Chapter Text
As the benevolent ruler of the kingdom, King Lyall of Lycaine was assured a fabulous castle, which meant a tower for him and his wife, one for his freshly adult son, a dungeon of disbelievers, stables, a grand ballroom, and an expertly crafted kitchen, which father and son agreed was the heart of any home. The castle also featured a royal dining room, where soldiers awkwardly stood by all doors, silent and attempting deafness, and flags of the nation and of Lycaine waved. Sitting near the fine mahogany table were the residents of the castle, the Lupins.
The Lupins sat in a comfortable silence. Usually at dinner times, such as these, that comfortable silence was broken by Hope’s cheerful interjections in an attempt to begin conversation, to the chagrin of her husband and son. However today, Hope was oddly silent.
After rounds of salad and turkey, Remus’s favorite course began, dessert, but before he could indulge in whatever the chef had designed, Lyall Lupin cleared his throat.
“Remus, son.” He began, seemingly unsure of his own words. “Your mother and I would like to talk to you about something.”
From across the table Hope grabbed Lyall’s hand in support, as Remus grew a knot in his stomach.
“We have realized, along with the other heads of kingdoms, that is fair time that, you- well that you-“ Lyall tapered off before turning to his wife. “Hope, darling help me out, please.”
“Remus, we think it’s time for you to marry.” She cut to the chase, turning from her husband to her now-shocked son. “We’ve waited long enough, you’re well of age now.”
“Remus don’t look so shocked, you should have known this was coming.” Lyall responded to Remus’s reaction. “It’s an important part of becoming king.”
“So I have to be wed to some girl I’ve never met?” He sputtered. “Where is this coming from? Are you dying or something? Am I becoming king tomorrow? What the hell?”
Lyall’s face had turned an ugly shade of purple, bothered by his son’s words, “That’s enough! Remus, it is proper for a king to be wed before he accepts the throne, I won’t be around forever to clean up your messes you know, it’s about time you started to prepare for your future, instead of leaving it to your mother and I.”
“And it won’t be someone you don’t know, Remus. We’ve arraigned to meet with all eligible maidens before the wedding, you can choose which you like.” Hope assured her son, taking his hands into the wrinkled warmth of her own. “It’s truly a better deal than what other princes are getting.”
Remus sighed, “I’ll have met them once before marrying them, that changes everything.”
If Lyall wasn’t furious before, he was now.
-
After a few weeks of waiting, a handful of servants managed to wrangle Remus into a chariot.
“Now remember, most eligible maidens are already wed or betrothed, so we made due with what we could.” Hope explained, shaking from the unsteadiness of the carriage.
“They’re certainly not our first choices.” Snorted Lyall from beside her, still scathing at his son.
“Hush, Lyall! Remus, they’re all wonderful girls.” She pleaded to her son.
Remus sat silently, watching the sights of the nearest kingdom creep past slowly. Next to the kingdom of Lycaine was Amberan, the military capital of the country.
Remus observed the fleets of soldiers as they drew nearer and nearer to the heart of the city, where the first princess lived.
“I had this list drawn up.” Hope pressed a scroll of parchment into Remus’s palm, lovingly patting him on the back of the hand.
“Thank you, mother.” Remus answered, breaking the silence he’d been enforcing since they’d left Lycaine.
“He speaks!”
“Hush, Lyall.”
Remus unraveled the scroll, which revealed a list of names in his mother’s loopy cursive. The four names were each given a small synopsis describing their kingdom and status.
It read:
Marlene McKinnon- of the kingdom of Amberan, military town. Enjoys watching jousting and turkey. Daughter of Queen Mildred and previous General Magnus, eldest daughter of seven.
Mary Macdonald- socialite princess of Silberd, a new money kingdom recently added to the nation. Enjoys galas and dressmaking. Parents, King Byron and Queen Eliza, were wealthy merchants before taking control of the kingdom.
