“Because it has nothing to do with you, Alec.”
“Dad’s furious.”
“Let him be.”
“He can’t believe you betrayed him.”
“How?”
“He’s just concerned.”
“You too Jaime?”

The small cottage kitchen was currently crowded with three bulky wizards in their 50s ganging up on their slighter younger sister who’d not even offered them a coffee due to the immediate onslaught as they’d entered.

Jaime Carter, usually a calm and placid wizard, an author by trade, stood uncomfortably, stooped beneath a low beam. He’d agreed to their visit in order to see how their younger sister had settled into her new home with her new husband. Alexander, Alec as he was known by family and friends, had come with a different objective. He had too much of their father in him, Jaime remarked.

“Come on, Andy,” Alec continued, causing Miranda to visibly stiffen. He wasn’t going to let it drop. “First pa hears of it is when you’re lying in a bed in your own hospital in a coma and the bloke’s holding your hand and making threats at him.”

“Alec…” Samuel spoke, having been fairly quiet since their arrival. Sam had always been the second oldest, constantly having to live up to Leon and his thriving career in the aurors and the wizengamot. With the death of their oldest brother, Sam had felt the need to fill his boots. As far as Miranda was concerned, he’d failed. He never had enough to say. This moment proved it. He was a mouse.

Unfortunately, Miranda was all too aware that nothing she should would make her most outspoken brother back up. He’d been best friends with Jon Elliot. A dragon tamer in his 20s and 30s, Alec had known her former husband before Miranda had met him. Ignan stood no chance being accepted by at least one brother.

“What is this, Andy? A midlife crisis? An attempt to piss off dad? He’s a grumpy old bastard that spends his days with spotty teenagers. What do you see in him? Has he got a huge di-”

“ALEC!” Miranda hissed, exasperated.

The kitchen door was opened with a squeak.

“Talk of the devil.” A sly smirk twisted Alec’s features as dark eyes set on the figure in the doorway. “Go on then, Andy. Introduce us.”

It was a little strange to let himself into a different house on a Friday night. The two of them had only just moved things from Godric’s Hollow - a blanker canvas than his place had been when Miranda had joined him in the summer. At least their new home was in a better state of affairs. The old house at Godric’s Hollow was empty apart from the ghost for the time-being while he found suitable tenants. Instead he was coming home for the night a stone’s throw from the castle, to the home he and Miranda had bought together. It felt as if their marriage had somehow become more official for the purchase, rather than the ceremony in Norway.

Although they’d had a few choice guests in Godric’s Hollow (and some thrust upon them without permission) Ignan and Miranda had elected on discouraging visitors on moving in last week. Yet as he let himself in the front door, bottle of Miranda’s favourite wine under his arm from The Three Broomsticks he could hear voices coming from the direction of the kitchen. He closed the door behind him softly, listening to see if he recognised the voices or catch a name. The tone wasn’t overly friendly, and Ignan was on his guard. Their new home had far better wards than they had once set, not that he suspected Miranda was able to keep them up.

“... He’s a grumpy old bastard that spends his days with spotty teenagers. What do you see in him? Has he got a huge di-”
“ALEC!”

Bottle of wine in his left hand, tips of his right hand fingers ready to draw his wand again, Ignan’s blue eyes swept over the appearances of those in the kitchen around his wife, who appeared exasperated at the conversation. He took a guess at family, Miranda would be only too happy to verbally rip pieces off an unrelated wizard in her own home, and the four of them all shared a similarity of sort in their facial features.

“Talk of the devil.” The same voice spoke, “Go on then, Andy. Introduce us.”

“I’m sure Miranda’s no need to be polite, considering I passed your manners on the front doorstep.” Ignan replied cooly, stepping into his own kitchen, asserting the fact that despite the three other wizards crowding it, this was his home, even if Miranda generally ruled the roost. He set the wine down heavily on the table and slid it across towards Miranda, wondering where their house-elf was. Perhaps out on an errand.

People who called Miranda Andy knew her from her school days. Similar age, family resemblance, brothers. She’d mentioned brothers[1], originally four of them, now three. These idiots were definitely her brothers. The disdain just sealed it.

