to have & to hold (the blacks, vol. 2)

chapter 5

Draco, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione got up bright and early the following day. The boys invited the girls to explore the village together. The girls were excited as the boys had described the town so beautifully.

'I can't wait to eat some gelato,' Hermione said happily as the four teenagers walked to the village.

'There's this gelato shop in the square of the village. It has the best one I have tried so far,' Draco told the curly-haired girl. 'And also, they have lots of flavours.'

'Gelato? You mean ice cream, right?' Ginny asked confused.

'Kind of, but much different,' Harry answered. 'It's much better than ice cream, trust me.'

As the group of four had their trip to the village, Regulus and Eva were left alone at the Black Manor, enjoying their quiet while still lying in bed.

'Ah, quiet...' Regulus said.

'Yeah, it won't be much quiet once they return,' Eva laughed. 'Can't wait for the day a little one will join our family,' she smiled at her husband.

'Another one with your eyes,' Regulus told his wife.

'And your hair,' she added.

'I'm proud of how far we've come and how much we've accomplished,' Regulus kissed Eva's forehead. 'You have no idea how scared I was to leave you alone. But you've managed without me.'

'I didn't,' Eva confessed. 'To be honest, you've left me with your mum and pregnant. I had Narcissa who was nice and also our lunatic cousin, Bella, but you weren't there.'

'I'm so sorry you had to go through that,' Regulus sighed.

'When Draco was born, it was one of the happiest but saddest days of my life,' Eva said.

'This time around, things shall be different, I promise you,' Regulus assured Eva, smiling at his astonishing wife.

'I can't believe that Cissy is divorcing Lucius...' Eva said. 'All those years together now make up for nothing,' she added.

'Lucius is not the same person he used to be back in the day,' Regulus reminded her. 'He's turned into somebody I've always feared he'd turn into was he still going on that dark path.'

'And to think that I've left our son with that monster for his safety,' Eva sighed.

'You didn't leave him with Lucius. You left him with his wonderful godmother who's taken good care of our boy, darling.'

'Leaving him is the biggest regret of my life,' Eva told her husband.

'But he's found the strength to forgive you, which matters the most. You took care of him during his first year of life. You're the one he wanted every second of every day. He remembered you despite not knowing you for most of his childhood,' Regulus assured his wife. 'I was thinking... once we get back to London, I think it's best if we try to keep the fact that I'm alive as secret as possible,' he proposed. 'There are some Death Eaters who know I'm alive, but let's not reveal that to more people.'

'I think we should at least tell Theo, my love,' Eva argued. 'He's the only one who's still alive,' she added. 'Plus, you've never got to see his and Clarissa's son, Theodore Nott Jr.'

'Really, Nott named his son after himself?' Regulus asked, seeming not surprised at all.

'With Clarissa's sickness, he barely had any time to think about a proper name for young Theo, so he just wrote down Theodore Nott Jr. and rolled with it,' Evangeline explained.

'I cannot believe that she died,' Regulus sighed.

'It made me so scared when she got sick after giving birth. I also thought I would get sick once Draco was born. I was fine, but Clarissa wasn't. I would go with Draco to their house from time to time. He'd play with young Theo while I'd spend time with Clarissa and Theo. She died when I was in New York. I went out of hiding to go to her funeral and be there for them,' Eva told her husband.

Still in the village, the four teenagers were done with their exploring and decided to take a break at a nice place that Draco and Harry had found during their previous visits.

'Prendiamo due limonate per le signore, per favore,' ('We'll take to lemonades for the ladies, please,') Draco told the waiter. 'E un espresso per me e una bottiglia d'acqua per l'altro signore.' ('And one espresso for me, and a bottle of water for the other gentleman.')

'Vuole ordinare altro, signore?' ('Would you like to order anything else, sir?') asked the waiter.

'No, questo è tutto. Grazie,' ('No, that shall be all. Thank you,') Draco responded.

The waiter grabbed the menus and left to prepare the order.

'Your Italian sounds so well,' Hermione told Draco. 'I'm impressed.'

'Learned lots of languages growing up. Might as well put them to good use,' he said.

The four just enjoyed their sunny afternoon in the village, not thinking about what might await them when they went to Hogwarts. Draco didn't want to admit it, but he was growing worried about the current problem that they were facing. Voldemort was growing stronger with every new Death Eater joining his ranks.

'Have you ever thought about what your life would have been like if you never found out the truth about your heritage?' Ginny asked Draco.

'Honestly, yes,' the boy admitted. 'Lucius always wanted me to join You-Know-Who's ranks. I would have probably been a Death Eater by now, trying my hardest to survive within his ranks.'

'Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore,' Harry said.

A.N.: Hey, guys! I wanted to thank everybody who's reading this book. It means the world to me. Reading your comments and seeing your votes on both "till death do us part" and "to have & to hold" is incredible. Thank you for all of the support during this crazy journey, the 198k reads on "till death do us part" and 3.8k reads on "to have & to hold". When I started writing this series I expected no one to like it because it is a plot you rarely find on Wattpad, but you guys proved me wrong. I wanted to wish you all a happy New Year filled with happiness and blessing.
-Andie