Dorcas Meadowes- princess of Cedia, the most technologically advanced of the nearby kingdoms. Enjoys painting, suffers from a multitude of medical conditions, to which there are no cure.
Ariel Black- princess of Slytherin. Daughter to King Orion and Queen Walburga, rulers of the oldest kingdom in the nation of Hogwarts, home of precious jewels, especially pearls.
Remus carefully read over the list, scrutinizing the girls’ “enjoyments”.
“What sort of ‘multitude of medical conditions’?” He questioned his mother. Looking up with furrowed brows.
“Something with food, I’m not sure.” She waved off his query. “But don’t worry about Princess Dorcas yet, look we’re here.”
-
Amberan was ugly.
There was no sugar coating the obnoxious industrial style of the buildings, and the smell of metal and sweat in the streets.
Soldiers were attending every corner, marching to and fro, yelling at small children who were playing wheel in the streets.
The chariot wade its way the castle, which has the appearance of a military base, and stepped out to a fanfare of trumpets, marching in lockstep. The Lupins entered the castle, walking past the gates and in to be announced.
“I hereby welcome King and Queen Lupin, and their son Prince Remus.” Cried a short man in a red and yellow get up.
“The McKinnon family of Amberan proudly presents, her lady, the Princess Marlene!” The man shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
With a jaunty tune from the trumpets, a woman no younger than twenty appeared. Marlene was tall, nearly as tall as Remus himself, and skinny. She was dotted with occasional freckles, and had her blonde hair kept neat, albeit frizzy, just below her shoulders.
She descended down the stairs with the grace of a swan, and grasped and firmly shock Remus’s hand with the strength of a horse.
“Lovely to meet you, Prince Remus. I’m Marlene.” She stated, retrieving her hand from the crushing shake she’d given him.
“Er- hello, Marlene.” Remus sputtered, caught off guard by her strength. “Lovely to meet as well, how do you do?”
“Just splendid, how about you?” She grinned, showcases each and all of her teeth, in a smile that invited and boomed. “How do you find Amberan?”
“Oh, I believe it to be…” Ugly, industrial, boring, brutalistically uninteresting, a desolate landscape without beauty. “Just lovely, I love…”
Remus searched the room for something to pretend to like. “It smells delicious in here.” He came up with, unable to appreciate the stony gray walls, nor the battle trophies that adorned them.
“That’d be dinner! Shall we proceed?” Marlene’s mother spoke up from behind her.
“Oh, about time!” Her father jostled out of his throne, and made a run for what Remus presumed to be the dining room. Marlene, the Lupin’s, and several armor-laden soldiers made their way to the dining room.
The room had the same stone walls, trophies, and with the addition of taxidermies across the mantle, virtually no decoration. The dining table itself appeared a mile long, enough seats to house a large party, and stacks of plates, each with some type of smoking, browned, meat. Remus could hear his stomachs pleas and sat quickly, he barely stopped himself from grabbing all the food he could grab before Marlene sat beside him and grasped his hand.
The entire table held eachothers hands, even Lyall after a moment of hesitation, with a look of reluctance. The King began speaking in low tones, his head bowed low, and it was an embarrising bout of seconds before Remus did too, realizing it was grace.
After a prayer longer than any Remus had spoken, the McKinnons and Lupins raised their heads and began grabbing at food, Marlenes seven brothers making an appearance while Remus’s head was down.
The McKinnons were as ravenous as the Lupins, the only thing setting the families apart was the never ending conversation that flooded through the blondes between bites.
“So, Remus.” Marlene ripped off a piece of boar meat with her teeth. “What do you like to do?”
Remus took a moment to swallow his meat, extraordinarily delicious for being so rough and chewy, before answering, “I like to read I suppose.”
“Ah, an academic!” Marlene raised her glass and took a sip. “I have to say that I never particularly cared for the throes of literature, more of games enjoyer myself. Do you like jousting?”
