Three's a Charm

She's frowning down at the tabletop when Hei pipes up, "What's wrong, Xiǎolóng?"

She jerks her gaze up, "Oh, I was just… Well, now that I don't need to tiptoe around Dumbledore so he doesn't find out, the House Potter Proxy needs to be replaced from one of his lackeys, but I'm not totally sure who to make it."

Hei tilts his head in thought, "Someone trustworthy and willing to stand up against Dumbledore if necessary."

She nods, "Yes, but he's still got such a reputation that whoever we pick also needs to be someone who won't seem like they're going straight for his throat, even if their opposition is more hostile, but I'm not familiar with a lot of people in the magical world."

Hei hums thoughtfully, then turns to their other breakfast companion, "Remus? You got any ideas? You definitely know more people than we do at least."

Remus puts his hand on his chin in thought, "Yes, but those willing to oppose Dumbledore, yet aren't against your politics are few, and being clever enough to make it seem like they aren't going for Dumbledore's throat as well narrows it even further. And that's before you toss in being trustworthy, though in fairness, while I know you aren't a huge fan, you being the Girl Who Lived makes that the least constricting. Though we would have to add a caveat that they aren't just greedily trying to use you and your fame. But even if it was more your mother's doing, plenty have genuine respect for your family for at least pushing back Voldemort."

She hums as she pushes her food around her plate then straights suddenly as an… idea pops into her head. Without a word she hops down and scurries over to Sirius’ room. She hears Hei and Remus quickly get up to follow her as Hei calls out, "Xiǎolóng?"

She tosses over her shoulder without slowing down from her intended destination, "I got an idea after Remus mentioned Mom!"

Hei huffs as they follow her down the stairs of the trunk, "And you're going to the trunk because?"

She rounds into the living room and locks onto her parents' surprised portrait, "Because while Remus would know him, Mom would've known him way better."

Her mother's painted eyes blink in surprise, "Known who?"

She grins at the portrait, "Horace Slughorn."

Remus sucks in a surprised breath, "Slughorn?! But he's always trying to network and stuff!"

She turns to him with a raised eyebrow, "Which isn't a bad trait for someone who's a Proxy as long as he doesn't turn against me or just tries to use me and my family's influence, which isn't the right kind of networking like he does from what Mom's said about him." She turns back to the portrait, "We were talking about kicking out Dumbledore's lackey Proxy for House Potter and who to replace them with. It needs to be someone trustworthy, willing to stand up to and against Dumbledore but also clever about it so it doesn't look like he's going for his throat or anything, or someone just trying to use me. He'd probably want to network with me anyway even without taking into account that you were his most favorite student."

Her dad looks startled, but her mom turns thoughtful, "That's… not a bad idea actually."

Her dad turns towards her mom, "Lily?! But he's always trying to make connections and the like for his use! And isn't he a coward anyway? He wouldn't stand against Dumbledore!"

She shakes her head, "Yes, he's always networking, but as our daughter said, that's not a bad trait for a political Proxy, and he does it the right way. He doesn't just use the people he networks with, unlike some people who don't network correctly. It's always an understanding of being mutually beneficial. Yes, he gets favors from them, but they can also ask him for favors, and even without them asking he always does his best to help them become successful and tends to introduce him to other people he networks with, helping them build their own networks."

She nods as she continues, "Yes, partly it's because he wants them to become famous so he can reap the benefits of knowing so many famous and successful people, but the point is that it's not like he 'collects' such people and expects things from them without giving anything in return. And despite what people think, he isn't a coward. Yes, sometimes he'd hide himself from Death Eaters, but that was mostly out of an understanding of his own limits and not wanting to get ganged up on or something. He's someone more inclined to pick his battles. Even when we were in school he got into more than a couple arguments with Dumbledore and did not yield, so he absolutely will stand against the man."

She tilts her head back, "Furthermore, I'm not surprised you don't know this, since you always ran off with the Marauders, but as you'll remember, more than once Hogsmeade was attacked. And more than once we fought side by side and he never fully ran. A couple times he suggested we move because we were outnumbered, but he doesn't turn away from a fight. And as she said, I was his most favorite student, and that man is actually very loyal. It may not seem like it, but he is. He only turns his back on students that have committed wrongs or betrayed him first. So even without all the fame from our family pushing back Voldemort, he'd likely still want to get to know her as my daughter."

She blinks at her mom, "But… I didn't inherit your skill with potions. If anything I'm kinda bad at them, so I'm grateful you left the teaching mannequin behind since I'll probably need the headstart to do well in classes."

Her mom smiles as she tilts her head back down, "Which would undoubtedly disappoint him at first. But honestly, after that he'd probably change gears to seeing it as an opportunity to tutor my daughter, since you don't just dismiss the art to begin with and are dedicated to getting good grades in all of the classes you'll take, including potions."

She blinks in surprise then looks down, as much as she admittedly clings to the mannequin her mother had made to try and hold onto as much of her connection to her as possible, learning from the same man her mother did would admittedly be pretty good too, "You think so?"

Her mom's portrait nods firmly, "Most likely."

She glances at her mom with a smile then looks to the thoughtful Hei and Remus, "Also, while just from my personality we have different styles, he is a master at playing the networking and political game, so I could undoubtedly learn a thing or two from him in those regards too, since well, they are important skills for an Heiress to have, especially since…"

Hei tilts his head, "Especially since what?"

