"Hello, Severus." The man, Lupin, gave a half-hearted, but warm smile. "It's been a while."
Severus sneered, which wasn't abnormal, but he seemed to hate the kindly looking man. "A decade is not long enough, dog."
Koty, shocked at the blatant hatred, looked up at his mate. "What's wrong?"
Blinking, as if forgetting that they had an audience, Severus shook his head. "Nothing, Kitten. Why don't you both go find your mother? There are plenty of ruffled feathers that need to be smoothed."
"I had no idea you had a child, Severus," Lupin said, eyes wide at the realisation.
Draco and Koty burst out laughing, while Severus shivered in revulsion. He knew what his mateship looked like, and he was not impressed by the partially reasonable assumption.
"Papa, that's not his daddy." The little girl said, tugging on his sleeve. "Their colours are wrong. The older one is a mix of yellow and indigo. The one with wings is... it's so pretty Papa! I've never seen so many colours! It's mainly yellow, but there's blue and red and lots of lavender. It's all covered in a glittery white colour." (A/N: I got the info off of a Pinterest post, but I can't get the exact site because I don't have Pinterest. Basically, Koty is child-like, optimistic, sensitive, connects with nature, loving, forgiving, caretaker, strong, passionate, hard working, artistic/creative, intelligent and gentle. The glittery white means gifted healer, one with nature and intuitiveness. White also includes purity. Let's face it, there is no purer soul lol.) "Their colours connect, kinda like you and Daddy, but different."
"Excuse me?" Lupin asked harshly, glaring daggers at Severus.
Severus rolled his eyes. "Boys, go find your parents."
Draco nodded stiffly and exited the tent with poise. Koty, however, was too worried about Severus. He clung to the older man's robe, too fearful to let him go. That other man was furious, and Koty didn't want any more violence today.
It didn't take much to understand that something was being implied about his relationship, something that drastically changed the moods of both men.
Whatever it was, it was bad. He narrowed his eyes on the stranger. "There is nothing wrong with my relationship with Sev!" His wings being bound, could not wrap around them as he wanted, so he tightened his grip, feeling the gauze slip and slide over the paste on his hands. There must have been a numbing aspect to the paste, as he felt no pain at the movement.
"Koty, as thankful as I am for your assistance," Severus began, his heated gaze never leaving Lupin. "It is not actually helpful in this particular situation."
Frowning, Koty remained silent.
"As loath as I am to explain myself to the likes of the canine species," Severus drawled with a sneer. "Nothing untoward has occurred between myself and this child. Remember Lupin, I am not the monster here."
"Papa Moony isn't a monster!" The little girl said. "He's just fuzzy!"
"Please excuse the intrusion," a cool voice said.
Their attention locked on the opening of the magically cooled tent.
"Hi, Mr. Leigalos," Koty said warily.
"My Lord," he said, inclining his head respectfully. "Is everything alright?" He scanned the situation with narrowed eyes.
"I don't know." Koty replied honestly, biting his lip. "This man is implying something about Sev and me, and whatever it is, it's upsetting Sev."
Mr. Leigalos lifted an unimpressed eyebrow at Lupin. He sniffed. "Ah. A werewolf. Tell me, werewolf, can you not scent the boy's purity?"
Lupin's brows knit, casting suspicious glances at the pair. He took a long, slow breath through his nose. "I see." His words were tense, but less harsh than before.
"Papa, that man is like his Mr. Doughy." The little girl said, not watching the duo, but the space around them.
"Are you sure, Ellie?" Lupin asked, running a hand through her hair.
"Mm-hm!" The girl replied, nodding. "And... he's... like me. Who are you?" While she had been talking to her dad, her confused eyes eventually landed on Koty.
Feeling some of the tension leaving the room, Koty sighed and loosened his grip. "I'm Koty Malfoy."
At that, Lupin gaped. "You're Siri's new cousin... nephew?"
"Nephew is fine," Koty said, letting his hands fall to his sides. "I know Draco and I are his cousins, but Mother said something about a furnuncle? I don't know what she's talking about, but-" he paused when Lupin started to laugh.
"He really said he wanted to be your funcle?" Lupin shook his head, clearly amused. "I thought he was joking."
Koty noted the real title and made sure he wouldn't mess it up again. "So... does that mean he's the one who hit Sir?"
Lupin's brow knit. "Sir? You mean Potter?"
The amount of hatred in Lupin's voice was enough to make Koty stumble back into Severus' tall frame, his head connecting with the man's lower ribs. The man was either insane or pregnant, as no one else had such dramatic mood swings. Sweet and calm, polite, rude, assuming, then laughing? Koty was betting on insane.
