Hogwarts!AU Children of the Moon

Part two of "Children of Magic", the sequel to "Sons and Daughters of Magic", beginning in late September 2004.
Background: Ken is midway through uni, working toward his teaching certification and living in a studio flat in Glasgow while taking classes and doing tutoring for pocket money. He commutes back to the School for his Wolfsbane treatment. His family regularly checks in on him from Port Glasgow and he sees Murron, Lessie, and the rest of the School cast from 'Sons and Daughters' on his returns. Don's been serving as a 'how to blend with Muggles' mentor, sorta.
== Chapter 1 - 27 September ==
A grumpy Ken portkeys to the School from his Glasgow flat for his Wolfsbane and meets up with his fellow wolves, including Kris (now a cheeky nine-year-old). Jennifer Fernandez, the Wolfsbane brewer and assistant Potions master, serves them up. Ken helps her chase the wolflings from the lab toward breakfast. She disapparates Kris back to the Reids so he can get ready for mundane school. Murron slinks in, fresh from talking to Fairbairn about something's that clearly upset her but she doesn't want to talk about. She and Ken agree that he'll come back after his only Tuesday class and spend his whole recovery with her at the School (she promises to tell him what's got her so upset then), then Fernandez poofs Ken back to his flat. Ken realizes he's running late, jams some toast in his mouth and rushes out, bumping into fellow building occupant and student Alli Dunn (mundane son of the resident landlords). Alli asks if Ken's coming to trivia night at the local tomorrow. Ken begs off. Alli teases him about having a date with his mystery girlfriend and asks when he's going to meet her. Ken mumbles something, manages to extricate himself and set out for uni. He more or less sleepwalks through the day, then staggers home after dark to discover Kris /and Don his doorstep. Ken sighs, heads up to his flat with Kris glued to his side, Don dragging himself behind. Ken speaks to the Reids, grudgingly agrees to let Kris stay the night. Don explains he needs a place to crash because he messed himself up trying to enter his girlfriend's flat without permission while she was ill and unable to invite him. Ken throws up his hands and lets him stay.
== Chapter 2 - 28 September ==
The next morning, Ken and Kris leave a newly asleep Don to portkey to the School for their Wolfsbane. Kris /insists on sticking close to Ken, putting a crimp in Murron's hopes of private time with Ken. She manages to get them a little privacy and explains Headmaster Fairbairn told her about a new regeneration potion he's sponsored which might be able to restore her sealskin, if they can find even the tiniest scrap of it. Ken's confused why she's not more excited about the possibility. She explains the compulsion to go back to the sea that comes with seeing a sealskin again after a long separation and her fear it will cause her to leave Ken and the School. Over the course of the day, the other school wolflings drift in until, by dinnertime, they're basically moving as a pack. Fairbairn encounters the group, inquires how Ken's schooling's going, hints that Ken can take up werewolf herding whenever he wants. Ken takes it as a joke rather than a serious job offer. Just before moonrise, Lessie joins them, ready to transport the whole pack to the rural area they'll be delivering Fish in. After the last drop-off, the wolves return to find Lessie chatting on her mobile with Don and doing a crap job trying to comfort him after his girlfriend has broken up with him over text. Lessie gives up the attempt and agrees to visit him after she takes the wolves back to the School. She does, immediately disapparates. Ken and the wolves pile up in the club lounge with Murron and Dreamboy the deerhound and fall asleep.
== Chapter 3 - October ==
Ken chats with Murron over the phone as she checks in to make sure he's alright. Afterward, Ken's working on his homework in his flat and snacking only to be startled off his chair when Lessie and Don apparate into the room despite the fact that only Ken is supposed to be able to do that. Lessie reminds him she set the protective wards and admits to having left a backdoor for herself. Ken is gobsmacked. Lessie brushes off his stuttered outrage, explains Don needs a wizard-y place to hide out. Ken raises an eyebrow. His former girlfriend has been found dead and both the police /and the Auror's office suspect him of killing her. Ken demands they absent themselves to the School, which's safer anyway. Lessie says she can't get the School involved. Ken just about explodes—it's okay to get /him involved?! Lessie calmly points out that the police'll have no reason to bother him and the Aurors have to extend him all the wizard-y courtesies. Lessie plays the Murron card: asking what Murron would say if Ken turned them down. Ken relents.
