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Narcissa smiled.

Karen could probably count the number of times her mother had ever smiled at her on one hand. So she knew right away, this wasn't good...

"My dear Madonna..." The elder witch addressed her long-gone daughter. "You're looking... Well." She seemed to have to struggle just to manage such a simple compliment, and from how she was glancing around at her apartment, her lips twitching to keep the smile up, it was clear she wouldn't be able to even attempt to say anything nice about her abode.

But of course. The entire apartment complex wasn't even half as big as Malfoy Manor, after all. Karen's home probably felt like a cell to her.

"And you, mother." Karen returned neutrally, standing behind her son and placing her hands protectively on his shoulders. "I'm... Glad, to see you survived that terrible war..."

'Glad' wasn't exactly the word she'd use if her mother wasn't standing right in front of her. Not that she wanted her to die, but then, if she had, this massively awkward and inconvenient little meeting wouldn't be taking place...

"Indeed." Narcissa returned, in a tone that suggested she knew her real thoughts about the matter. "And you - I see you've settled into your muggle lifestyle here. Or do they call your kind 'No Maj' here in the States?"

"Mother." Karen abruptly sighed, her frown verging on a glare. "Why don't you just get to why you're really here? I know you wouldn't have come if I didn't suddenly have something you wanted..." She added, clutching her son's shoulders a little tighter.

There was barely a pause before Narcissa smoothly responded, "Very well. But aren't you going to at least going to introduce me to my grandson first?"

There was a longer, more reluctant pause from Karen. "...His name is Cornelius. Cornelius, this is my mother, Narcissa."

Shy and silent so far, her son finally spoke up as the attention was turned upon him. "M-Mom...? How come she called you 'Madonna'...?"

Narcissa crossed her arms, offended. "He doesn't even know your real name? I know I asked you to keep the family name a secret, but your first? The name I gave you as a baby...?"

No longer able to keep the glare off her face, Karen steeled a look back at the older woman and replied, "Seeing as how you burned my middle name off the family tree when you found out I had no magic, I thought you wouldn't mind if I changed it, too."

"Oh come now." Narcissa rolled her eyes. "My poor dear sister was imprisoned in Azkaban for her loyalty to the Dark Lord. Bellatrix would have slapped me senseless if she ever found out I dishonored her by letting a squib keep her name." She sighed softly after that. "But then, considering the fact that she was killed in the war, I suppose she's beyond minding it now, if you wanted to reclaim your old name."

"I'll pass." Karen replied immediately, without even a hint of hesitation.

Her mother's eye twitched with restrained anger. She would have slapped her for the impudence, had she still not gotten what she came for. "Alright, Madonna - That's quite enough of this cattiness. You may find it hard to believe but I'm not the same person I used to be. I'm not the same person you once knew. The war changed me. I won't hide the fact that we lost, but I don't even care about that anymore... I'm just glad we're alive. We barely made it out. Your brother Draco was almost burned to death..."

"...I'm glad to hear he wasn't." This comment, at least, was sincere. Even if her brother was one of the most awful little spoiled brats she'd ever known, even if she had terribly painful memories of him shoving her down stairs, jumping on her back, choking her and whipping her to make her carry him around on her back like a horse, she still wouldn't wish such a fate upon him, or any other child.

Narcissa nodded and swallowed at her thickened throat. "So you see, I feel very differently now than I did then... I still believe we had no choice but to do what we did. To survive. But from now on, my loyalty lies only with my family..."

Stepping forward, she reached out and softly caressed Karen's cheek. Her daughter let her do so, but she was tense, and made no move to accept the false affection. "Madonna, your son is something very, very special. I put a spell upon you before you left, hoping you would someday develop your powers. Better late than never, as they say. It's a shame you have yet to do so, but this boy..."

At that point, Narcissa took her hand back, and looked down at Cornelius. "You know - Time magic is one of the most complicated forms of magic that's known of. Most children your age start out experimenting with the simplest of magic. Levitation and the like. Most wizards ten times your age couldn't do what you've managed to..."

