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Hawthorne Family Manor, somewhere in Britain
–Damian Hawthorne–
He barely restrained his neck from turning like a swivel, as they entered the mansion. It was not spatially expanded, at least not the entirety of it, probably because they felt no need for it. He was sure that some pockets were expanded using magic, but for the most part, they had all the space they could possibly need.
He wondered just how they kept this hidden from the world's satellites. It was 2001, and while the non magical world was still behind on some tech from back where(when) he came from, they were more than advanced enough to have satellites mapping every sq.km of the planet's surface.
An illusion of this size would be impossible to maintain and keep hidden from his senses. Most likely, the government or the ICW intervened and made sure that key magical hotsports remained blindspots to non magical technology. SHIELD probably had a hand in it as well.
Huh, come to think of it, he had no idea how that worked. What sort of treaties the ICW had signed with the non magical governments. How SHIELD came into play for that. Did they just straight up mind control the leadership of the Western world to control the technology or they gave incentives, of which there were many, to maintain secrecy from the wider world, in exchange for letting a select few at the top know?
Questions on top of questions. Questions that could easily be answered because he doubted that the current magical brass cared much about keeping secret any of their agreements with the non magicals. They were probably just as dismissive of that as they were of the non magicals. Thank Merlin, that there were at least some sane heads in the ICW who worked on maintaining the Statute of Secrecy, even going so far as to break it in minute ways to ensure its overall effectiveness.
Alas, he was currently stuck in what could only be described as an introvert's or a socially inept person's hell, as he was being given a tour of the house by William, starting from the second floor.
A bit of an odd choice but he continued to listen attentively. Would not do to be so rude to the heir apparent of the Hawthorne Family.
"And this is the Ancestral Praying room. It is kind of empty right now since we don't have anything that could be counted as Ancestral property but the designer was adamant of including this room for future purposes and at the time, I was too small to mount any meaningful protest."
William explained as they passed a mostly empty room, currently adorned with only awards of some sort. He squinted and realised that most of them had William's name on them. Bit presumptuous to put his awards into the Ancestral room, wasn't it?
His deadpan must have made the man realise his line of thinking as he sheepishly chuckled after following his line of sight, "Ah, that. I did not put them there, if that helps. Also, Arthus is insistent on making me the first Grand Ancestral figure of our bloodline."
The explanation did not make much sense but he nodded along, intent on finding this tour so they could have lunch and he could go back to unearthing some ancient agreements with the world's non magical governments to see if he could exploit them in some way.
"Sure."
After that, there was a library and a reading room on the top floor, that had a direct view of the rocky terrain around them but also the fountains and the small lazy river they had apparently created in the middle of a crater. There was a subtle relaxing sound of flowing water that was a nice touch.
Then, he was introduced to the first floor, and by extension, to the names of his siblings. An entire hallway, with rooms on both sides, practically singing with spatial magic, as the area inside them was guaranteed to be expanded magically.
First off, was William's room and thankfully, there were no inside room tours. No, MTV, Welcome to my Crib or its magical equivalent, which saved a ton of time, he hoped.
It was a plain door, with no signs or markings as such, befitting of the mature personality that William hoped to convey to everyone.
Then, there was a door, but it was an odd one. It was separated into two parts or coloured into two parts. One which was sky blue and the other was dark blue, named Edward and Thomas.
"This is Ed's and Tom's room. They are twins, you see, and wished to keep their room as one all the time, even after they left the country. You'll see them at lunch. They graduated just last year and both have jobs overseas, Ed works in Norway and Tom works in France, with one of the branches of the Hawthrone Family."
"I see."
Then, there was a door named Jonathan, "He graduated a year after me, and lives in America, working on their magical conservation project as an exchange employee. Technically, he is a Ministry employee, so you could say he works in the government."
Then, there was Marcus, then Alexander, then Eleanor and Catherine, the only sisters of the family.
"That's the tour. Now, I have brought enough time for father to explain everything to everyone. So, shall we?"
He blinked at the sudden honesty and just nodded as they made their way down the grand stairs that spiraled, the ones you only saw in old rich mansions, impractical but aesthetically grand, which is probably why they installed it here.
The layout of the ground floor was such that one could not see the giant dining area set up from the front door, so it was his first time he laid eyes on the giant sixteen chair dining table, with people already sitting.
He did not know how to react when all nine of them stood up, as if in his honor. He smiled awkwardly and sat down on the seat that Arthur, the stereotypical butler had pulled out for him. The food was already placed on the table, covered with round steel tops. It felt very…hgih class and for someone who had never experienced this, it was kind of overwhelming, especially since he did not have the freedom of mistake since it was his first introduction to the rest of the Hawthorne family.
Suddenly, he wished he'd paid attention to all the table manner seminars his school had arranged for him, when he was more focused on getting the food into his mouth quicker than worrying about the way to do it properly, which would just take more time, thereby becoming an impediment between him and his food, which was a big no no.
As he sat down, everyone else sat down as well and then, there was this one moment, that seemed to stretch for infinity, as he was subjected to curious, surprised, happy, wary stares from all the members of the family, looking art him in wonder as if he was some miracle sitting in front of them.
Not one of them spoke first and it was getting increasingly harder to ignore their stares so he was about to open his mouth first, likely to put his foot in it because of his overall social ineptitude, only for William to come swooping in and save the day.
"Uh, Arthur, you can start with the Appetizers,"
"Yes, Master William."
