Perhaps the brilliantly spring weather was just the first sign of a generally lucky day.  There close to noon, temperatures were already starting to top out around 20º with skies that had been crystal clear and a brilliant blue all day.  Sasha had arrived in Munich late Wednesday evening and had spent much of the previous day visiting with his maternal grandmother in the Alzheimer's care unit.  Tomorrow, he'd catch the train south towards Konigsee to spend a few quiet days alone before starting the long journey back to Northern Scotland. 

Sasha sat with his back to the sun, trying to shield the screen of his laptop from the sun's bright glare.  The beer garden in the middle of the English Gardens was walking distance to the university; few, if any, paid much mind to a lone teenager with a computer.  He'd arrived at the beer garden an hour or so before he was due to meet Johann.  The weather had been pleasant enough; a few quiet hours in the sun had been more than welcome.

Sasha's meeting with Johann was, primarily, social in nature.  Letters were never quite as personal as face-to-face contact and this would be the last opportunity to meet before the end of the year.  In addition to catching up, exploring family histories had become a recurring theme.  The discovery of another potential wizard on the muggle side of the extended family had sparked a fair bit of curiosity.  His close proximity to the University held an additional advantage.  They were within easy reach of the University archives should initial investigations prompt more specific research.  And, perhaps, Munich's central university library may contain a few magical archival artifacts hidden somewhere among the mundane. 

Sasha glanced up from his computer screen and spotted Johann striding between the rows of picnic benches.  "Allo," he offered with a grin as his cousin reached the table.   He hesitated, briefly, not entirely sure what customary social protocol was for a fellow introvert supervisor-turned-family-member but, finally, extended a hand.  "Relieved you're still free to get away without explaining to the misses?" 

If he was honest - Johann had been contemplating the move on the hug, but Sasha played it safe with a handshake. Besides, they were amongst Muggles, not that the Germans would particularly find it strange to see a couple of blokes exchanging a hug.  

"Cousin…!" He greeted warmly, that familiar broad, boyish smile on bright on his features in the spring sunshine.He planted two pints on the table between them before he took Sasha's hand. As they shook, he clapped his free hand to his cousin's elbow a moment.

"Relieved you're still free to get away without explaining to the misses?" Sasha asked as Johann cast aside his familiar satchel bag onto the seat and unbuttoned his suit jacket.

"Heh, yeah." Johann replied after an initial pause to wonder what Sasha meant, "no, he's fine about it."

Then taking a seat he beamed at Sasha,
"So sorry about all that confusion, didn't mean for you to get caught in it too. All behind us now. It's good to see you though - last we saw each other, you were off to meet friends for a birthday party. How has term been?"

Sasha smiled warmly at the overtly familial greeting and nodded in unspoken appreciation as he sat back down.  He hooked two fingers over the lid of the laptop and closed it, setting it to the side for the moment.  It was nice to be openly in the company of family, without any mitigating complications. 

Not to mention, in the presence of decent beer. 

"He's fine about it?" There was doubt in his voice as Sasha watched Johann settle in his seat.  "He - you mean, as in Professor Storm?  He's fine."  He repeated, inserting a pause to offer Johann an opportunity to laugh or wave a hand or otherwise indicate he was jesting.  "It's hard to imagine him fine."  About much of anything.  Adamantly not fine seemed to be the professor's default setting. 

Maybe, that was just around him. 

Sasha shook his head and waved a hand, simultaneously dismissing that thought and Johann's apology.  "I'm hardly one to point fingers.  I've told worse lies - longer lived ones, too.  At least you kept yours restricted to one country."  He grinned sheepishly and took a sip of his lager. 

"Ah yes - the birthday party.  With the broken tables and me playing medi-witch."  Had it really already been over four months since then?  "It has been an odd term. I'm still serving detentions where sleep is the prescribed punisher."  While most would assume Sasha had gotten off easy with that punishment, Johann was the most likely to understand just how frustrating that was. 

