Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Meddling with Darkness	By : zoy_grey Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 32786 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 11
Disclaimer: I do not own nor make profit off of JK Rowling's world of Harry Potter, the characters or the timeline. Though I do own the plot that I came up with in this story.

Chapter List
- 27
- 28
- 29
A/N: Thank you for the wonderful reviews. I'm extremely happy to see you are still enjoying this story :) Sorry for making you wait almost a week for the next chapter, but I think a week is an absolute minimum of time I need to write a chapter (especially, that on average each chapter has around 15 pages :P). But I can definitely promise you the next chapter in about a week :) Alright, enough of my ranting. Hope you'll like this new chapter.
Chapter 28
The first day of summer started rather gloomy. The weather was awful – cloudy, windy and rainy. Draco however didn’t seem to mind much. He had yet another wonderful dream about Orion and he was on his way to take a shower and take care of the aftermath of his dream. Although it felt rather bothersome and frustrating at the beginning to think that those dreams were as close as he’d ever get to the black haired teen. However, ever since that amazing incident on the New Year, he actually got a tiny bit of hope that maybe there was some chance for him to spend the rest of his life with Orion.
“After all, our families accept marriages of two wizards…we are a good match status-wise…there is a possibility for us to have children,” Draco stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom and tried to convince himself that his logic was sound. “And I simply refuse to not have him in my life.”
After successfully convincing himself that the future looked bright for him, he could finally enjoy his shower. He got dressed in some of his more casual clothes and headed downstairs to the dining room.
To his biggest surprise, he was the only person in the room. That was a sight he wasn’t really used to. For as long as he could remember, the entire family used to eat meals together. Of course, there were times when his father or grandfather had to attend some important business meetings, but such occasions were rather rare. No matter how busy his family was, everyone tried to find the time to spend together during the meals. Now however, the teen was literally the only person in the room. Regardless, Draco sat down at his usual seat by the table and ate his breakfast. At least the house elves seemed to not have forgotten about him and immediately brought his favourite breakfast food.
He ate in silence. All the time wondering where could his parents be this early in the morning. The his thoughts wandered off to his grandfather, whom he hasn’t seen in half a year. Usually, it was Draco’s routine to greet Abraxas as soon as he returned to the manor from Hogwarts. This year unfortunately, not only did he not do that, he was also forbidden to get anywhere near his grandfather’s room. Lucius told him the sad news about the older wizard being seriously sick. But he also promised Draco that as soon as it will be possible he will be allowed to talk with Abraxas; provided that certain precautions will be taken so that the only Malfoy heir does not get sick as well.
“Master Lucius wants to see young master Draco in the library,” one of the house elves showed up next to the blond teen and bowed very low.
“I will head there right now,” answered Draco and stood up from the table.
While he walked to meet with his father, he felt a bad feeling growing in his guts. It couldn’t be a coincidence that no one was there during breakfast and now he is being so formally invited for a talk with his father. He subconsciously started walking faster, as if there was some important and not pleasant information about to be announced by Lucius. But as soon as he stood in front of the door to the library, he took a deep breath to calm himself down and reminded himself about Orion and how rather optimistic his chances with him started to look like. He exhaled the air and told himself that there was nothing that could ruin his good mood this morning.
“Good morning father. You wanted to see me,” said Draco as soon as he entered the room. He closed the door behind him and his gazed landed on the two people sitting not too far from him. “Good morning mother.”
He didn’t expect to see Narcissa in the library, but this explained why he had to eat his breakfast alone. The teen walked over to where his parents were sitting and took a seat in the one empty armchair, exactly in front of his parents.
There was a long, almost painful moment of silence. Lucius had his usual mask of indifference on, but it was clear to Draco he had something serious to talk about. Narcissa however, was blankly staring outside the window, as if she was trying to put a spell on the awful weather. It wasn’t very often the teen saw his mother in such a mood; a mood that fitted the weather perfectly. He nearly gulped as the bad feeling in his guts started to grow again.
“You wanted to see me,” Draco tried to start the conversation once more. In response, Lucius gracefully pointed to a very officially looking document lying on the coffee table in front of him and told him to read it.
“Draco, you are our only son and the heir of the Malfoy family,” the older wizard started a monologue, as if trying to distract the teen a bit from reading the document. “You’re sixteen already and at such age…the heirs of pureblood families are faced with certain…obligations.”
There was another long moment of silence, so that the information sinks in, but it seemed as if Draco was able to hear the words that his father just said, but his mind didn’t seem to be really registering them. He tried to focus on the document in his hands, but for some reason he couldn’t read it properly; he couldn’t focus on each sentence. His eyes were quickly running through the text registering single words, but even that allowed him after a while to make some sense of what he was reading.
“Engagement contract?!” the teen couldn’t keep it calm and straight when the realisation struck him. “You want to make engagement arrangements for me? What is this about, all of a sudden? I still have two years of school and you want to already start working on my potential marriage?”
