𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑

ponderosa pine

“We will win,
just like we have
won before.”

•

SHE COULD STILL hear Draco's soft singing in the next room as he attempted to lull his nephew to sleep. It was sweet. It was the sweetest thing she had ever seen.

She could hear him sing, in the softest, most melodious voice ever, "If you want to feel that Christmas glow, I've just the spell for you. It can bring to life a man of snow. Make your Yuletide dreams come true."

The two of them had visited Lupin before anyone else could, because for Draco, it was family. For Skylar, it was a sign that everything was going well. She had walked in, a little windswept from the apparition, her white shirt untucked at places from her jeans. Draco hadn't looked more divine, in his black t-shirt and dress pants with a blazer to top it off as the most popular muggle trend at the moment. After greeting Remus at the door, she had seen Nymphadora sitting in the living room, with a small bundle in her arms, no bigger than a loaf of bread. She had smiled charmingly at them, her hair a bright shade of blue, just like her son.

Skylar had actually frozen on her spot. Of course she had seen babies before. She was swarmed by babies at the Orphanage. There were dozens of them, dropped with not even a note, when they're only months old, or barely just born. She had seen babies and she wasn't particularly fond of them. They were too small, too delicate, too precious. How pitiful must it be to not be able to speak for yourself or tend to your own needs. Draco had laughed lightly at her horrified expression at the child.

"Teddy doesn't bite," Dora had said quietly, eyes flickering between Skylar and Draco, their forms close by, a love as old as time holding them together.

"He's so small," Skylar had finally managed to say, crouching next to the chair where Nymphadora sat with her child. She gingerly lifted a finger, her nails clipped completely, and touched her bare fingertips to the baby's plump cheek. "Ooh, and so soft!"

Draco had laughed. He had always loved Skylar for all her little quirks, how her eyes changed color for everything she felt, how her body stiffened at the onslaught of anything new to feed her mind, how easily excited she was at the little things of life. Skylar was inexplicably expressive, not afraid of her own emotions, uncanny, unhidden. "Wheres the sink, Remus?" he had asked. Remus Lupin, with his slightly unshaved stubble and shadows under his eyes, merrily pointed to a small powder room at the edge of the living room. Skylar noticed Draco drop his bag quickly and walk to the wash.

"I heard you applied for Auror Training?" Tonks asked quietly, still fondly looking at her child.

"Yes," Skylar said, her finger now clasped by the baby's tiny fist. She was trying her hardest not to swoon, not to eat the child up. "Harry and Ron too."

"Pray that you get Mad-Eye as your Trainor," Tonks said. "He's exceptional—"

"Constant vigilance!" I whooped quietly. "I really do hope I get him. I heard the other one, Robards, is as horrible as Snape was to Gryffindors."

"I always thought you'd be going back to Hogwarts to finish school," Remus added. Skylar looked at him. "You are very bright, after all."

"I think you've mistaken me for Hermione, Moony," Skylar grinned. "She's the one who believes in education. I," she pointed dramatically at herself. "I seek knowledge."

Remus chuckled. He had expected such a cryptic answer from Skylar Firegold. Before he could return, however, Draco had re-entered the room, his blaze chucked to a side, his hands freshly washed. He held them out before him, with an expression that rivalled to the one which he got when he attempted to finish a very large question in the last minute of the exam, and said, "Give me my nephew."