"Has that vampire gone mad?" Severus said after returning to their residence in Venice and closing the door.
"What?" Pomona asked in confusion.
"No wonder. He's been in the Muggle world for too long," he said sarcastically.
Pomona still had no idea what he was talking about, but she was already exhausted and only wanted to take off her clothes and go to bed.
The antique dress the Muggle girl had altered was beautiful, but the zipper was rather difficult to pull. As she struggled to hook the clasp behind her back, Severus came over and gave her a little help.
But he did not move away. Instead, he leaned close to her neck and sniffed for quite a while, as if she were some enticingly scented food.
"I'm very tired," she reminded him.
"That vampire compared himself to a god," Severus whispered in her ear. "And he wants to drag us into it too."
She was not listening all that carefully. Her eyes closed as she leaned against his chest.
"He doesn't know who he is anymore." Severus held her and swayed slightly, as though they were dancing.
She seemed to understand what he meant.
Too many people worshipped vampires, believing they could remain eternally young like immortal gods.
But gods were imperishable. Vampires could still be killed; they too were mortal.
The vampire Giovanni lived in a dreamlike illusion and overlooked certain things. Muggles had already begun abandoning them in pursuit of other forms of immortality, because they had "awakened" from the dream and realized that vampires would never share the power of immortality with them.
The Greek word Eudaimonia was often translated into English as "happiness." Plato believed the word described the "perfect, immortal self." As people grew and became socialized, they discovered their own shortcomings through