The little girl with brown pigtails stared at the horse skull on the small cabin's kitchen table. She moved slightly to the side and stepped around the table carefully as if she were being watched by the skull with bright blue Christmas ornaments hanging from the sockets of the eyes. Scorpius walked in and watched his sister walking around the table. When the small toddler noticed the skull of the horse on the table he started to cry loudly. When Scorpius started to cry Lizzy stopped and started to cry.
Hermione hurried into the kitchen when she heard the two little children start to cry. Hermione frowned when she saw the horse’s skull. “Theo!” She screamed out in an irritated tone. Both kids ran to her clinging to her legs. Hermione held onto the doorframe when she felt both kids grab hold of her.
Theo came running down the stairs along with Draco. “What’s wrong?” Theo asked as he looked at the crying children. Draco leaned down and picked up Lizzy first. Theo picked up Scorpius.
“You left the skull out?” She spoke as she rested a hand on her pregnant stomach.
Theo blinked and looked at the skull as he shook his head. “No, I didn’t want to make one with the two being so little.” He looked over at Draco. “Did you get the skull?”
“No, this is your tradition you wanted to do that you did growing up, I still don’t understand why anyone would run around with a horse skull singing at people,” Draco spoke as he rubbed Lizzy’s back trying to comfort her.
“Then who?” Hermione spoke as she conjured a blanket to cover everything to keep the children from seeing the rest.
Theo and Hermione looked back at Draco. “Where’s your father?” Theo spoke.
Draco furrowed a brow. “I highly doubt that my father would do something like this,”
Hermione frowned, but let out a sigh of relief when the two stopped crying. “I know you wanted to go out and celebrate, but I think the children are still too young for this Theo.” She spoke sadly.
“Yeah, I just I remember growing up singing and following the Mari around as they went into homes,” Theo spoke as the little boy started to fall asleep.
“Maybe we should have done this when Lizzy was a baby so she would be used to this. It’s a bit scary, I grew up in the muggle world and we didn’t celebrate this tradition. We stuck more to knocking on peoples’ doors and singing carols.” Hermione took Scorpius into her arms.
The sound of the kitchen door swung open and closed. “Who covered the skull I got?” Lucius spoke as he clicked his cane on the grey tile.
“Well, that solved that problem,” Hermione spoke as she walked out of the room.
Draco sighed as he looked at his father. “What were you thinking leaving that out right now with the children running around.”
“I was trying to be supportive of Theo’s little tradition you three decided to make sure the children got the full experience.”
“You scared them by leaving the horse skull out. We haven’t even sat them down to explain the tradition yet.” Draco spoke a little annoyed. “We weren’t going to make one this year until the children experienced the festival to see how they would feel.”
“I guess you want to raise a softer generation of children,” Lucius spoke a bit sarcastically.
“No, we just want to raise our children to understand the world isn’t full of dark things,” Theo spoke a bit upset at Lucius. “You said you would be supportive of how we three decided to raise the children.”
“I said I would be understanding of muggle traditions and how you planned to raise them, but everything seems to be it’s ok come here, or you feel let me get that fixed up,” Lucius spoke a bit upset.
“Father, do you think how you raised me might not have been the best?” Draco spoke a bit upset.
“I only raised you how I was raised,” Lucius spoke.
“Sometimes it’s good to break an unhealthy cycle,” Theo spoke. “How we grew up wasn’t ok as much as you think it was. If you want to really be supportive then you will listen to us and follow how we want to raise them.”
Lucius frowned as he nodded in defeat. “I will try to be more observant that they are being raised differently, your mother seems to have taken on this role easier than I have.”
“Because this is how she wanted to raise me, but you wouldn’t budge,” Draco spoke sadly.
Hermione came back down the steps. “Your father has made big steps, he’s been accepting of me. I mean after Lizzy was born. I think though at first, he didn’t think this relationship we have would last long, but here we are.” She spoke trying to break the mood. “Currently working on baby number three.” She chuckled.
“I really wasn’t trying to scare the children, I was only trying to embrace this tradition a bit with the grandchildren,” Lucius spoke.
“I know, but Father just tone it down a bit, no skulls or anything scary. At least run it by one of us three before you try just to be on the safe side so we can warm them up to the idea.” Draco spoke as he let out a sigh of relief. “We will go out tonight and we will see how the two handle the festival.”