They had brought Eleanor home after a day's rest in the hospital bed of St. Mary Hospital. She had cast the Oblivation spell on the staff herself as they planned.
She was careful to remove only the memory of their faces instead of removing the whole memory of birth. It would be suspicious if multiple people found a chunk of their time missing, so instead of taking out the whole memory, if you only took the patient's identities, you could layer that with the confundus charm.
This would allow you to be just one of the many people who had their children in that hospital, an unremarkable face in the crowd, who didn't have any written record. They would mix in with other kids born that day in the hospital, but no one would remember what the parents looked like or even anything about the baby.
It was a delicate and very subtle way of using Oblivation, one she specialized in, compared to the usual way of simply deleting the memory. She preferred it this way because, as time went on, the memory would fade even more if there were no pictures associated with the memory, and your brain would fill in the unexplained parts and any gaps.
If someone skilled in the mind arts were to read the memory, it would still be blurry and faded. Which, obviously, was a lot less suspicious than a chunk of missing memory.
Everything else had gone smoothly as she had made sure Eleanor's birth was not documented in any other way.
She did find one nurse who had briefly started filling out the paperwork, but that, too, was caught when she had the nurse under the confundus charm and asked her if they had made any records of their visit.
Thank magic for Confundus charms, it worked wonderfully as a truth spell on muggles, as well as Veritaserum would on a magical person.
The confundus spell was quite effective on the muggles she found. They had no resistance to magic, as it was completely foreign to them because their physiology was different from that of magicals.
While a strong magical witch or wizard with some training and a fortified mind would be able to resist the confundus charm to a degree, the same couldn't be said for any muggles.
She had, of course, done all this away from baby boy's sight.
She was quite afraid that he, in this inquisitive nature, would attempt this kind of magic on his own. He was already so curious about the magic he was currently doing, she didn't want him to try this sort of magic, as it might harm his young mind.
Thankfully, Henry was very distracted by his little sister. He had hardly taken his eyes off of her, even as they walked to the car. Even after she had sat on the backseat of the car, at his request, while holding the newborn baby, he had barely spoken more than a couple of words, opting instead to stare at his little sister.
The next couple of days hadn't gone any differently.
For the first time, ever since he had discovered magic and started doing it on his own, he had actually not attempted his daily 'secret' magical routine. He still did the whole bowing thing in the morning before anyone else even got the chance to get out of bed.
Instead, he had spent whatever time that had initially been occupied by his magical routine, with his sister just looking at Eleanor while she slept. He did this for hours while she slept and also while Eleanor was awake. She often found him holding her hand and caressing her chubby cheeks.
As the days passed, when Eleanor began to lose her wrinkly skin and gain even more baby fat, she discovered a completely different side of Henry.
She always thought of her baby boy being so calm and collected was his very nature, she thought of him as someone who preferred to listen rather than talk. This all changed after Eleanor's birth, as it seemed he just lacked a topic to talk about. Sure, he was passionate about magic, but he hardly consulted Francis or her on it, wanting to discover it on his own instead. All of this changed slowly as he began to talk about his sister more and more each day.
He would gush about his sister during dinner. Each day, he would talk about what he did with his sister.
"Did you notice Ella looked even cuter today?"
"Ella babbled at me today."
"Ella clutched my finger today and wouldn't let go."
Each day, it was something new. He would go on nonstop, and she was honestly glad to see his eyes shine as he spoke about his little sister.
Usually at dinner, they would talk about school and what he did that day, and even then, it would be either her or Francis who initiated the conversation, and Henry would just answer in a couple of sentences, then focus back on eating or just stare at nothing. She guessed he was probably just thinking about magic.
However, the conversation around the dinner table had changed after they brought Eleanor home. Nowadays, it would be Henry who initiated the conversation, and once he got going, he would go off on a tangent for several minutes before pausing to eat, drink, or even breathe. For the first time, she caught a glimpse of a 5-year-old child.
