The Wizards, Gods, and Doppelgängers Series:

1. Schism
2. Reign Without a Crown
3. Chasing the Storm
4. Black Halo
5. Equilibrium

Well, here we go. The final part in the series!

This fic is complete, at 30 chapters and ~195,000 words. I'll be posting a chapter a day through November, and then I guess I'll pivot toward the next big project, lol. For those of you that have stuck it out with me the last few years, I am so grateful I could share this story with you. It was the very first thing that I as a newbie writer at 14 ever tried to write, and the story always stuck with me. I tried multiple times over the years as my skill grew to give it justice, and I think this is the closest I am ever going to get. I'm very satisfied with how it all turned out. Me posting this is finally putting it to bed.

For new readers just hopping in, be aware you're coming in after the climax for the series. I think this fic would be readable as a standalone. You should at least catch on after this first chapter what all that's relevant has transpired.

With that said, let's get going. We'll start here with a new POV character. :)

Chapter 1: Heritage

Once Luca was called back to Hogwarts' front doors by Blaise, he realized just how little he wanted to be outside in all the mess of the battle's aftermath. The two of them headed upstairs together out of habit for the window seat they used to do their homework together in. The view from there was arguably more grisly. Luca wasn't so close in proximity to where it had taken place now, but the scope of it was better visible. It had yet to sink in that all of this was for him.

"Draco said you knew about me and You-Know-Who." Luca broke the silence that had fallen between him and Blaise.

Blaise shifted. "I didn't find out all that long ago. I didn't want to keep it from you either, but it was more important we got you out of here if shit hit the fan. Which. . .well."

"Yeah."

"But they caught everyone, didn't they?" Blaise asked.

Luca nodded.

"You-Know-Who was really alive?"

Lips pressed, Luca nodded again.

"Potter never told me that."

"He didn't tell me or Draco either until we were trapped," Luca said. "Dagmar's alive too, hey?"

Blaise studied him hard. "You saw her?"

"She was being possessed by You-Know-Who. Still is." Luca sighed when Blaise didn't say anything. "It was supposed to be me instead. Her mum was going to take him out of her and put him into me."

Blaise winced. "It's what they intended to do, coming here?"

"It sounded like You-Know-Who thought so. Professor Snape and Draco's dad tried to convince him, but he caught wise. She was going to destroy him, apparently. Potter thought so, but wasn't sure. There was a chance she might rather carry me again."

"Oh."

"I would've basically died. Not me, but me. Everything that ever made me who I am. I wouldn't have any memories. No Mamă, Mamaie or Tataie, no Romania. No you."

Blaise swallowed. "I guess all there is to say on this side of things is it's a good thing that didn't happen."

"Yeah," Luca quietly replied. "Still don't like how close I came, though."

"Me neither." Blaise rubbed his eyes. "The owl Weasley sent me got to my place just before six. I went to Ramstad Manor to meet you and Draco. Worst wait of my life. Weasley was in Dumbledore's office so he could reveal it to you. When he came alone and said the castle was overrun. . ."

As Blaise spoke, the guilt that hummed in the background of Luca's shock started to swell toward the forefront. He could barely even fathom—let alone absorb—all the lives he'd ruined or affected just by existing. He'd been kidnapped as a baby, and Luca had gotten a glimpse today of how that had affected his bio-mother. Dagmar (his sister, another thing that wasn't really sinking in) had been trapped for months as You-Know-Who's flesh puppet. She still was. Draco had almost lost her, and that too was probably Luca's fault. His presence at Hogwarts had drawn the Death Eaters in. He'd almost caused Draco and Potter's deaths. He had caused Dumbledore's.

"I don't know how to deal with all of this." Luca's voice shook. "I wish my mum was here. She would know what to do."

Luca's throat clamped up as his eyes grew heavy. He was relieved for Blaise to shift so that they sat beside each other instead.

"I just don't know what to think." Luca wiped his eyes and lowered his voice. "I met my bio-parents today. I learned Dagmar's my sister. I love her and I'm glad she's alive and all that, but I don't want this. My bio-father came here not to find me, but to kill me. My bio-mum might've had a hand in that. It's my fault Dagmar's stuck with him inside of her. You-Know-Who told her mum that he would never give her back. So what happens when she's stuck forever and she starts to hate me for it? What if Draco hates me? They won't be able to get married or anything. Dagmar won't even be able to live. She'll have to be locked up because of him. They'd never let him go free. I wouldn't want that either, but what about Dagmar? They're really just going to leave her like that?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Blaise squeezed Luca about the middle. "If Potter knew, then Madam Bones and whoever else must have too. They probably have some kind of plan. No way can You-Know-Who get away with this forever."

