CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
"Teddy"
The battle had ended. Voldemort was gone and a piece of Aurora felt as though it had finally found peace. Perhaps that was the connection she had with her brother. He felt at ease.
In the great hall, everyone sat together, starting the process of healing and reuniting with those who they feared they had lost.
Aurora sat down at a table, afraid to look at the pile of bodies of those who were gone. Draco had hovered by the bodies, when Aurora noticed he had crouched down beside one and had been sobbing.
"Good friend of his I take it?" Sirius muttered as he sat beside her, rubbing her back.
"You look like hell," Aurora replied.
Sirius gave a broken smile. "Sure feel like it, kid."
Aurora looked down at her blood soaked hands. The adrenaline from killing Blaise had worn off. She had already thrown up countless times, there had been nothing left for her to vomit, but her body still felt as though it could.
She knew it was Blaise's blood that covered her body. Her face. Her arms, her clothes. But she couldn't find it in her to wash it off.
"What happened out there, kid?" Sirius asked. "Is that from your father?"
She shook her head, tears pouring down and she began to breath heavily.
"You want to talk about it?" Sirius asked.
She couldn't speak. Couldn't even give him a yes or no. She was lost, she looked up at him and the only thing she could muster up was, "I did something bad..."
"No, no you didn't Aurora, you killed someone who was bad, who was going to hurt you and other people, do you understand that?" Sirius swallowed and kept his arm around Aurora as she continued to cry.
"Who was he?" Sirius asked. "Someone you knew?"
Aurora nodded as she sobbed.
"A friend at one point?"
Another nod.
"Trust me when I say, that's the most painful feeling... When someone you thought was your friend joins the wrong side..." Sirius muttered. "I remember how angry and confused I was when Peter... When he killed your mother and father..."
"It isn't fair..." Aurora replied, finally speaking. "Blaise played me... I- I killed him with my own hands and I- It was bad to do but... It felt good... He killed my baby and almost killed me... He deserved to die but... Why do I feel this way?"
"Shock," Sirius replied. "I killed a few out there tonight whom I'd once shared a few laughs with in school."
"It was more than just a few laughs," Aurora explained. "He was my ex boyfriend..."
Sirius opened his mouth to speak but closed it, instead, only nodding.
"Tonks asked me to take Teddy and raise him..." Aurora changed the subject, not wanting to talk about Blaise anymore. "I don't know if I can do it, Sirius, I don't-"
"You and Draco will be fine, I actually need to speak to the pair of you about something, relatively close that subject." Sirius replied.
Aurora looked up and at Draco again to see he was still kneeled on the ground but he was talking to Crabbe's body. As though he was only sleeping or was in the Hospital Wing, just injured. Goyle walked over and placed a hand on Draco's shoulder, and then helped him up, walking him over to the table where she was sitting.
"Sirius wants a word with us-"
Draco shook his head and scoffed. "Look, I'm not in the mood for some safe sex chat or to get my ass chewed out about making sure I treat her right, I'm tired as all hell Sirius... My best friend-"
"You think you're the only one who's lost their best friend tonight?" Sirius sat with a cold look on his face. "Remus is dead. I know exactly how you're feeling kid, so do me a favor, shut up and listen to me."
Silence.
Sirius took a deep breath. "You two have two options since you will be the guardians of Teddy now... Godric's Hollow, was where Aurora and Harry were both born and the house is still there, frozen in time at that," Sirius explained. "Not one, but two bedrooms set up for children. Would be a great place to raise Teddy, at least, in my opinion. But there's also 12 Grimmauld Place, my family's home, which is also your family's home, Draco."
"So what you're saying is, we have a choice of where we can live together?" Aurora asked.
Sirius nodded. "Take your pick, I asked Harry which he'd prefer and he wanted you both to choose first, says you've started the family first and should have first choice."
Aurora looked at Draco and smiled. "12 Grimmauld Place, I've sort of formed a bond with your mother."
