Chapter Text
Severus took the children for a walk around the castle after breakfast, giving them a brief history of things as well pointing out some of the more interesting areas that even Harry hadn't heard about over the years and Harry was almost sorry to have to leave them but he knew he only had a limited time left and now 4 Christmas presents to buy.
Hogsmeade was looking especially bright at the moment. Thanks to squib children getting adopted into magical families, squibs had seen a bit of a boost in recent years, society-wise, with even adults now not getting treated with the same level of scorn as they previously had and many of them now feeling comfortable coming back into the wizarding world, bringing a lot of muggle ideas with them. One of them was the mass of decorations that muggles lines the streets with, from various coloured lanterns that were strung up and down the street to the huge wreaths on the doors and enchanted snowflakes in the windows. It was a lot brighter and more joyful than in Harry's school days and Harry couldn't help smiling as he walked down the streets.
There were a lot more shops available as well, where squibs had often managed to use their meager magical talent to enhance any skills they had acquired in the muggle world with some truly wonderful results. One of the biggest problems in the wizarding world had been an almost inherent lack of imagination, something that they quickly learned in the muggle world and were more than happy to bring back with them. As such there was a sudden massive influx in little boutique stores in the village catering to all sorts of tastes that truly came into its element at this time of year. From handcrafted jewelry to specialty chocolates and other various shops catering to all sorts of needs. He was just checking out a shop that sold everything you would need to brew your own alcohol when someone came barrelling into him.
"Oh I'm so sorry, the decorations are so big this year I got distracted." The bundle of clothes was quite recognisable even with her thinning, mostly grey hair.
"That's alright Mrs Weasley, no harm done," Harry smiled and the woman beamed back at him, the action only emphasising the lines on her now care worn face. The scandal surrounding Ginny's birth had rocked the family to its core and caused a massive scandal in the wizarding world with many people suggesting that Arthur should kick both mother and daughter to the curb for their actions. Arthur hadn't done that however, likely feeling sorry for the pair as well as residual parental affection for the daughter he had so lovingly raised. It had been to his advantage, with him coming out looking like a saint while Mrs Weasley's reputation hit rock bottom and even the revelation that she hadn't cheated on her husband, that Ginny had been conceived due to artificial insemination, hadn't really done her any favours as it only made her look more calculating in the eyes of many.
Harry, for his part, had never felt comfortable around the family after that. He could meet the odd person outside of the Burrow but that house now held nothing but bad memories for him and he could never now look at Mrs Weasley with anything except distrust after realising that ever move she had made regarding Harry was done with a view of ingratiating herself to him while making sure to keep Harry contained, as per Dumbledore's instructions. She had never really cared about Harry or his welfare and Harry now had nothing but contempt for the woman, although he was British enough to hide those feelings behind the veneer of a smile.
"Oh Harry!" Mrs Weasley gushed, "It is so lovely to see you dear, its been so long, have you been well? You look well. I hope those husbands of yours are looking after you. I know you have two but I do worry that it still doesn't make up for the loving care that a wife can bring."
"They look after me well enough, as I them," Harry replied, surreptitiously looking around to try to find an out.
"Well that's good to know dear," Mrs Weasley said, patting Harry's arm as if in understanding although she didn't really meet Harry's eyes and Harry got the distinct impression that she had been hoping for a different answer.
"You've been married for a few years now haven't you," she continued, still not really looking at Harry, more something off in the distance. "You've probably started thinking about having children now, maybe not those other two but you were always big on family and you know that being a homosexual doesn't stop you from having one these days. I don't hold to all of this adoption nonsense though, your child should be yours, that's what I think, and I'm sure you can find a suitable witch to carry your child. Ginny, I know, would be more than happy to do it, she's working as the Welcome Witch at St Mungos you know. She turned down a Quidditch career as she said she wanted to do something to help the community."
