"Well, that wasn't so bad," voice Hermione as she and a sleeping Amey sat rocking in the nursery.
"Yes, she could have evaporated the entire house instead," snarked Severus as he paced in front of his wife and daughter.
Cat, the Mayor's secretary (and daughter, they'd found out), had shown up on their doorstep just after noon, with a small companion: Clover. When they had invited them inside, the small creature - who looked very much like a House Elf - had shrieked when she saw Amey's eyes.
"Small one! Child of us! Not in this house!" she had cried, then ran from room to room, changing furniture, art, and the shapes of some of the rooms, causing the windows to become ether opaque or removing them entirely. In a matter of minutes, the entire house had been re-formed.
The humans had stood, eyes wide and mouths open, as this flurry of activity changed the open, airy house into a bunker.
"Must… keep - out…" muttered the creature as she collapsed in the foyer.
"WHAT! Is the -" started Severus.
"SHH! Dear, just… let her rest. I think… I think I understand. A little." voiced Hermione softly, as Amey's reaction startled them all:
She wiggled in her mother's arms, then began to glow with a deep blue light. The adults stared in amazement as she floated to her room, the glow capturing Clover to float her along behind.
As they followed their child and the Caretaker into the nursery, they discovered a small cot next to the crib, and a tiny array of new… well, toys is what they looked like, but they all glowed with the same deep blue light. The child laid herself in the crib, and the Caretaker was laid gently onto the cot. Soft snores could soon be heard from both.
"Well," said Cat. "I think that's that, then. Floo if you need anything," she said merrily as she let herself out the front door.
Silence reigned for several minutes.
Hermione went to the crib, picked up her sleeping child, sat in the rocker, and began to sway back and forth.
"Severus, I think that's what the Caretakers are supposed to do."
"What, rearrange the furniture? And why is our child glowing?"
"I… well, don't you know? I mean, this is from your side of the…" she trailed off at the look her husband was giving her.
"Love, there hasn't been a girl child in our family for 17 generations."
"…Oh. That's… unusual, isn't it?"
"No one ever said anything about it, actually."
"…"
"In fact," he mused "No one ever spoke of this Caretaker business,… just that, if I were to have children, it was expected that I… send away… any girl children…"
As he trailed off, he began to get furious.
"I… believe I have been misled. Wife, I will return."
And with that, he strode out of the room. She heard the front door open and close, and the *crack* of apparation.
"He must be very upset," she said to herself. "He never makes any noise doing that anymore…"
She pondered into dusk, rocking her still-sleeping child in the room where a new and interesting creature softly snored in her sleep.