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Teddy came running out while Hadrian was finishing decorating the hallway after seeing Tim off to work. They'd been back from Thanksgiving for about a week and other than the tree which they'd get a real one next week, this was the last of the decorating.
"Papa Papa," Teddy yelled in a panic.
"Stay back from the ladder, I'm coming down," Hadrian said, wishing he'd saved this particular job for when Heather was out of the house so he could've used magic to get the tinsel up to the high ceiling.
"Grandma Heather saw Rosie make her dolly come to her with magic," Teddy whispered.
"Do you think she noticed?" Hadrian asked. They'd had several near calls where Hadrian didn't truly understand how Heather hadn't noticed accidental magic occurring in her presence so Tim and Hadrian were starting to relax a little about whether they'd get through the visit without one of the children shocking her.
"Her eyes got big and scared and she frowned at the dolly. Now she looks like she wants to get up and she wants to stay sitting all at once," Teddy reported.
Hadrian laughed weakly at Teddy's description. "I'll talk to her. It will be alright Teddy," he said hugging his son reassuringly. "You go on upstairs and I'll call you when lunch is ready."
-o0o-
Heather watched nervously as Hadrian sought her out. She knew that Teddy would have told his father what Rosie had done and hoped to be able to calm the young man down enough to explain that just because Rosie could do something he'd previously thought was impossible didn't make her evil or dangerous.
"Teddy told me that you saw Rosie perform magic," Hadrian said calmly sitting in front of her and hoping he wouldn't have to obliviate his mother-in-law.
"She wasn't a doing anything that was dangerous to anyone. She just wanted her dolly," Heather exclaimed hurriedly.
"Yes she has pretty good control for a two year old, and the house is well warded to prevent her summoning people, the furniture or anything heavy enough to seriously hurt her or anybody else, and against more violent outbursts of magic. The rooms are warded to slow down the flight of small items like her dolly and toys too, so you're not likely to be hit too hard in the back of the head if it happens while you're around again," Hadrian agreed calmly.
"You knew she had magic?" Heather asked, surprised. "You're awfully calm about it. And what do you mean by the house is warded?"
"Yes, I've always known she would probably have magic. Warding is a form of magical protection on a place or object," Hadrian agreed.
"So, she is Tim's daughter?" Heather asked more confirming her belief than in curiosity.
"Is this why you have been so insistent on knowing who Rosie's and Daisy's biological father is? You were afraid they would inherit magic from Tim and that I'd reject them for it?" Hadrian asked, frowning in confusion.
"Thomas and I were frightened when Tim started performing magic, we didn't know what it was and it was so violent at times. We found out there's a whole world out there of people who can do magic. It's rare but it isn't so unusual. Tim doesn't know this, but he was a wizard. People came and spoke to us about it when he was seven, wanting him to go to their magic school. The Admiral, well he was the Commander then, demanded that they take his magic away because he wanted him to join the Navy. I agreed because he was so insistent and I didn't think it mattered, and I'll admit I was a little afraid of what magic could do, it seemed to be getting stronger as he got older. Tim didn't want them to take his magic away but the people from the school said he wouldn't remember anything about their visit or our decision, he wouldn't remember having magic at all so he'd be fine, he'd be a normal boy. They were right that he didn't seem to remember, but once they took his magic away Tim became much quieter and generally less happy or content, and he started to spend more time by himself. Please don't do the same to Rosie. Her magic won't hurt her or you, there's no need to be afraid of it," Heather begged, nearly in tears as she remembered the look of confusion and hurt in her son's eyes as he tried to process a sense of loss he didn't even really remember or understand.
"I would never bind any child's magic, there's a lot of safer ways of dealing with it, the whole house is warded against violent and destructive magic, but you didn't answer my question," Hadrian replied.
"Yes, I was afraid one of the children would do magic and seeing it would remind Tim that he used to be able to do it too, then when the education people came he would know what we did to him," Heather admitted tearfully.
Hadrian sighed. "Tim already knows what you and the Admiral did when he was seven. He has forgiven you, though he would never agree to letting anyone do that to his children," he admitted.
"He's remembered that he used to be a wizard or did someone tell him? But does he remember how it felt after they took his magic?" Heather asked.
"Tim is still a wizard, taking away his magic would have killed him, the officials that visited you just bound it so he can't access it. They should have explained that to you. Personally, I think it is a monstrous thing to do to any child and I'm extremely relieved that it is illegal in most of the rest of the world," Hadrian replied. "The wizards who did it kept their word, Tim doesn't actually remember using magic but he has described to me the feelings of loss he had when he was eight, he said it was as if he'd gone blind and deaf but could still see and hear though nothing looked or sounded or smelt or felt the same, that he felt all the time like something important was missing, like he'd lost a limb and had no idea why he felt that way. He also felt like there was a barrier between him and the rest of the world and he felt he had to keep his thoughts and feelings inside to protect himself, that he no longer knew who he could trust."
