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The Rise of the Drackens	By : StarLightMassacre Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 769456 -:- Recommendations : 71 -:- Currently Reading : 219
Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights for the creation of the Harry Potter novels go to J. K. Rowling. I make no money from this piece of fictional writing

Chapter List
- 99
- 100
- 101
A/N: Happy early birthday, Rebecca, lovelie! This one’s for you.

Last Time

The hard night from hell was about to start and they’d all need to pull together and support one another to make it through. Draco had been told to stay the hell away, Harry was in a bad way, Blaise was currently dead and was being furiously worked on by a room full of Healers, Max and Nasta were emotionally battered and drained and now the children were going to start too.
Aneirin couldn’t really blame them as Myron brought a tear stained Braiden into the room with a thrashing Calix being held securely on his other shoulder. The trauma of the fight and Braiden being injured and in pain too, he was surprised that Braiden had even gone down to sleep at all.
He mentally prepared himself to stay awake all night. His son needed him, his grandchildren needed him and like all the others in this room with him, he needed to be a pillar of support for Max and Nasta when they eventually came home and he needed to be a soothing presence for his grandchildren, who needed all the comfort that they could get at this moment in time and as another cry came over the baby monitor, it was he who stood up to go and collect the unsettled child. It was going to be a very long, devastating night for them all.

Chapter One Hundred – Adaption

Xerxes was hunched forward in a comfortable, if a bit stiff, armchair that was right beside Harry’s hospital bed, elbows on his knees. He was staring at his clasped hands between his spread legs. Being here, in the Dracken Healing Halls, was a very different experience for him, where all he had to do was sit here and think endlessly about anything and everything, most particularly about tiny Harry, who was younger than all six of his grandchildren. His twenty-seven year old Yasmina, his twenty-five year old Raina and his youngest grandchild, twenty year old Suria, by his oldest son, John. The twenty-six year old Madeline by his only daughter, Hannah and Clora and his only grandson, Corbin, were the twin, twenty-three year old children of his youngest son, Joel.
He remembered hearing Harry’s distress call, the immediate internal panic that it had caused him and the overwhelming urge to protect him. He had dropped everything that he’d been doing and when Harry had called a second time, he’d rumbled to him through the bond created between them by Max, assuring Harry as much as he could that he was on his way. That he was coming to help and protect him.
When he’d arrived in that disaster zone, smelling the blood, hearing babies crying and seeing Blaise flat out on the floor…he’d frozen for a moment. His twin brothers had arrived very soon after him, and his Father was there too, immediately taking stock of everything and he’d moved straight over to Harry, hunching down behind him and bringing his own wings out to curl around Harry’s own, bleeding, white wings.
He had leapt into action then, grappling with Max as best as he could, which was very difficult as Max was bigger, heavier, bulkier and younger than he was. He was thankful when Richard and Myron had arrived to come and help him and he happily let Myron take over grappling with Max, though he did automatically pin down Max’s legs when he snarled and tried to kick out after Myron had gotten him on the floor and pinned down his hands.
The destruction of just one fight was shocking and all at once devastating. One dead, one seriously injured in the hospital, two babies injured and the others traumatised. Not to mention one house destroyed. Xerxes watched his hands clench together tighter and he flexed his fingers, even as his jaw muscles bulged because of how tightly he was gritting his teeth. How had it come to this?
He was so deep in his thoughts, therefore, that he jolted in surprise when a small hand touched his arm and he quickly looked to the side of himself, to the large, soft bed and into the heavy lidded, glassy green eyes of Harry, whom he had been watching over all night.
Harry’s dominant mate, Nasta, had been by every couple of hours to check on him, all through yesterday afternoon and all through the night too, ever since Harry had been admitted to the Healing Halls, and the last couple of times he’d come, Max had been with him too. He could tell that his emotional nephew had been crying, and crying hard, just from looking at his pale, drawn face and his sore looking, red rimmed eyes. Their subordinate mate, Blaise, had died last night. Harry didn’t know that yet. He was in no fit state to either hear such news, or to retain it.
Harry was being kept heavily drugged by potions while the senior Dracken Healers, Alfred Grant and Jackson Moore, tried to fix him up as best as they could. Even now Harry’s leg was going to feel leaden, heavy and cumbersome, as if it was completely asleep, as it had been badly broken and the thick piece of wood had pierced right through the muscle. He would be unable to stand on it for at least another week and even then he would only be able to put his weight upon it for a few moments at a time. Given another week he would be able to walk a little more normally, but he’d need to take baby steps or the leg would give way underneath him. His stomach injury on the other hand was going to stop him from sitting up for a long while. It had been healed, but not perfectly, and the pain and soreness was going to remain for a while longer as Harry’s organs shifted back into their rightful place and the muscles healed from the trauma of being ripped open. At least when Harry gave birth the muscles were shifted out of the way by the swollen sac. Submissives were sore and pained enough by giving birth without ripping open their muscles too, he couldn’t imagine how much pain Harry had been in when he’d received the serious injury. It was bad enough currently if the way he was grimacing and pulling faces was any indication and he was on the strongest pain potion that could be given to him and at the highest dosage that his slight weight allowed him to take.

“How are you feeling?” Xerxes asked him softly.

“Don’t ‘member ‘at happened.” Harry croaked out, trying to sit himself up, before finding that he was unable to. He then tried to move himself, but he found that it was too painful and he stopped.

“You’re at the Dracken Healing Halls, Harry. You were very badly hurt.”

“Don’t ‘member, Myan.”

“I’m Xerxes.” He told Harry gently, with a smile.

Harry peered at him owlishly, he nodded after several moments of staring at his face. “Not Myan.”

“Just stay still, you won’t be able to move for a while.”

“I’m sore.” Harry told him, looking up at him from the big bed with such wide, pathetic eyes.

Xerxes smiled at him and laid a hand on the top of his head, stroking the thick, black hair comfortingly.

“It’ll be alright. The Healers will be back to see you soon.” Xerxes assured him, petting his hair some more. It was very soft and fluffy…he’d expected it to be more coarse because of how messy it always was, but it was almost completely weightless despite how thick it was.

Harry drifted in and out while they waited, sometimes he was lucid, other times he was so out of it that he started talking about eating mud and giving birth to centaurs while trying to dig the ‘snakes’ out from under his skin with his nails, snakes that Xerxes assumed were Harry’s visible veins.
It was quite amusing and he would laugh for a moment or two, but then Xerxes would remember why Harry was so drugged up that he was talking this way and he would remember why this tiny, slip of a boy was here and he would sober up and go back to being morose as Harry babbled about being mated and eaten by Acromantula and living underground like a worm.

“Where are my babies, Xerxes?”

Xerxes looked to the bed to find Harry awake once again, but it seemed that he was more lucid this time around.

“They’re safe, at home.” He said calmly.

He didn’t need to lie about that either. Nasta had been by earlier and he’d told him that Leolin had been given a clean bill of health and that he’d been released early that morning by Healer Cole with a dire warning that they had been incredibly lucky this time around and that the next time could prove fatal to Leolin. His warning was clear…that there was never to be a next time.

“I want my babies.”

“Soon, Harry. I promise. You just need to be cleared to leave.” Xerxes explained to him yet again.

He didn’t think Harry had been in a state of mind capable of taking in his explanation the first time around. The fact that Harry didn’t actually remember him explaining this before only proved that he hadn’t been entirely lucid or in his right state of mind at that time.

“I miss them.”

“I know you do, I’m sure they’re missing you too, but you need to be cleared by the Healers.”

Harry nodded and then grimaced when it pulled on something. Xerxes felt for the boy, if merely nodding hurt him, then he was in no fit state to be doing anything.
One of the Healers entered Harry’s room and smiled at seeing him awake. Xerxes had been telling them that Harry kept waking up, as he’d told Nasta that morning, but he’d been out of it every time that they’d made their rounds to check on him and the healed wounds.

“Hello, Harry. It’s nice to see you finally awake. I’m Healer Jackson Moore.”

“Hi.” Harry croaked.

“Here, take a sip or two of water.” The Healer instructed, picking up the cup that Xerxes had been offering to Harry on a regular basis throughout the night and the subsequent morning.

Harry slurped and coughed into the water, but he managed to get a bit of it down his throat, though most of it did go over his front and the sheet covering him.

“I want my mates.” Harry said.

Xerxes shared a quick look with the Healer. “Max is watching the babies at your home, but Nasta has been around to see you twice today already. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

“If I can’t have my babies, I want at least one of my mates.” Harry compromised stubbornly.

Xerxes sighed. “I’ll go and see what the situation is.”

He stood up and left Harry in the capable hands of Jackson Moore and he came out of Harry’s room and into a corridor filled with similar doors. He knew that some of them were patient rooms, like Harry’s, but others were the offices of the Healers, observation rooms, birthing rooms and one room was a surgery room, as rarely used as it was, it was still sometimes needed and it was there, just in case.
He made his way down the corridor and into the reception slash waiting area and nodded to the young receptionist who sometimes had absolutely nothing to do all day. It was rare that a Dracken needed a Healer at all, least of all a specific Dracken Healer. He’d never had need for one in all of his seventy years, all of his injuries had been healed by regular medi-personnel or Healers at Saint Mungos. Harry was the first one in a while who he’d actually known to need a Dracken specific Healer, except for the debacle with Draco and the damage he’d done to himself by taking the suppressant potion…he knew all about that and he wasn’t surprised that the boy had flown off the handle after how much of that potion he’d taken. He didn’t care what anyone said about detoxification and being weaned off of it, those potions were dangerous and they were heavily regulated for a reason. Merlin only knew how the boy had gotten his hands on the recipe for it in the first place!
He went through the floo, using the lone fireplace in the waiting room, to the new address that Nasta had given to him yesterday afternoon, when Harry had first been brought to the Healing Halls.
The floor no longer looked like a sea of wriggling babies as he landed. He remembered arriving at the old house and struggling to find a place to put his feet that wasn’t tiny fingers or brittle ankles, but in this, much, much larger house, there was at least three feet of space between each baby and there was still plenty of room to walk around in without the fear of stepping on one of them with his large feet. It helped him to relax.

“How is Harry?” His nephew, Maximilius, asked in a strained tone.

Xerxes could see the sheer terror behind his dark blue eyes at the possible reason for his sudden, and unannounced visit, when he was supposed to be with Harry for another few hours and he felt so sorry for Maxie. No mateship ever deserved to go through something like this.

He smiled to ease down their stress and fear. “He’s demanding to be released. He just wants his children. Though I’m here to collect whichever one of you is free…Harry’s compromise is that if he can’t have his babies, then he want’s one of his mates with him. He’s being very stubborn and uncooperative.”

“I’ll go.” Nasta said immediately. “He needs to know what happened and I don’t want you to have to go through that, Max.”

Max, who had opened his mouth, perhaps to argue, closed it again and he swallowed hard. He nodded miserably.

“He doesn’t remember what’s happened. He’s been too drugged up. He talks bollocks half the time that he’s actually awake. This morning he’s talked about having sex with Acromantula and then being eaten after he’s been mated, he’s also mentioned giving birth to centaur babies and then said something about becoming a worm and living in the mud. He’s definitely a strange one.”

Max cracked a weak smile and collapsed back on the settee with a sigh, but at least he had actually smiled, even if it was a small one.

“Is he alright apart from that, Zerry?”

Xerxes glared at his baby brother. “I told you to stop calling me that forty years ago.”

His shit of a baby brother just smirked at him, those jet black eyes, completely identical to his own, danced with amusement.

“Harry’s fine other than the fact that he can’t move an inch without it hurting and the fact that he doesn’t remember why he’s there. The Healers say it’s the fault of the potions that he’s being given for the pain, they knock him for six.” Xerxes had turned away from Myron to address Nasta and Max.

Nasta nodded and then he flooed out of the house. Xerxes collapsed into a convenient seat and smothered a yawn.

“Do you want me to take over the rest of your shift?” Myron asked.

“You look as tired as I feel.” Xerxes answered with narrowed eyes.

“I’m twenty years younger than you.”

“You look ten years older than me at the moment.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Myron’s mate and Husband, Richard, piped up.

“You just sit and look pretty, Richard.” Xerxes teased.

Myron growled lowly at him, one massive fist clenching. If it was one thing that his brother hated, it was anyone, absolutely anyone, either looking and lusting over his mates or putting either one of them down or disrespecting them.
A sharp smack to both of their heads and the tension was cleared away immediately.

“We’ve had enough fights and enough devastation to last a lifetime without you two starting, do I make myself clear?” Their Father told them, staring hard at each of them in turn and they both hunched down and rounded their shoulders, as if they were still small boys who’d been caught sneaking away biscuits and sweets before their dinners.

Without waiting for an answer, Alexander strode around the settee and picked up a clamouring Tegan, who had rushed to get to her feet the moment she’d heard Alexander’s voice and had toddled to him, arms up in the air so that he didn’t have a hope in hell of misunderstanding what she wanted.

“Hello, sweet girl.” He cooed to her, giving her puckered mouth a kiss when she searched for one.

“Gadad.” Tegan babbled. “He nano batha.”

“I’m sorry sweetheart, I’m just not as good as your Mother at deciphering your words.” Alexander had to say after Tegan stared at him, obviously expecting an answer.

“Mammy.” Tegan said and then looked around, peering at every face around her before realising that Harry wasn’t there.

Her face pulled into a frown and she pointed at Max. “Daddy Mass.” She pointed at the fireplace next. “Daddy Nasa.” She looked around again and shook her head. “No mammy.”

