As It Was *Complete*

72. Ad Vitam

The room grew quiet. No one dared speak and they looked from Draco to Astra waiting to see their response. Astra tried, she really did but she couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. She had to hold her stomach and wipe tears out of her eyes.

"Oh Merlin, she is good for a laugh that girl," she said.

Her smile and laugh were infectious and soon Draco was laughing alongside her with Maddi and Narcissa joining in before everyone was giggling and chuckling.

"She is never going to let  you go Draco," Maddi chuckled.

"Yeah you may have to just marry her to get her to leave you alone," Astra shrugged.

"Not a fucking chance," he rolled his eyes. "She is a damn pain isn't she? I swear McGonagall told her to leave us alone so why is she still being persistent?"

"Because it's entertaining to the rest of us," Astra laughed again.

Draco turned to his mother. "You better not even think about setting up -"

"Darling why would I?" Narcissa shrugged. "I know as well as you do that she is just trying to get between you and Astra and meddling in your relationship. Even if you were single I would not approve of this match. She does not fit in with our family."

Blush creeped onto Draco's face. "Can we move onto someone else now please?" By now Harry was rolling around on the floor laughing and asking Snape how to go about extracting memories into photos so he could give Blaise and Theo a momentum. Astra was beginning to feel bad. Sort of.

"Why don't you go Narcissa?" Astra offered.

"Don't mind if I do," she smiled as she picked up a very large gift that was propped up against the window. "Oh it's from my lovely cousin." She looked to Sirius.

"Merry Christmas cuz." he raised his mug of hot chocolate to her.

She very elegantly unfolded the wrapping and lifted the lid on the massive box she that she had propped up against the couch. Whatever it was inside, she gave a squeak and moved the box out for Andromeda to see. "Oh my stars!" she cried.

"What is it?" Draco asked.

Narcissa turned to her son. "Draco come here," she called gesturing him over. He stood and walked around the sofa. "This is your great grandfather Black."

The drawing was of an old man. He was sitting on a large throne like chair looking extremely happy as four children climbed around him. Two girls, one blonde about 10 years old, one brunette who was about 7 years old sat one on each of his knees and on his shoulders sat a little boy with black straight hair who only looked to be about 4 years old and hanging off the throne hung a boy with black curly hair who looked to be about 6 years old.

The blonde little girl wore an old fashioned long sleeved velvet dress on emerald green with a white peter pan collar and black painted shoes. Her hair was poker straight with a emerald green hairband holding it off her face. She looked so sweet.

The brunette little girl wore a blush coloured long sleeve dress with white cuffs and a white shirt collar and a darker shade of blush and bows, one around her neck and one clipped to the side of her shiny, light brown curly hair. Both girls had the same grey eyes, little button nose and perfect little lips.

The boys were obviously related too. Both wore charcoal grey suit trousers, with white shirts and charcoal grey waistcoats with dark green neck ties. The only difference, other than the boys hairs were that the boy with straight hair's outfit looked presentable with not a mark on it, while the curly haired boy had his sleeves on his shirt rolled up to above his elbows and his neck tie was not actually tied but hanging around his collar.