31 Days of SSHG Flash Fiction Prompt: There was a ring in his teacup.
Summary: SSHG, Mistakes make the man, and Severus Snape has made many and often
Beta Love: Dragon and the Rose
Complicated
Flash Fiction Prompted story by CorvusDraconis
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Al Franken
He knew it was a mistake the instant he'd done it.
Insight came along with blinding clarity as his mother's ring clinked into his teacup. The brew flared up, splattering his face before anguish ripped through the remnants of his soul.
But infinitely worse.
For a moment, he saw pain in her eyes, then her face went expressionless and any warmth seemed to vanish like a phantom through one of Hogwarts' stone walls.
It had been infinitely easier during the war—no one had expected him to be anything but an unmitigated bastard.
Inexplicably, she had seen something more in him. And he—
He had seen everything that was denied him throughout his miserable life.
He'd given her the Prince family ring—the only item of value his mum had given him, a thing of platinum and black opal—a gem that seemed to hold the stars suspended in space amidst swirling nebulas. It slid on her finger like it belonged there—and he had ignored the sudden flush of magic that he had easily dismissed as the witch's emotions causing her magic to overflow—
It had recognised her.
But now it lay at the bottom of a cracked tea cup that was steadily leaking Darjeeling all over the tablecloth.
And he—
He'd accused her of using him as her pet project to increase her clout at the Ministry.
To get a leg up on a quest to become Minister for Magic—
Why?
Could he not be content knowing that she had cared for him?
Could he never be happy?
Satisfied?
Must he keep poking things with a sharp stick until it bit him?
He couldn't accept that he'd found something good in his life for a change. Kind. Compassionate. That he had something to hold and cherish. Something that was his.
Well, not anymore.
As usual, he'd done something he'd spend the rest of his life kicking himself over.
Only Lily had never tucked herself against him like she'd fit.
She'd never touched him on the cheek as she gazed into his eyes, a loving smile on her lips.
She'd never been content to sit with him in a library—simply enjoying his company.
"I have something to tell you, Severus."
Severus' jaw tightened. "That you are done trying to fix the old, tainted Death Eater?"
"W-what? No!"
"That you've wasted too much time pretending that any of this matters?"
"S-Severus, what are you—"
"I'm just some bloody pet project for you," he hissed furiously.
"That's not—"
"Drop my name in conversation. Invoke a little pity. Who wouldn't vote for someone who could tame a sodding Death Eater?"
Hermione's expression shifted from disbelief to pain and then to something indescribable. Her eyes closed. "You don't want to be with me."
"I want you out of my house. I want you out of my life, witch."
Hermione's body tensed, and then her whisky eyes darkened.
She flung something at him. It struck him between the eyes then fell in his teacup, cracking it with the impact of velocity mixed with emotion-fueled magic.
"I renounce your proposal," Hermione said stonily. "May you find in life exactly what you deserve.
With a loud CRACK she was gone.
"I'm here to see Miss Granger."
"Sorry, she's not in."
"Look, I know she works here—just tell her I need to speak with her."
"I'm sorry, I can't do that, sir."
Severus grit his teeth, his fist clenched. "I need to see her. It is important!"
"I fear you're too late," a voice said from the doorway.
Snape spun, instantly hostile at the sound of the all-too-familiar voice.
Potter stood as he placed a stack of papers into the mailbox. "She resigned yesterday, effective immediately."
"What do you mean she 'left'?" Snape demanded.
"I mean she packed up and said she wasn't coming back," Potter said with a heavy sigh. "The Lethifold ran off with her. Tried to eat Fernsby when he went to restrain it. It always did have a crush on her. She named the damned thing Walter, and it followed her around like a lovesick puppy."
"Walter—is a Lethifold?" Severus asked, recognition poking his brain from the inside.
Severus narrowed his eyes as he heard the Ministry officials gossiping at a nearby cafe table.
"She's always with Walter," the wizard cursed. "He follows her like a lovesick fool, and she indulges him!"
"Makes you feel pretty sorry for the poor bloke she's with right now, right?" the other said, laughing.
"Right? I hope that wanker knows what he's getting into. There is no way she'll ever give up Walter."
Severus slammed his coins down and left the cafe, his jaw clenching in anger.
Severus realised his paranoia had him believing Hermione had been seeing a young wizard named Walter—
It was but another nail in his increasingly crowded coffin.
"I assumed you didn't wish to move to the seaside with Hermione," Potter said.
