Chapter 47.
/ /
"My Ausar, the time is approaching… I sense the Key of Wind in the fabric of magic again," Isis said, stroking Osiris' chest, as they were lying in their bed.
Osiris smiled, stroking her back sensually. "Then, my Usat… where is it? Speak the word, and Ausar will get it for you."
"It is on its way to Greece, as we speak," Isis purred, her eyes glistening dangerously in the low light of the candles, and kept stroking him even as Osiris jerked at the information, almost sitting up.
"What!? And why are we still here in this forsaken island? If the Key of Wind has been found, then we can finally piece Netjer together, and bend this cosmos to our rule with it! Why are we here?"
"Because, my Ausar," Isis pushed him gently yet firmly back against the pillows, "the Key is going exactly where it should… and it is falling in our hands as we speak. All is unraveling as I want it to… so relax… and please your goddess, rejoicing in the knowledge that soon, you will be the forever ruler of every…" she pushed herself against Osiris' torso, her soft breasts tracing their path across it, "single…" her lips played tantalizing with Osiris', "…dimension of the world."
Osiris growled low, fondling her as she did that, and when her lips approached his, he kissed her in a way that bordered to a bite.
"And yet… you do not reveal your full plans to Ausar."
Isis grinned, not unlike the cobra she so often invoked in her spells and incantations as her fingers, from stroking Osiris' dark long tresses, clenched like she was about to pull his hair to pin him on the bed, her eyes flashing.
"My Ausar knows his place," she said in a low, subliminal tone. "And he knows, that some things are more powerful if absolutely secret."
For a moment, they remained locked in this embrace that should be tender, but in reality was a clash, a struggle. Then Osiris smiled, and rolled them both over so he would be on top.
"I shall please my goddess, then," he said in a husky, throaty voice, letting his weight settle heavily over Isis, his fingers digging into her flesh as possessively as hers in his.
"Yes," Isis approved, arching back.
/
Adeline hadn't been in a muggle car before arriving in Athens. And she was thoroughly surprised when Nikos told her they'd be travelling in muggle ways after leaving Scotland. She hadn't asked why, somehow fearing that if she insulted or somehow created animosity with the Greek wizard, she'd start her new life on the wrong foot, and she didn't want to do that. She didn't want this new page she'd turned to be filled with blemishes from the get go.
But now, as they were speeding in the highway to Athens, she couldn't help it.
"Professor…" she ventured.
"I'm not your professor anymore," Nikos smirked as he kept his eyes on the road. Driving in the avenues of Athens calmed him- until they would need to weave in the narrower roads that passed for avenues closer to the capital's center. "If you ever take my lessons, I'll just be your teacher, and you'll just call me Mr. Galanos. Things are more casual here."
"Sir, why don't we use the floo? Or- or pegasi? I read in Hogwarts that greek wizards use pegasi."
"Used to use pegasi," Nikos laughed. "It's only a hobby now. Also, the School is right in the middle of the muggle city. It's too much work to keep ourselves secret if we fly around on winged ponies, and floo has been known to malfunction far too much in Greece. Don't you like this car? Or is it because it's muggle you don't approve?"
Adeline fidgeted. The car was comfortable and the ride pleasant. In truth, there was nothing wrong with it.
"It's just not what I'm used to use, I suppose."
Nikos smiled. "You'll find that the human spirit has many facets, Adeline. Our type of magic is only one of it. Don't you for a moment think that muggles are without magic. They have created miracles of their own, and advanced science immensely. In very substantial ways, wizards and non-wizards complement each other. If either of us didn't exist, humanity would be crippled."
Adeline was quiet as she processed this. Then she said softly,
"Nobody ever spoke like that about muggles before."
Nikos smiled. "Nobody that has lived away from them for far too many centuries."
Nikos wasn't exaggerating when he said that the Athenian School was right in the middle of Athens. He parked the car just to the fringes of the historical center, and together with Adeline, he walked the streets of Plaka, winding around old neoclassical homes and revolution era courtyards, in a steady upwards tilt all the way to the Acropolis.
