Chapter Text
Zabini Manor
After a month in a Healing Coma, Aaron Zabini woke up. It took him a few moments to recall what had happened to him that forced his Magic and Body to put him into the Healing Coma. How his former best friend, who had been the Best Man at his and his wife's bonding, had attacked him. Jacoby Hestro had pulled out his wand, saying Aaron did not deserve the beauty of Ariana, and it should have been him who had married her and had a child with her. Aaron knew that, compared to Jacoby, he was the better duelist, but while changing Blaise's diaper, Aaron had put his wand down and left it in the other room.
"She will never love you, especially if you kill me," Aaron had said, trying to make his old friend see reason.
"She will when you die of a heart attack, and I was here trying to save you," Jacoby had shot back with a smile before he began to non-verbally cast a spell that would make it look like Aaron had died due to a heartattack. The bastard even started shouting out, "Aaron, hold on," as if he was pointing his wand at his 'old friend to save him rather than kill him. Unfortunately for Jacoby, as Aaron fell to his knees and grabbed his chest, Ariana slipped out from around the corner, a look of pure anger on her face, having heard the entire plan thanks to an enchanted Muggle Baby Monitor that Lily had given them after Blaise and Harry's playdate.
Ariana moved as silently as a predator on a hunt as she let her wand leave her holster and slip into her hand. She neither hesitated nor allowed Jacoby time to try to explain as she cast a stunner right into the bastard's back with such force and anger that the man was thrown into a wall. Ariana winced, not due to any harm she might have caused the bastard but due to Blaise being in the room. Yet looking at her beloved son, she saw her baby giggling and clapping his hands as if he either thought this was some new game with his 'Uncle Jacoby' or possibly somehow knew what the bastard had planned for his parents and was happy to see the man get hurt. She did not care either way, as she turned back to Jacoby and created some Anti-Magic ropes wrap him up before using her Swan Patronus to summon some officers to arrest the bastard.
With that taken care of, Ariana had turned to her husband to find Aaron passed out on the floor. Rushing over, she was happy to find his pulse, a little erratic but still present and strong. Ariana wished she had taken Healing lessons at Beauxbatons, but her focus had been on Magical Law. Thankfully, she knew some Healing Magic thanks to her good friend Narcissa Malfoy. She began to bite her bottom lip; however, when the spells she did know did not bring Aaron back around. Knowing she would need more help than the spells she had access to, Ariana sent out another Swan to the local Healing House before moving over to Blaise and pulling her beloved son into her arms.
It was the longest ten minutes of Ariana's life as she craddled Blaise to her chest as she waited for the Healers to arrive. She knew enough that it might be a bad idea to try to move Aaron's body since she could not be sure what spell Jacoby had actually used on her husband. After ten minutes, when a House Elf popped in to let her know that both some Healers and law agents arrived in the Floo Reciving Room, she was finally able to breathe normally again, and she directed the Elf to bring both groups right to the room. If the circumstances were different, Ariana would have laughed to see the Healers rushing into the room before the officers, but she kept her Pureblood Mask in place as she explained what she had overheard and what had happened to both men.
Ariana had wanted to make the Healers focus only on Aaron, but did nothing to stop one moving over to Jacoby to see to his injuries. Thankfully, the bastard only had some bruising after being blasted into the wall by her stunner. And unfortunately, at least for the bastard himself, the Healer who had examined him had not found him to be under any enchantments or potions which might have explained his actions. After Jacoby was seen to, the officers had Ariana remove her bindings so they could use their own Anti-Magic cuffs on the man before removing her stunner and arresting him.
Truth be told, Ariana had not really paid attention to what they were doing with Jacoby as she split her focus on staying calm, gently rocking Blaise, who had begun to get a little fussy with the strangers in the room, and worrying for Aaron. "Everything is alright, Lady Zabini," one of the Healers said as they finished casting their spells and doing what they could for her husband.
"If that is true, why is my husband still unconscious?" she asked.
"While you had acted in time to save him, the attack on Lord Zabini's heart still weakened him enough that his Magic has sent him into a Magical Coma to help his recovery. He should be back on his feet in another month, two tops," the Healer said as she passed over the printout of the Diagnostic spell they had cast on Aaron during their tests.
"Lord Zabini can be moved and be made comfortable for the time being," another of the Healers added. "We have placed the normal spells that have arrested some of his bodily functions for a bit as his Magic and Body work to bring him back to full health."
"If he has not regained consciousness in two months, please let us know, and we will run further scans on him," the first Healer said as she offered to help move Aaron to a bed in the manor just in case Ariana's worry for her husband might affect her magic during the move.
