A Matter of Circumstance

Chapter 13 ~ Is it Truly Fate?


Severus ate his lunch and returned to his classes. It was pop quiz day, and the wizard enjoyed the stricken faces of many of his students as he passed out the parchments. Not all the faces were stricken however…his Slytherin students looked quite calm.

Imagine that.

Pop quizzes were just one of many ways the Potions Master manage to shave points off rival houses, deducting ten points for each failing mark and five for those that barely passed. That House Cup meant a lot to him.

Ron went to the referee meeting then to the Ministry where he served in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. He helped to set up Quidditch matches which amounted to helping arrange the date and location of the matches and getting the proper information concerning the matches to other departments such as the Department of International Magical Cooperation which needed to know which teams were playing against each other, the Department Magical Law Enforcement concerning security and the protection of the matches against discovery by muggles, and the Department of Magical Transportation to deal with the arrival and departure of fans. It was quite a coordinated effort and Ron was kept quite busy.

His father Arthur met him for lunch and noticed Ron was very quiet.

”Is everything all right, Ron?” his father asked as he pulled a bowl of soup toward him in the Ministry cafeteria.

”Yeah, fine,” Ron said unconvincingly.

Arthur eyed him over his spoon.

”Wedding jitters, eh?” Arthur asked him.

Ron looked at his father.

”Dad, did you always know mum was meant for you?” he asked his father.

Arthur smiled.

”Oh yes. We were quite compatible, quite compatible. There was no other witch for me,” he said, nodding his head…a faraway look in his eyes, “Of course, she was quite a little spitfire…bossed me around constantly, but I liked it. I still do. She’s a fine woman…a fine woman.”

Ron didn’t say anything for a moment, then he colored.

”Dad…I need to ask you something. Is sex important in a marriage, or is it something you can kind of put aside and focus on other things?” Ron asked him earnestly.

Arthur put the soup spoon down.

”It is very important, Ron. And not just for the pleasure of it…though there should be mutual pleasure. Women need intimacy to feel loved and to be honest…a man needs a stable sexual life to keep him from wandering. That doesn’t change, no matter how long you’ve been married,” he said soberly, “You don’t put sex aside…it isn’t the main focus, but it is important between a husband and wife. Most have to have that connection. It may become less frequent, but is still necessary.”

Ron blinked at his father and colored again.

”Dad, would you have married mum if you two weren’t sexually compatible?” he asked his father. Arthur’s eyes widened.

“Are you suggesting Ronald, that your mother wasn’t…wasn’t untouched when we married?” his father said in a low voice, frowning slightly.

Oops.

“Ah, no. No. I guess you didn’t know if you were then,” Ron said, embarrassed.

Arthur’s face softened.

“Actually, I did know…but I didn’t want you to think your mother just…just gave in to me. It took a lot of hard work to get to that woman. We were quite compatible, which is why there are so many Weasleys,” his father said, “But back then, being we did what we did, I would have had to marry her whether or not we were compatible. It was just the way things were. Not like today. Today, if you’re not compatible, you can just go your separate ways without a lot of fuss.”

Arthur could tell something was really troubling Ron.

”What is it son? Tell your old dad,” Arthur coaxed.

“I don’t think Hermione and I are compatible that way, Dad. I love her, but…but…”

Ron faltered.

“Have you talked to her about this, Ron?” Arthur inquired.

Ron’s eyes went wide as saucers. How could he tell Hermione that she was dull in bed? She’d probably hex his balls off.

“No. No, I can’t talk to her about something like that,” Ron said, flushing.

“Ron, this is a young woman who is going to be your witch for life. For life, Ron. That’s a long time. You can’t marry someone you can’t communicate with. You will have a miserable relationship. Why can’t you talk to her about this? I take it the both of you have already been intimate. That should open the dialogue between the two of you,” Arthur said.

”You would think so, Dad…but sometimes, sometimes I can’t talk to Hermione. I can’t tell her the things on my mind…because she thinks I’m being stupid. I have to always be on my best behavior around her,” Ron told his father, who shook his head and sighed.

“Ron, it’s impossible for you to be on your best behavior all the time. When you love someone and they love you, you show them everything about yourself, all of your imperfections and they still love you. If you aren’t being yourself, Ronald…you are steering Hermione wrong, misrepresenting yourself. She won’t be marrying the man she thinks she is,” Arthur said softly, “And that would be devastating in the end…for both of you.”

Ron sighed and looked down at his plate of fish and chips, no longer hungry.

