If Phineas paid his son very little attention as a first year, Phineas II had warranted even less of his attention before he had come to Hogwarts. He had been Ursula’s plaything then, or his nanny’s responsibility, and either way of no value or interest yet.

His hasty insistence (of course) was hardly compelling proof, but then – Phineas cared less about his social advances than his academic ones. “Alright, enough,” he said, with a wave of his hand, bored of the registry of names; before he moved on to probing about his classes and professors – “And have you related all those to your mother? Has she written to you at all, yet?” (This was worth asking because of course he had not written to his wife directly, and would prefer not to, if he could help it – if she were in trouble, he imagined he would hear it from Elladora or perhaps his sons, if they were sad enough to write to her regularly.)

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