Octavian sends heavy-laden clanking owls

Oct 21, 2007 17:41

Octavian did not ordinarily go about clanking with money. Indeed, slaves handled most of the money for the house of the Julii. He'd brought a small supply with him on his expedition to Hibernia, or Britannia, or what have you (the old pontifex hadn't been too clear on that; Octavian now felt fairly certain this was the extreme north of Britannia), but it was nothing near what he needed to fulfill all the payments he had promised in exchange for votes in the Sorting Room. The little girl Rose Casson had almost cleaned him out.

Fortunately, he could command his journeyings between here and his Rome; while his mun was in Florida he made a short visit home, not to his mother's house (though he would have liked to see Octavia, the risk of running into Atia or, worse, Antony was not a prospect Octavian cared to entertain) but to the moneylenders with whom he'd arranged to borrow against Caesar's will initially. Assured that neither his mother nor Mark Antony had heard anything about this sizable loan, nor had means of learning thereof, he returned to Hogwarts as sanguine as he could ever be, amply supplied with denarii.

To the Sorting Hat he sent 500, as they had agreed, and to those who had given him votes and had not explicitly declined payment, he sent 50 each in accordance with his offer. These were the recipients:

Laura de Winter
Titus Pullo
Jaime Reyes
Laura Palmer
Tenel Ka Chume Ta' Djo
Wolfram von Bielefeld
Shibuya Yuuri

Each 50-denarii payment had been secured in a small leather purse, plain and unadorned, cinched with a knotted leather thong. To each of these a note had been tied as well, with the recipient's full name and the brief message In thanks for your vote, here is the promised gift. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.

Each, that was, except for Tenel Ka's payment. That one Octavian set aside until the others had been dispensed with, house elves clanking off to the Owlery with the neat little parcels.

He considered using her full name, to show respect (and, perhaps a little, to demonstrate retention of memory). In the end he simply sent the bag itself with no signature or seal, only the tersest of messages:

I am Sorted into Slytherin. Would a lake do in place of a fountain?

This one he sent with the tame owl he had bought for himself, a very nondescript and average specimen of owlness. He thought a lake might do for Tenel Ka's stated purpose, and if she asked him why, he would explain.

laura palmer, octavian, titus pullo, laura de winter, jaime reyes, wolfram von bielefeld, tenel ka djo, shibuya yuuri

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