Snape narrowed his eyes.
"I mean, the sea isn't for me either," Harry added hastily. "She was just so excited to tell you she'd won the lottery in getting the place. She said there was ample room for a private potions laboratory and a huge library—all that kind of stuff."
"Where is it?" Snape demanded.
Harry frowned. "She didn't tell you?"
Snape's jaw tightened.
Harry shook his head. "It's unplottable. I don't even know where it is."
"How does her best friend not know where she lives?"
"Because she knew I'd be pressured by people like Ron as to her location," he said. "I thought you knew where she was—which makes me wonder, sir—I thought you two were getting married."
Severus gritted his teeth. "I thought she was cheating on me."
"Hermione? Are you bloody mad? She was head over heels for you!" Harry blurted in shock.
"I kept hearing—on a daily basis—that she was being pursued by someone called Walter, and she was indulging his fancy. From the lowest Ministry peon to Shacklebolt. I—believed he was a wizard."
"He's a Lethifold!"
"I know that—NOW." Severus made a hissing sound and his lip curled. "Everyone just said Walter. How was I to know it was a Lethifold?"
Harry pinched his nose and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "No one knew because Walter was DoM property. Somehow word got out but since no one ever actually saw 'Walter' they just assumed he was a bloke. It's not like Hermione could talk about him—he was DoM. Most people wouldn't think that a Lethifold could be tamed. Hell, the only reason I can talk about it now is because the entire Auror office had to be briefed upon Walter's 'escape'. His existence is no longer classified. He had been registered as her familiar for years, but he'd always stayed in the DoM until she came back."
"Until now."
Harry nodded.
There must be something you can tell me, Potter. I—must make this right."
Harry grimaced. "She was excited about research in some sunken temple of Poseidon. That's all I know, honest."
Severus closed his eyes and then stormed out. He paused at the archway and glanced back. "Potter."
Harry looked up.
"Thank you."
Harry startled and nodded as Snape stalked out of the Ministry.
It had taken him seven years—the magical number—to find Poseidon's sunken temple. He'd found an area that no one in the Muggle world seemed to know existed—they'd go glassy-eyed and then call him nutters. As his feet touched the stretch of beach, he could feel the ambient magic caress his toes.
He'd used every waking minute researching and searching for her—he'd tried sending letters only for a confused owl to return to him covered in kelp.
He knew he'd let his old insecurities override his reason, his heart, and his soul.
Even the ring itself seemed to spite him—having inexplicably changed into something like a cheap plastic toy from a Muggle cereal box.
His temples had greyed from the stress alone. He'd grown a beard—no time to waste shaving when he could be searching.
He'd rehearsed what he wanted to say. Over and over. And over.
He'd never let the Prophet or Ministry idiots get the upper hand until—
Until he thought maybe she'd found someone else.
That had eaten away at him—whispering more poisonous thoughts of her using him.
That made more sense than her still loving him.
He was a thrice-damned fool.
Severus slipped on a patch of seaweed just as a furious swath of living black engulfed his head and slammed him hard into the beach sand.
This is where the story officially ends because word limit. You can either stop reading here or continue on… because I believe in free will and the abuse of ellipses.
When he awoke, a warm seaweed compress fell off his head, and he saw a petite woman dressed in flowing Grecian-style robes with a dainty crown of horses and dolphins floating above her head of untamed curls. The divine aura of Poseidon glowed all around her.
"I was an idiot," Severus said in a panicked rush. "I assumed wrongly. I was insecure."
"Lord Poseidon told me the truth of it when He asked if I would still devote my life to His Service," Hermione said calmly, her eyes seeming to glow like moonlight on the sea. "When I said it changed nothing, He said that one day you would find me, and my patience would be rewarded."
Hermione's expression was impassive. "So, should I believe the words of my Lord Poseidon?"
Severus closed his eyes as he sank to his knees, pressing his forehead to her bare, salty feet where the seawater stained her skin with salt. "I beg your forgiveness. I never stopped loving you. It was my love for you that made the thought of you being with someone else unbearable. I let my fear goad me into mistrust when I should have—did—know better."
A small touch on his head startled him as a child's voice said, "She forgives you for being a wanker. Both of her best friends were wankers too."
Severus stared at the little girl with jet black curls. She was wearing ancient Grecian-style garments and clutched a baby seahorse in her arms—horse's head and neck to fishtail. The seahorse neighed and spat a stream of water on him like a fountain.