As Arthur got to work, everyone seemed to blink and snap out of their daze, smiling sheepishly as William cleared his throat loud enough for it to echo in the dining area. Hmm, no magical investment in sound dampening done, his mind supplied to him even as he felt two burning stares burning holes in his face, and he had a hunch who it was.
As expected, the first set of questions came rather quick.
"Where were you?" The question was asked with such hurt in her voice that his neck snapped up, locking eyes with the teary eyed younger sister of his.
Ohh, boy.
___xx__
The food was great. The appetisers, the main course, even the water was of some expensive variety. Just plain better than normal water. Likely sourced from the Alps or some other ridiculous place.
Everything was good.
Except….that.
He could tell that the table was originally brimming with questions, even if most of them were told to restrain themselves by their Father, only for that entire vibe to strangle itself and die the second the first question was actually asked.
Eleanor, the second youngest sibling, only 9 years old right now, was probably only 5 when the original Damian disappeared, which meant she remembered someone disappearing but was not old enough to understand why.
Catherine was only 7 right now, so only 2 years old when he/Damian disappeared so she must not have remembered much, judging by the confused looks she kept sending towards him, along with delighted looks at the food in front of her, like the child that she was.
So, when Eleanor asked him that question, he just froze. He had no answer possible that would satisfy her line of questioning. How would you explain to a 9 year old that the being in front of you is only partially her brother, or actually, only wearing his body like a meatsuit.
He had long since accepted the fact that he was not the native Damian or an amalgamation of native Damian and otherworlder Damian.
He just was.
There were no ifs or buts or anything else about his existence. He thought, therefore he was. Going further down that line of thinking was just ruin and he knew that, but how would he even begin to explain something like that to her?
Even if he considered her a stranger, which he did not, how would you go about breaking the heart of a child? Especially since his own mentality was that of an adult.
Thankfully, before he could rush out some useless answer that would only make the situation worse, the rest of the siblings took over, getting up and consoling her, which only seemed to upset her more, her gaze locked onto his bowed form.
Eventually, Margaret had to take Eleanor away, and Catherine just followed them, leaving behind nothing but a supremely awkward environment. That had put a giant damper on things so everyone either quickly finished their meal or declared that they were done.
Within minutes, the table was cleared off, and now, they were all left sitting at the table, with the youngest being him, at 11.
"So, Damian, this is Tom," William began introducing everyone to him.
"Thomas," Thomas, apparently, corrected William who winced and then continued the introductions.
"This is Edward."
Edward and Thomas were both blonde, both lanky, both with brown eyes and a flat face. Sitting side by side, it was kind of odd how similar even their magic felt. This was his first encounter with magical twins so maybe it was the norm, but it was a novel experience to meet people with near identical magical signatures.
He couldn't wait to meet the Weasley Twins and see if the phenomena could be repeated for every magical twin.
After the introduction was done, he expected some small talk to happen, only for Thomas to speak, "What happened to you?"
The question was asked with such sharpness that he seemingly froze for a moment, not expecting such outright hostility, especially for a question that seemed innocuous. That was when he felt it, something magical in his hands, right below the table. It was sending pulses of magic at periodic intervals and the only reason it slipped past his senses was because it was tuned excellently with the ward systems already in place.
"Thomas!" Richard spoke, probably to reprimand the man but froze when Thomas took a vial of some sort, and placed it on the table, a thin line of magic, orange in colour, pointed straight towards him. There was no one else in his direction either, so that artifact, whatever it was, was pointed straight at him.
Whatever it was, it was known to everyone here, so everyone had either wide eyed looks, grim looks, frowns on their faces or were just looking at him with a blank face. Either way, it did not bode well for him. So, taking the initiative, he asked,
"What is that?"
William was the one who spoke, "That…is a magical artifact that is used to measure magical signatures. Something that cannot be changed or fooled by any means,"
Well, he doubted the accuracy of that statement. Nothing was foolproof. Even if someone claimed it was, there was the Reality Stone to twist and turn reality until it was not foolproof.
"An orange colour signifies change but how is that possible?" Richard whispered and he resisted the urge to just take the thing and take a closer look at it.
"You are Damian but also not," Thomas repeated his words as he lifted the vial, "It should either be Green or Red, but this? This is not something that should have happened. Curious." Then, Thomas stood up, took the vial with him and teleported somewhere, Edward following through.
"I think we have had enough drama for the day. Anymore analysis about the reaction might be considered invasive and I don't think Damian here wants that," Richard said, standing up.
He did the same, getting the signal.
William shook his hand, as they left the dining room, "I'll see you next week?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" He shot back, walking towards the front door.
William winced, "Yeah, I know today was not…ideal but that's only because this was all sudden. Father only told them about you last night, when everyone was gathered here. I am sure with time, things will become better."
He was tempted to tell him that he was not looking to integrate with the family long term but he knew that was not what William wanted to hear so he just nodded and teleported, appearing back in his Lair.
What an exhausting lunch. He was not sure he wanted to go for another round.
Looking for other options seemed far more tempting but alas, he had taken a step in now, it would cost more to step back than to go all in.
Shaking his head, he teleported to his office. He had to write down some tasks before he had a shower and probably went to bed.
Magical and non magical government treaties. SHIELD's role, and whatever the f*ck that artifact was, likely from some Ancient Ruin.
With that done, he was in his bedroom, ready for a hot shower, and cold bedroom. The perfect combo to get a good nap in.
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