Sophia dove into the water, feeling its cool fingers caress her as she made her way deeper and deeper. One of the advantages to having a nymph for a mother was that she could survive underwater for much longer than humans. She pushed through the water, kicking her feet, straining her eyes to see through the murky depths.
She finally saw what she was looking for, a tall stone marker pointing the way to the underwater temple of Thetis. She swam down further, close to the bottom, coming to a rocky shelf. She examined the markings on the rock, which were above what appeared to be the entrance to a small cave. But what she went through was a magical barrier, which left her, dripping and out of the water, on a stone ledge in front of the small temple encased in a large cave.
"What can I do for you little one?" a small woman with greenish-grey hair bustled forward, her blue robes flowing around her like water.
"I need to speak with the priestess Briseis," Sophia whispered, looking around her in awe.
"Of course child, come this way," the woman led her forward.
"Who is it Nausikaa?"
"My lady Briseis, this child has come looking for you."
Sophia felt her mouth drop open, the woman before her had to be her mother. There was no mistaking their resemblance, "Lady," she inclined her head slightly, "I'm your daughter, and I need to... please tell me, why did you abandon me?"
"Are you alright sweetie?" Morgan sat on the edge of Serena's bed and ran her hand over her daughter's silky hair.
"What threat could a cat have been to them?" Serena sniffed.
"Oh honey, they just strike out wherever they can, they didn't care who got hurt as long as they could get more blood on their hands."
"Well it's not fair!"
"Most things in life aren't fair, and they hurt. I only wish I could protect you from all of life's hurts. But I can't."
"I'm never going to have another cat..."
Morgan sighed and wrapped her arms around her daughter, "I know you're going to hurt over this. But in all honesty, I have to tell you how relieved I am that it was only a cat. I don't know what I would do if you had been the one they attacked."
"Where is your mother?"
"She had to run out for awhile, you know her friend Mary?" William waited for Sirius to nod in recognition, "she went into labor a couple of hours ago, and Mum went to St. Mungo's with her. She said she'd be back late tonight."
"So what do you want to do this evening?"
"I'm going out with Kamen, you can do whatever you want," William said as he headed towards the door. "And Mum said it was alright, so don't try to pull any fatherly restrictions on me."
Sirius sighed as William left; obviously they still had a ways to go. "So what do you want to do tonight princess?" he looked down at Willow.
"Read me a story!"
Sirius chuckled, she was so easy to entertain, "we'll definitely do that, but how about we go out to dinner first?"
Willow's eyes grew large, "yeah..."
"Well, where would you like to go?"
"You choose."
Sirius swung the little girl up into his arms, "let's go into town, and we'll choose a place together."
"Komm! Du musst mit Tante Eva sprechen. Sie kennt sehr viel uber alles!" Clara took Zach's hand and dragged him down the hallway to a small room.
"I don't want to disturb her."
"She won't mind, sie ist sehr nett."
Zach allowed himself to be led to a room that was set up with a large number of cauldrons, with a small blond woman flitting between them. He felt his breath catch in his throat when she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, revealing a mass of purple and blue bruising on the side of her face.
"The death eaters got to her before I could," Eric said softly coming up beside them, "She refuses to use any of the healing salves for bruising because they have a tendency to make one sleepy. She insists that she needs to keep working."
"Will she be alright?"
"I am perfectly fine gentlemen, if you would care to stop discussing me as though I wasn't here," she looked up from her work, speaking in softly accented English.
"Of course you are my dear," Eric sidled up to her, taking her hand in his own weathered one, "you'll have to excuse us for worrying over you, but I know that my grandson hates to see a woman in distress, and he is apt to be even more worried if the woman in question is in my presence."
"And this must be the elusive Zach, ja?" Eva shook back her blond hair, which cascaded around her shoulders, and looked Zach up and down with cool grey eyes.
"Yes, I'm Zach," he mentally cursed himself for blushing.
"I hope my niece has not been bothering you," Eva smiled a bit as she nodded in Clara's direction.
"Not at all, I only wish I could understand what she was telling me."
Eva rolled her eyes, "Clara, du musst Englisch sprechen mit ihm, verstehst du?"
"Ja, ja... kein deutsch mehr Englisch, ich verstehe."
"She'll try harder to speak to you in English, she understands it well enough, she just doesn't like to take the time to think about how to speak it.
