{"id":11,"date":"2019-01-21T07:41:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T07:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/?p=11"},"modified":"2019-12-22T17:44:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T22:44:10","slug":"by-hephaestus-forged-ember-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/2019\/01\/21\/by-hephaestus-forged-ember-c\/","title":{"rendered":"By Hephaestus Forged: Ember C"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This if the third scene of the fifth chapter of By Hephaestus Forged<\/a>. Other scenes are not yet on this website. It is part of the Ritually Yours<\/a> set of stories, which starts with that work. This is a sequel to Prometheus Unbound<\/a>, which is a side story to that work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucius made sure that he visited Hogwarts at least once a month as a member of its governing board. Most of the time he focused on the facilities, but this time, he was doing something he’d never done before. He was talking to students, and not just those in Slytherin. He wasn’t avoiding them either, like Augusta Longbottom did Gryffindor. He’d already talked to the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, Oliver Wood, and a young second year Ravenclaw whose name was already escaping him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those two had given him a couple action items. The school brooms were apparently a travesty and there was a sever lack of study space in the library near each end of term. He’d also questioned Wood about the Slytherin Quidditch Team. While it was true that a rival would see everything wrong with their rival, sometimes you needed to have a good list to start with, which he was certainly not going to get from Marcus Flint, a sixth year that his eldest daughter seemed to think was the biggest block to her own ambitions. Victoria was sure that she should have been made a starting chaser during her second year instead of Adrian Pucey. Of course she’d been too pregnant to try again this past autumn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Journeyman Ollivander,” Lucius said as the fourth-year Slytherin came into the small loungue he was using for interviews. “Please have a seat.” He pointed to the green leather chair that at a right angle to his own. “And do not hesitate to have some hot chocolate and lemon biscuits. If my sources are correct, they are your favorite.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julian Ollivander picked up a couple lemon biscuits and a steaming mug of hot chocolate. “Thank you Lord Malfoy,” he replied respectfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How is Victoria’s studying going?” Lucius asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Quite well, sir. She’s ahead in most of her classes, and it doesn’t look like the lack of practicals for potions is effecting her grade that much.” Julian blew across the top of his hot chocolate causing a wisp of steam to float in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve been given to understand that the Slytherin Quidditch Team is not the best that it could be this year. In fact my sources say that the issues may have started last year when Marcus Flint took over as Captain. How would you consider the team?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Frankly, Flint is the worst captain that Slytherin, and the worst Quidditch Captain overall. He may have slaughtered Gryffindor in his opening game as Captain last year, but he didn’t deserve it. By the end of last season he’d driven Selena Willaert to quit a game early, and you know where she is now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucius did know where Willaert was. That young lady had managed to set the rookie record for Quaffles scored in just two thirds of the season. She’d been signed by the Harpies right out of Hogwarts. “I see. Am I correct that Miss Willaert was the last female on the Quidditch team?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes, and she shouldn’t have been. Victoria was better that Pucey, and Higgs \u2026 well he hasn’t got a snitch yet. I could put a team of first years together, if they weren’t too busy playing football, and beat the current starters. And then there is the penalties \u2026 take one guess what percentage of the penalities were called on Slytherin in the first four games of the season.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thirty-five,” Lucius guessed, knowing that the team was somewhat reliant on Bletchley’s stone wall keeping against penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Try eighty-one,” Julian said, before taking a deep sip of his chocolate. “Ravenclaw hasn’t had a single call against it this year. Victoria called Saturday’s game the worst example of bad sportsmanship since your father played.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That is a serious allegation,” Lucius said. His father had held the record for the most penalties called in a single game. “One that I do not disagree with. I understand that you took Victoria to the aforementioned game.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I did sir,” Julian said, paling a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Do not tense up, Julian,” Lucius said, using the boy’s name for the first time rather than his title and last name. “I find your actions and intentions towards my daughter to be most favorable. In fact I expect that you’ll find that my approval of your relationship knows few bounds.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sir?” Julian said, pluzzled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You are aware of who is responsible for Victoria’s current delicate condition?” Lucius asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Victoria has confided in me, but I doubt she would accept her condition as delicate,” Julian replied. “She’s not exactly know for accepting any of the limitations that Madam Pomfrey imposes on her.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve heard,” Lucius replied firmly. “I’m also given to understand that you are one of the few who have been able to restrain her from doing things that she is forbidden to. Usually by the application of romantic gestures, and ocassionaly other plans that she has been unable to escape.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Well, she’s, well, rather delectable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And judging from your continued romancing through her current condition, I would judge that you are rather serious in your relationship with my daughter.” Lucius said, looking slightly down as he focused on Julian, catching the fourth-year’s eyes in his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julian’s eyes met his, and Lucius could almost feel the determination radiate off the young man. “I intend to ask her to marry me some day,” Julian suddenly blurted out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucius kept his gaze firmly on the young man, allowing a moment’s silence to test him. Julian did not break eye contact. This young journeyman wandmaker was serious. He didn’t really want to loose his daughter so soon after he got to finally meet him, but Lucius knew his daughter was already quite grown up, with a little over a month before his first grandchild was to be delivered by her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The silence continued as he figured his best response. Given the serious ritual that he was going to ask of the boy, it was very good that he was so serious with Victoria. “You may ask her, when the time is right. However, before you do, I shall like to know if you would be willing to preform the Icium Patria Sanguine Ritual with Victoria so that her baby may be born with your blood rather than that of a prisoner of Azkaban?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a brief silence, just long enough that Lucius could tell that Julian was taking it seriously. “If she wants me like I hope, I will,” Julian replied firmly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This if the third scene of the fifth chapter of By Hephaestus Forged. Other scenes are not yet on this website. It is part of the Ritually Yours set of stories, which starts with that work. This is a sequel to Prometheus Unbound, which is a side story to that work. Lucius made sure that … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “By Hephaestus Forged: Ember C”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,3,4],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hepheastus-forged","category-draft","category-harry-potter","category-ritually-yours-verse","tag-draft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12,"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trekiverse.us\/stephen\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}