The Three Kings: Strike
Disclaimer (1): Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Studios, and TV Tokyo. Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, Arthur A. Levine Books, and Warner Bros. Please support the official releases.
Disclaimer (2): The Costco Wholesale Corporation is founded by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brottman.
Warning: Mentions of minor character death, major character death, political propaganda, political assassinations, matricide, (both implied and actual), abuse, child abuse, infidelity, blackmail, underage relationships, miscarriage, blood, rape, and the unintentional misgendering of a closeted character
Chapter 11: Mediation
After the negotiations are finished, Nurnok looks at the clock on the wall and tells them that it's getting late.
"The shops have all closed for the day. Only the Leaky Cauldron will be open now, unless you want to take a trip down Knockturn Alley," she tells them, standing from her seat and slipping the vials Seto given her into her pocket. Between them on the table lies a document that they have both signed in blood, magically binding them in agreement.
"We weren't planning to stay so late," Catherine admits. She checks her own watch, "The car's probably been ticketed by now. Shit."
"You are welcome to stay here tonight," Nurnok offers. "We have rooms in the catacombs for some of the humans who work for Gringotts."
Seto looks at his companions and sees the exhaustion in their faces. He nods, "Thank you, your majesty."
She and Kuirmet lead them up several flights of steps and down the winding maze of hallways into an open area that looked to have been carved out of a cave. The ceiling was lit with blinking spheres of light, casting shadows on the long stalactites that spiked down from above. Bright torches with Everbright spells lined the stone walls, illuminating the vast room filled with comfortable looking couches and chairs. Books and magazines covered the tables and a tall redheaded human man stood with his back to them in a small kitchen area.
Seto inexplicably thinks of the break room that he and Z share at his office, a tiny windowless room with a creaky kitchen table set that they found at the end of someone's driveway six months into their first project. Before that, they'd sat on the floor next to the Costco-sized packages of toilet paper they'd stacked against the wall, eating microwave meals with plastic forks and spoons. At least now, with the table, they could pretend to be civilized human beings.
"Bill," Kuirmet calls out to the man, flashing a toothy smile, as Nurnok slides into the background, weaving a Notice-Me-Not charm around herself so quickly that Seto almost missed it.
The man turns at the sound of his name. He was tall and thin in a way that made Seto think that he was maybe only a couple of years younger than himself. His long red hair was held back in a ponytail at the back of his neck, a fang earring dangled out from under it, and when he saw Kuirmet, he returned the bright grin.
"I didn't realize that you'd be back so soon," Kuirmet walked forwards, meeting Bill and throwing his arms around the man's waist in a hug. Bill returned it, laughing.
"My kid brother's about to start school, so I came back to help out. I'm thinking of giving Ron my old wand," Bill tells the goblin when he lets him go.
"Is this the last of your siblings to go to Hogwarts?" Kuirmet asks.
Bill shakes his head, "Still got one more. Gin starts next year."
"You have a very large family. You must be quite lucky," Kuirmet says. Then he frowns, "Any word yet on Yanni?"
Bill's expression darkens, "No. Aurors aren't saying anything."
"You are being careful, aren't you?"
"Yeah. I am," the man says. Mai reaches for Seto's wrists and squeezes twice.
He's lying, Seto realizes. About what, I wonder?
Bill looks up and catches Seto's gaze. He blinks down at Kuirmet, "Oh sorry. I didn't realize you had guests."
"It's no problem," Seto speaks up, refusing to let his eyes fall upon Bill's wand, sitting in a holster on the man's hips.
"Bill Weasley," he introduces himself, stepping forwards and holding out his hand. "Cursebreaker. I'm usually out in Egypt, but as you probably heard, I've come home for a bit."
"Egypt?" Seto raises an eyebrow as he takes the wizard's hand. "Find anything interesting while you're there?"
"The job title sounds cooler than it is. It's mostly just stopping muggle archeologists from stumbling onto something that might break the Statute of Secrecy. Nothing big," Bill shrugs, but Seto's blood runs cold. The tomb builders of old used to weave dark and terrible curses into the very earth of the Valley of the Kings, ones that should have lasted for thousands of years beyond even now. If this Bill Weasley could shrug off this aspect of his job as 'nothing big', then the secrets that were held within that Valley weren't as safe as they'd once imagined.
We've been gone too long from the magical world, Seto thinks for the second time that day. The advancements of the last four hundred years have been made in leaps and bounds.