She looked back up at her daughter once more. "You may not be able to access it, but there must be SOME magic deep down in you, to have produced such a powerful young wizard, Madonna... And, many witches and wizards died in the war... I have quite a few friends who are in want of a wife, and cannot find one. They might be willing to overlook your squib status if they knew-"

Karen cut her off there. "As 'honored' as I am to be considered as worthy -breeding material-, if ONLY in such -desperate- circumstances, I'm not interested."

Narcissa's lips flattened out into a thin line. "...That's fine." She answered tensely. "But the fact remains: Your son is extraordinary, and you're not. He belongs with his own kind. With abilities like his, he could be as powerful as the Dark Lord himself one day. Or even more powerful than that. But not without training..."

At that point Karen pulled her son in securely next to her chest, seething as she answered. "And how would you train him? You said it yourself. Most wizards ten times his age couldn't do what he did. Oh, I'm sure there's at least one or two Death Eaters capable of teaching him how to use his powers left alive in your group - And they'll teach him to use it to go back in time and revive the Dark Lord! You might not want that yourself after what he did to you, but I know you would hand my son over to save your own if you had to, without even thinking about it!"

Her mother went very quiet. She looked very, very angry. But Karen still wasn't done yet. "You have some NERVE coming here, wanting to take my son, thinking you can MANIPULATE me into letting you take him, thinking you could TEMPT me into marrying a MURDERER, just because they're magical?!"

"An -inferior- SQUIB like you has no RIGHT to judge what a wizard does!" Narcissa finally exploded, her true colors showing, dark as the dead of night. "And with or without your permission, that boy IS coming with me! You are NOT capable of raising a magical child, and I will NOT let you keep him from his destiny! Now hand. Him. OVER."

"NEVER!" Karen bellowed back, pulling her son as close as she could. But it was all for naught - Narcissa had taken out her wand, and used a spell to drag the boy over to her. Karen tried to reach for him, but Narcissa immediately cast another spell on her, one that pinned her arms behind her back and locked her legs together.

She was about to cast a silencing spell upon her too, but before she could, Karen shouted out in utter desperation as she fell the floor, like dead weight, "NOSEDIVE, SAVE HIM-!"

Despite the "don't come out no matter what you hear" rule she had insisted upon earlier, Nosedive jumped out of the closet on the spot to come to her aid, his puck-blaster withdrawn and ready to shoot. As soon as she saw the movement, Narcissa pointed her wand at him too. But she was so utterly shocked by who and what she saw come out of that closet, she had to suck in a gasp before she could think of another spell to use, and in that time, Nosedive had shot a puck at her, which struck her on her wand hand.

The impact broke at least a few fingers and sent the wand flying out of her hand and onto the ground. Then Cornelius, ever a fast-thinker, rushed to retrieve it before she did. As soon as he had a hold of the wooden wand, he brought it down over his knee like he'd seen his mother do earlier, snapping it in half.

"NOOO-!" Narcissa screamed in pain and loss, and the spell on Karen was immediately broken along with the wand.

Slowly stretching out her limbs, Karen got up, with some help from Nosedive. Narcissa stared on in shock, unable to process what she was seeing or what had just happened at first. Cornelius quickly rejoined his mother's side, and glared at the old witch resolutely, "Lady, I am NEVER going with you."

Wordlessly, Karen went over to her purse, and pulled out a wad of money. Then she approached her mother, and handed it to her. "This will be more than enough for a plane ticket home." She offered generously, knowing that her mother wouldn't be able to get back with magic, and had only gold on her person to use as currency.

At first Narcissa stared at her, glaring, unwilling to accept the offer. So Karen, in a much more forceful tone, insisted, "Take it, mother - Or do you want to be mugged and RAPED for your gold, like I was?!"

The glare fell from her mother's face, into an expression of shock and fear. She quickly accepted the money after that, snatching it from her hand as if she briefly feared that hand would strike her.

