The Girls

“Vous étiez une si douce enfant.” Quilicus Malfois said, crouched in front of Mallie with a huge, bursting bouquet in hand and Petunia watched the interaction carefully.

“Tu ressembles à tonton. Comme moi.” she said hesitantly, slowly. “Malveaux?”

“Non.” he shook his head, “Malfois. Je suis ton papa.” he said softly.

Petunia hadn’t been fond of this route for Lily’s Operation False Trails, as Crystal had jokingly dubbed it. Mostly didn’t trust a stranger coming in and promising things when they didn’t know him. But Dauphine had been the one to bring him in and he’d gleefully agreed to become a daddy and not just to spite his family. Although still, yes, to spite his family the Malfois.

Quilicus was ‘disgraced’ for having been caught in an orgy of Veela and Sirene women and blatantly saying he would never marry. Petunia, and Lily, had of course been more than a little wary about someone like that being given potentially close access to the girls.

In fact, new backstories had been made and arranged, files shifted and subtly changed to corroborate the new history and Lily’s timeline.

And part of that timeline was her sister having been secretly married.

She felt like she’d been listening to a pitch for a daytime programme when it was suggested at the Vowing meeting.

Ostensibly out of grief of having to be separated from her ‘husband’ and learning about his disappearance before his death was ‘confirmed’, she’d had a drunken one night stand and had Nena. That awful boy, thankfully enough, looked regular enough and only his mother’s pitch dark eyes were really of much note. Otherwise, you could find any man in near any pub in Europe with the same face thereabouts.

Her personal research about ‘stalling’ and ‘keeping’ fertilized eggs are part of the reason for her children being a certain length apart during her ‘reckless grieving’ about her husband’s death where she would drink and a few times, end up having one-night stands. ‘Officially’ those charms weren’t ‘cleared’ for use and were ‘scrapped’. Petunia was well aware that they were just being refined and hoarded but that was classified.

Also a point from her research, when Lily activated a spell or ritual for ‘her and her husband’s child’ (Mimi) she hadn’t ‘known’ she was also pregnant with the Malfois child, hence the twins.

Nena’s father was totally unknown.

Mimi’s father was her late husband Regulus Black.

Mallie was this Quilicus Malfois’s child. He’d gone to explore the Amazon and Lily, having only met him for a few days in a lighthearted fling as she was ‘healing’, had no way to get hold of him so he hadn’t known until recently that he was a father.

Pea, Leni and Teary’s fathers, like Nena’s, were all unknown one-night stands from her yearly week of ‘grieving’. It was true that about once or twice a year Lily disappeared but over time, Petunia had learned it was for secretive research trips. Selling it as Lily going on a week long bender over losing her husband?

Daytime programme. Petunia was living in a daytime drama programme.

Nena’s unknown could be truly written off as unknown.

Pea’s ‘unknown’ could be written off specifically as a runaway illegitimate Lai child. Apparently there were a lot of them, enough that with the fire elemental abilities, no one would bat an eye or even try to properly verify it at this point.

Leni, like Nena, hers could be written off because while her actual father’s family were at least in some way formerly known for having seers whose visions were usually put to wood, that had been a long time ago and the whole seer, clairvoyant, soothsayer didn’t always run through lines.

Teary’s Parseltongue only limited her slightly, it was the storm part that left them thinking.

Of them, only Mimi and Mallie underwent the ritual that- and how it ended up like this, honestly- that Teary’s paternal grandmother set up for them. Thanks to Mimi’s paternal grandmother, who was Wisteria’s gran’s niece.

Dorea Potter, who had only known about Mimi’s...Situation, had almost immediately demanded Lily hand over Teary when she first learned of her.

That had stalled the meeting, to be sure, but it was mostly Walburga Black and Dauphine who had managed to get the other woman to sit down and not turn Lily in for Line Theft and who knows what else.

Petunia was peripherally aware that at least Pea and Leni had half-siblings if only by the gossip of Lily’s old Hogwarts friends.

