We walked downstairs, to the kitchen. He had already prepared lunch. Two cheese sandwiches each. They looked good.

As we seated ourselves, Severus said unwillingly: "we need to talk about the Dark Arts again." I stayed silent and waited for what would come. I decided to accept everyting he would say, to avoid another quarrel. The Dark Arts weren't that important to me anyway.

"Lots of people think bad about Dark Magic. They think it's evil. But Dark Magic isn't by definition evil. Dark magic can be used for bad things indeed, but it can also be used for good things. But most people don't realize that." I nodded and listened carefully.

"People thought that my interest for the Dark Arts was wrong. They thought I was malicious. I got some problems with that at Hogwarts when I was a student. I know diffrently and they don't. I know that it can also do good things. However, it is very dangerous." His eyes deepened as he said so. It sent a shiver down my spine.

"The Dark Arts are pragmatic in nature, where very time a branch is defeated, it only comes back fiercer and cleverer than before. It is therefore importants that your defences must be as versatile as your attack." he explained. "And because you don't know any defences, I don't want you to try things or whatever. Reading is fine, but nothing more. More can be highly illegal and/or dangerous. I am doing this to protect and not to bully you." He frowned while he said it. Not an angry frown, but a frown concern. I was surprised. I had expected him to be very strict, but this wasn't to bad.

"That's okay. It wasn't my idea to try it soon, but I won't try it at all from now on. Trust me." "I trust you." he stated. "But don't waste my trust." "I won't." "Then it's good."

The rest of lunch was pretty quiet. I thought about seeing Rowan again and I could see that Severus was deeply in thought too. I wondered about what.

Lunch ended quickly and soon, I saw Severus waving his wand to clear the table.

"I think it's time for our little adventure." he said.

I remembered that we had talked about that during breakfast and had nearly forgotten about it.

"I am going to get some stuff. Just wait here." he said while walking to the living room. "Can I go to see Rowan?" I asked. "Yes, sure. They are in the shed." he said when he walked through the doorway. I turned around and opened the door to the backyard.

Severus' backyard wasn't that big, but big enough. The complete backyard was surrounded by stone walls of atleast two meters high. Pretty intimidating for a girl of my size. Only one small strip of half-dead plants stood against the left wall. The rest of the ground in the backyard was covered with gray, concrete tiles. Depressing. However, it suited Severus in my opinion.

One wooden door in the back was the only thing that interrupted the wall. "Wouldn't Severus feel a bit locked up?" I wondered. I quickly came tot he conclusion that if he did, he would had already done something about it.

In the right corner- on the end of the backyard against the right wall and the wall in the back- stood the shed. Completely black, but some points became a bit brown again. I could see he hadn't painted it in years.

I walked towards the shed. I was hesitant to open the door. What would happen? The owls could get scared and attack me. Possible. Or Severus' owl, Luka, could attack me out of anger. Luka doesn't know me and I would invade his 'home'. An attack would be logically. Very possible.

I decided to first look through the open window- on the left side of the shed- to see what to expect.

I couldn't see much, due to the sunlight outside and the darkness inside the shed. However, I could see four eyes looking at me. Knowing that two of those eyes were Rowan's, made me less scared.

While opening the shed, I looked at the owls. I stepped inside and let the door open, so I could escape if things went wrong. They were owls. Pretty wild creatures, right? I had to be carfull.

Once inside, I could see the owls clearer. One was completely black and had yellow eyes, Luka. He looked intimidating, but I knew that he would be nice if I knew him better. How I knew? Severus was the same.

The other owl was Rowan. My Rowan. He sat on a wooden chest and looked at me. I could see the happiness in his eyes. He crowed and flapped his wings. I smiled in return.

"I am happy to see you Rowan." I said to him and stretched out my arm. He understood my gesture, flew in the air and landed on my arm. I smiled, happy to see him again. I was surprised how much I liked the animal. I had only known him for a few days and he already felt like a good companion to me.

I stroked him with my index finger over his head. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the petting, his muscles relaxed.

Rowan was happy and I was happy, because he was happy. I imagned us to be a good team together.

Luka stared at me from his wooden stick which was attached to the wall. I could nearly feel his gaze on my cheek.

"Hey Luka." I simply greeted the animal. "I am Ellea and I am going to take care of you from now on." I said uneasily. Luka kept staring at me without any form of response. I took that as a 'no problem'.

"This is our new home Rowan." I said while turning to the house. "But this is where you are going to live." I told him while I turned back to the black wall in the shed. I looked around the room and only saw the wooden stick with Luka, a wooden chest and two food bowls- one filled with water and one filled with chunks of food-.

My face face swapped from happy to a bit sad. "I am going to spruce this shed, so you have a nice place to live." I said to Rowan. "Doesn't that sound great?" I asked him. He didn't respond, but was happy nonetheless.

I stroked him with my finger again. "I am happy that you feel better, Rowan." I said while stroking his brown feathers. He was so beautiful. Luka was also beautiful with his spotless black feathers, but Rowan was in my opinion a bit more beautiful- probably because Rowan was mine and Luka wasn't-.

"Are you ready?" I heard from behind me. I turned around and saw Severus with a backpack. "Yes, I am." I said and placed Rowan back on the wooden chest. "See you guys later. And be nice to each other." I said to the two owls with a smile on my face.

I closed the door of the shed and walked over to Severus who was locking the back door of the house.

"Everything alright with your owl?" he asked when he was done. "Yes, he looks better than ever!" I replied happily. Severus didn't seem to be in the mood I was. "Good, let's go then." he said while walking to the wooden door in the back of the backyard.

"Why the backpack?" I asked him curiously. He looked at me and said: "Because that's necessary for what we are going to do." he explained monotonously. It seemed like I had made him nervous with my question like a lot of times when I asked him a question. Now, I started to notice that. However, wasn't he a teacher? Didn't his job consist of explaining things and answering questions? He was a peculiar man. A peculiar man he was indeed.

Author's Note:

Hey reader!

Thanks for all the reviews, followers, favorites and views! I like writing this story and seeing people like what I write really supports me to go on with this. I promise next chapter is bigger!

Curious about the surprise Snape has for Ellea? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.

See you next week!