We Will Shine {Book 6 in the Star of Gryffindor Series}

Chapter 32 - Agendas

~Wren~

It took exactly one hour and thirty-two minutes for the news that Eris Prince was related to Severus to Snape to spread after we told the first people. I didn't even have to mention it to anyone beyond James and Lacy, and I think Ciara only mentioned it offhandedly at her Quidditch practice. By dinner that night, the Great Hall was abuzz.

In other news, Lily Potter had dumped her Slytherin boyfriend. I found out when Ciara and I caught her snogging a Hufflepuff fifth year during our next patrol. Once again, her only request was that I not tell her brothers. The weird thing was that she and Ciara actually chattered about her relationships (apparently, Carson Zinth had been too high strung, and apparently Ciara knew this?) until we'd escorted her back to the Slytherin common room.

Life was getting better, though. Mr. Potter had been teaching me nonverbal magic, for almost two months. I was finally decent at it, with about seventy-five percent accuracy. Sure, my spells weren't as powerful nonverbally, so nothing like when Astra did it, but I was semi-confident I could use it on Magnus Caldwell. Freezing up and being unable to say a spell wouldn't be a problem if I didn't need to say a spell.

On that note, the fidelius charm was far more of a relief than I'd been expecting. It had been over a year and a half since I'd started all of this, spying and occlumency and being constantly scared of being found out. Now, I didn't need to worry about that. Sure, there were a lot of things in my head that I would never be able to explain, so it wasn't like occlumency wasn't necessary anymore. Still, it was less. And that was nice.

Everything wasn't all good, obviously. I was having nightmares most nights. Some were real things that had happened. Some weren't. I didn't know which type was worse.

Then, of course, the country was also still in shambles, and Parliament seemed to be gaining more power for my uncle every day. Pollux Russey, the prime minister, was either under a very deep Imperius curse or completely onboard with my uncle's entire agenda. People were being murdered, they were disappearing, suspected DA members were being rounded up and put in detention centers. Chaos was everywhere. Sometimes, it seemed like the world was mirroring the chaos of my mind. Sometimes it was the other way round.

But it was slightly less chaotic, I kept reminding myself, as Nico and I walked to Hogsmeade. It was the first time since we'd done the fidelius charm. I was feeling a lot of things, nervousness and excitement and relief and fear. What if it didn't work? What if it couldn't stand up against a natural legilimens? Or what if there was some loophole, something left out that I wasn't aware of that Stillens would find?

Haverna had assured me over and over before I left that it would be fine. They'd tested the limits of the fidelius charm with legilimens before, for years, and no one had been able to break through the spell. It was foolproof. That didn't make me from stop worrying.

"Bet you a galleon Zaria's drinking when we walk in," Nico said as we walked up to her door.

I frowned. "It's been three weeks. I think she was just in a rough place."

"Her life is a rough place, love." Nico pushed the apartment door open. "Hempsey! We're here!"

I groaned. "Was that necessary?" I whispered.

"No, but watching her get angry is fun."

"Unnecessarily antagonizing her is not fun."

"Oh, shove off." Nico grinned as Zaria walked into the hallway, frowning at us. "How are you? Hung over?"

Zaria seemed perfectly sober to me (looked like Nico owed me a galleon). I mean, she wasn't looking her best. There were dark circles under her eyes. Her hair looked like she'd recently tried to cut it in the bathroom mirror with the lights off, very sloppily cut above her shoulders. Despite the fact that it wasn't cold inside her apartment, she was wearing a coat and had her arms crossed as if she was trying to warm up.