Roman Revolution   von viv-heart
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                               Kapitel 1: 462 BC
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Mid-Summer 462 BC, the City of Rome, Age 8
 
 
“Father? Father? What’s going on?” a young girl pulled at her father’s
arm as shouts echoed through Rome’s streets suddenly. “Why are they
shouting?” Her brown hair shone in the morning sun as they hurried through the
crowded Forum. People emerged from the alleys, making it almost impossible to
walk in the opposite direction of the steady stream of bodies.
Her father glanced down at her and pulled her closer. “I don’t know. But we
need to get home, Hermione.” He took her hand and led her through the mass of
shouting men.
The merchants around the Forum were packing up quickly, trying their best to
save their goods from the rioting masses as Hermione was dragged by her father
in the direction of their home.
They turned into a side-street and almost ran into the men standing there.
“Let us pass!” A tall man with platinum hair shouted at the group that
closed him and his companions in.
“Get to the Forum, Malfoy!” somebody shouted back.
Hermione stopped in tracks at the scene, and refused to move from the spot, even
though her father tried to drag her away.
“What’s going on?” she asked again, sounding almost angry.
“A riot. They want to force the Patricians to accept our demands. That man is
Senator Lucius Cornelius Malfoy. They are trying to force him to get back to the
Forum to discuss a resolution. Now come!” Hermione’s father tried to pull
her with him.
“No!” she refused to move. “We have to do something! Look, there is a boy
with them! He looks scared! They’ll hurt him if we don’t do anything!”
And indeed, behind the older Malfoy, there was a boy around Hermione’s age.
His platinum hair suggested, that he was the senator’s son.
“They won’t hurt him!” her father said in exasperation.
“Then why are you so keen on getting away? Why did you lie? You said that you
didn’t know what was going on!” Hermione asked, before she yanked her hand
out of his gasp, and marched over to the group.
“Can’t you solve this like civilized men instead of yelling at each other?
What kind of example are you setting?” she asked as soon as she stopped in
front of them. They all turned to look at her in surprise.
“What the-?” one started to say, but stopped when Hermione’s father
appeared behind his daughter.
“Gracchus?” Another man asked in surprise. “Is that your daughter?”
Hermione’s father nodded and grasped her arm. “She is right, you know. If
you want to fight at least let the boy go home. Children shouldn’t be involved
in politics.”
“And yet, your daughter just got involved,” the older Malfoy sneered.
“She was trying to help you,” Gracchus retorted, staring him down.
“We don’t need any help from plebs,” this time, it was the boy, who spoke
up, the sneer on his face identical with his father’s.
At that, Hermione stuck out her chin, took her father’s hand and led him away,
her head held high, even though tears were gathering in her eyes. The men all
stared after them, but the boy averted his gaze.
“Hermione,” her father started after they turned around another corner.
“I-.”
“Why do they look down on us?” Hermione sobbed. “I don’t understand. We
are the same as they are.”
“Because they want to. We are the same. And we are going to force them to
finally acknowledge that,” Gracchus said. “Today we are making the first big
step.”
oOo
A young boy was following his father and his companions through the streets of
Rome when the uproar started.
“Stay behind me, Draco!” his father said, before the boy could as much as
open his mouth. “Don’t leave his side, Dobby!” he ordered the slave, who
was accompanying them. “Don’t let anybody near him!”
“Calm down, Malfoy!” a companion put a hand on the father’s arm.
“Calm down, Severus? Really?” Lucius sneered. “It’s not the time to calm
down. Last time there was an uproar like this, they established those ridiculous
Tribunes! Only Apollo knows, what they want now! And they’ll use any means
necessary to accomplish it!”
“Your father’s stories scared you for sure,” Severus commented drily as
they hurried through the crowd.
Lucius glanced back at him. “They didn’t scare me. No, they showed me the
truth. They are not better than animals, Severus. They don’t have fathers and
mate like rabbits! Tell me what exactly separates them from animals?”
He had barely finished the sentence, when a group of men cut him away from the
alley he was heading to.
Lucius stopped in his tracks and his son moved to stand beside him. He put a
hand on Draco’s shoulder.
“Who do you think you are?” Lucius barked. “Get out of my way!”
“Forget it,” one of the men replied. “You are coming with us!”
“We are not! Let us through!” Lucius shot back, staring the group down, his
hand clutching Draco’s shoulder. He knew, that he had to get him away. Fast.
One of the men snorted. “Make us. But oh wait, you can’t! You are powerless
without your goons.”
“Let us pass!” Lucius shouted. The streets were getting fuller and fuller
and if they didn’t manage to move soon, they would have to deal with a much
larger group.