She blinks up at him for a moment then glances away. She'd never said anything, but thinking about it, she didn't actually mind them knowing. So she lifts her head back up as she plants her hands on her hips and confidently announces, "Even as recently as Sirius' grandfather, back before the more recent generations fell under the influence of pureblood supremacists -because despite the House Motto being 'Toujours Pur', meaning 'Always Pure' for those who don't speak French, while they did go out of their way to remain purebloods, that was more just being normal Traditionalists, and they only recently extended into full on pureblood supremacy-, House Black had considerable political power. And before Dad's death and its subsequent waning without a proper Proxy, so did House Potter. I intend to build them back up, as well as House Black's damaged reputation."

Everyone else gives her surprised looks, but it's her dad's portrait who speaks up, "Quite the ambition… Hell, might even end up in Slytherin because of it." Then he widens his eyes and quickly adds, "Not that I'd think any less of you if you did!"

She snorts, "It's fine Dad. Especially since I won't, though I don't have anything against House Slytherin or its students in general. There's no way the Sorting Hat doesn't take your wishes into account since it's a school and it could absolutely hamper learning to be forced into a House you didn't want, and given how intelligent Rowena Ravenclaw was famed to be as well as how intent she was on education, I can't see her being unaware of it and not including that in the Hat. And as ambitious as I am and the fact I have nothing against the House or its students in general, with its current reputation it would hamper my plans. So I fully intend to utterly refuse to go there."

They all gain thoughtful looks at that, and Remus glances away, "It does. The Hat that is. I… was actually originally against going to Gryffindor. With its description of being the House for the brave and noble, I didn't think I deserved it, nor that those descriptors suited me anyway… the Hat and I argued for a bit and it said the same thing you did. That it couldn't put a student somewhere they refused to go even if it's the one that suits them best. I only ended up in Gryffindor because it convinced me to accept my place there."

She looks away a little guiltily, and her mom's portrait tilts its head at her, "What's with that expression?"

She glances up, then away again with a guiltily wince, "That…. Remus has been saying I'm undoubtedly bold enough for Gryffindor, but… I'm sorry, but while its reputation is generally positive, with the way it pretty much automatically closes the door to any Slytherin relationships, I fully intend to refuse that too."

She glances back at her parents' portrait and her dad smiles at her, "I won't lie, I'm a little disappointed, but. As far as I'm concerned my child's goals in life are far more important than her being in the same House as I once was, and Godric himself made it clear that he didn't expect all of his descendents to be in his House. And given that he thought the other three had their own strengths and respected them, he also made sure it would be passed down that he wouldn't be disappointed in any that went to them. Given how much weight the House you go to has gained, it's more important that you go to the one you feel you need to achieve your goals than to your parents’ or ancestors’ House.”

Her mother nods firmly, and even Remus does, though Hei is mostly watching since he doesn't really have any emotional stake in this. Then her mom tilts her head again, "So, out of curiosity, are you aiming for Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw?"

She hums, "Honestly, I'm hoping for Ravenclaw, because while Hufflepuff wouldn't be bad, I don't really want to be saddled with their reputation of being the soft, weak, leftovers either. I know it's not true since they look for the hardworking and loyal, which isn't bad at all, but it's the reputation that's the issue. So between the two 'neutral' Houses, I'd prefer Ravenclaw."

Hei leans forward, "So. For those of us not familiar with Hogwarts, how on earth are students sorted, and by a hat at that, and what does Ravenclaw look for? Also, is ambition the only trait of Slytherin? The other two you mentioned seem to look for two traits each."

She looks up at him with a sheepish smile, "Sorry, didn't mean to leave you out. The sorting is done by the Sorting Hat, an object enchanted to read the mind of whoever it's placed on to get a measure of who they are and which traits they have that are strongest, though for privacy's sake it's bound to secrecy about anything it views. Each of the Houses are summed up as looking for two traits, the aforementioned bravery and nobility for Gryffindor and hardwork and loyalty for Hufflepuff, but it also looks for ambition and cunning for Slytherin and wit and intelligence for Ravenclaw."

Hei nods, "I see. If that's the case, I don't see any issue with you getting into Ravenclaw, given that you aren't slacking in the intelligence department by any means."

She smiles warmly at him as the others offer murmurs of agreement.

She fights the urge to swipe her hands on her pants nervously, given it would be unbecoming of an Heiress. It's not do to with any lingering feeling from the stares she was subject to after entering Diagon Alley without her disguise for the first time now that she's not trying to adamantly hide from Dumbledore, though those were admittedly rather uncomfortable, though something she fully intends to force herself to get used to given her ambitions. No, her nerves are entirely due to the meeting she, Hei as her guardian, and Remus as her Retainer were about to have.

Horace Slughorn had eagerly responded to her letter, and a meeting was swiftly set up in a higher class establishment with private rooms covered in pretty much every imaginable privacy and anti-spying enchantments one could think of. And now she was soon going to meet the man that had not only been one of her mother's favorite teachers, but also hopefully her soon to be Proxy and possibly Potions Tutor as well.

It isn't too long before a jolly older man is shown in by one of the employees. He's overweight, but well dressed, and with age he seems to have gone rather bald, barring the enormous silvery mustache. He smiles warmly at her, closing his mint green eyes with his smile.

