"There you are! William, they're arriving – come here!"

Polly rushes towards us, squeezing her daughter into a heartfelt embrace before she also wraps her arms around me. So tightly that any assumption I might just be a tolerated guest evaporates into the universe at once.

As though she was eagerly awaiting to finally see us again. Yet the conjunctive doesn't do justice to her good soul. Polly genuinely missed us.

Life feels a bit less weighty in Brimington – I can't help but notice that for the third time, as foreign as it may be …

"Let me look at you, Tom!" Polly gives me a motherly smile while holding me by the shoulders. "We were really sad you had to go to that Ministry of yours so soon around Easter – but we're happy you took the opportunity." Almost mischievously she winks – and my innate skepticism immediately feeds into a slight spark of paranoia. "Were you able to learn a few useful lessons?"

"Somewhat, yes," I immediately assure her, mirroring her coy smile. Aren't mothers said to have a sixth sense? She surely knows more than Harper would like … "But I would've been better off staying here," I add.

She merrily nods. "Well, now you're back."

"Thank you for the warm welcome, Mrs Sullivan."

"My pleasure!"

Now, also William joins us in the front garden and, after hugging his daughter, he politely offers me his hand.

"Tom, my boy, it's great to have you back! How was your internship?"

His tone of voice leaves no room for doubt.
We all know that I did, in fact, not work for the Ministry.

I proceed to shake his hand, smiling as composedly as I can. "Quite … enlightening, sir."

"I gather you can now rule out desk work in the future?" William suggests, smirking even.

"Yes indeed, Mr Sullivan."

"Well then – come on in." He gestures for us to follow while casually asking, "Are you hungry yet? We have cake!"

"Yeah, would you like cream with it?" Polly adds. "I wasn't sure whether it'd be a bit heavy in this summer heat, but –"

"Butter and sugar," Harper rejoices, taking my hand. "Tom has learned to appreciate butter and sugar by now. So we'll also have the cream …"

"She really takes after me," William finds as we enter the doorway and put our luggage down.

"Oh – by the way!" Polly seems as though she was about to let us in on a conspiracy. When her gaze wanders to me, the corner of her mouth quirks up. "There's a surprise waiting for you in the living room …"

"Is there?" I'm reluctant to even flinch, Harper knows that well, so she's fully aware it's up to her to be surprised first.

She quickly leaves for the living room while I'm still unsure whether I wish to even enter.

"Go ahead, Tom, do follow her," Polly encourages me. "I'll prepare coffee and cut the cake in the meantime. William, we still have to whip some cream, too, will you come with me?"

What's even going on here …

"The cream will probably take a while," William tells me as though he tried to console me. "So we can all take our time." And off he goes into the kitchen, following his wife.

The whole scene seems quite odd – as though crucial information was being kept from me …

"Tom?" I then hear an all too familiar voice calling from the living room – and I realize why the cream will take a while. "Come on, or shall I limp towards you with my cane?"

I take a last deep breath, I bite my lip to not answer anything rude, then I can't keep Edwin waiting any longer. As I enter the living room, he's already placed in one of the armchairs – it feels a bit like Christmas again, when the world was still somewhat in order.

"Hello Edwin," I hear myself say as I approach him a little reluctantly. Harper's sat down next to him, trying hard not to grin in utmost amusement.

She knows exactly that I owe him one – hell, even I do. So despite the scrutinizing look I get from him, it's clearly my turn to say, "Edwin, I have to thank you – you played a key role in preserving my mortal soul."

"And you in plenty of my sleepless nights," he grumbles. "As well as in my excursions into occult magic so dark and evil that it still shocks me just to think about it …"

I give him a vague smile. "You know I'm fond of morbidity – so what exactly shocked you, if I dare ask?"

He shakes his head snorting, and I manage to avoid his cane at the level of my shin just in time.

"Your walking and talking enigma here," Edwin then says to Harper as though I wasn't even in the room, "managed to turn a disfigured cave corpse into an Inferius as a child, without any knowledge of magic, with stoic willpower and dark intuition alone. I read up about that when we were looking for a way to preserve his soul, you know?"

"What have you found, great-uncle?" Harper asks.

"That these puppet-like creatures that live in cold darkness can only be brought to life by those who are also far from all light and warmth …"

"Light and warmth, Edwin," I pick up on that, glancing at him as I sit down on the the opposite sofa, "didn't quite exist in my childhood."

"I'm aware of that, my boy," he sighs. "If you're on your own and born with magic, how could it not be like that … But what about it now? Do you still not know light and warmth?"

"I gather," Harper speaks up with a smile, "that Tom's thunderbird is the answer to that."

