Diving Into You | Fred Weasley

67 | Need for Speed

Naia was frustrated. Hell, they all were.

It's been more than a month since their arrival in Athens, and they still had come up empty as to the possible location of Sirenum Scopuli.

The first week they spent exploring the Athenian Acropolis, visiting ancient sites in hopes of infiltrating or getting at least some idea of the wizarding community in Greece. It was not like they were uneducated in terms of other wizarding governments. Although, Naia, Fred, and George seriously cursed the Hogwarts curriculum for not including diplomatic lessons of any sort. It was just that the Greek Ministry of Magic had somehow managed to conceal themselves completely.

They grew so desperate that they even went on muggle tours and excursions just to learn absolutely anything about Greek history. They had probably heard of every myth and legend there was after hours scouring the libraries and visiting other historical sights.

"Can you imagine, Mar?!" Matty exclaimed as he stood on the steps of the Athenian Agora. "Socrates could have stood RIGHT here. Teaching about goodness and integrity. Some of the brightest minds that shaped Philosophy and morality stood RIGHT HERE."

"Yeah, yeah, which is precisely why it would be the perfect place to hide information somewhere..." Naia said, snooping around the walls for inscriptions, Ancient Runes book in hand.

"Really, Pratt? And what would a bunch of clothed 'Philosophers'," George made air quotations, "be doing out here? Picnic?"

"No," Matty glared, "They would discuss matters of morality, ideas about life and existence, just trying to make sense of the world and the understanding behind everything."

"So they'd just have meetings to discuss say... why the grass is green?"

"Not the best example, but in theory, yes. It was more of the understanding of man-"

"Muggles and their curiosity... wasn't Socrates sentenced to death?" Fred asked, kicking a stone and bending down to look for any inscriptions or clues.

Maria quirked a brow while the others stared at him curiously, "Yes... how did you know that?"

"Oh don't act so surprised, I do read a little... Merlin," Fred mumbled.

"He was poisoned as a death sentence."

"So would you say that curiosity killed him?" Fred asked.

"No, it was his nature to question everything about society back then. Gained him a lot of enemies..." Matty answered.

"You know for muggles... these ideas are quite spot on!" George read the tourist pamphlet that noted down some of the teachings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and more. "This Chrysippus seems like my kind of guy! Good Godric, what kind of muggle dies of laughter?!"

"Your preferred way to go I'm assuming."

"My preferred way to kill!"

"Not all of them were muggles, of course..." Matty mumbled.

"No way," Naia widened her eyes. Matty nodded, grabbing the pamphlet and pointing to a familiar bust, "Aristotle actually..."

"Come off it!"

"They say that it was possible Socrates found out about wizards back then...and you know how Aristotle was his pupil."

"That's mad."

Their search in the Agora came out empty. For the next few weeks this kept happening, and by the end of the first month, they had all grown frustrated.

They used the map to visit any known library they could find, spending hours with their noses buried in books for something. Anything.

It wasn't just the pressure of finding clues as to where the home of the sirens were, but also the worry each of them had for what was going on back home in Britain.