Learn your History so you don't make the same mistakes (Open)

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"They were, yes." She gave a soft laugh at that - they were both Greek but truly, it was Alexander the Great that was mainly known throughout the world and not her grandfather. And she didn't mind that. Her grandfather was known in Greece for his intellect and superior tactics and his strength and that was enough for the girl who admired the man.

Her grandfather may not have unified Greece in his own lifetime but Greece did unify further down the years; it wasn't the same but in the end, her grandfathers dream had been realized. Maybe not by someone from his own line but in the end what mattered was the thought no?

It wasn't that Apollonia didn't like the Clements, she loved the fact that they took the chance to buy off Greece's debt and thus lead the Greeks to look upon them favorably. The Leandro's family had no such fortune so it wasn't like they could've bought off that debt. Their wealth didn't come from money but from the history and family heirlooms that they had ammassed over the decades of being alive. What she disliked about the Clements was the fact that more than half of the world looked upon that family as if they were mystical dieties given human form. It... irked her but she didn't let it show.

Apollonia was partial to the Clements but she wouldn't be swearing her loyalty to them any time soon. To her they were just a normal Pureblood family; even if they had so much wealth that they could pretty much throw it away by buying out the debts of other countries.

"Truly, had I been brought up by my paternal great-grandfather, may he rest in peace, I probably would've been spewing fire left and right for the fact that Greece was now, pretty much, loyal to the Clement family." She grinned wryly. "They saw potential and decided that Greece was better off with them as the... ruling family, for the lack of a better word. I won't begrudge them the fact that they bought off the Greek debt." She shook her head, red locks falling over her shoulders as she did so. She wasn't going to speak any more on the subject. It happened and Greece was all the better for it.

"It's... beautiful for the lack of a better word." She laughed softly. "I really don't know how to describe it. I've seen the pictures and there's just not enough words to describe it. It's both a modern looking Greek house but it also holds some elements of Ancient Greece in it's architecture. It's one of those house that you have to see for yourself. I can send you pictures during the summer holidays if you wish to see it." She was heading there to see it herself so taking pictures of the property wouldn't be too much trouble for the fifth year.

"I try to be at least." She smirked at the younger man, thankful that Nikolai just decided to drop the topic. Best to keep the rest of the history and current affairs to herself. No need in airing dirty laundry out in such a place.

"Changing the world?" She giggled and shook her head in the negative. "No, I don't have ambitions as big as those. Truthfully, I don't know what I want to do yet. There's so many things I could do but I think I'd like to go to University after I graduate from Hogwarts." She hadn't really thought about what she wanted to do yet. Maybe she could try her hand at being a Curse Breaker? "And how about you? Any big plans yourself?"

Nikolai took on all of the information about the Clement take over with interest. Many people might not have found all of this information overly interesting, but Nikolai did. Imagine the level of wealth these two families -- because obviously Apollonia came from a family of reasonable wealth if they were descended from a big family of Greece, right? Though, until he had a lot more proof, Nikolai wouldn't take that to be a certainty.

The substantial -- and seemingly unlimited -- monies of the Clements, though, made the boy's head hurt as he tried to comprehend the level of money you had to have that could be thrown in to another country. To bail another country. And not leave yourself short. Such numbers were incomprehensible for the boy, truthfully, and Nikolai brought him back to the moment and what Apollonia was speaking of.

"I can imagine that that would be very annoying, yes." Nikolai commented, not sure what else to add. He wanted to, but he simply couldn't grasp the magnitude of the actions that had taken place, or relate to them enough to understand. But, he wasn't going to simply let it be, this was going to need much more research than he'd anticipated, at another time.

"Pictures?" Nikolai asked, confusion touching his features to show he wasn't quite following. "Haven't you been to your own home in Greece?" He added, not being judgemental in that moment, but not following her either. She was speaking of Greece as if it were her home, and yet... that comment suggested she'd never been there? Or, was he jumping to conclusions... The confusion remained upon the boy's features as he tried to figure it out. The offer to send him pictures, though, made Nikolai's features grow excited. "That would be great! Especially if it depicts the architecture from earlier periods, too. Did you want my phone number, so that you can send them electronically? Or were you going to post them?" Nikolai asked, curious to know if she fell to older forms of communication or newer ones.

