Happy Christmas, Family Malfoy

Happy Christmas, Family Malfoy

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Chapter 3

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"So, was your dad here?" asked Keith as Mariah sat down next to him in the Ravenclaw table. Everybody had thought that he would end up in Gryffindor, and she would go to Slytherin. Well, everybody but their parents, who had remembered where they'd originally been Sorted to as babies. Everybody else, however, had thought that such an early Sorting could not have any impact on their lives later, and especially the Heads of Gryffindor and Slytherin had been hopeful. The Lupins and Malfoys had been the favourite students of their respective Heads of House, and that hadn't been forgotten. However, Mariah and Keith had both been Sorted into the House of Ravenclaw, and had enjoyed greatly their time here.

The girl smiled happily and nodded, pushing a lock of black hair behind his ear. She was one of the black-haired Malfoys, complete with the jet-black eyes. She, Hannah, Lucius, Marius, and Severah all had black hair, while the others had, quite surprisingly, red hair. They'd decided that it was due to some odd gene switch somewhere far up in Severus's family and ignored the fact that other than in number, half of their children also resembled Weasleys in appearance. Anyway, Mariah was of the darkest type of Malfoys, as was Marius. Now, her black eyes were twinkling with excitement as she leant towards her friend and whispered, "Guess what? He was seeing Madam Pomfrey. He's pregnant once again!"

"What?" Now, Keith's eyes widened. "Merlin," he breathed. "Like there weren't already enough of you creating havoc. I don't think this school will still be standing by the time the last of you has graduated." The boy had black hair to match his friend's, but his eyes were a warm amber. Although this was not the eye colour his Dad had been born with, it did not mean that he was a werewolf -- just that the Lycanthropy had changed even Remus's genealogy. And, as Keith was the only child and would remain so, Lycanthropy would not carry on to the future generations of Lupins.

Although he truly was happy for his friend, and was glad seeing Mariah so excited, Keith couldn't force down the hint of envy that was trying to approach the surface of his mind. He'd practically grown up as a yet another Malfoy kid, and the whole herd was like his own family. However, there would always be those times when it was just him and his parents, and he'd feel so lonely, knowing that Mariah had a lot of siblings around her. Especially much this saddened him whenever his Daddy was fuming about yet another werewolf restriction and his Dad was trying to calm him down, a sad look in his eyes.

Keith just couldn't believe the cruelness of some people. His fathers were the best parents anybody could have, so why couldn't they have more kids? Not only were there the general restrictions and those, but they were also keeping a close watch on their family especially, as they'd managed to have Keith. He'd heard that at one point the Ministry had even tried to take him away from his fathers, but Lucius's power in the Ministry had stopped those bastards. Nowadays, it was a little better as his Daddy was working at the Werewolf Department in the Ministry, but only a little. And it would never be really all right.

Then, however, he noticed Mariah's frown. "I think something's wrong, though," the girl said quietly. "He of course tried to hide it, but I saw he was scared. I've never seen him that scared before, Keith. True, he was frightened whenever one of the babies was in danger, but he was terrified now." With a sigh, she finished, "I truly hope there's nothing wrong with the baby. It's difficult enough to him as it is."

"I hope so, too." For a moment, Keith was quiet, watching his friend pick at her dinner. Then he asked, "By the way, did you already finish that Transfiguration essay?"

"No, I didn't," Mariah said, immediately cheering up as she got something else to think about than her dad's problems with babies. "I know that you haven't done it, either, so what about we both go to the library now and try to get it finally done?"

Keith grinned at her. "Sounds like a brilliant idea," he agreed, secretly cheering himself for being able to make Mariah forget her worries. Most said that he was the serious one of their pair, but really, Mariah was the one who worried too much. She was much like Severus in that aspect, always worried for somebody.

So, after dinner, they headed for the library to work on their Transfiguration essay. There they met up with their friend Chass Mewl, a very wild and cheerful boy that for some undefined reason had been, obviously mistakenly, placed in Slytherin. With him they saw Marine Sweet, a girl who was everything but worth her name. Sweet was far from the nasty, stuck-up Slytherin who considered herself better than anybody else.

"Hi, Mariah!" greeted Chass, waving madly at them. "Any news from your family lately?"

"Why so, Chass?" asked Mariah, smirking. "Still intent on that record-breaking family?"

It was their very own joke that some day, Chass was going to "break the record" and get a family even bigger than the Malfoys'. However, like Keith had pointed out, that was unlikely, unless he married a Weasley. And, like Chass had said, that was exactly what he should do, just to "show his parents." He'd certainly caused already enough dismay to his parents, who, while nice and caring, much like Mariah's fathers, were still Slytherins to the core.

"Well, somebody has to do that, right?" Chass was one big smile. "I still have to find somebody willing to carry all those babies, though. And if that doesn't manage, I guess I'll just have to do it myself."

"You're not serious," spat Marine. At her companions' confused gazes, she continued, "Male pregnancies are unnatural. I don't think that a true human child could be born from such an abnormal process. Pregnant men are just freaks, and everybody accepting them is seriously twisted."

Chass, who was much better aware of the two Ravenclaws' families than his housemate, looked horrified. To his great surprise, however, Mariah and Keith didn't explode instantly.

"What do you think, Keith?" asked Mariah calmly. "Was he insulting us?"

The boy pretended to be thinking. "You know, Mariah," he said then, "I fear that he insulted pretty badly us both and our whole families, and everybody who's voluntarily in contact with us."

"Very well." Turning towards Marine, Mariah fixed her a cold glare. "Get out of my way, you little hypocrite," she said coolly. "This one time, I'll let you slide. However, if I ever hear you insulting me or my friends again, I will make you regret it. And believe me, the teachers would be on our side."

"What?" sputtered the other girl. "You're not saying that --"

"Yes, I am. I have two fathers instead of a father and a mother. So does Keith, and so do all my nine siblings. And before you even start, I'll let you know that my Father was the leader of Slytherin in his own time. I don't think you can say the same of your own parents." She glared at her again.

"She's right, you know," Chass said calmly. "Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape. My father has told many stories of their school times. Whatever pranks the Slytherins pulled, or whatever school rules they broke, those two always knew of it, and had usually even orchestrated the whole thing. The best of it, however, was the fact that they never got caught." With a grin, he added, "Severus was pregnant with Mariah on their sixth year, and nobody ever noticed. How's that for sneaky Slytherin cunning?"

For a moment, Marine just stared at them, looking scandalized. Then, she turned on her heels, and stormed off. The three friends just glanced at each other, then shook their heads, amused.

What the two boys didn't notice, however, was the hint of worry in Mariah's chuckles. The Slytherin girl's hateful words had served the dark-haired girl well to remember her Dad's horror. And as her Dad was never afraid unless something was seriously wrong, something had to be, well, seriously wrong.

And her Dad and unborn babies were combined, something being seriously wrong rarely brought anything good about. Rather just tears and pain.

And that was enough to make her worry.

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