Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When they first met, it had been shortly after the end of their first life, and the start of their new one.

The Slenderman–The Keeper–had brought them to each other. They’d been Proxy’s for a few weeks, staying in separate Cabins before being brought to the same one, being told this would be their new home. At the time they’d only spoken about twice but accepted that they now had to live with each other.

They didn’t trust each other, believing the only reason they wouldn’t be killed in their sleep is due to The Keepers influence. That only lasted a few months, though. The more missions they had with each other, the more they saw that the other wouldn’t kill them. They tolerated each other and there was enough trust to sleep soundly, but that didn’t mean friendship. That had taken a lot longer.

The first time Jeff saw Toby—truly saw him—was in a rainstorm.

The rain had been coming down relentlessly, water drops the size of apples, yet there was no thunder or lightning. Only rain so strong it made Jeff worry the roof was going to cave in. It also made him wonder where the hell Toby was. He’d been out on a mission and Jeff knew he didn’t have a raincoat or umbrella with him since there was no sign of rain when he left. He’d waited on the porch with a towel, watching the rain create puddles the size of their living room as he waited for Toby to get home.

About half an hour later Toby came running out of the woods, obviously using his enhanced speed to slide through the water to create a large side-splash. He was soaked, his hoodie soggy and his hair straight and flat. His goggles and muzzle were hanging around his neck, showing that he was smiling. It was his smile that had made Jeff pause. He’d seen Toby smile before, but it had always been in a sarcastic or sadistic way. He’d never seen Toby actually smile. It made him look younger, somehow. His eyes looked brighter, like an emerald instead of a jade. It changed the way he looked, made him softer. It ended, though, when Toby slipped in some mud and fell backward and landed with a large splat .

Jeff threw his head back and laughed while Toby screeched at him. He should talk with him more, Jeff decided, because Toby wasn’t that bad, and he was a little lonely.

The first time Toby truly saw Jeff was in the kitchen.

Toby couldn’t cook for the life of him. He was more likely to set a bowl of cereal on fire if he tried. So, Toby never cooked. But he did wonder where all the food was coming from. Yeah, he and Jeff went grocery shopping, but that was ingredients. Where was the actual food coming from? It had been bugging him for a bit, but he brushed it off as Master making food for them because they couldn’t cook. He hadn’t asked Jeff if he could cook, assuming he had the same cutlery skills Toby did.

But one day, Toby heard what could only be described as purity incarnate. Silky and smooth, soft and warm, a tenor so sweet it almost made him cry. He walked into the kitchen slowly, careful not to make a sound. Turning the corner, he saw Jeff standing next to the oven, stirring a chocolate batter. The song continued, gentle and beautiful, as Jeff reached over to grab a cake pan and pour the batter into it before putting it in the oven, all the while singing.

(I have a question/It might seem strange/How are your lungs?/Are they in pain?/’Cause mine are aching/Think I know why/I kinda like it though/You wanna try?)

Toby was leaning on the counter, watching Jeff place a timer and start making something that looked like icing. Jeff continued to sing, lightly swaying to a beat Toby couldn’t hear. He moved with grace Toby recognized from missions. He watched him poured sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl of liquids and started mixing it all together.

(Oh, would you be so kind as to fall in love with me?/You see I’m trying/I know you know that I like you, but that’s not enough/So if you will/Please fall in love, I think it’s only fair/There’s gotta be some butterflies somewhere/Wanna share ‘cause I like you, but that’s not enough/So if you will/Please fall in love with-)

The song cut off abruptly as Jeff turned around, ice blue eyes locking onto green ones. They stared at each other in silence before Toby said, “I-t smells good. Are you t-the one t-that-t-t’s been making all t-the food? You have a nice voice, by t-the way.” Jeff’s shoulders tensed at the mention of his voice, his face slowly turning a peach color. After a couple seconds of silence, he looked away and crossed his arms, “Yeah, I figured since your such a fuckin’ hazard in the kitchen I should make sure we have dinner ‘nd shit. Chocolate cakes in the oven, but it’s not gonna be done for another hour. . .” He glanced back at him, before turning around.

“. . .Thanks, by the way. I don’t sing often, so don’t expect me to bust out Something Rotten or Waitress or some other musical shit.” Toby gave a hum of acknowledgment but stayed and continued to watch Jeff cook. Eventually he left, but when he came back a chocolate cake sat proudly on the counter with two slices missing. Jeff had one slice, feet kicked up on the table while he ate and watched Toby. Jeff slid the paper plate with the second slice and fork toward him.

Toby looked at Jeff, who turned away and muttered to him to eat. Toby smiled, because he hadn’t had cake in god knows how long and knowing that Jeff baked it made it feel a little more special. “T-thanks.” Jeff watched him eat. Toby lit up as soon as it hit his tongue. It was sweet and chocolatey, but it was also smooth and warm, like a hug you could eat. The icing melted in his mouth, and the cake was soft yet firm.

Toby looked over at Jeff, “Holy shit-t! T-this t-t-tastes great! Where’d you learn t-to cook like t-t-this?” Jeff was hiding in his hoodie, his face bright pink. He muttered something unintelligible, but Toby just grinned wider. “I’m glad it-t’s you cooking. I could eat-t t-t-this every day!” Jeff abandoned his slice on the table, hiding his face in his hands and hoodie, making Toby laugh.

It was nice to know more about his burned co-worker, even if the learning process was slow.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Jeffrey Woods and Toby Rogers were 16 and 17 years old and had killed their entire families. They didn’t regret it, not one bit, and they would do it again, thank you very much. They enjoyed the life of a Proxy quite a lot. They enjoyed living together in their small cabin, enjoyed sharing the bed, enjoyed each other a lot more than they thought possible. Their Master approved of their whatever it was(Relationship? Friendship? Co-workers with benefits? They didn’t know, but they liked it) and even said that it was good for them to find solace in each other, since it would probably be only them for a very long time. Jeff and Toby were fine with that. They didn’t need anyone else, only their small cabin and each other.

That, of course, changed in only a year.

Master had called them both into the living room one day, saying he had something important to tell them. They were there in seconds, sitting down once Master nodded for them too. “You called, Master?” Jeff had asked, eyeing the front door. There was someone there. Not one, but two people. Men. Jeff’s eye’s met Toby’s, and he knew that he sensed it too.

“Do not be alarmed, children. They are Proxies like yourselves. Their presence here is the topic of discussion for today.” Master had said, sensing their wariness. They relaxed, but only a little. They had met another Proxy The Chaser, or Kate as she liked to be called, and they were on good terms.

She had mentioned other Proxies but said she didn’t stay at The Mansion often. Could these two know her? Before they could ask, Master spoke again. “I have decided that it is time for you both to meet the wards and Proxies that reside at The Mansion. I understand your suspicion, but it will be critical for the future that you can work with them.”

“We underst-tand, Mast-ter. It-t-t’s just. . .surprising is all.” Toby said, looking at Jeff for confirmation. Jeff nodded and asked “How many wards and Proxies are there?”    “The number of occupants varies daily, as not all residents are permanent ones, but there is always a large number of them. Timothy and Brian can explain more.”   At the mention of their names, the two men walked into their cabin, standing near the door.

The taller man was wearing an orange bomber jacket and a white mask with black makeup. The shorter one was wearing a yellow hoodie and a black ski mask with a red frowny face on it. Both were wearing combat boots and dark jeans. Jeff waved at them while Toby gave a peace sign. They both seemed to study them for a few seconds (Jeff could tell they were staring at his face) before the orange guy waved and the yellow guy nodded. “Tobias, Jeffrey, this is Timothy Wright and Brian Thomas, also known as Masky and Hoodie. Timothy, Brian, meet Jeffrey Woods and Tobias Rogers.” Master said, motioning with his hand who was who.

Master left a few minutes later, telling them to get acquainted with each other while he would inform the others of Jeff and Toby’s arrival. Now, they were seated in semi-awkward silence. It was Jeff who broke it. “So, uh, it’s Tim, right? Tim and Brain?” He asked, putting his hands in his hoodie. Tim looked up at him and said, “We prefer Masky and Hoodie. You can guess who's who.”

Toby decided that he didn’t really like Masky. He smelled like cigarettes and sounded like a bit of an asshole. Jeff nodded at him, and silence returned for a minute before Hoodie spoke up. “You two look pretty young for proxies, but I know that Boss can put a bit of a pause on aging if he wants to. So, how old are you really, and how long have you been serving the Boss?” Both were good questions, and Hoodie seemed nicer than Masky, so Toby answered.

“Biologically I’m sevent-teen, chronologically I’m t-twenty-t-t-two. Jeff’s been serving Master since he was t-thirt-teen, and stopped aging at sixt-teen. We’ve both been serving Mast-ter for five years now.” Hoodie nodded at him, Masky turning to Jeff and saying, “Not often that someone starts so young.” Jeff grinned widely at him and said, “Yeah, but sometimes you need an outlet, and what’s better than mutilating your family?” Jeff had gotten very good at sensing when someone was rubbed the wrong way by his appearance, and while Masky wasn’t disturbed he was a little weirded out. That just made Jeff grin wider.

“So,” Trying to ignore how Jeff was trying to scare Masky, Toby turned his attention to Hoodie. “How long have you and Masky been wit-th Mast-t-ter? You guys look a lot-t older t-than me and Jeff! Not-t th-that-t–uh, not-t t-t-tha-at you’re old.” Hoodie seemed to smile at him. “Me and Masky are both in our thirties and have been serving Boss for over fifteen years now, so I guess that makes us almost 45. We don’t really keep track.”

Toby let out a low whistle, opting to ignore the now very intense staring match between Jeff and Masky. “Wow, you’ve been in t-the game a lot-t longer t-t-than we have.” Hoodie gave a small chuckle but stopped when Master appeared. Coincidentally, Jeff and Masky seemed to stop being passive-aggressive and look more civil.

“The others have been informed, and are now awaiting our arrival. Come children.” All four of them wordlessly got up and walked to Master, Masky and Hoodie stood close at his sides while Jeff and Toby each grabbed one of the tentacles from his back. A large burst of ear-ringing static later, and they were standing in what seemed to be a foyer. Jeff and Toby looked around the giant room, seeing nice leather couches, a large flatscreen tv, a kitchen the size of their living room, and three staircases–one on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. In front of them stood two large dark oak doors taller than Master.

They hated it, oddly enough.

Everything was too nice, too expensive and clean. Jeff liked his small kitchen, where his voice echoed off the walls, everything in arms reach. Toby liked their small living room with their old and stained couch where he could watch Jeff cook, leaning back and listening to him sing. They loved their garden behind the cabin, filled with more flowers and herbs as poisonous as they were beautiful. They loved their small cabin, loved that it was small and perfect for them.

This was. . .well, it was way too much. Sure, there were probably hundreds of people and monsters that lived here, and it needed to be big and grand to accommodate everyone, but it was all too much for them. Thankfully, they didn’t have to stand in what was probably the living room for long, as Master pushed open the door and strode through, the four Proxies following behind.

It seemed to be some sort of meeting room, with a large rectangular table in the center with over a hundred chairs. At the end of the table was a large chair that was probably for Master. Every chair was filled, about a thousand eyes turning and staring at Jeff and Toby. Looking down the table, each one was weirder than the last. Somehow the weirdest ones were those who looked almost completely normal, similar to Toby. All were staring expectantly at them.

Master walked over to the head chair, sitting down and then motioning for the Proxies to do the same. Masky and Hoodie went and sat next to him, one on each side, so Jeff and Toby sat next to each other on the left, next to a link lookalike. He seemed to study them, his eyebrows raising the longer he stared at Jeff’s face. “Everyone, this is Jeffrey Woods and Tobias Rogers, the Proxies residing at the new Cabin. They will begin working with you all on missions and will have access to The Mansion in case of emergency. Please introduce yourselves one at a time.”

Everyone introduced themselves, some just saying their name and others introducing themselves and their less social friends. Some wanted to know about their missions, which Cabin they were staying in and which missions they would be taking with The Mansion. Some, like the younger ones, wanted to know why Jeff wasn’t blinking and how he got his Glasgow.

A boy without arms named Lost Silver was the first one to talk to Jeff, and he immediately asked if Jeff could blink. Jeff laughed at his bluntness. “No, I haven’t blinked in five years. I don’t have eyelids!” This declaration made the kids come closer to see, and others who overheard did as well.

The head of The Carnival, a clown demon named Laughing Jack In-A-Box poked Jeff in the face and said, “Wowie, those look like they hurt like shit! What fight did you lose?” The kids and Jeff laughed. Jeff grinned as wide as he could and barked, “I made them myself! A little homemade plastic surgery, y’know? I think it turned out great, doncha’ think?”

“I t-think you look gorgeous, Jeff. T-t-the red really compliments your hair and eyes.”

“Why Toby, you always say the sweetest things to me~”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

They didn’t really like The Mansion. Sure, the residents were ok and Sally always begged them to stay permanently, but it was always too much. Too big, too nice, too loud, too many people, always too much. They liked their Cabin, with its small kitchen and wood walls, the fireplace that lit the whole living room with an orange glow. They liked that it was small, it felt cozy and safe. They didn’t need all the grandness and expensive furniture in The Mansion, it made them feel like rich white men who cared more about how their suits were tailored than their family’s emotional well-being.

Even the garden in The Mansion was too much, large and lush and perfect. That was it. That was what they hated. The perfection. All of it was perfect and they hated it. All their lives, they had been imperfect. Toby ticced, Jeff was violent, Toby was loud, Jeff was dramatic. They were always broken, always wrong and they had found happiness within it.

Everyone who had hurt Toby had been perfect, people with the right jobs who married the right people. Everyone who had tried to control Jeff had been perfect, always thinking and saying the right things. They didn’t want to be perfect, they wanted to be themselves. They wanted grim and dust, dirt and sweat.

They wanted an old, stained couch because each stain held a memory. They wanted an endless forest where they could run and run and run and fall, rolling in the blood-soaked mud and always able to find their way home after. They wanted a small bathtub, so they could lean into each other in the dirty water, slowly scrubbing the day off the other. Toby wanted Jeff, and Jeff wanted Toby, and in their cabin, they could have each other. They didn’t know what they were(not yet, it had been years but it was still too soon for labels)but they both wanted, and it was a surreal experience to finally be able to have .

They’d never expected to want a child, much less be able to have one.

Chapter Text

They’d been to Britain before. The last time they were here they went clubbing. But now they were on a mission. They didn’t know why Master had them target certain people or how their deaths affected him– they never asked, and always listened. They enjoyed their work and took pride in serving him. They would take pride in this new kill as well. A family of them. A wife, A husband, and a two-year-old. In Little Whinging, Surrey, House number four, Privet Drive. It would go up in flames like everyone before it.

Toby and Jeff watched them for two weeks, learning the Dursley family’s life and routine. They learned that while the family looked and acted like they could do no wrong they were spiteful and vile people who used other’s sorrows and pain for their own gain in the social ladder. The woman was a gossip whore who seemed desperate to make her neighbors miserable. She seemed to care more about what other people thought than she cared about her family, which made Jeff dislike her immensely.

The husband was a whale of a man, Gluttony incarnate. He hated anyone that didn’t fit his image of ‘perfection’ and was incredibly sexist and racist, viewing everyone as if they were lower than him. And the child was only two years old but already a hell-sent Fury. Breaking things when he didn’t get what he wanted, stealing from other kids who had less than he did, attacking everyone, he was the most spoiled child they’d ever seen. They would enjoy killing these people just for their personalities alone.

But there was something else. A secret they seemed desperate to hide. Kicking something back into the house, calling it a freak, telling whatever-it-was that it was not to be seen or it would be punished. Even going so far as to pull old food out of the trash for it to eat. “Maybe it’s a dog or something,” Jeff said, swinging his feet from the tree branch they were sitting in. “Like, an animal they beat for the fun of it, ya know?”   “Maybe,” Toby replied, leaning back against the tree and sharping his hatchets. “But-t it-t feels like somet-t-thing more.” Jeff looked up at him and smiled.

“Yeah, but whatever it is, we’re gonna find out eventually!” He laughed and swung down from the tree. “C’mon! Suns almost down, I wanna get inside before they get home!” Toby smiled and climbed down, landing next to his partner. As soon as his feet hit the ground Jeff was off, faster than most people would be able to see. Toby ran with him, laughing as they leaped over fallen trees and rocks. For a moment, the secret of the Dursley family was forgotten.

When the Proxies arrived at the house the Dursleys were getting ready for bed. Their son, the spoiled-rotten bitch, was whining and complaining a lot more than a toddler should about going to bed. It had taken two and a half hours, but the brat had finally gone to sleep, the parents following soon after. “Finally,” Toby whispered as they tip-toed through the house, “I t-thought-t t-the little shit-t would never shut-t-t up!” Jeff giggled, bloodlust soaring through his veins. They went up the stairs, passing the cupboard under them without noticing the movement from within.

The upstairs had three bedrooms and a bathroom. The room next to the bathroom was the brats, and across the hall was the parent’s room. Toby walked into the kids’ room and Jeff into the parents. The whale would be first, Jeff had heard him telling his business friends about how the ‘sinning homos’ were ruining the ‘good way of life’ and it pissed him off. And he wanted to kill the horsewoman slowly, the bitch reminded him too much of his mother.

He plunged his knife into the whales throat silently. His eyes snapped open to stare at him. He tried to scream, but Jeff kept a firm hand over his mouth. He leaned in and whispered, “Go to Sleep.” and watched in delight as his eyes filled with tears before going dull and limp. He held back from carving a smile into his face–flesh made a pretty sound when it was torn, and he wanted the woman to watch. She was still sleeping soundly, unaware that her family was being murdered right next to her.

He felt Toby behind him and turned, grinning at the head of the child he held in his hands. “You had fun~” Jeff purred, leaning up and kissing the bloodstain under Toby’s eye. “And you aren’t-t done yet-t-t?” Toby questioned, keeping quiet as he eyed the sleeping woman. He still leaned into Jeff’s kiss.

“She reminds me of my spawn point, it pissed me off. Besides, I wanna see her reaction to the head~” Jeff said, taking the head of the toddler and turning it in his hands. The cut was a perfect line, and his face was a mask of terror. Toby wrapped an arm around his waist, breathing in his ear, “C’mon, baby, I wanna light-t t-this place up. Haven’t st-started a fire in weeks .” Jeff leaned back into him and whispered, “We’ll start the fire after I kill her. Promise~” Toby nibbled his ear and lightly pushed him forward, watching Jeff lean over and poke her.

She was awake in an instant, screaming as soon as she saw him. “Vernon, VERNON!!!! There’s-” Her voice died in her throat as she looked over, seeing her husband dead. She looked back at Jeff, and he grinned wide enough to cause the Glasgow to bleed, holding up the head of her son. She sobbed and screamed, “Duddykins, duddykins Dudley my baby, my baby!!!” Toby snickered at the name as she scrambled backward away from Jeff, watching intently as he licked the blood dripping from his mouth. She tried to run to the door, still sobbing and screaming, but ran into Toby, who threw her onto the floor without a word.

“Aw, where ya going~?” Jeff purred, slicing her face with his knife, laughing as she screamed and fell back. “We’re just getting started~!” She screamed again as he stepped on her right leg, the bone being crushed under his strength. He did the same with her left leg, only slower, taking in the way she cried and clawed at his boots in a sad attempt to push him off. He looked over at Toby, who was leaning against the wall. “You wanna do her arms? You look a little bored~” Toby snorted and walked over, the woman whimpering as he approached. He placed his foot on her shoulder, but instead of pushing down he slowly pulled. She screamed louder as Toby pulled her right arm off, blood flying around the room.

She was still somewhat aware, losing blood fast though. Jeff pulled her until she was face to face with her husband, then carved a smile identical to his onto his face. She attempted to scream again, but all that came up was spit and sobs. She died right as Jeff finished the Glasgow, falling limp on the bed. Jeff kicked her off, stepping over her body to Toby. He raised an eyebrow at him.

“You seem more bloodt-thirst-ty t-than usual. What’d she do t-to piss you off so much?” Jeff shrugged. “I don’t know; just something about her hit me the wrong way, y’know?” Toby gave a sound of acknowledgment and motioned for him to follow. “C’mon, I know t-this bit-tch was planing some dinner part-t-ty shit-t and bought-t macarons. I wanna get some before we light-t th-this place up.” Jeff laughed. “You didn’want me to hurry up, you wanted fancy french desserts I can’t cook.”   “You could probably cook it-t if you t-tried to-oo.”

They walked down the stairs, not caring how loud they were since everyone was dead. “Toby, darling, do y’know how hard it is to make a good macaron? You mess one thing up, even a tiny bit, and the whole thing goes ta’shit! It’s so frustrating.” Jeff walked over to the fridge and opened it, cringing at its contents. “God, these people are pigs! I don’t think there’s a vegetable in this!” He bent over to check, and Toby leaned against the stairs to enjoy the view.

That’s when he noticed the cupboard. Or rather, heard something from within. He stood straighter and put his ear against the door. The sound was muffled, but it was there, and it was not the pipes. “Jeff,” Toby said, “T-there’s someone in t-the cupboard.”  “Huh?” Jeff said, standing up to look at him. “But we didn’t see anybody but them. How could we miss a whole person?” Toby was about to answer, but a loud cry came from the cupboard. They went silent as the sound continued, a muffled, “sorry” breaking through sometimes. They looked at each other, then back at the cupboard. They knew that sound. It was the sound of a crying child.

“Was this their secret?” Jeff whispered to him, eyeing the deadbolts on the cupboard door. “They were hiding a child? Was this what they were kicking?” Toby was silent, deciding that if they had been abusing a kid they wouldn’t burn this place down, as it would destroy the evidence. The child was still crying, no longer muffled.  “I’m gonna open it-t.” Toby said, cutting Jeff off and unlatching the deadbolt.

The cupboard swung open, and Jeff gasped and Toby cursed, wishing he had ripped the woman’s other arm off. There wasn’t even a mattress, just a pile of moldy clothes and what was probably dishrags sewn together to make a poor excuse of a blanket, and in the back, there seemed to be a pile of feces. There were thousands of cobwebs, spiders as big as Toby’s nail skittering through them. In the middle of it was a child no older two, staring at them like it expected to be hurt.

Despite all this, the child was beautiful.

Hair the same burnt black as Jeff’s, emerald eyes the same shade as Toby’s. Its body was swallowed by a shirt five sizes too big, but they could still see enough to know its skin was milky white. Jeff had leaned into Toby, who had wrapped an arm around him in a gesture of comfort, like they were looking at an archangel instead of an abused child. The silence was broken by the child sobbing again, and that seemed to break them out of the trance.

“You poor baby!” Jeff cried, picking up the child and cradling it in his arms. It—he, it was a boy—reacted to the touch horribly, squirming to get out and wailing. Jeff was undeterred and started to gently rock the baby and stroke him, muttering comforting words into his ear. This seemed to only confuse the baby, who probably hasn’t been shown affection up until this point.

It was that thought that got Toby moving, wrapping his arms around Jeff’s waist and putting his face next to the baby. The baby seemed confused by this too, so Toby just murmured, “It-t’s ok now, it-t’s ok.” They did this for at least half an hour until the baby had stopped crying and had started softly babbling, touching Jeff’s hair and patting Toby’s face with his baby hands. They moved to the living room, setting the baby between them on the couch.

The kid looked between them like he was watching a tennis match, fear now replaced with weary curiosity. “What-t do we do?” Toby muttered, snapping his fingers. “We take him with us. C’mon Toby, we’ve got two free rooms at home, we can put him in the one next to ours!” Jeff pleaded, rubbing the kid’s back with his right hand.

Toby shook his head, “I want-t t-to keep him, but-t we don’t-t know what-t Mast-t-ter will do. Besides, we don’t-t even know his name.” Jeff paused, then looked down at the kid. “Ya got a name, sweetie?” The kid looked at him for a second, seemed to decide something, and asked, “what’s a name?”   “It’s somet-thing you call yourself. My name is T-Toby Rogers. His name is Jeff Woods.” The kid nodded. “Oh, ok. I have a name.” Jeff smiled at him. “That’s great, what’s your name?” The kid fiddled with his shirt, “Freak. Freak Dursley.”

Their smiles fell, and Toby wished he had ripped that bitches other arm off. Jeff wished he had tortured both her and her husband. “Sorry sweetie, but that’s not a name, that’s an insult.” Jeff said gently, seeing the boy’s bottom lip tremble. “We can give you a new name! You can pick it-t-t yourself!” The kid looked up at Toby with suspicion, whispering, “Really? I can choose? Whatever I want?” Toby smiled softly. “Yep, any name you want-t! Except-t for Toby or Jeff, cause t-those are our names.” The baby looked very overwhelmed.

“What kinda names are there? I don’know any names other than mine and yours.”   “Uh, hold on, I think there’s, like, a thousand baby naming websites and shit. Lemme pull some up.” Jeff pulled out his phone and began typing into google, Toby doing the same. “Oh, jesus christ,” Jeff muttered, squinting at his phone as if it had insulted him. “So, t-there are like, a lot-t, of names to-to choose from, and most of t-them are stupid, so we’re just gonna read out-t t-the more interest-ting ones, kay?” The kid nodded, looking terrified and a little excited.