"I think it's about time that little ears were in bed," Eric said as he observed the contents of one of the cauldrons, "we have much to discuss. I've been doing some spying of my own and the two of you must be fully informed of what is going on before you join the Order."
"No!!! You're the blue ducky, mine is the yellow one!"
Sirius sighed, after nearly a half hour of coaxing he had finally convinced Willow to get in the bath, but getting her clean was an entirely different story. "Let's get your hair washed princess, then we can read a bedtime story."
"No! I wanna play with the ducks."
Sirius vaguely remembered Elizabeth saying something about Willow's recent attachment to the word 'no', but so far he hadn't encountered it. "Come on sweetie," he tried to reason with her, "lets not be difficult. We'll just finished getting you washed and into bed."
"No!"
"Willow," Sirius fought hard to keep his patience, "we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Either we can get your hair washed and then go read a bedtime story together, or if you keep fighting me you're going to get your hair washed, then a time out, and then straight to bed with no story, it's your choice."
Willow pouted and a few tears threatened, but she submitted to the shampoo. Something Sirius was genuinely thankful for, because he didn't know if he had it in him to punish his little princess. "There, now isn't that better?" he asked as he put away the shampoo and wrapped Willow in a large towel.
He finished getting her ready for bed, then ended up reading her two stories before she fell asleep. He was still sitting on the edge of her bed, absolutely exhausted and amazed at how sweet she looked when she was sleeping, when Elizabeth came home.
"Did you two have a nice evening?" Elizabeth asked as she twined her arms around his neck.
"Maybe we won't have any children of our own," Sirius mused as he pulled his wife down for a kiss.
Elizabeth chuckled softly, "was she that much trouble?"
He sighed, "No, just more work than I was anticipating. I don't know how you ever did this by yourself..."
"With a lot of patience and a lot of love. You're doing fine Sirius, I know you're new to the whole parenting thing. Give it some time, I can't promise you that it will get any easier, but you'll get more comfortable with it. And, I'll be right there beside you every step of the way. So if we decide that we do want more children..."
"I hope you realize how much I love you Elizabeth, because I'm not sure I tell you often enough."
"Must I?"
"Yes."
"Morgan, there is no reason why you cannot..."
"Sev, please darling, I'm really not feeling that well. I just want to lay down for a bit, and I promised them they could go today, and with the way things are going they are most certainly not going alone. Please take them..."
Severus gave a long suffering sigh, "only for you." Not even the passionate kiss his wife bestowed upon him improved the situation. In light of the spring ball that would take place at Hogwarts that year Morgan had promised to take the girls dress shopping over the holiday break, now however it appeared that he was stuck taking them. It was definitely not how he would choose to spend his day.
"Look on the bright side Sev," Morgan wrapped her arms around him; "you'll get the final say on what is appropriate attire for a school dance. And it will get Serena out of the house, and maybe she'll be able to stop thinking about her cat for awhile. Doesn't that make you feel better?"
"Infinitely," Severus deadpanned, his face giving away no emotion whatsoever.
Morgan smiled and kissed him on the cheek, "enjoy yourself, I'll probably be napping when you get back."
"I'm ecstatic." By the time they arrived at Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley Severus was ready to be back home. He silently followed his girls into the robe shop, feeling a headache coming on. He wasn't sure if he could handle this.
Serena and Nimue were instantly drawn into the whole adventure of dress shopping and were soon pouring through the racks with Madam Malkin herself, looking at the latest styles. Severus sank into a chair, steeling himself for a long wait. He therefore did a poor job of hiding his surprise when Dierna sank to the floor at his feet and leaned her head against his knee, "Is something wrong?"
Dierna shrugged, "I have no intention of going to the ball, so I have no reason to try on dresses."
"This wouldn't have anything to do with the absence of a certain Mr. MacNeill would it?"
He was rewarded with another shrug.
"You do not need Stefan to go to the ball Dierna, find a dress."
"I'll think about it."
Severus was incredibly thankful when Nimue found a dress almost immediately, a violet one, which matched her eyes almost exactly, with silver embroidery, and in a cut that he could find no fault with. Serena however, was proving more difficult, "absolutely not," he declared on her first trip out of the dressing room.
"Why not?" Serena surveyed herself in the full length mirror, admiring the way the red, strapless dress clung to her body.