Max held his arms out and Alexander handed her over, letting Father and Daughter have a moment as Max tried to explain to the seventeen month old where Harry was. Alexander was completely amazed that she actually seemed to understand, then he’d been very impressed that she knew that Nasta had gone through the floo.
He sighed and tried to be a pillar of strength for his family, but the pressure was immense after the events of yesterday afternoon and last night. He was tired…old and tired. He felt every single one of his (almost) ninety-four years and they weighed heavy on him. This devastation had aged him, had aged them all, of that he had no doubt.

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Harry was so happy to see his mate walk into the room that he was lying in that he actually trilled in delight, which made Nasta smile in the way that Harry loved. He tried to sit up and couldn’t and he tried to raise an arm and he couldn’t.

“Stay still, Caru.” Nasta soothed him, nodding to Healer Moore as he left the room silently, closing the door behind himself.

“I missed you. They wouldn’t let me have my babies. I can’t move to get to them.”

“The babies are all at home, Harry.”

Harry nodded and then grimaced as it pulled on something.

“Lay still.” Nasta said again as he came and sat by Harry’s bedside, pulling the chair right up until his knees were flush with the bed. He picked up Harry’s tiny hand and squeezed it between both of his own, just touching his mate and staring into those open green eyes. He reminded himself yet again that Harry was going to be just fine. He just couldn’t help worrying, not after what had happened last night with Blaise. He needed to touch Harry, to talk to him and hear him, see him breathing. He needed Harry to be at home, where he could look after him himself without having to leave him for hours on end in a hospital.

“I just want to come home.” Harry told him, frowning at him. “Me and my babies want to come home.”

Nasta’s stomach did a neat flip when he heard that and he swallowed, Harry wasn’t actually his Harry at the moment. He was still caught in a potion induced delusion.

“Our babies are already at home, Harry. All of them.”

Harry frowned harder and then looked around Nasta and then back at him.

“My babies are by there.” Harry told him. “They’re sleeping at the moment.”

Nasta couldn’t prevent himself from looking to where Harry was directing his gaze, despite knowing that there was nothing or no one in the room with them.

“Nothing is there, Harry. You’re hallucinating.”

“Everyone says that.” Harry said bitingly. “They are my babies and I will not have anyone hurting them!”

Nasta nodded dutifully and Harry’s scowl turned into a smile. It pained him to see Harry like this. Dosed up so heavily on the strongest of pain potions, and still feeling some degree of discomfort if the way he kept grimacing was any indication, that he was hallucinating. He had become so scared in the early hours of the morning that he hadn’t even been able to bare having him or Max touching him. He’d been afraid of them, his own dominant mates! It had shattered something within him to see Harry in such a way, sobbing and screaming, not recognising any of them as he curled up to try and get away from them, crunching his recently healed, but still agonising, stomach muscles as he did so. He’d only calmed down after he’d passed out.

“Where are the Faeries?” Harry asked him.

Nasta frowned. “I’d imagine that they were in the Faerie City, Harry. I informed Dain and Kailen of what has happened, but I neglected to mention that we’d moved house.”

“The Faeries are funny. They have dragonfly wings.”

Nasta should have known that Harry wasn’t thinking clearly and he could have answered that the Faeries were in space for all the notice that Harry took of what he’d said.

“How do they fly with dragonfly wings?” Harry asked, pouting his lips in thought. “Aren’t they too heavy for their tiny little wings? Maybe they can’t fly at all! They just want people to think that they can.”

Harry nodded as if everything that he’d just said had made perfect sense and Nasta’s smile was thin and shaky. He clenched his fist and firmed himself. On a subconscious level Harry needed him, he needed to know that his mates were here for him, to support him and look after him, but seeing Harry like this was devastating and watching him flinch and grimace with the pain that he was in, his face pale and sweaty, was steadily grating on him and his Dracken, who was getting angrier.

“Do you think the Faeries eat rainbows?” Harry asked him in a way that was reminiscent of an innocent, curious child.

Nasta’s chin wobbled with the urge to cry. “I’m sure they do, Harry.” He said as strongly as he could manage. Harry didn’t notice either way.

“I like rainbows.” Harry’s eyes widened and he looked at himself. “Maybe I’m a Faerie! Am I a Faerie?” He asked.

“No, Harry. You’re a Dracken.”

“I’m a dragon!” Harry said excitedly. “Are you a dragon too?”

Nasta nodded and he had to stop himself from clenching his hand around Harry’s. He needed more Firewhiskey. The bottle he’d shared around last night in the fire lit living room was not enough to deal with this. How was he expected to deal with this? He felt sick and on the edge of tears. He just wanted to clutch Harry to his chest and cry, but he couldn’t. Not only would it hurt Harry to move him while he was healing, but he needed to be strong. He needed to hold it together to support his family. He’d never hated being the top dominant of his mateship more than in this moment.
He wanted to breakdown, he wanted to cry and rage and sob his heart out. He wanted to breakdown and curl up with a bottle of Firewhiskey and emerge on the other side and find that it had all been a dream, or that someone else had dealt with it all for him, but he couldn’t. He was the top dominant and he had to stay strong for all of them. For Max especially, whose grief over Blaise’s death and his all-encompassing guilt over how he had acted instead of how he should have acted during the fight was completely draining him.
Max had had a spectacular breakdown last night after being forced back home from the hospital three hours after finding out about Blaise’s death. Nasta remembered every agonising minute of Max hanging around his neck, all out bawling onto his shoulder, begging him to fix everything while he’d just stood there, murmuring false promises that he knew that he couldn’t realistically keep.
Max had cried so hard and for so long that he’d vomited bile all over him, having had nothing to eat for over twenty-four hours. Nasta had ignored it as he’d shushed Max and tried to calm him down. Max had eventually cried himself into a restless, nightmare filled sleep and he woke up every forty or so minutes, searching for him, needing soothing and comfort, meaning that he himself couldn’t go to sleep because he needed to stay awake to sooth Max when he woke up from yet another nightmare and that was without factoring in the children too, all of whom were restless and had woken up often throughout the night, needing his attention and comfort.
He was exhausted himself and when the sky had started lightening through the massive bay window in the living room, he’d roused himself, getting up from where he was sat by a dozing Max’s head, and he’d gone to sort out breakfast for the kids, pulling up a mask of smiles and happiness when he really just wanted to shut himself away and mourn for everything that he’d been through, everything that he was still going through and everything that he’d lost in such a tiny amount of time. Twenty minutes. Just twenty minutes and from that came this wrecked devastation. From twenty minutes had come ruin.
He’d given those staying at the new house with him rooms to sleep in, even as he and Max had stayed in the living room, waiting, waiting, waiting. Nasta had half expected to get a floo call to tell them that Harry had died in his potion induced haze, or that Leolin had taken a turn for the worst or that they’d found something wrong with their baby that they’d initially overlooked in their preliminary examinations.
He had his Leolin back home now, as of eight O’clock that very morning, he was being cradled and cuddled and soothed by numerous, willing family members who were babysitting for them. Leolin had fed once, with his eyes closed as if he still thought that he was in the hospital, and this theory was supported by the one and only time that Leolin had woken up fully just an hour ago, as he had looked around himself, at all the faces around him, and then he had screamed, properly screamed, for Harry. Harry who was away in the Dracken Healing Halls and couldn’t sooth their hysterical Faerie baby, Harry who couldn’t even support his own body and wouldn’t be able to pick up or hold their children for a long while yet. Leolin had cried himself back into an exhausted sleep.

“Nasta?”

Nasta turned to Harry and those hazy, glassy eyes were clear for once.

“Harry! How are you feeling?” He asked, feeling like he was actually talking to Harry for the first time in days.

“Hurt. I ache, Nas. I can’t move either.”

“You were very hurt, Harry. Do you remember?”

Harry nodded minimally and still his face pinched and went a shade paler, making him look an unhealthy, sickly grey.

“Where’s Max?” He asked, peering around the room, frowning as if he remembered that he’d seen things, but not why he’d seen them.

“You’ve been hallucinating.” Nasta told him and Harry’s expression cleared and he sighed heavily.

“I feel like I need to apologise for that.” Harry said ruefully.

Nasta smiled and he bent forward to kiss him. He had felt wrong kissing Harry when he wasn’t in his right mind and talking bollocks, so he hadn’t done it. Kissing Harry now felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off of his chest.

“I love you.” He declared seriously, passionately.

“I love you too, but where is Max?” He repeated.

“He’s at home, love.”

“Is he okay? I wanted to see him.”

“He’s alright.” Nasta lied through his teeth. Max was far, far from alright.

Harry nodded. “My babies? Is Leolin okay?”

“Leolin is completely fine and he’s back home getting some much needed attention from his adoring grandparents, Aunts and Uncles.” Nasta didn’t think he needed to mention that even though Leolin was getting all the attention and love that he could ever wish for, he was screaming for Harry throughout it.

Harry smiled then. Tiredly. Very, very tiredly as he sort of sagged into his pillow.

“How’s Braiden, is his leg better?”

“All better, I promise. There isn’t even a tiny mark on him. It was healed right up.” Nasta told him. Again he didn’t think he needed to mention that Braiden was silent. That he hadn’t said a single word since he’d been injured or that he wasn’t eating properly. Nor did he mention Calix’s tantrums or how he was acting up and lashing out. They were all very unsettled and unhappy at the moment, they’d all been traumatised by what had happened, even Regan, Farren and Tegan, who hadn’t actually been in the living room at the time, but he didn’t want Harry to worry, so he said nothing. He could shoulder the burden of that too. The one thing that he felt that he couldn’t lie about was Blaise and he could see that that was what Harry was working up to, though he hadn’t once asked after Draco, not even when he was delusional on his pain potions.

“How’s Blaise?” Harry asked quietly, proving Nasta right and he took in a deep breath, mentally preparing to tell Harry everything that had happened while he’d been out of it.

“He was hit very hard in the head, twice. He had swelling of the brain and a slow bleed. He died last night, Harry, at ten O’clo….” Nasta started and before he’d even finished the first sentence Harry’s eyes had widened and he had started struggling, trying to force his damaged muscles into making his body sit up. He ended up with a face full of sweat and a green tinge to his cheeks from the pain of him struggling to move.

“No!” Harry screamed, interrupting him.

“Calm down, Harry, please. Let me explain!” Nasta insisted as he climbed onto the bed and tried to hold Harry as he screamed and cried.

“Blaise!” Harry screamed, his hands raising to fist into Nasta’s shirt as Harry forced himself to move them, needing the comfort more than he cared about the pain of moving parts of his body. The grief and emotional pain far outweighed the physical as he screamed and screamed, trying to wind his body closer, tighter, around Nasta’s.

Nasta couldn’t calm Harry back down and his mate vomited hard, just like Max had done last night, and Nasta tried to ignore that Harry had thrown up on his chest and in his lap as he tried to talk to Harry, to calm him down.
Harry started hyperventilating and panicking and Nasta was shocked to realise that Harry was having a panic attack in his arms. The ward on Harry went off and in less than five seconds, three of the several Dracken Healers were in the room with them.

“Calm down, Harry!” Nasta pleaded, trying to tell him more of what had happened, but Harry either couldn’t hear him through his panic, or he wasn’t willing to listen as his panic attack continued as he choked in sharp gasps and panted like an overheated dog.

Nasta was forced to cradle his mate, trying to get Harry’s face into his neck, but Harry was struggling to breathe and all at once, he collapsed down and went floppy in his arms.
The Healers were there then, helping him, and with a swish of a wand, Harry’s sick was vanished and the Healers were talking to one another calmly and Nasta felt pushed out and banished to the side lines. He didn’t know what to do any more. Perhaps it had been a bad idea to try and explain what had happened to Blaise to Harry, he’d just decided that Harry had deserved to know exactly what had happened throughout yesterday.
He put his face in his hands and he rubbed at his eyes, pushing his fingers in hard as he tried to ignore the headache that he had and the gritty feeling he felt from lack of sleep. Maybe if he’d grabbed an hour or two he would have handled this situation better, or at the very least he would have been able to explain it all better. He should have started by telling Harry that Blaise was fine, but that he had had swelling of the brain and a slow bleed that a senior Healer had been able to control and eventually correct. He was too tired and now he felt absolutely awful for what he’d just put Harry through needlessly. Hindsight really was a fucking curse.

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Aneirin was back in Saint Mungos with Blaise. He was bone tired, but he didn’t care as he touched the hand of the almost comatose Blaise, his fingers finding the pulse in his wrist, just to reassure himself that the boy was still alive after the heart wrenching, gut churning fear last night when Blaise had officially died for six and a half minutes.
He’d never seen Max or Nasta so scared looking, nor so relieved when they’d arrived back at home, three hours after they’d gone to the hospital, to tell them that the Healers had been able to revive Blaise after a very tense and fear filled six minutes. Blaise had still not regained consciousness.
Aneirin looked to the drawn face of one of the boys that he’d come to love as his own, through his son, Nasta, and his heart clenched again at seeing Blaise like this. It wasn’t right.
A choked, gagging, gasping noise had Aneirin snapping his head back to Blaise’s face, to see glassy indigo eyes opened and darting around in fear.

“Blaise.” Aneirin said softly, slowly, even as the ward on Blaise sent a jolt to Healer Almus. “Blaise, it’s alright, just stay calm. You need to stay calm.”

“Where my?” Blaise asked, his throat so dry that he croaked, his eyes fluttering, almost rolling back into his head.

“You’re at the hospital, Blaise.” Aneirin told him, just before the door opened and Healer Almus came striding in.

Blaise’s eyes showed no recognition of Healer Almus and Aneirin’s heart skipped in fear. Did Blaise not recognise him either? Had Blaise’s memory really been that affected that he couldn’t remember the specialist pregnancy Healer that Harry had been seeing since he was pregnant with the quintuplets?

