A Push in the Right Direction – Chapter 10 – emersli1!

Reading Time:
10 Minutes

Corvus Quinn entered the portkey office pushing a stroller with two unhappy toddlers inside.

Neither boy liked being confined, so they viewed their current situation as completely unacceptable, and they were no longer terrified of letting him know of their displeasure.  Maneuvering up to the counter he presented his paperwork to the staffer and waited his turn to be processed.  Since he required a medical grade portkey, there was an extra level of paperwork involved, but eventually he found himself holding tightly to the stroller with one hand and holding onto an old quill with the other.

“Deep breath, boys.  Here we go.”  The portkey activated, and the world swirled away.

Landing in the small administrative building in the center of the wizarding section of Andorra la Vella, Quinn soon found himself cleaning up sick from both very unhappy boys.

Thaddeus hated throwing up, and had to be watched carefully to make sure he didn’t try to reingest, a habit he’d apparently picked up while starving to death in a closet.  As for Matthias, he just hated food on general principles, whether it was coming or going.  A consequence of frequently being required to eat until he threw up.

Once both boys were clean again, Corvus made his way to the bus station on the muggle side of town.  He had no intention of putting his poor boys through side-along apparition, so the muggle bus it was.  Corvus had splurged a bit and reserved first class seats so the boys would have some room to move around since their doctors and therapists had emphasized how important regular movement was to the tots.

Presenting his tickets to the station master, Quinn was directed to the proper row and helped in by a convenient porter.  Once he was safely aboard, he unfastened both children from the big double stroller and let them climb up on the seats and look out the windows.

Normal things, like trees and cars still fascinated the boys.  Apparently neither of them had been taken outdoors at all.  Thaddeus had some knowledge of wizarding things from before his time with the Dursley’s, but he had never seen the muggle world.  And poor little Matthias had probably never been out of his room.  At least that’s what the CPS worker had told Quinn before they went before the bench to execute the petition for adoption for Matthias.

The bus began to move, and both his boys began babbling happily at him and each other as they saw the scenery moving past the windows.

“Papa, look!  Moos!”  Matthias proclaimed excitedly.

For a brief moment Corvus wondered where in the world someone had gotten a moose.  Learning to speak toddler was a tremendous undertaking as far as he was concerned.

“I see the cows, Matthias.  And you’re right my clever boy.  Cows say ‘Moo’.”

Thaddeus, not to be outdone, was the next to break out with an enthusiastic exclamation.  “Papa!  Matty!  Lookit!  Pup pup!”  Sure enough, there was a border collie mix running beside the bus inside the fence, barking its head off.

“Pup pup!  Avi has Pup Pup?  And Coooows that Moooo?”  Matthias loved trying out new sounds now that he was encouraged to speak.

“I see the dog, Thaddeus.  He’s working very hard, isn’t he.”  Corvus tried hard to give both boys equal encouragement.  He feared it was probably a pipe dream, but he really wanted his sons to never feel competitive with one another.  Right now, they were thick as thieves, and that’s what he wanted for them.

“And when I left, Avi didn’t have a dog.  But he might have gotten one since then.  We’ll just have to see when we get there.”  If it would have gotten them there any faster Quinn would have gotten out and pushed.  He was so eager to be home.

Not long ago he had feared he would never be free to return to the warm house tucked into the eaves of the mountain forest.  With the cheery fireplaces and clean air.  A voice with a soft lilt, full of patient confidence in Quinn’s ability to do what they had set out to do.  A big garden and a chicken run along the side.  

A small town with a regular market on Tuesdays and music in the park on Thursday nights.  People who smiled when they saw him coming in, and knew his favorite brands and products.  Ansalonga was a mixed town, where muggle and wizard lived alongside one another.  Of the eighty or so souls, almost all of them had some small magic.  And those with more ability were accepted the same way those with exceptional ability in music or football were.  Just a little something extra. 

The town of Ordino, with a wizarding side and a muggle side, was close enough to walk to in the summer.  It was large enough to provide for almost everything those living in the small towns and hamlets around it might need, without being so large as to overwhelm local resources.  And for more specialized products and services, or just a great night out, Andorra la Vella was less than an hour’s bus ride away.

Corvus was more than ready to be done with the bus by the time they reached the station.  Riding in a motor vehicle after being mowed down by one less than a year ago was daunting to say the least.  

Getting both boys back into the stroller turned out to be a real struggle, but Quinn wasn’t about to make his boys try to walk the thirty minutes from the bus station to the house.  Eventually one frazzled father and two grumpy boys set out down the narrow street leading out of town and up into the forest.

Just before the forest proper, was home.  It was a deceptively small house, tucked into the mountainside.  As he approached down the lane Corvus felt Master Gaiar’s wards pass over him.  To his surprise, the wards stopped him about halfway up the lane.  Master Gaiar had told him home would be waiting, and he’d believed him.

Severus had a moment of panic.  Where would he take his boys if this was no longer home?    His tired mind began catastrophizing frantically, trying to figure out what to do next, when a well-known figure came out the front door.

“And who are ye and what might ye be doin’ here?”  The familiar voice soothed his nerves even as it challenged his presence.

“Did you not tell me that this would always be home?  Do I need to fall out of the sky into your vegetables again?”  Quinn couldn’t help but snark back at the old man.  Where would they go if Master Gaiar turned them away?

“Corvus?  Oh, Great Lady, is that you?”  The figure hurried down the lane to get a better look.

Severus tugged on the bond between them, and the old man gasped.  The wards released him, turning to a welcoming warmth.

Master Gaiar reached them and grabbed Corvus into a huge hug.  “What became of ye?  I expected you home when the monster fell.  When you didn’t come, I thought something terrible had happened.  The bond told me you were alive, but I …”  The old man looked up into the younger man’s face.

