Chapter 67: In Which We Explore Locations
On Monday afternoon Hermione took Severus by the arm. "Ready?" she asked.
He nodded.
When the spinning stopped, Snape found himself outside, looking at a large open space ringed by old oaks on the one side and a huge decrepit castle on the other.
Hermione smiled at him. "How about here?"
Snape studied the castle, feeling like it was familiar, but unable to place it. "Where are we?"
"Ewloe Castle, in Wales. In October the leaves will be turning: red, yellow, and orange, and if we go for afternoon into evening we can get the light of sunset. We'll have thousands of little fairy lights all over the castle and as it gets darker they'll light up. I think it'll be really beautiful here."
They continued to walk around. "How do you know this place?" Severus asked.
"We camped here a few nights, when we were on the hunt. It was way out of the way, and we needed a safe place to hole up. Fred and George picked it. It's got enough of its own magical energy that everything we did was masked by it."
"What were you doing?"
"A broadcast of Potterwatch, some healing, a few attempts at locator spells, but mostly we needed it for cover for Potterwatch." Hermione took Snape's hand and led him up a series of wooden stairs.
"I was thinking we could have the ceremony here, in front of the tower, and then have the party here and in the lower grassy area as well. Food up here, dancing down there, or vice versa."
"Just to make sure, you want an outdoor wedding at a ruined castle in autumn? We could find a functioning castle." Snape could see what Hermione wanted to do with the place, and it would look good, but he wasn't quite sold on this spot.
"I like this castle. Just the age makes it romantic. This is one of the great examples of thirteenth century Welsh Castle Building. We're standing in front of a D tower, which was an innovation in the merging of comfort for those who lived inside the castle with maximum protection. The round side of the tower provides for a larger range of fire, while the square side lets the people on the inside have bigger rooms."
"So, is it this particular place, or is it romantic ruined castles in general, that you like?"
"Why? Do you have some other ideas?"
"I've got a ruined castle or two in the soft places of my heart." He smiled sweetly.
She arched an eyebrow at him. "You are a man of many mysteries."
"Not so mysterious. Pure Bloods think there's nothing better than showing off how old and rich the family line is, so one of their hobbies is showing off the family manse. Some of them actually were quite lovely, though. Although, would a place that once housed the Black family eight hundred years ago, bother you?"
"Did Bellatrix ever live there?"
"No, she wouldn't have been caught dead in the place. She would have had to have hobbies to have found the place interesting."
"Then lead on." He took her by the arm and the familiar twisting and pressing feeling engulfed them. When the pressure let up and Hermione opened her eyes she was greeted by the sight of medieval stone arches, gothic windows, and the sun shining through where the ceiling would have been.
"I guess technically this is a church, but it was never used as such. If you look," He pointed behind her, to the ruined side of the church, where stones tumbled to the ground and allowed a view of the grounds outside, "over there, you'll see the ruins of the house."
The 'house' was also an example of gothic architecture. Fine carved grey stone, tall arching windows and doors, and a few gargoyles graced the intact sides of the building. The side closest to the church, about two hundred meters away, was also in tumble-down condition.
"What happened between here and the house?"
"You noticed that it's only the two facing sides that are in ruins?"
"Kind of hard to miss."
"No one really knows for sure, but the story, at least as I heard it, goes something like this: In the early twelve hundreds Antaurach Black lived around here. He had found himself widowed and was looking for a new bride. He was in the process of aligning his house with the MacIntyres when he saw Alhana Bright. She was young, fair skinned, blonde, very blue eyes, and also came from a good family…"
He continued the story in his own words, as the memory of Narcissa telling it ran through his head. 'Her name was Alhana and she was known as one of the great beauties of her day. She possessed skin the color of newly cut oak, eyes that were startlingly blue, and hair that to this day can never be properly described, but if you can imagine stands of woven silver and gold, you'd get an idea. She was fifteen the year that Antaurach Black saw her.
She was visiting at a friend's house, a friend who Antaurach was in the process of courting, but when he saw Alhana, he broke the engagement and was at her father's door the next day, asking what could be done to win her hand.
Her father, Samuel Bright, was a greedy man, and he had two suitors, both of great wealth, both of good family, asking for his daughter's hand. So he made them a challenge, each man would have a year to make a home for his daughter. The better of the two homes would win.
Antaurach came here, the prettiest of his lands, and began to build. He brought in Dwarves to do the stonework and Goblins for the stained glass windows. He paid an enormous sum to get Sylvan Elves, thought to be a myth, to carve the wooden furniture for him. When a year passed, this house and chapel were finished and almost entirely furnished. He left one floor of the house empty, save for a chest of gold. That floor was hers, to design as she liked.
Antaurach Black returned to the Bright home, and found Alhana even more beautiful than he had remembered. And there he also found Restulan Grint, the other suitor. The two men waited, with ill temper, while Samuel Bright and his daughter inspected the homes. When they returned, Alhana graced both men with a smile and then left them to talk to her father.
Her father drew the men into his sitting room. 'I am amazed at the level of craftsmanship and talent that has gone into these homes. They are both so fine that I could not decide between the two.' He let those words fall into the room and then said nothing.
Restulan was a Dragon Rider, for in those days the secret of how to speak with Dragons had not yet been lost. He did not know that Antaurach was also a Dragon Rider. So he offered a duel. A mounted duel. He figured that when he arrived on Blaze and Antaurach arrived on his horse that would cause Samuel to see he was the better of the two men and choose him.
