Harry meets them at the train station and scoops up Credence and Gellert into a big hug. "How are you already this tall?!"
"Dark magic," Gellert answers brightly and for a moment Harry can't tell if he's joking or not.
Tom walks up then, followed by stares from several of his Slytherin minions.
"You can talk more business if you'd like," Harry offers, ruffling Tom's hair.
"With those ones?" Tom scoffs.
"Never mind, should have expected that," Harry admits. "Home then?"
"Home!" Credence cheers.
Credence is so excited that he can't sleep by the end of the day and keeps babbling away to the snakes as he tells them all about Hogwarts.
"Almost fluent, that's incredible progress," Harry praises.
Credence puffs up. "I was practicing with the basilisk. Also, Tom brought home the basilisk."
"Of course he did, I expected nothing less," Harry sighs. "You want a mug of warm milk? You still look a bit jittery."
"Tell him a bedtime story maybe," Gellert suggests where he's also petting snakes. "Like the one you told us, the Tri-Wizard Tournament you had to compete in."
Harry pauses. "No, it was the Triplicate School Cup. And the main character in the entirely made-up story is James Evans."
"Whatever you say, Harry."
Even during the winter break things have to be packed in because they couldn't do it during the school terms.
On the second day back, they're already getting dressed in fancy robes.
"Do we have to go to the charity ball?" Tom complains, standing by the front door in his cute little robes while Credence and Gellert try their best to tame Harry's hair into something proper.
"We don't," Harry admits, just giving up on his hair and batting the other two away. "To be honest, it's your money and if you don't want to donate it-"
"No, I mean do we have to attend? Can't we just throw some money through the floo?"
"Uh," Harry begins. "Yes, I suppose, but I would have thought you'd like to meet the people who will be taking the money before you donate."
Tom makes a grumpy face. "Let's set up a private meeting then, why do we have to go to a party with all those other people?"
Gellert laughs. "Don't worry, brother, I'll do all the talking, you just stand beside me and look intimidating."
Harry smirks. "That's going to be difficult because Tom is such a cutie with the little pouty face."
Tom ducks a poke and just apparates away himself.
They ended up meeting Albus at the charity and he tours them around, excitedly explaining several art pieces and old relics being auctioned off. Harry normally wouldn't care at all but Albus makes it sound so interesting.
Albus was a fun surprise but the reason Harry pushed for this was because he wanted to see how the boys have changed after so long away.
They're always open at home, but they also keep things 'family friendly' and smooth out their sharp edges. They do it to reassure Harry, not because they actually want to hide anything from him, but it still means Harry needs to dig a little bit.
If Harry wants to see how the boys react in their natural environment, he has to throw them at the sheep and watch what masks they pull on. Has Tom's words gotten sharper, does Gellert's smile come quicker, will Credence interact with people without prompting?
A charity seems like a harmless venue. Harry just wants to check in on them.
Credence follows along closely and it seems that Tom and Gellert have found something to constrain that Obscurus aura because no one tries to kill him.
Credence has gotten bolder when it comes to contact and hesitantly slips his hand into Harry's, which is just so adorable. He probably just misses Harry too much to hold back and will revert soon but Harry is going to try and encourage it more.
At a venue like this, where the only people in attendance are either too powerful or too rich, no one bothers interacting with unidentified nobodies and since Albus is under a glamour (and in a brilliantly orange waistcoat because his fashion sense seems to really be coming into its own) they don't get bothered.
Credence does, however, sneak little snacks from the enchanted plates flying around and even takes the initiative to ask a nearby waiter for treacle tart to give to Harry. It's both very sweet and also a good sign that Credence is slowly gaining confidence despite (or in spite of) having two brothers as impossible to live up to as Tom and Gellert.
Tom stayed nearby at the start, taking much pleasure in trying to out-knowledge Albus on the various items on display. Unlike Gellert, Tom doesn't care for crowd surfing niceties around until someone takes the bait, but once Tom notices a political opponent he's been meaning to reel in he takes off.
Tom was all against showing his cards when he was younger because he understood intimately how the strong frantically, desperately knock down those that are trying to climb up because they're so fearful of opponents. Back then, Tom had a reckless brother, an Unspeakable playing games, and a liability in the form of Harry being too kind. Tom wasn't going to risk it because he doesn't get into fights unless he knows he's going to win.
But now, Tom is at that point in his life (career?) that he's hovering on the cusp of pushing his accomplishments onto the nearest adult he trusts because that gives him the edge of being underestimated in future ventures, or outright proclaiming his abilities because he thinks he's now strong enough and has enough capital to throw his weight around if someone comes after him and his own.
Harry watches for a moment as Tom greets the woman, casually waves away the fact that their previous correspondence made her think Tom was an adult, and they launch into a debate.
Gellert is off chatting to people, a charming smile on his face as he casually talks about his new research into magical architecture…and then subtly but efficiently slips out of the conversation if they don't have anything worthwhile to provide him.
Gellert has learned to speedrun making connections because life is too short to spend it talking to people who aren't useful – and Harry makes a note to keep an eye on that because Gellert's utter dismissal of anyone he can't use has gotten worse while he was away at Hogwarts.
Gellert seems like the tolerant one but that's only when compared to Tom. He does like to meet new people but with his lifestyle nothing is generally new anymore. People can't teach him things, no one has anything interesting to say, people just aren't pushing boundaries like he does. Gellert still fakes it because acting is enjoyable to him, but he's been spoilt for choice and he knows it.
Gellert seems to be getting bored, and Harry is hoping that's just because this charity event is a bit low-class. The people here can ruin a person's life but they're shallow power, all glitz and glam.
The Unspeakable-level powerhouses don't do paltry get-togethers like this, they stay in their workshops or castles and people come begging on their knees for a minute of their time. Even Albus sent his follows here instead - and just showed up when they informed him Harry arrived.
"Am I getting conceited, hanging around the boys?" Harry murmurs to himself after getting the thought that Albus is probably stronger and smarter than the entire room combined, bar current company (and the fact that Harry so readily includes himself in 'current company' is probably not at all realistic).
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I know you're wrong." Death peeks out of Harry's reinforced breast pocket as a tiny version of a skeleton in a black cloak with his own little scythe and peers around until he locks on, staring particularly intently at a strange black mineral rock.
"What's that?" Harry asks, moving around the slowly shuffling crowd of fancy dresses and robes so Death can get a closer look.
"That predates this solar system by four millennia," Death explains.
"Do you want it?" Harry wonders, tilting his head but it still just looks like a black rock. "We have to buy something here anyway. I know you're super old and all but maybe you'd like a friend closer to your age."
"You're hilarious," Death deadpans.
Harry waves the others over. "Dea-Devon wants that one," he says.
"You can call it Death," Albus points out. "I am really very aware of the eldritch horror of entropy you keep in your bedroom."
"It doesn't stay in the bedroom," Harry grumbles.
"My point still stands."
"You know," Harry sighs. "I should really get better at not telling literally everyone in the immediate vicinity about my-" he gestures vaguely "-at this point, non-existent, secrets."
Tom ducks backstage and reorganises some things so when the bidding starts, Tom tosses money at the old rock which came up first and then they can sneak out immediately. Albus follows because he has some of his minions in the crowd getting what he needs.
.
A/N: Chapter 50?!
How did I get here, like I can't believe it's been going on this long. I have longer stories but this fic has, sort of, a plot! I planned it out in arcs and everything!