A Malfoy Holiday

Cassie sighed. "Hugging is good," She said meekly, "Yeah I know I'm sorry, I don't think I never has which was what got us into that mess in the first place, stupid idea," she kicked at a clump of dirt on the ground. "I don't think any of the war has faded from anyone's mind but maybe some people just try to ignor it." She shrugged. "Sometimes I think Laurie could be a Slytherin she knows exactly how to get under your skin if she wants to know something." Cassie sighed again looking up into the sky, "I think it's time your forgive yourself, it wasn't your fault, it wasn't anyone's fault except Voldemort's if your going to blame someone blame him even if he is ten feet under,"

Lyssa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, gazing out over the Manor's grounds, with a sigh. "What I did was my fault Cass," she said, frowning. "It wasn't like anyone was exactly controlling my actions through it all. Influenced somewhat, yes. Forced me to do it in any way, no. I know that probably sounds horrible, but it's the truth. And that's why I can't get over it. Because I know that, and it makes me feel insanely terrible all the time when I do something that makes me think of back then. It makes me wonder how the hell I got into Gryffindor too." Lyssa sighed again and ran her hand through her hair, frowning more.

"You need to stop blaming yourself and put it behind you, even if it was your fault you need to put it behind you, it's in the past," Cassie raised her eyebrow at Lyss. "Cause your a Gryffindor at heart, everyone likes Power Lyss, just some say they don't, but given the chance they will take it," She sighed and shook her head. "You need to forgive yourself cause everyone else already has,"

Lyssa closed her eyes, taking a breath before she opened them again. Looking directly at Cassie she said, "I'll try, but no guarantees. I'm a stubborn Gryffindor after all, and if I don't want to do something I won't even if that makes me sound somewhat masochistic..." She shivered a bit and noticed she lacked a jacket. "Hrm..." she muttered. "Shall we go back inside? It's cold and neither of us thought to grab a jacket before coming outside..." Cassie nodded at her and they went back in the house, where Nicole ran and hugged her mum. "All better now?" she asked. Lyssa nodded at her, then looked at the others. "'Sorry 'bout all that...I overreact at times, as you all know well enough...."

Cassie smiled weakly and they both walked inside, it was chilly outside, Nicole came and hugged Lyssa and Cassie smiled then frowned noticing Laurie who looked slightly upset, she walked over and bent down in front of her. "You ok kid?" She asked, the girl nodded although it was evidently obvious that she wasn't ok. "What's up?" "I don't like it when you get into fights," Laurie said softly, Cassie sighed and hugged her daughter. "No-one does," She whispered quietly. "Cause the other person usually leaves worser off," Laurie hiccuped and laughed at the sametime and Cassie smiled.

Scor watched the goings-on with a certain amount of awkwardness. It was strange for him to see people taking comfort from hugs and things like that; it wasn't how his part of the family usually went about things. At least it didn't look like there was too much of a fight going on at this point, and that was always a good thing in the Malfoy household. Glancing at his sister, who seemed to be taking more interest in the children than in the situation with the adults, Scor wondered if it would be appropriate to excuse himself at this point. He wanted to write a letter to Vena but he couldn't exactly announce that.

Eris tried her best to focus on Severus and not on the weight of her father's stare or the comforting going on. When she looked away she noticed her brother slipping up the stairs. Automatically, she opened her mouth to say something and then quickly shut it. Why tell on him? It wasn't important. He turned and looked at her as he reached the landing and she smiled carefully at him. Maybe it wasn't too late to at least go back to being a normal brother and sister. "Well then," she said aloud, waiting for someone to start a topic that wouldn't be argumentative or awkward.

Lyssa nearly frowned at the silence in the room until Eris spoke up. "Well then," she said. With this Lyssa spoke, "I suppose we should get everyone settled in now. I can imagine that they might be a little bit tired after this rather eventful day..." she trailed off then turned to Draco. "So," she said to him, "where is everyone staying?"

Nicole, who had been petting Bijou, the ferret still settled on her shoulder, said, "I wanna share a room with Laurie! Please?" She looked at her uncle, using her cute face.

Cassie watched as Scorpius sneaked out of the room and went upstairs, she smiled and averted her eyes back to the crowd of people downstairs. Laurie's eyes lit up. "Can I? Please?" She looked at Draco. "Please Mr. Malfoy?" Cassie laughed slightly and wondered why Severus was being unusally quiet. She turned to see the little boy half asleep leaning on Eris. Cassie walked over to Eris. "Do you want me to take him?" She asked her watching as Severus' eyelids drooped lower. It was unusal for the boy to sleep so quickly and quietly usually he made the biggest racket about going to bed.

Eris smiled and shook her head. "I can put him to bed. I wouldn't want to risk waking him all the way up." She looked down at the nearly dozing boy and wondered if she had always liked children. It was particularly unlike a Malfoy to have any sort of fondness for offspring beyond the first-born; in fact, she herself was rather useless as a child. Scorpius was the heir, and she was only a back-up if the worst happened. She carefully lifted Severus up and looked around the room. "I'm going to put him down in the east wing," she said quietly.

Draco looked blankly at the young girls and gave a resigned sigh. "I don't care where you sleep, as long as you don't unlock any doors in the wing." He waved them away with a flick of his hand, sure that he was going to catch hell tonight for all of the things that had gone on.