“So, there’s Morganite—that’s a gemstone—Aquamarine—that’s another gemstone—Zircon—man, all of these are gemstones, huh?—Amethyst, Rhodonite, Ruby, Sapphire, Quartz, Moonstone, Bloodstone, Diamond, Emerald, Sunstone, Topaz, Pearl, Garnet, Opal, Sardonyx, Agate, Jasper,” Jeff took a large breath of air, “You like any of these?” The kid thought for a minute, then shook his head. “Uh…..no?” Toby smiled. “Ok, do you want to hear more?” The kid seemed to think for another second “Yes please.”

“Alright. T-these are based on gods we may or may not-t worship, mult-ti-religion polyt-theism is a doozy to explain.” The kid nodded, likely not understanding the big words at the end. “We have Anubis, Ra, Amun, Nut-t, Isis, Horus, Kū, Kane, Lono, Kanaloa, Pele, Uli, Heimdall, Loki, T-Thor, Freya, Frey, Odin, Hel, Hades, Hecat-te, Nyx, Erebus, Gaia, Uranus, Hypnos, T-Thanat-tos, Demet-ter, Khione, Hera, Moros, At-thena, Art-temis, T-Tisiphone, Alect-t-to, Megaera, Psyche, Persephone—”    “That one! Can…I have that one?”

Toby paused his reading, looking at the baby. “Persephone? You want-t t-to be Persephone?” The kid–Persephone, nodded. “Yes please.” Jeff rubbed his head, Persephone leaning into the action. “Alright, we got the first name down, now we gotta do the middle name.” Persephone faltered. “Middle names? What’s a middle name? What’s it for?”

“A middle name is just-t-t a name in be-t-tween your firs-t-t and la-st-st. We don’t-t know what it-t’s for, but people always have middle names for some reason. My middle name is Erin. T-Tobias Erin Rogers. It-t sounds preppy, so I just go by T-T-Toby. Jeff’s middle name is Issac, Jeffrey Issac Woods.” Jeff grunted in distaste. “Out of all the middle names, why’d mine have to be Issac?” Toby just chuckled. Persephone seemed deep in thought, then turned to Jeff.

“Can you choose? I don’t wanna, I’m gonna mess it up.” Jeff laughed and picked him up, settling himself into Toby’s arms with Persephone on his lap. “I don’t think you would. But if you want us to choose we will. I promise it won’t suck.” Persephone giggled and started playing with the strings on Jeff’s hoodie, listening to them bicker.

“T-the gem ones were pret-t-t-t-ty cool.”

“Yeah, but there’s, like, a thousand different gems we could choose from.”

“Let-t’s start-t going down the list-t, t-t-then. Persephone Zircon Rogers?”

“No, the ‘Z’ doesn’t fit. Persephone Opal Woods?”

“Feels to-oo weird t-to say. How about-t Persephone Amet-thyst-t Rogers.”

“It fits, but Amethyst is too generic. It needs to be special, and work with Persephone and Woods.”

“I t-thought-t we were using my last-t name.”

“Who said we were going with your last name? Woods fits better.”

“Well, we bot-th have different-t last-t names, but he’s gonna be our kid, so what-t do you suggest-t-t we do? Get married?”

Jeff squawked, blushing bright pink and looking away. “It—wouldn’t be the first thing on my mind but since you're suggesting it I mean, yeah, why shouldn’t we get married? It’ll make paperwork and stuff easier, Master has already said he approves of us getting closer, so really the only thing we gotta do is tell him we’re getting married and then he’ll just change all our files so we have the same last name and an updated relations section. I don’t know why you’d want to marry me but–but, I do I guess???”

Toby was silent, listening as Jeff continued to ramble, thinking intently. He wanted to marry Jeff, and Jeff wanted to marry him—it was obvious in his body language and words—but marriage came with expectations. Like hating each other and wishing for a lot of alone time, beating each other, and Toby didn’t want any of that with Jeff. He just wanted Jeff. Speaking of, Jeff was looking at him worryingly, and Toby realized he had been silent too long. “I’m ok wit-th marrying you. Like, I really, really, really want-t to-to, but I know marriage comes with a lot-t of, um, st-t-tuff, y’know?”

Jeff sighed and snuggled into Toby, “Yeah, I know, I went to a wedding once. It didn’t feel right, watching someone you don’t know get up in front of a bunch of folks they do and don’t know and swearing to a deity they don’t believe in that they’ll combine bank accounts. I’d rather Master pronounce us husbands, at least then we’re together in something we believe in. And we’ll probably be together forever, but I’m not complaining.”

Toby laughed and began peppering kisses into Jeff’s neck, making him sigh and expose more of his neck, which led to more kisses. Persephone watched this all with advert attention, deciding that he really liked these men, and hoping he would be able to stay with them.

“So, if we are doing this, and we’re getting married, what name are we using? Cause I think Tobias Erin Woods sounds much more lovely than Jeffrey Issac Rogers.” Toby laughed again, feeling a little high, and kissed Jeff on the mouth. Jeff moved his head back, deepening the kiss, lacing his fingers into Toby’s hair and pulling. Toby let out a low growl and pulled away, whispering into Jeff’s ear, “Your lucky Persephone’s here, ot-therwise we’d have our honeymoon right-t now.” Jeff chuckled, also feeling high, and kissed Toby’s jaw. “So, are we gonna keep your name or mine? Cause I really like the sound of the Woods family.” Toby hummed in thought, then kissed him again. “Y’know what-t? I would love to be T-Toby Woods.” Jeff took a sharp intake of breath, deciding that he also liked Toby Woods.

“What about me? Am I gonna be Woods too?” Persephone asked, a little scared that they would say no. “Of course, sweetie. We’ve got your last name and first name, but we still have to figure out a middle name. Any thoughts?” Persephone seemed to think, swaying back and forth, “I want it to be….I dunno, me?” Jeff hummed, then leaned up in a eureka moment. “Bloodstone! Persephone Bloodstone Woods! Special, easy to remember, and it feels nice to say!” Persephone thought for a second, then grinned. “Yeah, that’s my name, Per-seph-one Blood-stone Woods! Can I keep it?”

Toby smiled and rubbed his head, making him giggle. “Yeah, you can keep it-t. Welcome t-to t-the family, Persephone.”

Persephone let out a happy giggle, rocking back and forth in Jeff’s lap. Jeff laughed as well, picking his new son up and twirling him around. Persephone’s laughter got louder and increased in pitch, which just made Jeff laugh more, and Toby couldn’t think of a time he’d been happier. Persephone, giggling and squealing as he hugged his new dad, Jeff, smiling and kissing raspberries into their son’s cheeks, covered in blood-

Blood.

Oh, right, they were here on a mission.

“Jeff,” Toby said, checking his phone and cursing when he saw the time. “We’ve been here t-two hours.” Jeff looked confused for a second, then his face lit up in realization. “Oh, shit! We gotta go!” Persephone looked confused as Jeff handed him to Toby, rushing up the stairs. “Why’do we have to leave? Where are we going?”

“We’re gonna go home, but first-t Jeff has t-to get-t some t-t-things out-t of t-the spoiled brat-ts room for you to-to wear.” Persephone still looked a little confused, but Jeff came flying down the stairs like a hurricane and distracted him. “Ok, so I’ve got a shirt and a pair of pants that I think will fit, and I also found some socks and shoes, so let’s play dress up.”

Persephone looked hilariously confused while Jeff and Toby tried to put the clothes on him as quickly as possible. The shirt was blue, the pants were black and the shoes were the same colors. The shirt fit a little big, but thankfully everything else was the right size. It was hectic since they’d never done anything with baby clothes ever, but they managed. It only took ten minutes.

They rushed out the back door with Persephone in Toby’s arms, quietly and quickly sprinting through the woods to get to the Slenderport. It was a little difficult since the sun was almost up, but they managed it unseen.

Coming to a stop in front of a tree, they placed their hands on the Keeper symbol carved into the tree. After five seconds of seemingly endless static, they stood in the middle of a different forest, with Master in front of them.

Chapter Text

The newly dubbed Woods Family stared at The Slenderman in silence, Persephone with curiosity and the Proxies with apprehension. Master beckoned them forward, “Come home children, this will be a long conversation, and I believe we will all want to be somewhat comfortable when having it.”   “Yes, Master.” Toby and Jeff synced, speed walking behind him to keep up. Persephone didn’t talk, instead trying to take in all the scenery.

The forest was thickly wooded. The trees were taller than trees should be able to grow, seeming to stretch upwards and never stop. There was a thin mist, not enough to stop him from seeing, but enough to give the place an eerie feeling. Some trees had odd shapes on them, black splotches in the shape of a hand, or smeared darkness at the base or middle. The ground seemed to be covered by dead leaves despite all the trees being pine. When the men’s feet kicked up leaves he could see odd, grayish-white objects under. Some were half-buried, some were fully exposed, and some were more white than gray–smeared with the same black the trees were.

In a few minutes they came across a cabin that looked very well-kept despite the forest surrounding it. Chocolate wood walls with a decently sized front porch, a slanted black roof with a dark oak door. There were two windows on each side of the door, both fogged over, leaving Freak— Persephone unable to see inside. There seemed to be a garden in the back, but Persephone couldn’t see much from the angle Toby was holding him in. It still looked scary and unwelcoming, like the house was saying ‘I am your only hope in this place, but I will not protect you.’ It made him a little scared, but this was where the Woods lived. If this was their home, it would be his home too, so he would have to get used to it.

When they walked inside Persephone was surprised to find it was very warm and nice, a stark difference from the outside. The living room had a large couch with an armchair on both the left and right. A coffee table was in the middle and on the wall was a small flatscreen. Behind the living room was a dining area, with a simple table and four chairs. To the right of that was a kitchen–Persephone couldn’t see everything in there but he could see a gas stove and a fridge with a wooden counter next to it.

They all sat down in the living room, Master in an armchair and the Woods on the couch. Jeff was fidgeting with the loose threads in his pocket, one hand gripping Toby’s. Toby had a firm grip on his son, his other hand holding Jeff’s just as hard. “Relax, my children, I will not make you give up the child. I am merely informing you of the child’s subspecies, history, and birthright, as well as helping with the paperwork required to make him legally yours in both the human world and the magical.”

“Sub-species. . . .Magical world? T-the kids a wizard?” Toby asked, losing his grip once Master finished speaking. Jeff gave a large sigh of relief as well, though he immediately perked up at the mention of the magic-filled humans. They knew about the wizards, they were sometimes sent on missions to kill them, which was very difficult. They knew the base knowledge, but they didn’t keep informed of everything that happened.

“Yes, and he is a very important figure in magical Britain, but that shall be explained after we dispose of the soul of Tom Malarvo Riddle that is residing inside Persephone’s scar.” They swiveled their heads to look at Persephone, who looked very confused. “I have a what in my what?” He asked, looking to the adults for an explanation.

“We don’t know sweetie, but if Master says he needs to get rid of it, then we listen to Master and we do what he says, ok? You always listen to Master, because he always knows more.” Jeff soothed, rubbing Persephone’s cheek with his thumb while Toby rubbed circles into his back, asking, “Will it-t hurt-t him?”

“A little,” Master said, “But it will be over quickly, as it is very prominent. After that, we will discuss his importance to Magical Britain, then tomorrow we will go to Diagon Ally’s Gringotts since they hold the original records and vault keys.” Toby nodded, facing Persephone towards him. “Ok, ‘Seph, what-t Mast-ter’s about-t to-to do will hurt-t, but it-t-t’ll help you, because that-t shard’s not-t supposed to be in you. It’s bad, so Mast-ter’s going to-to get rid of it-t-t, ok?” Persephone nodded, scared, but he understood that it would hurt him, but it was to help him.

Black tendrils lifted Persephone out of Toby’s arms and into the air. Jeff leaned into his new husband’s side, Toby wrapping an arm around him. Toby bit Jeff’s earlobe and whispered reassurances, but it only soothed him a little. He knew Toby felt the same. Master had told them it would hurt, but he sometimes forgot to properly estimate how a human would handle pain compared to him. For all they knew the process of removing a soul shard was incredibly painful for humans and only a little for him, and poor Persephone would never recover. That thought just made Jeff more worried.

Persephone didn’t know how Master was talking without any face, but it felt like his voice was coming from his head. “Persephone, I want you to understand that the process of removing a soul shard from your body will be incredibly uncomfortable and mildly painful. I do not wish to harm you, but if the shard is to remain inside your body it could mold with your soul, which would make removing it manually impossible. If that were to happen the only way to remove it would be to kill it, which may kill you in the process. The shard inside you is parasitic and vile, and will only bring you harm. You will be in pain for the next few moments, but rest assured the pain you feel now would be a million times more in the future if we don’t do this. Do you understand?”

“I-I understand, Master,” Persephone said. He was scared, but he understood that the quicker they did this, the faster the pain would stop. More black tendrils held him in the air, and Master pressed a finger against his scar. His finger was colder than liquid nitrogen, and that was all Persephone could register before a searing something shot through him.

He didn’t know how to describe it. It was too hot, but too cold at the same time. It didn’t hurt, but it was also the worst pain he’d experienced so far. He felt like he’d eaten so much he would explode but was starving at the same time. It was white, but it was also black, and sometimes it was colors his mind couldn’t understand. Someone was screaming, and it took Persephone a moment to realize it was him. But all at once it ended, and he fell limp into someone’s arms.

“Persephone? Persephone, sweetie, please make some sort of noise, give us some sign that you can hear us, please? Persephone?” Jeff worried, gently rocking his son while Toby pulled them both to his chest, kissing Jeff’s head and trying to speak but his tics were erratic and he kept cutting himself off. Slenderman was silent, speaking only when Persephone was aware enough to talk. “How do you feel, child?”

“Very bad,” Persephone mumbled to him, trying to bury himself in Toby’s hoodie. His head hurt a lot and moving made everything worse. “Is the bad thing gone?” He asked, fisting Jeff’s hoodie, who had started to rub his head. A swirl of black came from Master’s back, and in the center was a pulsing red orb. It looked like an infected mussel tendon, small and disgusting. Toby pulled Jeff and Persephone closer to him like he was trying to hide them. Jeff just growled.

“The shard of Tom Riddle’s soul will be properly disposed of, I will make sure of that. Now a discussion of Persephone’s importance is in order.” Persephone let himself zone off as the adults and Master talked. It felt like a part of his chest had been taken,and now it was slowly filling back up. It was making him very tired.

He kept a firm grip on Toby’s hoodie and fell asleep, comfortable and safe for the first time. Jeff cooed quietly, and Toby rubbed gentle circles onto his son’s back. ‘If mom could see me now,’ he thought as Persephone began to smile in his sleep. ‘Lyra would adore him.’

Master had vanished, static not as prominent as it usually was. A new timer had been set on Jeff’s phone, the notification saying that they would be given an hour and a half to get ready before they left for Gringotts. Jeff put the volume down a little lower and changed the sound to something softer as well.

They walked to their room, leaning on each other the whole time. Toby was glad they had a king bed because sleeping together with a baby would be difficult if they had anything smaller. Jeff opened the door slowly, suddenly very aware of every noise in the house. He was thankful for Toby’s habit to clean when thinking or stressed, which led to the house always being semi-spotless.

The carpet and walls were grey and the doors to the room and closet were dark oak. The closet was right across from the door, and inside were personal items and fancy clothes for big events or party’s. Next to that was a desk and spinny chair, some paperwork still laying across with a few pens and highlighters in a cup, the wood the same color as the doors.

Against the wall to the left was a bookshelf that touched the ceiling. Some shelves had books, others held memories. Vials of stardust and glitter gifted by The Joyful, friendship bracelets Sally made that they wore every time they went to The Mansion, beads from a very sexual night in New Orleans. The books on the shelf changed every day, something new always in the place of something old. Toby thinks Master changes them, Jeff thinks the new books eat the old ones. And in front of that to the left of the door was their bed. King sized with dark blue blankets, three pillows and a nice mattress with a black bedsheet.

Toby kicked off his shoes and pulled back the covers, trying to be as quiet as he could. Jeff did the same, straddling Toby once he settled. Jeff kissed Persephone on the head then Toby, wrapping his arms around his neck. Toby kissed back, nibbling lightly on Jeff’s bottom lip. Jeff sighed and bit him back, trailing kisses down his neck.

“We have a baby bet-tween us. . .” Toby whispered but leaned his head back, exposing his neck more. Jeff hummed, nuzzling his face into Toby’s collarbone, being mindful not to crush his son. He was excited and felt like he needed to get the energy out or he would explode. But at the same time, being curled up against Toby, with their new son between them, he was quickly succumbing to sleep. He kissed Toby one last time and dozed away.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The alarm woke Toby first, who carefully removed his hand to turn it off. He laid there for a little while after, just taking in the fact that he was now married and a father. They would need to clean out one of the extra rooms they had, preferably the one next to theirs, just in case anything happened. Persephone would need toys, a bed, clothes, homeschooling—It would be a difficult process, since he’d never had any of those before, much less a choice of what he wanted. It would be delightful seeing him learn to choose for himself. But paperwork needed to be done first, and the quicker they did it, the more time they would have to choose.

Toby gently shook Jeff awake, getting a sleepy grumble from the killer. Persephone stirred as well, blinking groggily at both of them. Jeff looked down at him, kissing the top of his head. “Mornin’ Kore, how’d ya sleep?” he asked, sitting back to give him more room. “I’sleep nice, this house is better than my old one.” Persephone yawned, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands and not noticing his parents’ suddenly murderous glares.

“It-t’s alright-t, ‘Seph, you're our son and were your dads. You’re never going to-to go t-through t-that-t again.” Persephone smiled and giggled, patting Toby’s face with his hands. “You’re my daddy!”  “T-That-t’s right-t!” Toby said, feeling like he was going to die of cuteness. “And your….also my daddy?” Persephone asked, blinking up at Jeff. “Yeah, but that’ll get confusing if we’re both daddy, so you should call me something different.” Jeff got off Toby’s lap and placed Persephone on the desk. “What else can I call you?”

“Well, there are lots of different ways to say ‘dad’, so how about I tell you some, and you choose? If you don’t like any of the ones I say, we can look up some more.” Jeff spoke as he changed and threw his clothes in the basket, Toby doing the same. “Let’s do that!” Persephone whispered excitedly.

Jeff smiled and picked him up, walking to the kitchen with Toby next to him. Jeff sat him on the table and beginning to pull food out. “Ok, so there’s dad, father, padre is father in Spanish, papa-”  “Papa! I wanna call you papa! Can I do that?” Persephone exclaimed, getting quieter at the end.

“Sure, ‘Seph, if t-that-t’s what-t you want-t. If you feel like changing it let-t us know, ok?” Toby said, sitting at the table and watching Jeff as he began making breakfast. It smelled like bacon and eggs. “Ok!” Persephone giggled, crawling towards Toby and plopping down in front of him. “Daddy, what’s papa doing?” Toby smiled. He could get used to having a kid.

“Papa’s making breakfast-t before we finish adopt-ting you. We leave for Brit-tain in fort-ty-five minut-tes.” Jeff reached into the fridge and pulled out some orange juice, talking as he poured. “We should also pick up some books and stuff after this. Catch up on what’s happening and start teaching you basic magic stuff. Since you were born in Britain you could be on the register for Hogwarts.”

Right, fuck, Toby forgot about that. Persephone looked confused. “What's a Hogwarts?”     “It-t’s a school for wizards’, like you. You go t-there and t-they t-t-teach you magic and shit-t. We don’t-t know t-that-t much about it-it, but we’ll pick up some books and ask Mast-ter about some of it-t.” Toby finished, deciding not to mention the boarding school part just yet. He just got a child, he didn’t want to think about having to send him away so soon. He made eye contact with Jeff, and he knew he was thinking the same thing.

“I can do magic?” Persephone looked at his hands in wonder. Jeff chuckled and set a plate of bacon and eggs in front of him and Toby, Persephone’s being smaller. He sat down next to Toby and began attempting to spoon-feed Persephone the eggs. “Yeah, but that’s not until you get a bit older. We can start teaching you the basic stuff now though, like names of spells and wandless stuff, I think.” Persephone nodded, which led to some eggs getting on his nose. He looked around confused for a second before Toby wiped it off.

Breakfast was fun for Persephone, since he’d never had bacon or eggs or orange juice or properly cooked food before. It was sad for his parents as this showed them what sort of abuse he went through besides physical. ‘Did they know he was a wizard?’ Jeff thought, putting the dishes in the sink. ‘ They hated anyone who they didn’t think was perfect, it wouldn’t be a shock if they knew and abused him for something he couldn’t control.’ It was a theory, but the reason why didn’t matter anymore. Persephone would become theirs, and he would grow up loved and happy.

They were going to Diagon Alley, and Jeff and Toby were very nervous. Master had told them to keep Persephone’s scar covered because of the boy-who-lived craze, but that wasn’t what they were worried about. They knew British wizards were stuck in ye olden times, with robes and outdated textbooks and whatnot. That was ok, they would get the up-to-date and actually right textbooks in America. What they were worried about was getting called out for being very obviously not magic. They didn’t have any clothes to help blend in since they’d never actually been in the streets of magical London, nor do they understand the British magical currency. They would even sound out of place; their accents were American.

“You two are making each other more stressed than you need to be,” Master said, appearing at exactly 5 AM. “We will not linger in the street, and your idea to get homeschooling books from American wizards is an excellent one. We will only be going into Gringotts.” They both let out a sigh of relief, Persephone not understanding why his parents were worried in the first place. Master held his hand’s palms up, and Jeff and Toby both grabbed one, Jeff gripping Persephone tightly. Suddenly, an ear-ringing static filled the forest, everything going fuzzy and black and white.

It ended as soon as it started, though it left Persephone feeling very disoriented. He was dizzy as well and pushed his face into Papa’s hoodie to try and stop it. Jeff rubbed his back, remembering how sick he got when he first static-walked. Toby pulled out his phone and checked the time, finding that it was now 10 AM. He walked over and showed Jeff, kissing Persephone’s head. “Man, I forgot about the time difference here. Hopefully it’s still early enough to miss the rush.” Jeff looked around. They seemed to be in a forest next to a town square, he could hear car engines and people. Persephone looked up as well, his head clearing and senses returning.

“Glamors on, children. We do not want to get arrested.” Master said, his form flickering and shrinking. In seconds a 7’1 man stood where a 12’6 Master had. He was pale-skinned with slicked back salt and pepper hair, his eyes a void of darkness. He was wearing a black suit like Master had, a red tie and all. “Master?” Persephone called, “Where are you?”   “Do not fret, Persephone.” The man spoke. His voice sounded like Master’s, just physical. “It is still me, but I am in a disguise.”

“Disguise? What a disguise?” Persephone asked, still confused as to where Master had gone. “A disguise is somet-thing t-that-t hides you or changes t-t-the way you look. We call t-them Glamours.” Toby said, taking Persephone from Jeff and putting him on his shoulders. Persephone gasped when he looked at Jeff. Then started crying.

“D-daddy*hic*papa’s g-gone , daddy, where’d papa*hic*go daddy why’d papa leave?!” Toby quickly took Persephone into his arms, rocking back and forth in an attempt to soothe him. Persephone cried in Toby’s chest, reeling back when a glamoured Jeff approached. Jeff still had his long black hair and blue eyes, but his skin wasn’t white and burned anymore, instead pale and smooth. His Glasgow was gone as well, and he blinked now and then. “It’s ok, sweetie, it’s ok, it's still me, I just look different, ok? It’s still me, Kore.” Persephone sniffled but looked at him, watching him warily as he reached out and stroked his cheek.

Jeff got a bit closer, kissing Persephone’s head, who giggled wetly. “See, sweetie? It’s still papa, I just look different. Don’t need to cry.” Persephone nodded, now curious instead of scared. ‘ Man,’ Jeff thought, ‘baby emotions change quick.’ “Why–*sniff* why doesn’t daddy have one?”   “I don’t-t need one, I look normal enough to-to normies.” Toby said, putting him back on his shoulder. “C’mon, I wanna get t-this done quickly.”    “Agreed. Follow me, children.” Master said, walking towards the noise and out of the woods, Proxies following like ducklings.

The trip through London had been ok, people stopping and staring at Master, some people waving at Persephone, it was all the normal things you’d expect. What was different was the magical streets and bar. ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ was hidden from the view of normies, smack-dab in the center of London. It was truly a miracle that whatever glamour spell placed on the building was holding. Compared to the buildings next to it, the bar was practically an outhouse from the 1870s.

When they entered, everyone inside went silent. It wasn’t really odd, considering Master had to bend over entirely to get inside, but Toby didn’t like it. He could tell they were staring at their clothes, the way they walked, their hair. He tightened his grip on Persephone’s legs just a little, glancing at Jeff to see he was also uncomfortable. But they kept moving, weaving through the crowds of wizards and witches. Persephone seemed to be having fun though, giggling at the floating cups and plates.

They moved through quickly, getting to the back and watching Master as he tapped out a pattern on the wall. It opened up to reveal Diagon Alley, which was bustling with activity. It faltered when they walked in, people whispering and pointing. They tried to go quickly, but there seemed to be thousands of people in the streets. This gave Persephone a lot of time to look around, oohing and ahhing at the things inside the windows, gasping in delight as some things floated past him.

