Cemetery Drive | A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction | Sequel to Bulletproof Heart

Chapter 26

My birthday kept coming too fast for my liking. 24? How was I already 24? I sighed as I crouched down to tidy Dorian's toys off of the floor, packing a few of them away into a box. Our house was a mess of boxes now, with less than a month until we moved we were just throwing everything into boxes now. There was hardly any room anywhere now as the packed boxes piled up in any empty spaces. Draco, Dorian and I were all going over to Tiberius's house to celebrate our birthday and Madeleine, James, Edward and Tyler would all also be joining us.
"Lia, are you ready to go?" Draco called from the hallway and I emerged to see Dorian strapping up his own little sandals.
Nodding, I slid my feet into a pair of light converse and grabbed my keys off the side. Tiberius and Darcy's house was within walking distance from us and when the weather was nice like it was then it was a lovely walk.
        I knocked softly on the door of my brother's house and smiled broadly when Darcy opened it.
"Happy birthday, Ophelia." I pulled Darcy into a hug and thanked her when she gestured for me to head into the hallway.
Slipping my shoes off, I heard the scraping of chairs come from the kitchen and suddenly my head was buried in a very broad chest.
"Happy birthday, little sister," Tiberius teased when he let me go.
"Haha, very funny, Bear."
"Uncle Bear!" yelled Dorian as he came hurtling towards his uncle.
Tiberius swung him up onto his shoulders with little to no effort before shaking Draco's hand and pulling him into a hug.
"The others should be here soon," Darcy said with the same infectious smile that she always wore. "Please, feel free to make yourselves comfortable in the living room, just watch out for the-"
Suddenly, two enormous puppies came bounding out of the living room and when I say enormous, they were huge. One was jet black and honestly looked like something that would be found guarding the gates of hell - he was absolutely gorgeous. He stopped and my feet and plonked his huge body down on the floor.
"That's Jericho," laughed Tiberius. "And that-"
The other puppy, a St Bernard, skidded across the wooden floor and swept Dorian straight off of his feet from where Tiberius had just put him down.
My brother sighed. "That is Atticus."
Reaching down to pet Jericho, I grinned.
"What is he? He's so handsome."
"A Cane Corso," answered Darcy as she righted Dorian and introduced him to Atticus. "We found them both at the local shelter and knew immediately we had to have them."
"DOGGY!" shouted Dorian, causing Atticus to jump backwards and fall over.
My son then jumped on the poor St Bernard to cuddle him and was almost absorbed by the sheer amount of fur there was. We all chuckled at the sight as a knock sounded at the door and Tiberius scooped Atticus up in one arm and Dorian up in the other. I lifted Jericho into my arms where he buried his face into my neck and I grinned over at Draco. Darcy pulled the door open to reveal Madeleine and James stood there, laden with gifts.
"Happy- Merlin, James look at the puppies!" Madeleine squealed and Draco sighed.
"You can certainly tell they're related. You alright, mate?" Draco said, shaking James's hand and clapping him on the back as the two of them made their way inside.
Just as Darcy went to shut the door, Edward and Tyler hurried up the pathway. Once the two of them were inside, the dogs were back on the floor and all presents were safely out of Atticus and Jericho's way, we were finally able to greet each other properly. I hugged both of my siblings tightly, thanking them for their birthday wishes before moving on to their respective boyfriends. This was certainly a little family unit that I could get used to.

