Englishman in the Encanto

Bruno stirred, not sure why he’d woken up since he felt as if he’d only just went to sleep.

Something furry was pressed against him and shaking hard.

He blinked the sleep away from his eyes and looked over to see that he’d been confined in a small space of the bed by the huge, bear-like black dog Sirius turned into.

Bruno was familiar enough with animals to instantly understand that Sirius must have turned and curled up by his feet and then taken more space as he relaxed in his sleep.

It was amazing how big he got when he was a dog, the animal took more than half the bed and it was still curled up, which made the image of the huge, trembling, whimpering form even more pitiful.

Ah… Bruno thought he knew what was happening. He glanced around to check on the others, but the boys, Félix and Agustín were sleeping so deeply that they didn’t even stir when Sirius let out a pained yelp.

The scene was saddening enough even without knowing that the anguished animal was his boyfriend, so Bruno didn’t waste any time in standing up on his feet and trying to shake Sirius awake.

It didn’t work. The dog kept trembling and whining.

“Sirius?” he called softly, very close to Sirius’s ear, “Sirius, despierta, cariño.”

Sirius didn’t wake. He did hear him because he let out another pained sound and his head jerked in despair.

“Sirius!” Bruno called again, “Come on, mi vida, despierta!”

Sirius didn’t budge but he did shake harder, caught up in what was clearly a terrifying nightmare. Bruno hesitated, his hand still trying to soothe the dog’s anguish. He wanted to help him, but he didn’t know how.

Then he turned to look at the man sleeping on the bed behind him.

With a giant hard-back book laying open on the floor where it had fallen and his arm hanging limply from the bed, Remus seemed dead to the world as he slept soundly on his stomach, his mouth slightly open. Bruno hesitated, Remus seemed like someone who needed to sleep whenever he could (it took one to know one), but Bruno didn’t see an alternative. He stepped across the room (it wasn’t that long a trip) and briefly touched Remus’s shoulder.

“Señor – er – Remus?”

Unlike Sirius, Remus woke up right away with a shudder and a raspy snort. He was bleary-eyed for a moment but then he glanced up at Bruno, who looked apologetic.

“Er – perdon – he won’t wake – something’s wrong but he won’t wake up,” Bruno explained, nodding his head towards Sirius.

Remus looked past Bruno to see the giant dog trembling on Bruno’s bed, his snout alternating between whimpering and showing its teeth.

Remus frowned, “Merlin’s beard!” he scrambled to his feet much like Bruno had done a moment earlier and pushed past Bruno to reach Sirius’s bed, “Sirius! Padfoot, wake up!”

Agustín stirred and looked up, “Que pasa?”

No one answered him.

The dog started whimpered further and yelped loudly.

Agustín frowned, alarmed, and sat up.

Bruno automatically went back to trying to soothe the dog as Remus gave the animal a powerful shake, “Sirius!” Remus called forcefully, “Padfoot, come on –” Remus stilled for a moment, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, turned to Bruno and said, “Sorry about this,” he pulled hard on one of the dog’s ears, “Oi, Padfoot, wake up, you stupid mutt!”

The dog jumped up with a loud howl of pain and barked loudly, snapping back into Sirius’s form so quickly that he almost fell from the bed and into Bruno’s arms.

Sirius finally snapped awake and, in a flash, he was sitting up, trying to make sense of where and when he was, struggling to catch his breath. A hand on his pounding heart, Sirius glanced briefly around and then noticed Bruno, who was still sitting next to him. Black inhaled sharply at the sight of him and Bruno flinched when suddenly Sirius took his face in his hands, “You’re here!” the Englishman told him, “You’re alright!”

Bruno was dumbfounded but he still took Sirius’s hands in his, “I’m perfectly fine, corazon, it was a nightmare.”

Sirius stared at him for a moment longer, his eyes wild and haunted, then he finally seemed to process what Bruno had said and the tension in him eased, “You’re fine.”

“Sí,” Bruno told him gently, “See? I’m fine, we’re all fine here.”

Sirius reached out and grabbed Remus’s wrist, “Moony?”

Remus patted his hand, “Like he said, we’re all fine, here. Harry’s fine too, Sirius, you said you wrote him. I’m sure he’ll answer soon.”

Sirius was absent-mindedly stroking Bruno’s cheek with his thumb and Bruno liked it, loved it but he preferred Sirius to be calm and not so terrified, so he cupped his cheek, “And it would be more correct to say that you’re here – you’re the one who came here all the way from England, and you are the one who was hurt earlier and –”

Bruno’s rambling was cut off when Sirius let his forehead fall on Bruno’s chest, sobbing so uncontrollably that his shoulders shook. Even before his self-isolation, had it been anyone else – his mothers or sisters included – Bruno wouldn’t have known what to do with himself in a situation like this but with Sirius? It came so natural for him to just put his arm around Sirius’s trembling shoulders and to stroke his hair with his free hand.

“Ay, cariño…”

Bruno wondered how Félix, Camilo and Antonio didn’t wake with all the ruckus, in fact, he didn’t know how Félix could keep snoring, but he supposed his nephews shared their father’s ability to sleep like a log.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Agustín’s worried expression, as his brother-in-law just sat there, watching, but in that moment, all he cared about was Sirius.

The wizard clearly found the position very soothing, because soon his shoulders stopped shaking and his breathing returned to normal. He was less upset but still not at ease, and he sighed as he let go of Bruno and hid his face in his hands. Remus patted his still trembling shoulder, “I have just a little of Dreamless Sleep Potion, if you’d like –”

Sirius didn’t look up, but he answered, “No, I can’t go back to sleep.”

“Er –” Bruno, Remus and Sirius turned to Agustín, who almost jumped at the sudden attention, “Maybe something to eat? It’s what Julieta does when someone’s upset. I know she doesn’t have her gift anymore, but –”

Sirius shook his head.

“A cup of tea, then?” asked Remus, “British style.”

This time, Sirius managed a weak smile that didn’t look right on his face, "Ah, tea, that’d be lovely,” he took a deep sigh, “Just – let me wash my face first.”

“Why don’t you take a bath?” Remus said, “It might do you good.”

Sirius agreed tiredly, then turned to Bruno with a haunted look that broke his heart, “Would you – would you come with me?”

Bruno nodded quickly and jumped to his feet, “We’ll meet you in the kitchen?”

“Sure,” Remus answered Bruno’s question.

“Sirius, vamonos,” Bruno said, and gently guided Sirius out of the room and through the hallway that brought to the bathroom.

He heard Félix mumble something and Agustín telling him that he’d woken everyone with his snoring. He made a mental note to thank Agustín for that.

The bathroom was a large room, and Bruno had wondered why the church had such large facilities but when his sisters had gotten married he’d seen the chaos of the preparation for a wedding and knew why the church had been granted such facilities.

However, he was glad to see that there was a bathtub, and he punched Sirius lightly on the shoulder to call his attention, nodding towards the bathtub.

He prepared the bath for Sirius, who was still enough out of it to just stand there while Bruno moved around the bathroom. Once the bath was ready, Bruno turned to Sirius and hesitated. Sirius seemed to be coming out of his mood, his shoulders were more relaxed. He took the hint and started to undress. Bruno stared, curious, as Sirius’s thin frame came out of Agustín’s bloodied clothes.

It suddenly occurred to him that he’d never seen another man naked.

Bruno certainly wanted to help Sirius and certainly he wanted to see him without clothes, but he himself had never been intimate enough with anyone to warrant undressing in front of other people, not since he, Julieta and Pepa were children bathing together, and not in a church for sure.

Once his sisters had reached puberty, his mother had forbidden him to freely enter the bathroom unless he was sure it was empty. Of course, he understood why, but that rule that applied only to him as the only man in the house till his sisters got married was one of the many that made him feel different and detached from the rest of the family.

Even if he’d avoided the family quite a lot after a certain point and even if the family’s routine made it happen so hardly ever, the rare times in which he later shared the bathroom with his brothers-in-law he cherished, because even those few moments shaving together had made him feel a little closer to the family. He’d shared the bathroom with Félix and Agustìn, as one would have in such a big family with only one bathroom, but they'd never been more than bare-chested.

Being a big family with one bathroom, it was a rule to be mindful of giving privacy whenever anyone was in the bathroom, unless it was a real emergency. It was one of those rules everyone agreed on quite easily.

Even if he’d had the bathroom to himself by using it during the night while in hiding from his family in the last ten years, Bruno rarely could take his time to relax and bathe. And he’d never actually been interested in being intimate with anyone before Sirius and his experience with intercourse was very limited.

When Sirius noticed his discomfort once his clothes were all on a pile on the floor, suddenly the roles were reversed, “What is it, love?” Sirius asked him, putting his hands on his. Bruno’s furiously red cheeks were enough of a clue to his embarrassment, but Bruno’s heart sank when he saw Sirius’s face fall and him moving his hands as if to cover himself, clearly misreading him, “I – I know there’s not much to look at…”

Bruno looked up sharply and it was so odd to see uncertainty in a person as proud and confident as Sirius. It took Bruno a moment to read between the lines, and another moment for him to fumble with his words, “Oh! Oh, no!” he cried, “No, no, no! Sirius, you’re very handsome –”

Sirius gave him a weak smile, “It’s alright, Bruno, I have been in prison for twelve years, after all.”

“No, really!” Bruno insisted, “I don’t care about any of that! You’re very handsome to me! I wouldn’t lie about something like this!”

Sirius’s weak smile brightened a bit, “You wouldn’t lie at all.”

Bruno nodded, “That’s right, I wouldn’t lie at all,” he knew he didn’t have to be shy with Sirius, so pecked his lips, “Muy hermoso.”

He was startled when Sirius responded to the kiss with a lot of enthusiasm, taking his face in his hands and pushing him against the sink. Bruno threw his arms around Sirius’s shoulders and reveled in the taste of Sirius’s lips and the smell of his skin.

He wasn’t sure what he was doing, but a moment later he found his own hand strolling down Sirius’s bony chest, past his abdomen. He didn’t realise where his hand was going until Sirius let out a pleased moan and kissed his neck.

Bruno snapped his eyes open and let go as if he’d gotten burned, “Perdon!”

