"Mummy?" A hesitant little voice seemed to prod Bella awake. She opened one brown eye, lazily. Four blue ones peered back at her over the edge of the bed. After a moment she raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?" She replied, looking at them and trying to look stern, hiding a sleepy smile. For a moment the children said nothing at all. Then one of them poked Bella in the arm. The smile broke through the ersatz frown. "Come on, then, you little monsters." She bundled the twins up in her arms and pulled them into her bed, hugging them closely to her chest and closing her eyes again, breathing in the smell of her children. Two sets of fingers poked her in the ribs and protested loudly,

"Don't go back to sleep!" Kaspar growled.

"Please?" Sebastian added. Bella chuckled, hugging the children tighter which only made them protest more. She relaxed her grip on them a little making a comforting shushing noise. They quietened down and she opened her eyes, looking at her little six-year-olds and holding one in each arm either side of her.

"It's our birthday tomorrow, mummy, you haven't forgotten have you?" Kaspar asked, sticking his little finger into his mum's ribs once again.

"No, of course I haven't." Bella replied, looking at the canopy of her bed. "In fact I'm taking you both on a little outing today, can you guess where we're going?" Kaspar shrugged, but Sebastian tried to make timid guesses.

"The Zoo? Uncle Blaise and Auntie Karen's? Auntie Shayla's?" Bella shook her head, turning to look at Sebastian with a little smile.

"No, sweetheart. Definitely not Aunt Shayla's after last time. If you remember she tried to hex mummy, and that wasn't... nice." That was an understatement. Her brother's widow had tried to burn her head off.

"Why did she try and hex you?" Kaspar asked, remembering the incident in the way that children remember things that they haven't thought of in a while in astounding clarity. Bella looked reproachfully at her curious son. He stared back with the unapologetic defiance of small boys. Bella sighed and looked again at the canopy. She saw no point in lying and had known she'd have to tell them about this particular section of her past at some point, she just hadn't expected to have to do it so soon. Besides, Kaspar was relentless – once he got his teeth into something he rarely let it go.

"Aunt Shayla is still angry because of how your Uncle Iphareal died." Bella started, her eyes on the tattoo on her left forearm that no spell would shift. "Do you remember how I told you about the war that ended before you were born, and that mummy's family was on... well, the wrong side?" Kaspar nodded and Sebastian followed suit, though more hesitantly. "Well your Uncles Abrigel and Iphareal, who were twins, just like you, were on different sides of this war. Your grandparents, Abrigel and myself were on the wrong side and Iphareal was on the... right side. At the time it was just harder to see it that way."

"What happened?" Kasper probed, looking at his mother with wide eyes.

"There was a fight." Bella said, simply. It felt weird to tell the story, it had been years since she had. Oddly it was no longer painful. "Iphareal was the Secret Keeper for our house and he told the aurors where it was and how to get in. My parents and Abrigel fought and they were killed. When I came home all I saw was smoke and shadows. I found my parents in one room, then Abrigel in another. I was terrified. Then Iphareal came around the corner and... I didn't even think."

"You killed him?" Kaspar asked, bluntly. Bella looked at him for a long, long moment before pulling both her children to her again. Sebastian buried his face in his mother's side but Kaspar was, as usual slightly stony.

"You have to understand, boys, that times were very different before you were born. I can only hope that there is never another war in your lifetime. It brings out the very worst in people." Bella shook her head lightly, as if to shake out the memories. "Now, you still haven't guessed where we're going."

"Tell me!" Sebastian asked, his voice bright. Bella smiled once more. Sebastian was not as opinionated as his brother, or as astute, and if nothing else it made it a little easier on her.

"I'm taking you shopping," Bella said, looking at both her children in turn; the easily pleased Sebastian and the inquisitive, incorrigible Kaspar. "I've decided that at almost seven you are quite old enough for your first trip to Diagon Alley." Kaspar grinned.

"Really? You mean it?" He asked, wide eyed. Bella laughed and nodded, pleased to see her son smiling for a change. He was tenacious but underneath it all he was a little boy, just as he should be.

