(A/N): So for this chapter, we have yet another new POV- I guess we're going with the 'previously unseen father' POV's, lately, first with Tarea Hugar, and now with Sebastien Joannis. Being Sebastien, there are obviously going to be a lot of trigger warnings, so if you find yourself having trouble with those, PLEASE contact me for a summary of the important parts of this chapter, since for some reason (I wasn't planning it this way) this chapter contains a LOT of sneaky foreshadowing, both for the 1967 Little Leo/Amelia Rochester arcs, and also for the main story- to the point of changing the way I have to go about writing certain events because I undermined myself throughout this chapter (I'll explain at the end), and containing a lot more obvious foreshadowing than I intended. Basically, Sebastien said, 'Screw you, you can't tell me what to do, I'm giving away ALL of our secrets!'

This was originally meant to be chapter 507, so it hasn't moved much, and was part of the reason I had so much trouble moving the chapters around, since I wanted this chapter and its next part reasonably close together. Just a quick reminder that the next chapter is the Valentine's Day chapter, so it'll be posted on the 14th.

Trigger Warnings: Sebastien is a giant creep, and cannot and should not be trusted around women- or members of the female gender in general. Anthophilius Meliflua and Daimen Joannis are referenced (Anthophilius more than Daimen), and so is Markaisa, albeit very briefly, and only in relation to Miasenna. The chapter starts with Sebastien cornering a maid (that's not the last we hear about that, and I'll explain more in the next Amelia chapter), but he quickly lets her go when Cipicia comes back and starts acting weird. Shitty parenting, and references to child abuse/neglect (both just a general air of it, plus Sebastien threatening Mia, and expressing concern about Anthophilius making good on his threats toward them all). High (unreasonable) expectations from parents/society that have shaped pretty much every character, especially Sebastien (more on that in the end note, which you can skip if you can't deal with the trigger warnings, because it's basically just backstory. Like, it'll help you understand his motives better, but it's okay to skip if you have to). Talk of infidelity/illegitimacy, and also potential rape/sexual assault (Sebastien finds out about Leonides not being his, which of course, entails Cipicia's distress about the vampire in the equation. Again, it ISN'T rape, but she thinks it most likely was, so... make your own judgement, there.) Sebastien shows hints of like... sadism? Like, literally getting off on people's pain/discomfort? Rapid consumption/bingeing of alcohol as Cipicia tries to explain the situation to her husband. Talk of killing a child/filicide (Cipicia says 'I've killed him' in reference to Leonides, which we know isn't what happened, but she thinks at this point that she pretty much condemned him to death on the streets, and [shockingly] feels appropriately guilty).

October 19th, 1967

Sebastien

It was predictable, I suppose, that the second I got my hands on the curvy young housemaid- who seemed eager to hide herself away behind one of the columns, for whatever reason- I heard the crack of apparition echo off of the walls of the Grand Foyer, around me. At first, I refused to let it distract me- anyone with permission to apparate directly into this room knew me well enough not to be shocked by such behavior, and to tell the truth, I already knew who it was- and as my wife's sharp, irritation-inducing voice rang out, I was proven correct... as always.

"Sebastien," She snapped, but there was something about her voice... it was quiet. Not necessarily weak- that was not a sentiment I would attribute to her so lightly- but it was so unlike her that it actually managed to draw my attention from the distraction of the young maid's frankly lovely body.

Cipicia's face had not held my eye for a very, very long time- if ever- and even in the early days of our marriage, or when we had been actively attempting to sire heirs, her body had never inspired an outstanding amount of desire in me... perhaps only because it was 'mine'. I had always been drawn to the forbidden, so when my father had negotiated a match for me with Anthophilius Meliflua's only child- quite possibly the best match to be made, at that point in time- I found myself somewhat... disappointed. Do not misunderstand me, I was proud to take a wife who was the envy of pureblood society as a whole, but that was just it- I didn't take a wife, I was given one. Still, her particular brand of fire- a symptom of her little-known veela blood- had been at least somewhat intriguing... until it had turned to ice, seemingly overnight.