“Ignan Storm,” he offered in greeting, extending his hand to Samuel who seemed least likely to hex it off. “I had not realised I would meet all three brother-in-laws this evening.” He glanced to Miranda, “Significant date?”

1.	May 14 2010 It is Easier to Leave People You Hate

Alec Carter was a bulky wizard; reaching 6 foot 3 and having worked manually for years meant that his bulk overpowered their small kitchen. He watched Ignan with intense dark eyes, visibly irritated at his new brother-in-law’s presence. Miranda stood beside the stove, unsure of how this situation would play out. Alec enjoyed winding people up and Ignan bit back hard. Their father would have shared his experience with Alec, nothing pleasant to say about her new husband. This was the reason she’d avoided any family gatherings for months.

Unlike Alec, Sam gave Ignan a warm smile and shook his hand eagerly.
“Sam Carter, it’s great to meet you.” The 56 year old wizard spoke with a thick west country accent. “Ignore Alec; he spends his day around dragons as opposed to people. He never learned how to socialise with humans.”

Jaime stepped up, shaking Ignan’s hand with an equal friendliness. “Unfortunately Jon Elliot was his best friend. He’s never gonna’ like you.” Alec grunted, arms crossed as Sam picked up the wine, eyeing his sister. It looked like they planned on staying a while longer. “Fortunately for you, Sam and I think Andy should have poisoned him the first time he tried to get her sacked.”

“You have a house elf?” Sam asked eagerly as he glanced around the kitchen for some wine glasses. “What’s it cooking for dinner?”

“Nothing for you.” Miranda finally spoke, snatching the wine from the taller wizard. “The dining table is too small.”

Alec was still staring at Ignan.
“Where do you find the time to spend with my sister when you’re busy pissing kids off?” Freddie Carter, his youngest son, hated Professor Storm.

“Ignore Alec; he spends his day around dragons as opposed to people. He never learned how to socialise with humans.”

Ignan let out a low, brief hum as he looked Alec Carter up and down critically. Interesting his brother felt the need to apologise for his lack of manners. Ashamed of the behaviour. The other brother also felt the need to apologise, but at least were decidedly friendly. Perhaps more so than Ignan had ever anticipated the family being. Mother’s influence perhaps.

“Fortunately for you, Sam and I think Andy should have poisoned him the first time he tried to get her sacked.” Ignan’s eyebrow raised at that phrasing. ‘First time’ ? He was genuinely intrigued to hear how that had come about and how Miranda's former husband had failed, but probably not from his wife. That subject was rather well avoided.

The wine exchanged hands but eventually made it to Miranda as intended. Ignan slid his outdoor cloak from his shoulders and folded it over the nearest kitchen chair in their rather compact cottage kitchen. It was going to take a bit of getting used to with all the space in the castle. He resolutely ignored the fact Alec was still eyeing him up rather aggressively.

“Where do you find the time to spend with my sister when you’re busy pissing kids off?” Without a word, Ignan fixed Miranda’s obstinate brother with a direct stare and pointedly gestured with both hands to the room around him, as if to say, like now? He lifted both eyebrows and dropped his hands.
“Time you’re infringing on presently.” He clarified shortly, "I’ll see the three of you out.” He gestured to the kitchen door with one hand. It had swung closed behind him but opened again at the gesture. A perhaps not-so-subtle indication that he did not require his wand to command a situation with or without magic. “Do send our love to your parents.”

[M for Language]

For someone that knew Miranda well, it was clear to see that she was uncomfortable at the mention of her dead husband. She and Ignan avoided the topic and he knew the bare details. He probably didn’t know enough to truly understand his wife’s contrasting feelings, but he’d surely find out in time. That time wasn’t now and this was one of the reasons among many that Miranda hadn’t suggested Ignan and her brother’s meet.

Quite uncharacteristically, the witch could only watch the events unfold around her. Alec was hostile, stood in their kitchen with the prime intention of making his new brother-in-law ill at ease in his own home. Little did he know the wizard who bit back and told them to leave.

Ignan’s mention of parents made Miranda scowl at her husband. Perhaps he hadn’t realised that this would get back to her father which would affect her at work. It was clear to anyone that Miranda could verbally rebuke and reprimand most people and she was not one to anger. What Ignan was about to learn was that when it came to family, Mira struggled.

