Sinopsis: Lanny is Lanny and great uncle Kalakai finds a secret.
Word Count: 2472
The triplets were in Brady's room, sitting on his bed with their books open while they practiced spells when Lanny came in with a big fish in a bowl that they knew to be Yamakoshi.
"Oh, hi, Lanny!" Boz said, waving at their cousin when he noticed him in the room. Lanny glared at him in response but, as always, none of them noticed or paid mind.
"Why did you bring Yamakoshi?" Boomer asked, looking up from the book he was looking at with Brady.
"I look over him for great uncle Kalakai while he's away." He responded with no clear emotion. "So I take him with me wherever I go." He finished, moving to put the bowl on the bedside table, close to where Brady's corn snake was.
"Hey, not there," Brady warned him and got a confused look from his cousin. "Put him by the window, Yamakoshi scares Eden!" He pointed at the tufted bench in front of the window closest to them.
"Being your pet, figures it'd be frightened by its own shadow." Lanny mumbled, doing as Brady told him, then turning to them once again as he sat beside the bowl. "So, what kind of disaster you Hufflepuffs are creating?" Boomer and Boz looked at him confused.
"Uhm," Boz started. "We're not Hufflepuffs. Technically, we aren't anything because we haven't been sorted yet."
" You could stay that way… " Lanny mumbled once again, shaking his head slightly. "By that, I mean; what are you idiots up to?!"
"We were trying to figure out the pronunciation of a spell." Brady informed, sighing and turning around to be able to face both, his brothers and his cousin. "I wanted to try a couple potions but they don't wanna do it with me."
"Why do you need their help?" Lanny asked, straightening his expression a moment later and extending his hand in a motion that told them not to speak. "Wait, sorry. For a moment, I forgot that you're so dependent on them that you're basically conjoined."
"Caju?" Boomer asked with a quizzical expression on his face.
"Con-joined." Brady corrected and Boomer nodded, his mouth in an 'o' shape. Brady looked at Lanny through his lashes. "And I'm not dependent on them. I just like doing stuff with them 'cause we're triplets."
"So, you basically shared a womb with them this one time and you seem to have gotten into your head that you're still in a symbiotic relationship with them." Lanny mocked, smiling innocently. Brady opened and closed his mouth, trying to find an answer.
"I don't— I don't know what 'symbiotic' means." Brady whispered with a blush of embarrassment creeping its way into his cheeks.
"Figures." Lanny smiled and left the room.
The thing about being a teacher that Kalakai disliked the most — aside from annoying students and annoying-er parents — was the pointless teachers' meetings. They always had the same conversations that, in his opinion, didn't change anything; only a third of the meeting had useful content and, above all, it had much more human contact than he'd ever approve of.
When they were done with the meeting — and Kalakai, in turn, was getting ready to leave as soon as he could to avoid being ambushed into a conversation — he was pulled aside by Mason as he was heading for the door.
"Hey, we're heading to Hogsmeade for a drink, would you like to join us?" The man asked and Kalakai looked behind Mason, where the other professors were staring at him expectantly.
"Well, I'm afraid I'll have to refuse." He said, ignoring his colleagues' looks of disappointment. "My nephews are practicing magic at home and I'm fairly certain that if they don't burn down the place, Lanny might." Kalakai explained, getting understanding looks from the others.
"Oh, aren't you dramatic! Little Lanny would never do that, he's a good kid!" Catawampus said, smiling near innocently — as innocent as one could be after facing a war. Every witch and wizard in the room looked at him.
"If you weren't his godfather, I'd say you're daft." Kalakai deadpanned. Hilda — the largest witch in the room and second largest after Mason himself — still seated relaxedly, snorted.
"You are dramatic, though!" She pointed out, receiving a glare from him.
Mason put a hand on his shoulder, speaking again. "Just floo over and tell them you'll come back later." He suggested, pausing and then continuing his speech. "Besides, it's not like you ever go out."
"First; personal space, Mason ." Kalakai warned, the man removed his hand from Kalakai's shoulder. "Second; going out requires having human contact, which I hate." He said straight-faced [as straight as he could get, I guess].