Sirius chuckled. "She's told me... And she also wanted me to tell you that she really would like for you to stay there, and keep the house in the family, but not to let her saying that influence your choice."
"She'll have her wish," Aurora smiled big. "But, where will you go? Will you stay with us?"
Sirius shook his head. "Hogwarts needs a new professor, Transfigurations at that, McGonagall is the new Headmaster, or Headmistress at that."
Draco gulped quickly and then blurt out a question to Sirius. "What about a Dark Arts Professor? Or Potions?"
"I suppose old Sluggy could cut his classes in half, teach only Advanced, you could do first years but... It's not up to me." Sirius replied and then pointed toward McGonagall. "Also, do you really think you'd be having a graduation this year? You've missed a lot of classes. Both of you and you'll have Teddy now."
Draco looked down and then back up at Sirius, "What about the Shrieking Shack? Could it be fixed up? Lived in?"
Aurora looked at him as though she had something sour in her mouth. "Absolutely not, we have Teddy now, we need to think about him."
"Perhaps a Ministry job? I'm sure they'll be hiring now." Sirius smiled. "Maybe someone who can take a look at Dark Artifacts? If memory serves me correctly, you've got knowledge on those kind of things?"
Draco grinned and nodded. "I can talk to my father about that, and the Ministry isn't too far from Grimmauld Place either..."
After cleaning themselves up, getting some rest and preparing Grimmauld Place as their new home, Aurora and Draco had gone to a place neither had ever been. To the home of Draco's aunt, Andromeda Tonks. She had been waiting on their arrival since receiving the news about her daughter and son in law.
She lived in a beautiful cottage in the village and Aurora felt awful that she'd now be alone. Her husband and only child gone and now they were going to be taking her grandchild from her.
"Won't you be lonely?" Draco said to her as she handed a few bags she had packed with things that Teddy would need. A car from the Ministry parked outside to take all the luggage and properly bring bring baby Teddy from Andromeda's home to their home.
Andromeda smiled, her eyes a bit wet with tears, but gleamed with happiness. "I'm going somewhere I know I will never be lonely," She said to Draco. "Your mother is coming to get me, I'll be staying with her."
Draco nodded and smiled. "She loves you dearly, but she knew if she revealed where you were, they would have killed you."
"Cissy always wanted to keep me safe, I just wish things had been different sooner." She replied as she went over to the crib that was in the living room and took a small boy with turquoise hair out and into her arms. "Draco, Aurora... I'd like for you two to meet Teddy, your new son."
He turned his little head toward Aurora and she felt a feeling in her heart she'd never felt before. This little boy had already had Aurora wrapped around her finger. She reached her arms out to hold him and instantly, Teddy was drawn to her, the way she was to him.
Once he was in her arms, she felt a love that was unable to be described. She had loved her daughter beyond words. But she had never lived and the moment she had held her, she still hadn't processed any bit of it. She couldn't understand that a baby had even been in her arms, but with Teddy, it was different.
"Hi Teddy," Aurora said softly. "I- I'm Aurora, I'm going to be look after you. I promise to always protect you and always tell you how much your Mum and Dad loved you. How they fought for you, to keep your safe here."
Draco's eyes gleamed as the little boy reached his hand to grab Draco's finger. Something Draco had always talked about with their daughter, how her hand was too tiny to have grabbed his finger. But now, a living, happy, baby, was clutching his finger. Smiling at him.
"You're a Mum now," Andromeda said. "You're his Mum..." Her smile was genuine, but being a mother didn't sound right, it felt like she was taking that away from Tonks.
"Am I?" Aurora asked nervously. "I don't want to over step-"
Andromeda chuckled and shook her head. "My daughter left that night and told me exactly what she told you, how she wanted the two of you to care for him, but did she tell you why? Why you both?"
Aurora and Draco both shook their heads.