Sirius looked up, “It’s alright,” he whispered with a soft smile, then kissed his neck again, “Help yourself.”

Bruno fumbled for a moment, his cheeks flushed, “I – I want to, pero,” he hesitated, as Sirius kept kissing him, his heart pounding in his chest and suddenly he was embarrassed of something he’d never cared for in his entire life, “I’ve – I’ve never – I’ve never been with anyone…”

Sirius stopped right away and let go, “Oh.”

“And – and we’re in church – and my family is right on the other side of the door –”

“Bruno.”

“... and my sisters are married and – er – I know what it’s like to hear – huh – that… and my nieces and nephews…”

“Bruno.”

“... and I want to… I really want to be with you – but I’ve never wanted to before – and that’s weird for me –”

“Bruno.”

“... and what if someone wants to get in – I don’t want to – to hide but they don’t know…”

“Bruno.”

“I-I’m sorry, really, I don’t –”

Sirius put his fingers on Bruno’s lips to shut him up, and Bruno regretted the squeak that escaped him, but Sirius smiled, “It’s alright, Bruno, we don’t have to rush into anything. I won’t disrespect your family or embarrass you in front of your nieces and nephews. And I certainly won’t force you to do anything you’re not comfortable doing. And if I have to say it, I don’t want our first time to be a quickie in a church’s bathroom. Merlin knows I’ve never wanted to be with anyone before you. Even with Remus, it was just for him.”

Bruno blinked, and let his arms fall off of Sirius’s shoulders. It was somehow not weird to have a conversation with him while he was naked and Bruno himself was leaning against the bathroom’s sink. He couldn’t fathom how natural it felt to be with Sirius, “Never? With anyone else?”

Sirius’s face softened even more, “I mean – before I met you – I thought I was in love with James – I probably just had a huge crush on him – but not like with you. I never wanted that with him. You’re different, I could tell right away,” Bruno cocked his head to the side, “With you, it feels like I can be everything and anything I want. I’ve never felt like that. You make me feel like everything will be alright, no matter how dark it can get.”

Bruno let out a nervous chuckle, “Huh, me? That’s ironic…”

Sirius grinned, “Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Bruno couldn’t really hear much more than his own pounding heart as he and Sirius looked in each other’s eyes, “You really feel that way?” he asked, swallowing deeply, “About me?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“That a handsome man from abroad could want little old me? Sí.”

Sirius stroked Bruno’s cheek with his hand, moving his curls away from his face, “Well, I used to be much more handsome – but believe it,” he said and kissed him, “And don’t sound so incredulous. You are worth it. So worth it,” Bruno closed his eyes as Sirius kissed him and revelled in Sirius’s touch, “Hey, would you bathe with me?” Bruno blinked at Sirius’s request, “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Sirius added quickly, “I promise.”

Bruno hesitated but found quickly that he really wanted to share a bath with Sirius, keep seeing him naked and showing him the same courtesy. He nodded and started undressing himself, loving it when Sirius helped him out of his clothes. Once his own thin frame was out in the open, Bruno became self-conscious. It really was the first time anyone saw him naked after many years, decades really, and it happened after ten years of self-isolation that he hadn’t thought he would ever get out of, where he hadn’t really taken care of himself. And it was in front of the man he loved.

But Sirius just smiled at him, “Well, what do you know? What they say about short blokes is true.”

Bruno blinked at him. Sirius’s eyes wandered downwards, and Bruno’s cheeks burned.

For a moment he didn’t know what to do with himself but covering himself, then Sirius hugged him and kissed him again, “So handsome,” he whispered, “So handsome and mine. I'm so lucky.”

Bruno smiled, suddenly aware that no one had ever complimented him like that, not even his mother (and thank God she’d never commented on his manliness, or he would have died), and accepted Sirius’s hand as they both settled in the water. Sirius reached out and grabbed his wand, waving it and making the water a pleasant warm, instead of the tepid liquid it was before.

For a while, they sat in comfortable silence in the water, taking notice of all the details of each other’s bodies, holding each other’s hands.

Almost as if walking in a dream, Bruno obeyed when Sirius told him to sit in the water with his back to him.

“I thought I was supposed to take care of you now,” Bruno told Sirius, but it was so delightful to just stay there in the bath with Sirius passing soap and especially his hands on his skin.

“You are,” Sirius said, “This soothes me.”

“Verdad?”

“Yeah, I like taking care of you,” Sirius shrugged, “James would laugh at me, but he said he liked you for me, since I never wanted anyone.”

“You know, my sisters started dating and courting and everything, and I never understood the hype of that, sex and all that stuff before you,” Bruno told Sirius, “Everyone would tell me that I would want to once I met the right girl, but it was only to cheer me up, I know. No one ever believed in me in that sense. Even my mother and sisters thought I’d die alone. Not that I blame them: even if I wanted to, who would want to be with me? Certainly not anyone here,” he paused when he felt Sirius stiffen, growing tense at the mere idea, “Don’t get angry, corazon, you’re not from around here, are you?”

“Hm,” Sirius grumbled, but resumed stroking his skin.

“I saw my sisters fall in love and I’ve never felt that way for anyone. To me, love always meant reaching out and touching the stars and until you I never thought it was possible for me.”

Sirius stopped stroking his skin with the sponge, and asked, “You did, did you?”

Bruno threw his head back to look at him quizzically, and Sirius kissed his forehead, shifting forward in the bath so their bodies were further sandwiched together, and Bruno could feel every inch of Sirius against his skin. He loved it.

“Spoken like a true Seer,” Sirius said.

“Huh?”

Sirius kissed his neck, he slid his hands past Bruno’s arms and linked his fingers on his stomach, pulling him closer, “We should go star-gazing… would you like that?”

Bruno leaned back, the back of his head on Sirius’s shoulder, "I'd love to see the night sky with you.”

“It’s a date, then.”

The word date broke the spell, and Bruno was suddenly aware of leaning against Sirius so forwardly. He fumbled enough to turn in the bath to put some distance between him and Sirius that some water spilled from the bathtub onto the bathroom floor in his haste to face the wizard, “Sorry! Sorry!”

Sirius blinked, “What are you sorry for?”

“I was – I was –”

“So?” Sirius let out a short laugh when Bruno motioned downwards, “Calm down, it’s alright.”

Bruno froze, “Pero –” he paused, and squared Sirius up and down, studying his expression and not finding any of the emotions he usually received from people, “You really don’t mind that I’m – that I’m weird?”

“Weird? How’d you make that?”

“I-I’m fifty – and I’ve never been with anyone – never been interested in –"

“You’re not weird.”

“Aren’t I, though?”

“So, you never wanted romance and sex, big deal. If that is enough to make you weird, then I am too. What you are is queer.”

Bruno frowned in confusion, “Que?”

“You’re queer, love,” Sirius snorted when Bruno stared at him blankly, “You’re like me: I’ve never felt the need for dating and occasional shags either. In fact, that was how I knew you were different. I mean, like I said, I probably had a huge crush on James, but I never wanted to be with him like that. I could never sleep around like people thought of me, but I am very attracted to you in all ways, something I never was for anyone else. It was very difficult to be with Remus at first, but he’s my friend, so I suppose the emotional bond was strong enough for me to help him with that. Anyway, I know there are a lot of people like that, both in the Wizarding world and in the Muggle world, you know, people who rarely feel sexual attraction. Does that sound familiar?”

Bruno’s mind went blank. He couldn’t move as Sirius described exactly what he’d always felt. Everything Sirius was describing, Bruno had felt for his whole life, and he’d never had anyone to share these feelings with, certainly not his mother, and even his sisters had never understood when he’d told them he wasn’t interested in sexual relationships, “There’s – there’s a word for –”

“Come back down,” Bruno was still reeling from the revelation, but he obeyed and turned his back to Sirius again. He was comfortable leaning against Sirius, and, in spite of the life-changing revelation he’d just received, he felt his pounding heart relax at the sound of Sirius’s heart, “You didn’t know at all?”

“I’ve never met anyone like – like me…” Bruno said, “No one ever understood…”

“Well, I do,” Sirius replied, “I’ve met people like us, it’s not uncommon in my world. My friend Marlene was like us. She was pretty, smart and had a bright future ahead of her, but she certainly didn’t want that traditional marriage and kids future people would think for her. She came to me at one point and asked if I would be her pretend-boyfriend. We fake-dated through school so that people wouldn’t bother us. You’re the only one I’ve ever felt for. For real, I mean.”

Bruno hesitated as he took in what Sirius was saying.

He’d mostly stopped talking to Pepa by the time he voiced what he felt at the mere idea of romance and Julieta, with the best intentions, had insisted that he would find someone, that he’d know when he met the right person.

She had been the only one he'd tried to open up to about this, but he’d soon regretted it because for all her good intentions, he’d felt like she didn’t understand and was just trying to dismiss his feelings and make everything better. He could reason that that was not what she meant to do, he knew it wasn’t, but their mother imposed that kind of thinking and he’d grown embittered with it all by then and never approached the subject again.

Julieta had been right, of course, because, in hindsight, here he was, sharing a bath with his significant other, Sirius’s long fingers brushing on his bare skin in the best way possible. However, Bruno was sure that Julieta could have never imagined that his reticence at finding someone was because his significant other was a man from abroad who’d found the Encanto by chance.

Bruno felt like crying. He was fifty years old and only now finally believing that he had a right to be loved, that he could be as happy and as satisfied as his sisters. He squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head, his curls hiding his face like a curtain. Hot tears spilled from his eyes, frustration and self-loathing from the past fifty years overwhelming him.
“Oh, love,” Sirius whispered and tightened his grip on Bruno’s thin form.

Bruno hid his face in the crook of his neck, his forehead against Sirius’s cheek, and let his pain flow. Sirius moved just enough to kiss his forehead before returning to brushing his skin with his fingers. It was very soothing to Bruno, whose sobs soon started to slow down.

“Your friend sounds amazing,” he said, trying to change the subject, though his voice was still trembling.

“Marlene? She was.”

“Was?”

“That wizard that conquered all, Voldemort,” Sirius said and paused, “He killed her and her entire family. We didn’t make it in time to save any of them.”

