𝑨 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑶𝑭 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟒: 𝟑𝟑𝟔 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬

TWO WEEKS. FOURTEEN days. Three hundred and thirty six hours had passed. That was two weeks, fourteen days, three hundred and thirty six hours of pure torture for Lilith. Mrs Bordeaux still hadn't woken up from her coma like state and and Lilith's levels of feeling responsible only heightened the longer that she was unconscious for.

As for Severus, Lilith avoided him like the plague. She avoided him like he was a crack in the ground, like he was a broken mirror that she refused to look into. There was still remnants of her hurt towards him but that had mostly surpassed into anger and she was now at the stage where she physically couldn't bearto be in his presence.

Her days had been long and repetitive. She would wake up early to shower, the water still not burning her in the way she wanted. She would visit Mrs Bordeaux before her classes began, hold the woman's hand and stroke her hair for comfort. She couldn't decide if it comforted Mrs Bordeaux or her more. Despite doing that every day for two weeks, it still hurt when she pulled away from her side to leave and teach her classes.

Her students, however, had been the only thing that kept her going. It was obvious that the students were aware that something was wrong with Lilith, but none of them pried. Instead they focused intently on what she taught them and they completed all work that had been set within class time and outside of it. It made Lilith's life easier and she was grateful for their compliance. Collectively they made it possible for Lilith to visit Mrs Bordeaux in the evenings without having a pile of work that needed constant correction.

Mealtimes had become another thing that Lilith felt guilty about, the loving atmosphere in the Great Hall was too much for her to handle with the knowledge that Mrs Bordeaux was left in the coldest depths of Hogwarts and so instead of having an evening meal, Lilith would go straight back to Beatrice.

Inside the hospital wing she would then sit for hours on end, sometimes telling Beatrice about her day and how understanding her students were or she spoke about her interactions with Minerva and Dumbledore as they attempted to comfort her but Lilith winced at their every word. More often than not things would end up with Lilith crying as she begged Mrs Bordeaux to wake up and each night she pledged over and again that everything in her life would now only be dedicated to protecting the woman that loved her so.

Today, however, Lilith hadn't cried. Instead she sat reading her book of latin translations, indeed still desperate to figure out the incantation that would suppress Voldemort's power, if that was even possible. As she read through the pages, her attempts seemed futile as she reminisced her own words in the Sleepy Hollow. Her words about the Third Brother and the possibility of the cloak of invisibility being the only thing required now to eliminate Voldemort. Dumbledore hadn't forced Lilith into that conversation, she had been the one to initiate it. She told him exactly what she had told Severus but Dumbledore was already aware and had simply replied with;

'Severus is already searching for it.'

She grimaced every time anyone used his name, which she hadn't realised until her hatred took over, that everyone seemed to use Severus' name disproportionately more than he would ever think to use theirs.

Severus this.

Severus that.

'I'm sure he's sorry, Lilith.'

'He didn't intend to hurt you.'

Both Dumbledore and Minerva had fought so desperately to paint Severus is an apologetic and positive way but it was hard for them to do so under the knowledge that he had double crossed Lilith and told Voldemort all he could about her as part of his test.

Dumbledore knew more than Lilith did at this point, which is why he had painted Severus so positively but it wasn't his place to deliver anything Severus had told him. Severus had to be the one to do it. And he most certainly had to be the one to apologise.