"Sorry, I don't think I caught your name," Bill asks, snapping Seto out of his thoughts.
"Seann Penner," he says without a moment's hesitation, giving the name of his prior cycle, just in case there was any charm or enchantment on the man that could detect a lie.
"You're from America?" Bill asks, sounding incredulous. "Is this about all the stuff that's going on with the Department over there?"
Seto doesn't answer, just gives him a smirk that Bill could interpret as he liked.
"I'm sorry, but we'll have catch up later, Bill. I'm to direct these people to their rooms," Kuirmet interrupts. They say their goodbyes and the goblin leads them into one of the tunnels on the other side of the hall.
Nurnuk reappears behind him and Seto almost jumps out of his skin. He'd forgotten that she was there.
"You're very good at that," Serenity says, her blind eyes turning to the goblin queen.
"I've had lots of practice," she answers in a vague sort of way that makes Seto pity her and the life she's had to live since she assumed the throne. "This way."
Nurnok leads them into a hallways lined with open archways carved into the walls. Beyond them lay stone beds large enough for humans, covered in blankets and pillows in a way that makes it look almost like a nest. Seto smiles and gives the queen her people's gesture of thanks.
He watches as the others choose their rooms and moves to take the one on the end, but Nurnok stops him by placing a hand on his wrist.
"Will you walk with me, Pharaoh Seth?" She asks. He nods and tells Mai that he will be back soon.
Nurnok presses her hand into the stone wall at the end of the hallways, opening up a hidden cavern. Seto watches as the floor sinks into the ground, forming a winding staircase that disappeared into the darkness below.
"What's this way?" He asks.
Nurnok sighs, sounding resigned, "I figure that you'd like to know what Tomisław Brzozowski died for."
Then without saying anything else, she steps into the cavern and Seto can do nothing but follow her.
They keep walking in silence, the open staircase only illuminated by floating lights that follow them into the darkness. Finally, after what feels like nearly an hour, Seto's feet hit the floor. He looks forwards and sees one of the lights flit passed Nurnok's face.
"This way," she tells him.
"How far down are we?" He asks.
"This is the deepest vault we have," she says. "It was carved by King Farnar after he succeeded Luggus to hold his father's treasure." Nurnok looks back at him, smirking. "You and I are now the only people alive that know it even exists."
"I'm honoured."
"I don't think that you understand what it means that I'm showing you this. It is only seen by the reigning ruler and their heir," she gives him a look.
Seto frowns, "I'm not your heir. I followed my cousin, Atem, to the throne. I'm not planning on ascending again, not even for you."
Nurnok gives him a sigh of relief, "You would not be able to, even if I wanted it- which I don't, so put your mind at ease. No, I just want, in case something happens, for someone else to know about it."
"We've promised to protect you," Seto implores.
"And I fully believe that you will do everything in your power to do so," Nurnok tells him. "But life is so uncertain, even when you can see the future as I can- especially then," she laughs. "You must promise that if something is to happen to me, you will keep what I am about to show you safe."
Seto nods, "Of course I will."
"'Atem'?" Nurnok asks suddenly. "Is that the Lady Pharaoh's name?"
"Yes, it is."
"Odd name for a human woman to have. It's rather masculine, isn't it?"
"It wasn't originally her's," he answers. When Nurnok frowns at him, Seto smirks, "It looks like I know something that you don't."
"Well, now you're just being cheeky." Nurnok pauses before speaking again, "You said she was your cousin."
"I did."
"The legends say that you were her brother."
"We may call each other brother and sister, but we're not siblings by blood," he corrects her. "Though, I'm glad to know that that lie lasted for as long as it has."
"It was intentional?"
Seto nods slowly, "The last thing that we wanted was for it to get out who my real father was."
Nurnok stops dead in her tracks. He can see it in her eyes as she figures it out, "The dark sorcerer in the legend? You're Aknadin's son?"
"He never raised me. He just donated a couple of chromosomes."
"I'm going to pretend to know what those things are," Nurnok says. "Over here."
She flicks her hands and the balls of light fly forwards, encircling a metal chest on the floor. Seto stayed where he was as Nurnok ran her fingers over the lock, pressing into the iron in random places, muttering in Gobbledegook. The magic around the chest is so potent, Seto can feel it as it shifts, allowing Nurnok to open it.