“Bruno? Señ – Sirius? Are you in there?”

His earlier grief was suddenly forgotten; Bruno jumped out of the water in a swift movement that he hadn’t known he was capable of.

“Coming!”

Sirius came out of the water too, with an amused smile, as Bruno dried himself off quickly.

Bruno quickly threw on the first piece of clothing he found and peeked out of the door. He grinned anxiously, “Mamá!” he let out a nervous laugh, “What do you need?”

Abuela blinked in surprise, “Nothing, mijo, I went to see if you were awake, but you weren’t there and I…” she trailed off, “Have you been crying?”

Bruno was quick to wipe his eyes with the back of his hand, “Oh! N-no, I was – er – washing my face and some soap got in my eyes.”

She hesitated, avoiding his eyes, and Bruno’s nervous smile left him immediately. He could tell she didn't believe him; he'd always been a terrible liar and normally she would hound him for answers till he gave in. He could tell that she was struggling not to ask, when she spoke, “Anyway, Agustín said Sirius wasn’t feeling well and that you were with him. I just wanted to know if you had everything you needed?”

“Huh?”

“He saved our whole family; I don’t want him to be uncomfortable.”

“Oh,” Bruno relaxed, “It’s alright, Mamá. Like Agustín said, Sirius wasn’t feeling well but it’s alright now. We have everything we need. We’ll be out in a moment.”

“Are you sure everything’s alright?” Bruno nodded quickly, “Very well. Please, let me know if there’s anything I can get him. We’ll have to make do for a while, but I’m sure we can find a solution for anything we need.”

“I promise there’s nothing we need,” Bruno said, “I had to make do for ten years, so I know what to do, but I’ll tell you if we need anything,” he paused, studying her face, “And you, Mamá? Are you alright?”

Abuela hesitated, then gave him a weak smile, “Sí, mijo,” she confirmed, “I just – your sisters – no, I was hoping – maybe we could spend some time together?”

Bruno stiffened, both surprised and suspicious, “With me?”

He took a long look at her. He was suddenly aware that, as happy as he’d felt when his mother had hugged and kissed him, he didn’t feel like he could only concentrate on repairing his relationship with his relatives. She hadn’t wanted to spend time with him in many years – in all fairness, she hadn’t spent that much time with Julieta and Pepa either, but she did make time for them, especially when they were pregnant, and always had time to spare for the community and the grandchildren – well, Isabela.

She blinked, surprised by his question, “Yes, why not? I haven’t seen you in ten years and there’s a lot to say –"

All those years of feeling he had to stay away from them, of seeing Pepa thunder at the mere sight of him, of his heart breaking because Camilo was scared of him, of noticing Isabela distancing herself from him to keep up the family’s reputation and Abuela’s expectations, of having Julieta look at him with pity as she chanted well-meaning words that sounded so empty to him, of having his own mother wanting nothing to do with him, of lonely meals on scraps behind the walls… he still had that and a hug and kiss weren’t going to erase it in five minutes.

“I have Sirius to think about,” Bruno said, feeling his face go rigid, “Like Agustín said, he’s not feeling very well, I’m not leaving him alone.”

She flinched from the sudden harshness in his voice, “I – I –” she looked down, surprised by Bruno’s sudden stern response, “I wasn’t asking you to. He helped us. He’s your friend, sí? You never – I would like to get to know him better.”

As quickly as it came, Bruno’s irritation left him, and he looked away.

He caught what she was trying to say, that he never had any friends. That was certainly true. In spite of his own feelings, he could see that his mother was trying, and he shouldn’t be short with her because it came at the wrong time. He should be grateful that she was trying at all, especially considering that he never thought she would even try.
He’d wanted her to try for a long time and he should be happy about it, “We – er – we were going to go to the kitchen for a while… to get something to drink?”

“Should I meet you there?” she asked. He gulped and nodded and Abuela smiled tentatively, reaching out and cupping his cheek with her hand, “Vale, luciérnaga. I’ll see you there.”

Bruno stood there on the door until she vanished in the girls’ room, then a hand pulled him from the door back inside the bathroom. He turned to find Sirius dried off and dressed.

Bruno blinked at the sight.

Despite the towel still drying his hair, Sirius was fully clothed in a black shirt with white stripes, a burgundy waistcoat that tied with his trousers and a bottle green long coat – was it a cloak? It was the same kind of clothing Bruno had seen Remus wear, but they were clearly of finer quality. Sirius was already very handsome himself, but dressed like this…

Bruno felt he was in front of the real Sirius, like he should have always seen him, certainly not in those prison rags.

Sirius gave him a self-conscious smile, “You like?” he asked, “I asked Kreacher to get me some clothes. I think he got me some of my father’s clothes. I am not fond of going full-on pureblood, but it is what it is.”

Bruno looked him up and down and took his time to examine him, then he surprised Sirius by taking his face in his hands and kissing him deeply, “Muy, muy hermoso,” he said, “Muy guapo, mi novio. I can’t even believe it…”

Sirius grinned and took Bruno’s hands in his, “Believe it, Bruno Madrigal, your boyfriend wants to look smart for you,” Bruno smiled against Sirius’ lips, “I’m glad you like it,” Sirius whispered, and kissed him back, “And you look very handsome too, you know.”

“Que?”

Bruno looked down and saw that he’d thrown his own clothes so quickly to answer the bathroom door that he hadn’t noticed that someone had not only washed them but returned them to the state they’d been in the first time Bruno had been presented with them by his mother. Even his ruana was now a brand-new brilliant shade of green rather than the faded green he’d been used to for years.

“How?”

“Kreacher was already taking care of Master Sirius’s clothing,” a third voice croaked, and Bruno jumped when he noticed Kreacher folding Agustín’s bloodied clothing that Sirius had left on the sink, eyeing them with distaste, “Kreacher went and found some of Master Orion’s clothes and had to freshen them up, so Kreacher thought to take care of Master Bruno’s clothing as well.”

Bruno gaped, “You repaired my clothes, Kreacher?” he asked.

“Kreacher was bored and relished the challenge.”

“How did you do such a good job?”

“Kreacher used Elf magic, of course,” Kreacher said, “Master Bruno should take better care of his clothes, Kreacher can’t do these many times.”

“Oh,” Bruno said, not really knowing what Elf magic was, “I’ll try to remember it. Gracias for repairing my clothes, Kreacher, I’m very fond of this ruana.”

“It was easy for Kreacher but when the fabric is so worn out there can be consequences, so Kreacher won’t be able to do it frequently,” Kreacher said, then turned to Sirius, “What of the Hippogriff? Kreacher assumes it’s Master Sirius’s ride, Hippogriffs are not native to this area, as far as Kreacher knows. Should Kreacher feed it?”

Sirius blinked, apparently not used to Kreacher’s attitude either, “Oh – yeah – would you, Kreacher? I’d feel better if someone looked after Buckbeak. It shouldn’t be too taxing now that Remus healed his wing.”

Kreacher shrugged, “Kreacher supposes it should be easy enough to find some mice or rats for it – er – Buckbeak?”

Bruno recoiled and Sirius squeezed his hand, “Ah, yes, Kreacher, Bruno has pet rats, just tell Buckbeak to go hunt in the jungle as he wants and to stay away from humans. He’ll feed himself with no problem.”

“As Master Sirius wishes,” Kreacher said and disappeared with a loud crack.

With that settled, Sirius squeezed Bruno’s hand and left him to go give himself a last check in the mirror. He removed the towel that still held his wet dark locks and pointed his wand to his own face. Bruno watched as a gust of warm air came out of the wand to dry Sirius’s hair in a matter of seconds. Then he felt his face fall when he saw in Sirius’s eyes that he was still rattled. He’d made a good show of hiding it, Bruno thought, and maybe he’d forgotten his nightmare for a moment, but Bruno had been surprised to see it disappear so quickly. From experience, Bruno knew that those kinds of moods were hard to dissipate.

“Sirius, que pasa?”

“I look like my father,” Sirius said gravely.

“If you do, he’s very handsome.”

“He died years ago,” Sirius said, “And he was a terrible person.”

“Oh,” Bruno replied, “Sorry.”

Sirius’s lips curled upwards, “It’s alright, love.”

“I look like my father too – though I’m not as handsome – and he was the one who gave us the miracle, so… it was always impossible to reach everyone’s expectations…” Bruno trailed off and looked away, dejected.

Sirius paused at the mirror and turned to take a look at Bruno. With two long strides he’d crossed the space between them in the bathroom and hugged him, “I’m so sorry, Bruno,” he said and kissed his forehead, “I’m sorry they made you feel this way. You’re very handsome to me,” the tension in Bruno’s shoulders lessened a bit, “What did your mother want?”

And the tension was back.

“Mamá wanted to spend time with me…”

“I can go for a walk with Remus if you –”

“No!” Bruno jumped at his own desperation at the idea of Sirius leaving him alone with his mother and deflated, “No, I mean, would you – would you stay with me? I missed her and my family, but I still am – I want to reconnect with them, but I don’t – she wanted to get to know you anyway – and I’d like for you to know them –"

Sirius shushed him with a kiss and smiled at him, “So… how about that tea, huh?”

“Mi cariño?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s a quickie?”

Sirius laughed.

*

When Bruno pulled Sirius in the kitchen by the hand, only Remus and Agustín were there, but Julieta joined them almost immediately, pecking her husband on the lips, then reaching for her brother and kissing his cheek.

Her delight at having her brother returned was obvious in the way she kept fussing over him or reaching out for him for affection. Whether this was because she wanted affection from him or just to shower him with the attention and affection she now knew he hadn't received, or if she just wanted to show him how grateful she was that he was here and that he was appreciated, even she wasn’t sure.

“Where’s Mamá?” Bruno asked his sister.

“She’s coming,” Julieta assured him.

The moment she saw Sirius, she fussed over him, and it took a while to convince her that it had just been a nightmare, and he felt much better now that he’d taken a bath. She observed that he still looked rather pale and went about making chocolate santafereño for everyone. She said that it would be good for him even though she couldn’t heal him with her cooking anymore, then complimented him on his clothes and general appearance. It wasn’t surprising that the Madrigals could be curious about his wizarding clothes, since they’d seen him only in his tattered prison robes and then in the clothes he borrowed from Agustín, and regular robes had never been seen in the Encanto before Remus arrived.

