Mister and Missus

The blonde, young woman grinned cheekily at her husband. With a spring in her step she followed him in through to the bathroom – the fact that he had his own bathroom not lost on her. The constant privacy and peace would’ve meant the world to her when she was growing up. Instead it was a constant fight between her, her father and her brother to get in the shower first before their mother did – in which case no one would get washed and dressed in time for school or work or the like. What it must’ve been like to languish in a bath until the water got cold. Priceless.

“I owe you, do I?” Millie inquired tartly with a smirk as she leant down to pull her socks off. She hopped onto the rug, unimpressed with the cold tiles, and gave them a dark look before turning with the intention to source some bubble bath – and source it she did, dumping more than the bath needed into the rising water while Kieran’s back was turned. Millie stowed it away quickly and laughed, dancing eagerly into Kieran’s arms.

Millie’s hands found the shirt buttons again but this time quickly began to undo them until she reached the bottom. She pushed the material off of his shoulders and slid the shirt down his arms before tossing it over into the washing hamper: bull’s eye! Millie grinned broadly at Kieran, incredibly pleased with her aim, and giggled as she wriggled out of her t-shirt. Belts were pulled, jeans disappeared and underwear too. Then came the bath.

False-modesty would never suit Millie and she certainly wasn’t going to play that game with Kieran, either. The bubbles had risen but on that front she feigned absolute innocence. She released his hand long enough to get in the bath but once the water was up over their shoulders she slid along so that her back was against Kieran’s chest, her hands seeking his under the water.

“I love your home,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to his collarbone. The you carried beneath her words. For she did. Of that she was becoming ever surer. “Crazy to think you were iddy-biddy once. A little Kieran. I want to see those baby pictures, mister.”

This was far too simple, Keiran decided, for someone like him. How did he manage such an arrangement, and with her no less? Sure, he was a Professor, but he hardly expected to end up so well off. Keiran wasn't sure he'd ever even considered marrying for certain anyways. Sure, he had been involved in what one might call flings from time to time – but some of them had been completely rotten of him. Like his time with Athena, who he knew full well was married. And yet he'd done it anyways, because he was just far more interested in himself and his own desires back then. Now it was insanely apparent that his concerns all seemed to start and end with Millie.

She was settled in front of him and toying with his hands as he let himself drop a kiss on her shoulder in return for the one she gave him. “Hah, I'm sure we have some around here somewhere. Though I'm not sure how embarrassing they are. I have a feeling you might enjoy that sort more.” Keiran nearly mentioned that Elliot might appreciate them as well, but decided he'd rather not bring up anyone outside the room. This break from everyone was just theirs.

One of his hands lifted to play with the bubbles in front of her, not bothering to ask where they'd come from. He picked up a bit of the suds in his hand before touching them to her nose and laughing a bit against her back. His actions were pointless, in the whole of things, but just then they didn't feel like it. That hand ran along her stomach from one side of her waist to the other so he could hug her to him.

Resting his chin on her shoulder, Keiran pondered on the first time she had convinced him to wash up with her. That morning had been a sort of turning point for him – if not for the both of them. He smiled and kissed her jaw at the memory of their talk and the fact that many of their good times seemed to include cocoa. It just seemed to fit, like they did. His palm came to rest on her stomach while the hand she'd reached for earlier was still playing with her fingers.

Something was different. That is, he'd noticed it before, but thought he had imagined it. And perhaps he had. Except that she hadn't been feeling well some mornings, hadn't been able to eat or drink certain things she so clearly wanted but then rejected, and had actually seemed to want bizarre combinations of things. Keiran wanted to ask, but then maybe he would be wrong and he'd insult her somehow. He'd only known her for perhaps three months or so. Maybe he just didn't know her eating habits.

But if he was right.

Keiran found that he was excited by the idea as much as he was scared. He had to actively keep his fingers from brushing over her stomach again. Would she tell him, if she knew? Maybe she didn't yet. Keiran hoped she would feel comfortable telling him. According to his dad, Bridget hadn't been able to tell for at least a good week after she'd known just out of nervousness or wanting to be sure. Aiden seemed to have felt ready when she'd announced it. Keiran wasn't so sure. At least he was sort of used to being around kids what with teaching and all.