“Do you remember your full name?” Healer Almus asked, obviously coming to the same conclusion that Aneirin had, even as he lighted the tip of his wand and peered into Blaise’s eyes, checking the reaction of his pupils to the light.

“Blaise Mariano Zabini.” Blaise croaked.

“How old are you, Blaise?”

“Nine…nineteen?” Blaise said, but Aneirin swallowed. That answer had come out more of a question and had had a lilt of uncertainty to it.

“Are you asking me or telling me?” Healer Almus asked shrewdly.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what day it is.”

“When is your birthday?”

“October the twelfth.” Blaise said with no hesitation. “Nineteen-seventy-nine.” He added.

“It’s currently May, nineteen-ninety-nine.”

Blaise nodded, as if he’d suspected just that.

“Do you remember who you live with?”

Blaise’s face pulled into a frown and he just stared at them both, going from one to the other.

“Are you being serious?” He croaked.

“Deadly.” Healer Almus insisted.

“I live with four other men.” He said as if they were stupid. “Harry, Max, Draco and Nasta. Your son.” He added to Aneirin. “You should remember that.”

Aneirin chuckled, mostly in sheer relief.

“Do you remember how many children, if any, that you have?” Healer Almus asked, not relenting even the smallest bit.

Blaise blinked, his glassy eyes getting clearer now the longer he was awake and interacting with others.

“You should know, you’ve been inspecting them since they were born. I have one biological son, but seven other children too.”

“Can you tell me the date?”

Here Blaise looked a little uncertain again, which was hardly surprising as he had missed a full day being completely unconscious.

“Perhaps I should rephrase that for you. Can you tell me the date of the last day that you remember?”

Blaise frowned and looked thoughtful. “May the twenty-sixth. Harry was in court and Draco got scalded. I brought him here with our twin daughters to be healed. I don’t remember anything after that. Is he okay? Is he here too? What about the girls?”

Aneirin closed his eyes and breathed in and then out to calm himself.

“It’s the afternoon of May the twenty-eighth today, Blaise. You’ve missed a couple of days.”

“Oh, have I been here the whole time?” Blaise asked.

“Not exactly. You were admitted into the hospital yesterday, on May the twenty-seventh.”

Blaise frowned and he lifted his hand to touch at the hideous bruise at the front of his head, as if there was a sensory memory that he remembered, even if he couldn’t remember what had caused it. His eyes widened, not because he touched the bruise, but because he realised that his head had been shaved and his hand rubbed over the entire of his head and he looked devastated, not because he was in the hospital or because he couldn’t remember the last two days, but because he no longer had any of his hair.

“What happened to my hair?” He demanded shrilly, his voice breaking as his throat was too dry to get the words out at any sort of higher volume.

“Here.” Healer Almus waved his wand over a Styrofoam cup and it filled with small chips of ice. “Take a few of these into your mouth, let them melt and suck on them. It’ll really help your throat, Blaise.”

“Where did my hair go?” Blaise demanded stubbornly, accepting the cup, but not putting anything in his mouth.

“It was charmed off.” Healer Almus said simply.

“Why?!” Blaise hissed.

“Take some ice chips, perhaps it would be best if your mates were here?”

Blaise tried to sit up straighter then, at the mention of his mates, and he nodded.

“Take some ice chips first.” Healer Almus compromised and Blaise tipped a few little balls of ice into his mouth immediately, his arm shaking from the effort it took to lift the cup to his mouth.

Aneirin took the hint and he stood, bending forward to kiss Blaise’s brow. He got the strangest, most horrified look that he could have imagined, but he didn’t care. He loved Blaise as his own and he wanted to show it as he did to Nasta. It was just a shame that it had taken such a devastating tragedy for him to grow the balls to realise it.

“I’ll go and get who I can. It’s like a mad house over there.” He said before he left, leaving Healer Maximilian Almus to do whatever tests he needed to do.

The neurological Healer needed to be called too, just to check on Blaise and to assess whether Blaise’s lost couple of days was just because he was a bit disorientated after waking up or whether it was something a little more sinister. Aneirin didn’t frankly care, he was just infinitely glad that Blaise was now awake.
He flooed over to the new house yet again and as soon as he landed, he saw Max’s wide eyed, devastated face and he heard Nasta, his beautiful, youngest son, inhale sharply, painfully. Nasta had come home after his visit to Harry earlier that day to tell them that he’d been the trigger of a massive panic attack that had caused Harry to pass out. Aneirin felt for all of them, his boys really were having no luck lately.

“It’s okay. Everything’s okay.” He assured them quickly as he stepped over the fireguard and raised his hands as if he could take away the fear, the utter terror, that all of them were exhibiting with just a few gestures.

“Blaise isn’t…he hasn’t…” Max stuttered.

“He’s awake. He’s awake and he’s okay.”

There was a loud, collective sigh of relief and several of them sagged into the settee.

“Is he really okay?” Nasta asked. He looked completely exhausted and Aneirin knew that he’d been awake all day yesterday, all night and all of today too. His son needed some sleep or he was going to run himself into the ground. He couldn’t help anyone if he was too exhausted to think straight, as he’d already proven with his mishandling of Harry.

“He’s alright, very angry and devastated to find out that he’s now bald.”

That got him several laughs. Myron Maddison was not one of them as he studied him and his body language.

“I sense a but.” He interrupted gruffly.

“There is a but.” Aneirin sighed tiredly. “Blaise doesn’t remember any of the past two days. His last memory is of taking Draco and the twins to the hospital. He doesn’t remember anything after that point, not even coming home from the hospital that day. He believes that he never left the hospital, that he arrived with Draco and the twins and that he woke up there today. He’s asking after Draco and demanding to know if he’s okay.”

Nasta let out a shaky breath and Aneirin felt awful for him. Harry had been so devastated to find out about Blaise that he had had a massive panic attack and he had blacked out again in grief. Nasta had been the one to break that news to Harry and he’d been the one who’d had to sit with him and hold him as he screamed, cried himself sick and then eventually passed out through lack of oxygen. Now he had to go and tell the same to Blaise, about the fight that had landed him in the hospital, what had happened to him, what had happened to Harry and to Leolin and to Braiden too.

“I’ll go and see him.” Nasta said.

“I need to see him awake.” Max said quietly.

Nasta nodded. “I understand. I do, Max, but he needs to know what’s happened and why he’s in the hospital. I don’t want you to go through that. How about you go and tell Harry that Blaise is awake? Maybe he’ll actually listen to you and you can explain what happened properly.”

Max looked torn.

“Harry deserves to know.” Nasta tried and Max sighed heavily, nodding. “I fucked up trying to tell him, he deserves to know what actually happened.”

“Okay. But I want to see Blaise while he’s still awake.”

Nasta nodded. “That’s fair. I’ll explain it to Blaise and see how he reacts, only if the Healers believe that it’s a good idea, of course. If they don’t think it is, then I’ll come and get you and we can swap places. Harry is going to want to see Blaise too.”

“It’ll be a bit difficult for him when he can’t even move his head from left to right.” Max said with a tired, weak smile.

“Are all the kids down for their naps?” Aneirin asked.

Max nodded. “Yeah, Braiden still isn’t eating like he used to and Farren screamed half the morning away for Harry. They’re really unsettled at the moment.”

“This is a trying time for you all.” Alexander said comfortingly. “Just go and see to Harry and see to Blaise. They both need their mates around them. We’ll look after the kids and you can resettle them once everyone is out of the hospital, but until then, none of us are going anywhere.”

Nasta nodded and he went through the floo first, arriving at the hospital, in the office of the head neurological Healer, Aeneas Narkissos Odell. He made his way from the office, down the ward corridor and then into Blaise’s room and the all-encompassing relief he felt at seeing Blaise sitting slightly upright and awake almost knocked him off of his feet. He ignored Healer Odell checking results on a piece of parchment.

“Blaise.” He called out, his voice barely a whisper, as if this were all a dream and that if he spoke too loudly it would shatter, and he’d be in this room and Blaise would be comatose again.

Blaise looked up at him and he smiled tiredly.

“Hey, Nas. The Healer says I’ve been here for over twenty-four hours.”

Nasta nodded as he went and pulled Blaise into a tight hug. He kissed Blaise’s forehead and then he couldn’t stop himself from peppering his face with little butterfly kisses as he rested his own face against Blaise’s.

“I love you. So very much.”

“I’m okay.” Blaise assured him. “First your Dad and now you. What the hell happened to me? Why did I just collapse?”

Nasta looked at the Healer, who inclined his head ever so slightly.

“You didn’t just collapse, Blaise.” Nasta told him as he sat on the bed and swung his legs up.

“I’ll give you both some privacy.” Healer Odell told them. “I’ll be just down the hall in my office.”

Nasta pulled Blaise to rest against him and he kissed him again as Healer Odell left them, shutting the door quietly and firmly behind himself.

“If I didn’t collapse then what actually happened to me?” Blaise asked confusedly.

“It was a fight, Blaise. A very bad one and you weren’t the only one who was hurt.”

Blaise eyes widened. “Draco? Max? Harry? Where are they?!” Blaise demanded.

Nasta held Blaise more securely against his chest. “Harry was very badly hurt. He’s in the Dracken Healing Halls.”

“He needed the Healing Halls?” Blaise asked, trying to get up.

“Blaise, just calm yourself down, this was all very early yesterday afternoon. Harry is fine and awake and Max has gone to see him.”

“So…so he’s okay?”

“He’s okay.” Nasta assured.

“So me and Harry were the only ones who were hurt?”

Nasta grimaced. “Well…you, Harry, Braiden and Leolin.”

Nasta had to clamp his arms around Blaise to keep him in the bed.

“You never said that the kids were hurt too!” Blaise exclaimed as he fought his hold, trying his hardest to get up.

“Leolin was the only one admitted to hospital and it was only as a precaution because he was in shock, he was released this morning. Braiden was healed up at the house without needing to be admitted to the hospital.”

“They’re both okay too?” Blaise asked, peering up at him and Nasta kissed him again.

“Yes, love. It was just you that we were so worried about.”

“Why? I was only knocked out, wasn’t I?”

Nasta sighed and made himself comfortable, bringing Blaise down with him. “Not exactly, Caru.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were hit very hard in the head…twice. Your brain started to swell in your skull and you had a slow bleed too.”

Blaise gaped at him. “What?!”

“It’s why your head has been completely shaved, Blaise. You’re in the neurological ward of Saint Mungos…the Healers had to control the bleed in your brain and reduce the swelling quickly. It’s why you can’t remember what happened over the last couple of days.”

“I…I’m brain damaged?!” He demanded in a sort of shocked horror.

“So far, it doesn’t look like it, Blaise.” Nasta said reassuringly. “You just can’t remember yesterday or the day before. You’re only awake now because you’re a Dracken and I gave you my blood.”

Blaise looked completely shell shocked and Nasta felt Blaise’s hand tighten its grip on him. He tightened his own hold on his mate in answer and he tilted his head slightly away from Blaise, allowing him to turn his own head to bury his nose into Nasta’s neck, so that he could inhale the calming, soothing scent that he was emitting through his pheromones.

“There’s something else too, Blaise.”

“What more could there be?” Blaise demanded.

“There’s no easy way to say this, but you did die, Blaise.” Nasta said gently. “Only for…”

“I died?! Properly died?!” Blaise all but screeched, his voice breaking as it was unused to speaking so shrilly, especially recently.

“For six minutes and thirty-eight seconds. I felt it, deep in my heart, but I didn’t recognise it. I’ve never felt anything so painful before, I thought at the time that it was just an accumulation of everything that was happening. Then my Dad came and told me that you’d officially died and that the Healers were trying to resuscitate you. I knew then that what I was actually feeling was your death through my top dominancy bond. Thankfully Harry was unconscious at the time, so he didn’t feel any of the all-encompassing pain that I felt in my heart.”

“I could have been brain dead!” Blaise hissed.

“You’re not.” Nasta told him. “You’re awake, you’re moving, you’re talking. You might not remember the last couple of days, but you remember everything else. You’re going to be fine.”

“Where is my Mother? She wasn’t here when I woke up.”

“She’s on a heat period, Caru. Remember?” Nasta told him softly.

“So she’d be here if she wasn’t?”

Nasta chuckled. “Blaise, my beautiful mate, I doubt we could have gotten her to leave long enough to eat and sleep if she’d known. She wouldn’t have left your bedside and she’d have threatened anyone who would have tried to make her leave.”

“And you and Max and Draco have been going between me and Harry?”

“And Leolin until this morning. He was only in overnight, but we were allowed to go and give him a short visit every couple of hours.” He answered, controlling the urge to bare his teeth and growl at Draco’s name.

“But he’s completely fine?”

“Absolutely fine.” Nasta nodded. “He’s been asleep all morning, but he has taken a bit of milk. He didn’t fully wake up for it, he sort of suckled with his eyes closed, but he had enough.”

Nasta stayed in the bed, holding Blaise and rubbing his fingertips into Blaise’s skull. It felt strange to do this when Blaise had next to no hair and he looked like a shaved cat, the very short bristles that he did have, felt strange on his fingers, but it calmed and relaxed his mate. It didn’t take long for Blaise to fall asleep and it wasn’t too long after that that the Healer came back to see them.

“Is he going to be okay?” Nasta asked as soon as he saw Healer Odell.

“He’s going to be a bit confused for a time.” The man said carefully. “Especially around the circumstances of what landed him in the hospital, but he should make a full recovery as soon as he’s been up and about. If he’s exhibiting any serious problems or symptoms, however, such as a ringing sound or noise in the ears, blacking out, forgetting where he is, or any sign of blood, particularly from the ears, I want you to bring him straight back here. No hesitating or dithering, straight here.”

Nasta nodded his understanding.