"You mean a Patronus and the undead are mutually exclusive?" Edwin sums it up. "Interesting theory – as if you can't have both?" he continues to ponder. "Protection from and control over the darkness?"

Harper shrugs. "We can't really test it unless someone pulls a corpse out of the hat and Tom tries to –"

"Young lady," Edwin interrupts to scold her, "are you starting to sound like that, too, now?"

"No, I'm much rather already dreaming about cream and cake," she chuckles. "I'll see how long it'll take in the kitchen, yeah?"

She tries not to display her obvious joy as she walks past us to leave Edwin and me to each other. And to strange silence …

"It's a lot, Tom," Edwin says at some point. He soon sees the question mark on my face and continues accordingly. "Heir of Slytherin, highly gifted, eloquent – but put bluntly, hopelessly overwhelmed when it comes to simple emotions. Who would deny such obvious love so vervently?"

"I had all my reasons to believe I was cursed," I reply wearily. "I told you in the forest under which circumstances I –"

"Your mother's sins, Tom," he says, "are not your own. Do you know that now? Have you finally understood that Amortentia cannot possibly be almighty?"

I sigh and nod reluctantly. Admitting to insight of any kind makes me feel remorseful. Nevertheless, I groan, "I got it, yes … On my knees and almost unconscious from pain …"

He smiles much too contentedly. "Lesson learned?"

"Edwin," I moan, "I've already had this conversation with Albus Dumbledore, I –"

"Don't you say!" He grins, inching forward, much inclined. "So are you friends now?"

"A partnership of convenience," I correct. "The basilisk venom was Nagini's idea."

"Sure." Edwin nods. "I'd hoped it would work. For you, and for all of us …"

"Well, and how are you? You, Nagini? Vivian, Queenie?"

"The ladies who, in addition to Polly, all have maternal feelings for you?" Edwin winks. "Queenie and Vivian were delighted to have Nagini back and tell them that you're still sane. They're both fine, somewhat … you might see them again quite soon." He cackles, oddly so, as everyone seems to be doing today, then he adds more seriously, "But Nagini is in increasing pain in her human form. I guess she has another year. Then she'll be bound to her snake body."

I take a deep breath and think aloud. "To break a curse, you have to return to the place where it was cast, right? Supposedly …"

"It's a lot more complex than that, in my opinion. Trust you can't break such a curse at all, Tom, that –"

"So here we are again." I give him a faint smile. "The impossible …"

"You're right, yes …"

"Edwin, I …" I hesitate, then I manage to push it out. "I didn't mean to put you in danger. Not the ladies, not you. Never Harper. Never her parents in the broadest sense."

"Only yourself," Edwin sums it up, nodding. "I know. But you're not alone. Enough of it – it's still much to solve. But Tom, you have to realize, especially for the future – no matter how lonely you feel, no matter how alone you think you are – your decisions never affect only yourself. And even if you'd only put yourself in danger … Wouldn't Harper's heart have been broken if you'd died or became a completely different person? Wouldn't Vivian have cried bitter tears for the child of the woman she'd already taken in before you were born? And who would I have politicized with at family gatherings, eh?"

I raise my eyebrows before I grin.

"You wouldn't have bet a penny that you're better than you think," he continues. "Self-hatred can be very powerful, as can hatred of the so-called family be … But Tom, from what Harper told me about your biological father, that sounds like a really decent man."

"So it's hard to believe that I'm his son, huh?"

Edwin shakes his head in defeated amusement, then a spark of joy flashes across his face as Polly returns to the living room with a cake tray, cream and plates, closely followed by William and Harper.

Sugar and butter. Who would've thought that I'd once welcome nonsense like that. But the whole Sullivan family, including Edwin, immediately give me such a strange expectant glance as we go over to the table that I'm taken aback yet again.
It seems as if I'd missed something …

"Let's try the cake!" Polly cheers despite my skepticism. "Sit down and eat!"

Nobody but me is reaching for the cake fork – everyone's just watching me.

"What is it?" I ask Harper.

"Nothing." An obvious lie. "Try it!"

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Am I?" she quickly says. "Come on, try it!"

They're all waiting for me to do just that, and they'd hardly poison me, so I finally do as I'm told. I try the cake – and immediately get what's going on.

"No …" In disbelief I look around. "That can't be."

"What can't be?" Edwin asks like a saint.

I can't help but grin. "Where is she?"

"Who?" William also tries to act coy.

"Are you hiding her in the kitchen?"

"Who, pray tell?" Harper's already giggling.

"This cake," I begin to claim, "was made by Queenie Goldstein. Am I right?"