Inside is another chest. And then another. And another.
The final chest has Nurnok cut her hand and smear her blood across the top. She takes a deep breathe, grasps the handles and opens the chest.
Seto doesn't know what he expected to find inside. Jewels, perhaps, or a cursed object of untold power. Maybe a creature or a demon. A rip in the very fabric of the world. But the chest contained none of that.
Nurnok reaches inside, and pulls out King Luggus's treaure from it's depths: a small page of rolled up parchment.
"What is it?" Seto asks, kneeling down beside the queen.
"What do you think?" Nurnok raises an eyebrow at him.
She's testing me, he thinks. Then he smirks, "I have no idea."
"An honest answer. Those things feel like a rarity these days. I appreciate it," she laughs at him. "Very well. Open it."
She passes him the paper. Seto rolls it around a few times in his hands, getting a feel for the heavy magical spells that the goblins had woven into the parchment over the years.
He passes it back unopened.
"I'm pretty sure if I tried, I'd end up as a puddle of goop on the floor," he says. "Perhaps one of our Spellcasters might be able to crack it if given a few days, but I'm not about to try." Seto sighs when Nurnok starts laughing at him again. She seems to do that a lot.
"Smart move. Why don't you take a guess, then?"
"Whatever it is, you got it from Isidore Greengrass, who was the leader of the Coalition of Sacred Brothers in 1612. It's paper, so it's either a map or a letter. Or a...," Seto trails off, frowning. "Or a signed confession. About something that the Brotherhood did. Something that wasn't about mage hunting, because that was neither a secret or something worth dying for, not even in this age."
Nurnok nods and one of the balls of light floats by her again, casting long shadows across her face.
"The Brotherhood is old," Seto continues. "It's been around for centuries. Close to… to a millennia." He looks up, staring at the goblin queen. "Camelot. Something happened at Camelot. And the Brotherhood guards the secret."
"You know what happened at Camelot. You keep the company of Shaloena the Seer, who was there at the time of the sack. You know what the wizards did to the people that lived there," Nurnok tells him. "The Coalition of Sacred Brothers was created in the years following the 'founding' of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school that Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff created overtop the ashes of the House Pendragon. And they had the help of the twenty-eight families that would eventually from the Brotherhood." The queen smirks, "How the foundations of wizarding society would shake if they were to find out what actually happened, that their heroes were not as their history books had described them. How the Sacred Twenty-Eight would crash down around us if they knew that their ancestors were nothing more than upjumped peasants and mercenaries?"
Seto takes a moment to digest this information, turning it over in his head before shaking his head, "I thought you'd appreciated honest answers."
"Who said that I didn't give one?"
"Bill Weasley did," he tells her. "Not directly, of course, but the way he described being a Curse Breaker means that it's his job to break into magical tombs in order to clear out any evidence that may break whatever law it is that wizards have to ensure that they stay separate from non-magical society. Which means that he has never seen any evidence of wizarding magic prior to the year 50 BCE, which was when Cadmus Peverell created the Elder Wand, the very first wizarding instrument of magic.
"Which means that Bill Weasley," Seto gestures upwards, towards where he assumes that Weasley is still sitting in the breakroom upstairs, "knows that. And he's probably tried to tell someone about it recently, given that he's got a friend that's gone missing and he's lying about whatever he's supposed to be being careful about."
"You don't know that he's lying."
"Mai knows. It's part of her powers. She can tell when people aren't telling the truth," Seto explains. "Now, we know that the Department sends assassins after people who start asking too many questions about certain wizarding events- don't try to deny it, we have the Department Head's personal assassin in our custody right now. The fact that Weasley is alive is probably do to the fact that his family is one of those Sacred Twenty-Eight that you keep mentioning."
"So?"
"So… He's alive. And he knows. Maybe not the whole truth but at the very least, some part of it. And besides, he's British. He went to Hogwarts. Camelot was built in the early 500's by the de Bois family. Do you seriously expect me to believe that he hasn't noticed that the school he went to for several years has architecture from a period nearly nearly half a century prior to when the school was supposed to have been built?
"I doubt he's the first. I doubt he's going to be the last. The Department of Mysteries can't keep the secret of what really happened in Camelot without compromising on its prime directive to protect those who are part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight," Seto stops to take a breath. "And even then… even if the secret did some out, it wouldn't make a difference."
"Why not?"
