A Letter

Dear son,

How have you been?

I know you've gone to Hogwarts. I've heard you're doing well in your studies, and I'm very pleased. I'm deeply sorry about your mother's death. Please forgive me for spending the past few years in Egypt and failing to keep up with you and Dorothy.

I know my long absence as your father must be hard to forgive. Perhaps you resent me, or even refuse to acknowledge that we're related by blood. But time cannot erase certain facts.

I returned to England last month. While sorting through some old belongings, I found several letters Dorothy sent me over the years. They mentioned your childhood here and there, and I could feel how much she loved you.

I've missed far too much of the time we should have spent together as father and son. Now Christmas is approaching. Preparations are already underway at the Howard family estate. A warm fire will burn in the hearth, the long table will be laden with traditional pudding and roast meat, and the family will gather together.

I hope you'll come back to the place that should have been yours all along and experience a proper family Christmas.

Will, you must understand that the Howard family is an ancient noble family with strict rules. Whether or not the family accepts your mother, Howard blood runs through your veins. That is a fact no one can change.

I'm inviting you home for Christmas not only to make up for what we've missed, but also in the hope that you'll build a connection with the family.

I know you may hesitate, or even refuse. But I must remind you that the family's tolerance has its limits.

If you insist on staying away and disregard these ties of blood, it may not be so easy to seek the family's help in the future. Your studies at Hogwarts matter, but in the long run, the family's support is the foundation you'll need to find your place in the world.

I don't want a moment of stubbornness to cost you everything that should be yours.

I'll send someone to your residence to collect you on Christmas Eve. I hope to see you at the estate. Don't disappoint me—or your mother's spirit.

Your biological father, Edward William Philanthus Howard

Sylvia noticed the shadow that had fallen over Will's face.

When Will finished reading, he gave a cold, derisive laugh. His "father" really did take him for an ordinary child. The letter made it clear enough that he was expected to join the Howard family.

Will had assumed his biological father was a Muggle, and he hadn't cared, so long as the man kept providing him with Pound Sterling as before. But the letter had reached Hogwarts. Either Edward was a wizard, or someone in the Howard family was. There couldn't be many of them, though; the Howards weren't a prominent family in the Wizarding World.

The claim that Edward had heard Will was doing well in his studies also suggested they had some connection to Hogwarts.

Because of his birth, Will knew a great deal about Britain's treatment of illegitimate children. British nobles had plenty of them. Most without any particular talent became close servants to the family—coachmen or butlers, for instance.

In modern times, coachmen had simply become drivers, alongside butlers, estate managers, and the like.

Talented illegitimate children, on the other hand, received training suited to their abilities. A military prodigy might be sent to an officer academy, though in the Middle Ages the family would often have bought him a commission outright. Someone with a gift for business would be taught to trade, start companies, and expand the family's commercial interests.

The nobles used blood ties to bind those children to their own fortunes.

Will fell into the most unusual category of all: he was a wizard.

Will knew the Wizarding World had always been entangled with the Muggle world, especially among the nobility and upper classes. In both past and present, quite a few wizards in England had served the king or government directly. To those in power, magic offered better protection and made life more convenient.

A noble with a broken leg, for example, could drink a potion and be up and about the next day. Of course they wanted wizards in their service. The divide between wizards and Muggles had therefore existed chiefly among the middle and lower classes. Those at the top had always kept the relationship deliberately ambiguous.

When Voldemort was terrorizing the Wizarding World, even more wizards went directly to the British government and hid in the Muggle world under its protection.

The Howard family had ranked among the foremost ducal families since the fifteenth century. It was a colossus in England, one of the highest-ranking families beneath the royal family. Will wasn't surprised it had ties to the Wizarding World.

What did surprise him was that Dorothy, his birth mother, had managed to have a child with the current duke's eldest son. Edward was unmarried, after all. Dorothy had come remarkably close to marrying into the Howard family.

Edward's invitation to join the family was probably prompted by Will's age. A child would be easier to raise into someone the family could trust.

Will didn't mind relying on a family that powerful while he was still weak. He simply didn't like being threatened.

"If you insist on staying away and disregard these ties of blood, it may not be so easy to seek the family's help in the future. Your studies at Hogwarts matter, but in the long run, the family's support is the foundation you'll need to find your place in the world."

Edward had put the threat right there in black and white. That alone showed how little he thought of Will.

Tap, tap, tap... Will drummed his fingers on the dining table, weighing whether to cut ties with the Howard family altogether or take what he could from them.

He only snapped out of it when Sylvia warned him he was about to be late for class.

The letter had thrown Will's plans into disarray. He had intended to spend Christmas raising his level in Transfiguration or Charms. Now he had to reconsider his plans for the future.

Edward had been clear: if Will didn't go back, getting help from the Howard family later would be difficult. Will didn't need much from them. The problem was Galleons.

Will suspected those old-school London bloodsuckers would cut off his funding. That would disrupt his plans: he needed money for Potions practice materials and everyday expenses.

The only reason he could grind experience without a care right now was that he still had a sizeable sum of Galleons.

As for arguing it out with them, well, that would probably waste a few days. Afterward, though, there shouldn't be much trouble. The Howard family was unlikely to ask anything difficult of him before he graduated from Hogwarts.

More importantly, he wouldn't need their support for long. Before Harry Potter's final battle with Voldemort, he would become a powerhouse of sheer stats, built up by the system. By then, the Howard family wouldn't be able to do a thing to him. He could take a few years of support for free.

Will decided to go back for Christmas...