Luca sniffled. "Potter said something about they meant to trap him here. I was supposed to be gone, but it didn't work out that way."

"No, it didn't. They managed to catch him, though. Do you even realize how big of a deal that is? They've never laid a finger on him before. Could never touch him. But now they've got him and all the Death Eaters too. As far as the wizarding world goes, the war's actually over."

Luca wasn't sure he'd been in Britain long enough to fully appreciate that. Possibly, his emotions were just too much in the way. Things were over, yes, but in a way were only beginning for Luca. He'd received a burden today that he regretted ever asking for. He wished now that it remained a mystery forever where he had come from.

"It's maybe too much with everything else, huh?" Blaise correctly interpreted Luca's silence. "Nice thing is, we don't have to worry about that. We'll just worry about our own stuff."

"My stuff, you mean," Luca mumbled while he looked out the window. Hagrid was playing with the firedrakes near the enclosure.

"I assume you don't want to deal with it alone, though. Right?"

"No," Luca confirmed, even quieter. "It's just my stuff, is all. I don't think you meant when we started going together to have anything to do with Voldemort's son."

Blaise twitched a little at the name. "You see yourself as that?"

"I don't want to. But it's what I am. I might as well accept it."

"You know it doesn't change who you are, right? Not on a surface level. You're nothing like him. If you met him today, you have to have realized that."

Luca suppressed a new shudder as he recalled the coldness to Voldemort's hungry gaze. It was so much more unsettling when he eyed Luca from out of Dagmar's face. "It's still who I am. It's all I am if I understand correctly how it works with us being doppelgängers. I'm exactly like him, aren't I? Look-wise, and all that?"

"To be fair, it's been a long time since he looked like you. He left Hogwarts in 1945. So many people don't even know what he used to look like because he shed his old name. You aren't like him in the ways it matters, either. Yeah, maybe he was handsome. But he also became somebody capable of putting everyone through what happened today."

Even with all the doubt and guilt foisted onto Luca today, he knew himself well enough to say he could never do that. He leaned more against Blaise. The arm around his middle tightened.

"How long are you here for?" Luca asked.

Blaise shrugged. "Until someone tells me to leave, I guess."

"Well, I'm glad you could come. I would've stuck with Draco otherwise, but he'll be pretty wrapped up in his own thing now. I can't really say I blame him. If Mamă came back. . ."

"I wouldn't mind seeing Dagmar either," Blaise said, "but you're my priority. It's probably best anyway to give Draco and Dagmar some space for a little bit."

"Yeah." Luca paused. "I hate to say it, but I'm a little scared of her. What if Voldemort comes back out and tries to talk to me? I think I need some time to absorb how things have changed between me and her too."

"That's fair."

"I guess I'm lucky in a sense that I already knew Dagmar before all this." Luca watched down below as Charlie navigated the uneven lawn to join Hagrid where he dealt with the firedrakes. "I always wondered if I had siblings. I thought I'd be older than them if my bio-mum abandoned me. Maybe she was too young and not ready yet, you know? But then maybe things got better, and she might wonder about me too. But I was kidnapped by a man. He didn't even keep me. He just took me from my mum and my sister, and he ditched me somewhere. I was so lucky to land in a good home."

"I hope you don't feel less connected to your mum and grandparents because of it."

"I don't think so." That was one of few things Luca felt somewhat certain about. "I wish I could see Mamaie and Tataie. But I also wonder how I'm going to tell them about this. Do you think they'll think of me any differently?"

"I sincerely doubt it. You were just over a year old when your mum took you home. Your grandparents had as much to do with you as she did. You kind of look like them too. You have the same bump on the bridge of your nose that your mum had. Same brown eyes. If you never mentioned you were adopted, I can't say I would've guessed it myself."

"I looked more like Mamă than my bio-mum. Kind of weird, huh?"

