He passed his pipe to Edgar, as if the rest of the table hadn't just put themselves on pause to look at the young wizard. The haze of gillyweed settled like a mist into the nooks and crannies of Yavin's mind; he blinked slowly in Virgil and Nemo's direction, like a thoughtful cat.

            "It's fine. They care about you. This is good news."
"Wait," Adelaide interrupted, "I thought you said you guys aren't dating?"

He felt a twinge of annoyance, as he always did whenever Virgil's sister opened her mouth.

"They aren't. Do you, ah, do you jump to conclusions in court as well?" he leaned back and crossed his long lanky legs, one arm draped across the back of the chair. She shot him a glare. Yavin snorted and turned his attention across the table to the blond boy, who appeared reassured by Nemo's words.

Of course he was already aware of the 'good news' - Virgil had mentioned in passing. While he hadn't commented at the time, Yav secretly approved. Cepheus Gamp came across as sensible, a relief in contrast to Virgil's propensity to discover trouble.

She was right. Nemo's touch roused him out of his momentary fear and he placed his hand over hers, squeezing briefly. Virgil wasn't certain if this news was good but he knew everyone at this dinner cared. They wished him well, they loved him. He let go of his friend's hand and lifted his gaze back to the table.

Edgar's countenance was a mixture of bemusement and patience. He and Laidie were the ones Virgil was really telling.

"I'm seeing someone. He's much older than me and it's... it's not like, serious or anything yet, I just wanted you all to hear it from me," his cheeks warmed as they always did when he thought too long on Cepheus.

           "Oh, Virgil..." Edgar laughed out a sympathetic puff of gillyweed. "Is that what's got you so anxious? Really?"

"No." Virgil licked his lips. "It's Cepheus Gamp."

His father frowned slightly. Not an upset frown, rather a confused one. Like he was trying to place the name - Edgar worked with Cepheus on the donation drive for the St.Mungo's blood bank. "Oh," his expression cleared. "Well. Cepheus? He seems very nice, as I recall." He looked like he was going to say something else when Adelaide's voice broke the thinking silence.

            "Are you joking?" she stared at Virgil with eyes full of both anger and disbelief. "He's a Gamp!"

"So is Ariadne," Virgil replied coldly, setting his jaw into a stubborn scowl. He half-expected this protest.

Billy Idol's singing was playing out, fading. His sister looked around the table. "You're all okay with this?" she interrogated the complacent faces and got up abruptly, chair falling back on the grass. "Fucking ridiculous."

She disappeared into the house. Virgil was about to get up to follow her but he felt a nudge in his mind, and glanced at Yavin. The old wizard shook his head slightly.

           "Don't worry about her," Angela was saying, oblivious to Yavin's interference. "She'll get used to it," his mother addressed Nemo then, ever the good hostess. "Laidie's very protective of Virgil. You must excuse her."

Virgil had been right.[1] Of everyone at the table, it was his black sheep older sister Adelaide who'd have a problem. And quite the problem she had, storming away from the table after a snippy back and forth. Nemo watched, a little startled at the big emotion, and then concerned at the muted response from the family.

Nemo let out a little sigh when Virgil's mother worked to smooth things over in a way Nemo found cold. Nemo sat back in her chair, not realizing she'd straightened up to gawk. Virgil, too, seemed to sit back, resisting the urge to follow his sister. She couldn't tell what he was feeling other than that. Nemo then had a flash of the future, a dread of how she'd feel later if she just sat there. It wasn't her business at all, but she knew she'd regret crossing a line more than sitting idle.

"I'm sorry," she said, pushed back her chair, and went back into the house. Once inside, she didn't see the older girl in the kitchen so she ventured out into the foyer.

"Hey?" she called out gently hoping her voice would carry in the relative silence of the indoors. As she did, she crouched down by her back to retrieve her phone. "Adelaide?"

1.	Reply #17 - If Laidie - that's my sister - if she's at dinner, she'll be upset when I tell them.

He loved his sister but it had been such a long time since the pair of them were together, alone. At least not since his the summer of his fourth year at Hogwarts. Nowadays Virgil saw Adelaide at family dinners or Stardust performances, or brief lunches with one of their parents. The physical and emotional distance was deliberate on his part.

Laidie's presence carried memories he did not want to linger on.

            "I'm sorry," and then Nemo, too, was gone before he could stop her.

Angela made a frustrated sound, something of a gravelly sigh, and his father hesitated. "What's gotten into her?" Edgar asked nobody in particular. "You two used to be so close."

"People change." Virgil shrugged, eyes following Yavin who had risen from his seat. "It happens."

           "I'll, ah, go after them," the old wizard spoke lightly. "Might be, hm, might be better if it wasn't someone in the family."

It was obvious that Edgar thought it was his responsibility to do this, yet he seemed relieved at Yav's offer. Virgil's mentor patted his shoulder absently before heading inside through the kitchen. This left him with his parents. Their eyes settled on their gaunt-eyed son and he bit his lip.

