While the Wives are Away| Bones Boys | August 15, 1978
Everyone that knew the Bones family would be of the same opinion that Edgar and Amelia drove their older brother Damian crazy. Despite all three being employed at the DMLE, family members and friends alike knew very well that Amelia was the barely-ladylike apple of their eye, that Edgar was the reckless one, that Damian was the proper heir to the family in all ways that a good pureblood boy should be. Edgar liked to think it was just that they were the fun ones. Still, Edgar was not going to deny that Damian had only ever wanted the best for his siblings and sometimes, sometimes, Edgar and Amelia forgot to be grateful to the tightass.
So there were times, like now for example, that Edgar remembered that Damian worked harder than the two of them and that his Karen worked just as hard as her husband and he would casually mention it to Abigail and then, the floodgates would open. ‘Why not invite him over for some down time then?’ ‘Surely you realize that the children miss their uncle?’ ‘How about you two get together and Karen and I can go have girl time? Amelia is nearly as busy as you are and my girlfriends have abandoned me for proper holidays before the summer ends.’ In the end, as per usual, his Abbie was right and he was missing his brother something fierce after the disaster that was family dinner with Aunt Rebecca some time ago and really, why couldn’t he subject the bastard to his adorable children?
“Papa!” Edgar heard his oldest son before the lad ran straight into him in the kitchen. Only, no, it was his third child, Andrew, who had decided to tackle their old man. The Auror reached down, picking up the four-year-old with ease and plopping him on his shoulder as he turned from the kitchen counter to stare into the living room. Edgar Jr. was holding Cecily back and Charlotte was all too content with sucking on her fingers as if that would excuse her from whatever transgressions she’d done her six-year-old sister. Toddlers. Terrible twos were, indeed, a thing.
“Ly, no!”
“Let me go, Ed! Thee knew! Thee knew!”
“And just what did your baby sister know, Cecily?” Edgar asked as he strolled in, tossing Andrew unto the soft couch before hoisting up his eldest daughter. Cecily, for all intents and purposes, reminded him of his oldest brother in that haughty overly intelligent sort of way and made him fear that his second child was doomed to be a Ravenclaw in the future. She scrunched up her face, livid as she tried to hold her tongue and control herself.
“Lottie ruined my pothun. I went with Ed to get Andy off the bookcase-”
“You were on the bookcase?” Edgar asked the boy on the couch, eyebrows furrowed as the child shrugged.
“He was only there for a sec, papa, swear. I think the clock scared him again,” little Edgar explained, patting down little Charlotte’s hair while trying to get her to stop sucking her fingers.
“I wasn’ scare!” Andrew protested, rolling over the back of the couch.
“Anyways! Lottie went to my potion and added thuffs to it and I inthist-”
“Insist,” Edgar enunciated for her, wondering if his daughter’s lisp would soften with age like doctors had told him.
“In-stist,” she tried before continuing her story, “that she be punished. It’th not fair.”
“Charlotte, did you do it on purpose?” Edgar asked, staring down his youngest. The girl peered up at him with her mother’s brown eyes, and shrugged.
“No.”
“Liar!!”
Just then, the door rang and Abigail gleefully rushed down the stairs -where they hell had she been- in order to open it up, revealing Damian and Karen. It took a moment, giving Abbie sufficient time to kiss both hello and invite them inside, before Edgar’s three free children rushed to greet their aunt and uncle, Cecily struggling in her father’s arms to be let go to do the same.
“Merlin, single file now! There’s only two of them and too many of you now,” Edgar coached, shaking his head as he fought his way to kiss Karen on the cheek and clap Damian on the shoulder. “You’re a lifesaver,” He murmured to his brother, realizing that Cecily had a very odd look in her eyes as she patiently waited to be held by their visitors. Oh yes, why couldn’t he subject his brother to his adorable children?