“When can he be released?”

“As early as tomorrow morning, but expect it to be more in the range of Sunday or Monday. I want to keep a very close eye on him.” Healer Odell told him sternly, his incredibly pale blue eyes boring into him. Honestly his eyes were like two chips of ice with only the tiniest hint of blue to them. It made Nasta wonder if in certain lighting the Healer’s eyes appeared completely white.

“I understand.” He answered. “I do want Blaise home, but I want him looked after and healthy too.”

The Healer nodded and then started waving his wand over Blaise, performing more tests and recording his progress on a chart.

“His brain activity has leapt up and has started to smoothen out since he has woken up. This is a very good sign. You’ll find that when his brain activity tapers off onto normal levels and settles down, he’ll be able to remember perfectly well. But until then, expect him to be unsettled and slightly confused for as long as several weeks.”

Nasta nodded his understanding and he went back to stroking Blaise’s skin.

“I’ll leave you be for now, but I will be back soon. I need to run some tests when he’s awake, so I’ll need you to leave for those, just in case you give him any answers that could inflect on Blaise’s own. In order to fully help him, I need to know just how bad the damage done is and how much his memory has been affected.”

“I understand. May I come back after the tests?”

“Absolutely, I wouldn’t dare stand in the way of lovers.” Healer Odell answered before leaving the room. Nasta had to smile.

Nasta stayed where he was for three hours, in which an Orderly had been around twice to check if there was anything that he needed, as well as to check on Blaise and Healer Odell had been around once more to check on Blaise’s progress.
He moved slightly to try and relieve the ache in his back, not to mention the urge in his bladder, but it was all it took for Blaise’s indigo eyes to blink open and his hands to clutch deep and tight to him.

“Don’t leave me.” He begged, like a frightened child, and immediately Nasta let out a soothing rumble from deep in his chest to reassure his mate that all was well and that he was still here, on guard over him.

“I’m not going anywhere.” He said strongly and seriously. “I’m still here.”

“I don’t want to be alone.” Blaise insisted in a small voice.

“You’re never going to be alone, Blaise. I’m here for you. I love you.”

A knock on the door and Nasta growled. A high whine came back and immediately, Nasta knew that it was Max.

“Come in, Max.” He called out gruffly.

Max slipped into the room and shut the door and he carefully made his way over.

“You’re supposed to be with Harry.” Blaise told him. “Is Draco with Harry?”

Max darted a look to Nasta, begging him to say something, anything to fix this. They both knew that Draco was being kept at Malfoy Manor, that it was Sandor who was standing guard over Harry at the moment.

“We wouldn’t leave Harry unprotected, don’t worry so much.” Nasta said calmly and soothingly.

Blaise nodded and he didn’t even think to question why neither of them had so much as mentioned Draco. He naturally assumed that it was Draco who was with Harry and he took a breath and rested back onto Nasta’s chest.

“Max is going to take my place for a moment, Blaise. I need the bathroom. I will be back.” He swore in a no nonsense tone.

Blaise nodded and as Nasta shifted and rolled away, Max took his place and wrapped a massive, heavy arm around Blaise and held him lovingly, bending down to kiss him.

“I missed you so much.”

“Nasta said it was only a day.” Blaise answered tiredly.

“It was. But I still missed you. At least we could have a conversation with Harry, well, sort of. We couldn’t with you because you were unconscious.”

“Wasn’t Harry unconscious too?”

Max shook his head. “No, the Healers had to put him to sleep while they were working on him, but he was awake afterwards, he’s just been very heavily drugged. Sometimes I think it might have been easier if he was unconscious, I asked him how he was feeling and he babbled something about how I should replace my eyeballs with oranges. From there he decided that he was hungry and he started demanding that I hand over my eyes, or in his words my ‘oranges’, for him to eat.”

Blaise laughed and it shook Max’s chest and made him smile. Seeing Harry in such a state was terrifying. That he was so delusional and hallucinating because of the exceedingly strong pain potions that he was being given was frightening to witness, but seeing Blaise so happy soothed over his worry. He would likely be laughing at the things that Harry was saying in a couple of weeks’ time, when he had them both home and he’d stopped trying to smother them with tender love and care. For now though, he was upset with and scared of the things that Harry was saying and seeing and his heart was aching at seeing Blaise with a shaved head and so very tired. It was strange that he was being so cuddly and clingy, it wasn’t like him and it upset something within him to see Blaise this way.
Nasta came back a long while later and he had a bottle of ice cold water, an apple and two muffins. Nasta had been here for hours, Max knew that he’d not only gone to the bathroom and to get a drink and something to eat, but he’d gone for a short jog around the corridors too, to stretch his legs and to clear his head.
Nasta didn’t try to move him or tell him to get out of the way and Max was thankful for that. Nasta sat in the chair next to the bed instead and put his hand on Blaise’s, where he was holding onto Max’s shirt.
Nasta ate his muffins, feeding small morsels to Max as Blaise slipped back off to sleep. After finishing the small amount of food, Nasta stood back up and moved his chair around to the other side of the bed and he rested his hand on Blaise’s back instead.

“Everything’s going to be alright.” He said aloud, reassuring himself as much as he was trying to reassure Max.

“Draco’s not….”

“I know that.” Nasta interrupted. “But Harry and Blaise are going to be fine. That’s all I care about at the moment. We can deal with Draco later.”

“I’ll deal with him alright.” Max growled.

“We’ve had enough fighting.” Nasta told him.

“More than enough.” Max agreed with a sigh, relaxing his body back down and letting go of all the anger, the deep seated rage, that he felt towards Draco. He didn’t need to deal with it. Nasta would deal with it, he trusted Nasta to deal with it.

“How was Harry?”

“Scary.” Max answered before telling Nasta the story about his eyes and the oranges. “I hate seeing him like that. I hate seeing the both of them like this.”

“It won’t be for much longer. The Healers want to lower Harry’s dosage later tonight and Blaise is going to be released in the next few days.”

“Is he okay to be released?”

“They want to do some more tests first, but he should be okay, just unsettled for a few weeks while his brain recovers from the trauma and he regains his memories. He is still a Dracken though and I got my blood into him pretty fast after he was knocked out.”

“I’m so relieved that everyone’s come out okay.” Max made a strange, half aborted sob and Nasta moved his hand to clutch at Max’s, around Blaise’s shoulders.

“I’m going to go and see Draco tomorrow afternoon, after the kids have had their lunches. He needs to be properly punished and he will be going to these anger management classes. If Harry and Blaise forgive him, I don’t want this to ever happen again. I’m still trying to get over how he tried to attack Harry to begin with.”

Max shook his head. “I was expecting him to come after me, not Harry. I wasn’t prepared for it. Harry was only trying to reach Leolin.”

“As Harry’s dominant mates, there is no way in hell that we should be trying to attack him. Draco is going for those anger management classes.”

Max nodded his agreement. “Do you…”

“What?” Nasta prompted after Max fell silent for several long moments.

“It’s a stupid question.” Max admitted ruefully.

“It’s only us here, Max and you know that I won’t laugh at anything you say and I won’t judge you for it either. Just ask.”

“I was just thinking out loud.” Max said quietly.

“I can’t help if you don’t actually ask the question.” Nasta told him after another pregnant pause.

“I already know the answer.”

“Will you please just get this off of your chest, it’s obviously bothering you.” Nasta said sternly.

Max sighed. “I was just going to ask if you thought that maybe we might be able to heal after this…if everything could be forgiven and we could move on. But I know that’s just a fantasist’s dream.” Max said bitterly. “There’s no way that we can get over something like this and even if we could, there’s no guarantee that Blaise or Harry will, they were severely injured and they could have both died…hell Blaise did die from this.” He said emotionally.

“Only time will tell. You know that Harry’s going to be wound up over Braiden and Leolin, that’s why he attacked Draco a second time, after he saw the state of Braiden’s leg. Blaise is already concerned about Harry, then he doesn’t really know what’s happened. He knows now that he was attacked, that Harry, Leolin and Braiden were hurt too, but he still doesn’t know that it was Draco who started the fight and Draco who technically killed him for six and a half minutes.”

“Please…please don’t say it.” Max begged, clutching Blaise tighter and placing two fingers over his neck to check for his strong, steady pulse.

Nasta looked at him softly in understanding and he nodded.

“If Blaise can get over it and Harry can move on, then there is every chance that we can move on too, with a lot of work, and as I said, Draco will have to go to those anger management classes. It’ll be a condition that he has to complete before he even returns to our house. I won’t have him there otherwise.”

Max nodded. “I agree with you. We just have to see if Harry and Blaise agree.”

Nasta smiled as he continued to stroke Blaise’s back, watching as Max cuddled with him and eventually slipped off to sleep along with Blaise. Nasta stayed and watched over them both for a while, guarding them and rumbling back to Max when he subconsciously sought out any danger that might be lurking around in the unfamiliar environment.
Nasta sat and he thought long and hard about what had happened and how he felt about it. He felt sure that he could get over the fight, but only if Draco went to a specialist to help him control his terrible temper. It was another thing to be seen if Harry and Blaise could both get over what had happened. Nasta hoped that they could, he wanted his family to stay together after all, but ultimately the decision was completely up to Harry as their submissive. Only he had the power to cast any of them out of the mateship, he may already have cast Draco out after what had happened without even realising it, he hadn’t mentioned Draco once since the fight had happened, but only time would tell. They would see what was going to happen now in the coming days.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Nasta steeled himself as he flooed directly into Malfoy Manor. He usually would have announced his visit, or even Apparated over to knock on the door, but no. Not in this situation. Draco was his mate and he would not be blocked or allow the elder Malfoys to stand in his way of dealing out the needed punishment.
He scented out Draco before anyone could track him down and he sent the poor house elf who tried to get him to wait in the Malfoy’s receiving room running. He would rather not be doing this, but as the top dominant of his mateship, again it fell onto his shoulders to deal out punishments where it was needed.
He went into Draco’s bedroom, not knowing what to expect and not knowing how he would react. He knew that if Draco had been doing anything at all normal, like reading or doing his favoured hobbies, then he’d have completely lost it and torn his throat out right then and there.
Draco was not doing anything normal. His bedroom was a total disaster, the bed was in a splintered mess, the mirrors were in broken shards and every piece of furniture was destroyed. Draco himself was curled up in a ball in the middle of his bedroom floor, his back to the door, his hair was unwashed and a complete mess, he was wearing pyjamas in the middle of the day, pyjamas that looked like he’d slept in them for the past two days, and he smelt like he hadn’t bathed since he’d left the house after the fight two days ago…he was still scabbed and bloody from where he’d been beaten and hurt. He hadn’t healed them or allowed anyone else to heal them.
Nasta shut the bedroom door and he warded it strongly to keep out anyone and everyone.

“Go away, Mother. I don’t want to eat.” Draco croaked without looking at him.

“I’m not your Mother.” Nasta said, making his voice deeper and more authoritative.

Draco picked himself up on his arms and turned his upper body to look at him as if he didn’t quite believe that he was there. His face was puffy and swollen and the skin around his eyes was almost purple from crying. His top and bottom lip were swollen and scabbed over, the bottom one worse than the top.
Nasta clenched his jaw and he firmed himself as Draco stumbled to his feet and rushed at him, throwing his arms around his chest and hugging him bone crushingly tight. He forced himself not to react, ignoring Draco’s babbled questions of how everyone was. Nasta had given him no news at all in the last few days and he knew that Max hadn’t come here. Max hadn’t even wanted to see Draco.

“You know why I’m here.” He said, cutting across Draco’s questions, gripping his forearms and pushing him backwards a step, separating himself from Draco.

Draco looked devastated at the separation more than the coming punishment and Nasta had to harden his heart. This needed to be done. Draco needed a formal punishment, he needed to understand why he was being punished and then Nasta would sit down with him and lay out the terms. If Draco couldn’t accept those terms, then he was done. He would leave the Malfoy house and he would never come back to it, he would never tell Draco where their new house was, he would remove him from the wards and he’d put up an owl block. If Draco couldn’t accept his terms, then he would not be allowed to even try to come back. It was that simple.

“Get on your knees.” Nasta ordered, not using the full weight of his top dominancy bond, but putting enough inflection on it so that Draco knew that he was not playing around and that this was not open for discussion. He didn’t use the full weight of the order because he fully believed that Draco needed to do this willingly…that he had to do it willingly or he would never get the message, so he controlled himself and the urge to just order Draco to do what he wanted.

Draco didn’t argue, he just got on his knees and tipped his head back and to the one side, perfectly displaying his throat and the carotid artery and jugular vein. Nasta hunched down on his haunches, he didn’t go onto his knees, the act would be too submissive for what he wanted to achieve here. He purposefully dug his claws into Draco’s head, being rough through his hair and ripping at the knots his fingers found without caring. He’d never seen Draco so dishevelled or unkempt. He didn’t like it.
He tipped Draco’s head further back and he sunk his teeth into the side of his neck slowly, making everything more painful. He bit down deep and hard, keeping his jaw clenched and holding his teeth in Draco’s flesh causing as much pain as he possibly could. He was incredibly angry and every inch of him wanted to tear the lump of flesh between his teeth out of Draco’s neck, tear out both the carotid artery and the jugular vein, letting Draco bleed to death at his feet, but he controlled the urge.
He stayed there for long minutes, listening to Draco trying to stifle small noises of pain, holding him still as he wriggled from knee to knee with the agony that he was in, and still he kept his teeth in Draco’s neck. He couldn’t bring himself to let go, to unlatch his jaw. He wanted Draco to feel just a modicum of the horrendous pain that he and Max had been feeling over the last few days, through Braiden’s sullenness and silence, through Calix’s restless tantrums, through Harry’s delusions and hallucinations, through Blaise’s death…his jaw clenched a fraction tighter and Draco whimpered, his hands coming up to clutch at Nasta’s upper arms for more support.
Nasta realised then that if he didn’t let go right now then he ran the real risk of killing Draco here and now, in his own bedroom. It took considerable effort on his part as he forced his jaw to release Draco’s neck, holding the blond’s head incredibly still as he slipped all four of his fangs out so that Draco didn’t cause himself additional harm by trying to pull away too soon.
Draco collapsed to the carpet and he sobbed like a small child. Nasta watched him, forcing himself not to react when all he wanted to do was sweep Draco into his arms and comfort him. It didn’t take much to knock those thoughts out of his head, all he needed to do was pull up the memories of Harry at his worst, of the moment that he’d seen Blaise’s lifeless, dead body for the first time as the Healers tried desperately to revive him and all thoughts of comforting Draco vanished.