"Minerva Jean," Hermione chided. "Language!"
"Sorry, Mummy, but you said to always tell the truth," the child said, lifting her head.
"Yes, but I also taught you tact and proper English," Hermione pointed out.
The little child—Minerva—sighed. "I'm sorry. May I go to the back temple and blow up effigies of the red-headed zounderkite?"
Hermione scowled. "Introductions first, if you please."
The child perked and threw a golden fish at him. It flopped in his hands, went up his shirt, and then slapped his face a few times with its tail before sprouting legs and dashing off into the temple pool with a gleeful HEHEHEHEHEHHE! sound.
"I'm Minerva Jean Granger, daughter of Mummy. She talks to the ocean and its god. I'm just a kid. I talk to everyone. Well, except the zounderkite."
"Minerva!"
The child winced. "Sorry, Mummy. Can I go play now?"
"Are your lessons done?"
The child huffed. "Of course."
"Then you may go play. Do try not set things on fire. And clean up when you are done."
The child rolled her eyes. "I know."
"Go on then."
Minerva dashed away, the baby seahorse following after her as best it could by jumping from pond to pond.
Severus stared after her. A lightbulb glowed above his head and then fell just enough to hurt on the way down. "That was what you wanted to tell me that day."
Hermione sighed. "Yes."
"Then I am even more the fool," Severus said, a haunted look chasing across his face.
"I no longer wish you to suffer," Hermione said with a sigh. "I did once after what you said that day. You turned the happiest moment of my life into the worst. But Poseidon teaches us that the ocean wears away all things, both sin and pain, and I do not wish to raise my child with hatred in my heart."
"And yet your child is attacking an effigy of something disturbingly familiar as we speak."
"Oh, she's not doing that out of hate," Hermione said. "She's doing it because it's fun, and the dummy makes cartoon noises when hit."
Severus blinked.
"It reminds me not to take everything too seriously. Especially thoughts of revenge."
"I'm surprised it wasn't made to resemble me," he remarked after a moment.
"It was for a while, but Walter kept trying to eat it," Hermione said, deadpan.
Severus blinked. He noticed the Lethifold hanging from Hermione's shoulders with surprise. He found if he wasn't purposely thinking "Lethifold" he could barely make out its actual shape or colour.
"Walter" rustled around her shoulders, and Severus could feel it staring at him despite the lack of any discernible eyes.
"I would greatly appreciate the chance to start over," Severus said quietly.
Hermione, who had turned away from him in order to feed what could have only been a Kraken, tutted as the huge tentacled creature searched her garments for extra snacks. She batted the curious tentacles away with a huff as she dumped the rest of the food into the "pool."
The mischievous Kraken sank back under the water, taking the food with him.
"You're living in a temple?" Severus asked, astonished.
"Muggles only see ruins—never enough to stay long," Hermione said softly. "Winning the lottery for the house was actually a test. How I reacted. How I dealt with the sea. When I showed potential, I was given an apprenticeship— a message delivered via dolphin. The further I advanced, the more the temple and the home were one and the same. The original temple is in the ocean—claimed by Poseidon. The one everyone thinks is the temple, at least from the Muggles, is a younger replica that was created hundreds of years after and went to ruin thanks to neglect—though I think it was rather that belief in the gods shifted in Britain to the druidic beliefs and later Christianity. Most people don't realise there was even a temple out here since it is so far from Greece."
"I didn't realise you were devoted to—the old gods," Severus said.
"I wasn't," Hermione said. "It was curiosity and research that brought me here, but things kept happening that rattled my beliefs much as magic did as a child coming from a Muggle family." She tilted her head with a small smile, the first he'd seen since his arrival. "And it is hard to not believe in Poseidon when He is the one teaching you."
"It seems as though it would be lonely here—cut off from even the magical world," Severus observed.
Hermione gave a sad smile. "It was due to be exposed to the magical world as Minerva grows closer to the time she will go to Hogwarts. Time flows differently here—I have had countless seasons to learn from Lord Poseidon. And while Minerva grows as a child should, my time has both slowed and sped up as to better allow my learning. But— now that I am self-sufficient, the temple can be opened to visitors and no longer erased from the minds that come near it. I had expected to wait a few more years for Minerva to be of age to leave for school—but the barriers had to be removed to save you from a rather overzealous Lethifold."
Walter seemed to cringe on her soldiers, drooping in shame like a dog caught after having mauled an innocent couch pillow.
