"I am in a dress," Clark grumbled as he hefted his suitcase, walking beside Alice up the hill towards the gate.

It was September 1st, and he had not wanted to be seen with their parent's making a fuss over him any more than she had the previous year.

Alice shrugged. "You would prefer having to wear a codpiece? Robes are fashionable here, and there have probably been worse fashions for men through the ages."

"You're probably right; it's just strange," Clark admitted as they passed through the gates. "I do like the cloak, though. I just wish it was black instead of yellow. That would look properly mysterious."

Alice paused at the gate as her breath caught. Hieronymous was standing not twelve feet away facing away from them, watching a fleeing freshman as he snapped his book shut. She grinned, thinking perhaps someone else had tried to run him over again this year.

"Is that him?" Clark asked, nodding in her husband's direction.

"Yes," she said, and then had to quicken her pace to match her brother's as he went directly for Hieronymous, who was turning in their direction.

Clark put on a big grin and stuck his free hand out. "Good morning Professor, I'm Clark Hayes. I understand that you married my sister?"

Hieronymous stared at her brother for a long moment. Surely he had never been addressed in this fashion by a student. His gaze twitched to her, and he recovered enough to shake Clark's hand.

Clark retained his jovial tone and expression. "I just wanted to be the first to welcome you to our somewhat insane, but lively little family. I hope we will get the opportunity to get to know each other."

By now they had attracted a ring of gawking bystanders. She was trying very hard not to laugh as it took a few more seconds for her husband to recover his speech sufficiently to answer, "Thank you."

"In other business," Clark continued, "would one of you be kind enough to point me towards my dorm?"

Not entirely trusting herself to speak without laughing, Alice pointed toward Toad Hall. Clark picked his suitcase back up, and then sauntered in the direction she had indicated.

After staring after him for a moment Hieronymous recovered and a quick glare sent the audience scurrying for safety.

"May I?" he said in his rich British accent, indicating her suitcase.

"Yes please," Alice answered, walking alongside him as he carried her bag. "I hope Clark didn't go overmuch out of bounds?" she half asked.

Hieronymous gave a slight grin. "Well, I suppose I did marry his sister without a word to him, to be perfectly fair. Not to mention that a student that says that e wants to get to know me seems to be unique to your family. However…does he normally behave in such a fashion?"

"Oh, you can expect him to be one of your most well-behaved and studious freshmen," she answered, "in class. Outside of class…well…he has a very dry sense of humor."

"I hadn't noticed." His reply was droll.

Alice smiled. "How else do you think I came here last year already knowing how to appreciate your sense of humor?"

That rated another small grin from her husband, but they were at her door. "So, shall I see you for class?" he asked, depositing her suitcase next to her door.

"Naturally, and for tea this weekend?" she asked.

"I will not attempt to stop you."

"Good. I had an interesting summer, not all of which I could put down in writing."

His eyebrow rose. "Really? Now I'm curious."

Alice looked to make sure no one else was in the hall, but still motioned for him to come closer. "Apparently," she whispered into his ear, "I'm not really a Wildseed. And you might have quite the opportunity to annoy your father, should you choose to do so."

Acting on impulse she brushed his cheek with a quick kiss, then quickly gathered her bag and disappeared behind her door, leaving Hieronymous behind staring at the place she had just been standing.

...

Alice entered her room to find her roommates already unpacking. Virginia was dropping her clothes into her drawers any which way, and Ellen was refolding hers and placing everything carefully in her drawers. Her socks appeared to be stacked in rows by color.

"Alice! You finally made it!" Ellen exclaimed, stopping her chore to give her a hug.

Virginia was less demonstrative. "Good to see you," she said, grinning as she turned her suitcase upside-down so the remnants of its contents fell into the top drawer, which she then shut with her hip.

"Did you two have too much fun without me?" Alice asked. Ellen had gone home with Virginia for the summer. Alice had invited Ellen herself, but had had to admit that Ellen would probably be sharing her bed with her as her house was somewhat crowded already. And she had been warned that the twins could be worse troublemakers than Donald. Considering that Nancy had been crawling into her bed every night until the mages impersonating AC repairmen had finished warding the house against the Kahmras that had probably been responsible for Nancy's nightmares, it had probably been a good thing that Ellen had gone to Virginia's instead.

"Oh," Virginia considered. "I'd say just the right amount. Not too much or too little."

"How about your summer?" Ellen wanted to know.

"Well, I found out that I'm not exactly a Wildseed," Alice admitted. "Mom had magic, but said 'no' when they gave her the Choice."

"Really?" Virginia said.

Alice shrugged. "It's a bit of a story. I'll tell you about it after supper. It does mean that my brother Clark came with me today."

"Sounds good," Ellen said. "Clark. That's the one you get along best with, right?"

"Yes."

"Good," Virginia said. "You could use someone else around that isn't nervous around you Mrs. Grabiner."