"Because the only thing that the wizarding world would focus on is that, while the Sacred Twenty-Eight didn't start out as royalty, they certainly married into it."
Nurnok blinks, looking confused, "What do you mean?"
"Why do you think that the wizards decided to send Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff to Camelot after King Arthur's coronation? Because they were the best, but also because they were part of the Pendragon family," Seto says.
"They were?" Nurnok asks.
"Uther Pendragon may have been the first King of Camelot, but he answered to his father, High King Constantine III of Albion. Uther was Constantine youngest child. Constantine's heir was Godwyn Pendragon, who ascended to the High Throne of Albion after his father's death," Seto explains. "Godwyn's eldest child, Arthur's own cousin, was Helga Pendragon, who became Helga Hufflepuff after she married her husband, Emeric. Godwyn's next daughter married Sarlin Slytherin and had a son with him named Salazar. Godwyn's final son and heir never had children with his wife, but that's because he was too busy with his mistress, a serving woman named Gwendolle Gryffindor. As for Ravenclaw, she was the only daughter of Godwyn and Uther's sister, Princess Annalda."
"What has this got to do with anything?" Nurnok frowns.
"How do you think those four ensured the loyalties of the Sacred Twenty-Eight? With marriage. They married into the Pendragon royal family," Seto implores. "Hufflepuff had five children, Slytherin had eight. Gryffindor's only true born son died early, but he certainly had enough bastards to cover the rest. Even Ravenclaw's girl must have been married off. So if you were to reveal your little 'secret' about how Hogwarts school was built on the ashes of the Pendragon empire, all they'll say is that the royal line lives on through them. No one will care about a few dead mages and non-magics. No one that matters anyways."
"The muggleborns would care. The half bloods. The blood traitor pureblood families, they might all rise up," Nurnok supplies. "They outnumber those that wouldn't give a damn."
"But Luggus wouldn't have bet everything on a revolution that might happen. He'd want something that he could attack the Sacred Twenty-Eight directly," Seto implores. "So what's really on that piece of paper, your majesty?"
Nurnok regards him, spending a whole minute just looking at his face. Then she blinks, slowly and without fear.
"You live up to your reputation, Pharaoh Seth," she sighs. "It's a map."
"Of what?"
She grins, all sharp teeth, "Of the entirety of Chamber of Secrets."
Seto feels the moment slip from his fingers. He's lost.
"What is the Chamber of Secrets?" He asks finally. It's got something to do with Camelot, he thinks. Something happened there that we don't know about.
"Something that's not for you. It's something for the Daughter of Albion," Nurnok tilts her head to the side.
A shiver runs down Seto's spine. He's been played.
"Don't worry, Pharaoh Seth. I fully plan on upholding the agreement that we made," Nurnok says, sounding absolutely sinister. "But my people... we are going to end up on top of this fight that we both have with the Department. We've been playing safe for nearly four hundred years and all it's gotten us is a lot of dead royal family members. I don't have the luxury of hoping that everything is going to be okay anymore."
"You're playing both sides, like Luggus did," he states.
"I learn from my ancestors. As do you," she nods in his direction. "And it's less both sides and more… helping various factions with common goals accomplish what I need them to do to ensure the survival of the goblin race. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that."
"You and my cousin would get along very well," Seto states, feeling a little out of his depth.
"I wish that I would be able to meet her," Nurnok grins, placing Luggus's treasure back in the chest it came in. She stands and turns to Seto, looking grave. "If I die-"
"We've promised-"
"I know what you have promised- you've written it in blood, you're not going back on your word. But some things are too dangerous to be written down. You know this, because if you didn't, there would be a record somewhere of you being Pharaoh Atem's cousin and not her brother," Nurnok swallows hard. "When I die, I need you to give Luggus's treasure to a young witch named Amane Andrews."
Seto doubts that he'll get any information out of her about what the scroll actually contained, so instead he settles for: "Is Amane Andrews the Daughter of Albion?"
"No," the queen answers. "But she plays a role in her story."
"And how will I find her, if I need to give her the treasure?"
"Oh, it shouldn't be too hard," Nurnok says, her eyes twinkling, like she knows something that he doesn't. "You ran into her on your way in, after all."
There's an owl at the window. It's snowy white with piercing yellow eyes. Amane swallows hard.
It's her father's owl. And attached to its leg is a bright red envelope.
