The summer of snakes, spells and family history
Despite the fact Euphemia was a kind and calm mother with James, she is somewhat strict with Corvus and Daphne when it came to them learning family history, and in Daphne's case, getting used to specking parsaletongue, Euphemia had to adopt her by blood and magic to make her claim to the family titles more legitimate, which Daphne had nothing against. Still, it did mean she would have to deal with everything that went with being a Gaunt, even if Corvus was technically first in line to the official title.
Euphemia had also taken to teaching both the children Spanish, since James never learned it, and couldn't Speak parsaletongue, it was a gift known to skip generations on occasion, but it still hurts when her son couldn't understand her, she felt like had had a second chance with Corvus, and hopefully, eventually, Harry once everything was over, even though every single possible gleam into the future she could get always showed them finally meeting after he was out of Hogwarts, and any changes to that end with both of the twins dying, so she would wait and enjoy the time she had with Corvus and Daphne until then.
Corvus had started sending letters to Dudley through the muggle mail system, he would have sent an owl but aunt petunia would have likely scared the poor thing, Anyletter would have probably been burned, so He sends it through the mail under a fake name he and Dudley made when they were still close and thinking of ways to leave, so as far as aunt petunia was concerned 'Monty Conners' was a school friend from a 'nice and conservitive' family who was about as normal as any child could be.
The point was that, by some miracle, Petunia had let Dudley take a train to see Corvus without her. Dudley was picked up from the train station around noon, and he and Corvus got to the Manor around lunchtime. Cra. Be and Goyle happened to be over at the time, which Dudley was warned about.
Dudley and Crabbe hit it off almost immediately. "You've got to be kidding me." Goyle was the only one close enough to hear the annoyed whisper.
"What? What did I miss?" "Currently? Your missing my cousin falling in love with Vincent in real time. I love y'all and all, man, but I did not sign up to have him as an in-law."
"Don't you think you're being a bit dramatic?" "No, you've never seen Dudley in love. I've only seen it once with some girl who moved to America, and he was heartbroken. That is the face, so now I have to with a depressed cousin again or Vincent as my in-law... which will piss off my aunt and uncle... I've changed my mind I've decided I'm fine with this."
"That fast? Why is it you only deal with annoying things if it annoys others more?" "Easy, I'm spiteful and mean. You should know this; you've dealt with me for nearly four years now."
Euphemia was kind, and was calm, but she was also raised as a pure blood witch in the mid 1800's, maybe that was why she was training Daphne and Corvus how to resist the imperious curse, how to apparate away and how to fight, both with and with out magic, mostly without wands, Euphemia knew how dark the world could get, and what people could do to each other just because they want to, she knew she wasn't being paranoid.
Euphemia might have been being a bit paranoid when given corvus a knife after He and Daphne asked to got to the quidditch world cup, Corvus only wanted to go for two reasons, neither of which were the sport, He wanted to keep Daphne safe since she wanted to go, and also because Charlie sent a letter say his family would be going, and Corvus wanted to see the Weasleys before school started again.
Corvus and Daphne apparated to the world cup early in the morning. Set up a tent like everyone else and talked for a bit as they waited to go to up to their seats for the game.
Some time soon after getting seated, they noticed that the Weasleys were nearby, not because of the obvious red hair to the side, but because Fred and George were screaming and chanting like apes. Daphne was fully laughing by the time they started dancing around. "Oh, my Merlin! They're acting like animals."
"Shut it, Daffy. They're not always like that." "I don't care. You're the one who likes one of them. What on earth are they even doing?" They had started singing, and the rest of them had joined in.
Charlie had walked over without either Gaunt' noticing, "Potter! Greengrass! What's this I hear about you liking one of the siblings?" Daphne's scream was very high pitched, and Corvus fell off his chair, "Could you not scare the hell out of us, you carrot topped Goliath shit head?"
