Unfinished Business: Shattered Pieces
DISCLAIMER: Look at first chapter.
WARNING: Look at first chapter.
Wishing You a Merry Christmas
After seeing to BJ, everyone got ready for dinner. Like the last time they had all sat down to eat together, namely last night's dinner, it was and awkward affair.
"So good of you to join us dear," Narcissa tease Draco as he and BJ walked into the dining room.
"Forgive me, mother," Draco took his place at one head of the table, his father having occupied the other. "BJ and I were having a rather interesting debate and we lost track of the time."
At those words, James turned to Harry, who shrugged his shoulders, feigning ignorance. BJ, for his part, didn't look any worse for wear as he took his place between his mother and Scorpius, so James reluctantly let his suspicions go.
= FLASHBACK
"It's just a shame your wife couldn't join us, Mr. Potter," Astoria said as she sipped at her glass of wine.
"She had work to do for The Prophet," Harry explained from across from her.
"You mean she would rather spend her time working than with her own children? I don't know how I would handle myself if I had to spend the holidays away from my own child," she scoffed as she placed a hand on Scorpius' shoulder.
Harry was a moment away from making a snarky comeback when he felt a hand on his knee. Draco's comforting grip helped Harry refrain himself from saying anything he would later regret.
"Ginny has always been driven when it comes to her career," he said instead before taking another bite of his food.
"That's a load of rubbish," Pansy said from the other side of the table. "You can be driven in your career and still find the time to spend the holidays with your children. Take myself for example. Working for the Ministry hasn't stopped me from being here tonight."
"That's because you work for me and I gave you the days off," Draco pointed out since Pansy worked him at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
"That's beside the point," she said, disregarding his words with a wave of her hand. "I still would have been here tonight. Children, whose ownmothers can't find the time to spend the holidays with them, tend to have stagnate or decayed personalities," she said, to which James turned to BJ while Harry turned to Draco.
Even though Harry knew that Pansy didn't remember that she actually liked James, the fact that she was trying to insult, maybe even hurt, his son made him furious. Did she actually believe that his son had a decayed personality? What did that even mean? Did she even know, or did she just say it to hurt his son? The latter was most likely the case seeing as how she wanted to get back at James for hurting her son.
"Mother," BJ implored from beside her.
"Be careful what you say, Parkinson," Harry warned at the same time.
"That's Mrs. Zabini to you, Potter," Pansy sneered, a look Harry had not received in over a decade.
"Forgive me," Harry waved in a contrived attempt at politeness. "Hearing you talk just now, reminded me of that snooty little girl I used to go to Hogwarts with over a decade ago. But that would be impossible, wouldn't it?" Harry asked with a timed chuckle. "It's not like you have a stagnated or decayed personality, right?"
"Are you going to let him talk to me like that?" Pansy asked hotly as she turned to Draco, who merely shrugged his shoulders, and then to Blaise, who had chosen that moment to take a sip of his wine. "What of your parents, young man?" Pansy asked, suddenly turning to Hector. "Why aren't they here with us tonight?"
"I don't think my father was aware he was even invited," Hector said, the food on the tip of his fork falling back into his plate when he hastened to eat it.
"He wasn't," Draco grumbled before continuing to eat.
"And my mother past away shortly after I was born," he continued, unfazed by the woman's dislike for him.
"How unfortunate for you," Pansy said, though her words were hollow.
END FLASHBACK =
Like last dinner, Astoria made sure to goad Harry whenever she could. She would dote on Scorpius whenever possible, as if proving that she was better suited for him than Harry was. Pansy, on the other hand, made sure to insult Hector whenever she could, while just conveniently dismissing James. Most of that time was spent proving that her son was superior to Hector.
Interestingly enough, since James now knew the truth about Harry and Draco being his parents, even though he couldn't remember it, he wasn't as hurt by Pansy's words as much as he would have been.
When dinner was finally over, Draco and Harry, along with their children, BJ and Hector, retired back to the family room where they waited for midnight. Draco and Harry would have stayed with them had they not had other matters to tend to, namely confronting Astoria.