“On your knees.” Nasta growled commandingly, enunciating every single word with a hard edge.

Draco was very unsteady, his neck a red ruin, his blood soaked into the dirty pyjama top that he was wearing, but he still climbed shakily to his knees, huddling down so as not to attract his ire. It was far too late for that…two days too late. Draco already had his sole focus and the full weight of his anger.

“You know why I’m here.” He stated.

“I started the fight.” Draco said quietly.

“Yes, you did. There was fault on all sides from my understanding. Max took exception to you insinuating that he was acting like a paedophile with his own son, so he lashed out verbally. Harry was angry and fearful for his children, so he lashed out angrily and ordered you both into the garden, an order that you should have followed! Anyone would have expected him to act in such a way in order to protect his children, but you…you are the one who turned things hostile and physical. You attacked Harry, our submissive mate! What were you THINKING?!” Nasta shouted the last word into Draco’s face.

“I wasn’t thinking, I was just angry.”

“Did I ask you to make excuses?” Nasta demanded in a growl. “I don’t care if you were so fucking angry that you couldn’t see straight, he is our submissive! You are mated to him, you are only alive to PROTECT him! At any and all costs, even if it means your own life.” Nasta hissed furiously. “Like the rest of us would in a heartbeat. He shouldn’t need protecting from his own dominants!”

“He launched at me first!” Draco said and Nasta’s fist flashed out less than a second later to punch Draco in the face, bursting his scabbed over bottom lip.

“He was trying to get Leolin out of his bassinet!” Nasta yelled at the top of his voice. “He was trying to protect our son from you!”

The room was silent. Nasta was panting, his chest heaving with his intense anger as he let those words sink in. Sinking in they were too, he could see Draco’s shocked face, he could see him replaying the start of that fight over and over in his mind and he saw it when he finally, finally, realised that Harry had been diving forwards, and slightly to the right side, to where they always placed the bassinet. He saw the exact moment that Draco realised that Harry had been launching forward to try and shield their son and not to attack him.
He had to root himself to the spot to prevent himself from hitting Draco again as the blond fell forward and started crying as he finally realised that the fight had been his fault.

“How…how is Harry?”

Nasta considered not answering just to be cruel, but that wasn’t what he was here for, he reminded himself, calming down and taking several deep breaths.

“You’re not going to ask about Leolin?” He demanded viciously.

Draco’s face showed his confusion and Nasta had to seriously work not to smack it off.

“Harry failed in his attempt to get to Leolin because you attacked him. Leolin was knocked flying from his bassinet and he landed in a heap on the floor under yours and Max’s feet.”

Draco’s pale face went grey and Nasta took satisfaction in letting that sink in for a long moment.

“Leolin was admitted to the hospital and I’ve been going to see him every two hours, Max too. He’s very fortunately completely fine, otherwise you would already be dead for harming my son. He was in shock as his brain couldn’t process what had happened to him as it all happened too quickly for him to understand. He was hurt, but thankfully only a few minor bruises and bumps. He had no broken bones, no serious knocks, his head, neck and spine are undamaged and he is back home as of yesterday morning.”

Draco huddled over, putting his face to the carpet and he sobbed in relief. Nasta didn’t let him relish that relief for longer than a heartbeat.

“You completely gutted Harry.” He said. “Part of his intestines and part of his stomach were hanging out of the rip that you put in his belly.”

Draco snapped upright and stared at him, as if hoping that he’d say that he was joking.

“I’m not lying. Harry is at the Dracken Healing Halls still, with several senior, specialist Dracken Healers working to heal him, to recover from the damage that you did to him. Max and I are giving him doses of our blood daily to try and help.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Draco croaked.

“Harry is very fortunately going to make a full recovery given enough time to fully recuperate. He and Blaise are both coming home tomorrow.”

“What happened to Blaise?”

Nasta set his jaw and clenched his hands, trying to remember that Draco had been fully feral when he’d hit Blaise, that it was usual for feral Drackens to not remember exactly what they’d done. It didn’t really help his anger, but it helped enough that he was able to prevent himself from beating Draco to a pulp as he remembered the pain and the loss in his heart when Blaise had died.

“You hit him in the head, twice. His brain started to swell and he had a slow bleed, both of which were carefully attended to and healed by a senior neurological Healer at Saint Mungos.”

Draco looked relieved. “So he’s okay too?”

“Not exactly. He died the day before yesterday, on the twenty-seventh.” Nasta told him, enunciating each word so that Draco couldn’t miss a single one of them. “He died for an excruciatingly long six and a half minutes and he had to be resuscitated by Healers. I have never felt such pain before, I have never been so devastated nor so scared as I was in that hospital corridor, knowing that one of my mates was dead on the other side of the wall, watching through a window as Healers tried to revive him. You did that to him. You killed him.”

“I didn’t. I didn’t know…I didn’t mean to.”

“I accept that you didn’t mean to kill him, but you still did!” Nasta said in a hard tone. “It doesn’t matter if you didn’t mean to do it or if you didn’t expect him to die from what you did, he still died, Draco!”

“I’m sorr…”

“What good is an apology?!” Nasta demanded furiously, exploding with his overwhelming anger. “What good are mere words when you gutted our submissive, killed another subordinate and injured two babies?!”

“T…two babies?” Draco asked in a wavering voice.

“Braiden was also injured in the fight. Imagine that, you could have killed Father and son and ended the Zabini line in the space of one afternoon. Thankfully Braiden’s injury was relatively minor and he was healed without needing to go to the hospital.”

Draco swallowed and he was still crying, sagging on his knees by his feet.

“Can I see…?”

“Absolutely not.” Nasta cut off immediately. “How could you even think that I’d allow you near any of them after what you did to them? Why do you think I ordered you not to go near them? I’m not taking that sort of risk with their lives. Leolin screams every time that he’s awake. Braiden isn’t eating and has yet to say anything since he was injured and if you think that the others were unscathed just because they weren’t physically hurt, allow me to alleviate you of your delusions.” He said bitingly. “Calix is acting up and lashing out at anyone who comes near him, Farren is having nightmares, Eva and Ave wake up several times a night for reassurance and comfort, Tegan wanders around every room looking for Harry and Regan has separation anxiety, we can’t even put him on his booster seat so that he can eat, he has to be on someone’s lap and he has to be spoon fed. You have mentally scarred every single child that we have! Harry is delusional and hallucinating because the pain potions that he needs, because of what you did to him, are so strong they alter his sense of reality and Blaise has amnesia. Why would I even consider allowing you to go anywhere near them ever again?”

“Please.” Draco sobbed. “Please don’t cut me off.”

“Why?” Nasta demanded furiously. “Why shouldn’t I? You killed Blaise for however long, almost killed Harry and could have killed our children! Why would I bring you back into my family, my home, and give you the opportunity to do this again?”

“I won’t! I swear that I won’t!” Draco sobbed, crying openly and wrapping his arms around his chest as if to hold himself together.

“I can’t take your word for it and I can’t take the risk.” Nasta said simply, dispassionately.

“Please! I’ll do anything. I love them! I love you all, please!” Draco cried.

He made a strange keening noise in his throat before he heaved and like Max and like Harry before him, he brought up bile and stomach acid and as it went over Nasta’s one shin and both shoes, he couldn’t help thinking that, thanks to Max and Harry, this was the third time in less than twenty-four hours that he’d been vomited on by a mate. The things he put up with for all of them.
He hunched back down onto his haunches and seized Draco’s shoulders when he flinched away, obviously expecting a reprimand for vomiting on him, or maybe another punch. Nasta did neither.

“You will go to anger management classes. This is non-negotiable, it is not up for debate. You will go to these classes or I will never let you back into our lives again. If that means that I have to kill you to prevent it, then so be it. You will have no contact with anyone other than myself while you go through these classes and if you don’t complete them, that’s it. There is no second chance here, Draco. You get yourself help to control your temper, you complete these classes no matter what. I don’t care if you hate the classes, hate the people there or the instructors. If you do not go and you do not take in what they’re teaching you, then that’s it, you’ll lose all of us for good.”

“I will, I’ll do it!” Draco said, latching onto the lifeline that he was being presented with, with both hands. “Just please don’t keep me away from my family.”

“When the time comes that you complete these courses, then we can start negotiating terms for you to come back into our lives, but be warned, if Harry does not want you back, then there is nothing that anyone can do. If Blaise can’t accept you back, Harry will not take your side over his, do you understand me? The severity of what you have done has far reaching consequences, Draco and you have no one to blame but yourself.”

Nasta stood up again and he left Draco where he was, dirty, unkempt, purple eyed, bleeding, crying and now dribbling bile too. He stopped at the door and he turned back to Draco.

“Remember, you need to complete your anger management course before you have any hope in hell of coming back to us. Get yourself sorted.” He snarled before taking down the wards and leaving Draco’s bedroom, shoving himself past the elder Malfoys as he did so.

Narcissa went straight into her son’s bedroom, but Lucius caught his arm and swung him around, ice cold grey eyes boring into him.

“What did you do to my son?”

Nasta snatched his arm away and glared back.

“What has he told you?” Nasta growled.

“Nothing, he won’t even speak to us. Your Father all but threw him at us, his face a blooded pulp, bruises and bleeding cuts all over his body and all Aneirin told us was that there had been a fight and then he left again. Draco won’t eat, he hasn’t been sleeping, he won’t bathe or even change his clothes from the pyjamas that his Mother charmed onto him.”

“Am I right in thinking that you assume that the fight was against Draco and that he was an innocent victim in all of this?” Nasta hissed.

“His face and body was a blooded mess, what else am I supposed to think?!” Lucius demanded.

“Your son started everything. He attacked Harry in our small living room that held five of our children. Max attacked Draco for attacking Harry.” Nasta summarised bitingly. “Draco injured Braiden and Leolin, gutted Harry and he then killed Blaise. Forgive me for feeling angry about it!” He snapped sarcastically before turning to leave again.

“Blaise is dead?” Lucius demanded in shock.

“Not any more, thankfully the Healers were able to revive him or Draco would be dead in that room. The massive blow to the head, however, which caused an internal bleed and swelling to the brain, not to mention the lack of oxygen when he officially died, has had its consequences. Blaise is amnesic, at the moment he can’t remember the last few days, I am hoping that this is as far as his memory loss goes, but the Healers are still testing him and they may uncover more damage.”

Lucius actually heaved a sigh of relief. “And Harry?” He asked. “The children?”

“Harry is delusional and hallucinating, but this is due to the incredibly strong pain potions that he’s on. His insides are back where they belong, but his muscles are traumatised by the damage done to him and Harry can’t move by himself. He won’t even be able to hold our children when he comes home tomorrow.” Nasta said, calming down as it seemed that Lucius Malfoy was actually listening to him. “Braiden was healed at the house after his leg was split open by flying debris, but he hasn’t spoken a word since and he’s not eating. Leolin came home from the hospital yesterday morning and he’s physically alright, but he’s only woken up fully a handful of times and every time that he does he screams himself back to sleep. Calix is lashing out, Farren has nightmares, the twins are not sleeping through the night anymore, Regan is regressing back to babyhood and Tegan is completely lost.”

Lucius swallowed and looked back to the open door that led into his son’s bedroom. “Is this it?” He asked. “Has Draco been banished?”

Nasta clenched his jaw. “For now he has been, perhaps indefinitely if Harry or Blaise don’t want him back after what he did to them and the children, but I’ve told him that he has to go to through anger management courses before I’ll even consider letting him back. Even if Harry and Blaise could get over what he did and they want him to come back, I won’t allow it, I won’t even consider allowing him back, if he hasn’t completed these courses. This can never happen again. I will not take the risk with my family.”

“And you’re sure that he started the fight?” Lucius asked.

“There is partial blame on Max for verbally reacting to Draco’s anger. He took exception to being likened to a paedophile for filming his own son, but Harry was just trying to protect the children. It was Draco who brought the hostility up and it was Draco who started the physical fight that led to the children being injured and traumatised, he was the one who delivered the massive blow to Blaise’s head and he is the one who gutted Harry. The blame of this rests on Draco and he knows it.”

Lucius was still and quiet for several moments before he nodded his head curtly. “Narcissa and I will be around to come and see the children tomorrow, as well as Harry if you’ll allow us to, you said that he was home tomorrow?”

Nasta nodded curtly. “If you wait until the afternoon, Blaise is also coming home tomorrow.”

“I will speak to you more on this tomorrow. Rest assured that I will make sure that Draco goes for these courses. I would never have imagined that he’d hurt the children, nor harm his own lovers so grievously.”

Nasta nodded and his shoulders dropped. He had been expecting a fight or an uphill struggle to get the very overprotective elder Malfoys to accept that Draco had been the one to blame for the fight, but it seemed that they’d come on a lot more than he’d previously believed.

“That would be a big help, thank you.” He said sincerely.

