stepping inside the 12 grimmauld place, zenith felt a different warmth engulfing him in it's arms as if to welcome him. the twins beamed at him when they saw him looking around in awe while theodore rolled his eyes. inviting a complete stranger to your house no matter whose son he is seems like a complete bullshit for theodore. from the very start, theodore disliked zenith he had no idea why though.

"this place is amazing." zenith breathed out, keeping his luggage aside to have a better look at the paintings hung on the wall.

"who are you?" a rather cold voice asked, startling the black heir who jumped away from the painting.

"merlin! what was that." he gasped, keeping his hand on his heart.

"um. . . your grandmother." harry cracked a smile and patted zenith on his shoulder,"be careful, she can be a little. . . well you'll find out."

with that the three of them made their way towards the large dining table, leaving behind a confused zenith.

"uh. . . hello there, i am zenith." the curly haired boy smiled, feeling extremely anxious to find how she'll react after he reveals his true identity.

walburga stared at him for a solid two minute before cracking a smile of pride,"your eyes, they look familiar. they remind me of my son, regulus. my favorite boy."

zenith smiled in response, turning around to leave when she spoke up again,"who are you?"

"zenith. . .regulus black."

walburga's eyes widened in surprise,"how is that possible? regulus had a son? who's your mother? where is she? is she a pureblood?"

zenith realized what harry was trying to warn him about.

"my mother was a great person. that's all i know about her. pardon me but i have to leave."

zenith hurried towards the trio who were watching him talk with walburga from a distance.

"you can take your father's room." aurelia informed causing a wide grin to appear on zenith's face. as harry had already moved aurelia's belonging in the room downstairs considering the fact that she would have to no longer trouble herself by climbing the stairs , aurelia thought it would be best for zenith to have his father's room.

"i can't thank you two enough." zenith smiled, pulling aurelia in a thanking hug which she returned hesitantly, lightly patting him on his back.

"come on i'll show you." harry encouraged earning a quick nod from zenith. when they were out aurelia's sight she turned around to find an annoyed theodore sitting on one of the chairs while his eyes were fixed on her.

"what's wrong?" aurelia questioned, sitting down besides him,"you look mad."

"are you two crazy? you and your brother just let him move in with you just because he claims that his last name is black?" theodore frowned making sure to keep his voice low.

"he's a black." aurelia tried to explain him though extremely sad by the fact that theodore was mad for no reason,"he has got the features and he knows dumbledore."

"don't be stupid." theodore fake laughed,"the whole wizarding world knows dumbledore."

"i meant to say dumbledore knew him." aurelia corrected her sentence.

"you mean he claims that dumbledore knew him." theodore raised one his eyebrows.

"well yeah. . " aurelia nodded,"and he looks exactly like the woman i saw with regulus black in the photograph."

"whatever." theodore rolled his eyes, getting on his feet,"i am leaving."

aurelia's face fell as she watched him move towards the door.

suddenly aurelia felt something unusual ; butterflies, nervous twitches, a light tickle inside her stomach.

"ah." aurelia let out a soft whimper when it pained her causing theodore to run up to her, his face painted with a worried expression.

"are you okay? what's wrong?" theodore panicked, keeping his hand on aurelia's shoulder.

"the baby." aurelia whispered, tears of joy forming in her eyes,"the baby just kicked me."

theodore's worried features were replaced by a small smile as he stared at aurelia who had her hand on her stomach trying to feel the baby's movement.

"again." aurelia squealed, grabbing theodore's hand lightly and placed it over her stomach,"do you feel it?"

"no." theodore shook his head causing aurelia to smile sadly at him but it turned into a grin when theodore spoke up again,"yes. wait, i can feel it."

aurelia chuckled lightly, leaning on theodore who wrapped his arm around aurelia's waist to keep her steady.

"i feel so happy." aurelia sighed dreamily.

after theodore left, the other three settled on the dining table to have the dinner harry cooked.

"zenith, i wanted to ask you something." aurelia said giving a small smile to the curly haired man who looked nervous. he took a sip of water and motioned aurelia to go on with her question.

"why do you seem so familiar?" the question perked up harry's attention,"even theodore feels like he has seen you somewhere."

"er. . . remember when i told you about this friend of mine who wrote a letter to me to meet him?" the twins nodded,"when i was looking for the place he had asked me to come i accidentally bumped into theodore. that was probably the time he saw me and maybe that's why he finds me familiar."

"where did aura see you?" harry interrupted. 

"no idea. but maybe when i was trying to escape from the death eaters from the same place where i bumped into theodore, i did hear about the news that aurelia potter was being sighted." zenith explained. 

"how long were you there?"

"i returned to st.mungos after i couldn't find my friend. but then after few months he again wrote me a letter asking for help and it was the same address so i went back." zenith said, taking another sip of water. 