He reaches out a hand towards her after he reaches the table, "Hello my dear girl, you must be Lily's daughter, Calanthe."

She nods politely as she shakes his hand, "I am." She gestures at Remus beside her, "Though I'd understand if you didn't, given how many students you've had, you may recognize Remus, who serves as my Retainer."

Slughorn laughs brightly, "Like I could've forgotten one of the infamous Marauders, and one that was so brilliant at that. It's lovely to see you again Remus, though a little surprising you've been employed by one of the Potter's given you were always close enough with them that you just helped them out without really asking for anything."

Remus smiles faintly, "It's good to see you too sir, and honestly? I'd have been happy to help out again, but for one thing she has actual work she needs me to do and for another, well." He glances over her in question and she nods, "She's private enough about some of her business that it assures her to have a confidentiality agreement in my contract."

Slughorn nods, "Fair enough, fair enough." Then he turns his gaze to Hei, "And this young man is?"

She smiles faintly as she glances at him, "This is Hei, one of my two soulmates and my legal guardian."

Slughorn had smiled warmly at Hei at first, then got a concerned look when she said Hei was her guardian, "If I may ask… What exactly necessitated one of your soulmates seizing guardianship?"

She glances over at Hei, "Oh, he got guardianship of me on the grounds that whoever was my last one was neglecting my Heiress Training." She pauses briefly, then decides that while she won't yet tell him it all, that she could give the man a bit more, "Well, there was some more… but that's more confidential for now, and it wasn't the official reason, Mr Slughorn."

Slughorn looks concerned still, as he absently says, "Horace, please, Calanthe."

She nods, "Horace then."

The man shakes his head, then picks up his menu as he pushes on, "So! Why did you want to meet me? Your letter was somewhat vague."

She smiles lightly, "A few reasons. For one thing, my mother's portrait told me about you and how you were one of her favorite teachers, her favorite between you and her Mastery teacher Flitwick, so I wanted to meet you for personal reasons anyway, but while I know you went into retirement after teaching, to be blunt I have an employment offer for you. One that would likely be very suitable for you, from what I've heard of you from my mother's portrait."

He had smiled warmly and nodded at the first bit, then gets rather surprised at the second half, "Oh? What sort of employment offer?"

She tilts her head as she continues smiling, "Well, it's actually two, but neither should take up too much of your time. Anyway, I'm looking for a Proxy for my Wizengamot seat since I'm too young to directly claim it. From what my mother has told me about you, I believe you fit the criteria I had in mind as well as it suiting you in general. And given that she told me about how you like to network and the like, you would likely enjoy the opportunity. To be a bit blunt, I don't mind becoming part of your little networking collection given what my mother said about how it's always mutually beneficial. Also, well, from what I've heard of your personality and what I know of myself, we'd likely have different styles, but from what my mother told me about it, you're a master at playing the networking and political game. I have nothing but respect for you on that front, so I was hoping you could teach me some stuff in that regard, since they're definitely skills an Heiress, and later Lady, should have."

He laughs brightly and playfully says, "Your mother's been ratting me out I see." He looks down at the menu for a minute in thought, "As for being the Potter Proxy…" He briefly tilts his head as he quickly raises his eyebrows, "You aren't wrong that it'd suit me. Nor that I'd likely enjoy it. I'd like to think it over to be certain, but to be honest, a good part of me is already leaning towards accepting. That's not a guarantee mind you, but…"

She smiles, "I understand, I'd like a response soon since I'm not particularly… happy with the one my last guardian chose and would like to replace them as soon as possible, but I won't rush you on it."

That wasn't even entirely about him undoubtedly being Dumbledore's lackey. Even the way he'd been voting doesn't really line up with her. Horace nods in understanding with a hum, then closes his menu, "Since you all got here first and you haven't even touched the menus, I assume you all know what you want as well?"

He gets various nods, and she reaches over to pull the rope to call for service. Within a minute, a member of staff comes to get their orders. They give them, then after they leave, Horace turns back to her, "So, what was the second employment offer?"

She smiles down at the table a little sadly, "Unfortunately, I did not inherit my mother's talent for potions. To be honest, I'm sort of bad at it."

Horace gives her an equally sad smile, "That's rather unfortunate. She was incredibly talented with the subject."

She nods, "So I've heard. That was the second employment offer though. See, I'm fully aware that it's a core subject and I'm dedicated enough that I don't enjoy getting bad grades in general. So I was hoping to get a bit of a headstart on the subject, which is why the second offer was as a Potions Tutor, though in fairness I don't know how you'd feel about going back to teaching, even if it's just one student."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Oh my, I honestly wasn't expecting that." He glances away and gets a smile on his face after a moment, "Honestly, I genuinely enjoy teaching, enough so that I actually miss it, so I'm not against that idea either and lean towards wanting to accept that one too." Then he looks back at her, "Though I'd like time to think that one over as well to be sure of my decision."

She nods, "That's fine. I understand wanting to think it over to be certain." Then she smiles, "In the meantime, I wasn't joking about having wanted to get in contact with you since you and my mother were so close."

He smiles at her with happy warmth, and they pretty much immediately settle into casual conversation.

Calanthe's arms go out quickly as she attempts to regain her balance on the beam, but unfortunately an attempt to get more sure footing that wasn't as accidentally close to the edge sees one foot slipping off and the rest of her pretty much immediately follows it into open air.

