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Peri sat on the floor in Ray’s room and watched him build with his blocks — these were the magical type that stuck together no matter how you put them.   She wondered how he’d ever come by a set of Muggle blocks in the first place.  

But then, if one set of blocks is good, two must be twice as good.   And two different types, three times as good.  

It was the same attitude she’d seen expressed in every aspect of the Malfoys’ life for the past five weeks.   If money could buy it, it was here, and in its finest form.   If money could not buy it, it was ignored.  

Well, that’s not quite true.   No amount of money could have bought them a pureblood child of their own line.   Not even magic has got around to making children without certain prerequisites.   Like a man and a woman.

But once the child was achieved, the male child who would ensure the line continued, husband and wife need never see one another again, if they so desired, and from all Peri could tell, Lucius and Narcissa very much desired.   Lucius had certainly not been backward in soliciting Peri’s... company.  

Thank God for small magics.  

The same vial of potion that had won her Ray’s trust had stood her in good stead again with Lucius.   She had added it to her own glass of the wine she had coyly requested before their assignation, and at his insistence, let him sample her "flavored liqueur" as well.  

And even if he’d been paranoid and checking for poison, which he wasn’t because he’d seen me drink the stuff without ill effects, nothing would have registered.   It’s not even a sleeping potion, really... what would you call that state it puts you in?   A trance, I guess, but it’s a light one.   Unless someone makes it deeper.  

In that light trance, Lucius had escorted her to his bed, which she had decorously exited a few moments later.   The memory of that first sloppy, intrusive kiss still made her want to scrub her face on her sleeve.  

And I know it’s not because I’m some prissy little virgin.   That was just disgusting.  

Fortunately, it had also been precisely the level of contact she’d needed to invade his mind, find the area of his dreams and desires, and simultaneously send him deeper into trance and start a montage of those desires playing for him, pausing only to add her face and voice in appropriate places.   She had only glimpsed a moment of what he was about to go through —

Which was quite enough, thank you.

However, this gambit could be dangerous, and she knew it.   If his "experience" with her was sufficiently rapturous, or even pleasant, he’d want to repeat it.   Therefore, instead of slipping away and leaving him to finish out his dream on his own, she had waited by the bedside and carefully destroyed what she had created.   Lucius’ memories of his attempted seduction of his son’s nursemaid were all fumbling, miscues, and finally a shamefaced agreement that they would be better off apart, and never speaking of this again.  

Entirely necessary, since I have no idea what I’m supposed to have done with him.  

The trance had also accomplished one more, very important detail.   Only her entrance here had been assured by the magic that had brought her to this world.   Her continued presence was up to her to manage.  

So, underneath Lucius’ dream, she had laid a very careful subconscious urge, or rather, two urges, slightly conflicting — the one, to have her near, and the other, to seldom if ever really notice her.   As long as she did nothing so untoward that it pulled his notice regardless, her position was safe.  

"Pe’i, Pe’i!" Ray clamored, pulling at her skirt.  

"What is it — oh, I see."   The block structure would not have been possible by Muggle standards, since it leaned rather precariously to one side and was in momentary danger of tipping over.   "I think you like to build.   May I come and build with you?"

Ray’s smile flashed out, and he crawled briskly back to his blocks, Peri following similarly on all fours.   Their mind-to-mind communication of the first day had faded when the potion had worn off, but they were starting to understand each other when they spoke aloud.    

I wish we could have kept that mind-link permanently, but there’s no way we could stay under that potion all the time — besides the obvious problems like being sleepy all day long, my supply is limited, and I have no idea where I’d get more.   The only way we could set the link permanently is if we were related somehow...

The door of the nursery opened, startling both Ray and Peri, who got hastily to her feet.   This could only be Lucius —

Except that it wasn’t.  

Narcissa Malfoy stepped into the room and shut the door behind her.   "Hello, Draco," she said.   "Miss Grant."

