Sofia found the Floo travel to be one of the worst things she'd ever felt, only salvaged, barely, by Vittoria's comforting presence. The adult was a tall, firm presence that anchored her through the hot, whirling experience that was travelling via Flood powder. So she was rather relieved when the pair staggered out and onto the soft rug in front of the fireplace.
"Honey, we're home!" Vittoria called out. Her eyes were bright and there was a sense of glee to her that Sofia hadn't seen before. A moment later a woman entered the room, an immediate study in contrasts. Where Vittoria was tall, she was rather short. Where Vittoria had long, loose black hair the other woman had hair so blonde it looked white, done up in a controlled bun. Where Vittoria had bright blue eyes the other woman's were an almost dull grey. The only things they had in common were that both were rather beautiful.
"If that phrase is to be a recurring theme with you then we will never stay at a Muggle resort again, no matter how much you love jacuzzis and television." The other woman said firmly. "And should it persist regardless, I will be forced to obliviate you." Despite her tone and words, Sofia thought she noticed a smile tugging at the blonde lady's mouth, and a lightness in her eyes.
"I'm sure you will." Vittoria agreed readily, embracing the other woman and kissing her on the lips. Sofia blinked, watching with wide eyes. Vittoria had said from the start that she had a wife, but it was one thing to hear about it and another thing to see two women kissing. The two separated, and the blonde turned to Sofia, crouching and giving a small smile.
"Hello there little one. It's nice to meet you. I'm Bianca Matilde Bellarosa. I'm sorry I couldn't come to meet you earlier, I'm afraid..."
"Bianca has a real job." Vittoria finished with a grin. Bianca shot her a look, then sighed.
"Vittoria and I are both royalty, but I am the Queen Sovereign while she is the Princess Consort. It means that of the two of us, I have the busier workday I'm afraid. I just want you to know that if I spend less time with you than her, it's not that I don't like you, or that I'm avoiding you, it's just that I have to work more and I have to do it in specific parts of the castle." Sofia nodded slowly.
"Like how Papa worked outside but Mama usually stayed near the house." She said. She paused. "Are you going to be my new Mama?" Bianca gave a slight, sad smile.
"If you want me to be. Vittoria and I aren't going to force you to do anything dear. We'd like to adopt you, but we'll let you take some time to get used to us, and to living here. If you like us and want to stay here, then yes, I'd be your new Mama, but if you don't like it we can find you somewhere else." Sofia blinked a little, then slowly nodded, pushing her glasses up.
"Okay. Thank you." She said, seriously, giving a slight bow. People bowed to queens, right? Bianca's lips twitched up in a smile.
"You don't need to bow to me dear. Not while you're living here. If nothing else, there's no need for you to act more adult than my own wife." Vittoria winked at Sofia from where she was standing behind Bianca, and Sofia gave a little giggle. She liked how Vittoria was acting now. She wondered if it was like how Papa was always more serious around the neighbors then when he was home with her and Mama. Bianca gave a little sigh that Sofia thought was more fake than real, then stood up.
"I actually managed to secure the rest of the day off." She told Sofia and Vittoria, smiling at each. "If you'd like, I'd be happy to take you on a tour of the castle with Vittoria." She held out her hand, almost shyly. Sofia paused for a moment, then smiled shyly and took the offered hand.
"Yes please." She paused. "Do you have books?" Vittoria chuckled as she took Sofia's other hand, and Bianca gave a soft smile.
"We have an entire library." She told Sofia. "Come, we'll show you."
Three Hours Later
Sofia felt vaguely dazed and more than a little tired as she was sat at one side of a table not that much bigger than the one at her family's farm, though more ornate and pretty looking. The tour of the castle had been rather long. It was the biggest building she'd ever been in she was pretty sure, even bigger than the grocery store.
The first place they'd gone to had been the library, though Vittoria and Bianca had pointed out various paintings along the way. Bianca had favored the ones she said were important rulers and leaders, while Vittoria had happily pointed out the warriors and Goblins with an odd gleam in her eye. Sofia wasn't too surprised when the paintings bowed, curtsied or nodded at them, not after the picture books at the inn, but she had been surprised by the fact that they talked back, greeting the trio, asking who Sofia was, occasionally scolding Vittoria for being more interested in their military accomplishments than their legislative ones. The adults had taken it all in stride however, so Sofia did her best to do so too.
