Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Apologies for the late update. The heat has been hell on me.

I don't really have much to say about this chapter. So, as always, I hope you enjoy. Until the next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~daughter of briganti~

~meet me in the woods~

~chapter 12~

19 August 1995
Potter Villa, Crete, Greece

"'Morning, kids," Sirius greeted them when they came into the kitchen. "You're looking well today, Theo."

"Thanks," the male omega said, sitting down at the table.

It had been one week since Hyleth had become bonded to her (first two) mates. One week, and things were going well. She could hardly believe it. Theo and Ginny had been sleeping in her bed – and, for four nights out of the seven, doing a bit more than that. Both of them seemingly wanted to soak up as much honeymoon time with her as possible, well-aware that soon they would be going back to Britain. Not only that, but by the end of the year, Hyleth would probably have a handful more spouses to juggle, if she kept at the pace for marriages that Wulfnoð Peverell had after his fourth one.

She'd never known it could be this easy. Some of it, she knew, was probably merely the rush of hormones from the newly-formed bonds talking, and simply being in the honeymoon phase. Her dad had told her the latter actually typically lasted for the whole first year, not until only a month or after the wedding.

Still, being with Theo and Ginny, in the privacy of their bedroom and not, was as easy as breathing. It was exhilarating.

That seemed to be the case for them, too. Her mates weren't showing any overt signs of jealousy, hadn't remarked on feeling any jealousy at all. Quite the opposite, since all the times they'd had sex had been as a...threesome, she thought the term was called. Plus, they were talking about sharing a bedroom, potentially the same bed, when they got back to Hogwarts. They knew they wouldn't be allowed to stay in their House dormitories anymore.

Perhaps these things were only because the type of sex they were having created a level of comfort and trust hard to match. Hyleth didn't exactly think so.

It was like they were her scent matches, like they'd formed a pack bond, even though they weren't and they hadn't.

...Briganti probably had something to do with it, now that she got to thinking about it.

Hyleth was thankful for the goddess for once, if that was the case.

Pritchard came into the room upon the three teenagers having served themselves from the food Hyleth's father had cooked. He paused momentarily when he took his place at the table, staring at one of her mates. "How are you feeling today, Theo?" he asked him.

Theo glowered at the attention to his health, though he did say, "Fine. Keen-y."

"That's not a word," Ginny said.

"I don't care."

Hyleth thought her dad and the other alpha man might have had a point in remarking on the subject: Theo did look better. He hadn't become as tan as her and Ginny, and the change in climate hadn't had the same effects on him as it had her father, yet there was a distinctive...flush to his cheeks.

Maybe not the flush of full health, but certainly better health than he'd been experiencing for the past year.

She perked up at the thought.

Pritchard appeared to be of a similar mind, because at the end of the meal, he said, "Ginny, Theo, would you two be willing to do something for me?"

"Do what?" Theo asked dubiously.

Pritchard pulled two vials out of robes' right front pocket: the liquid inside of the vials was a lilac color.

Ginny gasped.

Theo's mouth dropped open.

Hyleth was a little slow on the uptake, thanks to how she hadn't been raised in the wizarding world, like her mates. "What's that?"

"Those are pregnancy tests," her wife informed her. "The magical ones."

"These tests can detect pregnancy as soon as twenty-four hours after conception," Pritchard said. "I had a suspicion – "

Irritation welled up inside Hyleth. "And you said nothing about it?"

"I was not sure. Even now, I am still not," he replied. "But there is an easy way to confirm it. Ginny and Theo will have to use the restroom half an hour after taking these tests. If they are not pregnant, nothing will happen. If they are – "

"Our pee will be the same color as the potion," Ginny said. She swallowed visibly.

Theo took one of the vials from Pritchard and downed it without fanfare. Ginny was much more reluctant, and Hyleth knew it didn't need to be said why:

It was one thing for them to talk about her and Theo getting pregnant before or during September as an abstract concept. It would be another thing to know that it had happened, especially when they knew how her family would likely react. She was the youngest of her siblings, the only omega besides Charlie, and he'd never been terribly interested in settling down and having kids; he much preferred the company of dragons over an alpha or a beta man. If she was pregnant, she'd be the first out of all of them to have a child.

Pritchard said he and Hyleth would be taking the morning off from training, regardless of the results of the pregnancy potions. Probably because he knew that he was going to have to explain his "suspicion" no matter what now. It wasn't like they had much left to cover before the end of the summer, anyways: they'd been going a bit faster than the schedule he'd made the past couple of weeks.

She waited with her mates, her dad, and him until the time was right.

Theo went to the loo first. He came out a few minutes later with a tender grin on his face. "Positive," he said.

