ye soyi was never supposed to love with sparks. for generations, her family had held their honor and pride above the idea of firestorm hearts. power, blood, money; there were more important things to the ye clan than wasting away in desire. one of the longest, unbroken lines of pure blood magic and wealth in korea, the ye family was ever a cold pillar among the piercing cities that rose around them. but then, their precious jewel, the young and powerful daughter of the dynasty met a man — a muggle — and everything began to fall apart.

at least, that was how ko eun-ah, matriarch of the ye family after the death of her husband, felt. and what eun-ah felt was often law.

for eun-ah, the trouble wasn't exactly that sohn in-ho was a muggle. in fact, there were rumors about a squib that removed his direct bloodline from the old sohn family of milseong and royal advisory wizards. the trouble wasn't that in-ho was an optimistic dreamer with no money in his pocket. the trouble, for eun-ah, was that in-ho could sway soyi away from her. for the first time in her life, someone spoke back to her. someone else had a voice against her mandate tone. their marriage, their romance, it was too much to bear.

and then came the stories, how they wanted to raise their family in america, in the land of dreams and easier escape. a far off fantasy until sohn "stephanie" narae was born. the danger of the storm hardly blew over before another was announced, soyi pregnant nearly back to back with the fever of their love. sohn "max" youngjae was the last straw. a boy who was unpredictable, a damned metamorphmagus was too unbecoming. too ruined. eun-ah wanted the children gone, wanted in-ho gone, wanted soyi to pretend none of it had ever happened.

and what she wants, she gets.

on august 28, 2003, sohn in-ho was found dead. and a week later, ye soyi and her two children were officially missing from south korea.

all that eric (his new name in america, just as stephanie became olivia) has ever really known is america. well, america and the american life his mother put together. going by sonia lee by then, she raised olivia and eric sohn close to her chest, even when she found a wealthy and eccentric american pure blood wizard to marry. alistair sappheiros is a joyful, powerful man, choosing to run his family's chain of boutique hotels and inns for wizardkind around the world. he employs magical creatures and beasts, sometimes illegally, and enjoys the notion of helping every living thing. a good man. a true man. and a wonderful father, never shying from olivia nor eric even when little clementine sappheiros was born. he never questioned sonia, nothing beyond wondering what happened to her children's father, and the story of a bad breakup seemed enough.

until it wasn't.

for a while, eun-ah enjoyed the sympathy of a lost daughter. seoul mourned for her. wizards and witches bent to her will again. but then, she began to feel the sting of loss. not the loss of a daughter but the power she held over her. and she began to want it back. dispatches hunted, searched, around the world until finally they found her and her new name. but when they tried to grab her, alistair and sonia fought back and sent a message, loud and clear.

her power was done here.

eric loved america. he was used to the freedom shaped home they made. the way he could let go in the house, as long as he was mindful outside. the way alistair and olivia and little clem made everything fun. but when his mother sat him down on holiday from ilvermorny and told him that there was danger, revealed the truth about her past and the tragedy of their father's death, eric tried to understand. he did. but hogwarts was so far away and a stretch of any imagination.

which made it luck, or serendipitous kismet, that the first day on campus eric ran into a face that found his own familiar.

it's been a long time since anyone worried about eun-ha, in all honesty. sonia and alistair have done well to protect themselves, and the ye family is known to avoid the sappheiros wherever they may be. it's been even longer since eric worried about anything but carving his own safe space in this world, making sure pain and death was something reserved only for the most dire of circumstances. quixotic, radical truth is all there can be, no matter whose edges get rubbed wrong or what mandates believe themselves to exist.

so the metamorphmagus, who maybe got detention one too many times his first year in hogwarts, has made something of himself now. turned out a shop and landed a rising occupation with the ministry of magic caring for, and protecting, the creatures, beasts and species of the wizarding world at large. his goals are high, aims full of love and hope, in a way that sometimes, when soyi squints just enough, looks just like in-oh.