Adeline looked around the bustling crowds of people, the peddlers and the tourist shops and wares. They created a colorful motley of textures, styles and scents that couldn't help but uplift her. When she lingered a bit at an ice cream corner shop, Nikos had bought her ice cream. She'd picked mint and chocolate. It tasted richly sweet and crisply minty- a perfect balance that made her smile. Rasmus grew up in a beautiful world, in a world where hearts opened by sheer reflex, and Adeline envied him for it in retrospect.
As they came up to the entrance to the archaeological site of the Acropolis, the ancient temple looming over them majestically even with the damage it sustained from medieval westerners and turks alike, Nikos paused, taking out his wand.
"Don't make a sound now," he said with a smile, and waving his wand cast an invisibility spell on both of them, and walked with her past the tourist guards, up the stairs of the Propylaia, through the giant pearly-yellow ancient marbles until they stood right under the ancient stone gates to the temples of the citadel. Holding her hand firmly, Nikos chanted a few passwords to wards and keys, and stepped forward. Then he paused, did the same, and stepped forward again, Adeline following close. He did that seven times, until they were right to the entrance of the Parthenon itself- and then Adeline gasped, for before her eyes the wards of magic fell apart, revealing the true image of the Parthenon, and not the one the tourists photographed:
Instead of a blown off roof, it shone dark red under the Attica sun. Instead of a plundered pediment, metope and frieze, the statues and glyphs were complete, adorning the temple in full splendor, dyed as they had been when first constructed, polished to perfection. Adeline couldn't help gaping, and Nikos let her with the warm pride of someone displaying something dear to a friend.
"This… how…? I thought it was…" Adeline stammered.
"You don't think the wizards of Greece have left her without her jewels, do you?" Nikos said almost affectionately. "But it isn't yet time to reveal the truth to the world. It isn't yet time for us to unveil the perfection we've been guarding for so long, and keeping from perishing. Our muggle counterparts are fighting their own fight, and they must finish it with honour before we can both rejoice in the same grounds, on the same occasion. So for now, let's just enter the School, shall we? The Parthenon is only the entrance, and I must let Rasmus know we've made it here safely."
/
Erna sat in her office, head on her hands. Harry had just left.
What have I just agreed to? Will I even be able to do my part? Her mind was reeling. But Nikos had kept his word about the Sigils. A thick notebook filled with his handwriting and penned charts was on her desk, with instruction on every medical Sigil the Auguror felt she would want to know and would be able to perform. She furiously leafed through it, to get to the couple that she would need way too soon. Too soon!
But the very cosmos was at stake along with Rasmus' life, and she was going to give the fight, if nothing else, because Guiren had died for it, and she owed it to him to not let his killers win.
She took her wand out, and started practicing, Nikos' notebook floating where she would be able to glance at it while she did.
/
Minerva called up Isa Dawlish through the floo. Severus had been more than clear about what had to be said, now that Galanos had left with Adeline, and Lyall's information had come at just the perfect time for it all to work in favour of their side. While she didn't feel confident in calling their side the Light side, with everything that had transpired, everything that had been culled for them to win with Voldemort, or Grindelwald earlier, what Isis and Osiris represented was so dark, they were cast in Light by comparison, anyway.
Isa answered with the smoldering meekness of one that is forced by circumstances to obey what they loathe.
"Headmistress McGonagall… how can I help you?"
"We have salvaged one of your aurors. He just came to," Minerva revealed bluntly, and carried on without allowing the minister time to react to the sudden news. "He has revealed to us exactly what happened at Stonehenge, and now we are able to round up the Cultists with a true surprise attack."
"How is it possible he did that?" Isa sputtered, trying to get in a question.
"He gave us his thoughts, and we used a pensieve to assess the situation. I won't get into any more detail, but we have the means to do it, if you cooperate completely this time, according to the Augury chart you disobeyed before." Minerva followed Severus' instructions to the letter.
"Will that secure us a victory to counterbalance last battle's shambles?"
Minerva's expression soured at how transparent Isa's motives were in this, but she gave her what she wanted to ensure cooperation.
"If this time you follow instructions, then yes, minister, you will have the victory you wish for."
Isa smiled.
"Then tell me what orders to give to the men, and they will be carried out."
/
Nikos led the way inside the Parthenon, right to where the gold and ivory statue of Athena was standing, and stepping up to it he walked right through, very much like Adeline had done at the station to take the Hogwarts Express. So Adeline took a deep breath and followed, stepping in past the lush folds of the goddess' dress.
