Happy Christmas, Family Malfoy

Happy Christmas, Family Malfoy

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Chapter 4

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Severus rested his forehead against the toilet bowl, shivering. Then, however, another bout of nausea hit him, and he again started to throw up into the bowl. After some time there was nothing that could come up anymore, but that certainly didn't keep him from heaving. At last, he collapsed onto the floor, pressing his head against the cool surface of the floor and tried to stop the shivers running through his body.

The thoroughly exhausted man didn't even hear the approaching footsteps. He just suddenly noticed that he was being taken to somebody's supporting arms. This somebody wiped away the locks of raven hair that was glued to his sweaty forehead, then brought a glass of water onto his lips. "Drink," said a voice, a soothing, calming voice with a hint of worry within. Lucius's voice.

Severus drank the water, grateful to get the taste of vomit out of his mouth. Then he leant back against his husband's chest, sighing. "I feel awful," he muttered weakly. "Simply awful."

"I bet you do, love," Lucius murmured quietly. "It's easy to believe that it's harder than usually this time. However, I simply can't understand how you could have kept this in secret from me so long."

"It wasn't that difficult," Severus muttered, a slight flush of shame rising to his cheeks. "I simply slipped a fast-sleeping potion into your tea every night, then got up before the potion let you wake. When you got up, I'd always already got over the worst part of it."

Lucius frowned. "That was a stupid thing to do, Severus, and you know it," he said sternly. "You really should have told me. I'd have wanted to support you right from the beginning."

"It doesn't matter," the darkhaired man replied briefly. "I have survived it this far, haven't I?" He laughed a bit bitterly. "Although I'm not sure I will survive it all," he mumbled.

Lucius's expression darkened. "Don't talk like that," he said sternly. "Of course you will survive. If you truly think Remus and I are going to let you die, you have another thing coming." Sighing, he then wrapped his arms around his husband, who soon would not be as slender as he still was. "I wouldn't wish for any of our children to become inexistent," he said quietly, "but I do admit that I'd prefer a bit less children. Not that there were too many of them, no, Merlin forbid, I could never give up any of them. I just hope you hadn't had to go through so much for them."

His husband just gave him a weak smile. "I do rather carry this burden than that of Remus and Sirius," he said. "I couldn't imagine my life with no children running around. And besides," he added then, "I have already had rest, now haven't I? Juliah's over a year old now."

"Yes," Lucius admitted, "but you had over two years of rest after Remus and Sirius, as I had Severah, and you still had a lot of problems with Juliah. What can it now be like, with triplets?"

"I don't know," murmured Severus, still resting against his husband. "Not easy, that I do know -- but I also think that it will indeed be worth it." Then he added, "It always has been this far."

Lucius could do little but agree with that notion. True, no matter how difficult it may seem while on the way, every child was a miracle and definitely worth all the difficulties of the pregnancy.

But still he didn't voice his agreement. That was because he didn't think that anything could be worth losing his precious husband. Not anything.

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"Hey, Mother!" said Julian Tawny happily to her mother, Savanna Tawny. "Guess what? There are a couple of really cool kids in my class! I have already made a couple of friends!"

"Don't say, 'cool kids,' Julian," his mother scolded. "Say 'interesting acquitances.'" She shook her head, hoping that those "friends" wouldn't be too bad. If they were, then it would be obvious that it had been a mistake to put her only son into this school. At first, both Savanna and her husband had been very reluctant to put their heir into such a place, thinking that only the lower class went there. Then, however, they had heard that the Malfoys had founded the school because they didn't want a tutor to spoil their children and didn't have the time to teach them themselves. So, they had indeed put Julian into the Hogsmeade Pre-Wizarding School, hoping that he would make friends with the Malfoy heir. Contacts were always good.

Now they especially needed valuable contacts, as they'd been out of the country for over ten years already. Savanna didn't even know whom the previous Malfoy heir had married, although she was determined to find out. Probably Narcissa Black for all she knew. She'd seen the slut when Narcissa'd been just a little girl, and had seen that she'd already set her eyes on young Lucius. And she always got what she wanted.

"These two boys are really interesting, though," Julian said, not as enthusiastically as first but still very cheerful. He obviously needed some manners to be taught to him. "Their names are Janus and Ronald. Janus is a real bookworm, and Ronald is always laughing, but they are still friends. And guess what?" The boy's face lit up with excitement again. "They both have red hair, just like me!"

Now, Savanna's heart clenched. That did not promise good. She knew only three families in the whole Britain Wizarding World who had ever produced redhaired offsprings: The Tawnies, the Prewetts, and the Weasleys. As she already knew that Julian had no relatives in the school, being the only heir to the family, his new friends could only be Prewetts or, even worse, Weasleys.

"They both have really big families, though," Julian said. "Ron has five brothers and a sister. And Janus has four brothers and five sisters! Can you even imagine that many kids?"