-

August 3rd - moving day. Everything was packed, at least that was done. Tiberius and Axel had each got hold of a van and it meant we didn't have to pay a removal company to do it. We had put enchantments up around the house so we could use magic to get everything into the vans and none of our neighbours would realise. We were hoping we wouldn't need a third van as we had enchanted both of the ones Tiberius and Axel had brought in be twice their size on the inside so we should have plenty of room. Dorian and the cats were in the living room which was now free of boxes as it was the first room we had done so that we could use it exactly for this purpose. Just as I waved my wand at a few boxes in the office and sent them soaring into the hallway where Draco was waiting to levitate them outside to Tiberius and Axel, I heard him call out.
"Lia, wait there's someone here for you."
I emerged from the office to see Izzy Perry stood in our bare hallway, glancing around, her 6-year-old son Alfie clinging to her hand. Alfie was sat in a wheelchair, his little face curious as he took in what was in front of him. From what I knew, Alfie had brittle bone disease and it had been diagnosed when he was very young.
"Is everything alright, Izzy?" I asked tentatively.
She nodded. "I was just wondering if you'd sold the house to anyone yet?"
"No, not yet, why? If you're asking for you then you can have it for much cheaper, if you'd like?" I offered. Draco and I didn't really need as much as it was up for sale for.
"You'd do that for me? It would be for me, my girlfriend and Alfie."
"Of course!"
Izzy thanked me before hurrying out of the door and only then did I realise she had said girlfriend. I needed to meet said girlfriend at some point. Shaking my head, I went back into the office and continued to send boxes out of the door until that room was all done.
         Nearly 3 hours later and everything was in the vans. All four of us checked the house twice over to make sure we hadn't left anything and when we were satisfied, I clipped Dorian into the middle seat between where Axel and Draco would be sat before taking the cats over to where Tiberius was parked and putting their huge basket between Tiberius and myself.
"Let's go!"
The new house wasn't far away and when we pulled up in the enormous drive way, I could see Elisa, Ron, Harriet, Darcy and all of the Weasley children plus Ingrid waving at us from their doorway. As we all piled out of the vans, I took the cats in to Elisa and Draco followed me, carrying Dorian who was fast asleep. If we left them at Elisa's while we unpacked it would the entire process much easier. I wanted to see the manor empty before we began to move our own furniture and belongings in so excitedly ran to the front door with the keys. The manor was enormous and grand with 20 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. I honestly didn't know what we were going to do with so much space. Unlocking the double doors, I pushed them open and gasped. When you first walked in there was a large staircase opposite the door that branched off into two separate staircases, heading upstairs to the first floor. The ground floor comprised a kitchen and living room off to the left as well as an office, library and another living room off to the right. There was also a basement that I thought I might use for something to do with the apothecary. Draco and I had chosen our bedroom the first time we came to view the manor, as had Dorian so we knew exactly where all of the furniture and belongings had to go. There was so many adults that with Juliet holding down the fort at Elisa's, all 8 of us could unload the vans and unpack the boxes in what would hopefully be no time at all.
        It took only 45 minutes until all of the furniture was off of the vans and into it's correct place in each of the rooms and now we simply needed to tackle the amount of boxes we had. It was a lot. We began unloading with the same system we had loaded the van, sending boxes into the manor one at a time so that I could levitate them into the correct room. It wasn't so much the issue of getting all of the boxes off of the vans, it was more so the issue of getting them all unpacked today. It was nearly midday which meant we had quite a while as hopefully everything would be off of the van by 2pm. But not if we didn't hurry the hell up.
"Tell Bear to get his arse into gear," I joked to Darcy who screamed my message down the line to her boyfriend at the van.
Suddenly, a box came hurtling into the house, slowed down only by the simultaneous spells that Darcy  and I shot at it.
"That could've been fragile, arsehole!" I yelled down to my brother and heard him snort loudly from outside.
Sending the box flying to Dorian's bedroom, I let Darcy know I was ready for the next one and suddenly we had a quick chain going. After an hour, one of the vans was entirely empty. We allowed ourselves a quick break before we got back into the same line we started in and began to unpack the second van.
"How many do we have left?" I asked, sending another box soaring into the kitchen.
"Elisa says about 20," Axel informed me and I groaned.
1:15pm, we could have it all unloaded by 2pm, of course we could. But Merlin were we going to have to hurrying up.
        2p,m, on the dot, we got the last box off of the van. Elisa quickly checked on the children with an enchantment she had out over her manor and happily reported to Harriet and I that all seven of them were happily napping in the front room. We had all dispersed to separate rooms, Elisa, Harriet, Darcy and I starting on the kitchen while Ron, Axel, Tiberius and Draco began with the living room. Once the two main rooms were out of the way we could divide again into pairs to tackle the bedrooms, office, library and spare rooms. Elisa made sure she kept checking on the children and sighed when she realised that Bonnie had started screaming the house down, waking up all of the other children in the process. All of the older children seemed okay but Ingrid had also started to cry, meaning Elisa and Axel hurried off next door to calm their troubled children.
"Ophelia, where do you want these?" asked Harriet, wobbling under a large pile of plates.
I pointed to a cupboard beside the oven and Harriet crouched down to open it. Darcy was throwing cutlery into a drawer beside the fridge and I was levitating glasses into a high cupboard when Elisa reappeared, Bonnie's Moses basket floating before her. Her youngest daughter had fallen back asleep but Elisa knew that it was probably best that she had her close in case she woke up crying again. Axel was still over at Elisa's house and had decided to stay there and look after all of the children.
"Where are we at in here? Sorry I was gone for so long," Elisa said, setting Bonnie down on the countertop.
"El, you were gone for about 5 minutes, you're fine. And we've only got that box left, then we can go and help the boys finish up the living room."
Elisa nodded at my response before crossing the room to where Harriet was.
"Excuse me, Mrs Redfield, but I believe there's something we haven't actually seen yet."
Darcy and I stopped what we were doing and retraced Elisa's path over to where Harriet was giggling. She stuck her left hand out at us and we all cooed over her wedding ring that sat proud on her ring finger.
"It was a very romantic ceremony," teased Harriet. "Me, Axel, Ingrid and the Judge in a courthouse, beats your weddings."
We chuckled as she teased us before dispersing to continue with the final box. Between the four of us, we had emptied the box in a matter of minutes and made our way through to the living room where Draco, Tiberius and Ron were hanging pictures on the walls and wiring up the television. Catching Draco's eye, I grinned. I already loved this house and knew that it was definitely where I wanted to grow my family.

-

"Elisa Christine Weasley, I will take your purse away from you if you don't stop attempting to pay for things," I threatened as we ordered another round of drinks at the spa.
Darcy, Harriet, Lyla, Nev, Hermione, Ginny, Izzy and I had all taken Elisa to the spa for her birthday in the evening. During the day we had gone out to the restaurant that she used to frequent whilst pregnant with the twins (it was Lyla and Nev's idea) before surprising her again with this evening trip out.
"You're no fun, Ophelia Wren," countered Elisa as she stuck out her tongue and took her drink from Hermione. "Honestly though girls, thank you so much. I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend my birthday."
A chorus of cooing erupted from us all and Elisa grinned at us. Darcy and Ginny stood up together, heading towards the pool and Lyla decided to head in with them. The rest of us watched as they complained over the freezing water and chuckled when they looked over at us in horror.
"Elisa Weasley?" called a voice from the door beside the sauna. "Emily is ready for you."
Elisa pushed herself off of the lounger she was sprawled out on and gave me a wink.
"Have fun, darling," Nev cooed as our best friend wandered towards the woman that had called her name.
I glanced over at Nev and Hermione with a smile. Elisa had been through so much in her life and it meant a hell of a lot to all of us to know that we could make her feel that bit better.