"Mrs. Malfoy."   Well, this isn’t awkward at all.   "Yes, hello, I’m your son’s nurse, I have been for a little over a month, and this is the first time you’ve come to see him since I’ve been here... oh, and your husband tried to get me to sleep with him, but I fobbed him off with a potion and a type of magic that isn’t really supposed to exist."

Ray spent a few moments studying Narcissa, then looked at Peri with an expression of concentration.  

Oh, drat.   He’s going to start crying any minute, because he’s trying to talk to me again like we did the first night, and I’m not answering him.   There had been several of these episodes over the past weeks.   He just doesn’t understand that we won’t be able to do that again.

Sure enough, Ray’s face was starting to wrinkle, and his breathing was turning distinctly shaky.   Peri quickly knelt down and picked him up.   "Settle down, now," she told him, keeping her focus on him, away from Narcissa, whose eyes were still fixed on her.   "That’s no way to behave when your mother’s come to see you.   Come on, let’s see your smile.   Where is it?"

Ray sniffled twice and buried his face in Peri’s shoulder.  

"Don’t trouble yourself to make him perform," said Narcissa’s voice from behind her.   "I haven’t come to see you put him through his paces."

Peri stiffened, her arms tightening around Ray.   You despicable inbred excuse for a woman, call yourself his mother just once, I dare you...   "I beg your pardon?" she said in tones as close to ice-cold as she dared get with her titular employer — the lady of the house, after all, could turn her out as well as the master.  

"No, I beg yours."   The words were still formal, but the tone had changed.   Narcissa sounded... human.   "We were being observed until a moment ago.   I wished to be certain that the observer would see only what he wanted to see."

"The observer?"   Peri turned, still holding Ray, to see the other woman seated at the small table in the corner, another chair pulled out and waiting.  

"My husband," Narcissa clarified.   "He is not a trusting man, and often spies upon others.   This house is riddled with passages, and the master bedroom contains quite a number of bowls and other implements for use in scrying spells.   Some of them are permanently tuned to certain portions of the house.   One is set for the nursery.   He has been watching you."

Oh, Lord.  I should have thought of that.   "And has he seen anything he does not like?"

"On the contrary.   He thinks very highly of you."  

"And you... do not?" Peri hazarded.   What in the world does she want from me?   If she doesn’t like what I’m doing with Ray — Draco — she could have just had me sent away.   Half-consciously, she tightened her arms around the little boy again.   But she hasn’t.   She’s here.   So that means...

Well, why don’t I let her tell me?

"No.  I too think well of what you are doing here..."   Narcissa stopped, her eyes narrowed, as she regarded Peri’s face.  

I’m not surprised.   I must look a sight — but if she doesn’t stop blowing smoke at me, I think I might scream...

"Say it," Narcissa commanded bluntly.   "Let it out and have done."

Thank you.   Peri loosed the one question that had been nagging at her for a month.   "You say you like what I’m doing with — Draco.   Fine.   That’s wonderful.   But if you like it so much, then why, why have you never done it yourself?"   She looked down at the small blond head pressed against her collarbone, and laid her cheek momentarily against the top of it, closing her eyes.  

"Because I do not know how."  

The voice slid through the darkness and shattered the illusion of righteous anger Peri had been cherishing in her soul.   In its place came bewilderment.   "You don’t know?"   She opened her eyes to stare at Narcissa.  "How can you not know?"

"The... the motion."   Narcissa pantomimed it herself, pretending to hold something upright in her arms, lowering her head stiffly to rest on it.   "That you did a moment ago.   It came to you naturally.   You knew how to perform it.   How did you know?"

"I..."   Memory-fragments from a lost life drifted past — children soothed to sleep, boys and girls alike, of all ages and sizes, in triumph and in tears...   "I don’t know how I know.   I suppose I remember being held that way when I was a baby, or seeing mothers do that with their babies.   It’s not something I learned in school, or from a book."

