✧FULL HOUSE PT 2✧

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"See? It wasn't too difficult."

"Wasn't too difficult? Rory save me any pride, that could've gone a lot better." She didn't want to be completely rude, but she kissed his cheek and tucked the gal in further. Only to be interrupted by the door opening to Nymeria bouncing in and Romulus holding up Lori's stuffie and blanket.

"Thank you Rommy, the library is a bit of a mess...But you can read in my study or your bedroom."

"Opa said your study was brilliant, can I go see?" It was clear to Rabastan that Aurora was the little lad's idol.

Part of him wanted to be seen like that, but he also couldn't take it away from Rory when she had done everything for the children.

"Course, and then you can have some tea in your homeland...Raba, do you want to stay with Lori for a bit?" Not wanting to appose on his son would he happily stay in the company of Lori.

She kissed Lori's forehead before turning to Rabastan to kiss his cheek. "Don't be afraid to ask questions Raba, she loves questions." Ruffling his hair to the side did she continue off to see Romulus waiting outside the room with her.

"Rommy I understand why you're reserved, but you couldn't give him a bloody hug?"

"No offense mum, but all he's done so far is say thank you. That to me doesn't say much."

"He's proud of you, and that should mean a great deal to you. I understand at the moment you don't see him as a father, but remember that he helped me teach you how to walk." It was a faulty smile, especially when thought about teaching Lori how to walk.

How it took days before she was decent. But she would walk to everyone who was sitting in the circle, whether that be her siblings, cousins, aunts or uncles. It was a calm family affair.

"I like our home better in America mum."

"Have to agree with you in that, but just remember that you'll be at Hogwarts for most of the year. Otherwise you'll be here during the Holidays, more than likely reading up in your room...Which reminds me that we'll be going to the pet store soon." He had been taken back by the decree, and only questioned it when they finally managed to get to her study.

And he genuinely remembered parts of it.

"Why are we going to the pet store?"

"Did you want something else for your birthday?" The lad shook his head instantly, he'd adore a pet right now.

As Rory had called an elf to give the dedicated trunks to the kids and pass the message that she wanted them to unpack what they could, only Romulus had aided her in getting her study in order.

Especially when she had multiple meetings to get through this, and that was only in reminder as Romulus called out seeing her calendar.

"Thank you love, could you plaster it on the wall. Mummy's going to forget come time for it."
"I'll remind you." She giggled, and it only amplified when she attempted to pitch his cheeks.

"I'm going to miss my little assistant when you're off at Hogwarts."
"Uncle said I'm not going to little much longer, I'm going to be taller than you." She hummed in thought and decided to tease him.

"No, I forbid it."
"Mum I must grow taller, how else am I going to reach the tall shelf for dangerous ingredients?" It was entertaining for sure.

"Romulus...I want you to try and talk to your father, please? It would make me really happy to see everyone get along." He didn't want to disappoint his mum, she looked so worried all the time—and it only increased now that they were finally here.

"I'll try mum."

"You promise?" His shoulders slumped as he felt rather defeated, his mother never asked for much. Just to behave and always come to her If they needed to, but this was difficult...Really difficult.

"Yeah mum, I promise." A true smile erupted as she wrapped her arms around him, which caused him to stand on his tippy toes to lean onto her shoulder more.

But as he watched his mum find this new energy, he realized that she stressing herself out on the relationship between Rabastan and himself.

Did it mean that much to her?

He didn't want to be the cause of her stress and so he decided that perhaps this should indeed be an off chance attempt to get to know the bloke.

"My beautiful light, how is moving in? Romulus, how did it go?" Aurora laughed as she moved another box onto her desk and settled down a folder.

"Romulus shook his father's hand." The eldest son had looked between his mother and then back to his Opa before the painting had thrown his head back and laughed.

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself vater [Father], settle down and save it for someone else."

"You're right, he'd enjoy it just as much. Well done son, putting your father in his place already!" Aurora scowled at her father, and already had her finger pointed up prepared of a lecture.

To be fair, she was older than the image of her father—He was painted to be in his young twenties.

"Merlin Cassiopeia, you've managed well enough. Take the victory." That didn't stop her from narrowing her eyes further for her father's surrender. "I don't want any of this repeated Romulus, your Opa has reasons to be angry with your father."

"And I don't? I should be angry for the same reasons."

"And I love you for it, but being a big angry grouch isn't what an almost eleven-year-old should be acting like. Besides, papa will be begging on his knees sooner or later." Romulus turned to see his Opa continue to laugh as it seemed his father had done that multiple times to his mum in apology.

