✧MISSING PAPA✧

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 Aurora didn't voice her anger, but those around her could clearly read it on her face. It wasn't just Rory who hadn't heard from her husband, both Cissy and all of Aurora's Ravenclaws who were missing their Death Eaters.

Though the biggest concern was indeed Rory and how close it had been to losing Cara. The entirety of the family and friends knew the daughter's name, not that it was the biggest secret in the world.
She hadn't even been moved by any of the news people came to bring her.

Instead Rory's concern was in Isabella, the young woman was planning a wedding without the given aid of her husband.

Along with her first pregnancy that she was meant to hide.

Otherwise it would be a known child out of wedlock, meaning suspicion on the child's true parentage. Considering all the above options, Rory did not want to think about the turn around on that ordeal for the child...Much less her best friend.

In the coming days, she didn't entertain anyone, she wallowed in self-pity. Her stomach rightly rounding out further causing another layer of anxiety and worry, and although she attempted to contact Sirius and Regulus...She knew it wouldn't be right or fair for two free brothers to entertain her.

Besides, Elizabeth said that Regulus was doing perfect on his own. All her doubt was on him finding his own choice to be rather straining, but Liz wouldn't allow him to wallow.

She'd give him space, but seemingly enough she forced him out a few times with Phoebe and her friends.

It was utterly perfect, she assumed difficult as he was a foreigner no matter with or without the magic side.

Phoebe apparently took him into muggle territory so he could start coping with the no-maj elements.

And Rory couldn't be more proud that he had managed to apply to a university. He would be joining Phoebe in New York, goddess was she jealous.

She'd adore the likes of a city, a beautiful penthouse...Goddess was unbelievably proud, what she did find aggravating was that Elizabeth refused to take any of the sent money for Regulus' rent.

As much as she wished Liz would owl just a bit more, the woman was facing the likes of a newborn. Her attention was on her children just as Aurora's should be.

Regulus wasn't her child, so was it the mothering aspect that rallied her to continue acting like he was younger than he actually is?

After sending the last letter of the week, as she only limited herself two to three...She allowed a drastic sigh to leave her throat, but it felt like more like a complaining moan.

"Cara love, I would love a little kick at the moment. Just so I know you're alright in there." Another factor in Aurora's stress was that Cara was entirely inactive.

Unlike the last two pregnancy she felt them, Cara on the other hand, was a bundle of stress. But that didn't have Rory love her any less.

Instead she asked the Elves to ready the children in something warm, she wanted to take them on a quick walk outside while they could still be introduced to the gentle inch of snow.

The elves claimed that it would only take a few minutes to get them dressed, and bless them for aiding her as much as they were. This pregnancy was starting to grow tiring once again, but at least Cara was scheduled to come in July rather than the twins and Roe.

Rising up to her feet did the sudden interest of Regulus' fake wand come into her mind, waddling over to the emptied-out bookcase did she pick it off from the pedestal.

It was the closest to what she could do to honor that Regulus, and right on beside it was one of her favorite pictures from Hogwarts.

Either Clem or Harper had taken it, it was both her brothers and herself. All sporting their Quidditch jumpers, their last name featured heavily just above the number three.

Whyever they decided that would be their number was beyond them. But the sanctioned tear that slipped down Rory's face had her crack further.

The tear even dropping down to the glass frame, causing her to struggle in wiping it away.

Either brother holding their sister securely, but it was a beautiful picture. It wasn't a painting or proper posing as it was clear they were laughing on the other end.

Especially Sirius as his shoulders were jumping up and down.

"Rory?" Her heart clenched just as her hands had around the picture. And her anger rang so deep that she hadn't felt the sharp pinch the silver picture frame was against her skin.

"Well...Would you look at that, the master of the manor finally returns." She chuckled to herself and placed her brothers back down on the mantle before cutting a glare to Lestrange.

"I hadn't known you left the hospital."

"I left the hospital on the fourth day." She gestured to the calendar and he narrowed his brow. "That doesn't make any sense in—"

"Doesn't it? You've been gone close to five weeks." It hadn't sound right, not at all. It felt like less than a week, granted he didn't manage all that much sleep between those weeks.

