My Time

Chapter 65

"Honestly? For me your presence will be enough," Hayden sincerely answered, "How about you, Orion? Can you think of anything you want? Anything at all?" turning to face his fiancé with a small smile.

Things had changed now; he was no longer doing his 'duty' as the Black heir and marrying Walburga. He was getting to marry someone he adored completely. He was happier than he ever thought he could be. He didn't wake up utterly miserable every morning, counting down the days until his freedom was ripped from him. He'd actually realized he'd give up his family, his name for Hayden and didn't that speak volumes? As long as Hayden was there for him to marry, gifts were insignificant.

"I'm sure father will have a list sent out to everyone soon enough," Orion said diplomatically, giving an indelicate shrug. He was beginning to pick up Hayden's bad habits, Merlin help him. Hopefully he didn't go doing it at the worst timing, say at a Wizengamot meeting.

"Silencio!" Hayden chanted, a bubble formed around the Macmillan brothers and Hayden, excluding Orion entirely, who just drolly stared at them, inches away from rolling his eyes at them. "There is a book he wants, not sure if you'll be able to get it but with the right connections anything is possible. Huntley Hagrid's spell book number twelve."

"You mean the special edition from the 18th century? Seriously?" Liam groaned, "Only our nephew would want something utterly impossible to purchase." A tinge of regret laced his voice, not believing he could find it.

Hayden closed his eyes, "Do you know anything about Huntley's estate?"

"Yeah, it's now a monument to the author, they have copies of nearly all the books, naturally there's a few that has never resurfaced and not added to the library." Callum explained, wondering why he had his eyes closed.

"The author had a bolthole." Hayden explained, as Callum and Liam straightened up, goosebumps going up their flesh, realizing exactly how he was getting his information. 'holy crap' blazoned across their faces. "A copy of his complete works is down there, including various other stories and books he never actually finished." Not to mention a case of cigars and well, other unmentionables in polite society.

"Where?" they breathed out in sync, and why on earth was he giving them this information?

Hayden sniggered, "There's an opening, a hatch under the pantry, which goes down to the House-elves rooms, and under that is the bolthole. Not easily gotten to, but I guess that's the point of making a retreat, so nobody could follow you. The levitation platform requires a password to activate, once it's spoken it takes you down two levels. The password is simple, 'retreat'."

"Why give us this information?" Callum asked, completely baffled by this young wizard in front of him. He was beginning to see why Orion liked him so much. He definitely would have been in Hufflepuff for sure. His loyalty knew no bounds. Why give them the ability to give such a sought-after book to Orion instead of doing it himself?

Liam just shivered; had he really just been talking to the author? How could he stand it? Did he see them all the time? How could he stand it?

"I've already got his gift," Hayden answered.

"Do you have books on Necromancers? Do you see the spirits all the time? Talk to them all the time? Do they bother you? Or can you actually close them off?" Liam asked, as fascinating as the book could be, he was more interested in Hayden's abilities. He'd never really thought about it really. When was the last time there was a necromancer?

Hayden just smirked, as he flicked his hand, wand obviously not in hand, and removed the silencing spell. Content not to answer their questions and leave them to do as they pleased.

"Finished your tete-a-tete?" Orion asked clearly amused by the display.

"Eh, so-so," Hayden answered, waving his hand side to side, in a middle ground gesture. "But back on topic, is the room itself adequate? Or can you think of spells or adjustments that are required to fully make use of it?"

"Anything could use adjustments, even our greenhouses," Callum answered thoughtfully, "There are new spells, better ones being made. Unfortunately, it's not as easy to remove the spells one they're attached. We only have the wards dismantle once a decade, and upgrade them then."

"No warders in the family?" Hayden commented, they had married into many families likely. It was odd that they didn't have a family that could help them more often.

"Even if they were, we'd still give them full pay. Everyone deserves to be paid fairly for their crafts, and not expected to work for nothing because we're family. Especially the job it would be to work on so many green houses." Callum calmly informed Harry, head cocked to the side to see how he would take the reprimand that was masked as a statement.

"Touché, does it happen to you guys a lot?" Hayden enquired; he really couldn't help but compare them to the Weasley twins. He wasn't sure why they reminded him of them. It wasn't as if they were twins themselves. As far as he knew, there hadn't been any Macmillan's in the Weasley family. There had been no association between the Macmillan's and the Weasley's. Politically or family wise, as far as he knew, just the Prewitt's and the Black's obviously. Although, it could be further back, and for all he knew, one of them could marry a Prewitt.