"Because you lost your baby girl. She knew if she and Remus died, which, they did, that you'd complete each other. Teddy would need a mother and father, and you'd be filling that piece of your heart that was missing your baby girl. She told me that you will be the best Mum and Dad to him... So please, be his Mum and Dad, let him call you that, if he asks about them, tell him all the stories, tell him how they were soldiers, and tell him how loved is..."
Aurora nodded.
"My mother did the same thing when she left me for Severus... She didn't want me to know any different, she just wanted me to be loved and to have at least one parent since I couldn't have both..." She replied.
Andromeda kissed Teddy on the head. "I'm going to miss waking up to a new hair color each day. Watch out for that, he likes to play tricks with his hair."
The moment Draco took the boy into his arms, he looked at Draco and smiled. Letting out a little hiccup and then his hair changed from turquoise to the same blonde hair that Draco had.
She could tell that his heart skipped a beat for a moment. A wide smile appeared and Draco chuckled and pressed his nose to Teddy's.
"I love you so much already," Draco said to him.
Months went by and Draco had started working as an apprentice at the Ministry in the Dark Artifacts department. Arthur Weasley had helped him get the job there. Aurora was lucky enough to be a stay at home mom with Teddy, which she hadn't realized was a full time job all in itself. Especially with a magical baby, who already had been showing signs of magic aside from just changing his hair color.
Once a month, the Weasley family hosted a dinner at the Burrow and each month, Draco and Aurora were invited to attend with Teddy, and it just so happened tonight was the date of the monthly dinner, which would be the first in three months since Aurora and Draco had last gone, because they had been trying to hard to adjust to having a child, owning a home, and life as adults outside of Hogwarts.
Teddy had began teething, and Aurora had tried everything, cold toys, different healing potions to help with pain, rocking him, singing to him, letting him chew on safe things, but nothing had stopped the crying.
That was, until Draco had finally strolled down stairs after being kept up in his office all morning.
"He still crying?" Draco asked.
Aurora, who had bags under her eyes, her hair a tangled mess, and had been running off 3 cups of coffee and 1 entire hour of sleep, looked at him and could only nod. Even that, was exhausting to her.
"Here," Draco reached for him and took him into his arms and suddenly, there was silence and Draco smiled. "That was easy, huh?"
But before she could reply to him, she had already falling asleep on the gliding chair. Draco looked down to see that Teddy was not only content, but he was asleep also. Using his wand, he took a blanket and placed it over Aurora, and then kissed her on the head.
Draco sat on the sofa across from her, bundling Teddy in his arms and putting his feet up on the coffee table, and for hours, while the two slept, he just admired them.
This was the life he had always wanted, the one that his Grandfather had predicted for him from the time he was 11 years old, until the moment the man died when Draco was 16, and he wished so badly, for his Grandfather to be able to see that he was right, just like he always was.
Aurora awoke a few hours later and that had been the most sleep she had gotten since before the Battle of Hogwarts. She got up quietly and Draco gave her time to shower and get ready, they really couldn't cancel another dinner with the Weasley's. They'd felt bad that they had only attended 2 dinners and skipped 3.
Feeling refreshed after a nap and shower, she stepped back downstairs to find Draco had dressed Teddy in his best, and was setting him in a carseat.
"You plan to drive to the Burrow? You know we can travel by floo now-"
"I enjoy having a Muggle driver's license." Draco smiled. "Plus, if he gets restless, we can just take him for a drive, Sirius said he did that with you and Harry-"
"On his motorbike, not a car!" Aurora laughed. "And if he gets restless, we can just take the floo back home! Rather than having to load him into a car again."
But that was an arguement that had been better off for another day. Aurora agreed with Draco and put the floo powder back atop the fireplace. She grabbed her keys and jacket and head for the door while Draco carried the baby in the carseat.
After about a 20 minute drive to the Burrow, they had finally arrived and Aurora then remembered why she hated cars, they gave her so much anxiety, and it reminded her of worse times. Being locked in the ministry cars that were taking them to and from Grimmauld Place to the Platform to get back to Hogwarts, but it had been under desperate times.
