Half-breeds at Hogwarts: PART 1 [COMPLETED]

9: The Spring Equinox

"What's this?" Lila asked as Teddy deposited a sandy bag on top of Lila's homework.

"Tomorrow is the equinox thing so I brought you a bag of moonstones," Teddy said.

"You're the sweetest," Lila said, standing to give Teddy a kiss.

"Not as sweet as you," Teddy said, and grabbed his bag of Quidditch things. "I'll see you after practice. I love you."

Teddy hurried out of the common room. Lila saw her classmate Barry staring jealously at Teddy as he left. Barry shot Lila a furtive look, but Lila shook her head and left the common room as well.

Not Barry too, Lila told herself. Lila felt like she should be kept away from all boys. She was like a plague, she thought miserably.

Lila sat in the entrance hall on a step on the staircase feeling loathsome. She stared through the open doors onto the sloping lawns outside.

"You summoned me, your highness?"

Lila looked up to see Sean leaning on the banisters.

"Sean!" Lila exclaimed giving him a glowing look.

"So somebody's warmed up to me," Sean quipped.

"You're the only boy in this school that doesn't act like a baby," Lila gushed. Lila was disgusted by the sound of her own voice.

"That's true," Sean agreed, swaggering up to Lila.

"Sean O'Driscoll, always full of that Irish charm," Lila said with a giggle. "I really do love that accent of yours."

"Well I could talk your ear off over dinner if you'd join me?" Sean proposed.

Lila climbed a stair so that she didn't have to crane her neck up at him, and she stole another glance outside. It was now or never.

"No thanks. I was rather hoping for another use for your mouth," Lila said.

Sean seized his opportunity and pulled Lila towards him, pressing his lips on hers.

"LILA!"

Sean and Lila tore apart and looked around to see Teddy standing in the middle of the entrance hall.

"Run for it," Lila whispered to Sean, and he took off running up the staircase as Teddy searched his Quidditch robes for his wand. Lila walked slowly over to Teddy who was frantically still looking for his wand.

"I'm going to kill Sean," Teddy grunted, shaking in anger. "That no good, creepy bastard!"

"It's not Sean's fault, it's mine," Lila said softly.

"What?" Teddy exclaimed. "No, I saw him. He kissed you."

"No Teddy, it's my fault," Lila said.

Teddy was looking shaken. He glanced between Lila and the empty staircase in disbelief. Lila watched as shock and sadness filled Teddy's face.

"What are you trying to say Lila?" Teddy asked, his voice cracking.

"I think you know," Lila said. Tears welled up in Teddy's eyes. "I have something to confess to you."

Lila leaned towards Teddy. He stood rooted to the spot.

"I'm so sorry Teddy, but we can't be together anymore," Lila said softly.

"Why not?" Teddy asked, his voice choked with emotion, and tears leaked out of his eyes.

Lila stood on her tiptoes and kissed Teddy's cheek, wetting her lips and tongue with his tears. "I don't love you Teddy. It just won't work."

Teddy shot Lila a dumbfounded look. As some students were heard coming down the stairs, he shrugged and stormed towards the common room . Lila walked out through the front doors; the first stars were blossoming in the early evening sky. She licked her salty lips and waited.

Lila stretched out her hands in front of her, examining them for any change. As far as she knew everything felt and looked the same. She felt her tongue ring inside her mouth. It seemed unchanged. Lila waited an hour, and nothing happened. Finally, Filch the caretaker came to shut the front doors.

"Get back to your common room, unless you want to sleep outside tonight!" Filch barked at Lila and leered at her until she climbed the staircase and was out of sight.

Lila slept in the Come-and Go room that night, on the same bed she'd seduced Teddy in. Lila tossed and turned, her head a painful mess, faces swirling around in her mind - Teddy's tear streaked face and Tom's veined, enraged one. By sunrise, Lila couldn't lie down anymore. She paced around the room restlessly. She went and flicked disinterestedly through the books on a bookshelf.

"The Compendium of Concoctions: A Complete Guide," Lila read on a cover of a book, feeling something other than worry.

Lila had been searching for this book for over a month and here it was, under her nose. She riffled through the index and found a comprehensive summary on concealment potions.

"...when brewed correctly, none of these potions leave any visible trace, however, a lingering scent of pine nuts or garlic is sometimes observed. This is easily remedied by administering the following potions..."

Lila read through the entire section on concealment potions, but nothing could explain the strange pattern of veins she'd seen on Tom.

"The carmine concoction," Lila read in a different chapter, "is a fastidious potion to brew. The ingredients must be added and brewed precisely. For instance, the geraniums must be picked at quarter moon and stewed immediately with careful counter-clockwise stirs every seven minutes for seven hours."

Lila wondered why Tom was interested in brewing such a fussy potion and skimmed quickly through the instructions:

The carmine concoction is the only known antidote for rage sickness brought on by devil's wrath poisoning, which causes the sufferer to be afflicted by wild aggression and dangerous recklessness...

Lila was so confused. "This can't be right," Lila said to herself, and flicked back to the start of the chapter, reading everything from the start:

Once the carmine concoction is drunk, it takes several days to nullify the effects of devil's wrath. Rage sickness is usually detectable by a green sheen visible in the sufferer's irises, of those that do not naturally have blue or green eyes. The carmine concoction will sometimes cause visibly green veins on the neck and head to stand up as the potion circulates and painfully revokes the symptoms of rage sickness.