Enternity Chapter 14, Part Three
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“And this is the Neva River, where Grigori Rasputin was dumped after being poisoned, shot, beaten, and castrated. The muggles believe that he drowned, and their memories were modified to support that theory as well, but he was admitted to St. Pavel after some passing Healers stumbled upon him. Oh, St. Pavel is basically Russia’s St. Mungo’s. No one really knows what happened after he was released, perhaps a krokelbar got him?” Luna prattled on as she led Ginny by the hand over a bridge. Luna’s father had let them go sight-seeing today, so here they were, wandering the countryside. Luckily, passing through customs also had the added bonus of negating the “no magic during holidays” law in Britain.
In Russia, the law was “don’t do magic in obvious places.” Here it was more about keeping magic to yourself then keeping it away from the muggles. Of course, that probably had a lot more to do with the fact that the muggle/wizard ratio in Russia was almost 50/50 then anything, but it was nice. It was also the reason the two girls were wandering by themselves, with only a portkey each for safety.
The two girls came to what was obviously a warehouse once upon a time, most likely used for storage back in the day. An old gate archway marked its entrance and with a sign beside it. To Ginny, it looked like nothing more then strange symbols. Luna pulled her to it, looking down at the sign as if it held the secrets to the universe. Then, she turned to Ginny, smiled and pulled her through the archway.
And then, they were somewhere else.
Shops and cafes littered the yellow cobblestone road they were on. All the signs were in Russian, but it was obvious that it was a magic alley they had stepped into. People were milling about, merchants were shouting in Russian - no doubt trying to sell something or attract attention to their shops. Some older women were sitting around a cafe table chatting away in Russian. A group of teenagers were crowded around a shop window, no doubt discussing whatever it was they were looking at. Luna pulled her down the street at a sedate pace, the two girls stopping to look in windows or look at things on display outside.
An hour later, they were still looking around. The alley had twisted several times and seemed to be heading downhill. The end of the alley didn’t seem to be in near sight.
“Oh, Radies!” An elderly voice croaked out. The mostly correct English made Ginny turn sharply.
It was an old woman. She looked like she had often wore a strict frown in her youth, so much that the expression had left lines behind. Her gray hair hung about her, strands of it falling out of a bun. She was wearing very out-of-date robes that looked as if they had seen better days. In front of her was a table with various knick knacks arranged on top of it.
“Come! See.” She pointed at her table.
‘English is obviously not a language she actually studied…’Ginny thought. She was amused by the woman’s attempts.
Her table was loaded with antiques: mirrors, sashes, skirts, corsets, hairpieces, gloves, ribbons, jewelry, paintings, old childrens' toys, silverware, and even some old books. It reminded her of her father’s shed - tons of junk that meant nothing to her, but obviously were important to her father. The jewelry was the only things that didn’t look like they belonged in her great-grandmother’s time period.
“Pretty, yes?” The old woman had obviously caught onto Ginny’s interest in the sparkling jewelry. Ginny smiled and nodded, wishing she could afford one of the rings, or perhaps a necklace.
‘Yeah, good luck with that. These are obviously old and most likely expensive.’ Ginny was disappointed, but there was no harm in looking. Luna picked up a ruby embedded hairpiece - it looked like a red Chinese dragon. It seemed like something her brother Charlie would give to a girlfriend, if he had one. Its wings were the clips, while its body was the decoration. The body was embedded with either imitation rubies or the real things, she couldn’t tell. It looked beautiful, but the red would no doubt clash horribly with her hair. She wondered if it would look good in Luna’s hair.
“This, see.” Ginny’s attention was brought back to the woman who was holding a ring out for Ginny to look at. It was gold and slender with a black gem of some sort held in the center. It was beautiful, but there was no way in blazing blue hell that Ginny would have been able to afford it.
“Pretty, yes?”
“Yes, pretty. But, I don’t think I can afford it.” Ginny very much doubted that this woman could even understand what she was saying.