"You—saved me?" Severus whispered.
"I did."
"I—" Severus winced. "Thank you."
"There is a guest quarters to the right and down the hall. There is a tidal pool with sea horses in it. You can pick whichever room you wish as your own. You can either bathe privately or use the hot springs as long as you don't mind an occasional seahorse visiting to investigate. The hot springs have a separate showering area before you soak."
Severus struggled with what to say before settling on, "Thank you, I will do so."
If he hadn't been watching, Severus wouldn't have seen her leave. One moment she was standing there, the next she was gone, and there was a pile of fresh linen, soap, and a soft robe piled in his arms like an unexpected cat.
Severus took a deep breath and walked toward the guest quarters.
"You've been holing up in this island paradise and didn't even bother to tell me?"
Severus felt his eyebrows colliding together like two rushing locomotives.
"Ronald, this is a temple. Please show some respect for the statuaries in Poseidon's sacred space."
"Oh, come on, 'Mione," the voice whinged condescendingly. "I know you're Muggleborn. You don't have to pretend you're into the Old Ways to make mum happy. You just have to marry me like we're meant to be."
"Excuse me?!"
"Come on, it's been seven years! I drove off old Snape so you'd remember who really cared, and you just swanned off to a tropical island and didn't even bother inviting me!"
"It was never about you—what do you mean you drove off Severus?"
"Oh, come on now, 'Mione," Ron continued smugly. "What's a bloke gotta do to get you to see that we're meant? I made damn sure that greasy old git heard all about your stupid little crush on Walter so he'd think you were having an affair with a younger bloke. He deserved it anyway. Perverted greasy bat touching you with his nasty old people hands. It was disgusting."
The ensuing silence was heavy.
"Let me get this straight," Hermione said in a low voice that seemed like distant thunder before an imminent squall. "You leaked confidential information about my Lethifold to the public to start rumours in the Ministry just so Severus would think I was seeing another man while engaged to him?"
"We know you weren't really interested in him, 'Mione," Ron stated confidently. "You just wanted a reputation of saving hard-to-save people."
A sudden splat hit Ron in the face with something horribly fishy smelling. The powerful stench of half-fermented fish slathered his skin.
A set of huge tentacles emerged from the nearby tidal pool as the Kraken's body rose up like an ominous cloud of cephalopod menace. The tentacles wrapped snugly around Ron's body, and dragged him off into the ocean, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Hermione stared at the tidal pool. She turned and stared at her angry spawn.
"THAT STUPID WANKER KEPT ME FROM KNOWING DADDY!" Minerva cried out, sobbing wildly. "He deserves to be torn to pieces by a waterspout and flung to six hundred and sixty six fathoms down to be eaten by a rampaging horde of vampire squid, viperfish, and abyssal molluscs!"
Hermione gathered her crying, hysterical child to her body as a whirlwind of objects floating around the temple crashed around them in a storm of her daughter's emotion-fueled magic. Walter wrapped himself snugly around them both, keeping the various objects from bludgeoning them to death.
A sudden warmth joined with them, and it was as if a missing piece fit neatly into place. The flying objects clanked harmlessly to the ground. Walter hovered nearby as Minerva sniffled and rubbed her wet face on Snape's robes even as Hermione lost herself in his unpracticed embrace.
His arms wrapped around her as if she was debris ready to fly into the wind, and she sobbed silently into his chest.
"Let's not let him steal any more time from us," he murmured into her hair. "Not one single moment."
Hermione sniffled and nodded into his body.
There was a flash of cold magic as everything in the temple righted itself—
Harry Potter spilt his tea all over his desk as a sealed aquarium in the form of a giant cube appeared smack in the middle of his Aurory.
Suspended within the darkened, highly pressurised water was Ronald Weasley sporting a fine set of crab-like legs, multiple scaled arms, fins around a grotesque mouth full of strangely frilled teeth, a shock of anemone-like orangey-red hair, and large bulbous blue eyes. As the overhead lights hit his eyes, the Ron-beast shrieked, bashing himself frantically against the aquarium's sides.
"What the bloody hell is that?!" Carstairs yelled from across his desk as most of the other Aurors let out similar startled interjections.
Harry's jaw tightened as he saw the edges of the aquarium were decorated in ancient Greek symbols; the trident, the bull, horse, fish and dolphin. When he hovered his hand next to the "glass", the aquarium pulsed with ancient magic. A small golden plaque glowed on the side with a notice in a shifting array of languages.