There was a pause between them before Karen added with finality. "Have a good life, mother. Please don't come back..."

It was a mirror of the last words her mother and father had said to her before she sent her away, all those years ago, though with a much nicer tone than her parents had used then, of course. A fact that wasn't lost on the witch.

She stared at the younger woman for just a second more, but in that second, she managed to spear her with all her hatred and disappointment. "...Don't ever call me your 'mother' again. Don't you dare let another soul know you share blood with me." She finally seethed through her teeth. "You're no daughter of mine... You're a FREAK."

She glanced only a second at Nosedive as she said that, before poring back at Karen, motioning at her with the wad of cash. "And by the way? This ridiculous little sum of dirty muggle money is nothing compared to the sum of gold I gave you then, and I don't care how you lost it - I WILL collect the rest of what you still owe me, one way or another..."

Upon saying that, her eyes briefly flicked down to Cornelius. Then she swiftly backed out of the room, without turning her back until she was far enough out the door to run away.

Cornelius was the first to move, a moment later. Clutching the broken ends of his estranged grandmother's wand, he turned and meekly asked his mother, "Mom... Can I go to the kitchen and have some cake?"

Karen had bought him a much bigger and more ornate cake than last year, and it still sat untouched in the fridge. It did sound very tempting to replace her problems with cake, but at the same time, the encounter she'd just had left her feeling unwilling to eat.

So she replied, "Yes, go ahead son. Just... I'll wait until later to have a piece myself, okay?"

He thanked her and then walked off to the kitchen listlessly, closing the front door on his way there.

Now alone, Karen turned and threw her arms around Nosedive, nuzzling her cheek and forehead against the crook of his neck and shoulder several times as she moaned with a mixture of exhaustion and relief, "Oh god, thank you so much Nosedive... You saved him. You saved us. I swear you're my hero..."

This time, having had expected it at least a bit more, Nosedive managed not to stiffen up so much, and returned the embrace, if not the nuzzling. "You're my hero too, Kare-Bear. You we're so brave..." He replied, squeezing her around the midsection. Of course the sensation was still exciting, but he did his best to dull it down, because he knew she didn't mean it in any sort of romantic way. She simply needed the reassurance after the trauma she had just endured...

She shook her head against him, but it was hard to tell it apart from the other pleasant sensations. "No, I really mean it, Dive... I don't want to think about what could have happened if you weren't here to protect us..."

"Then don't think about it." He insisted. "But listen, I know you just moved here and seem to like it, but, after this - I think it would make the most sense to get you a proper home with a good security system on it, at the very least..."

She gripped him tighter. "You're an angel, Dive... And... Now you know what I really am..."

He quirked his head in confusion. "You are what you've always been - A wonderful friend. But yeah, it is interesting to know what I do now. That yer mom's not just a witch figuratively, but literally!"

That finally got her to crack a smile and laugh a little. "Yes..." But then she quickly sobered up, and worried, "But... There will be others, soon..." Finally she pulled away, leaving Nosedive's thumping heart to finally slow down. "And when they come... Oh Merlin, what am I gonna do! Mother-Narcissa, she was right. I'm just a squib, a muggle, a no-magic-so-tragic no-maj. How am I going to protect him...?"

"Because I'm going to help you." Nosedive replied surely. "You don't have to do this alone anymore, Kare..."

She looked up at him. Really looked at him. Then suddenly, she reached up on the tips of her toes, and placed a kiss on the corner of his bill and cheek. "I'm sorry if that's not alright and I'll never do it again if so but I just really didn't know how else to tell you how much you mean to me! For... Just, everything..."

He slowly came to nod. "It's okay... I mean, yanno - Not in public or some paparazzi might make a big deal of it... But, it's fine in private, like this... I mean-" He let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "If you really want to again, because... Well, I feel like I should come clean about something now..." He lowered his voice then, to just above a whisper. "Um, well, you know when you rub your head on my cheek and neck when we hug...?"

