Hurry up, the reporters are waiting to photograph us and we still have to get to the Weasley's," Draco said, urging Harry along. Draco had gotten himself and the twins ready and Narcissa had dressed Teddy, which meant the only person Harry had to get ready was himself. But Harry was now just past five months pregnant and having trouble doing things like walking, bending down, and tying his shoes, which was why he was late. That and he'd had to stop to pee about three times.
"I still don't see why your grandpa's charity is choosing to help a Death Eater's family when there are tons of families on our side of the war who need help," Harry complained, waddling slowly towards the fireplace.
"We've been through this before. Grandfather Abraxas' charity was designed to help women who are victims of domestic violence get away from their abusive husbands. The families you're talking about don't have abusive husbands. The husbands are either dead or decent and need help just as badly as the wives. There are tons of people trying to help people like that out.
"Cecelia Flint, on the other hand, meets the criteria my grandfather set in place," Draco continued. "Her husband Dax Flint is a Death Eater. An un-captured Death Eater who left her and her three kids all under the age of five to fend for themselves while he went on the run. What's left of the Flint family are a bunch of Death Eater supporting women. All of the men are dead or already captured; all except for Dax Flint. Cecelia's family can't help, because she's a Crabbe and the Crabbes too were decimated by the war. She wants to get away from Dax and the Flint family and she was being put out on the streets before my father let her move into the Abraxas Malfoy Charitable Home for Battered Women."
Draco had explained to Harry that the small cottage that Cecelia Flint and her three children were currently living in was vacated by the previous beneficiaries of the charity during the war when Voldemort moved into the Manor. The previous battered woman didn't want her children so close to Voldemort, so she packed up her kids and left. All those years of free rent meant that she was now on her feet. Her new apartment was tiny and cramped, but the charity had accomplished its goal of getting another pureblood witch away from an abusive husband.
"I'm sure there must be victims of domestic violence on my side of the war too," Harry protested, finally reaching the fireplace.
Cecelia Flint was the daughter of a Death Eater, the niece of a Death Eater, the cousin of a Death Eater, had married a Death Eater, and in that marriage gained two additional Death Eater in-laws in her brother-in-law and her father-in-law. Cecelia was surrounded in a sea of Death Eaters and it wasn't until now that Voldemort was dead and defeated that she had a problem with that. Out of all of those Death Eaters in her life, all but one were dead or imprisoned; the one exception being her husband, Dax Flint.
Harry hadn't heard of Dax Flint before Draco told him about Cecelia and choosing her for the charity. Harry hadn't known that Marcus Flint had an older brother or that said brother was an uncaptured Death Eater. In fact, Robards and the Aurors hadn't known Dax Flint was a Death Eater at all until Harry's owl. Cecelia hadn't seen her husband in two months, since Dax split and left her with the three kids, and Draco had asked Harry to find out if Flint had been captured yet.
The Ministry hadn't captured Dax Flint, because they hadn't been looking for him, since they hadn't known he was a Death Eater. Now the Ministry had Flint on their list of Death Eaters to track down and capture, but he wasn't a top priority, being only a minor player. It might be months before Robards could spare a team of Aurors to bring him in. Until then, Cecelia qualified for Draco's grandfather's charity.
What Harry didn't like about Cecelia was that she hadn't done anything to get away from the Death Eaters before the end of the war and had even knowingly married one, increasing her ties to Voldemort; it was only now that Voldemort was dead that she wanted help. Although, Harry did have to admit that if it wasn't for Cecelia coming forward and asking Draco for help, Draco wouldn't have known that Flint was on the run. If Draco didn't know, he wouldn't have told Harry, who wouldn't have informed Robards, and Flint probably would've gone unpunished.
So in a way, Cecelia had turned her husband in to the authorities, which Harry grudgingly admitted was the right thing to do. But yet again, Cecelia hadn't done it until after Flint had left her in a bad situation. It wasn't that Cecelia wanted help getting away from Flint; it was that she needed help after he left and the only way she could get it was by turning him over to the other side. She wasn't the type of noble war victim Harry would've helped if he had had a say in the charity.
