forever & always (the blacks, one-shots)

✧3✧

~ After Regulus' death, Evangeline takes baby Draco to New York in order to protect him from the war that was let loose in the British Wizarding Comunity. Fearing her son's safety, she doesn't divulge to him anything about his father's ties to the magical community. On his 11th birthday, young Draco Black receives his acceptance letters from two schools, Hogwarts and Ilvermorny. ~

'Mom!' Draco called for his mother from his bedroom in their small apartment in New York City. He received three letters delivered by owls, which seemed rather surprising to him. One was addressed to him from a place called Hogwarts and the other from a place called Ilvermorny, while the third one was addressed to his mother. The even more crazy thing was that the letters were addressed to "Evangeline Black" and "Draco Sirius Black", not "Evangeline Rose" and "Draco Rose".

'I'm in the kitchen!' Evangeline told her son.

Draco stood up from his bed and went to the kitchen, holding the three envelopes in his hand. He sat down on one of the stools by the kitchen island and set the letters down on the counter. He watched as his mother was making lunch for the two, a celebratory one for his birthday.

'Mom, these letters got delivered by two owls,' Draco informed Evangeline.

The woman dropped the utensils on the kitchen counter, stopping in her tracks for a moment. 'This cannot be happening!' she thought. 'How did they find us? We changed our names, we fled, we hide and yet they still seemed to find us!' Evangeline turned around and looked at her son, her expression unreadable to the young boy. She grabbed the three envelopes and looked at them for a moment before putting them back on the counter.

'Draco, dear, why don't you go and sit down by the window while I get us some tea, alright?' Evangeline instructed her son who listened to his mother and went to the living room, sitting down on the window seat. The blonde woman grabbed the letter addressed to her, ripping the envelope apart, and began to read it.

'Dear Mrs. Black,

Today marks your son's 11th birthday. I know it is hard to believe that this has happened seeing as how you have been so fearlessly protecting your son since the disappearance of his father, may poor Regulus rest in peace, but I can assure you that Hogwarts is a safe space for young Draco where he can learn more about who he is and what he can do.

I know it might be hard to send your boy to a wizarding school, but you should remember that young witches and wizards who do not learn how to control their abilities can become lethal.

You are a good mother, Evangeline, but now the time to make amends with the past has come.

Your son will make a great student for our school, just like his father and uncle before him, despite his uncle's rather troublemaking ways. He will grow and learn everything that a young wizard his age needs in order to protect themselves.

I can assure you that Hogwarts will be welcoming young Draco with open arms, just as it welcomed everyone before him. You have nothing to fear, Mrs. Black, your son will be in good hands.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress'

Evangeline put the tea kettle on the stove while gathering the things she needed to make tea. As the tea was brewing, she thought about Professor McGonagall's letter. She might have not attended Hogwarts, but she knew from her late husband that Professor McGonagall was an extraordinary woman who loved all of her students and cared for them as if they were her own children.

Evangeline grabbed two teacups and put them on a platter, along with the tea kettle, some sugar and milk, and also the two letters addressed to her son. She walked to the living room, setting the platter on the side table by the window seat. She poured a cup of tea for her son, adding some sugar and milk to it, and handed it to young Draco before pouring a cup for herself. With the teacup in her hand, Evangeline sat down on the window seat, next to her son, and stared down the window into the busy city that she called "home".

'Mom, what is Hogwarts? And what is Ilvermony?' Draco asked, looking at his mother. 'I've never heard of these places in my entire life.'

'Hogwarts is a boarding school for young children like you who are rather gifted. It is the school that your father went to when he was your age,' Evangeline began to explain to her son. 'And Ilvermony is similar to Hogwarts, but is located here, in North America,' she added.

'Gifted?' Draco tried to understand. 'How am I gifted, mom?' he asked.

'I met your father when I was a little bit older than you,' Evangeline said. 'I had just moved to London and I had no friends whatsoever. Lovey told me to go out in the park near our house one day and that is when I met your father.' Evangeline sighed, looking at her son with a sad smile on her face. 'On my fifteenth birthday, your father told me the truth about the school he went to and what he was,' Evangeline told Draco. 'He... was a wizard, my love. And you are like him, a wizard,' she said.

Draco looked at his mother with a shocked expression on his face. 'Does that also mean that you are a witch?' the boy asked his mother.

'No, I am not,' Evangeline shook her head. 'But my grandparents and uncle were. My mom was adopted and has no magical bone in her body.'

'Then, if you and dad met in London, why are we here in New York?' Draco asked, trying to understand everything his mother was saying.

'A couple of months before you were born, your dad died unexpectedly. There was this bad man who wanted to kill those like you, those without pure blood,' Evangeline explained. 'So, after I gave birth to you, I left. From the moment I held you in my arms I knew that I would do everything to protect you, even hiding the truth about who you are,' she added. 'When I came back here, you and I lived with my grandparents for a while since Lovey and I were at odds. That's when I decided to go back to the name "Rose" as a way to protect you.'

Draco looked at his mother before putting his teacup on the side table. Some things finally made sense to him. He took the two letters from the tray and opened them, reading both as Evangeline was watching him. 'I wanna go to Hogwarts, just like dad did,' Draco said to his mother. 'I wanna learn more about this side of me and embrace it.'

'And I shall be by your side forever and always,' Evangeline smiled at her son, knowing that Regulus would be so proud of their boy.