A burst of instinctive fear washes through her brain, which hasn't yet gotten used to the situation and the fact she's not going to die from this, despite the height. Sure enough, it's only a split second before the mechanism locks up because she's dropping too quickly, and she's yanked to a halt by it and the harness.

Hei laughs, and she gives him a dirty look from where she'd ended up upside-down, "You laugh now, but there's no way you never fell back when you were learning how to use your wires."

He chuckles and grins at her, "I did, but that doesn't mean it isn't funny. Especially since you usually have good balance."

This had all started because she'd seen Hei practicing with his wires in the practice room, so he didn't get rusty according to him. She'd asked some questions out of curiosity which had led Hei to getting the idea of teaching her.

She hadn't been against it, because it could absolutely be a useful skill to have, so gear for her in the form of her own wires, launcher, and harness had been acquired and her lessons had swiftly begun. And gloves of course, to protect her hands so she can do controlled drops, which was one of the first things Hei had taught her. They help keep her hands protected when she swings too, but it was harder than she'd thought to do a controlled swing, so it was something she was still learning.

She had not anticipated, however, how difficult it was to learn launching the wires and letting the mechanism pull her to where they were anchored.

She blows a breath out in exasperation and works at getting herself upright, something Hei almost never helped her with unless she got truly stuck because it was good for building up her muscles in general, her core in particular since even if she was grabbing onto the harness and wires, she'd always need to use a crunch to get herself into proper range to pull herself up the rest of the way. Since he never helps with that either unless she truly needs assistance, she begins the arduous task of climbing up, something that will help with her upper body strength, of which he has significantly more of than her, and not entirely due to their age difference. The mechanism's one way lock disengages when the wire begins going the other way as she climbs upwards, though it'll lock back up and re-catch her if she begins falling again, likely, at this point, from her strength giving out on her still rather unfit body. 

It's all strenuous enough on her and her weaker body that while she makes it up, by the time she hauls herself up on one of the beams near the ceiling, her face is red and dripping sweat as pants of exertion force themselves through her lips. Even just holding herself up on her hands and knees from the position on them she'd ended up in after hauling herself up makes her arms ache, so she basically flops down on the beam tiredly.

The sound of another wire launched through the air precedes Hei being pulled up by the mechanical retractor -something she wasn't allowed to use when pulling herself back up, both to drive the mistake home and because the inevitable burst of working out to get back up was good for her body-, and landing less than a foot away from her.

He crouches and casually puts his arms across his knees in a resting position with a faintly amused quirk of his lips, "You okay?"

She gives him another dirty look, then sarcastically bites out a little breathlessly, "Just peachy." He chuckles again, and she narrows her eyes, "I will push you off."

He outright laughs at that, "You're welcome to try, but more than one person has attempted to end a fight that way, and I have very good balance."

She groans, "You're mean. Your nickname should be Panther of Fate rather than The Black Reaper. Death isn't cruel, but Fate sure can be."

He chuckles again, "What would that make you then? The Dragon of Defiance?"

She growls at him, "This Defiant Dragon is going to eat you Mr Panther."

He laughs again. And while she was being snarky to him and she was feeling rather strained, she can't help but feel happy at how much laughter she's getting from him today, even if it was somewhat at her expense.

She sighs lightly. As much as it tires her out, he wasn't wrong that it was helping build up her body. Especially since Hei was unbelievably good at knowing exactly how far her body could be pushed, which was helping her build up her stamina and muscles at a speed she wasn't aware was possible. While he seemed content to leave her fighting training to the mannequin, that he still thinks is an absolute beast but has shifted from a little ego bruised pouting into sheer glee at what he can learn from it, he did spar with her occasionally and give her tips and the like of his own.

Also, while she hadn't picked it up originally, at his encouragement and points about what she was going to do if she got into a fight, maybe even for her life, but had no weapon then there wasn't much she could do, she'd taken to learning hand-to-hand. Even though priorly she'd been focused on her weapons training since her evaluation of her natural talent in hand-to-hand was significantly lower.

It was all definitely tiring, but she knows in the long run that it'll be good for her, so though she sometimes gets frustrated at needing to take breaks and the like and snarks at Hei, she doesn't make genuine complaints about the work. Which… would probably qualify her for Hufflepuff too, especially since she'd consider herself a loyal person as long as they deserve it, though she's still aiming for Ravenclaw. Given that people are a mishmash of traits, it's gotta be just which ones are most prominent.

She looks up at him in curiosity, not quite up to getting back to work yet, which Hei clearly knows since he hasn't said anything about it, "I know you tick it over at the beginning of the year, so you've been considering yourself eighteen for a while, but your birthday is actually about a month away. Was there anything you wanted to do for it or anything you wanted for a present?"

He smiles warmly, "Well, I haven't really celebrated it in years, but I know it probably matters to you that we do." He tilts his head back in thought, "That being said, I'm not totally sure to be honest. I tend to prefer practical things, and I guess I've got a bit of a weakness for good food, and I've always liked stars, though it's not as good nowadays with the real sky hidden and knowing all those represent Contractors. So I don't know, maybe just a small dinner celebration or something?"

She smiles lightly, "That sounds good. Do you prefer going out, or home cooking?"