"Not that you have to take my number now, maybe nearer the time, or something." Nikolai added quickly, not wishing to sound presumptuous that the witch would want his number.

The giggle that he managed to gain from Apollonia brought a smile to Nikolai's features, reflecting the amusement he'd invoked. Of course he hadn't truly believed her to say she would be following her grandfather, but it had brought forth the response he'd hoped for. Her answer, though, was what Nikolai expected. University after Hogwarts, but she didn't mention what she wished to study, so Nikolai probed. "Any ideas what you want to study?

"I'm going to go on to university, I think. Mum and Dad probably expect that much of me, anyway. I want to pursue Magizoology, though. I think that will be fun. Not to head to Romania to work with the dragons, though. Much too cliche. I want to work with the less common, and not necessarily as spectacular creatures of our world. Find out more about them, you know?" He asked, before containing his excitement. "Though, I'm not sure how well it pays, I think it is best to do what you enjoy, instead. If... I can get the funding."

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Apollonia was glad that they were moving away from the subject of Greece and Clements and her family; sometimes it was better to leave those subjects alone, it wasn't the best to dwell on things that already happened.

"I've only been to Greece once, for my great-grandfather's funeral and I was fairly young as well so I cannot remember much but my grandparents told me stories of Greece. They moved to the British Isles during the Second World War when Greece was in civil war and they never really went back." She clarified clearly understanding his confusion. She knew that it was weird talking about a country you've either only seen as a young child, thus couldn't remember much, or through stories of her grandparents. "I do have a phone." She replied happily. "But I can send them through owl post as well if you'd prefer. I'm not entirely fussed." She'd rather send them electronically as that would be easier but owl post would work as well though the letters would take a while to get to the UK from Greece.

"We can swap them now." She shyly replied, looking away from the younger male with flushed cheeks. She didn't have many friends who had phones so exchanging numbers was something of a novelty to the girl whose only contacts in her phone were her siblings and grandparents.

"I was thinking of maybe studying Curse Breaking though I'd prefer to be a freelancer instead of working through Gringotts. It'll be harder to find jobs, I think, but the payout would be worth it as, unlike with Gringotts where a percentage of the finds goes to them, I could keep most of what I earn." She mused as she tapped her fingers against the book in her lap, head tilting just a tiny bit. "I might also study Potion's whenever I have the chance." Even though DADA was her favourite subject she didn't see herself becoming an Auror or any other job that fell into that category.

"My siblings do expect me to carry on my education." She laughed softly, forgoing in mentioning her parents; they probably didn't care what she did as long as she wasn't going to burden them financially. Not that she ever did as it was her eldest brother who paid for all her things out of his own pocket. "That does sound like fun. Magizoology that is. I really don't know why people who study Magizoology head to Romania to work with dragons. There's so many magical animals and creatures out there to study and find more about." She was quite amused at how animated he became when talking about his dream of studying Magizoology. "I'm sure Mimosa wouldn't mind flashing her eyes at Jacques Clements and kindly asking him to fund your dream." She teased good-naturedly, silently pointing out how close Mimosa was to Nikolai that she would, probably, do that.

The explanation of how Apollonia had been to Greece only once made more sense in that moment, and Nikolai nodded his understanding. "I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather. But, at least you get to go this summer. That's really lucky, I never get to go anywhere cool." Nikolai explained, giving a small huff of derision because once again his family sucked and his dad never, ever did anything cool like that. But, that wasn't Apollonia's fault, so he wouldn't make her feel bad for getting to go see her home country.

"Oh no, phone is much better!" Nikolai replied, almost a little too quickly as Apollonia tried to suggest not communicating that way. With her mild embarrassment came his own, which Nikolai quickly hid as he leaned over to retrieve his bag and dug out his battered, quite a number of years out of date phone and clicked the button that unlocked the screen. The case showed that he didn't much care for his phone, but the boy had never really been that interested in the phone to begin with. Of course, the more he spent with other people, the more he realised this wasn't normal, but Nikolai didn't care for normal. Once the phone was unlocked, he opened up the phone book, typed Apollonia's name, before offering it to her. "If you want to put your name in there, I'll text you so you get my number." Nikolai explained, trying not too look too eager and probably failing hard.

