"Time is up," Professor Binns announced, after checking the giant, infallible stone clock embedded in the wall of his classroom. With a flick of his wand, all of the students' essays rolled up like window shades and flew up to form a pyramid- shaped pile on his desk. "I look forward to reading your insights on the role of the German Wizarding community during the Fourth Goblin War. Class dismissed."
The room filled with a cacophony of shuffling and scraping as the students stuffed their bags and hurried to be the first out of the soporific classroom.
"Lily!" Vicky Bradford called from a few rows up. Lily paused and waited for her dorm mate, whose short, black hair flapped as she scurried to catch up. "Blimey, isn't he just the worst? An in-class essay on our first day back! I'm certain I wrote about one of the battles of the Third War instead of the Fourth…"
Lily smiled at her friend's dithering expression. "It's all right; old Binns never actually reads any of our essays. I'm fairly sure that he knows that he teaches the most pointless subject in the school."
"Ooh, don't let Alice catch you saying that, I bet she read about the Goblin Wars all of holidays just for fun."
"Wouldn't surprise me in the least," Lily agreed with a laugh. "Where is Alice, anyway?"
"Oh, probably trying to get in one last snog with Ackley Clearwater before Ancient Runes." Sure enough, Lily spotted Alice leaning against the statue of Horus Crowley, the first Minister of Magic, blushing furiously behind her curtain of wavy brown hair as the lanky Ravenclaw boy whispered something in her ear. She spotted Vicky and Lily heading toward her and gave Ackley a quick peck on the cheek before coming to join them.
"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Alice said cheerily as she strode up next to Lily. Lily and Vicky exchanged a pained expression.
"Easy for you to say, "Vicky bemoaned. "I spent the first forty minutes trying to remember if Heinrich the Compromiser was from Bavaria or Bremen."
"He was—" Alice began, only to be interrupted by Vicky.
"Oh, please don't tell me, I'd rather keep the benefit of the doubt that I'm not going to be failing History of Magic already. I've got to run to Care of Magical Creatures, see you two at dinner, eh?" Before Alice or Lily could give so much as an acknowledging nod, Vicky rushed off down another corridor.
"If I didn't know better," Lily said as she and Alice caught the staircase swinging over to the South Tower, "I'd say someone cast an Energizing Jinx on her over holidays."
Alice smiled. "Oh, you know she's just excited to get to Care of Magical Creatures—after all, you know who's in that class…"
"Of course, how could I ever forget?" Lily rolled her eyes good-naturedly as she pushed open the door to the Ancient Runes classroom, and she and Alice made their way to their seats, near the back of the room. Lily scanned the left side of the room, and was disappointed to see that Severus' seat was still empty, as were Nicholas Mulciber's and Langham Avery's.
"Remind me again why we took this class?" Alice groaned, pulling Lily's attention back as she dragged three enormous textbooks out of her bag.
"Ugh, don't ask me, I feel as if I'm carrying around enough limestone to build a summer home for trolls."
"All right, all right, settle down, class," Professor Whitby said tiredly as she strode in a billow of blue robes up to the front of the class, which wasn't nearly as rowdy as her tone made it seem. "Here's hoping none of your holidays were as bloody catastrophic as mine," she muttered. "Now let's see, has everyone returned unscathed?" She bumbled over the bits of parchment strewn over her desk, finally pulling one up from the wreckage. As she did so, she waved her wand absently over the mess in what appeared to be an attempt to tidy it, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect. "Wadsworth… Evans… Digsby… Batcombe… Avery…" Her green eyes flashed over the class to note each student's presence, or in Avery's case, absence, just as the door creaked open. Three boys, all wearing the green and silver ties and emblems of Slytherin were foiled in their attempt to sneak into the classroom. "Ahh, Avery, there you are. So nicer of you to bring Mulciber and Snape along too." Snape tossed his head to the side as she glared at him, as if trying to cover something on his chin. "Find your seats and five points each from Slytherin." The boys moved sulkily to the empty desks.
"Sev!" Lily hissed, trying to catch his attention as he passed. Snape shot her a quick, off-putting glance, and turned around to chuckle softly at something Mulciber murmured to him.
"Now, as you might recall," Professor Whitby resumed her droning, "Before the holidays, we dove into the fascinating world of Anglo-Saxon Funthorc runes. Most of you appeared dangerously close to crashing on this particular dive, so I hope you've been practicing, especially if you hope to achieve a satisfactory O.W.L. in this subject…"
As Professor Whitby spoke, Lily noticed something strange: there were words spreading over the blank parchment she had laid out for note-taking.
Lily—Well, she certainly seems happy to be back.