He tilts his smile back down at her, "I can't say I have a strong preference, as long as the food is good, well, other than the fact eating something cooked in a restaurant and the like can sometimes tweak my assassin paranoia, but I've gone out to eat plenty of times when my job didn't leave me enough time to make enough food for myself, so it's not a big deal. And I guess I enjoy cooking, but that's the act itself, rather than being about preferring the food I make. If you're wanting to do a celebration though, it might be better to go out."

She hums, "Well, in that case, any preference on what kind of place? You seem like you'd prefer somewhere more casual, but do you have a preference for the type of food?"

He chuckles, "Mmm. Not in general no, I really only care if it's good, so it's up to you I guess."

She gives him a deadpan look, "Very informative."

That draws a laugh from him, then he stands back up, "Come on, you look like you've recovered, so let's get back to practice."

She sighs a little, "Yeah, okqy."

Calanthe gives Hei the dirtiest look she can muster as she points a finger at him, "You're cheating!"

Hei is already laughing as he shakes his head, "I'm not."

She squints at him, "You totally are!"

One of his hands goes down to his side, apparently getting a stitch from the laughter, "I'm really not, Xiǎolóng!"

She slaps her hands on the table, "Then how do you keep winning at monopoly?! And so quickly at that?!"

His forehead rests on the table as the force of the laughter causes him to bend, "I'm just getting lucky, I swear!"

Remus, who was sitting on the couch nearby reading a book, pipes up with humor in his tone, "He really isn't cheating Calanthe."

She whirls towards him and points at him too, "On his side now, are you, traitor?"

He chuckles, and behind her Hei sounds like he's well on his way to busting his gut in laughter. It's the hardest she's ever heard him laugh, and though she's a little pouty about someone who conducts and manages a lot of business in real life losing, she's actually not upset. She'd played it up a little bit for laughs earlier, and Hei was so amused at the situation that his response had been rather delightful, so she'd grown more and more dramatic about it, gleefully happy at Hei's amused reactions. Honestly, it was hard not to crack like a dropped egg and start laughing herself, and Hei and Remus had undoubtedly picked up on it and the fact she was playing it up. Well, if anything at least she'll get more practice controlling her expressions and acting as part of her Heiress Training?

Remus shakes his head with an amused smile then glances at her, "No I'm not, he's just really not cheating."

She leans her head back dramatically, "I'm a genuine business owner in life, how could I be losing?!"

Hei is obviously trying hard to reign it in somewhat, probably because he's been laughing so hard he's a bit out of breath at this point, "We- We could always- always try Scrabble instead?”

She gasps dramatically as she whips her head back down and points at him again, "First cheating, and now blatantly attempting to rig it in your favor, Mr I-speak-multiple-languages?!"

He shakes his head fondly and finally reels himself in enough to straighten and wipe the mirthful tears from his eyes. Once he's done, he rests his elbow on the table, then his cheek on his fist as he looks at her with amusement, "Then what do you suggest, Xiǎolóng?"

She gives an uppity little sniff and gives him an over the top narrowing of her eyes and head lift so she's looking down her nose at him as she dramatically crosses her arms, drawing another chuckle, "I don't know, if I suggested a card game you'd probably just card count, and Janga wouldn't be a good idea either Mr assassin, since your coordination is probably too good for it to be fair."

He laughs lightly, but it's Remus who pipes up, amused as well, "I'd suggest trying a Wizarding game, but I doubt you two would much like most of them."

Her drama breaks in sheer surprise, "I'm not familiar with Wizarding games either. What is there?"

Even Hei looks over in interest, and Remus tilts his head, "Well, the two most popular ones are Exploding Snap and Gobstones. Though as I stated before, I don't think you guys would like those two. Gobstones is just a magical variant of marbles wherein special stones are used so that whenever a point is conceded the winning stone squirts a rather putrid liquid in the loser’s face."

She grimaces, and off to the side she can see Hei does too. Remus chuckles, then lightly says, "I told you that the two of you probably wouldn't like them much. Exploding Snap is a card game using cards that create a very controlled explosion that can at best blacken the face and singe the eyebrows off. There are three versions, Classic in which the cards array themselves out on the surface, and if you see a pair you tap them both and get a point with the player with the most points at the end winning. Well how you indicate pairs and get points as well as the winner are true for all the versions, but in Classic it's made difficult by the fact the cards shuffle on their own faster and faster. It's very much a reflex game, and in that version, they explode in your face if you make a mismatch.

The second version is Patience, where each player has twenty cards and reveals them in pairs, so you have to find identical pictures, and they always explode when you first reveal a pair. Bavarian Rules was the final version, where half of the cards are dealt in a circle, and in the center is the other half of each of the pairings and players rush to find them and tap both. In that version, all of the cards are on a timer and will collectively explode if all pairs aren't found, though I should add that the collective explosions do not increase the danger, since the enchantment on the cards doesn't allow them to cause any more damage than what I mentioned before, collectively or otherwise."

She leans her elbows on the table with a wary grin, "You're right, that doesn't sound very fun to me either. Seriously, are all Wizarding World games based around the idea of embarrassing or otherwise punishing the players?"

Hei murmurs in agreement and Remus chuckles again, "A good chunk of them, yes."

She shakes her head, "I'll stick to muggle games then, thank you very much."

Hei nods emphatically. Then he stretches and blinks in surprise, "Oh, I didn't realize it was that time. We should actually call it here and get started on dinner."

