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Max loved his family, especially when everyone got together. It was part of why he’d always loved Pesach: Jacob had always made sure to be home, and later, so had Shira. Even now, his family made sure to all get together at least once over each school break.
He wasn’t very surprised when his dad told him that they would be going over to visit Jacob, Shira, and their children for Shabbos dinner the second week of hols. He was, truthfully, already pretty bored. Isaac was on holiday with his family in the south of France. There was no question that he couldn’t visit Reg – they wrote pretty regularly, and Max was trying to figure out something more immediate than owls (and something which Reg’s mother couldn’t intercept and read), but he didn’t even let himself think about visiting.
He’d already visited with Emmeline once, but it was weird being in London without seeing Isaac, Reg, or Jacob. He’d been to the seaside twice already, and it was never as much fun alone as it was with other people – though he had run into James Potter there once, with Peter Pettigrew. They’d mostly ignored him, which was fine by him. James was arrogant at best, and the only one of his friends Max could really tolerate was Remus Lupin.
So he was excited to see his brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew. He didn’t even complain too much when his parents asked him to clean his room (even though he didn’t see the point in doing so, since they’d be going over to Jacob’s house, anyway).
He did, however, make sure to be waiting in the living room well before his parents planned on leaving for dinner. He flipped through a novel he’d picked up in the library. It was, surprisingly, not one he’d read before, and it was sort of old, but it wasn’t too bad.
His parents came down exactly on time, and his mother fussed a bit over his hair, but they made it through the Floo and into Jacob’s terrace house in Golders Green. Shira was sat in an armchair, breastfeeding Rolf. She didn’t rise to greet them, but Max bounded over to kiss her cheek.
“Gut shabbos, Shira,” he said. “I’ve missed you.”
“Shabbat shalom,” Shira said. “I’ve missed you, too, ahava shelli – even though I’ve had my hands full.”
“Oh, he’s gotten so big,” Max cooed, momentarily distracted by the baby. It had only been a couple months, but in his time away, his new baby nephew had grown more than Max really thought should be possible.
“I know,” Shira said. “I can’t believe it.”
“And he’s so cute,” Max said. Of course, he couldn’t really see too much of Rolf’s face at the moment. “Can I hold him later?”
“Of course,” Shira said. “Once he’s done eating, and I’ve burped him.”
While Max was fairly certain he didn’t really want children of his own (it just seemed messy and stressful and like a lot of work), he absolutely adored his niece – and now his nephew, too. And, well, children in general, even if he didn’t get to see too many of them. He was pretty sure he’d convinced Isaac into making him godfather whenever he inevitably had children (because Isaac took l’dor vador very seriously, and everyone knew he’d marry another Jew and have a Jewish family likely in North London).
Max didn’t really know; maybe he’d change his mind about kids eventually. If his future husband wanted children, Max didn’t think he’d mind, as long as he wasn’t made primary caretaker. But either way – that was a long way off, and he was getting distracted from his plan already.
Perhaps this was a good time to say that Max hadn’t yet told his parents that he’d come out to his friends. It wasn’t that he was hesitating, but really just that he wanted to tell his entire family all together. He knew how they could get, and it was just better to get it all over with at once.
It didn’t take long into dinner for Jacob to ask Max how his term had gone. After all, they hadn’t seen each other since Pesach, even though they wrote at least weekly.
“It was good,” Max said. “Exams were painfully easy, of course, and Isaac and Reg sort of threw me a little birthday party with our friends, which was really nice. We got second place in Quidditch, so Reg and Isaac were really happy about that. Oh, and I told them both that I’m gay.”
He tried to make it seem like it was an afterthought, like he hadn’t deliberated ages over how to tell everyone, but surely his family saw through that.
Everyone started speaking at once.
“We’re very proud of you,” his father said.
“How did they take it?” Shira asked.
“How do you feel?” Jacob asked.
“That was very brave of you,” his mother said.
“What’s gay?” Gina asked. “Isn’t that happy?”
“Er,” Max said, choosing to address Gina first. “No – well, yes, but in this case, it means – how I only want to date and kiss other boys, and how I’d only ever marry another boy.”
“Oh,” Gina said. “I didn’t know that was the word.”
“Well, now you do,” Max said. “And lesbian’s the same thing, but for girls. My friend Emmeline’s a lesbian, and she only wants to date and kiss other girls.”
“And,” Jacob said, “bisexual is when you like both, or either, or don’t really have a preference.”