“I… can’t say I’ve ever been particularly interested in a match.” Remus raised his own glass to take a hearty swig, before the entire table was shaken by Marlene jumping out of her seat.
“Really? There is one in the courtyard tonight!” She grabbed his arm, with the same wide, semi maniacal grin as before. “Oh, you have to see some jousting if you’re in Amberan!”
-
The sun was on the verge of setting behind the nearby forest when the two royal families set out for the courtyard.
The twilight illuminated the stands, half decked in red and black, the other in blue and red. Marlene’s family made their way to the red and black colored stands, the Lupins reluctantly trailing behind. The king and queen sat in the highest stand, with applause from the onlookers, and the Lupins sat next to them, while Marlene tugged Remus to sit next to her a few rows down.
“Enjoy the show, lovebirds!” The queen jokingly yelled down to them. Remus wobbly smiled and laughed nervously.
Marlene scooched closer to Remus, and began a display of pointing and explaining, where Remus realized the insufficient amount of knowledge he had about the sport.
What Remus assumed was a fast and exiting display of knights on horses knocking each other over with long sticks was actually a far longer sport that was in fact very complicated, and involved a lot of shouting from both Marlene and her father, who’s voice boomed throughout the whole stadium. Remus felt as if he knew less about jousting, or whatever had happened, walking back in the dark to his chariot than when he had come.
-
The Lupins, after a night of rest in McKinnon Castle, made their way to the second location: Silberd.
“I’m not marrying Marlene.” Remus decided on the way to Silberd, the coastal kingdom that stretched from the north to south of the nation.
Hope sighed, “Why not? She seemed perfectly lovely?”
“I cannot spend another millisecond of my life talking about jousting, or knights, or fighting, or listening to her chew and talk with her mouth full.” Remus whined, slumping in his seat.
Lyall nodded and crinkled his nose, “No manners in Amberan, eh?”
“Oh Remus, you’re just upset that a lady knows more about something than you.” Hope scoffed, crossing her arms. “You feel threatened?”
“Little lady shouldn’t know that much about knighthood if you ask me.” Lyall interjected. “What’s next, female knights?”
“Oh, hush!” Hope smacked her husband in the arm, and turned back to Remus. “But if you really don’t like her, we still have three more lovely girls who i’m sure chew with their mouth closed.”
“Who is next, anyhow?” Remus stared at the sea to watch the rising sun glisten and reflect watercolor yellow into the deep blue of the waves.
“Silberd is home to Princess Mary, of the MacDonalds. You remember her, we had that one Christmas party at theirs when you were six.” Hope read from the scroll, looking up to her unimpressed son.
“Surprisingly, no I don’t remember one Christmas party when I was six.”
-
As much as Remus didn’t remember Mary, Mary was able to properly catch him up to speed for the last eighteen or so years of her life.
“And then we traveled to Sweden, oh, it’s so beautiful there you wouldn’t believe, but the cold is simply dreadful, dreadful I tell you! Any ways, that was where I met Lord Olsen, have you met him yet? He’s a doll! Simply lovely, I’ve never met a soul like him, except that time when I met the strangest man in Amberan, weren’t you just there? He had the most wonderful wig, a powder blue one, that was nearly two feet tall, almost as tall as some of mine! You wouldn’t believe. Did you see any man with an extraordinary tall wig in Amberan? If so, so have I, ha! Oh, what fun, what fun. Well, how was the ride over? Safe travels? I hear there’s a few coyotes nearby, are your horses all right? Oh, I simply adore horses! Can’t get enough of them, I ride, you know? Did I remember to put that on my list for you, your mother wrote to put it together, what did my part say? My parents wrote the final draft. I assume they cut out the equestrian part, most would, they wouldn’t want you to think I’m a sports-craved lunatic like Princess Marlene, ha! I’m joking, I’m joking, I love her to pieces, but she takes it so seriously you know? You probably do if you’ve spent more than a moment with her. So, are you enjoying Silberd?” Mary finished, surprisingly not out of breath despite her monologue of a ‘hello’.
