The girl nodded, looking brightly up at the adults, and she pulled Padfoot gently by
the ear and led him out of the room.
"Carina?" Mia asked, eyes wide.
"Constellation name," Draco said knowingly.
"Not just that," Mia laughed at the coincidence—at fate. "The constellation Carina
contains the star Canopus. It's the second brightest in the sky."
"What's the first?" Astoria asked.
Mia and Draco shared a grin. "Sirius."
June 10th, 2007"This is a very special necklace," Mia said as she handed it to Regulus, who observed
each side of the pendant with interest, noting both the Potter and Black family crests.
"Draco gave it to me the day I married your father."
The seven-year-old nodded thoughtfully, looking focused as he was likely trying to
remember what his parents had told him to say to Carina. He had taken to her immediately,
tugging on her hair the same way he did with Hope. The way he tried to do once with Lily
before Ginny had told him that unless you were siblings, pulling on a girl's hair meant you
wanted to kiss them.
But Carina was different.
She had been living with them for weeks, and, despite Tilly tucking her in her own
bed in the room that used to belong to Mia, she crawled out each and every night, finding
her way into Regulus's room and tucking herself in beside him. When Teddy, Hope, Jamie,
and Albus spent the night a week earlier, the adults woke early the next morning to find all
of their children piled together in one large bed, curled around Carina.
It was that night that Sirius and Mia had taken Regulus aside and told them of their
plan to adopt her.
Regulus stepped forward, trying to appear formal, but his stark resemblance to his
father made that nearly impossible as far as Mia was concerned. He looped the necklace