Julieta then noticed that Bruno’s worn-out clothes had also been mended and not only that but also returned to the state they’d been when Bruno had first gotten them. Though it showed how thin and haggard he was and how hard his ten years away had been, Bruno did look much more put together now, so Julieta went and pulled his hair in a partial ponytail, giving him a fond smile and a “There” in response to his confused look. He still didn’t understand but he did smile back, and it tore her apart to think that she hadn’t seen him smile and look put together for so long.

She blinked when she saw that Sirius was wearing colours very similar to Bruno.

Sirius couldn’t have known, of course, but he was unknowingly following the Madrigal family tradition of colour-coding each side of the family, like how Pepa’s side of the family wore yellow and warm colours and Julieta’s side of the family wore blue and cooler colours. Like Agustín, it wasn’t like he was wearing exactly the same colours and Sirius’s clothes seemed to be made of fabric of higher quality than any of their own clothes, but the tones were close enough to Bruno’s clothing.

As it was, Sirius was basically shouting to the world that Bruno was his family. Well, that was it, Julieta thought, though she doubted anyone who wasn’t in the know about her brother and Sirius and their feelings for one another would connect the dots.

She was delighted that Bruno had found someone to share his colours with.

She knew that, despite him not saying anything about it, it had bothered him that even the colours of his clothes had to highlight how isolated he was from the rest of the family.
This hadn’t been intentional, none of this had been intentional, but their mother had taken their liking to those colours and made them coordinate even that.

Julieta had seen many mothers trying to coordinate the clothing of their children – she agreed that it was cute, if she had to be honest – but with her mother it had been another way to show how the Madrigals were ‘perfect’: she’d coordinated the triplets when they were children, and then their husbands and children… except Isabela, Julieta had suddenly realised, when she’d seen her oldest covered in pollen in a now dark blue dress. Isabela had worn the lilac dresses her grandmother had gifted her ever since she was born. She’d wondered why her oldest had to wear the same colours as her grandmother when the other grandchildren wore the colours their parents wore. Just one other way Abuela had favoured Isabela over everyone else.

When a four-year-old Mirabel had run to Bruno to tell him how she’d chosen green glasses and now they matched, the smile Bruno had given her had been the first smile Julieta had seen in a long while…

Now that she could think about it, he’d smiled easily only for a short while since the children were born, four years prior to that episode, when he’d had to have met Sirius. He loved the children dearly and doted on each of them, but even those rare times he’d felt he could leave his room and be with the family, he’d always felt anxious and like he couldn’t express himself freely because he never knew what their mother or Pepa would say. Most times, he ended up staying aside, wringing his hands, not knowing what to do or say until the children took initiative.

Julieta couldn’t blame him: despite knowing that their mother loved them all, even those rare times she would show affection to Bruno, she ended up telling him off for something. And when she saw him with the children, Abuela tended to call the children to her, assigning chores or commenting on their demeanour, as if a few minutes with their uncle would undo all her efforts to create the perfect family.

Julieta knew that Abuela rarely had anything to say to her because she already did spend all her time in the kitchen or at her stand and with Pepa it was always ‘Pepa, you have a cloud’ but Bruno had taken the brunt of Abuela’s obsession with perfection, since he couldn’t help but be himself. Julieta suspected that the reason was that Bruno was the only boy and that he resembled their father quite a bit physically. However, though their mother always said he shared a lot of characteristics with their father’s personality too, there was no denying that Bruno was quirky. And Bruno was the kind of person who couldn't help but be himself.

Julieta shared a look with her husband whose lips curled up imperceptibly beneath his thin moustache as he rolled his eyes towards Sirius and Bruno. He clearly had noticed the clothes too and they both snickered, sharing a moment of amusement at the thought, remembering the tender moment Agustín had started wearing blue and Félix had started wearing yellow. Julieta was elated to see her brother finally have what she had always wanted for him, to be loved and appreciated for himself.

“What’s so funny?” Sirius asked.

Bruno blinked bemusedly at them too, and Julieta and Agustín shared another secret laugh when they saw his fingers intertwined with Sirius’s. Julieta shook her head fondly and went about the kitchen to prepare chocolate santafereño.

Served first, Remus looked curiously at the mug Julieta offered him and took it, studying it with interest before taking a sip and sighing contentedly. Sirius snorted and smirked at his friend, the Madrigals turning to look at him, “See, Agustín,” he said, grinning mischievously at Remus, “If you have to worry about someone stealing your wife, that’s the bloke you need to look out for.”

“Que?” Agustín blinked.

“Remus is basically addicted to chocolate. He’d do anything for it.”

“Shut up, Sirius,” Remus replied, and they turned to the fair-haired Englishman, who looked at Bruno after giving Sirius a smirk, “Now, Bruno.”

“Sí?” Bruno jumped to attention and Remus paused, confused by the nervous reaction.

“Are you sure you want to be saddled with this one?” Sirius cocked an eyebrow, when Remus slapped him on the shoulder, “I mean, he’s a lot of work.”

“Thanks a lot, Moony,” Sirius glowered at him, Bruno looking bemusedly from him to Remus.

“You just had your House Elf come drag me from England all the way across the world to Colombia because you Splinched.”

“Fuck you.”

“What a coincidence, exactly what you were doing when you first mentioned him to me.”

“Damn it, Remus!” Sirius protested loudly, banging his fist on the table.

Bruno and Agustín choking on the water they were sipping in anticipation for the hot chocolate and Julieta almost dropping the cheese she’d been carefully placing in the mugs. As happy as she was for Bruno, she didn’t really need to know that her brother had been a protagonist of Sirius’s fantasies.

It took Bruno a while to stop wheezing, but when he finally stopped coughing his lungs out he gave a nervous chuckle and took his hand, “I – heh – I don't mind hard work,” he told Remus, “He's worth it.”

Remus smiled softly, when he saw Sirius pulling Bruno’s hand to his lips to kiss it, “Good answer,” he agreed, “But no take backs.”

Sirius rolled his eyes, “Hey, you’re not easy to handle either, what with your time of the month and incessant whining about it.”

Remus raised his eyebrows in response but clearly he wasn't upset, “Just a few weeks ago, I had to pry your thirteen-year-old godson off you because you couldn’t pause for five minutes to explain things to him.”

“Touché,” Sirius agreed, not the least bit offended.

It was obviously friendly banter, and it was confirmed when they laughed together. Remus and Sirius raised their mugs and clanked them together, “Cheers!” they toasted and took a long swig of the chocolate santafereño.

Sirius noticed Bruno staring at them with a wistful expression, “What is it?” he asked, pulling a strand of Bruno’s hair behind his ear.

Bruno got startled out of his thoughts and smiled at Sirius, “Nothing.”

“Bruno…” Sirius called playfully in a sing-song voice.

“No, really,” Bruno insisted, but his smile was more of a grimace, “It's nothing.”

Sirius cocked his head, smile gone from his face in an instant, surprised that he hadn’t indulged him.

Bruno occupied himself with the mug of chocolate santafereño and Julieta knew that something was wrong with him, but he clearly didn’t want to talk about it, so she went on and placed her hand on his shoulder, “Sirius,” she caught the wizard’s attention, though Sirius turned to her rather slowly, “I wanted to ask you if you’d tell Mamá what you told me and Bruno yesterday.”

“Huh,” Sirius said, still looking at Bruno, who was brooding as he sipped from his mug, “I mean, if you think it can help.”

“I think you’d explain some things better than we could.”

“Sirius? Explain things?”

Sirius threw his spoon at Remus, then smiled at Julieta, “Alright, then.”

“So…” started Agustín when Julieta sat back down between him and Bruno, “You – er – you were – lovers? That’s – is that how you know each other?”

Agustín’s awkwardness in bringing up the subject was clear but so was his curiosity.

Remus smiled, knowing that he and Sirius came from a different, more liberal society, “School mates, actually. Us being lovers would implicate a lot of feelings that we never had for one another. We are friends who used one another for pleasure, that's all, though Sirius did it more for my sake than anything else.”

“What do you mean?” asked Julieta.

“Oh,” said Bruno, who seemed to have forgotten whatever he’d been thinking about, “Is it because of –” he trailed off and glanced sideways at Sirius, “Sirius mentioned you have a condition…?” Remus glanced at Sirius and Bruno deflated as he saw them communicating without words, “I didn’t mean – I hope I didn’t – I mean, he didn’t say anything specific.”
Remus didn’t seem worried about Sirius’s indiscretion and smiled at Bruno, “It’s alright, I know,” he said, though there was a note of steel in his voice and his eyes when he glanced at his friend, “Sirius wouldn’t betray my trust, and he wouldn’t do it with the first person that passes. I don’t mind you knowing, anyway.”

“A condition?” Julieta wasn’t privy to this information before and she looked at Remus curiously, the healer she’d been taking over immediately, “What kind of condition?”

“Muggles would classify it as an infection,” Remus said, not unkindly, but in a firm sort of voice, making it clear it wasn’t something he spoke of easily, “It’s manageable for some people, not curable.”

“You wouldn’t have heard of it,” Sirius added.

Bruno hesitated, exchanging a look with Julieta and Agustín, “I’m sorry if I spoke out of turn,” he said softly.

Remus smiled reassuringly, “It’s alright, truly. I understand you must all be curious. It must be very odd for you to see our brand of magic. From what Sirius has told me, your situation is very peculiar for people like us too. My condition is not something I like to talk about, but I’m used to it, I’ve had it since I was five.”

“Like the gifts,” said Agustín.

Remus let out a bitter snort, “It’s anything but a gift, believe me,” Remus said.

It was at that moment that Abuela decided to enter the kitchen, followed by Pepa and Félix, “Ah, you’re all here, good,” she said and sat on the chair Félix had pulled away from the table for her, “Señ – Sirius, Agustín mentioned you weren’t feeling well, but you seem better, sí?”