“Daddy, if I’m magic, does that mean I can do that too?” he asked, pointing at a floating tea set that was pouring itself. Some of the shoppers turned to look over at him but quickly turned away when seeing his parents stare. “Yeah, when you get-t older, you’ll probably be able t-to do more t-than levitat-tion,” Toby said, maneuvering around a pair of redhead twins, who were watching them intently.

“You’ll be able t-to t-turn a chair int-to an animal, t-turn yourself int-to an animal if you want-t, make pot-tions th-that can regrow bones, t-there’s lot-ts of st-tuff you’ll be able t-to do.” He finished. God, they weren’t even halfway down the street, why the hell was this place so packed? Was it a fucking holiday or something?

“We don’t know everything Hogwarts teaches, though. All we know is they haven’t updated a textbook since 1846. But we’ll get those back home, there’s a great store in New Orleans that’s six stories, and I swear it has everything.” Jeff said, noticing how one of the witches look a little insulted at his mention of the textbooks. He didn’t care, but if she choose to start something. . . . “We should get your wand back home too, I know a really good place in New York.” Toby frowned a bit, moving past another redhead. “I t-thought-t he couldn’t-t get-t his wand unt-til he was eleven?”  “That’s Britians rule, back home he can get his first once he turns five.”

The warning outside had been unnecessary for them since they knew goblins didn’t fuck around with their money, but the amount of disrespect towards them was the most racist shit Toby had ever seen. And he grew up in the bad part of Alabama. The wizards talked to the goblins like they were below them, seeming insulted that they had to talk to them at all, and one woman looked close to vomiting when handed back her key, even using her wand to cast multiple cleaning charms on it. Like, what the fuck? Toby took Persephone off his shoulders and into his arms, whispering to him that goblins were very important creatures and should always be respected and treated like superiors.

Persephone seemed to understand, thankfully, which meant they wouldn’t have to explain racism and sexism to a three-year-old. They followed Master to a line and waited. They waited for about ten seconds; as soon as one of the goblins caught sight of Master, four were leading them to a private room on the left.

They sat in a room that looked like it was made out of gold, inscriptions on the walls in a language they didn’t know. There were four corinthian greek pillars in the corners, molding into the walls and dome ceiling.  Four goblins sat at the table in front of them, each one looking at Master with fear and awe.

“Lord Keeper, it is truly an honor to be of service to you and your proxies.” The first said, straightening his posture and attempting to stare directly at Master, but averted his eyes instead. “My name is Bogrod, I am the Head Goblin at Gringotts. Griphook is the Head of Vault and Key Creations as well as Treasury. Gornok is Head of the Department of Records, while Odbert is the Head of the stock exchange and Inheritance.” Bogard finished, motioning with his hand who was who. Master nodded in greeting to each one, Jeff and Toby doing the same. Persephone copied them, still looking around at everything.

“Thank you for the introductions, Bogrod. My Proxies are here to blood adopt a wizard child, as well as a name change. We would also like to know his birth name and be given his vault keys and lord rings if there are any.” Master said, motioning to Persephone, who waved shyly. Bogrod nodded and the four goblins stood and left, exiting out a door they couldn’t see.

“Whats blood adoption? And birth name and keys and rings? Why do we need those?” Persephone asked, very confused by the big words he had never heard before. “Wizards have vaults where they store all their money, and vault keys are what open them. Each family has its own vault. I think some of the really rich folk have multiple vaults. If your birth parents were magical and you aren’t one of the normies that sporadically get magic, then you’ll probably have a vault. Lordship rings are tricky,” Jeff said, taking Persephone from Toby and placing him in his lap.

“You could have a lordship ring by inheritance–that means you get it because you were blood-related to the person who last owned it–or by right of conquest, meaning you could get the ring because you choose to do whatever you needed to do to get it. The only simple thing about them is that if you want a lordship ring, the person who last had it has to be dead. So, if you want a lordship ring or know you can have one, you need to make sure that the person who had it before you is dead.” He finished, running a finger through Persephone’s hair. ‘ Jeez. . .’ Jeff thought, ‘He needs a bath, his hair’s really greasy.’

The goblins walked back in, each carrying boxes and scrolls. They sat, then Gornok turned to the Proxies. “To find out who the child is if you are unaware, we will need three drops of his blood on this parchment,” He held up a blank scroll, “Which will tell us his full birth name, parents name, any spells or potions in effect on him-though I doubt it, lordship rings, magical guardian, the state of his magical core, and inherited abilities.” Gornok finished, handing what seemed to be a very large needle to Jeff.

“This might hurt a little, ok Kore?” Jeff said, gently taking Persephone’s hand. He nodded, looking a little apprehensive at the needle. Toby leaned over and rubbed his knee as Jeff pricked his finger, watching as three drops fell. Jeff pulled Persephone’s hand back, giving the needle back to Gornok. They all watched as the blood vanished into the scroll, and words began to pour out.

Name- Persephone Bloodstone Woods

Birth Name- Harry James Potter

Mothers Name- Lily Potter nee Evans(deceased)

Birth Fathers Name- James Fleamont Potter(deceased)

Fathers Name- Tobias Erin “Toby” Woods nee Rogers, Jeffrey Issac Woods

Magical Guardian- Albus Dumbledore(Illegally)

Godfather- Sirius Orion Black(Azkaban)

Godmother- Alice Longbottom(Mentally Incapable-St. Mungos)

Magical Core

Magic locked; 15%(Albus Dumbledore)

Wandless Natural Abilities locked; 100%(Albus Dumbledore)

Wordless Natural Abilities locked; 100%(Albus Dumbledore)

Parseltoung ability locked; 50%(Albus Dumbeldore)

Accounts

30,000 Galleons(Monthly to A. Dumbledore) [Start date: Nov 2010]

10,000 Galleons(Monthly to P. Dursley and D. Dursley) [Start date: Nov 2010]

Lord to:

The Ancient and Noble House of Black (by right of Conquest)

The Ancient and Noble House of Peverell (Birth father)

The Ancient and Noble House of Potter (Birth father)

The Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin (by right of Conquest)

The Ancient and Noble house of Gryffindor (by right of Conquest)

Jeff was growling lowly, pissed beyond measure. How dare someone not only steal from his son but lock his fucking magical core?! Toby was trying to seem calm, but his tics were erratic and his breathing was heavy and loud. He was going to torture Dumbledore. He was going to kill him so slowly it will take years for that motherfucker to die. Persephone didn’t understand how bad this was, but he knew what stealing was and understood that Dumbledore was bad. “What's a magical core? Why’s it locked?”

“A magical core is what gives you your magic,” Griphook replied, him and the other goblins leaning away from the Proxies. “It grows with you and changes based on what you learn and how that affects your natural abilities. To lock an adult’s core is deadly, to lock a child’s core is blatant murder, espessily for one as young as you.” Odbert picked up the parchment and needle, setting them aside as Griphook handed four keys to Master.

“These are the keys to vaults 687, 711, 989, and 1126. Vault 687 is the Potter family vault, 711 is the Black family, 989 is the Peverell vault, and 1126 is Slytherins. The key to the Gryffindor vault is in the possession of the blood descendant of Godric Gryffindor. Slytherin has no descendants, so the title of Lord Slytherin is Mr. Persephone Woods to have. I understand that you have the proper abilities to fix his core?”

Master nodded. “His core is not as bad as I originally feared, and unlocking his natural abilities will be very simple. I would like to know more details about the contents of the Vaults if you would.” Griphook nodded and Odbert riffled through a pile of parchment, handing over twelve different scrolls to Master.

“After the fall of Voldemort, there were many book publications and artwork, as well as gifts to the Potter vaults. These books could not be published if they did not give 25% of their earnings to the Potter vault, as it would be theft otherwise. These books are incredibly popular in Britain, and more are published yearly, so 25% of these earnings is about 225,000 Galleons per month. Many families were killed by Voldemort, and when he was ‘defeated’ by Mr.Woods, almost every family gifted the Potter vault large amounts of money. Families like the Monore bloodline-which was entirely wiped out-gave the Potter vault all their possessions, including property, all of which is listed in file 7. Currently, the Potter vault is one of the richest in the UK.”

Ok, wow, holy shit, that’s insane. Toby looked to Jeff and Jeff looked to him, both of them thinking the same thing, just a little bit differently. Jeff was worried about this Voldemort guy, and how he was ‘defeated’ by Persephone. Toby was glad they wouldn’t have to worry about how much everything cost, because he was fairly certain they could just buy Hogwarts with only one of those vaults. It seemed Odbert was not done talking, however.

“That, Lord Keeper, is just the Potter vault. The Peverell and Slytherin vaults are two of the oldest, and have been collecting money for over one thousand years. Each month, 25% of Hogwarts earnings go into the Slytherin vault, which has led to the accumulation of over 2 million Galleons, and that’s not even counting the amount of jewelry, clothing, weapons, books, furniture, and other artifacts within.”

He handed Master a dark green and silver scroll, pulling a black one out from the pile. “The Peverell vault has over three thousand books, a painting of every descendent, weapons from all over the world, clothing of all different colors and sizes, enough furniture to fully furnish two hundred large homes, a hundred thousand gemstones, and countless family heirlooms. While it may be lacking in profit compared to the other vaults, it more than makes up for it in physical artifacts. Many of the books within this vault are the only copies available, and most of the weapons are enchanted—or cursed.”

Uh, ok then. A lot to process.

Toby and Jeff looked at each other. God Toby had problems remembering to eat, how the hell was he going to remember that they have money? Jeff wasn’t good at money either! All the taxes and the adding what you couldn’t really know confused him. Even Persephone seemed to understand that what he now owned was a shitton, his expression that of a very surprised cat. Fucking Master seemed surprised, one eyebrow quirked as he read through the black scroll. “All that’s mine?” Persephone asked, leaning over and out of Jeff’s arms, trying to look into the black scroll.

Odbert nodded at him and handed the last scroll to Master. “The Black family vault has lost quite a lot of money over the years, but it has more than a hundred unoccupied beach houses, family homes, manors, and small houses-none of which are small by normal standards. With all these properties comes over two hundred house elves, most of which have been out of jobs for a very long time. All the locations of these properties have been listed in the scroll, as well as the number of rooms, bathrooms, kitchen sizes, house-elves, passwords, and puzzle answers. I will warn you that most of these houses are warrded or cursed, so I advise approaching with caution.”

While his Proxies seemed to be losing their minds, Master remained calm, not looking in the Black scroll. Instead, he turned to Bogard. “Are we able to access these vaults in America, or here only? And would it be possible to see them today?”

“You will be able to access these vaults from any Gringotts, though for things like furniture and clothing I would recommend coming here to collect them. If you would follow me, we will take you to all four of the vaults, highest to deepest.”

Ok, so the vaults looked fucking awesome. The amount of money in them was astronomical and always increasing so they would probably never use all of it but the clothing would help them blend in, the books would help educate Jeff and Toby on politics, slang and wand ingredients, the daggers and swords were very well made, and the jewelry looked beautiful. Persephone found a box filled with ring holders, each one filled with a pair of rings. He showed the box to his parents giggling happily as the jewels shined. He totted back to the other boxes, not noticing his parents' expressions as they looked through the rings.

Toby gently took Jeff’s right hand, sliding on the green agate ring. The agate was the same color as Toby and Persephone’s eyes. Jeff’s face was flushed pink, and he leaned forward and slowly kissed Toby, sliding a matching blue moonstone ring onto his left hand. It looked the same as Jeff’s, it was just a different stone. The moonstone was the same color as Jeff’s eyes.

Jeff held Toby’s hand, running his fingers over the ring, Toby doing the same. They broke the kiss, staring at each other in complete wonder. I will cherish you, they both thought, I don’t know how I’m able to have someone as amazing, gorgeous, and funny as you. You're everything I need, and everything I don’t deserve.

Toby pulled Jeff close, holding him hip-to-hip and kissing him as hard as he could. Jeff wrapped his arms around his neck, tangling his fingers in his hair and pulling him closer. They stayed like that, kissing and holding each other so close that they felt like one. When did they get against a wall? Oh who cares. Jeff’s hands went down Toby’s neck to his waist where—

“ I’d advise against having intercourse here, as explaining to Persephone what you are doing is not one you want to have so young with him I presume?”

Oh, right, they were in a Gringotts vault, and now they had a three-year-old who could walk in on them having sex. “Oops, forgot-t. T-that-t could have been bad.” Toby said, letting Jeff go. Jeff was grumbling. “You owe me shower sex. C’mon, I don’t want Kore to accidentally touch something cursed.”

Toby laughed and walked next to him, Master following behind. They found Persephone looking through a children’s book called Tales of Beetle the Bard. “Daddy, can we take this home?” He asked, showing him the green book. “Sure Kore, let-t-t’s put i-it-t in th-the box.” They’d found an empty box to take stuff with them. “Find anyt-th-thing else you like?”

“Uhh, I haven’t looked here!” He went to a wooden crate and tried to open it but failed since he was about six inches smaller than it. Jeff chuckled and opened it for him then lifted him up. It was, surprisingly, filled with toys. There was dolls, a few puzzle boxes, what looked like a mini cauldron and potions set, a small book with constellations and a tea cup(?), and a bunch of other wizarding toys he didn’t know.

“Dolls!” Persephone gasped, wiggling to try and get closer. Jeff crouched down so Persephone could reach in and grab a doll. It had classic witch attire with long black hair and green eyes. “And toys! Do you want any?” Persephones eyes scanned the box, holding the doll with one hand and reaching for a puzzle. It was, of course, of Hogwarts. Toby kneeled next to him with the box of stuff and let Persephone put the two inside.

There was a list under everything, and the more Jeff read the more he felt they should not have this stuff in the house. Who even thinks selling a Tempest in a Bottle to children is a good idea? “Can I have the other shape boxes?”    “Sure, anything else?”   “What’s the pot?”

“It-t’s prete-e-end pot-t-tions. Real pot-tions are diff-ficult-t and dangerous but th-this one is pret-tend and will be fun. It-it’ll just-t-t te-each you t-th-he basics of making pot-t-tions.” Persephone made an ‘ohhh’ sound and reached for the constellation book. “This?” Jeff read the paper. “Oh! It’s divintation. Looking into the future using the stars. Do you wanna try it?”   “Yeah! Stars are pretty!”

They looked through more boxes and found a few practical throwing knifes, a mirror that apparently petrified whoever looked into it, a book on magical torture, diary’s of someone who was creating dark spells, a really weird wind chime but Persephone liked it, more books that looked interesting, and a few diary’s of different people that Toby took because it sounded like an awesome drama and he could read it from different perspectives.

Now, blood adoption.

They met a new goblin, Gorkit the head of Blood Adoptions, a few layers below the main bank in a dark room. In the middle was a large circle lined with runes and symbols. Inside were three more circles in a triangle shape. There was a line connecting them and in the middle of the triangle was a small bowl.

Gorkit instructed them to put an equal amount of their blood into the bowl and stand in the corner circles and for Persephone to be in the middle. Persephone didn’t like giving blood but afterwards stood patiently in the circle. They stood in the corners and when they did Gorkit began circling them speaking in a language they didn’t know.

After the first pass around the circle the blood began to bubble and the circle began slightly glowing. The second pass Toby began to feel warmth growing in his chest, and turned to see Jeff rubbing his chest. He wondered if Persephone was ok. The blood began spilling out of the bowl and onto the lines and circles.

The third pass the glowing got brighter and the warmth spread to his head. He didn’t know how to describe it. It was the heaviness of a migraine but it was….nice? But before he could understand it was over and Gorkit said it was done. He didn’t feel any different but Persephone looked a little different. His hair and eyes were different shades of green and black.

“Congratulations,” Gorkit said, “you’ve officially become Persephone’s parents.”

They were lying in bed, Toby on the right and Jeff on the left, with Persephone between them. They still needed to clean out one of the spare rooms for him, but for now, he would sleep with them. Jeff and Toby were holding hands, getting lost in each other’s eyes. Master told them he had already changed their file, and he’d added one for Persephone as well. It was official. They were married and had a son. It still seemed so surreal.

They had eight years to teach him everything they knew, and everything he would need to know before he went to Hogwarts. They never thought about children before. Jeff didn’t think anyone would want any with him, and Toby didn’t want to pass down his cocktail of disorders onto a child. But they had one now. They had a family.

“I love you. . . .'' Toby whispered, eyes tracing over every part of Jeff he could see. His eyes, his hair, his burns the hickeys and bite marks he gave him in the shower his Glasgow, his lips, he still didn’t understand why Jeff would want someone like him. “I love you more.” Jeff whispered back, trying to memorize every detail of Toby. He’s seen him a million times and would see him a million more, but every time he would be mesmerized.

There was something about Toby that sucked him in, locking him in an endless state of worship and devotion that he never wanted to leave. They leaned forward and kissed over Persephone, soft and slow. When they pulled apart they stared at each other, then pushed their heads together. Whatever they would face in the future, they would face it together.

And whoever tried to harm them, to take them away from each other, to take Persephone away—

They wouldn’t live to tell of what they did, and their last moments will be in excruciating agony.

Chapter Text

Persephone couldn’t sleep in his parents’ room forever. While it would be ok the first few weeks, he would need his own things and personal space. His parents were horny bastards who had sex like rabbits and having sex in the same room as your son is something they will not do. So, early spring cleaning is in order.

Thankfully, the room next to theirs wasn’t dirty, just empty and very dusty. The paint was peeling as well, Jeff noted, but that was ok; they were going to paint the walls anyway. There was a window opposite of the door and no closet, but everything was clean and the door no longer squeaked. Now, shopping.

The Woods family stood outside the buybuyBABY, excited and a little nervous. Persephone was ecstatic about choosing what he wanted, and the place they would get his new belongings was huge! He was practically bouncing in his daddy’s arms. Jeff and Toby were also excited, but nervous as well. They didn’t know what baby stuff was supposed to look like, what a baby was supposed to eat, I mean, holy shit, they didn’t even know what a baby was supposed to have! What if they fucked something up?

They held each other’s hand and squeezed, feeling the rings the other wore. Master always told them they influenced what the other was feeling, and they were both making each other more worried than they had to be. It would be fine. They even had a list. “First-t th-things first-t,” Toby said, adjusting Persephone on his hip, “You need some new clot-thes. Let-t’s find t-the cloth-thing sect-tion.”

They walked in and were immediately overwhelmed. There was. . . . .so much. Yeah, they expected a lot but holy shit, this was a lot bigger on the inside than the outside. This place was the size of the mall! Persephone was ooh ing and aah ing, pulling on his daddy’s hair and pointing at everything. The tugging broke Toby out of his panic, and he quickly pulled Jeff out of the doorway and into the rack of clothes.

Jeff’s glamour blinked, then shook his head, looking at the racks of clothing taller than Toby. “Thanks, I think I blacked out for a second there.” Toby snorted, letting Persephone grab and touch the baby onesies. “T-the inside of a baby st-store caused your soul t-to leave your body?” Jeff laughed, reaching up and handing a different onesie to Persephone.

“Nah, I think it finally sank in that I’m a father. Were parents. We have a baby . I don’t think I fully realized it until we walked in here. Don’t know why I didn’t process it until now.” Toby smiled softly and kissed him, biting his bottom lip affectionately. “It-it hit-t me when we woke up t-the first-t day. You’re my husband, Persephone’s my son, I’m a dad. It-t was really excit-ting and t-terrifying, Cause’ now, I can be bet-tter t-than my dad. But I could also end up just-t-t like him.”

Jeff nuzzled noses with Toby, murmuring, “Darling, it pains me every day that I wasn’t there to kill him with you.” He kissed him, slowly pulling away and whispering against his lips, “You’ll be an amazing father. You already love Persephone so much, and I can’t wait to see that love grow as he gets older. I can’t think of a better person to be a parent, and there isn’t anyone else I would want to have a child with.”

‘Don’t fuck him ,’ Toby thought harshly, cupping his cheek and kissing Jeff again. ‘ No matter how emotional you are, you are in the middle of a fucking baby store, you can fuck him when you get home, but for the love of the all the gods, Don’t. Fuck. Him. Here .’

He felt a tugging at his sleeve, and they  looked down to see Persephone making grabby hands at them. “I want kisses too! Can I have a kiss?” He said, tugging on Jeff’s hair. Jeff laughed and blew a raspberry into his cheek, Persephone squealing and giggling, trying to blow one back. Toby kissed him on the cheek, intrusive sexual thoughts gone. For now.

They let Persephone feel a lot more onesies until they found his favorite texture. The texture he choose felt like a pillowcase but was more firm and less tearable, smoother as well. “Alright-t, let-t’s see if we can find your size.” Persephone stopped his happy babbling, confused. “Size? Why do we need a size?”    “Cause it won’t fit you if the size isn’t right,” Jeff said, taking Persephone onto his hip. “If the size is too big then it’s all baggy and no fun, but if it’s too small it’ll squeeze you and it’s really uncomfortable. You get it?” Persephone looked at a few of the really small onesies, then nodded, gasping in delight when Toby handed him a bigger one. “I found a changing room behind t-the next-t wall, let-ts see if t-these fit-t.”

There was a man and a woman with two children outside the changing rooms, both giving them a little bit of a look. The children didn’t seem to care, waving at Persephone who giggled and waved back. “Ok, I’ll stay out here, you go in?” Jeff asked. He knew Toby didn’t like strangers, and he could hear more people around the corner. “Yeah, t-then if t-these fit-t well look at different-t colors.” Persephone looked up as he was handed to Toby, “How many colors are there?” Toby chuckled, “I don’t-t know, ‘Seph, but-t probably a million.” Persephone gasped happily, and that was the last thing Jeff heard before the door closed.

Now he was stuck with two strangers who were both giving him a slightly judgmental look. It was uncomfortable, but he wasn’t going to stare back. That could lead to a conversation. Unfortunately, these people seemed to think talking was needed. “You and your friend watching a sibling?” The woman asked, eyeing his ring. “He’s our kid, just adopted him.” Jeff said, deciding to play the ‘Young adult doing the right thing’ card. It seemed to work for her, but the man eavesdropping seemed to care more about something else. “You and the other lad are married, then?”

Fuck, this was dangerous. They didn’t know how this state treated queers, much less this store’s policies on serving them. This could go to shit real quickly if he wasn’t careful. “Yeah, lots of things happened, and we didn’t want to waste any more time. So, we got married. Then we found Persephone, and then we adopted him.”   ‘ FUCK THAT WAS TOO MUCH INFO JEFF WHAT THE HELL’ was his first thought, then, ‘ God I hope Toby and Persephone are having more fun than me. . . . . . ‘

Changing room, a few seconds earlier. . . . . .

“Is a million a lot?” Persephone asked, looking around at the colorful walls. “Yeah, it-t’s huge.” Toby said, deciding to ignore the number of mothers in here that were now staring at him. Persephone giggled happily, patting his cheek. “Like, as big as the place?” Toby sat him down on one of the changing tables, grinning at him. “Bigger.” Persephone laughed as Toby took his clothes off, putting him in the onesie. “Do you like it-t? We can t-try more if you don’t-t.” Persephone looked at his hands and feet, before giggling and flapping his hands like a bird.

“I like it, I like it, can we get it, daddy!?” Persephone laughed, squealing with delight as Toby tickled him. “Course we can, t-that-t’s what-t were here to-to do!” he tapped his nose, Persephone cooing at him. “Wanna t-try on some more?” He asked, holding up more onesies in different colors. Persephone smiled so wide Toby was worried he would hurt himself. “Yeah!”

“Which one first-t?”

“The pretty one!

“Which pret-tty one?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhh, I don’t know, uh, oh! This one!”

Persephone grabbed a purple onesie with a pink unicorn that had a knife taped to its horn with the speech bubble ‘I will cut you.’ Toby had found it in clearance, and it was honestly the cutest thing he’d seen so far. He changed Persephone out of the normal onesie and put him in the purple one. He loved it immediately, giggling and clapping at him. “Daddy, daddy, I love it, can we get it?!” Toby laughed and picked him up, deciding that it would be a crime if Jeff didn’t see this. “Yeah, ‘Seph, we’ll get-t it-t, but-t first-t I wanna show papa.” Persephone was very happy, and he hadn’t noticed papa was gone. He wondered where he was. . . . . .

Back outside, in an awkward conversation,

“I just don’t think it’s right to let kids as young as you get hitched, y’know?”

  “I really don’t know, ma’am.” FUCK, he hated talking to people before, but now he fucking lothes it. Especially when said people are trying to convince him to get a divorce. “What do your parents think about all this? Wouldn’t they want you to go to college?”     ‘ Now they’re trying to bring my fucking parents into this?’     “My parents are dead sir, but I think they would have loved Toby and Persephone.”   “Persephone?” The woman’s nose wrinkled, “why would you give your son a girl’s name? Wouldn’t he be happier with something like frank, or john?”

‘Ok, fuck being normal and fuck these bitches, let’s hope this place has a dumpster close by—‘

“Papa, look! Daddy says I can get this! Do you like it?”

Toby was holding Persephone up like Simba, grinning at him but seeming to sense the tension. Persephone was waving his arms and legs, making gabby hands at him. He laughed and moved past the stunned assholes, taking Persephone from Toby and blowing a raspberry in his cheek. He laughed and tried to blow one back, but it ended up being just a wet kiss.

