{Edited} A Merchant's Odyssey - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

AN: Edited chapters do not count toward monthly quota's.

UPDATE: No Ouroboros chapter today. I'm working on the Where Roads Mead update.

Chapter 18: A Real Shame / Blood of House Black

"Mnnn, Neo, your thighs are so soft." Sebastian rubbed his head against the sinfully soft pillow with a drooling, dopey smile.

“Wake up, you idiot.”

“Hmm, Neo, your voice is back.” Sebastian rolled over with a snore. “Good job hunting it down.”

“Sebastian.”

“Hm?” He stupidly hummed.

“You wet your bed until you were eleven.”

“Ten!” Sebastian’s head shot up in automatic reply before blinking and pausing to look around with blurry eyes at his surroundings. “Huh?”

“Over here.”

Sebastian followed the voice to find a beautiful, lithe woman in a nightgown, flowing brunette hair framing a mature heart-shaped face, sipping coffee in a loveseat by the window.

“Auntie Andy?” Sebastian muttered in confusion.

"Good morning, Sebastian." Andromeda Tonks' voice was dry as the desert.

“…”

Sebastian wiped his eyes groggily.

“…”

The image didn't change either time. Andy was still judgmentally staring back.

Sebastian swallowed and pointed between them. “We didn’t…”

He trailed off as Andy's eyes grew even flatter, if that were possible. “Boy, don’t make me put you over my knee before I have even finished my morning coffee.”

“Right.” Sebastian felt a wave of nausea and covered his mouth with a groan. “What are you doing in Remnant?”

“You’re on my couch.” Andy pointed out.

Sebastian looked down and realized she was right. “Oh.”

"Yes, oh." Andy rolled her eyes. "You're lucky Ted's been procrastinating on updating the wards, or you'd have been locked out."

“He still hasn’t done it?” Sebastian shook his pounding head and sat up. “It’s been years.”

“Tell me about it.” Andy sipped her coffee and regarded his disheveled state. “Had a fun night?”

“I think it was more of a stress reliever than fun.” Pain shot through Sebastian’s head as he massaged his temples. “How did I get here?”

"That's what we'd like to know." Ted Tonks entered the living room door in pajamas with the morning paper tucked under his arm, giving his wife a kiss. "I came down around 4am, ready to brain someone in with my baseball bat, only to find you passed out on the floor."

“You haven’t swung that bat since before I started living with you.” Sebastian tried to keep his stomach’s contents down. “How’d I get on the couch?”

He knew he was far too drunk to have managed the level of coordination needed to hit the furniture.

"You think I'd leave you on the ground?" Ted raised an amused brow and walked into the open-walled kitchen. "The least I could do before Andy roasted your ass over the coals was throw you on the couch and make sure you didn't choke on puke.”

"Right, thanks, Uncle." Sebastian shrank under the weight of Andy's gaze.

“Anytime, kid.” Ted chuckled and got out some things to start cooking.

“…” Andy just sipped her coffee and kept staring at him judgmentally.

Sebastian squirmed and held up a finger. “In my defense, this is far from the worst thing you’ve seen me do.”

“Wrong answer.” Andy cut him off. “Try again.”

"You should have seen the other guy?" Sebastian did try again, only to hit the ground to dodge a curse. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry!”

He desperately tried not to puke and make things worse.

"For?" Andy asked leadingly, her finger tapping her wand like a loaded gun.

“Um…” Sebastian rocked his throbbing head for an answer. “You look beautiful this morning?”

A snort of laughter echoed from the kitchen as Sebastian got nailed in the side with a stinger.

"Nice try." Andy finally got up and calmly walked over to a sweating Sebastian. She bent down to cup his cheek. “What you should be apologizing for.” Her grip hardened on his jaw along with her eyes. “Is showing up drunk, after vanishing for over half a year without so much as a postcard.”

"Oh." Sebastian, the mighty traveler of the planes and mad inventor of The Arch, was a kitten in a lioness's grasp. "Um… I love you?"

“Boys.” Andy rolled her eyes and released her grasp before patting his cheek. “I love you too, child. No matter how much I want to beat your idiotic ass.”

