A/N: I'm so sorry about the long wait between updates! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter!
"I'm - I'm Marius," Marius said, stepping forward. "Marius Evans. May I help you?" His head tipped wildly, thoughts scattering like papers in the wind. He immediately connected the man to the letter from Athena. Hadn't she said someone would come to - to...
"Ah. Excellent. I'm Albus Dumbledore. You haven't met me before, but I know a lot about you." He paused a moment, his eyes startling and sparkling. "Marius, would you take a walk with me?" Christine's silky fingertips brushed his arm, telling him no. Cautioning him.
"Alright," he replied slowly, nodding. Attempting to smile reassuringly for his wife, he stepped out to join this Dumbledore man on the porch. "We'll be back in a minute, Christine. Perhaps we can give our guest some lemonade?"
She flinched momentarily, shocked, before nodding. "Of course." Dumbledore looked positively delighted at their hospitality.
"Excellent, excellent," he murmured, smiling warmly towards the younger man. Marius gave a rueful smile in return, trying to evade the dread brewing inside him. "Marius, how about we head out behind the house?"
"Why not," Marius replied easily, trying not to feel offended about being shown around his own house.
"Ah, Marius," Dumbledore said. "I hear you had the pleasure of making Athena's acquaintance. Wonderful woman, isn't she?"
"Yes, wonderful..." Suddenly wrapped in thoughts of Athena, reeling pictures of her beautiful face, he nearly missed Dumbledore's next question.
"And you read her letter."
"I - I did."
"And you've met your daughter?" Dumbledore's voice inclined cheerfully. "Congratulations are in order, I suppose."
Marius's throat shrunk painfully, twisting around and around until he could barely speak. "Thank you," he choked. "Yes, I've met my... daughter." His daughter. Imagine. He couldn't possibly comprehend having a daughter besides Petunia, even though he and Christina had been trying. Questions buzzed at his lips, concerns. Smart a man as he was, he didn't understand. "Are you... like... her?"
"Like her? Ah, my dear man, no one is quite like Athena. There are a few, but I've only had the joy of meeting her. Your daughter will be only partially like her. And while she could emphasize that part of her heritage, Athena has contacted me and said she would prefer to emphasize a different trait. One from your bloodline."
"From my bloodline? What - what does that mean?" His head pounded unsubtly, burning the insides of his brain.
"Marius, how much do you know about your grandmother?"
"I - I never met her... she died long before I was born."
"Yes, but do you know anything about her?"
"No, no, my parents didn't talk about her much."
Dumbledore's face lit up, corners infusing with a yellow tinge. "That's because she was a witch. It skipped several generations, you and your father, but it will reappear again in your daughter. Athena's relatives have... ways of telling the future." He smiled, hands clasped behind his back. "Of course, so do we, but they're a bit less accurate..."
Spluttering over the impossibilities, Marius ignored his disbelief for a different question. "Athena was a... witch?"
"Not precisely. In fact, I'm afraid I can't tell you much more about her. She communicates peacefully with our world though, and is the only of her kind to do so. The others look down on us. She finds us intelligent, and respects us with more information than she gives many. But... enough about that. I can tell you anything you'd like to know about your world. So... any questions?" Two rows of tiny teeth emerged between his chapped lips, and Marius was taken aback.
"I -" His mouth froze in a broken circle, uncertain. "She's really my daughter?"
"Yes. You should feel proud, perhaps, if you'd like. Athena values you, and the daughter she had with you, enough not to drag the pair of you into her world." He smiled again, this one humorous. "Though it may not appear such, once you learn more, my world - our world - is actually the safer of the two."
"I - I feel a bit faint," Marius confessed, after he'd let a handful of seconds pass.
"That's completely natural," Dumbledore assured. "Would you like a lemon drop?"
"Would I - would I what?"
"A lemon drop." He pulled a pouch from the inside of his ensemble, which appeared to be a sort of robe, and opened it for Marius. "Would you like one? I find they're good for headaches and feeling faint."
"Thank you," Marius muttered. He let the world slide out from under his feet, too tired and too dizzy to focus on the strangeness of it all.
"Now, I'm afraid I must go and take care of your wife and daughter."
"Take care of?" Instantly Marius's temper flared, distrust swarming inside him. "You can't touch them, I won't let you!
"Marius, I won't hurt them. I promise you. But if you wish for them to think that the child is theirs, you must let me perform a simple memory charm. It won't hurt them, merely make them believe that your wife -"
"Christine," Marius hissed. Quite suddenly, he did not like this man. With his puff of white beard and hair, glimmering blue dress... he seemed unreal. Evil. A trickster. Who had a name like Dumbledore, anyway?
"Christine," he corrected himself, nodding. He seemed to notice Marius's expression then, and he took a step back. "Marius, please understand me. If I don't perform this charm, things can only become worse. If I do, your wife will believe that she had this daughter months ago, and she is three months old. Whether you like it or not Marius, she will receive a letter to our school when she turns eleven. That will bring her into our world whether you like it or not."
"But... I still don't understand. Any of it. The different worlds... yours - hers. It makes no sense."
"There will be many years to understand," Dumbledore said, peering kindly over his glasses. "You will understand most of it, a piece of it, in due time. I promise you that."
Marius stiffened, but his insides calmed inexplicably. He could not consider it without anguish, and so he tried not to consider it at all.
"Would you like to watch me perform the charm, to reassure yourself, or would you rather stay here?"
Ashamed, yet utterly unable to accompany the alleged wizard, Marius let his head hang. "I'll stay here..."
"As you wish." Eyes still twinkling, Dumbledore left him with a smile. Marius pressed his back against the window, vision qcaught on the grass tendrils beneath his feet. Worlds or no worlds, he thought he heard a baby's giggle in the distance. His baby. His and Athena's, whoever she might be.
A/N: I hope you liked it! This is the end of Marius and Christine, just so you know. From here on, the story is going to flit back and forth between Lily's childhood and the gods on Olympus. Reviews would be much appreciated! :D
