It Rains

The Potions Master

"I am glad you are back, Severus."

His eyes lingered on her for just a second, somewhat relieved to see her standing up, with a better colour and with her eternal smile drawn on her face. For a moment he felt his own lips try to curl into an imperceptible gesture of satisfaction as he heard his name being spoken by the woman's soft voice, but he stopped on his tracks when he saw Enoby bowing to him.

"Does the master want Enoby to prepare dinner for him?"

Severus shook his head.

"Bring only hers."- He said, pointing to Laurel.

"I've already eaten, Severus."

He shrugged and dismissed the elf. His gaze immediately shifted to the fragmented remnants of the magic seal that he had summoned and that only he was able to see.

"Who has entered?" – He asked.

"Have you been to Hogwarts?"

Severus turned to her, raising an eyebrow in surprise to hear her talk about the school.

"Who has entered?" - He repeated and this time he put more effort to use his customary cold and threatening tone.

"Draco." - She answered. - "But he was not looking to do any harm."

"Of course he didn't want to do you harm. Otherwise, the magical wards would never allow him to pass. But you keep disobeying me, Laurel."

A brief blush appeared on her cheeks, and she mumbled an apology that Severus ignored. Going back to his trunks and with the help of his wand, he began to set up his potion lab, taking special care with his supply of valuable magical ingredients. Laurel walked over to one of the trunks and looked inside, discovering that its internal dimensions were completely altered to contain several piles of heavy books placed one on top of the other.

She took one of them curiously, but when she opened it, she realized that it was written in an ancient language that she was unable to recognize. The next one contained illustrations of human bodies in varying degrees of decomposition that made her stomach turn. A third manuscript looked so old that she thought it had been written during the years of Methuselah, its pages all stained with what appeared to be blood. She was about to open the fourth book, a huge volume bound in black and silver, when Severus, still focused on the installation of a delicate drip funnel, said without looking at her:

"I would be very careful when opening that one."

Laurel stopped immediately and with shaking hands put the book back in the trunk. She stood up and approached Severus, admiring the various glass flasks and alembics that floated unsupported, waiting for the expert hand of their master to place them in their proper place.

"Have you been to Hogwarts?" - She asked again in a low voice.

Severus did not answer her, he seemed willing to pretend that Laurel was invisible. She even doubted if her question had been heard, but the taciturn expression on the man's face was enough to make her abandon her efforts to obtain any information. She turned her eyes to a large cabinet that had appeared in one corner of the suite: Countless jars, all of them containing animals and plants floating in liquids of different colours, boxes filled with various powders and crystals of different sizes, all duly catalogued and labelled with a small and cramped handwriting.

"Unicorn horn." - Laurel read aloud in surprise. -"I cannot believe it."

Seeing no reaction from Severus, she decided to keep snooping around in the cabinet. He slyly turned his head to her, awed by the ease with which Laurel had accepted her fate, with an innocent curiosity that reminded him of Lily during her first year at Hogwarts. During that time he had enjoyed explaining to her the workings of the magical world, the secrets of the castle; He had shared his knowledge with total enthusiasm with the Muggle-born, he had been happy to be the guide of that beautiful redhead who treated him as if he were the wisest person in the world, that gave him the attention that he had never gotten from his parents, or from his peers at Hogwarts, until little by little the illusion faded and Lily's light was completely removed from the growing darkness that ended up enveloping Severus Snape.