“Kinky.” Sebastian couldn’t stop himself.

“Do you want a beating?” Andy raised a brow and stood up with a fond smile. “Clean yourself up, dear. There’s a hangover potion on the table.”

“You’re an angel.” Sebastian rolled himself over and unthinkingly cast a wandless cleaning charm over himself as he crawled over to said table.

Andy hummed approvingly at the sight but didn’t comment. “Breakfast is in five minutes.”

The thought of food made Sebastian wince, but he was coherent enough to keep that to himself as he fumbled with the bottle and popped the lid on the potion. “Can’t wait.”

“Good boy.” Andy smirked and stepped into the kitchen. “Perhaps you can continue telling me about this girl you replaced my daughter with.”

Sebastian choked on the potion. “Wait, what?”

"Oh yeah." Ted spoke up over his wife's shoulder with a shit-eating grin. "What was it you were muttering? How you're going to bring your vanilla thunder to her strawberry cavern?"

Sebastian’s knees felt weak as he bonelessly collapsed back on the couch. “Kill me now.”

"Lie in the bed you made, kid." Ted laughed warmly and went back to cooking.

The couple started speaking, and Sebastian used that moment to look around, spotting a half-open window.

Still too nauseous to risk magical travel, he inched toward it as stealthily as possible and just barely reached the edge before a magical rope circled his chest.

“I raised you, boy.” Andy didn’t even look up while gathering kitchen plates as she reeled him in like a fish on a line.

‘Bugger.’

0000

Breakfast was as awkward as one could imagine for Sebastian, as his foster parents did everything possible to needle him.

“Can I leave now?” Sebastian deadpanned from the kitchen chair he was literally tied to.

“No.” Andy replied simply and put more eggs on his plate. “I want to hear more details on this girl you're cheating on my daughter with."

“For the last time, I’m not cheating.” Sebastian felt his brow twitch as he repeated it for the fifth time. “Nym and I broke up!”

“Nonsense.” Andy waved it off like a silly joke. “It’s just a break. You kids are always in such a rush, thinking life is so short.”

“Uncle.” Sebastian sent the man a pleading look.

“Dear, let them be young.” Ted put down his paper with an amused smile. “I’m sure Nym will snap out of it as soon as she’s done with her training.”

Sebastian dropped his head on the table. “You’re not helping, Uncle.”

 “Of course, I am.” Ted chuckled and bit into his toast. “You’ll thank me in a year or so.”

“This is basically torture.” Sebastian repeatedly tapped his head on the hardwood.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.” Andy waved off his complaints like a misbehaving child. “You wouldn’t have come here black out drunk if you didn’t want to see us.”

"That's…" Sebastian considered it, sighed, sat back up, and nodded. "Alright, I was reminiscing, and I guess I missed you guys."

“See.” Andy smiled kindly at him. “Just because you grow up doesn't change the fact that this is your home."

Sebastian couldn’t fight the twitch of his lip before he let himself relax. “I’m sorry for vanishing for so long.”

“It's alright, kid." Ted nodded knowingly. "I told you back at the bar; I know what it’s like at your age. Get it out of your system."

Andy cleared her throat and sent her husband a dry look.

“But you should really cut back on the drinking.” Ted added before winking when Andy looked away.

“And stop cheating on my daughter.” Andy chastised.

“I’m not cheating on Nym.” Sebastian fixed his aunt with a look. "I'm serious, Auntie. Nym and I split, and I'm in a serious relationship now."

“With this Neo girl, hm?” Andy raised an unimpressed brow. “The one whose assets you dream of?”

“Yeah.” A soft smile appeared on Sebastian’s lips as he thought of her without an ounce of shame. "We met, and things just clicked; we got together a few months ago."

"If your drunken talk is anything to go by, you did more than click." Ted added with a laugh, then abruptly coughed at Andy's look.

She turned back to Sebastian. “And you feel strongly for this girl?”

“I do.” Sebastian met her gaze evenly. “She makes me happy; I wouldn’t sacrifice our relationship for anything.”