But his wife's stomach was surely evidence of the moving weeks.

"I hadn't known...Truly...The Dark Lord—"

"I really cannot handle an excuse right now Rabastan." She whispered, a small sniffle finding it's way into the conversation.

"Aren't you going to ask how your children are?" She beckoned, but he was still lost in the conversation as the lack of sleep and hostility in the air was choking.

She huffed impatiently before grabbing the cloak behind her chair. "I'll be outside with the children, get something to eat. You're looking too peaky." She bitterly replied, hurrying down the hallway to see the elves crowding around the two toddlers as they ran towards their mummy.

"Aurora wait!"

"No Rabastan, you swore that we were before him. No note, no mention. Not even a where! Merlin Rabastan I just lost a brother, I thought you were dead! But at least then I would've gotten a confirmation of what happened." He came the bit closer, his lil munchkins smiling and giggling brightly over the fact that their papa was finally home.

Until Rory blocked their view and guarded them from their father.

"Get dressed into something else." In confusion he looked down, his Death Eater robes were still weighing heavily on his shoulders.

But Rory knew the smell of death all too easily.

"Please." Merlin was he not used to such raw emotion on his wife, but even then did her hair start to dwindle into her signature shade of grey streaks. Until the entirety was one color.

He let out a quick nod before hurrying off towards his bedroom, and sure enough his first task was looking to the damn calendar off in his wardrobe.

Merlin she was right.

Holding his head in his hands, had Regulus been alive he would've surely called him a git. The biggest git in the world. But how could he possibly explain to his wife that it was indeed the Dark Lord who needed aid?

But the Dark Lord over his pregnant wife? The only other wife that is pregnant was Lucius, and surely he was facing the same dispatch.

And if not Lucius then Avery, who left his wife and son alone for so long as well. Which was unmistakably true.

Aurora, on the other hand, had managed to steer her children away from their father and onto the porch to get a taste of snow. Halsey was entirely infatuated with the pure white substance beneath her boots.

As well as the crunching sound as she stomped like the muggle monster Remus had introduced her to ages ago. But what really brought Romulus into the excitement was turning his hair the color of white.

A new shade for him to favor, and since Rory herself was sporting grey. It left Halsey to be the odd one out with her normal brown locks.

"Mummy snow!"

"Yes love I see it, and you know what we can do with snow?" The twins shared the same wide-eyed expression as they watched their mum retrieve her wand and wave it to create a snowman.

"We'll name him frosty, when you two are a tiny bit older we'll have a proper snowball fight." Whatever sparked into Romulus as he reached down with his padded gloves and squeezed his hand tightly to create a flattened pancake, merlin did she watch in pure amusement as he threw it at his sister square in the face.

"Goodness Romulus, why would you do that to your sister? Say your sorry or we'll have to—" Go inside. Is what she was going to say, had Halsey not returned the attack.

But what was brilliant is the different shades the two attempted to create when they were hit with a snowball.

It allowed Aurora to cuddle Roe underneath her cloak, the babe wasn't such a fan at the snow, which wasn't that much of a surprise considering he was still young.

But come next year she was going to enjoying the winter with her four children, and everyone will be older to have a proper laugh like the twins.

Rabastan had taken his time to wash away all that happened over the weeks he had apparently missed. But how was it possible?
It felt like one large blur, sleepless nights and far too much death and torture to really grasp a concept of time.

But of course when he arrived at his study for a quick moment he sighed. Merlin his father was going to have his head, but of course, bless his wife for warning him that Rabastan was away on a mission.

So he wasn't entirely screwed, at another mercy of Rory.

Continuing downstairs did he find the four of them out at the gazebo, but didn't miss the snowman now featured at his porch.

Rabastan Lestrange is a first-tier Death Eater, he shouldn't have this type of decoration.
But here it was.

What the master of the house was failing to realize that having children means changing for them. However he was too caught up in the mindset of being powerful and prideful against others in the factions that he expected the same while at home.

But his children didn't have a care in the world other than their dollies and wolves. They were barely understanding of colors, let alone the prejudice and the war that their father was in the mist with.

"Papa!" Rory turned around, a bright smile still promenade on her face as she was entertaining the little munchkins. But it was Romulus who rushed to his father, his arms in the air to be held.

