Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Christmas Loan ❯ Comfort and Howlers ( Chapter 10 )

The Christmas I Loaned My Sons

By: Ellipsis the Great

DISCLAIMER: The idea is from `Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul.' Harry Potter and all things affiliated with him belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I own the Potter twins, and all of the plot outside what I garnered from CSFTCS.

Summary: After losing his wife and son to a magical disease, Draco Malfoy puts an ad in an editorial to borrow a son for Christmas. Harry Potter answers.

Rated: T just in case. May change later on.

Spoilers: Five years post-Hogwarts. Compliant with all books, sans the epilogue in DH.

Warnings: CONTAINS SLASH! There WILL be shounen-ai in this story! Maybe actual yaoi later on, but definitely shounen-ai!

 

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CHAPTER TEN: Comfort and Howlers

 

“No crying!” Byrne insisted as he and Malfoy did just that. “Y-you s-s-s-said no c-c-crying! No, no, n-n-nooo!”

“He hasn't cried since Adder and Pansy died.” Blaise said, his voice thoughtful and enlightened at the same time. “Hell, I don't think he's cried since First Year.”

I frowned sympathetically. I hadn't cried for a long time after Ginny's death. As a matter of fact, I hadn't cried about her until the day Byrne had looked at me (he was twenty months old) and said his first word, calling me `Mama' instead of `Dada' like Nix.

I moved across the couch and shooed Nix and Val away gently, putting a hand on Malfoy's shoulder with the intention of getting Byrne out of his grip. Instead, Malfoy all but threw himself into my chest, Byrne still cradled in his arms as he fell into me.

I stared down at him for a moment, my mouth dropping. Then memories of my breakdown came to my mind—I had cried for a good hour or so before Molly found me, having flooed over to take the boys so I could go out with Ron and Hermione for our monthly dinner. With her actions in mind, I softly told Byrne to get down. He looked up at me, still obviously upset.

“Draco's crying.” He whimpered with a loud sniffle.

“I know. I'm going to calm him down.” I said. “Go to Grandmother Narcissa, alright? I'm going to get him to stop.”

He nodded hesitantly and somehow extricated himself from Malfoy's arms, running to Narcissa without another word.

Once he was taken care of, I wrapped my arms around Malfoy, resting my cheek on top of his head (which was surprisingly gel-free).

“It's okay.” I whispered. “It's okay, Malfoy.”

“He's dead!” Malfoy sobbed.

“Hush, now.” I said, reaching up to stroke his hair soothingly. “It's okay, Malfoy. It's going to be okay.”

“No, it's not! It will never be okay! He's dead!” Malfoy said, hitting my chest weakly with a fist. “They're both dead! Dead, dead, dead!”

I tightened my hold on him, hardly flinching when he continued to punch at my chest. “Shh…” I began rocking back and forth, wishing that I knew a lullaby to hum to him—I'd never been taught any, of course, and Molly or Hermione had always been the ones to sing them to the boys.

“My son is dead; he's dead! Adder's dead!” He said again. “Why did he die? Why did they have to die? Oh, Merlin. Ooh, God!”

“Shh. Shh.” I said, rubbing his back gently.

We must have sat like that for another hour or so, with a few more outbursts from him that quickly degenerated into another bout of tears, but eventually he was able to calm down. He pulled away, immediately wiping his eyes on the billowing sleeves of his dress robes with a resounding sniff. My hand didn't leave his back.

“Better, now?” I asked kindly.

He nodded, not looking at me.

I started to say something else, but was interrupted by a loud `THUMP!' We all immediately turned toward one of the windows, from whence the sound seemed to have originated.

“Pig!” Nix exclaimed delightedly, starting for the window.

“Phoenix, stop.” Narcissa said. “We don't know if that—”

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

“No, that's definitely Pig.” Luna giggled. “Only he would continue to run into a window like that after already doing it once.”

THUMP!

“Or ten times.” Blaise sighed.

“Who is Pig?” Val asked curiously, her head tilting to one side.

“Uncle Ron's owl.” Nix said. “How come Uncle Ron's owling us?”

Byrne gave me a rather suspicious look. “You told Nana? She won't cry?”

