A Couple's Conundrum [MAX]

[Rowena Jones]

In the many years since she’d lost any semblance of controllable magic, Rowena had gotten used to finding other suitable means to stay active and able in the wizarding world. Just because Max and her had decided to leave most of it behind and focus on each other and the life they’d built together didn’t mean that she’d wanted to lose all the benefits that came with being magical.

Out of necessity, she’d gotten pretty creative, using potions and charmed objects to replace that which she’d lost. After all, she wasn’t (or at least hadn’t been) considered the brightest witch of her generation for nothing, but the one thing she hadn’t been able to do was find a better way to get home other than portkey… and after two days of on and off travel as she returned from her latest expedition, she was decidedly over it.

Her golden gaze narrowed in distaste as she retrieved a child’s sock from her pocket. Last one. Rowena had been away for almost a fortnight having traipsed halfway around the globe in search of the rare Flamarbor, a tree only mentioned in untouched parchments on dusty shelves in ancient libraries. It had been the source of Rowena’s frustration for several years as she attempted to find its location, something Max had teased her about mercilessly as he was wont to do, but at least this most recent trip had finally proved fruitful.

Despite her exhaustion, Rowena found herself grinning in anticipation. She was almost home and soon she would be reunited with her boys. It was hard leaving them for so long. They really were her whole world even if they did drive her completely batty with all their questions and arguments and tricks. She glanced down at her watch, but before she could register the time, she felt the all too familiar tug at her navel and her surroundings blurred.

Her stomach rolled unpleasantly as the world righted itself and she was left facing a small cottage on a cliffs edge. Home. All but one window was dark and Rowena let out a small sad sigh at the realization that her children would already be in bed and fast asleep. The stars reflected off the ocean that stretched off into the distance and a gentle breeze brought the smell of sea salt and… was that chocolate?

She knew there had been a good reason she’d married the man, Rowena thought with renewed energy as she pushed open the front door, wincing at the loud groan of the hinges. Despite her anticipation at being reunited with Max, she made sure to neatly hang up her cloak, pausing for several further seconds to straighten the untidy sprawl of boots on the floor.

Then, unable to resist any longer, she entered the kitchen where sure enough a mug of steaming hot chocolate awaited her on the counter. Golden eyes searched the room for the wonderful man who knew her so well, only to find no one and leaving Rowena confused. He obviously knew she was home and with his abilities, it wasn’t like she could ever hide from her husband. So where was he?

[Max Kameren]

Eleven-thirty, by his watch. She was running late. Just like her, Max mused to himself with a smile as he turned down the burner to keep her hot chocolate warm. It was a ritual of theirs after so many years together and with Rowena’s many research trips, for Max to have a mug waiting when Rowena got home late. They’d have a drink and a chat and let their connection glow just the two of them. It was a stark difference from the raucous greeting she would get later when the boys would get up.

It was a miracle that their life had turned out this way. Rowena the world-traveler, researching rare oddities and writing books about them as an adventurer behind a mysterious name. Max was fiercely proud of his wife and all she’d done after what they’d been through; she truly was the brightest witch of her age.

And as for him? Max had gotten what he wanted: peace. He still healed people as a muggle nurse at the small hospital on the island, only using his magic to tip the scales when he thought no one would notice. He married the love of his life and spent his time making daft potions to help her on her adventures. He minded the house, took care of the animals, and made sure their cover story with the muggles in town never slipped. And most importantly, when Rowena was off on her adventures Max would take care of their boys.

It had originally surprised Max how well he’d taken to fatherhood, though he supposed by how he’d loved being a big brother it shouldn’t have. Max had always wanted a family. After everything they’d been through he worried he’d come out of it too stunted, too marred by his experiences to have the bandwidth for parenthood. Then, when Artemis was born something shifted in him. Their family kicked him out of stasis, he couldn’t wonder if he was ready to be married or be a parent anymore because it was happening and he needed to act. When he wasn’t so intensely focused on healing his mind he found he could finally do it. With Rowena, Artie, and Bryn Max had finally been able to stop looking over his shoulder and settle into the life they’d worked so hard to build.

Which was why tonight’s conversation wouldn’t be as comfortable as their usual. Max paced, setting the tea kettle to give himself something to do with his hands and preparing himself a cup of tea. It’s been such a peaceful fourteen years on the island, and a blessed ten raising their family. But Artemis was turning eleven in December, and he’d gotten a letter in the mail.

“Oh, right.” Max ran a hand through his short silver waves as he crossed the kitchen down to the basement; the owls had come when the boys were at school. He’d stowed the letters in his office, under ward and key, until he and Rowena could have a discussion. He crossed the threshold into the basement and felt the disorienting pop in the hall to his office, the feeling of his Empathy losing connection with the house under the basement’s expansion charm. When he’d retrieved the envelopes and crossed the threshold back into the original house, he felt a familiar aura above him.

Max took the stairs two at a time and swung around the doorway, holding the envelopes behind his back as he wordlessly spun his wife into his arms for a deep kiss. He pulled away when a sliver of anxiety interrupted their golden auras. “We need to talk about Artie.”

It was not an unfamiliar phrase, though this time it wasn’t his fault. Max set a blue envelope on the counter next to Rowena’s mug: Pour Artemis Jones, Académie de Magie de Beauxbatons. With a twitch of his finger Max revealed another envelope behind it of a similar size and shape, in a shade of brown they both would find familiar. Artemis Jones, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Whooooooooo - Max left Rowena to their unspoken conundrum as he tended to the whistling teapot.

[Rowena Jones]

Fourteen years in their little cottage had definitely made it feel like home, but Rowena never felt it truly until she was in his arms, her heart full and soul complete once again. She was all ready to relax and enjoy the moment when Max pulled away. Her body followed the movement unconsciously, not wanting to part so soon but she stopped as he spoke.