“Then I shall see you tomorrow.” Lucius told him, turning to go to see Draco.

“We’ve moved house.” Nasta told him. “The old house is in ruins and I’m not entirely sure that it’s still structurally safe, so I refused to allow my children to remain there. The house was going to be a gift to the mateship once Harry had finished the stress of the court case. We’ve had to move in early.”

Lucius reached into the pocket of his robes and he brought out a small pad of paper and he summoned a self-inking quill from his office.
Nasta wrote down the new address and he tore off the piece of paper.

“Draco is not to know of this address until I say that he can.” He said sternly. “Am I understood?”

Lucius nodded once, curtly and Nasta let go of the piece of paper and he handed over the pad and the quill.

“Thank you for your cooperation. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”

Nasta left, feeling even more drained and tired. He wanted a shower, he really needed a shave and he wanted some sleep, but he knew that he’d probably not get either with the way the kids were at the moment. Every time they tried to put Calix down into his cot, he screamed and kicked out at them. Farren was having nightmares and he woke up crying throughout the night, the twins woke up crying several times a night and that was without adding in Leolin, who was about to spend his second night at home since he’d been hospitalised. Nasta hoped that it went better than last night, Leolin had cried himself into an exhausted sleep after screaming half the night away for Harry.
Nasta made a few stops before he flooed back to the house and when he arrived home, he walked straight into a war zone. As soon as he stood over the fire guard, Tegan threw a chunky, plastic aeroplane at him, glaring and red cheeked. Leolin was screaming, Regan was hanging around his brother’s neck as Sanex bent down to pick up a crying Farren. Calix was kicking Myron’s stomach and yanking on his hair as the older man tried to stop him. Braiden was nowhere to be seen and the twin girls were all over each other.

“What in the hell happened?” He demanded as he picked Tegan up and put her in the playpen for a time out for throwing things at him before he extracted Ave from Eva and carried her over to the other end of the room where he took Farren from his brother.

“It’s been like a one sided battle since we tried to get them down for their afternoon naps. None of them went down and since he woke up, Leolin hasn’t stopped screaming.” Max said as he came back into the room pulling a clean shirt over his head. “Ave spit up over me.” He said as if he felt the need to explain himself.

“Where is Braiden?” He asked as he cradled Farren, stopping his crying and listening to him sniffling and snuffling as he calmed down.

“In that cupboard.” Max told him, pointing to the currently empty sideboard. “He pitches a fit every time we try to pull him out.”

Nasta sighed and he started swaying with Farren, turning him down into his arms and rubbing in circles on his back. Farren fought every moment of sleep, but eventually Nasta got him sleeping and he walked up the stairs to the first floor, where the master bedroom and the nurseries were located.
The five brand new matching cots, all with different bedding, were set up around all four walls with a changing table taking the sixth spot. He dropped Farren into the cot with the yellow blankets depicted with cute, fluffy sheep.
He went back down to dig Braiden out of the cupboard. It wasn’t healthy for him to hide himself away in a cupboard and that was without thinking about the repercussions it was going to have on Harry mentally if he saw his own son sleeping in a cupboard.
He slipped Braiden out carefully without waking him up and he carried him up to his own cot, slipping him in and tucking him in gently.
Max had taken the two younger girls to bed, they were still sleeping in their bedroom at night, and he’d taken Regan from Sanex to try and get him to bed. It wasn’t getting Regan to sleep that was the problem, he slipped off to sleep easily and without fuss, it was putting him down in his cot. He would wake up as soon as he was taken from the chest of the person that he was resting against and he would clutch at their hair, their shirt, their fingers, anything that he could grab and keep a hold of, and if they somehow managed to extract themselves from him, he’d start crying and they’d have to pick him up again and then they’d be right back to where they’d started from.
Nasta picked Tegan up this time and he sighed in utter exhaustion. He just wanted a shower and some decent sleep. This was the third day that he’d gone without sleep now.
Calix was still fighting and lashing out, Leolin was still screaming and was refusing the bottle that Richard was trying to feed him and as Tegan smacked him in the face, Nasta realised that getting these three to sleep was going to be much, much harder than the previous five.
An hour later and he’d gotten Tegan and Calix to sleep and he was trying to calm Leolin down by stripping him down to his nappy and giving him skin to skin contact, stroking his tiny back with his fingertips. At least he’d stopped screaming.

“Ma?” He called out tiredly.

Nasta shushed him gently and kept rubbing. At least he’d managed to get his bloodstained shirt off, even if he’d never gotten his shower or the shave that he desperately needed. He really was starting to look like a tramp now.

“Ma!” Leolin called out demandingly. “Ma! Ma! Ma!”

“Hush, Leolin.” Nasta said as softly as he could, which was still quite gruff as he was bone tired now. It had been three days and he hadn’t slept once and if this continued on with Leolin then he’d have no sleep tonight either.

It was just a shame that giving him a picture of Harry didn’t work as it had when Harry had nested with their twin girls, it seemed that he had developed just enough in four months to realise that the moving picture of Harry was not actually his Mother and that Harry still wasn’t there. It had silenced him for a few minutes though, as his little brain worked furiously to work out what he was seeing and he had come to the right conclusion that the picture waving at him was not actually his Mother and now if he was handed a photo of Harry he dropped it immediately and he started screaming all over again.

“Ma!” Leolin screeched, all four little limbs flailing.

Nasta grimaced when tiny little toenails dug into his belly and scored downwards, but he ignored it and shushed Leolin again, stroking his back as the tiny little boy squalled like a newborn.

“Pass him here.” Max took his own shirt off and took Leolin from him, sitting down and cradling him to his own chest.

Leolin settled down long enough for them to sigh in relief, then his tiny hands touched Max’s chest and he craned his head back to look up. Gold eyes met bright, sapphire blue, a heartbeat passed and then Leolin started all over again.

“Ma! Ma!” He cried hysterically.

Nasta dropped his head into his hands and he scrubbed vigorously. He stood up and he went light-headed immediately. A moment later he collapsed to his knees and then he fell sideways, into a heap on the floor.

“Nasta!” Max gasped out, shocked and panicked.

Myron got to him first and he rolled him over and checked him over. He shook his head.

“He’s passed out. He didn’t sleep at all last night or the night before and I haven’t seen him eating. He’s exhausted.”

“Will he be okay?”

“He’ll be fine, he just needs some rest. I’ll go put him up in your bedroom.” Myron said, hefting Nasta into his arms and carrying him out of the living room.

Max sunk back down with the screaming Leolin and he felt the burning in his eyes start again. It was all he’d been doing over the last few days and he was feeling gritty, tired and grumpy.

“You need to go to the hospital in half an hour to relieve Ollie from guarding Blaise. Are you still alright to do that?” Richard asked him.

Max nodded. “Yeah. I got some sleep earlier. I’ll be okay. Just keep Nasta asleep. He needs it.”

“We can’t keep him asleep, but we can keep it quiet and hope that he stays asleep.” Alexander sighed.

“I feel awful that I was the one who kept him awake the night before last, he could have gotten some sleep then.” Max said quietly, trying his hardest to ignore Leolin screaming in his ear, even as he stroked and drew patterns on his back.

“You were having nightmares, he chose to stay awake with you as your mate. It isn’t your fault. He could have left you to deal with it on your own, but he chose not to because he loves you. He’s sleeping now and you shouldn’t feel guilty.” Myron told him coming back into the living room. “Now give me that baby and go and take a shower. You smell worse than you did when we took you to that petting zoo and you slipped into the urine soaked straw.”

Max sniffed himself and then looked back to his Father. “I don’t smell that bad!” He insisted.

“You’re offensive to everyone’s sense of smell. You stink, now go and bathe or poor Blaise will be sending you back home so that he can breathe properly.”

Max scoffed as his Father took Leolin from him and then sat back between Richard and Alexander. Max pulled himself to his feet and grumbled.

“What was that? What have I told you about mumbling? If you have something to say, say it!” Myron chastised him.

“I said I’d rather sleep than shower.”

“I can see that! Now go and wash your armpits at least! No wonder Leolin is crying so hard being so close to yours and Nasta’s pits.”

“We raised you to be cleaner than this.” Richard added with a teasing grin.

“Fine, I’ll wash them with a flannel. I haven’t got time for a full shower, I want to see Blaise.” Max grumbled.

“Make sure you throw the flannel you use into the bin afterwards.” His Grandfather joined in. “Otherwise it’ll walk itself into a dark corner and start growing toxic mould.”

Max crossed his arms over his chest and he stomped to the downstairs bathroom to wash himself down in the sink. He didn’t care how badly he stank, he just wanted Harry and Blaise home. He wanted all of this anger and strife to go away. He wanted the peace and the love to come back into their family.
First things first though, he needed to go and sit with Blaise, even if he was sleeping. He needed to be close to his mate, his mate who had actually died. He couldn’t even bear the thought of it. He couldn’t wait for this time tomorrow, when Harry and Blaise would both be back home and he could watch them both together without having to pick between one or the other. If it was one thing that he absolutely hated about having Blaise in the hospital and Harry at the Healing Halls, without stating the obvious, it was that he had to pick between them. He really couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry came into consciousness suddenly and with his heart beating in his throat and he peeled his eyelids apart. Grunting, he wriggled around and blinked into the bright whiteness of the light.

“Harry, are you okay? You’re not going to be sick again, are you?”

“Uh?” Harry grunted, turning towards the noise, but not seeing anything. He might have been on his belly, his entire body felt like it had been steamrollered when he tried to get onto his side.

Something loomed into his line of vision and he startled, flailing his arms and kicking out with his legs, which caused him excruciating, agonising pain.

“Hey, hey. Calm down. It’s Cassander, Harry.”

“Uh?” He grunted again.

“Cassander.” The indeterminate shadow answered.

“Where…?”

“You’re at the Dracken Healing Halls, remember?”

Harry thought he was frowning, but when he ducked his head, his hand got wet. He was dribbling. Someone wiped his mouth for him and he tried to roll away, only for his stomach to lurch painfully as the sensation of falling encompassed his mind.

“I see what you mean, Cass!” Someone grunted as they caught him just before he hit the floor. The person groaned and stood up, placing him gently back into the bed.

“Thank fuck you’re here too, Al.”

“At least he hasn’t been sick, yet.”

“The Healers said the new potion would make him drowsy and sick, but I’m just glad that he’s no longer talking about eating legs. Though I do wish that I’d been here for the talk about the graphic sex with centaurs and Acromantula. Apparently Max almost splintered the spine of one of the apprentices for getting hard from what Harry was babbling yesterday.”

“You damn well would have wanted to listen to that! But no, this potion is weaker than the other one, he’s no longer hallucinating to that extent anymore.”

Harry was confused. “Where the two?” He babbled.

“We’re right here.”

“Two.”

“Yes, there are two of us. Cassander and Alaric.”

“Want ‘Asta.”

“It’s the middle of the night, Harry. Nasta is sleeping for the first time in three days…he all but collapsed.”

“Max?”

“Max is sleeping at the hospital with Blaise.”

Harry started crying and, scared, Cassander and Alaric shared a panicked look, right before Harry gave out a distress call.

“No, hush, Harry. It’s okay! Everything’s fine and you’re safe.”

Harry just cried harder and the two men had no idea what was going on. They were still trying to calm Harry down when Nasta burst into the room looking half crazed, his wings spread and his fangs bared.
He rushed to Harry and scooped him up, sitting on the side of the bed and cradling Harry in his arms, curling over him in an effort to protect all of him.

“What happened?” He demanded in a bass, gruff growl.

“We honestly don’t know. He was a little confused when he woke up, as he was the last time, but he wasn’t sick this time, so we thought that he was going to be fine. But he just seemed really, really confused and he just started crying.”

“I didn’t want the Skrewts to eat me.” Harry sobbed into the bare skin of Nasta’s neck.

Nasta deflated all at once and he shushed Harry and started rocking him.

“I thought he was over the hallucinations?” Alaric questioned.

“A side effect of the new potion he’s on is vivid nightmares.” Nasta said gruffly.

“He only started crying after we told him that you and Max were sleeping.”

“He was looking around a lot though, Cass.” Alaric said worriedly. “And he would have wanted his mates here to protect him.”

“He jumped when he first woke up too, when I came into his line of vision.” Cassander said in realisation.

“Why are you the only one to arrive?” Alaric asked.

“Draco is on lockdown, I ordered him not to come near Harry or Blaise when I went to punish him yesterday afternoon. I was visiting Max and Blaise when Harry’s call came, I told Max to stay with Blaise.”

“You were supposed to be sleeping.”

Nasta just shook his head, still rocking Harry.

“Are you not sleeping?”

“Not at the moment.”

“You collapsed though, Richard told me.”

“I barely slept for an hour and a half.” Nasta told the older men. “I just want my family back home, where I can keep an eye on them both at the same time without having to floo from one place to another. I want them both together where I can look after them both.”

“Harry’s being released in the morning, how about Blaise?”

“He’s being released in the afternoon. They’re both being released within hours of one another. I’m just going to be grateful to get them both home. I’m going to make up a bed for them using two settees and a lot of blankets and pillows.”

“You know we’re all going to be on hand to help you too.” Alaric promised. “We’re not going to leave you boys alone to deal with all of this by yourselves.”

Nasta nodded. “Thank you for all your help. I don’t know how I would have coped if I didn’t have you all to help. I wouldn’t have been able to leave the kids on their own and I wouldn’t have been able to leave either Harry or Blaise unguarded for a moment either.”

“We’re always going to help you boys, we do love you all, not just our Max.” Alaric insisted.

“Where are my centaur babies?” Harry asked seriously, interrupting them and looking up at Nasta curiously. “They were here yesterday, but today they’re gone.”

