Chapter 26: Life Goes On

It had been a pretty fantastic Easter week over all, Sirius thought, as he looked at his son who currently taking a nap.

Harry had picked up skiing like a natural, then again could he expect anything less from his child and Bella's.

Honestly, he wouldn't have changed a single thing about their time together. Save for the fact that Bella wasn't there. She'd probably get him to be a bit more adventurous—she had that effect on people.

He frowned.

It was weird sometimes he felt her presence at the strangest times. Like when he ran into that veela the other day.

A freaking veela.

He forgot how gorgeous they could be. The one at the lodge certainly was, he was mad that he even felt tempted to her allure if only for half a second. He was a married man after all….then he remembered he was not.

He looked at his ring finger.

It was weird. His ring hadn't been on there in years, yet he could still see the platinum band adorned with obsidians that used to reside on his finger. He missed it. He wondered what had happened to it. What happened to Bella's rings.

He missed her. Their life together.

Odd to think considering he forgot they were together for over a decade and when he first married her, he wanted nothing to do with her.

It was probably the veela's allure that made him think of Bella. They weren't anything alike. Bella was tall, the veela was short. Bella had those gorgeous dark curls that were out of control yet somehow, he always found himself wanting to reach out a twirl a strand. The veela had beautiful white gold hair that probably would be smooth to the touch that contrasted with those almond shaped violet eyes of hers.

He felt disloyal to his wife even thinking of the veela.

Stupid allure.

And to think he had thought Azkaban had turned off that aspect of his life. Apparently not, since he was fantasizing about a freaking veela. He was so fucking gross.

He hadn't seen her any during the rest of Harry's visit. It probably was for the best. He didn't want to see his son drooling over the woman.

More importantly, he wanted to spend time with his son.

The boy had opened a little bit more. He had been concerned with how reserved he had been. He knew he was still processing having parents and for that matter dealing with the trauma from last fall.

Sobotik, the healer he had sent him to mentioned that the cautious was likely in approach for Harry trying to have some control of the situation.

It made sense, but he hated that his son had not even wanted to try to ski at first because he was scared something would happen to him because of what happened to Bellatrix.

He could tell Harry wanted to talk about her but had been reluctant to ask about her. Or anything really.

Part of being raised by monsters.

He was glad that that bitch Petunia had been taken out by Bella. As awful as his wife's death was at least she had gotten vengeance—albeit, unknowingly—against one of their son's abusers. He still might make some inquiries to confront the others once he left here.

Whenever that was.

He was doing better than he was a few months ago, but he still had a lot to work on before he could be released. He still wasn't even sure what he'd do or even if he wanted to return to Britain. He had real reservations about the place even though it was technically home.

He sort of understood Remus's reason for leaving without a word, though it still seemed strange.

The werewolf was originally going to join them for dinner tonight until he caught the flu. Harry seemed to enjoy his company and Remus could definitely talk magical creatures more than he could

They'd probably see Bumble again, Sirius thought. Speaking of Bumble he had something he wanted to pick Harry up in the gift shop.

He asked one of the house elves to watch him while he went downstairs to see if they still had those stuffies.

"Sirius, no?" A voice with a heavy French accent asked.

Of all the people to run into he had to run into her again.

The veela.

He hated referring to her as that. He wasn't good with names after Azkaban.

"I'm sorry," He said. "I'm bad with names…"

"It's Claire," She said.

Ah, yes, Claire. It seemed to suit her enough—he supposed.

"Where's Harry?" She asked.

"Asleep," He said. "Slopes wore him out today. He's fairly new to skiing. Have you been out there yet?"

Claire shook her head. "I'm still recovering."

She was a patient here. Interesting. He thought for sure she was just a wealthy French socialite on vacation or something. It did make sense though, he hadn't noticed how thin she was until just now. She was almost frail looking. Almost as frail as he had looked when he first came here.

"Ah," he said. "Hence, the gift shop?"

She nodded. "I'm in desperate need of a few things. Most of my stuff got destroyed before I became injured."

He raised an eyebrow.

"It's an unpleasant story," she said looking down when she said as she brushed a stray strand of white-gold hair away from her face. Again, for a second he wondered how it would feel to put that hair through his fingers.

"I'm surprised you're getting clothes at the gift shop," he said as his eyes landed on an" I Saw the Yeti and Survived" shirt. He could only imagine his cousin's horror if she saw that muggle clothes were sold at the resort.

