#my mum's coworker had a little son I used to babysit sometimes
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carewyncromwell · 4 years ago
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“Careful the spell you cast, not just on children: Sometimes a spell may last past what you can see And turn against you...! Careful the tale you tell -- that is the spell. Children will listen...listen... Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around... Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir -- not while I'm around... Demons are prowling everywhere nowadays... I'll send 'em howling -- I don't care -- I've got ways...”
~“Children Will Listen / Not While I’m Around,” by Josh Groban
x~x~x~x
When the vampire called Bat Varney first found himself becoming attached to Adelia Selwyn @that-ravenpuff-witch​, it intimidated him quite a bit. Having already seen his wife Loretta and daughter Irene die long before him and knowing full well how many vampires ended up going insane due to the grief of watching all the people they loved die before them, Bat had come to the practical decision that there was little point in putting himself through more pain than he had to go through -- and so, even though he knew his life would have no point at all if he had to live in complete isolation, Bat began to treat every human he encountered in a very impersonal sense, like anonymous customers coming to him for his services before disappearing into the void never to be seen again, rather than individuals. This made it so that when he inevitably heard about any of the people he’d met having died, it hurt less than if he’d made any sort of real human connection with them.
Therefore, as one can imagine, after spending so many years actively detaching from the people around him, it was very troubling to Bat when he looked at the young Selwyn and found himself being reminded of his daughter Irene, who he’d only ever been able to watch grow up from a distance. It troubled Bat all the more when Adelia started dating Teddy Ellison @cursebreakerfarrier​​, who Bat had to concede was also a very engaging young man. There were several times during their school careers and after where Adelia and Teddy would be able to sense that Bat was pulling away from them -- not because he didn’t care, but rather because of how much he cared, and how much that frightened him. Fortunately, even though Bat sometimes disappeared without any warning, he would always eventually return -- and as the years went by and Bat slowly became more comfortable with the people who’d nestled their way into his heart, he’d disappear less and less often.
The last time Bat disappeared abruptly without warning was right after he learned that Adelia was pregnant with her and Teddy’s first child. As happy as Bat was for both of the Selwyn-Ellisons, the thought of these two young people (who, in Bat’s mind, had just been studying at Hogwarts) suddenly already being full-grown adults starting a family was a grim reminder of how much faster time moved for Adelia and Teddy than it did for him...and therefore of how little time he truly had with them and any children they might have. And that was the other thing -- they were having children of their own! Did Bat even dare get attached to them too? How could he function, staying completely the same and static while a child was born and died before his eyes? Would the child remind him even more of Irene than their mother did?
Eventually Bat agreed to visit Adelia a few weeks after the baby was born, from a distance. Just like at the Selwyn-Ellisons’ wedding, Bat didn’t trust himself to get too close, considering his blood lust -- and so he’d pointedly kept to the door frame at the far end of the nursery when Teddy went over to the crib and scooped his newborn son Lawrence (or “Bertie”) up into his arms so that Bat could see him. The sight of the tiny baby in Teddy’s arms made Bat’s heart swell to three times its usual size, and he couldn’t fight back some tears as he regarded Teddy with more pride than he ever had. He could tell how much Teddy loved his son -- just as Bat himself had loved Irene -- and, as much as the thought hurt Bat...Teddy would be able to be there for his child, the way he never could...the way he should’ve been. The thought hurt so much, and yet...there was some joy in it too.
Not long after Bertie was born, Honeydukes pioneered the Blood Pop, which allowed Bat to interact with people a bit more safely than he had previously. Not only did it allow him to spend a lot more quality time with his close companion Atticus Grimsley, but it also made Bat feel that bit more secure to be around the Selwyn-Ellisons, especially their young son. Bertie Selwyn-Ellison was a precocious little boy from the off-set, eternally curious and enamored of both his mother’s bedtime stories and his father’s fluffy Belgian Shepherd Animagus form. Over time Bat’s fondness for the small boy became more apparent, from how he’d frequently sit on the floor while Bertie played with his toys so as to be more on his level to how he’d read Bertie Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol aloud every Yuletide season, complete with different voices for all of the characters. Before long, Bat had gone into full-fledged “uncle” mode on little Bertie, coddling him even more than he had Adelia and Teddy. And when Adelia gave birth to her and Teddy’s second child, Violet, Bat instantly projected the same level of protectiveness and favoritism he’d shown toward Bertie onto her as well.
Once when Bertie was about four, the little boy got it in his head to “watch over” his infant sister while she was sleeping, only to fall asleep on top of Bat, who’d laid down in his Irish Wolfhound form with Bertie on the floor next to Violet’s crib so as to supervise them. Bat only turned back into his real form when his blood lust became strong enough that he had to take a sip from his flask, stick a Blood Pop in his mouth, and then carry the sleeping Bertie over to the chair so he could tuck him in under a spare blanket. The vampire then proceeded to sit on the floor next to the chair for another half-hour, until Teddy came home from work and found them in the nursery after checking for Bertie in his room and not finding him there.
As Bertie and Violet got older, they became diligent students of their “Uncle Bat,” who rather determinedly resolved to make sure that they’d both be ahead of the game in all of the core subjects before starting at Hogwarts, so that it’d be easier for them to make friends. (Kind of an understandable position for someone who was both a Ravenclaw and the only Muggle-born in his class back in the day to adopt!) This resulted in both Bertie and Violet being among the top of their class and very well-respected for their entire school careers. And whenever the Selwyn-Ellisons went to visit Bat in his home of Hogsmeade, they’d always bring their “uncle” a pack of Blood Pops, and Bat would always take the time to spoil Bertie and Violet by helping them prepare for a pop quiz he’d caught wind of or for a Quidditch match Bertie was set to fly in.
Never question the power that someone -- even a child -- can have, in bringing out the best in someone else.
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