Chapter 85

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Your Mom caught Rosie doing magic this morning, summoning her dolly," Hadrian told Tim as he made him a late supper when he returned home at the end of a case. Heather and the children had already gone to bed, leaving them to have the evening to themselves.

"Oh God! You should have called me. I would've come home for that. Did she totally freak out? Is she still here?" Tim asked panicked.

"Yes, she's still here, I think she went to bed early to give us time to talk. She didn't really freak out as such, she didn't even tell me so I'm not entirely sure it was the first time she's noticed it happen," Harry replied.

"If she didn't approach you about it, how did you find out? Did she ask Barbara, please don't tell me she yelled at Rosie or tried to punish her?" Tim begged.

"No she didn't seem angry with Rosie at all more protective of her. Teddy told me about her seeing and noticing the magic. When I went to find her she was just sitting watching Rosie play and staring into space lost in thought. Rosie wasn't upset so she couldn't have said anything to her," Hadrian replied reassuringly.

"So what happened. Did you tell her you knew she'd seen the magic?" Tim asked.

"I told her. Your Mom was a little frightened but not so much by Rosie but more about how we'd react to finding out about it, than of Rosie or the magic. She remembers what happened to you and the way you changed after your magic was bound and she regrets agreeing to allowing your magic to be taken from you more than she could say, she was spelled not to be able to talk about it to anyone unless they knew about the magical world and I guess after all these years of not being able to tell anybody she didn't realise she could have told us if she'd tried," Hadrian said softly. "I think this is why she's been demanding to know which of us is Rosie's biological father. I think she was worried about Rosie inheriting magic from you and having it bound like you did. She begged me not to let that happen to Rosie or Daisy. I had to agree I wouldn't more than once before she calmed down."

"But she let them bind my magic," Tim reminded him.

"Yes, and she's regretted allowing them to do it ever since," Hadrian agreed sighing. "She told me about the day it happened and the months afterwards. It was the Admiral who insisted on having your magic bound so you could stay in mainstream education and prep for Annapolis. She went along with it because she didn't think it would matter, they were told by the officials that you wouldn't remember having magic and wouldn't miss it at all, she was shocked and upset that after the binding you withdrew and seemed sad all the time. She said she regretted doing it but she didn't know that there was a possibility of reversing the process. She thought they actually took the magic from you, not just bound it so you couldn't access it," Hadrian said.

"I thought they were supposed to tell parents about it being reversable for the first twelve months and give them a way to contact them if they want it unbound?" Tim said questioningly.

"They are," Hadrian agreed. "I don't know why your parents didn't know that. I can look into it if you want me to."

"Or maybe the Admiral did know the truth, but she believed him when he said that it couldn't be reversed," Tim said cynically.

Hadrian didn't say anything, he thought that Tim's speculation was entirely possible. He really would like to sit the man down and force Veritaserum down his throat to find out what the man had been thinking and how he justified treating his son the way he did.

"Do you really think that magic was the reason Mom cared so much who fathered Rosie and Daisy? That she didn't actually care about passing on her genes or being genetically related to the kids and she was just worried that they'd inherit magic like me and we'd make the same mistake that she and the Admiral did?" Tim asked.

Hadrian nodded thoughtfully.

"You really believe that she doesn't really care anymore about whether they're biologically her granddaughters?" Tim asked skeptically.

"When she saw Rosie summon her dolly she assumed that she was your daughter and that I'd be frightened about the magic. But once I told her I was a wizard too, she didn't ask about paternity again, nor did she seem disappointed that Rosie's magic didn't automatically mean she was biologically yours," Hadrian said nodding. "She really does seem to care about them and I've been watching her with them closely since she got here, she doesn't seem to favour the girls over Teddy and she knows that he can't be biologically your son."

"Do you think we should tell her the truth? That the girls are both yours and mine?" Tim asked uncertainly.

"Not yet, I don't think she'd believe us if we did. I think accepting simple magic is one thing and accepting the idea of men falling pregnant is probably a step too far for her at the moment," Hadrian said. "At least wait until she's had a lot more exposure to magic. Maybe if she visits while I'm pregnant next time we could tell her then."

