Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Rise of the Drackens: The Scaled Bits	By : StarLightMassacre Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 169456 -:- Recommendations : 8 -:- Currently Reading : 21
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All rights of Harry Potter belong to J. K. Rowling. I am making absolutely no money from this piece of fictional writing.

Chapter List
- 36
- 37
- 38
A/N: This chapter is for Allysha, one of the Facebook fans, who wanted to see the older children interacting with one another and their younger siblings.
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Story spans August 1^st to August 14^th 2013
Braiden – 15/16 years old.
Quintuplets – 15 years 7 months old.
Identical twins Eva and A – 14 years 6 months old.
Taren – 13 years 5 months old.
Lai – 12 years 9 months old
Xabiere – 11 years 5 months old
Fraternal twins Mace and Evie – 10 years 8 months old.
Mollie – 10 years 3 months old.
Quadruplets – Ceri, Jay, Ethan, Sae – 9 years 5 months old.
Fraternal twins Ser and Sen – 7 years 2 months old
Lian – 5 years 7 months old.
Fraternal Triplets Fee, Vie and Luce – 5 years old.
Lore – 3 years 9 months old.
Identical twins Ric and Lanie – 2 years 10 months old.
Sully – 10 months old.
Fraternal triplets – Lia, Nia and Van – 1 month old.
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Sibling Rivalry
Regan sighed as his golden sleep was ruined yet again by his newborn sister crying her heart out as she was carried past his bedroom door. Most other fifteen year olds would be able to sleep in until the early afternoon, he didn’t even have a choice, he was woken up by the crying of a newborn every time he came home.
He could rarely sleep in at Hogwarts, he had lessons or Quidditch practice, most students would put it off until they got home, his own best friend had told him that sleeping in was for the summer holidays, but with so many little kids running around it was impossible to sleep past seven in the morning.
Even as he lay in his bed, trying to cling desperately to sleep, he could hear Braiden’s rumbling voice from down the hall, his sleep disturbed too by a younger sibling who had gone into his room and jumped on him, even though the house rules stated that the younger kids weren’t allowed in their older siblings bedrooms unless invited in.
His bedroom door creaked open and Regan gave up his hope of sleeping for another few hours as the pad of little feet sounded across his carpet accompanied by little baby giggles. It could only be Lore or Lian and Regan readied himself as the miscreant shuffled in one spot, preparing to pounce and when they did pounce he held his arms up and out, catching his younger sibling and holding the little body away from his chest. It was Lian, his five year old sibling who looked so much like their Mother that Regan’s anger just vanished with an exasperated sigh.
“You know you’re not allowed in my room, Lian.” He said without any real anger.
“You can’t sleep all day ‘Egan.”
“No, but a few hours after the crack of dawn would help.” He groused, even as he swung himself out of his bed, stood up and stretched, his sibling still clinging to the front of his body like a baby monkey, arms securely around Regan’s neck and little knees pulled up to, near enough, underneath his armpits.
“I’m so sorry love!”
Regan looked up as his Mother poked his head around the door and glared at Lian.
“The little monster got away for just a minute. Lian, you leave your brother alone and go downstairs for breakfast.”
“It’s okay, Mum. Really.” He insisted as his one arm moved to support his little sibling’s bottom on automatic. Anything to stop his Mum looking so guilty.
“I know you like to sleep in.” His Mum argued. “You climb back into bed and I’ll keep them all downstairs for a few hours.”
He was never getting back to sleep, but just the knowledge that his Mum would keep everything quiet for him if he wanted it, that his Mum knew that he liked sleeping in; it just made everything better somehow. His parents knew him, knew who he was and what he liked, even though there were thirty-one of them now, he wasn’t forgotten.
“It’s okay, but if this happens again tomorrow I’m dangling whoever wakes me up out of the window.” He swore as seriously as he could manage.
His Mum grinned at him and Regan couldn’t help grinning back.
“I’ll tell your Dad to get your breakfast ready then; the bathroom will be free as soon as your Dad Draco wrestles Luce into some clothes. I’ll let him know to give you a knock.”
Regan shook his head as his Mum dragged Lian out of the room and shut the door behind them. Regan sat on his bed and yawned widely, stretching again. He lay back and tugged the leg part of his boxer shorts down, the only thing he’d worn to bed last night because of the August heat.
They were all excited and a little nervous, he knew logically that nothing bad was going to happen, he was a Ravenclaw for a reason, but in less than two weeks his older brother Braiden would be going through his Dracken inheritance. He wasn’t even a Dracken himself and he was feeling queasy over the thought of what would happen, after all his own sac-sibling Farren would be going through the same inheritance in just four months.
Their parents were insisting that it was nothing, that they would both sleep right through it if they cared to try, that it was a little messy, but there was no pain from the transformation. Their own Mum, who was tiny, had slept right the way through his transformation and had woken up the next morning as a Dracken without feeling a thing or waking up once in the night, but their Dad Max had been too excited to sleep and had actually missed his transformation even though he’d been awake as he too said that he’d felt absolutely no pain and there had been nothing to tell him or warn him that he was having the transformation or had been through it.
There would be a sharp jolt as they brought their wings out for the first time, their Dad Nasta insisted, but nothing more and nothing from the actual inheritance, they were already Drackens, he told them sternly, they’d been born Drackens, they were just fully mature at sixteen and thus could transform themselves into their Dracken forms and there was no pain with that, but still Regan was nervous for Braiden and Farren, he didn’t want his brothers to be scared, upset or hurt and then in just a year and a half the terror twins would be having their inheritance too, he really didn’t want to see his sisters hurt or scared.
A light tap on his bedroom door had him sitting up again and crossing to the hallway and opening his door.
“Your Mum said to give you a quiet knock to tell you the bathroom’s free.” His Dad Draco said as he hefted Luce over one of his broad shoulders.
Regan nodded and he slipped out of his room, thanking his Dad as he stole the bathroom for himself. He showered very quickly with tepid water to get the sweat from the night before off of his body. He hated the summer, absolutely hated it, he was always hot and sticky and he had to take two almost cold showers a day just to feel clean and to keep him from feeling feverishly warm. He couldn’t wait for the winter.
He slid down the stairs after dressing in knee length shorts and a thin tee shirt, today was setting up to be as hot as yesterday, had he mentioned that he really hated the summer?
Someone threw an arm around him and Regan looked to his right and slightly down at his slightly younger brother Calix, who was grinning from ear to ear in that cute, boyish way he had that made girls swoon.
“You look grumpy; did you get woken up again?”
“Stop being an insufferable morning person.” Regan grunted.
“I can’t help it, I love the mornings!” Calix chirped happily.
“How are we related again?” Regan teased.
Calix laughed and punched his arm. “You don’t like mornings, you don’t like summer and you’re a Ravenclaw, you know, I have no idea how we’re related, maybe you’re adopted?”
Regan hissed as Calix ran off down another flight of stairs and down again into the kitchen, laughing all the way.
“Don’t listen to him; he’s only winding you up.”
Regan took a breath and nodded, turning to smile at Braiden, who was so handsome now that he was a few weeks away from sixteen. He had been quiet all summer, he’d finished with his Ravenclaw girlfriend, Rebecca, in January and he was still smarting over it. Braiden had confided in the five of them, him, Farren, Calix, Leolin and their sister Tegan, that Rebecca had wanted to move their relationship to the next level, which meant sex.
As a Dracken, Braiden had said no, that he wasn’t ready to do those sorts of things yet, though he’d told them with a shamed face that he had really, really wanted to just ignore the Dracken aspect of everything and just give into Rebecca.
They had been in his dorm room on his bed, kissing as usual, when she’d asked and Regan didn’t want to think of how much self-control it had taken his older brother to say no and stick to it in that moment.
Braiden threw an arm around his back as they carried on down the stairs to the kitchen, a peaceful silence between them until they reached the kitchen and the quiet peace was broken.
They found chairs and with a grin their Dad Max gave them a big breakfast and they just settled right in, it was noisy, but even the young kids knew that when it was meal times their bums were not to leave their chair until they were excused and their Dad Draco had drilled table manners into them from the moment they were able to sit up at a table properly, so meal times were never messy either.
Regan enjoyed meal times with his family, even if the absolutely huge table meant that he couldn’t easily speak to those sitting at the opposite end where there was room for a high chair or three, but as he, his sac-siblings, Braiden and the other older kids sat up one end and the little kids sat at the other, he didn’t lack for conversation.
“How is your work coming on Leolin?” Braiden asked with an indulgent smile at their oldest Faerie sibling.
Leolin shrugged moodily. “Fine. My tutors gave me so much summer homework; I’ll be fifty before I’ve finished it all!”
Regan couldn’t help but smile, Leolin was growing before their eyes, he’d shot up five inches between the Christmas holidays and the summer ones and it seemed like his mentality had skipped forward a whole two years as well, he understood a lot more and he could follow the thread of their conversations better than he could last year, he was so proud of Leolin and he did everything he could to help him through the struggle to gain just the slightest bit of independence. He still had his baby milk teeth and he was still shorter than they were by inches, but every little bit of independence Leolin had, he’d fought for and clawed out for himself through pain, sweat and hard work. They were all so very proud of him.
“We’ll help you.” Braiden assured him. “I’ve got a ton of homework too, I’m sure the Professors just like seeing us suffer as we drown in parchment and ink.”
Regan chuckled and hid his face as he cut up part of his omelette. His Dad Max had made it just how he liked them, three eggs, a bit of cheese, some sliced mushrooms and lots and lots of bacon. He loved his family.
“I say we throw the homework into our trunks and hide them so that we can go and play Quidditch outside.” Regan said mildly, but he couldn’t hold off the grin when his siblings all gaped at him incredulously.
“Check him! He must be ill.” Calix declared suddenly, loudly.
Tegan’s slim hand pressed against his forehead as she bent forward to check his temperature and she sighed dramatically.
“No fever, it must be a brain infection!” She told the others as she sat back in her chair.
