It took only two weeks. At the garden party the Yaxleys threw, shortly before the wedding, Lucius Malfoy stood next to Alduin for a moment and then asked: "Do you not believe that a wizard who cannot take care of his own family and situation in life should be left in his disgrace?"

"Certainly," Alduin replied, "at least as long as it is his own doing."

"Which it was."

"Which it was," Alduin conceded, because Weasley, a member of the sacred twenty-eight and one of the oldest wizarding families in Britain, a man who had had every privilege except money from birth – and really, before he had seven children, it hadn't been particularly bad with the money either – could hardly be said to be ruined by circumstances, "but you have to take my own selfishness into account too. If I have to see them, I would much rather not have to wonder if their clothes is going to fall apart directly in my drawing room. And, also, their youngest son is likely to sleep in one dormitory with Harry and so spend quite some time with him. If I can improve that influence in any way, I will."

Lucius frowned. "Yes, I do not envy you your situation." He paused. "I would have liked to help fund the Institute, if only to make sure it stays...objective, but its true purpose stays my hand."

Alduin turned his eyes to Lucius. They were a shade darker, but could be exactly as cold as the other man's when he wanted, and they were at the moment. "Do you doubt my objectivity, Lucius?" He asked.

The older man smiled sarcastically. "Yours? No. Some of your employees? Well..."

"That is why I'm there to oversee it and fire any who misbehave."

"Any?"

"Obviously I am not going to fire the person for whose benefit it was all founded, but then I do not really expect him to actually do anything, so he can hardly produce misleading results. All the rest..." He gave Lucius another long look, "...I will check very carefully."

Lucius simply nodded, taking note, and turned to leave. But then he turned back and, with another ironic smile, said: "I am very glad you are back in the world, Alduin. You're a breath of fresh air."

Alduin gave him a mirroring smile. "The game was getting too easy, wasn't it?"

"Too boring."

Lucius left, and Alduin tried to fight the feeling that someone was walking over his grave. He could not very well forget that the last time his family played the game with Lucius, four of its members ended up dead.

It was during the war, he told himself firmly. Things could be done that cannot be done now. But then, war would come again, sooner or later… He shook himself. It was pointless to worry, and he would not allow Lucius to frighten him into inaction. What he was doing at the moment was necessary, but once he had a little time...it would probably be a good idea to remember that the situation with Lucius needed some attention, and better sooner than later.

For now, however, he put it out of his mind and looked around. Abdullah was standing nearby, but he was deep in conversation with his sisters, and so Alduin left them to it and headed to the Shacklebolts, whom he spotted not far behind.

"So...the wedding approaches," Nathan commented after their exchanged greetings. "Are you feeling all jittery?"

Alduin snorted. "Oh yes, so nervous – will she say yes?"

They all laughed. "No, but seriously," Kingsley said then, "I suppose everything is arranged already?"

Alduin nodded. "It wasn't really very demanding for me," he said. "I mean, we're using the heirloom rings and that was, effectively, the only part that was on me."

"Well, Alexandra does have the advantage of having her entire family to help with planning," Nathan commented cynically.

Alduin only nodded. "And what about you?" He asked. "Maurice and Kiara are coming back from school in a few days, aren't they?"

"Oh, yes," Susan replied. "I'm dreading it a little – Maurice is old enough to be taken with us to formal dinners now, but I'm not wholly convinced he is ready."

Kingsley laughed and shook his head. "He'll be fine, Susan," he said.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course you would think so. But I just don't see him doing well at the Crouches and the Smiths."

Alduin raised his eyebrows. "And do you have any visits scheduled there in the near future?"

"No," she admitted.

"Alduin has a point," Kingsley nodded. "It's not like you have to take him there. No one has too much time for formal dinners during the summer anyway, we're all too swamped by garden parties for the Hogwarts kids."

Nathan groaned. "Don't remind me," he said. "We will have to throw one at the very least, and I swear it feels like the number of guests doubles during the school break."

Alduin chuckled. "You should try to hide your misanthropy a little better."

"He'll get a relief in September, at least," Kingsley noted. "An absurd number of children are starting Hogwarts this year. The parties will thin down after that."

Nathan smiled at this. "And that brings us to Alduin yet again," he noted. "Do you feel ready to send Mr. Potter to Hogwarts?"

"Do I have a choice?" Alduin asked jokingly. "No, I believe he will do well enough. You cannot entirely catch up on eleven years of education in a couple of months, but it should work reasonably well." As long, he added mentally, as nothing goes wrong.

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Harry tried not to be irritated by the idea of visiting the Crouches. Out of all the families that were asked to Travers Manor, these were the visits he enjoyed the least. Mrs. Jonathan was nice, but the others were simply too strange. It didn't seem like Alduin was as friendly with the rest of them as with the Shafiqs, Shacklebolts or Ollivanders either, so it was a bit of a mystery to Harry why they were even asked.

Now he entered the evening parlour of their house with Alduin and Miss Burke, and he felt his cousin tense beside him. He looked up to him, and saw his eyes align on a young woman had had seen at a few garden parties before, but whose name he didn't know.