"Well," Mrs. Zabini sighs, looking utterly unimpressed with the howler her father has sent them. "Isn't he dramatic?"
"You're supposed to answer them, before they blow up," Amane mutters, looking at her feet. Blaise leans against the wall behind her, arms crossed at his chest, a frown on his face. She can feel his gaze on the back of her neck.
"I've had my fair share of howlers before. From the families of ex-husbands that they think I've killed," Mrs. Zabini rolls her eyes and steps forwards, calmly pulling the letter from the owl. She gives it some bacon from the table, stroking its feathers with a single manicured finger, before letting it fly back home.
Mrs. Zabini sets the letter on the kitchen table as smoke begins to spew from the seems. She pulls out her wand, mutters a few words under her breath, and violently pokes at the howler with the tip. The letter spins on the table, lets out a sort of gasping sound, and then fades from its bright red to a more muted pastel pink.
"There. That should do it," Mrs. Zabini nods, satisfied with her work. She holsters her wand and sits down at the table, pulling the howler forwards so that she could read the envelope. "It's addressed to me, but it is from your father. Are you alright with me opening it?"
Amane nods, "Yes. Okay."
Mrs. Zabini breaks the wax seal and pulls the letter from the envelope. Her eyes dart back and forth as she reads it. When she finishes, Mrs. Zabini presses her lips together and places the letter back on the table.
"Your father doesn't like women all that much, does he?"
Amane shrugs, "I don't if it women or just people-"
"I apologize. I didn't intend to phrase that as a question. Your father doesn't like women," Mrs. Zabini states. Blaise makes a noise behind Amane and she turns to look at him, but he doesn't make eye contact.
"I… I guess," Amane shrugs.
"He's demanding that you come home, threatening that if I don't, he'll bring the full weight of the auror office down on my head," Mrs. Zabini continues, sounding utterly bland about the entire thing. "Like he has any power to do such a thing. Rufus Scrimgeour is a good friend of mine and he has never once mentioned your father."
"He's got the Department of Mysteries-"
"If the Department of Mysteries wanted me dead, they'd have done it a long time ago and with much less fuss," Mrs. Zabini says, her eyes hardening, her gaze somewhere a thousand yards beyond the room they were sitting in. "Do you want to go home, my dear?"
Amane blinks down at her hands, "No. But…" She pauses, "Did he say anything about my mother?"
Mrs. Zabini's lips thin, "The last bit was written by her. She wants you to come home as well."
"My mother, in the letter. Did she call me anything?" she explains after Mrs. Zabini gives her a look of confusion.
Mrs. Zabini looks over the letter again, eyes darting back and forth as she read the last paragraph, "She calls you 'sweetheart'."
Amane swallows, "He forced her to write that. She only ever calls me that when he's angry."
She thinks of Ryou in that moment, how they'd planned a secret failsafe into the code they'd used to communicate, back when he'd been at Hogwarts. If they'd ever called Ryou's owl by the name Bandit, then they'd know that the letter hadn't been written by one of them. Amane suspects that, in his dying moments, Ryou had told Keith Howard to tell her to take care of his owl for him, just so that she would know the truth.
"She can't go back, mother," Blaise finally speaks, stepping into the side of her vision.
"I don't think I have much of a choice here. He may not be able to follow up on his threats to bring the entire auror department down on my head, but Mr. Andrews can certainly have me charged with kidnapping his daughter," Mrs. Zabini sighs. "The last thing I need is aurors poking around my home. Merlin only knows that Rita Skeeter is just waiting to write another article about me."
"So you're staying that she has to-" Blaise spits, "Mother, that's not- We can't-"
"It's alright," Amane lies. There's a pit in her stomach, heavy and guilty and shameful. I don't want to, but… The Zabini's had stuck their necks out enough for her already.
"It's not," Blaise grunts, fingers clenching in the sleeves of his robes. "He hits you."
"What do you want to do, Ms. Andrews?" Mrs. Zabini asks, her dark eyes piercing, her voice steady. "If you go back, I promise I will do everything in my power to put the fear of god into his soul. He will never touch you again once I'm done with him, do you hear me?"
"And my mother?" Amane whispers.
"Never. I swear it."
Amane swallows hard, "Father always said that the gods were dead."
Mrs. Zabini smirks, "He would."
Amane looks down at her feet, wringing her hands. Her throat is too tight for her to speak. She refuses to cry.
