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There's a little boy wearing a green hat and crouching down in a big cardboard box. It was the most alluring out of all of his loot. His cheeks and mouth are smudged with something green, as well as the poms hanging from the ties on his earflaps.

His mother is sitting by the box and asking, "Where's my birthday boy?"

He hops up so she can see him, arms outstretched, and cries out, "Sah-pahs!"

"Surprise!" she cries back, picking him up out of the box and twirling around with him while he laughs.

"Happy Birthday, Cepheus," she tells him, giving him a kiss on his cheek.

Cepheus gives her a kiss back and plays with the earflaps on his hat.

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It takes a few attempts by Guppy to get Fry to go over with the present (the first time he misunderstood and unwrapped it, and the second time he took it to the wrong patron).

The third time he carries the box to Cepheus, puts it down, then walks off.

"Fry, you're supposed to say Happy Birthday." Guppy says.

"Happy Birthday." Fry says.

"Not to me, to Cepheus." Guppy slowly takes his hand and leads him over. He's got Coral on his hip so it takes a bit of wriggling.

Inside the box is a toy ship for playing in the bath with.

"Oh look, darling," Mia says, putting Cepheus on the floor.

Cepheus, having already gotten some practice, rips into the present with gusto. Or tries, anyway. But he does like the paper. Mia gives him a hand and gets the box open.

"Oh, look at this, you've got a lovely toy boat."

"Bah?" Cepheus asks, reaching for the boat with interest.

Mia hands it to him and he pets it.

"What do we say, Cepheus?"

"Bah?"

"We say 'thank you' dear."

"Bay-boo," he says before getting distracted by his poms again and playing with them, one hand still holding the ship.

Fry watches Cepheus. Coral, once put on the floor, gets on her hands and feet and does her unusual little deer-like crawling over to the paper. She picks a bit up and looks at it.

"Probably not as exciting as magic toys, but I figured little wizards still take baths." Guppy says.

"The bath eated my finger." Fry says.

"It didn't eat your finger, you stuck it down the plughole."

"Oh, he likes his not-magic toys plenty. His favorites are his plush animals, I think. But he does like bath time, don't you?"

"Dada!" he says with glee.

"Yes, you and Daddy have fun splashing. One of the good things, I think, about having a wizard specializing in water magic. You'll be happy to show Daddy your new boat."

Mia straightens Cepheus's hat while he goes back to the paper. He doesn't seem to notice Coral messing with the paper or, if he does, he doesn't care. He blows air through his lips, making a buzzing type sound.

Coral sits down and rubs her hands together. Guppy glances at her.

"Bath later, Coral." he says, ruffling her hair.

"Bath time seven O'Clock." Fry says.

"And your bath time is later, too," Mia tells Cepheus. "Though you've probably been wearing the icing from your birthday cake long enough."

Once she starts getting near him with a wipe from the diaper bag, Cepheus gets himself up and tries to get into the box.

"He had so much fun with his cake," she says. "He's so cute."

"Cake please." Fry says.

"Not now, it's dinner soon." Guppy says.

"EH!" Coral says.

"Sorry Col, I don't know the sign for cake yet." Guppy says. Then adding to Mia. "Have you heard of baby signing? The kids started picking it up at nursery so we've started doing some at home."

"I've not heard of that. Though I think Cepheus tries to sing sometimes. Or he thinks he's in competition with musical instruments on who can make the most noise."

Cepheus peeks out from behind his box.

"Cepheus, do you want to sing?"

"Bawaba," the baby replies.

"That might mean he wants his storybook," Mia says.

"You make a hand sign and say the word at the same time." Guppy says. "If you can, anyway. Coral can't talk yet, but she can do a couple of signs, like 'teddy' and 'drink'. Fry, do you know the sign for book?"

"Book." Fry puts his hands together, then opens them out, like charades.

"Interesting. I didn't know there was such a language."

"Well it comes from British Sign Language - that's for deaf people - and Makaton - which is for people with learning disabilities. Some of the kids at nursery have communication problems, so they teach everyone signs." Guppy says.

"One of Fry's classmate's mums was crying the other day because after four years of never getting any communication from her son he signed 'Mummy drink'."

"Goodness. I've not seen anything like that."

Cepheus comes out from behind the box and tugs on Mia's skirt.

"I don't think I've got that problem, though."

"Mama?" the baby asks.

"What do you want, sweetie?" she asks back. "Are you ready for me to clean your face?"

He was about to walk away but Mia catches him and starts gently wiping the icing off.

"You're sweet enough without wearing that icing all day," she says as he tries to push her hand away, scrunching his face up against the wiping.

"Well it's a nursery that takes kids with complex special needs; most nurseries don't." Guppy says.

"Dada!" Coral says.

"Yes sweetie?" Guppy says.

"Dada." Coral says again.

"I'm glad I'm able to leave Cepheus with Mother on the days I teach. And I'm glad I've got students that are able to handle one class a week. It keeps us all very busy but it also means I get more days to spend with Cepheus like today."

Mia finishes scrubbing her son's face and moves on to his shirt and the poms of his hat.

"But even if this was a work day for me, I would skip it for Cepheus's birthday. He's only going to turn one once, after all."

"Yeah. I shift my days so that I can take Fry to a few things, like the day he visited his school. Most of the other staff are glad to have an extra weekend day.

As for hours, we try and get it so that one of us takes the kids to nursery and the other picks up."

With Cepheus all cleaned up, the birthday boy is let loose to continue playing.

"Draco sometimes gets Cepheus from Mother but it's usually quicker if I do it. He's getting busy with his shop, even thinking about opening another potions shop somewhere out east. But he never hesitates to take a day off for us."