Molly ran to answer the door and nearly pushed both Aurora and Draco out of the way to get a glimpse at how much Teddy had grown since the last she'd seen him, although Draco would give photos of him to Arthur to take home to Molly.
"Look at you boy! So big now!" Molly took him from Draco's arms. "He's blonde today!?"
Draco nodded. "He was pink yesterday, looked just like Tonks,"
Molly grinned. "Have his eyes been changing too?"
Another nod from Draco. "They were blue yesterday, today they're green. Sirius said they're the exact shade of Lily's eyes."
"They sure are! I feel like I'm looking at Harry! Minus the blonde of course," Molly kissed Teddy on the head. "Oh, do come inside! I hope you're all hungry! I may have gone a bit overboard, I wanted to send you home with left overs, I know it's been hard as new parents and with little time to prepare!"
"Thank you Mrs. Weasley-"Aurora had started, but Molly snipped and cut her off, laughing and smiling of course.
"Oh darling, please... You've both become like my own, call me Mum!" said Molly.
"Thank you... Mum" Aurora's heart warmed. She'd never called anyone Mum, she'd never had one and after finding out her own mother was dead, she craved a mother, she craved that kind of love.
She never realized how badly she wanted that type of love, until Sirius pointed out to her that perhaps that's why she wanted to be a mother so badly herself, and why she felt so complete once Teddy was placed with her.
Teddy was the key to her healing heart. And Draco of course, had been a wonderful father. He never a missed a beat and helped any and every moment he wasn't working, and yes, some days had been harder than others but Aurora never once regretted her decision to raise Teddy, and certainly not once did she ever regret Draco.
As they entered the dining room, Ron had been sitting there with Lavender and Hermione with Viktor, and to Aurora's surprise, Harry was sitting with Ginny, their hands intertwined.
"Bill couldn't make it, Fleur isn't up for travel right now," Ginny said. "She's too close to birth, doesn't want to risk anything."
"Teddy will love to have someone to play with soon," Aurora replied. "I'm thinking of trying to find maybe a play group for him, I'm afraid of him being lonely."
"You can always drop him off here," Ron smirked. "Plenty of people-" But per usual, Ron had been cut off.
"Ronald, it isn't about him being around people, it's about him being around other babies and children. It'll be good for him rather than being around just his parents all day. And surely it would be better for him to play with other babies than for him to be around adults all the time." Hermione explained.
Ginny giggled and then said, "And Hermione is talking about actual babies, not just you who acts like a baby whenever you don't get your way. I'm not sure why Lavender even agreed to marry you!"
"Huh!?" Aurora and Draco both said as they sat into their chairs. Teddy sitting on Aurora's lap, already reaching for the food that was spread onto the table.
"Oh yeah-" Ron smirked and put his arm around Lavender. "Had you both been here last month you'd have known we got engaged. Kind of like how you two ran off and got married because life is short, so, I popped the question, again, because life is short."
Lavender flashed a beautiful pearl ring to Aurora, her eyes gleaming as bright as the pearl did in the sunlight that still was shining through the windows. "Congratulations!" Aurora smiled, to Lavender. "Have you set a date?"
Ron nodded. "We're thinking in the Spring, maybe April? When all the flowers are blooming around here, it'll be nice. Neville is apprenticing at Hogwarts, doing Herbology, he could help with plants and all that."
"And if you want something to explode, just call Seamus." Ginny stuck her tongue out at Ron, who picked up a piece of bread to throw at her.
"Don't you dare!" Molly raised her voice at them, but the tone frightened Teddy, who then began to cry, and as he did, his hair turned from blonde, to a deep ocean blue, as did his eyes.
"Wow!" Harry said loudly. "I've never seen something like that before.
"He can't control his magic, so his hair and eyes change when he gets upset or happy or scared or- well, you get it." Aurora explained as she stood up and rocked the crying Teddy in her arms until he then was soothed and calmed down.