The library was bigger than her family's house, Sofia was certain. She couldn't imagine ever reading all of the books in it, but it was still exciting to see and to look at. She'd run around it, as Bianca and Vittoria pointed out how the library was organized. Vittoria had pointed out a part of the library that was blocked off, a glowing golden wall keeping it from everything else, and told her quite seriously that she wasn't allowed in there, that it had books of dangerous magic that she couldn't see until she was older. Sofia had nodded wide eyed, and had been rather happy when they lead her away to where the stories were.
She hadn't had time to read though, as they'd soon left to show her the other parts of the castle. There was a room full of wooden statues, targets, and even some old weapons that Vittoria explained was for self defense practice, something she'd have to learn herself. Sofia had nodded seriously, remembering the monster that had attacked her family. Then there was the room that looked like the night sky but all the time, which Bianca had apparently made herself. She'd explained that it didn't really do much and they weren't going to force Sofia to spend time there, but if she was interested Bianca would be happy to teach her about other planets and stars and things when she had time.
There was a room for making potions, and a room for growing plants with a ceiling that glowed bright, and a room full of statues of Bellarosa ancestors, and then there were rooms for parties and getting dressed in and what felt like a million other things that Sofia couldn't quite keep track of. Both had been very quick to assure her that she didn't need to memorize the whole castle, and that if both of them were busy she could ask a House Elf or one of the paintings for directions. Sofia wasn't sure she'd ever be up for asking a painting for directions, but she'd nodded anyway.
And now they'd been seated in the dining room for, well, dining. Vittoria grinned at Sofia as she sat down. "Lovely thing about magic, you can make things as big as you need them to be, if you're willing to put in the work." Sofia blinked.
"What she means is that this is a special room, prepared by the builders of the castle." Bianca explained as she sat as well. "It changes size, and the size of the table and number of chairs, depending on how many people are present." Sofia's eyes widened, and Bianca gave a chuckle. "It's very complicated magic to do though. It requires a lot of time, energy, and space. So this is the only room in the castle that has that power."
"I'd have used it for something different myself, but I suppose in the old days there were a lot more big important dinners." Vittoria said dryly. "Certainly saves the House Elves some hassle I suppose. Speaking of which…" Sofia's eyes widened as food appeared on the table. There were three plates in front of each of them-two small and one medium. Bread and salad appeared on the smaller plates, while a pasta dish Sofia didn't recognize, with red sauce and meat mixed in, appeared on the medium plate. Likewise her glass suddenly had water in it, while Vittoria had a red wine and Bianca a white.
"You can ask for more when you're done, if you'd like." Bianca told her as she speared some salad with a fork. "We have plenty, we won't stop you." Sofia gave a shy smile as she tore off a piece of bread.
"It's okay, I don't eat a lot." She said politely.
"And that's fine too...within reason." Bianca said, nodding.
"Everything has to be 'within reason' with you." Vittoria teased.
"Excuse me for caring." Bianca responded, though there wasn't any bite to it. She glanced at Sofia. "I was thinking, if you'd like, that next week we could go visit the city of Grand Combin. It's one of our larger settlements, and reasonably far from our border with the Fisher Kingdom." Sofia blinked.
"The...Fisher Kingdom?" Bianca winced.
"Yes, sorry, I forgot that you're new to all this, you've been handling everything so well." Sofia blushed at the compliment. "The Fisher Kingdom is our neighbor to the west. In Muggle terms they're France, as well as...four other countries?" She glanced at Vittoria, who nodded.
"France, Belgium, Monaco, Spain, and Portugal. Used to be ruled by the Fisher Kings, now they're ruled by the Phoenix Queen." Sofia's eyes widened.
"That's so big!"
"Magic lets us travel faster, talk to each other faster, and keep things like roads, water, and food supplies in good shape. Makes it easier to keep big countries together than it is for Muggles." Vittoria explained, taking a sip of wine.
"Right. But we don't get along well with the Fisher Kingdom. You'll learn about that once you start history classes." Bianca explained after swallowing a bite of pasta. "We haven't been at war for some time, but still, I'd like to keep you away from the towns closer to our border with them for a bit." Sofia stared.
"Is it dangerous?" She asked, voice small. Bianca's eyes widened, and she quickly shook her head.
"No, it shouldn't be. I'm sorry, I worry too much." She said hurriedly. "You don't need to be scared, not here." She reassured Sofia. Sofia slowly nodded, and got a small smile from Bianca. "The most dangerous thing in the Alpine Union is Vittoria, don't worry." Sofia blinked at that. She'd seen the black haired witch be a few things since meeting her. Awkward, worried, kind, sad, silly, happy. She'd never seen her be dangerous though. "Dragons and monsters run when Vittoria goes to war." Bianca said, nodding seriously, though her eyes twinkled with amusement and pride.