But it was the first time actually being confronted with the thought that they really and truly had other siblings out there with actual fathers and things like paternal grandmothers. Two of which Petunia now personally knew.

The whole thing was a complicated mess.

Eventually Dorea had calmed down enough but she refused to perform the ritual on Teary, which Lily had been quick to agree with, given Teary’s medical history. Dorea had also, grudgingly, agreed to the secrecy Vows.

Petunia was still uneasy about it, especially the steely look she’d gotten in her eyes when she was told she couldn’t meet Teary. Lily was protective of all her girls, but Teary most of all.

Still, though the twins went through the ritual, the group that were in on the whole thing would be keeping an eye out for records and potential blood samples from one of those runaway Lai and for the blood of a minor clairvoyant family with someone who looked closely enough like Leni.

Preferably dead, both prospective fathers, who’d been drunken one-night-stands and thus, impossible to really look into very much. But neither were given the same urgency Mimi and Mallie had and if they didn’t end up with it, it likely wouldn’t matter anyways.

But, with Mimi’s new parentage came Walburga.

As in, the woman left Blighty entirely without a word to anyone but Dorea. For a short time while a Black home had been spruced up for her to live in, she had lived with Dauphine to try to...Un-bigot her, Petunia would say is the bluntest way to put it.

But she quickly joined the group of Lily’s sitters when she had proved that she could and did put most of the hatred and prejudice behind her with the loss of her sons, especially with Mimi being primed to become Lady Black. Yes, Petunia got to learn about that whole drama as well. At this point she might just start writing her own bloody novels and selling them in the muggle world. She could make a fortune.

Mimi, as well, had been told about her ‘father’ when Walburga had come.

She turned her attention back to Lettie as her daughter chased around a dog-formed Mimi instead, knowing there were other eyes observing Mallie and the Malfois man.

She hadn’t expected to feel so lonely when Luis left for Beauxbaton, or for the way Lettie and Reau missed their big brother but from all the letters, Luis was having a great time and making all sorts of new friends. Still, it was hard without him. Lily’s girls felt the separation too, given how often Petunia and Luca watched them. Nena, despite trying to keep a petulant face, missed her closest friend.

...It seemed impossible sometimes to separate Lily’s kids from her own. They practically were half Petunia’s anyways and the girls had slipped up and called her maman more than once.

What will she do when all her sweet babies were grown or in school anyways? Sure it was busy now, but what about when Nena starts school the coming autumn? And then, Lettie and the twins? Pea? Leni? Reau and Teary?

It felt like just yesterday most of them were still in nappies and prams...

xXx

Severus accepted the Du Maurier quickly enough as he sat in Reg’s kitchen and he shrugged as though he wouldn’t have been struck with a stinging hex for it as a child, setting out the rest of the tea and some probably slightly stale biscuits for his guest with a flick of his wand.

“A fake wife and child?” the taller man asked as he billowed smoke from his nose and shook his head, slightly disrupting the wildflower and satiny musk his friend seemed to inherently exude under the film of potion fumes that clung to him at all times. “A muggleborn wife at that?”

“No congratulations on starting a family?” the once-Black asked lightly as he slid into his own seat. Utterly black eyes turned to him, a flat expression on his face. Reg waved it off, the glint of his prosthetic arm making his old friend’s eyes linger on it for a few moments. “I don’t really know much of it and better that way I suppose but Mother has relocated to them. Somewhere in France, closer to southern by the looks of the property she moved to.” he lit up his own smoke to enjoy. “Important part is, if anyone were to ask if I had a secret wife that you tell them yes, I did have a secret mudb- muggleborn wife that I had planned to have a child with. Any other details I’m sure either Mother or great-Aunty Dori will get ahold of you for but I doubt anything will happen any time soon.” he said easily. “If it gets to that point at all.” he mused.

“Then why bother dragging me into this in the first place?” Snape’s scowl was possibly even more fierce than it was years ago. Dealing with little idiot brats all day probably did it, Reg thought to himself.

