A/N Welcome to JC Series Three, The Destiny Series, book two, which in some ways is a continuation of Isle of Legends. Aurelius gets sorted, heaven help us all, and Severus Snape once again gets drags into things thanks to his wife's goings on. This book also gets more in-depth about the workings of a particular house (and not Gryffindor) and sets the stage for the third book in the series. In fact, this book is the only book in the series that leaves you a hanging a bit. However, I hope you enjoy it.
If you're new to the JC Books, Series one (the Voldemort years) begins with Jennifer Craw and the Phoenix Wand, which is a short intro compared to the other books. Last revision: 8-21
Jennifer Craw and the Princess of Gold
Chapter One
The Lost and the Found
There were many young magic students that attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who might try to predict how any one of their professors would be spending their summer holiday. Perhaps one of the easiest in their minds was guessing the summer of Professor Severus Snape; the crass, hawk-nosed Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who taught with a very heavy hand. He would most likely spend the entire summer in the basement of his seaside home, tucked away from his children and wife, searching for a bit of peace and quiet while conjuring spells to encase fairies and demons and creatures that lurked in the night.
They would have been quite surprised indeed to find out what he had actually been doing a week after the holiday had started. For the lanky, dark-haired man was stretched out on a deck chair taking in the sun with a Muggle mystery novel in one hand, a glass of iced Earl Grey tea in the other, and a fishing pole by his side.
It was a breezy morning off the western coast of Ireland, and the water was calm and warm. The chime of a watch dinged softly from the wizard's pocket, and he quickly put down his book and drink, giving the fishing line a few hard tugs before setting it down again, peering over the side of the boat. A moment later, the sparkling surface began to ripple and a beautiful auburn haired woman emerged, grabbing a hold of the rope ladder beside her.
"Anyone call for a mermaid?" Jennifer Craw Snape asked playfully.
"I'd prefer one not-drowning wife, actually," Severus said evenly. "The potion's wearing off and if you don't come up here soon, I will have the Merrows cook again."
"Oh, no you don't. I'm tired of fish!" Jennifer laughed, climbing aboard and grabbing her towel. "You really ought to come down with me sometime. It's very pretty, and there are even a few old wrecks down there."
"Yes, and then we lose track of the time and find ourselves at the bottom with no air and crushing pressure," Severus said without enthusiasm. "Besides, I rather enjoy the view when you come back out again."
"Severus!" Jennifer chuckled at him, walking over to give him a quick kiss only to be pulled into a more passionate embrace. She pulled back to meet his intense gaze. "I thought you were hungry."
"Yes, but I didn't say for what," Severus pointed out, not even blinking. "How was it again that an old fool like me ended up with someone like you?"
"Fate, I think," Jennifer said, mischievously kissing his nose before squirming away.
"That is what the children would call a 'cop-out' answer," Severus complained. "Surely you can do better than that."
"Not on an empty stomach!" Jennifer chuckled, ing down into the small galley.
Severus leaned on the rail again, thinking. They had just had their thirteenth anniversary… and it was almost hard to believe that it had been that long. In many ways, time seemed to stand still when they were together. Severus snorted at that, remembering what they had just been through trying to keep someone from actually stopping time. And yet it did seem that way, or it least it would if it weren't for the fact that their four children seemed to be growing at such a rapid pace.
Their oldest daughter, Alex, would be entering her second year at Hogwarts in the fall; their oldest natural son into his first year. Severus wasn't quite sure if he was looking forward to that or not, for having his daughter in school didn't go as smoothly as he had expected. It had been hard for Alex to separate the student-teacher relationship she was supposed to have while in school from their daughter-parent relationship… and ended up having little trust in either by the end of the year. Would the others do the same? Could the lines be drawn straighter so that they would be easier to follow? Jennifer, who had always been in favor of keeping those professional and personal lines straight in their own relationship, had recently decided that perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea. Severus shook his head slightly, wondering who put that notion into her head.
The sound of an owl drew Severus' attention upward. It was Dodger, the family owl, dropping a packet of letters on the chair before perching on the rail, hooting curiously and looking around.
"She's down below cooking," Severus told the owl, picking up the letters. He shuffled through them before opening one then going below.
"Severus, tell this blasted bird I can't very well cook with him sitting on my shoulder!" Jennifer said, trying to free her wand arm so she could make several pots stir themselves.
"He insisted on seeing you," Severus said calmly.
"He always does. I swear Ratfly is going to get jealous," Jennifer said.