"Julian," his mother said sternly, "I don't think those children are good influence to you. You should not make friends with them. Try to find and befriend the Malfoy heir instead, do you understand?"

Now, Julian frowned in confusion. "But Janus is the Malfoy heir!" he announced.

For a moment, Savanna just stared at her son, her mouth hanging open. Then she turned to look as Julian exclaimed, "Look! There's Janus and his sisters and brothers, and Ronald is there, too!"

Truly, there was a bunch of children some way from them. Savanna quickly counted three black heads and six red ones. One child in particular caught her eye. He had flaming red hair, but otherwise his features reminded her of someone. After a moment of thinking, it hit her. The boy looked exactly like young Severus Snape, except for the hair.

The witch was just about to say something as a carriage drove into the school yard and stopped in front of the children. At the same time, a motherly-looking woman with red hair walked to them as well, and she was greeted by many enthusiastic voices. As soon as the carriage's door was opened, however, these voices started to shout at the new arrivers. A tall, blond man stepped calmly out, a small, squirming red-haired boy on each arm. He set the boys onto the ground, and they immediately started to run around, hugging everybody and laughing and shouting.

"Oi, Father!" one of the red-haired girls said. "Ginny asked me and Luce to go to the Burrow. May I?"

"If it is okay with Molly," the tall man said calmly, looking at the red-haired woman questioningly. "Is it, Molly?" he then asked levelly, raising an eyebrow in question.

The woman smiled warmly. "Of course it is," she said. "The kids have been getting in trouble all the time lately. Maybe it'd be better if they got some energy out of their system with a friend around."

Now, the blond chuckled dryly. "You obviously forget that my children are more than well capable of creating havoc all on their own," he said. "Very well. If you think you can handle them, why not."

"Cool!" elder of the darkhaired boys exclaimed. "Now we can finally have that Quidditch match!"

"You will lose," said the eldest boy smoothly. "You're all just little kids. We will win."

"Who said you're going, anyway?" snapped the eldest of the children, a darkhaired girl. "And if you are going, then I am going, too! I want to play with Fred and George!"

Now, the blond man sighed. "Can you handle them, Molly?" he asked. "Janus and Hannah aren't as bad as the others, true, but they can get a bit too eager at times. It might get difficult."

The woman just laughed. "Lucius, three of my children are already away," she said with a warm smile. "Janus will go finely as Percy, Hannah can play Charlie's and Bill's parts, and I won't even notice your twins when my own get their speed up. They can all come, it's fine with me, really."

"If that is so, I am grateful," the blond -- Lucius? Not Lucius Malfoy? -- said, shaking his head as he watched his children jumping at each other's neck in excitement. "They're welcome to come to the Manor for some revenge later, of course. Now, was there anything else, or can we go now?" he asked then from the children, snatching the still running little boys back into his arms without even looking at them.

"Hey!" exclaimed one of the two eldest boys, the one who didn't look like Severus Snape. "If Janus is coming, what about Julian? Can he come, too? He's a new boy in our class," he added in explanation, "and he's kind of cool. I'd like to play with him for some time." To Savanna's shock, he was indeed pointing at her Julian. And if she wasn't badly mistaken, most of those children were Malfoys. What exactly was happening to the world? Malfoys weren't meant to have many children, especially not red-haired children.

"I'll go to ask his mother," the blond said. He then started to approach Savanna, one squirming boy on each arm again. "Good evening," he said, nodding slightly at her as he came near enough. "I am Lucius Malfoy. My son's going to play with a friend for this evening, and they would seemingly want your son to join them. Is there any way that might be possible?"

Now, Julian was hopping up and down. "May I, Mother?" he pleaded. "Please, may I go?"

For a moment, Savanna looked at her. Then she looked at Malfoy. Children or no children, a Malfoy was always a Malfoy -- and thus, they were always valuable acquittances. "Very well," she said. "If they are worthy playmates for a Malfoy, I guess they are that for my son, too. I am Savanna Tawny, by the way."

"Ah, yes. You've been out of the country for quite a while, haven't you?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow, smirking a bit. "Anyway, I'm sure Mrs. Weasley will see that your son gets home before night. I'm afraid I can't talk with you right now; my husband's at home with our two youngest children and would undoubtedly be rather unsatisfied with me if I were to linger. So, good evening, Mrs. Tawny."

With that, he turned away, walking back towards the children, while Julian ran past him to see his new "friends". Soon most of the children followed the red-haired woman, Mrs. Weasley, to the direction of the nearby Floo station, while Mr Malfoy took the two smallest red-haired boys and a darkhaired one into the carriage. The carriage started to move, and then suddenly just disappeared. Charmed -- and expensive.

No, Malfoys seemingly did not change that much in the end. Still, Savanna was rather bewildered as she headed home to tell her husband that Julian was indeed in worthy company.

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