“Was granddaughters’, makes me sad. Any amount.” Ginny blinked in shock.
‘What? Any amount?!’ Her shock changed into suspicion. ‘It might be cursed. Shit, play it cool, play it cool.’
“No, I couldn’t.” Luna shot her a sharp look. Apparently she wasn’t that great at “playing it cool”.
‘Honestly, you’re a Blood Traitor and a friend of Harry Potter’s! What, did you think the Dark Lord would let country borders stop him from killing or kidnapping people?! The mere fact that this woman can speak English is in itself suspicious - most foreigners don’t bother with languages outside of their own! Stupid, stupid!’
“Luna, we’re expected home, aren’t we?” Luna made a noncommittal sound while slipping her hand into Ginny’s easily, as if she wasn’t giving Ginny an easier way to get them both to safety. An instant later, they were whisked away to safety.
Later on, when Ginny was getting ready for bed, she noticed the same ring the old woman had tried to sell her earlier.
“Now where in the world did that come from?” She asked herself. She picked it up, trying to remember why it looked familiar. When she could think of nothing, she mentally dismissed it and went to bed.
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Fred yawned. He was all for learning new and cool bits of magic, but these lectures were going to kill him. Sure, the content was very interesting and if he went without them he could inadvertently end up killing himself or someone else, but it didn’t make listening to them any better.
“Okay, this first half of the lesson is going to be dinner, because I’m starving and it’s eleven in the evening. So, while we eat pizza, you’re going to listen to me talk about magical bonds. There are two types of magical bonds, and they’re named very originally - natural and artificial.”
‘At least he's attempting to lesson the boredom by jokes, even if they’re cheesy.’
“The bonds formed during today’s marriage ceremonies are artificial bonds, the bonds between adopted children and parents are artificial bonds. The bonds between parents and children, and magical creatures and their mates are natural. The bonds between friends and lovers can be both; any idea why that is?”
“Destiny and all that rot.” Seamus said around a piece of pizza.
“Yes, basically.” Harry grabbed a slice of pizza. “Some of us were meant to find each other. Some of us that fall in love are destined for one special person. These bonds are natural. That isn’t to say that just because two people are bonded naturally that they’ll get together. Maybe they were born during different time periods, maybe they were born on two different contents, or maybe their blood relations were too close. All this means is that the bonds between them would be natural as opposed to artificial. Natural bonds aren’t just limited to bonds of love either - bonds of friendship, duty, and hate can also be natural bonds. Natural bonds aren’t always good things; there are some bonds that can lead to some pretty tragic ends. One that comes to mind is the Somni de Malson. That is a bond of love that brings to the surface passionate, all consuming, mind numbing, and obsessive love. There are lots of figures in literature and history that had this bond: Romeo and Juliet; Lady Guinevere, Lancelot, and King Arthur; etc. We all know how those romances turned out. The Dumbledore family recently just had two people born with this bond - which is very rare. Ariana and Albus - Ariana has been dead for quite some time but her older brother Albus is obviously still alive.”
“Oh, eww! Insest!” Ron looked rather disgusted. Harry blinked before laughing.
“Oh, no, I didn’t specify that well enough, sorry. They weren’t connected to each other. Ariana was connected to someone who died shortly after she was born. Albus was connected to a young man named Gellert, Gellert Grindelwald to be specific.”
“No way!” Dean dropped a piece of pizza out of his mouth.
“That’s disgusting, Dean!” Eleanor smacked his shoulder.
“Yep, it’s true. Shocking and rather tragic. None of you are to mention this outside this room, for the simple fact that it could ruin Albus Dumbledore. It would be very cruel to remind him of his lost love.”
“Lost? For heaven’s sake, the guy’s not dead - he’s in prison. Or so we’ve been told, if Albus had a thing for him…” Seamus trailed off meaningfully. The kid had a good point.
