A/N:

Sorry this was posted a bit late. Real life came in the way, as it sometimes does. =p

Anyway, hope you all like this chapter, and like the people I reintroduce here. ^^,

Also, this story, under the same title and username, is found on Archive of Our Own. I am contemplating moving over there completly, and stop posting here. I will continue to post here a little while longer and giving this warning several times, but in time I will stop posting here, though I will not delete what I already have posted. I hope to see you over on AO3. =)

57. Zinnia Selene

Astoria Greengrass Malfoy would remember this day to the day she died. She would remember it when the memories of her sister's exuberant laugh faded, when the memory of her mothers' soft hands and her father's gravelly voice became almost nothing. She would remember it far beyond the horrid memories of war and sorrow and pain. And she would cherish it as she cherished few other memories in her life. She would remember this day as one of the very best days of her life, on par with the day she finally, finally, took Draco as her husband.

They were all having lunch together, the Dark Lord, Harry, Draco and her. Harry was telling them about the last house in the District that he had put up the week before and how Miss Lovegood and her family had had very specific wishes for all the rooms. Harry was grinning while he told them about the greenhouse Amaranth Carrow more or less had demanded on the roof of the building and the conservatory Miss Lovegood had wanted in the big apartment for both normal and very special trees and plants.

"I have no doubt that Luna will find her Dirigible Plums for the conservatory. Not that she needs it, she has always been capable of accepting the extraordinary," Harry said with a smile and lifted his coffee cup to his lips, just as a Lynx Patronus sailed through the wall and straight up to Harry.

"Dragon had a tail. They are trying to take down the wards. Help needed," a hoarse, but deep voice said from the Patronus' mouth.

Astoria was certain she had heard the voice before, and certain she had seen the Patronus before too. She watched as Harry went completely white before his eyes flashed and rage started burning in his eyes. It took but a moment and they glowed Avada green. She didn't know what was happening and didn't know who was taking down who's wards, but she pitied the fools that put that look in Harry's eyes. Harry was so very easy-going most of the time, it would be just too easy to forget how very dangerous and how utterly deadly he could be. Astoria refused to let herself forget exactly who he was and what he was capable of, even at the best of times.

"Dobby, my gear," Harry said in a too loud voice and got to his feet. There was a snap of elf fingers and the moment after he was dressed in his warded robe and dragonhide boots with his sword across his back. Obviously Dobby and Harry had come to an agreement to make Harry battle-ready faster. Astoria didn't know if she liked that thought, she didn't want it to be necessary; the war was over. But apparently such preparations had been necessary anyway.

"Thanks, Dobby. Wanna help children again?"

At that both Astoria and Draco shot to their feet, their chairs clattering against the floor behind them. The Dark Lord rose more slowly, but it didn't look like he planned to stay behind either. Harry looked at Astoria and Draco before he met the Dark Lord's eyes.

"We have two houses in Britain," he began in a cold, hard voice, "two places to keep orphaned or endangered children safe. Places with competent and good-hearted adults to look after them and teach them. We sent as many children as we could out of Britain and as far away as we could, like we did with Luna and her family, but we didn't manage that for everyone. I understand that you want to come with me now, but if you do, none of you will try to keep either the adults or the children back. They will be sent to the next safe house."

"They could get a home in the District or either of the villages?" Astoria said, almost tentatively. She already knew his answer, somehow.

"No, the adults are two of those that refuse to resurface, even to get their papers or a pardon. In return for them looking after the children, I gave them my word that I will die fighting for their right to choose their own lives. They might want to spend the rest of their lives in hiding. If I bring you to them, I put that in jeopardy and I need them. The children need them."

Astoria wanted to protest. She wanted to tell him that while the adults might want to remain in hiding, the children would most likely appreciate living in the open, around more people and with the possibility of going to school. Maybe even get placed in a family of their own, if all of their blood family were gone. With effort, she kept her tongue behind her teeth. Now was not the time. Harry might just Stun her, or leave, if she tried to say anything more.

Cold crept down her spine when she looked at Harry again, his glowing eyes and his flowing battle robes.

