Adam sat at his desk, contemplating gift ideas for his lover, Duncan, when a beautiful, snowy owl soared through his office window and landed on his desk. Cocking his head to the side, he gazed at the owl thoughtfully. It had been years since he had been contacted by anyone in the wizarding world, not since his last student, Lily, had gone into hiding.

"Well, hello, beautiful. Who are you?" he asked as he reached out to stroke the owl's silky plumage.

Hedwig have a soft hoot and extended her leg with the attached letter.

As soon as Adam removed the letter, Hedwig flew to the top of one of the book-filled shelves that lined the office walls, tucking her head under her wing and settling herself in for a nap.

"Must have been quite the trip, then," Adam mumbled to himself, unrolling the scroll of parchment and settling back into his leather office chair to read his mail.

Dear Mr. Pierson,

My name is Harry Potter. My mother's name was Lily Potter, formerly Lily Evans. I have recently come in to possession of some old journals of my mother's. She mentioned that you were the one to teach her to protect herself.

My mother died before my second birthday and I have no one to teach me. I am hoping that you remember her with fondness and would be willing to teach her son.

I don't know anything of your (my?) kind and I am a little confused. You are the only person I have heard of who knows about this and, well, if it's not a lot of bother, could you owl me back? Maybe you would know someone nearer to me who could help a bit.

Hedwig, my owl, will wait until you can answer, or if you don't want to, you don't have to, just tell her, and she'll come home.

Sorry to bother you, and thanks.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

#4 Privet Drive

Surrey, England

Adam blinked at the parchment in his hands a couple of times before closing his eyes with a loud groan. How in the hell was he going to explain this to Duncan?

"I can just see it… 'Hey Duncan, not only is magic real, but I'm a mage! And because of my magic, I -- unlike you -- can father children. And on top of that, one of my descendants is an Immortal wizard who needs training'… Right. Duncan would hand me a beer and tell me that I'm growing delusional in my old age."

"That would pretty much describe the thoughts going through my mind at the moment," Duncan said from the doorway.

Adam blinked once at his lover, who was leaning against the door jam with his arms crossed. Duncan looked on in amusement as Adam closed his eyes, groaned and slouched down in his chair.

"So maybe you should explain what's going on?" Duncan enquired as he pushed away from the door frame and moved to settle himself in one of the two chairs in front of Adam's desk.

"Right explain… I suppose I should start with the fact that there is an entire magical community complete with their own government that is kept hidden from most of the world. This community is filled with wizards and witches as well as other mystical or magical animals and plants. "Adam took a deep breath "I am a wizard."

Adam looked up to gauge Duncan's reaction, but when Duncan didn't say anything, Adam continued. "Now, 'wizard' is just a generic name that is applied to all magical males, the way that 'Christian' is applied to Catholics, Lutherans and a host of other religions, the magical world is filled with wizards and witches of varying power levels and creeds. The strongest are called Silver Mages, which is what I am Silver Mages by themselves are not immortal; 'The Game' is something else, something even older then I am, however, a mortal Silver Mage can live upwards of three thousand years. Merlin, for example, was a Silver Mage who lived to be two thousand eight hundred and forty-seven years old"

Adam paused and rubbed a hand across his forehead, a little uncertain of Duncan's reaction to the true scope of his powers, especially since he hadn't said a word yet.

"Silver Mages have what is called Will Magic. We can basically Will anything and everything in and out of existence. Well, I shouldn't say anything and everything; there are limits to what my power can do. For instance, I couldn't Will World Hunger out of existence, although feeding a city of a few thousand is well with my powers."

"If you have this magic, why don't you ever use it?" Duncan questioned his lover; Maybe Adam's earlier comment about age making him delusional wasn't too far off…. Duncan couldn't exactly deny that magic existed; he had seen it before -- you couldn't live in this world for more than five hundred years and not see some pretty amazing things -- but an entire hidden wizarding world?

"I do use magic. You just don't notice it. I am a good swordsman, probably on par with Connor. You, however, are exceptional. There are others out there who are nearly, if not just, as good as you, and I would never stand a chance against them without my magic. I just don't rely on my magic for every little thing I need. For instance conjured food, which may look great, still doesn't hold as many nutrients or taste as flavourful as the real deal."