"Yes, I mean it. I'm taking you to choose some gifts and we're going to stay the night in London. Would you like that?" The boys both jumped up and bounced on the bed, elated, whooping and laughing. Bella propped herself up in her bed and watched the little blonds spring about. Their energy was exhausting to watch but it made her happy to see them so excited. "Now go and get dressed and tell Twisty to pack a bag for one night for either of you, ok?" he boys agreed loudly, jumping off the bed and scrambling out of the room. Bella allowed herself a moment to close her eyes again and relax, for a moment. Just a moment.

...

Bella dressed in casual robes that fit snugly around her torso and flared at her hips. Looking in the mirror to apply makeup she thought absently to herself that she looked good enough. Not the best she ever had, not by a long shot, but though her body was in general softer and less angular than she had been used to as a teenager she had come to accept that she wasn't a teenager anymore. She was twenty five years old. She'd had twin babies. She was entitled to a little softness. She pulled her red-brown hair loose of her collar and called the twins into the room. They barrelled through the door closely followed by Twisty the elf, dragging two suitcases. Bella had her own already next to the fireplace. She picked it up in her hand and instructed her sons to do the same. She handed them each a good measure of Floo Powder. "Now, we are going to the Leaky Cauldron, ok?" she explained. The boys nodded. They had used Floo Power before and knew what to do. Bella watched as first Kaspar then Sebastian walked into the fireplace and threw down the powder, disappearing in a green puff of smoke. It always made her heart stop a little to see her children disappear like that and she followed them without hesitation.

...

Appearing windswept and slightly sooty in the Leaky Cauldron Bella immediately looked around for her children in the crowd. They were standing a few feet from the fireplace, staring out at all the people. They were not used to crowds, having lived in Delarceny Manor their entire lives and never really going anywhere. Bella had been far too scared to take them anywhere before now, as an awkward, single 18 year old mother at the start of their lives. She tried to hide her protectiveness a little these days and keep it under control but it wasn't easy. She walked to their sides and took their hands in hers. "Come on, let's go check in, then we can go shopping, alright?" The twins nodded, slightly dumbstruck by the bustle and noise of the pub. Bella walked to the desk and saw Tom, the barman, familiar as ever, if much older than she remembered. "I have two adjacent rooms booked for tonight? I was wondering if I could leave my luggage in there?" she asked, smiling in what she hoped was a self-assured, confident way.

"Of course, Miss." Tom replied with a obsequious smile. "What name would it be booked under?"

"Prewett." Bella said, without missing a beat. Sebastian opened his mouth to say something, but the ever-perceptive Kaspar gave him a swift kick in the shins.

"Right upstairs, Miss Prewett, rooms 12 and 14." Tom replied with another smile. Bella signed the register, "Kay Prewett". Giving the register a quick scan she saw some other names that she recognised: Bones, Weasley, MacMillan... Then a name that made her heart stop. In elegant script she saw the name, "Asteria Malfoy". She swallowed thickly before turning on her heels and leading her children upstairs without another word.

...

"Why did you lie, mummy?" Kaspar asked, as the twins sat on their bed, watching their mother unpack their things.

"Well..." Bella said, not really concentrating on what he was saying, more concerned by the fact that Twisty seemed to have forgotten to pack pyjamas. That and the fact that her children's stepmother was somewhere in Diagon Alley the same day they were – what a hideous quirk of fate. "Our family is known for being on the wrong side of the war and there's still a lot of prejudice against other Death Eater families... oh, I'm going to strangle that useless elf..."

"What's prejudice?" asked Sebastian, cocking his head to one side.

"It's where no matter how nice you are people already hate you." Kaspar said, succinctly.

"Not quite, but close enough." Bella agreed, slamming the suitcases with a crack that made the children jump a little. They had never seen their mother so agitated. She closed her eyes for a second and tried to think what to do. She hadn't seen Asteria for about 8 years, there was no reason that she would recognise her – particularly has her hair was a different colour to the darkest brown that it had been until her last few weeks at school. Would Asteria realise that the boys were Draco's? They sure as hell looked like him, right down to the shape of their eyes. It was only the colour that was different. She opened her eyes and looked at the boys, having an idea. "We are going to play a game, ok?" she said, stooping down so their eyes were on the same level.

"Ok!" Sebastian replied, eagerly.

"What's the game?" Kaspar replied, no exactly suspiciously but certainly more warily. Bella looked at them both.