No, Harry would go for the kill. Straight for the kill. He had already told them that he would die before he let the mentioned adults be exposed to them, or anyone else, because the children needed those adults. And there was nothing in this world Harry Potter wouldn't do for children in need of help. That was why he was in battle robes. Not for whoever took down the wards, but to stop the three of them from following him. Stop them permanently if necessary. Even if it meant he would die in madness and pain as a consequence. He was still too much Gryffindor and he still lived too much in the war to think of any other alternatives at the moment.

It would take Harry minutes, if that much, to put down herself and Draco. She wanted to believe that her Lord would be a match for his husband, but truth to be told, after seeing Harry while he trained with the duelling cards and seeing the tremendous amount of power he had to draw from … Astoria was no longer certain that the two husbands were matched, and not in her Lord's favour. It felt like a traitors thought, but it was a terrifying possibility she had to come to terms with.

"I, Astoria Greengrass Malfoy, give you my word on my magic that I will never expose the children and adults that you now will take me to, nor do anything to harm them outside defence of myself or others, unless you give me permission to do otherwise. This I swear. So mote it be." Golden light flashed around her and bound her Oath.

She looked at Draco who repeated the Oath with his own name without blinking.

"I give you my word, Harry," the Dark Lord said, "I will neither force them out into the open, nor harm any of these people, outside self-defence. Though I will try to convince you to persuade them to choose to come into the open, at another point in time."

Astoria nodded.

"Hermi is already on it, and that's all anyone can do for now. Let's go before they get anywhere on the wards, or before Dragon comes back. She will be pissed enough about the fact that she had a tail … Dobby, come when I call you, please!" Harry turned around and jogged to the Floo room where he turned a vase into a portkey with an intricate flick of his wand and held it out to the three of them. "Also, I'm in charge."

That wasn't a question so much as a command. Just as he had done the time Hogsmeade had been under attack and he had taken the lead.

"As you wish, Harry," the Dark Lord said. "But do not kill or permanently harm anyone if you can at all help it."

A moment later they stood outside on the moor someplace Astoria assumed was still England. It had slightly rolling hills filled with windblown heather. It was not her preferred landscape, but it was still beautiful in a desolate sort of way. What it lacked was a house or cottage or any kind of place that could be a warded home. Then she saw three people a way to the left of them, probably a moment after Harry saw them, because the next moment the three no longer tried to bring down the wards, but lay in a heap on the ground after being hit with three red Stunning Spells.

Harry took two long steps forward and disappeared in thin air. The wards that Astoria hadn't even felt, but that were strong enough to hide any hint of people completely, now held Harry too. The Dark Lord frowned, began to follow, and then stopped, still frowning. Slowly the frown disappeared and he relaxed. Astoria didn't ask what was going on, not even when Harry again appeared by the three wizards that he had felled, waved his wand over each of them and then called Dobby to place the wizard in the dungeon at the Manor. The Dark Lord watched it all without comment. Astoria didn't think that he even blinked when Harry strode towards them again, robe billowing out behind him and flashing with power.

"They don't particularly want visitors," Harry said when he got near them again, "but they know they will be moving anyway, so they agreed to remain calm if not friendly. Dragon isn't back yet; they didn't notice the would-be intruders before after she left. She will most likely be grumpy that someone managed to tail her here, so no harassing the dragon. You are warned." He gave them a half feral grin and held a hand out to the Dark Lord. "Only way in is if I let you."

The Dark Lord took his hand without hesitation and after a few steps they both disappeared. A few moments later Harry came back and let Astoria and then Draco into the wards. And what wards it was. Astoria could feel them buzz against her skin when she crossed. Threatening pain and death to anyone who dared to enter uninvited. The wards at the Manor were massive, especially since she still hadn't lowered the war wards, after all the threatening mail they got every week. These wards weren't far behind the Manor's war wards, and it took Astoria several moments to realise that these wards were built with blood as much as magic. Blood wards unlike any she had ever seen or felt. She shivered. Blood magic had been illegal in Britain for hundreds of years, and still Harry, or some of his allies, had built massive wards with that kind of magic.

