#adonisbelby

If she was truly honest with herself, Melaina had been putting off this moment. It wasn’t often that a Wizengamot member had to seek advice from a lawyer and that was almost definitely a part of her father’s reluctance to contact one but the closer it felt to the Aurors making an arrest and the more bleak the situation looked, the more Melaina found herself thinking of Theodore more than her father. It was almost physically painful an idea, because her whole life her father had been number one and it made her feel so terribly disloyal, the worst daughter in the world, that anybody else should come before him, especially Theodore who her father had warned her time and time again against developing too much of an attachment to. She had given up motherhood to let her dad handle a situation that could have ruined her and while she had known he was disappointed about her having a child out of wedlock she had simply been so grateful that he had continued to show her love. And this was how she was repaying him. Going behind his back because she didn’t believe he could escape Azkaban; didn’t believe in him. Going behind his back because she was a mother and she had a son to protect.

“Mr Belby?” She blinked, slightly taken aback by his appearance. Not… quite what she had expected. But that was quickly brushed aside for the more important matter at hand. She was already going to be in trouble with her father for being here, why not go all out and ask for help from a vampire? All her research had suggested he was her best shot at figuring out the best outcome for Theodore. “Melaina Nott. Thank you for seeing me. I presume you’ve heard of the case surrounding my step-mother’s death?” She paused a moment for an acknowledgement before saying, “The Aurors believe the family are involved. We could really use your help.” It didn’t matter to her if the Aurors only suspected her father or all of them. The way family loyalty worked, everyone who bore the Nott name had been implicated the moment Cyrus Nott was put at the top of the DMLE’s suspect list.

In Epimetheus’ experience, family had always been an absolutely wonderful thing that was a lot more complicated than it needed to be. Such had been true in his childhood, with the family he had been born into and such had also been true with the family who had taken him in as one of their own. They had ended up in the same school year but only just (Don the oldest in the year and Pim one of the youngest) and Adonis was still the eldest Belby sibling, the one to look up to, the one to garner approval from. Except that approval from Adonis wasn’t the easiest to come by. If Epimetheus was reckless, then Adonis was the filing cabinet full of risk assessment forms telling Pim just how reckless he was being. He was almost waiting for the I told you so that hadn’t come when Don visited him in the hospital and perhaps it didn’t make a lot of sense to seek that sentiment out but he would rather hear it now than it be held back as ammunition to be used to stop him going back to the Hit Office when the Healers cleared him.

“Who are we going to play with today?” Pandora asked her daughter as she flitted around the house, still trying to finish getting the place ready for visitors even though it was now the time she was expecting Adonis. “Marcus!” Luna replied accompanied by a croak of her slippers as she jumped up and down. The last time she and Adonis had spoken, Pandora had mentioned Luna picking out her own outfit so she had decided to let her daughter do the same again today. It was never going to mean great style or season-suitability as at one-and-three-quarters those weren’t the things that one considered in outfit picking. But she was bright and wearing fun clothes that she loved and she definitely looked cute with her green dragon wings and a blue summer dress over a bright orange long-sleeved t-shirt covered in pumpkins and shimmery white moon frog slippers that ribbited whenever she walked. “That’s right!” Pandora was saying just as there was a knock on the door. “And that will be them.”

She swung Luna into her arms to carry her down to the kitchen and open the door for Adonis and Marcus. “Hi! Happy Christmas.” The whole of December was Chrsitmas for Pandora. She grinned at Marcus and stepped back to let them in the house, only setting Luna down to run to her friend once the door was firmly shut and no toddlers could be wandering outside and slipping on the icy front steps. “We’ll go up to the sitting room where it’s a bit more comfortable but do either of you want anything to drink?” She asked, turning to Adonis.