"Yes, you're also repulsed by children and feelings," Charlotte spoke up, putting on a light coat as she stood up to head out with the rest. "Still, you teach at a school filled with children and you have to deal with feelings anyway. Stop acting like an emotionally constipated teenager and go floo your family," The Slytherin head of house ordered, rolling her eyes. "Tell them you'll be back by ten and move along, I wanna have some firewhiskey sooner rather than later." She finished, walking towards him and pushing him towards the door.
"Makoola, Parker, your kids are coming next term, are you sure you don't want in on the bets?" Hilda exclaimed, pointing her arm that held her halfway drunk cup of beer at them. "Even I'm betting!"
"Okay, who are we betting at?" Mason gave in, smiling. Hilda looked at the little notebook he had in front of her.
"We have the Parker triplets, Tessa, Mikayla, Mary-Ann, the Poloon boy, the Dawson girl and the Hart girl." She informed him and Kalakai raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, why are you betting what house my great-nephews land on?"
"For fun." Hilda answered with a chuckle.
"Why aren't you, though?" Charlotte asked, putting her elbows on the table. "Almost everyone is doing it. And, besides, the only thing we're losing is money and I know for a fact that that's not a problem for you."
"Because it's unethical?!" Kalakai deadpanned, Charlotte laughed through her nose.
"Since when, exactly, do you care about what is ethical?" She tried containing her laughter, getting closer to the table. "Really, Parker, you think I don't know that the reason you were a hatstall is because the hat couldn't decide whether to put your arse on Ravenclaw or Slytherin?!"
"That is exactly why I won't bet." He rolled his eyes as he spoke. Charlotte took her turn lifting her brows in a mix of surprise and confusion.
"Care to elaborate?!" She demanded, extending one of her arms and taking her firewhiskey cup, taking a sip.
"The hat's choice is not based only on your personality but also on your needs. That's why your opinion matters so much on the final choice; the hat will never put you in a house that you'll hate, even if it's academically or personality wise the best fit." He started, speaking slowly. "There were two reasons why I was a hatstall; one of them being that I had a built conviction of which house I should be placed in before I came to Hogwarts and the second being that, even though Slytherin was a perfect fit for me, personality wise, it wasn't in other areas." Kalakai concluded, breathing in. "I refuse to judge something as complex as this based on my own preconceptions that may very well be wrong."
Charlotte shook her head in amusement at her friend. "That, Kalakai, is the reason why the hat ultimately decided to place you in Ravenclaw; you think too much."
"Uncle Kalakai?" Brady asked one morning as he peered into the banquet hall shyly. Kalakai looked up from the book he was reading, then at the clock next to the door to certify himself that, indeed, the boy was up earlier than usual.
A lot had changed in the last ten years due to the war, one of the inevitable changes being the number of orphaned children — his four great-nephews being no exception. Lanny had been sent to live with their grandmother and the triplets with their aunt and uncle in America. However, when their grandmother died of illness, five years ago, the youngest Parker's only choice was to live with Kalakai or with Catawampus, his godfather. One of the changes that Kalakai had had to install was to have his meal schedule completely rearranged to have not only the major meals but the smaller ones too, like brunch and afternoon tea [Kalakai: apparently , children have this thing called a fast metabolism?].
"Brady? Why are you up so early?" He asked with a quizzical expression, setting his book on the table beside his empty plate [Kalakai, as a good Ravenclaw, was a bookworm]. "Is there something you need?"
The boy walked a few steps closer. "Uh, not need , it's just-" He stopped his movement. "I remembered the time we came here with mom and dad, before, uh, you know…" Brady trailed off, fiddling with his hands. Kalakai nodded. "And I-I remembered that dad took us in this room with a piano and I was just… I wanted to know if it still exists."
"It does."
"It does!" Brady repeated excitedly, smiling softly. "Uh, can I…?"
"Sure, you can ask one of the elves to take you there, it's quite hidden." Kalakai explained. He looked down at his hands, taking a deep breath and looking at his great-nephew once again. "Brady, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah."
"Do you sing?" Brady, for some unknown reason, seemed to freeze on his spot.
"Uhm, why-why the question?" He asked uncertainly.