She blushed, as if she already sensed what he was about to say. "Oh, um... Yes...?"

He cleared his throat to the side. "Uuuum, well... On my planet that gesture is kind of more or less seen as, kinda, uuuuuh... Romantic, in nature..." He finally concluded, in almost a squeak.

"O-Oh!" Yup, red as a radish. "I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable!"

He fidgeted further. "Well, no, it... Didn't, exactly, um... Do that..."

Karen blinked like an owl, then looked down. "Did it... Feel, good...?"

"K... Kinda, yeah..."

"...Well! That... It doesn't bother me, if it doesn't bother you!" She finally whispered in a rush.

"Oh... K-Kay... ... ..."

She was looking off towards the kitchen. He was looking the opposite direction, at the window to her balcony, where the light was shining in through her curtains, which she always kept closed when he visited. Already so used to being discrete...

"...If you could, would you please... Stay the night...?" She inquired suddenly, quick to explain, "Just tonight, just in case my mother tries to come back one more time before she leaves, or in case someone else comes in the night...?"

He nodded right away. "S-Sure..."

After Cornelius finished his cake, he came back, and him and Nosedive played video games by the tv for a good two hours, passing pop and a bag of nacho chips between them all the while. During that time, Karen baked an extra cheesy lasagna, and then they all had more cake after that.

Then Cornelius told them he was tired from all the food, and retired to his room to go to bed, after receiving a birthday kiss from his mother first, of course. It was nine PM. Her and Dive sat on the couch, the TV ignored. Neither of them were tired...

"...S-So-" They both started at first, which led to another awkward silence.

"You can, go ahead..." Nosedive mentioned a short moment later.

Karen nodded. "I, um... I just wanted you to know, it's not because of the money. At all. I'd be lying through my teeth to say I didn't want more than almost anything to show my gratitude for that, but that's not why I like hugging you. In fact, to be honest, I've never hugged anyone besides my mother and father, when I was very, very young, and my son... It's because you're just as special to me..." She quietly concluded.

Nosedive processed that quietly for a while, and then finally, he returned, "I know... I know you, Karen. I know your heart, and I believe you. Because I know you believe me too... That I didn't intend for us to get this close, that I never expected it... But I'm glad it happened. And I'd never ask for more than you're willing to give, but I want you to ask me anytime you need help with something."

She was smiling so big, and he felt so content. His heart skipped a sudden beat though, when she reached in and took one of his down and feather covered arms, and squeezed it as she laid her head down on his shoulder. And even though she seemed to be getting quite comfortable there, she felt the need to tell him further, "And... I'll do everything I can to help you too, Dive. Besides the fact that I owe you, it's because we're friends, and I... Well, I like you... I like that you enjoy eating my food so much, even though there's so many good cooks in the world... I like that we like the same music, and all the cool new stuff you've shown me. But more than anything, I love the way you treat my son..." She blushed and burrowed against his biceps. "That's why I love you..."

"...Thank you. I love you, too..." Nosedive whispered back, his heart feeling like a rising balloon. And that loneliness he had been feeling so starkly in his heart, for so many years... He had no reason to feel it anymore.

He leaned his head against hers. "...I promise I'll protect you both. Because you're as special to me as my own family too. And well... You guys are just plain special. Magic or not, your son is going to be an asset to your entire species. And that special kid came from you... Because you're magical in your own way, too."

"...Thank you..." Was all she could think to say anymore. She was getting drowsy now, on his warm, soft arm. She supposed she ought to get up to go to bed, but... It was so comfortable where she was...

And Nosedive didn't seem to want to bother moving from where he was, either.

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"Mom...?"

Karen blinked, having been shaken awake suddenly when it seemed like she just nodded off, still on Nosedive's arm, as she last remembered. Blushing, she straightened herself up, and mumbled, "Oh, Cornelius, uh - What time is it...?" She inquired drowsily, rubbing her sleep-crusted eyes. Nosedive had roused from his own sleep by her movement and was looking around in confusion, too.

