Chapter 20
‘Time skip brought to you by Darcy teaching Hadrian how to hide'
They haven’t been on a date since their son was born so in 5 months, so Marvolo decided to ask Regulus on a date to celebrate their anniversary. They are going on a date in Paris and they were both excited to get to spend time with just each other. But they were also nervous to leave Hadrian with someone other than them for the first time.
Even though Hadrian has a lot of aunts and uncles who adore him, finding a babysitter for the night proved to be a difficult task. Their first choice was Narcissa and Lucius but Draco is sick so they can’t babysit. Next they asked Pandora but she has an appointment at St. Mungos and somehow almost everybody else is also on a mission or sick so that leaves them with only one option.
They were now ready to go out, looking dashing as always, and Marvolo was waiting by the floo for Regulus, who was threatening their babysitters.
“When anything happens and I mean anything you send a patronus or you come and get us, you know where we are. If you need something or don’t know where something is call Darcy, she knows where everything is. We will be back in 5 hours and if anything happens to my baby I will gut you and make you eat eachother's intestines while still being alive. And then I will let Marvolo have a go “ Finished a smiling Regulus. By the end both Evan and Barty glanced at Marvolo only to find him darkly smirking in their direction, promising death if anything happened to his child.
“I swear nothing will happen to our godson before you return and you will get your child back in perfect health my lord” Said Evan sarcastically. Still a little fearful Barty quickly nodded next to him and adjusted Hadrian's positsion on his hip “Yep nothing will happen to the baby with his favorite uncles” Added Barty.
Humming Regulus said nothing as he moved towards his child who was smiling and kissed his forehead “Bye little Star we will see you later, alright?” Said Regulus to Hadrian who immediately reached for his papa when he moved to go to the floo. After Regulus, Marvolo while muttering “You better hope so" to Barty and Evan also moved towards his child and pecked his forehead “Goodbye little Prince, be good”. And like last time Hadrian whined a little reaching for his daddy, who was now entering the floo.
“We will be back in 5 hours” Said Regulus who a second later disappeared into the green flames.
There was pure silence for a few seconds before Barty opened his mouth “So little dude, what shall we do with you?” he asked while bouncing and tickling him a little to elicit giggles from the child. But as quick as he started the baby was gone from his arms and now in Evan’s who was gently cradling him “Are you already trying to kill our godson!? Cissa said you weren’t supposed to shake babies because they will get brain damage. And as much as I can see, this is a baby and you were shaking him! Do you want our godchild to have brain damage and die or WORSE be stupid like you forever!?!” Yelled a frantic Evan who was checking the baby over so that Barty didn’t accidentally give him brain damage.
“He doesn’t have brain damage. I was only bouncing him a little, not shaking him! And also I'm not stupid!” Defended Barty loudly. Sighing after confirming that Hadrian was alright, Evan asked the important question “So what do babies do all day and what should we feed him if he gets hungry?” They stared at each other and then at the baby trying to find the answer but were left in the dark by the universe.
“OH” Exclaimed Barty “Let’s call Darcy, Reggie said she knows stuff” Silence followed that statement when slowly Evan uttered “Well you aren’t that dumb after all, DARCY!” ”Hey I told you I’m not dumb!” said Barty but went unheard because a pop echoed through the floo room and a stern elf appeared in front of them. “What can Darcy do for master Barty, master Rosier and little master prince Hadrian?” The last one made Barty chuckle a bit but he again went ignored “What does Hadrian usually do at this time and what does he do in his free time? Oh and what do we feed him?” Inquired Evan.
“Little master prince Hadrian usually has his lunch now, he drinks milk and when he is bored he plays hide & seek, does magic and plays with his toys, sometimes little master Dragon visits and they play together.” Informed the elf. Taking in the information Barty asked the next question “Can you bring Hadrian’s milk and some of his favorite toys to the family living room?” Darcy only nodded and popped away.
When they made it to the living room everything was already set up for them. When they settled down Barty couldn’t help but snort a little at Hadrian’s choice of apparently favorite stuffie, a light green basilisk with a glittery tongue that, had somehow already reached the boy’s arms. That earned him a vicious side eye from said baby who was hugging his stuffie or it would have been vicious if it wasn’t coming from, in Barty’s opinion, the cutest baby in the world holding a green basilisk stuffie.
It was decided that Evan would feed Hadrian because he was apparently more responsible, utter shite in Barty’s opinion. So it was Barty’s job to find the milk, luckily it was quickly found because the baby was starting to get grumpy and grumpy babies were never a good thing.
The feeding was… eventful that’s for sure. Oh no, Hadrian didn’t do anything wrong, he ate well and calmly, it was Barty that caused the disturbance, when he started making faces as soon as he noticed that Hadrian’s eyes were on him. That resulted in a giggly happy baby…who started choking on milk because he was laughing while drinking.
Both men panicked when they noticed, luckily Evan remembered a baby anti-choking charm, that he learned while babysitting his younger cousins for money, quickly, otherwise this would have ended badly for everyone.
So now there was a baby who was sobbing his little heart out, a pissed off man holding and sushing him while glaring at the second man who was guiltily looking towards the baby. Hadrian’s crying didn’t let up until Barty gave him his basilisk which had fallen down during the whole fiasco and he of course had puked all over his onesie. The moment his little hands got on the basilisk the crying stopped and the baby was back to giggling to himself.
While that was a major relief to both of the babysitters, they now had a puke covered baby on their hands. So leaving the living room they started their search for Hadrian’s room to get him a change of clothes. After 15 min of searching around the enormous Black manor they gave up and called Darcy to help them. The stern looking elf only gave them a disappointed stare and took the baby and popped away.
Unsure of what to do the men returned to the living room, finding it cleaned of all the mess and Hadrian’s toys neatly organised on a playmat. They sat down quietly and thought about how they were supposed to explain all this to Hadrian’s parents without getting murdered, normally they would have said nothing and let them be oblivious but they were sure Darcy would tell on them, so they assumed their chances were better if it was coming from them and not the elf.
Soon Darcy popped back into the room with the now clean Hadrian whom she laid on the mat and popped away. Seeing that Evan was still thinking of their survival plans, Barty went and sat next to Hadrian so that he could play with him. Some time and flying toys later Evan joined them and suggested that they play hide & seek.
The moment the words left his mouth Hadrian’s eyes lit up with his magic and he disappeared, causing panic and chaos. Both men were instantly on their feet and running around searching for him. Suddenly they heard giggling and ran towards, but when Hadrian saw them his eyes widened again and he was gone again.
The men spent hours running after Hadrian, who kept disappearing as soon as he saw his babysitters. Neither of the men even thought to ask Dacry who had been with Hadrian this whole time making sure he didn’t get hurt. The whole situation was also the most fun the portraits had had in years, especially when they directed them in the wrong direction.
And when they finally caught up to him, after 2 hours, he was sleeping on the same mat he originally disappeared from. Exhausted from running and seeing that the baby was sleeping, they too decided to take a nap on the couches around the room.
When Regulus and Marvolo return from their date it is to their babysitters sleeping on the couches around their son and their son sleeping on his play mat hugging his basilisk.