“Hold him down! We need to operate.” Braiden said in his best Professor voice as he held up his dirty knife as Farren came and pinned his arms to his sides, even though Regan was already laughing too hard to get away.
“What are you lot doing?” Their Dad Blaise asked in bemusement.
“Regan doesn’t want to do homework! He actually wants to go outside, in the summer, to play instead of doing homework; I think he’s been swapped with a changeling.”
“Changelings swap with newborns.” Their Dad Nasta said with a smile and a shake of his head as he tried to spoon the last of some goopy, pale orange coloured porridge into Sully’s mouth.
“I don’t need to do any homework now, because I finished all of mine last night.” Regan took pride in telling them.
“You are such a Ravenclaw!” Calix whined, slamming his head down on the kitchen table.
“Well done Regan, love.”
Regan swelled with the praise from his parents and he grinned at his siblings as he was handed two Galleons for his efforts by their Mum and given a kiss to the cheek, even if he complained and wiped at his cheek to save face, he secretly enjoyed the attention and he rather thought that his parents knew that about him too, they had a way of making them all seem like they knew absolutely everything, even their deepest secrets, without any of them ever having to say anything.
“If you keep banging your head on the table then you’ll end up as an even bigger Gryffindor than you already are.” Their Dad Draco told Calix with a smirk as he passed them with several dirty bowls.
“Oi!” Their Mum called out with a playful glare. “What did you just say about Gryffindor?”
“Nothing, love.”
“That’s what I thought!”
That made them all giggle as their Mum and Dad shared a gooey eyed look across the kitchen. Dracken or not, Regan hoped that when he was older he found someone who he could love as much as his Mum and Dads loved one another after nearly seventeen years together, which reminded him that he needed to talk to his brothers and sisters about getting them their seventeenth anniversary present, it was a little soon, but it was better to have it and sorted than to leave it until the last minute. His Dad Blaise always told him proudly that that mentality was why he was in Ravenclaw, Regan liked to think it was because he was just more intelligent than his brothers and sisters. After all, he had inherited his biological Father’s love of languages and he could pick them up as easily as if he’d been born speaking the language as his mother tongue and with his Dad to help him, he could now speak several different languages fluently and he was working on being able to write in them as well in his spare time. He definitely liked to think that he was a Ravenclaw because of his intelligence, not merely because he preferred to do things early instead of putting them off.
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Tegan stared at herself in the mirror and brushed her hair back. She had had it cut last December in time for her birthday, but she hadn’t liked it at her shoulders, so she was growing it back out again, it was an inch below the tops of her shoulders now and she liked it at its current length, she didn’t like her hair being long, but she didn’t like it short either. Her Dad Max told her that she was fussy, her Dad Draco said that she had standards and liked looking nice and knew what she wanted, she agreed with her Dad Draco, naturally.
For the last couple of years she’d wanted her ears pierced, but her parents had steadfastly refused until she was sixteen. She didn’t see the big deal, they were her ears and she wanted to wear pretty earrings like her housemates and her friends, but her Dad Nasta especially wouldn’t budge.
She sighed and played with her earlobes, they’d look so pretty with even just simple studs through them, she had been saving all of her pocket money ready to buy a few pairs of earrings when she finally got them done, she had five months to wait at the earliest and that was if her parents took her during the next winter holidays to get them done or she’d be waiting another year if they forced her to wait an additional six months until the summer.
She sighed and left her bedroom, bumping into her younger sisters in the hallway.
“What are you doing Tee?” Eva asked her curiously, her thick brown curls reaching her mid back. The younger twin was even worse as she hated having her hair cut, so her hair was down below her waist in thick, tight, ringlet curls.
There was a flash of jealousy over her twin sisters’ naturally curly hair and huge, bright blue eyes, but she stomped it down. She was fine how she was, she didn’t need curly hair or blue eyes to look pretty, her Dad Nasta said so and he never lied to her.
“I was going to find Mum and see if he’d let me get my ears pierced.” She said with a smile.
“You’d look gorgeous with pierced ears. I don’t think I’d want mine done, Eva likes to claw at my ears when I kick her arse.”
“You do not kick my arse, I kick yours!” Eva turned on her sister quick as a flash and the two fourteen year olds immediately started wrestling.
“Oi, will you two give it up already?!” Regan shouted as her own twin stormed down the hallway to break up the two girls.
He hefted Eva over his shoulder and she held the other one back with a smile at how fierce Regan looked when he caught any of their siblings fighting together, it was often the oldest identical twins found wrestling one another and tugging at hair somewhere in the house. The other twins rarely fought and the same was true of all of them, the quadruplets liked to have a go at one another every now and then, especially Ceri and Jay, but nothing to the calibre that the fourteen year old twins went at it.
“She started it.” Eva called out.
“You started it, Eva.” Tegan told her as they carried on down the stairs carefully.
“Did not.”
Tegan rolled her eyes; she would not be dragged into a childish blame game, she was far too composed and mature for that. It was almost time for their planned separation and it couldn’t come a minute too soon as the one would be taken to her tennis lesson and Eva would be going off for her ballet class. Tegan did not understand Eva’s obsession with dancing and the colour pink, she wondered how much of a proper little girl Eva would have been if she’d been a singleton and not a twin, especially with a twin who’s favourite colour was grey who enjoyed caking herself in mud and coming home covered in cuts and grazes from her tennis matches.
She left Regan to deal with the twin terrors and went hunting down her parents, she wanted her ears done and she wouldn’t let herself be distracted, she wanted them done this summer, not next and she always got her way when she put her mind to it.
“Tee!” A five year old Vee-vee barrelled into her legs, grinning up at her with bright white teeth. She petted the jet black hair and smiled softly.
“Where are you heading too?” She asked lightly.
Vie giggled. “Bathroom!”
“Off you go then. Be careful and don’t forget to wash your hands!” Tegan told the five year old and went into the living room, she grinned when she realised that only her Mum was in the room, her Dads were nowhere to be seen. It would be easier to work on them all separately instead of together.
She sat next to her Mum, who was playing a game with a ten month old Sully. They were both giggling, but she knew her Mum knew she was there and he was listening closely so he would catch anything she wanted to say.
“Mum.” She said, drawing the word out.
“Whatever it is, you can’t have it.” Her Mum said immediately.
“You don’t even know what it is!” Tegan denied furiously.
“I don’t need to, I know that tone and the answer is no.”
“I want my ears pierced, that’s all! Please Mum, I’m fifteen now, I’m not going to change my mind in just four months.”
“Then you can wait four more months.” Her Mum said with a look. “We’ve been through this before, sweetheart. Your Dads and I agreed that if our children wanted their ears pierced, they could decide for themselves…”
“I have decided!”
“Once they were sixteen.” Her Mum carried on with another hard look.
“It’s only four months away Mum, please! I did so well in school, you gave the others their gifts, all I want is my ears done.”
“Are we going to have this discussion again, Tegan?”
She blanched, hunched her shoulders up and turned to see her Dad Nasta by the door giving her a very unimpressed look; he looked stern and intimidating despite the month old baby he was carrying carefully.
“Please Daddy.” She tried. “I’m older now, I know what I want. I’ve wanted them done since I was nine! I’m sixteen in December, please. I did so well in school, it’s all I want, please Daddy.” She begged shamelessly.
She almost smiled when she saw the look her Mum and Dad shared. They were weakening, but grinning now would have her stubborn parents digging their heels in on principle, instead she settled for looking pleading and like she half expected to be told no, even though she’d steadfastly refused to pick another gift for getting five O’s and two EE’s on her end of year exams.
“She is almost sixteen.” Her Mum said softly.
“We all agreed that sixteen would be the minimum.” Her Dad said firmly as he placed the baby he had in his arms into the bassinet.
“Please Daddy. I won’t change my mind in just four months. I have the money all saved up to pay for the piercing and for the earrings, I just want to show off the gift I got for doing so well on my exams when I go back to school next month.”
She watched as her Dad rubbed at his forehead. He was only fifty-three, but he was already starting to go grey at his temples, she heard her Dad Max joke that it was having teenaged daughters, she didn’t believe it.
Her Dad sat down on the other side of her Mum and stroked Sully’s fluffy black hair as he snuggled into the chest of their Mother, tired out from their game. He still needed a mid-morning nap sometimes, especially if he’d been as active as he’d been this morning.
“Okay, we’ll all talk about it.” Her Dad said finally with a defeated sigh.
Tegan launched herself at her Dad and hugged him tightly, kissing him and she couldn’t stop grinning.
“Thank you Daddy, thank you!”
“I said we’d talk about it!” He called out after her in a desperate attempt to retain control, but Tegan knew she’d already won. She’d gotten exactly what she wanted, as always.
Her Dad Nasta was the hardest hurdle she had to face, her Dads Max and Blaise were push overs and her Dad Draco would cave as soon as she quivered her bottom lip, it was her Mum and Dad Nas that were the hard obstacles and she’d worn them down. Very, very soon she’d have her ears pierced and then she could buy all the pretty earrings that she’d been longing for, for years now.
“You finally got them to say yes, didn’t you?”
She turned and grinned at Calix.
“Yes, I finally got Mum and Dad Nasta to agree, they said they’d talk about it with our other Dads, but we both know that once Mum and Dad Nasta say yes, the others are push overs!” She said with a grin.
Calix threw an arm around her. “I told you didn’t I. You always get your way.”
“Of course I do, I’m not a Slytherin for nothing Calix.” She told him. “I know exactly how to get my own way.”
“You’re just spoilt.” Farren said from behind them as he stepped off the stairs, a nine year old Ethan thrown over his shoulder.
“I’m not spoilt, if I can get my own way and what I want from others, then I deserve to have it because I’ve earned it.”
“Slytherin mentality!” Calix burst out, making a rude hand sign at her by making a fist and pressing the tip of his thumb between his index and middle fingers.
“Don’t do that in front of Ethan!” She hissed out angrily.
“I’m warding off the evil Slytherin eye!” Calix insisted.
“What does it mean?” Their nine year old brother asked curiously, trying to replicate what Calix was doing. Farren shoved him back over his shoulder and pushed Calix hard with a hand on his forehead as he walked past so that their brother went stumbling back into the wall.
