well, the particular letter that caught my attention back there wasn't mine, it was Dad's. I nicked it from the pile, so you could be at least grateful, Apollo."

"Whatever."

"What kind of letter is it?" Poseidon asked.

"I don't know, since it's still sealed," Hades answered, and before Apollo could interject any comment, he immediately added, "But the sender's name was the reason why I thought it'd be of interest to us all."

Hades fished the letter out from his pocket and showed it to his siblings, who crowded around to see it. They all shared a look when they saw what Hades was talking about.

"It's… Rowan Parkinson," Artemis said in disbelief. "He actually wrote to Dad."

"We can't open this. And no, Apollo, we are not making a copy either," Hades said with a pointed look at his brother. "This is Dad's mail. It's one thing to just take the sealed letter, but it's another thing to pry it open and read it. I had planned on bringing it back as soon as you've seen it, and that's what I'm going to do."

Apollo crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Go on then, bring it back. But what if Dad sees the letter and doesn't even read it? What if he just rips it to pieces without even opening it?"

"That's a possibility," Poseidon added. "He's not exactly himself right now, and given how much he hates Professor Parkinson, he'd probably just opt to destroy anything that's connected to her. And whatever that letter contains could possibly be important."

The other three had nothing to say to that. It was true, and the fact that they couldn't really predict what their Dad might do just made things worse for them. Silence filled the room as each was lost in his and her own thoughts.

"So what do we do now?" Hades asked quietly. "I was thinking that we should wait for him to reach out to us first. He's bound to do it sooner or later. Then maybe we can ask him to meet up with us and sort this out?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Apollo shrugged. "If that does happen, I say we should bring up everything that we've discovered so far about Pansy's sudden disappearance after the war. And we'll give him this," he said, gesturing towards the letter. Hesitantly, he added, "D'you reckon he'll probably have calmed down significantly by then?"

The other three nodded in agreement. Seeing as there was nothing else left to be done until then, they all headed up to bed to get some rest. It had been a long day, and now all they could do is trust their Dad's judgment and hope for the best.

############

The next day, Draco went to work as usual, but he found that he couldn't quite focus on the tasks at hand. He was looking forward to his meeting that afternoon, which came as a surprise to him. He was going to be investigating his fiancée, after all, so he shouldn't be so excited. And yet he was. That left a lot to be said about how he feels – or how he thought he felt – for Serena. The fight he had with his children proved to be a real wake-up call, he realized.

He ended up working for only half the day, and going home at noon, claiming to be feeling under the weather. He wasn't expecting company until around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, but he just wasn't getting anything done at the Ministry. He took another bath to freshen up, and then spent the rest of the time reading in his study.

Draco didn't notice the passing of the time until a house elf announced that he had a guest. He instructed the creature to bring their guest in, marking the page where he had stopped reading.

"Hello, Draco," a familiar dreamy voice greeted him. Looking up, he saw Luna Lovegood being ushered in by his house elf.

"Luna, thank you for coming on such short notice," Draco smiled at Luna and gestured her to take a seat on one of the sofas.

"Oh, it's no problem. But I was surprised when I received your letter. It sounded rather urgent," Luna said.

"It sort of is, but I can't tell you exactly why," Draco replied, sitting on the couch opposite the one that Luna was currently perched on.

"That's okay. So, why am I here?"

"I… want some information on someone. You can help me with that, can't you?"

After the war, Luna took over The Quibbler and became the Chief Editor. Due to its being used during the war as an underground newspaper for the side of the Light, the publication had gained a somewhat more decent reputation. It still wasn't a mainstream newspaper like the Daily Prophet, but people didn't think of it as a gossip spread like Witch Weekly, or another one of those dubious, small-scale papers. Draco also knew that Luna had a handful of reliable informants who regularly supply them with the latest news, who would be able to gather as much information on Serena as possible. He had initially thought of using his connections and asking a private investigator to look into Serena's background, but decided against it in the end. He didn't want to raise any suspicion or cause any rumor to go around, and more importantly, he trusted Luna, and he knew that she wouldn't tell anyone about this until he allowed her to.