After the Healers had left, as well as the officers removing Jacoby from Zabini Manor, Ariana had sent a message to her office to let them know she was taking a small leave of absence to stay with Aaron until he regained consciousness. Not wanting to see her beloved in his Magical Coma lying in their marital bed, Ariana had placed her husband in the room next door. The only time she left her husband's side was when she did her best to sleep alone in their bed, or when she bathed Blaise. The Zabini family's House Elves had moved everything she might need to take care of her son into the room with her, but could not move a tub, hence why she had to leave it to bathe her son.
If not for the fact that Blaise had never been one to cry, Ariana might have been worried that he did not make much noise as she held him and played with him as she kept one eye on Aaron's form, hoping her husband would wake back up. She was also grateful that the Italian Magical Law Enforcement Office sent an Officer over to the manor for further inquiries into Jacoby's attack rather than having her leave her husband's side.
Ariana was unaware that during the month-long vigil at her comotos husband's bedside, the monster who called himself Lord Voldemort had found Lily and James Potter killing them before trying to kill their son Harry. Nor did she learn that Harry's Godfather, Sirius Black, had gone after the Potter's Secret Keeper, only for Pettigrew to spread the lies that Sirius had been the Keeper before blowing up half a street, leading to the deaths of twelve Muggles, and Pettigrew sneaking away in his Animagus Form.
When Aaron woke back up, he was alone in his room for just a moment, as he recalled the start of Jacoby's attack, only for the door to burst open, making him jump a little before breathing a sigh of relief to see Ariaina rushing in and carrying their soaking wet and bubble-covered son. "Ariana?" Aaron asked, his voice croaking a little as she rushed to his bedside, not caring about the trail she was leaving from their wet son.
"Oh, Aaron," Ariana said, looking like she wanted to throw herself into his arms but held back, not knowing if he was healthy enough for it yet.
"What happened?" Aaron asked, his voice croaking, as a cup of water appeared at his bedside for him to drink. Aaron downed the water with Healing Potion in it, sent by one of their House Elves, as he listened to Ariana's explanation of the attack. "Well, I guess it was a good thing we managed to arrange that playdate with the Potters before they went into hiding and discovered our boys' Magic Sang for each other," Aaron said as he tried to make her laugh, seeing how worried she looked.
"And to think I had tried to talk you into using the traditional Monitoring Bracelets," Ariana said with a small chuckle before she realised Blaise was still wet and soapy, leading her to use her wand to dry him off and heat him as their baby started to shiver a little.
"As soon as Great Britain gets their collective heads out of their arses and deals with Voldy so they no longer have to be in hiding, we should invite them over and thank them somehow," Aaron said.
"Yes, we should," Ariana said as she had an Elf go out and get them a copy of the English newspaper, The Daily Prophet, so they could see how the war in the other nation was going.
By the time the Elf had returned with a copy of the paper, Blaise had been put down for his nap, curled up against Aaron's side as the man ate to recover some of his lost strength. Letting her husband eat his meal, Ariana unrolled the paper only to gasp in shock at the headline. "What is it, my Swan Princess?" Aaron asked.
"Oh, Harry," was all she said as tears began to pour from her eyes.
"Ariana, honey?" Aaron asked in worry.
"It seems that while you were in your Coma, Lily and James had been found. They are both dead, but somehow Harry survived," she said, leading Aaron to swear, which he was not even told off for doing around Blaise since she felt the same way. "It gets worse," she said as she cast a spell on their son, who was thankfully still napping to block out any loud noises from waking him up.
"How?" Aaron asked his dark-skinned face as pale as she had ever seen it in worry for the boy who was their son's Soulmate.
"The article only talked about the attack since it is about Lord Black's trial and sentencing," she said, turning the paper to him so he could see the front page, which held the Mugshot of the recently arrested Sirius Black.
"What did Black do?" he asked.
"According to Miss Skeeter, Black, after sending Voldy after the Potters, was tracked down by one of their friends, Pettigrew, who he ended up killing along with a dozen Muggles," she said, not believing a word of it.
"Hippogrif Shit," Aaron said. "Rosemary, my wand," he called to his personal House Elf since he had no idea what had become of his wand after ending up in a coma. Aaron blushed a little as the drawer beside the bed he was in opened up, and his wand floated out and over to him. When the wand was in his hand, Aaron cast a summoning Charm for a vial of memories sent to them by James and Lily after the pair had gone into hiding.
As her husband summoned the vial of memories, Ariana continued to read the English paper. "FUCK!" she said after reading another article.
"What now?" he asked, turning to her with a look of greater worry than before.
"Alice and Frank Longbottom have both been attacked in their home and are in comas themselves, by some unknown though expected Death Eaters," Ariana reported.
"Okay," Aaron said slowly, not getting it.
