(A/N): Hey Guys! So, another time skip! My teacher's been on the phone for twenty minutes, and we all have to hear his stupid conversation, ugh.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.

Leo

5:29

I straightened my bow tie as I stood in the middle of the front yard, my father a few feet behind me on the left, Shari and few on the right, with Lisbet leaning against the house a little way back.

"Relax you two, if Cipicia wanted him dead, he'd be dead by now." Oddly enough, that didn't reassure them.

"She's evil." Something in my heart twinged. If she's evil, why'd you compare me to her?

We still weren't seeing eye to eye, which was easy enough to understand considering he had compared me to her, and I had insinuated that he hadn't raised me.

Which, to be honest, was kind of true.

So, he might have taken me into his home and tried to act as a father figure, but I had to fend for myself, I always have. I had to feed myself, look after myself, even find proper clothes for myself. He was doing the best he could, but it really wasn't enough. I was just a kid when I came to him, and if I had been a baby at the time, I knew I surely would have died.

Of course, my mother hadn't done a spectacular job of raising me either, but at least I had never been at risk of starving, unless she wanted it to be so.

To be honest, it was probably more accurate to say I was raised via a joint collaboration of Mia and I's nursemaid, our governess, and the house-elves.

5:30

My ears caught the quick and light drum of hoof beats against the dirt, and less than thirty seconds later, the carriage pulled to a stop just in front of me, the door swinging open to reveal my mother.

"Get. In." She didn't seem particularly happy to see me, but when the hell did she?

Without so much as a glance back, I climbed into the carriage, and fell into my seat as the horses took off again.

"What's with the hurry?" She said nothing, just fixing me with a glare, and the whole ride went like this. Her glaring, or avoiding my gaze, and I maintaining the awkward silence that hung in the air.

This ride was longer than the last one.

Much longer.

I looked out the window, watching the countryside fly by, then the city, and then the countryside again, and for a second, I feared that she was going to kill me a and dump me somewhere in the far away wilderness, but just as this thought occurred to me, the carriage entered a compound.

Magnificent gardens flew past, with beautiful trees and flowers and pretty colorful birds flitted between them.

Within seconds, the carriage turned a slight bend, and we rolled up directly in front of the main doors to the place, which looked to be an extravagant, mansion-esque country house.

As the door swung open of its own accord, I stepped down from the carriage, resisting the urge to shake the pins and needles from my legs as I took my mothers gloved hand and helped her down from the carriage.

"Cipicia!" Someone called out, and I took a split-second to assess the threat before I realised that, hey, I couldn't care less, and the tone of voice was welcoming instead of angry.

"Suverra!" She called in reply, pulling her hand out of mine as soon as her feet touched the gravel, And moving to grip the other woman's.

"It's so good to see you again." I could tell by the utter sweetness in her tone that it was an act, but not in the same way that my mother's was. In fact, Suverra did seem like she would be glad to see Cipicia, if she were anyone else.

My mother, however, would hate Suverra no matter who she was. Because she held up that fake sweetness with everyone. Including me. You know, the times where she wasn't openly hating me.

"You too, of course Suverra." The tone was curt but dripped in honey, and I stepped up to my mother's side to greet the smaller woman. Actually, in appearance, she was just about the opposite of my mother.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Mrs Mikaelsonn." I said, giving her a low bow, and I felt my mother half-glaring at me.

"You too, Leonides." Suverra seemed surprised at the at the sincerity in my tone, and returned it gladly, her dark eyes gaining a sparkle.

"Yes, well." My mother said sharply. "Let's get inside then, shall we?" Regretfully, she half-dragged me away from Suverra, and into the foyer of the magnificent building, clearly a house now and not some sort of ministry building.

As we entered, a house elf came up and took my mother's thin coat from her, and I offered him my my outer robes with care before she dragged me away from there as well.

"If people are truly going to believe that you're pureblood, Leonides, you need to act like one." She hissed into my ear, talons digging into my forearm, though currently clothed with my stark white dress shirt, and I was glad that the wounds from my recent altercation on the full moon had healed to scars now. And I had a lot of scars before now, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Of course, I had barely any on my face, and those that I had were only tiny little flecking scars cause by little fragments coming into contact with my skin there, either accidentally, or on purpose.

As we entered the main room, clearly a ballroom, though perhaps designed to be a large hall, an arm intertwined with mine, and I turned to meet familiar eyes.

"Brooke, dearie, it's good to see you again." A completely lie on my mother's part, obviously, but Brooke curtsied to her nonetheless.

"You too, of course, Cipicia." I blinked slightly in recognition. It was almost exactly what my mother had said to Suverra only moments earlier, but the tone, this time, was different. Instead of condescending, it was pitying, and I flashed Brooke a small, proud smile.

"Go dance with your date, Leonides." My mother managed to growl, before turning away to search the crowd for someone, probably my stepfather.

Brooke led me away from the spot she stood, across the dance floor, and as soon as we were out of her sight, and almost sure that no one was watching us, she dragged me out one of the side doors to the the ballroom.

"What-?" I went to question, but was cut off by my own surprised as I recognised six figures standing in front of me.

"Surprise?" Lily asked weakly, and I gaped at them.

"Surprise indeed."

(A/N): This lessons about to end, so, gotta go. Hopefully I'll get the chance to write in math, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Please review and/or check out my other stories!

This chapter has had minor edits made to it on 5/2/23 - Changed Leo handing the house elf his suit jacket to the outer layer of his dress robes, because, as we've established, Cipicia wouldn't tolerate Leo wearing anything but dress robes.

This chapter has had minor edits made to it on 12/3/24 - changed Leo saying he'd been raised by house-elves to him saying it was a joint collaboration between said house-elves, their nursemaid, and their governess (which I'm pretty sure is the first reference to them having had a governess, so... yay?)