She glanced at each of them, and stared at Sirius for a little longer, “Yes, Madam,” Sirius replied graciously, “I’m sorry, it was a nightmare, I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Abuela paused. Julieta could tell that she’d noticed her son’s rigid position next to him, as if he was worried of what she could tell him. She knew what her mother was thinking, because she would have thought the same hadn’t she known exactly who Sirius was to Bruno. Why wouldn’t Bruno spend time with her now that she was available to him and prefer this man? Her son had been away for ten years and now he preferred this stranger to his own mother?

“Mamá,” Julieta said before her mother could focus on the wrong thing to discuss, “We really need to talk. All of us.”

Abuela opened her mouth to say something, then changed her mind and took a deep breath before nodding and sitting back down, “Sí, I think we do.”

Before they could, the kitchen was suddenly invaded by chaos. A white blur sped past them followed by the shouting forms of Antonio, Camilo and Mirabel with Isabela, Dolores and Luisa on their heels.

“Get it! Get it!” Camilo was shouting.

“No!” Antonio screamed at the top of his lungs, “No! It’s a pretty bird! Don’t hurt it!”

“Camilo, really! You’re making such a fuss!”

“Niños!”

The three youngest Madrigals jumped to attention at their Abuela’s call, much like the older girls behind them.

“What are you doing? What’s this chaos? Is this how you behave in front of our guests?”

Abuel’s demeanour lacked her earlier sternness, but it stood to reason that the children would assume she would be mad at them for making a ruckus.

“Sorry, Abuela,” said Camilo.

“Sorry, Señor Sirius, Señor Lupin,” said Mirabel.

“Oh, it’s quite alright,” Remus said with a smile.

Sirius bit his lip to avoid laughing at the whole scene. It was an awesome entrance, but their grandmother was reprimanding them and even if he didn’t agree, he didn’t want to interfere.

“Sorry,” Antonio echoed Mirabel, but then he pointed at his brother accusingly, “Camilo wanted to hurt the pretty bird! I didn’t want him to!”

They all turned to look to the top of the shelf behind Remus to see a disgruntled-looking white owl staring at them with unblinking disapproving yellow eyes. Sirius and Remus brightened at that sudden piece of home in the unfamiliar Colombia.

The closest to the shelf, Remus rose to his feet and approached the bird, “Oh, hello, there!”

“It attacked me!” Camilo protested against Antonio’s accusations.

“Oh, come on!” Mirabel groaned, “It just slapped you with its wing!”

“And it was because you hit him your shoe!” Antonio backed her up.

“Camilo!” Félix reprimanded, “Did you throw your shoe at a bird?”

“I was sleeping!” Camilo snapped, “It woke me up!”

“You tried taking the box!” Antonio piped in.

“What? I was curious!”

“So, you decide to chase a crazy bird all around the rectory? We’re guests here ourselves!” Pepa reprimanded.

“It’s not a crazy bird!” Antonio whined.

“The little one is right.”

They all turned to Remus who was in a staring contest with the white bird still perched on the shelf, “Aren’t you a beauty!” he told the bird, “I think I’ve seen you before, are you here for me?” the bird gave a hoot that was clearly a denial, “Oh, Sirius, then?”

“For me?” Sirius blinked.

The bird hooted affirmatively this time, and he held out his arm and the white owl gracefully flew from the shelf to his arm, then offered him its leg.

Once Sirius had untied the box and letter from its leg, Remus offered his arm to the owl, who jumped on it easily, then inspected the writing on the envelope over Sirius’s shoulder, then grinned, “Ah, I know this handwriting!”

Sirius’s face brightened, “Of course, it’s Harry!” then grinned at Bruno, still next to him, “My godson wrote to me.”

Abuela gathered herself from the shock of a foreign bird just gallivanting through the window and on the church’s kitchen shelf. She opened her mouth to speak, then paused and took a deep breath, “Sirius,” she said slowly as if trying the name, “I thought you said no one knew where you were.”

“Yes,” he replied.

“And you mean to tell me that your godson sent you a letter that happened to find you here?”

“No,” Sirius replied just as slowly, as if Abuela wasn’t making any sense, “My godson sent me a letter and his owl found me. See?” he held out the envelope for them to see, “There’s no address.”

Remus sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Wizards use owls to exchange mail,” he explained to the dumbfounded Madrigals, “They are trained to find people even if they don’t have an address,” he glanced at Sirius, “Padfoot, I told you a million times, Muggles don’t use owl post.”

“Muggles?” asked Félix.

“What’s an owl?” Antonio asked excitedly, “Is it the pretty bird?”

Remus smiled and lowered his owl-full arm for the little boy to pet, “This a snowy owl,” he said, as Antonio petted the owl and the white bird allowed him to stroke it and even gave him small tickling bites with its beak, “You’re right, she is a pretty bird.”

“Is it safe?” asked Pepa worriedly.

“The boy rode a jaguar till yesterday!” Sirius protested.

When Pepa looked at him, Félix shrugged and nodded in agreement with Sirius. It was a fair point.

Sirius scanned through the letter, then he glanced at Bruno and paused. He folded the paper in his hands and dropped back next to him, “I’ll read this later,” he told him, putting it in his pocket.

“You don’t have to –” Bruno started.

Sirius just grinned at him, “You wanted to talk.”

“Sí,” said Julieta immediately, “We should all talk.”

“Indeed,” Abuela nodded gracefully, “There is a lot that has gone unsaid.”

Bruno and Julieta tensed, knowing their mother’s guilt-inducing passive-aggressive tone all too well. Sirius, though, smiled derisively, “Don’t play games with me, Madam, there’s no need.”

“Hey!” Pepa protested.

She’d recognised Abuela’s attitude too, but she wasn’t as close to Sirius as her brother and sister and still wasn’t used to anyone telling her off.

“Excuse me?” Abuela looked perplexed.

“I didn’t have to tell you that I am a wizard,” Sirius said bluntly, “Even forgetting the fact that there are laws that forbid wizards from revealing the wizarding world to Muggles like you, Madam, I don’t owe you any loyalty or trust that is not earned. Whatever I did for your family, I didn’t do for you, I did it for the kindness your family has shown me in my time of need, and I did it for your son’s sake, no other reason.”

Bruno flinched when Sirius touched his arm because he was suddenly aware of everyone’s eyes being on him now, “Sirius –” he started.

Julieta placed her hand on his and he turned to her, “This is why I wanted Sirius to help us talk,” she told her brother gently, then looked at her mother, “Like you said, Mamá, there are a lot of things that have been left unsaid. We should all talk.”

“Yes,” Abuela said, then glanced at the children still hanging about and looking at the scene curiously, “But maybe the children…”

“They’re staying,” Julieta said firmly, “This involves them too.”

“And I know things too!” Antonio piped up, jumping on the closest chair, and looked at Remus, “Are you a wizard too?”

Remus smiled, “I am,” he confirmed, apparently making the little boy the happiest in the world with his answer.

“Children, please,” Julieta intervened, “There is a lot to talk about. Sit down, por favor.”

All the children took their seats at the table before Abuela or any of the adults changed their minds.

“May I suggest a cup of tea to ease everyone’s mind while you talk?” Remus suggested, “A cup of tea is always good when someone’s upset, and you’ve all gone through a terrible ordeal.”

Sirius waved his wand nonchalantly and a teapot appeared mid-air along with several cups. Remus tapped the teapot with his own wand and steam came out of it, “Do you mind teabags? I’m out of leaves…” he paused at the Madrigals’ bemused looks, “Who wants tea?”

While he put a few drops of a lavender liquid from a small bottle in the teapot, several people raised their hands tentatively.

The teapot floated over the table, pouring steaming hot water on the teabags Remus was putting in the cups.

Remus smiled at them as the cups touched the wooden surface of the table and slid gently toward each of them, clearly inviting them to drink, “This is Earl Grey, try it with lemon and sugar.”

Abuela hesitated then led by example and sipped her tea, “Er – it’s very good, thank you.”

“Of course,” Sirius said, “It’s a British blend.”

“So – er – your gift is making things out of thin air?”

Sirius wasn’t surprised that Félix was the one to break the silence with his question to Remus. His friend glanced at him and shook his head, “We should probably start from the beginning. It’s best that Sirius explains to you, I’ve only been here for a short while.”

Sirius was already scratching his chin to find a way to explain things and when he massaged his own cheekbones and forehead with his fingers, when Bruno put his hand on his arm, “Mirabel,” he called his youngest niece, who perked up, blinking in surprise at being called into the conversation, “Why don’t you give us your perspective of what happened first?”

“Me?” the girl blinked, pointing at herself.

“Yes,” Bruno said gently, “You gave your all to solve the family’s problems, you deserve to tell your tale.”

Mirabel hesitated and glanced at her mother. Julieta smiled encouragingly, “Sí, corazon, you deserve to be heard.”

“Er –” the girl paused, gathering her thoughts, “Alright.”

They all stayed silent as Mirabel shyly started to speak, her usual bubbliness gone as she recounted the events of the last few days.

Julieta couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen the damage made to her youngest.

With a glance at her husband, she could see that Agustín had noticed this too and kept nodding eagerly every time Mirabel paused, encouraging her to speak her mind.
She knew Sirius disapproved the family’s behaviour with Mirabel and it was confirmed even more by his frown and the angry twitch in his upper lip, as if he was ready to show his teeth to the first person who went against Mirabel.

She was glad when Bruno’s hand slid down from the table, because Sirius could finally grasp it and calm down a bit, which, as suggested from his smile, Bruno greatly appreciated.

Mirabel insisted on how she thought everyone was so amazing and she’d tried to help everyone. Now, with Bruno and Sirius’s words about her daughter in mind, Julieta was looking at her youngest with different eyes. Now she could see that every time Mirabel spoke of how amazing the family was, she always did so without including herself.

As Mirabel went on with her tale, Julieta looked around and noticed that no one of her relatives seemed to grasp on the implications. She shared a look with Bruno and knew that he felt like her: after her talk with Sirius, she’d reflected on her brother and his behaviour over the years. Much like Mirabel he didn’t have much self-esteem and Julieta could only count her blessings that Mirabel had endured such hardships for ‘only’ ten years, because such low self-esteem and savage treatment at the hands of their family and the townspeople for over four decades had made her once cheerful and enthusiastic brother withdraw into an anxious, shy shell of his former self. Julieta could only thank God that he was still as kind and gentle as he’d always been.