“Albus had to make a choice. He choose to end the Dark Lord’s reign, even at great personal cost to himself. It probably hurt a lot more then any of you can imagine. Do not bring it up again.” Fred was always rather amazed at how Harry could make his voice sound hard and cold.
“Now, with dinner over we’re going to move onto dueling practice.”
‘Great, we move form boring lecture to muscle killing training. I’m seeing what he meant by us wanting him dead some weeks.’
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The cathedral was burning, along with the immediate buildings around it. The smell of sulfur and burned flesh filled the air. Adding to the horrendous smell was decay from the few Inferi that still remained.
The fire had started from a stray curse that was intended for the damned things, but the aim was off and whoosh! The cathedral burned, the ancient wards around it feeding the inferno. Then the surrounding buildings had started to catch, and now it looked like the whole of Bordeaux was on fire. It wasn’t of course, the French Ministry had created a water bubble around the huge inferno to contain the damage, the muggles inside were already dead or close to it. The muggles outside the burning section were under the impression that their government was handling the crisis.
Death Eaters, Order members, and French Aurors were furiously fighting while trying to put the fire out. It wasn’t an easy task.
Arthur leaped to the side as a curse flew past him. Between the fighting and the heat from the fire he was sweating buckets; the flame-freezing charm could only do so much and had to be renewed. It was exhausting, but adrenaline did wonders for magical abilities, just as it did wonders for physical strength.
There was no place to hide here; it was duel or die. There was no stealth to be found, not when the majority of the surroundings were on fire. It was as much a disadvantage as it was an advantage; there was no hiding, for anyone or their opponent. Arthur cast a leg locking charm on the Death Eater he was dueling with and they fell sideways into a burning bush. Their screams made him shudder, but he had no time to feel remorse as another opponent came at him.
This one was obviously a female, a young girl just out of schooling if he wasn’t mistaken. As he volleyed spells back and fourth he couldn’t help but feel as if he recognized her voice. He wasn't quick enough to dodge the last spell and screamed in pain as the skin from his arm peeled off. He shot a medical spell back, essentially an adrenaline charm. It was supposed to be used to keep patients alive when their heart was giving out, but if used on a perfectly healthy person it could cause the muscle to either explode or cause a heart attack.
The Death Eater gave a gasped breath, lurched forward just enough to cause her mask to fall off her face, and then fell over, quite dead. His shock at the face overcame the pain he was in - he knew this child, had her in his home frequently over the years: Penelope Clearwater, Percy’s girlfriend.
As if in a fog, he placed a numbing spell on his arm. It might get infected, but he was in the middle of a battle; he couldn’t afford to take the time to properly heal it.
“PENNY!” And all thought processes halted. He knew that voice, knew it very well.
‘No. No, this isn’t happening.’ A Death Eater ran for him, cutting people down left and right in his hast to get to his fallen comrade. The mask was flung away as the Death Eater fell to his knees to gather the body in his arms. And Arthur did nothing, just stood there staring as if they were alone. As if the city around them wasn’t burning; as if they weren’t in the middle of a battle; as if the rest of the world halted to give them a moment alone.
‘This isn’t happening.’ The distraught Death Eater raised tear streaked and rage filled eyes to him.
“I’ll kill you.” The young man rose, wand outstretched a manic, crazy glint in his eyes. “You’ll pay for hurting her, and when she wakes up we’ll have so much fun with you.”
‘This isn’t happening.’
The casting of the killing curse spurred Arthur’s body, lunging to the side on autopilot. His body moved, his lips cast shields and hexes, but his mind was elsewhere.
“Dad, Dad! Look what I did!” His son held up a picture of the Burrow, and in front of it was himself, Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Molly. Molly looked so much wider then any of them because she was currently pregnant and Percy felt it prudent to draw that fact in.
‘This isn’t happening.’
“Percy, you have to be really patient with Fred and George, they’re your little brothers.” He said sternly. His son pouted.
‘This isn’t happening.’
