Mud-Cakes, Rascals and New Adventures

The blazing late mid-autumnal sunshine gave the misleading impression that it was still summer. Despite the warmth of the golden orb hanging in the clear, bright blue sky, the air was still crisp and it warranted light coats and the occasional cup of hot chocolate amidst the running and the playing of the children in the park in Hogsmeade. You wouldn’t have thought it but, strangely enough, the children running riot through the grass, some playing ball, others chasing each other, all belonged to one young man sat on an overly large – but not large when they were all gathered in – tartan picnic blanket with his youngest charges: his daughter, Alice, and his infant half-brothers, Petre and Giorgi.

Elijah Krum had been many things throughout his years but he had always only ever wanted to be a father. In trying to find stability for his children he’d often caused them more hurt than not but he’d found as he’d reached a more mature juncture in himself that he was, really, better off on his own. He had much more to worry about than whether or not he was satisfied as a human being searching for companionship. He had that, of course. He had it in his eldest two. Thierry and Fauve knew him in all of his goodness and badness. They’d forgive him if he pulled the moon from the sky, he knew, though they’d judge him for it forever. In truth, in learning to be alone he’d rediscovered his purpose and what he’d always known – he loved being a parent.

“Dad, dad, dad, dad!” An excitable voice broke his train of thought as another baby, a goggling Cepheus whose muddy trousers made Elijah think he’d gotten into much more trouble than he should’ve done, was plopped onto the blanket. Caelum followed his brother and Elijah looked at his twins, wondering which one had been causing the issue. In the end, when Gabriel was sat down on the blanket, caked in mud, Elijah decided he knew who was the cleverest in this situation and as much as it pained him it decidedly wasn’t Gabriel. Elijah looked up from the boys to find Fauve smiling at him and she clapped her hands together, opening them out again to produce a bunch of flowers.

“Oh, wow!” Elijah exclaimed, blinking rapidly at her. She grinned wider and the flowers then disappeared. She turned on her heel thereafter and hurried off, re-joining Thierry and Prim who were entertaining Marko – seemingly the only one of the youngsters not covered in mud. Speaking of, Elijah returned his gaze to the boys who were beginning to draw in the mud that was on their faces. He sighed and picked up his wand, flicking it at them to scour them clean. At this realisation they scrabbled to their feet and hurried back out onto the green with the others. Elijah rolled his eyes at them.

“Your brothers are stupid,” he told Alice, lifting her into his lap along with Petre. He popped a kiss to her head she looked up at him, smiling happily before casting her eyes out to the others playing. Alice was like her mother, happy to sit back and watch the events unfold. Petre, however, was restless and after a while Elijah knew he had to let the little one go and once he made sure he was steady on his feet he called Prim to come and get the boy which she did diligently. That left Elijah with his littlest daughter and with Giorgi, slumbering away in his travel chair.

Meanwhile, havoc ensued as the elder ones played. All Elijah hoped was that they wouldn’t break themselves in the process.

Things had not been going brilliantly for one Audriana Swan, though she supposed one could say they were looking up. Then again, she didn't want her 'new job,' and was uninterested in the responsibility that was now hers. What she really wanted, Audriana mused, was to choose what responsibility she would allow to rest on her shoulders. But it was not up to her, she found, while she was part of The Order's new leadership team. It was actually just obnoxious. With her 'old job,' she had been able to take on any projects she wanted to, and her clients usually thought she would fail. It didn't matter that she had managed to do well for whomever had told the client about her; they still thought she would mess it up or find the wrong thing - or whatever else came to mind.

Now, her only real job was keeping people from attacking the werewolves (or the Ministry) on their own. Well, that and taking care of her twins while Gavin was away on a job for whomever it was that week. Audriana felt like she hadn't seen him in weeks, though that was untrue, of course. It was just that both had been incredibly busy, and neither seemed to know the other person's schedule. Any free time Audriana found, though, was spent with Noëlle and Holly, both because she missed her babies and because she knew that Sophia was getting a little bit too old to handle two infants on her own.

The girls were only a month old, but it certainly hadn't stopped Audriana from talking as though they could understand her. So she chatted at them as they ambled through the park, though even Audriana herself was unsure why she had chosen that one in particular. It wasn't exceptionally close to her home, but she supposed it was a change of pace, and the brunette couldn't complain about that, really. It was as she started onto the topic of their father being away again that several children ran in front of the twins' stroller, frightening Audriana into a surprised gasp. Her footsteps faltered, and one of Noëlle's hands shot out towards the other children as though she could chide them.

