AN: I wanted this posted the same time as the third chapter of 'It's a Relative Thing' but I'm not done with it yet. It's like 90% finished. Problem is, the last scenes refuse to be short, so as I type this, chapter 3 currently has 6.5k+ and it's not finished at all. So, I decided to post this instead.

Hopefully, I can finish it sometime this week?

Nicholas is a lot of things. A husband, a father, a scholar, a teacher, a wizard… an alchemist.

But he is still a man. A very old man.

One that still has a healthy fear of dying.

The Earth and the people in it still have potential. And it'd be a shame to be unable to witness such a thing. He has a thing for knowledge. His wife's shares his sentiments, part of why he fell for her.

So he made a stone, the Philosopher's stone (his wife helped, of course. Even if it still made their skin crawl whenever they remember the lengths in which they took to complete the set, but—it's getting easier to shrug the sensation off).

He's also a very selfish old man so he has no qualms in admitting that, some ways, he was a coward and had a really hard time letting go of things.

So after the little mishap with Albus in '91 and a lot of bluffing regarding the stone and their incoming 'deaths', he and his lovely missus decided to go through with their world hopping plan. Or rather reality hopping plan, they've already seen most of what the Earth has to offer.

They had the schematics for the ritual and spells they needed to move to another Earth, one that didn't have a meddling Albus, hopefully.

Seeing as they only had a theory to work with. They could find no text or account that says otherwise, so they were more or less playing it by ear at that point.

It worked in the end, he was only mildly singed. It also took a couple of months. They took advantage of the fact and sequestered themselves away from people. More so than their usual.

The thing about the new reality Pen and him find themselves in, however, is that there's nothing like their old one.

Same sky maybe. Same predictability humanity falls into, wars, famine and the like. In a way, it has left him disappointed. It looked the same, felt the same. Even the air tasted the same.

But it wasn't an exact copy of his home.

One of the most glaring difference is the lack of magical governments. Or at least ones that were organized on national scales. People here, instead, flocked unto small communities and hidden enclaves.

There was also the lack of the Statute of Secrecy.

Here, it was more of an unspoken rule than an actual statute. (There was also a distinct lack of house-elves, apparently, the elves of this world showed themselves out a lot earlier than the ones at their original Earth. As a result, the incident that gave birth to the house-elf subspecies never came to pass.)

They might have run a little wild with that revelation.

Nothing irreparable.

They were starting over (and they were a little vain with their new start and had no qualms knocking back their own respective shot of a variation of their usual concoction that allowed them to shed some years because, again, vanity) they were allowed to have a little fun.

But in the end, before they went really all out, they were able to remember the need for a more legal establishment of their identities and name.

It wasn't that hard of a task. No real Ministries of Magic or other form government meant they had little to no guilt over their little forgeries (they were too old for those kinds of sentiments).

There was also the matter of someone, (it was definitely Pen), not taking into account when they would be arriving. Or where for that matter.

As a result, well.

He ended up meeting Albus again. He, at that time, was messing with some people so he could be recognized as a professor or something, he was bored.

As he was leaving he quite literally ran into Albus. And well. Nicholas has come to found that even without magic Albus was beyond a conniving bastard.

He was lucky that Albus' scheming was rarely directed at him.

Didn't make him feel sorry for the poor fool that was the subject of said scheming.

Though he was more than a little gleeful to lend a hand to the man when asked.

But the fact of the matter was, careless with the details or not, they were able to establish themselves into society with a rather sizable and mostly legal in origin fortune.

Unfortunately, even with years together, he still had some things to learn, most especially when dealing with his wife.

Speaking of, "Nicholas what did yOU DO!?"

Ah. The missus was aggravated. Like the way, she slammed the door of his study open wasn't enough of a clue. Or her livid face. Or the foreboding, crackling light she's gathered on her palms. She'd probably use it on him since he's just staring at her from his desk instead of answering. Rage never could erase Perenelle's beauty (age, for that matter, only ever helped her exude wisdom), though it would probably end with him in pain if he didn't answer soon.

Decisions.

Admiration or pacification?

Well.

He was a hopeless old man in love.

But.

"I'm not sure I follow dear?" He really didn't. He was minding his business. Albus hadn't even visited yet. He was in their, admittedly lavish, home; doing perfectly legal things. Perfectly legal non-magic things.

Wrong answer, if going by the visible twitching eyebrow. She dismissed the sparking ball of light but stalked towards him. Outwardly he was a picture of calm, inwardly well, this type of situation was hardly uncommon between them, the years prior to their move included, there was a chance he was swooning.

"Then," she growled as she leaned down to his personal space, simultaneously slapping down an envelope on his desk as well, "kindly explain this!"

His eyes followed her hand when she slapped it down his desk, not exactly disregarding his wife but rather focusing his attention on the letter now creased and he knew that was where the missus would want his focus on.

Huh.

It looked like a perfectly normal envelope. A bit fancy but nothing he wasn't used to (he likes fancy things).

Well, no use in willfully drowning himself in suspense. He reached for his letter opener, his needlessly ornate letter opener but one he loves so dear as it was Pen's gift.

"Why," he blinked, "it's a dinner invitation."

"Oh yes, a dinner invitation! How grand! I suppose I should go ahead and but that dress I saw the other day at—mY GODS NICHOLAS, WHAT DID YOU DO!" The missus started all sweetly sarcastic before her irritation won through again.

Best get the missus calm before she pulls a muscle with all the gesturing she does when she really gets into it (it has happened before).

"Now darling," he said moving to her and taking her hands in his (he got a dirty look in turn because the missus was not dense but she also gave a slight nod in thanks, not snatching her hands back just yet), "it's just dinner."

"Then why," Pen's words were still heated but she was calmer, "was it delivered by a crow?"

"A crow?"

"Yes, a crow." She was giving him a look again. One that says he's being annoyingly slow.

"Well, it's just a crow darling. It hardly means a thing."

Still shooting that look at him, the missus continued, "After the crow dropped the letter it went flying to a nearby tree where five other crows were waiting, Nicholas."

"Ah."

"Yes ah."

"There are six of them?"

"Yes."

"Six crows?"

"Six crows."

"That's not good."

"It isn't," Perenelle said flatly, she looked at their joined hands and moved closer to her husband, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Well," he says, reaching up to tuck Pen's hair behind her ear, "that just means we have to go, doesn't it?"

Perenelle sighed, eyes closed and refusing to move away from her husband as much as she wants to twist his arm, "I suppose we should."

AN: Nothing happening much, I suppose. But slow pace is slow. My main focus is 'It's a Relative Thing' so, expect maybe fewer updates happening or at least shorter chapters compared to IaRT.

AN: Just a heads up, I don't have a beta or anything so, mistakes are all mine and if you could please point out any lapses I've missed, it will be appreciated. And please feel free to ask questions.