At the end of Mirabel’s tale, the Madrigals shared a look. As usual, they all looked to Abuela to speak first and the old woman pondered on what to say for a few moments before she spoke tentatively, “So you had a miracle too?” she asked.

Despite her clear change after the fall of Casita earlier, Julieta knew she would still have a long way to go and she wasn’t surprised to hear her focus on the magic first, and she wasn’t surprised by the disappointment in her voice either.

“That’s not how magic works,” Sirius explained slowly, echoing Remus’s words from earlier, “Though I am not surprised you would call it that. You are all Catholics, right?”

Even Bruno blinked in confusion at that, “What has that got to do with everything?” he asked curiously.

“Muggles are not privy to magic unless under special circumstances,” Remus started, “It’s not surprising that a religious person would dub magic miraculous.”

He paused and glanced at Sirius, who sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “How do I explain this?”

Remus sipped his tea calmly and surprisingly Julieta found herself coming to Sirius’s rescue, “Sirius, please,” she said, “Just tell them what you told Bruno and I.”

Sirius stared at her, but Bruno elbowed him gently, gave him a goofy smile when the Englishman looked at him and nodded encouragingly. Sirius paused again, looked down and to many it would have looked like he was gathering his bearings to prepare for battle. When he looked up his grey eyes were full of indignation.

“You know now that I am a wizard. So is Remus. However, when we spoke the other day, I left out an important part of my story. About twenty years ago a wizard like Remus and I waged war upon his own kind. He and his followers preached the supremacy of wizards over Muggles, which would be non-magical people… like you,” Sirius stared directly at Abuela, challenging her with his eyes, “We fought for equality between wizards and Muggles – so imagine how insulting it is for me – for us! – to see what is going on here!”

“What – what do you mean?” Agustín asked, familiar enough with Sirius to recover quickly.

Surprisingly, it was the Madam who answered, hiding her face in her hands in shame and taking a deep breath before saying, “It is because of me. I am the one who broke the miracle, I am –”

“Oh, get over yourself!” Sirius snapped and she looked up at him, “Of course, quite a bit of it is your fault but not all of it. There is still the matter of what I have seen here,” he paused, looking around to see if anyone was reacting to his words. Julieta and Bruno knew where he was going but the rest of them didn’t know to brace themselves, “My question, Madam, is: who the hell do you think you are?” Abuela looked lost, and somehow that irked Sirius even more, “Are you out of your bloody mind!? What I have seen here is magical people being used as slaves –”

“Slaves! Now wait just a minute –”

“Right! So, you are alright with people telling you how to feel so that they can have the weather they want? You are alright for people to start exploiting your children at five years old? You know what that is called out there? Child labour!”

Sirius barked at Pepa and Félix and banged his fist on the table for good measure. The Madrigals all jumped both from surprise and from the shock of someone being so direct and hostile to their beliefs.

“Sirius,” Remus warned, still holding his cup of tea.

Sirius composed himself at once when he heard his friend’s voice. He took a deep breath and passed a hand on his face as he gathered his bearings to avoid exploding again. Clearly it was very difficult for him to keep his temper. His nostrils were still flaring when he looked up, so he was barely containing his irritation as he motioned towards Mirabel, “How can it be that a young girl like Mirabel is the only one who saw the problem here?” he asked them all, before setting his heated gaze on the Madam, “You have a wonderful, talented girl here!” he motioned toward Mirabel again, who blushed furiously, clearly not used to being praised, “In this whole family, the only one who had balls enough to defend her from being treated like a nuisance or something embarrassing was her father!” despite his age, Agustín blushed and adjusted his glasses with an awkward cough, “You should be proud of your husband, Julieta,” Julieta offered her husband a bright smile, “You too, girls.”

Isabela, Luisa and Mirabel beamed.

“Excluding her mother and father, no one stood up for this girl! Except for your son, Madam, who was so shamefully treated that he thought he had to do it by keeping away from you for ten years because he felt that he had to hide to help the family!”

In his rage, he didn’t even notice how Bruno flinched and closed his eyes, grateful for Julieta’s hand on his shoulder.

“The way you spoke about him is nothing short of shameful,” he paused, staring at Félix and Pepa with narrowed eyes, “Whatever petty grievances you have against him, what kind of example are you setting for your son that he is so used to hearing you slandering your own brother that he complained about his uncle to me?! And he hasn’t even seen him in ten years!” Camilo’s cheeks burned red, and he looked remarkably like Bruno at that moment, “This all over a joke he made at a wedding years ago? It’s not that big of a deal, you know, certainly not enough to give your brother grief for decades!”

Bruno and Pepa stared at each other for a while, both sporting identical confused and awkward expressions as they processed a lot of emotions.

Julieta didn’t like it and not only because she hated how at odds her siblings could be sometimes (most times more recently), but she could tell that Bruno didn’t know what to do and neither did Pepa, who was grasping at straws trying to decide on what to say in response to the accusation.

It was one of those moments where Julieta could see how their mother’s obsession with perfection had affected Pepa. By not being allowed to express her feelings freely, Pepa usually just blew up and usually at the wrong time and at the wrong person (mostly Bruno, even after he’d left). Julieta could see how Pepa gasped for breath, trying to find a way to be right, to explain her feelings, as if trying to untie a knot she couldn’t free herself of.

When finally, Pepa crossed her arms, Julieta could see it a mile away and readied herself for a Pepa’s blow-up that would bring Bruno to retreat.

“So, someone else must fight your battles for you? It’s hardly fair.”

Julieta pinched the bridge of her nose.

Agustín cringed.

Félix braced himself.

Even Abuela sighed.

Sirius slammed his hands on the table and jumped to his feet.

And suddenly Bruno’s hand was on Sirius’s arm, stopping him.

“Oh,” Bruno said, strangely calm, “Fair like you and Félix ganging up on me about your wedding for years, you mean?”

Julieta saw a new, strange determination in Bruno’s eyes as he processed his feelings. She knew he had so many things to say, many grievances to voice to Pepa and Félix, who had been the ones to voice their displeasure with him the most, even worse than their mother, whose silent disappointment in him had been torture for many years.

He’d spent his whole adult life being shunned and silenced, so much so that he’d thought that it was better for the family that he keeps away. Even then, they’d been displeased with him and cursed his name to the point of making it a taboo. Julieta knew that it wasn’t easy to suddenly decide to speak one’s mind and she could see the anxiety rise within him.

And yet, the childish, almost bratty way Sirius sat down and crossed his arms, frowning at Pepa and Félix made Bruno relax. Julieta saw the tension in his shoulders give away and she saw his confidence grow when he caught Agustín’s eyes, both encouraging and expectant of a discussion that should have happened years and years ago, had they – Bruno included – not decided that not talking about their issues made them disappear.

However, Bruno never had Sirius with him before.

Julieta saw Mirabel give him a smile and even with her own presence next to him, that was what brought him to strengthen his resolve even more, “You know, Pepa, I know everyone thinks I am weird, but you’ve been irritated, angry, whatever, with me ever since your wedding –”

“Well, bro, you made that vision – or, y’know, that joke – and you made her make a hurricane –”

“So, by your logic, if I cursed your arse for interfering that would be your fault?” Sirius snapped at Félix.

“Sirius, don’t,” Bruno raised a hand to calm him down.

“Control your stupid temper, Padfoot, this is not helping!” Remus slapped his friend upside the head and he and Bruno waited for Sirius to sit back down, “Please, forgive Sirius, he still hasn’t learnt that losing his temper just brings trouble.”

Sirius threw his arms in the air with a huff and a roll of their eyes, then crossed his arms again, much like a child who doesn’t want to eat his vegetables.

The children were all watching the scene, fascinated by their guest and now friend and the weird way the adults they thought they knew were behaving now.

Pepa and Félix had been the ones to interact with Sirius the least, even less than Abuela, as they’d been busy preparing for Antonio’s ceremony and then they’d spent most of the day in the fields, so they paused for a moment, rattled at his rising temper.

Sirius, however, seemed to be done with them and turned to Bruno, “Speak to them, love,” he told him, “You’re entitled to your anger.”

Bruno hesitated and surprisingly, it was Abuela to speak up next, “I agree with Sirius,” she said, shocking everyone so much that they all turned to her, having apparently forgotten that she was there, “Bruno, Pepa, you’ve been at odds for years and I am sorry to have fuelled it, even if I didn’t mean it. I understand that I forced my ways on you for a long time and this has strained your relationship to this point, but, please, talk to one another, solve this. Pepa, you’re an adult, you can let your brother speak his mind without biting his head off,” she paused and turned to Félix, “Félix, thank you for supporting my Pepita, you and Agustín are everything I could ask for my daughters, but I too have noticed that when it comes to Pepa’s relationship with her brother, you tend to interfere.”

Félix blinked, “I never –” he started.

“Er – actually, Tío Félix –”

Mirabel’s eyes grew wide, and she gulped when the attention turned to her. For a moment, time stood still and then Mirabel glanced first at Bruno, then at Abuela, who smiled at her, and the girl struggled for a moment, unused to being allowed to intervene without being told to step aside, “Actually, Tío Félix,” she repeated, “You kind of did it when I asked about Tío Bruno.”

“Que?” Félix asked, “You asked –”

“You did,” Mirabel insisted, “Tía Pepa didn’t want to talk about Tío Bruno, but you just started telling me about how Tío Bruno made bad things happen and Tía Pepa – well, we all know about the wedding…”

Félix was evidently baffled, “I was trying to defuse the situation.”

Julieta sort of understood his plight. Now that Bruno had made her see how her way of just feverishly tell Mirabel that she was as special as anyone else in the family could come out dismissive, she could see how Félix’s jokes about Bruno could just be perceived as additional blows to her brother’s self-esteem, even if Félix’s intentions were good. Whenever the subject of Bruno came up all he wanted to do was to make Pepa feel better.

As the man who had always loved his wife and even his special wedding in a hurricane, Félix had obviously never reflected on how his jokes and could affect the other party in the argument: he wanted to protect Pepa, but he did it at the expense of Bruno’s feelings.

