✧QUICK ASSUMPTIONS✧

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THREE DAYS LATER

"Rory you thought he was incarcerated for—"

"For life, yes, but he wasn't...And I should've been more faithful." Evelyn took her friend's hands into hers and begged her to understand what they've been trying to get across for the past hour.

"Wouldn't it be easier for when the children come? He cannot expect you to be the same." That caused McNair to scoff as he entered the room.

"Aurora, he's prepared to see Ronan this Friday. You need to tell him before that." She pouted, it wasn't that she regretted the relationship with Aidan, that wasn't the case. And it just made her even more guilty in thinking that way.

"We ended it months ago because I couldn't commit to it anymore, I feel awful that I dragged him along." Although neither of her friends could understand what she was feeling, they knew that what the Lestranges needed was the support of friends, and if anything McNair wasn't afraid to curse the bastard.

Avery didn't know about Aidan, it was only the McNairs as Aurora didn't want to say anything out loud, but Avery too changed right beside his wife.

"I best not let Avery corrupt my husband or vise versa...Thank you both, and you my sweet Rosa and Eli, I promise we'll have playdates over my manor in the future." The two cheered, happy that their friend Rory had more friends for them to play with.

"When can I play with them? I want to show them my dollies."

"Soon lovelies, they're in America and that's a good distance away." She kissed the kids and gave her friends a parting goodbye for finding Avery and Rabastan simply sitting out on the porch.

Although Avery was drinking fire whiskey, Aurora humored her husband and allowed him non-alcoholic.

"Rory! Come join us!" Avery cheered, and Rory rolled her eyes. "Oh best I don't, I haven't really gotten any better at holding my booze." Rabastan offered the seat beside him, and she settled rather closely and gave him a small kiss to the cheek.

"Perhaps I should go and let you enjoy the night, the manor will be filled soon and there won't be a moment alone." Avery winked, but it caused anxiety to rise up as she was about to alone with Rabastan.

"How is Ronan?"

"He's doing really well, Lucius' snobby senses haven't influenced him yet. And I'm really glad he's befriending Draco, they'll be in the same year..." He watched his wife look off into the distance at the idea of either their son or the Malfoy heir attending Hogwarts.

It excited him.

"Raba...?" She looked up to see if she reigned in his attention, it usually took a few attempts as he would get lost in thought. She didn't, he always did the same, especially when she had ideas.

"I don't mean to set you back on your progress, but I can't let the children come until you know something—"

"What is it? Is something wrong?" His panic drew her to feel guilty all over again, and so she closed her eyes in a bit of a restart to the conversation.

"Everything is fine, its just that I-I...I met a lot of my old friends in America. They helped me with the children more than I can credit them for, but I'm still working with one on the Salem potion's textbook and a Britain-to-American manual." He didn't think much of her work, sure he asked, but there seemed to be so much going on that he was surprised that she could be taking off so many days.

"He's very close with the Halliwell family so I...I saw a lot of him the past few years. And he's on the Salem council..." Rabastan had turned rigid in hearing about another man.

She continued to talk, but his hearing had turned completely mute as he rose up and stalked forward. His emotions were a scattered mess of what he was feeling.

"Rabastan I was told you were imprisoned for life...I had five children, a newborn to watch—A stubborn transfer of funds that I barely had enough to give anything to the kids. I swear—I swear...I didn't even think of a relationship with him until Lori was a few months old, and even then I felt uncomfortable betraying you. But I couldn't feel your soul, I was starting a new life under a new name."

"What his name."

"Aidan Proctor."

He hadn't phrased it as a question, it was a demand. And her answer hadn't done anything but fueled his anger further, it felt like the world was crashing onto his shoulders now.

"It took me four years to think of anyone—Look at anyone that way, but I at least knew that you wouldn't feel it." Aurora's voice cracked in explaining it further.

"I'm sorry too. Rabastan I. Am. Sorry. But he knew that I still love you, that come your birthday I just wanted to be left alone for the day and the days following. The same for our anniversary, do you think it was easy to look at Ronan—The spitting image of you. Ever. Single. Goddamn day?!" Her voice was a thrilling shriek now, her heart shattering further as he wouldn't turn his gaze back at her.

"Can you truly think that we would be the same as we once were? That we'd be the honeymoon couple forever?"

"No. But at least I thought my wife would have the decency to—"

"The decency?! I waited years! You left me pregnant, our marriage was you running after orders from a ruler who is no longer with us. Tell me. Tell me was it worth it? Because I will sure a hell not raise my children under that stigma!"