After making sure that none of the kids were going to hex each other, specifically BJ and Hector, Draco took Harry back to the drawing room. When they entered the room, they found Astoria already there waiting for them.
"So nice of you to join me," Astoria greeted, holding a glass of wine, when the door was closed and the room sealed. "And here I thought I would be entertaining myself this evening."
"No need to worry yourself. I wouldn't miss forcing you to lift this curse for the world," Draco said with mock pleasantry.
"Is that all this was to you," Harry asked in disbelief, "a way to amuse yourself?"
"Not at all, Mr. Potter," Astoria said as she took a seat on the chair by the side of the fireplace, gesturing for them to do the same. "I was very content with the world I had created. However, I find watching as you two find your way back to each other once again tiring ," she explained when they took a seat on the couch opposite her.
"Then you'll take the spell off?"
"Not so fast. Like I told my husband-"
"Draco is not your husband," Harry said without thinking.
"My mistake," Astoria smiled patronisingly. "But it remains that I will not remove this curse without getting a bit of insurance in its place."
"What kind of insurance?"
"I want what was due to me. I want the kind of life where I will want for nothing."
"If that world, or any of your deluded worlds, involves me, then you will be waiting a long time for it to come," Draco informed.
"Don't worry, my dear. I am done chasing after you. I have someone else in mind," she said with a sweet smile that had no one fooled.
"Who?"
"My family had bred me to only settle for the best, to end up with a man that was of equal breeding as myself, if not more."
"You want a Sacred Twenty-Eight," Draco guessed.
For Draco, being born into the family of one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, he was bred to believe that he was above everyone else. No one could compare to his stature except for the heir of another Twenty-Eight. It was one of the reasons he had been betrothed to Pansy Parkinson, another Twenty-Eight child.
Even though he had only met her when they boarded the train for their first year at Hogwarts, him and Pansy had been betrothed from birth. In fact, if it weren't for Pansy falling for Blaise and Draco falling for Harry, the two of them would have been married. Astoria was a Greengrass, and as such, another Twenty-Eight heir, so she would have been brought up to believe the same things.
"You were always the clever one," Astoria smiled before taking another sip of her wine.
"But all of the Twenty-Eight heirs have been married off already."
"Ah, but not all of them are happy in their marriage. That is where you come in. I want you to get one for me."
"We are not a delivery service," Harry said, offended.
"You will be if you want to be husbands again, if you want little Scorpius to call you daddy again," Astoria goaded.
Harry's wand arm twitched, wanting to hex the woman before him. But Draco's sudden hold on his arm stopped him.
"Now don't worry," Astoria said as she got up from the chair and stood before the fireplace. "I'm not asking for you to break up any marriages. I know I wouldn't get anywhere with that request. But it just so happens that a Twenty-Eight heir has recently left his wife, while she was in the hospital losing her child no less."
"You mean Marcus Flint," Harry guessed, remembering the case where Lestrange Jr. was kidnapping heirs from the Sacred Twenty-Eight who were not pure blooded. "He left Millicent when he found out that she wasn't as pure blooded as he was led to believe, even though she was one of the Twenty-Eight," he informed Draco before addressing Astoria. "You want to marry a man that left his wife while she was still in the hospital?"
"You two would be perfect for each other," Draco sneered.
"He knows what it means to be pure blooded, to be a Sacred Twenty-Eight. You were perfect in every way except you lost sight of that."
"And found happiness," Draco insisted, wondering why Astoria couldn't see that.
"I can find happiness too, once he and I are married."
"You know it isn't that simple. Even though Flint left his wife, he's still married to her," Draco tried to explain.
For the wizarding world, marriage was a deeper commitment then just saying a few vows. Your souls were bound to each other's for eternity. You could leave your partner and go wherever you wanted. But you were still magically linked to that person, unable to marry, or even procreate with anyone else.
"There are ways around that," Astoria insisted.
"Ways that involve proving that you're soul is better suited for him than his wife's is."