The little fellow had a red nose and white clear hair.

"Hello little man, did you take care of your mummy while I was away?" The boy snuggled his father's neck as Rabastan always radiated warmth.

"Papa wook!" Halsey said, pointing to the beautiful snow angle that she had just created, as it was fairly obvious by the snowflakes in her hair...Though partly difficult to see entirely due to the color of her hair.

"I don't know Munchkins, looking too close to Lucius' hair for my liking." Rory rolled her eyes as she leaned back into one of the couches and hugged Roe a little tighter.

The little fellow had fallen asleep in his mother's hold.

"Rory please...I hadn't meant to scare you or put you in the position of me being—"

"You men didn't leave a word of anything. You could've summoned an elf and gave them a sentence, a time limit, I think I would've taken a bloody message of 'goodnight', but I don't get that luxury. Nor did Amelia or Clem, Izzy?" Rabastan sighed further, returning Romulus to his sister as he tackled her to the ground.

"Romulus!" The woman hissed, bending down to the ground and aiding Halsey to her feet as she held Romulus' cheeks. "Sweetheart we don't push our sister down to the ground, I want you to say you're sorry to—"

"Honestly Rory, Halsey's fin—" Rabastan Lestrange had stopped mid-sentence as he saw his wife's eyes change.

"So on top of being absent, you find the sudden urge to correct me on my parenting?" He realized what he had done just after her chilling gaze.

"Perhaps you can stay out with them..." As it was partly obvious that Roe had finally had enough of the cold. And so Rabastan had been left outside in the gazebo.

He had instantly gone to call the house-elf and ordered all of his wife's favorites for dinner as well as ask for an update.

Merlin, the wives over more times than not, but he felt better that Amelia stayed a few nights with Wyatt. However Aurora was meant to cater to her birds, that meant her own hormonal imbalance and Narcissa's were the biggest fear.

He was indeed screwed.

And when he sat at the table that night, he was feeling the hatred loud and clear.

"Aurora I am sorry, but the Dark Lord had task after task. He's strengthening our allies, allies in other countries." She looked up from her perfectly cooked pizza as she chewed silently and wiped her mouth to the napkin.

"Five weeks. I don't think you understand Rabastan, that I was not out of the clear with Cara just yet. So no, I don't believe you're sorry." She replied, and he was lucky to even get a flash of a glare.

"Your loyalties are spread thin, I would appreciate a warning or a note. Bloody anything the next time you are gone for days or weeks at a time." Was her final words as she stepped away from the dining table, at least she had finished her plate.

There was the slightest win in the background of the argument.

However he was not prepared for his wife to not have slept in the master bedroom the entirety of the stay away. Instead he peeked in to see her on a small temporary bed in the room with all three of them.

As if they didn't have dozens of guest rooms.

"Rory, please come to our bed...This isn't ideal for—" Her eyes popped open in an almost demonic way, or else that was indeed the consensus as he flinched.

The woman wasted no time at all as she rose to her feet and gripped her husband's ear in a tight pinch as she led him out of the room.

"My brother doesn't believe me when I say you're violent, kitten, merlin I—"

"No. You cannot just come back without any remorse Rabastan. They missed you, they want their father. Is this what it's going to be like?! Our marriage is just going to be you off for weeks at a time?" He wasn't in a place to question the Dark Lord or ask when he would be able to go home.

So he sighed, and ushered out another apology as well as an explanation.

"We were hunting the Longbottoms." Her eyes widened tenfold as she shook her head.

"That doesn't excuse any of this Rabastan, and by now they have taken the hint and gone into hiding. It sounds like a repeat of you leaving when the twins were born and I—" His eyes flared at the remembrance of that reaction, his eyes at the brink of tears once again as he angered his wife.

For the umpteenth time, it'd seem.

"I've failed you...Again." He whispered, and she scoffed.

"You failed your children, get some sleep Rabastan, your father is coming tomorrow." She soon returned off into the children's room to get proper rest...

While he found peace at the bottom of a glass of firewhiskey.

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Date Posted: 10-30-19

Time: 11:44

Words: 2698