Chapter two-
1976-
Ceph was quite forgotten about this year and he did not like it one bit. His new sisters, Estella and Lacerta were only squealing pink things and did nothing at all. Ceph much preferred it when it was just him and preferred it even more just before they were born, when he finally managed to set a house elf alight through his first showing of magic and this made mother and father pay more attention to him. Since his sister have been born, he had tried to set alight other things, sometimes it didn't work and he was ignored and when it did, if it was a house elf, mother did not mind much but if it was curtains or a vase, Ceph would be smacked – the problem was he couldn't really control what and when he used magic.
Ceph was drawing his favourite thing, the dark mark, if mother was on a good mood, sometimes she would let Ceph sit on her lap and trace the snakes swirly pattern with his fingers and now he was going to attempt to draw it from memory, taking great care he started off with a black wax crayon.
At last when he had finished, he surveyed his work, it was alright, though it was a bit messy in places. He thought about asking mother to see it once more, so he could get the lines right, or better yet, he could have one of his own, except he would have to be a bit older, he ought to ask how old mother was, so then he knew how old he had to be.
Now bored with drawing Ceph picked up the drawing paper and took it to the nursery, the door was shut but was sure mother wouldn't mind him going in there. There were two cots laying side by side, with two babies both identical laying in them, recently father had told mother, the nursery was to small and quaint for his heir and refurbished a brand new room for Ceph. Ceph liked the snakes on the wall and bedposts but sometimes felt safer in the nursery.
He set himself on a grownup chair beside the cot "this is dark mark, mother had one and so does father and I will too, you won't, you are girls, only girl death eater is mother" he gabbled to them, he like the fact that he knew more about stuff than them.
One of them started crying, he thought it was probably Estella and then the other started crying too. "Be quiet, nobody listens to you when you cry, they don't come, so don't bother" he snapped at them, they only cried more.
The door was flung open and mother stood there "what are you doing?!" she hissed at Ceph.
"Showing sisters' dark mark" he said showing the picture he drew and feeling a little bit frightened.
Bella sighed; she couldn't really punish her son for trying to teach his younger siblings about the right way in life.
"Well out you go then" said mother carelessly "they're not going to shut up, so leave them to cry"
Ceph smirked a little; he told his sisters nobody cares if they cry, too bad if they weren't listening.
"Mother, how old is you?" asked Ceph, thinking back to earlier on.
"Twenty three, Ceph" she replied without softness in her voice.
"When Ceph twenty three, Ceph be death eater?" asked Ceph.
"Listen here" said mother pulling Ceph onto a nearby seat "if you are a death eater, father and I will be very proud, if you are not, we will be very disappointed in you and if you ever be friends with those of dirty blood, then you won't be our son anymore"
Ceph nodded vigorously, if he didn't belong to mother and father, then he wouldn't belong to anyone and to make mother proud was like making her happy and he liked it best when mother was happy and laughing.
1977-
Lacerta Druella Lestrange sat at her baby table and two chairs on the manors patio, set out carefully with a tea-set and her dolly, Rose, set out on the chair opposite her, along with an assortment of other toys. She was pretending she was at luncheon with pureblood ladies and drinking the finest tea and cucumber sandwiches.
She mocked pouring tea and sipping it from a tea cup, every now and again, she stopped her play acting and straitened her mint green dress, so the layers hung with delicacy. A little bored with playing luncheons, she grabbed rose and decided to see what her siblings were up to. Walking across the vast lawn, she toddled a little in her dress but made sure to look at the lovely spring flowers growing, she would have loved to be named after a flower she thought, but still her name was pretty enough.
She approached her sister, Estella, who this morning looked exactly like her, but now the mint dress was covered in mud and the ribbon in her hair was unravelling. Along with her sister were her elder brother, Ceph, and his two friends, Snyder Avery, but known as Shay and Darius Dolohov. All, much to Lacerta's disgust, were all covered in mud.
"What you doing?" asked Lacerta in a baby like voice, after all she was only two.
"Looking for spiders" Shay said.
"Not very nice" said Lacerta shaking her head.
"Better than dolls" said her sister.
"No" Lacerta shook her head, since when would some voluntarily climb through bushes to find yucky things, like spiders, dolls and flowers were much more lady-like and pretty.
"We're going to pull the legs off them" said Darius proudly.
"That's mean, why?" asked Lacerta, hugging Rose tightly to her chest and rubbing her nose on her silky hair.
"It's not mean, it's funny to watch them try and struggle and walk...sometimes they twitch" five year old Cepheus smiled broadly.
The conversation was halted when a house elf ushered them inside telling them to come inside and that Shay and Darius's mothers were there to pick them up.
1 hour later-
Ceph, Estella and Lacerta were around the Malfoys with news that their mother had gone into labour.
Lacerta was unsure about what it meant and sat in the corner of the Malfoys nursery hugging Rose.
Estella was thinking about what it would be like if all muggles were transformed into spiders and would rather stay home and have the whole house to run about in than just one room to sit still. She was vigorously scribbling on paper using lots of red and black.
Neither of the sisters spoke as Ceph was in a bad mood and both girls were secretly scared of their brother sometimes.
"The baby's going to be a boy" said Ceph sneeringly. He sighed at how his sisters didn't get what he was going for and so he tried again. "it means, they're going to forget about us, it will be worse than when you two were born because you two were girls and not important-" explained Ceph.
"Me important!" yelled Estella.