"More than you'd believe," Callum admitted, exasperated. "Mostly my mother, bless her heart, offering up our services."

Hayden winced, "Yeah, that must make for uncomfortable situations." They likely felt like they wouldn't be able to deny their mother anything. He couldn't imagine denying his mother anything and he could barely remember her. His survivors guilt might have something to do with that though. Or perhaps it just being a hypothetical scenario caused it.

"Especially when they try to wheedle as much off the already discounted prices we reluctantly give. It hit us the worst when we were just starting out." Liam interjected, "They could all afford any prices we give, but no, never enough." Still sour over that actually, usually they dreaded the words 'your family recommended…' with a fierce passion.

Hayden winced, just imagine how much those 'discounted prices' had eaten into their start up profit. He knew it had taken Fred and George years to actually make a profit. Admittedly they'd bought a property and the flat above it with that profit. "I'm going to assume the only reason it actually took off is because you didn't have rent or food to buy."

"You guess correctly," Callum nodded, "Mother meant well, you are the only one that's actually been recommended by family that hasn't tried to get us to lower our prices." Rueful as he shook his head, not only that but he'd offered priceless and rarer than rare plants and it was beyond exciting, he hadn't felt like this in a long time. He loved what he did, don't get him wrong, but he'd been just going through the motions. Bogged down by orders, and getting them sent off in the condition they requested (ground, fresh, water, potted) there were so many ways they could be sent.

"Did you manage to gracefully stop any more…interference on your mothers behalf?" Hayden questioned, his hand casually (and possessively) laying against Orion's knee, causing his partner to stiffen a little at the socially unacceptable display. The only reason he didn't immediately dislodge Hayden was due to the fact they were at home, and they were with family.

"We spoke to father about it, we're not actually sure what he said or done," Liam commented, raising his right-hand palm up in a 'I dunno' gesture an acceptable alternative to a shrug. "It did wonders, we actually begun to see profits nine months into our business venture."

Hayden's eyed widened, "Nine months?" they let it go on for nine months, Merlin, they must really be the most laid-back wizards he'd ever met, either that or they really love their mother. "How long before it was an actual decent profit?"

"Roughly another year or so give or take a few months, four years before we got enough profit to actually survive without needing any loans or help." Callum answered, "It's not easy starting a business, especially in the beginning it seems to constantly haemorrhage money left and right." Discounts for 'knowing' your family made it decidedly worse.

Hayden nodded, "Takes a certain amount of determination and sacrifice, you were lucky you had your family to help." As always meaning what he said, "Anyone without your circumstances wouldn't have had a chance in hell. Which is why investing in new business ventures is an extremely important thing. Not only will it bring you extra money, but it will have more business' flourishing in the magical world. We're in dire need for that, our economy can be fragile." It doesn't help that a some of the magical population (muggle-borns) elect to return to the muggle world. What was the point in trying in the magical world when it was doomed to fail? They never stood a chance against the pureblood's. Even now it was bad, ridiculously so. Ironically enough, not as bad as it got in future, three wars with two Dark Lords would see to that.

Callum laughed, "You know, when we first started out together, we thought it would be easy. I mean it's plants how hard could it be? We could charge what we like that corner of the market meant we could. The only competition we'd have was the Longbottom's and they charge extortionate rates and the waiting times ridiculous. So, on we went, with our collective inheritance, we put everything into it. We wouldn't have lasted three months on our own once all the materials were bought." And believe you me, there were more materials needed than one realised. It wasn't just pots and soil and plants, Merlin, you needed fertilisers, specialised potions to help aid their growth, slug repellent, spells to prevent all the little critters getting to them and ruining them. It was a very costly endeavour.

"Would you do it again if you ended up back in time?" Hayden questioned, cocking his head to the side.

Orion stiffened, the desire to facepalm was so strong, honestly, did his fiancé have to ask questions like that? Especially considering he had literally gone back in time himself. It definitely caught him of guard.

The Macmillan's glanced at each other thoughtfully, before nodding together. "Definitely," whilst Callum said, "Without a doubt." It had been difficult, but so worth it, they'd change a few things, like not getting seeds of the plants that just didn't seem to sell, and more of their more popular produce. They'd gotten a lot wrong before they realized what they were doing wrong too so there was that.

"I created my own publishing company to publish our book," Hayden explained, "Well, not my own, our publishing company, but due to how busy we've been we haven't really had much of a chance to read many manuscripts that are sent to us. I've not even considered bringing someone else into it, it's my name on it and if it gets screwed up, well, I wouldn't be best pleased." He knew how duplicitous people could be, so who could he really trust to run his business?

