To Be Luminous || HP [REVIVAL 2021]

Chapter Seven

Wave or Particle

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Her eyes meet Albus's, and, pleasantly surprised she lifts an eyebrow and pauses.

"Kiara, hi. Are you going to the library, too?"

"Yes. Were you waiting for someone?" she pries.

"No, no, not at all."

Kiara narrows her eyes. "Would you like to join me?"

"I wouldn't want to burden. . . ."

"I would enjoy your company. We both would."

Kiara leans closer to his outstretched hand as he says hello to her snake. Albus lets Basil slither up his arm and around his shoulders. At this moment, a white three-legged cat lopes across their path, pausing for just a moment to watch them as Kiara stares back. Jamie Button appears to wink, then disappears around the corner.

"I think his cat is named after Benjamin Button."

"From the book?"

Albus smiles in affirmation, eyes twinkling. "Yeah. I gave him my copy when we were almost thirteen. Last year he came in the dungeons with this cat, and said her name is Jamie Button. We don't really talk anymore, but I have a feeling there's a direct correlation."

"Albus."

"Yeah?"

Kiara stops and turns to face him, and the boy nearly runs into her because he was distracted by the books on the shelves around them. Basil slithers back over onto Kiara.

"Why do you read Muggle books?"

"Just seems right to. Don't you find ordinary things to be just as magical?"

Basil hisses warmly, and nuzzles behind Kiara's ear. She wants to tell her snake that yes, she heard him, and yes, it's made her feel a certain type of way. His words are shocking, because she's never heard the sentiment of Muggle things being curious from anyone other than herself. In fact, often times she thinks she is supposed to feel ashamed of being Muggle-born—but she isn't.

"Cory told us when he found her that she was stuck in one of the sewer grates in London. She'd fallen through and gotten her leg stuck. He used magic to pull up the grate and got her out, before taking her to a veterinarian. When he found her, Jamie Button was almost . . . well, dead. And with time, she healed—acted younger, started playing and such. She's like a kitten trapped in full-grown cat mode."

"Full-grown cat mode," Kiara repeats, amused. She finds Albus rather dorky.

"I'm guessing that's when he named her. Because it was like she was aging in reverse, as her namesake did."