"Genes are weird, period." Blaise smiled briefly when Luca looked at him. "When Potter first told me about all this, we talked about how you and You-Know-Who were different. He said that he noticed on your first day here that you physically resembled him. Your personality was the complete opposite, though. Ginny Weasley apparently had some sort of run-in with You-Know-Who when he looked like you. A magical memory, or something. She backed up the idea after being in lessons with you for a while that you're nothing like him. You're your own person, the same way Dagmar is her own person separate from her mum. It's not really a weird idea that you're a doppelgänger. Sure, you only have one genetic parent. But that's only one less than most other people. It wouldn't be a big deal at all if it didn't come to what happened today. That's You-Know-Who for you. Everything he touches rots."

Luca thought again of Dagmar, and how Voldemort's presence had warped her. Her face was different when he looked out of it. Her voice changed a little, as far as lilt, tone, and accent went. Even when she had control of herself, she looked scared and desperate. Guilt stabbed Luca again that she had been taken that way instead of him. To feel so terrible was probably something else Voldemort hoped to take advantage of to get his way.

"I hope they can get him out of Dagmar," Luca said with a sigh. "She doesn't deserve to suffer. I would almost agree to have him put in me instead so that she can go on with her life. This isn't her burden to bear."

"It's not yours, either. You didn't choose this. Dagmar's mum did."

Something in Luca's gut doubted that from the glimpse he'd seen of her down in the Chamber. She could hardly look at him when Voldemort tried to make her. Wouldn't she have wanted to if she had the same sort of greed to make Luca her son again? But if she knew coming here meant letting him go for good, then that might result in what Luca saw instead.

He didn't know how to feel about it. Luca knew well enough that he wouldn't be receptive right now to a woman showing up out of the blue trying to be his mother. But he didn't like the sense of his bio-mum letting him go, either. He never had.

Luca rubbed his eyes. "I need a shower. And maybe to wash my wand, or something. It reeks."

"Is that what that is?"

Blaise shifted so that Luca could dig it out of his pocket. His cloak had done an all right job at masking it.

"Ergh." Blaise covered his nose. "What's wrong with it?"

"I don't know." Luca turned it in the light. The hawthorn had become streaked with tears along the shaft. "It started to stink when me, Draco, and Potter were trying to get around Voldemort and escape. They said theirs did the same. Draco has a hawthorn wand, but I don't know what Potter's is. Maybe this had something to do with how Draco deflected a Killing Curse."

Blaise fell quiet as Luca stowed his wand again. "What do you mean, Draco deflected a Killing Curse?"

"Voldemort tried to kill him so that he could get to Potter," Luca said. "Draco wouldn't move out of the way."

Blaise stared at Luca, the corners of his mouth pulling downward.

"I might have been the only one of us to walk out of there. And Dagmar, I guess." Luca rubbed his eyes. "I can't imagine how she'd feel if Voldemort used her body to kill Draco."

"She didn't, so I guess there's no point dwelling on it."

"Kinda hard not to."

"Yeah. It's sadly lucky that only Dumbledore went."

"Still sad." Luca's face pulled with it. "I really liked him."

"Me too."

Luca slipped his hand into Blaise's and rested his head on his shoulder. If he closed his eyes, he bet he could fall sleep. This day had already proven long.

Both Luca and Blaise jolted upright when a sharp howl sounded from the grounds. Its echo made it hard to locate the source by sound, but Hagrid's presence in their line of sight was adequate explanation. Charlie stood next to him with a hand on his elbow. Luca winced at the words to follow: "He can' be dead! Yeh can' be serious!"

"Maybe we should go somewhere else," Blaise quietly suggested. "You wanted a shower? I could find somewhere to go while you're doing that."

"I could try to sneak you in," Luca said, although he wasn't serious. The Slytherin common room would probably be full by now as students started returning. "I need one, but I don't want to be very far away from you either. I definitely don't want to be alone."

"Don't blame you." Blaise got up. "Come on. We'll figure it out."

Luca put his hand back in Blaise's when they were on their way. Hagrid's raw sobs followed them deeper into the castle. It was a relief when they faded away.

The rabble of students replaced it. Luca and Blaise hadn't gotten much further when rapid footsteps came up the stairs ahead of them. Luca slowed when a familiar head appeared. Sophie had her hair up in a knot as if she had only just woken up. Other than haphazard leggings and a jumper, she didn't look like she'd gotten very far from bed.

