Vindicated [Summer] The summer was fading, the packing was done, and Dustin was leaving. It was only a matter of days now before he would be hauling off to his freshman year of college; after some back and forth last year, he’d settled on an all-magical campus in St. Louis, Missouri. Dustin had actually debated several integrated magical-Muggle universities, but in the end, this one had the major and feel he was aiming for. In truth, it felt a lot like home, but with a sort of warm flair that reminded him of Sonora. The recent alum was already missing his alma mater more than he had ever anticipated.
His siblings would be off again soon too, and with Anastasia finally old enough for school, his parents would be empty-nesters for the first time since his birth. That had to be an odd sensation, even despite their relatively minimal hands in rearing their children. There had always been nannies to do the dirty work. Still, Dustin knew they would feel lonely while their children were away.
It would be a big event, certainly, the thought of which was currently keeping he awake, despite the clock’s silent declarations of the inappropriate time. Nearly four o’clock in the morning. Fantastic. Dustin held himself to high standards in all possible regards, and his sleep schedule was no exception, remaining a constant perfection. But tonight his mind spun about school and about how his siblings would fare without him, and his stomach growled angrily at him for being awake and thus requiring extra fuel, so reluctantly he got out of bed and made his way quietly down to the kitchen.
As he approached, however, he could hear a conversation going in there. Dustin, curious, stopped short of the doorway and listened. His parents both spoke in hushed, serious voices; he caught all of their names more than once, seemingly in comparison, but they spoke of Ana the most. Dustin knew his shortcomings (although he was hard-pressed to admit them), but he felt he was a good brother, at least to her. He had always been good to his baby sister, protective and proud.
“What are we going to do with Anastasia?” his mother asked, her voice sounding desperate and frustrated and far less proud than her son.
“We’ll have to keep her here,” his father answered with clear reluctance and displeasure. Dustin involuntarily made a face behind the wall; it had been years now since he’d heard that tone, not since everything had happened. “We’ll… we’ll say she’s ill. Has to be educated at home. Just…. hide her.”
“I still can’t believe this is happening to us, Nelson,” said Dustin’s mother; he could visualize her body language, the way she shook her head weakly before dropping it into her hand. “Haven’t we done everything we could? How could she turn out this way? I mean really, a Squib in this family? Where did we go wrong?”
Dustin gasped a little too audibly. Ana wasn’t magic? How… how had he not noticed?
“Did you hear that, Sylvia?” Dustin mentally swore, then mentally accosted himself for such language. “Alright, come out here, whoever’s listening,” the patriarch demanded.
Dustin obeyed, stepping around the corner. The surprise was apparent on both of his parents’ faces; they had not expected their eldest. Also apparent was the fact that his mother had been crying.
“My apologies, Father, Mother,” Dustin said humbly. “I didn’t mean to intrude, but… is that all really true? Ana’s not magic?”
“Not a word of this to your siblings,” Nelson said by way of answer.
“Of course, but… you know they’ll find out when Ana doesn’t get on the wagon with them, if not before when she doesn’t pack,” the Aladren alum pointed out. He took a deep breath and tried to compose an eloquent thought. “And with all due respect, how can you hope to just hide her away? What will you do with her when she’s too old to be receiving a home education? How will she marry? Will you keep her here for her whole life?”
“It’s very… complicated, sweetheart,” said Sylvia, her head tilting lightly. She reached out for his hand, but he did not move to comply.
“I don’t see how,” Dustin stated bluntly. “Ana’s not magic. That’s not the end of the world. The problem only comes in if you try to hide it. When it comes out, it’ll be just like before, all over again.”
Nelson had spent the last few moments rubbing his temples in an attempt to alleviate a building stress headache, but his hand dropped and his head snapped up. “So your official stance is that we just preemptively air our own dirty laundry?”
“Ana is not dirty laundry!” Dustin snapped. “She’s a little girl!”
“Don’t speak to your father that way,” Mother scolded, although her heart wasn’t in it.
“I’ll speak as I wish,” Dustin said boldly. “I’m the heir, so I deserve a voice in this discussion. It’s my future too. Hide her forever and that means I’ll be the one doing it later on.”
“What, you don’t want her?” chided Father.
“Of course I do! That’s the whole point!” Dustin stopped suddenly, an idea forming. “In fact, I’ll take her. She’ll come to St. Louis with me. I’ll take care of her, if you’re so loathe to do it. And I won’t make her hide her life away.” All at once, he felt a kinship with his fled cousin Makenzie, an understanding for what she had done. It was all about standing up in the end, wasn’t it? Doing what was right and good for someone who needed it. For Makenzie, it had been herself. For Dustin, it was his baby sister.
Nelson Newell laughed, a cold laugh Dustin could not remember hearing, one that only infuriated him further. “You go right ahead, but you’ll not get a cent more out of us.”
“Fine,” Dustin said without a moment’s hesitation. He felt empowered by the shocked expression on his father’s face and had to suppress the upturning at the corner of his lips as he had bested him. “We’ll leave in the morning. I’ll have the elves pack her things up while she’s asleep.”
His mother looked like she wanted to say - a fair feeling, what with two of her children setting to depart with what would seem to be minimal familial contact - but she hesitated, and Dustin did not wait for her before exiting the room. He had not acquired the snack he had sought, but he had acquired something else in the process: guardianship of Ana. And it was in that moment, in that proud march back to his room for the final time, that he knew he was now truly a man.