"He might, if he ever wakes up for more than a half an hour at a time," Severus said. Jennifer frowned in such a way that Severus wished he hadn't said anything. The fact that the bat had been getting on in years had become a very sensitive subject. "I have mail from the Weasley's here."
"Lovely! How are the children?" Jennifer asked, her face instantly brightening again.
"Alex and Aurelius seem to be quarreling over birthday presents again. Aurelius seems to be still out of sorts about not getting a new broom," Severus read.
"Oh honestly! I told him he couldn't bring a broom to Hogwarts his first year! And I thought he would like the snake you gave him!" Jennifer said with exasperation.
"Alex believes the snake should belong to her since she says it prefers talking to her over her brother." Severus smirked.
"Well, why don't they just trade?"
"Molly says she tried that, but neither would have anything to do with it, they want both. So she put the broom in the closet and the snake in a glass bowl and told them they'd have to earn them back."
"Good for Molly," Jennifer nodded. "How are the other two?"
"Andrew and Alicia are fine, except for an incident where Jamie and Cedric got a hold of Alicia's pastel chalk and the Weasleys spent all night chasing stick figures drawn on the walls. And Arthur says there's still no sign of Ciardoth. Everything seems quiet at home," Severus mused.
"Good, then we don't have to feel any guilt about staying the entire two weeks, right?" Jennifer said playfully, slipping her arms around him. Severus sighed softly. "Oh no, don't tell me you're worried because nothing's going on! You know Dumbledore would let us know if there was the slightest bit of trouble. Besides, it's up to the Aurors now to worry about her. I for one am looking forward to a nice peaceful summer."
"I'm not sure there will truly be any peace while Ciardoth is in this universe, bent on destroying herself and us along with her," Severus brooded. "We've won but a minor victory in the beginning of what I fear will be a long war, and we very nearly lost."
"I'd rather not think about it, honestly," Jennifer admitted. "Put that letter down and let's eat. Sagittari taught me a new sausage dish you might like."
"I'm sure it will be fine," Severus sighed. "But perhaps tomorrow we might have something normal for a change?" Jennifer glared at him.
"Just for that I should make you eat pumpkin butter sandwiches all day," Jennifer threatened, setting some plates on the table.
It was just as she had turned to get the tea pitcher that the sea suddenly rolled underneath the boat. Severus had to quickly jump to catch the dishes before they ended up on his lap, and Jennifer leaned smartly over the counter to keep herself from toppling over.
"What in the world was that?" Jennifer murmured. "Do you think the serpent is out this far?"
"Stew! Report!" Severus shouted up the ladder. Within seconds, a Merrow with a bright red cap appeared, hurrying down but looking quite rejected at the fact that someone else had made lunch instead of him. "What's going on up there?"
"Oh! Nothing to be concerned about, at least we don't think so," the Merrow said.
"It seems there was a rather large underwater earthquake to the west south west of here."
"From the direction of the island?" Severus frowned. The Merrow shrugged.
"Possibly. We don't have the equipment on this vessel to say for sure."
"I wonder if the Fomorian city is all right?" Jennifer asked.
"Assuming it was an earthquake. They also could have been the cause," Severus pointed out. "Veer us toward the island. We had better have a look."
"In this headwind, it may take us a few hours to get there," Stew said.
"I'll be up to see what I can do in a moment," Severus said, sitting back down again, his thoughts returning to the first time they had gone to that island.
"You don't think they'll give us any trouble going in, do you?" Jennifer asked, reluctantly sitting back down as well.
"We are supposedly at peace now," Severus reminded her.
"Yes, on the condition that we leave them alone," Jennifer said.
"Jennifer, if you won't let me ignore Malfoy when he's in danger, we're certainly not going to ignore the Fomorians when they might be," Severus said. Jennifer knew better than to argue with that.
They spent the journey time securing everything on the boat as well as get their potions and supplies in order. After triple checking her supplies, Jennifer went up top to where Severus was standing, looking out at the approaching haze.
"How are we on Gill Potion?" Severus asked.
"Down to two phials, but it'd take me hours to brew more," Jennifer said.
"Then we'll use Gillyweed to get down there and use the potions as a last resort. Don't bring any phials that aren't completely air tight…"
"I know what I'm doing, Severus," Jennifer said irritably.
"Fine. They must not realize we're here. I would have expected some sort of response from them by now," Severus mused as he looked out in the mist to the silhouette of the island.
"I don't like it. It's too easy," Jennifer said.
"Make sure you're watching for the buildings as we come around, we don't want to run into one again," Severus snapped at one of the Merrows.
"Don't worry, sir! The equipment's all working this time," Kelpie responded cheerfully. "We're getting images of the outskirts now!"