All to protect a cottage on the top of a little hill. It was whitewashed with a grey slate roof, ivy growing around the sparkling windows and a small garden with herbs and early spring flowers around the path down the hill. She thought she could see a sandbox and a swing set at the other side of the cottage, among some fruit trees. An idyllic place to grow up. A peaceful place behind such protections, and she feared its inhabitants needed that peace. In front of the green door stood two people, pale and rigid, with their wands held stiffly in their fists, but not raised against them.

Astoria swallowed hard when she saw the two adults. She had already been in several situations like this, where she met someone she had harmed during the war, but none were quite as bad as this instance. She could say that she had only followed orders, and she had, but that would never be a good enough reason for those on the other end of her wand, and she recognised that. Not when what they had endured on her own orders broke any kind of human decency.

She swallowed hard again, feeling sick to her stomach. Not for the first time she wished she could be higher up on the waiting lists for the Mind Healers, but she was functioning so much better than most. And she had her Occlumency to fall back on. With a slight shudder she raised her shields to full strength and looked straight at the witch and wizard she had last seen in a basement underneath Godric's Hollow, screaming in pain under her wand. A memory that was one of many reasons she used Dreamless Sleep as often as was healthy and other sleep aides when she could not.

"Minerva McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt," the Dark Lord said in a neutral voice. "You were believed dead."

Neither of them spoke. McGonagall grew so pale she seemed almost green and Shacklebolt shifted to stand more in front of the door to the cottage. McGonagall's hair was white now, a pure white without any sign of black or even silver. Her left arm stopped beneath the elbow and there were red and blue scars on her face, neck and right hand. Scars that hadn't gotten any healing before it was too late. Shacklebolt had several white scars on his throat and neck and Astoria could see that he was moving slightly, as if trying to find a more comfortable position to stand in, but at the same time trying to not look like he had any trouble.

"That was very much on purpose, you know," Harry told the Dark Lord with a sceptical look before he looked at the two by the door. "Kings, I wouldn't have brought them here if I thought for even a moment that they would hurt any of you or pose any kind of danger to the children," he said calmly. "Astoria and Draco even swore on their magic that they wouldn't."

Both McGonagall's and Shacklebolt's eyes went straight to the Dark Lord, who still stood steadily a few steps behind Harry, letting Harry take the lead as he had promised.

"We haven't seen you in a long while, Harry," Shacklebolt said with the hoarse and deep voice of the Lynx Patronus from earlier.

"As if I could ever change enough to be a danger to the children," Harry snorted. "Zinnia is here, Kings, I couldn't bring threats to this door even if I wanted to."

That seemed to make the two magicals relax, even if it didn't make any sense to Astoria.

"Actually, I want to speak to Zi as soon as Dragon is back. I got an idea for Zi that I think she might like, if Dragon agrees."

"Don't you dare leave without talking to her, Potter," McGonagall finally spoke up. "We have hardly heard anything but Harry this and Harry that since the last time you came by. It's gotten so bad that Farah has to read aloud every piece about you in any kind of paper, and Zinnia goes around pestering everyone else if Farah gets tired of it."

Harry smiled at that, a soft, warm smile, unlike anything Astoria had ever seen on him. It was almost dopey.

One thump of mighty wings was all the warning they got before a deep purple dragon landed behind the cottage with a slam that made the ground beneath them shake. Then she got up on her hind legs, towering over the cottage, stretched her neck up in the air and roared so loud it actually hurt Astoria's ears. It took a while to clear them of the ringing sound and the first she heard was Harry giving a heavy sigh.

"One pissed off Dragon. That's the reason I sent the arseholes to the Manor, by the way, after Obliviating them. It was that or fight with her over the fact that she would want to rend them limb from limb. It's one of her favourites."

"Won't her actions scare the children?" Draco asked in a low voice while Astoria noticed that the two magical's on the doorstep didn't even flinch over Dragon's antics. Not any more than Harry did. She also noted that there was no human shape on top of Dragon this time around, no human protector. Not that it mattered to her. As if she ever would try to tangle with any of Harry's friends if she could help it, much less a bloody big dragon.

As an answer, the door into the cottage was ripped open and three small children pressed themselves out between the two adults that didn't try very hard to keep them back.

"Dragon came back again!" a boy with long black braids yelled and rushed around the cottage.