Hyleth grabbed his hand and squeezed it once he'd switched places with Ginny. She was happy, make no mistakes about that...even as she was nervous, if not downright terrified, for many identical or similar reasons as Ginny's.

The redheaded omega came out of the loo after five minutes, not three. The look on her face said why: "Mine's positive, too."

"As I thought, then," Pritchard said. "Although, some more data when the time comes will confirm it."

"What exactly were you thinking?" Hyleth demanded, a bit more hotly than the situation required. She didn't like the idea that he was keeping things about the Ritual from them, still.

It was her and her mates', the present and future, lives at stake here, not his. Their children's now, too.

"Like I said before, one purpose of the ritual is ultimately to preserve bloodlines," he spoke. "The best way to ensure that is to force conception to happen on the bonding night. There is no room for error or time to wait, unlike in the traditional bonding and marriage. I doubt any contraceptive would have been effective, if you had decided to try and use any. The health of the mother or omither must also be fit enough to ensure a successful pregnancy."

"'Must be?'" Theo echoed.

"I am not trained enough in medical magic to determine it precisely, as your school matron would," was the alpha man's response. "But surely, Theo, your symptoms have improved the way they have appeared to?"

His cheeks tinged pink, proving that hypothesis.

Slowly, a grin spread across Hyleth's face. The prospects of the Weasley brothers beating the shit out of her when they found out she'd knocked up their one and only little sister, of Mrs. Weasley yelling at her and never truly forgiving her for the transgression, of Hermione's reaction when she found out about everything, and of changing nappies in the not-so-distant future, the most daunting one of them all, fell from her mind.

Theo was going to be healthy.

Or, at least, healthier than he'd been for the past year, if not longer than that.

"I told you so," she said.

"You didn't tell me," he said back. "In fact, I specifically requested you not to."

"I had a theory – "

"You had a thought, based on a wish," he corrected her. "It sounds like Pritchard here had some actual basis to believe it." He looked over at him expectantly.

Pritchard smiled. "Indeed. Out of Wulfnoð Peverell's thirteen wives, I believe only one ever died from illness. Onomaris Macmillan died shortly after the birth of her fourth child – "

"Wait, wait, wait," Hyleth spoke, her eyes bulging. "She died from childbirth?"

"It was not an uncommon fate for even magical beta women, omegas, and thetas throughout history. Given the younger ages his wives became with child for the first time at, all slightly younger than you, some might say it was fortunate more did not suffer the same fate," he said. Despite the severity of the topic, his lips twitched. "May I continue?"

She felt her face heat up. "Er...yeah. Sure. Sorry."

"It is understandable, do not fret. To continue with what I was saying, as far as we can tell, none of Peverell's wives had your condition, Theo. But I would bet, based on this evidence, now that you are pregnant, your health will continue to improve. You may even officially go into remission."

At this, Theo was doubtful. "I'll believe it when I see it," he mumbled.

And he would. A few days later, he'd tell Pritchard how to perform some of the spells that Madam Pomfrey did to monitor his health, including the one to see if he was in remission or not. Pritchard would do it, and when Theo would see the results, his eyes would start shining. Hyleth would grin stupidly, and Ginny would smile as well.

It wasn't a guarantee, as he would say, over and over again. But he was no longer anywhere near how sick his mother had been after she'd given birth to him, and hopefully he wouldn't be again for some time, if ever.

In the meantime, Hyleth's father went to Pritchard, "Why don't we give the newlyweds a few minutes?"

They left the room.

"We're going to have babies in nine months. I'm going to be an omither," Theo breathed. He wiped at his eyes.

"Yeah, you are," Hyleth said.

"You're going to be an amither," he said to her. To Ginny: "And you're going to be a mum. And who – who knows? Our babies could be born on the same day."

Ginny laughed weakly. "Could you imagine how bad they'd be? Just look at Fred and George and me and Ron. Add in Hyleth's propensity for danger – "

"Hey," the female alpha protested.

"And they'll be absolutely awful."

"Thick as thieves," Theo responded. "That's alright. We'll love them anyways."

Hyleth found her father crying in the kitchen.

They were eating outside again that night. Theo and Ginny were still at the table along with Pritchard, but she had to use the loo, so she went inside. Her dad had gone in a few minutes before, saying he was going to go ahead and start doing the dishes. Even magicking them to wash themselves required supervision unless one had the experience for it, like Mrs. Weasley. Otherwise, things could end up like the Fatansia movie that she'd seen at her primary school once.

"Dad?" she asked hesitantly, hovering at the archway. "Are you okay?"

"What?" he said, turning around from the sink. He must've been doing the dishes by hand. It was strange for him. "Ah, nothing to worry about. I've only gotten some soap in my eyes."

"Dad..."