"Your children? They are not simply yours Aurora, they're ours—"

"Are they? Are you sure? I told you four, Rabastan, four. That was my limit, so not only was I without you for the last pregnancy. Hopelessly hormonal and wanting nothing more for you to hold me and tell me it's going to get better, I have to remember that you got yourself incarcerated." She sniffed, but that didn't cause her to calm down. Rabastan wasn't going to serve the ties.

"How am I to know that you hadn't seen this Proctor fellow before? When you went to Salem our first year?... How do I know Lorelei is even mine?" Aurora had assumed multiple sceneries of Rabastan being angry, but gods was the paternity of Lorelei being up for debate?

That struck a nerve.

"Says the man had surpassed all the strikes in the world that I gifted you...I didn't have anyone here Rabastan, do you understand that? Had I gone with you to Azkaban, who do you think would've gotten the children? My mother or your father. You put that up as a possibility, and if Otto hadn't saved my arse then our children would've been completely and utterly different." He remained silent and she stomped her foot on the ground a groaned.

"Why do I bother? Why do I ever bother...Our life won't be the same and I should give up my losses now." He didn't want her to leave, he didn't want her to give up. But the man was too stubborn to give her any restitution, so when she found her footing she hurried inside and found the will to pack her suitcase.

Struggling to find the mirror, did she calm down a bit. But not enough to settle her nerves with everything else. "Reg?... Are you there?" She attempted to try and sound normal, but with how quick of a response there was, it was pointless to assume he didn't know.

"Rory? What's happened, what's going on?"

"Tell me this is a good idea, tell me I'm not wrong in wanting my husband back." She let a heavy sob, and Regulus bit his tongue. This was indeed not what Aurora needed.

"Sister tell me what happened, I'm sure the bastard—"

"No. I told him about Aidan and he doesn't think Lori's his...I can't—I can't do this, I knew it was a mistake. I didn't want it to be but it is, I was holding onto hope, but why? What has hope done for me? I've been faithful to the gods and goddess, and tried to find happiness with Aidan." Regulus had stayed utterly silent as he allowed his sister to vent out all that transpired, he knew that this was her breaking point of the year.

Only this time she didn't have her boyfriend trying to soothe her.

"Rory you stood by the idea that the children would have a father, I know it seems hopeless. But you expected one argument at the very least, he's a git. I know. Aidan gave you a sense of normalcy, you went a vacation for the first time ever. Could you please give yourself some credit?"

"How? He hates me! I should just take the next portkey, but I fought all of you on my choice that I'm stuck..." The silence grew, and Rabastan held his breath as he heard all that transpired between her and the voice.

He couldn't place who it was, but it surely wasn't Aidan as they wouldn't be talking about him in the third person.
But he didn't hate his wife.

There wasn't a part that could even think it was possible to hate her.

Either Lestrange had been shedding tears, though he was keeping silent listening further. Though Rory ended the call before he could really learn anything more.

So she argued with everyone she lived with to return?

Aurora didn't have to verbally say it, but he doubted a relationship counted as an intimate one. And like any other man, he favored being the only to have seen her so vulnerable.

But then again...She wanted the same from him.

He retreated away, finding comfort in her study—The scent having withheld as strongly as ever. But from the previous nights of sleeping beside his wife, he realized she didn't have that signature scent any longer.

She's retired it and moved on.

Perhaps it was the mindset that—

"Well well well...If it isn't the husband." Orion sneered, it had been a few years since he had spoken in that tone. But he was indeed livid at the sight of the bastard he entrusted his precious daughter in marrying.

"Orion, sir—"

"Oh that won't do, Rabastan, Aurora wouldn't allow you in here as she's warned me in not speaking with you. And that has caught me odd in two regards. Either she has left the manor, meaning that you're screwed. Or she is enraged and you're about to be screwed." Rabastan twitched his nose, he did not miss Orion or the man pointing out his faults.

"How was I meant to feel that she was with another man? That Proctor fellow." Orion analyzed the issue and withheld a rolling eye moment, it wasn't that Rabastan was in the wrong. But he couldn't act this way it was indeed a hypocritical moment indeed.

"I think you should count your blessings, not only were you resurrected from the hole they threw you into. But your wife, that I might remind you for the hundredth time is my daughter, dropped everything to return. She pushed countless due dates to spent the time reforming you to meeting the children, and if you cannot handle having one child at home then what the bloody hell are you prepared to do when the entire manor is over for the holiday. Because, unless it's escaped your notice...All the children will be heading to school." It hadn't clicked for him that his children would be preparing for their first year at either Hogwarts and Salem, his anger with Rory would subside.