Narcissa nodded.   "I never saw a mother with a baby until I was old enough to be permitted limited contact with Muggle society," she said matter-of-factly.   "And I doubt if my own mother ever held me in the way you hold my son."

Peri blushed a bit.   "Do you want him?" she asked, knowing it would be a job getting Ray loose of her but feeling as if she ought to offer.   "He’d probably go to you, he does know who you are."

"He is comfortable where he is.   Leave him."

God, how does she do that — just when I thought we were getting along, she drops into lady-of-the-manor again, and sets my teeth on edge...

"I have come to offer you something." Narcissa reached into her robes for a small bag, which she set on the table between them.   "You may take offense at this, but I intend none."   She began to unpack the bag.   Chips of different woods, a small gold locket, flasks of two potions...

And a small, silvery knife.  

"You claimed blood with an Australian family named Grant," Narcissa said, looking up from the table.   "You never said whether that family was magical or not."

Peri let a very small smile come to her lips.   "Your husband assumes no one of ‘impure’ blood would dare to enter his home."

"Obviously, he is wrong."

"Obviously.   I assume, since I am still here and still in charge of the nursery, that he hasn’t figured this out yet."

"If I have my way, he never will."   Narcissa lifted the knife.   "I would create an amulet for you, containing your blood and Draco’s.   If you do nothing else, as long as you wear it, you will appear to magical tests as a halfblood."

Peri winced.   "Well, if that’s the best you can do."

"Kindly allow me to finish," said Narcissa tartly.   "There is a way to make yourself appear pureblooded.   If you are willing to forswear your Muggle relatives utterly, becoming a stranger to them and they to you."

"Already done.   My parents think I’m dead."   If they ever thought of their long-ago maybe-child at all.   No Pericula had ever been born in this world.   "But if I meet them somewhere..."

"You may be friendly with them as far as you wish, as long as they do not openly recognize and acknowledge you as their daughter born to them.   Will you swear that while you wear the amulet, you will never allow that to happen, never let a Muggle call you blood kin?"

"I will."  

"With this vow sworn on it, the amulet will cause magical tests to show you as a pureblood.   If, when Draco grows older, he and you are willing, you might undergo another ritual in which the bloods of your bodies are mingled, and you become related in truth."

"Related?"   Peri felt a small shiver of excitement.   "Will this amulet... will we look related, if they test us?"

"They will not test you for kinship.   Why should they?   Draco was born to me a year ago, and you have only just come to us.   But..."   Narcissa smiled.   "Yes, if you should be tested, the amulet will make it appear that you are related to Draco.   His sister, I believe, with this type of ritual.   You will forgive me if I do not wish him to take another mother."

"Of course."   Something occurred to Peri.   "So if we exchanged blood from our bodies, then we’d really be related, and I wouldn’t have to wear the amulet to test as a pureblood."

"So long as you kept to your vow to acknowledge no Muggle as blood kin."

"But, then, couldn’t anyone do this?   Become a pureblood just by renouncing his Muggle relatives?"

A pale eyebrow quirked.   "These spells and rituals change only the way in which your magical signature is classified, Miss Grant.   If you were known to be half-blooded or Muggleborn, no proper pureblood group would dare admit you, unless you had taken rather more final steps, and even then only certain purebloods believe those are necessary."

It took Peri a few moments to work through this.   "So someone like me, who can claim family ties from far away and fake up my magic, could pass as pureblood.   But someone whose birth was known never could, unless they took what you call ‘final steps.’"   She shifted Ray’s weight in her arms as the boy squirmed a little.   "I don’t think I like the way that sounds."

"You would not."   Narcissa’s eyes were veiled.   "I do not care for them myself.   And only those purebloods with whom my husband nightly associates believe those steps to be an acceptable method of ‘purifying’ one’s blood.   To the older families — such as the one from which I come myself — there is no way to change one’s blood.   It is what it is, and no amount of shedding others’ blood can alter that."