His days began to center entirely around Eleanor. He would spend the mornings with her, go to school, and come home to spend even more time with her, and at dinner, he spoke mostly about her. He went into excruciating detail about all of his interactions with her. He would talk about how the hair on her head was a millimeter longer than it was yesterday, and how her red, wrinkly skin was slowly fading.
He would speak about how he burrowed his fingers in her tightened fist, and she gripped it, and he couldn't pull back. The topics of school and dance classes faded into the background as he paid little attention to the former, and she was already present with him in the latter.
This was how her days passed in a blur.
One day, the whole family was lounging lazily in the living room after dinner.
Francis was sitting on the sofa, listening to Wizarding Wireless Network at a low volume, while she sat next to him, watching her children.
Henry was lying on his back on the adjacent sofa with his head propped up in the armrest while he read a book to Elleanor, who was lying on the crib next to the sofa.
This had been going on for a couple of days now. Her baby boy had taken to reading books to his little sister after dinner, even if she was asleep.
She watched and listened as he read from The Tales of Beedle the Bard about the Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump. It was a children's tale, sure, but the story itself was quite dark, being about the witch who sought revenge for the persecution.
"Soon after," Henry said softly and clearly enunciating each word, turning the page, "an old rabbit appeared out of a hole in the stump with a wand in its mouth, revealing that Babbitty had been hiding in her Animagus form, and she left the kingdom…."
As she watched him finish the story, she thought about how well her baby boy told the stories he read to his little sister. Hearing him speak, without any stutter or difficulty that a normal 5-year-old child might encounter while reading.
It was proof of how far ahead her baby boy was in academics and of his intelligence. She would have to speak to Francis about enrolling him in an accelerated course or maybe even skipping a grade or two so he would be challenged in school, lest he lose any more interest than he already had.
"Forever after, the statue of Babbitty remained on top of the stump, and no witch or wizard was ever hurt in that kingdom ever again."
The sound of Henry closing the book brought her out of her daze.
"That was beautiful, sweetheart," she said softly as she smiled at him.
He nodded at her as he put the book down on the sofa. He rose from the sofa and walked over to his sister. He peered down at her sleeping form and slowly ran his hand over the crib's railing.
"I didn't realize babies slept this much."
"Hmm, infants spend most of their time sleeping. Whatever little time they are awake is spent on feeding and cleaning. That's how you were, too."
'In the beginning, at least,' she thought to herself.
"I can't wait for her to grow up a bit. Maybe we can start bringing Ella to my dance classes? I saw some mothers carrying their small children today."
Indeed, she too had seen that. Some mothers with multiple children in their households would bring both children if their husbands were at work and unavailable to watch them at home.
They didn't have this problem so far, as Francis came home at lunch break at a fixed time almost every day, thanks to Apparition. The classes began at noon and lasted 2-3 hours each day. Francis had already arranged for longer lunch breaks 3 times a week.
Henry's ballroom dance classes were held 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Plus, the situation in the magical world seemed to be improving as Millicent Bagnold, the current Minister of Magic, was going strong after the successful trials of Crouch Jr and three members of the Lestrange family: Rodolphus Lestrange, as well as his brother Rabastan and wife Bellatrix, who had tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom into insanity.
She was garnering strong support from the public with her relentless pursuit of alleged Death Eaters. The trials were being held in droves, and unfortunately, some had gotten off their charges, pleading they had only done the Dark Lord's bidding while under the influence of the Imperius curse.
She had her doubts, but there was little Francis, or she could do, and even if she could do anything, she wouldn't. The first priority would always be family.
She also hadn't heard of any other major news for about 6 months now, likely due to the strong pressure of the ministry that was keeping all the elusive Death Eaters in line, like the one who murdered the Bones family.
"Perhaps," she said to his question after giving it some thought.
A/N: You might be wondering how long before MC goes to Hogwarts and starts really exploring magic. There is what is still left.
1. Moving Houses
2. A Surprise Visit
3. Letter Of Concern
Each of these subjects will only have about 2 to 4 chapters dedicated to them, so not much time is left before Henry is off to Hogwarts. I will also be doing some major time skips in the spirit of wrapping up his early years before Hogwarts.