Hearing her son’s reaction Narcissa finally decided to look at him. The look on the teen’s face said he was absolutely outraged and the witch had a pretty good idea of the reason. She knew Draco has always known that as a Malfoy heir there would come a time when he’d have to get engaged and married to secure the bloodline; the teen was even aware of the fact that usually such arrangements started rather early. But Narcissa knew her son and she wasn’t blind. She knew there was a very important person in Draco’s heart, but the teen hasn’t yet confessed his feelings to his beloved; and right now, he was running out of time.
“Draco, this is hardly new information to you,” Lucius started explaining. He tried to calm his son down, but it was clear that he wasn’t very happy about rushing those things either. But the man knew, he made a promise to Abraxas and since till now Draco hasn’t shown interest in any potential witch, Lucius had to start the official planning. “I am not yet giving it to the public knowledge that you are officially open to engagement contracts. All I’m saying is that this year we will be making some arrangements.”
“Sweetheart, your father and I, we already had feelings for each other before our official engagement contract was made,” Narcissa told her son. “And we always wished for you the same luck. We would still be overjoyed to hear out and support your choice of lover before the official documents are signed…but you never expressed interest in anyone before.”
“You never asked if there is such an important person in my life,” protested the teen.
“Well then who is this person if there truly is one?” asked Lucius curiously.
Draco was fighting with himself not to shout out who was the only person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He knew his mother would approve of his choice, but he wasn’t so sure about Lucius. But even if his father would agree to him being with young Black, Draco simply couldn’t force Orion into this situation. Black was slowly getting used to the concept of two wizards being together and Draco didn’t want to all of a sudden show up with an engagement contract on his doorstep. He knew Orion kissed him during winter holidays, but what if the black haired teen was just drunk; or maybe simply trying out things just out of curiosity. He was far from certain if Orion had any real feelings for him. But what Draco feared the most was losing contact with the other teen. Even if Orion didn’t love him, Draco still wanted to have his friendship.
“I will not get involved in this bizarre ‘wife-wanna-be festival’! And I refuse to accept any contract you sign without my opinion,” he nearly shouted and for the first time in his life he stormed out of the room like an insolent brat.
Albus didn’t waste any time this summer. He was painfully aware of the fact that certain people started slipping from his grasp, which didn’t help his plans much; but not anymore. He was set on regaining control over the situation; and he would do it by any means needed.
He already lost track of the Blacks and Orion. This made Albus very uncomfortable, because leaving the boy under the eye of his Dark Arts-loving family would definitely not end well. The longer he stayed under the influence of the Blacks the more independent he became. This was a trait Dumbledore definitely didn’t need the teen to have; not when he was supposed to be a selfless, lonely person with nothing to lose. Only then would Orion be prepared to give away his own life to defeat the Dark Lord. Those were the headmasters original plans for the war and the boy. Of course now, with the teen being surrounded with friends and family members, those plans were already far from applicable. Ever since Albus discovered how strongly Regulus Black was involved with Voldemort, he was worried Orion would be forced by his family to submit to the dark wizard and serve him.
With so much pressure over him and time being of essence, Dumbledore was forced to move more boldly with his new plans and make many unlikely alliances. One of such allies became Igor Karkaroff. The Durmstrang headmaster wasn’t very eager to support him last year, but with the fact that Voldemort hasn’t made any official appearance or taken any revenge on the followers who didn’t come back to his side, Karkaroff felt brave enough to support Albus. Dumbledore was certain the other wizard did that in order to end on the winning side this time and redeem himself in the public’s eyes, but that was something Albus was willing to accept; as long as he had more influential supporters in other countries.
All in all, the headmaster was rather proud of himself; of how busy and successful he was during the last few weeks. At first he wasn’t certain if his new approach would work; especially since it was very risky. However, his efforts proved to be very promising. The plan seemed simple – he had to make some new, unlikely allies, who would rather support him than Voldemort and his followers. He already found one strategic ally in the Ministry of Magic, but he would still have to wait for the results of this collaboration. The other unexpected supporters could be found in Azkaban. The only problem was he had to somehow get into the prison and persuade a few witches and wizards there to help him. After a considerable amount of glamour and illusion spells, he managed to get into Azkaban as a visitor, without anyone paying much attention to his identity. There he had a chat with a certain former Ministry employee; a witch who held a grudge against the Malfoys and Blacks, because of whom she ended up in Azkaban. Dolores Umbridge wasn’t very cooperative at the beginning, but as soon as she heard that it could also help Cornelius Fudge, she changed her mind and provided Albus with information on how one could control the dementors. During his visit to Azkaban, Dumbledore decided to pay a visit to one more person; a wizard, who luckily was still there and could prove to be invaluable to deal with Voldemort. However, the outcome of that particular conversation left Albus rather surprised and disappointed.
