Withheld from you.

You swear you can hear your heart beating in your chest as the suspense of the moment builds. The Headmaster clears his throat while looking down at the paper, "Well, shall we begin then? Let's see..." He glances over the first paper, giving teetering nod. "That makes sense. Well, the results came back that you are not descended from any of the major families." You give hesitant a nod in return, not having expected that to be the case either, and not understanding why that was looked into in the first place.

Noticing your confusion, Headmaster Hallgrave explains. "We went ahead and checked for that for two main reasons. The first, of course, is because it is rather commonplace for people to check what kind of ancestry they have from any famous families, as it is commonly associated with being more magically gifted." From his voice, you can tell he does not fully approve of this belief. "The second reason, was due to each of the families' associations with different styles of magic. If we were to find you descended from one of them, it would give us somewhere to start."

He gives a shrug before a considering look appears on his face, "Actually, I don't recall the last time we had a 0% match in one of these searches..." He contemplates for a few moments before shaking his head to dismiss the thought. "Well, it must be due to the fact I only see the special cases, which commonly are descendants." There is a slight annoyance in his voice as he mutters the second part of that statement, which you connect to being due to that point proving the common belief of the families more powerful nature.

After taking a few moments to wait and see if you had any questions, which you did not, the old Headmaster nods to himself and lifts the next page. A look of confusion appears on his face as he looks over the page, skimming it quickly. He then gives an accusatory glance towards Aspecta. Before he can even state what it is that has him annoyed, she speaks up. "That was the only reason we didn't have this paper to you the moment you asked for it. No matter what we did, nothing came up."

You look quizzically at Headmaster Hallgrave, wondering now more than ever what your heritage holds. With one more read through of the document in front of him, Hallgrave addresses you in an apologetic tone. "I am sorry to say that, on at least the count of your mother, our resources have managed to find no matches." As you begin a dejected nod of acceptance, he speaks again with a faraway look, clearly deeply stirred by this. "Such a thing should be impossible, as even if your mother had not been in the registry, we should have still found some information on her..."

Shaking off his thoughts, he lifts up the page to look at the next paper, humming to himself slightly before starting to read. "Now then, it says here that-" He recoils slightly, before his head darts to look at Aspecta. He looks at her with a surprised expression, and his eyes glow momentarily. Watching them intently, you see Aspecta's eye glow occasionally as well, making you believe they are somehow communicating without words, which shouldn't be as surprising as it is with everything that's happened.

Once their silent discussion ends, Hallgrave seems slightly nervous. He takes a moment, taking in a few breaths and readjusting his jaw. He then lifts up the first paper, giving it a considering glance and nodding to himself. After clearing his throat, he seems to speak carefully, as if paying careful attention to not say something. "Well, it seems that what we found on your father won't help you solve your search for your family."

Before you can respond in any way, he lifts up the paper partially, just enough for you to see a small amount of what is on it. A great majority of the information would have made you believe it was your information you were looking at, as your hair color, eye color, and much more were exact matches, down to the shade. Looking up, you begin to see some information that didn't match, such as a speculated age of around 24 at the time of registry, and some more information you could not read upside-down and backwards.

Confused, you begin to speak as the Headmaster lowers the paper out of your view once more. "I don't understand. If you found information on him, why would it not be helpful?"

A grimace appears on his face as he answers you, "It's not that the information is unhelpful for the purposes of figuring out your magic, it very well could help solve the problem..." He trails off as he looks to Aspecta for assistance, who gives him nothing but an expecting stare. "It is, well... It's more that... Well, I believe it is safe to say he is entirely outside of our ability to contact."

Failing to grasp what to do with this information, you struggle internally with the fact that you now know you have a family somewhere, however they were beyond your reach. You give a slow nod, your eyes downcast to the floor as you can hear the Headmaster struggle to recover from that revelation. After a few moments of silence, you hear the sounds of paper ruffling and look up to see Hallgrave glancing through the rest of the papers, clearly not liking anything else he sees much more that what has already been announced.

Letting out a sigh, he looks back up to you with a sorrowful expression. "I am very sorry to state I don't believe you would benefit from any of this information, my deepest apologies." You reply with a quick nod before he continues, "We will do our very best to ensure that you get the most out of your time here, don't worry in the least about that." His smile was reassuring and genuine, enough to take your mind off of this newest news for a moment.

Asptecta then startles you by clearing her throat from beside you. Once she had the Headmaster's attention, she spoke in a neutral tone, "Perhaps you should let him off to class now? I do believe he will be late for his first classes if you hold him any longer, and I doubt most of my colleges would be... overjoyed by such a thing." The way she spoke made you feel like there was another reason she wanted you gone, but you couldn't begin to guess it.

Begrudgingly Hallgrave agreed, "Ah, yes, I must concede to that." Having your attention once more, he stood up before walking to the door and opening it for you. "I must apologize that I cannot show you to your first class, but there is a lot of work I have left to do before this day is done." With a polite smile, he added, "Plus, it is my personal belief that figuring out the grounds is a test all of us should overcome on our own at some point or another."

You give a downtrodden nod as you make your way towards the door, pausing for but a moment to take a deep breath and stepping back into the hallway. The door behind is closed calmly yet swiftly, and you are left on your own to try and find your way through this maze of a school. With a sigh, you pull out your class schedule so you could begin to figure out where you were meant to go.

#####

Once the door was closed, Frederic Hallgrave let out a deep exhale, letting his composure faulter a small amount. He rubbed his forehead with his hands before walking back over to his desk, falling into it as he looked back to the papers in front of him. He shook his head slightly as he picked them back up glancing over the document of the young boy's father.

"First initial: E, last initial: unknown. Physical characteristics are an exact match, down to the shade of hair and eye color." A sigh escaped his lips. "0% bloodline match with any major family... And to top it all off, aberrant magic." He looked to Aspecta, "What am I to do with this information? Is there a single good thing that could come of a relation with that man?"

Aspecta was silent for a few moments as she stood by his desk, not taking the now empty chair. After a few moments she decided to speak her mind, "I can't help but notice you didn't actually tell him who his father was, or anything important about him..." Her tone wasn't quite judgmental, more trying to gauge the Headmaster's reasons.

With a groan, Frederick spoke his mind. "As I said, what could the poor boy have to gain? We both know he would be ostracized, even more than he already will be..." He hesitated before adding, "Regardless, how would you feel if you were told a man like that not only existed, but was your very father? We both know abandoning a child would be a footnote on his criminal record."

Giving a moment of silence, Aspecta then asked a question. "So, what do you plan to do about it? You clearly aren't going to expel him..."

In a serios tone, Hallgrave responded with a question himself. "Does anyone else know?" Aspecta shook her head. "Good, keep it that way. Not a soul is to be made aware... except..." She looked at him curiously as he paused. "We'll add him to Grimm's class, and he will be the only one to know. Under no circumstances are you to inform any of the faculty, especially Zizana, Am I understood?"

Looking down at some other papers in her hands, Aspecta couldn't quite make eye contact. "You know she is going to find out eventually, right? And she most certainly will be far more bitter that we didn't tell her..." Frederick said nothing in response, so she continued. "I will see what I can do to get him added to Professor Grimm's class, but you are aware that will make him even more of a target, right? No one but members of the families are meant to be in that course."

Letting out one last sigh, Hallgrave responded tiredly. "Yes, I do know, both of those things." He rubbed his temples as he continued. "We have been dealt a losing hand with this one, all we can do is play it our best, and bluff to try and cover just how bad it is." His gaze rose to the door, his eyes looking past them as if following the seemingly cursed child. "I truly feel bad for the boy, he has so much hardship ahead of him."