Peri swallowed.   I was right, then.   Final steps, yeah, I think so.   Killing your own parents or grandparents — it might even extend to every Muggle relative you have... no thank you.

She turned Ray so that he sat in her lap, facing outward.   He reached onto the table and grabbed the locket, pulling at the chain.   "Why are you doing this?" she asked.   "Why help me?"

Narcissa met her gaze.   "Because I have never seen my son so happy as he has been with you," she said.   "Because I would do much for his happiness."   She looked down at Ray, who had the locket chain tangled in interesting patterns around his fingers.   "Because I love him.   Does that surprise you?"

"No."   Peri closed her eyes for a second.     "No.   It doesn’t surprise me.   I knew a woman like you once.   Back where I came from."

"Australia," said Narcissa, her brows elevated just that fraction which signaled she knew she was talking nonsense.

"Precisely.   Australia."

"And what’s her history?"

Peri looked down at Ray, who seemed to be contemplating chewing on the locket.   "A blank, my lord," she said lightly, seemingly to him.  

"Did she sit like Patience on a monument?"

"Smiling at grief?"   Peri shrugged.   "I don’t know.   I suppose it grieved her to know she loved her son, and not know how to show it.   But she found ways.   She gave him what she could of herself.   She did... something a lot like what you’re doing."

"Helping a Muggleborn nursemaid hide her birth so that she could continue caring for the child?"   Narcissa laughed a little.   "I find it hard to believe that could happen twice."

"It didn’t."  Peri rescued the locket as it almost went into Ray’s mouth, and drew her wand to Summon a block for him to chew on instead.   "She had a problem I don’t know if you have.   The boy’s father was abusive."

Narcissa conjured a shallow metal dish on the table, then took up the knife and began to carve small clippings of the wood into it.   "Lucius has never threatened harm to me or to Draco.   He wears out his proclivities in other ways."

"But if those other ways were removed..."

"That could be a troubling situation, yes.   How did your former acquaintance manage her problems?"

"She sent her boy away."   Peri laid her cheek against Ray’s hair again.   "To a cousin of hers, who had a family of his own.   Then she reported her husband to the authorities — he’d been involved with some nasty gang crimes — and, shall we say, took steps to ensure she wouldn’t be caught in the aftermath."

Narcissa looked up from her work.   "Blade or poison?"

"Poison.   You are well informed."

"It is only what I would have done."   Narcissa frowned at her pile of wood shavings and began to add to it again.   "What became of the boy?"

"When I last heard of him, he was happy."

"And is that not all we can say of anyone?" Narcissa murmured, setting aside one wood chip and taking up another.  

xXxXx

To Peri’s delight, they were able to include her dream-trance potion in the mixture which created the amulet.   "I had wondered how you induced that particular state in Lucius," said Narcissa.   "Do you perchance have the instructions for making more of this potion?"

"I do — but I should warn you, it wasn’t just the potion that did that.   I have magic of my own that I use in conjunction with it."

"I see.   But perhaps it can be altered, to work on its own to bring on dreams..."

"Or nightmares."

"Indeed."   Gray-green eyes met brown.   Understanding lurked in them both.  

When the mixture of liquids was complete and a few drops enclosed in the locket, Peri swore her oath with the chain wrapped around her hand and Narcissa’s wand touching it — "I do swear to let no Muggle knowingly call me blood kin while I do wear this amulet" — and the thing was done.   Peri slipped it over her head, and Narcissa cast a spell to test the other woman’s blood status.  

"As pure as any I have seen," she said.   "Wear it always.   It will take no harm from a wetting, nor from a fall — the catch is charmed shut."

"I will never take it off."   Will I, my little one?

Ray squealed in delight.   Peri!   Peri!   You talk to me!  

That’s right.   Now I want you to do something for me.   Go run to your mother and hug her goodbye.   She’s going now.