That wasn't what Harry had heard and it took all of his effort to bite back his real thought and say "did she?" instead. Like Mrs Weasley, Ginny had been untouchable after the news of her birth came out. Harry had initially felt sorry for her as she hadn't exactly been able to choose her parents but, when he offered her a helping hand in society, she tried to metaphorically bite it off, initially insinuating they were dating then, when Harry publicly denied any relationship, she tried to claim that Harry had tried to force himself on her, simply using his homosexuality as cover. It had been a hard few months and Harry hadn't felt good about cutting all ties with her, especially when he had to do it quite publicly. It was probably part of the reason why no one had mentioned that she was working as the Welcome Witch. As a Healer Harry thankfully used the staff entrance to go in and out of work so he never had to come across the woman but he had heard numerous complaints from the patients that one of the Welcome Witches had no patience and had a tendency to fire off Bat-Bogey hexes at people who annoyed her. He'd been surprised nothing had been done about it but, knowing Ginny, Harry wouldn't be surprised if she had something on the Director that she was blackmailing him with to keep her job.
"Oh Ginny would be the perfect surrogate mother for you," Molly gushed, clearly ignoring Harry's non-committal answers. "You know she looks just like your mum used to, only with your father's eyes. Don't you think it would be perfect of you had a baby together, it might even end up as a little you."
"I don't know if we have time for a baby," Harry said, reiterating some of the things his husbands had said earlier that morning. "Both Marvolo and Severus have very important jobs to do that they can't really take time out of to raise a baby and I've just been promoted to Healer-in-charge so I can hardly just leave to raise a child."
"Oh you don't need to worry about that," Mrs Weasley said, a beaming smile on her face that was so bright it almost obscured the calculating glint in her eye. "Ginny may love her job but she would happily give it up to help raise a child for you. That way you wouldn't have to give up your career and you know that I would always be on hand to help out to make sure that child was raised perfectly and never wanted for love and affection."
Harry balked at the idea of Mrs Weasley's smothering style of affection being loaded on a child, all while she whispered things in its ear to try to mold it into the sort of child she thought it ought to be. He had heard enough from Bill and Charlie over the years to know how she worked, part of the reason they both felt the need to put whole seas between themselves and their mother as soon as they had graduated.
"You know Mrs Weasley, that's a very kind offer but we've already agreed to adopt two older children that I helped rescue yesterday."
"But what about a little tiny baby!" Mrs Weasley wailed.
"We'll see how we get on with these older two first. Anyway, I must dash, I have some extra presents to buy after all." With that Harry dashed into the nearest shop and promptly proceeded to scour the shelves, refusing to look back lest he encourage Mrs Weasley to follow him. Luckily for him it turned out to be a magical equivalent of a gadget store and he ended up spotting something that would be perfect for Marvolo. He continued his shopping although now he was careful to check the thoroughfare when exiting a shop and always chose to browse the wares from safely inside instead of back in the street. Realistically he knew that Mrs Weasley was harmless but there was something about her calculating ways that seemed to put him on edge.
Still, he managed to get all of his Christmas shopping finished that afternoon and got back to the castle just in time for dinner. The Christmas holidays meant more relaxed mealtimes and Severus was able to join them again for a meal with just the family without it raising too many eyebrows. Neil had apparently been a little put out by the idea, however. They had had lunch in the Great Hall which had amazed the young boy who had also got chatting with a first year Hufflepuff who had had to stay at the school while his parents were away on business and he was quite looking forward to spending some time with his new friend.
The teacher charming offensive had been a rousing success and each of them had told Severus that they would have no problems with taking on a late student and offered to help get them up to speed. It probably helped that a lot of the current teachers were ones that Severus had hired since McGonagall had taken retirement the year before, but it was still nice to know and it was now Neil whom Harry found with his head firmly lodged in a book trying to read up on all of the things he might have missed.
Marvolo returned home later that evening, sorry to have missed the family meal but with great news. It had taken a lot of work, albeit it mostly spent on calling the Wizengamot in for a whole meeting this close to Christmas, but they had managed to get the definition of 'squib' to refer to 'human who's magical level doesn't meet the Hogwarts threshold'. Marvolo had initially wanted it to say person but there was too much push back against that claiming that it could cover other creatures, not just humans, and that could create a loophole for the likes of goblins and hags to get a higher place in magical society.
"I honestly can't wait until this old guard dies and we can really bring about a fairer society," Marvolo huffed.