She had on a pale pink silk dress, typical colors for Silberd, which paired nicely with her soft brown complexion and round eyes. She was a girl of extraordinary beauty and wit, Remus just wished she’d express it in any way other than talking.
“It’s very… lively.” He replied after moment’s stunned silence.
“Oh, don’t lie Remus!” Mary let out a loud cackle like laugh, and grasped Remus’s upper arm. “Must be very boring compared to Lycaine! Oh, tell me, Remus, how do we stack up?”
“Well it’s… rather colder, I suppose?” Remus managed, in between sips of a burgundy wine in a golden goblet. “Being closer to the sea and all.”
Mary laughed louder and harder this time, though her laugh was tinged with a sense of artificiality to it, “Oh, Remus, you, sir, are a hoot! Oh, we should have you over more often, especially when we marry, I suppose!”
“Well, no, I don’t suppose we will.” Remus stated. “Since we won’t be getting married.”
Mary’s face fell, not into a disappointed expression of shocked sadness, but rather into one of resignment. Across the table, Lyall’s eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes grew sharp and dangerous. Hope froze in motion, and her eyes doubled in size.
“What do you mean? Do you think yourself too good for my daughter? You don’t see her as much as a lady as the other princesses in the land? Do you? Hmm?” Mary’s mother jumped up in her seat and pointed an accusatory finger at Remus’s face. “Oh, tell me, Prince Remus, what about her doesn’t live up to your expectations? My Mary is the essence of womanhood!”
“That’s enough, Mother!” Mary shot up too, walking up to her mother with fury. “Please, for once, will you not ruin one of my few chances of love! Why must you do this?”
“Oh, Mary, someone has to stand up for you, it’s clear your father won’t!” The Queen whipped her head around, her long curled hair accentuating the sharp turn. “I just want someone for you to marry who’s worth your time! Why must you fight me at every turn, dear?”
“Oh, I won’t stand up for my only daughter, won’t I?” The King shot up too, not nearing his wife’s height.
As the MacDonalds descended into a mass argument that spanned across the entire table, and the sounds of which rebounded throughout the decadent hall, the Lupins had a small moment of understanding. The three slipped past the argument, which was quickly descending into tears and forgiveness between the family, and made their way into the chariot.
“So, I suppose we can cross Lady Mary off the list, then, huh!” Lyall boomed once the chariot had begun to make its way out of Silberd. “Why must you do this, Remus? Why are you making this so much harder for yourself?”
“Seriously, Remus? What did you expect would happen? Why did you have to say that, dear?” Hope echoed, rubbing her forehead. “Well, the first two were a bust, we can still hope you get along better with Dorcas or Ariel.”
Remus stared into the darkness outside of the window, he found himself, once again, feeling grateful for his uncanny knack for falling asleep in moving vehicles, as he was fast asleep in minutes.
When Remus was awoken, by the screeching halt of the chariot and the whinnies of the horses, they were in Cedia.
Cedia was filled with shiny buildings, walls of glass and silver, which was reflected in Dorcas’s palace.
“Welcome, Prince Remus.” Dorcas extended a hand, laden with shiny gray rings. “Well in Cedia are pleased from your attendance.”
“Er- thank you, Princess, thank you for having us.”
Remus felt out of place. Cedia was new, very new for the nation. It was a technological giant in knowledge, but the smallest, youngest kingdom overall, and desperate for the attention of the fellow kingdoms. Lycaine was its polar opposite, old and strong, rich with tradition but void of Cedia’s advances. Cedia’s scientific industry also made it the moneymaking capital of Hogwarts, another place where Lycaine, whose main source of wealth was agriculture, couldn’t measure up.
Once welcomes were in order between the families, dinner commenced. The plates were more interesting than the food. Each serving was small and took up little amounts of space, with less flavor. The food consisted mostly of soups and broths.