"Two-forty-seven AM..." Her son answered bashfully.

"Well, why are you still up?" She continued with a sigh, then hesitated to guess, "You didn't... Have a nightmare, did you?"

He shook his head calmly. "No, it's just... I just finished another new invention, and I wanted to show you, right away..."

"What?" She scratched her neck, a little exasperated. "Another one? Cornelius, after what happened?"

"I know, I know!" He defended himself right away. "But I promise you, this one is really important..."

She sighed softly, which turned into a yawn as she straightened up. It didn't seem like the boy found anything wrong with the position he found the two of them in, so she didn't bring it up, either. "Alright babe - What does it do?"

He had been hiding the 'whatever it was' behind his back, but at her inquiry, he revealed it. To her surprise though, it was nothing more than one of his old water guns. A cheap little dollar store one at that. At her look of confusion, he proceeded to explain, "You were right, the other day, when you guessed that I just put random stuff in the antenna-Er, the wand, until it worked... I tried all kinds of scientific things at first. Then I tried less and less scientific things. Elements. Crystals. None of them worked, but then... One day, when I was walking home from school, I found the dead body of this weird creature in an alley. It was like a cat, but different too. And I just couldn't shake the feeling, that it was just what I needed... So, I took one of it's whiskers, and that's what made it finally work. But afterwards... I felt like I had done something bad. I should have just left the creature's body alone..."

He sighed sadly as he confessed that, but it seemed that there was more yet he needed to get off his chest. "Ever since I started that project, I... None of the science stuff that used to fascinate me, none of it interested me. I feel like I lost that part of myself when this magic started growing in me. I want it back. And now especially, since meeting one of the people this magic came from... I feel like this isn't me. This stuff came from somewhere dark, and... Mom, I don't want this. I really, really don't want this..."

Karen wasn't sure what to say at first. Of course she wanted to reassure her son, but how could she? Nosedive seemed to having the same inner battle, and he spoke up first, "Hey, hey - I understand if you're scared, buddy. But it's gonna be okay. We just gotta find someone that can help you learn to control this, someone on our side-"

"No." Cornelius cut him off, his mind made up. "I don't want to control it. I don't want people trying to control ME because of this. That's why... I buried the whisker, and I put the hair that was inside Narcissa's wand, inside this. And if I concentrate really, really hard... And if you'll help me too, mom... I can use this to transfer my magic, to you..."

Karen went stiff as a stone. "...What...?"

"I told you, I don't want this!" He insisted, much more forcefully this time. "I want to go back to being a normal kid who's good at science! I don't want to be a wizard! Please mom, I know you'd probably see this as a gift - And that's why I wanted to give it to you. So you can use it to protect me. But to me, this power... It's a curse. I don't want it. I know it's selfish to ask, but please... Please, -please- take this burden from me, mom..."

He sounded so scared towards the end, so pleading. There couldn't be any doubt as to how serious he was about this...

"Cornelius... Are you absolutely certain?" She had to ask him, just once more. "What if this decision can never be reversed?"

"Then I'll be relieved, knowing I put that power in the right hands." He answered right away, without needing to even think about the answer before giving it.

"Karen..." Nosedive added, putting a hand on her shoulder for support. "No matter what happens, I'll help you work through it."

She looked between then two of them, then she took a deep breath, and nodded. "Okay son... Go ahead."

He nodded too, not hesitating a moment before he pressed the tip of the water-gun-turned-wand above his heart. "...I know this looks kinda bad, but don't worry." He added, as his mother and Nosedive raised a brow.

Pressing the trigger and pulling back the gun as he did so, a blue stream of light and energy began to follow the gun-wand out of his chest, and into the hollow middle of the plastic toy. Once the stream had ended and the gun was full and glowing, he then motioned for his mother to get up, and stand in the middle of the room.

She did so, and he pointed the glowing gun at her. Then he pulled the trigger.