“If Mum caught you doing that you’d be grounded.” Farren told him.
“It would be your own fault too, Dad Nasta told you just last week about making obscene gestures.” Tegan told him before carrying on up the stairs to her bedroom.
It was still strange having her own room, one of the rooms with an en suite bathroom too, but she’d almost bitten her Mum’s hand off when it was offered to her last summer. She’d decorated it exactly how she liked, in a lovely, regal purple, the room only had her things inside it and it was always how she’d left it because no one else was allowed in her room. She loved having her own room exactly how she liked it, and she had her own bathroom too!
She was going to make a space on her dresser for where her new earrings were going to sit, she decided. She wanted to count out all the money she had managed to save up too, she wanted to be absolutely sure how much she had so she would be able to calculate how many pairs she’d be able to buy when she went to the shop to have her ears done. She was good at Arithmancy, so even if one pair was more expensive than the other, she’d be able to work out exactly how many pairs she could have, she couldn’t wait to go now and the sooner she had the procedure done, the happier she’d be. She could even wheedle a healing spell from her Dad Max too, that way she could start wearing her new pairs sooner. She was so excited.
She grabbed her money box that was made of silver and green tourmaline in the shape of a coiled snake. Her Granddad Lucius had gotten it for her when she’d made Slytherin, he’d been so proud of her.
She tipped its contents out onto her pale purple carpet, which contrasted nicely with her royal purple walls, and she separated all the coins out into piles of corresponding coins before she counted them all out carefully twice before she grinned. She had thirty-eight Galleons, one hundred and two Sickles and eighty-seven Knuts in her box, which converted to forty-four Galleons and three Sickles; she had more than enough to buy four or five pairs of gorgeous earrings with that amount, if her parents bought the actual piercing and her first set of earrings for her as a gift for passing all her exams, like she believed they would, that is.
A knock on her door had her looking up curiously.
“Come in!” She called out happily.
Her Dad Draco came in, still in his work robes from his morning at work, she’d missed him that morning, he’d been gone before any of them had gotten up, and he snorted when he saw what she was doing.
“I had a feeling you’d think you’d won.”
“I have though Daddy Draco.” She said slyly with a smirk that she’d learnt from watching him and her Granddad Lucius.
He shook his head when he saw it. “Your Dad Max is going to Diagon Alley in two days to pick up potion ingredients; you can go with him and get your ears pierced then. Bag up your coins, if you want to exchange them all for Galleons you only need to ask…”
“Will you Dad?”
Her Dad Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. “I suppose you deserve this for passing your exams, though you need to bring up your Transfiguration and Arithmancy marks…”
“I know, they’re difficult subjects though, I’m passing everything else.”
“I know darling, which is why we’re not on your back about it, but focus a little more on those two subjects and I’m sure you’ll get all O’s, you’re certainly smart enough.”
Tegan handed him the coins she wanted exchanged, watched as with a simple flick of his wand he had them counted and weighed and placed in his robe pocket before he handed her a fist full of Galleons, which she counted automatically.
“This is too much Dad, I only…”
“I know. Consider it a gift from me for being a true Slytherin and finally out foxing your Mum and Dad Nasta on this issue.”
Tegan laughed and hugged her Dad. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, love. Now keep this safe for a few more days and be good. If you’re naughty, then you’ll never get your ears pierced, your Mum and Dad Nasta will hold out until you’re over eighteen.”
“I’m always well behaved!” Tegan insisted. Her Dad just gave her a look with a smile. “I am! Most of the time anyway, but if I am caught, then it’s Calix’s fault, or Farren’s, they’re such Gryffindors.”
That made her Dad laugh and he pulled her into a hug before he left her room with a reminder that lunch was going to be ready in an hour. Tegan smiled and put her money safe, two days, that’s all she had to wait and then she’d have what she’d wanted for seven years now. She always got what she wanted, that’s why she thrived in Slytherin.
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Calix grinned as he ran around the garden in the sweltering sun with Xabiere. His little brother would be going to Hogwarts for the first time in September and Calix couldn’t wait to know what house Xabie would end up in, though he liked to think he knew his brother well enough to guess. He had a Sickle riding on his bet with his sac siblings and he was looking for revenge after he’d been beaten by Tegan last year when she’s betted right that Lai would end up in Hufflepuff.
The seven year old twins Ser and Sen ran up to join his game as he kicked a football as hard as he could at Xabiere, who caught it on his chest and booted it back hard.
Calix kicked the ball lighter at Ser, who headed it to Sen, who kneed it up, let it drop and then kicked it to Xabiere.
They carried this game on until a shout from the house had them looking up to see their Dad Max standing on the back porch decking, yelling for them to come in for lunch. Calix stormed the way up to the house and he was pleased to note that he was still faster than his younger siblings.
He rushed to the downstairs bathroom and washed his hands, helping Ser and Sen before drying them on the towel and rushing to the kitchen and sitting down in his place up the top of the table with his sac siblings, Braiden, the terror twins Accident and Emergency, Xabiere, Lai and Taren.
Calix groaned when he found out that lunch was baguettes. His was his favoured pastrami with a multitude of vegetables, including green, red, yellow and orange peppers, spring onion and cucumber, he loved that, he just did not like the steamed rice that went with it on the side, but everyone had the same, they all had a baguette just how they liked them, with a side of steamed vegetable, jasmine rice. There were small bowls of vegetables on the table, just in case they wanted a change or to try something new and Calix reached for the red onion, he wanted red onion today and he happily ate his baguette.
“When Dada Na come home?” Lore asked from his booster seat, the cream cheese from his half baguette already smeared over his cheeks.
“He’s at work right now Loren, sweetheart. He’ll be home in time to tuck you into bed.” Their Dad Blaise said calmly.
Calix went back to eating his baguette, but lunch was disturbed by one of the new babies and he watched as his Mum, who hadn’t even taken a bite of his own lunch yet, stood up to get the baby, who had spit up all over themselves and needed to be cleaned up.
“Eat your rice too, Calix.” His Mum told him as he walked past his chair with the newborn triplet on his shoulder. A first really as none of his parents had noticed that he’d never eaten it before and his Mum only noticed now because of the new baby. He groaned as his jig was up.
“I don’t like rice.”
“You eat curries happily enough.” His Dad Blaise pointed out.
“I like that rice, I don’t like this rice.” He insisted.
“Why, what’s wrong with it?” His Dad Max asked, taking a forkful of the rice for himself and chewing it thoughtfully. “It’s how I always do it.”
“I’ve never liked it.”
“You’ve eaten it before.”
Calix shook his head hard. “No, I give it to Farren when you’re not looking. I don’t like it.”
“Why didn’t you say so before? I would have boiled you plain rice if I’d known you didn’t like jasmine rice.”
Calix looked at the table, his Dad sounded upset and he hated upsetting his parents more than anything.
“It’s only me that doesn’t like it though, so it’s just easier if you do just the one type, I’ve never eaten it and I’m fine.” He said.
“It’s not the point Calix, you should have said.” His Dad Blaise told him.
“It’s not a big deal!” He said, getting angry that he was upsetting them and upsetting himself in the process.
“Calm.” His Mum said softly, lightly touching the back of his neck as he walked back past him and Calix took in a deep breath and let out his anger. “We’re not upset because you’re not eating it Calix, we’re upset that we never noticed that you weren’t eating it or that you didn’t like it. We like knowing everything about you, about all of you and that we never noticed makes us feel bad, can you understand that?”
Calix nodded. He really could see how that would upset them. “I did hide it well and the baguette is really big too and I always fill it with everything, you got my base baguette done perfectly, you always do, but every time we this meal I like switching it up and stuffing it with all different vegetables and that fills me up a lot. I don’t mind giving my rice to Farren and he doesn’t mind either.”
Farren gave him a nudge and Calix chuckled, even as he picked up his baguette and tipped his untouched rice onto Farren’s plate.
His parents rolled their eyes and Calix smiled. He didn’t mind losing a bit of rice when he had a whole baguette to eat to himself that he’d stuffed with so many vegetables that it didn’t close up properly.
“Come and eat your own lunch Harry.”
Calix looked up at his Mum to see him fussing around the younger kids, helping them eat their half baguettes and helping to add different things that they wanted.
“Give me a minute.” His Mum replied as he helped little Fee arrange gem lettuce in the half baguette and added little slices of olive, spinach leaves and then chunks of tuna and a sprinkle of sweetcorn. “There!” He said happily as he kissed Fee and then went to finally start his own lunch where most of them were nearly done.
He loved his Mum so much; he always did everything for them, even if it meant going longer without his own lunch or stopping what he was doing to help them, even something important like the food shopping list and how much it would cost, his antenatal notes if he was pregnant or even his lesson structure for one of his classes. Selfless, that’s the word he was looking for, his Mum was always and unconsciously selfless and he couldn’t wait for Mother’s Day next year, he was already saving up his pocket money special, his Mum deserved it, just like he did every year.
“Calix, can you pass me the cucumber, please?”
Calix immediately looked for the bowl of sliced cucumber and then handed it over to Lai. Sweet, gorgeous, wonderful Lai who came to each and every one of them for morning and evening hugs still and would help anyone, even if it meant cutting off a hand to do it. Lai belonged in Hufflepuff.
“There you go honey.”
Lai frowned at him. “I told you not to call me honey, Calix. I don’t like it.”
“But you’re so sweet all the time, like honey.” Calix teased.
Lai rolled big blue eyes and turned away from him and went back to talking to Tegan and Eva. Calix grinned and slapped hands with Farren.
He wasn’t on dish duty today, so he went and made sure his Dad Blaise didn’t need any help with the younger kids, before he went into the lounge that was strictly for teenagers, the younger kids couldn’t get into this room, like the gym they had downstairs the handle was too high for them to reach.