She found herself at the top of very wide, massive winding marble stairs, beautifully decorated with olive and fir tree branches. There was nobody else there except Nikos at the moment, but she could hear the hubbub of people just out of sight, where the staircase promised to lead them. Nikos grinned.
"Welcome to your new school, Adeline. Come, let's take you to the Director."
He confidently went down the stairs and she hurried to follow, her heart beating in excitement.
The stairs seemed to go on and on, even as the hubbub grew stronger, and she realized that they were going deep under the rock of the Acropolis, possibly underneath the entire modern city of Athens.
Indeed, the staircase led them to a massive, cavernous internal garden. The rock ceiling was visible behind the enchantments for sun or moonlight of the Athenian sky high up over them, and everywhere lush vines, ivy, olive and fig or fir trees grew, like atlases of the flora pushing against the very rock, or holding it high, protectively, over the crowd of students and teachers that were going this way and that, or playing music, or laughing, or running on warm terracotta or marble tiles separated only by scruffy grass. Adeline realized it consisted of innumerable clovers that rolled out like a carpet everywhere where there was no floor.
The tiled paths led to buildings, that Adeline was sure were ancient or medieval- usually stone or marble two story buildings, some temple-style with columns and pediments, and still others plain and made of heavy wood. But above all, there were many, many benches and canopies, as if the students and staff there loved to be in the mock-outside of their sheltered secret world.
The students all looked at her curiously as she followed Nikos to the building that looked the most prestigious and had the fewest people in its immediate yard. They were all wearing the odd uniform Nikos and Rasmus had worn when they had first arrived in Hogwarts: muggle jeans or pants with shirts, and over all a waist-length draped blue tunic with a white stripe a little over its hem, and a shoulder clasp with a medusa head on it. The teachers wore the same, only the tunics were dark red, and had two or more stripes according to their rank. Adeline wondered if they had Houses here, too.
"Here we are, the Hypate's House," Nikos said. "Consider it the Headmaster's office."
He took his wand out, and with it struck at the single bell that hung on a thin wooden pole. It resonated with a pleasant chime, and the doors to the House opened by themselves. Nikos gestured for Adeline to follow.
Inside the large edifice somehow managed to be both imposing and cosy. It was inlaid with wood everywhere, and countless books filled up the embedded bookcases. Students that looked to be of advanced classes where studying or cataloguing or fixing the books. Some of them were smoking, something that scandalized Adeline, even if the smoke and ash was charmed to disappear the moment it was produced. Nikos smirked to himself and led her down the wide corridor and past a few closed wooden doors, to the office in the end of the corridor.
"Eleni, we're here," Nikos said in Greek.
"Enter in welcome," a female voice said from inside. The door opened by itself again, and Eleni Geraka stood with a smile to greet Nikos and Adeline, spreading her arms in the welcome she professed.
The First Hypate and Director of the Athenian School of Magick was a tall, thin woman, dressed in a long woolen dress, and wearing the draped waist-length tunic with the shoulder clasp that was part of the School's uniform, only hers was a deep green, and the clasp was golden, signifying her status. Her eyes were gray and sharp as lightning, that wasn't tempered by her smile.
"Welcome, Adeline," she said in English as she gestured for both of them to sit in the chairs by her office.
Her office was full of magic trinkets, muggle trinkets and large paintings of men and women Adeline didn't recognize. Over their heads, little silver balls with incense floated around, scenting the air. Behind her, a large window offered ample view of the outside. Adeline peered, and to her surprise saw the hints of a river in the far end. It boggled her mind, even though she'd grown up a witch, all of this was under the rock or even under Athens, and in the same time charmed and mesmerized her.
"Thank you," Adeline said demurely, trying to put on her best behavior. Eleni smiled again.
"Nikos has informed me you were pivotal in discovering the very thing that will help swing this war of eons to our favour once and for all," she said, as that uncomfortable lightning glance bore deep in Adeline's very soul, it seemed, without any of the warmth the rest of the woman's face projected. "I want you to feel welcome and cherished here, in our School. After we test you for placement, we will design your coursework for you… and rest assured, you will find friends very quickly."