"Dragon, Dragon, Dragon!" yelled a toddler girl that hurried after the boy as fast as her small legs could carry her, with a teenage girl right behind her to keep her from falling. The next girl out the door, about six years old, Astoria guessed, began her trek around the cottage when she got a good look at the people in front of the cottage. She saw Harry and screamed a sound that could only be pure joy before she raised her arms in the air and rushed right up to Harry who hoisted her up in the air and spun her around to more delighted screaming.

Astoria's eyes prickled at the sight of Harry's beaming face and the joy in the girl's face while the girl's long blond hair spun through the air and the peals of laughter rang out around them. This had to be Zinnia, the girl who wouldn't stop asking about Harry.

Harry brought the girl towards his chest and hugged her hard, even while other children came out of the cottage. Some disappeared around the cottage towards Dragon, and two, a boy around Zinnia's age and a teenage girl, came closer to Harry and Zinnia.

"Galahad," Harry greeted the red-haired boy with a smile and scooped him up too. "Ianna," he said to the teenage girl who nodded back at him. Both children clung to Harry with big grins, and he kissed their cheeks several times before he let them down and told them to go talk to Dragon. He had to promise them that he wouldn't leave without more hugs, and the boy, Galahad, had to pull the girl after him. The little girl didn't want to leave Harry, and she almost cried, her blue eyes filling with tears. Ianna, the teenager, tried to help the situation, but the tears continued to threaten.

"Tell Dragon I asked her to let you ride her," Harry told them.

Zinnia's eyes got huge, all signs of tears disappeared and now she was tugging Galahad behind her while she ran around the cottage. Ianna followed them while shaking her head.

"That must be a Gryffindor in the making," Draco muttered, but he was smiling while he looked after the children with a longing Astoria recognised only too well. They had more or less agreed to foster a child now. Preferably long term, but they would accept short term if that was what was necessary and best for the child. Their only hesitation was the fact that they by their own marriage contract wasn't allowed to adopt any child before they had a child of their own blood. They didn't like the thought that any child of theirs might feel left out because they couldn't get the same family name as they had. Astoria was looking into the possibility of adopting an Heir to the Greengrass line. After all, Lucius' ultimatum only concerned the Malfoy line.

Apparently, Harry had been close enough to hear Draco, because he gave a sharp little smile and said:

"That was Zinnia Selene Longbottom. Her father is Neville Longbottom, one of the boldest and best Gryffindor's I ever had the privilege to know. Her mother is Hannah Abbott Longbottom, Neville's darling wife and a Hufflepuff fierce enough that it took four Death Eaters to bring her down. Zinnia takes after both her parents, even if she hardly remembers anything from them. They are both dead with all their family. Augusta Longbottom died at Godric's Hollow and Zinnia's parents were gone long before that. Hermi and I, as her

godparent's, are all that are left of her family now."

He turned towards McGonagall and Shacklebolt and waved them closer. "Just so we don't have to shout at each other," he told them when they stopped just a bit closer to them, with Harry between them and the Dark Lord, Draco and Astoria.

"As I recently have learned about titles and such," Harry continued and his tone became biting, but she didn't think he meant it towards any of them, "Zi is Heir Longbottom, to become Lady Longbottom one day. She needs a home where she can learn about what that will entail. A home where no one will use her ill because of her nobility or the wealth she will one day hold. A home where she will be accepted and loved, where she will be educated and trained, and where she will be safe and happy above all else." Harry was looking at Draco and her meaningfully.

"I can't give Zi that at this point in time, and I'm not bastard enough to wish for her to grow up without a proper family just because I can't be that family. Though, I very much want to be a part of her life as much as I can. The same goes for Hermi, on both accounts." He hesitated. "If not for the threat today I probably wouldn't have brought her up yet, as she is both safe and happy here. But as that did happen and as I know you two have spoken about fostering for some weeks, and have wanted a child much longer than that …" He paused. "I know that your real wish is adoption and I know why that won't work right now. Zi will grow up knowing she is a Longbottom and will be Lady Longbottom. As long as she is loved, I doubt she will think anything of the fact that her family name remains Longbottom, while her siblings might have other family names."