"Mother didn't think that" said Ceph dismissively. "Anyway we need to stick together"
"Yes" exclaimed Lacerta, surprising both siblings. "Nice things are given to baby, not us, we make baby look unwanted, and then we have nice things..." she explained.
"No nice to baby then?" said Estella looking at Ceph, while also looking quite happy.
"Yes, he's just going to ruin our family" said Ceph defiantly, he put his hand in the middle of the rough circle the three sibling were sitting in, realising that his sisters were too young to understand what he meant, he pulled their hands in the middle of the circle and said "we promise, to never let anyone ruin our family, including my new brother"
1980-
Running as fast as his little legs would carry him Aquarius Cygnus Lestrange, puffed and panted, his sides were starting to hurt and all he wanted to do was to sit down and cry, but then Ceph would shove him, or try and set him on fire all the lot quicker and anyway, when did anyone care if you cried? It had never done anybody any good in this house, he thought sadly.
His skinny frame carried him around the corner and then he sat down shaking.
"Got you!" snarled Ceph making him jump and start to cry, Ceph said it would be fun, but this wasn't fun, this made him scared, playing mudbloods and purebloods was not a nice game, Aquarius decided and he started to cry, small baby sobs.
"Only weak people cry" spat Estella cruelly.
"Weak people have to be punished" said Lacerta primly.
Sometimes, Aquarius thought if people acted the way they looked like, Lacerta would be the nicest of them all, Lacerta was pretty and practically perfect in image but as cruel as the rest in mind.
"No punishment" sobbed Aquarius, shaking his head rapidly.
"What should we do..." said Ceph pretending to think "I know! Let throw him down the stairs" Ceph gave one of his wide trademark grins, which was growing out of its childish cuteness and sometimes left him looking mad.
Light as he was, it took three of them to drag him to the nearest staircase with the amount of struggling that was going on.
"One...two...three-" THUMP! The force of the push made him fall in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs, his elder siblings walked away, reacting the fall and laughing.
Aquarius knew he must be grateful, it's a lot worse, when Lacerta's friends Pricilla Parkinson and Santana Rosier are with them and it's even more worse when Ceph's friends Shay and Darius are around.
He laid there for about five minutes, until mother happened to come along, heavily pregnant once again. "You! What are you doing down there?" she shouted.
"tripped" he said snivelling.
Bella wasn't stupid, she knew the others picked on him, she just didn't really care all that much.
"Tut tut, try not to be clumsy" said mother to the three year old, with mock concern and stepped over him, her thoughts back onto the dark lord once more.
3 weeks later Iris Aquila Lestrange was born.
1981-
The year brought horror to those supporting the cause and for people like the Lestranges, who lived for the cause; it brought heart ache and least one of the children getting an extra beating here and there. Everybody was tense and most of all confused, where was their lord? Their saviour?
For the children in the lestrange family, it signified a lot of things, it gave an end to the 'golden years' the years of prosperity for the pure and now they were to give their rights ways to the impure, it signified that the Dark lord was not immortal and he could be defeated just like any other. For some, like Aquarius, it signified hope, which from here on out, things can get better.
All the children from the ring leader Ceph to baby Iris knew not to ever, ever, disturb mother in mourning for the disappearance.
The disappearance of you know who, was just the start of the disappearances, one by one, Death eaters or rather, former Death eaters, were rounded up and put on trials, most being found guilty and sent far away. Every new headline had something to do with you know who, Ceph, who could now read well, read the extracts to his younger siblings and the siblings in turn, would express outrage on the newest rumour of a baby, defeating a great wizard.
One day they sat on the Patio, Ceph now eight, Estella and Lacerta now six, Aquarius now four and Iris scrapping her second birthday reading about how Dariuse's father, Antonin Dolohov, was now dragged to Azkaban, with not so much as even a trial.
When mother, drifted, in a daze like state, to them. She looked gaunt and pasty, her skinny frame made her frail and her voice reedy and hollow.
"Hello darlings, anything thing good in the news?"
"Is there anything, I can get you mother?" Ceph asked.
"What do you think, Ceph? What do you think, I want!" she snarled.
"They only said he disappeared, he hasn't gone, gone." Said Estella reassuringly. Although the Lestrange family may fight ugly sometimes between themselves, whenever there was trouble, they always stuck together.
"I can't live without him, to never hear his voice, I think I may go insane...and that is why, I must find him!"
"Mother, won't you be caught, we were out with auntie the other day and we saw numerous posters for you and father and both our uncles and quiet a lot of people we knew...actually" Lacerta drifted off.
"What have I got to lose? I am his most faithful and I must...don't you see."
"What about us?" asked Aquarius, his innocence shinning on his face; thinking really that he ever stood a chance.
"Don't be stupid boy! The dark lord, will be about you, he will come back and create a better world for us, better than before – I must"
And so it was settled, the two parents left their children, with not so much as a good bye, and Aquarius now realised, when ever had he ever stood a chance of a mother's affection.
The news hit home first, Ceph took it the hardest, mainly for his mother, for he was never close to his father, he shut himself away from the world and became more violent.
Estella was next, picking on anyone she felt like, even her own sister sometimes, she felt the whole thing to be unjust, and why had those stupid aurors come.
Then Lacerta, who cried at night but kept a stony face at day.
Aquarius guiltily felt more relief than sadness, he preferred it living at the Malfoys and now maybe things would be different.
Little Iris cried for 'mama' sometimes but other than that she met the world with eyes of a dewy naiveness.