It didn't matter, he decided, if he was ready or not. If he was right, he would have to own up to it and be one of those protective (aka possessive), overly-attentive to the point of annoyance husbands. Well, until Millie told him to shove off, anyway. The idea made him smile into her neck.

In an attempt to brush off his apparent interest in her torso, Kerian used that hand to push her hair aside and kiss the back of her neck. “You're wonderful, Missie. Completely.” Lifting his head to catch her eye, he felt the words he'd wanted so badly to say last weekend come up again. He didn't really want to keep them to himself this time, though.

“I don't want to scare you or anything, but I might love you. I wasn't going to say anything until I was sure.” Keiran admitted softly, trying to inch his way into the confession rather than just throwing it at her and hoping she could catch. A grin snuck onto his face before he could stop it, though, so he turned his head and glanced down at where his fingers linked with her. "But, you know, since I've already mentioned it, I may as well just let you know that I do, actually. Love you, that is."

The rising water around their bodies was warming them through, scaring off the last of the chills from the outside. She smiled brightly at Kieran, reaching up to pat his cheek gently. She pressed her lips to his skin again and nudged her nose against him before looking up, giggling a little when she conceded mentally that, indeed, she was after the embarrassing ones. She had plenty stuffed in albums in a box somewhere. She was looking for the cringe-worthy ones, the wonderful ones that was endearing as they were embarrassing. That, she was sure, she’d find somewhere.

When the bubbles touched at her nose, Millie found herself laughing along with Kieran and she grinned before shoving his arms away playfully, reaching up with her own palm of bubbles to rub on his face. Millie stiffened a little as his hand crossed over her stomach but she soon enough relaxed against him, her eyes closing as she revelled in the warmth, in his warmth and that of the bath’s. He knew, she conceded. His silence alone was confirmation enough. He knew. She found she didn’t mind so much, though, and reached to cover her hand with his own. She wanted to say. She just… she couldn’t. She didn’t know how. She wanted the right time. She wanted it to be okay.

His words came all in an adorable rush and Millie looked at him, her breath caught and stolen from her. She felt her heart soar and tears rose in her eyes as she turned a little, tugging at his chin, catching his mouth with hers. Into that kiss she tried to pour everything she felt for him. Everything that had been dug up and thrown round inside her only to be settled down and put back in working order by a man who she hadn’t asked into her life and who had accepted her as willingly as anyone could in his position. In their position.

“I love you,” she murmured against his mouth. “I waited…wanted you to know but I didn’t know how…” Millie pulled away, rubbing her thumb against his cheek. “I love you, Kieran Hayes.”

There, together, the world could do them no harm. They were a team and nothing upon nothing could hurt them. She was bursting with this insatiable glow impossible to be done away with and she pulled him to her again, delighting in his lips against her own, delighting in him being near her. Delighting in them. Delighting in each other.

“I love you.”

She perhaps shouldn't have loved him, considering the circumstances, but apparently she did. Keiran didn't realize at first, but he was reveling in it silently as he woke. At first, he couldn't figure what he was laying against, but it moved and he realized it was Millie, her chest rising and falling as she slept. Opening his eyes, he found that he was laying almost sideways in bed with his head resting against her, a hand on her stomach as if he was protecting what he was somehow so sure was there. Millie didn't have to say for him to guess.

Not sure she wanted him to know yet, he moved his hand so he had his arm draped across her rather than just there. Doing his best to keep the bed from shifting as he had done in the past, Keiran adjusted his position so he wasn't so near to falling off of the bed and settled next to her. A glance at the window said it wasn't quite dawn yet, so he allowed himself a bit longer to sleep, glad of her presence next to him.

