When Alexander was first born, she had thought it would be the happiest day of her life. And it was, to an extent...even if he was the product of a drunken one night stand with a man she vaguely remembered.

She absolutely loved her son, even if the others were less than comfortable around him. So what if Alex had the same red eyes as his father? He wasn't Tom Riddle reborn!

However after dealing with Voldemort for the better part of a few decades, few could forget his red eyes. The fact her son was a bastard was another sore point, even if he was magical.

She lost her patience and her tolerance to the sheer idiocy of those with magic when she caught Hermione trying to find a ritual to "insure" Riddle didn't find a way to get reborn through his arch enemy.

"Hermione, what the hell are you doing?" asked Circe.

What followed was the single most ridiculous 'excuse' she had heard, and she lived in the magical communities.

"Just to be clear, because of my son's red eyes you think he's Tom Riddle who's somehow managed to be reborn through me, despite the fact that his eyes were more of a dark crimson red, whereas Alex has more of a ruby red?" Circe asked, pretending patience.

It had amused her that her son had inherited coloration of his father, but managed to retain the 'gem-like' quality of her own green eyes.

Hermione nodded, glad her friend was at least being sensible about all this.

"And Mrs. Weasley is still upset I had a child out of wedlock, correct?"

"Honestly Circe, I can't believe you were so reckless."

Circe's smile looked kind, but inside she was furious beyond belief.

"Thank you," she said.

Hermione was about to speak, before Circe continued.

"Thank you for opening my eyes to what a complete and utter fool you are. It's not enough I have to deal with the idiots who make such snide and cruel comments behind my back and the more subtle biting ones to my face about the fact I have no idea who my son's father is. It's not enough that the people I should be able to trust and consider family all make sniping remarks about how 'improper' and 'stupid' I'm being. It's not enough that you take one single feature and completely blow things out of proportion without even trying to think things through," said Circe, her fury becoming clear with each sentence. "No, now my former best friend wants to potentially kill my son over a completely ridiculous theory without even consulting ME first."

"I was only trying to help!"

"No, you were trying to push your narrow world view on my child and on me, and frankly I've had enough of the bullshit. It's about time I left England and actually started living, rather than get stuck in the same mindset that caused every bit of pain I went through," said Circe.

There was no stopping her now, and frankly England had far too many bad memories for her to consider staying.

Within a few weeks, the biggest news of the season had hit.

The infamous Woman Who Won had left England, permanently, with her son following an argument with Granger over the fact that the honorary pure blood had tried to perform a ritual believing Potter's child was the dark lord reborn.

Never mind that the only "indication" Alexander Corvus Potter-Black was 'possibly' the Dark Lord reborn was his eyes.

More sensible minds prevailed on that end, as they pointed out that Alexander's eyes were closer to a ruby red as opposed to the menacing crimson the Dark Lord had before his demise.

What really set the people in a tizzy was that Potter was apparently irritated enough with all the backlash of the fact her son had no known father...that she was moving all of her gold with her to whatever country she decided to settle in.

Considering the bounties, the inheritance she got from being Head of the Potter and Black families, the defaulted vaults because she was the last living 'relation' of certain families that died out during the war or were 'handed' to her by grateful witches and wizards since they couldn't think of anything else to give her... that was a lot of gold she was taking with her.

Fortunately she wouldn't completely empty the Potter vaults (she still had to pay taxes and other miscellaneous bills, after all) but the bulk of it would be transferred to another branch. Well out of the Ministry's control and it meant the price of the galleon went up.

If Potter's departure didn't send the entire economy into a depression, it would be a miracle. And there was nothing the Ministry could do about it, because she had made it clear any attempts to keep her in England (or at least the gold) would end very badly.

If not because of her fans, then from the irate witch herself who was all too happy to 'redecorate' any location they chose to confront her in.

Circe was just glad to be out of a country that had nothing but bad memories and some really bad blood for her.

Besides, she had been wanting to investigate a few rumors she heard about a cousin who started up an unofficial branch of the Potter family since she found those journals.

In Italy

It was official. Italians were ridiculous, though at least she had figured out a few things. She did wonder what their obsession with the weather was about though.

First off, her cousin had apparently followed the Potter's habit of being 'inspiring leaders' and started a vigilante group...which shortly after he was 'forcibly retired' became the precursor to the Mafia.

Giotto had then moved to Japan where he spent the remainder of his days until his death, hiding under the name Ieyasu.

From there things turned...interesting and slightly surprising.

Namely the fact that when she investigated the current members of the Vongola family, she discovered a very familiar face.

Xanxus Vongola, the 'youngest' son. Who was put under 'house arrest' roughly a year to the day that Alexander was born.

Her scrying revealed it was less "house arrest" and more in line with 'suspended animation'. Considering Giotto would have known spells to pull something like that off (though few would be pleasant for the victim) she could only imagine what he was currently going through.

Hell, she had found records of how to 'invert' the power of soul fire to the point it became ice.

Considering the amount of grief the 'soul fire actives' were giving her (and there were a surprising abundance of them in Italy for some bizarre reason) she didn't need much motivation to figure out the trick herself.

That being said, there was no way in hell she was going to the Vongola and telling them about Alexander. From what she had found via listening to rumors about Xanxus...she had used her gender to indicate she was very much interested in the Varia boss, and with his looks she couldn't possibly be the first...the Ninth was a true idiot.

He had paraded Xanxus as an heir, when anyone with eyes and a brain could tell they weren't related in the least. Not directly anyway... Xanxus shared a common ancestor or two on his mother's side, but it was very watered down.