His Dad Max had set up a pool table on one side of the room for them, there was a computer set up, but they were strictly monitored, had certain websites restricted and they had to tell their parents all their passwords and would then have their browsing history randomly checked every month to see what they’d gone on and who they were talking to and they had their own TV and game console set up, the worst was when they were grounded and restricted from this room when all the others were inside having fun and they had nothing else to do and couldn’t have any fun, he always felt so alone when that happened and he usually went and sulked in his bedroom until he wasn’t grounded anymore.
He sat on the beanbag chair that he loved and picked up a controller for the game console and turned on a game. They weren’t allowed any eighteen rated games, but they were allowed fifteen rate games and films, but they had to be kept in the top cupboard away from the younger teens, their parents were very strict about age appropriate games and films. Calix didn’t really mind, the games he was allowed to have were brilliant and he only needed them for the summer and that was if they weren’t going out for the day, just last week they’d gone to the beach for the entire day, from before sunrise to after sunset and the week before that they’d been taken to a dinosaur museum.
He loved dinosaurs still, he had ever since he was a toddler, so that trip had been amazing to him, he had a fossilised set of dinosaur teeth that he’d bought from the gift shop on his shelf in his room, more than ever he wanted to realise his dream of becoming an archaeologist, but he was worried what his parents would say, he worried that they’d think it was a waste of his magical education and Hogwarts wasn’t a cheap school to send a child, he knew that, he just really, really wanted to be an archaeologist, imagine if he actually discovered his own dinosaur! That would be the best thing to ever happen to him in his life, ever.
“Hey Cal, what are you playing?” Taren asked him as he hopped into the room and sat down on another beanbag chair and picking up a second controller.
“Come and see if you can beat me.” Calix challenged with a smile.
“Of course I will. I’m a Ravenclaw and you’re just a Gryffindor.”
“There’s no such thing as just a Gryffindor!” Farren said as he joined them and sat behind them on the settee, a glass of fruit juice in his hand.
“Were you awake all night again? You’re getting bags under your eyes like Mum has when he’s just given birth.”
“Are you not sleeping?” Braiden asked concernedly as he came to sit with them, a baby in his arms.
“You’re not supposed to bring the little ones in here!” Calix said as he, perhaps a little foolishly, switched the TV off.
“She’s not going to care what’s on the TV Calix.” Braiden chuckled as he cradled the little girl gently. “She’s too little to even remember what happened this morning; she’s only a month old.”
“I know, I just don’t want to subconsciously scar her or something.” Calix said as he bent to kiss his sister’s cheek.
“How come you have her anyway?” Taren asked.
“Mum’s busy with Sully, Ric and Lanie, so I offered to look after Nia for a little while; she’s been fed, so it’s mostly just cuddling her so she can fall asleep, she’s a little sweetheart. I hope I have a baby as well behaved as she is.”
“I’m sure you will.” Calix said softly.
He did feel bad that Braiden and Farren were being forced almost into parenthood so quickly, but he also understood that they didn’t see it that way at all. He hadn’t understood when he’d been younger; he hadn’t understood how they could be anticipating having a family at sixteen, having their own baby, starting their own family. It seemed completely insane to him.
He couldn’t even imagine having a baby at the moment, he wanted to play Quidditch and have fun with his friends and focus on getting a job, the thought of which was scary enough without adding in finding a life partner, making a family and having a baby, but after talks with both Braiden and Farren, as well as the terror twins, none of them saw it that way, it was strange, creepy how they didn’t see it the same way he and Regan did or Tegan and Taren.
Xabiere, who was also a Dracken, just looked at them as if they’d grown another head when they brought up how strange it was to be looking forward to having a lover and a baby so soon. He told them that he had never thought about it and when he did think about it that he didn’t find anything wrong with it at all and that was from a boy who wasn’t even twelve yet!
He watched Braiden as he slipped an arm under Nia and settled her more comfortably, giving her eye to eye contact as he murmured to her quietly as he softly rocked to calm and sooth her, Calix believed that he was doing it unconsciously as he didn’t seem to realise that he was even moving. Braiden was going to be amazing with his own baby, Farren too. He was going to be awful, he just knew it, he’d grown up with babies all around him and toddlers and young kids and he was no nearer to being comfortable with them than he’d been when he was six. Maybe that was why he hadn’t been born a Dracken, because he just wasn’t cut out to be one.
Calix smiled as Nia burbled softly up at Braiden, before she yawned as wide as her tiny, pouted mouth could go, rubbing her hands and arms over her little face before she closed her eyes and settled down to sleep. He could see the appeal, he could see how cute they were, absolutely adorable even, but he couldn’t see himself with one.
He turned back to the TV, switched it back on and unpaused the game and sent a wink to Taren.
“Come on Tar, maybe this time you’ll actually win.”
“Don’t tease him Calix; you know he’s not going to win.” Farren laughed.
“I will win!” Taren hissed angrily as he mashed the control buttons.
Calix moved back out of Taren’s character’s reach and then calmly unleashed a combo move and emerged the victor and he grinned over to Taren who glared.
“Don’t say a word.” His thirteen year old brother pouted.
“But I thought you were going to win Taren? Where’s your Ravenclaw brain gone?”
“Not bullying a fellow Ravenclaw are you?”
Calix groaned when Regan came to join them and sat behind Taren.
“Pass that here Taren; the prestige of Ravenclaw has been put at stake, time to crush this puny Gryffindor.”
Taren laughed evilly and handed the controller over happily and Calix concentrated really hard, he hated playing Regan, he could never win. Regan always, always, knew exactly when to block and when to use a devastating combo and he always won because of it.
An hour and eighteen losses later, Calix dropped his controller and covered his face as Regan did a victory dance, laughing with Taren. Damn Ravenclaws.
“You have disgraced the Gryffindor house.” Farren said, giving him a carefully controlled kick with his foot.
Calix pouted. “You play him then!”
“Nuh! I’m smart enough to know that I won’t win, that’s why I’m smarter than you.”
He huffed and turned the game off, putting the TV on instead, but there was nothing on, only game shows and daytime TV that they all hated, so he turned it off.
“Does Dad need a hand in the kitchen?” He asked, wondering out loud.
“I don’t think so.” Braiden said quietly with a shake of his head. “He’s got the little ones with him, trying to teach them to cook.
“So dinner’s going to be late and slightly burnt tonight then.” Regan said with a grin.
Calix laughed.
“He has the quadruplets with him, so probably.” Farren grinned.
“All four of them?” Calix asked. “In the kitchen at the same time? Who has a death wish and why are we their test subjects?”
They all laughed and Calix stood up and stretched.
“I suppose we’d better go and save Dad then, what sort of sons would we be if we left him on his own with those four?”
“Hem hem.” Braiden said, giving him a look and then looking down at the baby girl in his arms.
“Okay, okay, sons and lone daughter too young to actually do anything.” Calix corrected. “Now come on before they blow up the oven. I actually want to eat today.”
The five of them left the lounge and went downstairs; Braiden went into the living room to find their Mum with a sleeping Nia and Calix went into the kitchen to find his Dad Max trying to cook, supervise Sae at the counter and pull Jay off of Ceri while he was at it.
“Hey Dad, want a hand?”
“Please, I’ll give you anything you want, just help me!” His Dad said desperately as he held Ceri up in one hand and tugged Jay away with the other.
He and Farren immediately jumped in and started to help, wrangling in the nine year old quads. Calix stood behind Sae and helped his younger sibling peel potatoes, listening to innocent giggles as he did so. He could understand the appeal of having a baby, but right now, he wanted to be the one giggling along with them, he didn’t want to be the one rushing around, harried and stressed, like his Dad Max was.
So in short he didn’t mind that he wasn’t a Dracken, he didn’t want babies in his life just yet, but one day he was sure he would have one or two of them…when he was thirty, or maybe even forty.
Yes, forty sounded much better he thought as he watched Ethan tip over a bottle of olive oil which skidded off of the counter and smashed over his Dad’s shoes and splashed up his jeans. He couldn’t be dealing with babies in his life just yet, or any time soon for that matter.
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Farren was feeling lazy, he couldn’t help it. He’d been up nearly all night talking to Muggle friends he had in the town that they lived in on his brand new laptop. He’d been woken at the break of dawn by a ten year old Mace, who wanted to go for a morning run with him. He was only allowed to go if Farren or one of the other older teenagers did and Farren was the one most likely to go as he liked keeping himself fit after the ‘fat’ issue last year.
Of course he had hissed and pushed and he had been a bastard to Mace in his state of overtiredness and he’d known it immediately after the words had left his mouth, which is why when Mace had ignored him and then begged, pleaded and persevered despite Farren’s snapped comments and vile mood, Farren had given in to him in the end, gotten up sluggishly with a long groan and changed into his running gear with bleary, half opened eyes, stumbling around his room with muttered curses.
He’d nodded to his Dad Nasta, who was up with the month old triplets and took Mace through his stretches before they’d spent half an hour running and talking together, watching as the sky line had gone from a grungy grey to a starburst of pinks, reds, blues and purples with the cloudless sunrise.
He did love spending this one on one time with Mace. His ten year old brother was almost a carbon copy of himself, a little more pumped up about exercise and more athletic and into sports, but still near enough the same and he loved that he had Mace to relate to about everything, he just really did not appreciate being pulled out of bed after only three hours’ sleep to go running before the sun had even come up, but that hadn’t actually been Mace’s fault but his own.
So he was hogging one whole settee as he flicked absently through the TV channels as the house fell silent around him, it would only last for a handful of hours, the same thing happened every day as the younger kids went down for their afternoon nap.
“Why are you so tired today, are you sick?” His Mum asked concernedly as he laid a small hand over his forehead.
Farren let him because he was just too tired to even argue or complain. He wasn’t sick, just tired. Stupid and tired. His Mum would figure it out, he always did.
“Hmm…you’re not warmer than usual. Late night?”
Farren nodded sleepily.
“Your new laptop?” He asked astutely with a stern look, but a smile was playing around his lips.