”Perhaps…perhaps you should hold off on the wedding until you two can talk and sort this out, Ron. Marriage is forever and forever is a long, long time,” Arthur said to his son, “Maybe it was a good thing the wedding was rained out. It seems there are a lot of issues between you two that need to be settled before you go ahead.”

Ron looked at him bleakly.

”You know Ronald…a lot of stock is put in love, but in the real world…love is not enough. At least not the kind of love the world believes in. Love is more than strong feelings of attraction, passion and lust. Love is connection, becoming part of another person’s life, aligning yourself with their hopes, dreams and aspirations. Understanding them, communicating with them…it’s almost as if you become part of them, Ron. There is a bond between people truly in love that can withstand anything once it’s formed. But Ron…it has to be formed from the heart for there to be true strength. And it can only be formed from the real you, the heart of you as you really are, not the you that you are pretending to be. That is illusion, and any bond based on an illusion will fail you. I don’t want that for you, son, nor for Hermione. There has to be real love between the two of you before this can work and from what you’ve told me…I don’t think it’s there yet,” Arthur said to Ron.

Arthur Weasley didn’t want to discourage his son, but in the same vein he didn’t want him to marry a woman not suited for him, even if she were carrying his child. Once a Weasley, always a Weasley. The child would be loved and cherished by the family just the same. Arthur associated with muggles as much as he could…he found them fascinating. Their philosophies as well. They had one philosophy that made sense to him and that was staying together for the sake of a child when both parents were incompatible was not wise to do. It was something that caused more harm than good for everyone, including the child. Arthur believed this.

“Dad, I’m going to go back to the office. I’ll see you later,” Ron said to his father.

Arthur nodded, his brown eyes searching his youngest son’s face.

”I’ll see you later then,” he said to him soberly, “Think about what I’ve told you.”

”I will,” Ron said, leaving his food on the table and exiting the cafeteria.

Arthur looked after him and sighed. He was glad he had found his witch. He could only hope that Ron would find his.

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That evening found Ron sitting in an armchair in his flat, staring at the slip of parchment that held Lavender’s address on it indecisively. He didn’t think he should go to her. This morning had been a mistake…a bad mistake…something he shouldn’t have done.

His father was right. He needed to talk to Hermione…maybe even confess to her and hope she’d be understanding.

Eris stood behind him, frowning.

It seemed as if everything was going according to plan, but there needed to be more discord anyway. So what if Hermione was about to confess her own indiscretions to Ron? Eris wanted to see some feathers fly.

She started to clap her hands together to call Hermes and tell him to go get Eros for her. Hermes served as the go-fer for the gods…so he even had to attend Eris, much to his chagrin. Luckily she didn’t use him much.

Suddenly three female voices of differing, but cackling timbre rang out sharply behind her. Eris spun, her black eyes wide. Ron still sat staring at the parchment. He couldn’t hear any of this.

“Hold it right there, goddess!”

”Put those hands down!”

”Don’t you do it, I’m warning you!”

“Oh no, not these old biddies,” Eris thought as three large spiders crawled down the far wall and toward her. They changed into three old, wrinkled and bent white-haired women, each with a single eyebrow and socket…which was empty of an eye.

”Shit,” Eris breathed.

She had hoped to avoid this, but there was no hiding from the Fates. They had their long, crooked noses in everything remotely mortal-related. The three stooped robed goddesses groped about in their pockets.

”Who has the blasted eye?” Clothos, the goddess who spun the thread of Life demanded.

Lachesis, the goddess that determines the length of the thread and weaves it through the tapestry of Life felt around in her pocket fruitlessly.

”Well, I don’t have it, damn it!” she snapped, “Do you have it, Atropos?”

The third goddess-crone felt around in her pocket, then pushed her wrinkled arm deep into the lining of her robe, feeling around.

”Ah, I got it. Had a hole in my pocket. It fell into the lining,” she said, fishing out an eyeball and popping it into the single hole in her head as the other two Fates clamored for it.

They were forever fighting over that eye.

“I found it, I get it first!” Atropos said, dancing out of reach of her sisters’ clawed hands. Then she turned on Eris.

”All right Eris…there’s a few threads on the Loom of Life that are horribly knotted together. We weave them intricately, but we don’t do ‘knots.’ What the hell are you doing? You’re obviously tampering with Fate…and no one tampers with Fate but us,” she said, placing her bony hands on her hips.

Suddenly, Lachesis snatched the eye out of her head and stuck it into her own socket, moving quickly out of the way as Atropos screeched and began to blindly grope around.