"There are no sleeves on that abomination, how is it supposed to stay up?"
Serena rolled her eyes, "they're called breasts Dad, and it's tight enough that it won't fall off."
Severus felt the heat rising in his face, this was precisely why Morgan should have come with them, "you will not be getting anything that relies on your..." Severus sought for a word, "endowments... to hold it up. And you," he turned on Dierna who was giggling madly over the whole exchange, "there is nothing funny about this, stop that right now!" he hissed at her.
Dierna made a valiant effort to curb her amusement, but found that it was very difficult. "I'm sorry Dad, but you should have seen your face..." she burst into another fit of giggles.
"Well at least one of us is enjoying themselves," Severus muttered as he glowered darkly at the dressing rooms, dreading what Serena would come out in next.
The next six dresses Serena tried on were all met with a resounding 'no'. She slipped on one more, and came out to spin in front of the mirrors, "what do you think?"
Severus sighed, he wasn't overly thrilled about the spaghetti straps, but at least this one had a back on it and was not cut scandalously low. And he had to admit that she did look nice in that dark shade of pink, "I suppose..."
"Thank you Dad," Serena rushed over to hug him before heading back to change into her own clothes.
"And what about this one, surely there's something we can tempt her with," Madame Malkin smiled kindly at Dierna.
"I don't think so..." Dierna started to protest.
"Find her something," Severus cut in, "she needs a formal dress too."
Dierna tried to object, but found herself being dragged to the back of the store to look at dresses. The next thing she knew she was back in a dressing room being thrust into a dress by the proprietress. She emerged to survey herself in the mirrors, wearing a dark gold gown that had a wide neck and its silky fabric clung to her gentle curves as it fell to the floor.
"We'll take it," Severus said, approval showing in his eyes, "it's perfect."
"Dad I really don't need...
He raised an eyebrow, "I don't care want you think on the matter, it is the perfect dress for you."
The next few minutes were spent in purchasing the three dresses and getting them wrapped up before they headed outside to return home, and not a minute to soon as far as Severus was concerned.
"Dad, look," Nimue clutched his arm as they stepped outside, it was eerily dim out, as though dusk had come early, and the dark mark hung ominously in the sky.
"It's time for you to go back," Briseis said without ceremony as she stood.
Sophia could have howled in frustration, she had been here for nearly a whole day, but had received little information from this priestess who had given her life. She still hadn't been told why she had been given up.
As Sophia neared the barrier that would let her back out into the ocean she turned, and steeled herself for one last confrontation, "why didn't you want me, in our society daughters are valued above all else, why was I different?"
Briseis looked down at the girl, standing so determinedly, in front of her, "I loved Sirius, in my own way. I didn't want him to leave. When he did go, I swore to destroy everything that reminded me of him, even the child he gave me. At one time I would have wanted you, but that time is past. It is time we part ways little one, and there is no need for you to seek me out again. Find your own life, and forget that I am here." And with that she forced Sophia out into the waters of the Aegean.
Sophia swam as quickly as she could back to the shore. By the time she cleared the water sobs were racking her body. She wasn't wanted. It was as simple as that. She finally reached the beach and fell on the sand, thinking that her life wasn't worth living.
Severus swore under his breath, and commanding his daughters to stay where they were, grabbed the first person who came by, a nervous looking man, and demanded to know what was going on.
"Coordinated attacks, they hit here and a couple of other cities to the north. Hogsmeade got it the worst, just heard that the Ministry is getting there now and the attack is still happening, the whole town may be knocked out."
Severus did some quick thinking. His home was only a few minutes walk from Hogsmeade. He did not want to take his girls into the heart of danger, but Morgan was there... he honestly did not know what to do. He was brought out of his reverie by a tug on his robes; he looked down to see Nimue looking up at him expectantly.
"What are we going to do?" she asked, looking, he thought, far too innocent to have to be thrust into the middle of what was fast becoming an all out war.
Severus made a swift decision. The option of flooing back home was out of the picture, as all of Diagon Alley was now in an uproar, and none of the girls' were able to apparate. He pulled a small vial out of his pocket and quickly charmed it into a portkey. They would use that to go home, and then collect Morgan and Kamen and head straight to Hogwarts, that would be the safest place to be.
"It's starting!" Eric proclaimed as he rushed back from his sanctum sanctorum.