"Well, for starters, we all know for a fact that your brothers are absolutely tone deaf. However, the Chiming doesn't skip generations — it might skip people but someone always has it." Kalakai explained, resting his hands on the table and intertwining his fingers. "And I've seen you play instruments but I don't think I've ever heard you sing."
"Oh, I don't know, actually." Brady answered, looking down in embarrassment. "I never sang in front of anyone."
"Why's that?"
"I'm shy." He answered slightly nonchalantly. His gaze travelled around the room until it landed, once again, on his fiddling hands. "And I'm kinda scared. I mean, Boz knows he can't sing but Boomer doesn't and we don't have the heart to tell him — even though he sounds like awful and terrible had a baby…"
"I can't argue with that." Kalakai deadpanned and Brady laughed through his nose.
"Yeah," He agreed, sighing loudly. "But I just… What if I sing and I do have the Chiming?"
"That's supposed to be a good thing." Kalakai informed him calmly.
"No, I know but, just, if we-if Boom finds out I'm good, he'll eventually know he's not." Brady explained. "And that's so selfish."
"Brady, that's not selfish. It would be selfish if he got mad at you because you're better than him." Kalakai said, pausing as he let the boy have a few moments to process the information. "Do you like singing?"
"Yeah, definitely!"
"Well, then you should try it."
"Have you seen Brady?" Nancy asked as she walked into the room, looking around, "I haven't seen him since lunch."
Kalakai looked up from the book he was reading, "He mentioned that he wanted to go to the piano room this morning, he must be there."
"Are you sure? I haven't heard anything."
"You actually shouldn't." Kalakai expressed. Nancy gave him a quizzical look. "The piano room is nearly soundproof. You'd have to be at least five meters from it to be able to hear anything."
"Well, that explains it." she considered, "Why is that, though?"
"Because of me. My parents soundproofed that room when I was young because I couldn't practice without disturbing their work." he said with a dismissive tone, looking exasperated by the fact. "I had to reform it, after the house was invaded during the war. But, since the spell didn't break and it did save my life, I decided taking it down would be no good." Kalakai concluded, taking a deep breath. "If he isn't here five minutes before supper, I will go and fetch him."
When Brady didn't show up by that time, Kalakai found himself heading to the north wing of the manor, walking up the hallway and passing all the doors until he reached the last one. He stopped when he realized that he not only heard the sound of the piano, but also the sound of a voice singing along to it.
" ... I say: I may not be wise, " Kalakai blinked, recognizing the juvenile voice and immediately questioning if he was hearing it correctly, " And I won't save the date, but look in my eyes and know I'll always stay, " Kalakai couldn't help but to wonder if he was really hearing his nephew sing. " And I won't run away… " Perhaps he had come back from the dead and, in truth, it was Kunu he was hearing — it felt like a more sound conclusion in the face of the fact that the only other option would be that his great-nephew, who had allegedly no singing experience, was the one on the other side of the door.
After an eternity of cogitating what to do, Kalakai finally settled for knocking on the door, opening it when he heard confirmation from the person inside.
"Uncle Kalakai?" he opened the door to see his great-nephew sitting on the bench in front of the piano, "How much did you hear?" Brady asked with furrowed brows, contrasting Kalakai's, which were now raising themselves.
"Not even feigning ignorance?" Kalakai smiled, closing the door behind himself as he entered the room.
"I can try lying to you, but we both know that's not gonna work." Brady stated with a shrug. Kalakai chuckled.
"I caught the tail end of a song," He paused, taking a breath, "Was that really you?" Brady looked down, turning fully around so that his back was facing the piano. Kalakai was used to being pointed at the boy's similarities with his father — light skin; dark, slick hair; their trademark smile — but he frequently found himself noticing the things they didn't have in common. For instance, the fidgety and anxious behaviour; the way he spoke; his mannerisms — all so different from Kunu's own grace and confident stance. "Guilty as charged?"
Brady sighed, nodding lightly and looking back up at his great uncle, "Sorry you had to hear it." he said. Kalakai wasn't sure if Brady was apologizing for Kalakai now having to inevitably keep a secret or because he thought he was bad enough that he had to apologize, but he had a feeling it was the latter.
Notes:
This story is being crossposted in AO3 under the same name! I also post various updates about the chapters as well as art in my tumblr fureliselost & furelisenotthesong!