"Yes, but none of them as pureblooded as Cecelia Flint. The charity was specifically designed to benefit pureblood witches. Plus, she's family, and the Malfoys believe strongly in helping family over strangers."
"How is she related to you again?"
"She's my late grandfather Cygnus' cousin's granddaughter. You'll meet her family during Beltane. They're halfway decent people, I promise. Now get your pregnant arse through this floo or we'll be late to the Weasleys and you'll have to explain our tardiness to Molly Weasley," Draco threatened, retrieving Sev from where the baby had toddled off to mess with the vase of flowers on the end table.
"Fine, I'm going. You got the kids?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I'll be fine, just go." Scorp and Teddy were waiting in the twin stroller, which Draco was pushing with one hand while holding Sev's hand. Sev would walk through the floo with Draco, but the baby absolutely refused to sit in a stroller.
"Do you have the toy broomsticks and enough nappies?"
"Yes, it's all in the basket of the stroller. Just go."
"Alright, I'm going," Harry said, before flooing to the charity cottage.
Harry stepped out of the fireplace at a charming if small three bedroom cottage. Draco followed after him with the twin stroller and Sev; together they walked out of the front door, to the front lawn, where Cecelia Flint, her three children, the reporter, and the photographer were waiting. Draco had already given an interview with the Prophet regarding his family's charitable activity. All that was missing was a photograph to put in the morning's paper.
"Ah, the Malfoys have arrived. Excellent. Can I just get Savior and Lord Malfoy in the back each holding a little Malfoy or two," the photographer requested.
Cecelia was already in place holding a baby with a toddler and a four-year-old at her feet. Draco put Sev down, before picking up Scorp and Teddy and standing next to Cecelia. The photographer had Harry scoot forward a step and Draco scoot back a step and then had Sev move over towards the middle next to Cecelia's oldest. They stood like that for a minute while the photographer captured a few shots of them.
"Alright, that's it. Thank you so much, Savior and Lord Malfoy," the reporter said. "You can expect the article to be on the front page tomorrow." The Malfoy family's charities didn't typically rate the front page, but with Harry in the family, everything the Malfoy family did was still making the front page.
Draco loaded Scorp and Teddy back into the stroller and took Sev's hand from Harry, because bending down to reach Sev's hand was hard on Harry right now. Then they went back into the cottage and through the floo to the Burrow. Christmas was already in full swing at the Burrow, with Andy, Narcissa, and Lucius already there.
Harry wasn't there to see it, but Lucius had arrived bright and early to apologize to Arthur and settle their past differences before the other guests arrived, because he didn't want to make a scene. Lucius apologized for giving Ginny the diary and admitted that it was an atrocious thing to do, although he hadn't known what exactly the diary would do when he did it. He'd known it was designed to bring about the opening of the chamber of secrets and that in order for that it had to be read, but he hadn't known that the diary would suck the life out of the reader. Arthur accepted the apology graciously and apologized for his older brother Bilius beating the snot out of Lucius on a regular basis when they were kids. Bilius was Lucius' age, but bigger and stronger and had tormented Lucius mercilessly, even landing Lucius in the hospital wing on multiple occasions, which further perpetuated the Weasley/Malfoy family feud. Now Bilius was dead and both living men agreed it was time to end it.
When Harry and Draco arrived, Lucius was helping Arthur, Bill, and Percy set up the tent and tables outside and after that there were heating charms that were needed to make the place habitable in the dead of winter. Narcissa and Andy were in the kitchen helping Molly with pies and biscuits. Ginny, Hermione, Fleur, and George were in the living room putting up more decorations. The tree was up and trimmed, but George was unleashing heaps of fake snow. Hermione was transfiguring kernels of popcorn into a miniature train to join the miniature horse drawn carriage that she had already charmed to trot around the room. Ginny was stringing popcorn into garish garlands and Fleur was charming giant snowflakes to appear on the walls.
To Draco, the place looked like Christmas had exploded in one big tacky Weasley mess. Harry, on the other hand, thought it was brilliant and flopped down onto the sofa.
