Semper Fidelis

Chapter 17.2

Hermione gazed at the boy in front of her. James had grown since she last saw him two at King's Cross. He was still her little boy, but he looked older now. His inquisitive eyes were looking at her with so many questions and his determination to find answers were palpable.

She tenderly caressed his cheek and nodded her head. "Yes, we do."

Gently and without care at getting caught by the resident healer, James climbed up on the bed and laid beside his mum. Hermione slowly turned on her side and the mother and son gazed at one another. Their brown eyes held the other pair as Hermione's hand came to rest on his waist.

"Will you tell me what happened?" James asked softly.

Hermione sighed and closed her eyes briefly. James watched as she took a couple of deep breaths before she reopened them again. Hermione parted her lips and the truth spilled from within her.

She told him about the commission she received from the man named Demetre Demos. James wasn't unfamiliar with his mum's line of work. He knew that she was some sort of historian and research specialist and many people and organizations sought her employ. Often she worked with affluent families who came to her with antiques seeking to know more about their treasures. Once he remembered his mum bringing home a red clay pot and gently placing it on a secure shelf in her office. He studied the pot from behind the glass and wondered how important the nondescript item could be. To him, it looked like a simple and worn and very dusty old pot rendered useless because of a hole in its side. A week later, his mum told him she believed it to be a pot from the Qin Dynasty of China.

James knew how brilliant his mum was, so it was no surprise to him when she told him of the museum director's tall order. Hermione said that Mr. Demos wanted her to determine and find the historical items Greek mythological items were based on. When James looked at her in question, Hermione explained further.

"Myths came from oral tradition," she said, as her hand continued to stroke up and down his side. "That means they came from information passed down by word of mouth through the generations. They were used to describe all things, both tangible like a warrior's weapon, and intangible like lightning. Zeus' thunderbolts stemmed from the ancient Greeks trying to understand lightning. That's what Mr. Demos wanted to know. What thing became Poseidon's trident? Athena's aegis? And... and Hermes' caduceus?"

Her voice hardened when she said the last two words and the stroking of her hand stopped. "I started on the caduceus. It was more unique than the others in shape and size. There were so many historical references to the caduceus as well from familial coat of arms to even modern medicine. All I had to do was find the oldest reference... and I happened upon it by luck. There was a break-in at a museum in Toronto though nothing was taken, but I became curious about its current exhibits. I looked at the catalogue and came across a description of a staff found during an excavation two decades ago from the ancient city of Lagash. It was a single column with intertwined serpents and topped with wings. It was described exactly as the caduceus," she explained. "This was after you left for Hogwarts, so I wanted to go to Toronto to see it in person. It was the oldest reference to the caduceus that I could find. I planned the trip to be immediately after I came back from my meeting with Mr. Demos in Athens. I thought it was perfect timing since I needed to update him on my progress anyway. But..."

"But what?" James whispered. His eyes were wide as he listened to his mum retell her story.

"But I overheard him say something which changed my mind. All this time I was under the impression that he was a Muggle. I knew for certain he thought of me as one. He never showed any indication that he was magical. But as I was waiting to be let into his office, I saw that he was talking to another man inside. The man who was visiting him raised a wand against him, and Demos pulled a wand from his own pocket. Then, he told the man to be patient... because I had been working on the project for months and I was bound to find it soon."

James gasped and Hermione nodded. "He sounded menacing and... and so desperate. I knew then and there he could not be trusted. So during our meeting, I didn't tell him anything about the staff. He kept prying and asking me about my progress on the caduceus but I only said that I was still in the thick of sifting through all of the information. I got back to London and immediately flew to Toronto.

"The staff was displayed in the gallery like an afterthought. It was at the darkest corner of the hall placed with the other miscellaneous artefacts with nowhere to belong. I could see why, though. Half of the wings were broken, and the wood had eroded so much you could barely see the serpents' bodies. But as I looked at it from behind the glass, it... began to glow." Hermione said, her eyes casting a faraway look as she recalled her trip to the museum. She remembered the rod behind the glass that every other museum patron ignored. "And I felt its magic, baby. It was enchanted. That staff was magical and it was powerful. I panicked. I didn't want to just leave it there. So I took it and I transfigured another object to take its place."

James' jaw dropped at his mum's admittance of a crime but she continued on. "I took it back home and I debated what to do. All I knew was that Demos was a wizard, he wanted to find the staff, and the staff was magical and powerful. I knew that I didn't trust him. I wanted to study it further but I knew that things had suddenly gotten so much more dangerous than before. I... I transfigured the staff, in case something happened."