Farren nodded again. He didn’t regret the gift he’d chosen when he’d come home with seven O’s for the year. He had been so surprised when the owl had brought his end of year exam results, he’d thought he’d picked up Regan’s results by mistake, but his slightly younger brother had gotten seven O’s as well and the results really were his own. His parents had been so pleased with him and he swore he would keep up his studies this year now that he was going to be taking his O.W.L examinations next year. He would pass with seven O’s again; he’d make sure of it.
“I just love it so much, thank you for getting it for me.”
“Hey, you deserved it after your brilliant marks in your exams; you just make sure you do as well next year too.” His Mum told him, bending and giving his forehead a kiss. He scowled, but he couldn’t drag up enough energy to even wipe away the wet spot, he didn’t much care anyway, he’d long since gotten over the childish thoughts of cooties and ‘kisses melt your skin’ playground taunts.
Farren found a movie to watch and he settled down to watch it as his Mum used magic to clean up the room around him. It was done and his Mum was gone within five minutes, leaving him to watch his film, head propped up on a hand.
He stifled a yawn, laying down more comfortably and before he even knew what was happening, he had a tiny body crawling all over him, giggling, hands and knees digging in everywhere.
He reached up and tugged the little body down into his arms and pretended to snore loudly into a little ear, amid giggles and shrieks. He couldn’t even remember falling asleep, let alone when exactly it had happened.
“Farrah, Dada Ma says it time for dinner, so you hafta ‘ake up.”
Farren sighed; he only had one sibling who called him Farrah. “I’m up Lore.” He insisted as he sat up, his three year old sibling coming with him, landing in his lap with a giggle.
“Lore want be up high, Farrah!”
Farren groaned, but he dutifully bent forward and let Lore climb up his back, skinny legs popping over his shoulders before he sat back up and then, after making sure he had a firm grip on Lore’s legs, he stood to the joyous screeches of a three year old getting exactly what they wanted.
Farren made sure that he ducked under the lintel of the door so he didn’t knock Lore’s head before he made the short walk to the kitchen, his baby sibling shrieking all the way and gripping his hair a little too tightly, but he didn’t mind.
“Oh, Loren!” Their Mum sighed. “I was just about to come and get you, Farren.”
“It’s okay, I think I’ve broken a couple of ribs from having knobbly knees stabbed into my side, but other than that, I’ll survive.”
“I no have knobby knees!” Lore said from up on his shoulders, Farren could almost hear the pout, but he couldn’t help laughing at Loren’s baby slip of the tongue, he and his teenaged siblings laughed as he pulled Lore down from his shoulders and gave that little pouted mouth a kiss. “No kiss!” Loren insisted, kicking stick like legs angrily.
Farren sat his almost four year old sibling down and went to sit with his brothers, ruffling Leolin’s hair as he passed him and sat down in the chair at the end of the table, the seat he always took because he really needed the elbow room with how big he was.
After dinner he helped his Mum bathe the new babies and handed the one off to Braiden for a feed, he knew that he needed to be more used to babies and doing everything for them, which is why his Mum and Dads let him and Braiden help so much, because in just a year he could have his own baby and then he really would be on his own. It was better to know now when he had his parents to correct him and watch him than to flounder around with his own baby and in front of his new mate.
He was almost certain that he was a dominant Dracken, but there was no way he was going to take the risk, but if he did turn out to be a submissive then he’d be the tallest, broadest, most muscular fucking submissive in the history of Drackens and he’d curse his fate until the day he died, but he still wouldn’t take the risk. Besides Braiden needed the moral support of knowing his younger brother wasn’t out having sex while he was too afraid to, it might be just enough peer pressure to tip Braiden over and then if he was a submissive, his life would be ruined, Farren wouldn’t do that to his own brother.
“Farren, will you teach me how to box?” His ten year old sister Mollie asked him quietly as he was taking the dried dishes from Eva and stacking them in the cupboard.
“Why do you want to know how to box?” He asked her curiously and with a sharpness that he tried to keep hidden lest he frighten her off.
She shrugged tiny shoulders and frowned. “I just want to know how.”
“You’re not being bullied are you?” He demanded, a protective, burning inferno of rage welling up inside of him at the thought of any single one of his brothers or sisters being hurt, taunted or bullied.
“No!” She assured him quickly. “I just want to know how, will you teach me?”
He wasn’t completely sold, she looked shifty to him and he didn’t need to be a Ravenclaw like Regan was to be able to see it. He nodded. “Fine, let me sort this out and I’ll teach you some basic moves, wait for me in the gym.”
“You’re the best Farren!” She declared as she wrapped her arms around his chest in a tight hug before skipping off.
If she wouldn’t tell him if she was being bullied or not, then he was damn well going to teach her enough to defend herself if she needed it, hopefully after she kicked the arse of whoever it was causing her to want to learn boxing all of a sudden, then the bullying would come out and it would be stopped in its tracks and the idiot who thought it was a good idea to go after one of his brothers or sisters would be punished.
No little sister of his was going to be attacked or hurt while he was around, even if it meant teaching her how to defend herself until he found out who it was that was distressing her so much so that he could pummel the shit out of them for it.
His fist tightened and he growled softly before breaking off the noise with an embarrassed glance around to make sure no one had noticed. He’d been growling off and on for the last few weeks, he’d asked his Dad Nasta, who said it was normal and a sign of his approaching Dracken inheritance but he still didn’t want his brothers or sisters to hear him growling like the tigers they’d seen in the zoo.
He sorted out the plates, cleaned up the countertops, picked up Eva and dropped her into the main living room to prevent an argument between her and her twin, again, before he went to the home gym at the back of the house, opening the very high handle near the top of the door which prevented the little kids from getting inside the room with the equipment and he closed it after himself.
Mollie was in the middle of the sparring mats, waiting for him, looking around at the machines curiously. She’d had no reason to come in here before; Farren would have liked it to have remained that way.
It wasn’t a proper gym by any stretch of the imagination; there was a treadmill, an exercise bike, one punching bag, one weight machine that was his Dad Max’s and an open space in the middle that was padded with mats for stretching and sparing. The nursery that adjoined to his parents’ bedroom was bigger than this room, but it was big enough to show Mollie a few moves to defend herself.
“Right, what do you want to learn Mollie?”
“Boxing.” She said with a nod, her short black hair bouncing with the movement.
“Why boxing?” He asked.
She bit her lip and she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“You want to know how to hit someone, don’t you?”
She looked at him then and nodded hesitantly.
“I want to know how to hit them properly, not just a girl hit.” She told him seriously.
He almost laughed, but he controlled himself and just nodded instead. He stood behind her and raised her arms and formed up her fist properly, telling her how to correct her stance and how to punch out from the hips.
“I know it feels awkward at first, but if you swivel your hips then you get more power behind the punch.”
“So, like this?” She asked as she demonstrated.
“Yes, like that. Now you’ll want to aim for the stomach. Normally it’s for the head, but I don’t think you’ll reach, especially not if you’re going for a powerful, from the hip shot, so the stomach is the next best target, you’re not aiming to kill anyone.” He explained seriously. “Hit me.”
“I’m not going to hit you!” She said aghast.
“Mollie, you won’t hurt me.” He said with a laugh as he got himself into position opposite her. “You’re just practicing. Now hit me, as hard as you can to see if you can do it properly.”
Mollie looked a bit concerned, but she got into position like he’d showed her, a little stiffly and robotically, but she’d learn more through practice now, and she twisted at the hips and drove her tiny fist into his belly.
Farren hunched over as the breath was knocked out of him and he controlled his body to recover faster as Mollie squeaked around him, afraid of what she’d done.
It took long minutes before he got his breath back and he was able to stand up straight again. He clapped her on the back and grinned.
“Good girl.” He praised. “You do that to anyone who’s bothering you and they’ll leave you alone, they won’t know how to recover as quickly as me, so they’ll likely just drop to the floor and wheeze.”
“I did it right?” She asked shocked, her face lighting up.
“Exactly right, now go get ready for bed.” He said as he rubbed his belly lightly.
“Thank you for helping me Farren.”
“Anytime kid, now get.”
Farren left the gym, closing the door tight behind him and Mollie and he went into the living room while she skipped off up the stairs to her bedroom.
“I was wondering where you and Mollie had gone. It’s almost her bedtime.” His Mum said. “Is everything okay?”
“I think Mollie’s being bullied.” He said without preamble.
“Why do you think that?” His Dad Draco asked immediately, the same fierce protectiveness shining in his silver eyes.
“Normally I wouldn’t break the sibling secrecy code, but I’m worried. She came and asked me to teach her how to box, specifically how to hit someone. I know she only has a year left until she’s in Hogwarts, but I don’t want her to have to put up with bullies for any length of time, perhaps you should ask her teachers about anything they might have seen?”
“As soon as the school opens in September I’ll phone them.” His Dad Nasta said seriously. “We won’t tell her that you told us, so we don’t break your sibling secrecy code, but I will be speaking to her.”
Farren nodded. “That’s all I wanted.”
“Get yourself to bed too, Farren, you need the sleep and no staying awake to stupid O’clock tonight.” His Mum said sternly.
Farren grinned. “I have a feeling that as soon as I get upstairs I’ll be fast asleep, Mum.” He swore.
“You make sure that you are.”
Farren left the room laughing. He came across Taren on the stairs and he grabbed his brother’s ankle and dragged him backwards.
“Oi! You won’t be bigger than me forever!” His thirteen year old brother told him with a scowl.
Farren laughed harder at that. “Oh I think I will squirt! Get to bed; you need your baby sleep.”
Taren fluffed up angrily and headed down the opposite hallway.
“Just you wait, me and Regan will have you, we’re not Ravenclaws for nothing!”
Farren shook his head. “I’m a Gryffindor Tar, I eat you little birdies for breakfast.”
He set a trap up in front of his door, just in case his two Ravenclaw brothers did try something while he was asleep before he changed and climbed into bed. The urge to turn on his brand new laptop was almost unbearable, especially as it was looking at him from his desk under the bedroom window, but his Mum was right, he needed some sleep after having next to none last night, because the chances that he was woken up at dawn again tomorrow was very high, which is why he was going to bed so early, he wanted at least nine hours sleep as a minimum before he had to deal with what tomorrow brought. At least Mace wouldn’t wake him up before dawn for another run; they never went running on consecutive days, he thanked Merlin for that.
