It had been bad enough the night before[1]. Meeting Grace had been set up before the wretched Witch Weekly article, and he couldn't have turned her down. The comments then had been irritating enough, but tonight, a second night running in the Three Broomsticks, even the faces behind the bar gave him a queer look.

He wished they just didn't. He was here to meet Maya, who as of just before the turn of the new year had become his step daughter with his marriage to Miranda on the 28th December. A step daughter about as distant as his own son was. All in all, he wasn't doing all that well with children, even by his own measure.

It had taken him a little longer than he had hoped to get away from the castle. An incident to deal with in his last lesson of the day with the fourth years. Two curses that had sent the culprits to Madam Nagde's hut. Ignan had clashed their heads together physically on realising they had the audacity to start a proper fight with each other during a practical. He'd gained a few minutes with apparition from the gates into the village, but even then it appeared Maya had arrived first.

She cut a similar figure to her mother, he realised at a distance. Ignoring the looks from the regulars who recognised him easily, he approached, heavy cloak still hanging from his shoulders.
"Maya," He spoke softly, seeing she was not alone but a smaller bundle of human was also in accompaniment. "Oh, of course." Ignan corrected himself aloud, his gaze glancing down at the bundle in her arms before looking up again. "Thank you for coming. What will you have?" He glanced over how she was dressed. Miranda had mentioned the new job.

"Take a seat, I'll bring them." He gave her a little nod and turned away to the bar with a level gaze. It slid from one to the other and down at those staring at him from their stools at the bar. It wasn't friendly or polite tonight. It was mind your own bloody business.

A moment later he departed the unusually quiet bar, joining Maya. The moment his back was turned, conversation resumed over at the bar, a little lower.
"I don't mean to keep you long," he clarified to Maya, shouldering off his cloak before taking a seat. "But what you put in your letter gave me some thought."

1.	Jan 12, It seems Like Only Yesterday

Having arrived through the fireplace a minute or so before Ignan Storm, Maya was using her spare hand to dust off her work clothes while her right hand gripped the sleeping child she’d just picked up from her grandparent’s home. She’d asked for them to watch Katrine for longer this evening but it appeared that even nonworking grandparents had their limits when it came to childcare. Therefore Maya had been forced to bring a very tired child to the three broomsticks to meet her new stepfather.

"Maya," The voice came from behind and the young witch turned to see the older wizard eyeing her daughter warily, obviously not having expected there would be three of them at their little meeting. "Thank you for coming. What will you have?" The wizard’s gaze was scrutinising as he glanced briefly over her clothes. Maya’s grip of Katrine tightened and she glanced at the bar. Did she need something alcoholic to deal with whatever he couldn’t have said in a letter? Would he judge the young mother for dragging her sleeping daughter to the pub for a drink?

“A butterbeer, thanks.” The witch nodded and found them a booth where she was able to gently lay Katrine down with the small stuffed dragon between her arms. A soft gurgle came followed by a tiny amount of fidgeting before she settled. This allowed Maya’s gaze to drift back to her mother’s new husband as she removed her cloak and hat. It wasn’t easy to miss the strange looks he was getting from the bartender and the regulars propped up against the bar. Was Ignan Storm’s reputation that bad up near Hogwarts?

With Storm sat back down opposite her, Maya took the drink with a quiet thanks and a small smile. Awkward wasn’t a strong enough word to describe how she felt at this particular moment. The last and first time she’d seen Ignan Storm was when Bug had just been sacked for theft and Miranda had wound her up.

“I didn’t mean to offend you in the letter.” She found herself saying quietly, unsure if that was what he’d wanted to hear. “If that’s why you wanted to meet me here.” Rumours she’d heard about Storm seemed like they could be true, judging by the resting grumpy expression and those eyes. Her younger cousins had mentioned him, some had owled her when witch weekly had come out, wanting to know what he was like as a family member. Would he be at their family dinners? Was he nicer than as a professor? Maya literally knew nothing about him.

"I didn't mean to offend you in the letter, if that's why you wanted to meet me here."

