Chapter 10

Wednesday, December 25, 1991

The past few days had been surprisingly nice given how the break had started. Diana had quickly adjusted to everything they had told her and—in the end—decided to take it as something of a blessing. It all meant her son was much more prepared for anything that could be thrown at him than she could've gotten him. Akechi was noticeably thankful that she had taken it all so well, but Akira had expected it given her family's association with Voldemort and the fact she still accepted them. She had easily accepted him as well, seemingly relieved that Akechi was close to someone. Their banter certainly amused her enough.

But today was important for a different reason. It was Christmas and while in Japan that was a time for couples, in Britain it was for family and close friends. Akira may hate the month of December, but Akechi was important enough for him to set it aside, if just for that day.

Which was why he made his way downstairs, wrapped gift in hand, to meet with his hosts. He didn't have anything for Diana, unfortunately, but he simply didn't know her well enough to know what to get her. She knew and had even told him not to worry about it, and even Akechi had backed that up. The mother and son were waiting for him in the sitting room, their own gifts in hand. Akira took his seat beside Akechi on the couch, Diana across from them in what had become the normal seating arrangement very quickly.

"Given what you both have told me about your past, I got gifts that should help you." Diana said, holding up the two small packages she held. "There's a reason I asked some of the questions I did once you gave me a basic rundown."

She handed them each a small, wrapped box about the size of a ring box. The two boys exchanged a short glance before carefully unwrapping them and lifting the lid. Akira's held a necklace with a dagger pendant that looked identical to his Paradise Lost dagger, every little detail included. Akechi held up his which was similar in the fact it had his Hinokagutsuchi II sword in miniature dangling from the chain.

"They're not just pendants." She explained with a blush, "I had the goblins make the weapons and enchant them to be able to take this form. When extended, they will be sized for your bodies and will reach their full size at the same time you reach the age you originally wielded them. It was a complicated enchantment, but it wasn't the first time it had been used. They are made of goblin steel with every advantage that comes from that. In their small state, they can't be detected as weapons so even if you are searched, no one will think to take them from you."

Akira made a mental note to ask Akechi why them being goblin steel was so important while he mused, "So that's why you had me draw them."

"But Mother," Akechi was quick to protest, "That had to cost a fortune, especially as you had to have paid almost double to have them done so quickly!"

"I got your uncle to approve the cost coming from the family vault." she said with a smirk, "And on that note, I was also able to get him to agree to giving you both unrestricted access to the library, including the books even Theo can't yet due to his age. That was harder than getting him to pay for a pair of weapons by far, mostly because one of you isn't blood related. Some books are blood-locked so Akechi will have to handle them but otherwise, you can borrow whatever books you need."

Akira now felt really bad that he hadn't got her something. She had done so much for them over the course of a day that it was unreal, especially as she didn't expect anything in return. His relationships had always been transactional, especially at first. All but Akechi's anyway. It was part of why he had latched onto him so hard, but it also meant he was knocked off balance by his mother being much the same in a way. All she wanted was for them to take care of themselves and each other, something they would've done anyway. It wasn't something he would ever take for granted.

So caught up in his thoughts he missed Akechi giving Diana her gift and her opening it. He didn't come back to himself until Akechi dropped his gift in his lap without so much as trying to get his attention. Akira shot him a small smile, ignoring the concern visible in the slight furrowing of his eyebrows, and slowly opened his gift. He froze at what was revealed before slowly a wide smile overtook his features.

"And you were complaining about it a couple months ago." Reaching into the box, he pulled out a state-of-the-art grapple gun.

"Yes well, you wouldn't be you without a few crazy stunts and since I vetoed you joining the quidditch team..." Akechi shrugged casually, looking for all the world as if he was unconcerned, but Akira knew better. Pleasure sparkled in his eyes at the thief's delight. Diana let out a laugh at her son's antics.

"Mine feels so commonplace in comparison." Akira complained good naturedly, handing over a short square box.

Akechi wasted no time in opening it, gifts from people he cares about being precious after his past and pulled out a bangle made of pure silver. One identical to the one he had been given by the same boy a lifetime ago. "What—?"

"It wasn't easy to find one just like it, but I knew how much you liked it so..." Akira shrugged. It was the one gift he had given the detective and he had always worn it. He was pretty sure the older boy never even took it off.

A sentiment he was even more confident in when Akechi slipped it onto his wrist without further comment. He was the only one Akira had ever given jewelry to, not that Akechi knew that.