When his eyes opened again, light was starting to stream through the window and into his face. Keiran thanked whomever had decided she would face the other way the night before with a smile as he slipped out of bed and moved into the bathroom. Teeth brushing done and a new day's outfit on, he made his way down the hall to the library where Bridget sometimes did her writing. Just where he'd expected to find them, Keiran snatched up her pad of sticky notes and returned to their room.

Keiran snuck into the bathroom and wrote down a couple notes and pulled the notes off of the pad, leaving it out on the counter. In the bathroom he left one reading “I'm down at breakfast” on the mirror. Then he placed one on the nightstand that said, “Morning, sweetheart.” Merlin he was a sap. He grinned down at her as she slept before he left again, moving down the stairs, and found that his mum and dad were going about making breakfast.

“Morning, love.” Mum called without looking up. Keiran had a feeling it wouldn't have mattered who had walked in, she probably would have said it just the same.

Morning brought fresh bread and dewy grass and new winds. Through the windows the sunshine warmed the back of the young blonde who had been left in bed to snooze, courtesy of her husband. After a while she came to stretch, throwing her arms up over her head and clawing out her legs before rolling over, her shirt riding up over her back as she cuddled up to the pillow that Kieran had been laid on. It was cold over where he had been though, where he’d been curled up against her, cuddling her and keeping her warm. It was that chill that woke her up, a sad, lost look flitting over her features when she realised he was gone.

Millie unfurled herself from the sheets and looked around, slipping her legs out and pressing her feet down onto the floor. She pushed herself up and continued to stare about the room, taking in Kieran’s teenage refuge in the daylight. Though it had been doctored – probably in an effort to show progression or maturity or something – she still saw evidence of a slightly angsty, over dramatic teenager that he was and, technically, she still completely was. His room was his domain, though. It was written all over it just like the chambers were at Hogwarts though, granted, she’d infringed upon that as well as the …

A meow stole Millie’s attention and she swirled round to discover Lucius cat sat on the window sill, cleaning his paw. Millie brought a hand up and scratched her head, bemusement lighting up her features before she moved to where her bags were, some of the things hidden away in what had been decided was her drawer – an empty one that had contained some rather suspect magazines to begin with, no doubt. Underwear and socks were dumped in there and it was into that drawer she went first before taking out a dress to wear because for some ungodly reason marriage had tamed her into a dress-wearing, smiley woman with a man who loved her. He loved her.

Millie smiled to herself before wandering into the bathroom. She set her things down on the side and spotted the sticky note on the mirror. She tore it off, recognising Kieran’s handwriting, and laughed a little before pressing her lips to it. Part of her noted the ridiculousness of the action but she couldn’t be bothered to care. She smoothed the sticky note back onto the mirror and began to get undressed to change, getting her toiletries out of her bag before setting to work preening and doing whatever else it was she needed to do to get ready for the day.

Upon taking off her shirt she noted what she was sure Kieran had too but in the light of day the little lump that betrayed what she knew to be two little lives for all the world to see. Millie rubbed her hands over the area, looking down at it curiously, and smiled a little to herself before reaching to swap out underwear and socks and find herself a bra that wasn’t going to dig into her or be grossly uncomfortable. Once that she was dressed, dress and all, she brushed her teeth, combed through her hair before putting it up in a pony tail and put some dew drop earrings in before leaving the room.

Millie dumped her things into the bag she’d supplied for washing and it was then that she noticed that the cat had found himself a spot on the bed and, besides that, another little sticky note. Millie hopped over and took it up off of the table before laughing and twirling a little where she stood. Again the action was ridiculous but she felt light and airy as if she could do anything at all in the world and, unbeknownst to her, her magic was indeed ensuring she could, sending the aforementioned offending cat floating into the air.

The cat squealed out its dismay when Millie set down the note and she turned to see Lucius tumble back onto the bed, landing awkwardly on his face rather than his feet. Millie’s hands found her hips, adopting a mumsy position of disapproval before scooping up the cat whose face couldn’t get much flatter and moving to take him downstairs.

“Good morning!” Millie exclaimed brightly upon entering the kitchen. She set down Lucius but it did no good – he merely jumped up onto the counter, thankfully away from the food, and meowed loudly in demand of most probably a bowl of cream and something fishy to eat. Millie glared at him but it had no effect what so ever, the cat merely turned a regal eye on her and seemed to almost scoff in response.