Draco kissed him on the head as Aurora sat back down with him.
"He doesn't care for loud noises, he gets very jumpy, I'm wondering if it's just aftermath from the battle, I know I've struggled a bit with things like that..." Draco muttered.
The room was silent for a bit. Until Hermione chimed in. "I have a new found fear of snakes."
Harry chuckled and then took a sip from his goblet.
Each person then went around the table and admitted to something that the war had changed about them. Lavender was now afraid of those giant spiders, to which Ron said he was glad he fell in love with the right person.
Ginny said the sound of cracking bothers her now, it reminds her of the sounds of the castle falling apart. And Harry added that bright, colored lights, specifically red and green, give him the chills.
Draco stayed silent but Aurora decided that it was a safe space. She could tell them the things that had been bothering her since the battle. And that had been what she had done. What she did to Blaise.
"I don't sleep... Not often anyways and I've used Teddy as an excuse as to why but if I'm being honest... I close my eyes and I see Blaise... I see the way he looked at me when I lifted that dagged and I hear the way his chest cracked as I stabbed him. I feel the warmth of the blood draining out of him and onto my hands. I taste that metallic blood in my mouth when it sprayed from him and I- I had been smiling. I laughed." She looked up and around the table. "I'm not a good person. I did a bad thing and at the time it felt so good... But-"
"I see that Death Eater in my dreams. The one from the night Dumbledore died... The one I..." Draco swallowed and could hardly speak.
"The one you turned to ground beef?" Ron asked, shrugging.
"RONALD!" Lavender and Hermione both shouted at him. "Be a little more sensitive!" Hermione added.
"Seriously! What is the matter with you! You're acting like Ginny! No filter!" Lavender scoffed at him.
Offended, Ginny replied. "Excuse me, Lavender! But it just so happens that I do have a filter! I just choose not to use it!"
Teddy began to fuss again, but Aurora rocked him gently in her arms, hushing him and telling him it was alright.
"Now, now." Draco said in a calm tone. "Let's all lower our voices and try our best not to upset my son..."
Harry's eyebrows narrowed for a moment, until he looked and saw the pure joy that was on both Aurora and Draco's faces as they held Teddy, Aurora taking a spoon full of food and feeding Teddy, and Draco being over protective to be sure Teddy wouldn't choke.
Harry had spent much time angry that the role had been passed over him, and given to Draco and Aurora, until he realized something... No one knew if Harry was going to make it out of that battle alive, or if both he and Voldemort would die. And that both Draco and Aurora needed this, they were meant to be parents, they should have already been parents.
All Harry wanted since finding out Aurora was his twin sister, was for her to be at peace and happy. Since the time he'd spent with her at Hogwarts, she never really was at peace and never had true happiness. Something had always been in the way. But now, the way she had gleamed, and the way Draco did too, Harry knew Remus and Tonks had made the right choice, and he, as Godfather, would be there whenever he'd be called upon by his sister and her husband.
"I wanted to ask something and forgive me if it's personal," Harry said to Aurora and Draco. "Will Teddy's last name remain Lupin, or-"
"He still has Lupin, but we did add Malfoy to the end of it, just to make life a bit easier for him. He'll always hold his parents' names, but he also will hold ours, especially because one day, we hope to have more children and we don't want him to feel different, to wonder why he isn't a Malfoy like us, or to feel unloved." Draco replied to Harry.
"Already talking about more children?" Ron snorted. "How many you plan on? 10?"
"We're Malfoy's not Weasley's, we don't mate like rabbits." Draco sneered and then looked at Molly and Arthur, "No offense to you both, you're great parents, just with some questionable children-" His glare shot toward Ron.
"We get it," Both Arthur and Molly replied.
"Really though, how many more would you like?" Hermione asked kindly.
Aurora smiled. "We're hoping when Teddy is a few years old, that we'll have another, and then right away after that, we'll try for our final one."
"Why not start now?" Ginny asked, raising a brow with a smirk on her face. "Not like you've never done it before."
