Edward and the Family

Edward saw Will's stiff manner, but he did not take offense. His face was full of concern. "My boy, I know you've had a hard time living on your own all these years. When your mother died, I was in Egypt securing certain interests for England. I didn't hear in time, and I'm truly sorry."

Edward tried to make conversation. He did not think much of Will's behavior; this was their first meeting in eleven years, so awkwardness was only natural. He "solicitously" asked how Will had lived all these years and whether he had settled in at Hogwarts.

Once the atmosphere had eased, Edward came within half a meter of Will and crouched down—a distance that preserved a nobleman's dignity while seeming close enough to be affectionate. He reached out as though to pat Will's shoulder, then drew his hand back almost imperceptibly and straightened his collar instead.

His voice carried a false note of heartbreak. "Look at you, my boy. You're skin and bones."

That was utter nonsense. The food at Hogwarts was excellent, and since Will often went to the kitchen for extra meals, he had actually put on quite a bit of weight this year.

"Father..." Will pretended not to understand Edward's gesture. He put on a pitiful expression, as though he had suffered terribly over the years. "I miss Mother, and I missed you too. I've been so lonely since Mother died..."

Of course, he was only acting.

In truth, Will was thinking. The Howard family was a colossus in England, an old noble house second only to the royal family. If what he had read about wizards working for high-ranking Muggle officials was true, surely the Howards could recruit any number of them. Why pay so much attention to an illegitimate son like him?

There were only a few possibilities. First, they did not trust wizards with mysterious magical powers. After all, wizards really could warp reality, manipulate souls, and kill without leaving a trace.

Second, cooperation between the Wizarding World and the Muggle world was not as close as he had imagined. Wizards might work for the government rather than for private individuals.

Third, they believed he had enormous potential and was worth investing in.

Then he remembered that he had not seen a single wizard in the castle. He had not even seen any flow of magic.

If it was one of the first two possibilities, Will thought he could carry out his plan without trouble.

"My dear boy, my dear boy. You don't have to be lonely anymore. You have your father now." Edward comforted Will, still unaware that anything was amiss. A flicker of self-satisfaction crossed his eyes. After so many years in politics, surely it would take him no more than a few words to win over a child—especially his own illegitimate son.

A smile Edward evidently thought was gentle appeared on his face. Buried in his eyes was a scrutiny so slight it was easy to miss, as if he were evaluating a tool rather than looking at his own son.

A few minutes later, he had Thomas take Will, whose emotions seemed to have settled, to a room to rest. There would be a small family dinner that evening.

"Your uncle is a wizard too. You two can have a good talk about Hogwarts. He might even teach you a thing or two," Edward told Will, sounding like any ordinary father trying to bring his family together.

That news made Will's eyes light up.

At around seven that evening, Edward put down the telephone. The handover of his affairs in Egypt was nearly complete, which took a weight off his shoulders.

Just then, the study door opened again.

"I heard my nephew's back?" A man who looked about twenty-four or twenty-five strode in. He was fashionably dressed, with a sparkling diamond stud in his ear. Instead of formal clothes, he wore a flamboyant leather jacket and looked like a devil-may-care playboy.

This was Hobart Philance Howard, Edward's youngest brother and a wizard.

Hobart brought a chill in with him, as though he had just come from outside.

Edward frowned. His younger brother had been like this since childhood.

Hobart had the standing of an English nobleman but the heart of a free spirit. As a boy, he had chased the gardener's tool cart through the castle Garden, staining an expensive silk shirt. The woman who taught him court etiquette got a headache whenever she saw him. At the Royal Horse Show, while everyone else wore formal attire, he turned up in a casual waistcoat and canvas shoes, then slipped away to feed the ponies by the paddock, heedless of the gossip among the nobility.

Later, he went to Hogwarts to study magic. Whenever he came home, he used it to cause trouble everywhere, leaving the family at its wits' end. Ministry of Magic officials had even had to visit and cast the Memory Charm on servants caught up in his pranks.

Now in his thirties, he was still the same unpredictable "wild young master" he had been back then, without a trace of the order or composure expected of a nobleman. Sometimes Edward envied his brother, who was four or five years younger and had neither politics nor business to worry about.

Hobart was more like the family's own magical doctor and its link to the Wizarding World.

"He's resting. You can have a good talk with him at the family dinner tonight."

"Why wait? I'm going to see him now. I bought him a present, and I'm sure he'll love it." Hobart hurried off like a child who had never grown up.

Edward sighed. Hobart's unruly ways were one reason he had brought Will back. The family needed more wizards it could trust.

Wizards' power was difficult to control. After a wizard with hidden motives had made a move against the royal family, they had drastically reduced the number they employed. No one wanted dangerous people who could kill them with a flick of the hand close by.

There were only around thirty thousand wizards in England to begin with, and even fewer were willing to serve Muggle nobles or the government. The royal family and the prime minister deliberately kept wizarding resources under their control, making it difficult even for an old noble house like the Howards to find wizards they could trust.

And even if they found one, that person would be far less useful than Will, a child bound to them by blood and easy to control.

That was how Edward saw it.

He felt no familial affection for Will. Whatever else might be said, Will was merely the child of that common woman. The Howard family had had plenty of illegitimate children throughout its history.

Edward had paid Dorothy child support not out of guilt, but because it was the usual procedure. His father had handled his own illegitimate children the same way. If all of his father's children were counted, Edward would have far more than five siblings.

The nobles were quite happy to spend a little money so those illegitimate children could live their own lives without causing trouble.

Nor did the Howard family object to talented illegitimate children joining the family. The exceptionally gifted could even be formally granted the Howard name and rise overnight to become part of the ancient noble house.

Edward was certain that a little boy like Will could not resist such a temptation. It meant wealth and status that most people could not attain even after struggling for generations.