"Perhaps we had better go ahead in then. Wait here until we return… but turn this thing in the other direction and plot a course for home just in case we're forced to leave in a hurry," Severus ordered. The young Merrow saluted with complete exaggeration before skipping into the pilot's cabin. Glancing at Jennifer to make sure she was ready, Severus took out a bit of the bitter weed and held it between his teeth.
Jennifer immediately felt the pressure of not being able to breathe as she followed his lead, diving into the water beside Severus and pushing herself further and further downward. Around them small houses stood slightly apart from the main city structure, and Jennifer wondered how exactly the giant Fomorians could possibly live in such a small hovel. Possibly some of it was underground, she thought, trying to concentrate instead on the ever-growing city's edge.
At last they came to a rail, easily able to pull themselves along it to an entrance past the water and inside, spitting out the weed so they could breathe normally once more.
"You all right?" Jennifer asked.
"I was never much for swimming," Severus muttered, standing up and holding his hand out for Jennifer. "There should be a guard post near here."
But as they headed down the Hall to where the entrance met the main palace, Severus frowned suspiciously. There were no guards at the post.
"Something is very wrong," Jennifer said. "It's not like them to leave even a side entrance unguarded."
"Nor did they try to stop or make contact with us when we approached the island," Severus agreed, taking out his wand. "Do you remember the way to the throne room?"
"Yes, I think so," Jennifer said after a moment, taking the lead. It had brought back memories of their last visit, when Severus and the others had been captured as 'intruders' and 'Merlin bloods.' Jennifer having no Merlin blood in her veins had been able to get by them with an invisibility cloak, and with her husband's help was able to save them all.
But at that time, the place was filled with the giant race of Fomorians, the great mages of elemental magics long forgotten by the rest of the wizarding world. But this visit was quite different than the last; their soft footsteps were echoing in the huge, marble hallways with not even a slight tremor of the residents that normally frequented the halls.
"Where is everyone? This place is a ghost town," Jennifer declared as they walked up the main hall.
"Yes, and yet it is fairly clean and dust free; furniture, statues and wall hangings are in tact," Severus mused, "Whatever has happened must have happened recently, and quite by surprise." Suddenly he stopped at the short steps leading to the throne room, looking in with a very grim expression.
There could be little doubt now that no Fomorians were there.
Heather Weasley glanced back towards Bill, making sure he was keeping up despite the fact it was nearly pitch-black at the excavation site. She was a Muggle and knew it for her husband was not; and knowing first hand about magic had changed a lot about how she looked at the world in the last ten years. So when a routine research trip to Turkey made the archaeologist send an owl to her husband to take a look, he came without hesitation. Heather's gut instincts about magic had led them into some very interesting discoveries, and Bill had no doubt that this one would end up being just as interesting.
It was difficult leading him through the site in the middle of the night, but there was one rule of archaeology that Heather was very careful not to break: don't tick off the locals. Rather than have to explain why she would have invited someone at the last moment without a ton of permits and red tape, she decided to take the discreet route. Some things were just better off not having to explain... at least to her team. When it came to Bill, she explained everything.
"So, what you're saying is that the place called King Midas' Tomb isn't his tomb at all?" Bill asked.
"No, they discovered years ago that the artifacts within it were too old to have been the same king… not that there wasn't more than one king here called Midas, because there was. But the one I'm interested in is probably buried here in Midas City. Folklore tells us that he killed himself before a great invasion overran the empire, but we don't have proof of it yet," Heather explained, slipping into a tunnel. "We can use light now, I think."
"Good, it'll give my toes some much needed relief," Bill chuckled, lighting a lantern while Heather turned on her electric torch. "So where is this strange ceiling you told me about?"
"Let me think a minute. I haven't been down here without local professors breathing down my neck," Heather said, pausing a moment. "This way."
"And you say no one else noticed it?"
"No, not at all. I only wish I hadn't mentioned it out loud," Heather said, "I should have known better. They all said I was just seeing an odd reflection off the light…but I saw through the ceiling as if it was just some sort of shadow. It's above one of the possible tombs, so I was thinking…"
"That perhaps maybe it'll prove once and for all to you if it is the right king or not, even if you can't prove it to your colleagues?" Bill finished with a knowing smile. "Well, lead on then, Laura…" he teased.
"I think you meant Lara."
"Whatever," Bill grinned; ignoring the eye roll he got in response. As they went a bit further in the mound Heather lead him into a series of tombs, long stripped bare of everything but carefully brushed scriptures.