“In hindsight, Dolores and Isa were actually the only ones to say something nice about Tío Bruno,” Mirabel confessed. Bruno’s cheeks burned.

Isabela blinked, “I just told you about the prophecy he had made for me.”

“It was just a joke,” said Félix weakly.

Moved by his nieces’ kind words for him, Bruno was able to find his voice.

“So was what I said at your wedding.”

Félix and Pepa turned to Bruno, who’d spoken quietly, his eyes downcast over the cup of tea in front of him. He took a deep breath, then looked up at them both.
“That was just a joke too, but it’s been over twenty years, you’ve had a happy marriage, and it didn’t stop you from holding it against me. Even when I was gone for ten years.”
Félix opened his mouth to answer but suddenly fell silent and didn’t speak. Bruno went on.

“I am not exactly sure when you decided that I am such a bad person, Pepi. When Félix came into the picture – don’t get me wrong, you’re a good man, Félix, I’m glad my sister has someone like you supporting and loving her, helping her with her emotions, but I could never get a word in without you just there. I may be the one who irritates her, but you’re the one who either tries to salvage the situation or speaks for her. I only ever wanted for my sister to be able to feel her emotions like everyone else, to be happy. At your wedding, Pepa, you actually thundered before I even spoke, so at that point I could see that you were too stressed out.”

“So, you said that only to make me let go?” Pepa asked softly.

“It was just a joke, I wanted you to relax, but I ruined things as usual. It’s ironic, isn’t it? My gift is – was – seeing the future and I didn’t know that joke would make you hate me so much, but I suppose it was only a matter of time.”

Pepa stayed silent for a long while, and everyone waited for her to speak.

Félix stayed silent too, a thoughtful look on his face.

Agustín and the children looked on, knowing it wasn’t their place to say anything.

Julieta saw that Abuela was itching to say something, but she was now aware that her tendency to control things had strained the relationships between her children and her grandchildren.

It was peculiar how Sirius’s thunderous and prideful demeanour made her reflect that everyone was always waiting for her approval to do or say anything. No one in the family were as unruly as Sirius.

Bruno had been the one who couldn’t help but run his mouth, much like Mirabel, and that had displeased Abuela a lot, and Julieta’s gentle nature was there even when she tried to protest, making it easy to dismiss her concerns.

If anything, Agustín had been the one to butt heads with Abuela more, though always politely, and it had culminated in their argument about Bruno’s vision, in which he'd been reasonably more concerned about his daughter than the cracks in Casita.

What Sirius said was true, Julieta thought, no one in the family had ever stood up for Mirabel, except Agustín and herself, the day before, after years of trying to get through Abuela, and Bruno, who had to stand up for his niece by leaving.

“Think about it, Pepa,” Julieta spoke gently, “Why would Bruno upset you on your wedding day, when he was supposed to walk you down the aisle?”

Pepa opened her mouth to answer, but then closed it again.

“She probably knew that I wasn’t exactly keen on walking her down the aisle,” Bruno answered his sister, “I knew she didn’t want her weird brother doing that, but Mamá insisted since I was her closest male relative, so it wasn’t really her choice. I would have done it only for you, Pepa.”

“How did you – That wasn’t – I did want you to walk me down the aisle –”

“Perhaps,” Bruno said, “But you were still worried about people talking about it,” he let out a bitter chuckle, “It’s ironic, isn’t it? Mamá was so worried that the day would be perfect, but then the townspeople would see that you didn’t like me – with all that I didn’t get to walk you down the aisle anyway, you and the townspeople got what you wanted anyway. So, what was all this for?”

Pepa swallowed when everyone turned to look at her, but she stayed focused on her brother, “Did I make you doubt that I love you?”

Bruno’s face was stony, but his eyes said it all and there was the slightest tremble in his voice when he spoke. Out of the corner of her eyes, Julieta saw Mirabel’s face: the girl knew that pain, she could hear it in her uncle’s voice, and she shared it, “I suppose you can love someone without liking them,” his eyes went down to the tea still in front of him and discreetly wandered to his mother.

Abuela noticed and gasped, “Ay, Brunito, that’s not –”

“Mamá, please, don’t insult my intelligence. I am many things, but stupid is not one of them,” Bruno sighed, “You might not have meant it but we both know it’s the truth,” he looked from her to Pepa, “Neither of you liked me and neither of you tried to know me, not since people decided that I cursed them. You did the same with Mirabel.”

Abuela didn’t say anything, but Pepa looked around the room to see if the others agreed with Bruno, her eyes stopping on Julieta, “You think so too?” she asked.

Julieta shrugged, “What I think is that you shouldn’t have made it such a big deal about the wedding, though it was a matter of time when you did, because you were already against him. Between you and Mamá, you just encouraged everyone to shun Bruno,” she held up her hand when Pepa opened her mouth, “Don’t deny it, Pepi. I’m very glad it wasn’t the case, but if he did leave because he didn’t care about us, I couldn’t really blame him. Why should he care, when we never did anything to show him that we cared? The townspeople – they’re good people but they were horrible to Bruno, and we didn’t do anything about it.”

“If you thought this, why didn’t you tell me?”

A very unusual scowl darkening her face, Julieta put her hands on her hips, “You and Mamá made a rule not to even speak his name!” she exploded, “I had to sneak around in my own house and cry with my husband at night when I missed my brother because of the two of you – sorry, the three of you!” she glanced at Félix.

“That’s not fair!” Pepa cried, “I missed him too!”

“Well done, nice way to show it!” Julieta clapped her hands sarcastically, “I was wrong, it wasn’t him that lost his way in this family, it was us! And it was wrong of me not to tell you how it affected me, but that's probably because I was taught to always think of others and I can never just say things for myself!”

Pepa jumped to her feet and went around the table with long strides to pull her brother out of his chair and hug him so tight that soon he was gasping for air. It made it even clearer that he was smaller than Pepa. She let him go and held him at arm's length, keeping her hands on his shoulders, “I do love you!” she said loudly in a determined but trembling voice, “You should have just told me that I made you feel this way!”

“How?” Bruno said, “You didn’t want to talk to me and even when you did – well, you let go with me, so I suppose –”

Pepa cocked her head to the side, stared at him for a moment and took a deep sigh, then hugged him again, “Ay, Bruno –” she sighed again, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know – but you’re back now… so – can I – can I maybe – try to get to know you again?”

Bruno’s smile was relieved and tired at the same time, and when Pepa let him go he gave her a short nod.

The others stayed silent as the two siblings reconciled. Sirius caught Bruno’s eyes from behind Pepa and winked at him. Bruno replied with a toothy grin.

*

It took a while for everyone to settle down again, but in the end, Félix offered heartfelt apologies to Bruno, saying that he truly hadn’t meant to be obnoxious or to make Bruno feel bad; Bruno accepted his apology, but Sirius snarked that words could hurt worse than physical damage even if you put a ‘bro’ at the end of the sentence, so Remus slapped him upside the head again.

Pepa awkwardly tried to show that truly meant her words by introducing her brother to her children again. Antonio just shared a look with Bruno and Mirabel and beamed, then giggled happily. Dolores gave a quick ‘Hm!’ and said she had actually known where Bruno had been for all these years – there would be a long discussion about that later. Camilo was upset to find out that everything he’d been told about his uncle was not true and that he’d actually been spreading those lies, making a fool out of himself, and, though he didn’t make a scene, he wasn’t happy with his parents for putting him in that position. Bruno reassured him that he didn’t mind but Camilo was still upset.

“Well,” Luisa cleared her throat awkwardly, once everyone had settled down, “That – huh – that was intense.”

“Was it?” Sirius asked.

“It sort of was,” said Agustín.

Remus took the small bottle of lavender liquid he’d put in the tea to examine it, “Oh, it might be because the Essence of Calmness has just expired last week.”

Sirius pinched the bridge of his nose, “For fuck’s sake, Moony.”

“Watch your mouth,” Remus reprimanded calmly, “Should I remind you of the great Expired Pepper-Up Potion Incident of 73?”

“Touché,” Sirius agreed, holding up his hands, “Everyone if anyone start turning violet let us know, we’ll reverse that.”

“Perdon?” Abuela blinked.

“Who wants more tea?”

Pepa had moved to Julieta’s vacant seat and Julieta decided to stand behind her and Bruno, keeping her hands on each of her siblings’ shoulders, while Pepa decided to grip her brother’s hand, as if the strength of her squeeze could erase all those years of misunderstandings.

When they were finally all settled, Bruno cleared his throat, “So, Sirius, er — about our gifts –”

Sirius sipped his tea but not before tapping the cup with his wand, heating it again, “Yes,” he said, then slowly took a long sip of tea and slammed the cup back on its plate, and they were all surprised it didn’t splash tea all over the table, “I’m truly appalled by what I’ve seen here! Magical people used as slaves for ungrateful, lazy people!” he turned to Julieta and Bruno, “Do I have to make the list again?” he didn’t wait for an answer and pointed at Luisa, who, despite her bulk, jumped and tried to make herself small, “This poor girl! She’s always working, and people just take advantage of her! Why does she have to move the church? Why does she have to reroute the river? You built a town on this territory, get used to it!”

“W-well, I’m strong – I can handle –”

“No one disputes that, dearie,” Sirius interrupted her, holding his hand up, “But the fact that you can doesn’t mean you have to! That’s the whole point of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy!”

“The – what?” asked Félix.

Sirius ignored him, still focused on Luisa, “You have a right to your own time!”

“It’s my job –”

“Why? Why do you have to run around town to gather those donkeys? I saw the farmer, he’s an able-bodied man and he lets a young girl do his own job? At the party the other day, I saw a grown-ass man waiting for you to pull him down from his donkey! What kind of undignified shit is that?”

“Huh?” Agustín asked Luisa, “Who was it, mija?”

Luisa had to think on it and that said more than her next words to Sirius, “Er – do – do you mean Señor Osvaldo?”

“Yeah, that tosser. The same guy, I might add, who gave Mirabel the, and I quote, ‘not-special special’ basket since she’s the only one of the children without magic.”
Mirabel cringed when everyone turned to her in shock at Sirius’s declaration.

“He said that?” Camilo asked, outraged at the idea, “To your face?”