“We need to talk about Artie.”

Familiar words. Their eldest was prone to pushing boundaries, especially so when there was only one parent around to work against. Rowena had never so utterly loved a person and been so infuriated by them at the same time. Actually, that wasn’t true. The man across from her had driven her mad more than once… but it was different when it was a person you had made, who you were supposed to guide in the right direction. Parenting certainly had been an adventure, teaching her far more than she would have guessed.

And yet, Rowena thought as she studied her husband’s face, this didn’t feel like those other times. Sure enough, Max produced two envelopes, both familiar for different reasons and Rowena felt her heart sink.

She’d known this was coming, but for some reason, she’d convinced herself she had more time. Fuck, she thought, anxiously running her hand through her hair as Max let the situation sink in while he brewed himself a cup of tea. There was nothing for it, she was going to have to come clean. Rowena stood suddenly and returned to the entryway, retrieving a small unassuming bag. She rummaged through its contents, which were far more numerous than its tiny size would suggest.

Rowena sat at the small wooden table, pulling out several miscellaneous bits and bobs until she felt what she was looking for. She met Max’s gaze nervously.

“So… I might have known this might be coming?” she said as she pulled out an identical blue envelope, though this one was opened and slightly worn. “Do you remember that day when the boys had the accident in the study? And Artie levitated?” Rowena continued without waiting his reply, knowing he’d know exactly when she meant, “An owl came the next morning, while you were in town. Turns out, France does things differently from back home.” She shrugged with a wry grin as she admitted her own lack of knowledge in the subject. She only hoped Max wasn’t mad at her for not telling him. It wasn’t like she’d meant to keep it from him… it had just been one of those things that needed a moment alone and those were hard to find with two very active children. And then it had just felt like such a non issue. She’d dealt with it and it seemed silly to just say, ‘Oh by the way, the French Ministry suggested we send Artie to Beauxbatons but obviously he was too young to go to boarding school and be away from us so I declined…’

But now, looking at the two envelopes Max had placed on the table, she realized she should have seen this coming and how maybe she should have told him, just so they’d be better prepared for this conversation.

What were they going to do?

[Max Kameren]

Artemis Jones. Never had Max loved someone more, whom he also wanted to strangle just to make the arguing stop. There was no rule in the DeVille-Jones household that wasn’t under constant debate by their eldest son. It was a wonder to Max how he could love someone so fiercely, so completely, and still have his hands ball into fists at the mere thought of negotiating something a simple as bath time. What that meant, truly, was that Artemis Jones took perfectly after the woman now sitting next to him with a guilty look on her face.

Rowena ran off to find something in her bag as Max let his tea steep. He watched her, measuring the anxiety in her aura with skeptical interest; there was something here she wasn’t telling him that was putting her on edge. When she returned with her bag Max returned with his tea to sit with her, his green eyes hard as anxiety made her aura squirm.

“So… I might have known this might be coming?” she said as she pulled out an identical blue envelope, though this one was opened and slightly worn. “Do you remember that day when the boys had the accident in the study? And Artie levitated?”

“Rowena…” Max started as he took the envelope from her and pulled out the letter inside. She continued as his eyes darted across the page, reading the letter she’d intercepted.

“An owl came the next morning, while you were in town. Turns out, France does things differently from back home.” She shrugged with a wry grin as she admitted her own lack of knowledge in the subject.

Max set down the letter when he finished with it and covered his face in his hands in tired frustration. “Ro, that was three years ago. Why didn’t you tell me?!”

It made sense to him now, that the Ministere des Affaires Magiques would send this; his mother had gotten something similar when her own nine-year-old dual-citizen had started lighting the curtains on fire. But with half his time already spent living at Hogwarts with his father, the decision was obvious. This would be harder.

Like most of its students, Hogwarts meant something special to Max and Rowena. But to Max personally, there was something extra: his father. It had been seventeen years since Curse Kameren collapsed in a potions class and died at St. Mungo’s, but pieces of him still lives on in the walls of the school. His potions curriculum was still used there. One of the trick stairs going up to the Headmaster’s Quarters had a spot in it - a sawed-off piece of his father’s cane. And of course, his Headmaster’s portrait would stay hung in the Headmaster’s Office with the generations that preceded him. Though the man himself and his aura was gone, when Max would heal at the Hogwarts Infirmary as an adult he could always feel the portrait’s eyes on him in his peripheral. Evie told him she still felt it now, from her office teaching Herbology at the school. Hogwarts was a part of his family in a way that he had never been able to explain to his sons due to the darkness that came with it.

That darkness was what made this conversation so much harder; their last few years in London had not been happy ones. Could they safely send Artemis to Hogwarts, knowing what happened to them there? The boys knew little about Max’s difficult childhood, and nothing about Rowena’s muggleborn façade generated by her evil sister. They had been especially careful to avoid Max’s captivity post-Shadowloved, another well of trauma that his parents had been careful to fill, that had potential to be broken open by Hogwarts.

In France, Artemis was Artemis Jones. Max and Rowena’s story had been little more than a tabloid curiosity for a brief moment in Wizarding France fourteen years ago. But in the UK, how long would Artie get to remain anonymous, or would his green eyes betray him and the Kameren family’s trauma would flood in around them again?

“What are we going to do?” Max spoke Rowena’s worry into the air, setting down his mug to entwine her fingers in his. He bit his lip as he mulled the options aloud. "Evie's teaching Herbology, Elias will be in his second year. Alex is head of Magical Law Enfocement and knows our situation. But that still doesn't change..." He sighed. "Everything else."