“Hm.” Andy studied him for a long moment. “Very well.”

Sebastian sighed in relief and sipped his coffee.

“You can just make it a three-way relationship.” Andy concluded.

Sebastian did another spit take. “Auntie!” He coughed to clear his lungs.

“What?” Andy looked at him like a child, waving her wand to clean up his mess. "Don't sound so scandalized; it's perfectly normal for our culture."

“That’s not the point!” Sebastian argued.

"Of course it is." Andy waved him off and stood up to clear the table. "My parents were cousins; do you think they didn't have paramours? My mother had more lovers than children."

“That still horrifies me.” Ted looked green as he considered it. “She was…”

"A stereotypical witch in Muggle fairy tales?" Andy added with a chuckle. "Trust me, I know."

“Way too much information.” Sebastian cut in, face green. “And there’s no way I’d betray Neo like that.”

"Again, so dramatic." Andy rolled her eyes. "It's not betrayal if she's getting just as much out of it. As you've said, if this girl clicked so well with you, then she'd be interested.”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know that.”

“Call it a woman’s intuition.” Andy smirked at Sebastian’s flabbergasted expression. “I’m right about these things.”

“She’s not wrong.” Ted added with a shrug when Sebastian turned to him in betrayal. “Hey, I have the scars to prove my mistakes when I didn’t listen to her.”

“Mhm.” Andy happily washed the dishes.

"Look." Sebastian took a deep breath. "Even if Neo was into it, and I'm not saying she would be, there's no future for Nym and me. We're done. And there's no way she'd go for it."

"Oh, please." Andy scoffed. "I'm her mother; do you really think I don't know her sexual preferences?"

“Wait, what?” Sebastian blinked in shock. “She never cheated on me.”

“Of course, she didn’t.” Andy wiped her hands on a towel. “That doesn’t stop her wandering eyes. Keep up, child.”

"What? But that…" Sebastian suddenly recalled over a dozen incidents where Nym sat with him and commented on how robes filled out female frames like a bro, before he gaped in astonishment as he realized Andy might have a point. “Damn.”

“See?” Andy grinned victoriously.

“Wait, that doesn’t make a difference.” Sebastian shook his head roughly and frowned. “It doesn’t change that we’ve been split up for over half a year. She wants to be a hero and work at the ministry, while I'd rather die than work there. Our split was natural."

Something dark crossed Andy’s eyes as Ted nodded and spoke up sadly. "A real shame, but I can't argue with it. If Nym wants to pursue her dreams, it's not fair to stop her."

“Yeah, her dreams.” Sebastian scoffed sarcastically. “Because she always wanted to be a bloody hero.”

“Right?” Ted chuckled cluelessly. “It’s surprising, but we all grow in strange ways.”

Sebastian opened his mouth to make another sarcastic comment before freezing as he caught Andy’s hard stare.

"Yes." She gritted out. "A real shame."

Her eyes stayed on his intently.

Sebastian’s own eyes slowly widened in realization.

Beneath the kitchen table, his hand flexed as he activated his second Spirit Ring.

Glowing lines of various mana traces lit up, common ones with traces of Ted, Andy, and Nym, but Sebastian noticed foreign ones flowing from multiple points in the house. 'Monitoring charms.’

His eyes panned to Ted, whose head glowed with that same disgusting mental shard Sebastian had banished from his own mind, before he looked to Andromeda and saw a far different sight.

The same shard was there, but it wasn't in her head; rather, it was locked on a gleaming onyx earring she wore.

Sebastian opened his mouth, unsure what to say, but Andy cut him off. "Is that what you've been wearing?"

“Excuse me?” Sebastian looked down at his favorite white half-lab, half-pirate-captain coat. “Um, yeah?”

"If your old habits haven't changed, I assume you're abusing cleaning charms." Andy gave him a challenging look.

“Well, I mean…” Sebastian rubbed the back of his head. “Kinda?”

He might be rich now, but he still didn't care much about clothing. "This set has self-repair enchantments."

