"Dinner for Three"

July 1994, 1 month later

Despite the abundance of homework her professors had graciously assigned for the summer, Circi slept well in the first month of the summer holiday.

Her extended knowledge from her herbology classes inspired her to work on the greenhouse at the bottom of the garden. Each day after lunch, considering she rarely woke for breakfast now, she made her way through the kitchen and over the field at the back of the manor to the entrance of the greenhouse.

It was even more dilapidated than she remembered. The wood of the planters was moulding from the damp the broken windows allowed in during the snowy winter. When she poked them they seemed to bounce and she grimaced. She had lost track of the days but, today, she would finally act on her plans.

There didn't seem to be much she could do about the mould but the broken windows? She knew just the spell. She pointed her wand at the broken glass on the ground and said 'reparo' then stood back and watched the shards fly into the air and back into place on the window. While she rejoiced in the practise of the charm, which had been in her charms textbook, she pocketed her wand and pulled out her dragonhide gardening gloves.

She knew underage magic wasn't exactly allowed by what was one simply mending charm? Despite this, she dug into the planters and pulled out the weeds that had hidden her so long ago.

The roots of the weeds were wound tightly around the wood planks creating the base of the planter and, with one sharp tug, the planter creaked and stretched and it finally succumbed to age. As the weed came loose Circi fell backwards and was greeted by a crashing sound and a cloud of dirt kicked up into the air and covered her face and clothes.

Standing up and brushing herself down, she spun around, trying to see if she got any dirt on her bottom. The door to the greenhouse opened and she looked up, wide-eyed, feeling guilty.

Draco and Lucius stood there, Lucius was holding a cake decorated with vanilla icing and the number 12 traced in orange on top. Draco attempted to stifle his laughter by clapping a hand over his face while Lucius watched her try to wipe the dirt from her face in disdain. There was hopeless disappointment in the back of his mind as she continued to smudge the dirt more so.

"Circini. What is this mess?" She bites her lip, finding the humour in the situation as well as Draco and shrugs. Lucius shook his head, handing the cake back to Draco and instructing him to take the cake back into the manor. He holds his hand out and apparates them from the garden to the bathroom closest to Circini's bedroom. They had landed in the bathtub, a white porcelain tub already gathering dirt, and Lucius stepped out onto the grey stone floor. "Clean up, I don't want any dirt being trailed through my house, thank you." She stood in the empty tub, sniggering as he left, collecting herself before finally doing as she was told.

Everyone was waiting in the dining room used only for business meetings and birthdays. It was grander, sure, but much colder in the absence of the lit fire.

A mahogany table that sat ten people on either side and one at the head of the table stood in the centre of the room. Not even half of the table was in use because, especially on Circini's birthday, the Malfoys did not often care to share such familial moments such as candle blowing and present-giving with their closer acquaintances.

The chandelier and the fireplace were lit, in an attempt to ward off the shadows on the dark walls and heat up the stone floor. The crackle of the logs provided the only relief from the silence as the residents of the table sat and waited for the birthday girl.

Lucius, positioned to the left of the chair at the head of the table which remained vacant at the present moment, was tapping his fingers on the head of his snake embellished cane. His eyes looked anywhere but across from him, unlike Narcissa, who was staring down the young gentleman three seats away from the head of the table on the right. She sighed, occasionally and repositioned her hands every-so-often.

Draco could sense the discomfort in his parents and therefore felt tension in his shoulders. His mind was sharp, like it was at Hogwarts, in the presence of one of his professors. He often enjoyed those lessons since they permitted roaming the castle at night, which was always a joy, and his name often presented itself in textbooks which he would boast about often.

Next to Draco, alone with no one adjacent to him, Abraxas Malfoy was wheezing through a conversation with the older couple who could not be but a few years younger than himself- despite age having cursed him with poor health unlike its blessing of beauty and regality to the couple.

He acquired not only their social standing in the current climate, but commended them on their bravery as a couple consisting of a revered pureblood and a disfigured muggleborn.

The woman assured him that she preferred to look at her own image than the one he presented.

This drove the room into a deeper silence if such a thing was possible. Abraxas was bubbling, his prejudices threatening to boil over despite his son's wishes to remain civil.

Fortunately, the silence didn't last long and Circi floated into the room with a flourish as she presented the brand new dress that had been waiting for her on her bed. It was yellow, a colour which was probably chosen without much consideration of its implications but she still thought about the scarf she kept at the bottom of her trunk.

Noticing their guests, she stopped moving and her smile fell to a reasonably presentable smirk. Her countenance changed, her cheeks flushing pink as she sat at the head of the table and uttered a simple 'hello'.