== Chapter 4 ==
Ken demands Don tell him /everything if he wants help, saying he'll know if Don's lying. Don scoffs, points out Ken's legilimency (which had been the subject of his lessons with Missus Hughes) won't work on him because of the vampire resistance to magic, but assures Ken he'll tell the truth. Ken fights to keep Don on topic, as he keeps trying to turn the situation around and question Ken. We get a lot of their very dissimilar life stories. Don prods Ken about his relationship with Murron, pointing out that even for wizards, time is limited.
== Chapter 5 ==
The Aurors—perhaps in the persons of Harry and Ron—show up to question Ken, having followed traces of magic from Don's flat to Ken's. Ken manages to keep his act and story together long enough to allay suspicions, though at least one of them still seems a bit doubtful of him. Ken collapses as soon as he can. Murron calls, explains that thus far the search for her sealskin has turned up nothing and she's not sure whether she's relieved or happy about it. They exchange feelings about not fitting into /any of the worlds they inhabit.
== Chapter 6 ==
Ken takes a day out from the investigation and classes to accompany Murron on her last trip to visit her parents for the year (before winter). Suibhne and Caoimhe greet them warmly. Murron explains the regeneration potion. Caoimhe is overjoyed at the prospect of getting her daughter back. Suibhne seems more subdued. The parents prod Ken as to if he's ready /yet to marry their daughter. He stammers through an explanation that he's a broke student living in a two-room flat—they cut him off, pointing out Murron has a good job at the School and isn't it only his pride holding him back. Ken cringes, admits that it's largely so, pulls himself together and promises he'll be ready when he gets his degree and a proper job in two years. Suibhne grudgingly approves this plan. As a reminder of this promise Suibhne pulls Ken aside and gives him a pair of rings he and Caoimhe salvaged from a sunken ship. He also says that he knows where to find a scrap of Murron's sealskin, but he's afraid to hand it over because he doesn't want the call of the sea to take her away from Ken. Ken stammers and Suibhne explains that he see how much Murron loves Ken and leaving him will break her heart. Ken stutters some more, then drags Ken back over to the ladies and oversees the exchange of rings between Ken and an overjoyed Murron. The now-more-officially engaged couple head back to Glasgow for a celebratory dinner and then back to Ken's flat, where they find Lessie and Don asleep in Ken's bed.
== Chapter 7 ==
Ken just about has a meltdown about this invasion of his home—humble as it is—the first time we really see him fierce, going toe-to-toe with Lessie. Don tries to break the tension by saying they've finally tracked down a witness to the murder and they need Ken to talk to her. Ken continues to rage at Lessie. Murron finally wades in, begs him to calm down. He does, but demands everyone get properly dressed and Lessie clean the sheets, before she and Don find a different place to hide for the night. Lessie grumbles, but Don marks the new rings and eases her out, congratulating Ken and Murron on the way. Ken laments the craziness that is his life.
== Chapter 8 ==
Ken psyches himself up to meet the witness found by Lessie and Don: the dead girlfriend's neighbour. The woman's a bit of a sad case and he meets up with her at her local after tea so he can chat with her over pints. Ken drops an additive into his drinks so he can keep up without getting drunk. He's a good drinker, but he needs his everything to use use legilimency properly. The neighbour spills out a story implicating the girlfriends boyfriend, who was actually an ex whom she had started seeing again after leaving Don. Ken uses his magic to give the neighbour a little nudge to tell the police what she knows. She tearfully promises to do so. Ken slinks out, exhausted, to be collected by Lessie and Murron. They and Don smother him with praise.
== Chapter 9 - 27 October ==
Ken's torn between feeling awesome and having helped his friends and feeling terrible for using his magic to mess with another persons mind. He's also feeling a little bit used by Lessie and resentful of it. Murron /insists he's awesome and that he'd done the right thing. Murron declares she doesn't want to find her sealskin and risk losing someone as awesome as him. Ken offers the possibility of a house or flat on the shore? A houseboat? Murron shakes her head, reiterates the call of the sea might make her leave for a long, long, /long time and she /really doesn't want that. Ken, forever the self-doubter, wonders if it wouldn't be for the best. Murron's hurt. Ken flails, eventually concedes that she wouldn't be able to get so many apples if she left land and that'd be a tragedy.
== Chapter 10 - 28 October ==
Ken bumps into Lessie in the School halls after taking his Wolfsbane. The encounter turns into an argument that ends with him telling her to stay away from him unless he expressly invites her. She agrees and walks off. Ken slouches off to find Murron for comfort and make himself ready for the night's transformation. Ken apologizes for questioning Murron's decision the previous day about the sealskin. She knows what's best for herself, after all.
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Children of the Moon
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Category:Hogwarts!AU: Children of the Moon