"I'm alright," he insisted. But he was unable to keep up the facade: his shoulders slumped, and whilst he brushed away his tears, the trails from the ones before shone in the evening light. "You'll know this soon enough, if you haven't figured it out already: despite what us adults, particularly those of us who are your parents, tell you, we often don't know how things'll end up. I thought, when James and Lily asked for my help to have you, that they would be the ones primarily raising you. But if something would have happened to them, then raising you would have fallen to me. I never could have imagined missing out on so much of your life."

"That's not your – " she began to say.

"Pettigrew is mostly to blame, but some of it rests with me, too. I could've chosen not to go after him – for your sake," he said. "Regardless, I never could have thought about you having to get married this young, or about you having to become a parent this young. I will adjust, like you have been. I just...need some time."

Hyleth nodded, gnawing at the inside of her cheek. There was a question she wanted to ask; there'd simply never seemed like a good time over the past month to do it.

"Do you think Papa would've divorced Mum, had they survived? Because of what she did to me?"

Her dad looked absolutely crushed. "I don't know," he answered. It seemed like it was honestly; she couldn't say for sure. "What I do know is that it wouldn't be your fault, if they had and he did. Your mother did what she did, but James never, not for one second, would've blamed you for it; he would've known better than to do that. I know he would've done everything in his power to help prepare you for this, like I'm doing now. He just would've had much more of a head start."

"By over a decade," she said.

"Yes," her dad said. "I don't want you to think that they didn't love you or don't still do from wherever they are, Hyleth. Lily sought out the Ritual because of how much she loved you. That doesn't make what she did justifiable, far from it. But she and James loved you with all of their hearts and souls."

"Yeah," she muttered, her mood dampening some more than it already had. "I know."

"Oh, I wish I could say this would be it for the heavy talk tonight, but I'm afraid it's not," he abruptly sighed then, chagrined. "Pritchard told me earlier today that there were a few things he wanted to talk about with us tonight, and I told him that we might as well get some other things out of the way, too."

"Like – ?"

"What we'll be doing while you're away at Hogwarts until the term is over, for one," he hummed. That didn't sound particularly heavy to her. She was wise enough to not say as much. "Come on, let's go back outside."

They got straight to business. "Your father and I discussed this plan a few weeks ago, but I would like to have your approval before we commit to it," Pritchard said.

"Obviously, we're going to need a bigger house than the Cottage for you and your spouses during the summer and after you graduate. Your kids, too," her dad picked up. The acknowledgment made her heart hurt; it hadn't been too long ago they'd gotten Black Cottage to live together as father and daughter, specifically because it'd been the perfect house for them. Don't get her wrong, she knew he was right; it simply didn't hurt any less. "We could buy another property, such as one in Cornwall so you – we – could be close to the Cottage, or we could renovate Black Manor. There's a problem with both of these options: they'll probably, or most definitely, take too long."

"I don't know if I'd want to live at Black Manor, anyways," Hyleth said, though not without a glance at her mates to gauge their reactions.

Thankfully, they clearly agreed with her. "I think I've had enough of stuffy old manors filled to the brim with Dark magic for a lifetime," Theo remarked.

"Then there is a third option: you could renovate Potter Manor, which is what we were discussing," said Pritchard. "From what I have seen of the house, it would not take much expansion for it to be suitable; it would additionally be quicker than building an entirely new home. With your permission, while you are away at school, I could oversee the goblins' construction for you."

Unlike in the muggle world, which had its own construction industry, which her uncle was a part of, last she'd checked, construction in the magical world was usually either self-done by families or contracted out to Gringotts Bank. Of course, the goblins charged a hefty fee, and so their services were only used by the upper class. But that was what Hyleth and her family were (even if she was still trying to wrap her head around it), so it made sense for them to do that, the size of the project notwithstanding.

"Wait, why can't you oversee it?" Hyleth asked her father. It was nothing against Pritchard, it was simply –

"I have my business with the Order and cleaning out Grimmauld Place, depending on how much they've gotten done while we've been away, remember," he said. "And, I'll be overseeing other things for you. Like your marriage contracts, if and when they are penned, since I'm still your Head of House for both the Potters and Blacks until you become seventeen. I've already sent missives to Lords Shafiq, Fawley, and Bones, asking if I could have an audience with them sometime in September or October."

...Right. She, Theo, Ginny, and her dad agreed on Susan Bones being a potential match for her, alongside Isra Shafiq and Lyra Fawley. Susan was from a Light family, one of the Lightest families there were: her father, Albertus Bones, and his two siblings had all fought in the war. His elder brother, Edgar, had been killed alongside his muggleborn wife and their three children by Death Eaters only weeks before that Halloween night. And his younger sister, Amelia Bones, was not only the current Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but she'd been in Hyleth's parents' year at Hogwarts. She knew Sirius on a personal level, and she would know he was speaking the truth about the Ritual of Briganti's requirements and meant no harm towards Susan.

