Lionsnake Manor

Lionsnake Manor

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Namely Troubles

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Several pairs of eyes were nailed at Draco as he stepped into the sitting room. Not needing to hear the inevitable question, he said, like he did every time, "He's as well as can be expected. No further damage has been done, but he's still not going to wake up anytime soon."

They all nodded seriously. Then Sirius asked quietly, "May I go to see him?"

"Maybe later," Draco said. "Right now, however, we have other things to talk about." As the others looked questioning, he continued, "I think it's about the time we discuss the babies' names. Remus will soon be five months along, and unless we decide ahead of time, we'll never agree on the names."

"I refuse to do that!" announced Sirius firmly. "I'm not naming them without Severus!"

"Sirius, listen to me," Remus sighed. "I think it'd be best if --"

"No," Sirius cut him off, staying stubborn. "I will not give names to my babies until Severus is there to give his opinion, too!" He glared at all of his other husbands, daring them to disagree.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, Sirius, listen me out, will you?" sighed Remus, frustrated. Once all the others were looking at him, he continued, "It is very improbable that we'd ever find even one name we all agreed on, leave alone ten, assuming that we're going to give these children second names, too. Therefore, I think it'd be the best if each of us carriers got to give the first names to the babies we carry, and the biological fathers gave the second names. Of course, if there's some name the others simply will not agree on, they can veto it out. This would be the easiest way, and Sirius could still wait for Severus."

"But that's unfair!" exclaimed Draco. "That way Lucius would get to name three babies, and I none!"

"That's true," Harry said. "It wouldn't be fair that way."

"Well, that's easy to solve," Sirius said, now seemingly calmer when he had heard that Severus would indeed name his babies. "Lucius was first with Remus and Harry was first with Draco. Therefore, Lucius can give the second name to Remus's baby and Draco to Harry's babies."

"Agreed!" said Harry happily. Then, he frowned. "But what are going to be their family names?"

"Harry's got a point here," Lucius admitted. "It'd be good for the kids to have a name they're actually able to remember before they enter Hogwarts. 'Lupin-Potter-Snape-Malfoy-Black' is quite a lot for a kid."

"Well, that brings a problem," Draco said. "We could always name them after their biological parents, of course, but I don't want that kind of sorting. They should all be our children, not just two men's." As the others all nodded, he said, "So, we need to decide what name we give them."

"Well, not Malfoy," Harry said firmly. "I don't care if two of us had originally that name, we now have five names and none of them has more weight than any of the others."

"Don't look at me," Remus said. "I was against our current name far from the start. If you've only now noticed that a long name is impractical, well, it's your problem."

"But if we want a short name, we are back to the original problem," Sirius reminded him. "We ended up combining our names because we couldn't decide which name we should get. And besides, I think that whatever name the kids end up having, we should have the same, to avoid confusion."

"Well, for Merlin's sake," huffed Draco. "Why don't we all just change our names into Lionsnake and be done with it? At least the Manor's name would be fitting, then."

For a moment, the others were all silent. Then, a wicked smile rose to Sirius's face. "I think that little

Draco here has a point," he said cheerfully. "I support his suggestion. What about you others?"

"I agree," said Remus, and Lucius added, "Whatever, as long as they're not Lupin-Potter-Snape-Malfoy-Blacks." Harry nodded hesitantly, though something seemed to be still bothering him.

Fortunately, Draco seemed to both notice and understand his feelings. "Don't worry about Severus, Harry," he said softly. "Remember what Severus said back when we discussed our own future name, before we got married? He said that he'd be happy with any name that made us stop arguing and wasn't Gryffindor. I do think that still applies to him. Severus doesn't care about names, just about love."

Lucius rolled his eyes. "Very well. I'll arrange that in the Ministry tomorrow," he promised. "Now, do any of you have any ideas for the babies' names?" he asked then, glancing around.

"Mine will be James and Lily," Harry announced. The others just nodded, not surprised. They would have never expected anything else from him; it had been clear all the time what his babies would be called. Not even the Slytherins even considered disagreeing with him.