"You're going to trick her into thinking I'm some sort of badass!" Vittoria complained, huffing at Bianca.
"Language." The blonde said firmly. "And you say that as if the person most convinced of your own skill isn't you." Vittoria paused, then grinned.
"One of these days I'm going to trick you into thinking I'm humble, or at least upset with you." She said playfully.
"Unlikely." Bianca said, chuckling. "In all seriousness though dear," She said, refocusing her attention on Sofia. "I'm just a little nervous, and there's nowhere safer you could be in our country, and maybe even in all of Europe, than at Vittoria's side. There's no danger here, not now." Sofia slowly nodded, and Bianca gave her a small smile. "But like I was saying, I can arrange some time off next week, and we could go visit the city of Grand Combin. It's one of our larger settlements, and you could get to see what they look like. Would you like that?" Sofia thought it over. She liked the castle, but she'd always liked when Mama and Papa brought her into town. And maybe seeing new things would help her spend less time thinking about the sad old things.
"Okay." She said, nodding and giving a small smile. "That sounds nice." Bianca gave a smile back, nodding.
"Good, I'm glad. I hope you'll like it here, both in the castle and in our country." She said, voice gentle, before returning to her food.
One Week Later
Sofia bounced back and forth on her feet. She had been right, staying in the castle had been interesting, but she also felt more than a little cooped up. There weren't any other children in the castle for her to play with, and there wasn't anything for her to do besides read and sometimes exercise with Vittoria. The House Elves did all the chores, and they usually did them before she could even find something dirty to take care of! Not that Sofia liked doing chores, but her life on her family's farm had always been so much busier.
She'd told Vittoria as much, and the older witch had just laughed and told her that they'd get her 'good and exhausted' soon, it was just taking them a bit of time to find tutors for her lessons. And for all that Vittoria insisted that she didn't have a real job and was just there to be pretty, Sofia found that she was busy an awful lot. Not as busy as Bianca, who Sofia rarely saw outside of breakfast, dinner, and when the two were tucking her into bed, but more busy then she liked to say.
That meant that Sofia was often alone, and bored, and when she was alone and bored and things were too quiet she started thinking about her Mama and Papa and getting really sad. She'd taken to talking to the portraits, asking them about their lives and for interesting stories, or else interviewing the House Elves when they had time. She liked the nice little creatures, even if they were weirdly fond of cleaning and doing housework.
Still, Sofia was quite excited for the chance to go out and see a new place. She thought a city in a mountain sounded rather dark and spooky, but it was still something new!
"Are you planning on taking up Irish dancing?" Vittoria asked playfully, glancing as Sofia bounced in place. Sofia huffed.
"I'm just excited, don't be silly!"
"That's a losing battle dear, I've been trying to get her stop being silly since we were betrothed." Bianca said dryly as she entered the Floo room.
"Maybe even longer!" Vittoria said, grinning and nodding. Bianca chuckled and kissed her cheek, then looked at Sofia.
"Now, are you ready to travel by Floo again? It'd be slower, but we can travel by other means." She offered. Sofia shook her head though.
"I want to do Floo. I should try and get used to it." She said firmly. Bianca gave her a kind smile and nodded.
"Alright then." She walked over to the grand marble fireplace and opened an ornate jar, plucking a handful of powder and tossing it into the flames. "Grand Combin!" Once more the flames turned green, and Vittoria quickly grabbed Sofia, stepping into the flames, Bianca close behind.
The Floo trip was, once again, rather unpleasant, but Sofia managed to get through it all the same, staggering out with Vittoria onto thick carpet. She looked around eagerly, but from what she can tell it looked almost exactly like the room she'd just left. Bianca must have noticed her disappointment, because she chuckled.
"Don't worry dear, this is just the VIP arrival room. While most of our settlements are self-sufficient, there's still plenty of travel and trade between everywhere, and much of it is done by Floo. This keeps us out of the way of that, so we don't interfere but also don't have to wait in any lines." It also alerted the city guard to the arrival of members of the nobility (or in this case, the royal family), but Bianca didn't think Sofia needed to know that. No need to worry the child unduly, she'd have time to adjust to the fact that their rank and status required security later.
