“Why do you even bother?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Morgan said as she reached up on her toes, trying to reach a mug on a shelf above her head.
Severus easily reached up above her and retrieved the mug she was after. However he held it out of her reach when she tried to retrieve it from him, “are you really going to be alright?”
“Yes.”
“This arrangement will not be worth the effort if you are going to be completely miserable until she is able to return.”
“I will be fine Sev, I just need a few days to adjust. I know this is the best way to keep her safe, I just haven’t quite come to terms with it yet. But I will.”
“If I need to be here…”
Morgan finally managed to grab the mug from him, “you go right on to Florence, I’ll be fine in Egypt with the rest of the girls for a week. Besides, this gives me a chance to make sure that Colin is treating out daughter right, not that I doubt he is.”
“As long as you are sure that is what you still want.”
“I’m sure. And try not to spend your entire trip worrying about me. I am capable of taking care of myself.”
“But I like taking care of you.”
Morgan grinned impishly, “perhaps I should let that slip to some of my classes.”
“Don’t you dare. They will be worthless in my class if you do.”
“It would do you some good if your students weren’t afraid of you… just think, some of them might actually start to like you.”
Severus glared at her.
“But I suppose you would miss stalking around the dungeons like an overgrown bat…”
“Are you trying to provoke me?”
“If it will make you stop worrying about me, yes.”
“I will never stop worrying about you, you make it far too easy,” Severus brushed his wife’s lips with his own.
Morgan set the mug, now completely forgotten, down on the counter as she rose up on her toes for another kiss. “I’ll be back for a few more of those in a bit,” she said as she pulled away, “I’m just going to make sure that Serena and Olivia are about ready to go.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Dad, I’ll be fine.”
“I am just making sure that you realize there is a difference between apparating up and down stairs and apparating to a different country.”
“Are you saying that you doubt my abilities?”
Severus frowned, “I am trying my best to look out for you. I do not want you to get splinched.”
Dierna rolled her eyes, “well we won’t find out if I can do it unless you let me try.”
“I wish I knew why you felt the need to cross me at every turn.”
“Because it’s fun.”
Severus resisted the urge to sigh. There were some battles that he just did not feel like fighting in the morning. And trying to reason with Dierna was one of them. As he shrunk their luggage and tucked it into his pocket he tried to figure out if he could make it through this trip without having the desire to throttle his daughter. The odds did not appear to be in his favor, and that was a prediction that he doubted even Sybil Trelawny could fail to make. However, he could not help but think that he would rather have his daughter constantly pushing the limits than fearing and hating him as he had feared and hated his own father. Perhaps if he kept that in mind he might be better able to handle his spitfire daughter.
“Can we leave now?”
“Do not whine Dierna, it is a deplorable habit that you should have outgrown by now.”
“I wasn’t whining, I was merely being impatient. And don’t you dare tell me that ‘patience is a virtue’. Because its not. It’s an inconvenience.”
“It took most of his self control for Severus to avoid commenting on that outburst, but he did manage to restrain himself. The next week would be nothing but miserable if all he and Dierna did was pick fights with each other, “You are certain of where we are going?”
“Yep.”
“Make sure that you…”
“See you on the other side,” Dierna interrupted as she gave him a jaunty salute before disapparating.
“I may be forced to kill her after all,” Severus muttered before he disapparated after her.
“Told you I could do it,” Dierna said haughtily as her father appeared beside her.
“What you did was…”
“Foolish and irresponsible?”
Severus glowered at her.
“Can I explore now?” Dierna asked hopefully as she looked up at the tall brick buildings rising up on either side of her. They were crowded with small shops similar to those in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, and yet they seemed somehow more exotic, and the streets were littered with more vendors selling just about anything imaginable and some things that weren’t.
“I will take you out later. You are most certainly not exploring a foreign city on your own.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.”
“That’s a horrible reason,” Dierna muttered.
“I thought I would be kind and give you the short version.”
“I feel honored,” she shot back sarcastically.
“You will abide by my rules or you can go straight home.”
“Fine, I promise I’ll be good. Can we go out now?”
“No.”
Dierna managed to adopt an utterly crestfallen expression.
“As soon as we check into the hotel,” Severus promised her.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Mum!” Viviane grabbed her mother in warm hug, “welcome to our little community.”
“It’s so good to see you darling,” Morgan stepped back to survey her daughter from head to foot, “I see that Egypt is treating you well. You’re nearly as dark as the natives.”
“I love it.” Viviane assured her, “Auntie Graine and Uncle Bill are coming over for dinner tonight, so are the Arthur and Molly.”
“I’m glad that you have such a good group of people around you.”
“So am I. It’s a relief. Besides…”
“You know, we are here too,” Serena said irritably from where she and Olivia still stood in the cool white stone hallway.
“You could have let yourself in,” Viviane countered.
“So glad to see that the foreign climate as made you so pleasant,” Serena snapped back.
“Very good,” Viviane complimented her sister, “that one was almost worthy of Dad.”
“I try.”
“And you must be Olivia,” Vivian said as she smiled down at the black haired child.
Olivia nodded, “so… you’re my sister too?”
“Yep, you’re stuck with another one.”
“I don’t mind,” Olivia replied seriously, “I like the other ones, I’m sure I’ll like you too.”
Viviane threw back her head and laughed, when she finally gained control of herself she turned to Morgan as she wiped the tears from her eyes, “she drives Dad up the wall, doesn’t she?”
“Of course,” Morgan replied.
“I thought I heard the sound of beautiful women crowding into my home,” Colin said with a grin as he joined them.
“That reference to beautiful women better include redheads,” Graine said as she appeared at the door, Molly by her side. “The men will be along in a minute, we decided we would just show up early.”
