Reaching across time

Chapter 98: Setting a deadline

15th August 1981

Hermione fidgeted in her seat, making Sirius chuckle lightly. She threw him a dirty look before turning upstairs checking for any slight sound.

"Love we'll know if he's awake" Sirius sighed.

He found it adorable that his wife struggled with the wizarding style of parenting. She didn't like the idea of putting her son to sleep alone in a dark room when he was just a couple of weeks old. That being so even when there were enough spells around him to warn her is he so much as moved an inch.

"I'm still going to go check on him" Hermione snapped before excusing herself from the table.

"She will get tired soon enough" Regulus offered as Sirius watched after the departing form of his wife.

"No she won't" Narcissa defended making the other three people on the table gape.

It was the first time since Rigel's birth that Narcissa had visited and though the blonde woman was on polite terms with Hermione, the two never had much direct conversation.

Hermione who had also heard the comment stopped halfway on the stairs.

"Narcissa?" She called tentatively, making the other woman glance up in surprise. She didn't think Hermione would have been listening.

"Would you like to see him?" Hermione asked softly, for though she didn't trust the Malfoy woman all that much, she knew the woman would never cause any harm to her son. After all Narcissa was a mother more than anything else.

Narcissa nodded slowly for she really did want to get a glimpse of her only nephew, especially since he was said to look almost exactly like Sirius.

Sirius looked surprised as he watched his cousin get up and made to follow after when nails dug into his arm. He turned to see Danielle discreetly glaring at him. The French girl who genuinely thought that both Hermione and Narcissa were amazing women in their own right was sick of the silence between them and wasn't going to let Sirius ruin any shot of camaraderie the two had.

He sunk back into his seat, allowing his cousin to walk up after his wife alone.

SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSB HGSB

Upstairs, the two women had reached the door and when Hermione noiselessly pushed it open, allowing Narcissa to enter first they saw a peacefully sleeping baby.

The blonde woman stepped beside the cradle, her eyes on her tiny nephew but restrained herself from lifting him. Hermione who noticed the soft smile on the woman's face reached forward and carefully lifted her son, cradling him in her arms for a moment before beckoning Narcissa forward.

Narcissa obliged, seeming almost drawn towards the infant like a piece of iron to a magnet. She reached tenderly with one of her long fingers and stroked the baby's cheek making Rigel open his eyes.

Hermione coo-ed sweetly to the baby, completely missing the morphing expression on the other woman's face; Narcissa's eyes widened and she looked like a deer caught in the headlights as she stared at the blue eyes that were looking up at her.

Suddenly her eyes rolled up in her head and Narcissa collapsed on the floor. An alarmed Hermione shrieked but there was no point, Rigel's room always had silencing charms to avoid any disturbances.

While Hermione who now had a wand pointed directly at the woman debated whether to go downstairs and fetch the others or to deal with this alone, she heard Narcissa whisper pleadingly.

"Draco...please...not Draco"

"Narcissa? Narcissa can you hear me?" Hermione asked, kneeling down beside the woman despite her better judgment.