"And you're going to collectively end up even more busy as the years pass," Liam correctly deduced where they were going. "It's difficult to lower the reigns, if you figure it out let us know."

Hayden laughed, "Ugh, tell me about it, so much of my life had been beyond my control, that I'm not sure I could trust anyone else, even if it is just with a business. I could just have it used to publish our own works, if and when we do so. It just seems wasteful." He wanted his business to flourish, who wouldn't? He had so many plans and those plans needed money, he likely had enough, but he wanted a big family, if the goddess was willing, he wanted to be able to leave them with more money than they'd ever need in their life time.

It was also just in case anything happened to him. He wasn't stupid, and didn't intend to let wistful thinking get in the way of that. His own parents had died when he was just one years old. They'd been in a war, and hadn't even made a will, and he'd end up stuck at the Dursley's because of that. Either that or Dumbledore had hidden it, either way, he had been screwed. If anything happened to him then they'd have Orion, and the extended Black family, he'd make sure the family wasn't torn apart. He was torn from his thoughts by Callum speaking.

Callum nodded, "I get it, perhaps get a few house-elves to help? I mean that's what we do, if we didn't, we wouldn't get more than an hour or two sleep."

"The owls are endless," Liam agreed, seeing the silent query on Hayden's face, he added, "We don't just get customers from the UK, we're very well known, and both fair prices and decent product means we drum up a lot of business, even overseas."

"Do you supply Apothecaries?" Hayden asked the duo.

Orion snorted, before hastening to elaborate lest Hayden get the wrong impression, "The Apothecaries carry stuff decent for school children to use at Hogwarts. Their ingredients are substandard, no Potion Master uses them, they buy directly from the source."

"Ever thought of actually opening an apothecary with your ingredients? Letting those from the UK come to your shop instead of owl ordering? Depending on how many of your orders are from the UK it could halve your daily owls. I think most people would be pleased to have someone who isn't going to overinflate prices or give substandard produce?" Harry questioned, it did seem like it would be a lot less hassle if they opened a shop and allowed their customers to come to them.

"We did think about it, once we actually started earning profit, but it seems stupid to open up another potions apothecary in Diagon Alley. I mean there are two already, that are next door to their competition. The rent is quite ridiculous as well to be honest, but given how quickly any of the shops are snapped up, mustn't be too bad." Liam added, shaking his head, recalling the price for rent, heating, tinting spells (so that the ingredients didn't spoil or end up in the sun) and of course, the shelving and such they'd need to buy. Yeah, no, definitely not, it would have eaten their profit up.

Hayden winced, "That bad?" he did have a property, that he outright bought for his publishing business. It wasn't in the main…he'd just call it 'street' or alley was more appropriate. It was in a hidden nook, and big enough inside for all his publishing needs.

"It honestly is better to do owl orders, monetary wise." Orion agreed, slowly relaxing when Hayden made no move to do anything…untoward. Well, what was untoward in a public setting. He rather liked the feeling of partnership, of comfort, it was like knowing he wasn't alone.

"For now," Hayden pointed out, "But once I begin gutting the properties surrounding Peverell estate, there will be a lot of businesses moving in. Certainly, far better and superior to Diagon Alley, with much more room to go about your business. With a variety as well, I'm hoping."

"You're really going to turn your estate into a community?" Liam asked, a thoughtful look on his face. He could imagine just how thriving such a thing could be. He couldn't name a single pureblood that would want to, even if it brought in more money than one could imagine possible. They preferred safety and status over allowing another within the boundaries of their sprawling estates, especially those that are not blood.

"That's what my family does, did," Hayden said with a smile, "Lord and Lady Peverell kept everyone under their banner safe. I'll give you first dibs on any stores if you have any aspirations to run an apothecary." Kept scores of wizards and witches safe, and allowed them to safely live and thrive and run their businesses.

Liam and Callum were very surprised by his statement. They silently wondered if he meant it and if it was actually possible. Then they were distracted by their nephew speaking, as the conversation moved on naturally.

"I wonder if they pledged their allegiances through magical means," Orion pondered thoughtfully.

Liam smirked at his nephew, not surprised that he'd be thinking of such things. "The Black's don't need more power." He teased his nephew, although, if there was a possibility, it would make him one of the most influential Black's, ever. Which was saying something Orion's father had outdone himself, both on the political platform and off. Very generous as well, had single handily donated enough money to St. Mungo's for them to open a new wing was named after him.

