24 September 1891 — Crouch Home, Swallowbury

The ten days since Nora had been born passed in something of a blur, and if that was true for Ben it must have been doubly true for Melody. The part-time night nurse they'd hired should have been giving Melody plenty of time to rest, but with the cradle still occupying the corner of her bedroom Ben was sure that she was still waking up fairly often. The first few nights he'd been startled out of bed every time Nora cried, worried that there was something the matter and ready to run for a professional at the first sign of danger. After being reassured time and time again that this was all quite normal, he'd stopped getting up in the middle of the night, but he was still waking at least once or twice to the sound of Nora's noise across the hall. If it was waking him, it must have been waking Melody, too.

He'd gotten home from work a little earlier today, and he'd been eager to spend time with his daughter. There wasn't much you could do with a ten day old baby, but since it was a pleasant enough day he'd decided to bundle her up in his arms and walk around the little garden behind their home. He spent as much time looking at her as he did looking at anything else, and it was hard to tell what, if anything, she was looking at, but she seemed to enjoy it. At one point Ben looked away from her for only a few seconds, and when he glanced back down in his arms she was somehow fast asleep, despite having been wide-eyed only a moment earlier.

Walking as carefully as he could so as not to jostle her, Ben made his way into the house and up the stairs to Melody's room. "She's asleep," he whispered to his wife, then gently laid Nora down in her cradle. He didn't spend much time in here — Melody's room was still her sanctuary, and the birth hadn't changed their relationship so much that he thought he was welcome here whenever he pleased — so it was the first time he'd gotten a look at the baby blanket in Nora's crib. He ran his fingers over the pattern at the corner, where it wouldn't disturb his daughter, then glanced over at Melody. "Did someone give us this?" he asked quietly, nodding towards the blanket.

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There was no true way to know the exhaustion which accompanied having a newborn baby until actually having one. Melody awoke for every chirp, squeal, cry, or deep breath Nora made and was rarely able to fall back asleep until confident her daughter was well tended to. The nurse was helpful in that sense, she supposed, though truthfully Melody would have rather gone without a nurse at all. It simply wasn't done in her old world though and the last thing they needed were more rumors.

The awful part about having a nurse was the aching in her breasts at every missed feeding. The fullness and tendency to release milk at the very thought of the word would supposedly lessen in time, not that she believed much of anything the midwife had to say anymore. For all the incompetent woman knew, Melody would continue leaking onto every spare scrap of fabric they had until the end of her days.

Melody was dozing when Reuben came in and scooped Nora up, and since the baby had eaten only a short while ago and the nurse was to take the next one she hadn't moved to follow. Suprisingly, trusting him with the baby came almost as naturally as breathing. Perhaps it was his assistance birthing Nora or maybe it was just the fact that he was her father, but Melody hadn't anticipated trusting him at all. In every one of her fantasies throughout the pregnancy, she had followed them both like a hawk. Regardless of why, she was relieved at how hands on he was with her. Reuben was as good a father as he was a person and that was all that mattered.

The quiet return of Nora was still loud enough to wake her from the short nap. Stirring, Melody sat up in bed, her hair a wild mess and nightgown half off her shoulder. She blinked at him a few times while processing the question until she realized he was talking about the blanket. "No, I made it," she answered sleepily after a moment. The blending of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor was a difficult concept at first. Eventually, Melody had settled into a pattern of maroon and bronze with the Gryffindor lions and Ravenclaw eagles decorating the edges. She had completed it only a few weeks before the birth. "Do you like it?"

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Ben nodded, not sure what to say. As a gift it would have been a nice gesture, simple and probably superficial. Hogwarts houses were fairly common knowledge, so anyone who was friendly with them could have put it together when shopping for them. The fact that Melody had made it made it different. She clearly hadn't made it in the last few days, so that meant she'd been working on it while she was pregnant. Things hadn't been good between the two of them then, and she hadn't told him about this project. She didn't have to include the Gryffindor lions. She could just as easily have chosen colors and patterns that suited her tastes and left him out of the equation entirely, but she hadn't.

"It's nice," he said quietly, clearing his throat to try and displace some of the emotion that had welled up in his chest. "I, ah. I didn't know you could do this sort of thing."

He didn't really know much about his wife at all, he realized.

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MJ made this <3

Melody pulled her night dress further up her shoulders and rubbed the sleep from her eyes once more. The blanket hadn't been a secret, she'd worked on it just as often in the parlor as she had her bedroom. That he hadn't noticed was mildly disappointing, but what more could she have expected from him? Melody had very nearly approached him about living a separate life again midway through her pregnancy. It was lucky they were speaking now at all.

"It was one of the few skills I enjoyed learning while a Rose." She shrugged. The blanket wasn't a big deal; Melody had been mostly wanting something to distract herself early in the pregnancy.