"It doesn't seem all that different from the Egyptian tombs I've studied," Bill commented, looking around.
"Not as precise and definitely not as old, but there are cultural similarities, even though here they were mostly influenced by the Greeks. Gifts buried with the kings are normally bronze and silver in this area, but if he actually had the Touch…"
"He may have," Bill said with a shrug. "All I know is there's a Dark spell that does what everyone said that Midas could do. But even in Wizard history, no one is certain if the story is a myth or not," he said, holding up the lantern.
At first the ceiling looked like nothing but normal stone. Suddenly there was a strange ripple, and Bill squinted at it to make sure he hadn't imagined it.
"See what I mean?" Heather said, confirming what he saw. "There is something odd going on."
"Well, let's go up and have a look, shall we?" Bill said, getting what appeared to be a rolled blanket at the top of his backpack. As he spread it out, Heather saw it once it wasn't a blanket at all but a rug the hovered just above the ground. "Well don't just stand there. Step on."
"Where on earth did you get that?" Heather asked, folding her arms.
"I got it the last treasure trade I did for the bank. The carpet was thrown in to seal the bargain," he said innocently, his wife's suspicious stare not letting up for one second. "Now, Heather, I'll put it on my report. Eventually," Bill replied with a grin. "As long as nobody sees me using it, what harm will it do?"
"Bill Weasley, I swear you remind me of your father sometimes," Heather sighed, cautiously stepping onto it and gratefully hanging onto his arm as they slowly floated up.
"I'll take that as a complement," Bill said mischievously, putting a hand up to the ceiling. As they reached it, his hand went straight through, and he issued a command to the carpet to stop. "See if your hand goes straight through, luv. We don't want you to be bumping your pretty head if it's Muggle blocked." Heather nodded and tried to touch the ceiling.
"Goes right through."
"Good. Up we go then," Bill said, and the carpet continued.
As they ascended into the secret chamber, Heather's electric torch immediately caught the glint of something in the dim light. Taking out his wand as they came to a stop, Bill illuminated the room, and the two of them found their breaths taken away.
The room was low but very wide, covering the entire width of the tumulus and filled with rows and rows of gold items. Everything from the tables, racks, furniture, books, armor, and more were jammed into each row, even down to gold bowls of gold fruit and even a smoked lamb haunch or two. Overwhelmed, Heather barely heard Bill's reminder about the floor and absently grabbed his hand to step over to the solid part of the floor.
"We know there's magic here, so you'd best stay close and don't touch anything. There's bound to be curses on some of these items and there are probably some on the room itself as well," Bill warned her, gazing around appreciatively. "I may get a promotion for this."
"Oh, lovely. I go to do field research and you end up with the credit," Heather said grudgingly.
"Well this isn't exactly something you can report to the university, is it, darlin'?" Bill said, squeezing her arm briefly before murmuring a spell to identify curses and put on a pair of gloves. Despite his warning, Heather couldn't help but wander a bit, careful not to touch anything. She paused in front of a pedestal with a expertly crafted crystal case, fogged with age. Inside appeared to be a goblet, although she couldn't make out much detail. Noticing an inscription on the crystal, Heather got out her journal to try to translate it. "Better keep back from that. There's definitely a nasty spell of some sort on that case."
"According to what this says, inside the goblet is supposed kept the Wine of Satyrs, given to Midas by Silenus himself! Just like in the Greek tales!" Heather said. "Of course, the Phrygians have some very common roots with the Greeks. Midas' wife Hermodike was a Greek princess."
"I'll have to report that goblet to the Ministry… it's too dangerous for acquisitions. Now here is a gold bed. I bet that was uncomfortable," Bill chuckled. "All right, I think I've dispelled all of the room hexes at least, so you can explore now," he said sounding slightly sarcastic since she had already started. "Gold blankets…damnation, what did the man wear while he had this curse? Not regular clothing, obviously."
"Well, the legends do say it wasn't long before he begged for a cure," Heather said, noticing a statue along the far wall and going over to investigate.
"Yes, but did he really get cured? He could have starved to death for all we truly know. Or perhaps he actually killed himself because of the curse instead of because of that invasion," Bill conjectured, following her over to get a better look at a gold comb.
"Oh!" Heather said when she got over to the statue. "Bill, you have to see this!"
It was the statue of a young woman with a graceful arm reaching out. Her garments were of fine quality and her face was quite beautiful, Heather decided. Never had she seen quite so much detail in gold, from the individual lashes above her eyes to the detailed lines and texture of her skin. But it took Bill's colorful exclamation to actually realize the truth. It wasn't a statue at all.
