Love and Symbiosis
Chapter 26
Night O.W.L.'s
Elemental change is closely connected to the movement of celestial bodies. Crystal growth, wood decay and other ingredients necessary for the creation of Alchemic potions and substances are dependent on both the position, the absolute (position in the ecliptic), and the relative position to other bodies…
Aurora rubbed her sore temples as she marked what felt like the twenty-thousandth Alchemy specialty theoretical exam paper. Her quill, dripping with blood red ink, teetered over the top of the student's own black ink as she tried to pull back the shreds of concentration that had been slowly escaping her all evening.
Sinistra was a rather different… breed… to the other professors in one main aspect: her sleeping patterns. All of her colleagues were required by means of their respective areas of study to rise early for their planning and classes, begin teaching by nine most days, and finish their working day late afternoon (night supervision duties excepted). She, Aurora, on the other hand, often taught well beyond midnight for half of her week – and Minerva had always been gracious enough to strike out every morning from her timetable.
And so Aurora often found herself alone most evenings, when everyone had usually retired to bed, lounging in the staffroom or her office, able to work in complete silence and peace. She revelled in it. The cusp of night and dawn was her time.
Identifications of weekdays and their particular uses in Alchemy? She noted above the messy and hastily-written paragraph of her student's. She reached clumsily for one of the bread rolls beside her and ripped off the top of it with her teeth. Her dinner for the night.
Two points off for that, Aurora thought. Her eyes darted to the incessantly intimidating pile of never-ending rolls of parchment in front of her, and she stifled an audible groan.
It had been a particularly trying week… on top of all of her exam marking, practical lessons, and compiling of applications to AoMA, she was currently well on her way into becoming a full fledged Occlumens.
It had not been easy. Most nights she had been forced to relive extremely painful and traumatic memories as Severus's Legilimency had become far more specific and hard-hitting in nature. It was exposure therapy, in a sense; the more Aurora found herself reliving the horrific memories and feelings, the more she was able to counteract the white-hot panic they once invoked in her. However, in order to repair herself she had to be broken first, and regularly had found herself in a crumped, sobbing heap on Severus's floor.
He had not been unkind in his reaction to this, but neither had he been very sympathetic. It was clear that the visions of her past from their first lesson was still grating on him, but Snape was so very good at being an elusive prick about things that Aurora was unable to confront him about it. They merely spent their lessons mostly in cold and prickly taciturnity, and outside of the lessons they had found no cause to speak to one another.
Not that his attitude mattered one iota… she was getting good, very good at her cerebral internal defence. So good that she could now pick and choose what memories to show Severus, to counteract the questions he was asking her. She'd show visions of a happy childhood with her brothers and her mother, in place of the memory of watching Eshe collapse under the potency of the poison that had been force-fed to her - when she had been accused of witchcraft by the Witch Killers. Aurora was able to weave her own story into the mind of the probing Legilimens, and block most of what contradicted her story.
The element of silver is most strongly correlated with the moon and its phases… the exam paper went onto read.
A mark for that. Sinistra ticked the sentence, but then shook her head incredulously at the next one...
The creation of silver under the guidance of the lunar phases identifies strongest with the weekday of Thursday…
"Nope…" she muttered under her breath, adding in a cynical: 'Monday, actually' in her usual red ink before something outside of the deathly quiet staff room caught her attention.
Aurora looked up from her piles of parchment and frowned at the door, almost impossible to see in the dimming candlelight of the staffroom. There seemed to be a scuffling outside, or at least one pair of very hasty footsteps. The lone Astronomy professor replaced her quill hastily back into the inkpot and opened the door quietly, the lamp and firelight from the staff room spilled burning red projections into the dark and cold corridor ahead of her.
She poked her head out into the hallway, twisting her neck left and right to catch sight of anyone.
"Anyone there?" she called. It was not unusual for the odd disobedient student to be scurrying around outside of their dormitories after hours, and it was not unusual for the odd prank or two to be committed around the vicinity of the staffroom… Aurora assumed that seeing the lights eking out from the underneath the door might have warned them off.
"Did you see anything odd?" Sinistra asked one of the two stone gargoyles standing at attention outside of the staffroom.
"Why'd you ask him and not me?" the other gargoyle protested loudly. "I am clearly the more perspicacious of us…"
"Yeah like heck you are!" the other gargoyle snapped in his direction.
"Oh, for god's sake, never mind…" Aurora grumbled, she threw up her hands which had the unfortunate side-effect of making one of the stone gargoyle's ears fall off.
"Oi! Take it easy, your worship! We're only trying to help 'ere!" he objected loudly. Sinistra stared down at the shattered ear on the floor with a look of extreme bemusement. Thirty-one years old and still she had not grown out of her old wandless roots.
She took out her Fir and Phoenix feather wand this time, muttered "Reparo!" languidly, preparatory to heading back into the staffroom. The ear moulded back together once more and sealed itself back upon the gargoyle's head.