However when Aurora had introduced her eldest to his new bedroom he cheered. "You got the swing!... Lori!" The eldest son had looked down the hall to see Rabastan carrying Lorelei in his arms.

"You got a swing? Mummy can I have a swing in my room?"

"Oh love you're too young for that, but I'm sure your brother wouldn't mind sharing?" Rabastan had been finally introduced to the child side of Romulus, and he adored seeing Lori run into the room to follow.

"I rather like this American attire on you." She perked her lips and smirked back over to Rabastan, she had felt a little self-conscious in her appearance or how she's aged.

But the only thing he had seen is her loss of weight and maturity. Black beauty is holding up well.

"Hm, it'll take some time to switch back. American has half-no-Maj—Half muggle and half-witch...I did want to warn you that I have meetings throughout the week, I usually take Romulus or Cara with me if it's not too boring of a meeting. But Lorelei can't keep still or entertained, same with Imara. Perhaps Narcissa can come with Draco?" Rabastan remained beside his wife and nodded.

"Whatever you think is best." He responded, finally surcoming to the idea that it was going to be a losing battle.

"Romulus, help your sister if she gets off of it, we'll be right back." He nodded to his mother as he watched them leave the door, and Rabastan had a second thought of closing it but didn't want the separation between a door.

But then he realized that another room had been left open. "Imara! We haven't even been here for an hour and already you've—" Rabastan stood in awe, the room was indeed in a state of chaos. And even better, Cara was sporting ill proper lipstick on her face.

"I just wanted to look like you mummy!" The middle daughter cried, and Rabastan thought it was a sweet gestured, but that did not explain how the room had turned into this state.

"Mum I promise to clean up, but I can't find my stuffie! I thought I packed him!"

"We can't find him mummy, and I checked my trunk too." Rory ran her hands through Cara's locks before moving forwards to consult Imara, the panic was evident and Rabastan recognized it to be one of the many things in comparison to his wife and the girls.

"How am I going to send you to Hogwarts when you can't find your stuffie?"

"He'll be on my bed and away! I'll never take him anywhere." Rory kissed her eldest daughter's forehead before calling the elves to search for said stuffie.

"And what might this stuffie be?"

"My niffler." Imara cried, her hair changing from her natural color to the color of her stuffed animal, and he was indeed taken back.

Rory smiled up from her position to see how shocked he was. "Do you know who gave you that stuffie when you were little?" Rory questioned, and Imara shook her head, and it caused her mum to point off to the father in the room.

Imara had bounced at the moment to tackle Rabastan with a hug, a solid 'oof' escapade him as he hadn't been prepared at that fact. "Come here Cara, let me get that lipstick off you." This caused her to pout and threaten to cry once again.

"But I want to be pretty!"

"Oh love that's not the way to do that, you are beautiful and don't need any of this...Red lips is not how to be beautiful." Rory had waved her wand to remove the smudged to her right cheek and outlined further than her lips.

"You know papa tells me I'm beautiful just when I wake up in the morning."

"Even with messy hair?" Rabastan chuckled as he found the moment to sit in one of the many cushions and snuggled her senselessly.

"Even with your mummy's bird nest, I still love her." Aurora gawked though it caused the girls to giggle. Even Ronan who entered had laughed at the comment.

"He was in my trunk. But I see 'Mara already turned into a—" The girl darted after her brother in steed of being called whatever childish taunt that would've followed.

"I believe you and your sister were the ones always in your mummy's closet."

"Shh, mummy says I'll get coal for Christmas!" He covered his mouth with his hand and nodded, but that didn't stop him from worrying on where the other two had gone.

"They'll surely get lost."

"I remember that much too vividly." He groaned, having never invited his wife to the house in their teens still caused a bit of tension.

"I apologies love, I hadn't thought you would've gotten lost." Cara began to fawn over how soft her father spoke to her mummy.

"Mummy got lost here?"

"Well I didn't live here forever, this was your father's summer home when he was a lad. I came here for a few days of the holiday." Cara had been engrossed to learn such a thing, it had been a new age to hear her mum speak so freely about her papa that she still had to get used to the fact this stranger was so heavily apart of her life now.

"Will I get lost?"

"Of course not, and if you ever do I want you to call out one of the elves alright? Me or papa will come and find you, this manor is very big."

"It's too big," Rabastan questioned at that moment how low of a life Aurora raised the children, it wasn't that they were spoiled beyond belief. But this was one of the smaller Lestrange manors, it was too big?

Granted it is large, but the number of children now being housed made for perfect sense. Though the ballroom would seem a bit outdated for them now.

But Rabastan thought it a grand idea to have one, to dance with his wife again? It was a dream and goal he had for the coming weeks.