"It's getting there," Harry sighed, "slowly yes, but we're definitely moving in the right direction. St Mungos is actually putting on a voluntary course on the differences in werewolf physiognomy. It was a little sad that we had to take a vow at the start to say that we wouldn't use the information to out people but the person running the course did say that they were compiling a list of names of essentially 'safe' healers that werewolves could turn to for treatment without fear of recriminations."
"That's something at least," Severus agreed. "I may not be the biggest fan of werewolves but even I can see that it is better that they are known and have somewhere safe where they can go to transform instead of wondering around god knows where in a full moon."
"Unfortunately the wizarding world is of the opinion that if it isn't broken, there's no need to fix it, not realising that just because a system isn't causing issues for them, doesn't mean that it isn't broken," Marvolo said, rubbing his brow. "At least we've gotten squibs basically sorted and, if David's idea for more completely magical communities can come about then there will be less excuse to keep creatures hidden as there will be no risk to the Statute of Secrecy and no 'risk to children' with the school just next door."
"As if Hogwarts had such a good reputation for child safety while Dumbledore was in charge," Harry scoffed.
"Perhaps," Marvolo grinned, "but you'd be surprised how often people pick and choose arguments to suit their standpoint. It's all about protecting the underlying ideology which, in this case, is that creatures are bad. Thankfully, as you pointed out, a lot of that sentiment is changing and the new curriculums at Hogwarts will hopefully go a long way to continuing that in the future."
Harry couldn't help but agree and feel that things would only continue to get better in the future, especially if they could prevent any major hiccups.
The next day breakfast they were all happy to receive some good news.
"Excellent! Young Theodore Nott has agreed to look over the Quill of Acceptance to see if there is some way to recreate it without the need for the tedious Book," Marvolo exclaimed gleefully as he read the letter he'd received. "He says he will do a bit of research and come to the school in the new year sometime as he wants to try to source some Augrey Feathers before he begins experimentation."
"That is good news," Severus agreed. "That boys was always very good at thinking outside of the box and I look forward to seeing what he can come up with. It annoys me sometimes when wixen act as if just because something was created by the founders it means that it cannot be recreated, as if the founders were some sort of gods or something."
"I do think that some people in our world act like that," Marvolo sighed, "although thankfully there is a growing number of non sheeple in the world and they are starting to make a name for themselves and lead others away from the almost automatic thinking that was encouraged during Dumbledore's tenure."
"Exactly," Severus nodded. "Ms Lovegood has done an excellent job in her article rebutting Mr Creevy's claims. She points out that while it is understandable that people would want to cling to the term "Muggleborn" like some sort of security blanket the phrase is actually a misnomer and all that Black is doing is changing the name to better describe who these people are in reference to magical society."
"That kind of fits in with what Connor says," Harry piped up. "He wrote to me after seeing the article. Apparently Ireland saw a marked decline in the number of Muggleborn registered there after they built Ogmar Hall so the Irish Magical Council did some research into it and it seems as if Muggleborn wixen were actually descended from squibs who had gone into the muggle world and become forgotten, producing magical offspring sometimes a couple of generations later."
"That's an interesting theory that will definitely need to be looked into," Marvolo mused.
"It also fits in with Ms Lovegood's idea for the great question of this age," Severus added. "'What is the true origin of magic?' Did it just occur in some people, like an evolution, a genetic abnormality that gives people an advantage? Or is there something else? Did people mate with magical creatures in the past and we are the result of those offspring centuries later?"
"Does it matter?" Neil asked, clearly paying attention to their conversation despite also reading a book on charms, practicing the wand movements with his spoon.
"Not necessarily," Harry admitted, "but it is interesting to think about and may help people to better understand our position in the world."
"There is also the question of how close do we, as wixen, keep ties with the muggle world," Marvolo pointed out. "If wixen can essentially evolve from muggles then it is important that we maintain some sort of connection to the muggle world to allow them to come in if they wish to. If that turns out to be an impossibility, however, then there is less need for us to keep ties with the muggle world and we can look at actually separating ourselves more, as a way of protecting ourselves in the future."
"It would be a shame to cut all ties with the muggle world," Jill mused.
"Indeed," Severus agreed, "but having a mostly separate magical world with only limited interaction with the muggle one would allow for a lot more freedom for wixen, especially younger wixen who might be allowed to openly practice magic in certain designated areas safely, not necessarily in school."
