THE FURIES ▸ Draco Malfoy

Chapter Eleven: IPHIGENIA

◤ ❝Your father and Sirius Black were friends, Miss Erebus. The kind that would have died for one another. Finding out what had happened at the Department of Mysteries was heartbreaking. I have never seen a Gryffindor and Slytherin so keen with the other in the many years I have been at this school. It is something you never forget.❞ ― Minerva McGonagall◢

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CHAPTER ELEVEN: IPHIGENIA

February 28, 1980

Celicia Erebus knew the moment that she entered the room that something was wrong, but that didn't matter much anymore. The two men in the middle of the office were red-faced, having previously shouted their frustrations through the walls. Alastiare stepped away from the man, his eyes softening at his recently-wedded wife with a genuine smile on his face. Any tension that had once carried throughout the room was replaced with something lighter. In the arms of Celicia was a small bundle of fabric, the smallest fingers in the world sticking out of the swaddle constraining them. When the little girl inside let out a small cry, Alastiare quickly walked over with a paternal kind of haste and reached to take the infant from his wife. Celicia let out a small mutter in thanks, looking across the room at the man to give a kind smile before she was off to get a few minutes of rest.

Alastiare's heart grew twice in size when his baby let out another small coo at the comfort of his arms, completely escaping from the blanket confining her. Her arms were raised out in the air now, searching for anything to grab at. Only born fourteen days ago on Valentine's Day, the father couldn't help but understand how fitting a day it was―how quickly she had him fumbling with a love that he could not explain, even if he tried.

He glanced up at the man a few feet away and made the decision to walk over not long after, cradling the little girl so delicately in fear that she would break. Her head always faced his right arm, and never his left. The thought of something so pure next to something so heinously dark brought a shiver down his spine. Such a terrible mark would never be close to his daughter's skin if he had his way.

"Sirius..." he said, lowly. "I would like for you to meet Andromeda Athella Erebus."

Sirius Black was eradicated of any and all unkind feelings the second that he saw the little girl's head peaking out from the cloth. Her large, brown eyes were curiously aware for a newborn. However, it was not the child which initially surprised him, but the name. His eyes shot up immediately when he recognized its familiarity on his tongue. "Alastiare, that's―"

"Your cousin," Alastiare said, casually. "A peculiar coincidence, isn't it?"

If Alastiare had noticed the tears gleaming in his friend's eyes, he had said nothing about it. Both men knew the degree of meaning that just took place, and all in a name. Sirius took a step forward, looking at the child with a warmness in his heart that only grew in size the moment that Andromeda met eyes with him. Instinctively, the infant reached with small hands for him, and Sirius wasted no time to comply and hand away his pinky finger. He would have given her anything she wanted in that moment, though. A finger, a hand, his heart, anything. She had stopped her fussing the second that she had hold of him, her wide eyes lighting up with an innocence that resembled her mother's.

Alastiare hummed as he watched. "She likes you. The moment Lucius came near her the other day, she began crying. Nott got no further than a few feet before she was wailing for Celicia...so far she's only wanted to be around Athella and Narcissa. Athella's boy, Theodore, too. We thought she may not be comfortable around other men, but..." he paused with a small smile, watching Sirius, "...she is plenty fine with you, it seems."