She looks over at the clock in surprise, "Oh, I hadn't noticed it'd gotten so late!" Then she starts gathering up the game to put it away as Hei gets up to get started on cooking, "When I'm done putting this away, would you like some help?"

He smiles warmly at her, "Well, I don't need your help, you can just relax if you want, but I'm not inclined to say no to some since it'd make it a bit easier and I know you generally prefer helping." Then his gaze turns amused as his smile becomes more of a grin, "Though you realize you ask that every time, right?"

She smiles back at him, "I'm just asking to make sure you aren't in the mood to do it yourself and so I don't get in the way. Anyway, give me a little to finish putting this up, and then I'll help out with that."

He nods, "Alright then."

She looks up at the restaurant happily. It wasn't fancy, since Hei wouldn't like that in the slightest, but it was a nicer place, "So what do you think? Does this work? We could go somewhere else if it doesn't."

He smiles warmly down at her, "Here works fine."

She smiles and they head inside, and the waitress glances up before smiling, "Just two?"

She smiles back, "Yes please!"

The woman's eyes scrunch up in amusement as she grabs some menus, "What a polite young woman. Any preference for a booth or a table?"

She glances at Hei and he shakes his head, "No, not really."

The woman nods and starts moving, "This way please."

They follow her over to a booth and get settled and then the woman looks between them, "Any idea what you'd like to drink? They're printed on the back if you need it."

She flips the menu over and glances over it, "I'll take some cranberry juice."

Hei doesn't bother flipping the menu, "I'm good with just water."

The woman nods, "I'll have those right out."

Then she swiftly moves off, so they both turn to their menus, as she looks hers over she curiously asks, "Did Remus get you anything? You guys seem to be getting over both being predators and becoming friends like I figured you would."

"Remus already gave me his present, since he wanted us to enjoy celebrating my birthday with just the two of us." He smiles at her teasingly, "So when do I get my present from you Xiǎolóng?"

She shakes her head with a grin, "Not until later!"

He sighs a little dramatically, "Such a tease."

She snickers a bit as she looks over the menu, "I don't know, I'd say you're much fonder of dishing out the teasing than I am."

He chuckles and the waitress comes back with their drinks and sets them in front of them, so she smiles politely at her, "Thank you."

The woman flashes her a smile of her own, "You're welcome. I'll be back in a bit to get your orders."

She tilts her head, "Ah, I should probably warn you."

The woman, who had started to turn away, turns back with a faintly surprised expression, "Yes?"

She nods at Hei, "He has a monstrously large appetite, and since he wouldn't want the food to start getting cold as he went through it, he'll probably order multiple times."

The woman blinks in surprise, then glances at Hei who gives a sheepish smile, "She's not wrong."

The woman laughs faintly, "That's fine."

Then she nods at them and moves off, "So, any idea what you want?"

He looks the menu over, "It all sounds so good that I'm having a bit of an issue."

She laughs, "You could pick out multiple things you know, since your appetite is big enough that you're going to need multiple dishes."

He nods, "Yeah, but I'd still need to narrow down to which ones."

She laughs faintly, then in a teasing tone of voice, "Glutton."

He grins up at her faintly, "And you say you don't tease."

She laughs, "No, I said you liked doing it even more."

He chuckles faintly, then glances up at her again, "So how are your lessons going?"

She smiles with wary humor, "Which one's? The mundane ones or the magical tutoring?"

Back when they were still in the process of building the court case against the Dursleys, Hei had managed to wrestle custody of her in the non-magical world, partly using the fact that her parents had left her to a magical guardian, and while a good bit of their choices had fallen through for various reasons, it was mostly due to their Ministry copy of their wills being sealed and unable to be carried out. But the copy they had of the wills made it clear that they leaned towards her primary guardianship to be magical, and her old magical guardian had basically just asked Petunia and her family to watch over her, which was directly against her parents wishes, who had such bad relationships with Petunia and her family that their wills outright stated that they'd prefer her to go to an orphanage before going to Petunia, who they said in their wills hated magic.

Something which Petunia had unfortunately already shown off with some of her snooty comments, so the mundane Child Services worker already knew that it was absolutely true, and since Calanthe was a magical herself… Petunia had quickly lost the fight she'd only bothered with due to the money they'd still been getting from the government and Hei had been granted primary guardianship, with Remus being a secondary guardian, since he lived with them, was magical, and an old friend of her parents as the wills made clear. And she just as swiftly found herself under suspicion and being investigated.

Calanthe had jumped at the chance of them interviewing her and told them everything, though she had also informed them that she'd gotten magical healing when she'd ran away, so other than the times she'd had to go in for injuries, such as the broken leg of which she was happy to tell the real story of, there wasn't much physical evidence of their abuse, since she'd been more interested in undoing the damage. Petunia had poorly hidden her relief at that. Right up until she told the Child Protective Services worker that however, if they accepted it, she did have the records from her healer of both the magical scan showing all of her prior injuries and health issues along with how intensive her healing had been, or they could get their own healer and it would still pop up in a magical scan of prior injuries and the like.

And the Dursleys had tossed her into the cupboard under the stairs rather than giving her a room, even though they had four, so even if one was for the older Dursleys, one was for Dudley, and one set aside for when Aunt Marge visited, that still left one over. Which she was all too happy to inform them was used for Dudley to toss his broken toys and the like into.