“No.” Dark eyes fell on her husband and she shook her head. She set her stern gaze on him for a moment, “Alec is going to apologise for his attitude and shake your hand.”

“I am?” The bulky wizard nearly laughed.
“If you expect to have any likelihood of being treated should you end up in my hospital you will show me and my husband some respect.”

Jaime and Sam both stared at Alec for his reaction. Alec glanced from his sister to the wizard he’d just been readily insulting.
“Seriously?” His shock slowly turned into a grin and he shook his head. “Some wiry haired fool over your own flesh and blood? Fuck that Miranda.” He went to leave the small kitchen, barging past Sam with his bulk.

“… Alec is going to apologise for his attitude and shake your hand.”

He’s not. Ignan thought, adopting an ever so slightly amused expression. Alec did not seem the sort to be schooled by his younger sister, or to be humbled in the presence of the man he’d particularly come to take a bite at.

“If you expect to have any likelihood of being treated should you end up in my hospital you will show me and my husband some respect.” Ignan lowered his gaze to the other end of the kitchen table, safely away from the eyeline of anyone else in the room, but kept a watch in his periphery vision as to how everyone reacted. Miranda couldn’t actually make that threat, head healer or not, the hospital had to tend to even convicted killers.

“Seriously? Some wiry haired fool over your own flesh and blood? Fuck that Miranda.” Brother barged past another, Ignan remained exactly where he was, apart from the subtle movement of his hand to his wand, resulting in Alec falling over his own feet through the kitchen doorway into the living room. Ignan turned to look back, feigning surprise at the incident, his wand safely back in his pocket. He’d done that more than a dozen times to students too big for their boots, taking them down a peg or two to raucous laughter from their classmates puncturing their egos. He taught them how to do the same, though.

“I think you’ll find she does.” Ignan suggested with a somewhat arrogant shrug, oxfords stepping past Alec as nimbly as he could to find the front door. “Mind you don’t fall over the doorstep too…” Definitely father’s son this one.

He glanced up to Miranda as he turned back to watch Alec pick himself up. Was he enjoying this just a little too much? Yes. Guilty as charged.

Knowing full well that her threat was empty, Miranda wasn’t shocked by Alec’s response. He’d always been a bully and having his little sister telling him to respect her was probably laughable for him. He didn’t laugh, but in storming off, her ended up tripping and flying forward into their living room, landing hard on the carpet. Beside her Jaime let out a loud laugh and Miranda’s eyes found Ignan’s hand slipping something back into his pocket. Pale lips pursed in disapproval just as Ignan made a rather uncharacteristic comment and stepped around Alec to the front door.

Once back on his feet, angry and red faced, the wizard had the strong urge to punch Ignan but Sam had quickly come through the door and grabbed his brother.
“Not wise, Al.” He gave Alec a shove through the door and Jaime looked down at his sister with a grimace.
“His wife's just left him. Hearing you’re happy pissed him off.” As the two stood with raised voices outside the front door, Jaime reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a bag which enlarged as he placed it on the table. “For the newlyweds… This wasn’t supposed to happen. Next time we wont bring him. Sorry sis,” Jaime shrugged and pulled Miranda into a warm embrace with the over eagerness and protectiveness he’d always used.

“I’m not sure there’ll be a next time.” Coming out of the hug, Miranda glanced sidewards at her husband who had definitely enjoyed knocking her brother to the ground. Terrible first impressions had been made all around.

Jaime, probably the softest Carter sibling, tried not to look too dejected. “I just hope you’re happy.”
“Hurry up Jaime![/i]” A stressed Sam yelled from outside.
“I am.” Miranda insisted.
Jaime nodded and with a final smile at her, he left the kitchen. A nervous grin was offered to Ignan, “Until next time, Brother-in-law.” and the three parted down the pathway.

In the kitchen, Miranda decided then was the perfect time to open the wine.

Alec picked himself up. Ignan considered helping, but it didn’t look like his offer would be well received. Sam manhandled his brother to calm him down. Ignan raised his eyebrows and tucked his thumbs into his suit trouser pockets as he observed, fingers of his right hand quietly around his wand handle should it be required.