She laughed when she saw the shirt. "Yes, it has been a rather dismal search so far, but I do not know the area well enough to go shopping."

"What if you come with me and Harry for dinner? We're going to the magical area tonight. I may know a few good places for robes and what not."

He couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth. Was it her allure? He didn't think she was using it, but who knew.

"I think I would like that." She said.

"Good then it's a date."

Seriously? Did he just ask the veela on a date?

What was wrong with him?

He was in no way ready to date again and probably never would be.

"You mentioned you handle muggle law issues as well," Emma Granger asked when she came to see him that day.

Ted nodded.

That was one of the many benefits of being a muggleborn and practicing law in the magical world, it was easier to present yourself in muggle court. He could only imagine is brother in-law dealing a muggle judge. Lucius would probably find himself into contempt within five minutes.

"Good," Emma said. "I think I am going to need to retain you for a divorce with a possible disputed custody claim."

He had a feeling this was coming.

Andromeda had told him about the fight at the hospital and he had never met Dan Granger once since representing the Granger family.

Emma had told him that it was because Dan wanted nothing to do with the magical world and didn't even want their daughter there, but he guessed the issues went deeper than that.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he told the woman.

Emma just shook her head. "It hasn't really been a marriage for a while. The only reason I don't think either of us pursued it because we were comfortable and well…Hermione. You said you also wanted to talk about her?"

He nodded, "I need to talk to you about some arcane magical law that's going to come into effect in a couple of months."

She gave him a look.

"Do you remember during Weasley and Waller's arraignment that the term being status was brought up."

She nodded. "I remember thinking it was weird. But this entire world is fucking weird."

She had a point.

"Being status is whether or not the ministry views you as human."

"Views you as human?"

"There are certain creatures with humanoid characteristics like centaurs, werewolves, house elves, etc. It determines what rights they have and what rights they don't have. Centaurs for example as classified as beast. Meaning they don't have the same rights as wizards. They don't have the right to an education for example. They have to stay in designated beast areas away from muggles."

"And what does this have to do with Hermione?"

"Your daughter thinks she's a rat and lives like a rat about seventy to eighty percent of the time as of right now." Ted said stating the facts. "She's been thinking this for months. There will be a review in six months of whether or not the ministry views her condition permanent."

"Wait," She said. "Are you telling me there's a possibility that legally my daughter could be declared a beast."

"That's exactly what I'm saying," He said. "And if she is….well, all treatment will be stopped to allow her to be in her legal form."

"But she changes back every month…."

Ted shook his head. "She won't if she's declared a beast. She'll be just a common garden rat."

Claire Du Pres frowned as she looked at herself in the mirror. By all accounts she knew she looked good if still a little scrawny. She probably spent way too much time on deciding what to wear tonight than necessary.

Sirius had not asked her out. He just offered to take her shopping. His son was going to be.

Harry. What a cute little boy.

Baby.

That wretched voice. Since being out of the hospital she hadn't heard it near as much, yet here it was again.

She found she heard it less when she did things she remembered liking like shopping or getting spa treatments. However, she occasionally she still heard that woman's voice.

Grimacing she took one final look in the mirror. She was in her dark green traveling robes. The only decent set of robes she had. Most everything else had been lost in the fire and she was for the most part wearing lounging clothes at the lodge. However, she had no idea if the restaurant Sirius was taking her and Harry too would allow her to wear muggle clothes—let alone an oversize sweater and leggings and boots like she had been prone to wear since being here.

When she went downstairs she was surprised to find that Harry and Sirius were both dressed in casual muggle wear.

"I see I overdressed," She said inwardly cursing herself.

"You're fine," Sirius said. "I should've told you the dress code. Just a rule of thumb I generally avoid the fancier places unless I'm forced to or really want to impress someone."

"I'm not worth impressing?" She asked acting like she was hurt and in a weird way she was.

She didn't know why. This wasn't a date. He had just offered to show her around Bern so she could actually have decent clothes to wear.

"And what about me?" Harry asked.

"You are like your mother. She hated fancy places too." Sirius said a look came over his face and Claire instantly knew she never had a chance with the man.

He was grieving.

"Did she?" Harry asked.