"Yes, then we would have proof if she didn't believe us, but do you really think she'd visit us again once the Admiral isn't regularly deployed anymore?" Tim asked cynically.

"I don't know?" Hadrian said gently. "But I do know she will want to. The question is not just whether she has the courage to stand up to your father though, she might decide that it's safer for us and the children if she doesn't provoke the Admiral like that."

Tim sighed. "You're right, and we'll never know exactly why she stopped visiting or keeping in contact with us," he admitted.

"I could use Legilimency or Veritaserum to find out what she's really thinking but it wouldn't be ethical," Hadrian replied.

"No, I wouldn't want to invade her privacy and break her trust like that," Tim agreed sighing. "As much as I'm going to hate not knowing I would hate that more."

"I understand," Hadrian said leaning over and kissing his husband. "You're a good man Timothy McGee-Potter-Black."

-o0o-

Hadrian approached Tim about his mother the next night. He didn't want to interfere but he could see how unhappy and nervous his mother-in-law was waiting for Tim to yell at her. The elves had told him that Heather had packed all her things the day before and was now living out of her suitcases as if she expected to be asked to leave.

"Your Mom is feeling pretty guilty about binding your magic as a kid. I told her that you've forgiven her for doing it but you might want to talk to her about it, she still feels badly," Hadrian said.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow if I get home at a decent time," Tim said.

"We could use the time turner to take a day if you wanted to. Go to Boston for the day and then you could come home and talk to Heather," Hadrian offered.

"And what will you do? Spend the evening hiding out in the spare room?" Tim asked.

"I thought I could take a healthy meal in for the team and encourage them to take ten minutes to eat properly," Hadrian mentioned.

"Better make it something we can eat with one hand while we work," Tim said cynically.

"Or we could retire to the bedroom and have a threesome," Hadrian suggested cheekily.

Tim laughed. "I don't think I could handle two of you," he said pulling his husband in and kissing him deeply. "Besides isn't there a reason we've always gone out of our way not to see our alternate selves? Or were you teasing?"

"I was mostly teasing. There can be danger if you come across yourself unexpectedly, especially if you don't know that you were planning on using a time turner. Also, some people can be stressed out by seeing a situation from two different perspectives and worry about making sure they try to say and do exactly what they saw their future self say and do the first time through," Hadrian replied.

"I think it's too much of a risk," Tim said. "As interesting as a threesome might be, I don't want to risk your sanity for some kinky sex."

"Okay then I'll risk Gibbs' wrath by bringing dinner for the team," Hadrian replied, neither upset nor surprised that Tim hadn't wanted to take the risk.

-o0o-

After Hadrian's discussion with Heather, Hadrian and Barbara stopped trying to hide their magic use from her and she realised exactly how much magic could do and what she and the Admiral had deprived Tim of and she wondered how Tim could forgive her so easily when he was constantly surrounded by the magic he should've been able to do and couldn't because of her.

The casual way Barbara changed the colours of clothing to what the children wanted. Hadrian setting the dishes to wash themselves as he levitated the plates out to the dining table, or transfigured what he needed and fixed broken items or expanded a bag to fit in an entire picnic including the picnic rug, was just a beginning. Hadrian's friend Neville popped over from England for the afternoon to discuss something with Hadrian and used his magic to resuscitate a neglected houseplant while Hadrian laughed at him for his gift in plant magic.

-o0o-

Tim came home early, thanks to the timetuner, and she burst into tears as soon as he greeted her.

"What's wrong Mom?" Tim asked.

"I took so much from you. How can you ever forgive me?" Heather replied.

"I forgave you a long time ago. I've known for years that you and the Admiral made the decision to have my magic bound. I remember how it felt and I remember the sense of betrayal I felt when I found out you and the Admiral had given them permission to do that to me. But I also know that once the Admiral had made his decision you felt you couldn't argue against him, and that he wouldn't have listened if you had objected. I don't think there was much you could have done," Tim said gently. He didn't know what would have happened if one parent insisted on their child's magic being bound and the other objected. He knew there must be a protocol for it but he didn't think he wanted to find out what it was.

