Of The Stars || a collection ||

His Little Words

A silent sob racked her body. As she grind herself into the deadline she set to work with, she couldn't help but feel the overwhelming desperation and loss of hope. But she refused to give up now. She refused to let her husband's nightmares get the better of him. Or rather, she refused to have another night of it with him waking up and looking at her as though she was a monster.

Astoria stared into the abyss of the Dreamless Sleep Potion, trying to wrack her brain for what the next ingredient might be. Her moment of weakness made her hate herself even more as her mind is soon ridden with harsh memories of Draco waking up in a fit of swear then moments later cowarding away from her. The sight of it broke her heart, especially when she remembered that it was the exact same look her husband gave her this very night before she ran for the potions room in the manor to brew him a new batch of the potion.

The stress of the evening, however, was relinquished briefly at the sound of her son's voice.

"Mummy?"

When she turned, she saw her five year-old son looking up at her with those big grey eyes of his. He was still clad in his light blue onesie with his teddy bear in hand, the toy brushing against the floor. Scorpius was rubbing his eyes as he entered the potions room.

"Scorp, you should be sleeping," Astoria sighed as she brushed away the damp of her cheeks.

"It's still dark outside, mummy." Scorpius mentioned, trotting over to her where she stood in front of a large pewter cauldron. Although her son could not reach its height, he still went up on his tiptoes to try to look. "What are you working on?"

"Mummy's working on daddy's potion." Astoria explained before she bent to lift Scorpius up in her arms. He was getting heavy, she noticed, as she sat him on her right hip. "It's a potion that will help daddy sleep."

"Daddy can't sleep?" Scorpius asked innocently, his brows furrowing in worry.

Astoria smiled at her son sadly. "Unfortunately not, sweetheart. But that's why mummy's awake, so she can make him the potion that will give daddy a dreamless sleep."

"But isn't dreams a good thing, mummy?" Scorpius questioned with a pout of his lips.

"Dreams are good, but there are also bad dreams, Scorp." Astoria tried to explain. "Remember when you were four and you woke up crying?"

Scorpius's eyes lit up. "I remember! I woke up because I dreamt that you and daddy were gone. That you two left me because I wasn't the son you wanted."

"And that is the perfect example of a bad dream, sweetie. Because mummy and daddy would never leave you because we love you very very much."

"I know that, mummy," Scorpius nodded determinedly. "But it was very scary. Is daddy having the same bad dream?"

Astoria sighed. "More so than what's normal."

Scorpius frowned before he wriggled in his mother's arms. "Can I get down, mummy? I want to help you make daddy's potion."

"Oh, but Scorp, you should be sleeping."

"I want to help you. Pretty please?"

Another moment of weakness, Astoria realized. But she nodded anyway, knowing that whatever she says would not convince Scorpius to drop his need to help her. So she put her son down then watched him hobble out of the potions room.

If it had been Draco, he would have run after their son in worry—frightened to see Scorpius trip or fall over his own two feet. But Astoria trusted her son enough to be independent. He has always been smart as a child, and she knew that wasn't going to change any time soon.