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Warning for Pompeii!AU being used for the first time, a historical natural disaster, mentions of death and destruction, and a slight bit out of character due to the AU being used. Word count is 2,974 words. I hope you all enjoy Last Day in Pompeii.
The normal chirping of birds was missing the morning of the disaster waking me from a deep sleep. My mother had always told me that animals were the first to know when something dangerous was going to happen. They showed that knowledge in different ways and one of those was to pull away from familiar patterns and every day. Usually, there was a flock of some kind of gull or bird that flocked around the villa I'd just bought for my wife Hermione and my adoptive daughter and son, Rose, and Hugo. But the absence of the birds was a warning in my mind.
"Severus, are you alright?" Hermione asked, looking up at me from her pillow. "Did you have another one of your bad dreams? I told you your research on the area was going to cause havoc with your sleep, didn't I?"
"It's not a bad dream, Hermione," I said, looking towards the window to confirm that the gulls or whatever they are weren't there. "It's a feeling I've got that something bad is about to happen today."
"Where does this feeling come from?" she asked, sitting up and holding the blanket to her in order to keep warm. The early dawn wind was rather cool as it blew in the window we'd left open last night.
"Have you not noticed the lack of our usual early morning visitors?" I asked, looking towards the window. Their vast Pompeian villa usually had some form of sound surrounding it at this time of the morning. Hadn't she ever noticed this before?
"I had noticed that the birds were missing, Sev," she said, leaning back and looking at the ceiling of our room. "But that doesn't mean that something horrible is going to happen. It just means that the birds went somewhere else for the day."
"Birds and other such animals are creatures of habit, Hermione," I said, looking out the window at the clear blue sky overhead. "They don't just change their habits on a whim. Something must be disastrously wrong before they change their habits. They usually know these things before humans do. This is why before an earthquake or some other natural disaster you will see animals behaving quite strangely."
"Don't forget, Severus, I'm as well taught on the subject as you are," she said, rolling her eyes as she rolled over. "You taught me a lot of it yourself."
"I know," I said, rolling over and pulling her against my chest. My arms snaking around her waist protectively.
I was about to say something more on the subject when the dog that was owned by the neighboring villa started going berserk. This was followed shortly by a pounding on the door by one of the servants.
"What is it?" I asked irritably, rolling away from Hermione. The sense of foreboding that I had got even heavier as I slid my legs out of bed.
"You might want to come and take a look at this, milord," the man said, sounding urgent about his business.
"A look at what?" I sneered back, my feet hitting the cold stone floor of the sleeping chamber. I walked across the chamber and quickly changed into my clothes for the day.
"I don't know how to explain it," the man said, something in his voice making the fear I felt of something bad happening deepen. "But you really do have to come down to the stables and see this."
"The stables? What's going on in the stables? Has that pregnant mare started to…."
"No. It's not her. Just come quick."
I could hear the man's retreating footsteps before I could even formulate another question. I had a lot of them forming at this minute. I slipped my feet into the sandals that Hermione had just gotten me for my last birthday.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked sleepily looking up at me from the bed.
"I don't know," I told her. "Something is wrong in the stables."
"Another omen of bad luck?" she asked, a joking hint to her voice.
"Don't laugh. It has been known to happen."
"Severus, we came to Pompeii so that you could relax and work on your research in peace," she said, giggling like a schoolchild. "Not so that you can chase bad omens around the countryside and worry yourself to death."
"I will just go down and see what the trouble is in the stables and then I will be right back to devote the rest of the day to you, I promise," I walked back over and leaned down to place one last kiss upon her lips. Little did I know that we would be fleeing our happy little villa and running for our lives later on in the day.
"Be careful, Sev," she called after me, still giggling like a child, "we wouldn't want anything bad to happen, now would we?"
"Don't be childish," I murmur under my breath as I stalked towards the exit of the villa and towards the stable.
I hear the dangerous goings-on of the stable before I was even within view of the building. The terrified braying of the donkeys and horses as they balked in their stalls waiting to be let out into the pasture. The dark fear from earlier tightened in my chest as I drew nearer.
"Thank the gods, Master," the head of the stables said, racing up to me. "I've never seen an animal act like this before. Let alone a whole stable full of them. What should we do?"
