The January wind whipped against Myka's face as she hurried through the courtyard, shifting to keep her bag from slipping off her shoulder. She barrelled through the corridors once inside the castle, descending the steps to the dungeon and almost tripping on the way. When the finally reached the door of the potions classroom she pushed it open as quietly as she could, knowing that her lateness would not escape notice but hoping it might nonetheless. However, the heads of the students whipped around as the doorhinges creaked and Myka winced at the sound of her name being spit from Snape's mouth.
"A wonderful start to the new term, Miss Bering," he said with a mixture of disdain and boredom. "Five points."
"Sorry, Professor," she muttered as she made for her seat. When she saw Helena sitting at the desk looking over her shoulder expectantly, Myka smiled.
"Hi," she said warmly as she sat down, beginning to unravel her scarf from around her neck. Helena plucked off Myka's sodden hat for her and set it down on the table.
"Hello," Helena replied with a smirk as she watched the snow from Myka's hair began to drip onto her parchment. Upon realizing what was happening, Myka gasped and tried to wipe the water away with her sleeve. Helena reached out to tuck Myka's dripping hair behind her ear for her, and Myka glanced over at her shyly. Neither one wanted to chance another admonishment from Snape, though, so they stayed mostly quiet as he lectured on the uses and composition of Amortentia. When he instructed the class to get out their textbooks and turn to page 394, everybody rummaged in their bags at once. As they bent down to find their things, Helena leaned in towards Myka.
"I missed you," she whispered next to Myka's ear before she straightened up and opened her book. Myka did her best to contain the crooked grin that spread across her face, but failed.
"Me too," she said, the faintest blush creeping onto her cheeks. Helena grinned and cast her eyes down as Snape began instructions for brewing. The rest of the lesson flew by, as Amortentia proved to be a bit of a struggle to brew, but both Myka and Helena seemed to have succeeded moderately and as soon as they had dropped off their samples on Snape's desk they hurried from the room and into the corridor.
"So, how were your holidays?" Helena asked. Myka shrugged noncommittally.
"Fine, I guess," she said. "Just boring old Muggle Christmas as usual. I spent a lot of time taking care of that plant you gave me, though." Myka smiled, looking over at Helena as they walked. "It's really beautiful."
"I'm so pleased you like it," Helena nudged Myka appreciatively with her shoulder as they ascended the stairs.
"I do," Myka assured her. "And how were your holidays?"
"Lovely, thank you," Helena said. "I worked on some writing I've been pondering for a while."
"What's it about?" Myka asked.
"Oh, just two young women who bend the rules in order to investigate mysterious happenings in a faraway town." Helena deflected with a playful glint in her eye, and Myka snorted. But sensing what Helena was getting at, she ignored her own reluctance about their illicit Mortlach trip and gave in.
"Well, the nearest Hogsmeade trip is next week," she offered casually with a shrug of her shoulders. Helena nodded.
"Shall we make it a date, then?" she asked. Before Myka could reply, though, the two rounded a corner and crashed head-on into the headmistress, a tall woman with dark skin and generous but guarded eyes. The air of authority about her was chilling, and the girls immediately collected themselves and began sputtering out apologies.
"I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking!" Myka offered, avoiding eye contact as Helena made frantic amends of her own.
"It's alright, girls," the headmistress cut them off, resting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Accidents happen. But I would advise you…" Her voice suddenly took on a very different tone, and Myka chanced a glance at the woman's face. Her expression was stern but not unkind, and she held Myka's gaze firmly.
"… I would advise you to be very careful," the headmistress finished in a tone altogether too serious for the situation, releasing her hold on the girls' shoulders. Then, with a faint upturning of her mouth that might have been interpreted as a smile, she turned on her heel.
"Have a nice day," she said faintly, leaving Myka and Helena stunned and vaguely put off by the encounter. They stood there dumbly for several seconds before Myka remembered the common sense of conversation and had the presence of mind to call out after the headmistress.
"Goodbye, Professor Frederic!"