Yes.   Ray slid off Peri’s lap and pattered towards Narcissa, who watched him come with surprised, hungry eyes.   He almost fell once, but regained his balance at the last minute, then lost it again, but luckily pitched into Narcissa’s legs rather than onto the floor.   Automatically, Narcissa stooped to steady him.  

"He wants you to hug him," Peri said.   "Just put your arms around him, that’s right, go on..."  

Narcissa embraced her son awkwardly, drawing a deep breath when he put his arms around her neck.   Her expression was filled with such strange and deep joy that Peri had to look away.  

This isn’t right, this can’t be right, I shouldn’t be taking him away from her...

But Narcissa unwrapped the little boy’s arms and helped him turn around, and nudged him gently to start him on his way back to Peri.   "I will come back soon," she said, standing up.   "If I may."

"Any time," Peri said firmly.   "This door is always open for you."

"Thank you."   Narcissa turned to leave.

"Wait a second," Peri said, catching the woman in midstride.   "Before you go, would you mind telling me how you knew we were being observed when you first came?"

Narcissa’s brows drew in.   "To me, it sounds like a very high-pitched tone, almost too high to hear," she said.   "But it takes practice to be able to hear it regularly.   I will see about finding a small item to charm for you, perhaps to change color or glow when it senses a scrying spell in use."

"That would be very helpful.   Thank you."

"You are quite welcome.   Goodbye."   Narcissa shut the door behind her.  

Peri, come see what I build, Ray said happily in her mind, then turned to look at her in surprise.   What wrong?

Nothing, Ray, nothing’s wrong.   Peri knelt beside the block tower, controlling her emotions.   She’d have to be more careful now that they were connected.   Oh, I like this a lot.   What is it?  

A big tall manor I smash down like this.   Ray shoved the tower, knocking it over and ending the blocks’ cohesion so that they scattered everywhere as normal blocks would have done.   Fun!

Yes.   Yes, fun.   Carefully shielding her thoughts, Peri allowed herself a moment of worry for the life she was building for herself here, just as precariously balanced as Ray’s block creations, and just as likely to tumble down at any moment...

Nonsense.   I’m not here for me.   I’m here for them.   The people I love.   She knew their faces and their ways, she would know their names when it became necessary.   She had come here for a chance to see them again, and make their lives happy.   Everything else was secondary.  

Including you.   And don’t you forget it.

Peri?   Ray’s voice intruded on her nagging thoughts.   You build too?

Yes, of course, Ray.   I build too.   Peri smiled at her charge and picked up a block.   Look, let’s take it in turns.   I’ll put one, and you put one...

xXxXx

"I think it might be wise to accustom him to crowds," the nursemaid said.   "Perhaps excursions to Diagon Alley, or Hogsmeade, or other gathering places of our kind.   And of course, as he grows older, playdates with other children."

"Of course."   Lucius wasn’t about to admit that he’d never in his life heard of a playdate.   "I’m sure you know what’s best for him.   Take anything you need from my vault, the authorization is already there."

"You are too kind, Mr. Malfoy."   The nursemaid curtsied and vanished almost as speedily as Dobby.  

She has things well under control there.   Draco will not lack for a firm hand when he needs it.   He is still small enough that some leniency can be allowed, and he disturbs no one with his noises and his games, so nothing need be done about that.  

Hiring that Grant woman was one of the best decisions I have ever made.  

With this confident assertion, Lucius returned to his parchments.  

xXxXx

"Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle," said one young wizard to his companion, staring past said companion’s ear as they sat outside Florian Fortescue’s.  

"No, you’re a monkey’s godfather.   I’m a monkey’s uncle."

"Harry is not a monkey."

"He looked like one for a while, didn’t he?"   Laughing, Remus Lupin dodged Sirius Black’s half-hearted swat.   "So why will you be a monkey’s uncle?"

"For once in his slimy life, Lucius Malfoy wasn’t lying.   Look over there by Quality Quidditch Supplies.   Little brunette witch with a baby backpack."