“You are the cutest baby in existence, and this onesie just makes you cuter, of course we can get it!” Persephone gave a small cheer, cooing as Jeff put him on his hip. “I’ll go in with you this time, I wanna see what else your daddy picked.” Toby eyed the strangers, who were staring at Persephone judgmentally. They quickly went back into the changing room, deciding that they wouldn’t separate themselves again.

Picking out clothes had been very fun for Persephone. His favorite part was feeling the clothes and picking his favorite. There was so much to choose from, and his parents said he can get whatever he wants! He can’t wait to make more decisions. The aisles they were walking down had lots of furniture in them. Lots of tables and chairs and beds. Persephone was having lots of fun, but his parents were cringing. The furniture itself was ok, but everything was bright and colorful. They were fine with colorful shit, but these colors were the disgusting neon kind with horrible color combinations. They walked more into the back of the aisles, near the stuff nobody bought.

The furniture here was much better, still colorful but way more reasonable. Toby unbuckled Persephone from the cart(which they got after the fifteenth set of clothes) and set him down, telling him, “Alright-t, ‘Seph, you can look around at-t everyt-thing, but-t don’t-t go to-too far, ok?”   “Ok, daddy!” Persephone nodded, turning and tottling as fast as he could to the beds. Jeff leaned against Toby, who wrapped an arm around his waist, both watching Persephone happily bounce from bed to bed.

It was very nice to watch. Persephone looked so innocent, so unaware of the cruelty in the world. They both knew they couldn’t protect him forever, but they would keep him safe as long as they could. Persephone seemed to like the greens best, tracing the patterns of a dresser. He must have found something he wanted because he came back to them half sprinting. “Daddy, papa, come look, come look!”

They followed the very excited baby to a child’s bed. It had a black wooden frame with green swirls on it. The bedsheet was gray, and the blankets were a dark green color. It looked way too gothic to be in a baby store, but that was probably why it was shoved in the very back. “You want this one, Kore?” Jeff asked, snorting as Persephone threw himself onto the bed.

“Yeah! It’s pretty, it’s soft, it’s warm and nice and super-duper awesome, I really want this one, please!” Toby sat on the bed with him and checked the price tag; pleased to find it was incredibly cheap for how badass it looked. There were even drawers on the bottom. “Alright, ‘Seph, we got-t you your bed, now let-t’s find a dresser and a desk. Mabey a bookshelf t-too.”

Getting the furniture home had been the easiest part, actually buying it was incredibly fucking difficult. Mostly because every employee kept trying to get them to buy something different, one even tried to tell Persephone he couldn’t have the dresser he chose because it ‘wasn’t very pretty’. Like, the fuck?

The dresser was navy blue with stars and swirls drawn on in yellow. There was even a symbol of Nyx and under that a Wheel of Hecate. The dresser was fucking gorgeous. Persephone looked close to tears when the employee told him it wasn’t pretty. Toby almost ripped that fucker's head off with his bare hands.

“It -t-t doesn’t-t mat-matter wha-t-t th-they t-think, ‘Seph, you can choose what-tever makes you happy, ok?” Toby soothed, rocking Persephone while Jeff argued with the employees. He nodded, but still looked very sad. They didn’t even like the desk he choose. It was silver with black swirls and stars, like the dresser. There were even flowers on it. He thought it was super pretty, and his daddy and papa agreed with him! Why didn’t anyone else think it was pretty?

Jeff walked over to them, finally able to put it in the employee’s thick heads that they weren’t getting anything different just because they thought they should. “You alright, Kore?” He asked, gently rubbing Persephone's head. “Why don’t they like it?” Persephone asked sadly, sounding and looking like he was about to cry. “Because. . . .'' Jeff thought for a second, then took him from Toby.

“Because there will always be people who don’t like what you do. And sometimes, those people will try to change you, make you think and act like them. But you can’t let them do that,” He said, feeling Toby wrap himself around him. “You have to be yourself, and do what makes you happy. Because you shouldn’t live for someone else. You should live to make yourself happy, ok?”

Persephone thought for a second, then said, “I should be happy, even though no one likes the stuff?” Toby smiled and nodded. “Yeah, because it-t makes you happy, and th-that-t’s what-t’s import-tant-t-t. You shouldn’t-t care about-t what-t oth-thers th-think.” Persephone thought again before nodding, understanding that the furniture he choose was pretty, the other people just didn’t think it was.

Decorating his new room was the best part, Persephone decided. They didn’t need to buy any paint, since Master made the house and forest magical in his own way they could change the color of the room with only a thought. Persephone made the walls and ceiling a galaxy, like the pictures papa had shown him, and daddy helped him put up glow-in-the-dark stars, telling him that the shapes they were making was the map of the solar system. The bed was put across the door on the left, with the bookshelf across the room. The dresser was placed behind his bed, and the desk was directly left of the door.

Persephone was bouncing around the room, giggling and ooh ing and aah ing at the walls and ceiling. It was a miracle they got him to leave and eat dinner. But today had been long and full of feelings, and even Persephone couldn’t be hyper forever. It would be the first night he wouldn’t sleep in his parent’s room, and so they were going to tuck him in. After a bath, Toby and Jeff sat on the floor and leaned against the edge of the bed, cooing at Persephone.

“You happy, sweetie?” Jeff asked, getting a sleepy yawn in response. Persephone nodded and asked for a kiss, slurring all his words. They kissed him on the head and tucking him in, watching as the day took its toll and he fell asleep. Toby had a feeling all their shopping trips would be like this. Persephone still needed toys, a wand, and other magical items.

This would be one of many trips, Jeff mused, because as Persephone got older, he would need more things. A computer, a phone, a bigger bed, bigger clothes, and when he would be their age—

Their age

They wouldn’t age. It shouldn’t be surprising now, they hadn’t aged in years, but Persephone would, and they couldn’t keep him a baby forever, that wasn’t fair. How would it be, Jeff wondered, when Persephone was sixteen? How could they be his parents when they would always be teenagers? Jeff knew it would be awkward and weird, and they could pull off being his parents right now, but when he got older they would stop looking like his parents and more like siblings.

Toby seemed to sense that Jeff was worried, he always seemed to know what he was thinking. He kissed his neck and bit his earlobe, muttering to him, “What-t’s got-tten you so t-tense, baby?” Jeff wanted to tell him, but the words felt like tar in his throat, and his mouth tasted like sawdust.

It felt like if he said it, Persephone would suddenly be Toby’s age, no longer a child. “We don’t age.” Jeff managed, glancing to see Persephone smiling in his sleep. “He will. What. . . . . . What do we do when he’s, y’know, the same age as us?” Toby seemed to some to the same realization he had, gripping his hips and pulling him flush against his chest.

There was only one solution, but it was a scary one. Master put a pause on their aging because they wanted to be young, they wanted to live forever, serving him. Master could let them age again, but what would that be like? They’ve lived in these bodies for over a decade now, they know everything about these bodies.

What would they look like if they were to age? If Toby were to grow facial hair, if Jeff was to get taller? Would they look like their parents, or would they still look like them? But as they watched Persephone coo in his sleep, they decided it would be worth it.

They wanted to be his parents, and they wanted to be that forever. If that meant giving up their youth, growing up, then they would do it. So what if Jeff got taller? Toby would still call him short. So what if Toby grew a beard? Jeff would still kiss him. They would learn about each other’s bodies until they decide they are old enough, and the immortality returns. They kissed roughly, Toby hoisting Jeff up and carrying him, walking out of Persephone’s room and into theirs.

They bit and groped each other, trying to keep quiet. Jeff was always a screamer, however, and soon a hand was covering his mouth. Would he still scream when he got older, Toby wondered? Would he still claw at his shoulders, bite between his thighs when sucking him, beg him to keep going even though they’re both so overstimulated? He would. Because the body was changing, but Jeff was not. They would change, but they will always stay the same.

Chapter Text

Now that they had everything they need to take care of a baby, a different shopping trip was in order. They didn’t want to bring Persephone due to his fame, even if Americans were a lot more chill about it, so they informed Kate of everything and asked her to babysit. They trusted her more than they did the residents of The Mansion, and she was absolutely ecstatic about Persephone and very proud of their choice to start aging again.

“It’ll be nice having more adults around!” She’d said, showing Persephone how to braid hair. They mother-henned Persephone for a bit, telling him to be nice and listen to Kate. “We’ll be fine, we’re already best friends!” Kate said, tossing Persephone into the air and giving them a mini heart attack. “You guys do what you gotta do, I’ll be the best fucking aunt ever!”

‘The Dawn Between’ was a six-story bookstore, the bottom painted a sunset ombre fading into dark blues, purples, and black at the top. The first three stories were all ‘light-based’ and ‘pure’ stuff, while the next three stories were ‘dark-arts’, like necromancy and blood rituals. The register was on the third story and the floors were made of glass, with enchantments to show what books were in which aisle. They’d been in here once before, telling anyone who asked that they were new to the wizarding world and wanted to look around.

Thankfully, they knew their way around the shop and finding the children’s section was easy. The next three floors, however, were a bit of trouble. There weren’t any children’s books on the dark arts, understandably, but there were low grade-level textbooks. But would they be too difficult for Persephone? They debated for a bit, then decided to get them, because even if it was difficult for him to understand they would be good to have for the future.

The top three stories had less to choose from than the first three did, but they knew the only place they would be able to find this much about the dark arts was probably Italy. They picked out some books on umbrakinesis as well, even though it was a higher level than everything else. The lady at the register gave them an odd look and asked them very calmly why they were buying today. “We’re teaching our kid the basics, and figured ‘hey, while we’re here, might as well get some stuff for us, y’know?” She seemed to buy that, and they left without any problems. Toby was surprised about how well it had gone. “I honest-tly expect-ted to-to get-t mugged.”

They had also discovered that The Dawn Between was not only a bookstore, but a wand shop as well, and they could bring Persephone to pick his wand ingredients when he turned five. They were suspicious about how well this was going and we’re not surprised to come home and find Kate attempting to teach Persephone how to rap to Logic.

Poor Persephone looked so confused, Toby laughed and took a picture while Jeff yelled at Kate. He then yelled at Toby for laughing. “Alright, I promise I won’t teach him any good swears,” Kate said, “Yet.” Jeff very politely kicked Kate out, who laughed and high-fived Toby. (“Once he gets old enough, I’m binging Keeping Up with The Kardashians with him, whether you like it or not!”)

Persephone’s homeschooling was incredibly fun and mildly infuriating. Fun because Persephone learning magic meant he wouldn’t be entirely defenseless if anything was to happen and seeing his face light up as he performed a new charm was always great. Mildly infuriating because learning magic meant a magic baby who made things different colors and float when he was excited.

The color-changing was easy to deal with and change back, the levitation not so much. He once got so excited to see Kate that he set her on fire. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt and found it awesome that he could start fires with his mind, but it worried Jeff and Toby. And so homeschooling was split into two classes; magic and magic control.

Two and a half years later, Persephone was oohing and aahing at the shapes in the glass, fascinated by the iridescent shapes made by the sun. He carefully walked around the corner, jumping out of the way when a few bigger kids ran past. He wanted to look around some more, but there were a lot of strangers here. Daddy had told him he could look around, but he didn’t want to do it alone. He ran back to daddy, finding him at the register with papa. They were talking to the employee, who turned and waved. “Ah, this the man you're shopping for today?”

Papa picked him up and said, “Yeah, here to get his first. Just turned five a few weeks ago.” Persephone waved shyly at the man, who smiled at him. “Alright then, one more thing to remember is that he may not need to come and get a new wand when he’s older. Sometimes when a wand chooses a wizard, it grows with the wizard and stays with them all throughout their life. If the wand he gets is a perfect match, then he may never need a different wand.”

Toby smiled at him. “Th-thanks for your help. When can we choose his ingredient-ts?”    “Right now, actually. No one is on the schedule, and we don’t have anyone on for another two weeks, so we’ve been doing walk-ins! If you’ll follow me,” The man walked around and led them to the ground floor, opening a door at the back.

Inside the room boxes filled with glowing hairs, bone, antlers, pieces of mussel, whiskers, feathers, and spines sat on shelves against a wall. Slabs of wood of all different colors and shapes were stacked against a different wall, each labeled at the bottom. Hornbeam, Fir, English Oak, Larch, Willow, Dogwood, Chestnut, Aspen, all neatly together. There were about seven workbenches scattered around the room, each one having its own cauldron that was seven times larger than normal cauldrons were. It looked like a very chaotically organized metalworking shop.

“Hello, shoppers. Getting baby’s first wand, I presume? How delightful, first-time-ever wands are always a treat to make.” A woman appeared out of nowhere, with blood-red hair and bright green eyes. Her face and shoulders were covered in freckles. She wore a purple and lilac striped sweater that hung off her shoulders, with black jeans held up by a teal belt with a yellow ribbon. “I’m Ashly and I’ll be your wand-maker for today. What’s the name of our newest little wizard?” She said, smiling softly. “Persephone. . . .” Persephone said shyly. He liked this lady, she was colorful, but also quiet.

“Ah, the queen of the underworld, miss spring, her majesty. You have quite a unique name. And what is the name of mister Persephone’s parents?” She asked, waving her hand and wandlessly levitating different boxes and wood pieces onto a table. The employee at the register quickly walked out and closed the door.

“I’m T-Toby, th-this is Jeff.” Toby leaned away a little bit as she clapped, spinning around and facing them. “Yes, Static Walkers, Proxies, followers of the Faceless Darak. I suspected it as soon as you walked into this room, I could sense the static on all three of you. So odd that one starts as young as this one.”

Jeff and Toby tensed, but she waved it off. “My family silently follows The Seducer, can’t do it as publicly as we use to, shame. We do not hold the title of wards, but we do run ‘jobs’ for him every now and then. Like a cult, if you will.” She swiftly turned towards them, eyes glowing softly. “Now, let’s begin.”

“The core of a wand is chosen first, then the wood. I have laid out all the cores on the left, and the wood on the right. Please, close your eyes and let yourself be guided to the core that calls to you the most.” Persephone nodded, glancing at his parents and then closing his eyes. He held out his hand and felt the magic in the air, feeling the different currents and colors tugging at him. One felt louder than the others, more persistent and strong. It called to him, just like Ashley said.

He moved forward to the table and grabbed the core, feeling it in his hands. It was silky and smooth, but also very firm. He would need a thick and sharp knife to cut through this. “Thestral hair has an unsurprisingly strong connection to death, and you will find that invisibility spells come easier. Thestral hair only chooses those of great power. Now, the same thing as before, but with two pieces of wood.”

He walked towards the wood and felt around, feeling three tug at him. He didn’t like the way the third was tugging, though. It felt persistent and nagging, like it was whining and complaining. The other two were gentle but firm, leading him instead of pulling. He picked those two, one in each hand.

“Cherry wood is most commonly used in Japan, and most people mistake this pink wood as only a decoration. But cherry wood is one of the most powerful, and when used properly, can unleash curses hundreds of times more powerful than normal. Yew is known as a wood of the dark arts and has earned a bad reputation due to the many evil witches and wizards who’ve had yew wands. I have found that these myths are not entirely true. Yew chooses the wizards who are fierce but intelligent, thinking through daring plans. Like cherry, it’s known for its ability to out-duel any wand and its ability to amplify curses. And when paired with the thestral hair,” Ashley took the wood from him and placed them with the cores, turned around, and smiled. “You are going to be unstoppable. Perfect for a proxy.”

Jeff and Toby glanced at each other uneasily but didn’t get a chance to speak as Ashley was already pushing them out. “If you would wait just a moment.” She closed the door, and it was silent for a minute before a few explosions sounded off and the ground shook. Persephone looked around wildly as his parents held onto the wall and nearby shelves. He was picked up and held until the shaking stopped, and colorful smoke pooled out the bottom of the door. “What the. . . . “ Jeff started, but the door flew open and Ashley pulled them back in.

The smoke was coming from one of the worktables, and Ashley picked up a stick and handed it to Persephone. “Cherry and Yew wood with Thestral hair core, 11 inches and slightly yielding. Give it a wave.” Persephone studied the wand. The yellow and slightly pink wood were twisted around each other, and when he looked closer he could see the hair had been pulled into split ends and was wrapped around the twisted wood like silver highlights. He waved the wand—

And a galaxy appeared.

It was like he’d created a multiverse, nebula and belts of asteroids drifting past. Stars going supernova, planets moving, worlds collapsing. It was breathtaking. Jeff and Toby were holding each other, mesmerized and proud. When Persephone first started learning magic he couldn’t even make a puff of smoke. And now, he created what looked like a window to the universe. He waved the wand again and it disappeared, but the image remained burned in his mind.

Ashley sighed. “It’s always so pleasant to see a match, especially on the first try. Enjoy your new wand, Mister Woods.”

Chapter Text

It had been a very normal day before everything went to shit.

Everything had been in total chaos after Sally had gone on a sugar high, so Masky had been re-organizing the files. The papers hadn’t changed and he hadn’t really been checking, but a new paper had caught his eye. Or, more accurately, the name on the paper and the file it was in. The Cabin 077 file was usually bare before Jeff and Toby started staying there, and Masky didn’t think they would let anyone move in with them unless Boss told them to. And as far as Masky knew, no one was moving. So why was there a third paper in The Cabin file? The paper was brand new too, still had that freshly printed look to it. Curious, Masky flipped over the paper—and paused.

He had been right, the paper was new. A new person, a child, to be exact. Jeff and Toby’s new child. He sat down and read through the paper. British, a wizard, important figure in magical Britain, birth parents murdered in a blood purity-related war, placed with abusive relatives by a powerful individual who thought of himself as a hero of the light, found by Jeff and Toby after said relatives were killed, name changed to Persephone Bloodstone Woods, Toby’s last name changed—Three years!?! He almost fell out of his chair. He re-read the part four more times before getting all three Cabin papers, putting them in the file, and calling everyone to the living room.

Seven people were lounging in the living room, waiting to be told the apparently very important news. Sally and BEN were playing Animal Crossing, Helen and Puppeteer cuddling next to them. L.J was re-reading the Anarchist Cookbook, while E.J and Hoodie talked about their latest mission. Clockwork was scrolling through Twitter but put her phone down when Masky stomped in. He slammed a file onto the coffee table and sat down, lighting a cigarette. Puppeteer looked at it and raised an eyebrow. “Why are you showing us The Cabin’s file?” Masky didn’t answer, just motioned for them to pick it up.

“There’s. . . . .A third.” Hoodie said, pulling out the newest paper. The others leaned over, but E.J was reading Toby’s file. “Maksy, why does Toby’s age section say ‘currently aging, immortality to resume’, and. . . . Is this a maiden name section?” That got their attention. L.J grabbed the paper from him, and then passed it to Clockwork, who passed it to Helen and Puppeteer.

“Because apparently, Toby and Jeff are fuckin’ married now.” Masky said, blowing smoke upward. “They’re gonna get married!?!” Sally gasped in delight, jumping up and down.“Do you think I can be a flower girl? I wanna be a flower girl!”   “I think it’s too late for that, considering they’ve been married for three years—”    “Three years!?!?”

Everyone immediately ignoring the rest of what Hoodie was going to say and launching into discussion with each other. Everyone else was debating on how and why they hid this for so long while Sally was sad she wouldn’t be a flower girl. L.J was waving his hands around and screeching with BEN, while Clockwork and Helen seemed to be in a passive-aggressive-slowly-getting-more-aggressive monotone argument, Puppeteer slowly leaning away from them.

“EVERYONE SHUT UP!” E.J yelled, silencing the room. He sighed, “Thank you.” They glanced at each other, eyeing the newest paper in E.J’s hand. “I believe we have more important questions to ask them. Mainly, questions about Persephone.” Helen suppressed a sigh, seeming to know what was coming. “Who is Persephone?” E.J sighed again. “Persephone Bloodstone Woods is Jeff and Toby’s adopted son.” There was silence for a few seconds before everyone began shouting over one another.

The only ones who could get to The Cabin were L.J and BEN, L.J teleporting and BEN coming in through the TV. They didn’t go there often, mostly because every time they did they walked in on Jeff and Toby having sex, but sometimes they went to tell them about a new mission or a meeting that was happening. Now, they were storming in to interrogate them.

Well, less interrogate and more calmly ask. There had been a bit of a fistfight on who would go, but it had been decided that it would be best for Hoodie and the Jacks to go. Hoodie and E.J because they were both calm and on good terms with them, L.J because he was good with kids and could get them there.

Walking through the forest surrounding The Cabin was always difficult, due to the large amount of decomposing bodies and skeletons littering the ground like dead leaves. L.J can’t even count the number of times he’s tripped over a bone and fallen flat on his ass. And it didn’t really help that the fog was so thick you couldn’t see anything until a tree was three inches away from your face—Hoodie muttering about how it wasn’t usually this dense. And with all the upgrown tree roots and small trenches meant to trip people. . .

Walking through the forest was a slow process, but they managed to get halfway through before they heard giggling. Now, it would have been normal to hear creepy laughter if that laughter had sounded like Jeff and Toby. This voice sounded like neither Jeff nor Toby. It sounded like a young child, probably around Sally’s age.

“Persephone?” E.J called, the laughter cutting off abruptly. It was silent for a few seconds, before two green lights cut through the fog. “My name is Eyeless Jack, but everyone calls me E.J. This is Hoodie, and Laughing Jack In-A-Box, call him L.J. We are wards of the Slenderman, while Hoodie is a Proxy, like your parents. We have a few questions to ask them.”

It was silent again before the lights moved forward and the fog cleared. There stood a small child, a little taller than Sally. He really did look like Jeff and Toby’s kid, despite not being biologically related to them at all. He had wild, black fluffy hair and literally glowing green eyes. His skin was milky pale, and he wore jeans and combat boots with a green zip-up hoodie.

The kid tilted his head and stared at them for a moment, not blinking. “You say you know my parents?” He asked, his voice surprisingly monotone. “Yes, I’m a Proxy and the Jacks are Wards. We go on missions with them whenever Boss tells us to.” Hoodie responded carefully. Persephone wasn’t hostile, but it wouldn’t be smart to make him angry, especially if he takes after Jeff and Toby.

Persephone studied them for another moment, seeming to stare into their souls before nodding. “Alright. Follow me, you’re going the wrong way.” They walked forward about twelve steps before a loud BANG made them look back. Two large shipping containers stacked on one another sat where they had stood before, leaves and dust raining down indicated that it had fallen from above.

They slowly turned back around to look at Persephone, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Well? We don’t got all day.” He turned around and took a sharp right, motioning for them to follow. L.J raised an eyebrow and gave the others a look, but they all followed Persephone anyway. Unlike them, he seemed to know where every trench and tree root was and didn’t trip once over the bodies. ‘Why would he?’ E.J thought, stepping over half a femur, ‘He was raised in these woods, he probably knows this place better than Jeff and Toby do.’

They walked for about ten more minutes in silence before The Cabin came into view. It looked the same as it always did, with dark wood walls and poisonous garden. Persephone walked up and opened the door, then immediately closed it. “Dad, papa, can you stop fucking? There are three people here named Laughing Jack, Eyeless Jack, and Hoodie and they want to talk to you!” Persephone called through the door. E.J snorted. There was a loud ‘thump’ sound before the door flew open.

Toby stood there with his fly unzipped and belt unbuckled, his hair disheveled and lips bruised. His shirt was riding up as well, but he quickly pushed that down. L.J would usually make a sex joke, but his breath was caught in his throat. Toby was about four inches taller than the last time they saw him, now standing at 6’3. He looked more muscular as well and had a beard. Like, it wasn’t huge, but it was more than stubble. A fucking goatee too, christ, E.J was going to pass out. They knew they had started aging again, but actually seeing it was different than reading about it in a file. I mean, holy shit, he was the same height as Hoodie now.

They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, before Toby growled and fixed his pants. “What-t th-the fuck are y’all doin’ here?” He asked, looking ready to pounce and attack them. Jeff came out and interrupted before any of them could answer. “Come inside, don’t sit on the right armchair, I want to get whatever this is over with.” They stood there for a moment looking really stupid before their brains kicked in, and quickly moved inside and sat on the couch, ignoring the obvious semen stains on the right armchair.

An awkward silence filled the air, Persephone looking between his parents and guests while his parents glared and the strangers starred. Jeff looked different as well. Still really short, but he grew three inches and was now 5’6. His hair was longer as well, touching the small of his back, and was tied in the middle with a thick ribbon. He didn’t have a beard, which wasn’t really surprising due to the glasglow. “So. . . .” L.J started, “How long were you planning to hide the fact you got married and adopted a child?”

“As long as possible.” They answered, still glaring. There was no point in beating around the bush. They hadn’t wanted the others to know, but they knew being found out was inevitable. So they hoped their peace could last, just a little bit longer. It seemed that peace had finally come to an end.

“We don’t want to intrude,” Hoodie reasoned, “But everyone has a lot of questions, mainly why’s and how’s. Sally just wants to meet him.” That seemed to soften them for a second before Jeff growled. “How did you even find out? We asked Master not to tell you.” He adjusted himself until he was laying horizontally across Toby’s lap, his glare colder than ever.