Mirabel shrugged, “It’s not like it’s the first time,” she said.

“That doesn’t make it better!” Isabela snapped indignantly.

“Well, look who’s risen to the moral high ground!” Mirabel snapped back at her sister, “You’ve said a lot worse to me in many, many more occasions! At least, I knew Señor Osvaldo didn’t mean anything by it.”

Isabela flinched back, eyes wide and blinking rapidly, slapped in the face by the truth. She closed her mouth and looked away, her eyes rather shiny.

Feeling guilty when she saw her sister’s obvious regret, Mirabel hugged herself and looked down mutinously.

She would have avoided talking about it. It seemed she was so used to little jabs like those from well-meaning people that she’d honestly forgotten Sirius was there with her when Osvaldo had given her the basket with the decorations for Antonio’s birthday, “Er – it was fine, Señor Osvaldo really didn’t mean anything by it,” she told Sirius, “He’s not a bad man, he just doesn’t think that much before he speaks. He’s – not the sharpest tool in the box, sometimes.”

“Mirabel,” said Abuela gently, “That’s not very nice.”

“Well, it is very true, though,” Félix said, “Remember that we’re talking about the man who thinks Bruno is to blame because he grew fat.”

“Say what?” Sirius turned sharply to Bruno, who avoided his eyes, but whose jaw was surprisingly rigid.

“Still, you shouldn’t talk about people like that –”

“He also told Mirabel to tell Antonio good luck, since the last ceremony was a bummer,” Sirius said darkly.

“Well, then –” Abuela sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“He said what?” Agustín was gobsmacked.

Sure, Abuela had always put Mirabel aside, but to think that people in town would say something like that to his daughter –

“You should be proud of Mirabel for the grace with which she handled him, Julieta, Agustín,” Sirius said, “I was two seconds away from cursing his stupid face.”

Mirabel blushed at the praise, “It-it was nothing –”

“Sirius is right, mi vida,” Julieta told her daughter, “It’s not alright that people talk down to you.”

Mirabel swallowed the lump in her throat. Everyone could see in Mirabel’s face the relief of having her family upset on her behalf and also the bitterness that it had taken such a huge event like the Casita falling for them to rally up in her defence, “Can we – can we maybe talk about this later?” she asked softly.

“We can,” Agustín said kindly, “But we will be talking about this later, Miraboo.”

“Fine.”

They all turned to Sirius, “You were saying, Sirius?” Julieta asked gently.

Sirius didn’t speak for a moment, staring at Bruno, as if willing the other man to tell him about Osvaldo and Bruno wasn’t budging, so Sirius then turned to Camilo, who flinched, but then he addressed his parents, “The boy is fifteen, why the hell is he babysitting newborns? When Remus and I were fifteen…”

Remus snorted in spite of the situation, “Let’s leave what we were doing at fifteen out of this discussion, old boy.”

Sirius conceded with a nod and this interaction got Camilo’s curiosity even more piqued, “Why, what were you doing?”

“Our teachers at school still have nightmares of the time he and James flooded the whole first floor of the school,” Remus answered the boy, “I know because I taught at our school last year.”

“It was glorious, and you know it,” Sirius replied to Remus, “And just because our desks sailed straight in the staff room, doesn’t mean you weren’t in on it, it was your stupid plan!”

“Why would you want to flood a school?” Camilo asked, his interest piqued.

Remus’s eyes widened. He knew that face well and he was suddenly aware of his mistake, “Merlin’s beard, we have to make sure you never meet the Weasley twins.”
“Who are the Weasley twins?”

“Chaos,” Remus said, and his eyes had a faraway look, as if he was remembering a nightmare, “Chaos that could be compared only to our Golden Age –”

He and Sirius high-fived.

“The point is,” Sirius continued, turning back to Camilo, “At fifteen you’re a boy yourself. No matter how responsible you are, you should have fun at your age, not work full-time.”

Camilo held his gaze and then looked down and sighed, “Abuela always says that we have to work hard to earn the Miracle,” he said, “I like helping out in town and even if sometimes I don’t feel like it I know it’s our job –”

“Again, with this tripe?” Sirius said, “Madam, you really made a number on them all.”

Abuela swallowed the lump in her throat, “Well – we had to earn the Miracle –”

Remus sent Sirius a stern look. Sirius curled his lips in a thin line, passing the lead to his friend, “I have been here for only a few hours, so you’ll have to forgive me for intruding in this conversation, but magic is not something to be earned. I don’t know how it came to be here, Sirius and I can investigate a few theories we have, but it’s mere speculation. Still, I can tell you this much, magic is something that is, it’s not something to be earned. Do you have to earn the colour of your hair? Of your eyes? Even if it was a gift from a miracle,” Remus paused, “A gift is, by definition, something given without any expectations.”

Remus’s kind demeanour softened the blow against Sirius’s sharp but well-meaning words, “Of course, I know nothing about your husband, Madam,” he said gently, “But I do know a thing or two about surviving, Sirius and I both do. Sirius told me what he knew. I understand why you thought you had to earn the Miracle and repay his sacrifice. It would feel like his death was for nothing, wouldn’t it?” Abuela swallowed the lump in her throat and looked at Bruno’s crestfallen face and the eyes of her daughters, glistening with tears, it did feel exactly like Remus had said, “Our friend James died the same way, trying to stall for enough time for his wife and son to get away –”

“He wasn’t cold yet when I found him – he’d forgotten his wand —” Sirius went quiet and looked down.

For a moment, they waited for him to speak, then Remus put his hand on Sirius’s shoulder and Sirius almost flinched, “What Sirius is trying to say is that there is no way that a man like that, who threw himself between danger and his wife and children, was thinking that his family had to repay his protection. There’s no need to punish yourselves for that.”

Bruno looked at Sirius when the man took his hand beneath the table, and he barely managed to smile back.

They were stunned. Completely speechless.

“Isa,” Julieta intervened while Camilo looked thoughtful, contemplating Sirius’s words, “Sirius thinks you don’t want to marry Mariano, is that true, mija?”

Isabela flinched at being brought into the conversation, “Oh – huh –” she stammered, not really knowing what to say.

“Que?” Abuela turned sharply to her granddaughter who visibly panicked under her gaze.

“I – I – huh –”

“Mirabel said something along those lines too,” Julieta pressed.

Isabela glanced at her younger sister, who smiled encouragingly and elbowed her, having apparently forgotten their earlier animosity. Then the girl looked tentatively at Sirius, who mirrored Mirabel’s smile, “I know a thing or two about arranged marriages.”

Isabela blinked, “Oh!” she blushed, “Oh! It – it wasn’t an arranged marriage, actually! Well, not really – I-I mean, Mariano is a good man and when he started showing interest –”
Even Julieta blinked at her daughter in surprise, “So you do want to marry him?”

Isabela hesitated before looking from her mother to her sister, and then glancing sideways at her grandmother, “No,” she admitted in almost a whisper, then quickly bowed her head, “I’m sorry, Abuela!”

They all watched Abuela pale at that behaviour, “Que? Isabela! Why would you go along with a marriage you didn’t want?”

“I –” Isabela sighed deeply, “When Mariano expressed his interest in me, you said it would be a perfect match and so good for the Encanto, so I –”

“Ay, mija!” Abuela bemoaned, “Did you intend to marry Mariano only to make me happy? I know I can be stern, but I would never force you to marry someone you don’t love!”

“I – I’m sorry, Abuela,” Isabela bowed her head, “I should have said something, but I was so worried that you’d be disappointed in me – I didn’t know what to do…”

Sirius thought that his cousin Andromeda’s response to arranged marriage had been to run for the hills and elope with a man that the family deemed less than dirt, so it was probably better for the Madrigals that Isabela hadn’t known what to do.

Abuela shook her head, “No, Isabela, no,” she said, “Don’t apologise. I have to apologise for making you feel as if pleasing me was more important than your happiness, nieta. Nothing is more important than your happiness.”

Isabela stilled, then looked down, “I – Gracias, Abuela.”

Abuela reached out and patted her hand with a sigh, then looked up, “Thank you for your perspective, Sirius, er – Remus,” Remus nodded with a smile, “It was eye-opening, even after my talk with Mirabel earlier.”

Sirius seemed drained, his rage gone like a light goes out, “I’m sorry if I was blunt.”

Abuela shook her head, “No, I am sorry. There’s just no easy way to say these things. I am sorry that we – that I put you in the position to tell me such things. That I put any of you in this position. I am glad that you are here, Sirius, Remus. Thank you, even more, for coming to our aid,” Abuela added to Remus, “I apologise if we’re taking you from your job and your family –”

Remus waved her apology, “It’s alright. I have quite literally nothing to do at the moment,” he said pleasantly, “I’m – in between jobs,” Sirius coughed, earning a confused look from the Madrigals, “And any family I have is right there,” he added nodding toward Sirius, who grinned and winked at him.

Abuela sighed, “Oh, well, then –” she hesitated and looked up at her family, “Is there anyone else who would like to tell me something?” she paused, glancing at each of them, “Dolores, Julieta? You’ve been quiet.”

Dolores confessed that she was tired of being known as a chismosa, when she was only doing her grandmother’s bidding. Bruno came to her aid and helped her explain the difficulties of a gift like theirs, a gift made to tell people truths they didn’t want to hear and how complicated it was to deal with it when people asked them things and then didn’t want to hear the answer. Luckily, Dolores hadn’t been as harassed as Bruno since he’d already been made the scapegoat for everything, but she’d been bitter about hearing people saying stuff behind each other’s backs and all the bad things they’d said about her uncle, whom she loved a lot, thank you very much.

Julieta took her strength when Pepa squeezed her hand encouragingly, but found the voice to speak of her displeasure at how her brother had been treated, at how her husband hadn’t been accepted right away the way Félix had been, at how her oldest had been put on a pedestal she hadn’t wanted to be, at how Luisa had been forced to be at everyone’s beck and call, at how Mirabel had been made to feel less than any of them just because she didn’t have a gift and how she herself had been dismissed in her concerns and how her only role had been made to be in the kitchen.

Abuela apologised for making them feel that way, then asked them a bit of time to think over what they’d told her. She left for a walk alone and everyone made their way to process all the revelations.