"Of course I can. You know I am always happy to help," Luna said. "Who is it that you want to investigate?"

Draco hesitated for a bit before answering, "It's Serena."

"Your fiancée? Why? Surely you know her very well, since you proposed to her and all," Luna said with that small pensive smile that she always has. Draco found it unnerving.

"Er, yeah, but I… I just wanted to be sure, you know? Since I am going to marry her and all," Draco replied. There was a few minutes of silence, and he shifted in his seat nervously as Luna silently regarded him, as if she was trying to figure him out.

"Alright," Luna finally said. "I don't know how long it'll take my informants to find out everything that you need to know about her, but I'll forward it all to you once I receive them."

"Thank you, Luna. You're the best," Draco said with a small smile.

Luna giggled in response. "There's no need for flattery, Draco. And don't worry, I won't tell a soul about this. This'll be our little secret."

"Again, thank you. It's important that no one catches wind of what I'm going to do, so that would really mean a lot to me."

"It's not a problem at all. By the way, where are the kids? I noticed that it was a bit too quiet when I walked in."

Draco hesitated before answering Luna truthfully. "They're back in Hogwarts."

"But I thought they were going to spend their Christmas vacation here?" Luna asked.

"We had a fight, and they left. They're sort of the reason why I want to have Serena investigated," Draco replied sheepishly.

"Ah," Luna said, seemingly having understood the situation instantly. "So they have an issue with their step-mother-to-be?"

Draco nodded.

"You can't really blame them, you know?" Luna said. "They've had you to themselves all this time, so of course it'll be hard for them to share you with someone else now. But, since you're having your fiancée investigated, I take it that means that you think their doubts are well-founded?"

"Yes," Draco replied. "I know my children. They wouldn't object to my marrying Serena so vehemently if they didn't have a good reason for it. I just wish they'd told me why beforehand." Or maybe he should've thought everything more thoroughly before doing something so crucial, he thought resentfully; then he wouldn't have fought with his children and hurt his little girl. He inwardly winced as he remembered that particular moment.

"Maybe it's because they thought you wouldn't listen, or that you'd just brush it off as a silly notion or an unreasonable excuse for them to try and get rid of her?"

Touché. That was probably it, Draco mused. And he probably would have done that very same thing, too. He had gotten too carried away with his feelings for Serena that he allowed it to cloud his objectivity, which in turn harmed his relationship with his children. Draco let out a sigh; he really had brought this onto himself. What kind of an Unspeakable was he for not sensing that something was amiss? What kind of a father was he?

"Thanks, Luna. I guess I needed to talk things out with someone else," Draco said.

"No problem, that's what friends are for, right?" Luna replied. "But I think you should reach out to them as soon as possible, and tell them just how much they mean to you. They can't stay angry with you forever; they love you too much for that to happen. But giving them a little reassurance every now and then wouldn't hurt would it?"

Draco could only nod at the advice the witch gave him. "I'll take note of that, certainly."

"Well, I have to go now. Leave the investigation to me. Just worry about patching things up with your children, alright?"

As Luna left, Draco couldn't help but think that the she might be one of the most brilliant witches of their age, in a way that not even Hermione Granger-Weasley could be. That was a rather scary thought. Taking Luna's advice to heart, he decided that, come tomorrow, he will write his children and ask them to meet with him. Apologizing was something that wasn't done through mail, after all. He only hoped that his children's emotions weren't running so high anymore for them to consider his request.

############

The next morning, Hades suddenly remembered that they still had a mission to accomplish: giving the medical records back to Pansy. They had all but forgotten it last night because of Rowan Parkinson's letter to their Dad. How would they explain why they had the records in the first place? And who would be the one to return it to her?