In the few moments that passed she could easily guess who these people were- she wasn't a complete idiot. She had asked to meet them for her birthday and her father never disappointed her. She knew if she asked him to mend the greenhouse he would but her mother had cared for it, she could tell, and she would hate to ruin that care with the magic of someone who was indifferent. Conflicted, she was unsure whether to rejoice at the meeting or run away in terror. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her mind raced with the possibilities now that they were together.

"Circi," Lucius broke the silence and gestured across the table, "this is your grandfather."

She looked up at Christian briefly and then down at her hands. How could she be so shy now?

"It's a pleasure to meet you Circini." She rubbed her sweaty palms discreetly against the table cloth and finally looked at him. He was smiling and there were lines webbing away from his eyes. Her conclusion was that he was a joyous man, caring and trustworthy- his eyes showed her as such.

"Hi." She looked at Hayley, who sat behind him. The scar on her face made the skin jut out, her nose looked out of place but, again, her eyes were so kind. Next to Hayley, Dexter was watching her curiously and she realised she had seen him in the Great Hall, often indulging in a bowl of cereal at dinner and a steak at breakfast. It was evident he lived a backwards lifestyle from the way he looked as though he was fighting sleep.

"Happy birthday," Christian continued, sliding the cake down the table towards her, "we bought you a cake. I hope you like it." She examined it for a moment, recognising it from the greenhouse but it had a smear where someone had run their finger through the icing. And she had a sneaky suspicion that Draco was guilty. Lucius was pulling his wand from its position in the head of his cane to light the candles but, before he could fully draw it, Christian flourished his hand above the cake and the candles lit.

Circi's eyes widened at the display. She had heard stories before about wandless magic. Once, a few years ago, she had elicited from him a confirmation of the stories about her mother using wandless magic as a kid. He had recounted a tale to her of one event she had used it in front of him, during a time where they were happy. To this day she could remember the bittersweet smile he was trying to suppress but if there was one thing Circi knew, it was to never ask Lucius about her mother too much. She had learned this the hard way on her sixth birthday, the date of one of her earliest memories of him yelling at her. The memory still triggered her fear from that day but he never yelled, not unreasonably at least.

Her wish? She blew out the candles and imagined her mother, her scarf wrapped around her neck and waving her hands in the air. They were dancing together in the greenhouse, full flowers and loose petals flying through the air on the breeze she generated from her hands. In her mind, Serenity was vibrant. Her face was glowing with the exercise and she was grinning, her eyes glowing with happiness. And her laughter, it buzzed through the air like the bees on flowerpatch outside the window.

Circi opened her eyes with a smile and looked up at her father.

"Can we eat it now?"

"Not right now," Lucius shakes his head, "dinner will be ready soon." Circi shrugged and looked back at Christian, Hayley and Dexter.

"Can I show you the greenhouse?" Christian grins, he had heard of a greenhouse once in passing, but he looked at Lucius for permission. Lucius nodded and instructed them to not be too long With renewed exciting, Circi dragged Christian by the wrist, closely followed by Hayley and Dexter.

The greenhouse was in the same mess they had left it in earlier that day and Circi was mindful to keep her brand new dress out of the dirt.

"It's very messy," she shrugged, "I was trying to pull some weeds earlier and the planter broke." She kicks at the mess on the floor and points to the window next to them, it looked out of place with how clean it was. Waving, they watched their reflection. "I broke that window two years ago when I was playing with Draco, but I fixed it earlier!

This was mum's. Dad doesn't tell me much about her but he says she spent a lot of time in here." Steadying his breath, Christian squeezed Hayley's hand and watched Dexter walk further into the room.

Dexter had, for a long time now, been conflicted on how to feel towards Serenity. When the two of them were left to themselves in the estate they had a lot of time to mull over the events of the last decade. It had become evident that within Dexter's mourning of his mother, the only image of death eater he could see was that of Serenity.

Seeing the greenhouse reminded him that, before the darkness of the war, she had always been caring and willing to care for and revive creatures and plants. She had been a big sister to all of them, not just Merritt, and he couldn't forget that. Looking around at the dilapidated greenhouse he could only picture it to have looked like the greenhouses at hogwarts and he could see her, as an eleven-year-old, tending to a puffapod on a golden evening. And the image made him feel guilty and long to see her again.

Christian couldn't picture the woman he now knew to be Serenity calmly tending to the place. He wished to share with his partner, nephew and granddaughter of Serenity's whereabouts but he had to bite his lip and simply rake his fingers through the dirt that had been touched by her.

The air was dense and Circi didn't like the mood that had fallen over them. She scowled and turned back to the door, wishing to keep her greenhouse a happy place and they were ruining it.

"We need to go to dinner." They all look up at her, unapologetically solemn-looking which irritated her even more. She didn't move from the doorway until they were all out and, at dinner, she did her best to avoid the greenhouse as a topic of conversation for fear of them ruining the mood once more.

A/N 

Dexter gets some development yay for him!