A gentle hand with long, dexterous fingers rested on his shoulder in silent reassurance.
"Yes, he means Potter." Severus' eye-roll was practically audible. "If you are with Black, I find it difficult to believe that he failed to mention the fact that the newest Malfoy came from the illustrious House of Potter."
The look on Lupin's face was less than impressed. "So you're a Potter, then?"
Koty shook his head, trying to block the tears that stung his eyes. He wasn't a Potter! He was never a Potter! He spent his entire life under the assumption that his name was Boy, for Merlin's sake! Would anyone ever forget where he came from? He was certainly doing his best to forget, but he just wished he knew how to make them do the same!
Keeping his eyes on the ground, he muttered something to Sev about finding his friends, and walked out of the tent.
Cuddles was lying outside the tent patiently, simply watching the people getting back to normal and moving toward the booths and games once more. When his human showed up, it was clear that he was upset.
Koty wanted to curl up with his doggy somewhere, but Cuddles, like himself, was still covered in gauze and paste. He huffed a sigh and patted the fluffy flank that reached his shoulder in height. With the way everything was going, he wanted the day to be over.
Sensing the emotions of his human, Cuddles stopped in front of Koty and put his massive paw on the small tabletop to his left.
"Cuddles, what are you doing?" Koty asked, his nose scrunched in confusion.
"I don't usually sell to animals, but it's your choice here..." The woman had an accent he'd never heard before.
They looked up to see a tall, slender woman with perfect coppery ringlets that were an unknown length, as they disappeared behind the display counter. He stepped back to look at the signs. The lady was selling something called... "What's a funnel cake?" He asked curiously.
"The best carnival food in the States. I'm happy to give you a sample!" She said happily, holding up a cone with a wide straw at the base, wiggling it with a small smile. "Standard, sweet or savoury flavours. Take your pick."
He hummed in thought, "Do you have any really really spicy options?"
"Scale of one to ten on spice? Ten being the spiciest."
Koty looked at his doggy, who had his tongue out, panting heavily. "Seven?" Cuddles pouted. "Eight?" He gave a mournful whine. Koty giggled. "Ten?" With a happy woof, Cuddles started licking his face. "Could you please make him one that's a ten? And I'll try a normal one, please."
Their snacks were done in a flash, one lightly covered in white powder and the other was coated thickly in colourful flakes. Koty put the colourful one on the step, presumably for shorter children, and Cuddles licked the top tentatively. As soon as he got a taste, he wolfed it down, red and purple smoke rings floating out of his nose with every breath. He yipped happily, licking his chops.
Koty smiled and tried his own. The light, fried dough was accented perfectly with a little bit of powdered sugar. "That's fantastic, thank you!" He said, wiping his mouth.
They walked around for a bit, occasionally stopping to talk to some well-wishers, but thankfully it was not as often as before. He found his friends in a group by something called a ring-toss.
"Kitten!"
With Penny's shout, the entire group turned to face Koty with broad grins. "Come on, Kitten! You get the next turn."
Koty smiled at them and watched Luna throw a few thin metal rings onto the tops of glass bottles that were clearly spelled unbreakable. There were about a hundred bottles of various shapes and sizes and four of Luna's five rings hit their targets, allowing her to choose a large prize.
Penny knelt at his side, examining his wrapped hands carefully. "We tried to find you after everything happened, but your parents said that we needed to give you space until you came to find us. Are you okay?"
Koty nodded, not entirely believing himself. "I'm okay. Now," he said, gently clapping his hands together. "Somebody show me how to do this."
For the next ten minutes or so, until a short line began to form behind them, Koty and his friends both succeeded and failed spectacularly. Koty himself was awful at the game, but he didn't mind. Luna got an animated winged zebra stuffy, Penny won a cheap tiara, George got a floating dolphin with wings and horns that stayed within three metres of the wristband that came with it, and Fred got a small stash of harmless firecrackers that spit glitter in various shapes intermittently. Amelia, like Koty, was awful at the game and won nothing, while Olive decided not to play.
"Let's go get a picture!" Olive said happily. "One with all of us!"
Koty smiled and followed his friends to a booth.
Behind an easel sat a squat older man with... horns. He had horns. And a thin, black tail. "All o' yous?" He asked cheerfully.
"Yes, please," Koty replied politely. "Oh! Him too!" He pointed at his doggy.
The man blinked, but eventually nodded. "Alrigh'. Squeeze in tigh' and get comfy now. This'll take 'bout twenty minutes."
