HOUSE OF BLACK

CHAPTER 21

"You'll stay with me?'
Until the very end,' said James."
—J. K. Rowling

CORONA POV:

Orion and I silently watched our children play with Lucius and a couple of muggle children at the park near Grimmauld Place.

I didn't notice the silent tears slipping down my face until Orion firmly squeezed our clasped hands and pulled them up to his lips before placing a gentle kiss on mine.

Immersed in our little world we didn't notice Abraxas accidentally finding his other half in familiar someone.

Abraxas who was holding his goddaughter Astraea with a gentle smile, distractedly bumped into a "muggle" woman who tumbled to the floor dropping her book.

THIRD POV:

Abraxas held his goddaughter closer making sure that she was okay before turning to the muggle...

...and as if time stopped.

Abraxas stared into her wide honey-brown eyes and held out a hand to help her up which she gladly took after picking up her book.

Abraxas marveled at the smaller soft hand in his large and rougher hand, it's been so long since he's been with another woman.

He continued stare down at her in wonder until she spoke as she dusted down her pleated skirt.

"Sorry about crashing into you sir, I should really stop reading while walking", she apologized, blushing in embarrassment.

Abraxas quickly cleared his mind and briefly remembered his manners, "No, no. I should apologize as well for not paying attention to my surroundings."

He watched as her lips pulled into a breathtaking smile.

He was simply captivated.

"Really, It's alright dear—", he was cut off when she finally noticed the bundle in his arms.

"Oh and who is this baby girl, she is simply the cutest! Is she your daughter?" the curly brown haired woman asked gushing.

Abraxas never had to deal with women who were anything but cold, emotionless, proper ladies; other than Walburga but she was Orion's problem, thank you very much.

"She's my goddaughter." He replied rather stiffly.

The woman nodded understandingly, so he continued. "My son is over there playing with my friends' children, my goddaughter's older siblings."

She turned to the direction he was gesturing to and noticed an adorable blonde boy playing with an equally adorable group of children.

If you didn't notice already she loved children, especially since she was an only child.

She noticed a younger little boy trip and skid his knee when they were running around playing tag, she was about to go over to assist aid. When the blonde man's son helped the younger boy up and comfort him along with the rest of the group.

She smiled and turned to the handsome blonde man who was also watching the scene and commented, "Your wife must be proud."

She slightly frowned when he replied, "My wife died in childbirth."

Sharp pale cornflower blue eyes watched the woman expecting her to apologize for his loss like most people did when he told them, only to be taken back by surprise at her response.

"That's unfortunate. However, from what I can see, you've done a fine job raising your son. You must be proud." She grinned brightly showing him her perfect straight white teeth.

Abraxas unintentionally smiled back without even realizing it.

Before either of them even knew it, they quickly engaged into a conversation.

CORONA POV:

Orion and I briefly talked about my impending death, both of us not wanting to dwell on it too much.

We both decided it was best if we enjoyed our time together than waste tears and time crying about it, while we still have time together.

When we decided to tell Abraxas, we were both touched and slightly taken aback when the usually reserved man broke down in tears, not for just me.

But for the both of us. For our children. For our family. We all cried that day and only then we did we cry together as family rather than just friends.

Sure tears were shed from time to time, but like usual we pulled forward.

Not even two days after the "great discovery", Abraxas came walking out of the Grimmauld floo holding the last horcrux.

We took great pleasure stabbing the horcrux, Abraxas had first dibs to stab it while Orion and I took turns shredding it and throwing it into the bonfire we made in the backyard.

Watching it burn in ash was great pleasure in the middle of the night when the children were sleeping.

We finally defeated the last horcrux just in time as Voldemort was becoming more daring and outright attacking muggle villages and raiding muggleborn running businesses in magical shopping districts.

He was starting to inflict fear in wizards and witches and alike.

Dumbledore as promised helped keep Voldemort at bay but his hands were tied when his jobs kept him away from doing anything more, whether it was at Hogwarts keeping order or in another country for a world meeting.

He was constantly bombarded under a lot of stress and paperwork thanks to his never ending long list of jobs.

It wasn't like Abraxas and Orion didn't have any duties either, but they had less responsibilities to pertain to on a daily basis and had more leniency to get things done whenever.

Walburga's job was to listen to the complaints of the members of the house of Black and report to Orion, the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, who made sure to instill law and order between the main house and the branch families.

But, I digress.

Seeing as we have been cooped up into the house for far too long we decided to go out on a family outing, Arcturus decided to visit family in the United States for the week, so we invited Abraxas and Lucius.

Cuddled against Orion and occasionally engaging in a conversation my eyes focused on my children before they slid onto Abraxas.

I took note of his unusually relaxed posture and glanced at my napping Astraea, before my eyes finally landed onto the third presence. I only saw brown wavy curls since Abraxas was blocking her from my view.

But the moment I caught a full view of her face, my body went rigid, alerting Orion who turned his attention away from our children and onto me.

"Corona, what's wrong...", noticing that I wasn't going to answer anytime soon, he turned to where I was looking at and let out a small surprised noise.

"Isn't that..?", he questioned confused staring intently at the brown haired woman talking to Abraxas.

I just nodded dumbly abruptly getting up and walking towards the pair with Orion trailing behind me while keeping an eye on the children.

What was Hermione Granger doing here?

***
A/N: It's not a total surprise, I've mentioned Corona needing a female best friend.

Hermione joins the ride as the end draws near!

Will update again in a couple of hours :)