"But like you said, we would be perfect for each other," Astoria said with a sort of mad glint. "All I ask is that you bring him here to me. I will do the rest. When he and I are bound together in marriage, I will remove the spell and all of you can live happily ever after, without worrying about me trying to separate you two again."
Draco and Harry turned to each other. Silently, they discussed what they should do. It felt wrong somehow, being instrumental in breaking up a marriage. But Flint had left his wife, even going as far as splitting up their vaults and moving to another country. Could they really be the ones who put the final nail in the coffin of their broken marriage?
As Harry looked into Draco's eyes, he found that the silver orbs said 'Yes, they could'.
"There is one thing you must promise me, though," Astoria said when she noticed their acceptance of her plan. "You must not tell a soul about what you are doing, not your friends, family or colleagues. If I find that one person knows about this arrangement, then the deal is off and little Scorpius will remember me as his mother for the rest of his life."
"Agreed," Harry said.
"Good," Astoria said with a bright smile that was as empty as her wine glass. "Now on to what you really wanted to know, the who, what, when, where and why of my plan."
"We already figured those out. You cast a spell over the entire wizarding world on September 1 at the Leaky Cauldron so you could steal my husband and child," Harry interrupted. "I remember seeing you there that day. What I really want to know is how you did it."
"I don't see why I couldn't tell you. It's not like you could lift the curse without me anyway. Very well. I used The Mirror of Erised," she said and watched their shocked expressions with a sort of perverted satisfaction. "You weren't expecting that, were you?"
"The Mirror doesn't work that way," Harry insisted. "It-"
"Shows you your heart's desire," Astoria interrupted. "Yes, well, I found a way to take what the mirror showed me and blanket it over the world. It took some time and research after finding out that it could actually do that. But once I found out how to do it, it was really quite simple. I'm actually surprised no one had done it before now," she laughed.
"So how exactly did you do it? And how do you undo it?" Draco asked.
"First, you must look into the mirror and wait for your heart's desire to appear. Once it does, put your wand up to the mirror and chant a response to the words that are inscribed above. This will extract the image from the mirror so you can bottle it. You can place it into a Pensieve if you want to tweet your desire, but it's not necessary. After that, go to the point you want to release the desire and pour it out, letting it coat itself over the world. Unfortunately, the process won't create or destroy life or love. Otherwise, it would have solved all of my problems."
Draco and Harry turned to each other then, stunned that such a simple thing could separate their world.
"And how do you reverse it?"
"Well, since I cast the spell and it is my desire, I have to go back to the place where I cast it and chant a modified version of the mirror's inscription. The desire will then be pulled from the world before I have to place it back into the mirror," she said with a satisfied smile as the two men turned to each other again. "So you see, you can't do this without me."
Silence engulfed the room for a while. Draco and Harry both going over what they had been told. They would have to research Astoria's claim, make sure that the mirror could do what she says it can and whether or not they really need her to lift the curse. They doubted that she was lying. She had no reason to seeing as how they were helping her get what she wanted, though they loathed doing it. But there was one thing that was nagging at Harry to find out.
"How did you even get hold of the mirror in the first place? It was put in the Room of Hidden Things within the Room of Requirement and everything in that room got destroyed by Crabbe's Fiendfyre."
"Not everything had been destroyed in that room. Things that carried powerful or ancient magic survived, including the mirror. Another thing that survived was the Vanishing Cabinet that Draco restored."
"It's the gift that keeps on giving apparently," Draco sneered.
"Indeed," Astoria smiled.
"So you used the cabinet to get the mirror out of Hogwarts?"
"Oh, I didn't take the mirror. I just knew how it was taken."
"Then who took it? Why?"
"The why, I don't know. Though it did help me in the end. But who… Well that is your fellow ministry worker and father of one of our guests, McLaggen. I found it one day in the cellar of his manor."
"And he just let you wonder around his place."
"Well I should hope so, or being his wife would have been completely unbearable," Astoria chuckled and was quickly met with twin shocked faces. "Oh wait… Didn't I mention that McLaggen and I are married? Well, consider that my Christmas gift to you," she said, refilling her glass just as the clock struck midnight. "Merry Christmas," she cheered brightly before taking a sip.
