The Sight Of Eternity With You

When The Chips Are Down

"Life ain't easy, life ain't fair
A girl's gotta fight for a rightful share
What you gonna do when the chips are down
Now that the chips are down
What you gonna do when the chips are down
Now that the chips are down
Help yourself, to hell with the rest
Even the one who loves you best
What you gonna do when the chips are down
Cast your eyes to heaven, get a knife in the back"
-when the chips are down, Hadestown

****

"How're we today?" George grinned at Harper as he took a seat across from her in the library. Harper was now venturing back toward her old routines, sitting in her corner of the library and enjoying meals with the group primarily in the kitchens. The professors were nice enough to offer private lessons, even Moody was a bit over excited to be contributing toward private lessons—focusing on truly dark magic, that Harper was sure wouldn't be otherwise brought up in any ordinary advanced classes. The only thing that was hard on Harper to manage was patrols, students didn't care for her and so it made it difficult for them to listen to her authority.

Something she took specific advantage of, no one had brought up her slipping students nosebleed nougats or fainting fancies yet. It seemed that word wasn't spreading yet, she was sure someone from in the group would've said something after a month of suspicious nosebleeds and fainting spells.

Am I finally caught?

"Fine," Harper whispered, she gave a small smile as she flipped through her book. Her eyes were tired, her cheeks were less pronounced, but the circles still remained—possibly a bit darker.

"Are you preparing for our apparition tests?" George mused, Harper nodded, turning another page of her book.

"Yeah, did you send off your letter yet with Freddie?"

"Sent it this morning," George nodded, "Ron and them were in the owlery....asking questions, I don't think they figured out who we were trying to contact."

"Yeah, well...Bagman does in fact owe you your winnings from the quidditch cup," Harper shrugged. "Blackmail seems reasonable considering how long ago that was."

George nodded, biting into one of her lemon cookies with a thoughtful smile, Harper went back to her book.

"What's that one on?" George asked, resting his hands on his chin as he laid out on the table.

"It's how to use legilimens," Harper muttered.

"Use it?" George shot up, looking concerned.

Harper nodded her head from side to side and shrugged, "I don't know I was intrigued, I found it here last month. I have the best control there could be according to Snape. Considering how haphazardly I had to learn this to control my brain....I've read every single book on legilimens and the mind that I can access here, I wanted to see if this one had anything else to offer. The pressure spikes here and there, seems all the gossip has finally dried up....I'm just your typical fraud right now."

"Hmm."

Harper shut the book, studying George with a frown. "You don't like this, do you?"

"I'm just concerned," George nodded, his eyes studying the book with a look of distrust.

"I wouldn't really use any of it," harper frowned. "I can still use all the resources I can find....what if...what if there's a way to explain that legilimency isn't scary to everyone?" She felt the loose thread of her rationale breaking, George's features softened as he nodded.

"I know! It's just an odd book....have you seen it here in the restricted section before?"

"No..." harper looked it over, the book did look well kept, which compared with the restricted section. Those books were beat up and torn to shreds. George quickly took the book from Harper and tossed it toward the floor, "George Weasley!"