Now, however, as my eyes landed on her fair features, I caught sight of something I hadn't seen in years- a tantalizing kind of hurt that sent that telltale shiver down my spine. I turned my back on the maid completely, and as I heard her sneak away behind me, I pinned Cipicia with a slow, hungry smile. "Darling," I purred, and the fact that her whole body stiffened at my tone was exceptionally satisfying. "You look dreadful!" Oddly, she flinched at this- and as much as the reaction delighted me, it was also quite puzzling. Rather than focus on that, I addressed our daughter, instead. "You- Miasenna." I was unsure how to proceed from that point; I had no business talking to a five-year-old girl, even my own daughter- Merlin, I had barely been able to find something to talk to Leonides about that age, and at least then we had shared a sex. Usually, someone interrupted me before I got much further than this, but as of right now, Cipicia didn't seem capable of doing so, which left me, unexpectedly, floundering. "You're- Your birthday is coming up, is it not?"

The little girl- more my double than Cipicia's- narrowed her eyes at me sharply, showing the same fire her mother had long since lost. "We celeb-rated it less than two months ago," She reminded me, faltering slightly over pronouncing the word 'celebrated'. "May- Perhaps, you should add it to your cal-and-ar." Even with her missteps her confidence never slipped, and it was this unwavering demeanor, more than anything, made me think of my sister, Markaisa- I despised it.

"I'll be sure to do that," I told her dryly, which of course, immediately triggered her suspicion. "For future reference, however, it's not the best idea to correct your father on such things- especially considering I'm one of the two main people who decide whether or not you'll be having a birthday next year... or ever." She eyed me warily, and I watched her throat bob with a nervous swallow- but she never lowered her head, or offered me any attempt at the deference that was expected of her. It was good, in a way- Leonides wouldn't be as much fun to harass now that his leg was broken, and I needed a new target... one that had no hope of escaping, unlike the staff. Any resemblance she may have had to Markaisa was merely a bonus.

"...yes, father." I couldn't remember a time when she had called me anything else. With Leonides, it had started as a combination of French and English, halfway toward both 'father' and 'père', and landing on the juvenile 'papa' before he had been physically capable of forming either of those words properly. From there, it had evolved to père around others, and father when speaking directly to me, or to my family, ever since I had made it clear I would not tolerate his use of an inferior language in referring to me- after my father had complained about Cipicia's insistence on raising our children with an equal emphasis on their two cultures, likely because her own father had always been strict about removing her from her French roots as much as possible. But with Miasenna- maybe because I had been involved even less in her early childhood- earlier childhood- she had only called me father, for as long as she had been able to speak. I wouldn't be surprised if her older brother had had a hand in that development, and made sure she avoided the hurdles he had stumbled at; the way he always did, and I suspected, always would.

Cipicia's sudden jolt drew my eye, but when I found no obvious cause for it, I brushed it off and moved on to more captivating subjects. "And how is our little broken bird, this morning?" This flinch, I could not ignore. "Alright, what's going on? You're acting all... jumpy." The look she was giving me was... scared? That didn't seem right, but it was what I was seeing- even if I couldn't really make sense of it.

"Sebastien..." She paused, then glanced to Miasenna, who looked only slightly less lost than I felt. When her eyes returned to mine, I saw the pain there, along with a kind of shame the likes of which I had never seen on her face- it appeared almost inappropriate. "We need to talk." By the way she said it, I assumed it wasn't something so basic as the necessities of running an estate, or even the pettier of the family problems we had both been dealing with from the day we had married- before, even.

"By all means-" She cut me off, shaking her head quickly.

"No, not- not here." No? "We'll- Your office, we'll go there."