"Presents," Lily squealed as gifts suddenly appeared underneath the Christmas tree the moment the chimes coming from clock behind them ended.
Scorpius and Albus suddenly stopped their assault on James and headed for the tree like the red head. The three of them then started searching for presents with their names on it. There was an impressive pile before them. By the time they were finished with gathering their presents, each of them were left with a pile that they could easily bury themselves in.
When James finally got his breathing under control, after having been attacked by tiny fingers, he went to his siblings' sides and searched for his own presents. Soon after BJ and Hector followed. The three of their piles weren't as impressive as the younger ones, but the teens still found themselves with quite a few presents.
"Wait, we can't open them yet," Albus said when he saw Hector ripping at one of his presents.
"We have to wait for our parents first," Scorpius explained. "It's tradition."
"I think I'm a little too old for traditions like that," Hector said patronisingly.
"If you're not too old for presents then you're not too old for the tradition that accompanies it," Lily said as she covered his hand with hers, a warning smile on her lips.
"So it would seem," Hector said, giving the little girl a tight smile of his own before putting his present back down.
"Where is everyone?" James said as he got up from the floor. "I'm all for following tradition but not when it entails waiting for others."
"You're not the patient type, are you?" Hector said before pulling James into his lap, then smirked at the death glare BJ sent his way.
"No, not really," James grumbled.
The six of them were saved from waiting too long when one by one, the grownups arrived. First was Draco, Harry and Astoria, and with one look from the blonde, James moved away from on top of Hector's lap. Then came BJ's parents, who saw their son's grumbled face and immediately sent a sneer in James and Hector's direction. Finally came Draco's parents, who arrived only moments after Pansy and Blaise.
While watching the younger ones open their presents, which included a box of exploding green goo that completely coated Scorpius and Albus, curtesy of James, Draco contemplated the predicament that he and Harry got themselves into.
Astoria was married to McLaggen.
She had become pregnant for him sometime during her last year at Hogwarts. She hid the pregnancy from everyone except her parents and sister. After giving birth, she hid her child away, intent on finding a suitable husband for herself, namely Draco.
Sometime after she had kidnapped Scorpius, trying to get what she believed was owed to her, McLaggen found out about their child. When she had been caught, McLaggen used his uncle to make a deal with the ministry. She would marry McLaggen and stay away from Draco, or she would get locked away in Azkaban and never to see her family again.
Obviously, she took the deal.
But that didn't mean that she was satisfied. Being married to a man she believed to be her lesser, Astoria looked for any way to escape her marriage. Now that she finally found a way, she was determined not to fail again.
Draco watched Astoria and noticed her frequent glances at Hector. Her son. Knowing who the boys' mother was only served to make Draco like him even less. But he did feel sorry for the boy. To think, Astoria disliked her life so much that her desired world didn't even include her own son.
After everyone had retired for the day, Harry got his house elf to take him to his and Draco's room. They didn't need to hide their relationship from Astoria anymore since there wasn't any need for pretences with them. But others in the house still hadn't gotten their memories back yet.
"I don't know how she could do it," Harry said as he started getting ready for bed. "If I were in her place…," he started, pulling his shirt over his head before scoffing. "What am I talking about? I was in her place," he admitted when his pants were discarded. "I hid my pregnancy with James from the world, only telling a handful of people. After he was born, I continued hiding him as I tried to find a way to move on with my life. But through it all, James was at the centre of my life. I could never desire a world where he didn't know me, where he thought I was dead."
"There are many things Astoria has done that you would never do," Draco said as he and Harry slipped under the covers. "In fact, her whole relationship with McLaggen is completely different from ours. For starters, you find me exceedingly irresistible," he said seductively as he caressed Harry's face.
"Is that so?" Harry smiled coyly before his neck was suddenly attacked by the blonde nibbling on his skin.
End of Chapter: Wishing You a Merry Christmas