"Curse breaking?" Nikolai asked, pulling a little bit of a face. "You'll need to know Ancient Runes to quite a high standard, do well in that field, not that you probably don't, but you know what I mean. At least it would be the exciting side -- albeit dangerous -- of that subject, though, rather than just translating found objects, or something." Like my dad does, because he's boring. Nikolai finished in his head, completely overlooking the fact his dad had had to be in a tomb, breaking curses, to have caught Tomb Sickness.

The option of potions was also cool, but Nikolai didn't express that. It was only a possibility for the witch, so he simply tucked the information away for another time, if it were necessary.

"I guess dragons are seen to be the 'coolest' creatures in the world, for the masses." Nikolai replied still quite excited by the subject. "But, not me. I like the Giant Squid here, or the welfare of House Elves, or, how Boggarts manage their lives when they find themselves caught in closed spaces, only appearing when interrupted by others. Or, finding out about whether mythical creatures in the Muggle fiction are actually linked to real life animals, but because they couldn't comprehend what they were seeing, wrote it off as not being real..."

The boy came up short when Apollonia mentioned Mimosa, his mood crashing to something of a low now. He was supposed to be mad at Mimosa. He was mad at Mimosa. The idea of being a charity case to Jacques Clement, though, was one that didn't settle well with the boy as his eyes narrowed slightly. "I'd rather not take his money." Nikolai said with an edge of bitterness at the mention of her Jacques.

It was in that moment Nikolai realised he was still caked in dirt, too.

"I should probably head up to my dorm and get showered," Nikolai said, collecting up his phone and his bag. "I'll see you around, Apollonia?" He said, trying to be cool in that moment, but the blow to his ego had been well placed, and he couldn't really muster that feeling in that moment.

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Apollonia waved the apology away; it had been a long time ago, well only like nine years really but the man wouldn't have wanted his great-granddaughter to wallow in misery for forever so she didn't and instead she just took each day with stride. "It's the only place I can go without any sort of supervision really. Though my brother is going with me he is going mainly for a business trip so I'm basically on my own for at least half of the summer in Greece." It would be fun, of that Apollonia was certainly. She would finally be able to visit the country where her grandparents came from.

Her cheeks were flushed the entire time she was typing her number into Nikolai's phone - she doubted they'd get back to normal anytime soon. Exchanging numbers with people was still new to her and Nikolai was the only other person in her notebook apart from her siblings. And wasn't it sad that the fifth year Slytherin only just now got a friends' number in her phone? "Here." She gave the phone back with a beaming smile though her cheeks were still flushed a pale pink.

"I know." Apollonia grimaced. "The job sounds fun and I do like Ancient Runes... but I'm not sure if studying them to such a degree is something I'd enjoy... I've still got two years to think about it really, I'll probably change my mind another three or four times on what I want to do." She wanted to do Curse Breaking but if she did want to go solo she would have to buckle down and study hard at Ancient Runes and Arithmancy really. Her temples throbbed just at the thought of how many sleepless nights she would have trying to cram so much knowledge.

"Coolest? They are.. cool... but I personally think that animals like Thestrals and Hippogriffs and Thunder Birds are better but well.." She shrugged her shoulders. She wasn't a big fan of magical creatures so she wasn't exactly sure what the appeal of Dragons was. They were beautiful in their own way but to her, they were just an over-mentioned creature in the wizarding world. "It's nice, that you know exactly what sort of creatures and animals you want to study. I'll root for you!" She declared with a bright smile on her lips.

Only for that smile to disappear very quickly when she heard the bitterness in the other boy's tone at what she suggested, she had only meant to tease the other boy on his closeness with Mimosa and not make him upset.

"Ah... wait..." She stood up and quickly grabbed onto his arm though she just as suddenly let go of it, biting her lower lip and trying hard to not show that she was upset that she had upset him with what she said.

"...y-yeah... see you around...."

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