Astoria swallowed hard and she couldn't deny the harsh stinging of tears in her eyes now. Just the thought of that girl, her laugh ringing in the hallways at the Manor, her energy infusing her life; just the thought, the hope, lifted her heart and she wanted … Astoria wanted as she had wanted little else in her life.

Draco caught her hand in his and squeezed it. She looked at him and he stared back, silver eyes almost wild with want and hope. He pressed her hand so hard it nearly hurt, and she could see him fighting for composure. They had only spoken of fostering for a few weeks, but they had both wanted children for years, even if they had agreed to not try for one before after they had married. He wanted it as much as her, and she didn't think she read him wrong now. He would welcome that girl into his home and life and heart without hesitation, without any qualm. And he would defend her, love her, and cherish her with everything he was, from this day until his dying day.

"You are thinking …" Astoria said hoarsely, blinking back tears as she looked at Harry. "You want us … You would … you would deem us good enough, deem us worthy, of raising your godchild? The child of your close friend?"

"Yeah," Harry said, as if it were nothing, but the way he watched them told her he was evaluating them just as much now as he must already have done for weeks, if not months. "We will ask her of course. She has friends as close as family here and she doesn't remember living anyplace else, but with me in the house and Hermi in and out every other day or so, she will have someone she knows close. Even if it will take weeks and months, even years, before her friends has families outside hiding so that she may visit them." He cast a glance at McGonagall and Shacklebolt.

"Don't you dare try to manipulate us like that, Harry," Shacklebolt shook his head. "Zinnia can come visit as often as she wishes, if you or Hermi brings her, and no one else."

Harry shrugged. "It was worth a try. The next safe house is just as good as this one, but I have recently come into some inheritance and I'm already contemplating using one of the Manor Houses I now own as a children's home. That would be bigger and better than the cottages, even with the expansion charms on the structures. No one would have to hide anymore then. The wards already on some of those places … I will just say that they have been in the Black Family for generations, and leave it at that."

Shacklebolt whistled a low note and Harry gave him a sharp grin. "My thoughts exactly. Let anyone try to get at the children inside those wards. I wouldn't even have to do anything, just lean back and let the wards do all the work, and pick up the pieces afterward."

Shacklebolt and McGonagall looked at each other for a long moment, while Astoria burned with the need to ask more about Zinnia and her placement with Draco and her. Draco was still clutching her hand.

"We will move to the next house now," McGonagall said after a moment, "but we will think about the possibility of moving into one such Manor, with such protections. I assume that if we agreed, Hermi and you would bully the other house to move into the same Manor too?"

"But of course," Harry said. "Any objections to us taking Zi with us now, if she herself wants to go? I have only gotten news of her from Hermi the last few months, I hardly know her anymore so I wouldn't know without asking what Zi is likely to say about it." He gave a pained grimace.

"No," Shacklebolt shook his head. "Not only because between Hermi and you, you hold all the legal responsibility for her, as per her parents' instructions, but also because you would always want what is best for her. You wouldn't suggest the young Malfoy family as her family, if you didn't genuinely believe that they would do right by her. And if they don't do right by her, I have no doubt you would make them regret that for a very long time."

"No, not for a long time. I like and respect them too much for that. If they hurt Zi, it will simply be the last thing they ever do. And they were aware of that before I said it right now, even if I hadn't told them I'm her godfather."

He was right. Astoria had long known that if she ever hurt a child on purpose, any child, it could easily be the last thing she ever did. The fact that this girl, this girl that maybe, maybe, could move in with them, could become family, was Harry's own godchild, didn't actually matter. All children were of equal import to Harry and he would react the same if any got hurt.

Harry turned towards them. "So, want me to ask Zi what she thinks about getting a new family?"

Draco latched on to her arm with both hands and nodded his head vigorously. When she looked at him, he was pale as a sheet. She didn't think she looked much better.

"We would like that very much, thank you," Astoria whispered.

A/N:

Thank you so much for the comments, the favs and the follows! They are much appreciated! I love to read what you think about the story and the characters! It makes writing this story even more fun! Each and every comment makes me smile!

Hope you liked it! Please review!