Then away with us he's going

The solemn eyed

~oOo~

Mortitia Addams swept elegantly up the side-walk towards the single house in the entire cookie-cutter suburb that held people of her acquaintance. Family members, what was ever more shameful. Her cousin Petunia was sadly determined to be 'normal'. The dear really would have been better off staying with the family, she'd have been much better off and probably happier. It didn't do well to suppress one's upbringing.

"Boy! Get down here and make my Dudders his breakfast!"

Ah, there was her cousin now, her clipped tones not at all quiet despite the early hour, and the reason for Mortitia's visit if she had to guess. One saw the most interesting things in her mother's cooking pot really. Seeing her cousin allow her husband to walk all over a little boy, and encourage her son to do likewise... well, it just didn't stand.

Mortitia pressed a pale finger to the doorbell and waited. Even for family, it wasn't done to just sweep into the house without someone from the inside at least opening it first. Give them some warning.

Petunia paled when, upon opening the door, she came face-to-face with Mortitia Addams.

Very red lips smiled and dark eyes glinted beneath smokey make-up, and Mortitia silently stepped through the door.

"You've moved down in life," Mortitia observed quietly. "Spinners End was a much more interesting neighbourhood."

"It was a poor neighbourhood with too much violence and crime," Petunia hissed. "What are you doing here?"

"We gladly feast on those who would subdue us," Mortitia quoted. "I noticed something interesting in Maman's pot the other day, a young member of the Family, being not only subdued, but oppressed. Tut tut Pet."

Petunia's face went from pale to ashen and then red. With a vicious step she marched over to the hall stand, yanked open a drawer and pulled out a letter which she thrust at Mortitia. "We didn't even want him," she growled quietly. "But if it makes you feel any better, he's more capable than my Dudley is. At everything."

Mortitia twitched a delicate eyebrow and read the letter. "I see," she said when she was finished. "If I took him -"

"They'd fetch him back here most likely," Petunia stated with a scowl. "But you are welcome to try."

Mortitia nodded serenely and walked into the kitchen. She watched the barely four-year-old boy as he perched on the top-most step of a step-ladder, spatula in one hand and the handle of the pan in the other, cooking bacon.

"It gets worse," Petunia said softly, leaning on the door frame and watching her cousin watch the child. The boy wouldn't hear over the sizzle and the slight distance, but Mortitia would. "His father was a ruddy noble. I didn't tell Vernon that," she added. "He would only have gotten worse, knowing the boy had a fortune that Vernon couldn't get to because it was in a wizard bank."

The little boy lifted the bacon out of the pan and set it on a plate with a paper towel on to soak up the extra dripping, then reached out for more bacon to put into the pan.

"Child, would you come here please?" Mortitia asked, interrupting the task.

The little boy looked up and over sharply, taken by surprise, his bright green eyes darting from his aunt to the new woman.

Petunia nodded. "You listen to your Aunt Mortitia," she commanded, moving into the kitchen properly to continue the task of making the breakfast while Motitia spoke with the child.

"Little one, I would like to take you away to live with me and my husband," Mortitia said. "Would you like to come with me?"

The little boy looked desperately unsure, but nodded slowly.

Mortitia smiled. "Is there anything here that you want to take with you?" she asked.

"There's a box of Lily's things in the attic," Petunia cut in. "I was going to send him up there to clean so he could find it for himself when he got to fourteen or so, if he was still here by then."

Mortitia nodded. "I'll leave the money with you to have couriers come for it if you like."

"Thank you."

~The End~