Sirius nodded, "The exact opposite of your Aunt Cissy. I don't think I've ever seen her go to a place that didn't require dress robes."

"What's wrong with dress robes?" Claire asked.

"Nothing," He said. "If you like wearing them. I'm guessing you do."

"I did…" She said. "I actually designed them and a few others things like beauty potions."

She had to admit she liked the restaurant they went to even though she felt the overdressed there. Sirius was charming and Harry was just adorable. The conversation flowed fairly easily and she found out that Sirius was recently widowed as she had suspected e.

"Bella's one of the reasons I'm at the center," he told Claire when Harry had gotten up to go to the bathroom. "Her death hit me very hard."

"And Harry too," She said.

"Yes," He said, "He never got know her. It's a long story but I think in a way he's having a hard time dealing with it."

"I understand" She said. "I never really got to know my father but there were a lot of what ifs in my relationship. I'm sure it's sort of the same for Harry."

Sirius nodded before he said, "I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression earlier?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"You were just dressed like this was a date or something,"

She felt herself blushing she never blushed. "I…I am a veela, you see. It's very easy to assume what your intentions are when you're like me. I'm actually relieved it's not a that."

A part of her was, wanting to swear off men after what Rafael had done to her, but at the same time she felt a little hurt. Okay, a lot of hurt. Even though it made perfect sense, the man was recently widowed after all

"Good," he said. "You are lovely. It's just that…I don't ever think I'll be able to move on. I'd like to be friends though."

"I'd like that too."

She meant what she said, but at the same time she felt hurt. Why?

He took her to the shops as promised after that. It had felt good buying clothes again, she was in her element.

"You're just like Aunt Cissy," Harry said rolling her eyes. She had insisted they come along so she could pick up a few robes for them as a thank you.

"His aunt is a little bit obsessed with clothes as well," Sirius said with an eyeroll. "However, I think you might have her beat."

Claire found herself blushing she had bought a lot of things. "To be fair, I have to get a complete wardrobe. All my things were destroyed in the fire."

"Fire," Sirius said a look came over his eyes for a second and Harry seemed upset as well.

"Did I say anything wrong?" She asked.

"No, no," Sirius said getting control of himself. "It's getting late. Harry and I need to get going. It was nice seeing you, Claire. Do you need help getting back to the lodge?"

She shook her head, "I should be fine. I still want to get my wand at that shop you mentioned anyway."

He nodded and couldn't disapparate soon enough.

Claire just frowned wondering if she had said something wrong before paying for her purchases and heading to the wand store he recommended.

She tried to remember her last wand. Odd she forgot what it made of, she often spent more times on her designs and potions than wand work. It usually wasn't her thing unless it came to tailoring. She frowned as she thought about some of her wand work. Her dueling skills were just plain awful. It amazing she even managed to scrape an A in Defense.

She wasn't expecting a walnut wand of all things which was what she ended up giving. From what she knew about the wood it didn't really tailor to her magic, yet admittedly it felt right.

After leaving the shop she went back to her room and almost immediately went to sleep before she woke up screaming. She dreamt she was being burnt alive. And when she woke up she saw she was holding a fireball in her hands.

Perhaps she needed to seek out her kind sooner than later.

Shit.

Sparks had just came out of Narcissa's hand. It was brief but it happened when she read Dumbledore's note denying Draco's request to attend the memorial service later today.

Sparks. Between that and the fact she had to start using muggle dye on her hair to keep it dark, she was pretty sure she was going to experience the full transformation. She still was waiting on her lab results to make sure one way or the other but she wasn't sure what she was going to do.

There really weren't many options other than to let the pregnancy run its course and see what happened. Other than what Lucius would demand she would do. Which she wouldn't. She thought about maybe reaching out to a coven to see if they could provide advice. But she didn't know if she would be accepted by them or if they would be able to even offer any extra help. She certainly didn't want them knowing her as Narcissa Malfoy if she did seek their guidance.

Take a deep breath, focus on your shields, she told herself but she couldn't help but feel a bit restrained which also wasn't a surprise since she had literally stuffed herself into the way too tight black satin funeral robes by using a shrinking band on her belly coupled with a glamor charm to make sure her bulging belly was not visible. It didn't help the fact she felt she was going to pop out of the gown though even with all the charms. She hoped those maternity robes would get here sooner than later. Unfortunately, with all the custom charms she had put on them she was going to have to wait a bit.