With a broader grin, he added: "But, finally got my GCSE scores.  They were mailed to Wilhelm a while back but he still hasn't grasped the owl thing."  Sasha pulled the envelope from his bag and set it on the table. 

"He - you mean, as in Professor Storm? He's fine."

Johann was sipping his beer and looked perplexed at Sasha's response, not quite sure where it had come from, winding back the conversation in his mind, and identifying a flippant comment about Arcturus that had slipped his lips minutes before. Bugger. He decided not to correct Sasha.

"Sounds, fantastic. Is that what teenagers do for birthdays these days?" He asked with more enthusiasm than necessary, but knew it was not the case and replaced it with a concerned and somewhat bemused expression instead as Sasha continued.

"Ergh." He agreed to the detentions. "Should have let me know, I'd have stocked you up with some rather effective sedatives." Then slapped his own wrist. "No, sorry, sleeping is good for you, damn it. I am such a bad role model." He winked, mirroring the grin.

"Gee-cee-ess-ees…" Johann sounded out each letter in the British accent they were meant to be spoken in. "OWLs for Muggles. So, did you confund the examiners, or have you got what you wanted?" His eyebrows raised at the envelope.

"Oh, have you not - you've opened them, haven't you?"

His history of revelations around Sasha was not a great one, after all. He was no good luck charm.

Sasha looked up, mouth opened and on the verge of embarking upon a stilted and lengthy explanation of why he wasn't quite the expert on standard teenage birthday protocols.  He remained motionless for a beat, carefully analyzing the other's grin and tone before coming to the conclusion Johann wasn't being serious.  Grinning awkwardly himself, Sasha wiped a streak of condensation from the surface of his glass with the pad of his thumb and took a sip. 

"I learned to make sleep replacement potions," Sasha admitted, setting his glass down.  "I don't want to be sedated, though.  I don't want to not be able to wake up."  The sedative would help settle his mind and let him relax but that wasn't all it was about.  "Don't worry.  It's not like you're fostering any bad habits that weren't already there.  In the realm of bad influences, you're not ... there's definitely much worse." 

"So, did you confund the examiners, or have you got what you wanted?"

Sasha grinned and shook his head with enough determination to squash any lingering doubts that he might have bewitched the testers.  "I'd have to stalk them and confund them when they were grading it to work, anyway.  I'm too tall to hide effectively." 

The Ravenclaw set the envelope on the table and tapping the sealed flap with a finger, confirming his cousin's suspicions.  "Right now, it's like Schrödinger's marks.  I've neither passed nor failed.  Right?" he asked, momentarily forgetting most pureblood wizards weren't familiar with muggle physicists.

"What, that wizard who liked to put his cat in a box?" Johann asked, having heard a convoluted version of the reality. But it passed them by as Johann planted one long finger on the envelope beside his cousin's.

"Now, do I need to get more beer?" He grinned, and chuckled, removing his finger. "Quit stalling, open the damned things!" He was suddenly as excited as if it was Christmas, and his hand wrapped back around the glass so he could take a good long sip of the beer while he studied Sasha opening an envelope to read a list of grades for subjects he barely knew existed (unless they were history and geography… and the sort that existed in both worlds, that was)

"So?" He asked, full of expectation, putting the glass down and drumming his fingers on the table between them.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, that stubborn voice that vowed to never let any fleeting comment go by without being logically dissected for accuracy was desperate to explore the idea of a wizard masquerading as a physicist.  It was easy enough to ignore, though, given the task that was at hand.  Literally.

“Perhaps,” the Ravenclaw confirmed, taking a long drink of beer before picking up the envelope.  “I might need a few more.”  He turned the envelope over and stared at the sealed edge as he had been since Wilhelm had handed him the thing. The eagerness in Johann’s voice was just the encouragement he needed, though.  He eased the envelope open and deceptively singular slip of paper. 