“The more the merrier,” Colin said as the women joined them, shortly followed by their husbands.
“What’s this?” Olivia asked as she poked at the green something on her plate as they sat down to dinner.
“I promise it won’t hurt you,” Viviane told her.
“Are you sure?” Olivia asked skeptically.
“Positive.”
“What if I don’t like it?”
“What if we went into the kitchen and found some peanut butter and jelly?” Viviane asked with a smile.
~~~~~~~~~~
“It’s really hot,” Dierna complained, “how can you stand to wear all that black in this heat?” She glanced questioningly at her father who had traded his black robes for a black muggle button down shirt and slacks.
“The heat doesn’t bother me.”
“Well it does me,” Dierna fanned herself with an Italian magazine she had picked up while she silently cursed the ankle length skirt and long sleeved shirt she had on. It was far to hot to be wearing that much clothing but she had declared that she was NOT wearing the horrid blue paper coverings that they were handing out to the underdressed tourists entering the cathedral.
“Do you need to sit down?” Severus asked, trying to decide if his daughter was normally that pale or if perhaps the heat was getting to her too much.
“No. I want to climb up the tower.”
Severus snorted, “I am not paying money to climb up a set of stairs.”
“Please Dad,” Dierna begged, “I want to see the city from up there before the sun sets. I bet it’s amazing.”
Severus glanced up at the towering structure and then back down at his daughter, “go. I’ll wait down here.”
“Thank you,” Dierna quickly threw her arms around her father’s waist before entering the tower connected to the cathedral.
Severus seated himself on a low wall deep in the shade of the cathedral in the fading light. He watched the crowd of people carefully, looking for anything that seemed out of place. He knew that there was probably nothing to worry about at the current time, but one could never be too careful. He glanced at his watch and then back out at the people milling the streets, not quite suppressing a smile when a group of Asian vendors selling their drawings were chased off by the local police. He checked his watch again and frowned.
The sun was starting to sink fairly low, before long it would be dark. Another glance at his pocket watch confirmed that a half hour had passed. Just when he was about to go looking for his daughter she appeared at his side. “What took you so long?” he demanded.
“It was AMAZING!” Dierna gushed, “You should have seen the city from up there. It’s not like anything…” she sighed, “it was incredible.”
Severus shook his head at her, “you still should not have taken so long.”
“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t tear myself away. It seems a shame that the wizarding world lags so far behind the muggles when it comes to the arts.”
“Magic tends to induce laziness,” Severus replied as he stood up and started walking.
“How does that come to include a disregard for the arts?” Dierna asked as she fell into step beside him.
“Magic can only do so much, it is not an extension of a person’s abilities, it does not add anything to their talent. Once people learn magic they tend to concentrate only on what it can do for them, not on what they can do for themselves.
“That seems like such… waste.”
“It is.”
“And it’s horrible.”
“Never forget that. It is what separates the mediocre from the extraordinary.”
Dierna couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face, as cryptic as it seemed, coming from her father that was high praise, something he did not give very often.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Why don’t you two head to bed,” Morgan suggested as she glanced over at Olivia and Serena.
Serena frowned, she did not like being sent to bed, and was going to open her mouth to protest when an idea came to her. “Sure, I’m actually really tired.” She grabbed Olivia’s hand and dragged her to her feet and headed towards the room they were sharing. “Get changed and get into bed,” she hissed at Olivia as soon as they were in the room.
“I’m not tired,” Olivia whined.
“Just do it,” Serena snapped as she hurriedly changed clothes before pressing her ear to the door. She waved her hand at Olivia to get her to be quite as she tried to listen. “You stay here.”
“No, if you’re going somewhere I’m coming too!”
“Shhh!!!” Serena glared at her little sister, “fine, but you have to be quiet.”
Olivia nodded her head frantically as she clapped her hands over her mouth as if to show that she really could be quiet.
Serena carefully eased the door open, and slipped out, beckoning Olivia to follow her. She crept to the end of the hallway and lay down on the floor, motioning for Olivia to do the same. From here they could easily hear whatever it was that they weren’t supposed to hear.
“Truth be told,” Arthur confessed, “we don’t know a whole lot at this point. It’s a sad fact.”
“My team is hard pressed for information as well,” Bill agreed, “plus, we’ve been meeting resistance out in the field.”
“From who?” Morgan asked.
Bill shook his head, “we’re not quite sure. There have been rumours about the followers of Seth being involved, but I’m not convinced it’s them.”
“Death eaters?” Morgan asked.
Bill shrugged, “possibly, or it could merely be a number of copy cat groups.”
“How is the situation back home?” Arthur asked.
Morgan shook her head, “I wish I had a definite answer, but I don’t.”
“But the school is still safe?” Molly pressed as she thought about all of her grandchildren who were there.
Morgan hesitated, “I truly believe so.” She chewed her lip as she looked at the number of concerned eyes turned on her, “we have learned,” she said very slowly, “that Voldemort may have somehow found a way to work a spy into our presence.” She looked at the pale faces around her, “but at this time we can neither confirm nor deny it.”
Arthur looked down at his hands, “how could he get a spy of his into the school…” he mused, “Are any of the staff being replaced?”
Morgan shook her head no.
“A student then…” Bill supplied.
“It’s starting to look that way,” Morgan said as she too became interested in her hands.
“I hope your husband intends to keep a very close eye on his house,” Bill put in, “it seems like that would be the best place to start.”
Morgan nodded, “I know, and I know that this could possibly tear my husband apart.”
Serena and Olivia shared twin looks of fear before they snuck back to their room.
~~~~~~~~~~~