She pointed out to them that they might want to act on it quickly though, since while she's sure her bed and the piece of paper she scrawled with 'Calanthe's Room' and all her clothes and the like were still there, if the Dursleys got any sort of warning, they would quickly clear it out, and probably move it all to the unused bedroom. She was also more than glad to inform them of the fact that the Dursleys barely scraped the bare minimum of her needs like clothes and the like, despite getting more than enough from her magical guardian from the inheritance her parents had left her as well as double dipping since they were getting money from the government. Something she'd backed up with statements from Gringotts, with relevant sections highlighted, tracking the money from her trust vault, to Dumbledore's, to the Dursleys bank account.

Needless to say, the Child Services worker had been mad and disgusted with Petunia, and immediately ordered her to be seized and her phone taken from her while she called the police to ask them to investigate for her. She was fairly confident that they wouldn't do nearly as well at talking themselves out of it without Petunia there, given that Vernon and Dudley were bad at it, especially since Dudley often didn't realize that there were things he likely shouldn't say, so there was a good chance he'd end up backing her up, unaware of how bad it'd be for his parents.

Though, they hadn't been there to hear the police get back to her about the results of the investigation, since she had waved them off while simply informing them that she'd update them, and reminding Hei that while it may have been somewhat understandable that she'd run away, she needed to be signed back up for classes, probably at one of the schools geared towards magical children and helping them manage getting an education in both.

The Dursleys had gone down, and they'd gone down hard. She'd happily looked up the local newspaper and gleefully read them tearing the Dursleys to shreds, which she had a feeling Hei and Remus had tipped them off about the scoop of the reputable local family, the Dursleys, all being a bunch of monsters.

After Hei secured her guardianship in the muggle world as well, he'd swiftly gotten in contact with a school. She hadn't been shy at all about giving them the basics of the situation, even showing them the newspaper articles when they'd become dubious that the Dursleys could be that bad, after which she had unhesitatingly informed them of the fact that the Dursleys got furious the one time she'd come back with a better report card then Dudley, who was an idiot, so she'd quickly learned to purposely sabotage her own work so her grades were worse, or if he'd gotten an F and she literally couldn't do worse, at best on par. And there should be a little evidence of this, given that her academic record should show how well she'd done at first before suddenly plummeting after the first report card.

The people they'd been talking to about it had pulled it up, and frowned heavily at it backing up her words. It was very believable between that and the online version of the newspapers she'd shown them on her laptop. So they had chosen to give her tests to see where she was actually at, with the reassurance that they fully understood that she'd been out of school for a while so wouldn't know the newest material, and upon seeing her scores, promptly added a note explaining the discrepancy in her file as well as a note to disregard her grades from before as they did not reflect her actual knowledge and were worthless.

The point being, while she didn't attend inperson schooling since she was far to busy with Heiress and De Facto Lord things, and taking up eight hours of her day really didn't work for her, she'd gotten put into online schooling, with the understanding that when she goes to Hogwarts she'd be given a magical mailbox to receive assignments through and send back completed work.

Which unfortunately meant that her plate had only gotten even more on it, though luckily by the time it did she'd finished catching up with the House Black parchmentwork, and that she was very good at managing her time.

Hei smiles at her, "All of them."

She hums, "I'm catching up with the non-magical schooling I missed as quickly as possible, and my grades are pretty good."

He smiles at her, "That's good! And the tutor stuff?"

She looks away, "Well, Andromeda says I'm doing well in Heiress Training, and Horace is patiently teaching me Potions, though I feel I'm still bad at it. He's also teaching me quite a bit about playing the political and networking game."

He chuckles, "That's good too. How are Andromeda and Horace anyway?"

She sighs, "Andromeda is getting more and more livid at being blocked from doing right by Sirius, but since he doesn't know about that stuff, Horace is doing great. He seems happy as a clam to be a Proxy, and therefore around people to network with and through, and to be tutoring his old favorite student’s daughter."

He nods, "Still no breakthrough on Sirius then?"

She shakes her head, "Unfortunately no, the-"

She cuts off as the waitress returns, "Are you two ready to order, or do you need a little more time?"

She looks towards Hei, "I'm ready, you?"

He nods, "I know what I wanna start with at least."

They quickly put in their orders, steak and chips for her, spaghetti for Hei. Once she's got it down the waitress smiles, "I'll get those orders right in!" Then amusement enters her grin, "And while I'd normally take them away, I'm just going to leave the menus since you said he'll be ordering more later."

She chuckles as she smiles back, "Probably a good idea, and thank you!"

The woman nods then moves off, and she turns back to Hei, "Anyway, they're still being stonewalled at every turn."

He sighs lightly, "What's one to do when basically all the higher power in a government is working against you?”

She nods sadly, "Yeah. Unfortunately it's not easy in the slightest, though Andromeda has been talking lately about taking it to the International Confederation of Wizards court of law branch with a protest that the law is being ignored with him. Though, even she's not sure how far she'll get with that, given that they're busy mediating all the country's magical governments coming to an agreement with their non-magical counterparts."

He sighs again, "That's a shame. For an innocent man to be there of all places…"

She hums in agreement.

Once she finishes up paying, she smiles, "Thanks a lot! Have a good night!"

She gets a smile accompanied by a nod and a responding murmur as they head out. She can't help but smile when she looks up and finds that she'd timed it right and it's fully night now.

Hei stretches and sighs with satisfaction, "So, are we heading back now?"

She smiles, "Nope!"

