The Simple House of Duffrey

(16) The Third Year

After the train ride with Anna, I met my sister's family at the gate for King's Cross. From across the way I heard her voice holler something loud that I couldn't make out but she was talking with two shorter witches. One of which given her age must have been her mother. Anna must take after her father, I thought as my eyes stayed with her.

"Is that a friend Stephen?" Tristine asked casually while my nephew Thaddeus pulled at her skirt bored to tears and overwhelmed by the crowd. His father had almost the same glass-eyed look, even though all the women were turning his way. Rudolphus Fiera who had made my sister a happy woman some years ago had the appearance of a sandy-haired playboy even though he was completely smitten. I was happy to once again be reminded of that as he snubbed an approaching witch to pick up Thaddeus in his arms, who looked just like him.

"Yes, don't worry I'll be careful" I said answering the question in her mind.

"Your always too careful Stephen, I worry that it will become too much one day" she said this with a genuine look of pity that I didn't resent. There were only three secrets my family held close and all of them affected me. All my sister had was the name that by marrying she had escaped.

"Shall we go then?" He said with a cheerful look that also brightened my nephews smile. I nodded and collected my trunk rolling it along to the car. Like Ruddy himself the car was an over the top luxury model even by muggle standards. I with as much grace as possible strapped my trunk into the back to go home to our London house which was nearby.

By the time my Hogwarts confirmation letter appeared, I had only managed to write Anna the once though I had intended on much more. For me at least the summer had gone by in a snooze of extra work and some unintended babysitting. It seems that my parents had elected to take up the family castle in county Kerry while gifting the London house to the young Fiera's. This left me temporarily in the care of, or rather caring for my sister's family.

When Anna wrote me, she told me that she had seen Mr. Raddisch receiving Ministry correspondence in the Owlery at the end of school I wasn't entirely surprised. Even if they were an honest person everyone had some sort of secret they wanted keeping. It seems my worry over the party had been somewhat justified if the Ministry was investigating the group. I didn't want to clutter my response however with repeating my feelings to Anna again. My sister was right someday it was going to be too much for me, hiding in plain sight. I needed a friend I could rely on and through her persistence I felt faith for the first time in someone.

In her second letter, she said that her family was taking a trip to Arabia for three nights because of her father's work. She was extremely excited to go especially since she hadn't talked with her father much since her sorting. I knew that families had a hard time with expectations too which is what I had replied in my letter complaining about becoming the token babysitter for my five-year-old nephew.

Now that my class list was here, I also needed to do shopping. I didn't need to visit my vault since Tristine had gone recently to fill up Thaddeus's new room with all sorts of toys. Toys which now bothered the heck out of me with noise as I attempted to write a final letter to Anna about getting the electives I wanted.

Thud, Thud, Thud came on repeat as my nephew banged into the wall over and over on his toy broomstick. Suddenly, he cried out as the thudding changed pitch. What the devil, I thought as I dropped my quill on top of my second letter that lay across my desk. Leaving my bedroom behind I ran next door to find the playroom in total chaos.

Thaddeus was curled up on the floor in tears as with his blonde hair covered in what looked like blue powder. It turned out to be paint being ground off the ceiling by and enchanted toy truck running in circles around the light. The room was completely chaotic with all sorts of magical toys all running, clanking and moving at once. Even the safety had been taken off of the toy broom which was now thudding the ceiling as well instead of the wall.