"It's a miracle! Professor Sinistra can use her stick!" he said cantankerously before both professor and gargoyles heard a very distinctive sob from the end of the corridor, near the stairs to the First Floor.
Waving her wand once more, she whispered "Lumos!" and headed toward what sounded to her like a crying student. There was a ruffle of robes as she reached the end of the corridor.
"It's i-impossible…" they were sobbing to themselves. "Too many obstacles… I can't…"
"Who's there?" she called as she reached the end of the corridor, the crying ceased immediately. "Why are you outside of your dormitory out of hours? I shall have to take house points-"
But as Aurora stormed into the adjacent part of the first floor corridor, she collided heavily with a figure that definitely not resemble that of a student. Her lit wand tumbled out of her hand and she instinctively reached out in front of her face - it sent the man flying backward, where he tumbled into a pile of robes upon the hard floor.
"Quir… Quirinus?" she gaped after she had picked up her hand and pointed it directly at him. The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor was gaping up at her from the floor, his eyes awash with tears.
"What the hell, Quirinus? What are you doing running about in the dark? What's the matter?" she demanded quietly but noxiously, her wand still trained on his face.
Quirrell was struggling with his robes as she offered a hand to help him up – which he refused.
"I… sorry, Professor, must've been sleepwalking…"
Aurora squinted at him incredulously. That was possibly the worst excuse she had ever heard - and she had been a teacher for five and a half years now.
It was only with Quirrell standing here, in front of her, that Aurora realised how very odd it was to see him. Of course, this time of year usually meant that she did not see every single one of her colleagues on a day-to-day basis (they were usually either shut up in their offices or occasionally spaced out in the staffroom), but she had suddenly realised that she hadn't been in the same room at Quirinus for about a month… he looked sicker than usual, gaunt and wracked with worry… and he would not look her in the eye.
"You sleepwalk fully clothed and run around crying a lot, do you?" she asked sceptically.
Quirrell gave a nervous laugh and his eyes were darting around her head like mad.
"Well, you know, the added stress of… just the added stress… you know…?" He looked positively mad, and like he was about to collapse again at any moment.
Aurora bit down on her thumbnail as she surveyed him. What on earth was he hiding? The Quirinus she had always known had always flown well under the radar, never drawn much attention to himself, and he'd certainly never been this stressed over end of year admin.
"It's late" he stammered, wringing his hands. "Well, you know, for some people, for me I mean, not so much for the Astronomy professor I assume!" another little nervous laugh escaped him.
Sinistra nodded, highly entertained by this whole ordeal.
"Dawn is usually my turn in time, yes," she answered. "You don't need help getting back to your quarters, do you?"
"No, no! Fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Thank you, Professor…" Quirrell babbled. And since when did he refer to me as 'Professor'? Aurora thought wildly.
"Very well," she said, and, realising that she was still currently blinding him with her wand, lowered it just a few inches.
"Goodnight, Professor Sinistra."
The way he said her name was so clinical in comparison to everything else. It was almost as if he were trying purposely to pull out any emotional conations in addressing her… turning her into some unfeeling object as opposed to an old friend. Aurora didn't like it. A vague realisation began to dissolve itself within her veins somewhere.
She watched him retreat a few paces down the hall, frowning after him with her arms crossed.
"Professor Quirrell…" she called just as callously before he could open the door at the end. She saw his shoulders rise in a heavy sigh as he stopped in his tracks.
"Yes?"
"You might be pleased to know that I'm on the mend from my accident."
This time Quirrell turned so quickly that a piece of his turban came loose, he scampered to twirl it up again.
"Are you? That's – that's good! That's w-wonderful!"
Aurora nodded, giving a shrewd smile she was sure he could not see from that distance.
"Yes, the brain had a bit of a knock there for a while, but things are slowly coming back to me."
There was almost deafening silence as he stared at her from the other end of the corridor. Aurora watched him for any sign of onus or self-reproach; something that would give him away. It was almost nigh impossible in this light and at that distance, but the stiffness of his body language alone made her feel slightly sick, and she had not a clue why.
"Good…" he said so quickly that it was almost indecipherable with the speed of which he uttered it. Quirrell then turned quickly on his heel, and once again Sinistra was left alone in the darkness. She had half a mind to run after him and threaten him to admit something to her, but instead she gave the now empty hall a scowl and returned to the staffroom, where she groaned upon seeing the still-teetering pile of exam papers. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was a few minutes past two in the morning.
"Forget this…" Aurora mumbled as she began gathering up the piles and shoving it into her pigeonhole; she extinguished the candles and fires before she exited with one swish of her wand.
"Do you realise what time it is?" one of the gargoyles grumbled as she locked the staffroom door behind her and stalked away. "We have to be up at six for the other teachers, you know!"
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