“Please, everyone called you either Lucius’s leech or mine. If anyone were to know about some mysterious secret wife of mine, it would be you.” he pointed out breezily. “Mother already messed with the Family Tree somehow but you know how those kinds can get. Better just in case.”

“You’re still, after a decade, struggling not to use the word mudblood and you want me to convince that crowd that you fell in love and went behind your parents’ backs and managed, despite getting close to the Dark Lord, to marry a muggleborn woman.”

“Convince? Not at all. Just not deny.”

And Snape sighed, long and loud, finally slumping from the tense, poised position as he tilted his head back.

“You are an absolute dunderhead to have agreed in the first place.” he groused.

“Not like I have to deal with it.” he pointed out. “I’m dead, don’t forget.”

“Prat.” the other man huffed, tilting his head forward again to suck more nicotine in. “Fine. If anyone bothers me about if Regulus Black had secretly had a wife or muggleborn lover he was hiding from everyone, I’ll say ‘of course he did’ and then make them feel stupid for asking in the first place until they drop the issue.” he rolled his eyes.

“Good man. Now then, let’s celebrate your long-due retirement from teaching. Who knows, maybe now you’ll finally get a wife and child of your own like the rest of us?”

“Prat.”

xXx

Wallie was learning things no one bothered to help her with when she’d had her own children. Times had changed, or maybe it had been her mother’s upbringing that had damaged things. Not that Wallie would have accepted help back then, no, she was too proud. Her own husband, who she hadn’t wanted but they all knew they didn’t get to choose their own husbands or wives, hadn’t even really been hers. More that Rosier chit’s and she couldn’t even blame Cyggi for her scheming little whorish ways. Her schemes were the reason he’d insisted on the Fidelity Oaths in his daughter’s marriages, so they wouldn’t suffer like she had with Orion and they wouldn’t turn into their mother. Since they had a ritual to ‘fix’ parentage, the other Blacks had quietly looked away from it.

Wallie didn’t love her husband, not at all. She hadn’t wanted to marry her doll dizzy cousin but, unless one was willing to be struck from the family, one married who their parents chose. Wallie might have been loud and outspoken, but she wasn’t brave like that.

...But she was brave enough to protect her sons from the marriage and betrothal demands, the kinds that had put her with Orion, Cyggi with that slag. If her sons married, it would be their decision. She would have still demanded a Pureblood and one up to Black standards of course, but she wasn’t going to forcibly tie them to someone they didn’t want to be with. Lulu, Orion’s sister and by far the better of the two, at least had the same mentality and they weathered the complaints together.

(Though that Lucretia’s only daughter, little Molly, ended up marrying Cedrella’s son…

Thinking of it, she lost both of her sons as well. More permanently. Maybe Wallie could try to get into contact with her again...)

Now, here, with her granddaughter (and Aunt Dori’s granddaughter for that matter, who Wallie was keeping track of for), Wallie seemed to finally understand certain points of childrearing. Whether it was changing times or her own family’s enshrined habits, looking back Wallie could see blaring signs that she had…

Abusive was never a word used in the Black house, no matter how harsh and how painful punishments were. Strict. Demanding.

To hear practices that she knew as just a bit of a stern nature being called abusive had been a slap to the face. That even when she softened punishments to her boys that were worse when she was younger, that it didn’t mean she was being soft to them. Don’t slap the child, no matter how lightly it’s done. Don’t hex the child with stinging pain. Don’t forcibly paralyze the child into sitting properly. Don’t charm the child’s mouth shut when they were having a strop. Don’t lock the child in a small room if they were being unseemly.

Those were the lightest punishments Wallie remembered from childhood and the ones she typically used with her sons because anything more would just...Hurt her heart and hurt theirs even more.

Talking to the children, listening to them, soothing them. Not shushing them with soft words, but genuinely reassuring them. Those were all...Unheard of. Or, for the weak. For the pathetic.

