Canaries in the mine
Chaos’ beach chair was not where she left it. With a huff she raised her gaze and began to look for it, only to find it at the other end of the beach, close to the play area Narcissa, Severus, Astoria and Draco had ordered for Zinnia’s birthday last month. Zinnia had told her parents about the swings and slides and climbing nets she had played in at school, and as such things made the girl be active and outside, they had made her a play area on the property. It was bigger and more elaborate than those at her school, and Zinnia loved it and used it almost daily, under the careful eye of one of her parents, grandparents, godparents or elves. Even Slytherin had been convinced to look after her, a time or two.
Chaos fell down into her beach chair and looked at the woman in the other chair. The woman who just then kept an eye at the one blond and one red head that laughed as they ran across the big net. Chaos shook her head and asked Dobby for a sandwich and tea. Both popped onto the little table a moment later, and then a big mug of hot chocolate popped in too. Not coca, not anything made from powder and milk, but true, melted hot chocolate, dark and delicious. Dobby was very attentive, understanding and far too kind. She smiled, thanked him and began to eat her meal.
Astoria leaned back in the other chair, looked at her and asked for a small meal too.
“Will you ever get used to them running along the net like that?” Chaos wondered.
“It has only been a few weeks, give me time,” Astoria sniffed. “But, my heart really is in my throat when they do that. Almost everything else is alright, but those nets …”
“It’s excellent training, both for balance and muscles, and the nets are charmed so they won’t hurt themselves when they fall, and the ground beneath are charmed even more. They can’t really get hurt, Astoria.”
“I know, I know.” Astoria waved it away. “Did you just have a walk with the Dark Lord?” She raised a brow.
“Nope, but I did take a walk with my best friend’s husband. Granted, we talked about things in regard to the state and the future of our people, but it was most definitely my best friend’s husband I talked to.”
Astoria shook her head. “I have no idea how you do that. I mean, we no longer stand on ceremony in our day to day lives and he actually both looks after our daughter, helps teach her and helps her with her homework, but he is absolutely my Lord, even then.”
“He was never mine, Astoria, and he knows that he never can be that, so he doesn’t try to convince me otherwise. I’m his husband’s best friend, and now also something close to a roommate. Which reminds me, roommate,” she grinned at Astoria and waggled her brows, as they technically lived under the same roof, it was a running joke that they were roommates and quite often got together for drinks and gossip and to plan outings, “when are we having our next girl’s day on town? You were hinting about showing me some nice places in magical Beijing?”
Astoria grinned back. “Well, roommate, I was thinking about the third weekend in May. We can stay over from Saturday to Sunday at a very quaint little hotel I know of.”
Chaos finished her tea while thinking about it, before she nodded. “That would be good. We are having a two-night trip to our valley in Argentina the weekend before. Oh, and Harry doesn’t want to disappoint you or ruin your plans, but he and Slytherin are celebrating their anniversary alone again this year, too. However, I did manage to get Harry to agree to a ball, like you wanted, just a few days later.”
“I know, don’t worry. The Dark Lord informed me weeks ago, he had no qualms about informing me, even if Harry doesn’t want to upset my plans for a ball. It seems likely that it will continue like this, that they celebrate in private on the actual date, and the days around that date, and that more public celebrations are after that.”
Chaos nodded. “Is it strange that it makes me happy? That Harry actually wants to celebrate that date? In private I mean, I doubt he will ever truly do more than accept a ball.”
Astoria snorted inelegantly and put a hand over her mouth. “Accept, you call that accept?! He almost hissed at me when I told him about my plans for the ball!” She laughed.
“Was that before or after Harry and Slytherin had agreed on a private celebration? He might not look forward to it, but he doesn’t dread the ball either. He might just have feared that your ball would get in the way of the celebration he truly wants. He has already found the robes he will use at the ball, so …” She shrugged a shoulder.
Astoria hesitated. “You might be right, then. I can understand his reaction, if he was uncertain about his private celebration. And no, I don’t think it’s wrong of you to be happy that Harry feels a reason to celebrate his marriage. That is what we all want, is it not? Both for ourselves and for those we love; to be happy?”
