Wizard with a Mutation : Chapter 35

A/N - Man, Patreon has been fiddling with something on the backend again. I have to redo all the bold and italics I do in my google docs whenever I paste something here. Here's the doc link

Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don’t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP. 

Winters Manor [2nd November, 1980]

–Scott Winters–

“So, what would you like to know?” Nathaniel, his uncle, asked him as he poured tea for both of them. They were seated in the personal office of his uncle, which was surprisingly not as extravagant as he had expected it to be. Photos of his children, and his wife along with their many trips were hung on the wall.

There were two swords that looked really ancient that were encased in a glass display. There were multiple portraits of ancestors, presumably, in the office along with, ofcourse, a number of enchantments subtly cast on the study.

He recognised some of them. Noise cancellation, intruder alert, shock locks, and more that were not immediately recognisable to him. All in all, quite the standard personal office.

Taking the teacup, he sipped and waited a beat before answering, “I guess you don’t know what happened to my parents, then?” 

That was the crux of the matter. He desperately wanted to believe that his parents were alive but the fact that his mother had just given birth to him and was further weakened by the universe’s rule meant that her chances of survival were pretty slim if Athena’s words of this universe housing entities stronger than her was true.

The less said about his father the better. He was supposedly just an ordinary wizard and not even an Archmage at that, so his chances were even lower.

Nathaniel sighed, “No. Unfortunately, you know just as much as I do about their last moments. That was the last I saw either of them. I was also much younger, saddled with a baby that was not mine, fresh with the loss of my brother and sister-in-law. I could not put as much effort as I wanted to, in searching for them.”

He nodded. He expected as much. The magical World, while not as connected as the No-Maj world, had multiple ways of searching for a wizard if they were blood relatives or had some of their belongings. There were dozens of rituals for tracking people, some benign, some harmful but all the same, it would have been very easy for Nathaniel to track down his brother using the various legal rituals available to them.

The fact that his father was not found meant that the rituals did not work. Still, “Did the blood rituals not work?” He couldn’t help but ask, just for his sake.

His uncle set down his tea, and sighed, “No. I tried all of them. Some legal,  some less so but in each and every one of them, the result was the same. Inconclusive. The rituals couldn't even confirm if he was dead or alive. I talked to multiple experts around the world, including Dumbledore but nobody could tell me what was wrong with my brother’s blood.”

“And the less accurate rituals using belongings?”

“I tried them too. The result was the same. The rituals simply could not lock onto something, as if my brother was not in the ritual’s range.”

“...But, that was–”

“Impossible, right? The rituals, all of them work by borrowing Mother Earth's magic and channeling the blood into the Earth so that the Earth can do the tracking for us. Even if someone is flying, the result should have been something different.”

“No, it is not impossible. What if?”

Nathaniel took one look at him and leaned forward, “What are you saying?”

He hesitated then stood up, waving his hand to conjure a whiteboard along with a marker. He needed to explain something to the man since he was the one ally he could count on, in Magical Britain. “I’ll explain.”

He drew a circle, along with many others, “COnsider each one of them to earth. Now, the space between them, it is empty but it can be traversed. According to what I learned from Athena, that’s the ship’s spirit, my mother came by breaching this space,” He made a direct hole in the space around the Earth and showed something slipping through.

“Now, when my mother did something to breathe life into me, she used her powers and then once again, breached the space,” He showed yet another hole around the first Earth, “and then, shortly after that, she left. What if she left through the same hole, and so did father?”

“So you're telling me that both of them went back to the place where Jean came from, after leaving you here?” Nathaniel asked him, disbelief and skepticism written plain on his face.

He shrugged, “I am not sure. It could be some other place, it could be my mother's homeworld. I am just considering the possibilities.”

“I see. Anyway, that is beyond both of us to confirm. So, let's move on. What more would you like to know?”

He wanted to ask why was he sent to the States at such an early age but he knew the answer to that. No reason to sour the mood right now. So, he moved on, “Anything that my parents left for me?”

“You mean, aside from the ship? No. It took me decades' worth of magic to power that ship enough for you to get whatever it is that you were supposed to get inside. My brother, he… sigh he did not live with me. He was born from a different mother and because of that, I was not allowed to have contact with him. Once I grew up though, it was different, we spoke once more and he asked for nothing in return except peace and quiet, and I gave that to him.”

He listened patiently.

“Why is why I have nothing of him. He was incredibly secretive, doubly so when Jean came into his life. I don’t even know how they met, just that one day, he came to visit and told me about this woman he loved.”

Nodding, he asked the final thing he came here to do, “I would like to meet my cousins, if that is alright with you?”

The man looked conflicted and leaned forward once more, “Look, I apologise for the disastrous first meeting. I–look, the first time I met your mother, I knew she was different. After that, she took my brother away from me, and almost damn near sunk our Family Manor when she put that ship under that basement. I was just a bit worried about similar things happening to my children.”

That was understandable, and he too did not want to meet his cousins being watched fearfully by his uncle so he was about to bid farewell but stopped when Nathaniel raised his hand.

“...But now I realise that it was foolish on my part. My kids wish to know their brother and I have deprived you of your family for far too long. Please, if you have it in you, forgive me,”

For some reason, he felt a pang in his chest as he began sweating from his eyes. Fighting back the tears, he nodded, and got up.

“Let’s go. They must be dying to know what happened in the meeting. They just look big but are teenagers at heart. You’ll love them and they’ll love you even more, especially once they realise how strong you really are. I guess you got your mother’s strength, huh?” Nathaniel joked as they left his personal office and both ignored the not so silent whispering and footsteps coming from the opposite direction.

He glanced over and saw Nathaniel wink at him. He smiled softly and followed Nathaniel. 

Maybe…staying wouldn’t be so bad….

…….

……

He waved at his cousins and turned around with a heavy heart. He had never felt so attached to people who he had never met, before. It was unexpected and yet, oh so comforting to know that he still had family left in this world.

He will come back, that he swore. Once things in MACUSA settled down and he reached the bottom of the reason why MACUSA was actively sabotaging the second strongest magical power on the planet, he will be coming back.

After all, he now had two buff yet adorably shy cousins who loved him.

He couldn't wait to brag about it to Rothschild. The man was always bragging about his grandchildren, this will teach him.