That was precisely the topic of their debate during breakfast.

"You give it back to her. You were the ones who found it anyway," Hades said to the twins as he bit into his toast. Apollo made a face showing his dissent.

"And what reason would I give her for not returning it to her at that moment? It's not like I can tell her the real reason," Apollo hissed.

Poseidon rolled his eyes. "Look, you've already asked Hades and myself to do things for our plan, and we've done our roles. Now it's your turn to do the legwork."

"Well, he does have a point," Artemis said. "We can just say that when we found it she had already gone, and it was already nearing curfew so we weren't able to give it back to her last night."

"Fine, fine," Apollo grumbled.

"She just left the Hall, so you'd better go now if you want to catch up to her," Hades noted, handing them the envelope containing the records.

The twins walked briskly in order to catch up with Pansy. Luckily, she was still in the corridor outside the Great Hall, just making her way up the stairs.

"Professor!" Apollo called out. Pansy stopped mid-walk and turned around to face them.

"Mr. Malfoy, Miss Malfoy, what can I do for you?" Pansy asked with a small smile.

"Er… well, we just wanted to give you this," Apollo handed her the envelope. Pansy took one look at it, eyes widening in surprise, before looking back up at them.

"How did you get this?" Pansy asked, her voice quavering.

Apollo started. "Well, about that-"

"We were on our way to the library to borrow some books last night, and we found it lying just outside the library doors," Artemis interjected. Apollo tended to end up blurting things out whenever he was nervous, which he no doubt was right now, and so she had to stop him before he gave everything away. Apollo turned to glare at his sister for interrupting him, but Artemis ignored him, opting to look directly at Pansy instead.

"It was already nearing curfew at the time, so we weren't able to give it back last night. Sorry, Professor," Apollo added, remembering the excuse that they came up with.

For some reason, Pansy looked downright terrified now. "That's… quite alright, Mr. Malfoy. It can't be helped, what with curfew and all. But did you, by any chance-" She gave a meaningful look at the letter, and then looked back at them.

"No, Professor, we didn't open it. It's your letter, and Dad taught us that we should never tinker with things that belong to other people," Artemis said calmly. Apollo nodded in agreement earnestly – or rather as earnestly as he could, considering that they were actually lying to Pansy's face.

Pansy's shoulders visibly sagged with relief. "Oh, of course. I didn't mean to imply that you were snooping around or anything. I'm rather glad that the two of were the ones who found it; had it been someone else…" She paused, wincing at the thought. "Anyway, thank you for returning it to me."

"It's no problem at all, Professor," Apollo replied with a smile. Then he added, "But Professor, you're not sick, are you? That's from St. Mungo's, and we're rather worried as to why they would write to you."

Pansy, caught off-guard, hastily said, "Oh, no, I'm just fine. You don't need to worry. It's just…. I underwent a general check-up a few weeks back, just to see if everything's alright. Even Madame Pomfrey, talented as she is, couldn't test for every disease out there, so I went and got myself checked. I'm all clear, according to this," she waved the letter about, "So no need to worry about me."

Apollo and Artemis both pretended to let out a sigh of relief. They had to give her credit; because she really knew how to think on her feet. But given that she was a Slytherin, they should have already expected it.

"That's good to hear, Professor," Artemis said.

Pansy smiled at them, obviously more relaxed now. "Well, thank you again, you two. Oh, and will you do me a favor? Can you not tell anyone about this?"

"Of course, Professor," Apollo replied. "You can count on us. But… there's another reason why we wanted to talk to you."

Artemis tried to be as discreet as possible as she gave her brother a questioning glance. What was he going to say now? Apollo, seemingly having taken a page out of her book, was pointedly ignoring her and was focused solely on Pansy.