“Masky found Persephone's paper in The Cabin’s file and showed it to everyone—”      “Everyone?!” Toby interrupted Hoodie, practically snarling. “He t-told fucking everyone about-t him!?!” The three Mansion residents leaned back, knowing how quick Toby’s emotions changed and how brutal he could become. Jeff wrapped his arm around Toby’s shoulder, leaning up and biting his earlobe. “Don’t kill the messenger, darling. We’ll kick Wright’s ass later. But right now,” He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, speaking louder, “Come out, BEN, we know you’ve been listening.”

Persephone looked confused before the TV turned to static, then gasped when BEN appeared on the screen. Behind him was The Mansions living room, with everyone else pushing each other to get a closer look at Persephone. Sally popped up next to BEN and waved enthusiastically. “HI! I’m Sally, are you Persephone!? You look so pretty!! And you look a lot like Jeff and Toby too!! Can I play with him? Can I go to the Cabin to play? Can he come here to play? Can he, can he!?!”

Sally said this all in one breath and was now pulling on Puppeteers sleeve for an answer. Helen pushed past and got a good look at Persephone before nodding and pulling out a sketch pad, moving out of the way for Clockwork. “Sup. Wow, you do look like their kid. And if you're anything like them, you’ll be pretty fun to run missions with. Yo, Toby, he a Proxy yet? Nice beard, by the way.”

“Not-t yet-t,” Toby answered, rubbing Jeff’s thigh, “wait-ting for him to-to hit sixte-teen or sevent-teen. Unt-til th-then he’s a Ward.” She nodded and moved off-screen for Sally. “So, Puppeteer says that you can’t come unless you want to, and I can’t go there unless Jeff and Toby say it’s ok, so do you wanna come here and play? Or can I ask Jeff and Toby if I can come there? Jeff, Toby, can I come to the cabin to play with Persephone? Please? I promise I’ll be good!”

Sally was practically bouncing with excitement, and Persephone looked very interested in her. That was probably because she was hovering a few inches off the ground. Jeff and Toby looked at each other, having a silent conversation about whether or not saying no would be worth making Sally cry. It was decided it would not be worth it. “Ok Sally,” Jeff said, already regretting this, “He can come and play for a few hours, we got papers to drop off anyway. But play nice, ok?” Sally squealed with delight and bounced away, saying that she’ll get a tea party ready.

“Really?” Persephone asked, shocked. “I can go?” He loved his parents more than he loved anything else in the world, but they were very protective, and he didn’t have any friends other than SmileDog.Jpg. He hadn’t thought they would let him go, but his dad nodded to him.

“You can go, just-t be careful about-t who you ta-talk t-to. And bring your wand to-too.” He smiled so wide it hurt his face. He jumped up and ran to his room to get his wand, running back in and almost barling over the clown. “Easy there, little wand waver! You excited? I am! It’s not every day we get a new kid, much less an actual one!” Persephone liked this clown, he looked very odd and sounded very crazy.

“I’m not a kid!” He said, moving past. “I’m turning six in July if you wanna get me a present!” L.J laughed and threw him onto his shoulder. “I can’t promise it’ll be safe! Now c’mon, I know how cranky Sally gets when she has to wait to meet a new friend!”

With a puff of black burnt sugar-scented smoke, they were gone. Jack stared where Laughing Jack had been before slowly turning towards Jeff and Toby. They did not look happy. L.J and Persephone were now standing in a very expensive-looking room. “Woah,” Persephone looked around, “Is this your room?” L.J laughed and started walking, taking the left staircase. “Nope! This, magic man, is the living room. Always forget how small The Cabin is until I go there again.” Persephone ooh ed and aah ed at everything, firing off question after question for L.J to answer to the best of his ability.

They eventually stopped at a pastel pink door that had the name Sally written on it in hot pink. Opening the door led to what must be a little girl’s dream room. Canopy bed, large toy chest, small table and chairs, fluffy rug, curtains with gemstones and flowers on them, large white dressers, all of it various shades of pink or white. Sally sat at the small table, setting plates and napkins in front of the chairs.

She jumped up when they walked in. “Jack, you brought Persephone! It’s so nice to meet you! I made cookies and tea for us to share with Mr.Death and Tails! Then after that we could play dress up or tag or hide and go seek. . . . .” She rambled for a bit, happily teaching him tea party etiquette. Persephone didn’t think he’d ever had this much fun!

While Persephone was having tea, his parents were attempting to commit murder. Now, that would be normal any other day, if the people they were attempting to murder were not co-workers. Hoodie was having a very hard time holding back Jeff, while E.J surrendered to Toby the moment L.J disappeared. Hoodie was trying not to get his ass beat while Toby was yelling at E.J. (“I’m gonna fucking kill you.” Toby growled. “That’s fair.” E.J replied)

E.J figured that trying to fight back would only result in more bodily harm. And by the way Hoodie and Jeff’s fight was looking, it seemed he was right. Toby interrogated him harshly, holding a clump of his hair in his fist while he answered that no, he didn’t know where exactly L.J went, and no, they were not going to purposely kill Persephone. Hoodie seemed to be getting asked the same questions but through punches and stab wounds.

“L.J probably brought him to The Mansion to meet Sally. I don’t know for certain,” He said quickly, feeling Toby grip his hair tighter, “But The Mansion is probably your best bet. Sorry that L.J basically abducted your son. This conversation wasn’t supposed to end this way.” Hoodie let out a groan as he was dragged next to him, Jeff placing a foot on his chest to keep him down.

“You better pray to your favorite god he’s not hurt,” Jeff growled and yanked Hoodie forward by his shirt, coming nose to nose with him. Hoodie nodded and was dropped harshly, Jeff stepping over him and going to Toby’s side. Toby wrapped an arm around his waist and kissed under his earlobe, squeezing him before turning to E.J. “Mansion. Now.”

Persephone was having the time of his life. Who knew playing tag with a poltergeist and a demonic clown could be so fun? Not only could Sally float, but L.J could teleport, which was a great way to add suspense to the game. It made him bring out some of his own tricks, which sort of derailed the game and turned it into them just showing off what they could do. He loved L.J’s magic tricks, as dangerous as some were, and they both loved his charms and umbrakinesis.

Sally was especially delighted to discover that unicorns were real creatures that only liked girls and would violently disembowel anyone else. The talk of magical creatures brought in another kid, BEN, and he was more than excited to be told that dragons were real creatures with multiple different breeds. He was also happy to learn that people could get jobs as dragon tamers or breeders since the species was sorta dying out.

They played for hours, getting destroyed in video games by BEN and playing dress-up with Sally. L.J even took them into his Carnaval for a bit, winning prizes at ring toss and going on a rollercoaster. He almost forgot all about his parents but was struck with the reminder when they walked into the kitchen to see papa pinning Puppeteer to a while with a knife at his throat.

Puppeteer’s hands were up in surrender, while Helen sat next to him looking very bored. Papa turned around at the sound of them entering and was in front of him and picking him up in less than a second. “Persephone, there you are!” Jeff said, adjusting his hold on Persephone to give him a bit of a check over. “We were so worried,” He broke off muttering, kissing Persephone’s head.

He blushed and lightly patted his face. “Papa, my friends are here. . .” Jeff snorted and kissed his cheek, looking back at BEN, Sally and L.J. “You four have fun?” They all nodded, L.J a little apprehensively. He was very surprised he hadn’t been—”Hey, Jack, let-t’s t-t-talk out-tside for a minuet-t.” Well, fuck, he spoke too soon. Toby dragged led him out of the kitchen, Jeff setting Persephone down to follow.

“Stay with Helen for a bit, ok? He’s pretty fun, and you both like drawing, maybe he could give you some tips!” Helen looked a little miffed about being told to watch three kids, but Persephone’s eyes lit up when Jeff mentioned drawing. “You can draw? I love drawing, it’s so much fun! What are you drawing now? What’s your favorite thing to draw? Mine’s space and planets and stars and galaxies! What’s your favorite art style? What’s your favorite thing to draw with? Mines—”

It was decided that there would be more playdates after this one, just planned better with more forewarning and less random abduction. It was hard for the Woods parents to say anything else, especially after seeing Persephone’s face as Helen showed him all the different art supplies he owned, even–begrudgingly–offering to give him some lessons. Sally was absolutely delighted to learn that some of these playdates will take place at The Cabin, since she had never been.

Persephone spent a lot of time telling her about the forest he loved, and the garden in the back, though he warned her not to eat or touch anything without asking if it was safe first. He was thrilled to learn that only L.J and BEN could get to The Cabin, so when Sally comes over she would most likely be accompanied by one of the two.

Jeff and Toby leaned against a wall as they watched Persephone play with his new friends. Toby had an arm wrapped around Jeff’s waist, stroking his back with his thumb while Jeff ran his fingers through his hair. They were glad to see Persephone so happy, but they were also very nervous. Some of the Mansion’s less permanent residents are known not to like children and some are known to target specifically kids.

L.J’s different, he can control himself and has some sort of standard for what kid he kills. The others they know of, not so much. But this could and would be good. Not only would it develop Persephone’s communication skills, but he would be less lonely, he could go on missions more often, and practice magic more. But they still didn’t like it.

Jeff buried his face into Toby’s neck, muttering. “He’s growing up so fast; it feels like we got him yesterday.” Toby murmured his agreement and kissed Jeff’s cheek. “I know, baby. I want-t him to st-tay lit-tle forever. But-t he’s not-t gonna leave forever, he’ll always be with-th us. Don’t-t worry, baby. He’s happy and t-that’s all th-that mat-t-t-ters.”

Chapter Text

It was the morning of July 31st, and three people felt very different things. The birthday boy felt very excited, he was eleven which meant he was almost twelve and soon he would be old enough to go on missions by himself. His parents, however, were not excited.

It was the day Persephone would receive his letter to Hogwarts, though he didn’t know that yet. This fact had haunted Jeff and Toby the entirety of the year, and they still didn’t know how to tell him. It didn’t help that Sally had found out when Persephone’s birthday was and wanted to throw him a party at The Mansion.

He was ecstatic about it, and they couldn’t bring themselves to say no. But did that mean the letter would come to The Mansion? Or would it go to The Cabin? How was it even delivered? If it was by owl, then how long would it take the owl to get from Britain to America? So many questions, almost zero answers.

-^-^-

A month before, in an old castle in Scotland, three wizards crowded around a table filled with knick-knacks and do-dads. Severus Snape looked as annoyed as he usually did, while Minerva McGonagall was both anxious, hopeful, and mentally preparing herself to be furious if the need arose. She had listened when Albus told her to cease her visits to Privet Drive, no matter how much it angered her to do so. She had put so much faith into the headmaster, and if it proved to be misplaced, then it was her own fault as much as it was his.

Severus didn’t quite know how to feel. On one hand, the son of James Potter, the man who had made what was supposed to be the most magical years of his life his worst, would be attending Hogwarts this year, and he may be able to enact any small forms of revenge. But on the other hand, the son of Lily, his best friend and childhood crush, was also this boy. Would he be like his mother, the kindest and most honest person Severus ever had the pleasure of knowing, or would he be like his father—a man Severus despised more than anything for the amount of torment he caused him? A very large part of him didn’t want to know.

Albus Dumbeldore had everything planned out. The boy would grow up with the Dursleys, where he would learn to be quiet and obedient, feeling like there was no escape from his horrible relatives. This would lead to his introduction to the magical world feel like a chance at a new life, and it would be. Yes, the boy would have no formal education, despite the things he’s told the public, but that wouldn’t matter. He would have Harry Potter as a moldable and powerful wizard, who would have been the figurehead to the Light and the eradicator of the Dark. ‘Would have been’ being the key phrase.

Dumbledore felt the heated glares of both Professors as the acceptance letters wrote out the last of the ‘P’s, with Potter not being one of them. He could almost hear their accusatory thoughts, telling him this was his fault and whatnot. This wasn’t his fault at all, while yes he knew the Dursleys would be abusive he didn’t think they would kill him.

In fact Albus knew for a fact they didn’t, a silver spinning device on his desk telling him the boy was still alive. But if that was the case, why was his letter not written? Could he have possibly been a squib? No, Lily and James Potter were too powerful of Wixen to produce a squib. Maybe he had overdone it on the blocks on his magic, but he needed the boy to see himself as small and weak, so Dumbeldore could swoop in with encouragement and meaningless advice .

If the boy was a squib, then he would need to use Longbottom. It was incredibly risky since the Longbottom Heir was an uncoordinated and shy excuse of a wizard, Augusta telling him that she had believed him a squib as well. The child of the prophecy needed to be powerful and moldable, and while he was certain he could control Longbottom he greatly lacked —

“ The ‘W’’s, Albus, the ‘W’’s!” Minerva's excited cheer broke him out of his plotting. Severus looked like he was disappointed the boy wasn’t dead, but there was relief in those beetle eyes. Albus Dumbledore picked up the letter and read it, thoughts buzzing with this new information.

-^-^-

Persephone can’t remember a time he felt this excited. His parents usually threw him a small party and then took him out for a spree after opening presents, but this was the first time he would have a party with other people! He practically jumped into the kitchen, papa giving him an amused look as he cooked.

“ Excited, Kore?” He asked, setting a plate of ‘birthday breakfast’ in front of him. Birthday breakfast was a plate of three chocolate chip pancakes with cream and bacon and ham on the side. Persephone nodded, “Yeah, I’ve never had a party in a different place before, and Sally keeps whispering about a bigger surprise and I can’t guess what it is! Do you know?” He took a bite of bacon and giggled when papa ruffled his hair.

“ I don’t know, sweetie, but whatever it is it’ll be something to remember, especially if Sally’s planning it. She’s the undead definition of ‘go big or go home.’” Jeff chuckled and wiped down the stove, feeling Toby wrap his arms around his waist. Toby bit Jeff’s neck and collarbone, his stubble rubbing against his shoulder. “It’s today,” He muttered, kissing the bite marks. Jeff leaned back into him, sighing, “I know.”

Persephone’s phone dinged, showing a text from BEN. It was birthday GIFS. Persephone sent back party emojis as Jeff and Toby walked into the living room. BEN’s face took over the screen and said, “Happy spawn day, Merlin the great! How’s it feel to be one year younger than me?”   “Feel’s great,” Persephone snorted, eating more ham, “Maybe I’ll get taller this year, wouldn’t that be fuckin’ wonderful.” BEN laughed and started telling him about a VR he ordered, distracting him from his parents’ muttered conversation.

“ We should t-tell him now,” Toby muttered, “It-t’ll be worse if we don’t-t.” Jeff sighed and straddled Toby, rubbing his chest. “I know, darling, but how? We can’t just flat out say it, can we? And we both know he’ll want to go, he deserves to.” That was the part they didn’t like. They were both paranoid and knew it, but that didn’t mean they could stop Persephone from going to school and making friends.

Besides, one of the reasons Master wanted him to go was so he could get a bigger influence. While Master was an imposing figure to the creatures of the world, he wasn’t very powerful in the Magical community, and sending Persephone in to plant seeds for Master to enter through would be difficult but—

“That’s it! This could be Persephone’s first sole mission!” Jeff whisper yelled, suddenly very excited. Toby thought it through for a moment before nodding. “I mean, it tech-technically is, just with-thout-t a tar-target.” They could tell him this, and not only would it make him very happy, but also make him leaving for long amounts of time hurt less.

He would learn, he would be helping Master grow more powerful, and he would be making friends and having fun. He could even recruit someone if they were right for the job. Toby smiled as Jeff snuggled into him. Yeah, this would be okay, they were just over-stressing. Again.

Persephone had never seen so many people in a room before. Wards he did and didn’t know walked in and out, saying happy birthday and telling him about the new missions he could go on when he was older. Even Kate was here, flying in like a hurricane and throwing him into the air.

Sally was bouncing around him, telling him the names of everyone he didn’t know and introducing him to anyone who didn’t already know him. Most of the Wards he didn’t know called him ‘Jeff’s boy’ or ‘Toby’s kid’, a few calling him ‘Pyro combo.’ It seemed everyone knew his parents, but he didn’t know any of them.

Kagekao told him that wasn’t surprising. “Woods and Rogers both very ah, what’s the word, しがみつく? 保護? Worrisome, I believe. Lost a lot, so they keep what they have in デスグリップ. Yes, pronounced death grip. I did not think they would open their hearts to any person other than their ソウルメイト. They only like each other. I’m shocked they had you, miss spring.” Even other wards said that they were surprised, since ‘they hate everyone but each other.’ It made him feel more loved than before, knowing that having him must have been a huge leap out of their comfort zones.

Toby and Jeff were cuddling on an armchair while watching Persephone run around, only talking when someone approached them. They were nervous, but far more comfortable with the idea of Hogwarts than ever before. Toby didn’t know why they didn’t just think of it as a long solo mission from the start, but that was probably because they pushed Hogwarts out of their minds entirely and refused to acknowledge its existence until they had to.

Laughing Jack was throwing around confetti and party poppers, candy falling out of his sleeves. “Ladies and Gentlemen, whores and sluts, it is time to eat cake, open presents, and get fucked up on sugaaaaar~!!” Everyone moved to stand or sit at the dining table, Persephone placed in the middle. Sally was jumping up and down next to him, and they both gave a squeal of delight when they saw the cake. He had known the cake would be way bigger since there were over a hundred people here, but he didn’t know cakes could be five layers, much less that wide!

It was a chocolate cheesecake with caramel drizzle and brownie crust. Jeff, Eyeless Jack, and Pinkamena put a lot of hard work into making it, and it paid off very well. Younger Wards like Lifeless Lucy and Lost Silver were freaking out, jumping or floating around and eagerly handing taller Wards like Funnymouth and L.J candles to put on and light. Persephone didn’t know how he was going to get to the top to blow them out, but he'd be damned if he didn’t try.

Masky was massaging his head and muttering about hyper children, while Clockwork and Helen seemed determined to draw the cake before it was all gone. Puppeteer and Erma were dancing around the room, golden strings fixing her every time she broke. Most of the younger Wards like Lulu and Itsy Bitsy were excited to meet another kid, even if this one would age more.

The older Wards wanted to see what Persephone was capable of. “Kid was raised by two of the best,” Nobody said to Dollmaker, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he knows more shit than we do.” Dollmaker nodded, adjusting his eyes. “I wish to see how far he’ll go. A mixture of Rogers Brutality and Woods’ sadism would be a wonderful sight to see. ”

“C’mon queen spring!” X-Virus yelled, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I want you to open my gift, cause I actually put some thought and consideration into it! And then I want you to use it, cause it may or may not be explosive~” Persephone and a few others laughed, some looking at the pile of presents warily.

Toby gave X-Virus a fist bump before moving to Persephone’s side, Jeff following. “Ya’ think you can get up there all by yourself, Kore?” Jeff asked, snorting as he began floating. Persephone laughed as Toby ruffled his hair. “Don’t-t make a boring wish, ‘Seph, never know if it-t’ll come t-true or not-t.”     “I won’t! It’ll be the coolest thing ever!” Persephone laughed, continuing to float upwards.

Some of the less social Wards were lounging against the kitchen wall, content with watching when a rapid tapping caught one’s attention. Chris moved toward the sound, eyes narrowing at the odd sight of an owl with a letter attached to its leg. She opened the window and caught the bird before it could fly inside, holding it by the wings while she took the letter. Hobo Heart raised an eyebrow at her but motioned for The Pianist to get Masky when he saw the letter. She read the address and glared at the paper, not liking its accuracy.

“What’s it say?” Hobo asked, waving Masky and The Toymaker over. “It says ‘Mr. Persephone Woods, formally Mr. Harry Potter, the twenty-fifth chair, The Mansion, America’. Who the fuck is Harry Potter?” She asked, nearly inaudible, handing the letter to Masky, who sighed when he saw the seal. “It’s Persephone’s birth name, and that means this is his Hogwarts acceptance letter.” Jason raised an eyebrow, Liquorice scurrying onto his shoulder. “The child is a wizard? That explains the wide variety of abilities he possesses. Though I am curious as to why it’s a European school.”

Zero appeared out of nowhere and snatched the letter out of Masky’s hands. “We’ll find out soon,” she said, “since I’m’bout ninety-nine percent sure double trouble over there didn’t tell him.”     “Zero!” Masky snapped, but she had already danced away towards Nurse Ann, waving the letter like a flag.

Ann raised an eyebrow at her, eyeing the letter like it might blow up. Zero handed her the letter, moving away when Chris grabbed for her. “Well, that’s unusual. . .'' Ann muttered, rubbing the seal. “What is?” E.J asked, leaning over her shoulder. “Here, read this.” His eyebrows rose in surprise at the address, and he handed it to Suicide Sadie to read next.

‘Son of a bitch,’ Masky thought, ‘ they’re playing hot potato with the letter.’ The letter was being passed from Ward to Ward, getting closer and closer to being handed to Jeff or Toby. BRVR somehow managed to get his paws on it, BEN and Lost Silver trying to get it back without being blown away like Team Rocket.

It didn’t work, and the demonic Pikachu happily bounced up to Toby. “Pika Pika!” He chirped, tugging on Toby’s pant leg. Toby looked down and paled at the sight of the letter. He tried to steady his breathing and calm down a bit, but Jeff must have felt his nerves spike and looked over.

Jeff starred at the letter, mind racing. “Whatcha got there, BRVR?” They both knew what it was. They couldn’t ignore it any longer. “What’s wrong?” Persephone called down, noticing the muttering in the room and sensing his parents’ nervousness.

Toby and Jeff looked at each other in silent conversation before Toby called for Persephone to come down. “T-this is import-tant. Really import-tant-t.” Persephone frowned and floated to the ground, looking between his parents and the letter in Toby’s hands. “What is that?” Jeff sighed and began twisting his hair in his hands. “Your acceptance letter.”

The Wards and Proxies in the room quieted their muttering, listening intently. Persephone gave papa a confused look. “Acceptance letter? For what? I didn’t apply to anything.”     “Your parent-ts put-t you in,” Dad muttered, handing him the letter. “Your birth-th parent-ts.'' Sharp whispers rose around the room and Persephones eye’s widened. As silly as it was, he had forgotten they weren’t his biological parents.

Every time he looked in the mirror, he could see physical parts of himself that they had. Papa’s black hair and dad’s green eyes. Dad’s freckles and papa’s short build. Dad’s untamable hair and papa’s nose. He even sounded like them. To know that this letter had something to do with his birth parents made him uneasy.

He turned the letter over and read the address. “This is some A-tier stalker shit. . .” He muttered, pulling the seal off and taking out the letter. “Dear Mr.Woods,” He read aloud, seeing everyone lean forward to hear, “We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed you will find a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on the 1st of September. We will await your owl no later than the 31st of July. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress.”

The knowledge he was a wizard wasn’t new. Papa had told him the first time he had asked why he had magic. He knew about the shops and the other witches and wizards in America, he just didn’t think he would interact with them more than that. ‘ Of course there’s school’s, ’ Persephone lightly scolded himself for getting so surprised. ‘ Where did you think other magical kids learned?’

“ Should I go?” Persephone asked, looking to his parents for guidance. “T-This was supposed to-to be a bit of a surprise,” Toby said, twisting his ring. “Mast-ter is powerful to th-the non-human members of t-the wizarding world, but the wizards th-themselves don’t know he exist-ts, and he has yet to find an ent-trance int-to th-their world. T-That’s where you would come in.” Toby and Jeff sat down and motioned for Persephone to sit next to them. As he did, the others of The Mansion crowded around to hear more.

“Hogwarts is a place visited by generations of hundreds of people and is a home for teachers and students for ten months.” Jeff started, “It has over a hundred known hidden passageways and over a hundred unknown ones. There are secret rooms, abandoned parts of the castle, an entire catacombs system that’s entrances are not entirely sealed off, and a forest surrounding the school filled with centaur tribes, spiders the size of semi-trucks, and who knows what else. The teachers and staff are brilliant in their craft but complete morons in everything else. You’ll find that most wizards are like that.”

Persephone giggled a little, thumbing over the letter’s seal. “Hogwarts is th-the perfect-t place for Mast-ter to infect-t first-t because of the number of people th-that are in it all the t-time. Specifically, the t-type of people. Wizards.” Toby and Jeff adjusted themselves until they were comfortable before continuing.

“Wizards can do things normal people can’t, that’s obvious. What makes them special and valuable is how they could spread Master to other people. There are a lot of spells and potions that alter, change, erase, or add memories to someone’s mind. Say a wizard placed a memory of Master in another wizard’s head. This wizard has never even heard of Master before, but now with this memory, they see him. Knowing about Master means Master knows about you.” Jeff took the second letter and began reading it while talking.

“This wizard, without even knowing what Master is, can now be infected with The Sickness and become one of Master’s vessels or puppets. This means that this wizard’s offspring will have a part of Master in them, and that means they will belong to him and this will give him a large amount of control over their lives should he choose to interact. But he couldn’t do any of this because he hasn’t had a wizard under him until now.”

Toby took the second page of the letter and read through it, placing it on the table for others to see. “T-That’s where you come in. As a wizard and Ward, you are th-the perfect-t person t-o go in and plant-t seeds for Mast-ter to ent-ter th-through. You are a part of th-their world as much as you are a part-t of ours, and with-th all you know now and what-t you’ll learn while you’re t-there, depending on how and who you lead to Mast-ter, the entirety of Wizarding Brit-tain could be infect-ted, maybe t-the res-s-st of Europe.” Persephone listened with wide eyes, looking between them in shock as the Wards around him muttered.