“Get to the Forum, Malfoy!” the men blocking his path were getting angry and
Lucius pushed his son behind himself.
“When this is over you are going to pay!” he threatened.
The men were about to move and drag them to the Forum, when a little girl with
curly brown hair appeared out of nowhere.
“Can’t you solve this like civilized men instead of yelling at each other?
What kind of example are you setting?” she asked, and they all turned to look
at her in surprise.
“What the-?” one started to say, but stopped, when what seemed to be the
girl’s father appeared behind her.
“Gracchus?” Another man asked. “Is that your daughter?”
The man nodded and grasped her arm. “She is right, you know. If you want to
fight at least let the boy go home. Children shouldn’t be involved in
politics.”
“And yet your daughter just got involved,” Lucius sneered, even though he
secretly agreed. He sure as hell wanted to get his boy away.
“She was trying to help you,” Gracchus retorted, staring him down.
“We don’t need any help from plebs,” Draco said and Lucius glanced at his
son, barely managing to hide his surprise. He hadn’t expected him to speak
up.
At that, the girl stuck out her chin, took her father’s hand and led him away,
her head held high. The men all stared after them, but Draco averted his gaze.
He had seen the tears in her eyes and wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
Instinctively he felt bad for hurting a girl, but on the other hand he had done
nothing wrong.
As soon as the girl and her father left, the men, who had been surrounding them,
lashed out and seized the adult men. One of them put a hand on Draco’ shoulder
and led him to stand in front of his father and his companions.
“You are coming with us. Don’t worry, nothing will happen to the boy, but we
need you to behave,” the man said to Malfoy and pushed Draco down the street,
leading to the Forum.
They were led through the masses and to the center of the place, where a group
of men already stood, waiting for them and the others, who were brought there.
Draco recognized some of them as his father’s friends and family.
“Father?” Draco looked up at his father, but only got an almost invisible
shake of the head instead of a response. The questions were killing him, but
Draco knew, that if his father told him to not ask, he had his reasons to.
“What is he doing here?” somebody said, and Draco turned to see his uncle
Rodolphus step next to his father, his eyes on him.
“I didn’t manage to get him away,” Lucius whispered back. “They caught
us just before Avery’s.”
Rodolphus nodded and shifted his attention to a man who walked to stand in front
of them and the other Patricians and Draco turned back around to listen.
“We are here to present our demands,” he spoke calmly and loud shouts echoed
from behind him in support.
“Who exactly are you and what claim do you have?” A man, whom Draco
recognized to be Rodolphus’ brother Rabastan, stepped forward on their site.
He was the current Consul together with Tiberius Nautius Nott, the father of one
of Draco’s friends.
“I am Gaius Cassius, a Tribune of the Plebs. I was chosen to be the voice of
the people and to present you our demands. Now listen as it is your duty to
serve Rome and its citizens.”
Draco glanced at his father and Rodolphus to see their reactions, but their
faces were set in stone. They were waiting for the demands and Draco looked back
to the tribune as to not miss his next words.
“We, the people of Rome, demand that the law is fixed from now on, written in
stone, as to not be changed. There have been complaints and incidents where you,
mighty Senators, called on oral tradition and hurt us, even though we were in
the right. We can’t stand it any longer and will take action if we have to,”
Cassius finished and a soft murmur went through the crowd.
“What will happen, if we chose to ignore your demands?” Rabastan asked and
Draco looked up when Lucius put a hand on his shoulder.
His face was unreadable, his eyes set firmly on the Tribune and Draco shifted
uncomfortably. He understood how grave the situation was. The people of Rome had
chased away their rulers despite the will of gods before and they might do it
again.
“We will leave Rome again,” Cassius stated and Lucius’ hand tightened on
Draco’s shoulder.
Draco didn’t have to look back to understand that the men around him were
distressed. The Plebeians have left Rome before, refusing to work, and forced
the Senate to accept the Tribunes. His father had discussed and complained about
it with his friends on several occasions and Draco knew, that they wouldn’t
let it happen again.
“We will think about it and discuss it,” Rabastan spoke again, shouting over
the cheering masses of Plebeians.
“Sure as hell we will,” Rodolphus hissed.
“We will,” Lucius said. “It’s nothing compared to what else they could
ask for. We need to keep them calm.” He finally looked down at Draco and
pushed his back slightly into the direction of their house. “Let’s go. I
don’t want to spend more time here than I have to.”
Draco nodded and started walking, making sure that he stayed close to his father
and family. His head was swirling with thoughts, the picture of the crying girl
and the angry faces all around them leaving him no rest.
Little did he know, that it was only the beginning.
 

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