She let me lead the way, which was odd in itself, but the fact that she wanted to go to my office- mine, not hers, where I knew she felt far more comfortable... I didn't know what to make of that. I especially didn't know what to make of it when the second I closed us in- and cast a precautionary silencing charm- she swept over to the sideboard where I kept my favorite decanters, poured two very generous snifters of cognac, and downed one before handing me the other- and moved to refill her own. Watching on, I felt oddly calm. "Have we gone bankrupt?" I asked, and she shot me a sharp, almost annoyed look over her shoulder between gulps of her second drink. "I'll take that as a 'no.'" But what else was there? "Is your father coming to finally make good on his threat to end us all and replace you with a new heir?" I asked, mostly as a joke- but when she flinched again, I was no longer in a joking sort of mood. "Oh, Merlin... we're doomed."

During all of this, Miasenna watched on from just inside the door, brow furrowed- but whether she didn't seem afraid of this because she didn't understand what would happen or for some other reason, I couldn't possibly say. In the end, she simply continued watching as I downed my drink, and went over to stop my wife from doing to same to her recently poured third. Cipicia made a truly pitiful noise as I took it away from her, but instead of meeting me with fury- the way she usually would, whenever anyone tried to temper her drinking- she merely gave me a look so full of guilt that I almost pushed the glass back into her hand.

"I- There's... there's no easy way to say this, but..." Briefly, she looked to Miasenna- she probably would've preferred to have been looking at Leonides, her favorite- but her eyes quickly returned to me. And then immediately dropped to her palms, spread open in front of her middle. "Leonides, he isn't..." Isn't what? Isn't going to get better? What else could it possibly be- what could make her react like this? "He isn't... yours."

My mind went blank for a second, and when my mental faculties recovered, I huffed out a small, bitter laugh. "Well. And here I thought I was the unfaithful-" She cut me off, and I must admit, I certainly wasn't expecting what she said next.

"He isn't human, either. He's- His father- His real father-" Apparently. "-is a vampire. Which makes him..."

"Half-vampire," I said quietly, calmly- not because I felt calm, but because I felt too much of just about everything for any one emotion to win out.

She nodded weakly, and now, the fact that her hands were very clearly shaking no longer brought me the same kind of satisfaction. "I didn't- I have no memory of it. I don't know if it was-" She blinked hard, likely blinking back tears. "I couldn't identify him, if it- I couldn't-" She cut herself off, biting her lip as if to hold back a sob; after a second, she tried again. "I took Miasenna to see if- if it was isolated, and- it is. She's- She's yours, as far as they can tell, and she isn't- Her makeup is... to be expected." Well, I suppose that was one thing, at least. Of course, she had always been the one that resembled me, so-

"Blond." Cipicia stared at me blankly, likely too distracted worrying I would react in a very different way to be able to respond to this. "The vampire- your boy's father- he has to be blond, right?" By the look on her face, I could tell she was disgusted by the very thought- because she didn't like learning anything about her potential vampire suitor, or because, as I well knew, she had always preferred dark-haired men over their fair counterparts? "I always thought he was blond like a Meliflua, not-"

Fury flashing in her eyes, she bit out, "He is!" Try as she might, there was no way she could remove her partner's genes from the boy. I might have felt sorry for her, if I was capable of such a thing. "He is a Meliflua- even if he isn't a Joannis, he's still mine- still a Meliflua- and I... Oh Merlin, I've killed him!"

(A/N): Translations (French):

Père = Father

So, to explain what I said about undermining myself... originally, my plan was to have Amelia- and by extension, Mia- be unaware that Cipicia had done anything beyond locking Leonides in his room until a bit later (albeit harboring suspicions the whole time), but since with that last line, Mia is now aware that Cipicia at least THINKS she killed Leonides, that isn't going to be possible in quite the same way I was planning. I also considered having Sebastien storm into Leonides bedroom after finding out that he isn't his son, and that's how he and Mia find out he's gone, but Sebastien was surprisingly chill about that particular part of things, so it didn't quite turn out that way, either.

I decided to have Sebastien label Cipicia's voice as 'irritation-inducing' vs 'irritating', because it was making him irritated, not because her voice, itself, was irritating. Like, the sound of it isn't annoying, it's just the sentiment behind it- the specific words she uses, plus the fact that hearing her voice means she's present, which is irritating to Sebastien, because it interferes with his plans.