"Okay, there's one more gift for you Akira. This one was brought by owl, so I checked it for any spells. It was clean." Diana handed over a larger package.

Akira shrugged and opened it to find an adult sized cloak made of a strange shimmery fabric that felt like and flowed like water.

"Well, that's useful." Akechi murmured; eyes alight with surprised joy. "I wonder who would send you an invisibility cloak..."

The thief picked up the note that fell when he was examining the cloak, "It's not signed, but it says it was my father's."

"Normally an invisibility cloak only lasts around a decade... I wonder..."

The detective refused to elaborate no matter which of them asked.

Friday, December 27, 1991

Right after breakfast the group of three welcomed the Nott family Healer—Fawley—into the sitting room.

"May I ask why I was called in?" he asked once they had all sat down, "Lord Nott didn't specify, only said there was a situation with your guest that required my presence."

"It's about Heir Potter here. My son befriended him while at Hogwarts and there are some...concerns about his home life. I need you to run a full medical history diagnostic on him."

"I see..." He murmured, before turning to Akira, "Do you give your consent for me to do so?"

Akira tilted his head, "What all shows up on that diagnostic? Just the different injuries and illnesses, or the treatments given for them as well? What about vaccinations?"

Healer Fawley gave him a smile, "All of that along with who administered the treatments if they were magical."

The thief nodded. It was a little more comprehensive than he was expecting, which was good. He gave his consent with little fanfare.

The healer and Diana paled when the parchment coming from his wand reached ten feet before it stopped growing. Akechi started muttering to himself and Akira knew he was plotting a couple murders and how to get away with it. Akira wasn't sure if he would stop him or not. All or nothing indeed. He thought with amusement.

It was something that had never come up before, the fact he wasn't as against murder as the rest of the thieves had thought. The only reason they had only changed hearts was because murder hadn't been necessary. Well, that and someone else was always the most affected by their targets. After Queen had joined though, it would have been foolish to even bring it up. She saw things as black and white and murder no matter the reason was always unacceptable. Even Akechi didn't know just how skewed his moral compass was.

"You treated all your injuries yourself..." Fawley whispered in a strange mix of horror and awe before collecting himself. "All your bones were perfectly set, so I don't need to do anything about old breaks, but your bones are brittle from long term malnutrition. There don't seem to be any other side-effects, so it wasn't as bad as I had feared."

"I made it a point to steal food or money to buy some to try to keep that from getting too bad." Akira admitted bluntly. He knew those present wouldn't care.

"That was likely a good thing then. Other than that, you are missing all your wizarding inoculations that were to be given from the age of two until the present, though it shows you have at least been given the muggle ones. That means you need the muggle-born catch-up potions, nutrition potions, and bone strengthening solution. The first will be a one and done for all of them, second will be twice a day for the next two months, and the last once a day for a month." The healer said as he wrote out the scripts. "I also highly recommend you sue your previous guardians and have guardianship handed over to someone you trust."

He handed the scripts and a copy of his medical history to Diana who thanked him and showed him out before rejoining the two boys.

"We can't sue them." Akira said bluntly.

"And why not?!" Akechi demanded affronted, "I know you're not defending them given the things you have done to save others from those kinds of situations!" he hissed.

"That's not it." The thief said as he reached up to play with a lock of his bangs, "Every time someone tried to take legal action against my relatives all records and documents would disappear and so would the memories of the people involved. Granted, it was only tried a total of three times, but the point remains. My relatives certainly don't have the kind of clout to make that happen and even if they did, they could do nothing about the memories. Someone in the magical world has been covering it up and my money's on Dumbledore. From what you said, he's powerful enough to not only get away with it but have any case in the magical world thrown out too."

Akechi And Diana both gave their grudging agreement to that, so Akira continued, "Instead, we hold off on that but get them to sign over custody to you. We can blackmail them if we need to using my medical history. They won't know we can't sue them, so we use the threat of it. That's if they protest at all, which I doubt they will." He lowered his hand and looked at Akechi for his input.

"It would work." The detective said slowly, "Once custody is signed over to you, assuming we use papers drawn up by the family solicitor and have them signed using a blood quill, magical custody will also revert to you due to your status as a witch. We can always sue them later seeing as there is no statute of limitations on child abuse in the magical world."

"Assuming you don't kill them before then." Akira agreed.

Akechi adopted an innocent look, "I have no idea what you mean."

"Sure, you don't." the thief said with a snort.