"Typical." Andy scoffed and walked up behind Ted to kiss him on the cheek. “I’m taking this idiot clothing shopping to catch up.”

"Have fun with that." Ted laughed openly as he ate and gave Sebastian a pitying look. "I'll be in the office today."

“I…” Sebastian sat up and nodded his agreement. “I guess I could use something new to wear.”

“Good.” Andy gave him a meaningful look. “I’ll go change. Be ready in ten minutes.”

She said simply and walked off.

Ted chuckled and flipped back through the morning paper. “Don’t try to run, kid.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Sebastian slowly replied.

0000

“How long?” Andy whispered with a straight face as she walked with Sebastian down one of Diagon Alley’s side streets with her hand in the crook of his elbow.

Sebastian kept his expression relaxed as he looked around like a window shopper. “Since the bar with Ted.”

"Did he notice?" She pulled him to a stop in front of a store with moving mannequins on display, changing poses to advertise their products.

“He was drunk, and I stunned him." Sebastian pointed at a mannequin as if he were commenting on it. "He didn’t notice a thing.”

“Good.” She nodded with a smile and pulled him away to look for a different store. “They monitor him the most.”

“Why?” Sebastian checked his surroundings in the reflection of another store window.

“Easiest target.” She answered with a light laugh, as if he had said something funny. "I have active defenses.”

"You do?" Sebastian tilted his head in question at an odd storefront with leather gear. "Since when?”

“Cut off I may be, but I’m still a daughter of House Black, dear.” Andy waved to a passing woman she knew. “We were taught long before we could hold a wand.”

Sebastian winced as he knew how loaded that answer was.

There were many reasons Occlumency was advised only for after magical maturity at seventeen years or older.

“I see.” Sebastian stopped and pointed at another store. “Did they even get you in the first place?”

“Please.” Andy smirked and pulled him to the door. “Their Legilimens was a broken-down child, an insult compared to my mother.”

“Your mother was one?” Sebastian kept his surprise in check by wincing at an eye-stabbing shade of orange. "That sounds horrifying."

“Oh, it was.” Andy hid her feelings well behind a laugh at his reaction. “There’s a reason Bella turned out the way she did, being the eldest.”

“I find myself with many questions.” Sebastian shook his head when Andy held up a red shirt. "Most of which I fear the answers to, yet I still want."

“You always did lack impulse control with your interests.” Andy grabbed a few pairs of pants. “My grandfather would have loved you.”

“I thought he was a hard ass for manners and decorum?” Sebastian raised a brow.

"Not as much as you would think." Andy moved over to a section with vests. "He looked for cunning and strength of will above all else, and you were never lacking there, were you?" The brief look she gave him said a lot. "You've grown, Sebastian."

"I've had some adventures." Sebastian admitted, eyeing a particular blue vest. "Had to adapt on my feet."

“I can tell.” Andy’s eyes flicked to his neck, where his scars weren’t hidden. “And I’d love to hear about them.”

"Maybe some other time." Sebastian followed her to a row of changing rooms, his brow rising as he barely caught one of the most subtle waves of Mana he'd ever felt leaving Andy's sleeve. "It's a long story."

Andy hummed as customers congregated around the changing room entrance, yet oddly did not step inside.

Sebastian could feel the subtle bubble she was forming and tapped his heel on the ground, pulsing Mana into the temporary ward she was layering and empowering it tenfold.

Andy’s eyes widened briefly as her grip on his elbow tightened. “Must be some story.”

“You have no idea.” Sebastian chuckled before getting pulled into a booth with Andy, who hit the door with half a dozen obscure spells, most of which went over Sebastian's head. "Um, not that I'm not flattered, but-"

“Enough with the jokes." Andy cut him off with a stern expression. "We can speak freely."

"Auntie, I-" Sebastian tried to speak, but she held up a hand.

“You have nothing to apologize for, child." She stepped forward and cupped his cheek gently. "You did well to shake them off. I feared it would take you longer to notice.”

“You knew I’d realize?” Sebastian asked in surprise.