"While the boys played together, Lily and I chatted. I told her about Blaise's Godparents, thus learning that Narcissa was one of her friends in school, and she told me about Harry's. Besides Lord Black, who had also blood adopted Harry, his Godmother is still Alice Longbottom," Ariana explained, letting Aaron see the issue.
"So Harry is with Remus. What is the matter? Just because James and Lily said he is a Werewolf does not mean," Aaron began, only for his wife to cut him off.
"In Skeeter's article, she mentioned that your old Headmaster, Dumbledore, was Harry's Magical Guardian, not Remus, stating that despite both his and Black's connections to the boy, Dumbledore was still taking part in Black's trial," she reported.
"WHAT!?!" Aaron thundered, his magic going slightly haywire, leading Ariana to levitate Blaise to a nearby chair to finish his nap rather than be shaken awake by his father's surging magic.
"Yeah. I just thought it was the Skeeter woman's normal ineptitude for facts, but the article about the Longbottoms being attacked confirmed it. Since they at least mentioned that Alice was Harry's Godmother, but was thankfully not with them during the attack. It seems that Dumbledore had taken custody of Harry and put him somewhere safe," Ariana summarised bits of the article.
"Which might be believable if we did not know that he is not Harry's Magical Guardian, nor the fact that he took custody of him before either of Harry's Godparents," Aaron said as he began to shift positions on the bed.
"And what do you think you are doing?" she asked him.
"Don't give me that look. I know I am still recovering from Jacoby's attack, but since Remus has not stepped forward to refute Albus' claim of Magical Guardianship over Harry, as well as both Sirius and Alice out of the way, I don't trust this one bit. If it will make you feel better, we will Floo to the Malfoys so Narcissa can keep an eye on me as we straighten all this out," Aaron said as he reached the edge of the bed and struggled to get to his feet.
"Fine, but let me," she said, seeing her husband was not going to back down from his plan, reminding her once again why she had fallen in love with him. With a flick of her wand, she put Aaron in some fresh clothing, packed up some supplies for Blaise, sent a message to the Malfoys to say they would be stopping by, and had Aaron hold Blaise as she helped him reach the Floo.
As Ariana and Aaron stepped out of the Floo and into the Malfoy Family's Reception Room, they expected to have to wait a moment before Lucius and Narcissa arrived to explain their sudden visit. They were therefore shocked as Narcissa rushed into the room, clutching Aaron's Godson Draco tightly to her chest and tears running down her face. "You heard?" Narcissa asked, her voice cracking a little with what sounded like both pain and joy upon seeing them.
"Heard? Heard what?" both Zabinis asked after sharing a look.
"They took my Luci," Narcissa cried.
"Wait, who did?" Ariana helped Aaron to a chair so he could sit down before moving to comfort her old friend.
"The Ministry,' Narcissa said, looking like she would have thrown herself into Ariana's arms if not for the fact that she was holding Draco tightly to her chest and did not want to hurt him.
"Why?" Aaron asked from the seat his wife had put him in, feeling a little thankful for the rest, even after such a short walk from the room he had been in to their Floo room before coming here.
"They said he is a Death Eater," Narcissa wailed, making her son cry a little as well due to the loud noise.
"What else can go wrong?" Aaron huffed.
"What do you mean?" Narcissa said, looking over at him and giving him a confused look as she took in how weak he looked.
"In order, Jacoby attacked Aaron, who ended up in a Magical Coma for the last month. The fact that James and Lily died, your Cousin is being tried for being their Secret Keeper, Alice and Frank were attacked, and Remus not coming forward," Ariana listed off.
"What? I don't get it," Narcissa said, looking between the pair, thinking they were saying all this to help her calm down, but by the looks on their faces, they were utterly serious.
"Before Lily and James went into hiding, we had a playdate between the boys. Harry's and Blaise's Magic Sang to each other, so we wrote up a Contract between them and had it confirmed. During the playdate, Lily informed me that your cousin was not only Harry's Godfather but Blood Adopted him, Alice was Harry's Godmother, but it was Remus who is his Magical Guardian due to your country's Anti-Creature laws, which prevented him from being a Secondary Godfather," Ariana explained
"Wait, what?" Narcissa cried out.
"Yep, plus shortly after they had gone into hiding, we received a memory vial from Lily from when the Fidelaus Charm was put in place. Thus showing it had been Petigrew, not Sirius, who was their Secret Keeper," Aaron said as he began to rock Blaise, who had started to awaken from his nap.
"Do you have the memory with you?" Narcissa asked as, for the first time in days, her worry for her husband was no longer the focus of her mind as she began to worry about Lily's son.
"I do," Aaron said, patting a pocket of his robes with his free hand. "That is sort of why we came here. I am still weak from the attack on me, so I was hoping just by being around you, Ariana would calm down as we worked to fix this mess and find out what happened to our son's Soulmate."