Chapter 384 - The Crown

"Thanks for letting us stay, Your Highness," Malgino gave a slight but graceful bow to Queen Wilma at the dinner table.

Wilma smiled at Malgino from the head of the table.

After Fergus and Malgino arrived at Titian, they were ushered to meet Wilma. However, Wilma was busy with some duties, so she asked them to freshen up and meet her for dinner.

Queen Wilma was beyond enthusiastic to see her son after so long. But she was surprised to find that Fergus came alone, without Gryffindor, and brought a friend with him. Her first thought was to inform Gryffindor but later she decided to talk to her son first.

"Fergus, how do you like the soup and eggs?" Wilma turned to her right where Fergus sat. He hid his uncomfortable expression as soon as Wilma looked at him.

"It's good, Mama," Fergus gave a small smile.

"Try the duck roast, our cook makes it differently now," Wilma took a bite of the roasted meat on her plate. She glanced at Malgino before speaking again. "Malgino, was it?"

"Yes, Your Highness," Malgino nodded lowering his head a little bit.

"I guess you are a very close friend of Fergus?" Wilma said sweetly but Malgino looked like he knew all too well what was happening.

"I hope so, Your Highness. Considering Fergus gave me the honor of visiting the most important and beautiful place of his life," Malgino smiled at Fergus.

"He is my only close friend," Fergus ȧsserted trying to justify his action of bringing an outsider in Titian. "He knows about me, Mama. I trust him. He saved my life many times."

"Your life? What happened?" Wilma sharply looked at Fergus.

"I —" Fergus hesitated and looked uneasy.

Malgino noticed him and jumped in.

"Don't exaggerate, Gus. I just watched your back," he looked at Fergus and Fergus understood. He nodded at Wilma. "Your Highness, in Hogwarts we battle many fearsome creatures for training. And Fergus and I especially were interested in helping other wizards from those things. Thus, we usually ended up fighting werewolves, banshees, or some other dangerous creature. I just watched his back and we saved each other."

"You fought werewolves?" Wilma asked looking back at Fergus.

Fergus looked up at Malgino, who blinked slowly.

"Yes, Mama." Fergus nodded.

"Well done," Wilma smiled proudly. "I knew you are the strongest warrior in the world."

"Mama?" Fergus went red, hearing the exclamation her mother used to make when he was a kid.

Malgino chuckled goodnaturedly. Wilma smiled warmly at him as well.

"Tell me more about you, Malgino."

After asking about Malgino's parents, home, and life at Hogwarts, Wilma started to ask questions like how did they get there without Gryffindor and why didn't Fergus visited for more than a year? 

Sensing Fergus's discomfort, Malgino made up a story about how busy they were with their studies and now that they were out of school, Fergus wanted to spend time with her mother. Wilma believed them and told them to stay with her as long as they like.

More than six months went by smoothly. At first, Fergus was surprised that Gryffindor didn't come looking for him but then he guessed that maybe his father already knew where he was. Nonetheless, Fergus was very glad to finally spent time with her mother and her people. Almost everyone, both human and vampires in Titian, treated him with kindness and respect. It was so different from Hogwarts. Everyone there knew that he was related to the royal family and some of them knew that he was Wilma's son. He was the prince, everyone loved him, and he loved living with them. Soon, Fergus got to know more about the people in Titian and started helping them to make their lives better, which he couldn't do during his short visits, and finally, after Emory's death, he felt like he had a purpose. Emory loved helping everyone. She always told Fergus how a small act of kindness could change someone's life. Fergus promised himself that he would change a lot of people's lives . . . for the better.

While Fergus was too absorbed in helping Titian's people, Malgino spent a lot of time with Wilma discussing politics and all sorts of negotiations with the wizards and vampires around the world. So much so that at one point Fergus thought Wilma had started to spend more time with Malgino than him. Though it wasn't that surprising to Fergus, he always knew his mother prioritized her work, her duty to her family. That was why she chose to send Fergus away after all. But what surprised him was the fact, how good and interested Malgino was in these things. Malgino almost felt like a new person to Fergus, he had never seen this the side of him. And it was not just politics, Malgino talked about a lot of things that Wilma found interesting. Wilma looked very delighted, every time Malgino talked about Fergus and his Hogwarts adventures or something he had experimented with.