Merlin, she couldn't believe how big she had already since finding out.

She was hoping to get a couple more weeks in her normal clothes, but she knew that was not going to be likely at this rate. She hadn't showed with Draco into well within her second trimester. But she had only been carrying one baby then and hadn't been turning into a veela at that.

Don't think that…she thought…you don't know for sure.

Oh, but she knew. She was pretty sure she knew.

She still had no idea how she was going to tell Lucius and a part of her wanted to wait which was silly. She just dreaded his reaction.

He'll notice soon enough she thought as she sighed wondering if she could get the day in these robes without them bursting at the seams. She was surprised he hadn't noticed something yet, though he hadn't exactly been home lately and she was still at the phase where she could pass off the weight gain as a few extra pounds from eating too many sweets.

"Narcissa," Lucius said looking at her. "Are you okay? You look pale."

She probably was that was something else she had noticed, but she acted as if she was fine.

She had dreaded this day for so long—Bella's funeral. A part of her had thought about not even bothering with going through with the ceremony. She knew Sirius and Andromeda had thought the same way, but they had to at least say goodbye. Allow Harry a chance to say goodbye.

"It will be a short service," he said sensing she was uncomfortable. Though her discomfort didn't come from the service itself rather her tight robes.

She nodded her head. The service would be at the family crypt in Nice. They thought having it outside of the country would be better for several reasons.

There was no body to intern at the grave site just her ashes.

She shuddered thinking of how her sister had caused herself to burn to death and realized that she too was controlling fire a few minutes ago.

"Dumbledore is refusing to let Draco go to the service," she finally said thinking maybe Lucius could remedy the situation.

Lucius scowled. "Are you fucking serious?"

She handed him the note that caused her magic to react so violently a few minutes before.

"Are there scorch marks on the note?" He asked a little caught off guard.

"I may have gotten mad," She said with a shrug. "I know it was on the aggressive side but I needed to blow off some steam.

He rolled his eyes but bought the lie. "I will fetch Draco. There's no reason why he can't attend. I understand they are starting to revise for finals, but this is a funeral service for a family member. I think he's still sore that we contested the suspension."

"Of all the things for him to be concerned about…"

"Augusta threatened him too," he said. "Though her brat deserved it. Don't worry, sweetheart, Draco will be joining us to say goodbye to your sister."

Narcissa nodded as Lucius left to go through the floo to see Dumbledore. It wasn't Draco she was worried about.

Lucius was more than a miffed with Dumbledore. More than a little bit at his life the moment.

Between dealing with the fallout of his sister in-law's death the ongoing lawsuits against Hogwarts, and then the emergence of his own bastard sister he hadn't really had time to unwind at all.

Today felt like the first time he had seen Narcissa in months even though he knew that wasn't the case.

He frowned as he thought about how his wife looked today. She was upset. She clearly looked uncomfortable in the funeral robes he saw her in. Beautiful as always, he loved her in black, but she clearly did not want to be wearing them. She also seemed paler and a bit heavier he thought. The stress seemed to be getting to her.

"Dumbledore," He snapped.

The headmaster sighed when he saw him. "I take it you got my note."

"Narcissa did," he said. "Clearly, you knew we weren't going to allow you to keep Draco from saying goodbye to his aunt."

"My boy…"

"I am not your boy," Lucius said. "Some people may put up with that bullshit, but I don't. I thought you knew that."

Dumbledore sighed heavily. "I am sorry, Lucius, but surely you can see I was denying the request for your son's protection. After that nasty business around Valentine's Day with Neville…"

"My son is attending a funeral service for a family member, Dumbledore. That is all. If Mr. Longbottom decides to terrorize him about it then the school's zero tolerance policy against bullies will come into play. Hopefully, you'll know not to blame with the victim this time around."

Dumbledore grimaced remembering just how unglued Lucius had been when he had suspended Draco earlier in the year.

"Of course not, Lucius. I just…Draco never really knew Bellatrix. It seems unnecessary."

"Did you ever think Narcissa might want him there,' Lucius said rolling his eyes. He really couldn't believe the gall of the man.

"Of course," He said. "My mistake. I'll have Aurora get Draco now."

Chapter 27 Preview: Slight time jump. Claireatrix embraces her veela heritage. Sirius discovers a secret.