Luca had to let go of Blaise to steady himself against her crushing hug. "I'm so glad you're all right! I heard you were cornered by You-Know-Who. Is it true? Well—you don't have to say."

"Yeah, I'd rather not talk about it right now," Luca said when Sophie let him go. "It's just been a stressful day."

"It has," Sophie agreed with a glance at Blaise. Luca had heard that the two of them already crossed paths this morning at Ramstad Manor. "Professor Snape told me to come find you."

"Oh?" They all started moving on.

Sophie nodded. "He said there aren't going to be any lessons until Monday. Given what happened, he said go talk to him about maybe getting out of here for the weekend. It's a special privilege, so don't talk about it too loudly. Otherwise everyone will want to go home."

"Don't think that'd be the worst thing," Luca replied. "The Death Eaters are still here."

Sophie's eyes widened. "They are?"

"Locked up somewhere. All the ones that came here, including Bellatrix Lestrange."

Blaise cleared his throat. "You'd think they'd want to clean up the lawn a bit too. I heard none of those people were actually alive, but it's still creepy from a distance."

"McGonagall might yet," Sophie said. "I can't believe it actually happened. I thought Dumbledore was just being over-zealous about preparing for it. I wonder if he knew it was coming."

"Hard to say," Luca replied. He and Blaise shared a glance regardless, for it was more than likely Dumbledore did know. Would Luca be allowed to tell his friends what his role had been in all this? Did he want to?

Sophie at least didn't push it. She talked about other things instead, like that she'd already gone down to the student potions lab to make sure that the siege hadn't affected or damaged their Felix Felicis. Luca's stomach flipped at its mention, for he hadn't even thought about it. This late in the year, they would never be able to start over. Luca wanted to believe that it being knocked over by a legion of resurrected undead would be a worthwhile reason to present nothing to Snape. And yet, Snape would probably never let it completely go.

The students they saw didn't really know what to do with themselves. Luca didn't understand why they had been brought back at all. It would make more sense if the Death Eaters weren't here. Anxiety started to trickle in on Luca about it. He didn't like being in the same building as the woman that had killed his mum. The way Bellatrix and her husband had looked at Luca when they spotted him earlier was another image from the night that refused to leave Luca's mind.

Luca, Blaise, and Sophie made it to the Great Hall. It had been returned to normal since the last time Luca saw it. The tables were back in place, and the hall was half full of students. A partial breakfast had arrived from the kitchens. The head table only had a few bodies, none of which were Snape.

"He was here." Sophie scratched her head. "Maybe he went down to the dungeons. Or up to the Headmaster office. Dumbledore's really gone?"

"Yeah," Luca said. "McGonagall will probably say something at some point."

Sophie's eyes developed a shine. "Well, if you two would rather carry on alone, maybe I'll see you Sunday?"

"Depends what Snape has in mind, but I'll let you know by messenger."

"All right." Sophie gave Luca another hug, and Blaise a quick one as well. "Hope you two have a good weekend, then."

They headed on for the dungeons. As they went down some stairs, a thought occurred to Luca. "This isn't really how I thought seeing you for the first time after our anniversary would go."

"Me neither." Blaise looked at Luca. "Did you want to do anything special about it, or. . .? Like if you're in the mood to celebrate, I mean."

"I thought the plans we had for meeting in Hogsmeade were pretty good."

A smile showing first in Blaise's eyes made Luca feel better about sparing a laugh. More than getting away from Hogwarts for the weekend, Luca was looking forward to spending it with Blaise. They hadn't actually seen each other since the Christmas holiday.

Luca's grin stayed as he nudged Blaise into a nook off the empty corridor. A heavy lean kept Blaise against the wall. Luca was much happier for something like a good snog to weaken his knees, rather than depleted adrenaline.

Blaise wasn't as giving as Luca would've hoped. His hold remained careful and he wouldn't indulge Luca of anything too deep or silly.

"What's wrong?" Luca asked.

"Just feels weird now the students are back," Blaise said with a partial snort. His eyes at least still had some humour to them. "I don't belong here anymore."

"So? I'm of-age. Who cares where we are, snog me."

