Disclaimer: All recognizable characters do not belong to me. Labyrinth characters belong to Jim Henson. Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Fiona Phillips belongs to the So Weird universe.
Author's Notes: Technically, this story is a sequel/companion fic to my "Between the Stars", which detailed the Jareth's trial for his deeds during the movie Labyrinth. In that story, I made several references to other fandoms, including to that of Harry Potter and Hogwarts. This story is built around the revealment that Sarah's parents attended Hogwarts once upon a time ago.
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He remembered that kitchen, from the house they lived in in Simsbury, Connecticut. He had been five that day. His birthday had been a week earlier, and there was still chocolate cake leftover in the freezer, with that peppermint stripe ice cream that he loved so much. Sarah and Jareth had only left that morning, having spent eight days in the Aboveground, leaving the control of Jareth's kingdom to his and Sarah's good friend, Lady Serena. Sarah was pregnant with their first child, and their parents kept exclaiming over her, his mother and Sarah spending hours at that kitchen table talking about how to decorate the nursery, about whether to have a nanny, whether to educate the child Aboveground when he or she was older.
He remembered that kitchen. It was white and tan, with maplewood shelving and cupboards, speckled tiles, and a glass table that his mother had brought when she had married his father, saying that it was the only thing she had left from her parents. He remembered sitting at that table a week earlier, Sarah and Jareth, his parents, his mother's other children from her first marriage, his half-siblings Blaise and Fyre, and he, sitting behind the cake, huffing to blow out the candles. Blaise and Fyre weren't often home, usually attending a boarding school in England, spending the holidays with their father who lived in Wales, in the United Kingdom, but always spent a few weeks in the States with their mother. Blaise had graduated that spring before Sarah, but had missed her graduation due to his traveling in Italy and Greece for research; he had sent a card and gift in the post, and Sarah had spent hours giggling and exclaiming over it, almost immediately finding him, thanking him, the two of them spending several minutes on the phone comparing stories, before Sarah had to go, dinner almost ready. Fyre arriving specifically that week for his birthday, her not yet in school, but living with her father primarily. Blaise had showed him maps of where he lived, promising to show him the United Kingdom one day when he was a little bit older.
He remembered wanting to see England. His father and Sarah's mother were originally from England, having met in school there. His father still had friends there, sometimes receiving strange letters in the post from one Remus J. Lupin, and for a little while, only two years really, a one Sirius Black. Usually those Sirius letters were tucked inside with the Remus letters. His father never read those letters now out loud, but sometimes Toby heard his father and his mother talking about them in whispered tones after he was supposed to be asleep. He remembered asking Blaise about it one time, and Blaise just shrugging, not giving him any answer. How once he found those letters on the kitchen table, all of them, every single one. He remembered that kitchen.
He remembered that kitchen. He remembered that his fifth birthday had been a week earlier, and that he found those letters, and his father sat him down, and explained to him that he was not like ordinary boys, that he was what was called a wizard. That he was a wizard, that Karen was a witch, that Sarah's mother had been a witch, and that he was a wizard.
"What about Sarah?" Toby asked.
He remembered that conversation. Remembered how his father explained that Sarah was what known as a squib, born into a pure wizarding family, but showing no magic abilities of her own. That he and his first wife –Sarah's mother—, met while studying at Hogwarts, that he was in the Gryffindor house, that his best friends were one James Potter, one Sirius Black, one Remus Lupin, and one Peter Pettigrew, that he roomed with them for seven years, and that Linda McCort was in the house Ravenclaw, that they started dating in their sixth year, married only two years after graduating. That they had fought in what was now known as the First War, on the side of Good, under the leadership of Dumbledore. That after their side won the war, they were disheartened from the loss of James and Lily Potter, of the apparent betrayal of Sirius Black, and that they gave up magic, and moved to the States to raise Sarah, harkening their leaving to the decision of wanting to raise their coming daughter in peace. That Linda died when Sarah was only seven years old.
"And Mommy?" Toby asked.
Robert explained that Karen was three years ahead of him and Linda, that she was in the house Sytherin, and dated and married a one Martin Zabini, also of Slytherin, not long after they graduated, that she was part of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissus Black's gang, and had dated a Severus Snape before she dated Martin Zabini, that they had their two children, two children of magic from another pure wizarding family. That they re-met when Sarah was ten, Blaise was eleven and Fyre was eight. That they married, and that they had had him, Toby when Sarah was thirteen, and Blaise was fourteen, and Fyre was eleven.
Toby remembered the way his father sounded, a combination of regret and fear and hesitance, of relief. He remembered all the hushings his mother had done around Blaise and Fyre when they used to practice what he now realized was magic under her supervision. Remembered how Karen had admitted that she had renounced what she had called the Death Eaters, and had spent the War in hiding, that she was almost disheartened to learn that both her children were Slytherins.
He remembered that kitchen. Remembered how his father allowed him to read all those letters, and how he liked Remus Lupin just from what he read. He remembered that day. Remembered that day a year exactly later when his parents informed him that they moving to England, to a quiet town not far from Salisbury. He remembered that kitchen, remembered how glad Sarah had been that she could now visit them there, remembered how glad he had been, thinking it was closer to the Underground, knowing it was closer to where Blaise and Fyre lived, hoping that one day he too would be in Hogwarts.
"But what about Sarah?" Toby had asked that day in the kitchen.
"She's learning a different kind of magic now," Robert explained. "A magic that only Jareth can teach her. She has a knack for it, magic I mean, she was just never meant to learn our kind of magic."
Toby remembered believing. He remembered that kitchen.
Toby remembered that kitchen. Even here he was, in his fifth year at Hogwarts, having adapted an almost perfect British accent, he sometimes still couldn't believe that he was really here. But then there were a lot of things he still couldn't believe.
Blaise was a professor, teaching joint classes in Arithmancy, Runes and Astronomy, having married a young witch he met while conducting research in the States, a one Fiona Phillips, now the professor of Muggle Studies. Sarah and Jareth had two children, eight year old Jareth Tobias Quinn and three year old Nova Linda. He had met the famous Harry Potter, who he had known before only from his father finally started talking, the famous Harry Potter who now taught him Defense Against the Dark Arts.
He had lost his parents. That had been the hardest, losing his parents in what was now considered to be the Second Great War. Having to now spend holidays with Sarah and Jareth in the Underground.
Maybe that second part wasn't too terrible.
He had friends, three best friends in fellow Gryffindors Mark Evans and Darwin Weasley, and Hufflepuff Kara Winthrop.
And, he knew, he knew that he actually did belong here. More than he had ever belonged in Simsbury, Connecticut.