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Leolin scowled again at the homework that he was struggling with. He tried to think about it, tried everything he could to work out what the names of those moons were, but he just couldn’t figure it out, his mind had gone blank and he couldn’t remember anything and that made him feel stupid and useless, which made him angry.
In a fit of rage he stood up and threw the chair he’d been sat on at the wall. He wasn’t physically strong enough to even break the damned chair and the wall was fine too, not even a scuff mark and that upset him even more. He went to his knees and screamed in rage into his hands.
His door slammed open against the wall and he heard someone sigh. Someone sat on the floor next to him and an arm went around his waist, but he didn’t want to move his face from his hands, he was crying with temper again.
“Come on Leolin, what’s the matter?” His big brother Braiden asked him softly.
“Stupid.” He said sadly, unable to get out a full sentence and that made him feel even worse.
“No you’re not. I take it you were doing the work your tutors set you?”
Leolin nodded into his hands.
“Leolin, I’ve told you, if your work doesn’t challenge you then there’s no point to doing it. We’d never get any better or progress with it, it has to make us think or there’s no point to it. It would be too easy to do work we already knew, but you’re not stupid because you can’t do it, you just need to take a break and ask for some help. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help if you need it.”
“I just…I feel so stupid because I can’t do it Braiden!” Leolin said as he turned to bury his face against his older brother’s shoulder.
Braiden chuckled. “Leolin, remember this time last year, when you were still having problems speaking and understanding sentences and certain concepts? You’re doing so well, every month Mum owls me with how well you’re doing and the list of your achievements grows longer and longer. You’re getting older now Leolin and your brain development and physicality is rushing on fast forward to catch you up to your actual age, there are bound to be times when that speed is going to cause your body to hurt or where it’s just too much for your brain to handle and it goes blank for a bit.”
Leolin actually felt better for hearing that and he pulled back to smile at Braiden.
“Thank you.” He said softly.
Braiden huffed and ruffled his hair. “Come on, let’s see what you were stuck on and do it together…actually, you fix up your room and I’ll go round up the others and we’ll all help you, we haven’t had a study session in a while.”
“Bring snacks!” Leolin called out after him as he rubbed his face dry of tears and went to pick up his chair and tuck it back under his desk before grabbing his books and setting them all up on the floor.
Farren arrived first and he tugged him into a rough hug. Farren was always too rough, but Leolin didn’t mind too much anymore, he knew now that he was older and could understand more that Farren couldn’t always help it and that he never meant to hurt anyone.
“Braiden said you were having problems with your homework again, you know you only need to ask us and we’ll be right here to help you.”
“I know, I just got angry before actually thinking.”
“Ah, I know that feeling. I usually hit Calix afterward because he’s more than likely the source.”
Leolin couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped. Farren chuckled and pulled him into another hug.
“What’s this about you not asking for help?” Their sister Tegan demanded as she stormed into the room, Regan just behind her.
“I got angry.” He said softly, ducking his head in shame.
“Oh Leo, you don’t get angry honey, you come and get us.” Tegan said as she kissed his forehead and sat down in their study circle.
Leolin scrubbed his forehead with his sleeve, a scowl on his face at the sister he’d shared a sac with.
“I don’t like being a bother.” He said.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Calix told him as he came into the room with six bottles of water in his arms. “We like helping you, it beats the hell out of playing ‘house’ or ‘dress up’ with the little kids.”
Calix dropped the bottles onto the floor and then fell down, groaning happily as he stretched out on Leolin’s floor. Leolin couldn’t help the small giggle that came out at his brother’s actions. He’d been trying to stop giggling, trying to control it into a more masculine laugh or chuckle like his brothers, but he couldn’t always help it, especially if he was actually amused, but his older siblings didn’t care, they always smiled when they heard him giggling.
Braiden came in with an armful of snacks, from savoury mini crackers, to biscuits and a piece of fruit each. He’d obviously been caught by their Dad Nasta.
“Right, come on then Leolin, what are we tackling first.”
“This!” Leolin said as he thrust the homework that had caused his temper tantrum in the first place at his older brother.
Braiden read it over and he groaned. “Here Tegan, this one’s for you.”
“What is it?” Tegan asked as she took the work and read the top, a wide, evil grin split her face. “Astronomy? Oh Leolin, you know how much I love Astronomy, you should have come straight to me. Come on, let’s get to it, pick up your pencil.”
Leolin was so happy when all of his work was done, in a way he had understood it too, and he could take his books and worksheets to his Dad Nasta to read through, even though he had just come home from work he’d wanted to do it then and there.
He hovered around his Dad, nervous and worried that maybe he hadn’t done as well as he thought he had or as well as he should have done or he worried that he might have left something his siblings had said out on his work, but when he was done his Dad looked so happy with him and he gave him a big hug and a kiss and promised him he could pick out any gift he wanted, just like the others, and he could have it for doing so well with all of his work.
He was so happy as he was praised by all of his parents and his Mum gave him the special grin that he loved seeing and pulled him into a tight, long cuddle and he felt so clever and like he could do absolutely anything he wanted to.
“Mummy, you smell like baby sick.” He said confusedly as he pulled back from the cuddle.
His Dads all started roaring with laughter and his Mum gave them all a glare.
“I know sweetheart, in fact, I was just going to go and have a nice long bath because your Dads all agreed to look after the younger babies to give me a night off for a change.”
His Dads all stopped laughing and looked horrified as his Mum gave him a final kiss and then left. He was confused and didn’t know what had just happened, so he left too, his books and worksheets in his arms and he made sure to take it all back upstairs to put it safe in the trunk he had gotten when his sac siblings had gotten theirs ready for Hogwarts to keep all of his school things safe in his room. He had been so happy to get a trunk with his brothers and sister, even though he wasn’t going to Hogwarts with them, he hadn’t felt so left out when he’d gotten all the things they had, the only difference had been he didn’t need to get uniform robes like they had, his Dad Draco had taken him to get ice cream instead.
“Leo!”
Leolin smiled as his little sibling called out to him.
“Hi, Lian.” He said with a smile, hugging the little body gently while keeping hold of his books.
“Ceri’s picking on me, Leo!” Lian told him with a sniffle.
Leolin frowned. He knew he lashed out at his brothers and sisters when he was feeling frustrated at his own incapability’s, but he never did it purposefully and he always felt bad and said sorry afterwards, once he’d calmed down, but he didn’t like hearing that Ceri was picking on Lian, Ceri was older and should know better than to pick on the younger kids.
“Hold on, come with me.” Leolin told Lian as he headed into his room and put his work safe before he took Lian’s hand and went to the quadruplets’ room that the four of them shared.
He opened the door and found Ceri and Jay laughing together, Lian made a soft noise and stood more behind Leolin. That made him angry. To think that one of his brothers or sisters was afraid of an older sibling made him angry.
“Why are you bullying your own sibling?” He demanded, stopping Ceri and Jay in mid laugh.
They turned to look at him and he glared at them, watching as they went quiet and shrunk back.
“You do not pick on your own brothers and sisters! We’re a family, family is the one thing we can all count on for everything, we shouldn’t be afraid of each other!” He hissed at the both of them, but mostly to Ceri. “You do not make the little kids cry and you don’t bully them, you’re older than them, you should be helping them, teaching them and looking after them, like we did for you, not making them feel bad and making them cry!”
“They did what?”
Leolin looked over his shoulder to see Farren stood just behind him. Ceri and Jay’s faces drained of blood when Farren appeared at his shoulder and picked Lian up and cradled their younger sibling to his chest, Lian gripping his shoulders as Farren wasn’t wearing a shirt and he was covered in sweat and his muscles were bulging again. He’d been doing sports or he’d just been working out in the gym and he must have been heading to the bathroom for a shower when he’d overheard them.
“I’ve sorted it, haven’t I Ceri?” Leolin jumped in.
Ceri nodded quickly. “I wasn’t being mean; I just told Lian that we couldn’t play together because Lian was too little and he’d be going to bed soon.”
“You called me stupid too!” Lian denied.
“Only because you wouldn’t go!” Ceri said back.
“You do not call any of your brothers or sisters stupid. Ever.” Farren growled angrily. Leolin had noticed that his older brother was growling a lot lately and he wondered if it was due to his Dracken side.
“It was just a slip.” Ceri said softly, sounding near tears. “I didn’t mean it.”
“Then say you’re sorry to Lian and make up.” Leolin ordered.
Farren put Lian down and they watched as Ceri and Jay hugged Lian and apologised softly.
“Now play nice, you shouldn’t be playing any game that Lian can’t join in, there’s only four years between you and you’ll be going to bed just an hour after he does.” Farren told them as he turned and left the room.
“Are you alright to stay Lian?” Leolin stayed to ask.
Lian looked at Ceri and Jay, who both nodded and Lian turned back with a grin and nodded happily. Leolin nodded himself and then left them to it, shutting the door behind him.
He hated dealing with bullying between his siblings, it reminded him of how he’d felt when he would go to the park or out to the zoo or the swimming pool with his siblings and he’d have to deal with all the laughing and pointing and the bullying from the other children and even their parents. It had upset him so much and he’d burrowed himself into a shell, but he’d always felt so safe with his sac siblings and with Braiden and even the twin terrors, they always looked after him and made him happy and the thought of any of his little brothers or sisters feeling the way he had when he was younger from their own family made him feel sick.
He wouldn’t have it and he would always put a stop to it if he could and naturally, if Farren got involved, the person being a bully would back off quickly. Farren was huge, big, broad and if he was in a bad mood his voice deepened to a growl and he looked terrifying and intimidating. Farren could put a stop to arguments and fights quicker than anyone else could, except for their Mum, if their Mum said to do something, it was done immediately with no arguments.
