𝑨 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑶𝑭 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟒: 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐁𝐨𝐠𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬

IT WAS DIFFICULT to determine whether the remainder of the day had been eventful or whether it had just been an extended distraction after Lilith's 'nightmare'. She didn't really know how to hold herself, if she should have just allowed her true feelings to fall freely or if pretending nothing happened would benefit not only her but everyone else in the long run.

Her lessons had surpassed with relative ease, not exactly being overbearing with the workload but still progressive enough to ensure that her students had the best chances of accelerating themselves academically. She felt cruel for constantly placing miniature tests in front of her students but the Defence Against the Dark Arts was something that needed to be constantly evaluated and monitored. If this subject was crucial to new and familiar students, Lilith needed to ensure that no one was falling behind. It wasn't necessarily a subject that any wizard or witch could afford to fall behind in; in the face of dark magic, it would be beyond unfortunate if an individual couldn't produce a defensive spell simply because they hadn't given her class enough attention.

With that being said though, none of her students had fallen behind in the subject. Naturally there were others that accelerated in certain aspects more than the rest but that was something that respectably occurred in any subject. Her students had come far within the months they had returned to Hogwarts but it made Lilith feel like a mockery to herself. There she stood day in and day out, preaching the importance of defensive spells and educating her pupils about the darkness that loomed over the wizarding world, all the while not only was she a Death Eater, but she couldn't even produce the spell to reduce Voldemort's power.

Her students faced the possibility of one day being presented with the true darkness that this world offered, but Lilith lived in it. To her it felt as though she could never truly escape, no matter however happy she may be. She could be content with her life but at the back of her mind she knew that it was only a matter of time before a new kind of darkness presented itself to her. Undeniably it was exhausting.

Living in the darkness. Succumbing to the darkness and thus then being the darkness.

Clearly now she couldn't even escape it in her subconscious as now her dreams also encouraged her to think only about the darkness.

Darkness. It was a funny word to Lilith. The more she said it and the more she thought about it, the more she believed that light would emerge from it, escape from the letterings and glow at its release. It felt like a misunderstood word, painted to be defined only as bad and never allowed to be viewed as good. Lilith didn't like the darkness of her life but she liked the dark. She liked to be hidden within something that people feared. She liked being hidden within the darkness because it meant that for once, she wasn't the thing that people feared.

In the middle of a deep, dark woods where only Lilith and another individual stood, that individual would have to decide whether they feared the woman in front of them or the darkness that surrounded them both. Lilith could be everything and nothing simultaneously. She could be a threat to that person just as much as she could be a source of sanctuary. But the darkness would always be dark. She had often told herself that no one would seek sanctuary in the dark. But she was wrong.

She sought sanctuary in Severus.

Severus believed that he was the epitome of darkness. Of all things wrong and all things evil. But he was just as wrong as she had been. The darkness that Severus believed had obtained brought a light out in Lilith. Severus wasn't the darkness. He was the moon. He would always have light in him no matter how dim it appeared to be outside.

Together they were bound by the shackles of both the light and darkness within themselves and Lilith feared nothing more that if she released those shackles that bound them so tightly, she feared that Severus would leave. Severus could send Lilith into dreamless sleep whether he spoke sweet nothings to her or when her head was placed just right onto his chest, allowing her to hear the beating of his heart. It was her favourite sound. A sound that no one else could ever embody because no one else could ever behold the heart of Severus Snape.