The Brightest Sun

Chapter 29

She was in Verdic Alley with Astoria, the two women chatting over tea as Elia attempted to ignore the feeling of eyes on her. Astoria had the healthy glow of pregnancy, her second child due sometime in the spring. She and Draco had been trying for a second child for years, wanting to give Scorpius a sibling, but this had been the first time she’d passed the three-month mark.

“Have you thought on names?” She asked, idly stirring her cup.

“Something celestial,” Astoria told her. “We’ve another four months before we have to settle on a name, but for a girl I was thinking Carina.”

“It’s a lovely name,” Elia told her, smiling at the thought of a little girl toddling after Astoria. She knew enough about Draco to know he would be utterly smitten with a daughter, the man completely enamoured with his wife and son.

That Draco continued the traditions of his mother’s family only highlighted how highly he valued the women in his life.

“He wanted to name a son Castor,” Astoria added, smiling in amusement. “Narcissa talked him out of that.”

Of course she would, she smiled, knowing the woman wanted something different and unconnected to the Blacks she had personally known.

“Any plans for your anniversary?”

“None that I am aware of,” Elia said ruefully. “He’s keeping mum on the subject.”

That almost a year had passed surprised her sometimes; at times, it felt as if they had been together for such a short time, others it felt as if Elia had spent untold years living in Potter Hall.

Her eyes lingered on the yellow gold engagement ring, the oval-shaped diamond glinting as it caught the light. Her wedding band was of a similar make, though in place of a gem there were words inscribed in Parsel. She hadn’t known what they said, but he’d found a book of runes amongst the jewels kept in the Potter vault, his great-uncle insisting they use that on the underside of the bands, and Harry had continued the script into the top of her ring, what looked like squiggles interlocking beautifully.

With the fullness of my soul, I vow myself to you.

She wore rings more often since coming to this world; her engagement and wedding rings, the ring signifying her position as Lady Potter-Black, and the joint gift the children had given her before the wedding, a gold signet ring with the Martell crest etched in ruby.

“Are you well?” Astoria asked, her brows furrowed in concern. “You’ve barely eaten anything.”

“I’m fine,” she answered, hiding the uneasy feeling that swept through her.

She had felt as if there was someone watching them, keeping an oddly insistent eye on the two women, and she had half a mind to ask Harry or Draco if they had an elf following them.

“You’re holding your stomach,” Astoria noted.

“An unfortunate part of our monthly’s,” Elia murmured, seeing the sympathetic grimace on Astoria’s features. “In any case, you’re the one with a child playing quidditch in your stomach.”

“Far more actively than Scorpius did,” she grumbled. “He was more docile, a sweet baby both in and out of the womb.”

Elia laughed, ignoring the slight ache in her stomach as she teased Astoria of all that awaited her, eyes sweeping across the room but unable to see anyone or no longer feel the prickling stare.

It wasn’t until she returned home after her evening with Astoria, the kids tucked into bed and Harry tinkering with the runes he was learning in his workroom that Elia realized what was happening.