"You're really alright? With Cepheus?" he asked earnestly, grasping for some goodness to clear the tension. Angela took his hand and Edgar's anxious expression softened. They were closer to Virgil than to Adelaide, who was often away - or Cecil, who was still quite young.

             "Of course," Edgar assured him with a dry smile. "Don't worry, sleepy boy. Live your life. We're right here to catch you, if need be."

Such sentimentality embarrassed him. There was nobody to watch, though, so he leaned his golden head on his mother's shoulder and sighed contentedly.

Yavin never liked Adelaide Carstairs, with her argumentative temperament and fondness of cold aesthetics. She inherited all her mother's refinement and father's steadiness - yet none of their warmth. More than that, he knew what Adelaide meant to Virgil, having known both of them for years.

            "Hey? Adelaide?"

His footsteps were undisguised as he came up behind Nemo, from the kitchen entrance. Laidie was tugging on her jacket in the cosily lit foyer. She was about to button up when she heard the younger witch. Her dark blue eyes flicked from Nemo to himself, sharp. "Oh for Merlin's sake, don't even try. I'm going home."

"That's probably, hm, probably for the best..." Yavin slipped his hands into his pockets, smiling grimly. "But don't worry too much Laidie. Virgil isn't made of glass."

Adelaide fixed with him a hard stare, clearly on the verge of saying something very rude. A glance at Nemo forbore her. "Then you ought to knock some sense into him," she hissed.

There was something sad in his smile. Without looking at the Carstairs' guest, he addressed her.

"Nemo, could you, ah, could you leave us alone?"

Nemo had followed Virgil's older sister with no intentions to stop her from doing anything. She wasn't exactly sure what she would have said if they weren't interrupted, but it just seemed like the moment shouldn't go ignored. But she didn't have a chance to do anything; Yavin was upon them. As the only true guest here, Nemo had no grounds to judge Yavin's intervention as invasive but it still felt like that. Nemo took a step and held her tongue a moment to wait and see how Adelaide would react, if she had the same deference as Virgil had to the old sorcerer.

The answer to that was a resounding 'no'. Adelaide's easy riposte belied a long relationship not necessarily based on care. Or maybe a warm relationship once betrayed. Anyway there wasn't enough time for Nemo to get a good handle. She was stuck out like a sore thumb and being asked to leave. She'd been asked by Yavin (who didn't even look at her), but without Adelaide making any sign she wanted Nemo to stay, the little guest had little choice.

"Sure," Nemo agreed then cleared her throat a bit. To Adelaide she said, "nice to meet you."

With that, Nemo went off to the living room, not quite ready to return to the table. She sat on the couch and found a shred of mobile phone signal. She used the moment to update Abby, thumbing out a message into the well-worn flip-phone.

28/02/12 06:20 - dinner's done but shit got awkward. every family's got their black sheep.

That done, Nemo set her phone down and patted her braids to check they were still in place, she picked at a fingernail, she wondered about Virgil. He'd expected his sister to be angry but he still seemed upset that she was. She wondered why, then, he hadn't told her privately. Maybe he thought it would soften it. Or maybe it felt like one of those things you did - announce things to your family.

Even though she hadn't intended to eavesdrop, Yavin and Adelaide's conversation, or snatches of it, found Nemo's awareness. She stilled to listen, even though she shouldn't, just for a moment. However, there was very little she could make out.

Her phone buzzed. Abby had responded.

28/02/12 06:23 - u ok? I'll be up late if you wanna talk or stop by later

Nemo turned off her ears and returned Abby's message. She'd now been away from the table long enough.

28/02/12 06:24 - im fine. just feel bad for v
28/02/12 06:25 - ok i'll come over after.

She flipped her phone closed and stood to make her exit from the living room out the other door.

The little witch left.

Adelaide stood expectantly in the doorway, grey knit dress peaking out beneath the elegant pastel blue coat. There was no doubt she appeared formidable and remote in a court room - to him, she was simply Laidie. Yavin despised her but he was not unfair.

"I understand your, ah, your feelings better than you realise," he spoke in a soft voice at first. "Think about it at your, um, your own leisure. Even you must see Virgil is happy."

The witch snorted, shaking her head. She did not reply right away; he suspected she did in fact acknowledge to herself that Virgil's shyness and suppressed joy was unusual. "He should have told me first," she said at last with a hard look. "He doesn't talk to me anymore, at all. It's you, isn't it?"

Him! If it was not Edgar or Angela's fault, it was Yav's. Never, to Laidie, could Virgil's neglect of her be his own fault.

"Whispering poison into his ear? Cautioning him against you?" Yavin clicked his tongue condescendingly. "No. I'm, um, I'm afraid it's you."

            "Fuck off." Adelaide shot back right away, cheeks red in anger. A look of realisation suddenly crossed her face.

Before he could do as she bid, the witch took a halting step forward. "Yavin. Did... did you take something from me?" Clever girl. Yavin considered his answer and then nodded. Adelaide went pale just as quickly as she had reddened. "Give it to me."