"Do you remember the big portrait of mummy and her family in the dining room?" She asked them. They both nodded simultaneously. "And do you remember what colour mummy's hair was back then?" She could see them both thinking, trying to remember. Then Kaspar piped up,

"It was dark. Really dark." Bella nodded.

"Yes, it was." Draco had changed it. Once, lying in bed together, her wearing nothing but his shirt and him wearing nothing but a smile she had joked that the Weasley's hair colour was a contributing factor to their unattractiveness. Draco had replied to this comment by turning her hair red. To this day she hadn't quite managed to turn it back to almost-black, only succeeding in turning it a reddish, coppery brown. "How would you like to have dark hair like mummy's was?" she asked, but it wasn't so much a question as a plea, and Kaspar noticed, and didn't question his mother. Sebastian just saw it as a tiny adventure. They both nodded. Bella smiled gratefully and got out her wand, giving both boys a tap on the head, Sebastian first, then Kaspar. One by one, from the roots to the ends, each hair on their head, including their eyebrows and lashes, turned a deep dark brown. She smiled with satisfaction. On close inspection they still had their father's features, but you wouldn't know it unless you were looking. At first glance they looked like Delarcenys, and that suited her fine, whether she was pretending to be a Prewett or not. She looked at her sons with a loving gaze and gave them each a kiss on the now-brown head before standing up and holding out her hands. "Come on, let's go shopping."

Bella actually forgot about Asteria quite quickly once she had gone through the wall into Diagon Alley with her boys. She cast a quick Tenaomnus charm on them both, a spell that created an invisible chord from her to them that allowed them to look around without straying too far from her, but for the most part she let herself relax. Eventually she had to summon a couple of elves from the house to help her carry all her purchases: potions ingredients and beauty products for herself (having been confined to muggle products for years) and countless magical trinkets for the boys, including two brand new top of the range toy broomsticks that went up to 40mph at a maximum of 6 feet off the ground and included a built in soft-landing charm, just in case. It made her happy to see her boys so entranced by the world that she'd taken in her stride as a child, to see them so transfixed by something so simple as a pet shop full of owls, relenting to their persistent pleas and buying them each an eagle owl chick to take home in a little silver cage, which each boy proudly carried himself. When they finally arrived back at the pub the evening the boys were exhausted and Bella sent them off to bed in their own room on the top floor. They went without much of a fuss, too tired to put up much of a fight, though Kaspar still tried. Once she had got them both to sleep in their new green pyjamas she kissed them both soundly and crept out of the room to go downstairs and, finally, have a drink.

She sat in a booth with her glass in her hand, looking out at all the people. Some she recognised from school, namely a bushy haired Gryffindor woman and her gangly red-headed husband and some equally hideous brats. She had started to wonder if Asteria had come and gone already when she saw, with a jolt, a couple walk into the pub. Draco and his wife were followed by a flotilla of heavily burdened elves, and Bella kept her head down, not wanting Draco to see her, swearing under her breath. She hadn't expected to see him. It had been nearly seven years since he had slammed her against the wall and told her to keep away, and she had done so. Why was in that NOW they chose to be here? Why was it that the first time she came to Diagon Alley since before leaving school, the first time she had taken her children further from their home than the Zabini house six doors down, why TODAY did the Malfoys decide to take a jaunt? It wasn't until the bassinette floated in behind them that Bella discovered it, and her heart dropped into her feet. She watched as Draco turned and picked up his child with a wide smile, holding the baby in his arms. She felt a jag of pain and anger tear through her and she turned her back, unable to look anymore. He had a family. He had a child. And he was happier without her. She had never expected him to stay miserable, and she hadn't wanted it, but a secret, greasy part of her wanted her children to be his only children. It was unrealistic, of course it was, but the thought that Kasper and Sebastian had a half-sibling that they would never know absolutely killed her. It hurt almost as much as knowing that Draco would never hold his oldest sons, never know them, never love them. It hurt her deeply. She realised that her booth was in plain view and got up slowly while his back was turned, going to the other side of the pub and sitting down at a different booth, covering her face with her hands.

"Bella?" She looked up slowly to see a face she knew sitting at the table that she'd just gatecrashed. He was dark haired with kind brown eyes and very chiselled features in his face. He was full-lipped and his mouth was slightly open in something close to astonishment. Bella looked at him with wide, searching eyes, taking him in. It had been years since she had seen him, and he'd grown into such a man, broad shouldered and with the shadow of a beard.