"Sorry we're late; Harry kept complaining about doing a wee bit of charity work and helping out the less fortunate on Christmas," Draco explained.
While Draco spoke, Sev ran straight into George's pile of fake snow and started laughing as he dispersed it.
"Don't let Draco fool you; we were helping out Marcus Flint's older brother's wife, Cecelia, and their three kids. They deserve their misfortune, if you ask me," Harry said while Draco let Teddy out, who crawled after Sev. Hermione picked up Scorp, taking the baby over to the fake snow to play.
"Dax was the Death Eater, not Cecelia. They were being kicked out onto the street and she didn't have any clothes for her youngest two. I had to give her Sev and Scorp's old clothes for the baby, even though she has a girl. And I gave her the ugly clothes Sev and Scorp were given for their birthday, for her toddler. It's winter and the only blankets she has for those kids are the ones I gave her," Draco said.
Ginny finished her popcorn garlands and went to show the babies how to mold the fake snow into snowballs to make snowmen, while Harry and Draco argued.
"You only gave her the blankets Hagrid made, because you didn't like them. And you only gave her the rattiest hand-me-downs and the cheapest toddler clothes," Harry said.
"Well our boys were never going to wear all of those clothes, because we have so many, and they weren't using Hagrid's blankets. And why would I give away the good hand-me-downs, when Teddy and Lilac can still use them?" Draco asked.
"The point is that the two of you did a good dead by helping out a family in need," Hermione said.
"Yes, we did," Draco agreed.
"And we've moved a Death Eater family in next door for the kids to play with," Harry said.
"The point of moving them in is to help Cecelia and the kids get away from their Death Eater influences," Draco said.
"'E's right, 'Arry. We all must do our part to reach out to ze loosing zide in zis war," Fleur said. "Otherwize our society will remain fractured and eet will only breed more war."
"Yeah, I guess," Harry grudgingly admitted. If Ron was here he'd take Harry's side.
"And once you put the three little balls together, Auntie Ginny can charm the snowmen to dance," Ginny said, making her freshly made miniature snowman start dancing around the room.
"Red bad!" Scorp exclaimed, pointing at Ginny's hair.
"Bad!" Sev repeated. "No."
"No, no, no," Teddy chanted.
"Sorry Ginny, but I sort of have to tell Edward that red hair is bad, or look at a red haired baby on occasion. You can tell which choice won out," Draco explained.
"Draco, I told you to stop telling Teddy that!" Harry chastised. "It's bad enough he started looking more like your family. I mean, just look at how pointy his chin is now," Harry complained.
"Harry, you do know that Edward is related to me, so if he looks like my family, it can't be helped," Draco said.
"That chin is from your dad's side, when he's related on your mum's," Harry protested.
"What can I say? He's a metamorphmagus and there are more people with my chin in our house than any other chin. And I still think he might have my mother's chin from his Black side, because it's really not all that different," Draco said. He knew perfectly well that the baby was looking more and more like him, Lucius, and Scorp every day, but he wasn't going to admit that to Harry; not when Harry thought there was something wrong with it.
"Harry, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, mate?" George asked.
"No," Harry replied.
"It's the pregnancy hormones," Draco explained.
"Is not," Harry protested. He knew it was, but he didn't feel like admitting it at the moment.
"Hermione, do you think you could charm my hair pink for the day?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, I'm sure I could," Hermione answered.
"There, it's settled. Hermione will fix my hair and then there won't be a problem," Ginny said.
Hermione and Ginny went upstairs and Fleur took their place with the boys. Scorp started crying without Hermione there to entertain him, so Draco pulled out Scorp's toy broomstick and put the baby in it to zoom slowly around the room. The broomstick had a seat just like the jumper that prevented him from falling off. The broom was set to its lowest setting, because the boys were at the bottom of the recommended age for the toy, which meant the broomstick stayed low to the ground and only moved slowly. Scorp had had a balance problem with it at first, because of his uneven legs, but Lucius had charmed the broom to be heavier on the left to compensate for the lighter leg, and now it flew fine as long as it was Scorp in it.
