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The following day, Aurora had little to no strength to get up. But she had countless things on her to-do list, one being the fact that she needed to check-in at the labs.

And to no one's surprise but her own, Rabastan had sent a large bouquet of flowers, all in the language of love and forgiveness.

The small postcard had taken a toll on her heart, reminding her just how much she will be losing if she did go through with the plan.

"Rory! I'm so glad I caught you, your husband dropped this off not too long ago. Said it was urgent?... Oh, and I need your signature for these." Aurora was thankful for the mindless tasks as she was guided through bit by bit, but not only did Romulus arrive for his shift in the facilities, so did Cara.

Neither looked as though they slept and when Aurora had caught sight of them in the hall, the relief washed over their face.

"Mum! We thought you went to America!" Cara shouted, pulling her into another hug, similar to the one from last night.

"A hotel just a bit away. Did you speak with—"
"If you think I said anything to that bastard of a man, then you're crazier than I thought. What kind of law is it that keeps us to our father than our mother? Completely barbaric!" Romulus countered and Aurora agreed that this was, once again, not America. The manor was not hers, the children were hardly hers, and thus she left with only her clothes and important documents.

If she had taken the children, that would give Rabastan the upper hand in court. He was, after all, a lawyer.

This means she needed to play it with caution to the situation.

"Mummy please, please, please come home."

"We'll see how well this resonates with your father first, alright? Then we'll take the next step." Cara aggressively started to shake her head at the sound of that.

"I don't want you to get a divorce!"

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but this has nothing to do with you or my love for you as my children. If anything, this is to protect you all. Now I'll stop by later after I finish up here. Perhaps if your father is coherent enough to hear me this afternoon, then all might be well." Cara sniffled and excused herself to the bathroom while it left Aurora and Romulus alone in the room.

"I took a look at the parchment, the one that father nearly ripped to shreds this morning...They were fake, weren't they?" Rory smirked down to her son, but it had vanished before Romulus could debrief what she meant by it

"That sounds like something you should keep to yourself, son. And a good tick in the right direction never hurt anyone."

"You're wrong on that front, luckily father's obsessed with you that he wouldn't dare divorce. But I did have an idea, just a small one." This caught Aurora's attention, she never did have a Ravenclaw on her side—Her old friends hardly counted, and the only ones she truly spoke with were Evelyn and Clemintine rather than Amelia and the rest.

"Proctor isn't in town, is he?" Aurora had tugged her son off to the labs and discussed with one of the officials working in there that Aurora wanted her son to stand in participation, of course, they couldn't say no to Mrs.Aurora Lestrange.

But would they still act the same if it was Aurora Black?

The day had carried on well into the afternoon, and with her bag all settled. The three had arrived home, an elf scurrying in desperation for the mistress of the manor.

Apparently one of the guest rooms had suffered a fatal few curses, and that was what Aurora expected regardless. Thankfully it wasn't their room, so it was a notch in her mind to believe that he was at least a little more conscious than before.

"I'm going to have a conversation with your father, perhaps, if it ends well—We'll have dinner together."

"And if not, I'm ordering the first portkey for Monday morning to America. Sick of this shite." Romulus grumbled with his work satchel up and off his shoulder now.

The line of 'it'll only get worse' played on Aurora's tongue but she retracted. Her task right now is simple, speak with Rabastan and come to an in-between.

Upon coming up to his study's door, her heart skipped a beat just as she knocked. Was this the wrong idea?
Was she being too easy?

"Lori, love, I need another few minutes before we have another game. Did you finish—" Rabastan had spoken behind the door as he had gone to open it, only to be startled to the core to see his wife.

"Ror—Aurora...What—"

"Can we talk?" The desperation had instantly caused him to reach for her, his arms wrapping around her so cautiously as though she would vanish right before his very eyes.

They both held similar dark circle's under their eyes, as well as indulging in far too much coffee throughout the day to operate,

Rabastan had yet to let go, and Aurora remembered where one time just a decade ago she would've sold her soul to be in his arms again.

And as she leaned back, Rabastan's mouth began to move but hadn't verbally made any attempt to speak. "Are you busy?" He instantly shook his head, stumbling his own words and thoughts to answer her first question about being wanting to speak.

"Rory...I can't sign the papers. I simply cannot. It pains me to even think of us not being married, not being together." His admission had sent waves of regret to Aurora's soul, but if she continued down this path it would only break the children apart.

"And I cannot accept your returned engagement as a Death Eater, we're met at a crossroads." Had this been earlier in their marriage, Aurora would have never spoken so directly against the cause.

"Love, that was my own fault for being so careless. Being captured by Aurors—"

"Careless? Have you not been careless now? Or should one of the children remain in the hospital with a more severe burn for you to see that your actions have consequences!" She had thought he had started to see the light, but he hadn't managed.

"I do not want a divorce, but I will not stand by while you fall down the same path once again."

"My task is done, he will return by the end of the year, Rory. Once he returns, I promise that we'll be resurrected and rewarded." Rabastan had been so keen on the idea that all will be well, and closed her eyes.

"Will he bring back the years we lost together? That you lost with the children?... Will he clear our name? Or cure you of your nightmares and the trauma you faced in Azkaban?...Or will you be welcomed back in the same pit they've thrown you in?" Her questions had started to crack his interior, Lucius might be convincing...But Aurora could be just the same.