"who's this friend of yours?" harry frowned, confused by the fact that the friend kept on asking for help but never really came out in front of zenith. 

the question threw zenith off guard ; he didn't know how to explain them about him. 

"uh just a friend." zenith chuckled lightly hoping that harry will stop questioning him and much to his relief, nobody spoke a word after that. 

**

at first zenith was extremely shy, not speaking much and just staying inside his own boundaries. but within few days, the twins were surprised to find how loud he was.

 in the morning he'll just start singing random songs at the top of his lungs and then proceed to cook breakfast by nearly burning the kitchen.

 when in the evening of 30th july he returned home, he found aurelia yelling at theodore which he never thought he would witness. 

theodore was seated on the chair with his head held down while aurelia was just glaring at him muttering the words,"you don't know how difficult it's for me? i carry your little one around and this is how you treat me."

"what's going on?" zenith quietly walked up to harry who was standing by the entrance.

"oh zenith." harry said acknowledging his presence,"uh. . . i don't know. i was upstairs when i heard aura yelling and when i came down stairs she was still yelling. . . "

"i didn't mean it." theodore tried to apologize, mentally cursing himself for his sore mood.

without another word, aurelia glared at him for one last time before she walked up to her room and slammed the door shut.

an awkward silence soon draped the three young men who didn't know how to break the silence.

"well that was. . . " harry cleared his throat.

"quite scary." zenith completed for harry earning a glare from theodore.

"you're the first and the only person who got yelled by aura." harry breathed out.

"well thanks, i feel so special." theodore sarcastically muttered, letting out an exasperated sigh.

"but what happened? why was she yelling at you?" zenith asked.

theodore hesitated ; he didn't want zenith to know that he was kind of arguing with aurelia again that she was committing a mistake by trusting zenith.

"he kissed you on the cheeks." theodore exclaimed while aurelia was busy folding her clothes. theodore didn't know how to describe the pang of jealousy he felt when zenith kissed her on her cheeks in the morning while he was leaving.

"and why are you bringing it up now?" aurelia questioned.

"because it just slipped out of my mind." theodore explained,"that was really offensive of him to kiss you."

"offensive?" aurelia chuckled lightly,"he had no bad intentions theodore. it was just a goodbye kiss."

"acting all like he's your boyfriend or something." theodore muttered under his breath.

aurelia sighed and walked towards the door when she felt the vision before her going dizzy making her hold on to the door for support. her breathing became uneven as she kept her hand on her chest, trying to breathe.

"what's wrong?" theodore frowned, still mad about the whole zenith thing.

"i need water." aurelia choked out and ended up coughing badly.

theodore rushed up to her side, holding her hand to help her stand up straight and helped her to walk outside so that he could get her a glass of water.

"oh god you're so heavy." theodore blurted out when he felt aurelia fully leaning on him making it difficult for him to stand.

"theodore?" harry shook the brunet lightly who looked lost in a deep thought.

"uh yeah." theodore was finally broken out of trance and snapped back to reality,"i accidentally called her heavy."

"aw man." zenith groaned,"she must be already feeling so low and tired and you just called her heavy."

"but i didn't mean to!" theodore yelled, startling zenith who immediately shut his mouth.

"calm down and apologize to her." harry suggested, patting theodore lightly on his shoulder. sighing, theodore got on his feet and made his way over to aurelia's room.

his heart wrenched when he saw aurelia wiping her tears while trying hard not to cry even more. theodore didn't know that his words could hurt her to that extent. when aurelia felt the space besides her dipping she looked away, quickly wiping the rest of the tears.

"i am so sorry." theodore breathed out, glancing at aurelia who was still shaking,"i wasn't in the great mood you know. i had loads and loads of frustrating thoughts going in my head and i can't believe i let it out all on you. look at me golden." theodore pleaded.

"just leave me alone please." aurelia sobbed, furiously wiping her tears away.

"i am sorry please. don't cry. it's hurting me to see you cry over something stupid i said."

theodore gave an apologetic smile.

"but it hurts me theodore." aurelia finally looked at theodore, her tears stained cheeks bringing an unusual amount of pain and agony for theodore,"you don't know how i feel. i feel so. . . different. i have been gaining a lot of weight and it's making me feel insecure. i don't feel quite good with the changes but it's for my child and that's the only thing keeping me sane right now. and when you told me about how your grandfather was trying to get you married to pansy, i was so scared that you'll leave me cause i'm no good. i. . . look so ugly and different."

theodore stared at aurelia in shock. he had no idea that she was bottling up the insecurities inside without letting it reflect on her face.

"no. i promised you remember? i won't break my promise." theodore assured intertwining his fingers with aurelia's,"and you still look beautiful to me. don't let your insecurities get you. i love you and only you."

--------------

a/n: my summer vacation started so expect some better updates lmao. 

- nora.