A hand comes down on her shoulder. It's a little awkward, a little shaky, but it's warm and comforting. She knows that it's Blaise, but she thinks that if she looks back, he might get self-conscious and take it away.
Amane doesn't think there are words in the English language to describe how much she appreciates it right now.
"He won't touch anyone again," Mrs. Zabini states. Amane believes her.
"Okay," she whispers.
She packs her bags slowly, her mind buzzing and her fingers lethargic. Blaise stands in the doorway of the guest room.
"I don't like this."
"What you like doesn't really matter right now," Amane snaps, but it comes out half hearted. Her hands keep trembling.
"You don't like this."
"Shut up," she wheezes.
"Don't go," Blaise's voice comes out as a plea. It makes her feel sick.
Don't go, she'd once said to Ryou, begging him to stay home.
I have to, he'd answered. She doesn't even know that she's said those same words out loud until their coming out of her mouth.
"No, you don't. You could stay here," Blaise says through gritted teeth.
"Do you honestly think my father would let me?"
"He shouldn't get a fucking choice!" Blaise shouts, "He hits you! He hits your mother! He signed his own son up for a program knowing that if he failed, he'd be murdered! You ran away from him, Amane. You know-"
"Of course I know what he is!" She shouts back. "I've known my entire life what he is. I don't need you to tell me!"
"I can't just do nothing!" He yells.
"It's not about you! It's not about this dumb engagement that you and your mom are hanging onto to. It's not about her wanting a girl in the family," Amane stalks forwards and jabs a finger into his chest. Blaise jerks back, getting a foot in between the two of them, arms curling around himself defensively. His sudden actions derail her thoughts only momentarily, but she presses on regardless, "It's about my mom. It's about how he's alone with her and how he made her lie in a letter to get me to come home. It's about how her calling me 'sweetheart' is basically her screaming for help. I have to."
Blaise grits his teeth, his finger clenched in tight fists, and stomps out of the room. Amane doesn't know if that makes her feel better or worse.
Mrs. Zabini takes her back to Edenborough and Amane thinks that she's going to be sick the entire time. Blaise is there as well, though he hasn't said a word since their argument. All she can do is think about her mother. I have to protect her. She's all I have left.
Amane glances over at Blaise, just for a second, But I can't do that once I'm married to him.
Her father answers the door, "Viola."
"James," Mrs. Zabini says back, a venomous smile on her face. "Can I come in?"
"No," he scowls and tries to pull Amane inside. Mrs. Zabini stops him with a single sentence.
"I've seen her bruises."
James Andrews pauses, his eyes flicking between Amane and the woman before him. He takes a minute to straighten himself before saying, "The girl needs a firm hand."
"Those bruises are not the cause of a 'firm hand' and we both know it," Mrs. Zabini tells him. "You are never going to touch her again."
"Do not tell me how to raise my daughter-"
"You are never. Going to touch. Either of them. Again," Mrs. Zabini reaches into her purse and pulls out a series of photographs. "Unless, of course, you want these to end up in the hands of the Rita Skeeter."
Her father snatches the photos from her and flips through them. The frown on his face gets darker and darker with each one he sees.
"How did you get these?"
Mrs. Zabini rolls her eyes, "I have friends in low places, James."
"You think this will change anything-"
"If you genuinely think that I'm blackmailing you because most of the girls that you pay to fuck are muggles, you're wrong. I've never been one to shame someone else's kinks. To each their own, I suppose," Mrs. Zabini's voice is soft, silky, and utterly dangerous. Amane's father looks murderous. "No. What will end up going to the press are those last few photos: the ones where you're tying muggle prostitutes up with magic. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is a breach of the Statute of Secrecy and very, very illegal."
"I obliviate them-"
"No. You don't. And even if you did, do you really think Skeeter will care?" Mrs. Zabini states.
"I-"
"Have run out of options. So now," Mrs. Zabini continues, "you are going to invite me inside. Then you are going to serve some tea and we are going to talk like rational adults about how we would love it if our children could get to know each other before the wedding. How utterly modern of us, don't you think?"
Amane thinks that Mrs. Zabini is her favourite human being on the entire planet.
James Andrews whirls around, stalking back into the house and leaves the door wide open. Mrs. Zabini chuckles, "I suppose that would be best 'Come inside' I could have hoped for."