He settled back in his seat, removing his spare hand from his beer glass and wiping the condensation on his trousers.  His gaze flashed over the page once, quickly, then returned to the top and moved down the length of the typed page more methodically. 

Finally, after a long moment, Sasha shrugged and lowered the page to the table. 

• English - B
• Literature - C
• Biology - A*
• Chemistry - A
• Physics - A*
• Mathematics - A*
• Latin - B
• German - A*
• French - A
• History - B

“It’s not that bad,” he said with a little too much emphasis to entirely convince a keen observer that he was saying it solely for Johann’s benefit.  With a deep breath, he tried to replace the disappointment with, at least, a realistic perspective.  Of course, anything but straight top marks would have been disappointing but he had to consider the circumstances.  Unlike most students sitting GCSEs, he had completed twelve O.W.Ls not six months before.  And, preparing for these exams had taken place in his free time: late hours, independent work and holiday schooling sessions. 

"It's like O.W.L grading."  He explained, unsure what of it made sense to Johann.  "Except, ranked alphabetically.  A's are like O's.  B's are E...if...you went to Durmstrang.  I don't know if they use the same.  I don't cross paths with them much with the tournament.  You probably always got top marks, anyway."  In the end, Literature was the one score that was worthy of being hexed off the page.  "I didn't have a lot of time to read novels," he added. 

His cousin was not leaping off his seat the other side of the able with joy or in floods of tears, so the news was not dramatic in either direction, Johann thought to himself as he stared unrelentingly at Sasha from the other side of the table.

"So…?!" Johann asked again impatient.

He was still intently staring at Sasha as his younger relative explained that the marks were not as bad, but Johann couldn't be sure as veritaserum, but he sounded ever so slightly disappointed.

The paper went between them so Sasha could explain to Johann what it all meant. He flapped a hand at the comment about reading novels,
"I don't take much pleasure in reading them either. I see, so these stars here are to indicate you achieved high honours, if an A is the best?" His finger pointed at the list from the exam board.

"Biology, now that's the study of beasts, bodies and plants isn't it?" He confirmed with Sasha, "Chemistry you explained to me once was comparable with potions, physics is the study of motion, or Muggle's electricity, of the stars like astronomy, which on the hand sounds quite fascinating if astronomy wasn't ever a real interest."

His finger made it down the list,
"Mathematics, Latin? I see, yes, well, one is a little surprised you weren't flying with Latin, though spells are such a mishmash at times, it's the intent as much as the wording. Any grounding is better than none, and the Muggles aren't ever so sure at some anyhow." He brushed away the importance, without intending to, actually making the fact Sasha achieved a B no issue.

"Ho! German was a walk in the park, and history, well, no goblins but remembering dates, times and places is just practice." He shrugged and clapped Sasha on the shoulder.

"Well done you." He spied at Sasha's glass, "Alright, you won't be paying for drinks, but I'm not carrying you home." He settled back across from his cousin and looked about them a moment at Muggles nearby, momentarily distracted by people watching before remembering himself.

"Congratulations," he raised his beer to meet Sasha's. "Good to see you in better times. So, are you taking the girl of your dreams round the world this summer before your final year in Scotland?"

The Ravenclaw tapped the slip of paper with a finger before sliding it a little closer towards him.   He looked over the summary for a third time as he tried to digest the information one way or another. 

"There just wasn't enough time," Sasha offered, shrugging his shoulders.  He didn't dislike novels - there were a lot of hits and misses.  They were just a very time consuming branch of education that didn't offer that much knowledge in return.  "Yes.  the stars are the highest mark possible.  You need at least "C"s to continue on to A-Levels.  The equivalents of N.E.W.Ts.  Which you need to continue on to University." 

"Biology is the study of life," Sasha confirmed, leaning across the table slightly as Johann considered the course material.  "At least, the life muggles are aware of.  And, Muggle astronomy is almost all math and physics.  At least until we get to various planets - then, geology and chemistry kick in.  Maybe biology, one day.  Could you imagine the understanding we'd have if we combined what we've learned with what they've learned?  After all, the separation of the worlds is a human construct, isn't it?"