"I did not marry you because you were a Death Eater, I married you because you're just Rabastan. And you always will be in my eyes, but how am I to compete with the same group that's torn us apart so many times?" Her questions had caused him to remain silent.

"Aurora...I can't."
"Then meet me in the middle! You haven't given me anything other than that shitty excuse of 'I can't,' why not?"

"There is nothing more for me to do, the rest the others will handle and then the Dark Lord will return. I know nothing more than his supposed return before the Hogwarts semester is over. Before the children return. I'm not sure how, but Lucius managed to give that Weasley brat the Dark Lord's diary. That is how he was attempted resurrection once more."

"You mean when our children started questioning if they were the heir of Slytherin and were horrified for the rest of the year? You knew?"

"It would not have gone after our children, they're pure as could be." Aurora had held her head up, not knowing anymore what was the truth.

"When did he recruit you again?" Rabastan had looked down to the floor, so Aurora's suspicion had been correct before. "What did you call me? Unreasonable? No, it was irrational."

"I'm sorry." The two had shared a long stare, both tearful and dreading what will happen. "Will you meet me halfway?"

"I'll try." She dipped into her pocket and ripped up the divorce paper with her signature. "I'll be going to look for more suitable manors. You're certain you'll try?"

"There is not much to tell, Rory. Someone is attempting to infiltrate Hogwarts this year, they need Potter to resurrect the Dark Lord." She nodded, but it was fighting tooth and nail not to report this to Dumbledore.

The same bloke that had allowed her brother to rot away like a guilty man when in reality, it was Wormtail all along.

"Thank you." She responded, completely formal but Rabastan had pulled her into another embrace—With desperation in this kiss, even going so far as to push her against the wall.

She surcame to the immediate feeling, wondering if this would be the last time they would feel the warmth so intimately.

As they had pulled apart, Aurora bit her lip and nodded as she went to wipe a fallen tear away.

"We'll be alright?" She asked, though she didn't mean to form it as a question, it came out as one regardless. "We will be." He hadn't added a promise, as it would only set her off further.

That word no longer held any meaning, so with that in mind, she had unraveled herself from his hold and told him that she would see him at dinner.

Perhaps by then he could try and persuade her that she didn't need to move elsewhere, that by tomorrow and the days following, nothing else would happen.

But even if he fixed the relationship with Aurora, Romulus was still livid in how everything was handled. So to hopefully gain a bit of trust back into himself, he took the liberty to head off to his eldest son's room.

"Just a sec! I smell like a cauldron!" That didn't surprise Rabastan in the least bit, not when either Cara and Romulus were the first to head out in the morning for an early shift at their mother's facility.

So seeing him swing open the door with his lounge clothes on with a towel over his shoulders, Rabastan was left to lose any and all remembrance as to why he was here.

The haunting idea that Romulus looked so very similar to Sirius, even down to smile or taunting glare was his first issued karma.

"Suppose mother would ask you to speak to us?"

"No, your mother is back in her study. I thought we should talk." He had taken the words into consideration, this was his father after all. "Depends, are you and mother getting divorced?"

"She ripped up the contract...She's giving me a chance."

"You mean another chance?" Rabastan had nodded glumly to his son's attention to detail.

"Yes, and I know this is mainly because she does not wish to break up the family any more than it has."

"Mother isn't to blame for that, why can you not see that we needed you?" The father's expression had turned up in shock, he was needed?

"They told us to evacuate because of the fire that was well out of control, mum could've—Mum could've died."

"Son, I swear to the goddess above that I placed a protection charm on the tent." Romulus thought for a moment, is that what he had felt upon entering.

"That spell doesn't work for natural fire, it would've worked if someone cast something against it, but not if the fire crept up." Rabastan's lips had parted at finding the reasoning as to why it didn't work.

"Cara and I nearly got stupefied by a group of Aurors because we were under that retchet mark of yours...It wasn't worth it father, not one bit." Romulus' voice had sounded just as desperate as Rory's just a few minutes, he had wanted validation that all he had done was not because his father had been an already annoyed terrorist.

But because he made a mistake, yet the only mistake that he could see as of yet, was trusting that he made good on his promise not to revert back to his old ways.

Rabastan had thought back to what his father might've done had he been spoken to like this, and he nearly toppled over in ever thinking that he would punish Romulus in that sort of way.

"I'm almost of age."

"You are."
"This continues I'm planning of staying in America, I cannot handle this, father. I can't handle a civil war." Rabastan shook his head. "It will never come to that." Liar.

"Won't it? Mother seems horrified, as does the ministry and everyone else."

"It won't be like last time." Romulus sighed, wanting to believe the good in everyone—But the logical side was pressing against his own father for redemption. "Won't it?...Please, I don't want to leave. I rather enjoy the life we have here."

"Your mother's staying."
"Staying doesn't mean that everything is normal. Staying simply means she's giving you a chance." Rabastan nodded, not realizing his son was trying to give him insight as to what will happen that very night.

Aurora did not sit beside him as she had for the past decade. No. She sat at the far end of the table with Lori and Cara at her sides. The intimacy was lacking, and Rabastan could only pass through the list of possibilities in getting to better his stance with his wife and children.

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Date Posted: 12-25-2021

Time: 10:28

Words: 2376

Rabastand slipped about the Dark Lord returning by the end of the year...What will Rory do?