#flashback#
“Who are you?” asked the wizard; annoyance clear in his voice. “What do you want from me? I don’t know you.”
“Mr Morfin Gaunt, am I correct?” Dumbledore asked the wizard. He honestly wanted to get the information he needed and get away as far as possible from the vile man in front of him. “I just wanted to ask you about Tom Riddle.”
Until now, the other man seemed completely disinterested in his guest, but the name Riddle clearly got his attention, “That filth! That filthy Muggle hurt my sister!”
“No, no Mr Gaunt. I didn’t express myself correctly. I wanted to talk about your nephew Tom Riddle, not his father Tom Riddle Senior,” Albus corrected himself.
“Listen you,” in mere seconds Morfin jumped up to his feet and stood dangerously close to the other wizard. He didn’t know the glamoured version of Dumbledore, but he didn’t have to know the man to still feel enraged by him showing up before him and spouting insults about his family. “I have enough of all of you smartasses! You all think you know everything about my family or even more than we know ourselves! But I will tell you this…Tom Riddle was a disgusting, vile man, who dared to hurt my sister! Where was the Ministry of Magic then, eh?! You’re all so quick to protecting your beloved Muggles when someone so much as stuns them with magic. But when they are hurting witches or wizards, then no one wants to bring them to justice!”
“Mr Gaunt, I understand that you are upset by the death of your sister, but it came to my attention that you might have been falsely accused of the crimes of your nephew,” Albus tried to push him towards the topic that interested him the most; he needed something and someone he could publically use against Voldemort. “I could help you get justice for the years you had to spend here in Azkaban, when the actual murderer of the Riddle family enjoys his freedom.”
To his biggest surprise, Morfin started laughing hysterically and refused to talk to Albus anymore. Seeing that he wouldn’t be successful here today, the headmaster decided to leave the other wizard for now and visit him some other time. He hoped the last Gaunt family member simply needed some time to think everything over.
He stood up and headed out to the corridor, when Morfin’s laughter ceased. Albus glanced one more time at the prisoner and saw a completely different expression on the other man’s face. There was no trace of insanity on the man’s face; he stared straight into Dumbledore’s eyes; determination clear in Morfin’s eyes.
“You have absolutely no understanding of my family and what really happened to my nephew. If you’re wise, you’d leave the Gaunt family’s heir in peace.”
#end of flashback#
Already three weeks have passed since that visit in Azkaban and Albus was still not exactly sure what to think about Morfin’s last words. The longer he thought about it, the more he was convinced that the old Gaunt was simply losing his sanity in prison.
Orion had been enjoying his first weeks of summer. He savoured each single day and for the first time in his life, he actually wished the next school year wouldn’t start anytime soon. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy living with the Malfoys last summer, but this year it was a completely new experience.
He had his very own bedroom which he could decorate anyway he saw fit. He chose one of the empty bedrooms on the second floor. There were two other unoccupied rooms there and a big bathroom. His parents were staying in the master bedroom on the first floor, which meant for now and the next few years Orion was the only person living in the second floor. The teen felt ecstatic at the amount of space and privacy he was given; something he couldn’t even dream of at the Dursleys. As he was for now the only child of Sirius and Severus, Orion took the liberty of choosing a fairly big bedroom with a large window revealing a stunning view on the city and Edinburgh castle. He furnished the room with a rather big, four poster bed made of mahogany wood, as well as a set of drawers, a desk and a sofa. All of the furniture was made from the same wood as the bed and finished with elegant burgundy fabrics. There was also a fairly big walk-in closet on the wall opposite to the entrance to the room.
All in all, Orion was proud of his room. He has finally finished unpacking and rearranging all of his possessions that Severus brought for him from Grimmauld Place. The teen placed his Forget-Me-Not mirror next to his desk, because it simply felt wrong to hide such an amazing object in the closet. On the other side of the desk stood the pensive that he got from his fathers for Christmas. The tops of the drawers were decorated with a growing collection of picture frames. There were some of the precious pictures of him as an infant surrounded by different family members; some of whom already passed away, but thanks to magic he could still enjoy seeing them moving and smiling to him. Among those photos were also pictures of his parents, friends and Draco; including Orion’s favourite photo, that he got from Narcissa, of baby Orion and baby Draco.
“Here you go,” said Orion and handed a letter for Ron to his owl. Hedwig seemed just as happy as her owner with the new living arrangements. In the Edinburgh House there was a small owlery located in the garden; granted, it was nowhere near the Hogwarts’ owlery, but it was enough for Hedwig and the two other owls that belonged to the Blacks. “Take it to the Burrow and come back. I’m going to have some new treats waiting for you.”
