Sophia and Nimue reluctantly dragged their eyes away from the line of ants they had been watching with interest back to Remus.
“Much better,” Remus commented as he tried to hide his smile, “it’s nice to know that occasionally I am more interesting than a group of insects. Now… do either of you have any idea where we were before I lost you?”
“Something hopelessly boring,” Sophia suggested.
“You’re going to do spectacularly in History of Magic if you keep going at this rate,” Remus told her dryly. “I do have several years to catch you up on, so please try to give me most of your attention. Nimue?”
“The magical world in the high Middle Ages?” she said uncertainly.
“Exactly! Either of you care to give me some thoughts on it, because I know that you both did the reading I assigned you.”
“There were witch hunts, which is part of the reason why Hogwarts had been founded a couple of centuries earlier,” Nimue said softly, “although any fully trained witch or wizard who was accused could easily avoid death.”
“How?” Remus asked.
“By using a cooling charm when the muggle courts tried to burn them,” Sophia replied, sounding bored.
“But, wouldn’t they have figured out that they really did have magic if they couldn’t burn?” Nimue asked.
“An interesting point,” Remus said with a faint smile, “yes, they did notice that something was out of place when people who had been accused just wouldn’t burn. Any ideas on what they did with them?”
Nimue shook her head, eyes wide.
“They were canonized.”
Sophia gasped, and it turned into a giggle, “the Christian church made them saints?!”
“Well, not all of them,” Remus pointed out, “but a good number, yes. I wonder what they would think if they realized that several of the saints they honor are really pagans from the wizarding world… it’s probably best that they don’t know. Or at least that the muggle Christians don’t know. A fair number of intellectuals from the medieval world, and intellectuals at that time were part of the church, were wizards.”
“Like who?” Nimue asked.
Remus groaned, “Putting me on the spot are you… I hope you two realize that History of Magic was never my strongest subject…”
“Then it hardly seems fair to make you teach it to us,” Sophia pointed out.
“Very good try, but you have to learn this,” Remus said. He had quickly come to the conclusion that his two students were going to try their best to get out of as much work as possible, “let’s see… Ibn Sinna, although he wasn’t Christian… I think Abelard was, along with a number of prominent translators at Toledo. They were able to make the translation process go much faster.”
“As interesting as this is…” Sophia jumped into the conversation, looking and sounding beyond bored, “why don’t you teach us some real magic.”
Remus regarded the girl for several long minutes before speaking, “it is interesting you feel that way Sophia, especially considering your own culture.”
Sophia frowned, not exactly sure where he was going with this.
“Until very recently the magical community here in Greece has enjoyed a purely oral tradition,” Remus continued, “in fact, except for the priestesses and a few other well educated people, literacy is nonexistent here. And I have been led to believe that history is one of the most important matters that is handed down from generation to generation. Am I right?”
“Yes,” Sophia replied resignedly.
“It’s important that you realize that, unless we know our history Miss…” Remus halted. “Hmmm… another thing that is common here at the temple is a lack of surnames, whatever are they going to do with you at Hogwarts?”
Sophia shrugged, “call me Sophia? I can’t help that it’s the only name I have.”
Remus shook his head, “Hogwarts doesn’t operate like that, we’ll have to come up with something.”
“You could…” Nimue hesitated, “never mind… that was something the Romans did, not the Greeks.”
“What?” Sophia asked.
“Roman women added the genitive form of either their father’s or their husband’s name to their own…”
Sophia shook her head, not quite understanding.
Remus tried not to choke as he realized what Nimue had pointed out, “Sophia, it means that if you went that way you would be ‘Sophia Sirii’, meaning ‘Sirius’ Sophia’.”
Sophia made a face, “absolutely not!”
“You could always take the surname Black,” Nimue suggested.
Sophia openly glared at her, “I will not!”
“He is your father, even if you don’t like him,” Nimue said softly.
“I think this lesson is over for the day,” Remus declared, hoping to bring an end to the current conversation, “why don’t you two head back to the temple, I’m sure there is something for you to do there.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“I think it’s a lost cause mate,” Nick said with compassion as he leaned over Stefan’s shoulder to observe the game.
“It is not,” Stefan growled.
“I’ll have you in 4 moves,” Dierna gloated as she took his rook.
“Do something, she’s already too cocky for her own good, she needs to be taken down,” Serena said, cheering Stefan on. It had been a very good idea for them to all come back together, it meant they were home before dark, but still got to spend time with their guys.
“Three moves,” Dierna said cheerfully as she moved her bishop into place.
“Slaughter her,” Nick commanded Stefan.
“Two moves,” Dierna’ smile widened as she moved her knight.
“That’s it!” Stefan moved his bishop three times and knocked Dierna’s king off the board, “I win!”
“You cheater!” Dierna squealed as she glared across the board at him.
Stefan leaned across the board, “too bad.”
“Oiy… you’ve got her riled now,” Serena said taking a step backwards, “she might just attack.”
“I think not,” before Dierna had a chance to try anything Stefan stood up and quickly tossed the slim red-head over his shoulder. “Do you forfeit wench?!” he demanded.
“What did you call me?!” Dierna shrieked.
Nick and Serena retreated to the couch to watch from relative safety. “Want to make a bet?” Nick asked as he slid his arm around Serena’s shoulders.
“What are the terms?” Serena asked as she leaned into his embrace.
“Loser has to buy the winner dinner.”
“Fine by me.”