"Have you never worked as a stable hand before?" I asked the man incredulously. Not waiting for an answer, I turned to the rest of the stable staff. "Sooth the horses as best you can and when you've done that put them out in the pasture. Check up on that mare and make sure she's alright. Put her out in that other pasture down there. I don't want her or her foal to be injured."
"Yes, sir," the servants said, scattering to go about my instructions.
I turned back to the head of the stables and shook my head. "Why did you not tell me that you had no actual experience with the animals under your care?" I asked, looking at him with anger in my eyes. "If whoever came and got me didn't think as quickly as they had one or more of these animals could have injured or worse."
"But they weren't…."
"A good thing for you, isn't it?" I asked, seeing him start to realize that he was actually in trouble. "I'm demoting you from your position as head of the stables, be glad you still have a job."
"But, sir…."
I nodded towards where the others were hard at work, indicating that he could join them at his new job. "Feel free to send the young man who came and fetched me over," I called, adding insult to his injury.
It was at this point that the first sign of sure and imminent trouble reared its ugly head. Or more like shook the ground beneath our feet. I could see the startled looks of the workers as they went about caring for the horses and making sure they were safe.
The earth trembled for longer than it usually did when an earthquake hit. Much longer and I couldn't help but allow the small prick of dread that entered my mind to become even larger than it was. I had researched many places and seen many natural disasters in my time. But something told me that this wasn't a normal earthquake. Nothing about this felt normal.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" the young man with the familiar asked, looking at me quizzically. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," I said, wanting to believe it with all my heart but not truly believing. "What is your name, lad?"
"Nevillus," he said, questioningly. "Nevillus Longbottomus. What can I do for you?"
"I would like to promote you to the position of head of the stables starting now," I said, smiling at me. I hoped that would allay the dark-haired boy's thoughts a bit. Make him see that he wasn't in trouble.
"Me?"
I nodded. "Now, if I may ask you another question, young Nevillius?"
"Of course, you are the Master of the house," he said, a hint of laughter present in his voice.
"How often do earthquakes such as the one that just passed hit this countryside?" I asked, looking at him. "Are they always like this?"
"Hasn't been one like this since before my father was born or even longer before that if I remember correctly. Why do you ask, sir?"
"It's for some research that I'm doing," I said, turning to go back to Hermione and enjoy the rest of the early morning in the arms of my wife.
"That was probably the mountain," Nevillus said, pointing towards a large peek that looked miles and miles off in the distance from us. "Showing us that it's still here and what have you." He gave a nervous laugh. "Nothing bad or anything just a mighty show of force."
My interest was peeked now. I had heard reports from cities in the nearby vicinity that the mountain wasn't an ordinary mountain. That the mountain in question held the wrath of the gods and it was said that they would pour their wrath out every once in a while.
"How far away do you think that mountain is?" I asked, pointing towards the mountain in question. "I would really like to go and take a look at it. For research's sake."
"It's about a day's journey there and day's journey back," Nevillus replied, watching me as though I might say something interesting.
"Thank you, Nevillus," I said, turning and walking back to the villa.
If I had been looking towards the mountain I would have seen the first sign of smoke coming from the mountain. But I hadn't been and thus didn't see the smoke. But I could hear someone comment about 'that being something the mountain never did before' as I walked away.
By the time I returned to the villa, the children were up and dressed. Hermione had them at the table for breakfast which was just being put upon the table as I walked in. The table was ladened with fruits of every kind and drinks too.
"Severus, is everything alright in the stables?" Hermione asked, looking at me in worry. "No one was hurt or anything?"
"No one was hurt," I said, sitting at my customary position at the head of the table. "The horses sensed the earthquake that we just had and were reacting to that. That was all. Although I think that mare may have her foal any day now."
"Can I go to the stables when she does and see it?" asked Rose, looking up at me pleadingly. The little curly-haired girl had liked horses for as long as I had known her. In fact, the mare in question was her own horse that I had bought her for a recent birthday.
"I don't know," I told her. "Ask your mother and see what she says about that?"
"We'll see," Hermione said, sitting down and starting to sip her wine. "You must behave as you are told to between now and then. No matter what your birth father says."
"I will," Rose said, grinning and chomping into one of the many fruits she'd chosen to eat. "I promise."
Hermione looked about ready to say something when another earthquake shook the house. This lasted longer than the first one had. I could see the frightened look upon the faces of both Hermione and the children.