Then, Draco smirked. "Well, their second names will be Tom and Narcissa, then."

"Tom is absolutely out," Remus said immediately, looking disgusted at the mere thought. "I hope for your sake that was a joke, Draco, since otherwise you must be insane. And wasn't Narcissa evil?"

The younger blond frowned. "Okay, so Tom was indeed a joke," he said, "but I'm not giving up on Narcissa. She might have been evil in the end, but she was my mother. She never was bad to me."

"Okay, the girl shall be Lily Narcissa," Harry said, nodding slowly in agreement. "But what about our son?"

Draco shrugged. "James Anthony sounds fine to me," he said, and to that, Harry nodded.

Remus looked thoughtful. "I'd like to call my baby Albus," he then said hesitantly, glancing at Lucius.

The elder of the blonds just nodded. "A fine name from a fine man," he said calmly. "Albus... What about Albus Nathaniel?" Nobody disagreed with that, either.

"What about you, Sirius?" asked Harry. "What are you going to call your girls?"

"Mirabelle and Cassiopeia," the Grim Animagus answered after a moment of thinking. At his husbands' expressions, he exclaimed, "What?! Those are perfectly good names. Or should I name one Bellatrix?"

"Merlin forbid that," muttered Lucius. "I'm just hoping that Severus likes shorter names -- or that they are very obedient girls. 'Cassiopeia Adalphine Lionsnake' might be a bit much to call out at once."

"It certainly is easier than 'Draco Luce Philippe Thomanius Malfoy,'" Draco commented lightly. "I'm beginning to understand why you so rarely got angry enough to yell at me when I was little."

"Well, it certainly wasn't because you were a well-behaved child," the elder blond said with a dry smirk. "I still remember how you splashed paint all over your mother's favourite dress and told it was 'art.'"

"Hey, it looked better that way," Draco said defensively. "And besides, I was five back then!"

However, nobody listened to him as they all just laughed.

*

A couple of weeks later, however, Draco wasn't as calm as he came back to the sitting room from his usual checkup on Severus -- he visited there once a day, and house-elves watched him all the time. His husbands all noticed that his mood was not the usual as he stormed to meet them.

"What's wrong?" asked Remus worriedly as the young blond threw himself in an armchair. "It's something serious, isn't it? Has something happened to Severus? Tell us, Draco, now!"

"I have both good and bad news," Draco sighed, momentarily covering his eyes with his hand and then drawing it away again. "The good news is that it will take a month at most for him to wake up." As they all looked relieved at that, he then continued gravely, "And the bad news... He will never walk again."

"WHAT?" exclaimed Sirius. The others just stared at the mediwizard, horrified.

"The Dark Plague has damaged his spinal cord," the youngest Slytherin told them monotonously. "It's one of the most usual damages of the disease; I suspected this quite some time ago. I've done my best, but I couldn't prevent it. There's no way his legs will ever function well enough for him to walk on his own."

"Oh, Merlin," muttered Lucius, then drew Remus into his arms as the werewolf started to sob quietly, arms wrapped around his now well rounded stomach. Fixing his eyes on the younger blond, he then asked, "Are you sure that nothing else will happen to him?"

Draco nodded. "Fairly sure," he said. "There will be no brain damage or problems with speech, not even clumsiness like to most victims -- fortunately, as he'd undoubtedly die if he had to give up on potions. However, he will have to move around in a wheelchair for the rest of his life."

"Don't cry, Remus," Sirius cooed, although he was obviously fighting against tears himself. "Think positively. In less than a month you'll get to see him, right, Draco?" he then asked.

"Right," confirmed the mediwizard. "Once he wakes up, the disease has mostly left him, and it'll be safe for Remus and Lucius to be around him, too."

"Good," sighed Lucius, then embraced the greying brunet in his arms a bit tighter. "Sirius is right, Remus, love," he said quietly. "Try to calm down, now. It'll do no good to little Albus if you get upset."

The werewolf sniffed and muttered, "Will anything do enough good to him?"

Unfortunately, to that, none of them had an answer.

***