Caffeine (OC Based HP story)

Part 2 Chapter 2

Part 2 Chapter 2

Fira's temper was infamous. At Hogwarts it had been whispered of as people pushed her buttons for dares from friends and in the Black/Bally household that Griffin grew up in it was well known you do not eat Fira's leftovers unless you wanted a stern talking to that would leave you in tears. The Weasleys had learned that pretty quickly when she joined their family clan.

Griffin knew it would be directed at him, he knew she wouldn't understand. Wouldn't understand why he made that decision 6 years ago.

There had been a point, not long after the completion of his eight year at Hogwarts (or rather the repetition of his seventh) when he realised he couldn't take it. He was flighty by nature, he didn't like the way everyone looked at him, knew his parents were both gone and that that had hurt him in ways nothing else had before. Knew he was damaged by it. There was nothing left for him there, nothing he was interested in or had anything to gain.

So he had pack up his and Raven's lives (or rather left them all behind) and went to the muggle world and started a new, pretending he still had parents and everything was fine.

Fake it till you make it.

He had always known he would have to go back, Raven was showing magical traits and she would need to be schooled at Hogwarts, he just didn't know it would be so soon. Didn't know it would be like this.

When the war had ended, when the school was rebuilt and things were somewhat back to normal, it was like most people's lives seemed to begin again, Fira's certainly had, she had had Draco. But it had been like Griffin's had ended. He just didn't have any purpose like Hermione, Ron and Harry had. Now there was Raven and his dead parents, George had seemed to be the only one that had understood, telling Griffin once that his shop had seemed pointless without Fred there to do it with him.

And that was why he knew Fira would still be mad, because she just wouldn't understand.

And as he apparated to the Burrow (so out of practice that he too had to lean beside Raven and dry retch) they were already waiting.

All of them.

And he realised he hadn't really prepared Raven at all because there was a lot of them.

The six of the remaining Weasley siblings were there along with any of their spouses and numerous amount of children.

Griffin mostly saw Fira, heavily pregnant with Draco by her side, holding a young toddler-a girl- in his arms.

She started to waddle forwards and he walked to meet her. Her face was nostalgic and expectantly- mad.

She slapped him hard and then drew him in for a hug.

~0~0~

Raven was sitting at the kitchen table as Molly and everyone else fussed over her. Griffin had tried to stay near her while she was being introduced and crowded by all these new people but she had told him to stop babying her and go talk to Fira.

She was regretting that now.

Draco, Fira and Griffin were in the deserted living room, the young girl sitting on her father's lap as Griffin and Fira continued to yap on.

"I didn't really expect you to hang around with the Weasley's." Griffin said to the two.

"Oh, we don't." answered Draco.

"Yeah, this is the first time I've seen any of them since Andy was born. Even then, only Molly and Ron had come to see her." Fira said, stroking Andy's fine blonde hair, "It's not that we don't like each other, we just run in different circles now, with different friends."

"You, friends?" Girffin asked in joking disbelief.

"I'll have you know we have tons of friends." Draco answered back lightheardedly, and Griffin was caught in the fact that Draco too, had changed so drastically in the last 6 years.

"Oh, yeah? Who?" Griffin shot back with a laugh.

"Blaise Zabini, for one." Fira said, with a more serious tone.

"No way."

"Yeah, pretty good kid when he's allowed to practise free will." Fira said back, almost bitterly.

It was then that Jasmine, Remus and their twins entered.

When Amelia and Leon had been born it had been barely weeks before the beginning of the final battle of the second Wizarding War, and due to that Griffin barely ever knew them. He had had the holidays with the two youngsters and then his re-run at seventh year meant he didn't really get to know them and he left pretty quickly afterwards.

They were 6, he worked out in his head, a couple of weeks off being 7.

Aunt Jasmine surged away from the other three members of her family as little Teddy Ogden (who was only a few weeks older then the twins) came over to drag them away to play. For being in her early 40's she was agile and was hugging him before he even realised what was happening.

When Raven rushed to enter with everyone else she also got a large hug, being lifted off the ground. Then Jasmine turned to her granddaughter as Remus went to hug the two.

"Where's my little Andromeda?" she cooed. Griffin stopped, pulling out of his hug with Remus with a confused look on his face.

"What's her name." he was under the illusion it was Andy, and would have thought it was a boy if not for the pink clothes and the pigtails in her white hair.

"Andromeda Malfoy." Draco answered.

"What's her full name?" Griffin asked suspiciously. Fira took a deep breath and looked a little sheepish before answering.

"Andromeda Jasmine Narcissa Luna Bally Minerva Malfoy."

Griffin blinked several times.

"What?!"

"Shut up." Fira shot back.

"Oh my god! Like parents like daughter." He retorted.

"The hell is that meant to mean?!"

"Your father made your brother's middle name Marada because he was annoyed your mother named him after Leonardo DiCaprio and hoped it would stop her."

"This is coming from the dude whose parents named him and his sister after the houses they were in at Hogwarts!" Fira answered back in a high pitched voice as Draco held back a snort.

"What the hell is a Hogwarts!?" Raven cut in, pulling a face.

There was a second of silence before Draco finally couldn't hold it back and let his (unattractive) snort out and then Fira and Griffin were laughing-hard.

And only then did Griffin do what he had not allowed himself to do; he hugged Ron, Hermione and Harry and then got comfortable with the idea of sticking around.

Sorry again for no update on Thursday, I had exam block and a concert the night before so I had no time to write.

I'm not going to update for the next two weeks (so the 6th of December) because I'm going to try and prewrite some chapters so I don't get behind or disappoint again. For that reason this is more than double the length of a normal chapter.

So sorry for that.

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