”That’s right, Eris. I’m the one that has to work all the knots out without getting the threads cut. Do you have any idea how hard that is to do? And these knots are the knottiest I’ve seen in a good while,” Lachesis said, her one eyebrow furrowed blackly.

Then she lost the eye to Clothos, who popped it in her head and frowned at Eris.

”The central knot is bad enough, but then it radiates out and tangles up in other threads. It’s a mess Eris, and only you can make a mess out of lives like that. Now, what do you know about Severus Snape, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley?” she demanded.

Eris looked thoughtful.

”Who?” she replied sweetly.

Clothos said the names again in an irritated manner.

”What makes it worse is there is a new thread coming and I can’t weave it into that mess. Now, those three mortals already had a small snarl between them, but it was going to work itself out when Atropos cut one of the threads,” Clothos said.

Eris looked shocked at this. Cutting a mortal’s thread meant he or she would die.

“Which thread?” she asked them curiously.

Atropos snatched the eye from Clothos, putting it into her head.

”We hadn’t decided yet. We were going to let the situation play out and the child be born first. But we were leaning toward the redhead. He’s the least interesting,” Atropos said, “Most likely he would have been killed by the mortal Snape. Then Snape put in prison for the rest of his life. We like a little entertainment too you know.”

Eris stared at the old biddies. They were worse than she was. They were going to have Severus kill Ron in order to free Hermione from the oath she took. Ooh…the Fates were trying to move in on HER territory. Eris frowned blackly at the trio.

“All right. Yeah, I know them and I did influence the situation…but Aphrodite is involved. Everything being done is being done in the name of Love…and you know what that means…” Eris said with a nasty smirk.

The old hags all started keening and moaning, pulling at their hair and generally becoming unbearable.

”Will you shut up!” Eris hissed at them, “Gods, you’ve been the fucking Fates forever…this isn’t anything new. You can’t mess with Love…it has to go its course.”

The goddesses stopped screeching. Lachesis felt Atropos near her and snatched out the eye, putting it into her socket and blinking at Eris.

”This isn’t remotely fair. So we’re just going to have to deal with that knot until this works itself out while you get to have all the fun. I swear, it’s just not right,” the goddess complained.

”Life’s not fair. And who knows that better than you three manipulative old threadbags? You set the initial rules,” Eris said, frowning back at them, “And I want to know something…how the hell is it you three look ten times older than your own father?”

Clothos, Lachesis and Atropos were the illegitimate daughters of Zeus and Themis, the Goddess of Necessity. They were hags from the moment they were born. Zeus looked damn good, but he was the King of the Gods. He was eternally handsome in a Sean Connery kind of way.

“That’s none of your business,” Lachesis snapped at her as the other goddesses grumbled.

Cheeky little tart.

Clothos snatched the eye back and glared at Eris.

”Fine. But this mess better be cleared up soon. A lot of people’s lives are going to end up knotted with these three and there’ll be more work for us,” she said to Eris, “And if it gets any worse…we’re going to Dad.”

Eris rolled her eyes. That was the thing that she couldn’t stand…how everyone always ran to Zeus about everything. That’s how Eros got caught up in this mess in the first place, because his mother threatened to tell the old, grumpy bastard. And Zeus was a damper on any fun.

“It’ll be cleared up shortly, believe me,” Eris said, “So just go back to Olympus and let me do my thing.”

All three goddesses scowled at her, then transformed into spiders. They began to climb up the wall toward the ceiling.

Eris flicked a finger at them just as they disappeared. There was a small clunk.

Eris walked over near the wall and picked something up.

It was the Fates’ eyeball.

“Let’s see how many fucking knots you can untangle now,” she said, tossing the eye up into the air and catching it. She stuck the orb in her pocket and turned back to Ron.

“Now, about you Mr. Weasley,” she said, clapping her hands.

In a twinkling, Hermes flew threw the ceiling, pulling up short when he saw it was Eris who summoned him. The little god scowled and looked around for anything potentially painful.

”Go get Eros,” Eris ordered him, “And tell him to bring his bow and quiver.”

Hermes looked at the mortal contemplating the parchment. No doubt he was the target.

“Someone needs a refresher,” Eris purred, her eyes narrowing.

Ron was going to go see Lavender, conscience or not.

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A/N: This couldn’t keep going without the Fates popping up. Nasty little plan of theirs to have Severus kill Ron. Maybe Eris isn’t so bad after all…though bad enough. Arthur seems to have the gist of things. Looks like this marriage is heading for the rocks. Thanks for reading.