Chaos nodded and swallowed. “I was so afraid for him, you know?” she whispered. “So very afraid that I would never see him again after he left for the marriage ceremony. So afraid that he would be no more than a shadow of himself, if I did manage to see him. Afraid that I never again would have a place in his life.” Something clenched hard around her heart and she swore and hurriedly wiped away some tears that had leaked out of her eyes. “Damned hormones!”
Astoria made a small sound and pushed the cup of hot chocolate towards her. “Drink up, Healer’s orders.” Then a long, pale hand was placed on her knee and squeezed lightly. “He is alright, Chaos, so are you, and you will continue to be alright, and together. If the Dark Lord refuses to get between you, no one else will try either.”
She took a sip of the perfection that was Dobby’s hot chocolate, and nodded slowly. “Yeah, Slytherin has promised that he will never get between us and everything he has done for us, for me, shows that he means it. The fear still lingers, but … it gets less, for every month that passes us by.”
Astoria leaned back again and gave her a small smile. “The nightmares have become less frequent, both for Draco and for myself, I seldom need Dreamless sleep now and just last week an intern at the Ministry came up on me too fast, and I didn’t draw my wand.”
Chaos smiled back, knowing how fast Astoria was on the draw and how much it bothered her that she wasn’t able to let her war honed reflexes relax. “That’s good,” she said. “That’s really good.”
They were all getting better, slowly, but surely. They were all beginning to truly relax after the war, slowly but surely. And they were all beginning to make new families and connections, just a bit too slowly for Harry’s and her own tastes, thus the push with a public Litha celebration this summer.
A shout from the play area made them both look up, but the laughter that followed made them settle down again.
“I didn’t know Charlie and Galahad would arrive today,” Chaos said.
“They originally were supposed to come tomorrow morning, but between Zinnia’s wish to see her friend and Charlie’s wish to use our library to look for some rare book on dragons, they arrived a day early.”
Chaos grinned. “Some things never change; Charlie and his dragons.”
“You are not the right one to talk,” Astoria chided. “It’s because of you and your dragon shape that Galahad ended up with Charlie and not Bill and Fleur, who was supposed to be his new family. He is almost as bad as Charlie!”
“I take no responsibility whatsoever over what any Weasley does!” she sniffed, then smiled and looked at the red-haired boy who slid down the slide with a whoop. “Then again, Charlie was only too happy to take him in and share his enthusiasm for dragons with him, and they both deserve that, a family that loves what they do.”
“Yes, of course, it was just that … Bill and Fleur are a more established family …”
“With several children already, including a baby. Galahad grew up in a children’s home and probably revels in the fact that he has one adult all for himself now. I’m still … upset … by the fact that we never actually checked if Galahad was a Weasley, I mean, look at him! We know what a Weasley looks like! Both Bill and Charlie would have taken him in, in a heartbeat, years ago, had they known. Just like they ended up doing.” She looked at the little boy with red hair, blue eyes and freckles, he was the spitting image of the picture she had seen of his uncle Ron at that age. Something clenched around her heart again at that thought. It hurt, it still hurt so much …
“Chaos, look at me, look at me!” A hand landed on her knee again and Chaos looked into Astoria’s ice blue eyes with slit pupils like that of a snake, set in a grave face with a beautiful snakeskin pattern in black and gold down her temples to her chin and down her neck and arms. The hand on her knee had the same pattern. Astoria only seldom used a glamour at home nowadays, and everyone that lived at Malfoy Manor, herself included, was only too happy to pounce on any idiot who disparaged her looks. “You did everything, everything, you could for those children! You saved their lives when they lost everyone and gave them safe, happy homes to grow up in with adults that cared. Yes, they might not have grown up with family, yes, some things slipped you by, but you were busy making sure everyone survived and even thrived, despite the war! You did wonderfully, you managed a Merlin-be-damned miracle! The children who grew up in the homes Harry and you set up are some of the least traumatized of them all, because you helped them, you got them to safety and gave them everything they needed to heal and grow.