Then he recalled his first night and him being denied an intimate moment.

As much as he felt strange in being denied, he understood, he was starting to understand that the six years had separated them from what they were.

"I have to win her back."

"You don't have my blessing. But I swear if I hear one damn thing I am sending Proctor over." That caused Rabastan to narrow his brows.

"Er...Sir? You're a painting."

"And you're a shell of a thirty-year-old, with a twenty-three-year-old mind...Of course I'm a painting, but I have a one-way mirror to Cassi's library in America. It seems your sons favor me the most. And your eldest hates you the most." Rabastan blinked, his knees weakening as he felt the world crashing down.

No...It couldn't be true.

"I recall the first few days, Cassi couldn't rise from bed after all thats happened. Romulus had been the one to come to me in worry of you returning or if their mum was leaving...Your eldest picked up the pieces and aided Cassiopeia when she needed it. He's a mummy's boy, they all are. Best remember that." Orion had risen from his feet and walked away.

Walked away!

It left Rabastan bewildered that Orion was able to leave, but then again if Rory had to work and travel. Instead he leaned back his head to the ceiling and groaned.

"Fuck." Was all he said, his safe haven turning into the den where he continued to try and grasp the idea of getting into the grove.

Yet even when she was seething, sobbing and trying to compose herself. She had sent the elves to make him a dinner. Though she was not going to attend, so says the elves.

"Master...Master and Mistress Avery are here, Good Mother mistress say that Mistress Avery not allowed." The elf had scurried in, and now he had risen from his slow-paced meal and lack of company did he find his best mate just coming around the corner while Amelia had been close behind.

"I apologies Rabastan but my wife wouldn't listen to the ban." It caused a shine of attention at the singled out wife, and she too stilled at the appearance of Lestrange.

It wasn't passed her judgment that he had been a good looking wizard, and although he withheld a few inklings—He was indeed tainted with the likes of Azkaban.

"Amelia, if my wife has banned you then we best uphold it." She smirked once again, perhaps this would be the best revenge...

"I was simply checking up on you and her."

"I won't believe that for a second, wife, but I did enjoy the last match." Rabastan narrowed his brows to either guest and shook his head.

"No. Amelia, return home. You just promote my wife to lose the rest of her sanity." For one reason or another, she hadn't been prepared for him to be so—Lively.

But here Rabastan was, bouncing back after a violent argument. However what he wasn't ready for Aurora to have notified by the house elves of guests arriving.

Yet she had found her way behind the small group, allowing her presence to go unnoticed for another moment as she inhaled.

"Mrs.Avery, I think I specifically told you of what will happen if you stepped foot onto my property once again...Poppy? Grab my travel cloak and my travel potion bag." Amelia's face had turned white at the idea of what she was going to do.

"Wait no—"

"If you cannot listen to a lawful threat, Mrs.Avery, well I will continue with what I planned...I'll be back in an hour." She smirked, and although neither of wizards knew what she was doing, Amelia was quick into following Aurora.

"What do you suppose that's about?" Avery questioned, and Rabastan hadn't known anything on that end. So while the two almost returned back to their given conversation from earlier in the evening, Aurora was halfway up the stairs before Amelia had demanded her to stop.

"The issue here, my dear friend. Is that you've gone mad, utterly fucking mad. You're spiteful. What did you plan to do at my manor, Amelia? Start another fight? Because I can sure as hell end it right here and right now or...I can fix it." Amelia had blinked her eyes in a started awakening.

"What?" She breathed, and Aurora nodded in advance.

"Do you believe Noah is Avery's?" With Mrs.Lestrange battling fertility with her own husband when she knew without a change that Lorelei was indeed a Lestrange, Rabastan would still not believe her without proof.

"I do...The times don't add up. But he doesn't—He doesn't believe me."

"So then has it occurred to you what a test would do if Avery knew that Noah was his? Wouldn't that start the building block of fixing your marriage?"

Yes. Yes it would.

Amelia didn't want to admit that Aurora would help the situation if it was true, but then again...Amelia had lost her wit in potions.

"How is it possible—How would it work?"

"I just need a sample of Avery and compare it with Noah, it's not that difficult of a task. I think you've forgotten that I made Draco in my labs." She curtly ended the conversation and continued off to where she remembered the children's room to be.