“Of course I knew.” Andy scoffed and ran her thumb across his cheek. “You were always far more intelligent than you let on. Always so controlled and paranoid. I wasn’t kidding when I said my grandfather would have loved you.” Her expression held genuine pride as she looked at him. “You have more Black blood in you than most of my family ever did.”

"I'm flattered." Sebastian chuckled and took her hand in his. "However, I'd prefer not to be involved with them. I heard the stories."

“Oh, I don’t blame you.” Andy laughed and stepped back. “But that’s not what we’re here for.”

“Right.” Sebastian nodded with cold eyes. “They’re after Nym.”

“I know.” Andy balled up her fists. “House Black can’t protect us, and those vultures are after my baby. I’d have slit their throats by now if I could.”

“I tried to warn you about the Unspeakables years ago.” Sebastian’s voice wasn’t accusatory, but it did lose a bit of warmth. “I stopped trying when I was twelve.”

“I’m sorry, Sebastian.” Andy was pained as she came forward to hug him. “Nick wasn’t in the best state of mind in those days. I didn’t want to believe they’d turn on him like that; he was one of their leaders.” She patted his chest where she knew his burns were. “You were hurt so bad, and I was so angry at him at the time.”

“My father was a genius.” Sebastian buried his head in her hair, his eyes reflecting the flames of that day. “They feared what he’d do, and they took him from me; I’ll never forgive them for that.”

“And you shouldn't." Andy nodded fiercely. "I didn't believe you back then. I thought it was just the nightmares of the cursed fire affecting a child, but you were right.” She quieted for a moment before continuing. “They came for us in the night a few years ago.”

“When I was away for the summer of sixth year.” Sebastian nodded knowingly. “I figured it out from Ted’s words.”

“I knew you’d put it together.” Andy shook her head. “I only wish I could have done something sooner before you two split up.”

“I don’t blame you, Auntie.” Sebastian placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away to look her in the eye. “My father tried to fight them and lost; I’d never wish the same fate on you.”

 "I need to be strong for my family." Andy took a shuddering breath. "But I'm in a stalemate; I can't push, or they will know I'm free." Her grip tightened on his arm. "I was hoping Nym would always have you around to protect her."

“She does.” Sebastian reassured her, the connection to the custom portkey he left on Nym still as strong as ever. “Dating or not, Nym never lost me.”

“You’re so good to her.” Andy looked up with shaky eyes and patted his hand. “I hope you’ll continue to watch over her when I’m gone.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Sebastian’s brow furrowed. “What are you planning, Auntie?”

“I plan to protect my baby.” Her trembling voice firmed. "My grandfather might have removed me from the family tree, but he didn't leave me defenseless. I have contacts; I'll make a move before they can."

“And you don’t plan to survive it.” Sebastian observed as her face fell.

She opened and closed her mouth for a moment before finding the words. “We do what we must for those we love.”

Sebastian’s teeth clicked shut as his mind ran a mile a minute.

He understood her sentiment wholeheartedly, but she was misunderstanding the situation.

‘Nym got her stubborn head from Auntie. How the hell do I convince her not to risk her life?’ Words were empty promises; he needed proof.

Firming his eyes, he decided to take a risk. “Auntie, how good is your Occlumency?”

“Sorry?” Andy blinked. “If you’re worried about the shard, don’t be. I have it trapped in a cursed earring.”

“I know.” Sebastian glanced at it in appreciation of the impressive enchanted object.

“Excuse me?” Andy looked at him in confusion.

“I’ve grown more than you might have imagined, Auntie.” He stood tall. “Are you an advanced practitioner? Can you form false memories if anyone were to look?”

Occlumency had stages, just like any other magical art.

Among them was a highly difficult skill, the skill of forming false memories to confuse even the most confident Legilimency probes.

“I can.” Andy slowly nodded. “I used it to fool the broken boy who tried to put that disgusting shard in my head.”

“Good.” Sebastian looked at the booth’s door and placed a finger against it.

From how close they were standing, Andy gasped at the sheer pressure of energy Sebastian radiated as claws extended from his nails, cutting into the wall with esoteric runes that altered her ward in ways she couldn’t comprehend.