Once Sev saw Scorp on a broom, Sev wanted on a broom too, so Draco pulled out Sev's broom and inserted the baby. Then Teddy wanted to join in the fun, so Draco pulled out the third broomstick. They hadn't wanted Teddy to use the toy brooms at first, because he was too young, but somehow he'd gotten hold of the third broomstick and Harry turned around to find him zooming around the room. Harry had been certain that an elf was involved at first, because how else would a baby get the broomstick out of the closet and get into the seat, when Teddy couldn't even walk yet? But elves cannot lie to their masters and all of the house elves swore that they weren't involved. The incident was eventually chalked up to a case of accidental magic and after that, they let Teddy have his broom, because the baby must've wanted it really badly to have gotten it with accidental magic.
The three babies zoomed around the Weasley living room until Sev escaped into the kitchen and snatched a biscuit off of a tray on the counter. It was one of the low sugar practically tasteless baby biscuits, so Narcissa let Sev have it, giving Scorp and Teddy baby biscuits too. Sev had just gotten another front tooth on the bottom left and was getting a sixth tooth on the bottom right, so he was chewing on anything he could get his hands on. Scorp had a pair of bumps on the bottom where his teeth were preparing to come in, but he hadn't started the indicative whining, drooling, and gnawing yet, so it'd probably be another week or two before they started cutting. At least Teddy wasn't currently teething.
Soon after the babies got their cookies, the rest of the guests started arriving. Percy's girlfriend Audrey and Ginny's boyfriend Michael came. Lee stopped by to keep George company, since Angelina was on Auror duty and Lee didn't want to leave George alone on his first Christmas without Fred. Charlie couldn't make it, because he was needed at the dragon reserve and Ron was of course on Auror duty. That made sixteen adults and three babies. There were far too many to fit in the Weasley kitchen, which was why the Christmas feast was outside on the lawn under the tent with copious heating charms.
The food wasn't what the Malfoys were accustomed to having on Christmas, but it was edible and there was plenty of it. The Weasleys all made an effort to make Draco and his parents feel welcome, but he still felt sorely out of place surrounded by a sea of awful red hair. He was glad when the meal ended and they moved on to the exchange of gifts.
The gifts the Malfoys had for each other were left back at the Manor to open when they got home, but they did bring small gifts for Molly, Arthur, Hermione, Ginny, and George Weasley. Molly had sweaters for all of them, including Andy, Narcissa, and Lucius. Lucius put his on with his best fake smile and pretended to love the gift, while secretly planning to burn it. Lucius couldn't see how the Weasley woman could possibly think he'd want a yellow sweater with a bright red L knitted into the breast. It was the type of atrocity that only a very young child who doesn't know any better might wear.
Draco and Narcissa weren't particularly fond of their sweaters, but they put them on along with their fake smiles. Harry loved his new sweater, especially because Molly had taken the time to add a wizard space charm to the stomach area, so when he wore it he could pretend he wasn't a fat whale. It was a nice olive green that went well with his eyes. And Harry especially loved the three matching sweaters for the babies; they were all light blue with golden snitch designs knitted into the weave. There was a charm on the snitches, so that they appeared to zoom back and forth over the sweaters.
Draco looked forward to naptime with a fervent glee that day, because it meant he could finally leave the awful Weasley house, the garish decorations, and all of the loud red-headed people.
Harry wanted to stay and talk to Hermione some more, since he hardly ever got to see her now that she was back at Hogwarts, but then he started yawning and realized how tired he was. Thus he grudgingly went back to the Manor with Draco and the babies. Lucius and Narcissa went back too, but Andy stayed at the Weasleys until dinner.
The Malfoys had a family dinner and then opened up presents under the tree.
Author's Note: I typed this without my index finger (I cut it and have 4 stitches) and now my finger hurts.
So, do you agree with Harry or Draco about the charity work? Does a Death Eater's wife deserve help getting away from him, or should she and the kids be left to suffer?
Please Review!