It all started when a young woman just out of teenage years walked into his shop. She was wearing a red kimono with some elaborate embroideries. Her face was covered with a rather tasteful veil, but he could see long raven black hair that seemed to shift colors in the light.
"Are you Count D's grandson?" she asked in perfect Chinese.
"I am," he replied.
She handed him a familiar envelope with equally familiar writing. It was from his grandfather.
D took the letter and found it post marked some years earlier. He could only assume the late delivery had to do with finding him.
The more he read (seeing several queues that it came from his grandfather and wasn't some joke) the higher his eyebrows went up.
"I would have come sooner, but there was a...minor...issue of those foolish wizards in England believing they have a say in how my life is run now that their dark wizard issue has been dealt with in a permanent manner."
And by permanent, she meant she left a trail of bodies behind her as well as a notice that she was fulfilling a betrothal contract that had nothing to do with her inbred cousins. Thanks to the goblins, who mostly helped her with getting out of Europe without having to deal with the authorities over the dead magicals with the agreement they got ten percent of all vaults she claimed through Rite of Conquest save for books and any magical objects NOT made by the goblin clans, she had gotten out with very little issue from the idiots in the Ministry.
They were still trying to figure out how many vaults she had successfully claimed with an out of date law that no one had dared to use in over a century to stop her. Either way she was the richest witch in Europe with that stunt.
"I see. Did Grandfather say why he made this contract with your family?"
"Only that as long as I kept my end of the bargain, I would never be bound to the same rules that had kept me trapped in a situation that nearly got me killed. He left an explanation on the back of the letter," she added helpfully.
D noticed more writing on the back, as well as some newspaper articles from England. The normal kind.
Abuse case discovered in Surrey after terrible accident!
What followed was a very detailed article about how a seven year old knocked his female cousin into a bus (which thankfully hadn't been moving that fast)and put her into critical condition in a major London hospital. Because of the callous way the aunt refused to pay treatment and said the girl's parents were dead for six years, and investigation by Scotland Yard was launched... and what it found had the entire nation up in arms.
Not only was the girl being neglected (her room was a broom cupboard) but she was clearly underfed and mistreated by an entire neighborhood who shunted off the misbehavior of the boy in question onto her.
Teachers came forward on how the family treated the girl like an indentured slave, despite the child being related to the woman via her sister. Pictures the school nurse saved painted a damning scene of malnutrition, abuse, and emotional neglect.
All of it right under the nose of the police, most of whom were 'friends' with the husband.
The son was sentenced to a juvenile detention center and his parents arrested.
The other article detailed the 'miraculous recovery' of the girl and how she had been adopted into a nice family who took her in.
"So you contain the soul of..."
"Grandfather somehow found a way to tweak my body so that it was no longer fully human, not that the magicals noticed. Since I contain the soul of the princess, he thought it fitting to make a betrothal contract to see if it was possible for the bloodline to continue," she replied. She made a face. "I can't tell you how relieved I am to be away from that country. The idiots kept trying to slip meat into my foods out of some misconception that I needed to gain a healthy weight."
D could understand that. He couldn't eat meat or most animal products either, and stuck strictly to vegetarian foods and most desserts.
"So what should I call you in public?"
"Yue is fine."
D looked over the letter, before looking back at her.
"When should we set the date?"
"It's up to you, and I'm fine with a small ceremony."
"Hey D! I got some sweets to share!" said a loud obnoxious voice. The owner suddenly took notice of a rather pretty young woman inside the shop. "Who's this, another customer you're planning to sucker into buying a pet?"
"Hello Leon," said D, with a slight tone of long suffering. "This is Yue...she'll be working at the shop from now on."
"How do you do," she said with a slight bow. Leon noticed she had a British accent.
"You're not from around here are you?"
Yue pulled out something from inside her sleeve. It was a passport and ID.
Leon briefly looked at both before she put them back away. She was a legal immigrant that had somehow gained citizenship in record time.
"So what brings you to the US?"
"A betrothal contract."
Leon stared.