A frustrated huff left her as she looked around for whoever was supposed to be in charge of the kids. The only person nearby was a man who looked familiar somehow, though Audriana wasn't convinced she could properly place him. Either way, she noticed that he had several other little ones surrounding him, and just assumed that those others were also his.

Frankly she was aware that she should have just walked away. But it had been ages since she had been interacting with someone who didn't say "Yes ma'am," to anything she said, or didn't ask her to find things. And, admittedly, she may have grown up with a penchant for confrontation. She loved banter, but more than that, she loved being right. So she turned the stroller towards him, and pushed the thing through the grass and around the mud until she was looking down at him.

"Are those two yours?" she asked, gesturing in their direction. "Cute as they are, they near trampled mine," Audriana explained, an unimpressed expression crossing her features.

It wasn’t until Alice pulled on his hair that Elijah looked up, fully registering the fact that someone was meant to be speaking to him. He blinked up into the autumnal sunshine and found himself staring into the rounded face of a slightly put-out looking woman beside a pram. Immediately, guilt welled up within him as her words dawned upon him properly. He opened his mouth awkwardly, attempting to try and find some sort of apology but in the end he closed his mouth and set Alice back down on the picnic blanket. She pouted up at him and grabbed out for his hand which she took in her little one. He glanced over to the children ploughing across the grass and he couldn’t help but wince, casting an apologetic look in the woman’s direction.

“’fraid so,” he quipped. “Can I defend that they are charming in their own way?” He smirked and got to his feet, setting his hand briefly on Alice’s head to reassure her before doing so.

Elijah took a minute to look properly at the woman before him. He felt as though he recognised her, somehow, but he couldn’t place her. Nevertheless, she had a child – children, he noticed, glancing into the pram – and a husband. It was the way of things, it seemed. And he’d know, given he was the one who put the law through. She was young, though. Probably too young to be toting twins. That said, who was he to wonder after such a thing when to his name at that moment he had ten to contend with? He didn’t know how his life had gotten quite like that. Somehow, though, he knew he wouldn’t change it.

“You’re okay, are you?” He asked hesitantly. “They didn’t hurt anybody? I’ve been trying to get them to calm down but for the little ones it’s the first time they can really join in with the games the elder ones play so they’re a bit excited. They could be accused of forgetting themselves and I’m dreadfully sorry for it. There’s no getting to them to listen when they’re like that, though. Can I make it up to you, though?” He asked.

Elijah held his hand out between them, as something of a peace offering and an introduction. His lips twitched up into a faint smile though it still bore the apologetic edge to it. He certainly didn’t want to make an enemy of the woman, after all said and done. Terse though she was, he was half-hoping she wasn’t as grumpy as her words suggested and he was hoping more than anything else that she’d maybe allow him the benefit of the doubt, his children a chance at redeeming themselves and the whole thing gradually forgotten about.

“I’m Elijah,” he offered. “The errant father.”

Audriana's disapproving expression fell away, her lips instead pulling forth a smile as her gaze fell on the little girl sitting on the blanket. Her grip on the stroller loosened, practically hovering along the handle bar. The color rapidly returned to her knuckles, and Audriana tilted her head to the side at his question. "Well, this one certainly is," she conceded, nodding towards the girl.

Walking around the pram to peer into the seats at her babies, Audriana was just about the check on them when his next question met her ears. A hand reached out towards the girls, and Holly's fingers prodded at her mother's curiously. Noëlle squirmed a bit when she caught sight of the other girl sitting on the ground, her fingers flexing as though she wanted to reach out or crawl over. Of course, the twins were sat in the stroller and couldn't do so. But Audriana owed an answer.

"I think everyone is fine," she replied, doing her best to keep her face from coloring as she realized how easily her temper had flared. It had really been too long since she had been forced to interact with strangers, and she had clearly forgotten how to present herself. Audriana lifted an eyebrow, though, when he finished speaking.

"Elijah," she repeated. Well, he was certainly familiar, wasn't he? She should have realized. "Right. My name is Audriana. Most people shorten that to Aud, though, which you're welcome to do if you wish. As for making it up to me, you're welcome to try."

Her lips stretched into a smile that was really more of a smirk, but her fingers worked to undo the clasp at each of her girls' waists, freeing them a bit so they could wiggle about. Crouching down again, she ticked each girl in turn, waiting until a peal of laughter left them individually. A breeze flew through, rustling the little flowers that were doing their best to reach out of the ground despite the slight chill that was starting to seep into the country. A little white flower, reminiscent of a daisy, peaked at her between several tall blades of grass, and Audriana reached out, feeling only slightly guilty as she picked it.