The Zabini's stay for a couple of hours, briefly talking about how Amane should come to visit at least once a week before school started before Mrs. Zabini turns the conversation towards Amane's mother, asking her about her life in Japan before her marriage. Natsuki stammers through the first couple of sentences, looking constantly towards her husband, but James seemed to be wound so tight that he could barely speak. It was only after Mrs. Zabini placed her hand over Natsuki's that she was able to continue.
"James and I met while I was still at school," Natsuki blushed while she told the story, looking hopelessly wistful. "He was doing a guest lecture about how the samurai had folded spells into the metal of their swords. It was so silly. It wasn't even anything that I needed for my studies, but my friend told me that the professor was young and cute, so I went."
"My goodness, did you become the teacher's pet?" Mrs. Zabini laughs jokingly, but in a way that tells Amane that she's only keeping up appearances.
"Oh! No, no, no! We got together a couple of months after I graduated," Natsuki corrects her. "We met up at a coffee shop, because I was looking for a reference. But then… we kept getting coffee. And the next thing I knew…" she lets out a soft sigh, "Here I was, in another country, married to a lovely man with a baby on the way. It all seemed like such a fairy tale."
"I'm sure it did," Mrs. Zabini tells her. She says something else, but Amane can't really hear her over the roaring blood in her ears. Because, whatever baby Natsuki is talking about, it would be too early to have been Ryou.
Her father would never have let Natsuki get rid of a potential heir. So that must have meant that her mother lost a baby.
I could have had another brother, she thinks. And then, If they already had two babies, then I wouldn't need to exist.
It's not a comforting thought.
Mrs. Zabini wishes them all a good night, stepping out into the night sky with her son trailing behind her. She turns back and waves at Amane, "Don't forget to write, my dear! I look forward to hearing from you!"
She completely ignores James Andrews and Amane loves her all the more for that.
Her father stalks upstairs without another word and leaves Amane and her mother to order the house elf to clean up. Natsuki blinks at the front door, looking a bit dazed.
"She's quite an interesting woman," her mother mutters to no one and rubs the hand that Mrs. Zabini had held. Then, suddenly, she frowns. "What's this…?"
Amane sees scrawling black lines on the inside of her mother's arm, shifting into words too small for her to read at this distance. But Natsuki seems to understand them just fine.
"What is it?" Amane asks, coming closer in an attempt to see. But her mother is too fast, jerking her arm back and hiding it beneath the sleeves of her robes.
"It's nothing. It's time for you to go to sleep, Amane-chan," Natsuki says in soft Japanese. She smiles kindly, "I'll tell you in the morning."
Amane frowns, but nods, and tiptoes up the stairs to her room. On the way, she passes by Ryou's. She keeps her eyes on the ground, refusing to look in, just as she does every time she walks by it.
In the morning, Natsuki doesn't say anything. She serves her father his Earl Grey like she does every morning as the house elf scuttles around them, offering pasties and extra bacon. Natsuki keeps her eyes down and her mouth shut.
James Andrews spends his morning and afternoon at his desk, pouring over old manuscripts and parchments like he always does, scribbling in his notebook until the back of his hand is dyed black from the ink. Then, just before dinner, he goes out for a few hours- to clear his head, he always says, or to pick up a new book. Natsuki fills him a flask of hot tea and passes it to him before he leaves.
But that night, he doesn't come back.
The next day, Natsuki puts on a show for the auror who comes to take their statements. She cries, fumbles around trying offering tea and cakes, stutters and stammers her way through her sentences. If Amane hadn't seen the writing on her arm the day before, she'd almost believe that her father had just gone missing.
"It's just… I knew there were other women…" Natsuki finally admits. "I was never enough… Not after I lost the baby. And then- Then Ryou-"
"Mrs. Andrews, I promise we'll find your husband," says the pink-haired Auror Tonks, the kind hearted woman who'd answered their emergency floo call.
"I know that there was one in Knockturn Alley," Natsuki says, sounding a bit more confident, a bit more angry. "I followed him once, after we had our first son. She lived above the Apothecary."
Auror Tonks writes it down in her notebook, nodding the entire time.
"I told him what I'd seen and he…" Natsuki flinches in a way that is perfectly convincing. Auror Tonks frowns and suddenly, Amane thinks that she won't be looking to hard.
The auror leaves with yet another promise to contact them as soon as she has information. Natsuki shuts the door, rests her head on the door frame, and breathes in deep. When she turns back to Amane, her eyes are dry.