"I didn't know it would hurt him like that. They said that he'd be perfectly fine. But what was I supposed to do? It couldn't be undone, there was nothing I could do. I tried to make it up to him. Give him more time and attention, I let him skip another grade at school when he wanted to while Tom was deployed even though I knew he wouldn't approve," Heather said sadly.
"They were supposed to have told you that it is possible to undo the binding, but it's not that simple anymore. It could have been easily undone within the first year, possibly for a couple of months more than that but the magical channels slowly atrophy and reflooding them with magic after too long has passed causes agonizing pain. There's recently been a ritual found that enables people that have their magic bound for longer to heal their channels and slowly unbind their magic without going mad from the pain of having magic flowing through atrophied magical channels, but it's still too late for Tim. It could be done, but he'd have to sacrifice too much of who he is now to do it. The likelihood of him ever learning to control it well enough to continue working with computers or in a high stress environment like law enforcement would be negligible and he didn't want to give up his career to essentially go back to high school just to have access to his magic. He's decided that it isn't worth it," Hadrian replied quietly.
"How long has he known?" Heather asked anxiously.
"Since about six months before Rosie was born," Hadrian said, though he didn't explain how they' found out that Tim had to be a wizard.
"You know an awful lot about it. How did Tim find out he was a wizard anyway?" Heather asked suspiciously.
"Because I'm a wizard, and so is Teddy," Hadrian admitted.
"But if Tim's magic was bound, how would you know?" Heather asked.
"Like I said Tim is still a wizard, they only bound the magic so it cannot be accessed to use, but every cell of his body still contains wizard DNA and that makes him different from a mundane in several ways, I noticed that he wasn't affected my muggle or nonmagical people repelling wards that I was using in my apartment to prevent people from seeing my magical items, and there's some other ways he doesn't react like a nonmagical," Hadrian explained. "Once I realized he was more than a squib but didn't have active useable magic, I asked my colleagues about how that could happen and found out about the American policy of giving the parents of first generation witches and wizards the choice of binding their children's magic rather than sending them to school to learn to control it. I couldn't get confirmation that his magic was bound but I found that a healer can, so I asked my healer to check because bound or not because his magic would still be present which means magical healing and potions will work for him, which they don't work on a muggle. The healer managed to confirm it and I supplied Tim with some potions which have helped keep him alive and heal more quickly with less residual scar tissue and ongoing effects when he's been injured in the field."
"They don't bind children's magic in Britain?" Heather asked.
"No, in Britain only the incurably criminally insane can legally have their magic bound like that against their will and neither a child nor their parents can choose to have it done. Instead parents of magical children will be spelled to make them accepting of the magic in their child," Hadrian said.
"But what happens to the children who don't want magic, or the children whose parents can't accept that their child is a wizard?" Heather asked.
"There aren't any children who don't want magic, I met with several of the wizards who conduct those 'introduction to the wizarding world' visits and they all tell me they have never met or even heard of a child who didn't want to have magic even those that live in areas where they'd have to board at the magical school, it's always the parents' decision to bind the child's magic. In Britain, parents aren't told until the child is eleven and then the children spend nine months of every year at school. Some students like my friend Hermione spend their summer's visiting friends and only spend a couple of weeks a year at home," Hadrian said. "It isn't foolproof of course. My relatives knew that I'd have magic because my parents both did and they tried to beat and starve the magic out of me instead, which to be honest, as unpleasant as it was probably did me less harm than trying to bind my magic," Hadrian said bluntly.
Heather paled, "Do you really believe that?" she asked faintly.
"Perhaps not if I was a normal wizard but I was the number one target of a terrorist leader, my magic saved my life several times. My magic also rescued me from a loveless and friendless life with my relatives at eleven. Magic is part of who I am and part of my heritage," Hadrian said.
"I've never seen you perform magic," Heather commented.
"I try not to show it in front of no-mages who aren't supposed to know, and Tim and I didn't know whether you'd been allowed to keep your memories of him having magic as a child. But I perform magic every hour of the day, it's part of my life in every way, I am a wizard in every cell of my body," Hadrian said. "That's what you didn't realize when you agreed to let them bind Tim's magic, you were taking away part of who he was."