Spotting Kieran, which was not a hard feat considering he was the third person in the room, Millie crossed over to him and immediately greeted him with a kiss and a broad, contented smile. Her hand brushed over his cheek and she nudged her nose with his before kissing him once more and actually murmuring her greeting to him which was, in fact, a reply to his early one in note form.

“Good morning to you too, my love.” She murmured.

Footsteps sounded on the stairs and Keiran had to keep himself from turning round to see if it was Millie or Elliot. Her greeting made him smile and brought a round of replies from his parents. Keiran was in the midst of pouring juice when a loud meow made him jump, nearly spilling the lot over the counter.

“What-?” Aiden looked up, eyes wide. “Son, is this yours?”

Keiran let out a laugh, almost saying yes. The cat had lived with him for ages practically. “Sort of. He's the most interesting cat you'll ever meet, dad.”

He turned, distracted by Millie approaching and leaned into her kisses. “You found them.” He noted, grinned widely. His pointlessly silly notes at least had been discovered. He could feel his parents' eyes on him, clearly wondering what he had been up to but not quite sure they wanted to ask. A nudge against his hand alerted him to Lucy's nearness. “Morning, Lucy-cat.” He greeted with another laugh.

“Someone is in a good mood.” Bridget noted brightly, setting a frying pan on the stove to pour pancake mix into it. Keiran seemed to be having pancakes a lot recently. Then again, Avery had learned from his mum so it wasn't too very surprising.

“It's holiday, mum. Aren't we supposed to be?” Keiran snatched his juice glass from under Lucy's nose before taking a drink and gesturing to the carton to see if Millie wanted any. Is juice something she would want? His mind was stuck on the assumption he'd made the night before. When it seemed incredibly important to tell her exactly what he was thinking in the moment he thought it. He was so glad he had.

The smell of cooking filled the house, probably waking Elliot after a little, and in no time Keiran was having to let go of his wife and pass about plates.

Once he had a set of breakfast fixings on his place, Keiran took up the paper and made his way to the couch. While he didn't often read the news of the day while at work, on break he had the thought and presence of mind to do so. As usual, things weren't going well. The couch sank, causing a dropped paper and a surprised glance to the side.

Of all the things. Lucy was settling in next to him but didn't seem to have any intention of stealing Keiran's food. This cat was oddly protective of the man's breakfasts. Rolling his eyes at the cat, Keiran started eating again, wondering when he would find time to shop for Millie and those he expected to show up for the annual gift exchange.

Nausea had lurched as quickly as it had subsided but at the thought of breakfast, it returned a little. For someone who loved breakfast and all of the foods that it encompassed, finding much of it distasteful and downright sickening was a very difficult thing to contend with for Millie. She spied the orange juice already in a jug on the table but that she could imagine settling awkwardly within her. She adored pancakes but again she wasn’t entirely sure that they would stay put once they had been consumed. Millie could see all of the effort that Bridget and Aiden were putting into it and she desperately wanted to eat all of what she was offered but she couldn’t speak for herself in advance. She knew it was pointless worrying, too, so she’d just have to wait and see.

Millie got herself a glass of water, knowing that, of all things, that would stay where it was once it was abandoned inside of her, and she moved back towards the dining table, picking up a copy of the Quibbler that had been brought in with the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly that morning. She took a seat and opened up the magazine and thumbed through it idly until she came to an article that worried after the student populous roped into the marriage law. Millie frowned a little, resting her forehead in her hand, her elbow on the table, while her other hand lingered in her lap, her fingers tracing idly over her stomach through the soft material of her dress.

Elliot appeared not long afterwards, gruffing out his sleepy ‘good morning’ for the benefit of those around him. He gave Bridget a kiss, his new favourite friend, and got himself a cup of coffee before moving through the dining room, ruffling Millie’s hair as he went, and into the living room to sit down and coax himself into wakefulness. She looked up, glaring at him only briefly before returning to her article, turning the page once it was over and done with.