Germany had been the only part of Europe The Slender Ones had successfully brought under their control, but many thought it didn’t count since it was their birthplace. Zalgo had control over most of Asia and Chernabog had Africa and recently Australia. They were all still fighting over Antarctica, but they all only had a select few capable of surviving the conditions. To get control over Britain, something they’d been trying to do since The Birthing. . .

“Persephone,” Jeff said, taking his hand and squeezing it, “This is your first solo mission, and it might just be the biggest and longest one of your life. For the next seven years, you’ll go to Scotland to spread Master’s influence to the wizards of Britain, and like your dad said, if you do it right you could spread him farther. Do you accept?” Everyone was silent, looking to Persephone eagerly. Persephone had stars in his eyes, reeling from the responsibility he had just been given. “I accept!” Persephone exclaimed, smiling so wide it hurt.

Jeff pulled him forward and kissed his head, Toby doing the same while everyone else began to congratulate him. Some of the Wards started to give him ideas for how he could spread Master, some suggesting journals and others saying he should just kill people and only leave behind his symbol to draw investigators to him. Persephone happily absorbed all these ideas for later before someone yelled for everyone’s attention. It was The Prowler, and she was holding the first page of the letter. “It says it won’t take a response past the 31st!” She called, and Lockleer replied “So?” Prowler rolled her eyes. “Today is the 31st!”   “Oh shit!” Persephone jumped up, quickly rushing for a pen and paper.

‘Dear Deputy Headmistress, ’ Persephone wrote, ‘ I apologize for my late reply, as my letter did not come until the day of the 31st. I would like to formally accept my invitation to Hogwarts. I look forward to seeing you on the 1st. Sincerely, Persephone Woods. ’ He folded it and handed it to the owl Chris was holding, everyone watching as it flew out the window it came. “Now th-that t-the fun st-tuff is out of th-he way,” Toby said, sighing as he sat straighter, “Let-t’s t-talk about-t the not-so-fun st-tuff.” Persephone sat next to him, listening intently, as did everyone else.

“Before you were born, wizarding Brit-tain was going th-through a blood purit-ty-relat-ted war. Purebloods believed t-that magical children born from normal people should be monit-tored more closely and if a sit-tuat-tion calls for it, removed from th-their household to be raised by ot-ther wizarding families.”

“Th-this was due to some families of wix react-ting violent-tly when learning of th-their child’s magic.” Toby continued, “While t-this was a good idea, it was an idea held by ‘dark’ wizards. T-that alone made it very unappealing to everyone else, but th-then t-the leader of t-this belief, a man named T-Tom Riddle, changed.”

Persephone didn’t know why his gut t ightened at the name, but he felt like he’d heard it before. He racked his brain for any mention of the name, but he only got very fuzzy memories of his first time in The Cabin. If he had heard the name when he had first been brought home, then it wasn’t surprising he couldn’t remember it. He couldn’t remember anything before his first month at The Cabin very well, if at all.

Jeff sat on Toby and continued after he knew Persephone had absorbed what Toby’d said. “His philosophy changed from ‘bring non-wiz born into wizarding society and away from a potentially dangerous one’ into ‘kill all non-wix and non-wix born’. No one really knows what caused such a sudden change in morals, but it was probably because he started splitting his soul into multiple pieces in an attempt to achieve immortality.”

“Non-wix born began fearing for their lives, as he was very quick to rally his followers to act on this new philosophy. That’s where the ‘light’ wizards came in. In a few months it had blown into an all-out war, wizards from both sides dropping left and right. But through the midst of it all, two people named Lily Evans and James Potter were preparing for a baby.”

Persephone leaned forward as Jeff continued. “There was a charm on their house that prevented anyone who didn’t know the address from finding the house. You could’ve been pressing your face right up against the window and you wouldn’t have known a house was there. Only one person knew the address, the secret keeper, and he betrayed the Potters and told Riddle, who had taken the name Voldemort, the address. I don’t know why he was so hellbent on killing you specifically, but that was all he seemed to care about.”

“Thankfully, while he was busy killing your birth father, your mother was performing some magic. She placed a very powerful shield charm on you, the magical equivalent of a mother’s love. After she was killed and Riddle attempted to kill you, this charm was what made his spell backfire and allowed you to live with only a scar. The spell he was using was called the killing curse, and it killed him when it backfired. Why does all this matter? Well, no one before you has ever gotten hit with the killing curse and survived.” Persephone’s eyes widened.

“When that curse rebounded, your mother essentially ended the war. But at this point over hundreds of wizards had been killed by Riddle alone. The Monore family, a bloodline of pureblood wizards that had existed for over five hundred years, had been entirely wiped out. The ‘light’ wizards were worshiping you like a god while the ‘dark’ wizards wanted to see your head roll. Now, if anyone had bothered to open and read your birth parent’s wills, they would have named the real secret keeper and a man named Sirius Black as your godfather, and that under no circumstances were you to be placed with your aunt upon their deaths.”

“Instead, the authorities decided to not only give the wills to the headmaster of Hogwarts but to also take his word and his word alone that you were in a safe family that loved you. They didn’t even ask him to take veritaserum. He placed you on your aunt’s doorstep and then proceeded to place multiple charms that prevented anyone from the magical or non-magic world to find you and take you away. The reason we were able to enter, kill them and take you was that we weren’t a part of either world.”

Everyone in the room was muttering to either themselves or each other, all with different questions. Persephone was still reeling from this new information. “Wait,” he said, touching his head where he knew he had a nearly invisible scar, “You said they were worshiping me. Like, how weird did that get?” Jeff and Toby looked at each other and cringed before answering .

“Well, t-there’s about a hundred books describing your ‘’’’ advent-tures ’’’’ at Hogwart-ts th-that the entiret-ty of Brit-tain has accepted as tr-truth, despite it stati-ting at the start-t of every book it’s a work of ficti-tion. Basically, everyone believes you're going to get-t sort-ted int-to th-the house Gryffindor and become a hero of t-the light-t and hate everythi-thing and everyone who’s remot-tely dark.”

“Oh,” Persephone said, “That’s not good.” Jeff chuckled and leaned over to ruffle his hair. “Yeah, it fucking sucks, which is why we’re so glad the letter says your real name. If it said your birth name, then that means it might have been called during the sorting ceremony. Actually,” Jeff paused, seeming to think, “Knowing how much that old bastard Dumbledore was obsessed with making you his ideal ‘hero of the light’, they might just call it out anyways.” Toby leaned forward and bit his neck. “You're gonna make him nervous.”

“Indeed.” said the disembodied voice of Master, all Wards looking around to try and find him. “This is a mission you cannot get nervous for. As stupid and stuck in their ways British wixen are, they are ruthless politicians and can practically smell emotions. Feeling fear or anxiety in their presence is a death sentence, especially with how they think you were raised.” Master said, appearing in front of Persephone with a burst of static. The room silenced in his presence, giving him their full attention. “Master,” Persephone asked worryingly, “What do you mean ‘how they think I was raised’?”

“The light-crazed bat that put you with the Dursleys assured the Wizarding world that you had been giving to a pureblood wizarding family of gray alliance and that they would teach you everything you needed to know. He convinced everyone that by your first year, you would be able to get a perfect score on all your end-of-year standardized tests, which are only taken in the fifth and seventh year of Hogwarts.” About half the room muttered ‘uh oh’ and began quietly discussing A(ways to kill the headmaster and B(why would the idiot put his ‘hero’ on a pedestal of unreachable expectations when he knew he wouldn’t even know he was a wizard ?

“You need not worry child,” Reassured Master, “While your father was correct when he said the teachers are masters of their craft, being a master only means so much when you’re so underdeveloped. If an American wix was to move to Britain, they would be hailed a prodigy. And considering you're about four years ahead of American wix your age, I have no doubt you’ll exceed their expectations. What I am more concerned about is the headmaster and potions teachers’ Legilimency.” Toby and Jeff growled, understanding what Master meant while some Wards muttered their confusion.

Persephone tilted his head. “Will my Occlumency not be enough to stop them, Master?”    “While I have no doubt you’ll be able to stop them the first few times, they may become accustomed to the thin outer layer of your mind, which would allow them to be quicker in breaking through the layer under that.” Persephone considered this for a few moments. “I’ll have to work on strengthening the walls in my mind, then. And avoid eye contact.”

Master nodded, “Yes, but put that away for later, as the letter you sent will not arrive at Hogwarts until August 13th, and I believe you will want to get your school supplies as soon as possible?” Persephone nodded, birthday forgotten as he focused on something much larger. “Very well then. Jeffrey, Tobias, please collect the list of necessities and arm yourselves quietly, never know what could happen. Persephone, if you are ready, we can go right now.”

After Jeff and Toby armed themselves with many small knives and brass knuckles, Persephone got his wand and away they went, Master dropping them off a block away from The Leaky Cauldron with instructions to visit Gringotts first. “You remember the pattern, Kore?” Papa asked, opening the door and weaving through the crowd of bar patrons.

There seemed to be some last-minute school shoppers in the bar, a redhead woman having a glaring contest with another woman who had white strips in her hair. “Yep!” Persephone said, trying to move towards the back door without interrupting.

Opening the back door led to an alleyway, and Persephone used his wand to tap out the pattern he had learned a few minutes before. He had to admit, as much as he disliked British wizards, they sure knew how to make an entrance. It felt like he was seeing magic for the first time, and while Diagon Alley wasn’t as large or colorful as the wizard shopping centers in America, it definitely had its own charm to it.

It felt like a farmer’s market with buildings, and he craned his neck this way and that to try and see it all. Gringotts was the same way Jeff and Toby remembered it being, and the visit went quickly and smoothly, and they walked back onto the streets with a bag filled with what was probably a billion dollars.

Toby glanced at the supplies list, quickly reading .

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.

COURSEBOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)

by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic

by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory

by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration

by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi

by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions

by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection

by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal vials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS

ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK

Yours sincerely,

Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus

Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions

“Alright,” Toby said, motioning towards a shop called ‘Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions.’ “Let-t’s go down the lis-t and get your cloth-thes first-t, th-then we’ll get-t a suit-itcase, er, t-trunk to put all th-this. You st-till go-t your never-ending bag at home, ‘Seph?” Persephone nodded, wondering if Britain had their own versions of never-ending bags.

His looked very bland beside the pins he put on it, just a normal black backpack. What was not normal was the number of weapons, food, explosive chemicals, lethal potions, bombs, lighter fluid, clothes, and drugs meant to kill or paralyze people inside. You’d need a few miles to fit all the stuff Persephone has in that bag. He’s a little worried about his school books, but if the bombs in the bag haven’t gone off then he’s sure the books will be fine.

Thankfully, it’s nearly empty when they walked in, only one boy getting fitted. “Getting first year robes, I presume?” Said the woman measuring the boy, giving them a smile. “Yes ma’am.” Jeff replied, putting an arm around Persephone. “Alright, just a moment dears,” She yelled over her shoulder, “Carrie! Come up and help me please, we’ve got another first year here!” A lanky woman came out and motioned Persephone to stand next to the boy. She didn’t say anything, just gave him a smile and waved her wand then got to work.

“You’re a first year too then?”    “Yes. Are you excited?” Persephone replied. He remembered the political names of this world, and the boy next to him appeared to be Heir Malfoy. If only he was used to talking to people his age who weren’t ghosts or psychotic murderers.

“You’d be insane not to be! Although, I’ll have to smuggle in my broom. I don’t know why first years aren’t allowed their own brooms. Imagine, a whole year without flying, I’d go mad! Do you play quidditch too?” He said this all in one breath and Persephone was a little impressed. Toby and Jeff raised an eyebrow at each other but didn’t say anything and continued to look through the different robe options.

“I haven’t played yet, but I do enjoy flying.” Persephone said, the boy’s eyes widening in surprise. “You’ve never played quidditch? Why not?” Persephone shrugged a little, “Never had anyone to play with.” The boy seemed to study him for a moment. “Are you American? Your accent sounds like it. If you are American, why are you going to Hogwarts?”   

“I was born in London,” He said, thankful for the story they built, “But my dads adopted me when I was three and I’ve lived in America ever since. Your Heir Malfoy, I assume?” The boy nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer. “Draco Malfoy. What’s your name?” He gave a sharp smile. “Persephone Woods. Hoping for Slytherin as well?”

Draco seemed pleased with the question. “Yes, it is the best house, and my whole family has been in Slytherin. Imagine being a Hufflepuff or worse, a Gryffindor.” Before he could answer, a commotion caught both their attention. They turned their heads to see his parents in a bit of an argument.

Well, argument was a bit exaggerated, since dad seemed to be holding papa’s wallet above his head while papa kept jumping to try and get it back. Dad, being 6’3, did not have to try very hard to keep the wallet away from his 5’6 husband, and looked incredibly amused. Papa, however, looked ready to climb him like a squirrel.

“All I’m say’n is we should be prepared! We don’t know what trouble he’ll get up to!” Papa said, jumping again. Dad gave a deep chuckle and kissed papa’s cheek. “Being prepared does not-t mean running off by yourself int-to Knockturn to see what-t the most dangerous th-thing is and the-then attempt to-to buy it. Sorry, baby, but I’ll be keeping t-this.”

“Are they your parents?” Draco asked, looking amusement and a little concerned. “They love each other, don’t worry. This is just how marriage is.” Persephone said, laughing a little when papa started backing up. “Look, ‘Seph, he’s gett-tting a running start-t! Will it be enough to carry him seven inches higher?” Papa ran and leapt, but dad leaned back a little and laughed, “Hey, I felt-t your fingers t-touch my elbow! You should be so proud.”

The woman measuring him looked incredibly amused before asking for his full name so she could finish. “Persephone Bloodstone Woods.” He replied, seeing a quill write it down by itself. The woman told him he was done and his robes would be ready in a few minutes, so he hopped off the podium, Draco following. “Your middle name is Bloodstone?” Draco asked, raising an eyebrow.

Before Persephone could reply a man who looked like a taller version of the Malfoy next to him strode into the store. He could only assume this was his father, Lord Malfoy. “Draco, are you ready? Your mother is waiting for us at Slug and Jiggers.” He stopped in front of the two of them and studied Persephone intently before his eyes went to his parents, who were still playing a game of keep-away with a lot more flirting. But he could tell they were paying attention more than they were before.

“Who is this?” He asked his son, still staring between Persephone and his parents. “Father, this is Persephone Bloodstone Woods, he’s an American wizard who’ll be attending Hogwarts with me. Those men are his parents,” Draco said, motioning to him and his parents, dad lowering his arm with the wallet to wave. This gave papa an opening and he latched himself onto the hand, but dad just raised it again and papa went up with it.

Now papa was a few feet in the air, nose to nose with dad. “Why hello t-there, sexy. Come here oft-ten~?” Dad purred, papa laughing and kissing him. “Are they always like that?” Draco asked. Persephone laughed, “It’s better them kissing and playing than us getting kicked out of another alley for them having sex in a bookstore.” Draco’s eyes widened and his father gave a sniff of disapproval, but dad and papa walked over before he could say something.

“First of all, that situation was your dad’s fault,” Jeff said, lounging around Toby’s neck like a combination of a feather boa and a cat. “Secondly, those folk in Virginia had something against us the moment we came in the state lines.” Toby lovingly rolled his eyes and pinched Jeff’s ass, smirking at the soft squeak he made.

“While what happened was sort-t of my fault, I also think it had to do with the fact-t you got into a fist-tfight with th-three of them not even fift-teen minutes after we ported in.” Jeff huffed and flipped his hair back as Persephone laughed, Draco looking shocked while his father seemed to dislike them more the longer he stood near them.

“Excuse me sirs, but the boy’s robes are ready.” Said the woman who’d measured Draco, handing Toby a stack and Draco’s father a different one. Toby–with Jeff–walked off to pay with the Lord Malfoy, leaving Draco and Persephone together. “Did your father really get into a fistfight with three people in Virginia?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah,” Persephone said, laughing a little, “Wasn’t the first time Papa got into a fistfight, and it’ll definitely not be the last. He likes confrontation.”

Draco was a little awed, but he was masking it well. He opened his mouth, but his father came back and started pulling him away before he could say anything else. Before leaving the shop, Draco turned and yelled, “See you on the platform, Woods!” Before he and his father vanished into the crowded streets.

“What happened? He ran outta here like his ass was on fire.” Jeff snorted and fixed his hair. “Let’s just say he isn’t too fond of PDA.” Toby laughed. “You mean he doesn’t-t like you encouraging me t-to rail you in a corner.” Jeff shrugged and adjusted himself to sit on Toby’s left shoulder. “It’s tempting, is it not~?” He purred, tangling his fingers in Toby’s hair and pulling. Toby’s eyes rolled into the back of his head for a second, before he pinched Jeff’s ass harder than before. “If your not-t careful, I’ll fuck you in the middle of the street-t~.”

Persephone made a fake gagging sound and began pulling them out of the store. “C’mon, I wanna get everything as quickly as possible! You guys can have sex later, I’ll even leave the house!” Jeff and Toby laughed and followed, some people giving Persephone a look for talking a little loud.

Could they blame him if they knew that his parents have had sex in public before? Probably, but he still didn’t want to be sidetracked right now. Jeff was still trying to get his wallet back and was eyeing Knockturn like a challenge, while Toby seemed interested in the owlery and menagerie. But books would have to come first.

‘Flourish and Blotts’ was a little cramped, but they managed to bump into only seven people getting in. They got a lot some odd looks, but that was because Jeff wouldn’t get off Toby’s shoulders. Persephone spotted the Malfoys again and waved at Draco, who waved back before he was pulled away by his father.

Everything was going smoothly, so Persephone wasn’t surprised to look up and immediately have to restrain himself from killing people. Between the book sections ‘Herbology’ and ‘History’, was a section labeled ‘Harry Potter’. Because of course there was. Of course there were enough books about him to warrant a whole section of the store. Wonderful.

Deciding to see exactly just how weird this hero-worship got, he turned into the aisle and had to stop himself from setting the whole store on fire. The first title he saw was ‘The-Boy-Who-Lived: Hogwarts Adventures’ with a cover of someone who looked a little too much like him holding a sword to the sky.

The only difference from book-cover boy and him was that book-cover boy wore glasses and had a bright red lightning-shaped scar, while Persephone’s vision had always been 20/20 and his scar healed a long time ago. He lightly touched his head, where he knew he had a thin line in the same shape. He didn’t know if the book next to it was better or worse. ‘The-Boy-Who-Lived; A timeline and history.’ Why did they have a history book about a child whose parents were murdered? The cover wasn’t any better. It looked like him as a baby, the scar on his head still bleeding.

Persephone decided that he was not, under any circumstances, going to tell anyone his birth name. If the kids he was going to school with grew up reading these sorts of things about him, then he refused to deal with that drama. And if anyone did find out, probably because that bastard headmaster called it at the sorting ceremony, then he would refuse to associate with the people who continued to call him by that name. If they want to be his friend, then they call him Persephone. He turned on his heel and walked out, bumping into someone as he went into the next aisle.

“Sorry, mate! Didn’t see you there!” The boy he bumped into was grinning wildly, holding his own books on some subjects he was certain were very controversial. Interesting. “No problem, dude.” The redhead grinned wider, and for a second Persephone was strongly reminded of the carnival crew. “American, huh? Never talked to one before! Or met one, for that matter.”  There was something very batshit about this boy under the surface. To any normal person, they would just think he’s eccentric. But Persephone knew better.

The boy read the titles of his books and clicked his tongue. “You a first year, yeah? What’s an American doing going to Hogwarts? Why not the states?”   “I was born in London, but adopted and moved to America. My dads didn't know I was on the register and were going to send me to Louisiana's school. We didn’t even get the letter until today. Poor owl probably flew all the way here to New York.”

This guy had a hell of an aura. It was grey and borderline dark, but he seemed to be hiding it under an obnoxiously bright light. If Persephone didn’t know any better, he would’ve believed this guy had a pure soul. But he could see deeper than that, and he could peel back the layers of this guy's magic like an onion. He just had to keep him talking.

“I’m Persephone Woods.” He held out his hand. “What year are you in? Got any tips?” Physical contact would give him a better look into the boy, and speed up the process of learning this guy's magic. It seemed to be leaking chaos. The boy grinned at him slyly and took his hand. “I’m Fred Weasley, fourth year. Not the person most people would go to for advice, but I can guarantee mine is more fun than the boring ol’ ‘do your homework the day you get it’ rubbish.”

Persephone raised an eyebrow. This guy was definitely a trouble maker. “The ‘how to sneak in and out of school without getting caught’ kind of advice or the ‘how to get away with murder’ kind of advice?” Fred laughed and then grinned at him so sharply he felt his lips start bleeding. “Maybe a little bit of both.”

He was pretty sure all of Fred’s advice was at least semi-illegal, but before he could hear any of it an older redhead rounded the corner. “George! Fred? Oh, whichever one you are! C’mon, mums waiting for us at the floo!” The new redhead began pulling Fred away despite his protesting. “At least lemme check out, I saved up for these books! Come off it, Percy!” Fred turned back towards him and called out, “I’ll meet up with you on the train, Persephone!” Before he disappeared behind the shelves with Percy.

While he wasn’t able to feel everything before Percy pulled him away, the feelings he got told him more than enough. A parent that didn’t appreciate his talents and wanted him to be something he wasn’t-and based on a few specific feelings, wanted him to replace a dead relative-always feeling like he wasn’t a full person-he was probably a twin-resentment towards others for what they had but didn’t earn, burning hate towards very specific people, and a growing fascination with dark magic, Fred seemed to have the whole package.

He met up with his parents at the checkout and told them about Fred as they left. Dad seemed to like him. “Every kid needs a bad influence, yours might-t as well be a t-teenage wizard who’s slowly going insane.” Papa seemed more interested in his aura. “If the dark is hidden under all that light, then that means he’s at least somewhat aware that he’s slipping. Definitely someone to keep an eye on.”

They split up at the menagerie, Papa going to get his potions stuff and Dad left to check out Knockturn and see if there was anything worth buying. That left Persephone tasked with buying an owl. He could ask Jasper if she wanted to go when he got home.

He browsed for a bit, nothing caring his interest before he spotted a beautiful snowy white owl with bright yellow eyes. “Hello,” he said to her, “my name's Persephone. What’s yours?” She hooted at him and nuzzled his fingers. He smiled and cooed, “Papa would love you.” She seemed more intelligent than the other owls, and puffed out her feathers in pride. He picked up the cage and went to the front counter.

After buying his new owl, who he named Khione, he waited for his parents at the Leaky Cauldron. Papa found him first, and they chatted and cooed over Khione while they waited for Dad to get back. When he did, he was practically vibrating with excitement. “I’ll t-tell you later,” he said, pulling them out, “the shit in Knockt-turn we’ll help you big t-time, ‘Seph.”

They went home after that, where they found all of his birthday presents in the living room and half the cake in containers in the kitchen, a note from The Toymaker telling them the other half was either eaten or being saved for later at The Mansion. Papa and dad went to their room after that, kissing him good night and telling him to put a silencing charm on his room.

After gagging at them and running away before they had sex in front of him-again-he placed the charm and went over to Jaspers tank. “Jasper dear,” he hissed, “wake up. I’m going on an adventure.” Jasper raised her head and hissed back. “What adventure? Is it worth waking me up for?” He smiled at her. He’d found Jasper in a magical pet shop when she was a hatchling, and begged Papa to get her for him.

Now, she was over seven feet, and large enough to open doors. She was a mix between an asp and a boa constrictor. With her black scales, purple swirls and bright orange eyes, she was the perfect familiar. “I’m going overseas to Scotland for my first solo mission. It’ll be a school, and my mission is to infect everyone for Master.” Persephone opened the tank and pulled her out, stroking her head gently.

She hissed happily. “A mission for you and you only, how fun. When shall you be leaving?”   “September 1st, do you want to come with me?” She did the snake version of a scoff. “Of course I shall go! I will be your eyes in the places you cannot reach.” He giggled softly and kissed her head, laying her back in her tank.

Persephone took off his shoes and flopped on his bed, mind buzzing with excitement, questions and plans. He would succeed. He would make his Master and parents proud. And he would tear apart anybody who got in his way.

Chapter Text

Persephone was re-reading his notebook of ideas for the fifteenth time. He couldn’t help it, he was nervous! What if he messed up, did something wrong, or got caught? He was a Ward of the Slenderman and by extension a representative of all Wards and Proxies. What would it say about their House if he failed or got caught? What type of image would he be presenting about all the others if he screwed up?

He was dragged out of his thoughts by Toby. “You alright-t, ‘Seph? Looking a lit-t-tle green.” Toby rubbed his head softly and Persephone leaned into the touch. “ ‘M fine, dad. I really don’t want to mess up.”     “You? Fail? ’Seph, t-that's not relist-tic.” Toby snorted and pulled him into a hug.

“Persephone, you’re going to be the st-trongest person in that castle. Not even Mast-ter is considering failure. The wors-st th-th-hat could happen is you make friends, th-hey find you out-t and aren’t-t cool wit-th it. But-t-t I’m not-t worried about-t that-t eith-ther. You have a way of making people like you no mat-tter what.” Persephone laughed and put his notebook into his bag. “The power of friendship.” Toby smiled. “You get it-t from your papa.”     “Y’all ready?” Jeff asked, starting the slenderport. “Yeah,” Persephone said, straightening. “Let’s do this.”