She’d sent an admittedly soppy letter to Aunt Dori to send to her Regulus and, after much hesitation and knowing full well that he might burn the letter without touching it, another one to Sirius.

She’d joined a group of women of her age to talk about things like their upbringings and harmful things that had been done to them and that they had done to others before ‘seeing the light’. She still wasn’t good at talking about her...Feelings. Years and years of not being able to genuinely show them did that to a person apparently, but she...Was working on it. Slowly. Some days she would have to decline watching the children purely because she could tell she might slip into doing or saying something harshly. Something she might forget the next day, think nothing of, but that might...Stay with the child she said it to.

It had been strange, recognizing that. She, certainly, remembered certain hurtful things said to her that the person who’d even said it didn’t recall at all. Just a thing they’d once said and forgot about. But she, a hurt child, remembered. Interred it into her psyche.

Even after learning and recognizing that, it was hard sometimes to try to mind her tongue or not fall back onto old practices but she was...She was growing. And learning.

And she was part of her granddaughter’s life. Not just because she was going to be Lady Black one day, but because she was her granddaughter.

And she was a brilliant little girl. She laughed and smiled freely and played freely, bursting with energy and love and life.

Wallie never wanted to wipe away a child’s laughter or smile again.

She would be better, even if she couldn’t forgive herself.

She would be better, even if her sons couldn’t forgive her. She wouldn’t blame them.

Wallie had never been able to forgive her own mother either.

xXx

“That’s a load of horse shit if I ever saw any.” Crystal snorted. Personally, she wouldn’t have chosen to come anywhere near this particular joke shop, given who ran it and regularly worked here, but Isa’s friends had been plying her with all sorts of fun stories. But, they did have an...Adult’s section and well, she was at least a little curious. Had she been expecting a sex doll that could be shrunken to look like a glass figurine? A charmed ‘realistic’ dog’s tongue for the deviant or a pulsating dildo that came with a ‘knot’, a strange bulbous thing at the base of it? Well, a sort of bestial section in general?

Or their...Significantly lacking or off the mark products for ‘Femme le Femme’ line. Did they get a woman’s opinion at all? Half the lingerie looked like it would take a whole team to put together! The painted models (not photos, what woman would be caught in these rags and strings?) winked and stood in ways Crystal was sure would break or at least dislocate a bone or rib or something.

And they can run off any complaints by waving it off as ‘it’s a novelty shop, it’s a joke shop, of course it’s not serious’.

There did at least seem to be a matching lingerie section aimed at masculine frames as well, though the outward marketing displayed ‘gag gifts’. But the quality, Crystal could admit, was genuine. Even if it was a bad way to protect certain clientele, she could give them that at least.

(She did vaguely remember rumors of one of Lupin’s girlfriends actually being a boyfriend, and it had been about around that time that they came out with their new ‘crossdressing gag gift’ line. Whether it was true or not, well, Crystal never really cared enough besides thinking ‘huh’ and then leaving it be.)

Another point; they did also make their ridiculous lingerie to fit other sentient creatures and beings. Whether those creatures and beings actually bought them, or were inclined to wear such frippery, Crystal had not a clue. Still. There weren’t as many or as varied, but they were there.

How they might have gotten measurements, Crystal did not want nor need to know. She rolled her eyes, shooting a look at the couple over by the charmed animal ear headbands and earmuffs and charmed tail accessories and gimp masks. Whatever got them going, she supposed, and left the adult section entirely to rejoin her wife and daughter.

“Is that- Douglas?” and before she knew it, Lupin stood before her, eyes flicking to her bloated and clearly pregnant belly and her wife and daughter. “Thought I recognized that disapproving look on your face.” he grinned at her. Lupin, while handsome like the rest of his friends and despite the scars, had a more charmingly homely and gentlemanly air, even complete with having had a pet bunny. It was a lie because he was as much a bellend as his other friends, but he’d been moderately responsible enough to have been Prefect anyways.

And she never did actually see him with a bunny in school.