"The world is still changing it would seem," Harry sighed.
"The world will always change," Marvolo stated, "indeed it must. Societies that stagnate are doomed to crumble, history teaches us that. We must constantly look to adapt and improve if we wish to survive."
It was definitely food for thought but not something that Harry was particularly interested in at that moment in time; he had a new family to integrate after all and he was particularly glad for the gew days off he'd managed to give himself on the run up to Christmas as it meant that he was able to spend a lot if time talking to Neil and Jill about their world as well as going outside and playing in the snow, something that neither child had been able to really do before having lived in the south of England and there was something magical about getting to join in with their first snowball fight and helping them build their first snowman.
Christmas eve came and the children gathered in the family quarters ready for the blood adoption ceremony. There had been some suggestion about making it more public but the officiant thought it might put too much pressure on the children. Harry was a little surprised with how early the man arrived and how much time he spent talking alone to the children but Marvolo explained that, since the children were older they needed to be sure that they understood what they were getting into and were sure about their decision as, once made, it was irreversible. Harry had worried that they would change their minds about things and decide that they didn't want to leave their old lives behind but he needn't have worried, the new world was too wonderful and their father had caused too much damage for them not to embrace the new world and the idea of a loving family and they were more than happy to agree to giving up their old life to embrace their new one.
The ceremony went off without a hitch and the new family happily embraced when the blood adoption was completed. The officiant had been a little surprised at the idea of each child getting three new parents but there was nothing in the rules to say it couldn't be done so they let it slide, although Marvolo having a few words with them likely helped. The additional magical parent put Neil above the threshold and Severus was happy to see his name added to the Book of Admissions. Of course there was still some talk of favouritism when he started at Hogwarts in the new year but Severus simply said that it was an experiment to see if other children might be able to start earlier as opposed to having to wait a year and getting behind their peers.
Neil didn't care, he was just happy to be able to do magic and hang out with his new friends at school. He was sorted into Hufflepuff on the first day back, something that all three parents agreed was probably for the best in the long run. He also soon became a firm favourite in the class when it was discovered that Harry had bought him his own broom for Christmas and had already taught the boy the basics of flying. It was a bit touch and go for Neil at first, trying to keep up in lessons but, by the end of the year he had gotten to the stage where all of his teachers were happy for him to advance, although he was bottom of most classes, but that gap only continued to decrease each year.
Jill never did reach the threshold to qualify for Hogwarts but she did become one of the first students at a new school that was created that specialised in non-casting magic. It had been one of the first things Draco had passed after becoming Minister of Magic although it had taken a few years to build and staff ready. It was a non boarding school that taught any subject that didn't necessarily require a wand to perform including Divination, Astronomy and History of Magic as well as Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Some basic potions, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures were also taught as well as a new exam which tested a person's actual casting ability allowing even those classified as 'squibs' to apply for certain jobs where only basic level casting was required such as copy clerks. It also allowed for students from the new school to take on new roles, especially the newly qualified diviners who managed to get jobs in the Department of Mysteries and even the Department of Magical Law Enforcement where they used their skills to help solve crimes.
The information Connor had given Harry had turned out to be a great help, especially when it had been backed up by the Hogwarts student's research into their family trees with almost all Muggleborn being able to trace their line back to a known witch or wizard including Neil and Jill's grandmother who had appeared in an orphanage one day with only memory of her name. That name happened to be Layla Lupin, the same as Lyall Lupin's cousin who had apparently died in a tragic splinching accident when she had "squirmed away from her parents while apparating". The idea had been truly enlightening to the public, helped when Colin Creevy also found several squib wixen in his line, and they were now more than happy to implement David's idea to create new, purpose built, separate magical towns which fit in brilliantly with the new school.
The new, more segregated magical society was able to be a lot more open regarding non-humans, although admittedly that still took some time to happen as people's prejudices ran deep. That's not to say that there was no interaction with the muggle world, even when the number of Muggleborn occurring dropped to almost none. The Ministry offered training courses for people to travel to the muggle world to learn skills which also allowed people to keep up-to-date with what was happening there without putting their world at risk.