Kings Cross Station was packed, and Persephone had to use his trunk to fight his way through the crowd. “Should’ve came earlier,” He heard Jeff mutter as they finally made it to the train doors. Toby and Jeff stopped and glared at the train like they were trying to melt it before they pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. “God, we’re going to miss you so much,” Jeff whispered, and Persephone’s chest started to hurt.

He hugged them back just as hard. “I’ll miss you too. I promise I’ll visit over Christmas and I’ll write every day and—” He choked a little. He didn’t expect to get this emotional, but this was the first time he wouldn’t see them every day. He’d never been away from The Cabin for more than a few hours. To be away from home for almost ten months—it already felt unbearable.

Toby kissed his head and pulled him and Jeff to his chest. “It-t’ll be ok. You can do t-this, we know you can.” He kissed his head again and whispered, “We love you.”    “I love you too.” Persephone hugged both of them as hard as he could before he picked up his trunk and got on the train. Toby and Jeff moved away from the doors, still holding each other. “He’ll be ok, baby,” Toby whispered to him. “We’ll be ok.”

Persephone found an empty compartment near the back and, after making sure no one was around, he opened his trunk and pulled out Jasper. Extension charms were helpful, but that didn’t mean they were always comfortable, especially with a space as small as the trunk for an animal as large as Jasper.

“This place smells of wix!” Jasper exclaimed when she was fully out. “The last time I smelt this many, I was a hatchling!” She slithered around the compartment before coming back to him. He picked her up and held her head towards the window. “There’ll be more in a bit, and then we’ll be leaving.” He told her, pulling away and wrapping her around his shoulders.

She hissed happily and settled against him, and before he could do anything else the compartment door opened and Fred waltzed in. “Persephone!” He greeted. “I thought I saw you go in here. Sorry for leaving so suddenly last time, older siblings suck, y’know?” Persephone laughed. “I’ll take your word for it.”

Fred sat across from him and opened his mouth to say something else, but he stopped when he noticed Jasper. He starred for a few seconds before whispering, “woah.  . .” Jasper looked up and hissed a greeting. “Jasper, this is Fred. Fred, this is my familiar Jasper.” Fred nodded and waved and Jasper only hissed again.

Persephone opened his trunk before anything else could be said and began pulling out some books he got from The Dawn Between that Ashly recommend for ‘the young deteriorating mind’. “So, last time we talked I noticed the titles of books you were getting, and sense Britain has so many stupid restrictions I figured I should get you some actual books on the dark arts.”

He handed four to Fred, who’s jaw dropped. “The first book is a crash course of sorts, the second is spell crafting, the third is blood magic and the fourth is sacrificial rituals and how to make your own.” He smiled as Fred sputtered, reading the books covers and backs. “Why?” He asked, shocked. He couldn’t really say emotional manipulation, but a knock at the door stopped him from saying anything. Him and Fred looked at each other before Persephone–with Jasper still on his shoulders–got up and opened it.

There was an African girl with insanely large and curly hair standing there, looking nervous before shocked. “Oh my god!” She said, showing big front teeth. “What kind of snake is that?” Persephone looked to Fred, to Jasper then back to the girl. “She’s a mix between a boa constrictor and an asp. I’m Persephone Woods, this is Fred Weasley and my Familiar Jasper. Do you want to sit with us?”

She looked over the moon. “I’d love to! Oh, where are my manners. I’m Hermione Granger, It’s nice to meet you.” She sat next to Fred and continued, “Oh, what books are those? I didn’t seem them in Flourish and Bolts, and I spent ages in there!” Fred shook himself out of his shock and answered. “There from America. These sorts of books wouldn’t even be drafts in Britain.”

Persephone pulled out more of the books he got and handed a few of the grey ones to Hermione. “I can’t understand how Britain has put so many restrictions on books and magic! It’s crazy; these books are from a public library in Louisiana but in Britain they’d only be sold in shady alleyways in Knockturn.”

Hermione had a gleam in her eyes as she read the covers of the books, one of which was a step by step guide on how to make potions that gave you kinesis-like powers. “What sort of restrictions are there? I’m–uh,” she paused and looked nervous again. “I’m a muggleborn, you see.” She looked a little scared?

“Oh, so you don’t know about the politics and social rules?” Persephone asked. At Hermiones little nod, he reached into his bag and pulled out a book as thick as his head. “Here, these are social yes and no’s, slang, important political groups and people, and the like. I know it’s a lot, so if you need help or have questions don’t be afraid to ask!”

Hermione looked near tears, whispering ‘thank you’ before Fred asked, “Wait, these are from a public library? Like, anyone can just go in and read this? That’s wicked, I thought you’d need a permit or something.” They all talked and read through the books for a few minutes before the train’s whistle shook the compartment, and Persephone scrambled towards the window, threw it open and nearly jumped out.

He saw Toby and Jeff near his window and flailed his arms, screaming, “Bye dad, bye papa!! I LOVE YOU! I’ll write everyday, and I’ll draw Hogwarts and everything in it for you!!” Fred and Hermione looked at him wildly as the train slowly moved away from the station.

Jeff and Toby were running next to his window, shouting their goodbyes with him. “Don’t bully anyone!” Jeff yelled at the same time Toby yelled, “Make sure t-to do your homework!”   “Don’t skip classes!”   “Remember t-to brush your t-teet-th!”   “Don’t get caught breaking rules!”

They all laughed and waved to them as the train sped up. Before the train left the station, Dad and Papa sprinting to keep up with it, they both yelled “WE LOVE YOU, PERSEPHONE!” Persephone screamed back, “I LOVE YOU TOO! I PROMISE I'LL MAKE YOU PROUD!” And the train left the station, and he was off to Hogwarts.

-^-^-

They had six hours to talk about anything and everything, and talk they did. From family to favorite things to what was restricted and why.

Hermione seemed very angry with everything the ministry had restricted. “They haven’t restricted things for safety reasons, they’ve restricted them because they teach things they don’t agree with!” She fumed, and Fred agreed. “I’ve grown up with magic, and these books have taught me more than four years of school has.”

They also discussed houses, and what to expect. “I can’t tell you about the people in  the other houses,” Fred said, “But I can tell you how the houses treat each other.” Turns out, the headmaster was very bad at stopping the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry, and even seemed to encourage it when there wasn’t a need for it in the first place. Hermione had wanted to go into Gryffindor because of Dumbledore, but after Fred told her what the lions den was actually like, she decided that Slytherin or Ravenclaw would be better for her.

The subject of lordships and family houses came up quite a bit after Hermione read about it in the book he’d given her. “I know that really old family’s are usually the only ones that do lordship and heirship rings, but sometimes there are small family’s that do it, usually to keep money or family heirlooms safe.” Fred told her, still thumbing through the book on blood magic.

“You can usually tell how big, rich or old a family is by the title their addressed by.” Persephone continued. “Take the Blacks; they’re a really old and powerful family, so you’d address their house as The Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. But houses aren’t reserved to just family, sometimes houses are whole companies—like my house.” Hermione was taking notes, but looked up at the last bits.

“What house are you from? What’s the full title?” She asked, still writing. Persephone hesitated for a second before he figured ‘ eh, they’ll find out eventually’ and told her, “The Most Royal and Legendary House of DerMann.” Fred stopped reading and gaped at him. “ Most Royal and Legendary? I didn’t know houses could be given titles like that. How old is your house?” Persephone thought.

“I don’t really know, honestly. Our main Manor has books from the Library of Alexandria, but it also has floor plans for a vacation home built in the Aztec empire, and there’s employee family trees that started in Mesopotamia. There’s even cave carvings of our house symbol that are from the Jurassic era. I’m fairly certain the DerManns have been around forever.”

Fred also made good on his promise of bad life advice. Hermione looked like she didn’t approve at the start, but once Fred told her seven different ways she could sneak into the restricted section of the library she was more willing to listen. Hidden passages that lead to Hogsmead, hidden rooms that gave you whatever you needed and an entrance to the catacombs in a bathroom that he had yet to open-Fred could fill a library with all his mischief.

Fred refused to tell them about the sorting ceremony, however. “It’s tradition,” he said with a wink, “First years always go in blind. I did, my parents did and so will you.” Hermione huffed, she seemed to think it was some sort of challenge. Persephone thought it was a spin the wheel sort of thing. Fred laughed when he told him that.

They talked about everything and everything after that, and when the candy lady came by Persephone bought a little bit of everything—Hermione being delighted when Fred told her that wizard sweets don’t have sugar. Fred was also enjoying himself, and from his surface thoughts Persephone learned he came from a very poor family that couldn’t afford much of the sweets from the trolly.

From Hermione’s surface thoughts Persephone learned that she didn’t have loads of friends in normal school because of her bossy ‘I know more than you’ attitude but now in the wizarding world, a world she knew nothing about, she was much more quite than before. And with Persephone showing her that the part of the world she was living in was majorly underdeveloped, all that attitude seemed to melt away into a raw desire to learn.

Pretty soon, an announcement came from nowhere that said they were an hour away from Hogwarts and any students not wearing their robes should put them on now, students should leave their trunks and familiars in their cages, yada yada yada. They all stepped out of the compartment and let each other dress one by one, Hermione first, Fred second and Persephone last. After that Persephone reluctantly put Jasper back in his trunk, telling her he’d let her out to roam the moment he got to his dorm.

That reveled that Persephone was a parselmouth, a fact that shocked Fred and wondered Hermione. They all laughed at Persephones confusion, and the knowledge that in every other part of the world being parlselmouths was only a little uncommon. When the train slowed into the station, him and Hermione crowded around the window to see.

Hogwarts was a sight, that’s for sure. It looked like a fantasy castle straight out of a storybook. When they got of the train hogsmead station, they waved Fred goodbye and followed the rest of the first years to the half-giant calling for them. They got in a boat–something that Persephone did not like–with two other boys, a redhead that was probably Fred’s younger brother Ron and a shy, sniffling blond boy who kept whispering about someone named Trevor.

When the castle came into view, both him and Hermione gasped in delight. It felt like they were entering a new dimension, one with new colors and sounds and smells and magic. When they came to shore everyone got off carefully, and walked in the giant doors into a center stairway that had another giant doorway but closed. There was an old witch there, with such a stern look Persephone thought she could make Laughing Jack feel ashamed.

“The Firs’ years, professor McGonagall”. “Thank you Hagrid, I’ll take them from here.” She said, before turning to them and speaking after Hagrid walked out.“Welcome,” she started, “to Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because while you are here, your house will be like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.”

“The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.”

She continued , “The sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.”(Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone ) While she said this her eyes trailed over the students, lingering on a few before turning away and leaving the same way Hagrid went.

Immediately everyone began whispering to each other, including him and Hermione. “What if it is a test?” She whispered. “What if we were supposed to study before school and whatever score we get determines where we go?”    “I don’t think they test us for things we’re not expected to know,” Persephone reassured her, “That wouldn’t make sense, y’know?” She nodded, still worried.

“I still think it’s a wheel. Four houses, four corners, try your luck and spin the wheel of witches.” She giggled softly and Persephone smiled. “My father said it was an unbiased judge.” A familiar voice whispered. Persephone turned to see Draco Malfoy standing behind him. “Draco! I was wondering when you’d show up. Hermione, this is Draco Malfoy. Draco, this is Hermione Granger.”

“It’s a pleasure.” Hermione offered her hand and Draco took it with a smile. “Pleasures all mine. Your names after The Winters Tale , right? My Mother loves Shakespeare.” Hermione looked ready to burst with joy, but McGonagall came back before she could and told them to form a line and follow her. When the first years had formed less of a line and more of a clump, McGonagall said “Welcome, to Hogwarts.” And the doors to the Great Hall opened.

They followed McGonagall inside and openly gaped at everything. It looked like everything was made out of warm wood and gold, although the closer he looked he saw it was just charmed stone. He heard Hermione excitingly whispering to Draco about the charmed ceiling, and Draco whispering back that it was charmed by Rowena Ravenclaw herself.

When they got to the front there was a stool in front of the teachers table. After making sure everyone was here, McGonagall turned and pulled out an old, raggedy hat and sat it on the stool. For a second, Persephone was very confused. And it seemed everyone else was too, before one of the giant rips on the hat opened and it began to sing.

“Oh you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor

Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff

Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

‘Looks like Draco’s father was right,’ Persephone thought as McGonagall began calling out names. ‘An unbiased judge.’ He was a little worried that the mind reading hat would tell everyone all his secrets, but he was certain he could threaten persuade the hat into silence. After a few minuets of names being called and houses being screamed, McGonagall called out “Granger, Hermione.” Draco whispered an encouragement and Persephone gave her two big thumbs up as she walked up and put the hat on.

It was quiet for a minute as the hat gave small hums, before it yelled out, “ ‘Ought to be. . . SLYTHERIN!” And the green and silver table cheered for their new housemate. Him and Draco clapped and waved as she waved back before excitingly sitting next to her new housemates. Persephone stopped paying attention to the next few names, before “Malfoy, Draco” was called.

He whispered ‘good luck’ to Draco, who smiled at him before he swaggered up to the hat. It touched his head for a second before screaming out “SLYTHERIN!” And the green table cheered again. Draco gave him a smile before he sat next to Hermione.

After that the names all blurred together, before he was brought back by McGonagall calling “Woods, Persephone.” There was a mutter at his name, but he paid it no mind as he walked up and put on the hat. ‘ My my,’ a voice whispered, ‘ what an interesting life you have, young Ward. And oh, what a great mission you’ve been given. Terrible, yes, but great. And you’ve already begun corrupting the minds of the people around you.’

‘But alas,’ the sorting hat continued, ‘ it isn’t my job to tell. Only to sort.’ That meant the sorting hat wouldn’t interrupt his mission. Good. ‘ Your incredibly intelligent.’ It said. ‘ Yes, yes, so much potential in here, and you plan to use it all. You have more than enough courage to be a lion, but your not reckless. No, no, not at all. Yes, it better be. . . SLYTHERIN!” The hat yelled out loud, and the green table cheered again as he got up and sat next to Draco. He waved at Fred, who gave him a thumbs up and waved back.

After a few more names, Zabini the last new Slytherin, the headmaster got up. He was wearing an ugly combination of purple robes and orange stars, colors that could work together but Dumbledore seemed to like them ugly. “Welcome!“ he called, looking like nothing could make him happier than being here. But from the small surface thoughts he was leaking, he was not happy at all.

“To new students, and returning ones, I have just four words; Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Now tuck in!” He finished with a wave of his wand, and then all four tables were covered in platter upon platter of food. “What the hell did that mean?” He asked Draco, who shrugged, seemingly just as confused as him. “My father says Dumbledore went mad a while ago, but I didn’t really know what he meant until now.”

Persephone and Hermione laughed, and reached out to get some food as Zabini asked. “So. What’s an American doing in Hogwarts?”    “I was Born in London, and apparently my birth parents put me on the register. I was adopted and moved to America. My dads were going to send me to Togamono, it’s Louisiana’s school.” Some of his housemates murmured to one another.

“Speaking of Louisiana,” he turned to Draco, “I brought a whole bunch of books from a book store their. Me, Hermione and Fred were reading some of them on the train, and I think you’d like to read some.” Draco hummed. “Really? What kind of books?”   “You know, how to guides for making sacrificial rituals, how to manipulate the weather, the ins and outs of necromancy—that sort of thing.”

Draco silently starred at him, and so did everyone within earshot. “What?” He said, grinning sharply as Hermione giggled. “Those sorts of books are banned in Britain , not America. The bookstore I got them from is a public library. I’ll have to return all the books by the start of next school year, so if you want to read them we best start now.”     “Me, Persephone and Fred want to get together and form a small reading or studying group! Oh, Draco you must join us!” She was obviously very excited, and happily began eating some asparagus.

Draco’s face was slack with shock before he grinned. “I knew you would be interesting. What do you fathers think about those sorts of books? Do they even know?” Persephone laughed. “My papas the one that recommended blood magic. Apparently my birth mother studied it.” The older students that heard began muttering to one another but Persephone didn’t care. This was Slytherin, and if what Fred said was true, then they wouldn’t say anything that would ruin their chances of finding where to get these books.

“What sort of public library sells books on blood magic?” One boy, Nott maybe, asked. Persephone just laughed. “America has less restrictions on magic than Italy does. And ‘The Dawn Between’ is known for having everything. Six stories with over six million extension charms on each floor. And that’s not counting the wand laboratory. It’s where I got my wand.”

“What wand do you have? I read that America uses more than the standard three cores.” Hermione asked, and Persephone pulled his wand out. A few people ooh ed as he said, “Yew and Cherry wood with thestral hair core.” He put it back in his pocket and got some food, starting to eat.

He and Hermione told Draco and anyone else who asked more about the books he brought, and pretty soon Draco was utterly enthralled at the prospect of combining necromancy and herbology—or, as they were calling it, necrobotany.

When the banquet ended, he and the rest of the first years followed the prefects Gemma Farley and Artemis Carrow. When they were deep in the dungeons, the prefects stopped them in front of a dead end. “This is the Slytherin common rooms entrance,” Carrow said, “the password is Taipan. The password changes every new moon and will be pined on the board next to the entrance. You are not too tell anyone outside of Slytherin the password, and you are not allowed to bring anyone from another house inside.”

He turned and said the password, and they watched as the stones moved to form a doorway big enough for them to walk through. When they were inside Persephone was very pleased. The wall in front of them was made of stone up to his knees, and then everything higher was glass, showing the dark depths of the black lake. The walls were covered in bookshelves and empty portraits, and he could feel Hermione vibrating with excitement.

There was a giant fireplace to their right, with two comfy looking couches and four armchairs surrounding it in a circle. In front of the seats was a coffee table with some books and tea sets sitting on it. Scattered around the room were more circles of chairs, some bigger and some smaller, each with their own coffee table.

In the corners of the glass wall were two  staircases leading down, one had a plaque labeled ‘Girls dormitory’s’ while the other was labeled as the boys. Standing in the center of the room was their head of house, Severus Snape. He starred at them silently for a second before he spoke. “Farley, Carrow, thank you. You may retire.” The prefects moved past Snape and to their respective dorms, and that left them alone.

“Welcome to Slytherin,” he said. “I will start of by telling you that we are a house of high status and reputation, and I expect your grades to reflect that.” He said. “If your having trouble with a subject or are not understanding something, do not hesitate to ask me for help or extra lessons. I will always be there to help, and I will make time for your health, safety and education.”

That was surprising, and from the surface thoughts surrounding him the other kids hadn’t expected that either. Especially Hermione—public school sucked and some of its teachers did too. “And continuing of of that,” Snape said, getting stern, “I do not want to hear anything about you getting caught doing something your not supposed to. I don’t want to find out that you were caught breaking rules. We have reputations, and we must keep those up.” Persephones not the only one that focused on the ‘caught’ part of his speech.

“And now,” he sighed softly and somehow looked every one of them in the eyes. “I will not sugar coat anything, and I will not try to make light of any situation.” His voice was quite, but still captured the attention of everyone in the room. “Slytherin is not liked. We are belittled, blamed, and humiliated for things outside of our control. Out there you have two, maybe three, thirds of the school against you. We are seen as evil, corrupt, and broken.”

“You will not,” he said sternly, “further these beliefs by starting fights unwarranted, bullying, and harming others without reason. If you fight with housemates, you will do so only in Slytherin commons. Out there, no matter how much resentment is between you, you will stand up for and stand by your fellow Slytherins. We are all we have, we are family—and a true family always protects each other.” That was the most important rule in Persephones mind. If the whole school and staff really hated them as much as Snape and Fred said, he needed all the allies he could get if he wanted to walk around without getting jumped.

“I do not tolerate harassment,” he continued, “and I do not tolerate hate. In here, it does not matter who your family is, where you came from, or what you own. Here, you are all the same; students who know nothing.”

That was interesting. The head of Slytherin house, a house built on wealth and fortune, telling the students they weren’t special? He could tell just from the surface thoughts leaking that this was the first time a lot of these kids were hearing that.

It wasn’t Hermiones first time, however, and Draco seemed to expect it. Huh. “We are a house built on wealth and fame.” Snape said. “Do you think Salazar Slytherin was born with the that? Do you think Salazar Slytherin, the son of squib and a halfblood born in backwater Ireland, was born into the wealth and company you were?”

Dead silence greeted him. All of them couldn’t believe it, Persephone included. One of the great four founders, the founder of Slytherin , was the son of a squib? “He worked for his titles,” Snapes voice rose, “he worked and pushed and fought to be remembered as the man you know him to be. He was not born a master Legilimens, he was not born a master at anything. ” Snape paused, everyone leaning forward to hear more. “You are not masters at anything. Not yet.”

“Slytherin is a house built from nothing that now has everything,” Snape continued, “but that does not mean we will forget where we came from. That does not mean we will forget how hard the people before us fought to be remembered as the wixen we know now.”

“One day, you will be in history books; you will be remembered as world renowned alchemist and healers, potion and transfiguration masters, dueling champions, quidditch stars, and famous politicians. And you will look back to now–back when you were nothing–and you will know that’s what made you capable of everything.”

Everyone was in silent awe. All of these kids had never been told these things before; they’d never been told they could be everything and anything, all because they started out as nothing. They’d never realized all the options they had for themselves, never even thought about it until now. They’d always knew they’d be remembered, always wanted to be remembered, but they never thought about why.

But those words were exactly what Persephone needed.

Because he knew, he wanted, and he would get it no matter the cost. He knew why he’d be remembered as The Keepers first Wizard, he knew why he had to succeed. He knew where he came from, where his parents came from, and he knew what they were now. Proxies, above Wards in status and name. Two of his best Proxies, both of whom started out as just another failure of the system. He was a just a Ward, but he would be remembered as the first of his kind to be apart of The Keeper. He would be remembered as the first contact, and the bridge. As the sorting hat said, a great mission. A great success.

“Now,” Snape finished, “I know that is quite a lot for one night, and I know many of you will be think my words over. I want you all to get a decent nights sleep; you will be expected in the Great Hall by 8:30 and your schedules will be handed out at nine. Boys to the left and girls to the right. Have a good night.” He turned and walked to an empty portrait and pulled it open like a door, vanishing as it closed.

The prefects came back out the dormitories and began ushering them through, him and Draco saying good night to Hermione before they were went down to what appeared to be a second common room. “This is the boys main area” Carrow said, “and there are seven staircases like this one. One in each corner and on the front, left and right wall. Each is a different years dormitory, you’ll know which by the number above. Yours is in the far right corner.”

“Each dorm has its own common room,” Carrow continued, “this one is mostly used for house meetings that’ll happen every other full moon. Please be in bed by midnight.” And with that Carrow walked down the left wall stairway labeled ‘5’. They all piled down their stairway, and were met with a long hallway of doors with more plaques. Each doors plaques had different names, and the third door had ‘Malfoy, Nott, Woods, Zabini’.

He and the other boys walked in and Persephone was pleased to find the bed closest to the glass had his trunk on it. The one next to his seemed to be Draco’s, since the trunk had ‘MALFOY’ written in a big font on it. He jumped on the bed and opened his trunk, pulling out Jasper and cooing “I’m so sorry you were in there for so long, the welcome banquet was so much longer than I thought it would be.”

The others jumped at the sight of Jasper, and Nott stepped behind Zabini when he started hissing. Draco just looked amazed. “You can speak parseltongue?! That’s amazing! Oh, is that your familiar? It’s beautiful, what’s its name, what’s it species?” Persephone laughed as Jasper gave a pleased hiss.

“Draco, meet Jasper. Jasper, meet Draco. She’s a mix between an asp and a boa constrictor. And she says thank you for calling her beautiful.” Draco beamed and sat next to him, looking Jasper over. “She’s huge, probably taller than me! Is she venomous?”   “Very.” Persephone said proudly. “She killed her first owner when she was just a hatchling. People considered it a problem, but my dad considered it a selling feature and got her for me when I was five.”

Draco, proving that he, Hermione and Fred were going to be his new best friends, began cooing over how cute she must have looked as a hatchling. Nott and Zabini were looking at them like they were insane. And to be fair, Persephone was. He waved them off, saying, “oh, don’t worry, she’s trained not to kill anyone unless I tell her too. The worst she may do is eat someone’s kneazle or rat.”

Him and Draco talked more about Jasper and nercobotany as they unpacked, Nott and Zabini giving them a wide berth. Persephone still didn’t understand why parseltongue was so special in Britain. “I’ve met over a hundred people from all over the world who speak!” He told Draco, “Britain is literally the only place in the world that’s parsel-free. And parseltongue is super easy to learn, too! It’s an elective language in India.”

After promising to teach Draco how to speak parseltongue, they said good night and Persephone started writing his first letter home.

Chapter Text

Persephone woke up at four thirty-five AM, not only because of jet lag but because that’s usually the time his parents got up to start their missions. No one else was up yet, understandably, and Jasper had gone out last night to explore. Khione was gone too, probably still flying home with his letter.

The first year Slytherin dorms were fancy but homey, with dark green carpet and four canopy beds with teal silk and dark wood. Their blankets were different shades of green, his being neon and Draco’s being pastel. There was a connected bathroom that thankfully had more than one sink and shower, so Persephone took his time cleaning himself up.