“Fag, Mills?”

Millie looked up to see Elliot, looking a little more alive, standing by the back door, holding a packet of cigarettes that he knew that she wouldn’t say no to, normally. On this occasion she shook her head and smiled and while her brother looked at her curiously he seemed to consider that perhaps she’d already been out and zipped up his coat before emerging into the cold.

Millie got up then afterwards and took her magazine with her. She wandered into the living room and, after shoving the cat off of the couch, curled up next to Kieran with a soft smile on her lips. The cat glared but moved on nevertheless, tossing a derisive meow over his shoulder before doing so.

“Oi, Lucy-” Keiran began, staring at his wife as she shoo'd the poor fluff that was their cat. He was 'theirs' now, wasn't he? That was a curious thought in itself. The cat shot Millie a look, making Keiran chuckle to himself, hand immediately falling into its duty of brushing through her hair when she'd settled next to him.

“You really are just so loving with Lucy, dear.” He teased, sarcasm obvious in his tone and the half-smile he sent along with his words. He nearly added a snarky comment about what would happen to their kids down the road, but held his tongue. Down the road wasn't looking like it would be that far off.

His fork was mid-way to his mouth when he realized she only had a water and a magazine in her hands. Forgetting his desire to eat, he watched her flip through the pages with a frown on his face. As tempted as Keiran was to prod her into eating, he supposed it wasn't like his mum wouldn't have food around all day. Instead, he read over Millie's shoulder for a while, finishing up his breakfast.

Plate set to the side, Kerian sat up properly to return to his reading of the Prophet. One of the headlines caught his attention, making him hold the paper farther away so he could peer at it with narrowed eyes. That wasn't right. Theo had been sacked? And that wasn't even all of it. Keiran glared at the paper as if he could burn the words off of the page and make them untrue. How was he supposed to go back to the school like all of this was okay?

“Millie,” he started, nudging her shoulder and placing the paper in her lap. He let her read through the list of decrees apparently put into place by the Minister before dropping his head back against the top of the couch.

“I might should tell you I was going to resign from Hogwarts.” He pointed out. “I'd been thinking about next year, and how I would still have to live in the castle while you were at the flat or somewhere. But now I may as well just get it over with. These laws are ridiculous. Not resigning is like condoning what they're trying to do.”

“I do try,” Millie quipped wittily before returning herself to her magazine.

The Quibbler was easily her favourite journalistic book as it never adhered to the propaganda bull that the Daily Prophet gave out with every satirical article. The Quibbler was genuinely concerned with what had become of the Wizarding World amidst the celebration of their culture. Next to a piece about ridiculous hats that went with equally ridiculous days in the Wizarding calendar there would be one questioning the validity of the government.

One that had particularly captured Millie’s attention was one about the Second Wizarding War and there, in the middle of the double page spread was a picture of the victors and there… there was her father, grinning up at the camera with his wand in his hands hand, twirling it between his fingers. He was all sooty and dishevelled but there he was, a victor. He was just a boy there, no older or younger than she was herself. He’d been a part of something huge, something grand in scale. Something worth remembering.

A small smile had pulled at Millie’s lips as she traced her hand over the photograph that wobbled under her touch. The witches and wizards moved, changing position and then suddenly she could see her mother. Beaten up and clad in nothing but the clothes on her back, her hair a mess and cuts and scrapes across her face, the work of a Werewolf. She was alive though. Happy. Smiling. The happiest that Millie had ever seen her – because they were alive.

At the sound of her name sliding past Kieran’s lips, Millie looked up and turned, her eyes dropping to the newspaper. It couldn’t have been real, shouldn’t have been, but there they were: decrees by order of the Ministry of Magic. Millie looked up, moments from asking what they were going to do when Kieran beat her to the punch and announced his attentions. The blonde shifted so she was sat facing him fully and furrowed her eyebrows a little, trying to comprehend why he would’ve quit anyway – why for her?