The teen watched as Hedwig flew away. His gaze landed on the small pile of letters laying on his desk and he smiled to himself. He was surprised, but at the same time extremely happy that even though it’s been only about two weeks since the school year ended and he already got letters from Fred and George, Hermione and Ron, as well as from Pansy Parkinson, Lavender Brown and the Patil twins. Apparently, his new looks and social status made a lasting impression on some of the girls in Hogwarts; they were more or less openly hinting in their letters their interest in him. On one hand, Orion found it amusing and flattering that he was getting this kind of attention, but at the same time it made him feel somewhat uncomfortable. The situation between him and his cousin worked out and they seemed to be fine again; Orion honestly thought he was the only one of them two, who remembered their kiss, but that didn’t change the fact, that he was still very confused about his growing feelings for Draco. This reminded him that the blond hasn’t yet answered his letter. Normally, Draco replied rather fast, but not this time. When three days have passed without any answer, Orion started to worry; it did even cross his mind that maybe Draco remembered their kiss after all and now everything would become awkward between them. Severus however, put those thoughts to rest when he informed him and Sirius about Abraxas’ state. Since then Orion decided to patiently wait for the blond’s reply and not to pressure him, especially now, when his grandfather was very sick.
It was still fairly early and he had enough time before lunch, so he decided to continue his research. Three thick, old books lied open in front of him so that he could quickly check the theories up as well as some of his calculations. Right in front of him was a stash of parchment and an ink and he was vigorously making notes on some spells and calculations. The teen was so engrossed in his research that he didn’t notice how fast the time flew.
“Orion,” a low calm voice coming from the door brought him out of his thoughts. He put the quill away and looked at the door, were his eyes met with Severus.
“Father,” replied the teen and smiled at the somewhat surprised reaction of the potions master, who was still somewhat not used to hearing Orion calling him ‘father’. “Did you call me? I was working and didn’t hear anything.”
“What is it that you’re working on?” asked Severus walking over to his son. He quickly scanned the desk and was pleasantly surprised that Orion voluntarily occupied himself with some serious magical topics. “Arithmancy?”
“Not only, but yes. I actually enjoy the subject and wanted to continue it to NEWTs,” informed him the teen. “But I will have to wait until the results of my OWLs arrive. Lately, I discovered that enchanting objects is a fascinating branch of magic.”
“And a rather difficult one, but I’m certain you’d be able to succeed in that field,” the potions master was truly proud of Orion. No longer than a week ago, the teen surprised him and Sirius with successfully enchanting a bracelet charm for the pregnant wizard which reacted to the mood swings; the moment Sirius’ mood was changing to a really foul, the charm activated a mild calming spell. Of course it wasn’t able to get rid of the wizard’s mood swings at all, but it definitely helped Orion and Severus a lot when dealing with Black; especially since during this pregnancy Sirius had very frequent and intense mood swings. “Do you think you could find some time to help me with furnishing the nursery?”
“Sure, anything to keep dad from yelling or crying,” the teen laughed and quickly closed all of the books.
“Let’s not tell him how…,” started the potions master.
“Let’s not tell me what?” asked curious Sirius, who just walked all the way up to the second floor in search of his husband and son.
Black stood in the doorway staring at the two wizards. His curious stare was slowly changing into an annoyed glare the longer he had to wait for the answer. He tried to cross his arms to make himself look even angrier, but the already huge belly made it difficult. For Orion, it was the first time seeing a pregnant wizard so the first time he saw his dad after getting back from Hogwarts, he wanted to ask if it’s normal that Sirius was developing so fast. Thankfully, Severus already had experience with dealing with his pregnant husband and even though he was wondering the same thing, he managed to stop his son before he asked the question. It was one thing for Sirius to make fun of how big he was, but it was completely unacceptable for others to ask about his belly’s size. Later that day, Severus ensured Orion that he will try to talk Sirius into casting a monitoring spell, just to check out if everything with the baby was alright; but he had to find a right moment to bring the subject to his six months pregnant husband.
“Let’s not tell you just yet how amazing the nursery is going to look like when Orion and I are done with it,” said quickly the potions master and kissed Sirius lovingly before leading him out of the room.
By now, Orion got already used to seeing his fathers kissing and he had absolutely no problem with that. If anything, he was happy to see them do that, because it only proved to him that indeed he wasn’t just an accident, but those two truly loved each other.
It took over half a year to prepare the castle for their new enterprise, but today was finally the last day of the preparations. Regulus divided the castle into two parts – one third of all the castle buildings remained the private quarters of young Black and his husband, while the rest of the buildings were supposed to accommodate the new employees, including a small group of mediwizards, and most importantly a lively group of magical children.