“I heard you work in Knockturn?” he said then and ah, that was actually how he probably recognized her. She wasn’t sure how long Lupin had been a werewolf, but the potions to help deal with lycanthropy’s less ‘ideal’ aspects would never be sold in a place like Diagon or Hogsmeade. Crystal was personally usually in the back brewing, so didn’t actually interact with or know the customers. But she had, a few times, vaguely recognized voices; Lupin’s voice which he hadn’t bothered trying to disguise despite wearing a Knockturn-typical shady cloak. Seven years growing up in close proximity could do that to a person.

“And you work...Here.” she looked around pointedly. “Doing well for yourselves at least.”

“As friendly as I remember.” he sighed, then eyed her wife before a more charming smile slid onto his face. “And this lovely lady?”

“My wife, Lupin, so don’t get any ideas.” she narrowed her gaze at him and he laughed a little as Bibi stifled her own snort. “Liebling, this is an old Housemate of mine, Remus Lupin. Lupin, my wife Bibi, our daughter Isa. And, depending, either little Espen or Marit.” she waved a hand towards her belly. It was only polite to introduce, and they had been a form of friendly as students.

“Crystal!”

“Tiff?” she turned incredulously to see her friend waving at her enthusiastically.

“Tiffany?” Lupin seemed just a surprised. Behind her, her sons and her brother, and his own daughter looked over curiously.

“I’m visiting Ro!” she said brightly as she hurried over. “And he says this is a good place to buy something to prank Egon with!”

“You lopped all your hair off!” Crystal accused instead and she gave a fluttery laugh.

“Egon left the boys in charge of teatime the other day. I don’t know what got into my hair but it was better to just cut if off than try to do anything else with it.” she explained to her friend breezily. “Besides, I like it! The pixie cut is very versatile! And so much easier to deal with!” she enthused. “Oh! Hullo Lupin.” she greeted as though she hadn’t been specifically speaking in English for his benefit.

“Mama war wütend.” the older son, Leon shared bluntly, “Also ist es eine Art Rache.”

Without even looking and still with that bubbly bright expression, she reached back and pinched his ear.

“Crystal! Look at my niece Romilda!” she said instead as her younger son snickered at his brother’s misfortune. “Isn’t she the cutest?” she turned to show off the little girl Roman, her older brother was carrying. Her curls were darker, almost black and her eyes were also dark as she clung onto her father.

“Isa, führst du unsere Gäste herum?” Bibi told her softly and she nodded, a bright smile on her face as the brothers perked up at being momentarily unsupervised in a joke shop. Bibi looked to Tiff who shot a glance at her brother who nodded.

“Onkel gehen mit.” she said but that only made her boys grin at eachother. As doting as he had always been with Tiff when they were younger, he was just as soft towards the kids after all. “Lupin!” she smiled wide and friendly and it seemed to cause an appropriate amount of caution in the man. “You wouldn’t happen to have something of the appropriate gravitas for a little friendly, non-permanent tit for tat around here would you?”

As Sirius waltzed towards the back room, he noticed Moony with a trio of women around him and shook his head. For all they called Sirius a playboy it was always Moony that seemed to get crowds of women. Sly old dog. One of them even pregnant! Seems his old friend had a thing for that after all!He shook his head wistfully, cheerfully missing the plea for help in Moony’s eyes.

xXx

“I can’t just leave my research.” Lily frowned, red hair up in a tail and out of her face and just home.

“It’s only a fortnight, dear.” their mum coaxed softly. “It’s just been so long since we’ve had a good family outing.”

“We go out together all the time?” she crossed her arms.

“She means multiple uninterrupted days where you don’t disappear at odd hours and leave us to try to tell your daughters why maman left again and why maman doesn’t want to spend time with them.” Petunia said, seeing no need for the soft handling Lily had always been treated with by their parents.

“That’s not true!” Lily immediately denied but Petunia sent her a dark look.