Remus looked, and looked again.   "Who is that?"

"Search me, I’ve never seen her before.   But look at the kid.   Can’t be anything but a Malfoy, not with that hair.   We all thought Lucius was talking through his hat when he said he had a son, but I guess it was on the up and up."

"He’s probably just being careful," said Remus absently, still looking.   "There are people who wouldn’t scruple at hurting a child to get at his father."

"Aww, come on, Moony, not on our side."

"Yes, Padfoot, on our side.   Don’t be stupider than you have to be.   Barty Crouch?"

Sirius grunted.   "You have a point.   So you going to go talk to her, or are you just going to stare until your eyeballs fall out?"

Remus turned back around quickly.   "I was not staring."

Sirius sniggered.   "Oh, come on.   If you’d been staring any harder, your eyes would have been up against her bum."

"You’re disgusting."

"I wasn’t the one staring."

"That’s only because you know what Letha would do to you if she caught you looking at another woman."

Sirius shrugged.   "Virtue is virtue.   Does it really matter why I’m being a good boy as long as I am?"

"Don’t get me started on ends versus means, please."

"No problem."   Sirius shook his head like his Animagus form shaking off water.   "I never could get into that philosophical stuff."

"I know."   And I only hope that doesn’t mean what it seems to.   Damn this war, anyway, making us all suspect our best friends... but it has to be someone right in the middle of everything, and Sirius fits that awfully well...

Of course, so do I, but I know I’m not the spy.  

Remus looked over his shoulder again, deliberately ignoring Sirius’ snort.   The brunette witch had her head turned towards him — well, towards the little boy in the carrier on her back, but it gave him a good almost-frontal view of her, and he had to admit she was rather pretty.   Not nearly as striking as Lily, nor Aletha’s strong beauty, but neither was she a fragile flower.   There were hints of sadness in her eyes, but she smiled and laughed anyway, reaching up a hand to caress the child.

Suddenly recalling where he was, he jerked his head around front again.   "Sorry.   What did you say?"

"I didn’t say anything."   Sirius looked him up and down.   "But I think I will say something.   I think I’ll say something to everyone we know.   Hey, everyone!   Wormtail wins — or loses — the ‘who’ll be the last Marauder to fall’ sweepstakes!   Remus Lupin is finally in love!"

"Shut up," said Remus with dignity, ignoring the burning sensation on the back of his neck.   "I’m going back to Headquarters if you’re going to be an idiot."

"In that case, you should have gone back there years ago."

Remus disdained to reply, and carefully kept from looking over his shoulder as he rose.   When Sirius had his back turned, however, Remus sneaked a quick glance.   The witch was gone.  

Damn it.  Now I’ll never see her again, and I don’t even know her name.   But I do know where she works...

He rubbed a sore spot on his shoulder.   Right, like that’s such a help.   Malfoy Manor.   I don’t think I’ll exactly be welcome there, even if she’s staff and not family.   At the very least, I’d lose her her job — Lucius would never want his son’s nurse friendly with a werewolf — and that’s supposing she even wants to be friendly with me...

I think it’s better for everyone if this just dies right here.  

xXxXx

Around the corner, Peri pressed a hand to her chest, breathing hard.  

No, she told herself firmly.   No, no, no.   You are here to do what’s best for him, not what you want.  

But what if those two things are the same? asked a tiny, traitorous portion of her heart.  

Who those men? Ray asked from the backpack.   Why they make you cry?

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Author Notes:

In response to some common questions: In this universe, Remus is still a werewolf, but Hermione doesn’t have a sister (it’s like the universe Danger saw in Chapter 15 of Maybe).   Last chapter was set 5 June, 1981, and this is early to mid-July of that year.   Danger chose to go to Draco because she loves him dearly, and he’ll be in most need of her immediate presence.   Everyone else will have someone else.   And I just realized how much that sounds like a song...