The petals were brushed across the noses of her girls gently, before she set it in Noëlle's lap, keeping an eye out for any signs that the girl might try to nom on the flower. "How many do you have, by the way? There are several running about, but are you watching all of them today?"

At the witch’s words, a stab of pride went through the Bulgarian wizard and he glanced down at his daughter, wondering how he had managed to create something like that. The picture of her mother, she seemed to have taken all of her parents’ goodness and, as of yet, none of the bad. She had nothing dark about her and no shadow of sadness in her eyes. She was just and happy and truly a dream. He whispered desperately that for her, life would continue to be such. Knowing his own as he did, though, there was significance to the belief that it would not. Yet unlike her, he’d never had anyone to protect him so things for Alice, and the other children, would be very different. He’d make sure of it.

“Good,” he expressed genuinely, a smile rising on his features as he leaned over to look into the pram to inspect for himself. Indeed, they looked fine – two delighted babies. “They’re beautiful,” he told her. “The spit of their mother, hm?” Elijah’s smile morphed into a playful smirk and he chuckled a little before setting himself down again, briefly glancing over to see what the other children were up to – no good, as per usual. Elijah was almost now regretting teaching the twins to walk. They caused much less trouble when all they could do was scream.

“It’s nice to meet you, Audriana,” he said once Alice was settled back in his lap. “I’ll get back to you on coming up with a name. Give me a bit of time, though. I’ll find something.” He smirked again and looked down at Alice who was amusing herself with a rabbit toy which Elijah wasn’t entirely sure the origins of. He blinked at her, sure that he’d left it at home, but then considered that given the speed with which her mother had shown her magic as a child, it was highly probable that Alice was no different. Elijah knew that soon enough, in that case, he’d be in a whole heap of trouble.

“It’s complicated,” he admitted, wincing at the cliché of it as he watched Aud interact with her daughters. He swallowed the lump in his throat as guilt bit at him, reminding him of his own failure to provide a permanent mother for any of his children or the others in his charge. Their own whimsical mother could hardly count as one. She’d made it perfectly clear she wanted little to do with any of it and though Elijah could understand he couldn’t help but feel sorrowful for it. Lifting Petre into his lap also, Elijah prodded at Alice to share her toy and though dismay registered on her little features, she did acquiesce.

“Some are mine. I suppose they’re all mine, technically,” his brow furrowed, wondering not for the first time how he’d managed to cope. He supposed it was fairly simple – he just did.

“The eldest two,” Elijah pointed out Thierry and Fauve, their dark hair shimmering in the autumnal air, their grins wide and bright on their faces. “And the twins,” who were head-to-toe in mud again, their blonde hair barely distinguishable in the midst of it all. “Belong to me, along with this one,” he pressed a kiss to Alice’s head. “I have the dubious pleasure of claiming absolute responsibility for all of the rotten things they do.” He chuckled and shook his head.

“The rest are technically my brothers, I suppose. Barring Prim, the little one over there … she’s my goddaughter. More of a daughter now, though. And thanks to my father’s paternal reluctance and my step-mother’s equal maternal reluctance I am the sole parent of the rest of the boys,” he cast a sad look in the direction of Giorgi who was still fast asleep, dreaming of goodness only knows what.

He hated it for them. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to tell Prim when she got older. Eventually she’d have to know about her mother properly and as much as it would kill him he’d have to impart information to her about James Potter. For the boys, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. He knew that Gabriel was the hope upon which his father’s estate sat. It seemed ironic to the bastardised first son that of all people to look after the boy, Elijah was it. Then to his brothers, just babies. Viktor had been so quick to abandon them, Irina, terrified, even quicker. Elijah didn’t know why it had to be him yet at the same time he knew it couldn’t be anyone but. He provided everything they needed though even for them, he’d failed to give keep their mother around. So it was just him. Him and them. Elijah and ten children.

“But it’s alright, isn’t it?” He asked Petre, bouncing him. “We make do, don’t we? You’re no trouble, are you?” He popped a kiss to the boy’s temple and sighed briefly before looking back up at Aud, managing a smile for her.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “You didn’t really want the abridged version, or any, of this nightmare family did you?” He smiled shyly, deciding to divert the conversation. “You’re daughters,” he went on, “what’re they called? They don’t look that old, either. A few months at best?”