“But you can’t marry both,” Gina said.
“Er,” Jacob said, glancing over to Shira – evidently, they had not planned on having this conversation now, and Max felt a bit guilty. “Not at once, no. Not in Britain, at least. But most people find a person they want to marry – gay wizards find other wizards, lesbian witches find other witches, and bisexual witches and wizards, it can be – either, and – that’s how it happens.”
Shira said something to her in French, which Max couldn’t understand (he really needed to ask Reg to teach him some French one of these days; hadn’t he said he was fluent?), and Gina nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Plus tard.”
“Erm, as for – everyone else’s questions,” Max said. “I feel really good. Relieved, mostly. They both took it really well. Said it didn’t change anything, and all right, sure, I sort of expected Isaac would be fine with it – he’s probably known for ages, really, only he’s known better than to ask outright. Besides, Isaac’s got that lesbian cousin who’s probably his favourite person in the world except for me, so… I was really much more concerned about how Reg would react.”
“And how did he react?” Jacob asked. It was a fair question; after all, everyone present knew how mad he was for Reg. It wasn’t like Max was about to hide something like that from his family. He told them everything. Hell, he’d probably end up admitting it to Isaac, soon, if he could catch him alone. Just so that he didn’t feel quite so alone in this at school. He knew he could always write his family – and anyone in his family, at that – about it, but that wasn’t the same. Besides, it wasn’t as if Isaac didn’t know perfectly well that Max was mad for Reg. Admitting it might make Isaac smug for a week or two, but it would be best in the long run.
“Really well,” Max said. “Told me he loved me – I mean, not like that; just as friends, but still – and that it doesn’t change our friendship. Which is – quite a relief, really.”
“I’m sure,” Jacob said. “Can’t say I ever told any of the straight blokes I was mad for that was bi – well, not when we were still in school, at least. Well – I’d told Frank, in fifth year, but that was before I was mad for him, actually, so I don’t quite think that counts.”
Max frowned. He’d had his suspicions about Jacob, to be sure, but he hadn’t wanted to assume, and Jacob and Shira had been together nearly as long as he could remember. So – regardless, Max knew that Jacob definitely wasn’t gay. But he knew as well as anyone that that didn’t mean that he didn’t like blokes.
“Are you really sure Frank’s straight?” Max asked. “I’ve met him, you know, and he definitely doesn’t seem completely straight.”
“He says he is,” Jacob said, as if that were all there was to it.
“Isaac says he’s straight. Doesn’t mean it’s true.”
“Regardless,” Jacob said. “I’m very happily married, and he’s very happily engaged, so it hardly matters.”
“Why not? I’d never date Isaac in a million years, but I still care whether he’s gay, bi, or straight – although I’m certain he’s bi – and whether or not he ever comes out.”
“Some people don’t want to have to tell everyone,” Jacob said.
“You can say that,” Max said. “You’re married to a woman. Everyone will assume you’re straight. I’m never going to have that, and while I don’t particularly care, it does make my situation different. I mean, really, Isaac probably will end up marrying a woman, regardless of how obviously mad he is for Reg’s older brother.”
“Max, you know it’s rude to speculate about your friends’ sexuality,” his mother said.
“Mum, I’m just saying the way Isaac looks at Sirius is a lot like the way I used to look at James.”
“Max.” He knew that tone, and he knew better than to push.
“Fine, fine,” Max said. “I’ll drop it.” For now, at least.
“You know that pushiness comes from you,” his father said to his mother.
“Which is exactly why you let it slide, Newt, dear.” Max wasn’t entirely sure that his mother was wrong in that, but he never minded. He knew he could be a bit pushy, and he knew it had to have come from his mother if it’d come from anyone. Isaac and Reg never seemed to mind, anyway.
“Anyway,” Shira said. “I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that we’re all very proud of you, Max.”
“Thanks,” Max said. It really did mean a lot. It wasn’t like he never planned on coming out, but… the actual being out, so far, wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d thought. It had all been a major relief, really. Like he could actually be himself without worrying about letting some terrible secret slip. Well, mostly. He still suspected Reg would lose it if he ever found out how mad for him Max was.
“Each of us knows how difficult coming out can be.”
“Absolutely,” his father agreed. “I certainly didn’t truly think I’d marry a witch after I left Hogwarts. I’ve always tended to prefer men.”
“I’m the same way,” Jacob said. “I’ll tell you a story after we put the kids to bed.”
