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The blood purist families say that the Pitch line, once powerful magicians, would end with Fiona Pitch and Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch. A shame, they say. They had ruled Watford and the world of Mages for hundreds of years.
As far as Basilton Grimm-Pitch(-Snow) is concerned, the Pitch line will continue.
His family tree includes three more names: Simon (Oliver) Snow-Pitch(-Grimm), Ellen Lucy Pitch-Snow, and Alexander Basilton Pitch-Snow.
It took seven years from the time Baz and Simon first began dating for them to get married, starting with the end of a magical war, followed by therapy for Simon, and then therapy for Baz. Once the word “marriage” was said for the first time, there was added therapy for Simon-and-Baz. Where they’d both once thought their relationship would be the equivalent of a whirlwind, moving from place to place, the reality was that they were both far more traumatized than either had realized, in themselves and each other. Much of those seven years felt like treading water while holding hands, but as the years went on, they grew closer to finding the shore. They were married at Watford, with friends and family and friends-turned-family in attendance, and the spirits of Natasha Pitch and Lucy Salisbury there to witness.
The plan Simon and Baz had sketched out with their therapist was that they would take the first five years to settle into married life–seeing as it took so long just for them to get married–before they would consider adopting a child. This plan saw how much of their life had gone thus far, and decided it too would not last.
During one occasional trip the pair made to the first orphanage Simon was placed at, two years after they were married, they noticed an eleven year old girl named Ellen. Where the other children clamored and asked Simon and Baz plenty of questions, Ellen sat and read her book, but Baz caught a light in her eye that said she still heard every answer he and Simon gave.
Simon felt compelled to keep returning to that orphanage after that first trip, saying there was something with the kids he couldn’t shake, that he felt he was supposed to be there. Where Simon went, Baz went, so they became more frequent visitors. Every time, Ellen was there with a book and a glint in her eye. Simon’s compulsion found its source when they stumbled upon a birth certificate for an Ellen Lucy, aged eleven. They began the adoption process straight away.
The World of Mages found itself in an uproar when its Watford headmaster and former Chosen One adopted a Normal girl, but Penelope Bunce, ever the genius, truly the greatest Mage of her generation, found a spell that would grant a Normal person the Sight. Ellen Lucy Pitch-Snow was the first official recipient, brought into the world by her fathers Basilton and Simon and shown the world by her Aunt Penny. Uncle Shepard was her guide, having gone through the process of joining this secretive second world himself years before.
The World of Mages itself made less of an uproar six months later, when a young Mage boy, aged only nine years old, not even old enough to escape to Watford, was kicked out and disowned by his family for being brave enough to tell them who he truly was. While the Mages thought themselves superior to Normals, there would never be a spell to erase prejudice. Simon and Baz, however, were irate, and opened their home and their arms to the boy immediately, both intimately knowing how to survive a lack of acceptance from family related by blood. Thus came the fourth member of their family; Alexander Basilton Pitch-Snow christened himself as such within a year. Instead of maybe acquiring children after five years, Simon and Baz were parents of two within those five years, and they loved them more than anything, more than magic itself.
Ellen was the only one to escape the Pitch-Snow penchant for long names; Alexander instead leaned into it, wrapped himself with the tradition and claimed it fully as his own. Ellen jokes that she will join by adding her partner’s name, or perhaps only marrying another with a hyphenated last name, so she can best her fathers’ records of three each.
As old habits die hard, Baz continues to call Simon “Snow” for many years, and he likes it. After marriage, he will sometimes call Simon “Pitch;” they both like that one. (The children do not, and gag whenever they have the misfortune of hearing it.) But as they grow older and mellow, it is “Simon” that comes out more and more, a name as dear and loved as always. It is always said with a smile, and a smile is always returned.
The Pitch-Snows are an odd family, fit with two Mages, one former Mage, and one non-Mage. But the most peculiar bit is the one with the least answers: Baz’s vampirism. This is also the topic that is talked about the least, and not only because there are still few who know about it. Virtually all questions are left unanswered or have none: Does Baz age? Is he showing signs of aging? Can he die of natural causes? Is he immortal?
There is however, one question that has an answer, though almost no one knows it. When it comes to what will become of Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch after the death of Simon Snow, there are three people with the answer: his lawyer, his therapist, and Baz himself.
But that is the future, and a great deal can change between now and then. For this moment, let the scene be set: the four Pitch-Snows (or rather, two Pitch-Snows, one Grimm-Pitch-Snow, and one Snow-Pitch-Grimm) dance in the living room. The groups switch, from Simon with Alexander and Baz with Ellen, to Simon with Ellen and Baz with Alexander, and sometimes all four, sometimes three while one gets a drink. Always at the end, there is Simon and Baz in their own magical world once more like they created so long ago on a bed in a shared room in a tower at Watford, the cosmos spread around them, now expanded to two children. All four people who were once alone, and could have never imagined this future for themselves. All four people who have learned the hard way that family is not always given, sometimes chosen. All four people who create their own magic because they dare to love.