"Why couldn't you have shown me that before?" Isabella demanded. She was sitting in the Main Hall with Khalid, Mariano, Angelica, Kurt, Deitmar, and Zala. The others were grinning like fools and even Isabella could barely keep a straight face.
"Well, the rest of us learned it first-year..." Mariano said, evidently struggling not to laugh. "It just never occurred to us..."
"That I might be freezing all the time?" Isabella said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Five weeks! Five weeks of three feet tall snowdrifts and you can't think to tell me one simple heating charm for my robes?"
"It's explained to all the first-years in their Charms class," Khalid explained. Angelica was leaning against his shoulder and trying to hide her smile with one hand. "But the rest of us like to watch them freeze for a while."
"And the snowdrifts have only been three feet tall for the past couple of days," Zala corrected.
"I hate you. All of you," Isabella said. Then she burst out laughing. It was infectious and soon all of them were gasping for air and wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. A bell rang, interrupting them.
"That's lunch time," Kurt said, standing and offering Zala a hand. The rest of them clambered to their feet and joined the rest of the student body as it began to pour out of the Main Hall and down the stairs.
Suddenly someone grabbed Isabella's arm. She could feel their finger tighten on her magically-warmed sleeve as they pulled her aside. It was Pandaros.
"What do you want?" she demanded, trying to shake his arm off. There were still a good number of people in the Hall, taking their time. All of Pandaros's friends were standing nearby, watching and nudging each other.
"Let me go!" she insisted, once again trying to throw him off. She had the horrible feeling that her discomfort was amusing to his friends.
"I will... if you kiss me," he said.
"What?" Isabella said, caught off guard. "Siete pazzesco?" But Pandaros had seized her other arm and backed her against the wall. She struggled, but there was no way she could reach her wand. And he was grinning in anticipation, his face getting closer...
There was a loud bang and Pandaros's grip was wrenched away as he was pushed back a few feet.
The most unlikely of rescuers stood there, wand still raised: Sergio. Isabella had not spoken very much with any of her cousins since her first day, but here Sergio was, looking livid. And Tina and Rosina were at his back, looking slightly nervous.
"Leave her alone, Aiskhúlos!" Sergio snarled. There was a movement off to the side. Isabella turned and saw that all of Pandaros's friends had drawn their wands. Pandaros did as well, smirking.
"Oh yeah? Who's going to stop me from doing whatever I want, Italian?" he sneered. To her surprise (Isabella never expected either of them to do this outside of a classroom) Tina and Rosina drew their wands from beneath their purple robes and pointed them, unsteadily, towards Pandaros's gang.
"Isabella, what's-?" Mariano had come back up the staircase with Angelica, Khalid, and Deitmar. Without question, both Mariano and Angelica joined the twin girls at Sergio's back. The quarrel between Isabella and Pandaros had absorbed the attention of everyone remaining in the Main Hall.
There was a subtle, but general shift in the Hall. It seemed that every Italian in the room was coming to stand behind Sergio. Likewise, every Greek moved to Pandaros. Everyone of Aryan descent looked uncomfortable and backed away, averting their eyes. For the first time, Isabella saw the school truly divided.
"What's going on?" a voice called over them all. Isabella's heart sank as she recognized Senior Mosca pushing his way between the two groups. "Wands away, children!" he scolded. "No magic without supervision! Why aren't you down at lunch? We can't all survive two months on nothing but sweet air, clean water, and a single loaf of bread like I once did in the summer of '76-" Wands were gradually stowed away, but the two groups continued to cast loathing looks at each other.
Isabella excused herself early from dinner and the concerned looks of her friends to dart up to the library before it closed. She hurried down one of the shelves with books on the history of magic. There were several dozen about Italy and several dozen about Greece, but only one title mentioning both: The Ancient Feud: Why the Greeks and the Italians Hate Each Other.
Flipping it open to the first page, Isabella scanned over the beginning of the first chapter.
"The mutual animosity between the wizards of Greece and the wizards of Italy traces its roots back to the long-standing feud between the Ancient Greeks and the Romans, a feud begun in blood during the Trojan War.
Research now indicates that a significant amount of magic was used during the Trojan War. For example, Helen was generally know to be an enchantress with great skills in the brewing of philters. It has been suggested that it was she who brewed the first batch of Amortentia in order to woo the young Trojan prince, Paris, and convince him to carry her away.
Some have even ventured to guess that the duel of Hector and Achilles, the Trojan and Greek heros respectively, was just that: a wizard's duel. Although they are documented as having used spears, it could be that some staff or primitive wand was the actual weapon of this fight.
Whatever the case, Troy was almost completely destroyed. A very small group of people escaped, led by Aeneas. Wizards have long since claimed that one of the images of the gods Aeneas carried from the ruins of Troy was that of Hecate, but again, as the records of the war were written only by Muggles, there is no source of this information.
Aeneas went on to become the father of Rome. His entire nation destroyed, his cousin Hector brutally killed, and the last remnants of his people on the run, Aeneas naturally could have held a grudge agains the Greeks. Many Italians still carry that grudge close to their hearts, though very few now remember why.
That is not to say that the Greeks are the only guilty party here. When Rome grew more powerful, and its wizards more learned under the protection of Hecate, the fledging empire set its sight on the peninsula to the East.
Rome established dominance in a short, but bloody conflict. The primary battle line was actually fought between the witches and wizards of both countries. Though the Greeks possessed more learned, more experienced sorcerers, the Roman magicians were more powerful and fought their opponents with magic and swords. To this day, the Greeks accuse the Romans of foul play by using Muggle weapons in a wizarding war.
The Roman destruction of Corinth, the Greek capital, is often seen as vengeance for the fall of Troy. However, the feud did not die with the Romans. Italian and Greek wizards have such an infamous hatred of each other, that they are very seldom seem attending the same International Confederation of Wizards' conferences, which has often created problems within the institution. The only times Greeks and Italians have attended the same conference, there have been duels. In 1883, Greek Minister of Magic Drakos Georgiadis left with large purple boils all over his face.
The only instance of Greek and Italian witches and wizards coexisting is the Academia de Italia, located so far in northern Italy it is often considered to be in Switzerland. On this almost neutral ground, young generations of magic-users live and learn peacefully with students from the other country."
"Coexist, yes. Peaceful? Highly doubtful," Isabella murmured, replacing the book and leaving the attic library. Madam Jacqueline shut the door right behind her, as though she had been waiting for Isabella to leave.
The explanation had been good, far better than anyone could give her. An ancient grudge... break to new mutiny... parents' strife... yes, very "Romeo and Juliet". Hadn't Professor Binns once told her Shakespeare was a moderately talented wizard? Had he, perhaps, been writing about a real feud? Would there be any star-crossed lovers? And would their deaths' end this pointless quarrel? Isabella didn't know, it made her head spin. One thing she knew for sure: no way was she going to be star-crossed with Pandaros.