Heather looked devastated and Hadrian felt slightly guilty for harping on it the way he had but just the thought of someone taking away his children's magic made him feel violated on their behalf, he could not understand how anyone could do it to their own child.
"Do you think the fact Tim had magic was what drew you to him when you met?" Heather asked curiously. "Is magic attracted to magic?"
"No, I know a lot of witches and wizards. I went to a magical boarding school and lived almost entirely in the magical world after the war ended until I moved to America, I've never found magical people to be more or less attractive or romantically interesting than nonmagical people. Most magical people in Britain will marry another magical person because their society is so isolated they don't know any non magical people and it's hard to date someone when you have to hide such a large part of yourself. I've dated magical people and never felt a tenth of the attraction that I feel for Tim. When we first met, I honestly was pleased to be talking to someone who lived outside the magical world. Well they refer to it as a world but to outsiders the correct term is probably an enclave, most of them have no idea how much bigger the non magical world is both in population and in vision. Tim was polite and supportive when I was anxious about leaving the country, and we just hit it off. He helped me find a place to stay and we became friends. We didn't start dating until several months later," Hadrian said. "We'd been dating several months before I began to suspect he was magical."
"Are all wizards bisexual?" Heather asked, curiously.
"You can't blame his attraction to me on my magic so you want to blame his sexual orientation on his magic?" Hadrian asked cynically. "I'm afraid that just won't wash either, the percentage of magicals who are bisexual or homosexual is probably about the same as the rest of the world. In fact, the majority of the British Wizarding World is almost as bigoted about homosexuality as the Admiral. Bigotry taught everywhere from the cradle to the only school, open homosexuality is almost unheard of though I'm sure it still happens in secret. Half the society still practices arranged marriages, with magically enforced vows of protection and fidelity sometimes from the date of the betrothal agreement before the child can even talk let alone express a sexual orientation, there's no way out for the poor sods. Which is one of the reasons why Tim and I have no plans to ever live over there."
"So the majority of your old friends don't accept your relationship? Are you okay with that?" Heather asked concerned.
"No but the one's who matter do. It was a struggle at first to get them to understand it, most of them hadn't ever met an openly homosexual couple, but in the end my happiness was more important to them than the prejudices they'd been brought up with, and the fact that we are magically married helps too because magic wouldn't have married us if homosexuality was a crime against magic. The war has proved a lot of their old ways and beliefs wrong so my generation are more open minded and being involved in fighting two wars in their generation, very few of my parents' friends have survived," Hadrian said seriously. "But we've got a long way off the topic I came to talk to you about. Are you okay with Rosie and Daisy being witches?"
"Daisy too?" Heather exclaimed.
"Yes, and I'm glad she is. It would be very difficult to grow up being the only one in the family without magic," Hadrian said gently. "It's hard enough for Tim as an adult."
"Yes. You're right," Heather agreed. "So they will go to magical school?"
"Teddy will start next year. Thankfully the American school in Salem isn't a boarding school, with magical travel he can come home every night," Hadrian replied.
"Will he still get into college?" Heather asked.
"If he wants to go, yes. He could even go to Annapolis if that's what he wants. The Salem Academy has a very good reputation in the nonmagical world as well, Tim could easily have gone to magical school and still joined the navy if he wanted to," Hadrian replied.
"So we injured him so badly for nothing?" Heather said hopelessly.
Hadrian kindly didn't answer, "Are you okay with your Grandchildren being magical?" he asked again.
"Yes I am, I am a little nervous of what they could accidentally do but I know that none of them would deliberately hurt anyone," Heather said honestly.
"Magical accidents are usually fairly easily reversed. They don't really have the power to do anything permanent at their ages and by the time they do they should also have enough control not to have accidental outbursts, and the house itself limits their magical accidents," Hadrian reassured her.
Heather tried to smile but Hadrian could see she was still anxious. He didn't know what else he could tell her that would help though.
"Have you told anyone else about seeing Rosie do magic?" Hadrian asked.
"No but Barbara was there when it happened. She looked slightly scared by it," Heather replied.
"She wasn't scared by the magic itself, she's seen it often enough. She was probably worried about your reaction, Barbara is a witch and she's known Rosie has been doing magic for several months now, she also knows about you and the Admiral having Tim's magic bound when he was a child" Hadrian replied. "But the reason I asked is that the wizarding world must be kept secret from the rest of the world. It's an international law. You mustn't tell anyone outside of the house. Not even Sarah. In fact given her chosen profession and her blogging habits, especially not Sarah. I'm surprised that you were allowed to remember Tim having magic as a kid."