"Yeah, no worries, this way kiddo. We've got a grand sight for you." Vittoria said with a chuckle. Bianca raised an eyebrow at the joke, but decided to let it lie. There were more important things, and she knew that her wife always got a little extra wound up right before she had to go into a different 'face'.
Vittoria opened the door, leading Sofia onto a balcony. The VIP Floo Port was at the top of an eight story building, and when one stood on the balcony they could see all of Grand Combin. Sofia gasped, eyes wide behind her glasses as she stared out at the city. It was the largest settlement the girl had ever seen, a vast expanse of buildings that ended at a massive white wall, and beyond those walls were green fields and forests. And she could see it all because, somehow, when she looked up she didn't see the inside of a mountain but the sky, blue and clear with the sun shining down.
"Magnificent isn't it?" Bianca said as she closed the door to join Vittoria and Sofia on the balcony. "It's an old spell. It takes an immense amount of magic to make it work, but Goblin runes help minimize it enough to make it worth it on grand scales like this. This is what let us build our mountain cities, to build farms and orchards and lumber fields within the mountains. It helped our people to stay self-sufficient but also to stay hidden from the Muggles. It meant we never had to relocate as they expanded, and could stay and grow and improve." Sofia looked up at Bianca, and saw a soft but fierce pride in her eyes as the Queen looked out over her city.
Then Bianca crouched beside her. "So, what would you like to see first?" She asked, smiling. "There's the main shopping district, a couple of museums, a grand park, and the wall." She paused. "Well there are other things, but we don't have time today, and if we wanted to see a play we'd need to have reserved tickets." Sofia stared, a little overwhelmed by the options.
"Uhm, a museum sounds nice." She said finally. Bianca smiled and nodded, suppressing a chuckle as she saw Vittoria visibly force back the urge to call them nerds. Her wife had slipped into 'happy but in public' mode, and while Bianca wouldn't have minded if Vittoria behaved the way she did at home in public she knew better than to try and force such things. Vittoria's upbringing was strong, and her wife liked her masks. Best to let that dog lie.
Two Hours Later
Vittoria stood behind Sofia and Bianca, only partly listening as Bianca told her the tale of the Goblin architect the statue they were looking at depicted. It wasn't that she was uninterested, or that she didn't love her wife's voice. She'd just heard this before, and she'd never been the best at book learning. She needed to be active, to be moving. But, she forced herself to remember, this was about Sofia. Part of being a good parent was adapting to and understanding your child's interests, and Sofia was an inquisitive, quiet child interested in learning everything she could about the world she'd found herself brought into.
She smiled softly as a fascinated Sofia dragged them over to a stuffed dragon, staring with wide eyes at the creature as Bianca explained its history and how they differed from Muggle stories. She'd spent a fair amount of time with Sofia since bringing the girl to the castle. Some days more time than she got to spend with Bianca, if you didn't count sleeping. Not as much time as she'd like, but that was the result of being the Princess Consort. The time she'd spent in the WRI with Sofia hadn't helped her workload, but she couldn't bring herself to complain. Not when Bianca had such a larger workload most days, nor when it had been done in the name of helping the child her people had failed.
Rather suddenly, she was jolted from her thoughts by an explosion. Her eyes widened at the screams that followed, and the second explosion followed by the sound of spells shattering stone nearby. Probably not some potion brewing disaster then. "Back to the castle, now. Apparate." She ordered, drawing her her wand (Mountain Ash and Dragon Heartstring, 13 inches). It wouldn't be the best for Sofia to go through side-along apparition, but it would be worse for her to get caught up in...whatever the fuck this was.
Bianca nodded once, firmly, and grabbed Sofia, disappearing with a loud crack. The minute her wife and Sofia disappeared (it took a force of effort to not think of Sofia as her child, but she didn't want to get ahead of herself) Vittoria felt the dark part of her rise up, and she let it, letting out a growl. She didn't know if this attack was a coincidence, or the most poorly planned out assassination attempt in the Alpine Union's history, but one way or the other heads were going to roll.
She stepped out of the museum and glanced in the direction of the spell-fire. The city guard had responded already, that was good. Still, they could use a little help she imagined, and she had some anger to work out besides.
She disapparated, and reappeared at the back of the battle, silently waving her wand. A stone hand grew out of the ground, pinning a nearby witch to the ground. That one she'd keep for interrogation later. The others though…
"Where's the Queen?" Vittoria glanced to her right carelessly, seeing a wizard with a necklace of Grindelwald's symbol around the man's neck. She let out a scoff, twitching her wand just enough to put an invisible shield charm between them.