He didn’t really like the school uniform; it felt bland and boring. So he decorated a bit with rings, chokers, necklaces, and earrings. His rings were his heir and lord rings, and his necklaces were some of papas old ones he got too big for. The Black heir ring was a square black onyx the size of one finger joint with small diamonds surrounding it and encased in silver. It went on his right middle finger.

The Slytherin Lordship ring was a circular bismuth and turned a different shade of green depending on the light. It was surrounded by twelve smaller green gemstones and encased in gold. It went on his left middle finger. The Peverell heir ring was an oval blue and white striped agate encased in black vines with four small gold gems on each side, and he put it on his right pinkie. The Potter Lordship ring was a rich red spinel in the shape of a diamond surrounded by silver. He put it on his left thumb.

The rings went well with his dangling earrings, a earlobe and cartilage piercing holding up a gold chain with two purple and green gems. His choker was silk and green, and he wore a short silver chain and a long string necklace with a large Keeper symbol charm that hung in the middle of his chest. He looked himself over and didn’t feel it was enough, so with a little elbow grease he styled his hair into a loose crown braid on the right side that pulled into a flower in the back.

He thought about transfiguring it into an actual flower, but decided the hair-flower look was cuter. What he did charm in were small orange pearls—they made him think of his dad. Maybe he was feeling pretty, maybe he wanted to piss of the headmaster whom he knew had very traditional heteronormative views on everything.

When he was done it was almost six, and even though they didn’t have to be up until eight-thirty Persephone thought Draco would appreciate the extra time getting ready. Draco was still fast asleep, so Persephone went and shook him until he groaned and blinked groggily at him. “. . .’Sephone? What. .?” He blinked a few more times before he seemed to register Persephone, and then he was jumping out of bed.

“Oh Merlin,” he gasped, trying to quickly throw his uniform on, “What time is it?!” Persephone watched him for a few minutes before laughing softly. “Don’t worry, its still six. Figured you’d want the extra time to get ready. I’ve been up since four.” Draco stopped rushing, pajama pants halfway off and uniform shirt over his pajama shirt. He blinked at him for a second before he huffed, “That was very rude! I thought I was going to be late, and a Malfoy can NOT be late!”

Persephone laughed, and waited in the common room for Draco and Hermione. Hermione came down first, positively glowing with excitement. “Good morning!” She smiled, and then began fawning over his hair. “Oh, Persephone, did you do this yourself? It’s wonderful, how did you learn?” Persephone blushed, “Thanks! My papa taught me, his hairs the same as mine.” They talked about family for a bit, before Draco came up looking like the perfect Malfoy Heir.

They chatted all the way to breakfast, still working out how necrobotany would work and how you’d combine plant spells with nercomancy when Fred appeared behind a corner and motioned for them to follow. Draco was confused at first, a fourth year Gryffindor trying to talk to you was usually a cause for concern, but he followed with them when they told him that was Fred from the train.

When they rounded the corner Fred was waiting, checking a folded piece of paper every few seconds. “Persephone, Hermione, congrats on Slytherin! I’d say congrats to you too, but I don’t know you name—oh, I’ll tell you guys what this is later, but we need to go quickly if you want to see the Vanishing Room.” He checked the paper again and pulled them into a different hall.

Fred pulled them around a bit before they came to an empty hallway and explained to them how the Vanishing Room worked. ‘This is perfect,’ Persephone thought after walking into the graveyard/greenhouse, ‘ this is exactly the thing I need to make my first temple for Master.’ If this room existed everywhere-and-nowhere-all-the-time like Fred said, then the only person who’d be able to find a shrine for Master would be people aware of Master. It’d give him a new place of worship, and It’ll probably be one of his more secure.

Draco and Fred became quick friends after Draco told him about necrobotany and Fred explained the Marauders Map, and all four of them quickly started discussing days they could get together. “Can this place connect into others?” Persephone asked as they walked back to the great hall. “Because if it can, we may be able to go to The Dawn Between , maybe even Dragonets if you guys want to get better wand matches.”

Dragonets was probably the best wand shop in the world, and while Persephone didn’t need a better fit his new friends most definitely did if Olivander only used three cores. Persephone told his friend this when they asked, and it was agreed to try next time they were all free. Hermione was practically jumping with excitement at the thought of a six story bookstore, and Draco was eager to read The Necronomicon.

They waved goodbye to Fred and continued talking as they got breakfast, watching as everyone else slowly trickled into the Great Hall. At 8:30 sharp, Professor Snape began handing out time tables, and Persephone was pleased to see Defense Against the Dark Arts was their first class. “Don’t be so excited,” Draco told them, “theres a new defense teacher every year cause of some curse, and this years professor used to teach muggle studies. He also has a horribly fake stutter.”

Persephone tried not to let that dampen his excitement, but the moment the smell of garlic hit his nose he knew Draco’s father was right when he said Dumbledore was senile. As someone who has a parent with a stutter, Professor Quirrells obviously fake one made his blood boil. It reminded him of the time they went to pick up an order and the cashier had begun mocking his dad and pretending not to understand him.

Professor Quirrell also knew next to nothing about the dark arts, and it was obvious that everything he said he got from a children’s textbook. The four of them quickly began self-teaching in the library after working out their free days and what lined up. They learned more in three days than what Quirrell taught in a week. Draco sent a letter to his father complaining, and pretty soon the whole student body was sending letters home.

However, Dumbledore seemed determined to ignore them. Even when a howler came during dinner and told him off for ‘ruining the enducation of our children with teachers who don’t know what they’re teaching’, he simply silenced it. Quirrell looked embarrassed, as if he wasn’t a walking joke.

Potions was very exciting, because it was all actually up-to-date teachings and Persephone had to actually work, which was nice. The other students complained that it was too hard, but that was probably because they were so used to the underdeveloped teachings of the other classes that Potions now seemed near impossible. Professor Snape’ surface thoughts were also interesting. He was pleased when he saw Persephone pull out his American potions book, but quickly backtracked and locked his Occlumeancy shield down tight when Persephone registered his thoughts.

Turns out, the potions teacher was a natural Legilimens, and had quickly picked up that Persephone knew both Legilimeancy and Occlumeancy. Now Persephone only got white noise from him. Bummer, he wanted to know more about the potion masters thought process, but it’s not that big a deal.

Transfiguration proved to be worthwhile. While it was underdeveloped like the others, Professor McGonagall was a very good teacher and seemed most focused on helping her students succeed. She answered any and all questions, helped out kindly when asked, and never turned down a student.

The only down side was that she knew his birth name, and it made interactions with her awkward because she had expected him to look and act differently than he did. She’d expected a boy with emerald green eyes and unruly short black hair. What she got was a boy with forest green eyes with long silky void black hair. She’d expected a boy with a heart of gold, a troublemaker who had the need to do good. What she got was a secret murder who had openly grey-borderline-dark magic and morals who worshiped a faceless cosmic horror.

Charms was fun, Professor Flitwik seemed to genuinely enjoy teaching them and he got happy every time a student successfully cast a charm. He was also half-goblin, and that brought a bunch of problems Persephones never encountered before; racism. Yeah, he liven in America, but he liven in wizarding America and with loads of demonic monstrosity’s. If America was a melting pot, then Wizarding America was seven different melting pots melted together. Everyone was mixed in some way, so species-racism was something he’d never encountered.

Herbology was also fun, Professor Sprout was more than willing to answer their questions about the different plant species, even if the only things they really wanted to know was which species was the most dangerous. Using this information, they decided the first plant they would experiment with would be the Venomous Tentacula. Professor Sprout was easily distracted, and Persephone easily stole some seeds.

Hermione became deeply interested in ancient runes when she found a book on them in the library, and she started seeing Professor Babbling after classes and on free days to ask her questions. She quickly became the teachers favorite, and Hermione got a sure spot in that class the moment she could take it.

Divintation proved to be a waste of a class. If Dumbledore had hired an actual seer or oracle, then maybe you’d be able to actually learn how to see into the future. While it was difficult to find seers, oracles were everywhere and were very serious about their craft. Trewleeny made prophecy seem like a stay-at-home moms side hobby. Hermione didn’t believe you could see into the future until they found a section about it in The Dawn Between , and she was more open to it after learning most oracles eventually went insane.

Speaking of The Dawn Between, they messed with the vanishing room until they opened the door and Ashly was waiting for them, stacks of books in one hand and a few others levitated around her. Turns out the book store was protected with charms against things like the vanishing room to prevent break-ins, but Ashly was able to let them visit after telling her manager they were just boarding school students who wanted books.

And visit they did! Persephone thought Hermione was going to cry tears of joy when she saw everything, and Draco was jumping around like a kid in a candy store. Fred was oddly somber, however. When Persephone quietly asked what was wrong, Fred whispered to him, “I think it just hit me, that. . . All my life, I’ve lived in some backwater, underdeveloped dystopian hell. I used to think Hogwarts was the highest place, but now. . . .”

He gave Fred some space, left him to take everything in by himself. When he look back, he was more than surprised to see CandyPop of all demons in a slightly glamoured form talking with Fred about blood magic and summonings. He says slightly, because while he was now the normal kind of tall, about 6’3, his skin was still paper white, his hair was still blue, and his teeth were too sharp.

Fred didn’t seem to care, and had stars in his eyes as he asked question after question. Candy looked like he was having fun too, even if his gaze was a bit too hungry at times. Not exactly the look you want a succubus giving you. When Fred turned to look at a book Candy recommended, Candy saw him and winked, and his eyes were hypnotic swirls of pink and cyan. Persephone winked back.

“Who’s that?” Draco asked, carrying two copies of The Necronomicon and a book on how to raise your Tentacula to be the most deadly it can be. “Just one of my parents work friends,” He replied, smiling as Fred’s questions were answered with a purr and a wink. Which, now that Persephone was thinking about it, was a little weird sense Fred was fourteen and Candys form seemed to be mid-twenty’s. Eh, Candy knows better. “He’s apart of The Carnival—that’s a subsection of House DerMann. Ashly’s actually apart of a different branch.”

“Really?” Hermione said, sitting in one of the beanbag chairs with five books in her lap and five more by her side. “What branch is she from? What’s your branch? How many branches are there?” He smiled. He liked the questions, not only because he liked talking about his House but also because the more they learned they were roped deeper and deeper into The Keepers web.

“Me, my parents and the whole Carnival are apart of The Faceless Keeper branch, while Ashly’s is Grinning Lover. There’s four branches in total, one for each DerMann brother. The other two are Silk Chameleon and Joyful Caretaker, run by The Chameleon and The Joyful. My House Master is Called The Keeper or The Operator, and Ashly’s is called The Seducer or The Lover.”

Hermione and Draco became interested in the House system, and Persephone was more than happy to explain. “So, the biggest and first thing you put down on paper is the House–Most Royal and Legendary. Then, you put what branch your from. Then you put your subsection, and I don’t know about the other branches but I know all of mine.”

“The subsections depend on where you stay most of the time—like where you live, where you work jobs and what kind. There’s The Carnival, The Mansion, The Web, The Forest, The Capital, and The Cabin—that’s my subsection. The names are really literal. The Carnival is a magic traveling carnival that, depending on the jobs the sections been given, teleports around the world.”

“The Mansion is sort of a melting pot and a meeting place. If your a part of The Mansion you do a bit of everything, and I can’t tell you what sorts of jobs we do because that’s classified, sorry. The Mansions in New York, and as far as I know it doesn’t move, just the entrance. One day the entrance will be in Arizona, the next Taiwan. Haven’t been able to track its movements.”

“The Web is a subsection for computer ghosts only, and I’ll tell you what a computer is later, Draco, don’t worry. You can only work in The Web if you died connected to a price of technology, and you’d be surprised how many times that happens. The Web is less of a place and more of a collective, like a hive-mind where everyone in it exists all at once.”

“The Forest is for semi-sentient creatures and crypitds, think mothman, Bigfoot, less than sane mermaids and unicorns. I don’t know much about The Forest and I don’t really go in there since the creatures are more likely to attack and eat you than too talk. There are Wards that work specifically to contain and control the creatures, and we call them Zookeepers. I’ll tell you what a Ward is later.”

“The Capital is sort of a city-state. Like, there’s a hospital, a few clubs, neighborhoods and apartments. Literally a whole city clammed by House DerMann. People working in The Capital usually do group jobs, like fifteen or more. And the last, and smallest, branch is mine—The Cabin.”

“There are multiple Cabins everywhere, and each usually holds about one or two people. The Cabins for the solitary and anti-social Wards, those of us who don’t get along well with other people and who’d rather be alone. My parents used to stay at individual Cabins before they met and fell in love. We’re actually the oddballs of The Cabin group—we’re the only Cabin with more than two people.”

“That’s so cool!” Draco said, him and Hermione squished together on a beanbag and listening intently. “What’s a Ward? You said you’d explain.” Persephone laughed and began, “A Ward is sort of like calling yourself a student or a teacher. It’s a class of sorts. I’m a Ward, and I don’t have a rank yet. My parents are Proxies, and their rank is Beserker.”

“Ward is sort of the base stat, it’s usually the rank that matters. But my parents are Proxies. A Proxy is someone who’s, quite literally, sold their soul to our Master.” They gaped at him and Persephone laughed. “Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it seems. You don’t lose all sense of self or whatever people think happens, you actually become stronger, faster, improved . And Master doesn’t just accept souls willy nilly. He watches, and chooses the perfect candidate, and then he puts them through the Trials. If they pass, which almost all don’t, they become Proxies. To put things into perspective, there’s two million Wards, but only fifty Proxies. My parents are the first in a really long time.”

“Then you have rank, and as I said my parents are Beserkers. I can’t really tell you what that means, again it’s classified, but I can tell you the other ranks from highest to lowest. There’s Revenants, Beserkers, Creators, Hunters, Searchers, Agents and Sleepers. Each one has a different job and is important in their own right. A Creator might look down on an Agent as a lower rank, but that Agent is small cog in a big machine that wouldn’t be able to function properly without it. We all do different jobs, but Master makes sure we know that we’re all valuable to him. I hope to be a Creator.”

They were bummed they couldn’t learn more, but thankfully understood he couldn’t tell them more without getting in trouble. Fred and Candy walked over, Candy holding seven books while Fred was nearly jumping with excitement. He was also blushing. Huh. “You don’t need to, really,” Fred said to him, “you’ve done more than enough just talking with me.” Candy chuckled. “But I want to, doll. Besides, it’s not like it’s a lot. I can’t wait to see what you cook up with these. You use owl post, yeah?”

Oh, so it was that sort of interaction. Looks like Candy didn’t know better. Oh well, at least it’ll drag Fred deeper. Fred was blushing madly and kept telling Candy he didn’t have to, really, he would just check them out and then bring them back, and he was being too nice to him. Candy didn’t seem to hear Fred, and began walking to the register. Hermione gave Candy a look, and Persephone could only shrug. He didn’t know if Candy planned on stealing his soul or was actually interested, you could never tell with the clowns.

Speaking of clowns, Jason the Toymaker almost walked past him, but backtracked. “Persephone?” He said, “Whatever are you doing here? I thought you were in Scotland. Oh, never mind that.” Jason waved him off before he could speak. “Have you seen CandyPop anywhere? He was supposed to be out ten minutes ago, but it seems he’s gotten distracted again.” Persephone snickered. “He’s distracted all right. He’s at the register.”

Jason turned, puzzled, and stopped when he saw Fred. He starred for a bit, before his yellow eyes turned vibrate green and he began fixing his hair and clothes. Persephone groaned. “C’mon, I thought you two knew better than to try and seduce a teen?” Jason glared at him and pulled out a small mirror to check his makeup. “You can’t see the same things we can, pyro. It’s not his looks, though he is quite cute, it’s his aura. ” Jason shivered in delight, snapped the mirror closed, and walked over.

“CandyPop, there you are. I was wondering what had caught your attention, but it seemed you’ve caught my attention as much as you’ve caught his.” Jason smiled at Fred and his teeth were as sharp as Candys. Fred smiled shyly and introduced himself. Jason introduce himself by kissing Fred’s hand and saying, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, darling. I do hope CandyPop hasn’t been rude to you, he can be a little overwhelming.”

Fred blushed more. “No, no, he’s been more than amazing, really. I don’t know why he’s being so nice to me.” Jason smiled again and didn’t let go of Fred’s hand. “I can understand why.” Candy came back and gave Fred his new books, while Fred kept telling him he didn’t have to and he was being too kind. Jason and Candy gave each other knowing looks, and Persephone wondered just how enticing an aura had to be to seduce two succubus without trying.

After they left, Fred promising to owl both demons, they began discussing how to get to Dragonets if it had the same charm system The Dawn Between did. This problem was easily solved after they worked out a date, asked Ashly to send a message to the wand maker there, and they opened the door and he was there to greet them.

Sudoku Addams was one of the best wand makers in the world, and was probably the best in America. He was surprisingly open with them, explaining, “It’s wonderful to see the youth of today caring so much about their education and potential that they’d sneak across the sea to get the best offered to them. Truly, truly marvelous.” He showed them around, answered all the hundred-billion questions thrown at him, and before long they were getting new wands.

Persephone didn’t need a better fit, even Addams agreed, so he stood back and watched as Fed went up first. “Dogwood, unicorn hair, not a good fit for you at all. The wand is good quality, yes, but it doesn’t like you. We’ll have to make a wand that does. Please, let your magic guide you towards two woods.” Fred held out his hand and gave deep, slow breaths, and suddenly two woods shot from the table and into his hand.

Even Fred seemed startled, nearly thrown back and he took a moment to steady himself before he handed the wood to Addams. “Ah, hornbeam and vine, quite the combination. You have very large ambitions and goals, I can tell already. Plans beyond the comprehension of anyone but yourself.” Fred looked shocked, like Addams had read his mind. Which Persephone could, and he knew Addams was right. “Now, the same thing, but with a core.”

Fred held his hand out again, and almost a second later a strand of the hairs flew to him just like the wood. Fred looked it over before handing it to Addams, who walked over to a cauldron. “Rougarou hair, now that’s a combination. Dark and powerful, Rougarou hair chooses those who are determined and open-minded, willing to try new things and commit to goals. Although control is easily lost with these wands, and that can lead to lethal outbursts.”

Fred’s wand was twelve inches and surprisingly springy, and it looked like a white rod with black swirls of the Rougarou hair. Fred’s thoughts showed he was pleased with the look, because no one would expect a white wand to be so capable of dark magic. Fred said that he’d never cast magic so easily, “My old wand was fighting against me, but this one feels like this one is me.” When Fred gave it a wave, a mini hurricane had burst forth, swirling death showing all sorts of sea life from angular fish to dolphins.

Draco was next, and his magic slowly levitated his woods towards him. “Sycamore and beech, it seems you are incredibly wise and eager to push you magic to its limits. Your an experimenter, yes?” Draco nodded, and eagerly opened his hand for a core. “White river monster spine! What a surprise, I don’t use this often. White river monster spine is a bone of force and elegance, quick on its feet and always three steps ahead. Though I warn you, it is prone to think on its own, and you may find yourself casting stronger than necessary.”

Draco’s wand was ten inches and only slightly springy, and it was a warm brown color with the monster spines end shaved and rounded as the handle. When Draco waved it, the first thing it did was send out a firework that began moving, twisting itself into different colors and shapes, red dragons, silver hippogriffs and golden griffins. He was ecstatic, and Persephone picked up that he wanted to show his Mother all he could now do.

Hermione was last, and her two woods came to her quicker than Fred’s did. “Walnut and willow, eh? Your a smart cookie, I reckon. So many thoughts in you mind, and being produced so fast you can’t get them out in time. Don’t doubt yourself, young miss, you and your friends are gonna rock the world.” Her core came quicker, and she was eagerly bouncing on her heels as Addams talked and worked. “Wampus cat hair is originally a core that only the Cherokee used, but today it’s one of Americas most common. It’s makes for a fast paced and sure wix, one who knows what they want and are willing to do anything to get it. It’s best not to cross this wand, as Wampus cat hair can be sweet one second and hell unleashed the next.”

Her wand was eleven inches and neither rigid nor springy. It was twisted together like his, one wood pale and the other brown with the hair wrapped around each wood in rings. When she waved it, a large column of lava and fire came forward, making shapes and patterns that he didn’t understand but Hermione did.

All in all, it was a very successful trip, and Addams thanked them for the opportunity to meet “four kids who I’m sure are going to be the next greatest wix the world has ever seen.”

…..

For the most part school itself was fairly uneventful, even if a bunch of Gryffindor first years got attacked by the Cerberus on the third floor balcony. One of those kids was Fred’s younger brother. While on the outside he was sad and worried Persephone picked up his surface thoughts that said he was more than excited to have some fresh blood to use for their research.

Draco immediately fell in love with the Cerberus after he found out, and called her ‘Lunacy’. Lunacy was a little standoffish at first, but the more Draco cooed and fawned over her the more she began to love him. It got to the point where Draco began seriously discussing buying her from the school, which Persephone thought was a great idea. Hermione and Fred agreed, anything to get the poor baby out of that small room.

Their nighttime adventures with Lunacy led to them meeting Hagrid, who after finding out Draco had tamed a Cerberus all on his own with limited knowledge on how to do so, decided that Draco was a prodigy in animal care and started giving him some lessons. Draco was more than pleased, as this showed him exactly what sort of things were in the forbidden forest. Persephone and his friends followed them on more than one occasion, Fred delighted by the open clearings for rituals and Hermione fawning over the acromantulas.

While all this went on, while the year faded from summer to fall, Persephone worked. He decided to go with journals, with the story of a young wizard his age slowly losing his mind by refusing The Keepers influence. After making sure they were in the right places and secure-looked old enough, slang was correct for the time, locations were correct-he made another series of journals, these ones detailing the story of a muggle girl given magic as a gift for her love of The Keeper.

One story about what happens when you rebel, and the other a story of the wonderments of worship and the joy it could bring you. And after all this was done, just shy of Halloween, he started making his Magnum opus. Der Gesichtslose König , The Faceless King. A book detailing what The Keeper was, what he did, and how to summon him. The book would also go into beings like and related to The Keeper, like The Operator, The Joyful and The Seducer. Even demons like Laughing Jack and Dr.Smiley.

It would take a few months to write, which was a shame—he wanted to infuse it with his Masters power and he could only do it on All Hallows Eve, but he could wait until next year. From the dreams he’s been having he’s more than pleased Master with his work. But he’s not done yet. He wants to use All Hallows Eve as a massive gateway, inviting all demons and spirits to witness the creation of the first shrine. The first bridge to be opened in over 70 years. And he wants his friends to be apart of it.

Does he think they’ll be able to truly comprehend what’s happening? Not yet, but the deeper they dive into blood magic the more of his world they’ll be able to see. Does he think they’ll still see something truly magnificent and even if they don’t see it for what it really is, they’ll still understand that their seeing something they’ll probably never see again? Absolutely. He planned and planned and planned, so much that they noticed and began questioning him. Hermione in particular was very curious, and wasn’t satisfied when he told her it was a surprise. They did help with his planning, even if he wouldn’t tell them what it exactly was.

Hermione helped his paint the symbols on everything, and he taught her how to bind twine and sticks together to create toy replicas of all fifty proxies, including his parents. They used charcoal pencils to draw their symbols on the face—papas was a large, messy smile to represent a Glasgow, dads was a flame, Masky and Hoodies were a smiley and frowny face, Kate’s was her mask and so on and so forth.

Fred helped him recite the prayers, something that Persephone thought would be good for him and turned out to be better. Fred thought that it was some sort of religion-in a way it was-and he attached himself to it immediately. He didn’t understand exactly what he was worshiping, but from his surface thoughts he didn’t care. Masters prayers gave him more comfort, security, and stability than anything he’d ever tried.

Draco helped him choose the rituals robes, incense, candles, any and all minor details that made the big picture. He was good at picking out fine details, the smallest things that Persephone wouldn’t think of with his mind crowded with the main events. The robes were a deep marron that matched the wood of the alter, and the white candles and incense smelled like the forest. Everything, the alter to the smells to the offerings, it all reminding him so much of home that it almost hurt.

Speaking of offerings, that was the one thing he did alone. While he thought his friend were ready to participate in the ritual, he didn’t think Draco and Hermione would approve of murder—not yet, anyways. Fred was a hard maybe, but he could hear the start of a plan forming from Fred’s surface thoughts, and one day quietly warned him about Dumbledore and Snapes Legilimency and offered to teach him Occulmency.

Fred quickly took up the offer, which led to Draco and Hermione wanting to learn, so now he was giving them lessons on how to mind read and how to stop others from reading your mind. They asked if he could and Persephone replied as honestly as he could, saying he couldn’t hear thoughts but feel their feelings. Hermione quickly got frustrated, saying “You can do it so easily! If you can, why is it so difficult for me!?” Persephone reminded her he’d been doing mind magic since he was a toddler, and that before this she haven’t even known it existed.

She’d blushed, but was a little more calm about her lack of progress so far. Fred figured it out quickly, and now all Persephone got from him was the same white noise he got from Snape. Fred asked how difficult it would be to force yourself into someone’s mind, and Persephone told him that if you did it right they wouldn’t notice at all. He had a feeling Fred was going to use this new ability for his own use.

All and all, things were going swimmingly, and soon he finished his shrine and was eagerly awaiting All Hallows’ Eve.