"Kaa-san?" Amane whispers, "What…? How…?"
"You knew. About Ryou. About what really happened to him." Natsuki is not asking. Her Japanese is strong and flawless and so terribly sad.
Amane nods, but can't look her mother in the eye. Mrs. Zabini must have overheard. Or Blaise told her.
"You didn't tell me… Because you were trying to protect me," Natsuki says.
Amane nods again. Natsuki rushes forwards and hugs her.
"Shhhhhh… Shhhhh… It's alright. It's going to be alright… I'm not angry, I promise," her mother whispers. "I promise, it's all going to be alright."
"Kaa-san... Kaa-san, did you…?" Amane didn't even realize that she's crying. "Did you…? Father…?"
Natsuki rubs her back, breathing slowly in order to calm her, "Shhhhh… Shhhhh…"
"Kaa-san, I need to know," Amane says, pulling away. She stares at her mother, barely recognizing her.
Natsuki swallows hard, "He knew. When he signed Ryou up for the program. He knew what would happen if Ryou failed. Then he lied to me. He told me that Ryou was in a camp and that if I behaved he would make sure that our baby would be safe. But Ryou was already dead by then. I couldn't just do nothing. I had to get you away from him, but he'd never let me take you away."
"But… how?" Amane wheezes.
Her mother shrugs, "I was training to be a healer before I married your father. I know what poisons they look for when performing an autopsy. They won't find anything that's muggle in origin."
"They haven't found him yet. He could still be alive…"
Natsuki shakes her head, "They'll find him right where I told them. Dead in her bed. I calculated the dose perfectly."
"Kaa-san… You…"
"Killed him. I killed my husband," Natsuki says, her voice solid and strong, unlike anything Amane has ever heard before. She touches Amane's cheek, "He won't touch either of us ever again. I promise."
Hello again!
I'd like to thank all those that reviewed for the last chapter: BalaaSweetSlaughter, green lilah, Tz342, dragomira, and Moonfirekitsune. You guys are awesome!
So, as promised, James Andrews has gotten what was coming to him. Natsuki was always the one that was going to take him out, with a little help from Viola Zabini. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Harry Potter extended universe, JKR has revealed that Mrs. Zabini has had seven different husbands, all of whom have died under mysterious circumstances and left her with large sums of money. In the Three Kings universe, Viola hasn't kills all of her husbands, though she has definitely killed a fair few.
As for the Pendragon royal family, I'm going to provide a bit of a family tree, in case there are those of you who got a bit confused with Seto's explanation:
High King Constantine Pendragon III of Albion (which, interestingly, is another name for Scotland) marries Isabeth Carweald. Together they have four children: Prince Godwyn the heir, Prince Glegor, Princess Annalda, and Prince Uther.
Godwyn marries a Roman woman named Pompilia Sidonia, who is a member of one of the original Roman wizarding families that the Peveralls gave magic to and is the reason why Godwyn's children are all witches and wizards. Together, they have three children: Princess Helga Pendragon, Princess Belanor Pendragon, and Prince Gauborn the heir.
Prince Glegor dies early in life and has no issue.
Princess Annalda marries Duke Reirflet Ravenclaw and together they have one daughter, Rowena Ravenclaw, a non-magic born witch.
Prince Uther becomes King Uther after conquering the neighbouring kingdom of Camelot, then ruled by the de Bois family. Uther rapes the eldest daughter, Queen Vivienne de Bois, the night he sacks the castle, resulting in a daughter, Morgana. Vivienne escapes Uther's captivity and marries King Cendred Essetier, in exhile and has a son with him named Mordred. Uther then marries the youngest sister, Ygraine, and has a son with him, Prince Arthur. Arthur later marries his maid, Guinevere Smith, and Morgana marries Lord Merlin Emrys.
Of Godwyn's children, Helga marries Duke Emeric Hufflepuff, becoming Helga Hufflepuff. Belanor marries Sarlin Slytherin and has a son: Duke Salazar Slytherin. And Prince Gauburn marries Lady Helarie Dinawardine and has no children with her, but does have a bastard son with his lowborn mistress, Gwendolle Gryffindor, named Godric.
Now, I'm not going to be including the children of the founders in this tree, as Gryffindor's kids alone would take up way, way too much room, but if you have any questions, feel free to leave a review and I will get back to you.
Until next time,
AlcatrazOutpatient