Luca held back on calling Blaise a prude, even jokingly. It had been a serious point of contention before Luca came of-age, and definitely back before he'd turned sixteen. Now that Luca was older, he understood Blaise's reluctance. He could appreciate that they only ever ran into this issue when Hogwarts was the setting for their relationship. However, they were both of-age now. Luca only had a few more months left as a student. Given everything that happened in the last twelve hours, Luca really needed his boyfriend.

Whether or not that all occurred to Blaise, the stiffness in his shoulders and air of reluctance started to fade. Luca's entire being hummed with satisfaction for his back to find the wall. Its stone poked him through his clothing as Blaise's lean grew more insistent. Luca had to resist against a habitual grope. He would rather wait until they got to London, and certainly until he'd had a shower.

"Sorry, I probably stink," Luca said when they broke for breath.

"It's more your wand than anything."

"Yeah." Luca ran a hand over Blaise's shoulder. "I hope it's not going to be stuck like that. I think it's already better than it was down in the Chamber."

"That's good." Blaise's gaze darted downward in a telling way. "Okay, let's find Snape and get out of here."

Luca's step quickened with new impatience. He had something to look forward to now that might serve as a distraction from everything else he dealt with today. He had an empty dorm to pack in, which was nice.

He rejoined Blaise outside the Slytherin common room, and they doubled back for Professor Snape's office. Luca was accustomed to finding him here, usually hunched over a pile of homework with his nose nearly touching it as he marked it up in red. Snape sitting with his head up and staring at the wall made Luca nervous in a way. He much preferred a glowering Snape to an emotional one.

That long stare evaporated when Luca knocked lightly on the door. Snape fixed his posture. "Mr Parasca. Mr Zabini."

"Hi." The awkwardness still lingered when Luca stepped into the office. As Snape assessed him, Luca understood now some of the strange looks he'd received from the likes of Snape, Dumbledore, and Potter. The first reaction he'd ever gotten out of Ginny Weasley on the school train made sense too. "Sophie said something about me leaving?"

"If you want." Snape's voice remained quiet. "As far as I'm aware for now, lessons will resume on Monday. Do you wish to leave for the weekend? I don't know that I would recommend you leave the country, in case you had thoughts of a quick visit to Romania."

"I'd just go to London with Blaise, if that's all right." Luca paused. "Should I write my grandparents and let them know I'm all right and stuff? Or is that something Professor McGonagall is handling?"

"She's handling it." Snape gave a jerky nod that didn't even manage to move his hair. "I was going to offer her my assistance once I spoke with you."

"Okay."

Snape rose from his desk. "I'll escort you out. We'll need to find Ron Weasley so that he can reveal Ramstad Manor to you. You'll pass through there."

Luca and Blaise fell into quiet step behind him. Another strange realization came over Luca. If he had stayed with Dagmar and her mum as a child—if he hadn't been kidnapped—then he might have called Ramstad Manor home. That might have been his last name too.

The studying glances Luca received from the likes of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in the Great Hall were more obvious than usual. Luca tried to smile, but it didn't really come.

"Heading out, then?" Weasley asked.

"Yeah," Luca awkwardly replied.

"If you go to Ramstad Manor, you can go anywhere public through the fireplace from there."

"Thanks."

Luca would've rathered go alone with Blaise, but Professor Snape was going the same direction. As the three of them headed further up the castle, Luca's curiosity started getting the best of him.

"So am I Bjorn then?" Luca asked.

Professor Snape's head jerked toward Luca as if him speaking had surprised him. "Yes, that's the name you were born with."

"Ramstad, or how does that work?"

"Hildegard used to go by Frejasdottir before she married Erik. That was her druid clan's name."

Luca nodded slowly, absorbing that. Bjorn Frejasdottir. He didn't know if he had any attachment to it or not. When he thought of the name Bjorn, he still remembered more Draco's mention that he had died at little more than a year old. Luca envisioned a grave and tiny skeleton, not himself.

"How's Dagmar?" Luca asked next. "Have you seen her since they all left?"

Snape shook his head. "I've heard she's at Malfoy Manor. She, Mrs Ramstad, Mr Nott, and the Malfoys will be treated differently than the other Death Eaters because of their inside role on stopping the Dark Lord."

"What about Draco?" Luca replied. "We saw him come back to the castle with Hermione Granger. He wasn't with Hagrid and Charlie and the firedrakes."

"He's likely gone there. I heard something about him fetching clothing and personal effects for everyone from Bergen."