"Do you ever think about what might have been if we hadn't done that to you?" Heather asked hesitantly.

"You can't live your life playing the what if game, Mom. If I hadn't had my magic bound I would've gone to magic school, I might not have gone to MIT or Johns Hopkins and made the friends I did, I might not have joined NCIS and had a team as close to a family as anything any of us have. Who knows I might even have joined the Navy," Tim said lightly.

"What about your seasickness?" Heather asked.

"The seasickness is probably a side effect of the binding on my magical core. Remember how Dad thought I was faking it because I didn't have it when I was younger," Tim replied. He chuckled a little. "Ironic isn't it. He wanted me to join the Navy so badly and in the end, it was his trying to make sure I did that made it impossible for me to serve aboard a ship."

Heather laughed though she didn't sound happy or amused.

"The thing is I also probably wouldn't have written Deep Six and therefore not gone to England for the book's release there. The chances I would still have been on the plane that day to meet Hadrian would've been less than a million to one. So many things would've changed that I can't imagine what my life would've been like with magic but I wouldn't want magic instead of Hadrian and our family," Tim replied. "It would be easy to blame you for everything that went wrong in my life after my magic was bound. For attending all those different schools and having to work so hard to catch up with the new school's requirements, for being bullied at school, for the seasickness, for Dad's attitude, but in general I'm happy with my life and there's no way to know whether things would've been better if I had gone to Salem Academy of Magic."

"Would it be easier to be married to someone who doesn't have magic and not be surrounded by it all the time?" Heather asked hesitantly.

"I wouldn't trade being married to Hadrian for anything in the world! Besides, even with my magic bound I can pass it on, my children would probably still have had magic. At least Hadrian and Barbara can fix things if the children's magic gets out of their control," Tim said mildly. "It was my decision not to try to have my magic released, Mom. The ritual to do it was approved for use about eight months ago now and I've known about the research into it for several months before that. I was one of the first people it was offered to. Hadrian was really supportive that it was my decision to make, he hasn't pressured me at all in either direction."

"Hadrian explained that you would have to give up too much," Heather said sadly. "You shouldn't have been in a position to have to make that choice. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay Mom, I get all the benefits of Hadrian's magic and still get to do the work I love. I'm happy with my choice and I can always change my mind if that changes, maybe when I retire. The side effects of having my magic unblocked won't get any worse than they are now," Tim said comfortingly. "But don't be surprised if I never want to. I'm satisfied with the way things are now."

"Do you wish we hadn't had your magic bound?" Heather asked.

"I wish I'd remembered what happened and you explained why I was feeling the way I was. And I wish you had known that the binding could be removed without harm for the first six to eight months and with minimal need for medical intervention and extra training for at least six months after that," Tim said. He was disappointed in himself to realise that he was treating her like a suspect, watching to see if what he said genuinely surprised her, trying to catch her in a lie. Luckily her shock looked genuine to him.

"They said it was irreversible!" she exclaimed, tears running down her face.

"You heard them say it yourself, or the Admiral told you they had said that?" Tim asked suspiciously.

Heather paled. "Your father told me. I was distracted looking after you after they'd done it and they spoke to your father as he showed them out. I wanted to call them back and ask if there was anything to be done after the first two weeks when you didn't seem to be recovering from the shock like they said you would. To ask if anything was wrong and he told me he was sorry but there was nothing they could do we'd just have to wait for you to get better. He reassured me that they said you'd be fine once you got over the shock but I never thought it would take as long as it did," she admitted.

"The Admiral lied to you. The law says that they have to tell families about the possibilities of having the bindings removed as well as the dangers of trying to get it removed after the time period has passed, it's too important for them not to have told you and either provided you the information in writing or spelled you to remember that as well," Tim said gently but with no room for doubt.

"What dangers? You said it would be safe to release your magic if you wanted to do it," Heather said alarmed.

"There is a way to do it safely now, but until the unbinding and channel repair rituals were found recently, it was impossible to release the magic once the magical channels in the body had atrophied and when they'd tried the people they were trying to help died in agony. Even if they managed to rebind their magic before it killed them, they were never the same, they were often driven insane from the pain and the residual burning sensation never fully went away. Even now there's a gap in time where a child's magic cannot be unbound before they're old enough to participate in the ritual."