"I did. Um, about sometime last year?" he tilted his head to the side, watching her carefully. "I returned it to you and you told me to take it back. You didn't want it, Laidie."

Incredulity mixed with her fear yet she didn't speak. She knew he wouldn't lie about this. Yavin gestured at the front door and the knob turned, unlocking it with a loud click. Adelaide looked at him for a long moment; he suspected her mind was racing with confusion, trying to figure out what kind of memory he would have taken from her. But by now his smiles and good humour had worn down to sombreness.

She turned around and left the house. The door shut. Yavin made his way back to the kitchen.

Nemo held up at the livingroom door - Yavin's long loud stride made way and Nemo wanted for him to pass before heading kitchenward as well. She made a quiet little show of looking at her phone as teenage girls so often did; if she could make it back to the table without engaging with Yavin, more the better. Nemo couldn't know what Yavin had said that preceded Adelaide's exit, but she knew that tone of voice. Condescending, cruel, unafraid.

When Nemo came out of the kitchen doors to the back garden again, she lifted her head and softened her face. She found her chair in a manner like she'd made it back to her seat just before the lights dimmed for Act II. The three Carstairs remaining seemed calmer. Nemo reached for her water.

"Adelaide left. I said good-bye," Nemo told them unable to color her fizzled attempt at peace-making as anything other than awkwardly ineffective. She'd accept that she may come off as naive as an occupational hazzard, but also as a bit of cover for being nosy. Feeling paranoid about Yavin (although unsure exactly why), Nemo sipped her water before updating Virgil on the status of another friend.

"And Abby says hi," Nemo said. "She texted. Forgot to say."

Safe Abby. Sweet Abby. Co-conspirator, confidential Abby.

By the time Yavin returned to the table, the three Carstairs were casually chatting.

           "Virgil! That poor man," Angela exclaimed lightly and smacked her son's knee.

Edgar had remembered Virgil's singling out of Cepheus at a Stardust performance[1] last year and couldn't help sharing the incident out loud. Virgil's cheeks were pink with laughter and self-consciousness. Even if he'd not got together with Ceph, the memory of infatuation was delicious. He could feel the eyes and giggles of the audience still upon him; and pale beautiful hands burning into his own in the warm theatre.

Yav explained briefly that he had seen Adelaide off and exchanged a glance with Virgil. Nothing to worry about, the Head of Mysteries spoke into his mind and appeared to shrug it off in favour of joining their conversation, when Nemo reappeared in the garden.

            ""Adelaide left. I said good-bye," his friend explained. "And Abby says hi. She texted. Forgot to say."
      "That's nice, dear." Angela replied, smoothing over the awkwardness.

"She did?" Virgil was having a go at the gillyweed pipe now, grinning at this mention of Abby. "My love to her. We should have Abby over one night," he added breezily to his family. "With her prince. Any day now they're going to found their own little kingdom and sport tiaras in the bath."

With dessert already behind them, the group only lingered to sip wine and smoke and trade remarks. Virgil was good at describing things in witty, deprecating ways, which helped them move on from Adelaide's departure. Even so he was relieved when his parents rose - signalling the end of their dinner.

"Are you headed back to Moonstone?" he asked Yavin.

            "No, I'll, ah, I'll stay on a while," the bespectacled wizard replied while they all trickled back into the house, lingering in the cosy kitchen.

Virgil didn't want to think too much about why - he long decided to ignore the implications of Yav flirting with Edgar and Angela. Some things did not bear speculation.

"Of course," he rolled his eyes. "I'll leave you lot to it then."

Angela, who had her head in the icebox, shut the door and came up to him and Nemo. She was holding two stacked copper tiffins and handed them one each. "Treats. Try to eat them by the weekend, darlings."

1.

22nd July 2012, Second Star to the Right “Knew he was going to pick on us when he was looking for his shadow. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity.” Ariadne smiled, not needing to specify who she meant. “Thought you were going to be dragged up as his shadow.” She poked her uncle’s arm playfully. “You’re not the only one,” Cepheus agreed, having felt his interaction with Virgil grasping his hands to inspect his shadow had lasted longer than some of the other people preyed upon in the audience. With knowing them both, he supposed it was only natural.

He was feeling especially relaxed, the result of his parents' acceptance and Yavin's good gillyweed. Virgil zipped up his jacket and smoothed back his hair - a few stubborn strands stuck out straight.

           "Do you want to come to Abby's? Blow off some steam?"

There wasn't much steam to blow off but he nodded as he unlocked the door. "Good niiiight!" he called out musically to the kitchen as they left the little house in Maida Vale. It was hardly late, a few muggles were out on evening jogs or walking their dogs. They didn't clock the pair, and wouldn't until he and Nemo were past the low swing gate that gave on to the pedestrian path.

"Shall we take the tube?" he asked, hands in pockets, a casual stride. "I need to stretch my legs, Merlin, I'm so full."

Virgil gave his stomach a pat and smiled sheepishly at Nemo. A good mood was slowly building in him.