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Ben nodded, again not sure what he could say. He knew he shouldn't linger too long over Nora's crib, or else he might wake the baby, but he couldn't help but run his eyes over it again. He had never had an eye for this sort of thing, and never learned the skill himself, but it seemed neatly made. Not a stitch out of place.

"It's nice," he said again, his voice a little thick. He was aware he was repeating himself, but he didn't know what else to say. He decided to try and make a joke; he was more comfortable with jokes than with heavy emotion. "Though maybe we should have a Slytherin-Hufflepuff one, too. Just in case she doesn't end up following in her parent's footsteps."

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MJ made this <3

Melody was struggling to determine whether his odd behavior was truly odd or if she was simply too tired to function properly. She followed his gaze back to the blanket hanging over the edge of the bassinet. Should she not have included Gryffindor? Should she have chosen any other theme? Between her illness and the state of their relationship she'd been reluctant to decorate the nursery with any one direction. Perhaps she ought to have followed through on a the bird decor she once considered...

"It's - " just a blanket. Except, it wasn't. Melody had worked on it for months, often redoing lines of stitches in the event of an unnoticed mistake. It wasn't just a blanket, for she could have left it with its neat stripes and not embroidered so many small details from their houses.

Pausing, Melody sat up further in bed. His joke had trapped her in a sense, for if she were to laugh it off in agreement he would likely leave. A concluded joke was a natural end of a conversation and, well, she didn't really want him to go yet. "Are you alright?" Melody asked instead and gestured towards the end of the bed for him to sit if he'd like.

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At her gesture Ben pulled himself away from Nora's crib and crossed closer to her bed, though he didn't take the invitation to sit. He tried to swallow back some of the thick feeling in his chest, but it persisted. He waved a hand vaguely over towards the blanket, as though he could communicate through gesture alone.

"It's just. You didn't have to do that. With the lions," he said, looking at her knees rather than her face.

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MJ made this <3

"Oh." Melody replied, her eyes searching his face for any indication what he meant by that. His demeanor was so off that she couldn't tell whether or not he meant it as a positive. "I can make a different one if you'd prefer?" Her confusion was obvious in both her tone and expression.

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"No," Ben said quickly. "That's not what I meant. It's — it's perfect." He glanced at Melody's face and tried to flash a smile, though it might have come out too wobbly to be properly convincing. "I just meant — you didn't have to. I'm surprised you decided to put them in. Given how things were, with us."

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MJ made this <3

"She's still a piece of us both," Melody attempted to explain as her cheeks flamed in embarrassment. By the time she realized her romantic relationship with Reuben had come to an end it was too late to begin a second blanket and have it on hand for Eleanora's birth.

It was her turn for her eyes to drop to the bedspread. "Including you was never a question, regardless of whatever happened or will happen with us."

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Ben climbed onto the edge of her bed now. He pulled his knees up to his chest and looked across at her, expression conflicted.

"What will happen with us?" he asked quietly.

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MJ made this <3

Of all the conversations Melody expected to have with Reuben today, this was not one of them. She'd become stupidly hopeful once more that the happy lull they entered upon the birth of Eleanora would last forever, as if a child would solve all their problems and heal all their wounds. Eleanora couldn't of course, no child could, but she had hoped the happy lull would last longer than a few days.

Melody curled her legs to allow him more room on the bed. "Well, it all depends on what we want, I suppose." What he wanted, really. Reuben was always the one to want distance and out of their relationship, not she.

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Ben moved when she did, filling up the empty space she left on the bed when she curled her legs. He swallowed a thick lump that had risen in his throat. "I want things to work," he said quietly. Of course, they both knew that was easier said than done.

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MJ made this <3

Wanting things to work and actually putting in the effort to make them work were two vastly different things. This wasn't the first time she'd heard the sentiment from him, nor would it likely be the last. But maybe, this time would be different. Maybe this was the new start they'd both been waiting for.

Maybe this time they would actually work.

"I do, too." She told him sincerely.

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A flicker of a smile crossed Ben's face. He knew it wasn't that easy, but this was a start. Her tone sounded sincere, and they had Nora now. If she was really willing to give him a chance, and he could really make an effort, maybe it could work.

"Can I stay with you tonight?" he asked hopefully.

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MJ made this <3

Had Reuben not suffered through a crash course on the mess that was labor, Melody might have disagreed. She was still bleeding heavily and her breasts leaked through her dress seemingly every hour. But, he had handled her water breaking on his bare feet well enough and had delivered their daughter without running in terror. Maybe he would be alright with any other accidental bodily fluids she expelled.

"Okay," she agreed with a small smile. Sex was out of the question, of course. Even if Miss Moony hadn't encouraged her against it Melody would've shied away from any advances. Everything was still sore and her stomach was oddly wobbly. "Just ... Nora wakes often and I'm still - well, nothing is as it was before pregnancy." She was blushing down to her toes.

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