A Winter Tale

A Winter Tale

By: Max


Author\'s Note: I promised an epilogue if I\'d be nicely asked. I was very nicely asked and so here it comes ...
With thanks to all the people who gave me feedback and who obviously liked the story. I\'m working on the next one - give me two weeks and you\'ll find it here.

Inspired by the WIKTT Marriage Law Challenge, but not following it exactly

[Disclaimer see chapter 1]


Chapter 27: Epilogue

“Grandy?” The auburn haired girl who’d just jumped in to the four poster bed, closing the hangings and casting a silencing charm, fumbled on the golden chain around her neck. Pulling the medallion hanging it out, she opened it and whispered again: “Grandy?”

Suddenly a painting appeared on the creamy porcelain the girl was looking at. An ancient wizard with a withered face, surrounded by a silver mane and a long beard, smiled at her. His sky blue eyes were pretty much like those of the girl and they twinkled cheerfully. “Here I am, Miss Impatience. And? Did you catch him?”

“Yes!” The girl shrieked with delight. “Yes, yes, yes - I did it!” she repeated, fidgeting in joy. Turning on her back, she held the medallion with one hand over her, while she with the other rummaged in the inner pocket of her black school robe.

“He!” the man in the painting protested. “Don’t turn me so quick! I’m an old man and I don’t like becoming dizzy!”

The girl hand found what she’d searched for. Popping a lemon drop into her mouth, she smiled at the painting. “Sorry, Grandfather. But I’m just so happy! He agreed to a date! Next week we’ll meet in London.”

“Oh?” The old wizard raised a bushy eyebrow. “So I take it, that the young man just confessed his undying love to you?”

“Of course he didn’t!” The girl shook her head. “Corin is a Gryffindor, Grandy. And he’s a teacher at this school and you know: Gran would have his head if one of her staff would confess undying love to a student.”

“Perdita Darling, you hardly count as a student anymore,” her grandfather answered. “You finished your NEWTs and your graduation is tomorrow …”

“This I told Corin too - it was my only chance to convince him that he’d survive dating me. Admittedly he made me promise that I wouldn’t tell anyone before the graduation.”

“Ah?” The painting grinned. “Am I no one?”

The girl giggled. “I promised him I wouldn’t tell a living soul. This doesn’t include you.”

“How Slytherin of you, Darling!” The man in the painting looked very amused.

“You’re one to talk!” She giggled again. “Aunt Minerva always says …” She imitated the voice of the stern former Hogwarts headmistress: “Making a point with Albus Dumbledore was like nailing a pudding on a wall! You were the very model of a Slytherin, grandfather!”

Albus chuckled. “Actually I wasn’t. At my time a lot of people thought I was a Gryffindor.”

Perdita laughed and bite on her lemon drop. Swallowing the pieces, she tried her sweetest smile on her grandfather: “Granny …”

“Hmm?” he said, looking sceptically. “What do you want?”

“Me?” Perdita made puppy eyes. “You didn’t hear by any chance something about my grades? You know, Opa promised to buy me a new robe if I’d manage an ‘O’ in potions. And I’ve seen a great one - blue with silver stars and a slit in the skirt from here to nowhere. And I do have nice legs, so … I mean … if I’d knew I’ve got an ‘O’ I could order the robe and I could wear it on my date with Corin and probably he’d learn then that I’m not a little girl anymore.”

“Perdita, I’m afraid you’re a clothe horse!” Albus twinkled.

“Look who’s speaking!” Perdita laughed. “Father says he’d never have to buy a dress robe - neither for him nor for Ali - because he inherited so much from you it will even be enough for his grandsons. But unfortunately Granny isn’t interested much in robes and Mummy - as adorable as she is - has got a taste as boring as Opa’s and so I can’t hope to inherit something stylish - which means: I really, really need the new robe.” Once again she tried her sweetest smile. “I’m sure Gran knows already about my grades. She’s signing graduating papers today. And if she knows, then you know too. She always tells you everything.”

Albus shook his head. “No, Darling. I won’t tell.”

Perdita cocked her head. “Pretty please!” Turning around once again - this time handling the medallion with care, laying it down on her pillow - she braced her head in her hands and looked down at her grandfather. “You’d love these robes …”

Albus laughed. “No. Its school business and we don’t talk about school business. You know the rules.”

“But you said yourself; I’m hardly a student anymore.” Now Perdita sounded a bit sulky.

“No!” Albus repeated, but smiled to soften the word. “Besides: I don’t think you need new robes for your date. Even if you’d dress yourself in a sack cloth, you’d look ravishing.”

“Hmm.” The girl tapped against her nose. “My nose is too big. And I find it quite unfair: Albus inherited mother’s nose - and you must admit: The Potter noses are prettier than ours. Dumbledore noses are huge!”

“I always liked mine,” Albus saidesidesides: My dear grandson didn’t inherit the Potter features. It comes from his grandmother Ginny with his freckles and the pretty nose - that’s Weasley all over.”

Perdita giggled. “By talking about my stupid little brother: Did Granny tell you that he got detention for an entire week? He’s to clean bed panes in the infirmary - without any magic. Gran caught him …”

“… snogging a girl in the Astronomy Tower,” Albus finished the line. Grinning he proceeded: “She told me. And she was livid …”

“And how! I thought she’d dismember him! But she wasn’t livid because he was stupid enough to let her catch him out after curfew the second time in one week, but because it was another girl than the first time. And she had a row with Opa because he tried to defend Ali. He said something about boys are supposed to be boys and that’s what boys do and she told him, that father never was into womanizing …”

“Yes …” Albus sighed. “Leontes takes after his mother. He was always a bit too serious. And so was your grandmother as a girl.”