Alice had to acknowledge that she was right about that.

"Speaking of which," Ellen said, "I thought I heard Grabiner's voice before you came in."

"You did," Alice admitted. "We met him by the gate and he walked me to my room after Clark introduced himself."

"Introduced himself? To Grabby? Typically, sane people don't try to draw his attention," Virginia said incredulously.

Alice unzipped her suitcase and started unpacking as she explained what, specifically per Virginia's request, had happened.

"And flames did not come from Grabby's mouth and burn him to a crisp?" Virginia asked.

Alice had to giggle. "Well, Hieronymous did look a bit surprised."

"But Clark does have a sense of self-preservation though, right?"

Ellen had a different take on the issue. "It's possible that Grabiner is simply sweet on Alice and thought that barbequing her brother would be a poor greeting."

"Hmmm…" Virginia started to study her as if she were some sort of exotic animal.

Alice hastily finished her unpacking and shoved the suitcase under her bed. "Want to go meet my brother?" she asked, hoping to distract them.

She guessed that her attempt at evasion was a bit obvious at best, but her friends were willing to play along anyway. When they passed both Falcon and Wolf hall, gathering Donald in the process, Virginia exclaimed, "He's in Toad?"

"Correct."

"He's not afraid of the sun or growing moss, is he?" she asked next.

Alice considered. "It's a 'no' on the moss. He does occasionally suggest I climb into an x-wing and shoot the sun down, but that's just an obscure sci-fi book reference. We are not part vampire."

Alice found room #5 and knocked on the door. "Clark, are you there? I brought some of my friends to meet you."

"Come in Alice and Alice's friends and have a seat, it's open," she heard her brother say.

Alice opened the door and walked in. Clark and another boy, just as blond as her brother was, were standing on top one of the two beds sticking a large astrological chart on the wall. She walked in and her friends filed in behind her. Finishing their task, the two boys turned around and put their legs over the side of the bed.

"I'm Clark, and this is my roommate Llew Sato," he said.

"Suki's brother?" Alice asked after introducing her friends, sitting down at the end of Clark's bed.

"Yep," Clark admitted with a grin. "We were just starting to bond over how unique our older sisters are."

Alice rolled her eyes and Donald started laughing. "Can a guy with a strange younger sister get in on that?"

"Hey!" Virginia said, elbowing her brother.

Llew shrugged. "I don't see why not…but under the circumstances, I think we both have you beat in the 'strange sister' category."

"Did I hear right? Did you really just walk up to Grabiner and welcome him to your family?" Donald wanted to know. Apparently the rumor mill worked just as fast as it always did.

Clark just shrugged. "I figured that I should do this properly."

"Do what?" Virginia asked. "Because it looks like if you wanted to make yourself a subject of gossip before spending five minutes on campus, you got it."

"Close," Clark started to explain. "I know this isn't intentional Alice, but every time I go up a grade and get your old teachers they all know me as 'Alice's brother.' You're a smart cookie, respectful, and generally do well at whatever you decide to do. The issue is all those teachers have had high expectations from me as soon as they read my name off the attendance list and make the connection.

"This time, I get to school knowing that not only are the teachers going to know me as your brother, but the entire student body will because you somehow managed to get married to the most feared teacher on campus."

Alice grimaced. "Sorry to put you through that. I hadn't really thought of it that way."

"No problem. Like I said, I know it wasn't intentional. Anyway, I figured that it would be smart to flaunt the situation a little bit. It would save time; I wouldn't have to answer as many questions from dingbats about whether the stories about your marriage were accurate or not. It's enlightened self-interest. If I happen to have a little fun on the way, so be it," Clark finished.

It seemed her brother would make a fair politician when it was his turn to head the House.

Virginia started laughing. "You're all right," she admitted.

"What, are you afraid of Toads?" Clark asked. "Because I thought being Grabiner's brother-in-law was enough to get me into Toad Hall in and of itself."

Donald shrugged. "She's not afraid of the garden variety you get outside and put under the blankets, anyway. I tried that one, and she got angry at me for making the toads uncomfortable."

Virginia huffed at her brother. "Anyway, we're all in a sports club if you want to join when we start up again. You too, Llew."

"What kind of sports? Is there any Judo?" Clark wanted to know.

"It varies from week to week," Ellen answered.

"Sounds fair enough," he answered.

Alice smiled. "Just so you remember Clark, don't push it too much in public with Hieronymous. And be the good student in class. He probably will expect more out of you than he would most of the other freshman."

"Understood, I'll just pretend I'm in Professor Snape's class at Hogwarts," he answered.

"That's actually a fair comparison," Ellen admitted.

"And I'll remember that he's probably expecting even more out of you," he finished.

"You're probably right," Alice agreed.

...

Thank you for reading, and I love reviews. :) -Frostedrose