"Seriously?"
"I'm from a small society inside Europe that still believes that betrothal contracts are acceptable, especially when their children aren't even ten yet. We're not exactly up to date with modern society. Fortunately his grandfather offered me a way out of it so that I could at least avoid marrying my own cousin," said Yue bluntly, and in a dry tone.
Leon couldn't tell if she was bullshitting him or not.
D coughed, his tone definitely amused.
"I can attest that the group she belongs to is rather introverted and has a bad history of inbreeding. And that their idea of 'modern' is positively Victorian."
He avoided them for the simple reason of he hated their laws about restricted animals. They had an annoying habit of being able to find him to complain whenever a wizard didn't follow the contract and the animal ate them.
America was much easier to hide in, and they generally didn't bother him unless one of his animals broke loose and forced their Obliviator teams to work harder than usual to cover up the mess.
Fortunately the rabbit situation resolved itself. And no one suspected that they were magical rabbits.
Leon suddenly choked.
"So let me get this straight. You entered the US on a marriage contract. And you're going to be working with him for the foreseeable future."
"That is correct. Your government was more than happy to hand over the necessary papers with the agreement I did something to keep the pets he sells out of the tabloids and under the radar."
The wedding was a small, but intimate ceremony with all the people who were rather familiar with D, and those who heard about it from the polite invitation.
The Chinese ceremony was lovely, and all the forms had been filled out by the goblins to let the Englishmen know that the girl was off the market.
D was an old line, and a known pure blood one, even if the Chinese did have to write a magical geass contract to insure that the last of his kind weren't wiped out by foolish wizards when they learned after the fact that the emperor of the time had ordered their small village to be wiped out.
If not for the Chinese Ministry, Count D (the original) never would have been able to escape before the Emperor's men found him.
It was the only reason he had entertained the idea of marrying off his grandson to a half-blood girl from England.
Leon still didn't know how the hell he ended up at the party.
It took some time, but eventually D got used to sharing his bed with his new bride. Yue did not pressure him, but rather acted like a comforting shadow behind him.
He was also rather surprised at how adept she was at making purely vegetarian dishes and desserts. She could turn a simple block of tofu into a delicacy that could fool even Leon into thinking he was eating meat.
She had gotten quite a bit of practice after a massive argument with the school nurse over her eating habits. The woman simply couldn't comprehend that Yue could attain the required dietary requirements using something made from soy beans.
Then again, Hogwarts hadn't changed it's menu since the last three headmasters had adjusted it to suit the new ovens. The poor elves had never had to contend with someone who was a strictly vegetarian that could sense whenever someone slipped meat onto her plate with such efficiency that it was almost supernatural.
D sipped the tea mixture Yue had prepared. It had just the right amount of sugar and tea leaves.
And that wasn't getting into the small cakes she had baked.
Seeing as how they were going to be stuck together for the foreseeable future (his grandfather's letter was quite clear on that point...unless Yue produced an heir to the line, she was living with him) he decided to find out more about the school she attended until recently.
"So...what is Hogwarts like?"
Yue's derisive snort was anything but ladylike.
"It is a school where the bigoted and small minded children of those who have been set in their ways since the witch hunts finally died down into obscurity go to learn how not to kill themselves with a wand, while at the same time making meaningless social connections that while fluid, are kept from becoming open enough to include those born from parents with lost magical heritage. In short the English magical society has become stagnated to the point it's due to die off sometime within the next century at the very least, once the inbreeding gets to the point where they're no longer able to sustain their rather limited genetic pool."
Yue's smile was a tad thin and not pleasant.
"And that was before I made a point that I will not be obeying the corrupt Ministry or their demands I marry a distant cousin to 'bring the numbers up'."
D nodded in approval. If he had to have a wife, he would rather it was someone who wasn't afraid to fight. After what happened to his people centuries ago, they needed a female with a backbone. Besides, some of the animals that lived in the shop would never accept a weak-willed woman if she asserted control.
"Of course I could give you an entire rant about how much I loathe their idea of food. Or their incompetent teachers."