“But, what?  Corvus, ye look so different.  And …”  A polite knock on his Occlumency shields and Quinn opened them gladly, showing Master Gaiar the empty space where the monsters had dwelt.

“I have a lot to tell you, if this is still home?”  Corvus couldn’t help but ask uncertainly.

“Of course this is still home!  I told ye that when ye had to leave.  You just don’t feel the same to the wards, and that’s a tale I look forward to hearing.”  Master Gaiar looked him over from head to toe.

“Papa, is Avi?”

Thaddeus chirped up at him in query, obviously ready to join the conversation.

Hearing the local name for ‘grandfather’ from the tiny toddler, Ambrose ap Gaiar nearly broke down in his own driveway.  Turning his attention to the two curious little boys in the stroller, he leaned down.

“Well, well Corvus.  You have been busy.  I have waited a long time for grandchildren.  How clever of you to find me some.  Yes indeed, little one.  I’m Avi, and I’m so glad to meet you.  And who might ye be?”

Puffing up his chest, the little boy proudly introduced himself.  “I Thaddus Ambos Qinn.  An’ this my bubber Mattis Madok Qinn.  We Papa’s good boys!”

“Thaddeus Ambrose Quinn and Matthias Madoc Quinn.  My good boys.”  Corvus clarified for the old man, whose eyes seemed to be filling with tears.

“Hlo” Matthias piped up from the back of the double stroller.  “Avi have Pup Pup?  An’ cooows?”

Ambrose Madoc ap Gaiar laughed a bit wetly.  “Well, I’m pleased to meet you both.  And yes Matty, I do have a cow.  Her name is Mirabelle, and in the morning, I will take you to see her.  I don’t have a dog,” Here he shot a questioning look at Corvus, who nodded that his interpretation was correct.  “A dog, but I do have chickens.”

Both boys immediately began clucking and cackling like a pair of demented hens.  Apparently, the chickens were a wonderful point of interest, and Severus had a brief, wild moment of wanting to cackle along with his sons.  Though his would have been more a cackle of relief than an attempt to communicate with domestic fowl.

“Well, don’t just stand there.  Come on up to the house.  I wish ye could have let me know ye were comin’, but the lads can sleep in configured cots for one night with no harm done.  And ye can tell me this story of yours once they’ve gone on to dreamland.”  Master Gaiar began bustling his way back up the drive, turning around frequently, as though afraid losing sight of him for too long might make Quinn disappear.

Pushing the double stroller up the lane to the house was no picnic, but once they got inside it was as warm and cheerful as he remembered.  Parking the stroller and getting the boys out only took a moment, and then Corvus was free to look around with a contented sigh.

He was home at last!

The boys were asleep in a double cot, hastily transfigured and placed in Corvus’s room beside the bed.  Corvus was seated in his usual chair in front of the great room fireplace, sipping a glass of wine.  The man in the chair opposite had long since drained his own glass and now sat in deep thought.

“So, to sum up.  Ye were forcibly marked and bonded by a Light monster, survived the disembodiment of the Dark monster, contained by a one-sided oath, killed by an automobile, forgiven and entreated by the Potters, returned to life (minus a couple of unwanted bonds) by the muggles, aided by the Lady in the acquiring of two sons, and are now sitting here in front of the fire where ye belong at last.  Did I get everything?”  Master Gaiar laid out the succession of events that even Corvus found difficult to believe in retrospect.

“I believe so.  Everything important, anyway.” 

The older man hummed thoughtfully.  “And are ye plannin’ on the blood adoption Potter suggested?”

“I am.  For both boys … as soon as I can get it brewed.  I feel it’s important to do it soon.”  Corvus wasn’t sure how to articulate the unease he felt.

“Well, that’ll be no problem, lad.  I’ve got the base already prepared and under stasis.”  Master Gaiar looked almost shyly at him.  “I wanted it ready to offer you when you came home … whenever that might be.”

Corvus blanked a moment.  “To offer me?”

“Corvus, it’s entirely your decision, but it would be my profound honor and joy to blood adopt ye into my line.  Yer old enough that any physical changes would be slight, but it would mean that ye would have all the rights and privileges of being my son.  Including the right to a Level 1 journeyman’s training.  Which I’d give ye anyway for nothin’, but…”

“Could… we would just be replacing my da, right?  My mother loved me, and while I don’t think she’d protest …”

“Aye lad, o’course.  Just a standard blood adoption.  Since your da was a muggle, my blood would automatically replace his.  And if we do yours first, the wee lads will be that much safer when we do theirs.”  The older man understood the younger’s hesitation.  His mother had been his only support for many years, and she had suffered much for her child and did not deserve to be forgotten.

Indeed, Master Gaiar had wondered for the last few years if it hadn’t been Eileen Snape who had somehow given Severus a push into his vegetables in the first place.  A mother’s love was both fierce and legendary.

“Could I?  I mean, would it be alright if … it would be less confusing for the boys if…”  Corvus seemed to get tangled up in his words, an unusual turn of events for him.  Gaiar waited patiently for him to sort himself out.  “Would you be alright with me calling you Pare?”

Taking a deep breath to give his voice time to steady, he answered, “Lad, yer my boy.   Ye can call me any version of ‘father’ ye like.  Or none of them if my name is more comfortable for you.  But I wouldn’t have prepared the potion for you if I didn’t already consider you a son.”

Now it was Quinn’s turn to take a steadying breath.  “Then let’s do it, Pare.  If we do it tonight, it will settle as I sleep.  We’ll need to think very carefully about how to tweak the potion for the boys, but we can do that tomorrow.  For tonight … I would really like to go to bed in my own room, under my father’s roof.”