“I…might've stretched the truth a little.” I admitted with a wince.

“Oh, Harry, you did not try to get away with lying to Molly!” Luna exclaimed.

“I didn't lie, per se, I just…didn't tell the whole truth.” I said.

“What exactly did you tell her?” Blaise asked.

“I told her that an old friend from Hogwarts had requested my and the boys' presence for Christmas, and since this friend had just lost someone close to him I was inclined to go.” I said without meeting their gazes. “The only thing I left out was that this `friend' was Malfoy, and you know how she gets when the Malfoys are mentioned.” I wrinkled my nose thoughtfully. “How did she even find out? I didn't tell anyone!”

“That would be my fault.” Luna said with a scowl. “Draco told us a while back, and I mentioned it to Hermione when we went Christmas shopping the other day. It's no wonder she looked so horrified. She must have told Molly.”

“And now Molly's sent a Howler.” I said with a sigh, looking over at where Pig was still running himself into the window. “This is not going to be pretty.”

“You really shouldn't have lied to your mother-in-law, Harry.” Narcissa said. “Not about this.”

I waved her off. “Molly blows things out of proportion, and as much as I love her I can't always cater to her wishes. Honestly, she's almost as bad about you Malfoys as Voldemort was about Muggleborns.”

“Harry!” Luna gasped.

“Luna, I love the Weasleys. Really, I do. You know that.” I said. “But you know as well as I do that if Voldemort had been anti-Malfoy or anti-Slytherin instead of anti-muggle, they would have been some of the first to take up with him. It's a sad but true fact. The Wizarding World is far more prejudiced than it would like to believe, even if muggles were taken out of the picture. Ginny and I decided a long time ago that we were going to try to raise the boys outside of as many of those prejudices as we could, even if it meant ostracizing ourselves from the rest of our family—that is one of the reasons she worked so hard to accept your marriage to Blaise, and why I insisted on being partnered with Theodore when I first began working with the Department of Ministries.”

“Harry, it really isn't as bad as all that.” Theodore scolded.

“Uhuh.” I looked at Narcissa. “Lady Malfoy…er, Narcissa. If Malfoy—that is, Draco—had been Sorted into Gryffindor, what would you have done? For that matter, what would your husband have done?”

“If Draco had been Sorted into Gryffindor?” She asked, a surprised expression on her face. The thought had obviously never crossed her mind. “Well, I…I don't know. No Malfoy has ever been in any other house than Slytherin.”

“Alright, fine. What did your family do when Sirius was Sorted into Gryffindor?” I asked.

A light blush spread across her cheeks. “We…well, he was always a black sheep. So he was just outcast until his mother eventually disowned him.” She said carefully.

“And what d'you suppose would've happened to, say…Ron if he'd been Sorted into Slytherin?” I asked, directing this question at everyone.

“I'm sure his family would have come to accept him. Eventually.” Blaise said.

“What if he'd become best friends with Malfoy?” I arched an eyebrow at him.

Blaise opened his mouth to answer, then hesitated, finally just closing his mouth again, his face settling into a thoughtful look.

“Exactly.” I said. “I'm not saying that they're bad people, or that they might not—at some point—have been alright with it or whatever. They may very well have; we'll never know. All I'm saying is that they are far less accepting than anyone would have you believe. You have no idea how difficult it was for Ginny to accept you and Luna getting together. She used to cringe at the very thought of being near you, even for Luna's sake. And when she finally did get into an actual conversation with you, her first comment to me afterwards was that she was surprised that a Slytherin could carry on a civil conversation without at least once trying to hex anyone.” I looked at the window as yet another thump reminded me of the reason for the conversation. “But on that note, I should get that before it explodes and kills Pig.”

“Harry…” Luna said, still disapproving in spite of everything.

“It's fine, it's fine.” I sighed, standing and going to the window, opening it and only catching Pig (who was as hyper as always) by the grace of Merlin and what Seeker skills I had managed to retain over the past five years. Once I had wrestled the Howler away from him, the miniscule owl shot up into the air again, circling the room so fast he could've made any Snitch jealous. “You might want to cover your ears, though.”

That was the only warning I gave them before I let the Howler loose.

 

ENDCHAPTERTEN