"I never told anyone about that until you told me you knew about Rosie had magic, I don't know why I never told Penny or Mom about it, I never intended to keep it a secret from them. They were both worried about Tim and asked what had happened and I still couldn't tell them," Heather said sounding surprised.
"You were spelled not to be able to talk about it," Hadrian realized.
"They can do that?" Heather asked horrified. "They can stop me talking about something and can make me forget? They're allowed to do that to me?"
"There are spells that can do both those things. They are restricted in their use but to protect the statute of secrecy both are regularly used," Hadrian said gently. "You knew that they had spells to make people forget things. How else could you explain them making Tim forget that he used to be able to do magic?"
"I thought it was just a side effect of having the magic taken away that he wouldn't remember it. I also thought that it was a good thing that he wouldn't remember since he couldn't do it anymore and I didn't want him to resent us for agreeing to them doing it, but I never imagined that they made him forget on purpose. Why is it so important that they'd use spells to make sure I didn't talk about it? Nobody would've believed me anyway, not once Tim didn't have magic anymore," Heather asked.
"The Statute of Secrecy was developed in response to the persecution and burning of witches across Europe, the Catholics and several other Christian religions were aiming to commit wholesale genocide. Throughout history people have been afraid of what they don't understand and truly there is a lot of possibilities for dishonesty using magic against non-magicals. The need to keep the worlds apart prevents a lot of that and avoids mass panic leading to another attempt at genocide," Hadrian attempted to explain. "They may also have done it to protect you and the Admiral from being committed as being delusional."
"You think that will still happen in today's age?" Heather asked.
"I'm living proof it would. My Aunt and Uncle nearly killed me trying to prevent me from being magical. In fact, if my magic wasn't stronger than average and able to sustain and heal me they would undoubtably have succeeded. People are afraid of what's different and you have to admit that racism and bigotry are unfortunately still real issues in this world. Add to that the scientists never ending need to discover why, and I'm genuinely afraid what would happen to my family and my world if the truth became widely known," Hadrian said seriously. "Perhaps one day it might be safe for the nonmagical population to know about us, but that day is still a very long way away, possibly centuries. Most of society has begun to change since Hitler and his gas chambers but you only have to look at the subjugation of women in many middle eastern countries to know that equality for all is still beyond our reach."
"So is there a whole hidden society?" Heather asked curiously. "They didn't really explain that to us when Tim was little."
"There is in Britain. They've cut themselves off completely from the nonmagical world centuries ago. They have their own government, schools, hospitals, banks, police force and all. There are witches and wizards who are decades older than me in Britain that have never met anyone without magic they're that isolated. But here in America most of us live among everyone else, it's only magic itself and magical things that are kept secret, we still have our own schools and our own law enforcement, healers, hospitals and shopping districts, but we also fit into the normal world, many witches and wizards have a nonmagical college education, work in nonmagical jobs, send their children to nonmagical schools until they're old enough for magical schooling, and live in among nonmagical people without any of their friends realizing there is something different about them, though there are a few wizarding only towns up in the mountains of Colorado, and one out in the Nevada desert," Hadrian said.
"Which is better?" Heather asked.
"I don't know. We live in the nonmagical world here because that's where Tim's job and life is, and the magical forms of heating, cooking and lighting take active magic to control so Tim cannot do even simple things like turn out the light on his own in magical Britain. We try to keep visible magic hidden to the private rooms of the house, and the kitchen and the house is warded to make people less likely to notice. You only noticed Rosie perform magic because you knew about it already. There are lots of advantages for all of us living here but the risk of Rosie or Teddy performing accidental magic out in public and giving us away is constant, and Teddy needs to be medicated to stop his hair changing colour with his moods, it's a unique magical gift he inherited from his mother. We have to be alert to the risk every moment. Even the wards that keep us safe contain some risk of exposure. Anyone intending us harm has trouble finding the house or remembering what they're looking for, which is one of the reasons it's important that the Admiral never tries to come here. He won't be able to find the place unless you're driving him, and his reason for coming is likely to be enough to make him notice the problem and he might take it out on you or Sarah. This house won't burn if someone tried to set it on fire, and it would be much more difficult to attack physically or magically than any normal property, the wood and the paint won't be damaged by termites or the weather, the windows are less breakable than bullet proof glass. There are similar wards covering the school too. Eventually someone is going to notice the curious lack of playground accidents and bullying, or petty theft, or that pedophiles don't feel comfortable hanging around nearby and teachers who are willing to hurt children don't want to work there."
Heather laughed. "Did you do that? Is it legal?" she asked.