She expected it to come out like a shot, but it streamed out instead, like a river, floating along until it reached the front of her torso. It seemed to motion and point at her heart for a second, and after she finally got it, she cupped her hands around her heart, leading to it. The light then quickly wasted no time in entering through the space allowed, disappearing inside of her chest. For a second, she doubled over onto her knees, and her chest glowed like an inner x-ray was being taken. First blue, then green, then blue-green, and then suddenly, her body was lifted off the ground entirely, and an almost violent-looking aurora of blue, indigo, green and teal light shone off of her entire being for just a split second, before she fell to the ground, normal-looking once more.

Nosedive and Cornelius both rushed to her side as soon as it was over, but she was already recovering herself. She sat up, and looked around. She seemed dazed, but energized, and she raised up her hand to inspect it. "Whoa..."

"Karen?" Nosedive inquired. "Are you okay? How do you feel...?"

"I have magic..." She immediately replied, in awe. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary about her hand at first to Nosedive and Cornelius, but then she stretched out her hand towards the nearby lamp, and the light within in left the lamp immediately at her beckoning, coming to rest within the palm that called for it. "I have magic...!"

But, in her excitement, she suddenly seemed to fumble, and the light shot out of her hand again, bouncing off the walls over their three ducked heads until it found it's way back to the lamp, shattering the bulb on impact and sending the room into darkness. "Uh... A little more slippery than I thought..." She murmured with a blush.

"Still totally cool!" Nosedive crowed as he got up and turned on the overhead light. "Now we just gotta find YOU someone to help you control these powers. Or, maybe they might be a little less slippery in the morning after a good night's rest?"

Karen nodded, willing away the embarrassed heat from her face. "That sounds good."

So they went back to sleep, Nosedive taking over the couch while Karen returned to her bed. But they only got a few more hours sleep until suddenly, at 6 AM sharp, someone came knocking at her front door again. It was too unusual to be a coincidence - Even religious nuts, salesmen and the paper boy didn't come knocking this early.

Karen approached the door carefully, while Nosedive waited with his puck blaster ready at the hip. She was scared to open the door at first, but then she figured, if it was her mother, father or brother for revenge, they wouldn't have bothered knocking.

Still slow and cautious, Karen opened the door, revealing an elderly and stern-looking woman, with dark hair pulled into a tight bun. She wore green robes, while the two men behind her both wore dark grey suits and coats, one older-looking with dark hair and a mustache, and the other a little younger, with tawny brown locks and no facial hair.

"Yes, hello?" She inquired.

"Mind if we come in?" The younger man asked her back. Wordlessly, she stepped aside as they came in, and closed the door behind them. Nosedive relaxed his hand by his hip, and the older man relaxed his from the wand in his belt, as well. The other two did of course stare a bit at Nosedive at first, but soon after relaxed. These were apparently people that had seen equally strange or stranger beings than him.

"Minerva McGonagall, headmistress of Hogwarts, school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. These two gentlemen are my escorts from the Ministry of Magic. We also have a few more down the hall, but everything seemed civil, so we trusted we didn't need them all to come in. Now, I trust you have -some- idea what this is about?" The elder woman began matter-of-fact-ly. "You see it's certainly unusual but hardly alarming when a child develops magical powers. We wouldn't have even come for that - This is far beyond our jurisdiction, after all. However, a child developing highly advanced magic and then promptly being visited by Narcissa Malfoy, the wife of a known Death Eater that IS from our jurisdiction, well, that's more than a little unusual, even for our kind."