While the third brother spoke to Miranda in the kitchen, Ignan watched the other two make it out of the door on their feet, glancing back just as Jaime released Miranda from the hug. The corner of Ignan’s mouth was curled up in self-amusement.

“Hurry up Jaime!” The yell from outside blotted out the conversation between siblings within the cottage, and a moment later Jaime was bidding him goodbye.
“Until next time, Brother-in-law.”
“Indeed enjoy the next few years.” Ignan agreed flippantly and swung the door closed, preserving the cottage as their own space once more. Bliss.

“Well, that went rather well.”

Miranda’s expression from the kitchen didn’t quite match up with Ignan's expectations.

“Well?” He ventured, moderating.

“… went?” he tried in desperation, approaching the kitchen table again.

Miranda had uncorked the wine already, and there was a bag on the table he didn’t remember seeing when he’d put the wine down. He drew his wand and used the tip of it to prod at the bag gently, as if suspecting a nasty surprise within.

“Do they get on well with your father?” Ignan asked, an edge of caution to his voice, recalling Miranda’s father did not always react well to his relationship with Miranda. Certainly they had not received any congratulations about the marriage, not that Ignan wished to receive any. He left the bag alone and retrieved wine glasses for them both instead, feeling it was safer to allow Miranda to drink some before they went much further.

“I think you’ll find she does?” Miranda was waiting in the kitchen for the return of her husband. Seeing him in the doorframe caused her eyes to darken and she scowled at him. “Are you a bloody teenager, Ignan?”

After shaking her head and trying not to lose it with him, Miranda pulled the bag to her and pulled out what was inside. A large congratulations card from Jaime and his wife was grasped in her hand and she opened it slowly. Despite the lovely message inside, she struggled to smile past her anger. As Ignan began to pour the wine, Miranda felt she couldn’t leave it there.

“I mean, someone says something that you don’t like so you hex them to fall over? That’s my brother, Ignan! He’s your brother-in-law now, as well. And I may not like him but now he’s got a reason to think I married an arsehole. Sam and Jaime were polite and friendly to you and you told them you’d see them out! All of that is going back to my dad and I am going to have to explain to him why my husband who he already hates, hexed my own brother.”

Despite herself, Miranda took the offered wine. “Have you never learnt how to deal with people?”

“Are you a bloody teenager, Ignan?”

In a better than average mood, Ignan reflected for a split-second on the scene that had just unfolded and had a fleeting moment of conscience over it. The notion passed as quickly as it arrived. This was his house - their house, he was home, guests - even family - were surplus to requirements.

While Ignan poured the wine, deciding to keep quiet, though there was the ghost of a shrug to his shoulders in response to the rhetorical question a moment before. He spent all his days around teenagers, perhaps they were beginning to rub off on him after so many years. He appeared to be listening attentively to Miranda’s rant about her family and his behaviour towards them as he extended one glass to her on the table.

“Have you never learnt how to deal with people?”

Ignan paused, wineglass held in one hand at waist height and appeared to be giving this question serious thought before answering with the slightest of shrugs.

“No.” His gaze went past his wife, “But you knew that before we got together.” With an air of mischief still hanging on with his good mood, he added, “At least I’ve got an excuse,” before sipping his wine and raising his eyebrows at her.

Lowering it again, he relented. “Alright, perhaps it was a little juvenile of me, but he was squaring up to me in my own - in our kitchen. Brother or not. And if you liked them properly, I’m sure I’d have met them sooner.” He set down his wine and scooped up his cloak from the back of the kitchen chair beside him to hang it up.

“But you knew that before we got together.” Ignan was being a cocky bastard and the usually infuriating wizard he was. The annoying reality was that this statement was correct. Miranda had been drawn to Ignan because of the cocky bastard he could be and now she was getting mad at him for it. Had he done it to anyone other than her brothers, she’d have had nothing to say. But her irritation of a terrible first meeting and Alec’s ridiculous attitude had made her so mad at the wizard who hadn’t done anything out of character.