Leolin went into his bedroom and got down his photo album, he felt like looking through his pictures until it was time for bed and flicking through the album he remembered a lot of good memories that helped him remember that he was a part of the family and that he was loved even if he was sometimes a little slow or he lost his temper through frustration; though seeing his wings from when he was born made them itchy and he reached a hand under his shirt to scratch at them, arching his back at how good it felt to do just that.
He still couldn’t move them, not even when he concentrated really, really hard. Uncle Kailen told him that it would be another two years or so before they’d even twitch and three or even four years before he’d be able to even attempt to fly with them, but they looked pretty at the moment. He loved the colour of them and he thanked his Mum and Dad for giving him such regal, unique colours for his wings, he and his two younger Faerie siblings were the only ones alive with such a colouring and it made him feel special and he’d make sure that his two younger Faerie siblings always knew that they were special too.
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Braiden grinned as he lifted Sully over his head and listened to the soft, infectious baby giggles. His Mum had been letting him do more and more with the babies and toddlers the closer to sixteen he got and he’d bathed Sully and gotten him ready for bed all by himself tonight, without any of his parents supervising him. He still found the all in one baby sleepsuits utterly adorable and he snuggled his baby brother to his chest as he yawned, showing off the few teeth he had and the new one he was growing in.
He was admittedly nervous, he turned sixteen tomorrow, or technically tonight at midnight, and he’d come into his Dracken inheritance tonight and though his parents had tried to alleviate every fear he had, some doubt still remained. He’d have wings, claws, fangs and scales tomorrow. He had spent sixteen years getting used to himself, seeing himself in the mirror and now he was going to change. He was worried that he wasn’t going to like the look of himself once he woke up tomorrow morning.
“Loren, stop playing with yourself!” His Dad Draco snapped at the little three year old, who pulled a tiny hand from inside a nappy with a guilty pout.
“Don’t you shout at my baby!” His Mum hissed out angrily as he went and picked up a shuffling Loren.
“That sort of behaviour…”
“I don’t care! Loren is three years old; do you think shouting at the top of your lungs in their faces is going to stop them from doing it? It’s a comfort thing!”
“It’s…”
“No! I don’t want to hear it, go away!”
His Dad Draco stormed off and Braiden sighed. His parents all loved one another, but sometimes they did butt heads, argue and fight, they’d sometimes go days without speaking in an almost visible haze of tension if they were being really stubborn, but it never lasted for longer than two or three days at the most, they’d come down for breakfast one morning and it would be like nothing had ever happened. He didn’t want to think on exactly how they made up, he could go his entire life without thinking on that subject, but as he watched his Mum reassure Loren and tell his little sibling calmly and softly what had happened and why it wasn’t polite to stick a hand down the front of a nappy, he realised that this was going to be the ‘last for days’ kind of fight. He was coming into his inheritance tonight and his parents were fighting at a time when he needed all of them.
“Bay, snug-snug.”
Braiden grinned. He’d taught Sully that word and he cuddled the ten month old tightly. “Come on Sully, time to get you into bed.”
“No.”
“Yes, come on Sully snuggle bug, you have to go to bed now.”
Sully giggled and held on tight when he stood up, little arms wrapped around his neck. He cuddled him tightly as he carried him up the stairs and into a nursery near his parents’ room. The adjoining nursery was for the month old triplets, they’d been moved there the week before from beside his parents’ bed.
He couldn’t wait to have his own child, but he was still scared for tonight, though he tried to hide it from all of his family, he thought he might have failed with Tegan earlier at dinner, he’d gotten increasingly more nervous the closer to night it got, but she hadn’t said anything and he knew his sister, if she’d had anything on her mind, she would have come to him and said it.
Braiden sat in the rocking chair in Sully’s nursery and slipped a hand into the side pocket to find a book to read to his baby brother. He kept his voice light and calm, like he’d heard his Mum do and Sully was asleep before he’d finished even half of the book.
He sighed as he realised it was getting closer and closer to midnight and he stood to put Sully into his cot, making sure his feet were to the bottom of the cot, even though Sully was older now and at less risk from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and covered him over with a light, summer blanket. He brushed the black hair away from his face and bent to kiss him before switching on the baby monitor, taking the other one of the pair and leaving the room.
He gave the monitor to his Dad Blaise as they passed one another and then he went and tried to relax in the living room with a book as the little kids were all settled into bed, but he couldn’t focus and he was reading the same page over and over again without taking any of it in and it only got worse when the preteens and younger teens were sent to bed at nine O’clock. He swallowed with an exceedingly dry mouth and tried to drink the tea that he’d made for himself, but the only thought that kept rolling around in his mind was of tonight, and what was going to happen to him and how much he was going to change overnight.
He spoke with Calix and Farren, cuddled with Leolin and spoke some more with Tegan and Regan, but it was a hassle trying to pretend that he was alright when he wasn’t and when they were told to go to bed at ten, he was almost glad that he could finally get away from everyone as he rushed up the stairs to his bedroom where he showered himself and got into his pyjamas.
The wait was agonising as he couldn’t actually sleep, he couldn’t even keep still anymore as midnight got ever closer. He cleaned his bedroom twice, rearranged his books, sorted out his trunk and remade his bed. He just couldn’t relax and when half eleven at night came around, he just felt sick with nerves and fear.
A knock on his door had him pausing in mid step as he paced his floor space and he almost grinned when his quintuplet siblings piled into his room and started trying to take his mind off of his inheritance, talking about nonsense and soon they all climbed into his bed with him and by one O’clock in the morning, nothing had happened and he relaxed more with the light banter and quiet chatter. One by one they all drifted off to sleep, but though he tried, he just couldn’t get to sleep like they could, his mind wouldn’t stop racing.
At two in the morning he slipped out of his bed, being very careful so that he didn’t wake any of his brothers or his sister, and he started his nervous pacing again. He looked sharply at the bed when Farren groaned in his sleep and slipped closer to Leolin.
He didn’t want to wake them if he cried out when his inheritance hit, so he left his bedroom, turning out the light on his way and he went downstairs. He was very surprised to see his parents still awake and sat in the kitchen, talking quietly together.
“I thought you’d be down here tonight.” His Mum said as Braiden was spotted and he came and hugged him tightly, reassuringly.
“I just can’t sleep.” He admitted. “I’m so nervous.”
“We know, we’ve been watching you all day.” His Dad Nasta told him.
“I know you said that there was nothing to be nervous over, I just can’t help it.”
“Tell us what you’re afraid of.” His Dad Blaise suggested, pulling him down into a chair next to him as his Dad Max made them all tea.
“I don’t…what if…what if I don’t like myself after I’ve changed?” He said meekly, admitting his fears now only because all of his siblings were asleep and couldn’t hear him. He was the oldest one, the one his younger brothers and sisters all went to with questions and looked up to, he didn’t want them to see him weak or scared and destroy their image of him in their minds.
“Nothing much happens Braiden, as we’ve told you. You might grow a little taller, you might bulk up a bit, your face might smoothen out a little, but your nose isn’t just going to change shape and your eyes won’t change colour, you’ll still be you.” His Dad Draco insisted. It seemed he and his Mum had made up early for his sake tonight and he was so glad. He needed all of them tonight, he wanted all of them with him tonight.
“Seeing the scales is probably the biggest shock.” His Dad Blaise told him. “But they’ll perfectly match the colour of your skin and they’ll be barely noticeable and you can hide them easily with just a thought.”
“For me it was waking up the next morning and being able to see.” His Mum said with a happy, reminiscing smile. “You’ve seen the pictures of when I was younger, I used to wear glasses before my inheritance and I was near enough blind without them. Waking up that morning and being immediately able to see everything and more…it was amazing, breath taking…liberating really. The detail of everything that I had missed while wearing glasses was astounding. I knew immediately that something had happened and that’s when I found the scales, then the wings, claws and fangs. I completely freaked out, naturally. I had no clue what was happening, what was going on or why I’d changed. You’re lucky love, you have us to help you, to tell you beforehand what’s going to happen to prepare you, I never had that, I didn’t even know what I was or why I’d changed, it was very distressing and disorientating.”
“I didn’t know what I was either.” His Dad Draco said softly. “I freaked out too, I went nigh on ballistic, I found out what I was through potions I’d meticulously brewed while hiding myself away as much as possible, I found out where the creature blood had come from and I started researching ways to prevent anyone from knowing what I was and I told you how foolish I was over the whole thing.”
“You were worried about being a creature, Draco.” His Mum said softly, touching a pale hand gently. “You were terrified over what people would think, it wasn’t foolish, you were just scared.”
“I almost made myself sterile!” His Dad burst out painfully, sounding as upset as Braiden had ever heard him. He pulled back in surprise though; he’d never heard that part of the story before.
“How?” He asked horrified, thinking of the brothers and sisters his Dad had given him. He couldn’t imagine them never being born, it made his heart skip several beats as his stomach lurched. He didn’t want to think about never having those beloved siblings around him.
“The suppression potion he was taking was not meant for long term use.” His Dad Max said sombrely as he put down a cup of tea in front of all of them. “If used for long enough it starts to leave a deposit in the soft tissues of the body and if used in the extreme excess it can kill as it is only supposed to be used for a maximum of three months at any one time, and that really is the absolute limit, some Drackens who have used it for three months have been fine, others registered the beginnings of tissue damage and after every use, no matter how long or short, two weeks, a month, three months, the body should be cleansed and detoxed with potions to get rid of any lingering traces of the potion once the user has stopped concealing themselves with the potions. Your Dad had been taking it for six, seven months before it even came to light that he was taking it and that was only because your Mum started calling out to all dominant Drackens, it made the potion ineffectual as his Dracken instincts overruled the dampening effects of the potion. Then something happened between the three of them and your Mum and Dad Blaise found out that he had been on the potion and they went to your Dad Blaise’s Godfather Severus, who was a Potions Master at Hogwarts.”