I almost had Sebastien say 'I heard the crack of apparition echo off of the walls of the Grand Foyer, around us' in that first paragraph, but then decided to change it to 'around ME' instead, because I mean... Sebastien doesn't care about anyone else, especially the maid he was harassing. The phrasing likely isn't a conscious decision on his part (but very much is on mine), he just simply doesn't consider other people very often, other than how to make them suffer.

Trigger Warnings for Sebastien's backstory: Neglect/emotional abuse/possible child abuse + Sebastien being a massive creep/sadist (sexual assault/abuse of power). Pureblood expectations and enforcing of toxic gender roles, mention of terminal illness of some kind, and a death resulting from it. Multiple mentions of violence, some more vague than others, and some even deserved, plus vague discussion of an arranged marriage. Also lots of talk of unenthusiastic child-rearing. I think that's everything.

Sebastien's backstory:

Sebastien has a complicated relationship with his father- sort of like extremely reluctant respect that's mostly overwhelmed with a whole bunch of disgust, frustration, and rage. Basically, while he was given every material item he could've wanted when he was young- and indeed, throughout his entire life- being an insufferably spoiled brat, Sebastien wasn't satisfied with that, because he never got the one thing he wanted (more on that later). He was given every material item, so nothing like that really held any appeal for him- the only time anything was ever denied to him, was when it came to people's personal boundaries, pretty much... especially when it came to his sister, Markaisa. Markaisa is the only person who would never relent and give Sebastien what he wanted- if he wanted one of her toys, she'd rather destroy it than give it to him, which annoyed Sebastien to no end. Daimen would either buy Sebastien the toy (provided it was 'appropriate' for a little boy of his status- no dolls for him, obviously), and he'd gloat about it relentlessly- especially if Markaisa had destroyed HER version of it to keep it from him- until the next contentious item came along.

I expect there was also a lot of invasion of space and privacy from Sebastien to Markaisa, until she proved that she was too much for Sebastien to handle at that age, when she punched him in the face (he sulked SO. HARD.) Markaisa wasn't the only person he did this with, she was just his favorite person to harass, up until she physically fought back- which is when he REALLY moved on to making other people suffer. Particularly the servants, his 'friends', and his 'friends' significant others. Unlike Markaisa, none of these people were willing/capable of fighting back (since her punishment for that was nowhere near as severe as anyone else's would be), and Sebastien was basically allowed to grow it into the massive creep we see him as here, only really able to find satisfaction by hurting/making other people uncomfortable. Pretty much, he hates being given things because he's always been given (almost) everything he wanted, and it never fulfilled him- whereas 'earning' it, or forcibly taking it from others, DOES bring him that satisfaction.

So, you may be wondering, what's the one thing Sebastien never got? Well... this is probably predictable, considering everything I just told you, and the way the story is written, but basically, Sebastien and Markaisa's mother never wanted kids. Actually, that's not strictly true- she wanted children, because she wanted to give whatever pureblood man she was married off to heirs (which happened to be Daimen Joannis), but she never really wanted CHILDREN, and was never shy about that fact. She was present at all the right times, and she was polite to them, but she never held any affection for either of them when they were children (she and Markaisa did form a sort of mutual respect driven friendship once Markaisa was an adult and living her own life, but she made it pretty clear she was never fond of Sebastien- and maybe even actively disliked him).

Sebastien, despite everything, was never cruel to his mother directly (maybe because he was so achingly desperate for her approval), but when he found out she was dying he did go see her, and asked her outright if she ever loved him. She honestly said no, and he asked why. She said, 'Perhaps in another time, in another life, with a different mother and father and different children, I could have loved you, and you could have loved me- but that is not what happened. That is not this life, and we are not those people.' Sebastien argued that he did love her, and she said nothing, but looked like she didn't believe him. The visit ended quickly after that, and he didn't see her again before she died, about a month later. He didn't attend her funeral like he was expected to, either, which Daimen was VERY displeased about. So, yeah. The one thing Sebastien never got was a mother's love... and he's making that everyone else's problem.