Regulus was sitting in the administration office of the new day care, going through all the documents they needed for their grand opening tomorrow. He knew they had everything in place; the solicitors made sure there were no mistakes or missing permissions, but Regulus still preferred to personally double check everything; a habit he developed after joining Tom and his followers. The other reason for his meticulousness was the fact that he was already in his last month of pregnancy; his belly was making him very slow even when dealing with the simplest everyday tasks, but that didn’t stress him out. What did stress him our was the fact, that his husband was spending an awful lot of time outside of the castle lately. The older wizard took it upon himself to get the Death Eater meetings and trainings as far away from their home as possible, so that none of the day care employees would ever spot any Death Eater in the castle and connect them with either him or Regulus. The younger Black was really grateful for that, but at the same time, he was slowly starting to get nervous that he might go into labour in a week or two and Tom wouldn’t be there.
“You just wait a bit longer little one. Your father will be back in a few days,” the gently rubbed his swollen belly through the layers of fabric and talked to his unborn child. Lately this has become his habit, but mostly because it seemed to have had calming effect on Regulus.
His peaceful moment was interrupted by a knock on the door and Regulus quickly wrapped his long vest around him. It wasn’t a perfect solution, since it was still visible that he got bigger in the waist area, but thanks to a spell that Tom cast on in, to some extent it was wrapping Regulus’ belly in a glamour, so that it wasn’t that obvious that the younger wizard was with child.
“Come in,” Black called and seconds later a young red haired halfblood witch and a skinny blond Muggleborn wizard entered the office. “How can I help you, Penny, Calum?”
“We just wanted to hand you the confirmations from the families that declared they will be leaving their children under our care starting tomorrow, Mr Black” informed the witch and placed a pile of around thirty declarations on Regulus’ desk.
“The good news is they come from different families, pureblood, halfblood and even two or three Muggleborns,” announced happily Calum, but paused horrified when he heard Penny inhale the air sharply. Only then did he realise that his employer was the Regulus Black, a pureblood, whose family strongly supported pureblood supremacy.
Regulus however, silently scanned the pile of documents; his face absolutely expressionless. He glanced at the mortified faces of his new employees and fought back a laugh. “Wonderful,” he answered quickly and smiled genuinely. “It’s good for children to get introduced into the wizarding world early.”
“So…you’re not against…” Calum tried to ask and uncomfortable question, but was cut off by Regulus.
“Having Muggleborns and Halfbloods in the wizarding world? No, I’m not. I don’t see a reason why should there only be purebloods in our world. The fact that I’m a pureblood and a Black has nothing to do with that. Everyone who shows magical abilities should be allowed to get acquainted with our community as early in their lives as possible, because they will most likely spend the bigger part of their lives in the wizarding community,” he explained. “You’re a Muggleborn, Mr Grant. When you received your Hogwarts letter wasn’t it overwhelming to come to terms with the fact that magic exists and you’re a wizard?”
“Extremely, sir” Calum agreed.
“And during your first year at Hogwarts, could you focus on your education when everything about the wizarding world was completely new and unknown to you?”
“Hardly. I think I started paying attention to my classes only around my third year,” Calum answered honestly.
“That’s exactly what me and my family are trying to help young witches and wizards with. To feel welcome and natural in the wizarding world,” explained Regulus.
“Sir? If I may,” started Penny, who seemed completely taken aback by what a wonderful man the older wizard seemed to be in person. “When we met for the first time during my job interview, you mentioned you’d like this place to be not only a day care but first and foremost an orphanage for children of magical descent. If you don’t mind me asking…why are we offering only our day care services then?”
“It still is my family’s wish to make this place a safe refuge for such children,” explained the man while waving his wand and sorting the documents in the office. “Unfortunately, we need the Ministry’s permission to start a cooperation with the Muggle institutions. After all, we do not want to and will not kidnap children from the Muggle world and simply place them here. We need the Ministry’s cooperation…which unfortunately, the Ministry refuses to give us.”
“I see,” was all the witch said. She noticed a slight wince, followed by a frown on the Black’s face, and she thought it was because the man felt so emotional about this topic. She didn’t want to bother her new boss with something that he was obviously very concerned about so she bowed lightly and headed towards the door together with Calum. “We will leave you to your work, sir.”
As soon as the door closed behind them, Regulus slumped onto his chair and started rubbing small circles over his belly. The last few days he has been getting minor cramps more often, but they were vanishing fairly quickly with proper breathing and massaging.
“Thank Merlin they left,” said the man mostly to himself, but also to his baby. “You’ll keep me company in there a few more weeks, right?” he smiled and continued moving his hand in circles.
A typical day at the Burrow was very lively, to say the least. Especially when all the Weasley children were staying at their parents’ place. That was the case this summer. Ron and Ginny were enjoying their school break. The twins were busy preparing new products for the grand opening of their new shop in Diagon Alley. Bill already moved back to England and was trying to spend more time with his parents and siblings. The only two missing were Percy, who basically cut ties with the family shortly after graduating from Hogwarts; and Charlie, who seemed to have made himself at home in Romania. Molly Weasley was actually lamenting lately about not seeing Charlie often enough and she even considered visiting him one weekend in Romania.