Lily stared at the parchment, confounded. The cramped, slightly effeminate handwriting looked an awful lot like Severus'. She glanced across the room and caught his eye. "What the…?" she mouthed. Severus put his head down and began writing, and more words appeared on Lily's parchment.
Lily—Tap the point of your quill with your wand and say 'Scriva Suprarem.' Lily frowned skeptically, but followed instructions.
"Scriva suprarem," she whispered. Alice looked over upon hearing the noise and her mouth dropped open. "Shh!" gestured Lily, and Alice nodded quickly, her eyes wide as twin moons. Another line of text had appeared on the page.
Lily—Be sure to address it to whomever you want to receive it. Well, of course, that made sense.
Severus—What happened to your chin? He had been trying to keep it covered throughout the lesson, but Lily could swear she'd seen an oddly shaped bit of mottled green and purple.
Lily—Nothing.
Severus—If it's Potter being a prat again—
Lily-- His script interrupted before she could finish. It's not Potter. Come off it.
Severus—Fine.
Lily—So what do you think of this spell?
Severus—It's brilliant! Where did you learn it?
Lily—Made it up over holidays. Still has a few kinks to— A thin stream of black ink shot up from the page and hit Lily in the face.
"Lily!" Alice whispered urgently.
"… with two equal branches on the—Evans, what in Merlin's name is on your face?"
"Ink, Professor," Lily said, feeling glad that at least no one could see her flushing crimson underneath the black on her face.
"Ink, Evans?" Professor Whitby repeated, her eyebrows about to add cover to her receding hairline.
"Yes, Professor. I was taking notes and you know how it is when you've got cheap parchment, little nicks and bumps everywhere, and my quill hit one and spurted ink everywhere."
"Ahh, how very unfortunate. I am, however, overjoyed to hear that you were taking notes. Please, put your newfound knowledge to work and translate the runes on the board for me." Professor Whitby tapped the blackboard emphatically with her wand.
"Er…" Lily bit her lip and wiped at the ink on her face with the sleeve of her robe, trying to buy time. "Well, Professor… that first one appears to be the rune for, er… Gurdyroot, and—"
"Sit down, Evans. Ten points from Gryffindor, and in the future, I'll thank you not to create distractions in class. I expect more from a House prefect."
"Yes, Professor." Lily sat down. Severus—Thanks a lot she scribbled.
"Now class, as Miss Evans has just demonstrated, the general comprehension of the Anglo-Saxon runes is woefully inadequate. Open your copies of Contemporary Readings in Ancient Runes to page 468. You will spend the remainder of the class on a translation of the Thames Scramasax, to be handed in tomorrow." Whitby erased the board with an exhausted flick of her wand and plumped down into her chair.
"The Thames Scramasax?" Alice repeated, opened her textbook to page 468. "There have to be at least thirty runes in this!"
Lily groaned, pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment and opening her textbook. "Can I see your dictionary for a minute?" Alice nodded and shoved the book in Lily's direction. "All right, this one looks like 'wealth,' did you get 'joy' for the second one?"
"Oh damn, I thought the second one looked like 'thorn,'" Alice said with a pout as she bit down on the end of her quill.
By the time class was mercifully dismissed, all that Lily and Alice had managed to decipher was a curious scenario involving a joyful and wealthy hero with a mouthful of thorns in his hand. Defeated, they collected their books and headed for the door.
"Oi, Sev!" Lily called and sidled up to him once they'd gotten out of the classroom. "Hey, how's your day?"
"Dismal," he replied distractedly. "Look, I have to go to the common room with Mulciber; I'll see you later, all right?"
"But Sev—" Lily began, but he was already rounding the corner, indistinguishable in the sea of black robes filling the corridor. She shook her head angrily. "He is just impossible."
"Why do you hang around with him anyway?" Alice asked, not unkindly. "He's always so gloomy, and his hair looks like it's never been properly introduced to a bar of soap. He's a bloody little show-off, too."
"Oh, come off it, he's not all bad. He's always been quite nice to me, well, in private that is. But now he's running with Avery and Mulciber and all that horrid Slytherin lot… I'm worried about him; did you see that great huge mark on his chin? It looked like—"
"I'm sure it's nothing, Lily. Besides, I'm glad he's got friends of his own now, remember last year when he tailed you everywhere you went?"
"I suppose you're right," Lily said, furrowing her brow, and trying to pretend that she really didn't miss Severus being around all the time. "I still don't like it though, I mean, does it have to be Mulciber? He's so creepy."
"Lily, don't worry about it."
"Well, yeah, but—" Lily sputtered.
"For the tenth time, it's nothing to worry about. Now come on, we've got to get to dinner, you know how huffy Vicky'll get if she doesn't get to gloat and swoon all about Care of Magical Creatures with James."
"I can hardly wait," Lily muttered sarcastically.
