𝑨 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑶𝑭 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟔𝟓: 𝐒𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝

ACCORDING TO ALEXANDER, Severus had left the tavern to explore the nearby stalls not long after Lilith and Alyssa left. Together they had been out for a few hours and therefore Lilith remained surprised by the fact that Severus had managed to keep himself occupied wherever he may be, as he still hadn't returned.

Lilith and Alyssa took it as an open opportunity to catch up on everything they had missed in each other's lives in more thorough detail. Naturally, Alyssa had been most intrigued as to how Severus and Lilith met, how their initial encounters had been far from grace and how their disdain to one another developed into almost inseparability. Surprisingly, Lilith enjoyed the good and the bad within her relations to Severus, she liked how it not only acknowledged the progress they had made together but also the extent by which Severus had completely softened.

Alyssa on the other hand had completely avoided any kind of romantic involvement, claiming that the men in her village 'were unearthly' and 'not the good kind' but instead equivalent to 'a repotted mandrake.'

Interpret that as you wish. If anything, Alyssa admitted to mbeing simply overjoyed by the fact that Lilith had found another person such as herself. Alyssa had been under the impression that Lilith's reserved nature would not have courted the gaze of many men, out of both fear and Lilith's intimidatory mannerisms.

Aside from everything that had happened between them both during the absence of one another, there was one thing Lilith wanted to know that had happened in the present.

"When Severus took you out of the room this morning, was it to ask about your aconite?"

"Yes and no." Alyssa simply responded.

"I think I'm going to need a little more than that, Aly."

Alyssa placed down the box of chocolates she had been nibbling on during their gossiping galore, using her tongue to dislodge a particular piece of fudge that pegged itself between her teeth.

"Lilith I can't say, or at least just not right now. And there's really not much use in you pushing this further because I refuse to crack. Unlike Severus, your doe eyes do not work on me, missy."

"Charming." Lilith sarcastically retorted. "And here I thought I had you fooled."

"Unfortunately not." Alyssa hummed as she placed another piece of chocolate in her mouth. "So... what's Hogwarts actually like? I mean does it uphold its expectations?

Lilith had never placed great expectations on Hogwarts in the first place, but that didn't mean she also then expected any less from it. She was more so just grateful to be there, to have been taken on by Dumbledore despite her past. Given everything she had experienced she believed it to be best to just accept Hogwarts for whatever it entailed, there was no use in resisting or fighting. She had done enough of that already and although her past didn't exactly allow Hogwarts to be a fresh slate of life, it had very much improved her preexistence.

"It's everything to me Aly. After all this time I finally feel as though I belong somewhere, and not just in one place - there's so many people I feel as though I belong around and my students are the epitome of my entire career." She laughed heartily to herself as she envisioned her students cramming in the homework she had set them just before they had finished this term.

"I'm supposed to be the one to leave a lasting impact on my students, but they seem to constantly surpass me in everything. None of them quite realise their full potential and yet it hangs tauntingly in front of them but they're so eager for just about anything. Even the timid ones - they love it."

"Love it or love you?" Alyssa said with a smile.

"Learning." Lilith expanded. "They love to learn. Even the Defence Against the Dark Arts. They're not fearful of it but are still entirely aware of the magnitude and hinderance it can be to their lives."