Also, the Varia wasn't particularly well liked by the main family, much less the intelligence organization known as CEDEF.

(Though what she found out about Iemitsu had her promptly striking him from the Potter family tree. His son might be salvagable, but that narcissistic, arrogant bastard had no place in the family as far as she was concerned.)

The soul fire users were becoming very annoying. Perhaps it was time to move on.

Besides, she still had to assess whether the great-great-great grandson of her cousin was worth keeping in the family. At the very least, Japan's magical educational standards were far superior to any she had found in Europe.

When Tsuna first met her, he didn't know what to think. She was oddly nice, but he didn't expect it to last long. It never did.

Kuro-san was kind and very sympathetic about the bullying he suffered. Apparently she had a similar issue growing up, except her relatives were less than 'pleasant' when it came to actual caregiving.

After hearing even a tiny fraction of what she went through, Tsuna realized he had been lucky in that regard... his mother was absentminded but at least she still fed and kept him reasonably clothed. She was just a bit cruel with her remarks concerning his inability to handle school work and lack of friends.

It was pretty clear even to Tsuna that his mother had given up on him even remotely succeeding in life.

Kuro-san was kind, gentle and very caring. Even if she did have a habit of sometimes tricking Tsuna into babysitting little Xander. The kid was a hellion save for when he was around his mother and oddly enough, Tsuna himself.

So when his birthday came around, Tsuna didn't expect much. His mother rarely remembered it on the actual date most of the time and it wasn't like he had anyone who would bother celebrating it with him.

So imagine his surprise to see a banner in Kuro-san's house saying "Happy Birthday Tsuna" in multiple languages, plus several presents, a proper cake and food.

"What..."

"I know far too well what it's like not to be able to properly celebrate your birthday, or have friends around to help. So when I broke into the school to find your records I figured why not throw a proper celebration?" said Circe.

"...You broke in to look at my records?"

"Yup. I wanted to see exactly where the problem areas were and what we needed to work on. I don't care what the records say on paper...those teachers are idiots anyway. I'm going to arrange a few tutors to get you up to speed, and if you want to keep your grades low at school it's fine by me. I won't let those idiots hold you back anymore."

"So just to be clear, it's okay if my 'official' grades are bad so long as my real ones are decent and I actually understand the material," said Tsuna slowly.

"From what I've seen, those idiots would just assume you were cheating if they started to go up. Might as well toss their egos back at them when we show them they've been wrong about you for years," said Circe.

Tsuna only noticed he was crying after the fact. Circe let him hug her tightly, mostly because she could tell his tears were that of relief.

"Come on birthday boy," she said smiling gently.

"Can... Can I call you nee-san?" he asked shyly. She was like the protective big sister he always wanted.

"Of course you can. Once thing get settled down and the paperwork goes through for Xander to attend school, you can stay whenever you want. In fact, I bet your mother could really use the break and I know Italy is lovely this time of year," said Circe.

Tsuna didn't really care that he was crying on his birthday. He knew Kuro-nee was up to something that would cause a lot of chaos, but he couldn't find it in him to give a damn. It probably had a lot to do with his father and where that deadbeat really was all the time.

It was the best birthday he could remember, even if Xander insisted on a cake war right in the middle of it. It was so much fun he couldn't feel any annoyance at it...even if he was soundly beaten by the three year old.

The highlight of the night was Xander calling him "Tsuna-nii" though. He always wanted a little brother to spoil, and Xander would waddle behind him like a little duckling which he though was stupidly cute.

So did Kuro-nee... he knew he saw her taking multiple pictures while resisting the urge to cackle at the blackmail she would have years later.

Kuro-nee made a big pile in the living room for them to sleep on...sort of like a nest. She started humming something, before Tsuna was almost lulled into a sleep.

He didn't understand the words she sang, save for the fact it sounded a lot like the Latin she sometimes spoke. Something told him it was a different language based off it, likely Italian.

Whatever it was, it sounded nice. It also felt very warm and comforting, like Kuro-nee was hugging him on a bad day and telling him things would be alright somehow.

Two weeks later, Nana happily accepted the idea of a fully paid for cruise that would just by coincidence lead to the general area of Italy that Iemitsu lived in.

Circe would only find out afterwards that Potter Luck was apparently just as pissed with Iemitsu as she was... he was on the cruise with a couple of floozies and never saw his very unhappy wife bust him until after she clocked him in the face. There was no way he could easily explain himself flirting with other women or the less than chaste kissing he had been doing.

When Nana returned two months later, she was very unhappy with her soon-to-be ex-husband. No amount of bullshitting was going to get Iemitsu out of a very nasty divorce...especially since Circe paid for the best mafia lawyers money could buy to insure Nana gutted the idiot and had a nice trust fund for Tsuna set up that he could borrow from until it matured at his majority, at which point he would have full access to it.

And yes, she was going to enjoy the chaos it caused far too much. There was, however, a slight snag.

After being confronted with the reality of Iemitsu's infidelity, Nana had gone from "cheerfully absentminded" to straight out bipolar around her son. Originally he had been a reminder of the good times she had with her husband, but now she could barely tolerate looking at him.

Fortunately there was a simple, if slightly painful, solution to that.

Tsuna looked at the piece of paper and then at his mother. Nana, to her credit, did hesitate to sign it. After all, she did love her son but the recent betrayal stung a bit too deep at the moment. It was only temporary anyway...she hoped.

Circe countered signed it, and after a few days Tsuna officially became her ward.

Which meant she now had every legal right to rip those idiot teachers a new one for their incompetence, with Nana gone off to rediscover herself.