"Ginny!" Hermione shrieked.
"How does every conversation with you always turn to me and Draco's sex life?" Aurora shook her head in disgust.
Draco laughed. "Am I really the topic of your friend group?"
"Be lucky it's nice things now, for a while it was always about how awful you were." Ginny stuck her tongue out and then flashed her middle finger to Draco.
"Ginny! Not at the table!" Molly hissed. "I would yell at you but you're lucky that it upsets Teddy!"
Ginny rolled her eyes, although it had only been once her mother had turned her head and could not see her doing so.
Ginny rolled her eyes, although it had only been once her mother had turned her head and could not see her doing so. Aurora chuckled and then looked at the sweet boy who was rested in her lap, some day he would do the same things to her, and she was fine with it. So long as he knew how loved he was.
"I wish Sirius could have joined us," Harry said with a frown, that quickly turned to a fake smile and a shrug. "But Hogwarts is lucky to have him as their Transfigurations Professor."
"And he's lucky that he's now registered as an Animagus," Aurora added. "Thanks to Arthur and Draco for speaking to the Ministry to have that happen! Wouldn't want him shipped back to Azkaban over it."
"Speaking of Azkaban," Harry replied. "Anyone hear of Pettigrew?"
"Died the moment he got there, Dementor's kiss and then he was found strangled by his own hand." Draco replied. "Sirius was pretty upset when I told him... Not sure why-"
"Because although Wormtail had done wrong by literally everyone, he and Sirius were the best of friends... Sirius really has no one from that group left now..." Aurora replied.
"Not unless he lifts the memory charm from Aunt Petunia, then he'd have an old friend back." Harry shrugged.
Aurora tilted her head and wondered out loud. "But my father placed the charm on her, do you think it was lifted upon his death?"
Harry looked lost in wonder now too. He then clicked his tongue and shrugged it off. "No, not possible. Petunia would have shown up by now. Wouldn't she?"
"I don't know her at all, I wouldn't have been able to tell you an answer." Aurora said softly. "But I'd like to know her, she is our mother's sister and- I just feel so disconnected. I know I have you lot, you're all family to me, but... It's just different. I'd like to know them, and Dudley too-"
"That big idiot?" Ron laughed. "Didn't Hagrid give him a pig snout once?"
"And a tail." Harry added, grinning as he took a sip of his drink. "Can't remember if there were ears or not. I think just the tail and snout."
Aurora turned and looked at Draco. "Next time you eat my cereal that's what I'm going to do to you!"
Draco gasped and then laughed. "I told you, it was Teddy! He wanted it so we... Shared it."
"He hadn't had any teeth yet!" Aurora argued jokingly.
She found herself smiling at Draco as he laughed. This was her life now. They had gone through the pits of Hell together, just to end up having dinner with the Weasley family and arguing about cereal, when just a year ago they had been arguing over much darker things, things that changed the both of them forever, but for the greater good.
That night, after leaving the Burrow and planning for the next month's dinner, Aurora tucked Teddy into his crib. Draco standing by her side and together they looked down at the beautiful boy who was fast asleep, snoring away. A trait her in fact had gotten from Remus. Aurora kept a portrait of them in Teddy's room, so that every morning and every night, Teddy could see his parents, and see where he'd come from. And each and every morning and night, Aurora made sure to show Teddy to them, to say good morning and kiss them good night.
As hard as it had been, one thing Aurora hadn't ever thought she'd be thankful for, was what happened to her in the past. At 18 it was hard, but she couldn't have even began to imagine doing it at 15 years old. In a way she was relieved because no amount of preparing would have gotten her ready for this. She still was learning every day and as was Draco. Not only were they learning just how to balance work and home life and having a child, but they had to learn who Teddy was, when he was simply learning who he, himself, was too.
Draco wrapped his arm around Aurora and said, "You're doing great, Mama."
Aurora closed her eyes and smiled. "And you're doing amazing, Dada."