Sasha shook his head and waved his hand, releasing he was getting off topic.  "I'd been doing some extra latin studies and spell creation with the librarian.  I felt confident enough about vocabulary but there's some discrepancy in grammar.  I was having a hard time keeping them straight." 

He took a long sip of beer before, finally, grinning at the positive feedback.  "Thank you," he offered.  "It's back to the books, tomorrow."  The page was folded and returned to it's envelope. 

Conversation turned to the summer and Sasha leaned over to return the envelope to his bag in an effort to hide the blush.  "I'm not sure.  I'm thinking I'll get away for a bit but I don't think - I think it's going to be a solo venture.  Parent intervention strikes again.  It sounds like they're pushing forward with the engagement to that Durmstrang kid.  They don't want her fraternizing with a muggleborn.  But, I think some time alone would be a good thing.  It'll give me some time to figure some stuff out.  Maybe at least figure out what I'll do the rest of the summer?" 

"Ugh," Johann made a face, curling his lip in disgust of the traditional methods of pairing young people up for marriage. It seemed such a waste, there was so much to do when you were in your teens and twenties not to mention your thirties, and settling down and producing the next generation seemed to be so immobilising.

"Well, you're always welcome - well, I figure you are - at Godric's Hollow." Johann assured Sasha in response to the younger wizard mentioning spending some time alone. "There'll be plenty to do to get it right."

He glanced up and his blue eyes suddenly changed in recognition that Sasha had no idea what he was on about.

"He hasn't told you? Oh. I see." Johann felt a bit awkward for bringing it up. Clearly things hadn't got much easier between father and son of late. Or perhaps he was waiting to tell Sasha later. Oh dear.

"Ignan bought a house in Godric's Hollow the other month. With his father, your grandfather dying just after Christmas, he and his sister split the inheritance and sold the place. It's in need of repair, he's letting me stay there until term ends." His cheeks blushed ever so slightly, "I thought, well, i thought he might have mentioned it."

“The wizarding village?”  The confusion on the younger man’s face confirmed that he didn’t yet know of their connection to Godric’s Hollow.  He shook his head, providing further confirmation while running a finger through the condensation on his glass. 

“He mentioned he was looking for some place over Christmas Holidays and he extended an invitation.  That was then, though.  Some things have kind of changed.  I think it’s a miracle he hasn’t gone Homer Simpson on me.”  Not sure how much muggle television Johann had been exposed to during his apartment hopping, Sasha very briefly pantomimed Homer strangling Bart Simpson.  Sasha hoped, if Johann wasn't familiar with the reference, the mildly affectionate and less-than-lethal undertones of Homer Simpson's strangling was somehow conveyed in the demonstration.

Sasha lowered his hands to his glass, shaking his hands.  “He hasn’t said as much, but we haven’t really talked outside of class.  I don’t know if the offer still stands.” 

“A few too many mistakes.  I don’t know how to fix it.”  He watched Johann for a moment before adding.  “I want to, though."

Johann nodded at Sasha's query that it was a wizarding village.

"Yes, though it's a bit mixed, not like Hogsmeade." The comment was in passing as he let Sasha continue explaining about the happenings at Christmas, and looked rather confused at Homer Simpson until Sasha mimed grasping something with his hands, and a memory linked up in the back of his mind, and he clicked his fingers,
"Television!"

"Why, what did you break?" Johann asked, thinking very literally about Sasha's mention of fixing things, but without Sasha needing to say a word he realised his mistake.
"Not physically break then, hm, bit more difficult. Well, erm, I can't say I've spoken to him much about you specifically - but he did consider the fact he erm, he offered an invitation I believe - what with the space." He was thinking back to late February. "Well, erm, I'm going to be there from a couple of days' time, so if there's anything you want me to erm, ask him."