"There's no such thing as too much power," Orion corrected his uncle, with a smirk of his own.

"Says the wizard who's marrying a powerhouse," Callum muttered, but there was no derision or jealousy, just amusement.

Orion's smirk turned into a grin, turning to Hayden, "I am," he declared. Walburga was no wallflower; she was very powerful in her own right. She was a Black after all, but she was nowhere near Hayden's power. Merlin, he could summon death to him, his powers were…pretty unknown to him really. Very powerful but his actual abilities were beyond his ken.

"And don't you forget it," Hayden snorted, giving him a playful kick on his dragonhide boots.

Liam and Callum laughed, would you look at that, their nephew was completely besotted. They were relaxed in each other's presence, they trusted each other, teased each other. It boded well for their future. Neither could actually recall a time where Wally and Orion had been in the same room and got on.

They wanted to ask about what had been happening lately, but they knew they wouldn't get an answer. Some things just remained with immediate family, which is likely what that situation would be too. They reckoned though; it had something to do with Pollux maybe even Wally herself.

"How is everyone doing? Hesper and Sirius? Your parents?" Liam asked, just because they knew, didn't mean they couldn't sniff around the subject in hopes of having their curiosity sated. Now that they definitely got from their mothers, they loved sniffing out gossip.

"And Wally, I mean it can't have been easy for her to give up the dream of being Lady Black," Callum interjected, it was difficult for witches, some were very lucky to marry into good families but a lot of witches just ended up miserable, and alone if they were able to stand up to their families. Which didn't happen often, witches were seen as a good bargaining chip in bringing families together.

Hayden's face tightened, showing his displeasure, which naturally, the Macmillan's noticed immediately. They straightened up, visibly showing their own worry, just what had happened? They'd stepped into a trap of bombardas by the look of it.

Hayden's hand pushed out at nothing, aiming directly at Liam and Callum before a spark of light hit each of them in the chest.

"What was that?"

"What did you just do?"

Orion admitted to being slightly alarmed, as he glanced at Hayden. However, it wasn't anger on his face, it was determination. "Secrecy spell?" he questioned, knowing Hayden well enough now to know he wouldn't have harmed them, not unless they pissed them off to an unknown degree.

Hayden nodded curtly, "Indeed," causing both of Orion's uncles to relax in relief.

"Merlin's balls, you can't just do that to people," Callum declared, "I'm too young for a heart attack!"

"The information is too sensitive to share otherwise," Hayden said curtly, "I won't risk Alphard and Cygnus' futures." He was very fond of Cygnus, he was such a loving little boy, it was a miracle given his father. Alphard was…favourited due to actions in the future, his generosity to Sirius, than the actual youngster he was. Only because he hadn't spent as much time with Alphard to be fond of him on his own.

Orion inclined his head, in full agreement with fiancé.

"Did something happen to Wally?" alarmed, why would everyone be quiet about it? He knew the Blacks' liked to keep things secret but surely not the death of a little girl? It would most assuredly have reached the newspapers.

"In a manner of speaking," Orion replied, his tone curt, as it so often was when she was brought into things. He had to remind himself it wasn't her that had set the stipulations on their betrothal contract. It wasn't really his father's fault either for not knowing, not considering they'd been betrayed by both their lawyer and his uncle. "Father found unacceptable clauses in the marriage contract for myself and Walburga. The contract was ironclad in usual magical terms. I would have had to marry her and lost myself, Walburga would have had full control, financially, magically, mentally, educationally and essentially, she'd be the Head of the family."

Callum and Liam paled, glancing at each other in shock, unable to believe what they were hearing. Although, it wasn't the first-time family had split over trying to gain Lordships, but this was a first they'd ever heard actually using a marriage contract as a basic slave control of a Lord. He couldn't see that going over well with the family, Merlin their sister must be in pieces. "Merlin, your father likely killed him. He doesn't deserve any better mind you," their father liked to pretend that diplomacy sorted everything…but they knew, if anyone had hurt any of his four children…they would have died a most painful death.

"What sort of magic? Did killing Pollux nullify the contract?" Liam interjected, "Wait, don't tell us, suspicions is different from confirmation."

"Pollux suffered a fate worse than death," Hayden said sombrely, he saw their confusion, naturally they probably didn't think such a thing was possible. The Black family had more spells in their arsenal than anyone probably realized.

"He was disowned and had his magic ripped from him, he's a muggle, he was dropped off in the muggle world and abandoned." Hayden told them, smirking a little when they shuddered dramatically, at the mere idea of such a fate never mind living it. "I doubt he will live long, without magic the lifestyle he's used to, his body will likely break down very fast." Which sucked, it didn't give Pollux much of a chance to regret what he'd done.