To everyone’s biggest surprise, few days after the school year’s end Charlie Floo called his family to give them the wonderful news that he was going to visit them in three days and he was even coming with someone he wanted to introduce to them. Molly and Arthur were of course excited; they wished for a long time now that Charlie would find someone important to him, but they were already slowly losing hope. Now however, they couldn’t wait to meet the girl. The long awaited day of Charlie’s visit has come and Molly was instructing her other children the entire day on how to behave.
“No silly comments or testing your inventions on Charlie’s friend,” he said, her voice sounding very strict. “You hear me? Fred? George?”
“Yes mum,” they answered in unison.
“They’re here,” announced Arthur spotting two people on the hill, not far from their house.
“Move Ronniekins,” said George while fighting with his younger siblings for a spot by the window.
“I want to see too, you know,” protested Ron.
“Don’t push me you three,” Ginny added and fought with her brothers.
“So much for acting all nice and civilized,” Bill chuckled watching his siblings.
Minutes later, the door to the Burrow opened and they all saw Charlie grinning as if he just won a lottery. He was dressed in some rather elegant long pants and well fitted dark red shirt, which was just the right size, but at the same time nicely emphasized his well-trained body. Molly quickly spotted that his hair got longer and was loosely tied in the back; at the same time, she noted to herself that she will definitely have to give him a haircut.
“Missed me?” asked Charlie and laughed as his brothers and Ginny rushed to greet him. It would probably last a few hours until he was freed from his siblings, but he remembered he wasn’t alone. He cleared his throat and waited for everyone to take a few steps back. “Everyone, I would like you to meet Viviana Dragoş…my fiancée.”
A beautiful, black haired witch walked into the house and stood next to Charlie. She was only a bit shorter than him; her skin was lightly tanned; dark brown eyes were nicely framed by thick, long eyelashes; long black locks of hair were gently falling on her back. She was dressed in a black, well-fitted skirt, that showed her curves, and a white, elegant, long-sleeved top. The Weasleys took just one look at her and their son, and they knew three things – the girl was beautiful, rich and Charlie was absolutely smitten with her.
Viviana only heard from Charlie about his family, but from what she has heard, they were usually very enthusiastic about pretty much everything. However, right now all seven Weasleys simply stood there dumbstruck not saying a thing. She shortly exchanged glances with Charlie, who seemed equally surprised as his fiancé. The dragon tamer smiled to her reassuringly though and that’s when Viviana decided to take the first step into making a good impression on her beloved’s family.
“It’s a pleasure to finally be able to meet you Mrs Weasley, Mr Weasley,” she smiled and politely bowed her head to greet her future in-laws. “Thank you for having us stay here.”
There was dead silence in the house. Bill was having a hard time containing his growing grin; he remembered how he introduced Fleur as his girlfriend and this situation right now was pretty similar. Fred and George were obviously fighting with their inner need to make a comment on what a great eye for girls Charlie had. Ron was just as dumbstruck seeing Viviana as he was seeing Fleur for the first time. Arthur had questions popping up in his head, which he wanted to ask, but he waited for his wife to say something. However, Molly and Ginny were absolutely silent, analysing every single thing about the witch before them. It was difficult to say what was their impression of the young woman, but this prolonged silence couldn’t mean anything good.
“So you two are…engaged?” Mr Weasley finally uttered his biggest question. He couldn’t wait any longer for Molly to regain her speaking ability.
“Yes,” Charlie answered proudly. “I popped the question a week ago and Viviana made me the honour of accepting my proposal.”
“Aren’t Romanian wizarding families following the rule of officially entering into an engagement contract? That’s at least how things are done here in England,” Molly said sarcastically; even though she knew their family would never suggest such formalities from their children and their potential spouses.
Since that awkward moment, the situation in the Burrow got a bit complicated and tense. Everyone, including Mr Weasley were utterly shocked with how Mrs Weasley ‘greeted’ her future daughter-in-law; but at the same time, everyone was still surprised about Charlie’s engagement. After all, they first heard about his girlfriend about half a year ago and until now they didn’t even get the chance to meet her in person. Now however, Charlie showed up with his obviously well-situated pureblood girl and they drop the information about their engagement. Viviana seemed to be a very nice person and definitely shared the same love for dragons as Charlie, plus she was really going out of her way to win the Weasleys over. Bill and his brothers didn’t seem to have much problem with the witch; they even tried to be very supportive, especially the oldest Weasley, because he remembered Fleur’s struggle with his mother and Ginny.
Nearly a week has passed, but Molly and Ginny were still politely smiling to the other witch and only seconds later glaring at her. In all honesty, they couldn’t really say exactly what was is that ticked them off about the girl, apart from the fact that she was obviously having a bad influence on Charlie. Mrs Weasley saw the change in her son’s looks and behaviour and she didn’t like it one bit. She was afraid that Viviana was forcing Charlie to change to fit with her rich family. She dreaded the moment her second oldest son would announce that he is going to stay in Romania for good and they will lose contact with him just like they did with Percy.