Hyleth hadn't forgotten this detail; she'd simply pushed it to the back of her mind. Similar to Luna, she didn't know the redheaded Hufflepuff very well. Susan and her best friend, Hannah Abbott, were good friends with Neville, yet they never interacted with the other Gryffindors much. Hyleth couldn't recall a time where Susan had said anything bad about her, either, whether it was behind her back like Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley in their second year or directly to her face like Hannah had last year. Hannah had apologized since then; that didn't stop Hyleth from not being overly eager to consider her as an option.

She knew, if Lord Bones agreed to set up a marriage contract between them, also like with Luna and her other two prospective spouses, she would get to know Susan in a matter of time. For now, however, she felt better about not thinking about that for as long as she could help it.

"Point," Hyleth said under her breath. She nodded. "Okay. Thank you for offering to help, Pritchard. I accept your offer, and I trust you to do me well." Enough for this, anyways.

She straightened as she spoke, as any Heir or Lord/Lady of a House would be expected to do when it came to official business.

"I will not lead you astray," he promised her. "But, as part of my terms, there is something I would like you, Ginny, and Theo to promise me."

"And what's that?" Ginny asked.

"To not reveal my identity, except to Hyleth's other future mates and your closest friends, the ones who you would trust with your life," he returned. "Not including your headmaster, unless you think it is absolutely necessary."

Theo raised an eyebrow. "We don't even know your identity. We only call you Pritchard because that's what you told us to."

"And that is for your safety as well as mine, as this will be."

Theo wasn't satisfied by his answer. "Why? What you, Lily Potter, and my aunt Pandora did to Hyleth almost fourteen years ago isn't a crime, if you're worried about that. Most would probably consider it highly amoral, but that's not enough for the Ministry to send you away. If it was, more Death Eaters would've been sent to Azkaban instead of getting off on claims that they were Imperius'ed."

"Theo!" Hyleth hissed, noticing how her father had stiffened.

He didn't back down, crossing his arms. "I'm just saying..."

"...And why can't we tell Dumbledore?" Ginny broached cautiously.

"It is nothing against your headmaster," Pritchard said. "During my years of travel and research, I have made a fair amount of enemies. They do not know that I have returned to Britain; if they did, or of my general whereabouts, things might not end...well. So, like Professor Dumbledore, who has kept many things close to his chest – I would like you to keep me close to yours.

"I will not force you," he continued. "Hence why I have said I only would like it. But I will not be able to stay in Britain for as long as will likely be required if this is not done."

Hyleth frowned. Wordless communication passed between her and her mates; none of them were exactly very willing to make this promise, despite the bravado they would give to Dumbledore later. Sometimes, it was better to come across as more confident than you really were.

Moreover, there were reasons for Hyleth to be as upset with Dumbledore as she was her mother, although he had still done good by her. He'd always meant well.

In the end, they were in agreement. "Fine," Hyleth said. "We promise."

Pritchard inclined his head. "Then to ensure you will keep it a secret, even if someone were to try and wrest it from your minds, Theo, Ginny, I would like you to make an oath. Your Occlumency skills have come far; that does not mean there is anything wrong in having further protection. Hyleth, naturally, will not need to."

Theo and Ginny made the vow once he explained to them how it was performed. It was magically binding, but only in the sense to help their magic protect their minds. No harm would come to them if they broke their promise, unlike with the Unbreakable Vow, which would kill the person who made it if they went against it, or their traditional wedding vows.

And in a little under two weeks' time, on September 1st, they woke up bright and early and finished packing their bags before they first used a Portkey to get back to Potter Manor in Wales. From there, upon saying their goodbyes to Pritchard for while, they were then side-along apparated by Sirius to King's Cross.

Hyleth was a little sad to say goodbye to Crete, as were Ginny and Theo, she wouldn't lie. It was where they had gotten bonded, where it had only been the three of them and not with the addition of many more mates of hers and eventual children. At the same time, as they arrived at Platform 9 3/4, with trepidation filling her bones over Ron's and Hermione's reactions, and Ginny talking about this and that from either side of her whilst her dad walked in front of them, she gave a tentative smile.

She was almost back to her first true home, the one she'd had before she'd found out that Sirius was innocent and her second biological father, at last.

"Hello, Hyleth, Theo, Ginny," a voice said from behind them, stirring her out of her thoughts. They turned, and they saw its own was Theo's cousin and Hyleth's soon-to-be third spouse, Luna Lovegood. Her wand was tucked over her right ear and she was wearing her radish earrings; her grey eyes were as wide as ever and she held a copy of The Quibbler in her right hand, with her left gripping the handle to her blue and gold suitcase. "It's so good to see you; is it alright if I join you for the train ride?"

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