D raised an eyebrow.
"The woman in charge of health seemed to find it impossible to believe that a growing child could obtain all the required nutrients to maintain a healthy weight class without meat drenched in it's own fat to the point it was tasteless. She actually ordered the house elves who run the kitchens to slip small pieces of meat onto my plate and made it impossible for me to leave the table until I had eaten it," said Yue, fuming. Then she gained a rather evil smirk. "Too bad I'm better at slight of hand and had an able helper in my godfather."
Sirius didn't get why she hated meat, but had been more than happy to play the part of her familiar. He had to stay in the common room and wasn't allowed in the girls dorms. Ever.
In exchange he had three full meals a day and got to find the rat that had ruined his life and forced his goddaughter to live in such terrible conditions.
It had been Yue's suggestion that finally got Peter arrested and the truth to come out.
She had Sirius go in, hit the rat with a charm that forced him to turn back, another that kept him from transforming into his rat form, then hit the room with a wet-start firework and locked the door from the outside.
By the time Percy had brought McGonagall, thinking it was all a bad prank gone wrong, Peter had already been stunned by a quick-thinking Neville.
After they dosed him heavily with truth serum, they found out how he had hidden, and the Weasley family was quick to demand reparations.
A grown man living in their house in the same room as their children...it made them sick.
Peter Pettigrew was arrested and given a life sentence. Sirius was cleared of all charges after the fact, once he came in.
Yue got a new familiar that would eat her meat for her. Hedwig was nice, but she couldn't slip food to her the same way she could her pet rottweiler.
Speaking of her beloved canine...
A black and brown head placed itself squarely on the table, clearly demanding food. Yue sighed.
"You've been spoiled by that horrid school. Here you big lug," said Yue with some fondness, levitating a smaller cake to the dog.
D watched with amusement as the 'teen' (in his eyes) accepted the treat and ate it at a neat, if rapid pace. Not a single crumb was wasted.
"I was unaware you already had a pet."
"Hedwig fell defending me, and he managed to escape before my 'escort' failed to defend me. Needless to say I took particular pleasure in ripping the fools who killed my familiar into tiny pieces, and the dragons were more than happy for the free meal. Fenrir here played an integral part for why that accursed castle is still standing."
He was very adept at snagging the meat from her plate before she had to deal with it. Madam Pomphrey was not amused, and even less pleased when Yue did nothing to stop it. And McGonagall made it clear that it was only allowed as long as he restricted himself to her plate and her plate alone.
"That reminds me. Could you use a Norwegian Ridgeback in the shop?"
"As in the dragon? Most of the modern breeds under the control of wizards are little more than brutes," said D.
Yue shook her head.
"This one isn't. I've been helping to raise it in the forest and the poor thing is positively cramped in the makeshift room I made for her in an effort to keep her from being used as a breeding tool that would be slaughtered later," said Yue. "And that's not getting into the half-werewolf child that I happen to be the godmother of that can change his features."
"This isn't a daycare," D replied.
"Consider this then. You'll be removing yet another child from those idiots in England, and unlike most children he'll be able to see the true forms of those who come here. Besides, they still believe werewolves are actually dangerous," said Yue.
Which was one thing that had always baffled Sirius. Yue could see Remus even when he was transformed into Moony, and not once did Moony ever attempt to bite her. Weasley and Granger, yes, but he had acted like a dog caught in the trash by it's owner when she had chastised him.
Hell, she always had trouble telling when Sirius was in Padfoot form, because she saw him the same either way!
"He'll be under your care," said D.
It wasn't that he didn't like children. It was just that some of the animals were rather dangerous to small children who rarely did as they were told.
As for the dragon, well, it was likely going to be happier in the shop than it would have on a reserve.
Yue beamed at him, and an hour later he saw a rather busty girl with strange marking in her hair that looked like scales timidly following his wife.
Norberta (he really wish he could meet the person who came up with a name like that) took one whiff of D before she curled up in Yue's lap. Teddy arrived a week later.