An Unconventional Fairytale: Quatre Jours à Paris
partie tois: Victoire
They climbed yet another stair and turned the corner to even more stairs. Ron meant to continue, but Hermione had stopped. He looked back and found her looking up to whatever was at the next landing.
There was this 'look' on her face- like admiration but something else. So he followed her gaze.
At the top of the stair, above the heads of the people gathered there was a statue. He had trouble making it out, but it looked like a figure with wings.
"What is it?"
Hermione gently sighed, "Victory of Samothrace."
That didn't really help, but she had started ascending the stairs. As they got closer, Ron could make out that it was a figure; a woman and she had wings.
"This one doesn't have arms, either. Or a head."
She had closed her eyes, most likely to cover the eye roll, and smiled as you would to a child. He had gotten that look so often over the years Ron just waited for the education.
"She was found in a ruined temple in the city of Samothrace, in ancient Greece. They have parts of her hands, but they are very badly damaged. Regardless, she's beautiful, isn't she?"
Ron looked at the stone figure and tried to see what had so clearly captivated Hermione. "Guess I'm not seeing what you see."
Shrugging, he looked down at her. Hermione smiled brightly and took his hand to walk them both through the crowd to the side of the statue.
"Don't worry, I didn't see it at first either. Aunt Elli showed me." Hermione looked up the to figure standing on the rocky plinth. "That, and I guess now she has a more personal meaning as well.
"Samothrace had a great navel victory, and to commemorate it they had this statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, carved. Scholars think one of her arms was down and back while the other was at her mouth, heralding their victory."
Hermione adopted the stance she had just described and Ron tried to imagine her with wings.
"So, have that image in your mind and look at her. She's standing tall and forward, wings thrown back showing strength and pride. Her robes are rippling in the wind, suggesting she's standing at the cliffs edge, bracing into the wind to call out to the victorious naval ships."
Ron saw the features Hermione had mentioned, but he was having trouble understanding her strong reaction to it. He looked down to say so but his words caught in his throat.
She was standing tall and proud. And although over the years she had been… damaged, she still carried herself with strength, grace and beauty.
"Do you see it now?"
His voice came out a croak. "Yeah. I see it now."
partie quatre: rendezvous
She had been in there for over an hour. Ron knew this was going to happen. He wasn't surprised nor was he upset about it- at least not with yet another pastry safely in his stomach.
Sunday evening they left Hermione's parents and Aunt Eli back at the hotel and returned to Rue L'Le. As expected, Hermione couldn't resist the lure of the bookstore so Ron took the opportunity to sample another French pastry.
The Tart Horns looked pretty with their glazed fruits, but somehow that only made them seem healthy so Ron chose a chocolate Topple Cake. He wasn't sure if he would have paired cherry, pistachio and coconut flavoured cakes together, but somehow it all came together on their journey to his stomach.
After forty minutes more he broke down and got a Cream Fancy. He still didn't speak French, but he had gotten good at pointing and counting out the money based on the number of fingers the shopkeeper held up.
Having now crossed the hour mark, Ron was starting to get bored. He had found a table and chair out of the way but could still watch the witches and wizards going about their business. He wanted to find a joke shop and get some unique items to show George, but he was loath to leave the area lest Hermione come looking for him.
As he often did when he was bored, Ron had taken to playing with the Deluminator. There was a small lantern in the neighboring shop window whose light was being alternately sucked up and sent back as Ron clicked the silver device.
Looking down at the little metal box he sighed. "Be nice if you could take me to her."
He clicked it again but the lantern light did not go out. Ron found himself staring at a little blue ball of light.
"Bloody hell."
He jumped up, pulling his wand out of his pocket. The light entered his chest and he turned on the spot.
"AH! Ron! What? How? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Hermione stood back, clutching her chest and panting from the fright.
"It worked!" He held aloft the Deluminator as if holding up a trophy.
Hermione's breathing had returned to normal, as had her faculties. "What worked? The Deluminator? But how, I didn't say your name?"
"I was across the way, playing with a lantern for a while and then it just worked."
She looked alternately between Ron and the Deluminator with increasing incredulity. "Surely you must have said something. Or it would have 'just worked' last autumn, don't you think?"
His victory slipping away, Ron tried to sift through his excitement to remember what he had done just before it worked. "I did say something. It was… I was thinking about how long you'd been and how it would be handy if it would work both ways. You know, take me to you." Ron looked up quickly, a smile lighting his face. "That's it, I asked it to take me to her."
Hermione gently took the silver device and turned it in her hands. "That was it? 'Take me to her?' Seems so simple. You never thought to ask it before?"
Ron took her hand that was holding the Deluminator in his larger one. His smile was warm, but sad. "I'm thinking the same thing- but I didn't know what it was at the time, did I? And I wasn't in the habit of talking to light put-outers or maybe I would have stumbled on it. Who knows, maybe you had to say my name first anyway- to activate it or something."
She held her other hand under their joined ones and turned the opposite wrist to loosen his grip. With purpose, she pressed the Deluminator back into his hand and closed his fingers around it. "Doesn't matter. It brought you back when we needed you most and I always feel safe knowing that all I have to do is whisper your name and you'll come to me."
"And now I can come to you whenever I want."
Smiling wryly, Hermione gently shook her head. "Yes, just don't be popping into Hogwarts or you'll get us both in trouble."
His eyebrow raised and smile twisted into a smirk. "Come now, you know better. A very smart witch once told me that you can't disapparate in or out of Hogwarts."
She gave him a weary look. "You know what I meant."
Pocketing the Deluminator, Ron looked around the shop. "So, have you decided to buy the whole shop?"
"Ha. Ha. There are only a few books that I want to get. There's the one about Rune translation into French-"
"Wouldn't you have to translate into English then?"
"You're missing the point."
"Am I?"
His answer was a sharp huff as she bent down to scoop up her armful of books. "And there are a couple about some alternate theories on Arithmancy." She plucked a book from the middle of the stack and handed it to Ron. "And I found this one that you and George might find useful for your WonderWitch products."
Ron turned the book around to read the cover. Charmants Sortilèges pour Charmer votre Sorcier. "Something about charms I take it?"
"Yes, I flipped through it and saw a few that might have some potential- or least give you some ideas."
"Brilliant. Thanks." Ron followed Hermione down the aisle to the stair. "So, find any French-English dictionaries that would help me with the question I mentioned last night?"
She stopped dead on the stair and he could hear a loud sigh of exasperation. "Honestly, Ronald!"
A/N: Well kiddies- this is our last chapter in France- as you can see I had two ideas that take place on the same day, but didn't connect well narratively- hence the part 3 & 4. Also, I have posted a couple pictures of Victory of Samothrace on my Tumblr, if you're not familiar with her. She's the reason I went to the Lourve.
Some well deserved thanks to my reader Kamala76- she has assisted with a few of my French translations, most notably the book title from this chapter. Translating "Charming Charms to Charm Your Charmer" into French was not as straight forward as I had thought.
As always- I am a proud, card-carrying, member of the HalfASlug Club and Tea Spilling Society.
Jo Rowling recently had a birthday- so my gift to her is the continued breathing of life into her beloved characters who still live in our hearts.