“The potion had started affecting my fertility and I never noticed. I went through a withdrawal when I first came off the potion; my kidneys had been affected by the potions the most and I needed to take twice daily potions to clear them out and fix them. I stayed well away from your Mum and your Dad Blaise during that time and I cleansed myself of the potion and its effects, or so I had thought. We found out years later that the potion had started laying down deposits in my testicles, preventing them from working in the way they were supposed to and affecting my sperm too. But years later the damage was still there and getting worse the longer it went untreated. I had to take detox and fertility potions to counter the damage I’d done at the age of sixteen and even then the damage will never be fully reversed. I’m so ashamed of myself.”
“You have children now, you’re fertile enough to get me pregnant even if the damage is irreversible, you have children.” His Mum said softly and the two shared a loved up look.
“You don’t need to be ashamed either.” His Dad Nasta said as he pulled his Dad Draco into a kiss. “You did what you thought was for the best at the time, you didn’t know it was dangerous to keep taking the suppression potion.”
“I should have though.”
His parents all sighed and then his Mum turned back to him. “How are you feeling now?”
“Still nervous.”
“Have you tried to pull out your attributes to see if you’ve already gone through the transformation?” His Dad Blaise asked.
Braiden nodded. “I’ve been trying constantly.”
“It won’t be long now, love, just try to relax and drink your tea.”
Braiden nodded and he looked at the clock as three in the morning approached, his hands wrapped around the cup of tea he had, sipping at it occasionally, but not really drinking it.
“What if you were wrong and I’m not a Dracken?” He asked fearfully.
All five of his parents laughed at that.
“I wasn’t wrong love; you’ve shown signs of being a Dracken in the last year leading up to your inheritance.” His Mum said. “I scented you out at birth and I know you’re a Dracken and that you’re going to be a wonderful Dracken at that, I wasn’t mistaken, I promise.”
Braiden was on eggshells as he waited for something, anything to happen and when it didn’t, he just felt worse as he yawned widely again. He rarely stayed up this late, but he knew he wouldn’t sleep and he didn’t want to disturb his brothers and sister by going back to bed when he was just going to toss and turn all night until he actually went through his transformation.
“You’re going to spend the entire day tomorrow in bed.” His Dad Nasta said with a worried frown.
“I won’t. I wouldn’t miss my own birthday; the little ones wouldn’t allow it.” He said with a tired grin.
“Don’t forget that all the family will be around tomorrow too, your Grandparents, your Aunts and Uncles, your cousins, all of them.”
“Where have you hidden my birthday cake this year?” He asked with a cheeky smile. “It must be the size of the kitchen table to feed that many people.”
“You wish it was the size of the kitchen table.” His Dad Nasta snorted.
“I want more than a slice of my own cake!” He pouted.
“How does it feel to be sixteen now?” His Dad Max asked.
Braiden shrugged. “No different to how I felt yesterday really. How does it feel to be fifty?”
“I’m not fifty yet you little brat. I’m forty-six.”
“You’ll be forty-seven in a month.” Braiden teased.
His Dad huffed and crossed huge arms over a thick chest and stuck his nose in the air. “I say we string him up outside.” He told the others. “He’s too cheeky now that he’s sixteen.”
Braiden laughed with his Mum and other Dads, which was cut short when a cry came over the baby monitor. He watched, amazed still, as his parents all worked together to deal with the hungry baby. His Dad Max went and boiled the kettle as his Dad Nasta went to get the baby, his Dad Draco got a clean bottle out of the top cupboard and tossed it to his Dad Blaise, who scooped in the formula powder before handing it to his Dad Max to fill with boiling water.
“Wonderful isn’t it?” His Mum asked. He hadn’t had to move an inch from his chair. “Unfortunately it only lasts for a month or two after the baby is born, then I’ll have to do it all again, but it’s nice to have a break now and then.”
Braiden grinned, before he had to stop and yawn behind his hands. He watched as his Dad Nasta brought in a little baby dressed in green, he couldn’t tell from this distance which of his newest siblings he had in his arms, but as he watched how efficient his parents worked, how they all danced around one another to feed and settle the woken baby, he couldn’t help but hope that he could do the same with his mate and baby when the time came.
When the month old baby had been fed and burped, the baby was handed to his Mum, who cuddled the baby close to his heart, now identified to him as Lia.
Another hour and all three of the triplets had been fed and put back to sleep and the long, torturous waiting started again. It was nearing four in the morning when it finally happened. He was thinking about what he’d look like with wings, trying to picture them and thinking about what colour they might be if he was a dominant Dracken like his Dads’. He could take any of their colours through his Mum and any colours his grandparents, great-grandparents and beyond had had through their entire family line.
The pain had been sharp and immediate and two wings burst out of his back in a shower of blood and he cried out with the uncomfortable, strange feeling of something sliding out of his back and the pain of his skin splitting open in such a way for the first time.
His Dads were immediately on their feet to hold him and his Mum had arms wrapped around him comfortingly, easing him through the pain, stroking his face with one hand and his hair with the other.
He blinked tears out of his eyes and sniffled as he came down from the sudden, shocking, painful experience. He pulled back and squirmed in his parents hold and he finally got to look at his wings that had been growing inside him his entire life for the first time. What he could see of them anyway as they were plastered in blood and were dripping with a thick, viscous mucus that dribbled from the top of his wing bone and over the leathery surface of his actual wings. He grimaced heavily. He’d been told it would be bloody and messy, but this was just gross, it was too much gore.
He sat in his Mum’s hold as his Dads cleaned his wings for him and wherever else the blood had gotten during his transformation. He’d sprayed blood on the walls even. He was glad he hadn’t changed in his bedroom after all.
“Are you okay love?” His Mum asked.
He nodded. “I’m just…that was sudden. I’m a little shocked.”
“That’s understandable. I take it you were thinking about your wings?”
Braiden nodded and sniffled again, taking a breath in and finding it was shaky.
“Think of your fangs and claws love, carefully now.”
Braiden did as he was asked and he was stunned to see the claws that came through his fingernails and a quick press up with his tongue found the points of four fangs in his mouth.
“Oh god.” He was quivering, actually shaking and he couldn’t stop.
“It’s alright, just breathe love, keep breathing, you’re still you and we still love you, stay calm and keep breathing.”
Braiden did as he was told and he suckled in several more breaths, feeling the soft, wet and warm cloths sponge away the blood and mucus that covered him. He practiced with his Mum, who was taking his mind off of what had happened and keeping him calm and from going into shock or a full blown panic attack, as he practiced pulling in his fangs and claws, thinking about uncovering his scales and seeing the small, flat flesh coloured scales that covered his arms and hands. He could barely see them, but they reflected the overhead lights from the kitchen when he moved.
“Pull your wings in a moment Braiden.”
Almost afraid of what would happen Braiden did was he was told and thought about his wings slipping back into his body and he grimaced at the slight pain of it.
“Now pull them back out, love.”
Still thinking of the pain of the last time he’d done this, he tentatively thought of his wings coming out and he was almost surprised to find that there was no pain at all, just that slight slithering sensation as they slipped out of his body, but no pain.
“There we go, see, it’s not too bad, is it? You’ll get used to the sensation they cause as they unfurl the more you do it too.” His Mum said, pulling his head into a kiss. “Now tuck them back in, they’re nice and clean, and then get yourself to bed. It’s almost quarter to five in the morning; I’ll definitely be keeping the other kids out of your bedroom tomorrow so you can sleep in a bit, until midday at least.”
“Might be a bit difficult, the quintuplets are in my bed.” He said with a tired grin. He was exhausted now, but oh so very happy.
“Then go and sleep in one of their rooms.” His Dad Max told him with a grin. “You’re a fully-fledged Dracken now and honestly, I couldn’t be more proud. I love you kid, now go and do as your Mother said and get to bed, because if I have to stay up any longer then I’m not going to make the stairs and I’ll be sleeping downstairs.”
Braiden laughed at that and tiredly, sluggishly, pulled himself up, hugging his Dads and his Mum tightly and thanking them softly for being there for him, despite how damn bloody late it was, or would that be early now?
He left the kitchen and just as he reached the bottom of the stairs he heard his Dad Max say ‘I can’t believe we have to do all of this again in just four months.’ He grinned as he heard his other four parents laugh. He would sit down with Farren and the twin girls and he’d tell them in detail what had happened and he hoped that when their inheritance came around that they weren’t as nervous and scared as he had been.
He made it upstairs, to the floor his room was on and then it hit him. He was a Dracken; he was going to get a mate, maybe even more than one and he’d have his own children! He pulled his wings out quickly and he examined them in detail. He grinned widely and laughed quietly so that he wouldn’t wake anyone up. He stroked his clean, blood free wing gently and shivered with how pleasurable it had felt.
Oh he couldn’t wait to show off tomorrow, or later today rather, his family were going to be so proud of him and he was excited now for the first time about his birthday, he couldn’t wait to show every single one of his Grandparents, all of his Aunts and Uncles and his great-Aunts and Great-Uncles and his cousins, everyone!
He tucked his beautiful wings back in and almost bounced back into his bedroom, only to stop short as he realised his quintuplet siblings were in his bed. He’d forgotten all about that in his joyous excitement.
He breathed in and shrugged to himself, if he wanted to get up to show off tomorrow, then he’d be better off slipping into his own bed with his siblings, because they would be up early and he would be woken up with them and then he could start showing off earlier.
He pulled his ruined sleep shirt from his body and left it on the floor by the door, his Dads had cleaned him all up, so he could happily crawl into his bed with his brothers and his sister and just lay down to sleep without needing to take another shower. Sleep came to him easily now, despite how excited he was for tomorrow, as he was completely and utterly exhausted, but he was so happy and he closed his eyes, cuddling in tight to his siblings and he fell right off to sleep, very happy, very tired, very excited and very much a full-fledged Dracken.
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A/N: I hope you lovelies enjoyed this one as much as I do. I love this chapter and it only took me a couple of days to write, which for the length of it is amazing! Hopefully I haven’t given away any genders that I hadn’t meant to or any paternities I didn’t want to either for that matter, but I can’t see any from my countless read throughs, which is a good sign.
Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, I hope you enjoyed all the work that went into making it and I hope you’re all well,
StarLight Massacre. X
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The Rise of the Drackens: The Scaled Bits