Soon after this, Aurora had scheduled dinner. He fumbled on what the children would like and he was no longer a picky eater himself, though Rory would argue that he was never a snobbish eater either.

It did take a bit of coaxing to have all the children sit down at the table, and sure enough they felt the drastic change from their intimate home to this manor.

"Mum, why is the table so big?"

"Well during the summertime both our families would come over and friends, that means everyone needs a seat...But maybe when it's just us we can find a smaller table, yeah?" Rabastan blinked yet again, but smiled at his wife's suggestion.

He'd seen what happened when his mother and father ate at separate ends of the table, but now nobody sat there and the children were at either side of him, his eldest at his left and his wife to his right beside their youngest.

As Rory aided Lori to settle a napkin at her lap, Rabastan was surprised to see the rest of the children to do it without being told, as well as filling up their glasses without much of a hassle.

Better yet, it was Imara who mentioned the little prayer before they dig in. "Romulus why don't you start, your father still is learning it." Lori tugged at her mother's side with fear.
"Mummy I don't know the ending."

"That's okay love, do you remember what Ronan said? The gods and goddess will see it as adorable, and we'll help you." It was another confusing glance as Rabastan had taken both Romulus and Aurora's hands into his before they titled their head down to pray.

It seemed as though each had a specific paragraph, and he couldn't help but smile by the end at how serious Lorelei had taken the task. And although she stumbled, she managed just fine.

After they managed around the table, the children started to fill their plates but not rushing at all. Rory had tapped her foot to Rabastan's, catching his attention to look towards her.

'Eat.' She gestured, cutting a bit of the chicken to his plate before taking the few sides closest to him. To him anything tasted good, everything was mouth-watering. After years of rotten bread and dirty water as a punishment diet, he was surely going to turn into a glutton if Rory had her way by the end of the year.

However, what was immensely sweet was how Aurora gave up the use of her right hand to interlock it with his. It remained that way for a bit before Rory took to cutting up the chicken on Lori's plate or helping her reach for something.

The conversation was light, but at the mere mention of Rabastan having a surprise for the children caused them to no longer think about the food in front of them, or even dessert.

They wanted their surprise.

As all the children rushed to get their cloaks from their bedrooms, Rabastan had turned to Rory in a bit of guilt. "But I had nothing to do with it, it was all you and Evelyn."

"This is your family's manor that's been around for generations, and now there's this massive treehouse located in the back for the munchkins. Besides, it's not only for them." He chuckled, surely his wife would let loose and be childish some of the time, but realistically he needed to start thinking of what he would do once the children went to school.

How would he and Rory parent only Lorelei?

"Oh goodness, Lori! Hand on the railing sweetheart!" Aurora had left his side to see how excited the youngest Lestrange listened to her mum but still jumped the last two steps with a happy cheer.

"Mummy! Papa! My room is so pretty! Can Nymeria sleep with me?"

"Of course, and if you want anything else in your room we can fix it."

"And my dollies house?" Aurora tried to hide the fact that she knew Rabastan was smirking up a storm.

"You have a dolly house?"

"Can I show papa! Can papa play with me? Papa will you play with me?" It had turned into firing questions that caused a slight panic in the father, which caused Rory to pick up the gal and hold her close.

"You have all the time in the world to play with papa, right now he wants to show you a big present before you have to go to bed." The young girl began to pout and whine, something Rabastan was very familiar with, so he offered his arms out to be held and Lori itched to go to him.

"Are you giving mummy a hard time?"
"But I'm not tired yet papa!"

"You know your mummy used to go to Salem for school, and she tried extra hard to use the first day to get back on track with the times. It'll be easier to go to sleep when it gets dark." Rory beamed at his words of wisdom to Lori, she wasn't a difficult child, compared to the twins being the same age she was a golden child in relation to that, but the little Lestrange nodded in agreement.

Luckily the other children had joined and it allowed Rabastan to lead the way towards the porch, and before long had the treehouse itself had caught their attention.

"Mummy! It's a treehouse!" Cara cheered, and it was a mess of excitement. Even though it had been all of Aurora's work with the help of Evelyn, his name was attached to it...And that was stressful as is.

"Before we go up, your father and I have rules set and place...You ask before going outside, no going out after dark unless we know. There is no running around on the railings, there is no pushing or shoving. And goddess forbid there is no potion experimenting or anything in the sort allowed in the treehouse." Rabastan was in awe as all the children had looked at their mum and firmly responded with 'Yes mum,' before walking off in a group towards the structure.

"That was brilliant, how did you manage that?"