“Mum please. I told you I don’t need a haircut. My hair is perfectly fine the way it is,” Charlie’s annoyed voice could be heard from the other room. It was already the fifth day in a row that Molly tried to cut his long hair painfully short, as she always did.
Viviana sent him a knowing smile the moment he entered the kitchen and sat with his family to eat breakfast. For the time being he decided to ignore his mother and Ginny’s behaviour and enjoy the meal. However, only minutes later a black eagle owl landed on the kitchen windowsill; a sealed envelope addressed to Viviana in its beak. It was the fastest owl the Dragoş family had and usually letters of utmost importance were carried by it. Charlie was already aware of this and observed his fiancé carefully as she gracefully walked over to the owl and opened the letter.
“Bad news?” he asked concerned allowing himself to take a quick peek at the parchment. The message was written in Romanian, but his language skills were already good enough to understand quite a bit.
“Please forgive me,” she addressed Mr and Mrs Weasley. “But I’m afraid I have to head back to Romania.” She looked at Charlie, who already knew what was going on and gave her a reassuring smile and a nod as she headed upstairs to pack her belongings.
“Did she already get tired of our common English house and hospitality?” asked Ginny.
“No Ginevra. Some of her family members and friends have been attacked. And apparently more and more incidents like that seem to be happening in Romania at the moment,” Charlie told his sister off and walked upstairs to help his fiancé before her trip.
It was already late afternoon when he returned to the castle from the last meeting with his followers. Everything in the Ministry and tracking magical children in the Muggle world seemed to be going according to his plans. Right now the only thing that was more important to him though than changing the wizarding world and defeating Dumbledore, was his husband and their unborn child. The dark wizard was very much looking forward to finally being able to spend some well-deserved quality time with Regulus.
As soon as he apparated into the private wing of the castle, he took off his glamour and headed towards their bedroom where he was hoping to find his husband. To his surprise the room was empty and there was no sign of the younger wizard. He then walked to the library since he knew the other man enjoyed spending his afternoons with a good book, but he didn’t find him there either. The Dark Lord’s steps become hastier as he began to check each and every chamber in that part of the castle, but the result was the same – Regulus was nowhere to be found. The overwhelming feeling of panic started to take over him as he feared something bad has happened to his husband.
He quickly called the house elves serving in the castle and asked them to find the younger man. After that it took only a minute for the creatures to show up before their master again, informing him that Regulus was feeling very bad and couldn’t move from his office in the part of the castle that belonged to the day care.
Hearing that, the wizard literally rushed down the grand staircase and out to the courtyard. He knew he should be more careful, especially since there were still many day care employees who would definitely see him, but at the moment he didn’t have the time for such trivial matters; all that he could think about was Regulus. It was very unlike his husband to stay in place where he wasn’t exactly safe, especially now that he was nine months pregnant; but that only meant that something serious must have happened to him. He didn’t pay much attention to the surprised looks he was getting from the witches and wizards passing him on the corridors of the day care part of the castle. He only stopped when he saw the open door to the office, in which Regulus usually resided these days.
“Excuse me, but who are you, sir? Only the staff is allowed to enter this chamber,” informed him one of about a dozen wizards blocking the way to the administration office.
Tom simply took of the hood of his cloak, revealing his face; when the young group of wizards still didn’t seem to realise who they were dealing with, he took out his wand and was about to threaten them, “If I were you, I’d step aside and let me get through to my husband.”
“Tom?” he heard a rather weak and exhausted voice of Regulus coming out of the office. Hearing that, the other wizards moved out of his way and allowed the older man to walk inside.
The Dark Lord stepped into the room and saw around five witches and wizards, mostly mediwizards judging by their looks, who were kneeling on the floor around the desk. His husband was half sitting, half lying on the floor, his back against the side of the desk. The dark wizard couldn’t help but notice how exhausted young Black looked like.
“What happened Regulus? Are you in pain?” asked Tom, kneeling close to his husband and placing a gentle, loving kiss on his forehead. He noticed Black’s enchanted vest was wide open and revealing his very pregnant belly.
“I just…I just felt so bad, I had one of those extremely strong cramps and…I just couldn’t make it back to our quarters,” explained Black and tried to smile apologetically to Tom, but it was obvious to everyone that he was in a lot of pain.
“It’s alright. I will take you to our chambers and call for Severus…he will know what to do,” explained Tom, but it took lots of his self-control to remain calm; he knew the last thing Regulus needed right now was for him to panic. “Since when do you have those cramps? When did this start?”
“They began about a week ago,” answered Regulus and allowed his husband to take him into his arms and carry him out of the building and to their bedroom. He couldn’t focus his thoughts at the moment, but it still crossed his mind that maybe they should obliviate the employees who have seen him pregnant; and most importantly, those who have seen Tom in his true form.
