A.N- Welcome to chapter three. I feel like I should point out that I haven't read all the Infernal Devices books yet, so I apologise if I've got anything wrong, or if Tessa is OOC. Feel free to point out if I've got anything wrong. Once again, I own nothing, including the Wizard of Oz books and movie.

Chapter Three

The next morning, Magnus wasn't too surprised to find Ragnor wasn't awake yet. He must've decided to take charge of the vampires, and was probably trying to match their sleeping patterns. He had to hand it to him- that wasn't an easy task, after all. He'd tried himself to do that several times, mainly for Camille's benefit, but it had never worked out. That was why they'd started having problems- he didn't try hard enough to adapt to her way of life. He shook his head- that wasn't what had caused them problems at all. He needed to stop assuming every issue they'd had was his fault.

With a sigh, he headed down to the kitchen. The government was already starting to talk about rationing people's food, to conserve supplies. For now, though, magicking up breakfasts for everybody would be simple enough.

Tessa was already there when he got into the kitchen, sitting at the table and looking down at her hands.

"It's always going to be like this, isn't it?" she asked when she realised it was him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, being immortal- it's just going to be more and more death of everyone but me, isn't it? Dead friends, dead lovers, dead children. Everyone we knew in London- Will, Jem, the Lightwoods, the Herondales, the Branwells, they're all gone now, one way or another. Jem may still be alive, but he's not the same. It won't be long before my children follow, and their children, and so on and so forth. I'm not like you or Ragnor. I'm new at this, and I don't think I can take it."

"Yes, more of this will follow. But you'll learn to cope with it as time goes by. You're not even 100 yet, nobody's expecting you to have being immortal figured out so soon." He smiled at her. "I'm not sure how to help make you feel better about Will, though. I don't think I've had anything like that."

"You mean with a mortal?"

"No, I mean long-term, the love going both ways. You'd think, with over 300 years and having less specific preferences, that wouldn't be an issue, but there we go." He wasn't really used to talking openly about his 'less specific preferences', partly because it was a difficult thing to put into words, and partly because it often didn't earn a positive response. Easier to just let people assume one way or the other depending on the situation.

"What about Camille? You were with her for a long time, right?" Magnus held up a hand.

"I'm going to stop you right there. That may have been sort of long term, but it was nothing like what you and Will had. It was years of feeling at fault for everything, of treading on eggshells, of not being able to tell most people what was going on because they wouldn't accept something like that could happen. It's not a relationship you should ever aspire to, and I hope you never find yourself in a situation like that, because it messes you up for a long time."

"Sorry, Magnus, I didn't realise." She sighed. "Can we talk about something else, though?" He nodded. He wasn't too fond of talking about all that stuff either, if he was being honest. A change of conversation would be welcome.

"What do you want to talk about instead? Have you read any good books lately?" She nodded.

"I have read quite a few good ones. I had a thought, actually. Why don't I come up here once a week and read to the children? That Wizard of Oz movie is coming out this year- maybe it would be good for the children to know the original story, before they see the movie."

"That seems like a good idea. I don't know how many of them can read or write, so it might do them good to have some sort of education." He also wondered how manageable a trip down to London to see the movie itself would be. They'd probably have to have two trips- one for the vampires and one for the warlocks, or possibly they could take all of them if the screening was at night. This whole cinema business was still pretty new, it was going to take a while to get it sorted out.

"If we went to see the movie," Tessa began, almost reading his mind. "Do you think I could come? I like going to see these book adaptations, to see how close they are. This one doesn't look too bad, even though the Wicked Witch of the West is green and they seem to have almost blended the two good witches together." Magnus wasn't really sure what she was talking about- he'd not read the original book yet- but he smiled and nodded anyway, which was generally the best course of action when Tessa started talking about books.

"Of course you can come." He stood up. "I should probably go wake up the children, though. You can stay for breakfast, if you want."

When he went upstairs, some of the children were already awake. In the light of day, their marks were more noticeable, as was the variety in ages. The oldest, he now saw, was a boy of about eight, with yellow horns a little smaller than Ragnor's. Then there were twins, a boy and a girl, aged about seven. They had the same mark, a set of gills. Then there was Sarah, and finally, the unfortunately named purple one, Neville.

Once he'd gotten them all out of bed and waiting in the corridor, Magnus got each of them to state their names, warning that he'd probably forget them within a couple of hours. The eldest boy introduced himself as Steven, the twins as Victoria and Albert- seriously, Victoria and Albert, Magnus wished he was making this up- and the younger two didn't need introducing, as Sarah was quick to point out.

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs on toast, and as he was eating, Magnus decided that if this was going to be it for the foreseeable future, it wouldn't be so bad. Yes, some of the warlocks still looked like they didn't trust him, but at least they were keeping their mouths shut. It still wasn't fantastic, but this was wartime now- life wasn't supposed to be perfect. It just had to be manageable.