Of course neither Wyatt and Maya would recall her from their toddler years, but the soft smile caused them to stop playing and look over to their mum in question.

Though they still haven't spoken.

It appeared obvious that Amelia had done a disservice to her children with the sort of break-up she had with their father, and the tension was indeed affecting the children. Only causing more a stir in her tum at the idea of this happening to her own munchkins.

"I was wondering if I could borrowing your brother Noah for a moment?" She questioned, and it caused the young lad's interest to pip up. Truthfully nobody rightly gave him the attention he wanted, his mum saw him as a nuisance as it only caused the ground to shift between his mum and papa further.

And his father would barely look at him in either regard.

"Come along then darling, we'll go in a separate room." She took Noah's hand into hers and led him off into the hallway and to an open area of couches and another fireplace. Amelia had watched at how her son openly responded to Rory, it had the woman bite her tongue at how utterly perfect Aurora Lestrange is.

"Does Lori like playing outside?"

"Of course she does, we lived on a farm in the states. So there was always time to play out and about, and we have a few pets that I'm sure you'll love as well." The young lad squealed, and Amelia had to close her eyes.

Five minutes. Aurora had five minutes and she already gained her youngest's heart.

Five fucking minutes.

"Perhaps the next time your mum comes over you can meet Nymeria...Now I need a word with your mum, why don't you tell Wyatt and Maya about some new friends that will be coming soon." The lad darted out of the room with excited news, and that caused Amelia to take her son's seat incomplete expectation.

"Well?"
"Amelia Avery nee Harper, I know Slughorn wasn't the best potion master or that it's been a good while since we graduated. But even a pregnancy potion takes a few minutes to enact." That settled the wife and caused her to throw her arms over her chest.

"Maya is such a brilliant young girl, her tutors don't know what to do anymore, Hogwarts is so far away for her."

"Is she going to be a Ravenclaw?" A shared smirk rallied and Amelia nodded in agreement.

"Definitely, and yours?" "I believe only Ronan will be the Slytherin of the children, perhaps Cara will surprise me but otherwise I've influenced them far too much into being academic." Amelia snorted, and for a moment it caused Rory to be reminded of the old friend of hers.

"Amelia, this could go one of two ways. We can check the potion, or we can simply tell Avery that Noah is his son." The woman had a choice, so she allowed the woman to survey her options, but Rory knew she would have to do the same to Lori come time when she meets her father.

"I need to see the potion." Amelia decided, and it caused Aurora to raise her brow.

"And whatever the outcome, we tell your husband?" It caused the woman to break in front of Aurora, and it was an obvious time bomb to when it would come out.

"I just want the life I had back, I want it to be simple. Gods Rory the Dark Lord left a shadow on all of us, not that I have to tell you that."

"Amelia, for now he isn't here. Live with the time we have left." That had indeed rallied the mistress of the manor as she shrieked.

"The time we have left?! What does that mean?"

"Do you truly believe that an eighteen-month-old babe could defeat the man? Think on it Amelia...And congratulations, your fling hadn't left any damage." She spoke, and it was indeed a commendable moment that the truth prevailed on the account of a positive note.

It caused Amelia to cry in a moment of relief, she leaned further into Aurora and cried into her shoulder. Aurora sat and waited through the cries before she began to settle herself and her composure once again.

"I cannot forgive you in the moment Amelia, but if you truly mean all that you said then perhaps we can be friends again...For right now, I need to fix my own marriage." It was a slightly more tender dismissal, or demanding to be excused.

Aurora returned to the manor in a less threatening manner, she greeted the men in the snake den, claimed that Amelia had something important to discuss with him before excusing herself from the other person's company.

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Date Posted: 02-28-2020

Time: 11:10

Words: 3877

Author's Note:

This chapter will be the last one until I go on spring break. That being said four chapters of Immer Mutter would've been posted. So in compensation, I will post three chapters that week when I'm on break (the 16th, 18th, 20th) and hopefully I will be able to catch up with producing two chapters each week following that break.

I really tried to keep a schedule but it's getting challenging and I need to start putting schoolwork above writing.

I personally always found writing to be a stress reliever, but right now I'm stuck on where Immer Mutter is heading and want to edit/change a few plot points.

I promise I'll come back or give a heads up, I absolutely hate when authors start a story and then leave it without any explanation.

*Cough*
 I'm guilty of that but I haven't watched the walking dead in forever so I can't write for that fanfiction can I?
*Cough* 

Thank you for understanding and I'll see you all very soon😘💕