“How many times have your girls called me maman, call Luis and Reau their brothers and Lettie their sister?” she asked sharply. “How many times have I, or mum or da or one of the other grandparents had to take care of the girls for weeks at a time with you barely breezing by for supper? Do you even know Nena’s favorite story? The foods your daughters don’t like, or their favorite animals, or even their favorite toys, how they each like to wear their hair?” she demanded and Lily got that familiar mulish look on her face.

“I’m not a bad mother.” she snarled, low and combative.

“No one is saying that darling,” their mum tried to push in but Petunia held up her hand towards her.

“Did I say that you’re a bad mother? Or did the things I say sound like things a bad mother wouldn’t know about her own children?” she challenged her sister. “You can step away for a few fucking days to actually talk to and interact with your children and nephews and niece Lily. Or, you can just walk off and ignore the whole thing and blow us and your daughters off. It’s your choice.” she turned, not bothering to let Lily respond or, more likely, throw excuses or insults or justifications at her. “I don’t mind looking after my nieces, but they sure as hell mind never spending any actual time with their mother.” she said in a parting shot before stepping through the floo.

“The girls don’t get to spend personal, one on one time with you, darling. They’re very sensitive about that.” their mother said softly after a minute of awkward silence, trying not to upset Lily more. She could see frustrated tears already in her younger daughter’s eyes. “Your father and I have always supported your career, and we always will but...The girls are getting older. They want a relationship with their mother.”

She didn’t think it was wise to mention that she’d heard, more than once, some of the older girls say they wished that Petunia was their mother, or that one of their friend’s mothers was their mother instead. She just wanted Lily to realize that the girls weren’t just ‘the girls’, but each of them beautiful, special children who needed their mother in their lives. Harry settled his hand on her shoulder.

“And frankly, we miss you too.” he said in a rumble. “It’s wonderful that you found your calling, ducky. Out there using that brave brain of yours to make life easier and better for people. But you’re not just a researcher or a- a Charms Mistress, a potioneer, whatever. You’re our daughter.”

“Petunia’s little sister,” Magnolia smiled wistfully, “Aunt to three little angels.”

“Mother to six amazing little girls. And those girls, Luis, Lettie and Reau, they should get to know the amazing woman that their mother and aunt is for themselves. Not in the aftermath of her achievements.”

“Just...Just think about it.” Magnolia pleaded quietly. “Goodnight, dear.” and they left, leaving Lily standing in the foyer alone.

“...But they are my achievements.” she whispered.

xXx

“What? Why is Mallie not with Pea? Why doesn’t Nena have Teary, she’s the oldest and most responsible?” Lily frowned as she watched her daughters dutifully pair off. Her sister sent her a long look that Lily wasn’t sure she wanted to know meant.

“Why would Mallie double with Pea?”

“To put out any of Pea’s fires?” Lily ended up asking rather than saying. It was just an effect her older sister sometimes had on her.

“It’s not Mallie’s responsibility.” she said plainly. “And Nena, even if she’s the oldest and most responsible, is also still a child and shouldn’t have to take responsibility for a tot.” she said, not scathing but the flat tone certainly didn’t make Lily feel any better. “Nena gets along best with Pea if Luis isn’t around, so she partners with Pea. Lettie and Mimi are inseparable so they partner up. Mallie has decided Teary is her favorite sister, so she goes with Teary and whoever has her. Leni mostly stays with mum and Reau is usually with me, Luca when he’s done work or da. Boy solidarity, he says.” she rolled her eyes. “But right now he has both Reau and Teary, so he has Mallie too.”

“Wait, when did Mallie start getting along with Teary?”

“When Teary made a hailstorm in the ballroom.” Tuney told her and Lily blinked in shock.

“She what? And no one told me about this?”

“I’d more ask how you didn’t notice.” her sister sighed, rubbing her face. “Do you not recall having to call in a team to repair the floors and clean the drapes?”

“I thought that was just Mallie!”

And Petunia gave her another one of those long judging looks. “Mallie has only just learned to make an icicle the width of a pencil and you thought she was able to create little pellets of ice enough to damage the ballroom?” she asked her slowly. “Honestly Lily.” she shook her head and swanned off where Lettie and Mimi had crouched down and began whispering together. Lily frowned and turned out to look at the children.