“…And if you liked them properly, I’m sure I’d have met them sooner.” Miranda nearly spat her wine out at the suggestion. Dark eyebrows rose and she stared at him for a moment, disbelieving.
“I’ve avoided you meeting them! And with your rudeness, rightly so.” Without much of a pause, Miranda grabbed the card and tossed it across the table at Ignan. “Jaime and his wife are so excited that I’m finally happy and moved on. What the flaming bat bogies do you think they are thinking about it now?”

Rather than continuing to rant at a wizard that evidently wasn’t taking it to heart, Miranda took a large gulp of her wine and tried to calm herself down. Thoughtfully, she lowered herself into the chair at the kitchen table.
“I knew Alec wouldn’t like you but merlin…”

Ignan returned from hanging up his cloak and picked up the oversized congratulations card from the kitchen table which had just landed. It was filled in neatly with generic, heartfelt congratulations, yet more evidence of how he did not meet up to expectations from the Carter family. He gave the card a cursory shrug.
“Well, better than us pretending to be something we are not.” He reasoned, folding it closed again and propping the card upright on the table, gaze lingering a moment on the way the champagne bottle drawing on the front animated with bubbles according to the direction he had turned it.

“I knew Alec wouldn’t like you but merlin…” Miranda sat down at the table, appearing defeated which was unlike her. Although the pair of them did avoid outright arguments, there had been some explosive instances in the past - the worst being when he’d told Miranda about Sasha[1]. Ignan had believed their relationship to be over on it, his confidence with romantic relationships was lacking with so many years alone.

“He’ll learn to like me.” Ignan suggested, in an even tone that suggested he acknowledged her concerns but that he was too old to worry about what people thought of them. “You can invite the other two for coffee if it makes you feel better, and I’ll be polite.” He paused, studying his wife, and shifted his weight on both feet, feeling his mood even out, “Or I’ll invite them, even. If it pleases you.”

1.	16th October 2010 Mange Takk

It took every ounce of Miranda’s self-control to not stare at her husband in complete dumbfounded astonishment. Not in a million years would she have anticipated him to say such a thing and she had to school her expression to not stare at him open mouthed and wide eyed. Instead, for a moment, all she released was a quiet “Hm” as she considered the words. There were two reasons for him suggesting it. The first was that he was being genuine and he would try with at least two of her brothers. The second possibility was that he offered it to get her off his back, not anticipating she’d take him up on the offer so that she could avoid more stress.

Mrs Storm decided to feel him out.
“That does please me.” She finally responded, calm, collected. She needed to punish him a little now. “But I think dinner would be better.” Dark eyes studied him carefully for a reaction.

“Dinner.” Ignan replied, a non-rhetorical echo, both hands in his suit trouser pockets as he stood the other side of their little kitchen table. “But we agreed, smaller table[1].” It had been Miranda’s suggestion after meeting Johann and Balfour for dinner in Godric’s Hollow. As dinner guests went, those two had at least been pleasant company for Ignan. He’d not even got the impression from Miranda that they had been unpleasant for her, just that guests were a burden on a very busy professional life, and their shared time was better spent on each other.

“Dinner requires a menu, food, a minimum length of hospitality of an hour… two…” his blue gaze momentarily studied the ceiling as he calculated. “They hadn’t taken off their cloaks, sat down,” he gestured in the direction of their front door behind him, “can’t have been here more than fifteen minutes before I got here.”

The realisation made a small part of his conscience feel worse for showing them out so promptly but it passed as immediately as it acknowledged.

“And you want your brothers here, to experience my ‘polite’ personality for hours?”

Good joke, Mira.

1.	8th January 2011 Dining With Dragons

Miranda’s attempt to call her husband’s bluff had someone backfired when he called her own. Ignan knew there was no way she would willingly submit herself to such hell as dinner with his ‘endearing personality’ and her brothers’ jibes. The more the wizard spoke, the more his wife had the terrible realisation that she was as bad as him. She’d had a similar reaction to his own family as dinner guests months before. Rather than having been rude and unfriendly, she’d been aloof andf suggested the need for a smaller dining table upon their exit.

Apparently she was made for Ignan Storm.

This frustrated her.

The witch scowled across the table and pushed her glasses up onto her head.
“Touché.” He’d won this one. She took a commissary sip of her wine.