Nasta held back his tears as his eyes prickled uncomfortably and he pushed Harry’s head back into his neck.

“You were hallucinating, Caru.” He explained gently. “You have Dracken babies, not centaur babies.”

Nasta felt Harry’s mouth working against the skin on his neck and he smiled tiredly, caressing the soft, fluffy hair and inhaling Harry’s scent deeply. He smelt like the lime body wash that he was currently using. Nasta buried his nose in deeper and he inhaled deeper, thankful that Harry didn’t smell like disinfectant or hospitals in general. He still smelt like his beautiful Harry. It was comforting.

“I’m sure I had centaur babies, I remember giving birth to centaur babies. I remember being mated by centaurs.”

Nasta chuckled. “Max isn’t that big, Harry and he’s not that much of a stallion either.”

Harry frowned. He looked around and then he looked again. “Where is my Max?”

“He’s with Blaise, remember?”

Harry frowned harder, his forehead wrinkling. “Are they okay?”

“They’re both fine.” Nasta told him, holding Harry tighter. “Everyone is fine.”

“Can I come home?” Harry asked, looking up at him with wide, hopeful green eyes.

Nasta’s heart broke a little as he cradled Harry, who found it difficult, and painful, to move his own body, and would for some time to come too.

“Not just yet, Cariad. Tomorrow, at around mid-morning. You and Blaise are both coming home.”

“With my centaur babies? Are they coming too?” Harry asked and Nasta felt his heart breaking further. Like Max, he couldn’t stand seeing Harry or Blaise this way.

“You don’t have centaur babies, Harry.”

“I do!” Harry insisted, his eyes welling up with tears and Nasta hugged him tight.

“Okay…okay, they can come too.” He relented. Harry wouldn’t be on these strong potions for much longer. He would stop talking about having sex with others and having babies by them then.

Harry’s entire face lit up and he latched onto him. “I love you, dragon.”

Cassander aborted a snort of laughter when Nasta swung around to glare furiously at him.

“I love you too, Harry.” He said as he cuddled his mate.

“Is he calm now?”

Nasta looked up to the massive hulk of the trainee Healer on duty tonight. His name was Georgio Alessandri and he was easily as big as Max and Myron in both height and broadness, but he was younger than them both. He was mated to the older sister of Harry’s friend, Henley.

“Grawp! You’ve come to visit me again!”

Nasta had no idea why Harry called Georgio, Grawp, and Harry wouldn’t elaborate, he just pointed confusedly at Georgio and insisted firmly that his name was Grawp.

“Hello again, Harry.” Georgio greeted as he moved from where he’d been standing just inside the room and he came to check Harry over, taking the change of name completely in his stride, not letting Harry or the things that he was saying faze him. Nasta liked that about him.

“What are you doing outside of the forest, Grawp? You’ll be caught!” Harry insisted.

Georgio prodded around Harry’s stomach and he didn’t answer as he concentrated on carefully playing his fingers over the place on his belly where Harry was injured.

“Ow. Grawpy, no!” Harry frowned.

“I think you need another potion.”

“Can’t he go on the lower dosage ones?” Nasta asked desperately.

Georgio shook his head as he held Harry’s one leg in his huge, spade like hand and lightly squeezed his calf muscles with the other. Harry gasped in pain and kicked out in reflex and turned more into Nasta’s body “No. The belly wound was very serious and it’ll be hideously painful for him if he isn’t kept on regular potions. The leg muscle is still tight and tender too. It’ll have him screaming in agony if we lower the dosage too soon and I assure you, that’ll be much worse to bear than seeing him like this.”

Nasta nodded as he realised that it definitely would be worse and he held Harry impossibly closer to his chest, kissing his cheek.

“Harry, can you drink this for me?” Georgio asked him. “I made it strawberry flavoured for you.”

Once again, for the eighth or ninth time, Harry fell for the trick and he turned around interestedly, opening his mouth for Healer Alessandri to tip the potion into his mouth. He swallowed it automatically and then gagged and spluttered.

“That wasn’t strawberry, Grawp!” Harry cried out.

“I know. I’m sorry. I just needed you to take the potion.” Healer Alessandri said sadly.

“Bad, Grawp.” Harry chastised him before turning to cuddle back into Nasta.

“This should send him back to sleep.” Georgio insisted. “He was due a potion when he woke up. He is healing though, at least he can wriggle a little and roll around now. He couldn’t do that not even a handful of hours ago. I’m still sure that he’ll be released tomorrow. Healer Grant is going to sign him off in the morning and we’ll do some final checks, get him a week’s supply of potions to send home with him and we can finally release him at around ten or eleven tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you.” Nasta said heartfeltly. “I just want him home now.”

“Once he falls asleep, you can put him back down.” Georgio said before leaving the room.

“Bye, Grawp.” Harry called out softly.

Harry nuzzled into his neck and his hands slipped under his shirt and played with his skin.

“You need to take your shirt off.” Harry told him.

“Why?” Nasta asked him. “Do you want skin to skin contact? Would it make you feel better?”

“I like you better with no clothes.” Harry told him and this time Cassander couldn’t abort the laugh that burst free.

“You can leave now.” Nasta told them in a growl. “I can watch him from here.”

“Aw, but I want to see you with no clothes on. I bet your body’s all tight and muscled from working on that reserve for ten hours a day.” Cassander eyed him up and down and Nasta snarled at him outright.

“Come on, Cass. Let’s leave them be, preferably before you get your head torn off.” Alaric said quickly, all but dragging his older brother out of the hospital room.

Nasta settled on the bed and he pulled his shirt off, letting Harry snuggle into his skin.

“I like your skin. I want to peel it off and make it into a pillow so I can always have it to touch.”

Nasta would have been less scared of that comment if Harry didn’t have razor sharp claws that he could bring out at will.

“You don’t have to peel it off to make it into a pillow, you can just use me as a pillow instead.”

“Oh.” Harry said before nodding against his chest. “I like that idea more. Your heartbeat’s nice and that’s under your skin.”

Thankfully Nasta didn’t need to hold himself strong for much longer as the potion finally made Harry drowsy enough to put him to sleep. Nasta couldn’t wait until Harry was on the lower dosage potions. He’d thought that this potion would be better than the one that Harry had been on just yesterday, and it was really, at least with this potion Harry only talked nightmarish bollocks directly after he’d taken the potion instead of every moment that he was awake, but he was now suffering with nightmares that were terrifying him and if Nasta had to choose between being scared of the things that Harry was saying or Harry being petrified of the things that he was seeing in his dreams, he’d take the former every single time. Unfortunately it wasn’t him who made that sort of decision, it was the Healers and all he could do was hold Harry and try to assure him that the nightmares that he was having were not real.

“I love you, Harry.” He said before kissing his head.

He settled himself back against the pillows and as he held Harry close, he couldn’t entirely prevent himself from closing his eyes…just for a moment or two. It wouldn’t hurt to catch a small nap with Harry and he was truly exhausted and drained. A small nap wouldn’t end the world, all he needed was a small rest just to recover a small amount of energy because he knew that he couldn’t carry on as he’d been doing. He’d collapsed earlier and he couldn’t afford for that to happen when he had babies to care for and two mates in separate places to stand guard over. He just needed to close his eyes for a small while, that’s all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Nasta had slept for three hours with Harry before his submissive had screamed in his ear as he woke up, terrified, from another nightmare. He’d calmed Harry down, with the help of the Healers, and Harry had gone back off to sleep easily enough.
Enrique had been there when he’d woken up, but he had decided against waking him up as he believed that Nasta needed his sleep. Once Harry was fast asleep again, Nasta had let Enrique take over and he’d made the decision to go home. He’d had a bit of sleep now, so he wasn’t feeling as bad as he’d been earlier, but he had a lot he needed to get ready for later in the day, when Harry and Blaise would be coming home.
Only when he arrived back home it was to the hysterical screaming of his baby, Leolin. Myron looked to be at the end of his tether and Richard was sat beside him like a lost sheep, a bottle in one hand, a dummy in the other and a lap full of toys.

“Pass him here.” Nasta demanded as he stepped over the fireguard and held his arms out for Leolin. “Has he slept at all?” He asked.

“He cried himself to sleep and he stayed asleep for two hours. He woke up, suckled three quarters of an ounce of milk before he realised that we weren’t Harry and then he started screaming anew.” Myron told him.

“Get yourselves to bed.” Nasta told them. “I’ve had a couple of hours, I’m alright.”

“Are you sure?” Richard asked, completely exhausted.

Nasta nodded. “Go on. I’ll calm him down and I’ve got several things to do and then I want to go and check on Blaise and Max if I can manage it.”

“Are they okay?”

“I expect that they’re both sleeping. I left them in bed together.” Nasta said as he hefted his Faerie son over his shoulder and cradled the back of his skull gently, rubbing his fingers through Leolin’s jet black hair.

Myron stood up and stretched and Richard put the bottle and the specially shaped dummy on the coffee table and he shifted the pile of toys away and he accepted Myron’s hands to help him up.

“Night.” Nasta called out as he paced around the living room with Leolin screaming in his ear.

“If you need us, call us.” Myron said sternly and he waited until Nasta had nodded his understanding before he took Richard’s hand and they left for the guest room that they’d been staying in for the last few days…what little they’d actually seen of it that was.

Nasta slowed his pace and he started humming softly. It took over ten minutes before Leolin’s cries started tapering off and he stopped flailing. He grizzled and he whined, but eventually, he had to give in and Nasta was so relieved as he bent to put Leolin into his bassinet…for all of a minute at least. As soon as Leolin’s back hit the bassinet mattress, he was awake and he screamed.
Nasta had him back up against his shoulder and was shushing him again, even as his shoulders sagged in exhaustion and he started up his humming again.
Half an hour later saw him collapsed on the settee with a sleeping Leolin and he rolled his son onto a cushion next to him and he held his hands over him, his face screwed up as he fervently hoped that Leolin stayed asleep. He did. He eased himself up slowly, oh so slowly. He breathed a massive sigh of relief as Leolin, on his belly spread over the cushion, stayed asleep.
He moved quickly to the kitchen and made himself a cup of tea, and if he splashed some Firewhiskey into it, who the hell could blame him? He drank the cup of tea down in several large swallows before he looked at the empty cup and then the bottle of Firewhiskey before he decided that a small swig from the bottle wouldn’t hurt. He just didn’t care anymore, he wanted this awful ordeal to be over. He wanted to drink himself into oblivion and wake up and find that none of this had happened and that everything was back to how it was supposed to be.
He didn’t do anything of the sort when he reminded himself harshly that he had eight babies to guard over, one of whom was in the other room, and he needed to be ready to run to Harry or Blaise if they called for him. He took a long, deep drink from the bottle, the alcohol burning his tongue and his throat, all the way down into his belly before he made himself another cup of tea and he went into the living room to set everything up ready for later that day, when he’d finally have his Harry and his Blaise back home.
Something relaxed in his chest as he repeated that again in his head. He would have them both home later today. He took a deep breath and he started to move all of the toys and baby things into the bigger family room next door. The kids would be in this room tomorrow, leaving the smaller room for Harry and Blaise to rest in, while still having access to the floo, just in case either of them needed a Healer quickly.
He pushed the one settee against the wall, moving it out of the way, before he pushed the second one to face the third settee, the one that Leolin was still sleeping on, and after making obsessively sure that none of Leolin’s limbs or appendages were going to be caught between the two settees’ he pushed them flush together.
He left the room, going up the stairs to the master bedroom and he stripped the bed of the duvet and its pillows. He peeked in on Eva and Ave in their bassinets by the side of the bed, but they were still sleeping for now. He had the baby monitors downstairs so he’d hear them if they woke. It was Farren who was going to be the problem now, because if he had another nightmare, then he’d wake up all three of his brothers and his sister and it would be hell to get them all back to sleep. He prayed that Farren slept through the night, he was too exhausted to get all five of them back to sleep when he already had to feed Eva and Ave and get them back to sleep and he had to deal with Leolin, who would wake up for a feed at about four in the morning and then he’d start up his screaming for Harry again and that wouldn’t stop until the tiny boy was so exhausted that he drifted off to sleep which bordered on passing out.
He put the pillows on the settee opposite Leolin and he folded the huge, king sized duvet up as much as he could and put that on the settee too, far away from Leolin.
He moved the bassinet into the other room and he made sure that the family room was safe and that nothing was left lying around. He made sure to lock all the cupboard doors so that Braiden couldn’t hide in them. If he tried to get in them tomorrow or pitched a fit because they were locked, he’d have to see what he could possibly do to help him, even if he had to ask Healer Almus about it.
The last thing he did was shut the two double doors and lock them. He warded them with a heavy silencer. He did not want Harry and Blaise to be disturbed tomorrow and he didn’t want them getting up. He wouldn’t dream of keeping the babies from them, but they’d only see them one at a time so he could monitor how much they were doing.
Harry could seriously injury his recently healed muscles if he tried to pick up one of the children. He couldn’t allow that to happen and it would be easier if he took away the temptation for Harry to reach down for a crying, clamouring child. If he only allowed one child in at a time and he had that baby in his own arms at all times, there would be no chance for Harry to injure himself further. Maybe knowing that Harry was back in the house would be enough to help sooth his children. If it wasn’t then he’d just have to carry on dealing with their tears and tantrums as best as he could. He wouldn’t allow anything or anyone to impact on Harry or Blaise’s recovery, even if it meant separating his babies into a different room altogether.
He went back into the kitchen and he boiled the kettle, eyeing the bottle of Firewhiskey consideringly. He ignored the urge to drink while he made up two bottles, but once he was done, he gave in to his desire and he took another deep drink, relishing the burn that went all the way down his throat and into his belly. He sighed out contently and he shook both of the baby bottles vigorously and left them to rest, ready for when Eva and Ave woke up.
He rubbed his head and he got down a bowl and he poured out some cereal. He needed something to eat, even though he really didn’t feel like eating anything, or the Firewhiskey would go right to his head and he’d put his babies at risk via his negligence.
He forced spoonful after spoonful of his favourite muesli down, not even tasting it as he just chewed and swallowed repeatedly until it was gone. It was one of the most unpleasant of experiences that he’d ever forced himself through, but several minutes later, he felt better. More awake, less woolly headed, more energetic and more alert. When was the last time that he’d actually eaten anything? He couldn’t remember.
He was able to sort out Eva and Ave when they woke for their feed and he didn’t feel quite as exhausted, and he felt much more able to deal with their crying as they fought sleep for as long as they could. He eventually got them down and sleeping again but he only got to relax for several moments before he heard a shrill cry from the next room. Farren had had another nightmare.
Nasta hurried into the next room, only to close his eyes and curse as he saw Calix’s head pop up through the bars of his cot and he heard Braiden grunt before he rolled over onto his belly and pushed himself up to look around as Farren continued to cry. Braiden stood up in his cot and he started crying too.