"You didn't." Ignan replied, seeing and hearing Maya's tentative defence. "Quite the opposite." He mustered what counted as a smile, and it fell away in the blink of eye. He could feel eyes on them, and unlike the evening before with Eddy where he was quietly confident over meeting a former student to find out how her life was progressing and encourage her on, tonight he was less sure. He and Maya knew even less of each other, and they were now step daughter and step father.

"It was a timely reminder. Between Mi- your mother being a patient in her own hospital, going away, our marriage and coming home back to work, we should have given you a little more consideration." He admitted, taking care to keep his tone even, and gaze not too sharp as he looked across at her. His fingers were laced on the tabletop before his drink, contemplative.

"Marrying your mother won't change the time she spends with you or Katrine. It's not my place to get between that. You don't have to like me, and you wouldn't be alone in doing so, but I don't have reason to pick a bone with you, Maya." He shrugged ever so slightly, "Miranda doesn't know you have written to me, and I won't tell her unless you're happy for me to let her know." He looked to Maya properly, hands shifting, right hand fingertips going to his wedding ring, still getting used to it being there.

"Some of the things you put in the letter, I'm sure she would rather I didn't know or think of about her, but you wouldn't have written them unless they were true. Not in that way, at least, by my reckoning. You're not Lil Snigger of Witch Weekly." His blue eyes dropped a moment in the direction of Katrine who was obscured to him by the edge of the table between them.

"I will look after your mother. I have made a promise. I won't… 'mess it up'." He assured Maya, quoting her final line[1].

1.	8 Jan 2011, Welcome Stepdaddy

The wizard sat opposite Maya seemed mildly preoccupied by the other patrons staring in their direction. The long it continued, the more Maya questioned whether it was a regular occurrence. Had her mother married a wizard that attracted more attention than her? Maya knew Miranda now had a prominent job. The witch weekly article and gossip was evidence of that. A year ago no one would have cared if she’d married this far older and just as stern looking wizard.

Ignan Storm spoke of the need for consideration of her and the fact things wouldn’t change between mother and daughter. Maya was genuinely not overly fussed if she saw her mother less. They’d never had a decent relationship. It was no secret that Maya had always been closer to her father as a child. It was also no secret that Miranda hadn’t been the world’s best mother. She hadn’t written the letter or agreed to this meeting for her. She’d done it for the sleeping child next to her.

"I will look after your mother. I have made a promise. I won't… 'mess it up'." The older wizard finished after a quick glance in Katrine’s direction. Maya studied him for a moment.
“She doesn’t need looking after.” The young witch nearly laughed. Did he know her mother? “What she needs is someone to tell when she’s forgotten how to be a human being. If you think you can do that, great.”
Maya’s fingers were wrapped around the butterbeer glass as she considered her words.
“You can tell her I wrote by all means. Ma’s got a low enough opinion of me anyway. We don’t get on, Ignan. I’m a big disappointment. I just want to make sure I don’t have to deal with the fallout of a marriage gone wrong.”
Some truth. Some comments to save face.

"She doesn't need looking after." Maya countered, and Ignan gave a single nod of agreement. He quite agreed in principle, though Maya hadn't been the one to see off a dementor in Norway or be at the hand of her mother's attempts of defensive spells. Not that he would dream of elaborating over these efforts to Miranda's daughter. His own attempts to heal would be similarly mediocre from her measure, he was absolutely sure.

"… she's forgotten how to be a human being…." Put like that, Ignan felt that perhaps he and Miranda were rather more well suited than he first realised. Nobody needed to know about the decade where he forgot what it was to be a decent human being, and he didn't like to revisit it either.

"You won't." Ignan assured her sincerely, meeting her gaze. "And your mother has never described you as a disappointment to me, or given me reason to believe such." He added the observation in a softer tone. "I've seen disappointments," he vaguely gestured in the direction of the school, "you don't strike me as one." He shifted and sat back, looking thoughtful.

"Miranda dotes over her granddaughter from what I've seen. Have things really been that bad between you?" As he asked he took care to make sure his tone did not suggest he doubted it had been bad, more curious.