"Grindelwald's Zealots? You fools, really?" She asked. Of all the idiots that could have been behind this, it was the remnants of the imprisoned Dark Lord who was attacking?
"Where's the Queen?" The man repeated angrily.
"Not here."
"Don't lie to me! Everyone knows you two travel together. Now tell me where she is, or this gets painful."
"She's gone. Left, the minute you lot started making explosions. Not even in the city anymore."
"Impossible, you can't apparate when the wards go up, and they went up the minute we set those explosions!"
"She's the goddamn queen, of course she can go wherever she wants." Vittoria told him, rolling her eyes, tracking the rest of the battle, trying to figure out where she was most needed. There were maybe fifteen of the terrorists. Not nearly enough to conquer the city, which meant either they had a target, this was a hit and run fear spreading plan...or they were stupid enough to still be fighting for Grindelwald's dream a little over forty years after the man himself had been defeated and thus stupid enough to think they'd win the day.
"Well maybe she'll come back when I make you scream you little tart…" Vittoria decided she'd had enough and waved her wand without looking, turning the shield into a burst of energy that destroyed everything but the man's feet upon impact.
"Now then." She murmured, waving her wand once more, this time in a more intricate pattern than before. "How about…" She thrust her wand forward, and the stone beneath one wizard's feet turned to liquid, swallowing him as he shrieked. A second wave and a witch turned into a ruby statue seconds before she could kill a fallen guard. A third wizard was swallowed by a cloud of darkness that shivered and jittered and spat out clean bones before vanishing.
"It's the Princess!" One of the wizards shouted, pointing as someone finally noticed she was present. She felt a strange mixture of gratification and disappointment as the terrorists dropped their wands, nearly in unison, and raised their hands. The benefit of her reputation was that sometimes it stopped bloodshed before things got too bad. The downside was that she had to struggle with and force her darkness back down as she was left unsatisfied. She gave a minute shake of her head, forcing herself to focus on the benefits, and joined the guards in chaining prisoners and snapping wands.
"Captain." She said, nodding at the wizard in charge of the guard as he bowed to her. "Can your men handle the clean-up, or do you want my help?" The man quickly shook his head.
"No my lady, we can take care of things. Thank you for your aid." Vittoria nodded again.
"Duty and honor." She said simply, getting a nod from the guard captain in return. "I must return to my wife. But, in an hour or so, the Queen will be visiting. I will have to stay behind, to look after our ward…" at that the guard captain blinked, news of Sofia hadn't fully spread yet "so if you can't spare the guard for a full protective detail by then let us know via Floo if you would." The man bowed again. "Rest assured that Grand Combin will have the full support of the Crown in clean-up, repairs, and other expenses, and will readily review any plans you or the Lord Mayor draw up to help prevent another such attack. Do keep us informed if you manage to find out why these fools decided to attack."
"Of course my lady." Vittoria nodded, then disapparated, reappearing on the balcony of the VIP Floo Port. She quickly stepped inside, then leaned against the wall, taking some deep, calming breaths to center herself. The last thing she wanted was for Sofia to see her darkness. Once she felt appropriately calmed she walked over to the ornate jar of Floo Powder and grabbed a handful.
"Monte Rosa Castle." No sooner did she step through the flames and out the other side then did Sofia collide with her, latching her arms tightly around her waist. Vittoria let out a little oomph, but quickly began stroking Sofia's hair. "Shh little one, it's okay, I'm here." She glanced at Bianca, mouthing 'One hour', then looked back at Sofia after her wife nodded. "I'm okay, didn't even come close to getting hurt."
"What happened?" Sofia asked, staring up with wide, worried eyes.
"Some very silly people made a very big mess because they were angry." Vittoria told her simply. "But they weren't scary or dangerous, and they stopped once they saw me glaring at them." Sofia...probably didn't need to know more than that she reasoned. She was a bit too young to be hearing about Vittoria killing people, or about Grindelwald in general really. When she was older, and not still recovering from watching her parents die in front of her, maybe.
"You promise you're okay?" Sofia asked. Vittoria smiled and nodded, brushing some hair out of the girl's face.
"I promise. Everything's fine dear, and it's going to stay that way, don't you worry." Sofia studied her face, then must have seen something because she nodded and hugged Vittoria tightly. Vittoria and Bianca shared a small smile, and Vittoria felt some of the darkness go away, perhaps for good.