"It's about the Christmas dinner. We just wanted to apologize for what happened. We know you and Dad had… an exchange of words, and we just wanted to say that we're sorry. We never expected things to go like it did, and we did lie to you a little when we said that Dad knew you were coming over. He knew someone was coming over, but we didn't tell him it was going to be you. So we're really sorry for how it turned out. We just wanted you to not have to spend Christmas alone, and maybe we also wanted you and Dad to work out whatever had happened to you in the past. Sorry."

Artemis was stunned for a moment; her brother was now speaking truthfully when they were outright lying to Pansy just a minute ago. Talk about segue. Then she added, "We also want to apologize on behalf of Dad. We don't know what he said to you, but we do know that he had hurt you because of what he said. Dad hasn't been himself lately, and we know that's not a good enough reason, but please forgive him for whatever he said to you that night."

The two looked at Pansy expectantly. Pansy, on the other hand, was rendered speechless by what the two children had said. It was evident that Draco had raised them well. They really were good children. Draco had raised his children in a completely different manner from how they themselves were raised by their parents.

'Just like how we said we would raise our own children,' Pansy suddenly remembered, a sharp pang of emotion coursing through her.

"There's no need to apologize," Pansy said softly. "I know that you had good intentions, and that was why you did what you did. What happened that night was not your fault. Your father and I simply have issues that are already quite impossible to resolve at this stage. And as for what Draco had said to me, there's nothing to forgive. I deserved it. I deserve to be hated by him after… after what I've done."

Taking a deep breath to compose herself, she continued, "You don't have to worry about it. I'm not angry with you; I'm actually thankful that you thought of inviting me at that time. And I'm not angry with your father either. As I said, there is nothing to forgive. I hope that particular incident is not the reason why you're back here when you're supposed to be spending the rest of your holidays in the Manor?"

"No, Professor," the two hastily replied at the same time. Pansy regarded them for a moment.

"Good," Pansy said with a small smile. "I wouldn't want to be the reason for you to have a conflict with your father. I'm not that important, you know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have some business to attend to. Good day, you two."

Apollo and Artemis watched as Pansy walked up the stairs, and waited until she turned the corner, exchanging meaningful looks. They then all but bolted to the Slytherin dormitories where their brothers would be. Boy, did they have news for them.

############

It would seem that the foursome didn't have to wait long to receive any sort of correspondence from their father. After having dinner in the Great Hall, they entered the Slytherin common room only to find Iris perched on the arm of one of the couches. Hades reached her first.

"Hey there, what have you got for us?" he said, lightly petting her head before taking the letter. His siblings gathered around him so they can read the letter together. They were expecting pages upon pages of parchment from their father, containing either a litany of apologies or a reprimand for running away from home (the former was the more plausible scenario, in their opinion), but instead what they got was a one-page letter. Draco's neat slanted handwriting graced the parchment as it read:

To my dearest children,

Where do I begin?

I know that what I've done is horrible and entirely unacceptable. I haven't been able to sleep at all, knowing that I have done such a terrible crime to the most important people in my life, that my stupidity had pushed you away. Not only that, most importantly, I managed to make you feel inferior to someone else, which has never been my intention. I hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, because right now, I'm having a hard time forgiving myself for it. But always know this: the four of you will always be my number one, my first priority, and I would never choose anyone else over you, no matter who they might be. You are my children and I love you more than life itself.

If you think there's a chance, however slim, however distant, that you may still be able to forgive me for what I did, I would like to ask you to allow me to apologize to the four of you in person and meet me at The Lady and the Knight in Hogsmeade tomorrow afternoon. If you're amenable, send me your reply through Iris so I can ask Blaise to give you permission to leave the grounds; otherwise, just tell Iris you've no reply to give and she'll know to take off. I've already given her instructions. I would understand if you choose not to go, but I am hoping for a favorable response.

All my love,

Dad

No one spoke after they've read the letter; instead, they looked at their other siblings. The four need only exchange a glance, and they knew that they'd made their decision.

"I'll get the parchment and quill," Hades said resolutely, already making his way to the boys' dormitory.