“It’d better not be anything inappropriate for me, either,” Max said, although he really didn’t think it would be. Jacob treated him more like a kid than a brother half the time, and while Max usually didn’t mind, it did ensure that he wouldn’t be getting the gory details of Jacob’s sex life. Which was – a relief, really.
“God, no,” Jacob said. “Just a bit more – nuanced than I think maybe is appropriate for the children. You’re an adult, after all.”
“If only the Ministry agreed,” Max said. “I want to practise the summoning charm this summer, but they don’t recognise becoming a bar mitzvah as being of age.” And his parents were very serious about no underage magic outside of school, which Max thought was horribly unfair. Even Isaac’s parents let him use magic as long as they were at home with an adult in the house – provided no Muggles were present. But that was an argument for another time.
“So,” Jacob said once the kids were in bed. He served them coffee, but Max and his father took herbal tea instead.
“I’m telling you now that I really don’t want to hear about your sex life.”
Jacob pulled a face. “I would never discuss my sex life with you.”
“Good.” Again: not that Max had suspected otherwise, but he felt it was part of his duty as younger brother to needle Jacob sometimes in ways that he knew would make him uncomfortable. It was his birthright.
“I never told you how Shira and I met, did I?”
Max shrugged. “You were in Israel, trying to write a report on conservation after the war, and you interviewed her father.”
“That’s not quite true – I mean, that’s not why I went to Israel. Once I was in Jerusalem, yes, the rest is true, but the reason I actually went to Israel was because a good friend of mine mentioned he was going to write an article about wizarding life there, and – I was madly in love with him.”
“So you followed him to Israel to try to win him over?” Max guessed. What a scandal! Jacob always seemed so straight-laced, at least when it came to interpersonal relationships. The idea of him doing something so reckless and stupid was incredible.
“God, no!” Jacob said, and, well, it figured. “He was straight, and engaged to a witch. I wasn’t trying to do anything. It was more that I, personally, couldn’t help myself but to follow him around like a kruppy.”
That was kind of sad. The worst part was that Max couldn’t say with any certainty that he would never do the same – well, he could say with absolute certainty that he wouldn’t fall in love with a witch, instead, but that was about it.
“Then what happened?”
“I told him that I could speak Hebrew fluently, and could interpret for him, and made my report up as an excuse to spend time with him. Only – after he left, I had to write it, because I knew he’d want to read it, and I didn’t want him to catch me in a lie.”
“So then you met Shira.”
“Yes.”
Max turned to Shira. “Did you know this?”
Shira nodded. “He told me on our very first date. I’d never gone that far, but I assured him that I had done my fair share of foolish things for a straight girl.”
Well, then. “So is anyone in this family straight? Not that I mind, of course, but out of curiosity.”
“There’s a chance Rolf might be, I suppose,” Jacob said. “He’s too young for us to really have much of an idea.”
Max didn’t ask about Gina, because he’d heard her go on about that girl from her Hebrew school class.
“Your mother and I are decidedly not,” Max’s father said. “Not that either of us have ever made any attempt to hide it.”
“My friend Emmeline mentioned she’d heard some rumours,” Max said.
“I thought for sure we’d said something,” his mother said.
“Maybe,” Max said. “I don’t remember if you did.” But then he sometimes felt that he could only remember things that interested him, and his parents being bisexual wouldn’t have interested him as a child – they were his parents, and they were very much in love and had been married for decades and decades.
“Honestly,” Jacob said. “I prefer men. I’ve always known I was interested in women, but it’s been more… seventy-thirty, I’d say, maybe seventy-five-twenty-five.”
“It’s a hundred-to-zero for me,” Max said. “But then how’d you end up married to Shira?”
Jacob shrugged. “I was in the right place at the right time, and found a bisexual Jewish Magizoologist who also happened to be one of the most gorgeous and brilliant people I’d ever met. Really, the unbelievable thing is that she wanted to be with me, too.”
Shira blushed, her light brown cheeks darkening. “You say that as if you’re not gorgeous and brilliant.”
Jacob blushed, then, and leaned in to kiss her and whisper something in French – and Max was painfully thankful that he had no clue what they were saying. He knew he was lucky to have a brother and sister-in-law who were disgustingly in love, and he definitely wanted to find someone he loved and who loved him as much as Jacob and Shira loved each other, but – god, it was gross to watch them.
So, to ruin the mood, Max asked, “Have I ever met this bloke you were in love with?”
It was worth it for the look on Jacob’s face alone.