“I don’t know.”
“No suggestions? Perhaps I should set you to cleaning the house… top to bottom,” Morgan proposed.
Olivia giggled, “But Misty does that! She won’t have anything to do if you make me clean.”
“Hmmm… guess that means I’ll have to find some other sort of physical labor for you to do…”
“You could help me make a potion,” Olivia suggested.
“I don’t think so, I believe you are still banned from the potions lab.”
“We don’t have to tell Daddy.”
Morgan tried not to smile, “Nope, because he’ll find out and then I will be in trouble too.”
“Really?!” “Really.” “Guess we better do something else…”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Morgan grinned, “I might even be tempted to take you shopping.”
“Yeah!”
“Alright then, put your dishes in the sink and we’ll be on our way.”
“Awww… you ladies are going out? And here I was looking to spend some quality time with you…” Kamen said as he let himself in the kitchen door.
“Kamen!” Olivia immediately attacked his legs, latching on tight and not letting go.
“Where are you going?” Kamen looked down at Olivia to ask.
“Shopping!”
“Mind if I invite myself along?”
“Only if you promise to behave yourself,” Morgan told him while Olivia energetically nodded her head yes.
Kamen clapped a hand over his heart, “I solemnly swear that I will be on my best behavior on this outing, and if I’m not the runt,” he gestured to Olivia, “has full permission to deal with me as she sees fit before turning me over to Charlie Weasley to use as dragon food.”
Morgan rolled her eyes, “I suppose I can’t say no to that.”
The three of them walked into Hogsmeade, Olivia swinging from Kamen and Morgan’s hands and humming to herself the whole way.
“Do you start practicing with the Arrows soon?” Morgan asked.
“Yep, next week. This is great Mum, it’s what I wanted,” Kamen turned to give her a lopsided grin.
“Good, I’m glad you’re happy. And I hope you realize that no matter what your father says about making something of yourself and pro quidditch not being a way to do that… he is still proud of you and wants you to be happy just as much as I do. He just has more trouble showing it.”
“I know, but I don’t really expect a whole lot of open support from him. Which is fine, especially now that I have my little fan club here,” he smiled as he looked down at Olivia who was clinging happily to his hand.
“Your father thinks she is going to be a Slytherin, I have my money on another Gryffindor though.”
Kamen shook his head, “I’m going to stay out of this one, she could go either way.”
“Can we go in there?” Olivia asked as they approached Honeydukes.
“I think she needs some exploding bonbons,” Kamen put in. “And you can of course feel free to buy me candy too.”
Olivia tugged on his hand, “I don’t think I should get anything that explodes, I don’t think Daddy would appreciate it.”
Kamen looked down at her seriously, “I heard about that. I hope it has impressed upon you the seriousness of potion making,” he raised one eyebrow, which made him look like a younger version of their father. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said conspiratorially as he leaned down, “Dierna nearly destroyed his entire lab once when she was your age, and now she’s his star potions student. I’d have to say that you’re off to a good start.”
“Really?”
“Yep. You know what?”
“What?”
“I think you should ask Mum about how good she was at potions.”
“Kamen, don’t you dare!” Morgan spat as she glared up at her son, “and don’t you dare suggest to Remus that he share those stories either. I can’t believe he told you in the first place!”
“Why can’t I hear about it?” Olivia asked in confusion.
Morgan shot Kamen a warning look, but he persisted anyways, “let’s just say that Mum wasn’t a star potions student. I believe the potions classroom had to be closed for an entire day after she…”
“That is enough!” Morgan cut in, “she doesn’t have to hear anymore.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll write to Remus and make sure that he owls you everything he knows,” Kamen whispered to Olivia, “It’ll give you some great blackmail material.”
“That’s it, I’m not buying either of you anything!”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“I don’t understand this whole business about not seeing the bride the day before the wedding,” Eric commented as lit his pipe.
“And no one expects you to,” Severus informed him, “not with the amoral life you insist on…”
“Have they always been like this,” Zach asked, as he leaned towards the portrait of Albus Dumbledore.
“For as long as I can remember,” Albus replied, his painted eyes sparkling merrily, “they are both hard-headed, stubborn to a fault, and yet their loyalty knows no bounds.”
“I just hope they behave themselves tomorrow,” Zach muttered. At least Alberto wasn’t arriving until sometime in the morning. He shuddered to think of what his best man might have planned for his ‘last night as a free man’, as the Ecuadorian so eloquently put it.
