“Remus… I…I…”
“That’ll be 500 lines, Miss Snape, I will not throw rocks at my favorite professor.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you, I swear…”
“I know, and it’s perfectly fine. No harm done.” He joined her on the rocky outcropping that overlooked the sea, the rocks were still warm from the midday sun despite the fact that stars now filled the sky. “Care to tell me what has gotten you so upset that you felt the need to use me for target practice?”
Nimue picked up another rock, this one made it into the sea this time, “just feeling a bit lost.”
“Homesick?”
Nimue shrugged, “I am, but this doesn’t have anything to do with that… just trying to figure out why I’m here…”
“Here as in… here at the temple here… thinking about becoming a priestess here… here on the earth… if it’s the last one I’m not answering it… the thought of Snape and your mother…” he shuddered dramatically.
Nimue giggled, “Do you know what the absolute worst is? One time we were all looking at the map and both of our parents’ names were there but there was only one dot…”
Remus suppressed a grimace, barely, the Snapes’ personal time was nothing he wanted to hear about. “What map would that be?” he asked, although he was pretty sure he knew.
Nimue gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth, no one was supposed to know that her sisters had the Marauder’s Map.
“What I would like to know, is how your siblings ever got a hold of that thing. Harry said he lost it years ago.”
Nimue chewed her lower lip nervously.
“I’m no longer a professor at the school you know…”
Nimue smiled, “I don’t know all the details, but I believed there was a distraction set up involving fireworks, the prefects’ bathroom, and Mrs. Norris. Filch never knew who did it or that they snuck into the office and got the map.”
Remus laughed, “I can only imagine what they managed to do with fireworks, and Mrs. Norris in the prefects’ bathroom. I remember Filch complaining about that incident but I had no idea it was your brother and sisters behind that one. What other pranks have they been involved in over the years.”
Nimue shrugged, “I’m not really sure, they didn’t include me in those plans.”
“Now that we have sufficiently deviated from the subject at hand…”
Nimue sighed, “I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will never feel wholly comfortable with this goddess… whoever she is… she can be so violent from what Kalliope has told me. How can I serve a deity like that? I feel like I have no choice in the matter…”
“You have always had a choice child, and you always will,” Kalliope joined them, although it took her a bit more effort and help from Remus to make it down from the ground. “I’m never going to be able to get back up now…” she muttered bitterly as she rested a hand on her extended abdomen. “Now then… I believe we have had this discussion before. Just like the moon, the goddess has a dark side. But she is also a beacon of light.”
“A bringer of pain,” Remus said softly, but it was enough for Kalliope to grab his shirt and drag him over close enough for a kiss.
“And a bringer of life,” Kalliope added as she placed Remus’ hand over the swell of her stomach. “She is life, and death, and everything in between. She is the mother to us all, and she is the maiden,” she smiled gently at Nimue, “and she protects her own. You were meant to serve her.”
Nimue frowned, “but I’m not always sure what form of the goddess I am serving… there are so many names for her.”
“She will answer no matter what name you call her by.”
“But how do I…”
“Child, the names and associations that the goddess has acquired are not important. She is important.”
Nimue shook her head in confusion, “I’m not sure I understand…”
“Tell me child, what versions of the goddess to you find the most appealing.”
Nimue cocked her head to the side and stared at the waves as they crashed against the rocks, “Demeter… she kinda reminds me of my Mum.”
Kalliope smiled, “a priestess. She lived… oh it must have been around the time of the Trojan War because her cult was well established by the time Homer wrote about it several centuries later.”
Nimue’s mouth dropped open, “she was a real person?”
Kalliope laughed, “of course she was child. She was a priestess and a very powerful witch.”
“That’s not something they include in the History of Magic curriculum at Hogwarts,” Remus said with a rueful smile. “It’s a pity really. So many of our ancestors made themselves quite famous.”
“So, some of the other gods…”
“All real people, witches and wizards, powerful prophets, famous priests and priestesses…” Kalliope leaned back against the trunk of an olive tree, smiling slightly as she recalled the story of Athena’s gift of the blessed tree to her followers, “Athena was a warrior queen, and a powerful witch.”
“The story about her being born from Zeus’ head?” Nimue leaned forward.
“A story that arose from a joke told around the camp fires, I’m not completely sure how it got twisted around. Are you familiar with the story of Apollo slaying Pythos?”
Nimue nodded.
“A wizard’s duel. Unfortunately Pythos lost, although she probably wasn’t much with a wand. Apollo wasn’t known for his prowess as a warrior. Yes, he is often depicted with a bow… but that’s more of a cultural play on his image. They had to make him more masculine.”
“Persephone?”
“That story is much the way you know it. Demeter’s daughter was sold off in an arranged marriage to her uncle. She was taken many miles away from her home. It was a common scenario in the past. It hasn’t fallen out of practice here where people keep the old ways, but it’s not as limiting as it once was.”
Nimue looked up at the stars, they seemed hard and cold next to the soft light of the moon, “I’m not sure what I think anymore… I love it here, but there are times when I feel so…”
“Lost,” Remus supplied for her.
Nimue nodded, “and I feel even more so now. I’ve been told that I will come to love and trust the goddess, I just have to see her in all of her guises. But now that has been thrown out the window…” she sighed and drew her knees up to her chest glaring down at the dark waves.
“I told you that originally to help you find your way. If you are feeling lost now you should remember what you were feeling when you first started to experience the visions.”
Remus quietly got up and headed back towards the temple, he had a feeling he wouldn’t be needed for the rest of this conversation.
Besides, he needed his sleep. He had made plans to go hunting with Cadmus early the next morning. And that was always an adventure.
“I just wish I understood…” Nimue said softly, “I wish this would just all fall into place.”
Kalliope smiled a bit sadly, “if it were easy it wouldn’t mean so much. You don’t have to stumble along on your own, the goddess will guide you if you ask her.”
“I don’t think I can. I’m not sure where to find her.”
“Help me up,” Kalliope commanded, and helped as best she could despite her increasing size as Nimue pulled her up off the ground.
“You’re enormous,” Nimue informed her.
“Hmpf… as if I didn’t already know that… and I still have nearly three months to go.”
Nimue grinned at her cheekily, “just thought you ought to be told the truth. Besides, it’s more like two and a half months. Do you think it could be twins?”
Kalliope rolled her eyes, “you were wanting to know how to find the goddess… place your hands on the ground girl. That’s right… now feel Her. I don’t care if it takes you all night, you are to stay out here, just like that, until you are certain that the goddess is there, that she is all around you.”
Nimue watched Kalliope walk back towards the temple. She knew she wouldn’t be left alone out in the dark, someone would be watching.
She kept her hands flat on the ground, it gave her an odd feeling. She had done this before… and it had caused strange things to happen. The longer she sat there the more tense she began, what if nothing happened?
And then, just as she was about to drift off to sleep, tired from sitting there for so long, she felt it. It was like a surge of energy rushing up from the earth, through her palms, and into her very core. It left her shaking, but at the same time had filled her with an amazing sense of peace. She didn’t know how to describe it. It was… indescribable. Trembling, she stood up, but she seemed far more sure of herself as she walked steadily back to her sleeping quarters.
~~~~~~~~~~
