"Accords." [His face wrinkled up.; he recognized the word. Well, obviously he recognized the WORD. But he recognized the way it was used, too.] "I've heard that before." Maybe not from Dad, but... "The thing where ...fairies and wizards and even Denarians all sign up and the rules are really old school. Like." Not "right of the first night", Carpenter, jeeze. Braveheart is not a history lesson. "Kings and stuff." Good recovery.

[He considered Marcone again-- well, he'd never met the guy, but Molly had pointed him out in the news, in news papers, and he'd searched him a few times online, when Dad was still recovering and they didn't know if he'd ever walk again and Molly kept blaming Marcone and crying and all the lights in the house died in the same hour. He was part of their family history in a way, a really messed up way. This big hole no one really named but he was pretty sure his parents must have talked about, when no one else was listening, and everyone walked around him like when Nan fell asleep on the couch when she visited. Yeah, this was kind of uncomfy territory. But...]

"I didn't know you could just... sign up. I thought you had to be magic."

[Make him do the right thing. "No offence, Harry, you guys sound... weird. Does he really help?" [Hey, give a boy a cupcake, he drops the Mr.]