He raises an eyebrow with a smile, "You have something else planned?"

She nods happily, "Yup!"

He chuckles, "You gonna fill me in?"

Her smile turns to a grin, "Nope! It's a surprise!"

He laughs lightly, "Fine, fine, keep your surprise, Xiǎolóng."

She giggles. As she leads him off towards a park she glances at him, "So, is it weird having counted yourself as being eighteen for ten months but only just celebrating it?"

He smiles over at her, "A bit. It makes it a bit funny that I tended to just tick the number over with the new year, given my birthday's in September, which means that everytime I ticked it up, I'd only recently turned the previous age instead of being that age for at least the majority of the year."

She chuckles faintly, "Mmm. You were always freshly the age from the previous year."

He nods as he habitually scans the street, then chuckles a little, "I suppose it's a little strange that I worked so hard to remember the birthday of someone who didn't even care anymore that I let the knowledge of my own slip away from me."

She looks up at him, "Are you talking about Bai's?"

He nods, "Mm. The only time they almost pushed me to forget it, when I realized I was struggling to remember it I basically panicked and didn't calm down until I'd managed to recall it."

She glances up in thought, "If I remember right from the inheritance papers it was March, uhh…"

He chuckles lightly, "21st, yes."

She hums, "From what I've heard of Contractors, I guess it isn't surprising that she stopped caring about it after she became one…"

He sighs lightly and nods, "She always used to be the closest to confused I'd ever seen her that I forced myself to remember it, even as the Syndicate did its best to rip away all of my personal past from me. Especially since I always insisted on wishing her a happy birthday at bare minimum, but I often went out of my way to get something useful enough that she'd appreciate it at least, and I often made her some sort of celebration dessert, like cupcakes or a regular cake."

She tilts her head in curiosity, "Did being a Contractor make her protest? You're the only one I've ever met, and well, you're not a proper Contractor after all. Maybe I'm wrong, but an increase in logic makes me think that logically, Contractors probably select their food by what's nutritious."

He chuckles, "That's not a bad notion, but their taste buds still work, and while eating does release some dopamines, which is part of the reason people tend to eat when they're upset, it isn't much of an emotional thing. They do tend towards healthier things, since their logical side pushes them in that direction, but since the sense of taste isn't affected nor emotionally controlled…"

She blinks, "Oh, I knew that their sense of taste wasn't affected, but I thought their sense of logic would win over it."

He smiles, "Which is fair, and a rather logical idea funnily enough given the topic, but no it doesn't."

She tilts her head back and looks at the stars connected to them, "Huh. I guess in that sense they're almost normal."

He hums, "Well, there are differences, Bai used to ask me almost every time why I'd made a cake or cupcakes or something else to celebrate her birthday, but it was more the birthday thing she couldn't really wrap her head around. She didn't complain about the treat itself in general."

She hums, then tugs on his arm, "Here."

He looks over then blinks in surprise before giving her a bemused look, "A park?"

She nods, "Mhm."

He turns amused, "You gonna tell me why?"

She grins, "Not yet!"

He chuckles, "When am I gonna find out what you have planned, my cunning Xiǎolóng?"

She laughs, "In a little bit!"

He pokes her, "Really, you still won't tell me? Isn't it about time to reveal your surprise?"

She grins up at him, "Not quite!"

They stroll through the park, and it was pretty nice, with Hei jokingly needling her for what they're doing, and her cheerfully rebuffing him, before she spots an area that should work and points in that direction as she smiles up at him, "We're aiming for one of the grassy areas, and it looks like over there would work nicely."

He glances over then nods, and they move off the path and in that direction. She finds a good spot where the trees won't block their view too badly while still being away from the lamps, "Here should work."

He smiles at her faintly, "Yeah? For what?"

She wags her finger at him, "Not just yet!"

Then she digs into her messenger bag, swiftly pulling out the folded blanket and unfolding it before snapping it out. Once it's laid out she sits down and waves for Hei to do the same, then digs into her bag again and soon pulls out an astrolabe, before turning to him with a grin, "As you may have noticed, the magical world likes making magic devices using objects related to the subject. When the stars were hidden, they basically panicked because astronomy is actually pretty important for magicals, so much so that it's a core subject, because there's a lot of magic influenced by astronomical happenings. So they figured out how to make these real quick."

Hei raises his eyebrows with a faint smile from the comfortable position with his knees up and his arms resting on them, "Made what?"

She grins then activates the enchantment on the astrolabe, a bubble raises off of it and quickly expands. She lifts her gaze to the sky as it expands and sees Hei turn to follow her gaze. Once it passes by her head her view of the sky changes. Back to what it had once been, as was evident from the return of old beloved sights of the constellations humans had been familiar with for centuries.

By her side, Hei sucks in a sharp breath and straightens from his casual slouch as his arms shoot down to press against the ground after the bubble expands past his head, "That's-!"

She smiles slightly as she turns her gaze back to him, "They made these to peer through the veil of the false sky. And I'd already gotten your present made by the time I got the idea, so I guess you get two, since I almost immediately decided to give you this one for your birthday since you like the stars so much, even though it's not practical like your other one. So. You get two presents this year. Anyway, I know you have a good memory, but I had the back engraved with the instructions so you won't have to worry about forgetting."

Hei's eyes dart all over the sky, tracing the oh so familiar constellations and taking in the stars he loved so much.