“We preemptively apologize for the food.” The Queen began, in her high airy voice. “We’ve heard of the rich flavors of Lycaine, but unfortunately Dorcas’s allergies make for some tight restraints on ingredients.”
“Allergies? To what?” Hope queried, resting her fork on the plate with a clink of porcelain.
“Oh, many things.” The Queen continued. “Some spices, tree nuts, some fabrics, her skin doesn’t respond well to a lot of things, she gets this incredibly itchy rash.”
“Mother!” Dorcas begged for silence with her eyes.
“It’s very red. Oh, and cocoa, that thing in chocolate.” She finished.
“A-a red rash you say?” Remus sputtered. “Like this?”
He held up his hand, which had an angry red irritation on his palm. Both royal families gasped in shock.
“Remus, darling, what happened?” His mother almost shouted in surprise, grabbing his hand, cupping it in both of hers.
“I-I don’t know?” Remus sputtered. “My hand felt strange and then I look down and it looks like a brick!”
“Oh, dear, I think you may be having an allergic reaction.” The King peered up at Remus through his spectacles, which made his eyes appear much larger than they would have. “May I ask what you’ve been… touching?”
“Just the silverware, I suppose, these aren’t real silver though are they?” Remus scratched his hand half-raw. “They’d be heavier if they were.”
“Oh, but they are.” Dorcas too stared at his steadily itching hand. “We hollow them, for efficiency, cost reduction, and ease. You… aren’t allergic to silver, are you?”
Remus couldn’t help but slump down in his chair.
-
“Well, you couldn’t stand Marlene, you’ve taken Mary out of the equation, and you and Dorcas are allergic to each other.” Hope stared blankly at her list, drawing lines through the first the girls’ names. “I don’t want to be bleak but…”
Remus lazily scratched at his palms again, “It was nice of them to give us that salve, at least.”
Lyall snorted, “I’ll say, your hands look like starfish.” He smoothed down his red-and-gray hair. “It was the least they could do.”
“Well,” Hope steered the conversation back to marriage. “We still have De Moire, maybe you’ll fall in love with Ariel.”
Lyall snorted, “Very likely.”
“Ariel, the daughter of Queen Walburga and King Orion, she enjoys…hmm.” Hope scanned her list. “I must’ve forgotten to write something down. Oh well, I know she has an elder brother, at least.”
-
The palace was a pristine white, with silver moulding and intricately sculpted gargoyles lining the top. It was a statue of a palace, marble and beautiful, a testament to the decadence of the Blacks.
The chariot ride was longer than to the first few castles, the driveway to the Black Palace was lengthy and sprawling, lined with flowers and trees sporting petals white and red.
The entrance to the noble home was sporting two rows of knights, ready in salute, and another town crier of sorts to introduce the Lupins. At the top of the steps were two people Remus assumed to be the King and Queen.
The King was a shorter fatter man, with an impressive mustache that curled into sharp points at the end, and a small beard streaked with grey.
The Queen was skinny and pointed, she had eyebrows dark as coal in a permanent glare, and her hair was tied back so tightly it pulled at the skin of her face.
“The most noble and ancient house of Black welcomes the King, Queen, and crown Prince of Lycaine, the Lupins.”
“Welcome, to our humble home.” The King grinned, an action unfamiliar to his face, and gestured the family inside. “This is my lovely wife, the Queen Walburga.”
Lovely was not the word Remus would use do describe anything here, certainly not the Queen, who’s attempt at a smile was closer to a grimace of disgust than any display of happiness.
The Lupins entered the foyer, which felt closer to a grand ballroom than an entera ce, and took note of the large white staircases on either side of the room, and the other knights lining the one to the right.
“Their majesties, the King and Queen, present: her grace, the Princess of De Moire, Princess Ariel Arcturus Black, and her elder brother, Prince Sirius Orion Black!”