"What should we do?" Hermione asked, looking at me pleadingly. Sometimes she could be the smartest woman I knew and then others she could be just as weak-minded as the rest of her gender was.
"We should get to a place where nothing can fall upon us," I told her, ushering her and the children to the archway out of the room.
When the earthquake started to subdue I had made up my mind to risk the day's journey both ways and go check out the mountain. But before I could even so much as state that fact there was a commotion in the yard. I walked out and could see people gathering their personal items and leaving in droves. A lot of the servants looked frightened.
"What's going on here?" I asked, stopping one of them.
"The mountain," he said, pointing in the direction of the mountain. "The mountain has a fire upon it. Look!"
I looked and there was smoke coming from the top of the mountain. It looked like someone had been camping in the mountains and had forgotten their fire. Which had thusly gotten out of control and was now burning unchecked.
"It's probably nothing," I told the servant. "But if it would make everyone more comfortable and get everyone back to their given tasks I will personally go and check it out. Will that work for everyone?"
"But, sir, the mountain…."
"Yes, I know it's on bloody fire," I shouted, walking towards the stable. When I reached the stable I told Nevillus to have someone make ready my horse. That I was going to go research the mountain today.
I was halfway out of town on my way to investigate the mountain when a sulfurous scent reached my nose. I knew this sulfurous scent as well as I knew that of any other scent. It was the scent of a volcano just about to explode. I looked up at the mountain that was far away to see that a thick stream of ash was jetting into the sky almost black out the sun.
I mentally curse as I wheeled my horse around headed back towards my family. On my way back I told as many people about the volcano that I came across. They all either laughed or waved me off. No one thought that the volcano was going to erupt. No one even thought the volcano was real. They thought it was all a bunch of hogwash that it wasn't due to explode for another twenty years. I looked over my shoulder urging the horse on as I saw the red flashes of lava in the jet of ash.
When I arrived I jump from my horse's back and turned to Nevillus. "Get them out," I said, looking at the horses who had once more been put back in their stable stalls. "Let them out now. Get as many of the servants and tell them to leave the villa. Tell them not to pack just to get out as fast as they can. The 'mountain' is going to shower doom upon us at any minute." I pointed towards the mountain and the not so slow creep of volcanic lava and ash that was heading down its side.
Nevillus who had been quite calm earlier let out a string of curses as he ran to do as I had instructed him to do. I ran towards the house where Hermione was about to bring the children outside for some air.
"Hermione," I said, catching her and the children and pulling them towards the exit of the villa's courtyard, "we've got to go, now."
Hermione's eyes widened in fear, making me turn in the direction that she was looking. There are certain laws of nature that everyone knows about. One of them being something that goes up must always come down. The thing that my wife was frightened of was the huge jet of ash that had been sent into the air which was now on its way down joining the lava to make a slurry heated speed.
"Hermione," I said, looking her squarely in the eyes, "we're going to be alright." I didn't know for sure if we were going to be alright or not. I didn't know if we were even going to survive this. But if it would make her move I would say anything.
We raced through the streets of now panicking people on our way out of Pompeii. The ones who had said that I was crazy and that the volcano wasn't going to erupt were inside their dwellings. More than likely wandering what all the commotion was about. Or gorging themselves fat with all their excess.
The sulfurous smoke was the first thing to hit the village as we were halfway through. I looked at the children and knew that I had to make it look like we were going to have some chance of making it. I wasn't sure if there was but I wouldn't let them know that.
The outskirts of the village were drawing closer and closer as I heard the screams of our friends and neighbors who the ash and lava had overtaken. Just a few more miles to go. Just a few more miles to go. I had to keep telling myself that as I urged Hermione to run on.
We were finally far enough away from Pompeii to consider sitting down and taking a breath of air. I looked back to see the rain of destruction that was coming down upon our summer home and its people. I could hear the panicked screams still coming from people who had gotten away but were unfortunate enough to have gotten burned by the acrid air around them. I turned to Hermione and could see that she was cradling the children close to her.
"We made it?" she asked, looking back at what used to be Pompeii.
"We made it," I said, allowing myself a moment to relax before we made our way back to the heart of Rome to tell our story of survival.
I hope you all enjoyed Last Day in Pompeii as much as I enjoyed writing it.