May none question the judgement of the Lord of the Sea lest they join this one in suffering the divine wrath of Poseidon.
Harry sighed as his suspicions as to the identity of the leak at the Ministry had clearly been verified. "Marcus, please inform the DoM that we have something for them. Everyone, be sure to keep a very tight lid on this. No one, and I mean no one hears about this until the DoM has officially cleared it. Especially the Weasley family. If I find that anyone on the outside has learned about this, being stuck in an aquarium for the rest of your life with Ron here is going to look mighty inviting, a bloody tropical paradise, understand?"
"Sir!"
Aurors scrambled about in all directions.
Severus Snape looked out of his brewing laboratory to see a cheeky cuttlefish doing its damned best to make love to the window. He lifted a brow as another male cuttlefish drove him off while a much sneakier male took advantage and found the female cuttlefish nestled nearby.
He sighed. No matter where he was, there were always a few couples attempting to mate in wholly inappropriate places.
He cleaned up his workstations, and passed his hand over the glowing coral shapes. The light dimmed down just enough to see, and he trudged up the stairs into the bright outdoors.
And was tackled by a rampaging, highly-tuned miniature octopus.
"Daddy!" Minerva squealed joyfully, dripping sea water and shedding seaweed.
Severus' eyebrow twitched as a Kraken tentacle pushed him into a comfy temple chair and shoved a cup of tea into his hand.
"Do not speak to your father until he's finished drinking his tea."
Minerva looked up at him hopefully, biting her lip as he drank his tea.
Severus finished his tea and set the cup down on the nearby table. "Okay, what has your knickers in a twist, young lady?"
"I got a pretty stone for mummy for her birthday, but I need help making it a necklace. Will you help me?"
"Of course," he said, setting his spawn down on the floor. "Let's see the stone."
Minerva pulled a stone out from her wet pocket with a squish and set it in his hand. "It's an Orthoceras fossil! But—there is something special embedded in it. It's really shiny."
Severus narrowed his eyes at it and grunted. "Let's clean it up."
Minerva pattered behind him with a bounce in her step as Severus took the muck-covered stone with him. He used his wand to blast it with a jet of water, breaking off the bits of detritus and encrusted sea bits. Bits of hard rock fell away, and a smaller stone released from the debris and the main fossil.
He blinked and picked up two of the pieces in his palm and turned them, squinting.
"Is it good, Daddy?"
Severus narrowed his eyes. "More than good, love."
"What is it?"
"I think you found where the sky met the ocean."
Minerva's eyes grew wide. "What do you mean?"
"A very long time ago—a meteor struck the earth and was swallowed up by the sea. Something from space met the Earth and then the sea buried it where your fossil was later created. Do you remember what you learned about carbon under pressure?"
"Carbon turns into diamonds!" Minerva said excitedly.
"Mmm," Severus said. "And a meteor strike is very fast and hits very hard. These bits are meteoric metal, natural glass, and diamonds."
"Can we make it into a pendant for Mummy?"
Severus' expression softened. "A very special one, love."
"Lord Poseidon must have wanted Mummy to have a very special birthday gift!" Minerva squealed.
Severus nodded. "He takes very good care of His priestess."
Minerva tugged on his sleeve. "Daddy?"
"Hrm?"
"You promise to take good care of Mummy when I'm away at school?"
Severus' expression warmed. "I promise."
"You'll always take care of Mummy, right?"
"Always."
Minerva stuck out her pinky. "Pinky swear, Daddy!"
Severus looped his pinky with his daughter's.
Minerva beamed. "Now, it's a real promise! Let's make Mummy her present!"
Severus sighed and laughed, nodding.
Hermione and Severus stood together smiling as they watched Minerva board the Hogwarts Express.
The rather disgruntled-looking white-tailed sea eagle in the transport cage seemed to give the girl a reproachful glare as she accidentally bashed the cage against the side of the train.
"Sorry, Atlas!" Minerva apologised as she disappeared into the train.
Hermione and Severus exchanged amused glances.
"Everything manage to get onto the train?" Harry asked as he stood by them. He waved back to his son, James, who was waving frantically from the window.
"Our daughter did her avid best to murder her familiar," Severus said, lips puckered.
Harry raised a brow. "Already?"
Severus just grunted.
Hermione fingered the fossil pendant around her neck, her fingers running across the inlaid gems as a wistful expression crossed her face.