"It's a true horror seeing any of them come crying to me about hurting themselves, you can't be afraid of some punishment Raba...And if we have our friend's children here they pass on the rules." He needed to take notes, merlin he knew Rory was a good mother—But this?

She had installed manners in them easily.

"Rommy can you push me on the swing?" Lori bounced around the group, her dress fluttering up and down as they were just a little halfway down the path.

"First one to the tree is a wicked witch!" Imara challenged, and that instantly caused those around to dart in acceptance to the task.

"Wicked wizard more like it!" The laughter echoed through the field and Rory basked in the picture before her.

But to Rabastan it was like a dream.

"Ronan is our future beater?"

"Hmm, we'll break out the brooms once they tire a bit from the treehouse, and we unpack." The parents had enjoyed the time watching the children enjoy the likes of the treehouse. It had an attached swing set, a tube slide that connected to the actual house would allow a better way down than climbing.

Rabastan watched in pure amusement, he himself hadn't ventured up and he was curious to see. But it was for the children and he held himself back from spoiling or ruining the moment.

Instead he stayed on the ground with the youngest who were interested in the swingset.

"I can push you as well." Rabastan offered, and she rolled her eyes. "Cute." A sharp pain slashed his heart as he realized that she denied him...Again.

Was he that awful of a man that his wife didn't even want him to push her on the swing?

The answer should be obvious, but Rabastan still wasn't in terms with what he had done was wrong. He was only apologetic due to the fact that he was captured and punished.

As well as bringing his wife into the mix.

The sun was just about setting over the hills and it caused Rory to call to the children and herd them back to the manor. The wolves followed in pursuit, and all the children were called to take a shower while Cara and Lori enjoyed a bath together.

It was more so to give Lorelei a playmate and Cara enjoyed having a younger sister just as much as Imara loved her two sisters.

Rabastan gave himself the opportunity to slow down, take a breather and relay over all that happened. The wizard squeezed his eyes shut in damnation.

His eldest son...Shook his hand.

Perhaps he should still hold him in a proud regard, having been so close and protective of his mum he was worried that he'd do it again...He'd have to respect it, and if anything explain why he was in prison.

"Raba?... Someone wants to say goodnight before bed." Aurora cooed, causing him to turn from his position at the window. He jumped at the opportunity to cater to the child, and perhaps it was the secret weapon to get the children all drowsy before bed. But Lorelei looked to be about five minutes before she was settled.

"Papa can you tuck me in?"

"I'm sure I can manage that, did mummy dry you off?" The father was introduced to the child being growingly tired once again, and snuggling close and sighing into his hold.

Rory listened to the soothing whispers that Rabastan had given to their youngest, and it warmed her heart. Thought now she needed to go and see that Romulus was alright.

Funny enough, he was sitting in his hanging swing with a book and Omen in his lap.

"You're not tired?" The boy shook his head, and so Rory sighed out loud and continued off towards him and settled down before him.

"Romulus it's just for the summer holiday and a sprinkle of times otherwise...Don't hide away, please?"

"I'm not hiding away." Rory tilted her head, a smile slowly creeping up—Especally when his hair started to change into a shade of blue.

"I'm not!"

"One mustn't tell lies Rommy, I'm your mother. And I promise that your father will not harm a single strain of your colorful hair on top of your head. Because then he answers to me...Am I making myself clear Romulus?" He blinked down to his mum, closing his book as he wrapped his arms around her, digging himself into her neck, now he was hiding away.

"How could you forgive him?"

"Oh love I haven't, he still needs to earn it for us all. But for the rest of your siblings it's important for them to meet him, especially Lorelei." Her hand began to soothe his worries and kissed his cheek.

"They're posh here Romulus, you can ask Ronan about the Malfoy's. They attempt to make themself seem better than the rest, but you know what they don't have?"

"What?"

"A spiritual side, a connection like ours. Between our siblings and everyone here, we are one in the same. There are only a few people who are friendly and who will care for you and your wellbeing. It is a harsh world out there Romulus, and I want you to be prepared that sometimes we cannot always get what we want...But if we work hard enough, we can change the likelihood of anything." 

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Date Posted: 03-20-2020

Time: 7:56

Words: 4075

Wise words from Mummy Rory:)

Don't know my posting schedule just yet for the next few weeks with quartine online classes coming up, if there isn't anything Monday I'll try for Wednesday!

Did you think Rabastan was prepared for Romulus' greeting?
Will Romulus make true to the promise made his mum is trying to get to know his father?
How cute are the Lestrange daughters?

I honestly had a lot of trouble writing the reunion, probably why I'm so far behind in where I want to be, but the Lestrange is in for a wild summer before everyone goes to school;)

See you soon!