“It felt so good, you know. When you introduced me to your Centaur friends as your wife. I know you did that many times before to many people, but this felt different. It’s as if it healed something that was broken when you didn’t claim me before, when you wouldn’t name our relationship. This went through it and healed it. I felt… chosen and acknowledged as a wife. It’s as if the feeling time-travelled into the past and healed me so that part of me doesn’t cry any more”, she cuddled into his chest and all but purred.
“I’m glad”, he smiled and kissed her head.
…
Lucius read the newspapers at the breakfast table and suddenly started laughing. “So that’s why you needed babysitting”. He laughed again.
“Four Aurors, led by the two spouses who jointly head the office, eradicated the Acromantula infestation from the Forbidden Forest, where it grew since the unfortunate incident where a breeding pair was released into the forest, and kept disrupting the ecological balance and threatening the students at Hogwarts. There was an open contract for dealing with the infestation, however since the Acromantulas tend to attack in swarms numbering hundreds, overwhelming a Wizard’s defences very quickly, it was considered impossible to deal with them, until five days ago, when Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy-Potter and Mr. and Mrs. Krum entered the forest and jointly killed the entire Acromantula population numbering 758. The Aurors in question were unavailable for comment, so we asked the Minister, who briefly confirmed the report and said that the Auror office is doing an excellent job. The price of Acromantula venom, used as an ingredient for numerous magical potions, quadrupled over the news, and is currently slowly rising.”
“Please, tell me you collected the venom”, he smiled at his daughter.
“But of course”, she winked.
“And please tell me you did not sell it all at the old price”, his smile widened.
“My father raised no fool”, she grinned.
“Good girl”, he laughed out loud. “How much?”
“Oh, it will end up being around four hundred thousand Galleons, eventually. I need to trickle the supply to maintain the high prices”, she giggled.
“I hope you appreciate what you got”, Lucius winked at Harry.
“Every second of every day”, he smiled and kissed his wife’s hand.
“The second dark species eradicated under the current leadership of the Auror office”, Arthur read as he, Molly and Narcissa joined them, carrying two babies with them. “Lucius, have you heard?”
“I was just reading the news”, Mr. Malfoy looked at him and smiled. “The mystery of many days of babysitting has been revealed”.
“Well, it’s for a good purpose”, Molly nodded. “Those spiders actually attacked the school during the battle, and it was about time someone dealt with them. But wasn’t that dangerous?”, she looked at Lyra and Harry. “They say there were over seven hundred of them and four of you. How did you even manage?”
“My genius wife, whose countless virtues include creating powerful wandless spells, created some new top secret weapons we wished to test in practice. This is why we first created a polygon on the outskirts of Malfoy Manor, where we set traps and surprises for each other, testing how we would deal with a worse version of what surprised Hermione, and then we tested ourselves against another thing we prepared for – being rushed by a vast number of powerful enemies all at once. As you can see, it worked”, he smiled. “Hermione and Lyra used magic from a distance, while Viktor and I took care that nothing came close to them, and since those spiders rely on the tactic of overwhelming the enemy with numbers, they quickly expended themselves against our defences”.
“You make it sound like dealing with Doxies”, Arthur frowned.
“Doxies would actually be more difficult, because they move in three dimensions, rather than two”, Lyra noted.
“Well, as the spiders piled up on top of each other, it kind of ended up being at least two and a half dimensions if not three”, Harry smiled.
“Fair”, she sipped her tea. “Also, all that exercise got me and Hermione in better physical shape than we’ve been for the last two years of being pregnant and breastfeeding. Can we join you and Viktor for your Quidditch matches? If our parents agree to more babysitting, that is?”, she looked around.
“Oh, it would be our pleasure”, Molly beamed, and the others agreed with her. “As long as you stay safe, of course. Will Hermione be going with you?”
“She can pretend to cheer, and read a book”, Arthur laughed.
“That’s actually likely”, Lyra smiled. “She’ll get on a broom if it has air conditioning, autopilot and reading lights, but that’s as far as you can push her”.
“You haven’t been flying properly for years. Will you manage? I hear those boys are flying rough”, Lucius looked at her.
“I used to be quite good back in the day”, Lyra smiled. “I’m not on their level exactly, but I used to win against Harry every now and then”.
“And I have bruises and scars to prove it”, he smiled and kissed her hand.
“I miss flying. Babies are wonderful and I adore them, but I miss being fast and in the air”, she sighed.