"Why?" Heather asked.

"Ritual magic is very different from spell magic, participants need to be adults to understand the implications," Tim said blushing.

"Like what?"

Tim wanted to ignore her but knew if he didn't answer she would ask Hadrian and that would be even more awkward. "It's a sex ritual," he said. "Other darker rituals can require bloodletting or sacrifice or virginity, this one just requires being penetrated during the ritual by an expert in ritual magic."

"You're telling me, you'd have to have sex with someone other than Hadrian? And he's okay with you doing it? Is this why you've chosen not to?" Heather asked.

"No. One of Hadrian's school friends found the ritual in the old archives in the British Ministry of Magic. They don't bind children's magic so they haven't had a use for it in centuries and the knowledge was lost. She was looking for it specifically for my sake, though Hadrian hadn't asked her to or even mentioned wishing he could unbind my magic. She has nonmagical parents herself and it horrified her that if they were American her parents might have bound her magic too. Hadrian has the ability to learn this ritual and he will if I decide to do it," Tim replied. "The problem is that most teenagers with their magic bound don't have magical friends and Hadrian said he doubted that there will be more than two or three wizards willing to perform this ritual for a teenager they're not related to or involved with, and most teenagers don't have the control themselves to do it no matter how good they are at runes or how much they might care for the person whose magic needs releasing," Tim said. "It's a wretched solution all around. The only good thing about it is the horror of the situation and the number of teenagers willing to be fucked by a stranger at least twenty years and up to one hundred years older than they are and to pay exorbitant amounts to have their magic unbound not to mention the potential for abuse of people who think they can cast the ritual just from experiencing it themselves and end up blowing themselves and their victims up, might make the ministry think twice about the policy to continue to bind children's magic in the first place."

"You seem very calm about the idea of participating in a sex ritual. What would be involved? Have you ever participated in a sex ritual with Hadrian?" she asked.

"Our marriage bonding was a sex ritual," Tim replied.

Heather looked shocked, "That's not what Sarah said when she described the ceremony," Heather said. They had never got around to actually viewing the wedding though they had discussed it.

"No, Sarah attended the public ceremony to be legally married in the nonmagical world. Our actual bonding was the week before without witnesses. Sex rituals are pretty much what you think, having sex while completing vows or spell chants inside a ritual circle made of runes," Tim explained. "Nothing particularly kinky or exotic about it, rune circles can be drawn or carved on any flat surface, they don't need to be outside during a full moon or anything like that. There's no good reason we couldn't have used the children's playroom or even our bedroom if we were willing to pull up the carpet for the night or clean the magical chalk out of it afterwards. The only truly objectional part of using this ritual to unbind the magic of everyone who wants it done is that there aren't that many wizards with the skills needed to learn to do it safely and with the number of people who have had their magic bound they would need to virtually prostitute themselves out to perform it for everyone and the risk of exploitation because they could charge whatever they wanted."

"You said Hadrian has the skills to do this, and he hates the idea of children having their magic bound," Heather said worriedly.

"He does but our marriage bond makes it totally impossible for him to offer to unbind anyone else's magic, we both made a vow of total fidelity," Tim replied calmly. "I expect he will offer to help fund the unbinding rituals for those who want it and cannot afford to pay themselves, so long as the fees are reasonable."

"You're saying that you cannot have sex with another man or woman ever?" Heather asked.

"That's right, I can't even seriously think about wanting to, not as long as we both live, but then I couldn't imagine wanting anyone other than Hadrian for the rest of my life even before we married," Tim replied.

Heather didn't know what to say. Any comment she made would sound trite or condescending but she was in shock at the level of commitment the two men had willingly made, but she did still have one worry.

"Did Hadrian know you were a wizard before you got engaged?" she asked.