“Dad! Mom! Look, an owl, an owl just for ME!” He looked at his son in amusement.
“Well, go on, open it!” Molly urged. Percy’s smile lit up his whole face. He broke the Hogwarts seal and started to read his acceptance letter out loud, pride and excitement filling his voice.
He dodged the Cruciatus Curse.
He was so proud of his son - a Prefect! What an honor. He knew Perce must be ecstatic. Fred and George were giving him a hard time, as usual, but that wasn’t anything too new. He mentally calculated this month’s wages…he should have enough to squeeze in a congratulatory gift for him, maybe the new shoes Percy had been taken with last month.
He summoned a mirror and threw it in front of him. He watched in stunned horror as instead of it shattering into a million pieces, the spell rebounded off of it and hit the Death Eater square in the chest.
‘This isn’t happening.’
“Percy, you’ve let your own ambitions blind you to reason! This isn’t about your job, or even mine, it’s about the families safety! Fudge is just using you and if Death Eaters - ”
“Oh, yes, Death Eaters! The Dark Lord is GONE, father! Potter’s full of crap, he’s just an attention-seeking brat! Can’t you see that he’s lying to you?!”
The Death Eater was lifted off his feet by the force of the impact.
“Percy, if you cannot see how much danger you could be putting your family into, I cannot allow you back here. Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, and Harry are still all in school; their safety is the priority, as they are still children.”
“Oh, of course, Fred and George,” Percy sneered. “You’re just jealous that I have a job that can actually give me a steady income! I’M not going to become just some idiot messing around with useless muggle objects. I’LL actually have a purpose in life!”
“If that’s what you think, then fine. But I have to ask you to leave, Percy. I will not let your actions endanger the rest of the family.” It killed him to say these words. But, the rest of the family could not be put in danger just because Percy was too young to understand that this wasn’t a game or an exercise. He’d come around, eventually.
Percy fell to the ground dead.
‘This isn’t happening.’
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Author’s Notes: I’m SO sorry that this update was so long and all you got was 17 pages. I’m sorry, but I got Writer’s Fatigue. It’s when you have the ideas to write, but no drive to write them. So, onto some actual notes on the chapter…
1. Wedding Bands. Traditionally, wedding bands are made with diamonds because diamonds carry the meaning “forever” or “everlasting”. In the Wizarding World, people don’t use diamonds because they know that marriages aren’t forever. They last until you die, then in another life a married couple might be siblings or might not even know each other. Thus, they don’t use diamonds. So, why use diamonds for pre-engagements? Because diamonds also carry the meaning of money, giving diamond jewelry carries the meaning of “you’re just as important and precious to me as this diamond”. It’s a sentimental thing to be sure, but it also had practical uses: poorer families often use the pre-engagement jewelry to pay for the wedding costs.
2. Hermione’s Parents. They aren’t horrible, prejudiced people. What they’re doing to Hermione is completely subconscious. They’ve convinced themselves that they aren’t treating her any different because of her magic, but because of her age. Subconsciously, they know that Hermione will one day have to choose between the worlds, and because they love her, they don’t want her to feel pressured in any way. So, they’re trying to make the break easier on everyone by emotionally distancing themselves. That way, when she abandons the muggle world, it won’t hurt everyone as much as it would if they were all still so close. They’re not being deliberately cruel, they’re being stupid. And on that note, why did I make them Jewish? Because there’s no proof in canon that they’re not. People celebrate Christmas even if they aren’t Catholic/Christian. They just exchange gifts and call it good.
3. Ron not understanding religion. This isn’t because Ron’s stupid, it’s because religion is different between the Wizarding World and the muggle one. In the Wizarding World, the New Testament is strictly muggle. Thus, the religion of “the One God” isn’t split up. As we’ve already seen Thantos and Hades, the Greek Gods exist.
4. Fun Triva: The old hag seen in Russia used every word of English she knew talking to Ginny.