Alduin's face seemed to turn into stone, while hers went pale and her eyes widened. They quickly looked away from each other, and Alduin strode directly to Mr. Jonathan, while Miss Burke walked towards the unknown lady with a smile on her face.

Harry was left alone at the door for a beat. He'd have liked to escape to Edmund, but the boy was talking to his grandparents at the moment, so he hesitated and was rescued by Mrs. Jonathan.

"Mr. Potter!" She said cheerfully, though her smile seemed a little forced to Harry. "Good to see you. How have you been?"

Given that they'd only seen each other a week ago when the Crouches visited Travers Manor, Harry was unsure what to say. "Well, thank you," he answered, and his eyes drifted to the unknown lady again.

"Of course," Mrs. Jonathan muttered, "you haven't been introduced." And with another forced smile, she led Harry to where Miss Burke was attempting a conversation that seemed more like a monologue.

"Eliza," she said, "allow me to introduce Harry Potter to you. Mr. Potter, this is Mrs. Aurelius Prince, my sister-in-law."

"Oh!" Harry said, and blushed. "I mean, nice to meet you," he muttered to Mrs. Aurelius.

"And you," the lady replied so quietly it was almost inaudible.

There was a short silence, in which suddenly, Alduin's slightly raised voice was heard: "I don't-" but then he checked himself, and no more of his conversation with Mr. Jonathan could be heard.

Miss Burke asked Mrs. Jonathan a question about some charm or another, and they were soon deep in conversation, Mrs. Aurelius remaining quiet.

Harry looked desperately around, and realizing that Edmund was apparently finally free, headed in his direction. He'd have never thought he'd see conversation with that particular boy as a relief, but here it was.

"Are you looking forward tot he wedding?" Edmund asked him seriously.

"I suppose – I mean, I don't really have much experience with weddings, so I don't know what to expect."

"Oh, right – this will be your first wizarding wedding, won't it?"

Harry nodded, feeling rather uncomfortable.

"Did your cousin explain everything?"

Alduin did explain quite a lot, in fact, but Harry sensed his opportunity and said: "Yes, but I'm not sure I've really remembered it...could you maybe help with that?"

Edmund nodded eagerly, and the conversation was secured till they were called to eat.

The tense atmosphere lasted through dinner. Miss Burke and Mrs. Jonathan were the only ones attempting to keep the conversation going, with occasional comments from Mr. and Mrs. Crouch. Alduin continued stony-faced, in a way Harry had never seen him before.

Towards the dessert, Miss Burke and Mrs. Jonathan were both appearing a little tired of the burden laid on them. Harry wanted to help them out, so he turned to Mr. Crouch and said: "I've heard from Mr. Jonathan that your brother works at the Ministry, in International Cooperation. It sounded very interesting to me. Do you know what they're working on now?"

Mr. Crouch seemed to frown a little. "I try not to talk to Bartemius about his work too much," he said.

"Right, no need to encourage him," Mrs. Jonathan muttered by Harry's side. Mr. Crouch didn't hear her, and continued: "Much of it is confidential in any case, so he couldn't tell me, or I couldn't tell you."

"Do they have spies under that department?" Harry asked excitedly.

Mr. Crouch seemed taken aback at the question. "Not spies as such," his wife replied, "but there are people at foreign embassies who report to the Ministry with certain valuable information, yes, and this kind of information passes through my brother-in-law's department."

Harry found the topic fascinating and wanted to ask more, but seeing the repressive frown on Mr. Crouch's face at even the little his wife had revealed, he refrained and ceded the floor back to the two ladies.

Once they were back at the Manor, however, he couldn't help but ask. "Do wizards actually have spies?" He demanded the moment they stepped out of the Floo.

"Of course we do," Alduin replied tiredly, "but they're under Law Enforcement, not under International Cooperation. Kingsley would be a better person to ask about that."

"And could he actually tell me? I mean, if it's all so secret..."

Alduin rolled his eyes. "Crouch was just being overly dramatic," he said. "Of course the particular missions and discoveries are classified, but there's no reason Kingsley couldn't tell you roughly how it works. No that this is his particular job, but he does know something about it."

Harry nodded, then hesitated. He also wanted to know what was the problem with this visit, but didn't know if he should ask. Especially as Alduin was clearly out of sorts, as evidenced by him calling Mr. Crouch just Crouch in Harry's presence. But still, he always said Harry should ask whenever he had a question, so…

"Why was everyone so tense at dinner?"

Alduin sighed, looking ever more tired at the question. "You should always ask," he said, "but it doesn't follow I'll always answer. This was a personal matter. Jonathan Crouch did something he knew perfectly well I wouldn't wish him to do. I felt it needed to be dealt with directly."

Harry bit his lip. "Did it have anything to do with Mrs. Aurelius Prince?" He asked then.

Alduin gave him a sharp look. "You're too observant for your own good," he said. "Yes. Jonathan likes to interfere in his sister's life. He chose an unfortunate way to do it this time. But don't worry about it, Harry, no other social calls we make should be this tense."

Harry smirked. "Not even if we go to the Smiths one day?"

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AN: I keep forgetting to link this, but I made a list of OCs for easier orientation, given the plethora of them I have in this story. I'll try to update it with any new ones that appear. barbarakaterina tumblr com /post/136747957179