One day, Fergus was teaching a few vampires and wizard kids about useful and poisonous flowers and fruits in the forest when he saw Wilma, and Malgino riding horses towards him while the Vampire Guardians walked beside them.

"Yes, Your Highness, I've seen Fergus regenerate. It's nothing more than a miracle. And that day when we were experimenting with the healing potion, I was —" Fergus heard snippets of Malgino's words before he stopped noticing him.

Malgino and Wilma stopped and dismounted their horses in front of Fergus and the kids. Wilma smiled at them and the kids greeted their Queen before taking their leave. 

"You were saying something about these kids, Fergus?" Wilma asked Fergus.

"Yes, I was thinking about opening a school in Titian for both vampires and wizards," Fergus said enthusiastically. "There are no such things for vampires and it's not right. Everyone should learn about their abilities and how they can use them."

Wilma smiled at her son's kind and beautiful idea but before she could say anything Malgino clapped Fergus in the back.

"That's a brilliant idea, Gus. The school can help with a lot of things. Not only it will educate vampire kids about the world and their abilities, but it could also help to make good relationships between Vampires and Wizards."

"Absolutely," Fergus grinned. "You saw how I teach Vampire kids and wizard kids together. Like this, they learn about each other. The more they learn the more they understand their differences and respect each other."

Eventually, Wilma cleared her throat and got back the boys' attention. 

"How would the school work? Where it will be built? Who will teach? I need all of these answers within this week. Divide the work among yourselves. I would expect a full drawn plan about this in time," Wilma spoke in full business voice then she smiled. "I'm very happy with the idea."

Fergus beamed.

Fergus could feel things were changing as more and more they got involved in Titian. Fergus fully dedicated himself to the school project, and Malgino handled the problems they faced with Wilma's advisors. Many of them were still skeptical about the vampires and wizards learning together thing but Malgino managed to convince them. Malgino spent hours with Wilma and Wilma's trusted advisors discussing plans to change things in Titian. 

And Fergus was genuinely surprised when Wilma took Malgino's advice over her advisors. Her advisors didn't like that much but had to accept the Queen's decision. Malgino was well into Wilma's circle by now. 

Though it wasn't just the advisors who were not too happy about Malgino's involvement, there was one more person. Ryan Dragozera, the youngest son of Zyerlin Dragozera. He lost his mother when he was born and he was bȧrėly a year old when Zyerlin was killed by Godric Gryffindor. His older step-brothers died while rebelling against Wilma. Ryan grew up alone and all he had in the name of the family was Wilma. Luckily, he had a good relationship with Wilma but since Fergus and Malgino arrived, Fergus noticed him grumbling or glaring at them. He didn't trust them at all. Fergus couldn't understand what was wrong, so he ignored it.

At last, on the night of the vampires and wizards school opening announcement, where Wilma organized a ball to celebrate Fergus and Malgino's efforts and the new school, Fergus realized what was going on.

"Good evening," Before the ceremony, Wilma came to meet Fergus.

"Is everything alright, Mama?" Fergus asked a little panicked.

"Everything is fine," Wilma gracefully swept inside Fergus's room, her silver ball gown trailing after her. "I just wanted to meet you and Malgino before the ceremony. I have something to discuss with you."

Malgino, who was writing something on the far end of the room, perked up and joined them. He was also in formal attire for the ball, like Fergus.

"Good evening, Your Highness, you look as radiant as the moon tonight," Malgino elegantly bowed to the Queen and Wilma chuckled.

"Why, thank you, Malgino."

Malgino smiled and turned to Fergus. He handed him a piece of parchment. 

"I have made all corrections to your speech tonight, Gus." 

"Thank you, Mal, I will —"

"Before you prepare your final speech tonight, hear what I appeared to say," Wilma interrupted Fergus looking very serious. Malgino and Fergus traded glances and Fergus thought Malgino knew what this was about. Wilma stepped forward and adjusted Fergus's collar. "Fergus, I have thought about this a lot, and finally I have come to this decision." Wilma looked up at her son. "I think you will be a great King after me."

⟦To be continued⟧