"Travis?" He nodded, looking at her almost blankly. Bella could understand why. Travis had been her boyfriend for 2 years before she had left him for Draco. If she were Travis, she wouldn't be sure how to feel either. "It's good to see you," she said, earnestly. "It's been way too long." Without thinking too hard about it she slid her arms around him and hugged him tightly. For a moment Travis stiffened in her arms, then very slowly he hugged her too. "I missed you." Bella whispered the words into his shoulder, slightly overcome with emotion and feeling. It was then that she realised she hadn't had a man's arms around her since before the twins were born. After what felt like not long enough he let go of her, looking at her intently once more.

"You look different."

"It's the hair. It's redder," Bella said, quietly. "And, you know, I'm tired. I never used to get all that tired, but nowadays I seem permanently exhausted." Travis smiled.

"Busy? Got a job? A respectable job?" Bella felt an embarrassing schoolgirl blush creep over her face and she shook her head. She figured that she might as well tell him now, knowing that he would find out sooner or later.

"No, I'm a full-time... well, I'm... I have two boys," she said, stumbling over the words and looking down. Travis was silent for a moment before asking in a slightly frosty tone,

"Are they Malfoy's?" Bella nodded, still looking at the table. "How old?"

"They are seven tomorrow," Bella said, speaking quietly. She saw Travis's fist clench. It was clearly still a sore point for him.

"So he knocked you up when we were still at school?" he asked, slowly. Bella nodded again.

"Yes."

"And then he left you?" Bella said nothing for a moment, then she said, slightly evasively,

"He's staying here with his wife and new baby... what do you think." She sighed, shakily, letting herself feel all the sadness that she had been forcing into anger for years. "I still can't believe how my life turned out, Travis. Nine years ago my life was perfectly fine. I wasn't a mother, for a start, I still had my family and my figure for that matter... I had you. But then everything went pear-shaped."

"Karma." Travis said, without missing a beat. There was an awkward silence. "Sorry," he muttered, "That was harsh." Bella shook her head.

"No. It's probably just about right." She felt his hands under her chin and she let him lift her face up to look at him. She obliged, looking deeply into his eyes.

"I missed you too." He looked almost surprised at himself, but he continued. "I really missed you. Despite everything. You humiliated me when you left me for that... Boy. Every day I still wonder what it would have been like if we had stayed together. I still think about you. A lot. And I keep trying to write. I will deliberately walk past your house on the way to work, wondering if you're inside, wondering if I'll ever see you at a window or in the garden." He swallowed. "Are you single?" he asked, seriously. Bella nodded. "Good," he replied with an affirmative little nod. "Because I'm buying you another drink, and you are going to tell me all about your boys..." he stood up to go to the bar and said to her, in an undertone, as he left, "They may be half Malfoy, but they're half Bella, too." That made Bella smile broadly and she watched as he turned the corner to the bar with her empty glass. She sat back in her chair and let out a long sigh. What a weird day. She wondered for a second if she ought to check on the boys, but she knew that they were sound, regular sleepers. She fully expected them to be out for hours. Besides, Twisty was watching over them as she always did – the house elf having taken on the role of nursemaid years ago. Bella allowed herself to be aware of the butterflies in her stomach. She admitted to herself; Travis was looking good. All the feelings she'd had for him back at school were returning, and she felt like a teenager again. As he returned she smiled at him and he smiled back. When he sat down he placed two crystal glasses and a bottle of champagne on the table. "I thought we ought to celebrate." He filled her glass, then his own and raised it for a toast. "What should we toast to? To chance meetings? To your children?"

"How about to a fresh start?" Bella suggested hesitantly. Travis smirked but her nodded in agreement.

"To a fresh start." They clinked glasses and took a drink, Bella more hesitantly that him, having not had much to drink at all in a very long time and knowing that bubbles went to her head. When she put her glass down he reached out and took her hand in his, knotting their fingers. To Bella, who hadn't really seen a man in over half a decade, let alone touched one, it felt surprisingly intimate, as if she were holding hands for the first time in her life and it were all so shiny and new that the sense of everything was somewhat heightened. He gave her hand a squeeze. Yes, Bella thought to herself. To fresh starts...