Chapter 4: The Wider World II

"So, what are you smiling about?"

Simon looked up as Dirk walked over and ruffled his hair. While Dirk and Jane looked nothing like Simon's parents in his past life besides also being Chinese, Simon found himself growing fond of his wizarding parents. Dirk was a sweet and affable man who clearly adored his children and wife. While not all of Jane's family had warmed up to this lanky man with horn-rimmed glasses yet, he had definitely won over the many ancestors of Jane gracing the Chinese paintings around the manor. Jane once mentioned to the children that the ancestral manor was a living being and reacted to how the ancestors thought of the manor's occupants. Every time Dirk finished conversing with another portrait, the lights in the hallway tended to glow brighter. Dirk also managed to carve out a successful career as a muggle-born potions master in a foreign land when he followed his wife to England and for that, he would always be highly respected by Simon. He knew how hard it was to prove oneself in a foreign country, especially when one is a minority in more ways than one. Maybe Dirk would be how Simon's father would have been like, if he had less economic pressures on his shoulders.

"Nothing, just thinking about how the master flew on his sword in class the other day."

"Ahhh yes, that is always quite a sight. Maybe we can get you one when you are older. But those things are banned in Britain," he said, thinking out loud as he usually did.

"But…we can get you one just for your personal use whenever we are in China," he corrected himself when he saw Simon's puppy dog eyes.

"No…no…it is fine! It was just cool seeing it, that's all…" Simon knew his current family was definitely in a better economic position than his original one (with Jane's clan connections), but he would prefer not to impose.

"Anyways, I was looking for you because Uncle Diego and Auntie Charlotte are here!"

Simon perked up at the mention of Jane's younger sister and her husband. Charlotte, known as Jia to her family, was an architect for magical homes and was married to a young Castelobruxo professor named Diego Calderon. Simon wondered if this uncle was related to the famous Calderon-Boot family. Regardless, Charlotte and Diego were the best elders in Jane's family based on the emotions that were arising in his new body and Simon quickly learned why before even processing all of previous Simon's memories.

Simon and En-han found themselves in a log cabin in a forest a few hours later with Diego and Charlotte. The two boys found themselves playing with crups as the adults were fussing around a spacious living room clearly too large to fit in the log cabin if not for magic.

"Give us a few more minutes boys and we are going on an adventure!" the ruggedly handsome man with a messy mane of black curls announced, his Spanish accent still somewhat coming across albeit his use of a translation spell. Thanks to previous Simon's memories, Simon already found himself comfortable with English as well as three different Chinese dialects. Maybe he should also take the opportunity and learn Spanish from his uncle.

"By adventure, he just means joining him to see some relatively tame magical beasts he is working with for his upcoming journal article," Aunt Charlotte retorted. She looked similar to Jane, except she had a rounder face and wore golden-rimmed spectacles. She shot a glance at En-han. Everyone knew if it was truly a wild adventure, En-han's overprotective mother would have not allowed the boy to leave the manor.

"Why is Zeren not invited?" Simon asked, curious that the other relative closest to their age was not joining them when he could have easily taken the Floo to this fireplace-equipped log cabin.

"After what that git did to you?" Uncle Diego was heard shouting from a room he just entered, "Nah, next time I see that kid I am turning him into a ferret."

"A ferret? That is too kind. Maybe a rat would work better," Aunt Charlotte added.

Simon recalled a similar episode involving a certain Malfoy heir and chuckled internally. Zeren did give off spoiled young Draco vibes. But a rat might be going too far. Boy was not Pettigrew. At least, not yet. But the cool log cabin, crup-petting hours and this exchange definitely showed Simon why these two were the cool aunt and uncle duo.

Some moments later, Uncle Diego took the boys with him to a small enclosure. There, the boys saw small, two-legged serpentine-like creatures frolicking about, flapping their purple-feathered wings. The creatures seemed to notice the arrival of strangers, hissing aggressively at Simon and En-han. However, they seemed to tone down when they noticed Uncle Diego's scent in the air.

En-han turned to Uncle Diego, "Are these…?"

"Occamies? Yes, they are!"

Simon and En-han stared at each other. Either Aunt Charlotte was joking or she had a very different definition of "relatively tame." Occamies were known to be extremely aggressive towards anyone who approached them and were carnivorous – feasting on insects, rats, birds, and even occasionally monkeys. Simon was pretty sure his current body was not much bigger than a monkey in size.

"Scared?" Uncle Diego chuckled, clapping his hands on the boys' shoulders. Simon could tell Diego could be best friends with Hagrid as he noticed the wild gleam of joy in the man's eyes as he looked at these creatures.

"Look, don't worry! These younglings will not hurt you. Especially since we are here to help," their uncle said, pulling out bottles of poultice from his mokeskin pouch before gesturing at their wings. Simon grimaced when he noticed the jagged nature of their wings. "They have been clipped."

"Yes," their uncle nodded, his voice showing a glimpse of solemnness amid his usual boyish and good-natured tone, "Some bastard wanted to make some fancy shampoo line. Needed occamy egg yolks for it. But seeing how territorial these creatures are, got some people to clip their wings so they won't fight when their eggs are taken. Bloody Gilderoy Lockhart. Somehow managed to get past some legal loopholes and get away scot-free like those Chinese Fireball egg poachers."

Simon already recalled this trivia tidbit and Diego's comment only further confirmed his fears. He read somewhere about Gilderoy Lockhart's attempt to start his shampoo line using occamy egg yolks as an ingredient for greater hair buoyancy but gave up when it proved too dangerous and expensive to supply. This man held no qualms about obliviating talented wiccans to claim their heroic work so it honestly should not come as a surprise that he was also fine with torturing magical beasts in the name of capitalism. Simon definitely had started planning in broad strokes some things he might do if he returned to Britain and attended Hogwarts. Seeing these creatures flapping their wings in vain, unable to fly, Simon now swore to put "ending Lockhart's career" high on his to-do list.

Seeing the dark mood in front of him, Diego quickly added, "Well, the good news is that occamies are tough fighters so the bastard still could not get the eggs after getting their wings clipped. So that shampoo line never started. And, our magizoology research team developed this cure to help the occamies and other magical creatures which had their wings clipped through magical means!"

Passing a bottle to Simon and En-han, Diego continued, "We are now healing the occamies before letting them back into the wild and recording their healing process. I cannot write Lockhart's names in the articles but I could still do some work exposing the maltreatment of occamies in general! Want to help me oil them up? I will show you how!"

Uncle Diego whistled and the occamies turned to him expectantly. He unscrewed a bottle and poured the poultice into his palm. An occamy in front of him raised its wing, allowing Diego to massage the mixture into its jagged feathers. Diego repeated this with another occamy.

Slowly, Simon and En-han followed suit. En-han earned a glare from an occamy when he rubbed too hard. He turned to Simon and his eyebrows raised in shock when he saw how easily Simon mimicked Diego, with the occamy in Simon's hand seeming to go from hissing to purring with Simon's delicate touch. Little did En-han know the Simon in front of him was once on the receiving end of such treatment himself.

"Ooooh, they like you," Uncle Diego grinned, seeing the response from the occamies Simon worked with. He turned to En-han who frowned at his uncle, "I think I would stick to reading about occamies."

After finishing their work, Uncle Diego motioned for them to leave. Suddenly, Simon felt a sharp, electric shock-like pain on his thumb. He winced, noticing an occamy had pecked him with its beak. Sensing something, Diego spun around and looked at his nephew who was caressing his thumb. His eyes moved between the occamy and the boy as he tried to hide his surprise. Diego realized he had to write an additional journal article about occamies as familiars.