“I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you. Severus will merely scowl at everyone and make some bitterly sarcastic remark if anyone asks him if he is enjoying himself. And your grandfather… no doubt he’ll be too lost in memories of his own wedding to cause any trouble. He loved your grandmother very much you know… Yvonne was his heart and soul.”
“He doesn’t talk much about her. There is the portrait that leads to his sanctum sanctorum, but all I’ve ever heard is that she was a ballerina and he loved her.”
“He’s never told you the story of how they met?” the portrait of Albus asked.
“Nope.”
“Well then, seeing as he is otherwise occupied, and most likely will be for quite some time, his arguments with Severus tend to be quite lengthy, I suppose I must tell you myself.
The Opera House still housed the opera at that time, my that seems like ages ago… it was shortly after your grandfather had been exiled from England and a few years after Gaston Leroux’s novel had people so intrigued with the Opera House and its fictional phantom. Eric saw it as a wonderful opportunity, he could set himself up an apartment in the vaults of the theater and could safely reside there. The secrecy of it also led him into quite a few little…exploits, shall we say… I’m not sure if even he remembers all the women he dragged down there.”
“That certainly sounds like him,” Zach snorted.
“Yes, yes… but that started to change. You may not be aware of it, but your grandfather, being the powerful wizard that he is, does not need an invisibility cloak to conceal himself. He learned quite a tricky charm to make himself invisible, and he used that so that he could watch the performances, either from the wings, or a box, occasionally even from the side of the stage itself.
One night, he watched a performance of Faust, and in this performance, a young woman who had grown up in the French countryside made her debut as part of the ballet chorus. Your grandfather was instantly taken with her. He waited in the wings that night to speak to her.” Dumbledore chuckled softly, “nearly scared her out of her wits, she was convinced he really was the opera ghost. It took him some time to convince her otherwise. The other trick was convincing her that he really was a wizard. But once she understood… she took quite a fancy to the magical world. I remember visiting the two of them, she would beg to see Eric and I perform charms and transfigurations for her.”
“It almost sounds as though my grandfather led a normal life,” Zach mused.
“Yes, and for a time he did. His and Yvonne’s wedding was beautiful, all white lace and silk for her… and I have never seen a woman so happy to find out she was with child. I thought it would kill Eric when he lost them both.”
“What happened?”
“That, my boy, is a story for another time. Right now we should be celebrating, it is the eve of your wedding after all.”
“I want to hear what happened,” Zach insisted.
“As I said, it is a story for another time,” the portrait of Dumbledore replied. “However, I would advise against asking your grandfather for the story. If I am not available to tell it ask Severus, he knows the details, nearly as well as I do.”
“Speaking of Snape… why is it that he didn’t want you to be here?” Zach asked. He couldn’t imagine anyone not getting along with the charismatic headmaster.
Albus chuckled softly, “we have always had our differences, Severus and I. We developed a great amount of respect for each other over the years that we worked together, and a great amount of trust. But our differences remained.”
“Like what?”
“I never approved of how he dealt with his Slytherins, for instance. And he hated the fact that I was ‘always interfering’, to his way of thinking. To him I am a meddling old fool, not that I can blame him for thinking that…” he looked amused as he popped a lemon drop into his mouth, “I think that part of it is that he feels he can only deal with one old fool at a time, me and Eric together is a bit much for him. And, in case you haven’t noticed,” Albus chuckled again, “he gets angry when he gets defensive.”
“I’ve noticed,” Zach deadpanned.
“Are you two done with whatever it is you’re talking about?” Eric asked, breaking into the conversation.
“Quite,” Albus replied merrily, “that is if you two are done with your most recent childish argument of course.” The portrait was met with icy glares from both men in question.
“Differences resolved? Good, good… now then, I have a feeling that if the three of us put our heads together we might be able to come up with some excellent advice to give this young man before he gets married tomorrow.”
Zach felt himself blushing as all eyes in the room turned to him, “if any of you even try to offer me the type of advice Alberto offered…” he turned several shades redder, “I’m swear, I’m leaving this room.”
“Should we bore and terrify him with the incredibly dull and mundane aspects of married life?” Eric asked.
Severus quickly downed the rest of his drink, “as long as you make sure not to leave out waking up with a wand pointed at your head and you can’t remember what it was that you did to make your wife that angry…”
~~~~~~~~~~~