“I will not allow you to beat yourself up because you, and everyone else, including myself, didn’t think about the fact that Galahad obviously has Weasley blood. His mother died without telling anyone about who his father was. It’s only because of the tests at Gringotts that we know he is Percival Weasley’s son, and it took you only a few weeks after finding that out to have him happily living with blood family. Not the uncle you had planned for him, sure, but still family, and still very happily.” She took a deep breath and scowled at Chaos. “Do I need to continue?” she threatened.
Chaos shook her head. She knew Astoria was right, it was just so obvious, now!
“Good,” she gave a decisive nod. “Remember that it’s only a few handfuls of teenagers again in those homes now, everyone else has gotten a family, be it lost blood family, fostered or adopted. Thanks to you, they lived until that was possible.”
Chaos nodded, but frowned. It bothered her that there was any child, or teenager, living in those homes, still, no matter how good those homes were. They weren’t family. Surely, with so many old lines all but eradicated during the war, some family would be willing to open their homes and hearts to teenagers that needed a home and help to get their footing in the world? The children’s home, together with the Ministry, and Harry and herself too, if necessary, would make sure that those teenagers weren’t tossed into real life without any support whatsoever, but they couldn’t give the teenagers someone to go home to for Sunday dinners, or Yule, or a shoulder to cry on in difficult times or a heartbreak. They couldn’t give them the closeness of family, and she wanted that for them, for any child. And she knew, because she had grown up with Harry, that most teenagers without family would happily welcome a chance at family, be they thirteen, fifteen or seventeen years old.
Chaos let her gaze slide from the glittering lake to the two children in the play area. Surely, surely, some old family would be willing to adopt, maybe even blood adopt, some teenagers and give them the support and love they needed? They needed to be careful, though, so the children got actual homes and weren’t just taken in to boost the family numbers. The Black family were rich and had several estates, its Lord was Harry, and its only other member was Narcissa, at least until she married Severus. Chaos highly suspected that Severus would be more than willing to take the Black name, even if he once had hated Sirius Black with all his being. The Black family would be a safe family to be adopted into, Harry would love the chance to really give teenagers a safe place to spread their wings and learn to fly. Of course, he still wasn’t well enough to take sole responsibility over anyone, not even teenagers. Neither was she. Even together they weren’t well enough to do that task. They were closer than they had been for years, but they weren’t quite there yet. She would have to talk with both Harry and Narcissa about it.
Who else? She smiled as Galahad shrieked when Zinnia pushed him down the biggest slide. Blaise Zabini could probably be a good and solid big brother for someone who had the same temperament as himself; that might work. Theodore Nott, too, had proven to be good with children, both his own little brother who now visited with him every other weekend and sometimes during the weeks too. He might be willing to get another little brother or sister to help find their balance in life and be a family with.
Yes, she would have to remember to talk with people about this. Teenagers deserved families as much as smaller children did, and needed them just as much, just in a different way.
“Oh, it looks like Charlie is done with the books, for now.” Astoria said, looking towards the Manor. She raised a hand and waved at the stocky redhead that ambled over the lawn. He was dressed in black trousers, a white shirt and a waistcoat in black and green brocade with his shirt sleeves rolled up, showing off heavily muscled underarms, as well as a tattoo and several burn scars. His mop of red hair was artistically tousled instead of outright messy, and even if his shirt sleeves were rolled up and his top three buttons were open and showing off more tattoos and scars, he was more properly dressed than Chaos had ever seen him.
The man stopped in front of their little table and Astoria conjured up another beach chair that he flopped down into.
“Hello, Chaos, long time no see. Or, not that long, this time.”
Chaos smiled at him. It was only a few months this time, instead of the many months or years at other times.
“Good to see you, Charlie,” she said.
“Lady Malfoy,” Charlie said with a deep nod towards Astoria.