"Oh yeah."

Although Snape answered Luca's questions, Luca got the sense he didn't really feel like speaking. Snape walked a few steps ahead. If Luca idly studied him in the silence that followed, he could see how tired Snape looked. Luca had learned over the past year and a half attending here that Snape had worked at Hogwarts since the early-eighties. He hadn't been much older than Luca was now—twenty or so—when Dumbledore hired him. As Luca thought again of Hagrid's howl of grief, he wondered if maybe Snape wasn't hiding it as well as such a quiet man normally would care to.

Professor McGonagall wasn't either, when Snape led Luca and Blaise up the stairs behind the gargoyle statues. She wasn't crying, but her eyes were more watery than Luca felt comfortable with. It could be because she was tired, but Luca wasn't sure he believed that. It had been a rough day for everyone.

"Good morning, Mr Parasca. Mr Zabini." Her voice was less stern as well. "You're leaving for London, then?"

Luca nodded. "I'll just go to Blaise's. Erm, you want me back Sunday?"

"The idea for now is to commence lessons on Monday." Professor McGonagall rose from where she sat at Dumbledore's desk.

"Do I get back the same way?"

"Yes. I'll send you an owl on Sunday morning with details, in case lessons are further postponed."

Luca nodded, toying with the strap of his bag. "What about the homework that was due today and tomorrow?"

He'd had Potions to hand in this morning, but that block was already past. The essay he'd put together for Transfiguration tomorrow was about ninety-five percent finished.

"I certainly won't be worrying about that for the weekend," McGonagall said.

"Me neither," Snape quietly added.

"Okay." Luca was starting to feel uncomfortable again. These were the last two professors he expected to say something like that. "I'll watch for your owl then."

Discomfort made Luca's guilt apparent again. He had too many emotions to deal with today, but that one was particularly persistent. His own flesh and blood had turned the likes of Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape into shadows of themselves. Because Luca had the luxury of ignorant apathy while living in Romania, he didn't know much back then about everything Voldemort had ever done. His mum had talked to him before they moved, of course. Luca had to get into the habit of calling him You-Know-Who instead of by name. He knew about other important people, like Harry Potter and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Whatever Luca's mum didn't tell him, his friends at Hogwarts did. He never imagined that people like Potter and probably Dumbledore looked at him through that sort of lens. Along with guilt for that, Luca couldn't help but feel slightly like a fool. He was more ignorant than he could ever imagine.

Luca avoided eye contact with McGonagall and Snape when Blaise disappeared into the fireplace. He wasn't sure he was ready for whatever emotions going to Ramstad Manor would invoke in him, but surely it was better than being appraised by the two staff members slated to clean this mess up now that Dumbledore was gone.

The trip south from Dumbledore's office to Ramstad Manor (Luca wasn't actually sure where in Britain it was, now he thought about it) reminded him somewhat of the floo ride from Cluj to London. It definitely didn't take as long, but trepidation elongated it. Luca didn't know what kind of house he was looking to step out into. He just poked a leg out when he saw Blaise again.

Blaise wasn't alone. He spoke to a couple people that Luca recognized by their demeanour as Aurors. They quietened for a moment when the flames in the fireplace settled. Luca wondered if they recognized him. To avoid any possible stares, Luca looked around the manor house instead. It was pretty nice. Even with furniture, rugs, portraits, and the like, it had a carrying echo. The great room reminded him a little of home, since his grandparents' living room also had a cathedral ceiling. Luca looked to the right out the picture windows. Other than a terrace and garden, he couldn't see what the land consisted of. The orchards and animals had always been Luca's favourite part of the property back home. It made him homesick.

"I was thinking," Blaise said, snapping Luca out of thought, "are you hungry at all? We were probably going to pass through Diagon Alley anyway."

"Starving." Luca had been ignoring his cramped stomach. "Just not sure about going anywhere when I need a shower so bad, though."

Blaise conceded his point with pursed lips and a tilt of the head. "You could always go ahead to my place and hop in. I'll grab us something?"

"Sure."