"I did it, and it's not really legal but not specifically all that illegal either the way I did it. I'm not allowed to ward buildings I don't own and the education department wouldn't sell me the property the school occupies even if I signed over a 200 year lease for them to rent it back at $1 per year, so I purchased and warded as many of the houses around the school as I could and over warded them so the wards overlapped the schoolyard and some of the outer classrooms, and because you have to get through the warded area to get to the rest of the school it protects the whole school from major threats," Hadrian admitted. He didn't tell her that he'd also been buying up various commercial and residential properties around their part of the town to ward and rent out making their whole neighbourhood safer. Wards that encroached on neighbouring properties were illegal but there weren't many magicals in their area to notice and no Auror was going to prosecute over protective wards as benign as Hadrian's.
"Tell me more about the magical enclaves in Britain. Why you don't want Rosie and Daisy growing up there," Heather asked.
"My best friend in Britain lived in a completely magical home, the only neighbours they knew all had magic so the risks of exposing our world were much less. Everything is done with magic, they didn't have electricity or gas connected to the house and the plumbing was purely magical. They don't have a telephone, or mail delivery or any contact at all with the normal world. They were one of very few wizarding families in Britain to own a car and his father kept it mostly to tinker with and enchant to fly, he only drove it once or twice a year. The children were homeschooled and had no friends other than their brothers and sisters and two neighbouring children and relatives they rarely saw until they went to boarding school at eleven. There were forty children in our year level and my dorm mates Ron and Neville were both related to at least a third of them each. As a kid I thought his home was fantastic but as an adult I can see that Teddy has opportunities here that my friend didn't have and that Teddy, Rosie and Daisy certainly would never have there. Britain is a closed society and extremely old fashioned. Some of it is quaint, quills, rolls of parchment and candles, wood or coal fires. But like any closed society it has its own prejudices. Homophobia for one, and superstition. Teddy's father had an illness that they believed made him cursed. Teddy did not inherit it but he's still looked on with suspicion by most people in Britain. It's also a society very rigidly separated into classes. It matters more who your grandparents and great-grandparents were than what you are capable of."
"So, if your great grandfather was a thief then you'd never be trusted?" Heather asked.
"No! If your great grandfather had been caught stealing from the bank, you, your children and grandchildren would be considered dishonorable by the goblins and not be allowed to enter their bank, but the general wizarding population wouldn't care much except for his victims unless the family he stole from had the political power to blacken your name, but if your grandfather, or in Rosie's and Daisy's case one grandfather, one grandmother and one great grandmother, didn't have magic you would be considered by some to be a second class citizen and would find your job opportunities limited by that," Hadrian said bluntly. "Here in America, and most of the rest of the world outside of England and Europe, it doesn't matter, magic is magic whether you are a first generation magical or tenth."
"Magic is the reason that you can trace your family back so far and held on to your land throughout all the changes in rulers, isn't it?" Heather asked.
Hadrian smiled. "Yes, Magicals had a written language long before the majority of Europe and preservation charms protect the books and journals from those days from being lost to fire, damp or decay and translation spells to convert the text into modern English. I don't know the details but I assume the wards on the properties would resist changes in ownership like the old wards did on this place for so long even after the previous owners no longer wanted the house, and past Potters probably used wards to stay under the king's notice or for the family members to safely support each side without being caught out," he replied.
"And the titles?" Heather asked.
"I still have several titles in the wizarding world that no longer matter in the nonmagical world but I am officially the Earl of Gryffindor in Great Britain," Hadrian said modestly.
"So does my son have a title?" Heather asked.
Hadrian shook his head. "In the nonmagical world I'm not sure, probably not as the peerage hasn't caught up with the possibility of gay marriage and in the British Wizarding World our marriage probably wouldn't be recognized at all." He grinned wickedly, "If he were a woman he would be a Countess."
Heather laughed almost hysterically.
A/N: Thank you to jilumasam, Silvermane1, acherongoddess, DarkRavie, buterflypuss, knuckles 8, Mfoto, siobhan.22, McPenname, xDarklightx, Millie072, sandipi, Hortensia, aisa.32, lilly-flower15, Kourtney Uzu Yato, Firehedgehog, Greysh, staar, guest, mooneysfate, mayawene, Rainbow2007, Rori Potter, fandomsneverdie, Harriverse, Lady Kaiki, sillygabby, Elpida, DS2010, serenityselena, charm13insomnia, Fallow55, , Ghostisreading, Yuuki Heartfilia-Dragneel, linzi, luramos, Merlenyn, , Serpent91, LeopardIzzy, FanFictionAddict13, Locket1, Erimenthe, 16 and all those who followed and favourited for your support.