"Was ist los?" Eva looked up from her work.
"You three are leaving now," Eric commanded, as he started throwing jars and vials into a bag. "These are all the healing supplies I have on hand, take them with you Poppy will need whatever I can spare."
"What is...?" Zach started.
"No time for questions now," Eric cut him off, "take Eva and Clara to Hogwarts, now. And keep them safe."
"Tell me what is going on first," Zach demanded as he pulled his grandfather aside.
"They just got one step closer to brining Voldemort back; they're celebrating by creating as much destruction as possible. They may come here or at least try to, they won't get past my wards, but I need you and the girls out of here now. You'll be safer at Hogwarts."
Zach frowned, but nodded curtly. He looked up to see that in the time he had spent conferring with his grandfather Eva and Clara had collected their belongings and were waiting for him. "I think we'll floo back to Hogwarts..." he mused, trying to figure out the best way to go.
"No, their spies in the Ministry may be watching the floo network, come back to the sanctuary, you can go that way."
"Care to tell me what's wrong?" Remus asked in his soft spoken way as he crouched down on the sand next to Sophia. His voice didn't give away any of the panic or relief he felt at finding her there. The temple had been in somewhat of a panic since she had gone missing the evening before.
"No I don't."
"What's wrong Sophia?" Remus asked kindly, "I had rather hoped that you would trust me enough by now to confide in me," he smiled wryly, "even if I am a man."
Sophia swiped her hand across her eyes as she sat up, "I just don't want to talk about it," she replied. The last thing she wanted to tell him was that she wasn't wanted. That no one wanted her...
"Well, if you don't feel like talking I think we best get you back up to the temple so they can stop worrying about you."
"No! I don't want to go back there," Sophia protested.
Remus looked at her worriedly, the little novice, who was usually so confidant and aggressive, looked scared and unsure. He wanted to help her, but couldn't do that unless she told him why she was hurting.
"I'm fine, really!"
"You sound more like you're trying to convince yourself than me."
Sophia sniffed miserably, "I'm unwanted. I don't belong at the temple, I don't belong in the wizarding world, and my parents gave me up without a second thought. I'm nothing to anyone, Kalliope is just stuck with me, she didn't have a choice in the matter. I'm worthless."
Remus cupped her chin in his hand, "now you listen to me young lady. You are anything but worthless. And you do have a family. Kalliope loves you very much, she just has a hard time showing it sometimes, she's lost so many people close to her that she has problems with emotion sometimes. And I want you very much. If I ever get your guardian to marry me, I promise you that you will be like a daughter to me."
"Really?"
"Really."
"That was certainly the most interesting way I've ever traveled," Eva commented as they arrived at Hogwarts.
Zach merely shrugged, "I don't know where he comes up with that stuff."
"Sind wir in einem Schloss?"
"Ja Clara, this is a castle, and it is a school," Eva patiently answered, "and please use English so that Zach can understand you."
"You know about Hogwarts?" Zach asked, a bit surprised.
"Mr. O'Hara, thank goodness you got back safely. Your grandfather just checked to see if you were here and I was beginning to get frantic!" Minerva McGonagall exclaimed as she rushed forward, looking, for the first time Zach could remember, a bit on the ruffled side.
"What's going on Headmistress?" Zach said as he set down his bag.
"Too much to explain now," Minerva looked over the trio in front of her nervously, "until other arrangements are made I think we should settle the little one in your room for now Zach. I need you and, Eva is it? I believe that's what Eric told me... to join me in the dungeons as soon as possible. I will explain then."
Meg sighed, a small smile playing at her lips as she checked on the twins, who were out cold for their afternoon nap. After sticking her head in Diana and Cassandra's room to make sure they weren't getting into too much trouble she retreated to the kitchen for a relaxing cuppa and a novel she never seemed to have time to finish.
She was just settling down when there was a loud pop and Fawkes appeared on the kitchen table, the phoenix had persistently hung around Hogwarts after Dumbledore's death but Meg couldn't remember ever seeing him out of the school since then, dropped a letter and disappeared with another pop just as quickly as he had come. Meg felt a sense of foreboding as she reached for the parchment. With shaking fingers she unfolded the letter, and felt her stomach take a dramatic twist as she read its contents, "Charlie!" she yelled as she bolted out of her chair, the novel falling to the floor, forgotten, "we have to leave now!"