Antaurach accepted the duel, for much the same reason that Restulan proposed it. He too did not know that his opponent would come on dragonback. He too felt that his swooping in on the back of Fireflash would cause Samuel to choose him.
Antaurach, as the challenged party, was allowed to choose the location, so he chose his new home. The grandeur of the home, and the Dragon, and all the magic he could bring to bear on the situation would surely cause Samuel to choose him.
Samuel set the day for a month off, to allow both men to gain his daughter's acquaintance, and more importantly, to allow her to get to know both of them. He had enjoyed his game of making them both build her homes worthy of a queen, but he would not force her to marry a man she had never so much as shared a word with.
The month sped by rapidly. Both men fell more and more deeply in love with Alhana with each passing day. But both were fearful and jealous, wondering if she loved him in return. They began to look forward to the day of the duel and to humiliating the other one, sure that that would be the final triumph to win her heart.
Alhana and her father arrived at Antaurach's home the day before. And, for the first time he had the opportunity to be with her without his rival's presence. He hosted a lavish party for them in the new home, and spent the night dancing and talking with Alhana. By the end of the night he was sure that she truly loved him, and that by noon the next day, he would have won her for his own.
Of course, stories like these end in tragedy, for romances always end thus. And the tragedy here was one that neither of the men could have foreseen. Dragonkind live long, long lives, and during those lives they take just one mate. In centuries past Blaze had killed Fireflash's mate, as an act of revenge for some slight now lost to history. Fireflash had vowed revenge over the corpse of his love.
So it was, as both men prepared their Dragons, ready to swoop in and make a grand entrance, that the Dragons had different ideas. Fireflash had caught the scent of his sworn enemy and was ready to kill.
Those who saw it say that it was a truly spectacular aerial battle. As soon as the Dragons closed upon each other they lost all memory of the men riding upon them. Both of the riders were killed in a matter of minutes by the heat of the dragon fire, so hot that it caused their armour to burn. The Dragons circled, clawed, breathed fire, and cast spells of their own magic at each other for twenty minutes, until Blaze crashed into Fireflash, and both locked together, spinning wildly, dragon fire spewing in all directions, came hurtling to the ground. The combination of the heat of the fire, and the concussion of the impact killed the dragons, and destroyed everything for hundreds of meters.
Alhana, seeing her future destroyed in a fiery cataclysm, broke free of her father, and threw herself into the flames. And, on the anniversary of their doom, the ghosts of Antaurach, Alhana, and Restulan re-enact their deaths.
Of course, tragic romances must also always end with a possibility of hope, and here is the hope that goes with this story. It is rumoured, that should this chapel ever be used for a wedding, their souls will at last fine peace.'
Regulus then gave her a gentle shove. 'Come on cuz, you're just hoping we'll fall for it, and try and get that git you're marrying to agree to do it here.'
She had smiled brightly at both of them, the image of the Alhana she had conjured for them. 'Maybe, I am, but it's still a good story.'
'He won't agree to it, he's set on having it at the Manor,' Snape had added, looking over the ruined house and chapel. 'It is beautiful though.'
'It was worth a try. Let's head back before someone notices we've gone,' she had said, and they returned to her cousin's home.
Snape finished his version of the story, leaving out the bit about Narcissa wanting to get married here.
Hermione spent the next few minutes wandering about the chapel, looking critically at the stonework, the windows, and the floor.
"Dwarven stonework?"
"Supposed to be the best ever."
"I'll buy that. You can barely tell this wasn't just carved out of one huge block of granite. So who told you this tale of romance and woe?"
"Narcissa. She liked stories and was good at telling them."
"Narcissa took you here to tell you a story about an old, ruined house?" Hermione looked incredulous.
"It was at one of the seemingly hundreds of engagement parties I ended up having to go to for Lucius and Narcissa."
"Oh." An image of a young Narcissa, happy and excited at the idea of her marriage found its way into Hermione's head. "They were real people." Hermione shook her head. "I have a hard time getting my head around that. They were so much caricatures of Slytherin Pure Blood Death Eaterness, that it's hard to remember they were real people. And your real friends." She gazed up at the stained glass windows, beautifully wrought images of angels amid roses and lilies. Her fingers stroked the still smooth stone, carved so carefully that it was almost impossible to find the joints. "So who owns this now?"
Snape thought long and hard. "Closest I can figure is Harry or Draco. Maybe Andromeda Tonks, if her banishment from the family wasn't binding."
"If it's Harry or Andromeda, then using it isn't a problem. I don't think Draco would go for us getting married on his land."
"If it's his, then I'm in charge of making sure that he uses it correctly, at least for a few more years. But, if I had to guess," Snape said, looking out at the ground between the two buildings. "I'd say it belongs to Harry or Andromeda. The grass has to be waist high, the weeds are a mess, and no one has been in either of these places for years. If it was part of Draco's holdings, he'd have the grounds manicured, repaired the house, and would have sold it, or used it as a fancy B&B for travelling wizards looking for luxury accommodations."
"Let's go talk to Harry."
"You want to do it here?"
Hermione smiled at him. "Yes, I like it here. Granted, my parents will probably have a heart attack about a wedding in a church."
It'd been bothering Snape for days now, and he guessed this would be the best opportunity he'd have to ask without insulting her. "What is it with your parents and weddings?"
"Oh, God, that's a long story, let's talk about it later." It wasn't the answer he was hoping for, but he was willing to respect it. They continued to chat while walking around the grounds, plans for a wedding beginning to solidify in their minds.