How exactly to take Ignan Storm, Maya had no idea. She’d been told of the cruel professor he was; the stoic and harsh old wizard that never cracked a smile and enjoyed torturing his students. Yet it wasn’t a stoic and cruel wizard who’d asked her to meet him in Hogsmeade and was sat opposite her at the table. He was the wizard who told the single 22 year old mother that she didn’t strike him as a disappointment. She had to remind herself that he had chosen to marry her mother who drank and smoked way too much just to stay calm and her normal self. Ignan Storm could apparently cope with disappointments.

His question flummoxed the witch. She wasn’t quite so used to people outside of her family being quite so blunt with their questioning. Perhaps the wizard was well suited to Miranda indeed.
Maya used taking a sip of her drink as a moment to think of a suitable response that wouldn’t paint her in a terrible light and get back to her mother.

“Let me put it this way, sir,” (Ignan seemed too informal) “mum isn’t even 50 yet and she’s the highest level and best paid healer in the country. You don’t reach that point by devoting your time to your daughter. You’ve seen how she works nearly every day. That was no different when I was a kid.” She paused, glancing down to Katrine while inwardly debating whether to voice her thoughts.
“I don’t know why you married her, to be honest. She hasn’t got time for anything other than her career. It’s always been the same.”

"Things do change, people do change." Ignan replied calmly, though he cringed at his own words. "What I mean is, we can all be terrible human beings, but loving someone is doing so despite this." He frowned. "She does work hard, a little too hard, I agree." Ignan nodded to Maya, his gaze had slid from her to contemplate the edge of the table.

"My visit to your home was unfortunately timed last year." The Professor recalled, that there had just been an issue with Bug, little Katrine's father. It had been the explanation from Miranda that had led to Ignan becoming involved. Sat here in the pub he hoped he had made the right decision. Maya had made a very good point about absent fathers which had made him stop and think.

"How are things between you both now? Better?" Ignan looked up to Maya properly with consideration and explained: "I don't want to inadvertently get in the way of the three of you due to my own ignorance of the situation."

Merlin, he was going to have to have to shout at a few second years when he got back to balance out the effort tact required.

“If you didn’t want to get in the way you wouldn’t have taken my mother abroad and married her with no thought for her family or friends.” Not that Miranda Elliot had many friends. The words had left her lips before Maya had seriously considered them. She eyed Ignan wearily over her drink. He’d been an unpleasant intruder in her mother’s house that afternoon. He’d had a biting, insensitive tongue. Then he hadn’t thought it important to bother with Maya. A relationship with her mother had surely been a short lived thing. After all, who was able to stand Miranda’s company for a decent amount of time? The woman was overbearing and cold.
Just like the wizard she’d met all that time ago in the house.

The wizard in front of her was actually having a go at getting along and proving himself. In reality Maya wasn’t sure if she did truly care about her mother’s emotional wellbeing. She cared about her own self preservation. This wrinkled old has been hurting her mother would have caused more trouble that it was worth. If he’d put a ring on it he needed to stick around and keep Miranda out of her hair.

“Things between us now are none of your business, Mr Storm. I just want to make sure you’ve not got an agenda.” She simply stared at him across the table, dark eyes dancing between his icy blue.
What did her mother see in the grey old wizard?

It was apparent that Maya was both puzzled at why Ignan had married her mother, but also annoyed that they had been married abroad at such short notice.

"Mr Storm?" Ignan replied, noticing the shift in the way of addressing him. Ignan on the letter, Sir a moment ago and now this. Enough. He drew himself up and studied Maya with an expression his students were familiar with.

"For a young woman so prickly about her relationship with her mother, she's awfully concerned." He pointed out, lifting an eyebrow. "What would she think if I were to tell her that you met me here to ask if I had an agenda in marrying her? Oh for goodness sake." Ignan shook his head.

"I asked your mother to marry me, because she makes me happy, and as far as I could tell, she felt the same about me. Neither of us are acquainted with each other's families. I'm beyond the age where I feel it necessary to bite my tongue around people who are impolite to me. As for an agenda, nothing further than living out my years with your mother until she tires of me." He lifted his hands from the table top in a shrug and sat back, studying her. "We don't have to get along, but I think it'll be easier on the both of us to attempt to."

He very much doubted he and Maya would ever be all that friendly, but for the sake of an easier life with Miranda, he might be persuaded to yield ever so slightly. Perhaps.

End