“Father still is.” Perdita sighed too. “Always working, always in his study. He’s almost as bad as Gran.”

“She has a school to run, your grandmother,” Albus reminded her. “And I think she does great.”

“Of course she does great.” Perdita smiled proudly at him. “She always says she learned from the best.” Suddenly she became serious. “Grandy - I believe, Corin is a bit intimidated by our family. I told him that I’m in love with him - and he started to tell me why a relationship between the both of us would be impossible. And one of the reasons was that I’m - I quote him - “the granddaughter of the greatest wizard of our time and the step granddaughter of the three time Paracelsus Award winner and the daughter of a Merlin award winner and they were all Slytherin’. What people would say if I’d date a muggleborn?”

Albus turned his eyes. “Oh sweet Merlin! I hoped your generation would be above this nonsense. Didn’t you tell him your grandmother is muggleborn too? It didn’t prevent me from falling in love with her and it didn’t prevent her from becoming Hogwarts headmistress.”

“I told him so.” Perdita sighed. “But then he said I probably only have a schoolgirl’s crush on him and at my age one shouldn’t take such emotions too seriously. He said I’d be too young and he’d be too old for me. You know, he’s 38 years old. But I never liked boys! Look at that idiotic brother of mine! He’s always only talking quidditch and his only interest except quidditch are girls and his hairdo. And his friends are even bigger idiots and the boys in Slytherin - I’d rather go in a nunnery than dating one of them! They’re able to bore the hell out of a girl with their boasting about quidditch and quidditch and quidditch and how great they are at quidditch and how they saved the house cup - even if they’re not on the team, they maintain they saved the house cup with giving the players the advice which made them win and if you manage to make them stop talking quidditch, then they start on wizard’s sex and how great they are at doing it. And how great ….” She turned her eyes. “Can you imagine? Just the other evening Nott said in the common room that his dangler would be so big that three owls could seat on it!”

“Of course!” Albus laughed. “One on the shoulders of the other.”

“Grandy!” Perdita cringed. “I really don’t like to think about Nott’s equipment! Even the idea of it makes me sick!”

“Poor Darling! Boys really seem to be a pest nowadays.”

“Yes! And that’s why I don’t want a boy, but a man. And Corin is quite brilliant, you know? I mean, as charms master he’s great. But with me …” She sighed again. “Actually he behaved like an idiot. He stammered and he blushed and he sweated and …”

“You liked him nevertheless?” Albus smiled.

“Of course I do. But why must men behave so idiotically?” Perdita asked.

Albus chuckled. “That’s what love makes out of us, sweet child.”

“Really?” Perdita looked sceptical. “I can’t imagine you or Opa ever behaved this foolish. It’s probably a Gryffindor speciality …”

Albus shook his head. “No, I don’t think so - and I’m sure your Gran does neither. She knows about two Slytherins acting foolish. I made an utter idiot out of myself when I fell in love with her. And for your Opa - Severus needed years until he found the courage to be with your grandmother. Love makes fools out of Slytherin and Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs and I’m sure - one day even your clever, eloquent Ravenclaw brother will fall for a girl and then behave like a stammering git. As for Professor Connolly and his doubts that your feelings for him aren’t serious: Your Gran was only a few months older then you when she fell in love with me …”

Perdita chewed once again on her bottom lip, her forehead wrinkling in deep thinking. “You know, Grandy,” she started anew; “some people say Gran only married you because she was forced by a cruel and idiotic law.”

“That’s true,” Albus said. “I wouldn’t have married her without this law either. But then we fell in love …”

“Yes …” Perdita breathed deeply. “But some people also say Gran saw you only as a kind of father or grandfather figure and … “She blushed a bit. “I heard Aunt Minerva said once she’d be glad that I look so alike to you because it would prove at last that father is really your son and not Opa’s and … I mean, you know how mean people can be and you were really a bit old as you married Gran …”

Albus laughed. “Obviously I wasn’t too old.”

“I know.” Perdita smiled for a moment at him, but then her pretty face became serious and even a bit awkward. “Sometimes I think Gran still loves you … but …. She loves Opa too, doesn’t she? I mean …,” she blushed. “They’re pretty old now, but Ali …” she searched for words. “As we were in the hall at Christmas, he once walked into Opa’s lab without knocking … and there …. I mean …. You know, what I mean, do you?”

“I think I have a good guess.” Albus smiled. “Your Granny and Severus love each other. And they’re still attracted to each other - as it should be.”

“But how can she love Opa and you?” Perdita asked.

“Oh, that’s quite simple.” Albus smiled. “Love, my darling child, has many faces and meanings. You love your parents and your grandparents and your brother and your friends and Professor Connolly …”

“Yes, but …” Perdita chewed on her bottom lip once again. “I only want to sleep with Corin,” she said then firmly.

“Your Gran only wants Severus,” Albus said no less firmly. “I’m death - and she knows that. Her feelings for me have changed. I’m a memory and what’s there from me she loves as a friend. Love is a funny thing, my dear. It’s the greatest magic and it holds more power than everything else. But it’s not something you get once and you keep then in the shape and form you’ve got it. It grows, it changes and it can die if you’re not careful with it. It defines us - the way we love, our ability to love and to give our heart out to other people.”

For a moment grandfather and granddaughter fell silent, smiling tenderly at each other. Then the girl touched the painting with one finger, stroking it gently. “Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore,” she said with beaming eyes, “You know that I’m very proud to be your granddaughter?”

“Perdita Hermione Dumbledore …” The portrait smiled back at her. “I’m proud to be your grandfather. And now … I think now you should run up to the owlery to order those robes. I’m sure your Opa will pay for it - and your young man will confess his undying love for you. I’m sure you’ll teach him as your grandmother once taught Severus and me.”

The End - really now. ;-)