“Come on.” Nasta sighed as he picked Farren up and held him close, even as Farren wrapped his arms tight around his neck and curled his legs up. “It was just a bad dream, Baban.” He said soothingly. “It’s alright, nothing’s going to harm you here. Not with me here with you.”

Nasta had to close his eyes and sigh when he saw Braiden climbing over the bars of his cot. He oldest son came toddling to him, arms outstretched and in floods of tears.
Of course all the noise woke Regan and then after another minute or two of all of them crying, Tegan popped her head up too.

“Of course all of you are awake.” Nasta sighed.

“Daddy! Daddy, pick up!” Calix cried from his cot and, realising that he couldn’t get one of them down to sleep while all four of the others were screaming, he let Calix out of his cot too as he continued to sooth Farren, who was refusing to be moved from where he’d buried his face into his neck.

“Daddy, we go down?” Braiden asked, clutching onto his leg and pointing a little finger at the door.

“No, we’re not going downstairs, Braiden.” Nasta told him as he tried to cling onto Farren as he rescued Regan from where he was trying, and failing, to get out of his cot. He’d been a minute or two away from falling flat on his back on the floor.

“Want go down!” Braiden stomped a foot and Nasta breathed in deeply, trying to mentally prepare himself for this coming battle. He was not prepared for this, at all. Not physically or mentally or emotionally.

“No.” He said sternly.

Braiden screamed and dropped to the floor, kicking his legs and flailing his arms and Nasta closed his eyes and counted to three. Tegan, who had been self-soothing and had lain back down to go back to sleep, popped her head back up, frowning and fisting at her sleepy eyes as she was woken up yet again.
Nasta picked her up, left the nursery and he took her into the nursery that he and Max had set up for Eva and Ave, ready for them to use in a few months’ time.
He popped Tegan into the one cot and shushed her, easing her down whilst stroking her gorgeously thick, black hair, Farren still clutched to his front, but at least he was quiet now, even if he was still snuffling.
The quiet was just what Tegan needed and not more than five minutes later she was asleep again with her favourite penguin tucked up by her face. Hindsight was hitting him with a hard, cruel lesson. He should have put Tegan and Braiden in this nursery to begin with. They were the two most likely to stay asleep all night.
He couldn’t put Farren down without him whining, but he couldn’t take him back into that nursery because it would only wind him up again. He did the only thing that he believed that he could do. He went down the hallway, opened a door and he walked into a guest room that had been set up and chosen by Richard and Myron because it was the closest to the nurseries.
Myron was already moving to sit up before he’d even gotten halfway across the room. He let out a warning growl, still mostly asleep, before sitting fully upright, one arm moving to shield the still sleeping Richard, who was stirring.

“It’s Nasta.” He identified himself, waiting for Myron’s human mind to take over from the Dracken.

“What’s happened?” Myron asked, moving to get up.

“Nothing, everything’s alright, I just need…all five of the kids are awake, I got Tegan sleeping in a separate room, Farren’s calming down, but if I take him back into the other room, he’s going to be wound up again.”

“You want him to sleep with us?”

“If that’s alright.” Nasta nodded.

Myron settled himself back down and held his arms out. Nasta passed over the snuffling Farren and he said his goodnights again, going back to tackle Braiden, Calix and Regan. As he turned to close the door, he smiled tiredly as he saw Farren settling down between his two Grandfathers’, a little hand holding onto Myron’s fingers as if worried that he would vanish if he let go. That was two kids sorted, now all he needed was to sort out the other three and hope that Leolin was still sleeping.
He opened the nursery door to find the three babies sat where he’d left them, looking at one another as if wondering why their crying wasn’t bringing their Daddy running.
When Braiden saw him, he threw himself backwards and started screaming again. Nasta picked him up and placed him back into his cot, ignoring his tantrum as best as he could while he cradled the clingy Regan to his neck.
Calix was circling around his feet, tugging on the jeans that Nasta was still wearing four days later and he had to close his eyes and think, think of something, anything, that could help him to settle these three down.
It took him an hour just to stop them from screaming and in that time, Braiden had cried himself sick, Regan had fallen asleep twice in his arms and had either been woken back up by Calix or Braiden, or he’d woken up when Nasta had tried to put him into his cot.

“Just go to sleep.” He muttered under his breath and he looked at his watch to find that it was just past four in the morning. Leolin would be waking up now, any when in the next half an hour for his feed, if he wasn’t already awake that was.

He started humming and pacing with Regan, before starting to sing. He was probably the world’s worst singer and he was hopelessly tone deaf, but if it would get these kids to sleep, he’d warble his way through every lullaby that he knew thrice over.
After yet another shaky, pitch breaking rendition of Hushabye Mountain, he had Regan sleeping and Calix drifting, but Braiden was all but glaring at him from where he was back in his cot. Every time he climbed out, Nasta had picked him up and put him back in, sometimes even before his little feet had touched the carpet.
He carefully eased Regan back down into the cot and breathed out a massive sigh of relief when he stayed asleep, either because he had been very gentle and Regan hadn’t realised that he’d been put down or because he was so tired now that he just needed to stay asleep.
Nasta turned and picked up the sagging Calix and turned him down into his arms, rubbing at his back as he started a third recital of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and another, countless, circuit of the room. Braiden tried his luck once more while his back was turned, but Nasta had swept him up before he’d even made it over the top bar of the cot and had plonked him back down on his bum.
Calix gave in at half four and Nasta was able to put him down and tuck him back in before turning his sole attention onto Braiden, who at least was laying down having given up trying to get out of his cot after his many failed attempts.
Nasta stood over him and stroked his hair and back until those indigo eyes, the eyes that completely tore at his heart because of their likeness to Blaise’s, closed and they stayed closed. He tucked Braiden in, checked on Regan and Calix before he left their nursery, went to peek in on Tegan, who was still fast asleep, before checking on Eva and Ave, who were also still asleep. He didn’t bother checking in on Farren, he knew that if there was any hint of a problem then Myron would deal with it. He trusted Myron to deal with it.
Instead he went down the stairs to the raucous wailing of Leolin and he knew then that Leolin had been awake and crying for a while. He really couldn’t handle this on his own anymore. He wanted to tag out and just go to bed and sleep.
Leolin was exactly where he’d been left, in exactly the same position, not that Nasta had expected any differently seeing as Leolin couldn’t even roll himself onto his side yet.

“Come here, Baban.” He said softly and Leolin stopped crying so furiously to listen. “It’s alright, I’ve got you.”

“Ma!” Leolin cried in something that Nasta almost wanted to call delight.

He felt terrible when he picked Leolin up and those bright gold eyes caught sight of him and the smile turned into the most ferocious scowl that Nasta had ever seen Leolin make before. He did feel completely unappreciated as a Father when his own son looked at him in such a way. He felt even worse when Leolin sagged in his arms and started crying anew. Nasta, now with a splitting headache, a combination of the Firewhiskey that he’d knocked back and half the night with babies screaming in his ear, didn’t even try to stop Leolin from crying, he just carried him through the corridors to the kitchen to boil the kettle to make him up a bottle. He resisted the urge to take a swig of Firewhiskey from the bottle. He had his son in his arms and he knew that he’d already had more than enough for one night.
He cooled the milk before plugging up Leolin’s mouth with the teat. The blessed silence was like heaven to his ears and to his pounding head. He fed Leolin and held his tiny hand between his fingers and he rubbed and stroked, reassuring Leolin that he wasn’t alone, even if he wasn’t the parent that Leolin wanted right now.
He walked back into the living room and he shifted himself into the little nest made by the two settees being pushed flush together and he stretched out on them, glad that they were both five seaters as he would be able to lie down without being too uncomfortable, which meant that Blaise would be able to lie on it comfortably and Harry definitely would be able to.
He burped Leolin and savoured the few sleepy moments after he’d just finished a bottle where he was completely full and drowsy. Then inevitably Leolin called out for Harry.

“Ma.” Leolin called out sleepily. “Ma.”

“Shhh, Leolin.” Nasta said softly.

“Ma!” Leolin cried out more demandingly.

Nasta lay down and he rested Leolin on his chest. He pulled a pillow under his head and yanked the duvet over his legs and hips, stopping at Leolin’s waist. He rubbed and petted gently at Leolin’s back, thankful that Leolin was calming down quicker on a full belly and with an ear against his heartbeat.

“It’s alright, Caru.” He said gently. “I love you, your Mum will be back in just a few hours and he’s going to want to cuddle you all day. You just need to sleep for a little longer.” He said under his breath, in an almost whisper. “It won’t be long now.”

“Ma.” Leolin said defiantly, but with a definite waver of sleepiness thrown in now.

“I know, it’s hard on you. You don’t really know what’s going on or how to handle all these sudden changes. How can anyone expect you, or your brothers and sisters, to deal with these changes when we, the adults, are struggling with it all too?”

“Da.” Leolin said quietly, little hands clenching and releasing, clenching and releasing, into the skin of Nasta’s neck.

“I’m here for you, Baban.” Nasta assured him softly, nosing into his hair and kissing Leolin’s head. “I love you so much. This will never happen to you again. None of us ever wanted to see you hurt or sick and in the last several months you’ve been both.”

Leolin remained quiet as he listened to Nasta speaking and his fingers stopped clenching and just rested against him as Nasta breathed deeply and slowly, which seemed to be working miracles for Leolin. It was only then that he remembered that if Leolin was being overly fussy that Harry would lie down with him, place him on his chest with his ear over his heart and talk him to sleep, letting Leolin feel and hear him breathing deeply. He could have screamed at himself for not remembering that before now.
He relaxed and kept his breathing slow and steady, taking in deep breaths that lifted Leolin on his chest, held it for a moment, before releasing, lowering Leolin back down. The soothing motion, his voice, soft and light as he spoke to Leolin, the regulation of his breathing and his steady heartbeat seemed to be too much for Leolin, who gave into sleep without too much of a struggle this time. Nasta could have cheered, but he settled for throwing his head back and breathing out in utter relief.
He readjusted himself and he closed his eyes, turning his head on the pillow, but not his body, before he finally slipped off to sleep himself. The baby monitors, three of them, were on the settee next to his head, Farren was well cared for, Leolin was in his arms, Harry was being guarded by Enrique and Max was sleeping soundly for once. Nasta would keep an ear out for his distress call, just in case he had another nightmare, but he wasn’t expecting it tonight.
Everything was fine for the moment, he could sleep in peace without worrying. He had a lot to do later today, he needed this sleep in order to help him to be prepared for what was to come. In just a few hours’ time, Harry would be home and it was going to be hard enough to control the kids, even harder to keep Harry lying down and away from all of them or reacting to their cries and demands for his attention. He needed to get at least another few hours’ sleep or he wasn’t going to have the strength or the mental capacity to deal with what was to come, and with Leolin now sleeping on his chest, he finally allowed himself to drift off. It had been a rough three days, they would never be the same again thanks to what had happened, during the fight and during the aftermath of it, but maybe, given some time and a lot of work, they could eventually heal from it.

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A/N: Well I’ve finally reached the massive milestone of one hundred chapters. With a fic that was only supposed to be thirty chapters. Funny how the muses work sometimes! This is also the longest chapter of The Rise of the Drackens to date too!
Oh, I’ve been nominated for four fanfiction awards, two of the nominations are for this fic! Please vote for me, it’ll be a wonderful present for the hundredth chapter!

http://fanaticfanficsawards.blogspot.co.uk/p/voting_30.html

I’m so happy to be nominated! And that Rise of the Drackens and Blue Moon have been nominated. Oh, speaking of Blue Moon, I’m finally writing the catch up future chapter that you lovelies reading that fic wanted. It’s going really well!

Anon: Harry was heavily pregnant with Braiden when Ron attacked him. He was obviously pregnant and everyone knew that he was and still Ron attacked him despite that. Amelle attacked him when she, and he, both thought that he wasn’t pregnant. Harry didn’t even know himself, so how could he hold that against anyone? That’s the difference between the two and why Harry forgave Amelle and not Ron.

I think this is all of it, I hope you lovelies have enjoyed it, we reached our hundred milestone and it almost killed me to get this chapter, at this length, to you lovelies so soon! I’m exhausted! But damn was it worth it! I hope you lovelies enjoy it, that you review and vote for me please! I’ll be back as soon as I can with chapter one hundred-one, but first, I think I need to focus on The Black Heir for a bit and see what I can do with that first, but I’ll be back soon,

StarLight Massacre. X
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The Rise of the Drackens