The insecurity had crept into his language as he explained and realised with regret that he was babbling and leaned back, stretching his arms out between him and the table and sighing.

"Sorry, go on, what do you mean?"

Sasha shook his head, confirming he hadn’t physically broken anything.  Nothing tangible, at least, though he couldn’t shake a measure of guilt at the new careful formality that had settled between Professors Storm and Trishna.  He hoped it was just temporary awkwardness. 

The Ravenclaw licked his lips.  They were in the midst of a moment of deja vu.  Several months before, Johann and he had discussed who should approach Professor Storm about taking the test that confirmed their relation.  Back then, Sasha had insisted he should approach man himself.  Noble sentiments aside, it hadn’t gone well.  He couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he risked a repeat. 

This time, Sasha was willing to trade propriety for caution, even though Johann seemed as uncertain about the prospects as Sasha.  Or, maybe he was uncertain about something else.  Sasha couldn’t tell.  “Maybe that’d be better?” he asked, grimacing apologetically.  “I know it’s not right to put you in the middle but, maybe you could subtly ask?”  Johann was a known entity.  And, probably was better at continuous sentences.  "That way, if he’d changed his mind about me staying,…I don’t know.” 

"Sorry, go on, what do you mean?”

This was not the first time, nor would it be the last time Sasha found himself frustrated by his own lack of verbosity.  “I’m not sure.”  He let out a long, frustrated sigh.  “I just want to know where I fit but I know that’s not his problem.  And, not my place to ask.  He's a professor, first.  But, I want him to be proud and I’m not doing much to help myself.  I just want…”  Sasha quickly rubbed his face with his hand.  “I’m sure you didn’t com here to hear how convoluted and messed up things are.  I’m sorry."

"Heh, I didn't come here to hear your exam result either, but hey I don't mind." Johann grinned and vaguely toasted Sasha before taking a drink from his glass.

Things were never quite straightforward for his more recently acquainted cousin, were they? Between the usual things of girls (well, Johann had come to expect society considered them 'usual') to studies, he'd had more scenery changes in family than an episode of Eastenders. Johann wasn't going to make the same mistake of watching another episode of that ghastly thing ever again, and with moving into the place at Godric's Hollow, he wouldn't have a television to stumble across it with.

"All I know is that he bought the place with room to spare. You're probably fine, but well, you've inherited more estate than I think our family's ever had, so why worry?" He shrugged. "You'll be off on your own before you know it, well, you are already otherwise we wouldn't be sat here.

"I'll ask, I'll mention we've seen each other, no harm in that. Do you want another?" He lifted his empty glass, having proved more thirsty than he thought.

Sasha nodded, appreciatively, grinning awkwardly. 

He knew he had a physical place to stay, that really wasn’t it, was it?  Even with him avoiding Rickmansworth at all costs, he had Germany.  He could even always stay at a hotel in London, if there were no other options.  However, it wasn’t the same.  It wasn’t like Christmas.  Christmas had been … Christmas had been indescribable.  It had felt like what 'going home' had looked like in those family sitcoms. 

It didn't surprise Sasha that Johann wasn’t seeing past the practical.  At first, Sasha simply nodded in concession.  But, a moment later he shrugged and added: "Do you really not, you know, get some sense of security knowing he’s there?  That you can turn to him?  Of knowing, you have a place? I mean, even if you can be on your own.  Just … belonging?  Isn’t that why people have family reunions?  Is it really that childish?” 

Even next year, when he could finally sell the English estate and leave all the horrid memories in it behind, he wasn't sure that desire would go away.  He knew it would never match the fantasies he'd had growing up of what finding his mystery other family would be like.  But, between Christmas and trying to emotionally disconnect from Kronos he had realized he still wanted some feeling of connection.  He wanted more holidays like the last one.  He did not want to become Malvivicus - surrounded by estates and followers and so terribly, painfully, alone.

Sasha nodded at the offer of a refill and fished in his pocket for a couple of euros  and offered them to Johann.