"There's a well known breakfast spot around here, I used to eat there every time I came down to London..."
The Grangers had come by train, but Jimmy had driven in, so the whole group piled into his car and he steered them toward a place called the Wolseley.
Most Londoners didn't start work until eight or nine, so there weren't many people in for breakfast at this hour, just a handful scattered about, some murmuring quietly to each other, others buried silently in a newspaper.
The interior was well appointed, done up in a traditional English style with a classic sort of elegance, the space large and spread across two floors.
Jimmy led the group to a table by the window and sat them down.
"You've got to try the eggs Benedict here, best I've ever had."
Jimmy said, introducing the place to the Grangers, then snapped his fingers to call over a waiter.
Altair glanced at the menu and ordered without much thought.
The Grangers, being the sort of traditional English couple who took breakfast seriously, went over the menu carefully and put together a full English between the three of them.
The eggs Benedict Jimmy had recommended, grilled tomatoes, grilled mushrooms, bacon, Cumberland sausage, hash browns, and black pudding besides. The mains were buttered toast fresh from the grill and crumpets, with tea to go alongside.
Altair found himself rather impressed by the English in moments like this. Born into a nation famous the world over for terrible food, and yet they still managed to eat the same handful of things over and over without ever tiring of it, all while keeping up a real sense of ceremony about the whole affair.
Before long, the waiter brought their breakfast out.
A table full of food, and it looked good too. Altair had gone hungry through the whole night's ride, and his appetite had well and truly caught up with him by now.
While they ate, the Grangers asked Hermione and Altair a great deal about life at school.
Mrs. Granger's instincts ran sharper than her husband's or Jimmy's, and she caught a faint sense that something might be going on between Hermione and Altair. But considering the two of them had already known each other before starting school, and that both came from Muggle families, she didn't press the matter or think too much of it.
Once breakfast was finished, Jimmy drove the Granger family back to the station.
Altair said his goodbyes and promised to visit Manchester after Christmas. When they parted, Hermione pressed her lips together, her eyes gone a little red, leaving Altair feeling rather awkward about the whole thing.
By the time Altair climbed into Jimmy's car to head back to Birmingham, it was already around nine in the morning.
"So how's it been these last few months? I've been curious, honestly, what exactly do you lot learn at that school? How to curse people?"
Once they were in the car, Jimmy threw out the persona of a calm and collected gentleman and wasted no time pressing Altair for details.
"It's been good. Feels like I've stepped into a whole new world, really. As for classes, all sorts of things. Charms, Potions, Herbology, Flying..."
"Quite different from what the old stories about witches and wizards would have you believe."
Ever since the witch hunts of the medieval era, Europe had produced no end of legends and tales about witches and wizards, the vast majority of them painting wizards as some manner of evil, scheming lot.
Those stories had shaped generation after generation of people's imaginations ever since.
Altair gave Jimmy a rough rundown of how the wizarding world actually worked, and by the end of it Jimmy had a basic grasp of this whole magical side of things.
"What in the world is this Ministry of Magic? Wizards actually have that many laws to answer to?"
Jimmy blew out a smoke ring, looking thoroughly put out. He'd never imagined that becoming a wizard came with this much red tape. Might as well have joined a gang instead, at least there nobody told you what to do.
"Well, that's going to mean rethinking a fair few plans back at the family."
Jimmy gave a rueful little laugh. The higher ranks of the Shelbys had been counting on Altair finishing his schooling and then leading the family to new heights, pushing out across Europe, building something bigger than anyone had managed before.
"Take the long view, Uncle Jimmy. The Shelby family is going to reach the very top of this world, a height none of you can even picture right now."
Altair gazed out the window, his eyes distant, a confident smile spreading across his face.
With the system behind him, there was no ceiling on what he'd eventually achieve, nothing anyone else could even imagine.
"But I'll need some time. In the meantime, I don't want the family doing anything that might complicate things for me. Keep things as they are for now. Birmingham's already got no other outfit that can stand up to us anyway."
In truth, Altair understood the situation better than anyone. Ever since certain people high up in the family had learned that a world of wizards existed, they'd started angling to make contact with wizards of their own.
Not every wizard kept themselves entirely cut off from Muggles, after all. Plenty had tangled, complicated ties to the nobility, the powerful, the elite among ordinary people.
Altair had no interest in the family stumbling onto some wizard of dubious character and dragging trouble back to his own doorstep because of it.
The professors at school already harbored some wariness toward him simply for coming from a gang family. If they ever found out that family had been quietly reaching out to Dark wizards on top of that, they'd start watching him far more closely than he'd like.
"Understood. I'll pass the word along."
Jimmy nodded, catching Altair's meaning at once.
Watching Jimmy's expression turn rather heavy, Altair let out a sigh and added:
"If the family runs into any trouble it can't handle on its own, you can always bring it to me. I know I'm only in my first year, but plenty of things the family finds difficult, for me, it might take no more than a wave of the hand."