“I’ve got dibs on your sister.”
“I hope you’ve been saving, because you’re going to take me somewhere nice,” Serena said as she got more comfortable, “Stefan is definitely winning this one. He has a definite size advantage.”
“Ahhhh… but Dierna plays dirty,” Nick commented as he stole a kiss. “Have I mentioned how glad I am that your father is out of town at the moment?”
“No, but I believe I have several times,” Serena replied as she kissed him back, “otherwise he would be in here every five minutes to check on us and there would be no touching allowed.”
“Yes, very glad he’s not here…” he trailed off as they watched Dierna beat helplessly at Stefan’s back with balled up fists. “Damn… she’s not getting anywhere. Maybe I should come to the lady’s rescue…”
“Don’t you dare!” Serena smacked him with a pillow, “you’re just trying to win the bet,” she accused him.
The two on the couch both flinched as Dierna finally managed to break Stefan’s hold on her, but the sudden shift in weight sent them both, flailing, to the ground.
“Are you trying to destroy my house?” Morgan asked as she appeared in the doorway, hands on her hips. She tried hard not to smile at the four guilty faces that looked up at her. She slowly shook her head, thinking about how lucky they were that Severus was not home. Her husband probably would have had a heart attack if he could see the way Dierna and Stefan were entangled with each other on the floor. “Just try not to do anything that will require a trip to St. Mungo’s, I don’t think I’m up for that tonight.”
She allowed herself to smile sadly as she turned to leave the room, once she was sure that they would not see it. She fervently hoped that fate would be kind to the group in her living room. They didn’t deserve to suffer the effects of a full fledged war against Voldemort.
~~~~~~~~~~
“You look beautiful my dear,” Minerva assured Eva as she helped the young bride adjust her veil.
“We are not rushing things, ja?” Eva asked as she played with a bit of ribbon on her sleeve.
Minerva softened her features, “if it was anyone else I’d be sorely temped to say yes. But you and Zach are both level-headed and, it would appear, deeply in love. I would not worry too much.”
“I cannot thank you enough for helping me,” Eva said softly, “danke,” she quickly embraced the older woman.
“Not at all, it’s not as though I’ve not done this before,” Minerva assured her. She gave a small smile as she remembered helping Morgan prepare for her wedding to the surly potions master. Calming that girl down had been quite the challenge. Eva seemed much more put together by comparison.
“Hier sind die Blumen!” Clara said as she thrust a bouquet of white lilies into Eva’s trembling hands. “Du bist sehr schön,” she assured her aunt.
Eva managed a weak smile for her niece as she reached down to straighten the little girl’s pink robes.
“Are you ready?” Minerva asked gently.
Eva took one last look in the mirror to make sure that her white dress robes were hanging straight, and with a deep breath, nodded in affirmation.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Do you think we should have slipped him something?” Eric asked quietly as he looked for any sign of color in his grandson’s face.
“Probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea,” Severus muttered, “I actually slipped myself something, hopefully it’ll make this day go faster.”
“I was wondering what happened to my bottle of brandy… damn you. I was looking for that this morning.”
“I think Alberto is trying to give him advice again,” Dumbledore spoke up from where his portrait had been hung, seemingly in mid-air. “Shouldn’t one of you go over there and save the poor boy?”
“What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger,” Severus pointed out.
“It’s a good thing the boy is wearing blue robes,” Eric commented, “had he been wearing green…” he snorted, “he would have looked like a Christmas ornament with as red as he keeps turning.”
“Severus…”
“What is it that you want Albus?!” Snape snarled as he turned towards the meddling portrait.
“Take some pity on the boy,” Albus pushed, “he’s nervous enough as it is, he doesn’t need Alberto making it worse.”
Severus glared at the former headmaster, but swept over to where Zach was standing and sent Alberto on some unnecessary errand. “Not long now,” he commented, not quite what Albus was expecting him to do. He should have sent the bloody portrait over to do its own dirty work.
“I guess so,” Zach said as he looked once again towards the atrium. They had chosen to have the wedding at a charming little villa in the magical quarter of Canterbury. But the relaxing atmosphere was doing nothing to calm his nerves.
“It won’t be that bad… I promise,” Severus assured him.
“I’m not worried about being married, I’m worried about the wedding,” Zach said as he resumed pacing.
“The ceremony is a rather simple procedure. I should think that you would be more worried about finding yourself married after only knowing the woman for a few short months and suddenly finding yourself the guardian of her young niece.”
“How long were you with Morgan, after she graduated I mean… until you married her?”
Severus narrowed his eyes, “that blasted meddling portrait has talked to you already.”
Zach shrugged, “I guess so.”
“And I suppose he also told you that I became the legal guardian of my wife’s sister a year after we were married.”
“He mentioned that too. He said we had very similar situations.”
“No, we do not. The circumstances of your marriage are far removed from my own. No matter what Dumbledore may have seen fit to disclose to you, in this case he was wrong.”
“How so?”
Severus slowly shook his head, as though trying to dispel unpleasant thoughts, “nothing you need to concern yourself with.”
The two men stood in silence for some time before Eric joined them. “I believe they are ready for us in the other room,” he informed them as he leaned on his cane, “shall we do this?”
“I guess this is it then,” Zach said as he tugged at his navy robes, which seemed to be suffocating him all of a sudden.
“Don’t worry,” Eric advised him, “surviving the ceremony isn’t that hard, it’s the wedding night that may very well kill you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