Luca had intended to pull Blaise into the shower with him, but he was too shy to say anything in front of the Aurors. Because the Romanian language had such a high degree of mutual intelligibility with Italian, Luca and Blaise's first languages had passively fed back and forth into the other. However tempted Luca was now to say something in either of those two languages, he didn't know what these Aurors spoke. There were foreign ones at Hogwarts, so he'd never take for granted that these ones hadn't come from somewhere out east. They had the heads for it, square and blocky like Luca had seen with plenty of Slavic boys at Durmstrang.

Slavic boys also weren't the kindest toward gay people, another thing that kept Luca quiet before turning back to the fireplace. That wasn't something he cared to deal with today. Luca felt better when he stepped back out into Diagon Alley.

Blaise touched his lower back when he joined him. "See you in a little bit?"

Luca nodded, a wry little smile coming up. "Come find me when you get in."

Following a quick kiss, Luca jumped back into the fire for Blaise's flat. It was quiet, which contributed to Luca's relief to be somewhere familiar again. He'd spent enough time at Blaise's flat over summer and Christmas for it to feel somewhat like his second home in Britain. It didn't hurt that he'd never bothered keeping anything at his mum's flat, although Luca felt a pang for that too. In his bid to rush toward independence (and the flurry of hormones that came with sharing his boyfriend's bed) he'd pretty much snubbed her once school let out last June. He didn't realize they had such little time together left. Luca knew it was a possibility something might happen to her, since being an Auror in Britain was very dangerous. Not to mention, she'd partnered up with Harry Potter in the office. Luca just wanted to deny that anything could possibly happen to her.

He tried to let those feelings go. More now than ever, Luca could appreciate that he'd had a chance to know his mum at all. He could comfortably say that he would've probably liked growing up with Dagmar as a proper sibling. He wasn't ignorant to the problems she'd had because of her parents, though. That might have been easier to weather with two of them.

Sighing, Luca undressed down to his pants in Blaise's bedroom. He left the bathroom door open, rested against the frame. The shower ran while he unpacked his toiletries. Luca glanced in the mirror at himself, but let his gaze fall pretty fast. It was weird to look at his face and realize it might not be fully his to call his own.

He thought about the name Bjorn. That was even weirder. Luca felt no connection to a Norwegian heritage. He liked it there, but he didn't know the language. Thing was, Voldemort was British. If he and Luca were genetically twinned, then that meant Luca wasn't French, like he thought. That's what the note left with him at the Auror office was written in, and Romanian was the only romantic language spoken in the Balkans. It made sense to Luca that a young pregnant woman trying to get as far away from France as possible to find a new home for her child might come to Romania.

The hypothetical bio-mother that Luca grew up wondering about would've been very happy to see him on the Parasca villa, walking behind his grandmum in the orchard and holding the bucket that she put plums, apples, and bunches of cherries into. She might have smiled to see him with his granddad, monitoring the animals that were let in from the field to graze. She would have probably laughed at all the times the rooster accurately named Tâmpit took chase after Luca. She would probably be endeared at all the times Luca tried to spot the domovoy that lived in the house, despite his grandparents warning him it was bad luck. Luca just couldn't resist when he heard the cats running around in the middle of the night, playing with Grigore.

Luca was too busy during the day in his youth to think much about his bio-mum. That yearning to know her usually arrived when he laid in bed in the dark, free from distraction. He would imagine conversations with her where he'd tell her things about his day. That habit followed him into his preteen and teenaged years at Durmstrang. If Luca had something he didn't want to talk to his mum or grandparents about, like acknowledging he preferred boys over girls, his bio-mum would hear it instead. In his mind, Luca's bio-mum looked just like Mamă. Luca had dark hair, dark eyes, and fair skin, so it made sense to him that his bio-mum had the same features.

He tried to imagine now sitting across from Mrs Ramstad. It didn't feel right. Perhaps it was a silly thing to get caught up on, but Luca never imagined his bio-mum to be blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Mrs Ramstad was about the right age, so there was that.

With an excited flutter, Luca wondered if the few things he could maybe remember might finally gain some meaning. If he ever laid long enough uninterrupted in the dark, he could drag up the sound of waves lapping on a beach, and a certain laugh. When Luca pushed it hard enough for an image, the only thing he ever got was a flutter of white fabric.

Luca jumped, jarred from all of it when a knock came to the bathroom door before it opened.

"I'm back," Blaise said. "I just grabbed some sandwiches and crisps."

"Sounds good." Luca poked his head around the shower curtain. "Come here."