She should have told him then, told him that second that she couldn’t go off to university and study something silly and then get out and worry after her life then. She should have told him they were going to have a baby. Babies. That it wouldn’t have mattered either way because she wasn’t going anywhere. She would have stayed. She would have stayed by him. He didn’t have to quit. But the game had changed – hadn’t it always?

“What is Grace going to do?” Millie asked suddenly, searching Kieran’s face for an answer. “She’s a Werewolf, Kieran. Charlie. Charlie’s a Werewolf. Their friends – what are they going to do? And Gisele. Gisele is part-Veela she can’t go back there even if she wanted to.”

Millie’s hands skirted about herself, brushing absent-mindedly over her stomach as she thought. They’d taken their whole lives. Stolen them out from under their feet. Now they were going to bar people deserved of an education from getting one. What if they turned around and decided they were loath to admit Half-Bloods or Muggle-Borns. What would that mean then? What would that mean for them, for their children, for their future?

“I’m not going back.” She declared. “I was never going to do anything particularly exciting with my half a brain anyway so it doesn’t matter. We won’t go back. But what about everyone else? What are they going to do? It’s not so simple for Charlie and for Grace. Merlin knows it’s not for Della and Gisele either. They need somewhere… somewhere to go. For some of the …” Millie closed her eyes. There was something disgusting about the word. “Half… Half-breeds…. Hogwarts is the only home they have.”

“We’ve got to do something,” she decided finally, pregnancy be damned. “We need to help in any way we can. Theodore. Theodore…we know him. He’s Robin’s friend. He’s Elijah’s friend. He’s your friend. We can convince him to do something. The three of them have got more resources than I will ever taste in my life so they can do something. They must. They have to. The Ministry can’t do this.”

Keiran turned to look at her as she did him, frowning as she started spouting out names that were vaguely familiar but that he couldn't put a face to. It didn't matter, though, if he couldn't see the person in his mind's eye. They were as affected by this as anyone else, and infinitely more than he was or Millie was. This was, to put it simply, a disaster. Her words flew about nearly as quickly as her hands until Keiran snatched them up, holding them atop his legs.

“Hey. Hey, calm.” He breathed finally, having listened to both her outrage and her fear and taken it upon himself just as much as she had. They had to do something. “I know. Believe me. Theo and I.. we get on well enough. I'll write to him. I promise. Just.. We can't write without having a suggestion. I can't just ask him to come up with something.”

Standing, he released her hands and started pacing through the living room from the tree to the far wall. His mum would be in soon, on her way up to her room to wrap gifts when dad went down to his lab. She would know immediately if something was wrong.

“What am I supposed to do? I can't just go on like it isn't happening. Some people could ignore it, but having worked there? I've seen every one of those kids even if I don't know them by name. What I haven't seen is them causing any harm. Not really. I don't think this is just me being naïve about it, either.” Keiran shook his head, stopping by the tree and staring at it like it could help.

“I'd sooner start my own school elsewhere than have them with no-where to go. But that can't be done with just me doing it. Clearly it can't.” He turned to stare at Millie. “But you're right. We have to send a letter to Theo, and to Elijah, Amelia, anybody who we're sure isn't with the Ministry on this. I don't think the Minister would be pleased if he knew.”

The professor – or was he an ex-professor now? Certainly an ex-Head of House. - would have pulled everyone together right then if he could've. Mostly to ensure that there was somewhere for those lost students to go after break was over, but partly to take the look of fear off of his wife's face. Somehow he felt like this was on him. He knew about it, so he was responsible just as much as the person who had filed the law in the first place. Anyone who knew was responsible for making a decision on this and sticking to it.

He sank back into the couch next to her, staring at the hearth. “We can't send them right now, though, can we? How do we know who would keep quiet about it? Or who even wants to be a part of it? I imagine most people wouldn't even think we could manage it nonetheless believe us. We could say we wanted to... chat about recent developments in our legal system or something equally ridiculous.” He looked a Millie with a quiet laugh. “It's a damn shame we don't have a code or something.” Perhaps he would have to work on that.