‘Is that Egyptian?’ She watched in amazement as something similar to Mana flowed into the runes.

The pressure didn’t spread out of the booth, but for that brief moment, Andy’s magical senses saw not the sweet child she raised in her home, but the back of a magical titan the likes of which she had only seen in the Hogwarts Headmaster.

“Sebastian?” Her voice was confused, yet not fearful.

He turned, and Andy gasped again as the illusion faded to reveal his mismatched eyes. "Auntie, I'm not good at encouraging speeches, so let me reassure you with proof."

“Proof?” She raised a brow.

Sebastian nodded, and with a snap of his fingers, the very air split like a crack in reality to show a forest on the other side.

“What is-.” Andy barely got a look at it before Sebastian picked her up and jumped through the gate with a squeak of surprise from the middle-aged woman.

Gravity fell away momentarily, with Andy's vision blurring before it snapped back into clarity, leaving her standing in a forest so brightly lit by autumn colors that she knew it couldn't be natural.

“Sebastian?! What the bloody hell is going on?” Andy rounded on the boy she had raised.

No.

She paused as the man she raised lifted a clawed finger to his lips.

“Auntie, do you know what my father was working on that got him targeted by the Unspeakables?” Sebastian asked neutrally.  

Despite her shock, Andy was an experienced witch who had seen enough to step aside from the insanity of their travel and focus on the question. "He never told us in detail."

She frowned at Sebastian as she tried to recall. "Something about spatial travel, some kind of new method."

Her eyes landed on the still floating doorway. "I'm assuming you completed it? While impressive, and despite my tone, I'm very proud, but how is that helpful?”

“It wasn’t simply spatial travel.” Sebastian calmly pointed up. “It was a bit more than that.”

Andy didn’t understand and followed his finger upward skeptically before she froze where she stood, eyes widening in disbelief, jaw falling in shock.

"Auntie." Sebastian finally let his calm fade as his lips curved upward. "Welcome to Remnant."

“A-are you saying…” Andy’s voice was a whisper as she stayed locked on the shattered moon hovering in the sky.

Piercing howls split the air, and Andy's eyes snapped to the forest. "Sebastian… where are we?"

“You need reassurance.” Sebastian didn’t answer her directly, looking towards the woods as he held up a palm. “I need you to understand how much I’ve changed.”

Mana and something else, something Andy couldn’t understand, built up as the very air seemed to push away from Sebastian’s palm.

A glowing purple ring, filled with symbols she couldn’t understand, appeared around Sebastian’s forearm as a transparent sphere of dense energy grew from his palm.

The howls got louder, and Andy looked sharply toward the tree line, where red eyes began to appear in the dozens.

Sweat dripped from her brow, her heart beating loudly in her chest, her hand gripping her wand tightly as an instinct of being stared at by a predator rang through her mind.

"Auntie." Sebastian's voice was low, but it came across as confident and powerful, and Andy's nerves vanished like a breeze as she turned back to him.

His mismatched gaze stared into her soul, willing her stubborn mind to realize the truth.

“Please understand." The baseball-sized orb ballooned to the size of a pumpkin grown by Hagrid, swirling with buzzing blades surrounding a pulsing orb of gravitational force. “As long as I draw breath, I will fight for our family.”

The enlarged sphere shot forward, and the only things that kept Andy safe from the ensuing explosion of sharp blades were Sebastian's steadying hand on her shoulder and the wall of a mana shield, which parted the storm-like winds buffeting them.

She looked up at the sky as a rain of black blood and body parts slammed against his shield, doing more to reassure her than frighten her.

Andy felt the hand on her shoulder squeeze warmly.

“My father was a genius.” Sebastian said for the second time. “And I plan to show them how wrong they were to target him.”

For the first time in years, Andy felt the weight of her worries lessen, tears coming to her eyes as she began to hope for a future with her loved ones beneath a broken moon.

Sebastian’s eyes flashed ruthlessly. “I’ll show them how right they were to fear him.”

Chapter End.

AN: Hope you enjoyed! What do you guys think for the title choice? I could go either way.