Her tone clearly revealed that she was not in the mood to be presented with anything other than the utmost truth. And since Karen was always that kind of person anyways except about this one biggest thing, which she now felt the need to confess, she very bluntly replied, as if laying a lifetime of of the weight off her back with this admission, "It's because I'm Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy's daughter. I was their firstborn, but I was a squib. They hid me away all my childhood. On the eve of my adulthood, and the cusp of your last great war, they sent me away to America. My mother put a tracking spell on me and my blood. I know she never expected me to be magical, but she planned to take any child of mine that turned out to be. So when my very talented son developed his magic, she tried to come for him right away, to use for her own dark purposes. We managed to get her wand away and break it, and she retreated. Then, last night, my son decided he didn't want his magic or the responsibility and danger that came with it. So he gave his magic to me, so that I could hopefully use it to protect him instead. That is what happened, ma'am, the whole truth - I swear it."

Minerva blinked openly. "Well... That's a very interesting story, Ms. Malfoy-"

"Robinson." Karen corrected her right away. "My mother initially named me Madonna Bellatrix Malfoy, but I have since changed my name to Karen Rose Robinson." She explained.

"Very well, Ms. Robinson." The elder witch replied, fully accepting of that, but still stern regarding her purpose. "Then you won't mind a quick and painless magical test to prove your claim?"

"Go ahead." Karen replied immediately, and just as quickly the two wizards took out their wands, and scanned the outlines of Karen and Cornelius' bodies with a golden yellow light. After the outline was completed, the two men blinked in surprise.

"What is it?" McGonagall inquired.

The younger man hesitated, so the older one replied for him, "The boy has only trace amounts of magic in him now. Barely more than the negligible amounts you normally see in muggles or squibs. The woman, however, has two magic signals in her. Both are strong, but the alpha signal is the one that shares the same magic as the boy. I'd hesitate to guess, that the boy's magic amplified the dormant magic in his mother..."

"Astounding." Minerva couldn't help but admit, turning her head towards Karen. "Well, Ms. Robinson... I'll be honest. This is unprecedented. It's simply never been done before."

"Cornelius does things that have simply never been done before at least every other week." She shrugged with a proud smile. "With or without magic, he's one very smart, talented boy... That's why I had to let him do this. I had to protect him, not just from the Malfoy family and the Death Eaters, but our very own blood. Our accursed blood... I can keep the darkness that trails our bloodline at bay. I did it before without magic and as just a little girl when I lived at Malfoy Manor. I can certainly do it now with magic, and with my best friends to help me..." She concluded with a smile, grabbing Cornelius' hand in one of hers and Nosedive's in the other.

The old witch blinked a few more times at her display. "...Very well, then. As long as all parties consented knowingly. But do you know how to handle the gift you've been given? Do you know how to harness it? Control it?"

"Well... Not yet." Karen admitted, deflating.

"I thought so... Well then, Ms. Robinson. After hearing your story and your feelings on the matter, I think I'd like to extend an offer to you."

"An offer?" The new witch parroted back at her.

"Yes. You see, the last great battle where the Dark Lord was finally defeated, took place at Hogwarts, the school that I reside over. Unfortunately many good witches and wizards, students and teachers alike, lost their lives. Attendance is at an all time low, but there's also much fewer candidates to teach. We're barely holding together the main curriculum, and we dropped nearly every elective for several years. We're making an effort now, however, to bring them back. So, since you are in need of a magical education that you have unfortunately outgrown, but have been living among muggles for several years... Well, how would you like to come take up the Muggle Studies class, for just one year, and in exchange, the teachers at Hogwarts will do their best to give you a compressed and practical education of magic after hours? We'll have to omit elective studies, but you can be taught the most basic and need-to-know lessons, with focus on defensive magic."

"O-Oh!" Karen blinked openly, her heart reaching and wanting of the offer, but her brain practically reminding her of the reasons it wouldn't work. "I have to admit, I dreamed of going to Hogwarts as a young girl, before I found out I was a squib, and I was terribly sad when I realized I could never go, but... I'm just not sure if I'm qualified to teach anything at a magical school I've never been to, and then there's my son... He wouldn't be allowed at Hogwarts now, would he?"