"Ah, that explains why the kids are with the Potters, it's a permanent situation, right?" Callum deduced, he'd seen Dorea with them, but it wasn't unusual really, she might be a Potter by marriage, but Dorea had never forgotten her family. In fact, she was as close to them as she was growing up.

"It is, they've been adopted into the Potter family," Hayden nodded, his thumb brushing back and forth offering Orion what comfort he could whilst sitting.

"Fathers setting up a marriage for Walburga abroad," Orion added absently, there was no smugness or happiness in his tone of voice. He wasn't gleeful over what was happening to her, nor was he sad. It was what it was, and it was within his father's rights to see her married. He was sort of glad she wasn't going to remain here; he didn't want to put up with any theatricality from her. Which definitely would happen.

"If you need to talk about it, we're here for you, you know that right? And I don't mean it as a means of gossip. I'd take any secrecy spell you need to be comfortable." Liam said to his nephew, slapping his hand on Orion's shoulder and squeezing tightly, his eyes filled with sadness. He couldn't imagine how Orion was feeling, betrayed by his own uncle, it was a bitter pill to swallow he reckoned.

Orion swallowed, "Thank you," he said giving them a turbulent smile, very grateful for their support. He might have lost one uncle, but he had three other uncles that cared. Although, he very rarely saw Uncle Ernie, he was always too busy. He was even too busy for his parents (Orion's grandparents).

"Now that's out of the way, you're bound to have some…amusing tales about Orion growing up…" Hayden said, green eyes gleaming mercilessly, "Tell me everything."

Orion opened his mouth to make sure they kept quiet, only to choke when Hayden's nails dug into his knee. Ouch, that was actually painful, and so unfair, he was distracting him. "Don't you dare," he warned them, but the matching grins told him everything.

"Now, now, don't be so stroppy," Liam crooned, "Has Orion ever told you the time he managed to end up at the edge of the wards and got in amongst the muggle English ivy?"

"I'm going to kill you," Orion warned, hand over his face in mortification.

"Ooo, I'm guess you had a bad reaction to it?" Hayden said, sniggering in delight, but it was normal. English ivy whilst not as bad as Poison ivy was best treated cautiously. The sap from the English Ivy can cause irritation to sensitive skin, and all children had sensitive skin.

"I wouldn't call it bad," Orion grumbled, cheeks a little red.

"He itched everywhere on the twenty-five-minute back to the property; his entire skin was inflamed. A House-elf was supposed to put salve on his skin, but he ran around refusing to let the House-elves near him."

Hayden pursed his lips, he really, really, really tried not to show how amusing it was.

"Our poor mother tried to corral him into behaving, but he wasn't having any of it. He was screaming blue murder, when mother actually managed to get a hold of him, he had a bout of accidental magic and floated away from her."

Hayden laughed there, a broad grin on his face, oh this was magic.

"We were laughing too much really to be of much help," Callum took over, sniggering. "Like seriously, it was a good job father arrived back. He had more success in calming Orion down by threatening to tell his father how he was behaving."

That definitely put paid to the amusement Hayden felt, instead a small smile appeared on his face. The key word being 'threat' he was familiar with threats; he too had lived by them at one point. How many times had Petunia threatened him with Vernon?

"It only marginally calmed him down," Liam grinned, "He was a fearless kid, between the House-elves, and our parents they managed to get a hold of him and get him in a bath, it helped the itching until they could get the salve on."

"I do miss that kid, man, he was epic." Callum laughed, he changed when he was eight. Just like his own brother had at a young age. He didn't pity them really, everything they go through. He occasionally reminded his brother to stop being so serious, that he could be childish if he wanted and nobody would care.

They hadn't succeeded with Orion yet, but perhaps it wouldn't be required.

"Oh, and did we mention the time that he stole our aunts make-up bag…"

Orion just groaned helplessly, but inside warmth suffused him at the sound of his uncles and his fiancé's laughter. It was the best sound in the world.

A/n – I love this story, it's so easy to write! Of course, would you guys like to see Hayden actually going to court over the prophet or receiving money as compensation? I'm pretty sure there's another plot I had on the go, I can't quite remember I'll need to re-read it and find out LOL will it send the Daily Prophet into liquidation or will Hayden buy it for a pittance of what's it actually worth and have another company that will bring in money to add to his investments? And don't worry Dumbledore's time will come *grins* R&R please