"And we're Gaunts; we gave up our fathers' names three months ago," Daphne added. "I understood everything but 'Goliath' what is that, and also what does she mean your Gaunts, Corvus?"
Corvus smacked his hand to his forehead as he got up off the ground, thinking up a plausible lie as fast as he could. "We share a relative. She took us in and let us take her name, a name that is purely a coincidence and has no connection to the wizarding family. My aunt sucked and my relative sucked less so..."
"Right, okay? Uh why not live with Harry, or have Harry live with you?" "Our relative doesn't have the space for three, and Harry has a godfather; it's harder to adopt him. Plus, Sirius isn't my godfather, and I don't want to live with him, anyway. If could not mention the name change to Harry; that'd be great."
Charlie nodded before returning to his original question, "Right, okay. You know you didn't answer my question on which of my siblings you wanna shag, right? I'd like to know who I need to warn of your chaotic nature and pranks." Charlie was teasing, though he did want an answer.
Charlie continued, "Well, if it were one of the twins, they might consider that an upside rather than a warning." Corvus groaned from his spot on the chair, now hiding his face in his hands, "Oh, holy hell, which one?"
"the dumbass." "That doesn't answer my question, and you know it." Charlie almost spoke again before something clicked, "It's Fred, isn't it? He's the only one you consistently call by his full name; me, it's to the point that if you actually called him 'Fred,' I'm pretty sure he'd have a stroke."
Daphne added to the conversation, "You should test that. I wanna see if his head explodes." Corvus was about to retort with something crude but instead glared at her and Charlie as he realized Fred and George were walking over to collect Charlie.
So Corvus decided to do as Daphne had wished this once: "George, Fred, Hello." Fred looked like the face of a blue-screened computer, or a book with a few missing pages, pure confusion. "Fred? You okay?" If the world were a cartoon, one could imagine smoke coming out of Fred's ears with the sound of a Kahoot game going on in the background. Fred was clearly in deep thought.
"Oh my Merlin, you broke him!" Daphne said before she started giggling. Corvus got up, cupped Fred's face, and looked at him for a while, oblivious to the fact that the redhead's face was a deeper color than his hair at that moment. "Well, he's not having a stroke. To that's good. George, can you take him back to your seats, The game is about to start, and it's probably best he gets away from the ledge." George dragged the unresponsive Fred back to the seats, followed by Charlie, who was laughing at his brother.
The game ended, and Daphne ended up wanting some team merchandise. Mostly, she just wanted a notebook and an overly expensive collectible semi-sentient doll. She nearly fought Ron over it; Corvus had to drag her away from that, and Harry finally noticed that the two were at the World Cup. "Corvus? Why are you here? Actually, no, a better question is, how are you here? I thought you were off living with a relative of ours, who, by the way, you still haven't told me who that is. The hell are you doing at the cup, and with Greengrass, of all people? You're not dating, are you?"
Corvus interrupted his own answer by gaging, followed closely by Daphne yelling, "Ew, Potter! i Wouldn't kiss him for all the money in Gringods bank! let alone date him. he's practically my brother." Corvus patted her shoulder and quietly told her to go stand near Charlie since he was neutral with nearly everyone. "Right, so I'm sure you haven't lost many brain cells at the Weasleys, but with Sirius, I simply don't know, so if you hadn't guessed, no, I am not dating her, nor would I ever. Secondly, yes, I am living with our relative. She is the sister of our father's aunt on his mother's side." There were only two sisters of those siblings, but Harry didn't need to know that.
"And as I have explained, she literally couldn't take you in because of the fact Sirius was your godfather, and I simply refuse to live with him. and my last point, I'm here because Daphne wanted to come here for the game, and I wanted to say hi to charlie and the rest of the weasley's, minus mrs weasley thought, as I'm pretty sure she hates me. are we done?" Harry nodded before walking off to do something. Corvus didn't care; he had to call his abuela to let her know he would be coming back as soon as the game was over, and he was done talking to his friends.