Penny, Olive, Amelia and George sat in the back, each pulling one of the others on their laps, and Cuddles sprawled out in front of them, his head in Fred's lap and his tail on Luna's.
As the twenty minute marker approached, Koty was itching to get moving. There was still so much to see and do and try! So far, all he'd tried was the funnel cake and the ring toss. The fake tattoo tent was one stop he wanted to make. The lady behind the counter boasted one-of-a-kind tattoos that moved and lasted two weeks, no matter what happened to them, be it washing or spellcasting.
Also, there was a petting zoo he'd noticed earlier! All of the animals looked like babies, but were actually fully grown adults. Apparently there was a potion explosion near their home and everything (and everyone) nearby was now locked into younger versions of themselves. The proprietor was actually a hundred and eighteen, but was now back in his thirty year old body.
"All done!" The horned man said proudly. "I got all o' yous, jis' likes you wan'ed!"
Excited to finally be able to move, the whole group stood as one. Each of them were eagerly waiting for the picture to be turned around.
Their jaws dropped. The parchment really did have all of them... and they all looked absolutely adorable! Their heads were much larger than reality, and their facial features were exaggerated in flattering ways. Sharper features, like Penny and the twins had, were softened and rounded cutely. Their eyes were all huge and glittery, mouths small and smiling.
Koty realised that his tiny fangs were in the picture, though they never emerged until he caught the scent of Sev's blood, and the harness holding his wings in place was non-existent. Instead, his wings stretched out beautifully behind all of his friends, the colouring and shape spot on, and had what looked like water droplets clinging to the tips. Bear had his horns and wings out with a stream of fire exiting his mouth. Around Amelia though, was strange. There was a faint, chalk-like outline of wings and her fingers were subtly pointed. Wait, the twins also had faint markings, but theirs were fangs and they had almost invisible flames dancing up their arms. Luna had wings and tiny little hearts in a light grey colour.
He looked at the man quizzically. "What...?"
The man in question merely grinned and indicated the sign.
'Revealing your Inner Caricature'
"You can see creatures?" Fred asked, his eyes never leaving the picture.
"Even if they're hidden?" George finished, staring intently at the faint flame lines.
"But that's impossible," Amelia said calmly. "No one in my family has inherited in four or five generations."
"Who says?" The man asked, his brow raised and a smug smile on his lips. "It'll be soon."
"See?" Amelia said, rolling her eyes. "That's impossible. My seventeenth birthday isn't for another year, so it couldn't be soon, even if it really was going to happen."
"Care to make a wager?" The horned man prompted, his grin widening.
Not one to back down, despite the clear amount of confidence, Amelia squared her shoulders. "What are your terms?"
"I'll meet you wherever you choose, and if you're still 'human'," he used air quotes around the last word. "Then I'll give you... fifty galleons. Meet me whenever you want, between Samhain and Yule."
Koty bit his lip. "Is being a creature so bad, 'Melia?" Why was she so against believing him if it was okay?
"Kitten, that's not what I meant at all," she replied, scooping him up. "It's not that I don't want to, I promise, okay? My family had all kinds of creature blood. Sirens, Weres, Fae, and even a Veela or two somewhere down the line. I'd love to inherit, but no one's been strong enough in over a century. You know what, Mister, I'll take you up on that bet. Meet me on..." she paused in thought. "November 7th. It's a Hogsmeade weekend. I'll be at the Hogshead at noon. Deal?"
"On me honour," he said, nodding as a light shimmer settled over them.
"Now that that's settled," Penny said, shaking her head. "Let's go see some crazy cute animals!"
After everyone left, except for Koty's friends, of course, Lucius led them all outside. "I hope you don't think I forgot your present?"
Having forgotten throughout the course of the day's insane events, Koty remembered breakfast. His dad was the only one who hadn't given him a gift. It wasn't as if he needed anything else, so he wasn't too concerned. "I just thought you and Mummy shared a gift." It was a lie, but no one would get their feelings hurt that way.
"No," he said, chuckling warmly. "But I have asked another friend of yours to remain behind, just to make sure everything is alright."
Brow knit in curiosity, Koty looked around. Over by the Northern garden, there were two men. "Mr. Newt? Mr. Percy?" Koty asked, barely registering that he'd spoken aloud.
Both of the older men smiled at him as they approached. "Happy birthday, Koty!" They said together.
"Thank you both!" He beamed.
Catching his son's eye, Lucius flicked his wand and Koty accidentally yelled in his excitement.
"FLUFFY!"