"Don't you dare cry, witch," Severus muttered. "I'm barely holding it together as it is."
Hermione laughed, choking back the tears and hugged him tightly, her slim fingers curving around his.
"Daphne isn't here?" Hermione asked, frowning slightly.
"She's working on a really important case right now. Someone attacked a goblin outside of Gringotts, and she's building the case against them."
"I'm so glad the goblins have such a good barrister in her," Hermione said approvingly.
Harry smiled. "I'm so proud of her. She wasn't sure she was going to survive law school."
The trio went silent as a large gaggle of red-headed children ran enmasse toward the train, their cat carriers and bird cages slamming up and down as they shook up the unhappy contents. The bedraggled felines and birds meowed and squawked in loud protest.
A grey-haired Molly Weasley panted as she chased after them, barely able to keep up with the disorderly mess.
"All of Ron's dalliances," Harry explained with no little weariness. "I had no idea until—they all just showed up at the Auror office looking for him. The very same morning."
"My condolences," Severus said with feeling.
"I'm sorry you were both robbed of justice," Harry said.
Hermione shook her head. "Lord Poseidon's judgement was hardly robbing us. We do appreciate you not throwing a seven-year-old into Azkaban for assault, however."
Harry chortled. "The Wizengamot has never held a child accountable for accidental magic. Probably a good thing, considering how many bizarre things children end up doing to each other accidentally."
Severus' eyebrow twitched. "Or on purpose."
Harry grimaced. He let out his breath. "I'm an Auror, but I still missed that my best friend was using my invisibility cloak to skulk around the Ministry and whisper trouble into all too willing ears. I'm just glad Skeeter wasn't around anymore to contribute her poison pen."
"Where is the dung beetle on the arse of society?" Severus asked.
Harry half-choked on air. "I haven't heard from her in a while. It worries me. I know she had it out for you for quite some time. All those stories about you leaving the country and shacking up with some young foreign wizard—"
"I was shacking up with a very cuddly Lethifold."
"I'm sure she'd have made something of that, too. It really worries me that she hasn't—"
"Don't jinx us, Potter," Severus said sharply.
Harry winced. "Yes, Sir."
A long distance away…
A certain nosy beetle-witch buzzed around the Temple of Poseidon, crawling over papers and parchments and planning boards. She transformed into human form, rustling through books and ancient artefacts. She stared at the statue of Poseidon with a scowl, shaking her head.
"Hussy Hermione Builds Temple to Lure in Galleons of Gullible," she mused consideringly as she went over various titles she preferred. "You're never going to be free of me, little girl." She stuffed various items into her pockets and smiled. "I'm taking you out, you bushy-haired bint."
She spotted a bowl filled with shiny gems sitting on a pillar in the middle of a calm mirror pool. She smirked and reached to take a few. She stared at them in her palm and shook her head, throwing them to the floor in disgust. "Fake."
She turned her back to the pool to rifle through the other bowls on different pillars.
Dark tentacles arose from the calm water, silent and menacing. They loomed like they were hovering in air, water dripping from them, seeming to defy gravity. Spikes sprouted off the tentacles as fanged mouths formed on the ends. A low rattling sound began.
Rita paused for a moment.
The fanged mouths unfurled like secondary tentacle mouths as an iridescent venom dripped from the inner fangs.
A shadow moved around Rita's ankles.
Rita turned, her scream cut off as several tentacle mouths clamped onto her face and body and dragged her struggling form into the pool with a loud splash. The water quickly turned crimson, churning violently, and then dissipated into a crystal aqua blue once more.
The water churned a moment, and several artefacts flew out of the water and landed on the stone floor before going still once more.
A temple guest came in, her small child in tow. She set her child down as she went to the altar to pray.
The child looked around, obviously bored, and wandered over to the dark water. It spotted the shiny stone spheres and other crystals in the bowl and reached for them.
They reached up high—slipping and losing their footing.
A dark tentacle arose from the water, gently wrapping around the child and depositing him back on the stone bench with a shiny sphere that resembled a glowing rainbow jellyfish trapped in amber and a pair of gaudy red spectacles perched on his nose.
The child giggled happily as his mother continued her prayers.
Around the Temple of Poseidon, a pod of dolphins chittered and played before diving deep, and for a single moment the face of the God of the Seas shimmered on the face of the ocean before disappearing from sight.
And they lived oceanically ever after!
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the story…and for those of you who read the *cough* unofficial ending, I hope you enjoyed that too! XD (ahem)