Tim sighed. He knew him being a wizard hadn't been the reason Hadrian was willing to marry him but explaining it was difficult without either lying or telling his mother that they'd found out about his magic because he'd gotten Hadrian pregnant. "We had discussed it, and discussed having a child but then everything happened at once. Teddy's grandmother died and that brought everything into sharper focus. Hadrian needed a bigger place to live and he wanted me to move in with him and Teddy, and the opportunity came up for us to have Rosie and we decided to be a family. Permanence was important to Harry so we decided to get married and of course the ritual couldn't be done if I didn't have magic so Hadrian was glad when he realized I was a wizard and he was initially glad that I hadn't known about it and not just kept it from him," Tim said.

"That's a bit hypocritical of him, isn't it?" Heather snarked.

"Hadrian is probably the most famous wizard in the world. If I had gone to a magical school, I would have known who he was the moment we met, so I wouldn't just be hiding the fact I was a wizard but that I knew he was too and I knew he was rich, titled and famous. He's had people wanting to befriend him because of those things in the past. Believing I was nonmagical was one of the reasons he trusted me at first," Tim explained.

"So, you and Hadrian cant cheat or even be with someone else with permission, what other limits did the ritual place on the two of you?" Heather asked.

"Nothing that truly limits or changes our behaviour or our relationship from what it was before. We used the same vows for our public wedding as we did in the ritual so you can hear them for yourself but basically we vowed to love and respect each other to confide in each other and to listen with an open heart to what the other has to say and to share our lives together both as a romantic couple and as best friends," Tim replied. "I'll ask Hadrian to set the Pensieve up for you tonight.

-o0o-

Heather came out of the Pensieve with tears in her eyes. "It was just beautiful, and it felt like I was there," she said. "The vows were lovely."

"Thanks Mom," Tim said smiling from where he and Hadrian were sitting holding one another, they'd gone in to the memory with Heather and were feeling quite emotional having re-experienced their wedding.

"Where was it? It was a beautiful location," Heather asked.

"One of my distant uncles left me a house not far outside Boston. We would have liked to me married here but at the time Massachusetts was the only state to legalize same sex marriage," Hadrian said.

"Do you still own the house?" Heather asked surprised.

"We do though not all of it is liveable, we've considered offering it to provide accommodation to returned vets that are having a rough time getting back on their feet or something but there's some work to be done to get it into shape for that," Hadrian replied. "It's also fairly close to Teddy's new school next year but the elves are capable of bringing him to and from school from here," Hadrian said.

"And the house in Hawaii you offered Amanda and Sam the use of for their honeymoon and the flat in London. You have four houses, or are there more?" Heather said.

"Yes with magic and our house elves, the maintenance is easily done without much effort on our parts, or expense, so keeping the properties isn't a problem. We are slowly renovating the house in Hawaii, but only really the parts of it that we use. This is the only house that is fully renovated. The London house has been divided into flats and most of it rented out. What we have is the original attic space. I also own the original Potter Keep but it's little more than a draughty old ruin."

"Magic didn't maintain it?" Heather asked.

"Magic can only do so much, it's one of the oldest buildings still standing in Britain, parts of it date back to the time stone buildings were first built to replace the wooden buildings used," Hadrian explained.

A/N for thise who want to reread the wedding vows the bonding ritual is chapter 30 and the wedding chapter 35.

A/N2: Thank you to sandipi, Kourtney Uzu Yato, rmiser1994, Locket1, buterflypuss, xDarklightx, Rainbow2007, mooneysfate, jayswing96, Anon, aisa.32, Millie072, delia cerrano, sillygabby, Jules41, charm13insomnia, starie78, Not A Muggle, jilumasam, Fyreheart, Firehedgehog, DarkRavie, Tetradical, lilly-flower15, Lady Kaiki, luramos, Lucky Guard, Rori Potter, Tzapporah, Aladdinina Magi, Melikalilly, knuckles 8, witchboard, StealingATimeLord, daithi4377, DS2010, acherongoddess, Merlenyn, USA-Jeanette, siobhan.22, lizh12795, Ghostisreading, serenityselena, Erimenthe, Silvermane1, Sakihinata, mayawene, fandomsneverdie, Fallow44, Serpent91, crankypants16, madnessdownunder2, The View From Up Here, ToshimiOkami, lia, 777angeloflove, Sucinquee, Lanesra, Beth9891, kydarkangel2007 and all those who followed and favourited for your support.