The higher they went upstairs, Edwyn ceased to babble and became rather quiet. The little golden-haired boy nervously clutched his tattered bunny rabbit to his chest. "Is this your first time upstairs, Edwyn?" Peregrine asked his nephew with concern.
Edwyn slowly shook his head. "Uncle Beat says that I'm mostly a wizard and not much of a house elf. But I'm good at moving about," the little boy proudly said. "I can pop into almost any room in the house because I can feel the house magic."
"Interesting," Peregrine truthfully murmured rather intrigued by the natural manifestation of house elf of his nephew that could be controlled, unlike most wizarding children.
"But Grandmama and Uncle Beat don't want me doing so," Edwyn much more subdued replied. "They said that father and grandfather are terribly mean and will hurt me if they catch sight of me. I won't be in trouble will I, Uncle Per-Per?"
Peregrine almost missed a step at being called uncle and uncle per-per at that. "No, your father-, my brother has gone far away. And your grandfather is very ill, he is at St. Mungos. He won't ever leave and return."
"Oh, good," Edwyn said with an innocent smile before they emerged out into the kitchens where the anxious figure of Beat awakes.
"Uncle Beat, I met Uncle Per-Per!" Edwyn excitedly cried out to the house elf. "He says, I can live up here now and you too! And that I can get a wand and go to Hogwarts someday!" He excitedly babbled all the things he was going to do and the adventures he was going to have.
"Beat is most happy!" Beat tearfully sniffed as he blinked back tears and tugged on his ears from emotion.
"Why don't you help Beat make cookies for tea?" Meredith whispered affectionately to her grandson to distract him. "Afterwards, we can pick your room together!"
"Yes, please!" Edwyn said as Peregrine carefully set the four-year-old down, who happily went to help his uncle Beat make cookies.
Waving goodbye to the four-year-old, Peregrine and his mother make their way to the study, where Peregrine firmly closes the door behind him. "Is Edwyn, Daiman's son?" Peregrine roughly asked not wanting to waste any time.
"Yes," Meredith tiredly replied as she sat down. "You brother hated all the house elves after I took you away. Ultimately, he blamed them for separating the two of you that dreadful day." She paused and scrunched up her face with terrible old pain. "Under your father's hand that hatred only grew and became twisted into something so terrible that even now it churns my stomach to think of what he did."
Peregrine fingers dug into his palm as he asked a question he had never dared to ask before. "Then mother, who was Tilly's father?"
Meredith does not reply as Peregrine turns ash-colored and green. "How, how could he!" Peregrine raged. "No matter the depraved mind that Father possessed how could he possibly permit and turn a blind eye to his own son forcing upon his own daughter!"
"I never fully understood your father's sickly, twisted mentality," Meredith quietly explained. "But of this much I am certain and that in his mind Tilly was not his daughter but rather a mere house elf."
"And you, mother, how could you permit for such an atrocity to occur under this roof?" Peregrine exploded in fury, but his rage vanished in an instant as he saw his mother's weary, resigned gaze.
"I did not learn of what had transpired until it was far too late," Meredith quietly said. "If it is any consolation that horrid act never occurred again under this roof. I did not permit it."
"I find that hard to believe, Mother," Peregrine bluntly replied folding his arms over his chest. "Considering the fact that Tilly was born and lived in our HOME."
A warm-less grin appears on Meredith's face. "Tilly was born from one of your father's less than savory excursions at the Rowle manor shortly before our marriage. I do not know why the Rowle household permitted the conception nor much less the pregnancy considering the scandal that would arise. Then again, it was prudent decision on their part should your father attempt ever to turn again them."
Meredith let out a tired sigh. "By the time, I learned of the conception of Tilly, your father and I were newlyweds. Had my father known of the matter he would not have wedded me to your father, he would have broken the marriage contract despite the cost. The truth of Tilly's conception came for too late to save me and I kept the truth from your grandfather as it would have only served to send him early to the grave."
Meredith gazed at her son with a world-weary gaze. "Mere hours after her birth, Tilly was promptly delivered to the Mulciber household. I would have acknowledged the child as my own, but your father did not consider a house elf to be worthy of even inheriting the family name. He would have ordered the child drowned, but instead, I bound the child to the family as a house elf."
"In truth, I am as much to blame for what has transpired in this household as your father," Meredith gloomily said. "In retrospect, I should have sent the child far away, but I feared the stretch of your father's reach. In the end, I gave the child over to the house elves, and Beat's mother raised Tilly as her own."
Peregrine opens his mouth to speak, before closing it again. He acutely understood the reason for his mother's course of action. He wanted to argue otherwise, but he understood all too well the might and power that his father had wielded in the past. Had Tilly been sent to another household his father could have easily purchased or forced the other household to comply with his evil desires no matter what they might be. The irony of the situation was that only Mulciber Citadel would ensure that Tilly survived until adulthood.
"And as for Tilly and Damian-," Meredith's voice broke for a moment before her face hardened. "Your father had no choice for I threatened him with publicizing the knowledge that he had lain with a house elf. He would not have survived society's reaction and the pureblood family's scorn. And so, he did what I asked, and as the master of the household he ordered Tilly to never lay with Damian again."
"What a complete and utter mess," Peregrine murmured with a sigh, before slumping into a nearby chair. The two of them are silent for a moment except for the ticking of the clock with each in their own thoughts.
After some time, Peregrine raises his head and frowns. "But mother why did Damian permit the pregnancy. As the father, Damian would have known that Tilly carried his seed."
Meredith is silent for a long time until she softly says, "The younger brother that you knew and speak of ceased to exist many years ago, my son. But at times, very rarely, a small spark of light could still be seen within the dark depths of his soul. I do not know as to the reason why he permitted for the child to be born nor much less why he kept the existence of Edwyn a secret from your father. Still, I like to think that spark of light that existed within Damian, and despite everything was still able to shine through the depths of his dark, corrupted soul."
"Bun-bun," Peregrine softly whispered as he intently gazed at his mother. "Damian left bun-bun for Edwyn."
"It was the only fatherly gift that Damian was ever capable of gifting to his own son," Meredith quietly whispered. "That and well, Edwyn adores the tattered old rabbit. It is his sole companion."
Peregrine nails dug deep into his hands from a turmoil of emotions. He lamented the loss of his younger brother and the what if's. The other portion of him was furious with his father and nor could he forgive the actions of his younger brother against Tilly-. Tilly their unknown half-sister.