UDM: Granger Yet - Rabbit Hole (Harry Potter Fanfic)

Rabbit Hole

"Who is he?"

Richard stood in his mother's kitchen shifting Leo slightly to have a better grip on the small infant held in his arms while he held onto the small hand of his other son, Henry. When he left his home that morning to take his young son to his mother's place for the day, he didn't expect to walk into the kitchen and see a stranger standing there drying dishes for Eleanor Granger as she washed them, but she hummed a tune as if there was nothing out of the ordinary.

The boy—he looked no more than sixteen, but there was something haunting about the short black curls which cascaded around the young man's forehead. The young man's silver-colored eyes focused on the dishes he was drying, his posture stiff and the boy somehow managed to pull off looking prim and proper as he stood there, apparently not noticing Richard's presence.

Eleanor Granger turned as Richard closed the door as the young man's body suddenly spasm, almost losing his balance in the process. "Careful. You're still healing, remember."

The boy responded by humming an affirmative as Richard looked on skeptically, his young son clutched in his arms. "Who is he?"

"Oh! Hello Richard!" Which of course didn't answer his question of who the young man was, let alone the other questions scurrying through his head.

The young man looked up slower than Eleanor did, his head tilting slightly albeit in a stiff manner, his silver-gray eyes widening at the sight of Richard's two sons, but the boy's face lit up with excitement before blurting out. "Babies!"

Richard watched the young man move so he could get a better look at Leo, only to nearly fall over. Eleanor reached out, gently grabbing onto her arm to steady the young man. "Careful, Rabbit."

"Rabbit?" Richard swallowed, remembering how he'd plucked a letter addressed to someone named Rabbit from Olivia's hands a little after the New Year. Warning bells went off in that older brother head of his—he couldn't help but think there was some kind of innuendo to her describing the night as magical let alone some boy sharing himself with her. He'd brushed it aside as she insisted she wasn't likely to see him again and yet—

"That's the nickname Olivia gave him."

"Figures that it is him," Richard looked right at the young man who's silver-eyes were still focused on the "babies". He stared too long and Rabbit's attention turned to him, his mouth opening and his eyes darting around the kitchen as if he were uncomfortable making eye contact. "What's his actual name?"

"Your father and I decided to call him Sebastian Cesario Granger."

The weight of her words set into the gut of Richard's stomach and his throat tightened. His voice rose, making Henry look up at him in confusion while Leo protested. "Are you mad?"

"Quite."

Which, of course wasn't the response Richard expected, but then he didn't expect the sudden panic wash over Rabbit as he glanced around as if he wanted to dart away. He moved, almost falling again only for Eleanor Granger to hold up her hand.

"It's okay Rabbit. Richard's not mad at you." She smiled at Rabbit, speaking in a gentle voice, but when she turned to look at her eldest—Richard tensed up, one of his face muscles twitching at the sight of that look Eleanor Granger got whenever one of her kids over stepped.

"Can we talk about this?" Richard's voice strained, still looking at Rabbit—Sebastian, who still looked as if he wanted to flee the scene. The panic was real, yet felt misplaced.

"It won't change the fact Rabbit is a part of this family now." Eleanor reached out for a long sleeve of the turtleneck that Sebastian wore while his eyes continued darting around the room, as if to discourage him from darting away.