With that, Adam called on his power and a plate of ham sandwiches popped into existence on his desk. "Go ahead, have a taste," he said, pushing the plate towards Duncan.

Duncan sat blinking at the plate of sandwiches for a minute before warily reaching forward and taking one. After taking a small bite, he looked over at his lover and replied, "Not really up to your standards." He really didn't know what else to say. He was at a loss as to how to react to the situation. The only thing he was positive was that he loved the Immortal in front of him and that meant struggling to understand this.

Adam gave a small chuckle. "Look at the sandwich, love. It's got everything I always put on it: Spicy mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, Swiss cheese and honey ham on toasted sourdough. Like I said, conjured food, while it won't taste radically different than it's supposed to, will never taste as good as real food. The flavours will be dull. There are other limits. Say someone has a really great book I haven't read. I can't just conjure up a copy of the book, because I don't know what each and every page says or even how many pages it has. I would have to summon it from that person or go buy the book like everyone else. However, I could Will the book out of existence, provided I wanted to expend the energy to track down everyone who had ever heard of said book and erase it from their memories. Is this making sense?"

"Ok, I am following the magic thing, and obviously you have it, but how is it possible for you to father a child?" Duncan questioned.

"It is a combination of the desire to father a child with another person and my magic that make it possible. I have, in my life span, fathered ten children. If I were to father a child with a Muggle -- a non-magical mortal -- the child would then be Immortal. If I were to father the child with a magic-user, the child would be both an Immortal and a magic-user." Adam explained.

"I'm incredibly jealous of you right now. You know that, right?" Duncan said in a very subdued voice. Duncan had always wanted children, he loved Ritchie and the young man was family as far as he was concerned, but they didn't have the parent-child relationship that Duncan longed for. Ritchie was more like a younger brother.

Adam moved out of his chair and walked around the desk, never losing eye contact with his lover.

"My magic also makes it possible for me to conceive and carry a child, although I never have."

Duncan stared up at his lover in shock. "YOU can carry a baby?"

Adam crouched in front of Duncan and reached out to caress the side of his face. "Yes I can. Like I said, it's about the desire to have a child with the other person and my magic. But when it comes to male pregnancy, it's all about the magic. Anyone with magic can conceive and carry a child."

"I think, though, before we worry about that, we need to talk about the reason this all came out. Like I told you, in my life I have fathered ten children. Harry Potter is a decedent of one of those children and he is asking for my help in training him. I could no more refuse him than I would any of my decedents." Adam paused as he stood up and moved to look out the window of his office.

"I'd love to have you help me train him. You're an amazing fighter and swordsman, much better than me. I'd like to bring him here from England to teach him. He has magic, so he will no doubt need to be back in England for the new school year." Adam turned around and sat on the window ledge, meeting his lover's eyes. "That would still give us two and a half months to train him."

"School year? There's a school for this stuff?" Duncan held up his hand when Adam opened his mouth to respond. "Of course there is," he mumbled before standing and walking towards Adam. "I'll help. But, what with getting passports and all the paperwork, we are probably looking at barely two months of training".

Adam smiled up at his lover as Duncan stopped in front of him. "I plan to use my magic. It'll only take me a second to apparate over there. I'll conjure up the necessary paperwork and pick him up. I'll need to deal with Petunia and get him packed but I should be back with him in a couple of hours."

"Well then, I had better head back to the loft and get the guest room straightened out for him. Somehow I doubt he'd be as comfortable on the couch as Ritchie is," Duncan reached out and drew his hand down Adam's cheek, "especially if he's going to be here the whole summer."

"I think you can spare a minute or two for a proper kiss. After all, the loft is only across the street." Adam turned his head and kissed the palm of the hand resting on his face before leaning forward and capturing the warm lips of his lover. Stepping back, Adam whispered his thanks and disappeared with a faint pop.

"Well, I guess that's what he meant by 'apparate over there'." Duncan gave a sigh and headed home to clean out the guest room. Maybe the mindless work of straightening up the room would help him organize his thoughts and deal with the shocks of the afternoon; if not, he could always do a few katas.

By the time Duncan had returned to the small rare bookstore below Adam's office, his lover was already ringing the buzzer at #4 Privet Drive.