“Don’t worry about anything right now,” Tom whispered into his ear as he carried him up the grand staircase and into their bedroom. “Just think about our baby…we will finally see it. It will be here with us.”
He placed the younger man gently on their bed and summoned Severus using the Dark Mark. It wasn’t the best way of communication, but in these circumstances, it would have to be enough. The dark wizard knew it would still take a while until the potions master answers to his call, so he ordered the house elves to bring fresh bedsheets, the baby crib and all the potions they had stored in the castle. He wasn’t sure what would be needed – after all, this was the first time he was about to become a father – but he wanted to have everything prepared, just in case Severus would need it.
“My Lord,” the potions master’s somewhat concerned voice could be heard as the door to the master bedroom opened. Severus quickly noticed his brother-in-law lying on the bed, clearly in a lot of pain, and Voldemort sitting by his side and holding Regulus’ hand. “Just as I thought. When did his cramps start?”
“According to his words, about a week ago,” informed him the older wizard without taking his eyes off of his husband.
“Bollocks!” Severus cursed to himself and rushed to the other side of the bed; he started casting a series of monitoring spells and quickly giving Regulus potions against pain.
“What do you mean ‘bollocks’!? Severus, what is wrong?! Is he and the baby alright?!” the Dark Lord winced when he heard Sirius’ terrified voice coming from the doorway. He glanced at the door and saw a very pregnant Black, who was trying to get to his brother’s side, but Orion was more or less successfully preventing him from getting too close.
“Dad please, let’s wait outside. Father knows what he is doing and he will help uncle Regulus,” the teen tried to reason with him. “Father will be able to help more if we are calmly waiting outside. You’ll see…soon we will be able to go in and see both uncle Regulus and the baby.”
Granted, it took a few more minutes of convincing, but Orion managed to keep Sirius outside. The door to the bedroom closed and Severus was left alone with the Dark Lord and Regulus. The younger Black was slowly starting to relax, when the potions have finally started to kick in. The potions master cast a few more monitoring spells and gave a pepper-up potion to his brother-in-law.
“What is going on Severus? What is going on with our baby?” he asked worried when the potion started working. He squeezed Tom’s hand and looked into his eyes, searching for encouragement.
“You should have called me as soon as those strong cramps have started, Regulus. That’s the first sign that the baby is ready to come into this world,” told him Severus. “It’s dangerous to prolong this phase of cramps, because in case of wizard pregnancy the baby doesn’t have any way to get out of your body, but it’s still going to try…and it will try very hard to get out. Thankfully, both your body and the baby managed to prevail until now.”
“So he basically went into labour?” asked the Dark Lord.
“In a way, yes. Now however, we have to help the little one get out,” the potions master rolled up his sleeves and readied his wand. “My Lord, would you please help Regulus out of his clothes. I need to make a clean cut in his abdomen to deliver the baby.”
Severus politely walked a few steps away from the bed, giving the two wizards some privacy. Regulus meanwhile, laid back comfortably against the pillows and allowed his husband to use his magic to vanish his clothes, leaving only a thin blanket decently covering the younger man’s private area.
When Severus turned around, his brother-in-law was already waiting for what was about to happen. And from there on, everything happened rather fast. The potions master didn’t want to drag the entire process, because he knew that as soon as the potions’ effects wear off, Regulus will be drained out of energy, so he quickly but precisely made a one clean cut in the man’s abdomen and helped the baby come into this world. The process was more complicated and time consuming than it sounded, but after an hour he was able to hand the new born child to Regulus. While Black and the Dark Lord focused on their little miracle, Severus quickly worked on getting rid of the temporary womb and healing the cut he has made earlier.
Minutes later, they called the house elves to help clean the baby and wrap it in some fine, white fabrics with the family crest embroidered on top. Regulus was exhausted, but also happy beyond words and he saw the same kind of excitement and pride in Tom’s eyes. He held their firstborn in his arms and he loved everything about it; even the ear-splitting cries of their son, who simply wanted to announce the world his arrival.
“Can we come in? I can barely keep dad in place here,” asked Orion, peeking into the room.
“Is that my…,” Sirius wanted to ask about the baby but he wasn’t even sure if it was his niece or nephew. He sat on the opposite side of the bed, next to the potions master; allowing Regulus and the Dark Lord to sit close to each other. Severus smiled to his own pregnant husband and placed a hand on his shoulder. While Orion stood close to his father, a bit uncertain if he wasn’t interrupting a very intimate moment of his uncles; but in all honesty, he was extremely curious about his new cousin.
Regulus easily calmed his baby, who was now slowly falling asleep. He looked at his husband and gave him a reassuring smile, before the man announced proudly the name that they agreed upon already months ago.
“We would like you to meet our son…Phineas Salazar Black.”
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Meddling with Darkness