She...Hadn’t known Mallie was getting anywhere at all with her ice breath. Had no clue that Teary was capable of storms besides ones of thunder and lightning. Didn’t know Mimi and Lettie were so close, or how much Pea seemed to look up to Nena, or that Leni preferred spending time with her grandmother over her sisters.

She hadn’t known that Nena had been getting riding lessons for flying horses under Dauphine, or that the woman had taken her with to see ballet performances when her oldest had expressed an interest in it.

She hadn’t known that Mimi’s favorite thing right now was a bean sack meant to be kicked and tricked with, or that da had taken her (and Reau) to see boxing fights and her daughter was enamored by the sport.

She hadn’t known that Mallie had been sneaking into the art room to draw and paint by herself when she wasn’t playing with those little beanbag sacks as well or that she had joined the football team in her primary.

She hadn’t known that Pea had been amassing a collection of seashells, or that she had started accompanying Nena and Dauphine to those ballet performances but that she enjoyed skiing the most when she was up in La Grave.

She hadn’t known that Leni had been obsessed with hula hoops and going to the muggle cinema with her grandmother.

Even Teary. Teary who was in the room attached to Lily’s. Teary who would have just been in preschool if not for her volatile magic and health.

Teary had a taste for honey. When Lily shooed Wiggles out of the room, Teary would cause a storm and Lily never made the connection that Wiggles sleeping curled up with her had been a comfort and that on nights when Lily didn’t come in, Wiggles spent the night with Teary in her cot.

Lily only knew things about her daughters that pertained to her research.

And she understood that she hadn’t been treating her daughters truly as her children, not the way she thought she would be as a mother.

And now they were here, having a roadtrip through Spain to try to bridge some of that gap. Three whole weeks, for Lily to get to know her family again after...Years. To put her research to the side for once and focus on her family. Once winter hols came, Luis would join them and she was sure the children would be overjoyed to be reunited with one of their own.

She shook her head and looked over the children again cautiously. She spied Nena and Pea weaving flowers and tentatively made her way over.

The way their faces lit up when she asked to join them both hurt and healed her heart in a way she hadn’t been expecting.

xXx

“Tu crois qu'elle le pense?” Mimi whispered to Lettie and the blonde contemplated that for a few long moments.

“L'important, c'est qu'elle soit là.” made both girls jump and they turned to look up at maman. Tante. It was hard sometimes to remember that she was Tante Tuney to Mimi and not maman. “Elle tente d'arranger les choses.” she muttered more to herself than to them.

Mimi wasn’t really sure how to feel when she- all of them- had been told that maman had taken off work to spend so long with them. To spend time with them. But now it looked like Nena’s unkind mutters about her being forced to seemed maybe a little...True. Mimi and Lettie both looked over to where maman sat with Nena and Pea. Even if Nena seemed like she was unhappy before, she was smiling so widely and she actually pushed her hair behind her ears so they could see her full face for once. But...What if she was only here for a little bit and left again? That would definitely make Nena sad but she was going to Beauxbaton with Luis next year so she’d spend all her time at school.

Mimi still really wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It was bad enough when Luis left and now they would lose Nena too?

She might not be her favorite sister or anything, but that doesn’t mean Mimi wanted her so far away!

Or- maybe that’s why maman was spending time with them now? Will she leave all the time again after this and then come back before Mimi, Lettie and Mallie head to school themselves and spend a few weeks with them?

If it was that, then she wouldn’t be separated from Lettie right? Wouldn’t have to be separated from mam- tante for maman to sweep in when she’d never really been there before.

She was sure if that was the case then Nena wouldn’t be making such a happy face because then she wouldn’t get to go see the dancers or spend so much time at the stables. Little Leni wouldn’t get to go see all the muggle films.

But maman had a ‘demanding job’ so...Surely it was only temporary.