Astoria gave a little snort. “While I appreciate the attempt, I think it’s obvious that we right now don’t stand on ceremony, at all.” She waved at the beach chairs.
“Point. Astoria, then.” Charlie smiled, just as mild and friendly as he always had been.
“Indeed, it’s only been a couple of hours since we last met, and your son almost brought my daughter to her knees in his enthusiasm at seeing her.”
Charlie grinned. “Yes, he does that with everyone. At least, he does now.” He swallowed and Chaos remembered that Galahad had been a much quieter boy not that long ago. Getting his own family and home with his Uncle Charlie had done wonders. And that was what she wanted for all children, be they small children or teenagers.
“So, do I pass muster?” Charlie asked, gesturing at himself and looking between them. “Bill told me that Magical Britain is going back to more formal wear than I’m used to, even before I moved to Romania. If this isn’t good enough, I don’t know if I can keep going with the plan to move back here. Oh, I had a robe somewhere …” he looked around as if he had placed it somewhere in the last few moments. “Ah, yes, I took it off in the library, too warm …”
“That is …” Astoria began.
“Wait what!? You are moving back! To Britain?!” Chaos shot up from her chair.
“Yeeees?” he dragged the word out. “They are opening a new dragon reserve up in Scotland and as I’m an old hat at dragon keeping now, I sent in an application. I have my second interview the day after tomorrow. Galahad loves the dragons in Romania, and I do too, but Bill has talked about moving back here and all of Galahad’s friends live here, so, yes. I don’t have a lot of family here, nor old friends,” he nodded at her to show she was the exception to that, “but with Bill and his family living here and Galahad’s friends living here, and with a new and maybe even better paid job, I figured I can rebuild my life and network one more time. Even if we end up living in Scotland, it will be possible to Floo instead of using a portkey or several apparition jumps.”
“Bill is moving back too?” Chaos could feel her heart hammering hard in her chest.
”It sounds like it, yes. Fleur will have to commute because of her responsibility as the Head of the Veela enclave, but the new schools here are already rumoured to be better than Beauxbatons and much, much better than Hogwarts was the last hundred years or so. They want what’s best for their children, and Bill really wants to help rebuild now that he knows it will be safe to do so.”
“That is … absolutely wonderful!” Chaos almost squeaked. “Wait until I tell Harry this!” She changed into her Naga form and slid over the sand faster than she would have been able to run. She was a better swimmer this way too, and Harry was still swimming after his horrible night. If this didn’t turn around his mood, nothing would.
“Whoa, I don’t think I will ever get used to that change!” Charlie exclaimed behind her. “Huh, I hoped she would be pleased, but not … quite this much?” Charlie sounded confused.
“Some of it is because she is pleased to have the two of you, and your families, back in Britain. But also, while some people have moved back, more than we could have asked for at this early stage, a lot of people believe Harry and Chaos has turned native, or gone Dark, or however you would like to put it, because Harry married the Dark Lord and Chaos now lives here at Malfoy Manor. Having Weasley’s, a traditionally very Light family, moving back to Britain now, will most likely encourage other people to do the same. If you think it’s safe to move, even with your families, then it really is safe. It is very likely that we will see a steady stream, if not a flow, of people moving back, or just moving here for the first time, about half a year to a year, after you do.”
“So, we are the canaries in the mine, in this scenario?”
“If you want to use that picture, then yes.”
“I know both Harry and Chaos, they wouldn’t have let Zinnia live here with you nor in the country if it wasn’t safe, they wouldn’t have even let me visit with Galahad if it wasn’t safe. I might get some pushback, being from a very Light family and all, but as long as they leave Galahad out of it, I can deal with being the canary. You, we, really need more people here.”
“Yes, we really do …”
The rest of Astoria’s sentence disappeared under the rush of water. Chaos smiled into the cold flow against her face and closed one set of her eyelids to make it more comfortable to swim and see underwater. Harry would really like to know this, and she thought he would like the idea she had about getting the teenagers into families, too. They had work to do, good work, and good work would help push the bad memories away.