Andante - R. Lupin

64.

Atlas thought it was incredible that muggles thought of it. So every time Atlas has woken up crying from a bad dream, he had said the sandman would come and visit him and give him good dreams by putting the sand in his eyes. Atlas loved it so whenever he had 'sand' in his eye he felt a lot better about his day.

"Are we done now because Santa has been too?"

Perseus just chuckled and nodded before telling Atlas not to run or he'll have hurt. Perseus made his bed, opened his blinds and checked that his books were placed alphabetically before starting to go downstairs. He was halfway down the stairs when he couldn't remember if he checked how straight the rug was, he ran back up and checked the rug before making sure the bed was perfect, his blinds were open how he liked them and that his books were placed alphabetically.

He walked downstairs and heard the screams of Caspian and the three brothers arguing about who had the better presents. He grimaced and rubbed a finger in his ear before he made his way towards his parents to hug them. Perseus sat down next to the stack of presents he had and slowly opened them methodically. He carefully tore the tape from the wrapper and repeated the actions so that the paper wasn't torn and he removed the present from the wrapper.

He had numerous books and shirts just like he had wanted. He had a brand new arithmancy one that he had been longing for too. He smiled at his mother and father appreciatively.

"Right boys, there is a group present that we want to give you," Estrella Montague smiled softly

Perseus almost groaned at how sickening this was. Caspian wasn't even a year old yet his mother was now about to announce she was having another baby? Perseus couldn't stand it, he loved being an older brother but it took its toll on him and he couldn't cope. Especially when scenarios like nightmares happen and Atlas always comes into his room at silly hours.

Perseus had also become extremely sensitive to Caspian crying in the night, they knew that he couldn't help it but it caused Perseus to want to check his room more often. Or if he thought that he hadn't checked something which could endanger Caspian he would work himself up into such a sweat and a panic that he felt like he couldn't breathe.

The thoughts would overtake his mind, he would constantly reassure himself that he should only be controlling the controllable but sometimes even the best person can't control them.

"We're having another baby," Arcturus exclaimed, a smile reaching to both ears.

The boys were silent, Perseus had known this was coming so he watched the reaction of his brothers carefully. Oberon more or less just shrugged, like Perseus he was used to the routine of having a new sibling. Wolf was a bit more shocked than they had anticipated, he quickly asked their parents if it was a sister and when they said they were unsure he went back to looking at some of his presents. Atlas frowned deeply, Perseus had known he always thought they had more children after him because of his differences — even though that was furthest from the truth — so Perseus knew that this wasn't going to be received well.

The boys just remained silent, Caspian let out a squeal and that was about it. Both Estrella and Arcturus looked at each other sadly while the boys continued showing each other their presents.

The rest of Christmas Day was a blur, Perseus had spent a lot of the day playing games with Atlas, teaching him how to play wizards chess with Wolf and Oberon helping him. Atlas was a quick learner and he was quite good at wizards chess once he had got the hang of it. Estrella and Arcturus had Cygnus and Druella Black around along with Walburga and Orion.