"Thank you," she repeated inanely, but then she did find words to ask a practical question:
"Madam, if I may ask… if here the language is Greek, how will it be possible for me…"
"Not to worry," Nikos said. "We will charm your books to read as English, while you learn the language. Everyone will help you along."
"That's right. And seeing as your part in this war is done, and it is time for your rest and reward, let's begin immediately." Taking her wand out, she made a curious little curly wave in the air, that didn't seem to do anything. But then, only a few moments after the door opened, and a handsome looking student came in with a smile and a bow.
"You called for me, Hypate?"
"Yes, Dimitri. Here is Adeline, from Hogwarts in England. She is our new student. Show her around, will you? Arrangements have been made."
Adeline flushed a little as she got up, and Dimitri offered her his hand with a charming smile. She followed him in a hurry, and the door shut behind them. Nikos couldn't help chuckling for a moment.
But then it was time for work. Eleni wasn't smiling anymore either.
"You have the Key?" she asked. He nodded.
"Yes, I do. We are ready to go to Delphi, Eleni." Nikos said in earnest. Eleni smiled.
"That won't be necessary. I did my own work while you were away, my dear Nikos… and I have brought the Omphalos here, with the Key of Fire. We can do what we must by the Sacred Spring, where our magic will be strongest."
Nikos was somewhat taken aback, and didn't find words, so Eleni continued,
"Also, with the Omphalos not near its crag, where it is most powerful, we will have another strategic advantage against the prime wizards. I am sure Aello would approve. Are you ready?"
"Yes… of course, I'm ready. I just want to send Rasmus the message I promised him," Nikos said.
Eleni got up with a nod.
"Do what you must, and I will expect you by the Spring in an hour."
/
Rasmus walked to the Room of Requirement- that's where Hermione said it would be best if they were to do the blood breaking. Rasmus agreed. There would be no portraits there to stop him, either.
And it was past breakfast- it was time. His heart was pounding fast and violently against his chest, but he forced his pace to be strong and quick. This was a reckoning, and he would see it through. He had to. The curse would die- or die with him. Either way, he would bring an end to Osiris' latch to life, and deprive Isis of her strongest ally, thus ensuring his godfather the win in this as he fought in Athens.
It was a simple plan, and he knew that the simplest plans were the ones that worked the best.
"Son," the voice made him stop, because unlike recently, Severus wasn't speaking in angry demand, but in a soft tone he had only used with Rasmus in special, very special and rare times. He turned towards the portrait, and approached.
Severus was standing there, in the midst of an impressionistic meadow- the painting style clashing harshly with the stern classical style the potions master had been painted in. Rasmus dry swallowed.
"Dad, please-"
"I am not here to stop you," Severus said, with eyes churning with worry and love as he put a hand against the canvas- that's exactly how it looked to Rasmus, as if the canvas was the prison barrier separating them. "I am here to tell you that I am proud of you."
Rasmus wanted to speak, but the knot in his throat was stopping him from uttering a single word. He just simply touched the canvas where his father's painted hand was. Severus continued:
"I am proud that you follow in your mother's footsteps… and in mine. And though I am just a shadow of the person that did, I must tell you that I love you… because in this portrait, all of that love was also poured along with the imprint of his soul. Please, Rasmus, do your best to survive this. Live to tell the tale, my son."
Rasmus breathed in shakily, then he nodded, blinking a lot.
"I promise, father. I promise you that."
Then he broke into a run that didn't stop until the Room of Requirement's doors had shut behind him.
Harry, Hermione and Ron were already there, waiting for him. The magic circle had already been traced.
And though a lot was said with their eyes, nobody spoke, as Rasmus walked in the middle of the circle, and took out the little golden vial.
"Well," he said with a sigh, "here goes."
And in one decisive swig, he drank it all.
/ /
And that's it for now!
One chapter to go. Two, if we're being technical. Also, I added more detail for you to read, as a Christmas/ Holiday bonus. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays to you all.
Duj: Indeed so! It's what Snape does.
last minute edit: it appears that asterisks between segments are eaten by the FF system. I've added other separators in this chapter, but if you find any chapter where there are no separators, please tell me so I can go back and add them. I assure you they're there in my actual docx files.