Minerva shook her head. "Unfortunately not... But if arrangements could possibly made for him, I assure you, you'd be more than capable of teaching the class. It's honestly very much up to the teacher to dictate what is taught in that class. There's the basics, like muggle forms of transportation versus ours. But you could very well have another class just listening to and discussing the muggle music of the Beatles or any of your other favorite musical artists, provided it's suitable for a classroom environment, of course. Or you could explain what goes on at muggle amusement parks. What muggle children are taught at their own schools. Share muggle food recipes with them, like waffles - I'm definitely a fan of the muggle who invented waffles..." She admitted sheepishly, but then returned to her sterner demeanor. "And that's really all there is to it. The main point is to educate the children about muggle culture and try to develop in them an appreciation of it. And now especially, more than ever, is a very important time to develop good bonds between wizard children and the much larger muggle population..."

"Well..." Karen mumbled back, and Nosedive could see, that even though her eyes burned with desire, she was going to say no. "I really would love to go, but I just can't leave my son alone-"

"I'll watch over him." Nosedive offered before she could finish, and before she could protest, he added, "Karen you NEED to learn how to control your new powers to protect Cornelius. This could be your only chance. I know my teammates will definitely understand once I explain what happened, they'll want to protect Cornelius too. And on the unlikely but possible chance that the Saurians start acting up or there's another kind of threat, there's a panic room that will lead him safely out of the Pond. I also have a friend, Buzz Blitzman, who can watch him if anything happens or when we have a game. I've been meaning to introduce him to Cornelius for a while. He was a kid genius too, and now he's the CEO of Unbridled Technologies. He and Cornelius could totally brainstorm!"

Karen stared at him. He had basically just tossed the key to the real magical kingdom she had always wanted to visit, right at her feet, and she wanted so bad to seize it...

Her eyes flicked to her son, and as soon as they reached him, he was already encouraging her, "Mom, you should totally go! I'll miss you tons, of course, but it'll only be for one year! I know I'll be safe with Dive, and I'll have a blast learning from him and all his friends! And then when you come back you can show us all the cool magic stuff you learned!"

His mother's eyes began to well with tears. But when they finally fell, she broke into a grin, laughed a little, and nodded. "Okay then! Okay. I... I'll do it!" She gave her new headmistress a bow. "So when do I start?"

"The next school year begins only two months from now. However, I'd like to escort you there in one month. You'll need to get magical supplies, like a wand, a cauldron, some robes, to name a few. You'll also need to be familiarized with the school grounds so that you don't get lost too while the first years are also getting lost. It will also give us a chance to give you a jump-start into your magical education before the children arrive, so that you're not just as helpless as the first years. They'll expect a teacher to know at least the most basic magic."

"That sounds about right..." Karen nodded, still bowing. "Okay, one month from now. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Headmistress. I am so very, very happy, I really can't say-"

Minerva held up a hand. "You're very welcome, Professor Robinson. It is mutually beneficial though, so please, focus instead on what you want to teach wizard children about muggles in your curriculum, instead of being so slavishly grateful." She smirked and waved a little, "See you soon~"

With that, Minerva and the men disappeared on the spot as they disapparated away.

As soon as they were gone, Karen began to squeal in her throat until she couldn't keep it out anymore, like a kettle boiling over. She threw her arms around Nosedive and hugged him tighter than she ever had. "Oh my god, Dive - I'm going to learn MAGIC!"

"Ack-!" He squawked, but then quickly bubbled up into laughter, hugging her back almost as tight. "I always knew you were -enchanting- Karen - But you'll actually be able to enchant me when you get back!"

She laughed so much she snorted. "Well - Maybe I will!"

Cornelius suddenly cleared his throat rather loudly. Karen blushed and let go of Nosedive, and then glanced back at her son sheepishly. "Uh-"

"Mom, can we have PB, bacon and banana sandwiches for breakfast?" The boy suddenly diverted with a knowing smile, motioning towards the kitchen.

Nosedive cheered, "Oh man that sounds SO good! Can we Karen, pleeeeease?"

Karen grinned back at her boys. "Sure! And hey, lets see if I can get the bread to float!"

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