Edwin nods. "Indeed, and she just so happens to be standing right behind you, next to Vivian, so –"

I whirl around and the two of them have to put their hands over their mouths to stop themselves from laughing out loud.

"I knew he'd recognize Queenie's recipe," Edwin chuckles as I get up to face our new guests.

"Hello, Tom," Vivan all but says, then she pulls me into her arms without further hesitation. "Don't do anything stupid like that ever again, alright?" As she passes me to Queenie, she adds, "He looks almost healthy, for the first time ever …"

"We're glad you're doing better," Queenie coos while also giving me a hug. And as kitschy as I might think it all is – it's also quite healing. "We were hoping you'd come to your senses …"

"A pretty intensive internship, huh?" William asks, glaring at Harper and me with a tired smile.

Harper meekly shrugs. "What … do you mean?"

"Well, what do you think I mean, young lady?" William tilts his head. "Your great uncle told us everything. Unlike you, our dear Edwin keeps no secrets from us. But after all, you two already lied in vain once …"

"You mean when we said we wouldn't both sleep in the attic?" Harper asks, biting her lips as her parents nod.

"Why won't you just be honest with us?" Polly leans back a bit, watching her daughter as she does. "We're family."

That word. Family.
Coming from anyone else I'd dismiss it as heretical hypocrisy, but not from Polly Sullivan …

"Yes, as if we'd scold you," William adds with a fatalistical nod.

"Well, a little bit of that might be in order," Edwin claims, "when your son-in-law to be has a megalomaniacal episode and, confronted with his admittedly worrying family history, suddenly swears unbreakable vows to the most dangerous wizard of our time, even though said wizard could use your daughter and you even as leverage at any given moment to –"

"He can't do that," I correct immediately. "I have fulfilled my vow –"

"Not quite yet," Edwin protests. "The blood pact –"

"It can be broken," I say. "The venom works, Edwin. Everything's on time."

He rolls his eyes and finally nods. "But you couldn't have known it would be when you took the vow."

"Sometimes you have to bluff, right?" Vivian retorts for me and just smirks. "Tom was always good at games where one has to keep a straight face. Fortunately. Otherwise we'd all long be dead …"

"Really very funny, yes," William sighs, slight misery lacing his tone. "But you know what hurts me? That my own daughter has become such a good liar."

"Mr Sullivan, that is my fault," I readily admit, still locked in the midst of Queenie and Vivian. "But I'm sure Harper just didn't wish to worry you."

"No, no, Tom," William firmly rejects that, glancing at Harper. "My daughter can't blame you. She tried to be loyal to you, but she has to understand that she can be that even if she's honest with us." He nods at her, in all seriousness. "Sweetheart, I know how much Tom means to you. I know what you mean to him. I knew that at Christmas. But you two really need to stop thinking we're just stupid No-Majs – that's quite frustrating …"

"Sir, we never had any such thing in mind," I'm quick to assure just like Harper also starts to argue against that, all while Edwin and Vivian can't help but giggle.

However Queenie decides, "We could all use some sugar." So she starts spreading cream on our plates – and likely that is a good idea.

"Will you make a decision though?" Polly asks Harper and me. "Are you going to spare us the euphemisms in the future? We wish to be part of your life – with all joys, but also mistakes, because we made enough of them ourselves back then."

"Maybe not necessarily mistakes of that caliber," Edwin adds in, "but those are details …"

"No more sugarcoating, fine," Harper promises. "Just the truth. We didn't mean to offend you …"

"Would take more than that," Polly promises, "we're not offended, darling, just behind on information. So do tell us! How was the end of your school year? What were you up to?"

"The last few weeks have been … turbulent," Harper admits. "A lot has happened. But we've already started to practice for our last year. Because of the finals."

"Already?" William asks in awe. "Maybe she isn't my daughter after all …"

"I always preferred to start studying sooner rather than later," Polly proudly says. "She obviously takes after me."

"Oh well," William sighs, "but you know what?" He lowers his voice, knowing full well that we can still hear him. "The two of them went straight from the forbidden to just lingering in a library like boring bookworms …"

Harper immediately grins at her parents. "Boredom is like a blessing now. I feel like I could now be bored forever. Tom?"

I look up, a bit caught.

"Wouldn't you rather be bored in the future, too?" She nods expectantly, but I can only agree half-heartedly.

"Whatever you wish to hear."

"No lies," William warns me, winking as I sigh.

I take Harper's hand as she says, "We'll probably always have to break one rule or two …"

"Well, now we're at least being honest," William chuckles, offering us another piece of cake.