Like that lovely romantic evening she and Draco got to indulge in recently.

"We can't leave Fry with his grandma any more." Guppy says.

"I arrested her." Fry comments.

"Yes. And his aunts will only take him in an emergency. It's not much help if they just have Coral, so we have to sort out so that we can cover everything nursery won't."

"I didn't think you were, anyway," Mia comments. "I know I wouldn't if any of Cepheus's grandparents behaved the same way."

It's why Draco had been worried to tell his parents that they were going to be grandparents at all.

"Well we weren't, but she phoned us up one time begging some time with Coral, so we gave her another chance. Which was a mistake." Guppy says. "If she wants to spend time with Coral so much she should be prepared to treat Fry properly to do so."

"I've never been a fan of people in families who play favorites," Mia says, rolling her eyes at the described behavior. "Draco's family is similar, at least on his mother's side. We're just lucky his parents have decided to look past that for Cepheus's sake. They take very good care of him when left in charge."

Cepheus pushes his box some.

"Cepheus, you like spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, don't you?"

"Gam-ma?" the child parrots back, looking somewhat expectant.

"I don't like Granny." Fry says. "She called me a narsehole anna noolygun."

"She shouldn't have called you that, but you had chained her to the radiator." Guppy says. "So it's understandable that she was a bit upset."

"Upset or not, she was the adult in that situation. Though she certainly didn't act like one from what I hear."

Mia shakes her head.

"I don't think I like your Granny, either, Fry. But Cepheus has a nice Grandma and Grandpa. And a nice Nana, too."

"I like Nana." Fry says.

"Yeah, Nana is my grandma." Guppy says. "So she's your great-grandma."

"But she smells funny." Fry adds.

"That's not very nice." Guppy says. "She just wears old lady perfume."

Mia covers her mouth. It may not be nice but it still made her smile. Children being blunt can be funny.

She'll probably feel different when Cepheus can start making proper sentences.

"You know, my niece Rachel said something about babies smelling funny back when she first got to meet Cepheus. Jessica's reaction was to remind Rachel that she was a baby once."

"Coral smells when she does a poo." Fry says.

"Yes, thank you Fry. Everyone has to poo." Guppy says. "You're a big boy and don't need nappies in the day but Coral is still a baby."

Mia shakes her head but she is smiling.

"On the nicer side of this subject, Cepheus likely still smells like cake."

Cepheus has pushed his box over so that the opening is on the side and he crawls in. He tries closing the flaps but they refuse to stay, quickly turning into an exercise of frustration and futility. He whines at the box for not closing.

"Cepheus, there's no reason to fuss," Mia tells him. "If you don't like the box, we can put it away."

He reaches for Mia's hand and pulls it so it holds one flap closed while he closes another flap. It springs back open once he lets go.

"Mamaaa..." he whines as the box disobeys.

"No, the box is going to stay open unless you hold it. That's how it works."

And Mia's not boxing him up all the way, no sir.

Fry goes over to the box and pulls open the flap.

"Me." he says. "Out!"

"No Fry, that's Cepheus's box." Guppy says.

Fry whines. Nice little confined space!

The command just prompts Cepheus to start crying, the flap forgotten for now as he rubs his little fists into his eyes.

"Now then, the box isn't making anyone happy right now. We're going to put it away and play with something else."

She takes Cepheus out of the box and sits him on the floor as he continues to blubber.

"Reducio!" Mia says, and the box shrinks down until it's small enough to put in her pocket.

With that done, she goes to Cepheus's diaper bag and pulls out a green kitty toy made of yarn.

"Here, you can pet your Mow," she tells Cepheus, giving him the kitty.

He starts to calm down some, petting the offered toy.

"I really must do something for Scorpius. That kitty toy he gave to Cepheus can calm him down like nothing else."

Fry jumps back in alarm when the box starts shrinking, and starts to shriek.

"Hey, calm down." Guppy says, reaching for his hand and encouraging him away from Cepheus. "It was just a bit of magic."

"Oh goodness, I always forget while I'm here," she says as the shriek causes Cepheus to start crying again.

A quick muffling charm on her son's hat, though, and he's calming down once again, petting Mow without paying attention to what's going on with Fry.

"I'm sorry about that, Guppy. I just wanted to be sure there wasn't going to be any more fighting over the box."

"It's okay." Guppy says to Mia, turning to try and get eye contact with Fry.

"Fry, why are you crying?"

"Don't want to get littler and littler!" Fry wails between sobs.

"You won't, it was just the box." Guppy says soothingly. "Mia won't shrink you."

Fry breaks away and crawls into the gap between two booths, so he can calm himself down.

Coral stares at them all like they're bonkers.

Cepheus, too, once he looks up in order to show off his kitty. Honestly, Malfoy boys and their toys...

"Will he be all right?" Mia asks.

"Yeah, that's just how he calms himself, rather than being cuddled." Guppy says. "He likes to crawl into little spaces, that's why he liked the box. He'll be fine."

Coral crawls over onto Daddy's lap.

"This one's a cuddlebug though."

"Ah, okay. I'm sorry again for startling him."

Cepheus is just sitting and hugging his cat toy, glad that the commotion is over.

"Cepheus is rather cuddly, too," Mia comments. "And he's usually not one to object. Though I'm sure that he's glad to be a bit more independent now that he can walk some."

"Coral gets double hugs, because we hug her when we want to hug Fry." Guppy says, grinning and snuggling his little daughter. "And because if she starts crying then he has a meltdown."

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