Chapter Five: There Will Be Magic… and Maybe Some Fanboys
(An ode to my Chocolate Frog: You were delicious. That's why I had to gnaw off your legs! So you couldn't run away! Mwahahaha! … Please don't hate me!)
The grief in Lylia's heart echoed through her head relentlessly, refusing to give her peace or let her sleep. Kayla didn't question what happened in the Three Broomsticks or what happened before Lylia's return. Well, no one questioned her. Maybe that's why she drew a bit into herself.
Even though her mind refused to go on, Time passed as all things must.
"It's the first day of classes!" smiled Kayla as she sat next to Lylia at breakfast.
"Already…?" the blonde's blue eyes widened. "That was fast…"
"Come on," Kayla tugged her friend up after breakfast had ended. "I'll escort you to your first class. Well, partway. I have Charms."
"R-right…"
Kayla arrived bright and early at Flitwick's room, waving goodbye to Lylia with a smile. Lylia just smiled and waved back, continuing down the hall.
"Ms. Letum!" Hank cheeped as he bustled up next to her. "How've things been? I haven't seen you in a few days!"
"I've been reading a lot," she answered distantly, glancing down at the finished leather tome she had indeed just read.
"You know, if you really like magic that much," the jolly Hufflepuff gave a glance of his own at the incantations to which the book was opened, "Then you should go out for the Tournament! It's a great way to be exposed to all sorts of spells!" He stuffed a poster into her hand and continued on his way, hunting down more possible recruits for his team.
"Thanks…?" Lylia likewise stuffed the poster into her bag and went on her way, acquiring a new 'special gift from the Library floor' spellbook along the way.
About thirty minutes later, the pair of girls each awaited their first class at Hogwarts. While Kayla sat eagerly in her seat, her wand poised for education, Lylia stood awkwardly in a line of other Ravenclaws, a Silver Arrow broomstick in her hand and the thought of the poster in her bag still haunting her mind.
By the end of the class, much destruction was accomplished. All in all, a great session for the two girls. Kayla learned the spell Expelliarmus well enough to devastate her poor teacher in the destruction of several windows, and Lylia learned that she loved chasing after shiny objects like the Snitch but would never be satisfied with not being able to shatter three stands on the Quidditch field (as she did during that class period).
The two met up for a brief team chat before going to their next classes.
"How'd it go?"
"Few broken windows. One spell down. You?"
"Forbidden from joining the Quidditch team. But I caught a shiny. Good class."
Lylia headed next for Potions, while Kayla explored her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
The Defense Against the Dark Arts room smelled distinctly of decay covered with cologne as the students all filed in, urged to their seats by a tall, male teacher with his back to them. A few stumbled in the dim lighting to get to their seats, but all eventually made it.
"It is refreshing, students," the teacher asked in a boisterous voice, "To see yet another fresh, famous teacher at work?"
Though general silence prevailed foremost, a collective sigh of hormonal schoolgirls flowed to the teacher.
"Oh, brother," sighed Kayla as she rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat.
The Gryffindor next to her sighed dreamily and fluttered her eyelashes at the man's back. "I know…!"
Kayla gave her a look of faint disgust.
The teach half-turned a fair-haired head, pearly-white smile almost glowing in the twilight room. "Anyone care to guess at a name?"
"Gilderoy Lockheart," Kayla spoke fearlessly up to the flamboyant man, now not even bothering to look up from her copy of Quidditch through the Ages. "Holder of numerous titles nobody cares about-"
"Wrong." A screech of chalk along the board sent the class cringing. The teacher turned his colourless face to them with another perfect smile, then focused on Kayla with a steady glare, his hand pointing at his name written on the chalkboard. "Professor Lestoat. Do take care in the future, young lady, to know an answer before stating it. There are punishments for such things in life." With that caustic remark, the new teacher sat at his desk and waved a hand at the page number also written on the board. "With this, you shall also be enlightened on today's lesson."
Kayla closed her book sharply and interlaced her fingers, staring over them at the teacher. A single thought was etched into her mind: Who is this guy?
Students began drawing out textbooks from their desks and bags, groaning reluctantly as they opened to the page.
"Now, which of you can tell me what a Hinkypunk is?"
Kayla raised her hand. "Aren't they the lantern-bearers?"
"That is correct, Miss…?" The teacher's eyes now bore an approving but not benignant gleam.
"Hartland."
"Very good, Miss Hartland… And that will be the subject of this class's two-page report on Hinkypunks due Wednesday."
Another bummed groan from the class emerged, but at Lestoat's smile the majority of the agony turned to a sigh in delight.
Nothing nearly so interesting was occurring in Lylia's Potions class: there were mixtures of ingredients into a cauldron, and the absolutely only two people who possibly cared at all about it for the sake of Potions were Lylia and the teacher.
After she had her finished product approved, she took out the poster Hank had so graciously bestowed upon her and examined it more closely in the green-tinged light of the classroom. It read in bold, purposeful lettering:
END OF THE MONTH! ONCE A YEAR ONLY!
THE ESTEEMED HOGWARTS DUELING TOURNAMENT!
Are you a fan of tremendous power? How about rooting for your favourite peer as they go head-to-head with friend and foe?
IF SO, then come on out for the HOGWARTS DUELING TOURNAMENT!
IT'S THE BIGGEST EVENT SINCE THE EMPTYING OF FILCH'S DESK DRAWERS LABELED TO BE INCINERATED.
Place your bets on the very participants of your school!
Root for whatever House you support!
See the spectacle that is the stadium!
WILL THE LEGENDARY TITLE-HOLDER BE OVERTHROWN?
FIND OUT THIS MONTH!
Lylia silenced her gasp in realization with a bite of her fist, mentally overwhelmed by a phrase chanted so loudly in her head that the flashback threatened to knock her out:
"Y-you're… the three-year champion of the Dueling Tournament here," the victimized Talem offered.
"Lesperance… He's… the title-holder…!" Whispering this to herself appeared to almost solidify its elusive fact, she did so numerous times, each repetition sinking the opportunity deeper into her mind.
"Kayla," Lylia said shakily and looked to her friend at lunch, sitting with her and Draco at the Slytherin table. Melinda seemed both curious and disdainful of the newest table arrival, but she said nothing as always.
"Yeah, Lyl?" Kayla scrawled complete falsification down as a paragraph of her newly-assigned paper. Caring was for the teacher's fangirls. Her scribbling ceased as a poster was laid over her parchment and quill.
"I need to enter this," Lylia stated with as much confidence as she could muster, pointing at the Tournament notice.
Melinda giggled like a madwoman into her food, for once eating a full and hearty meal. She had been doing so since the previous weekend, but no one knew the reason for such a drastic increase in appetite.
"That Tournament's not some cakewalk, Cinderella. I may be in your year, but trust me: I've heard about that thing. It doesn't take three schools to make a tournament dangerous," the bitter, curly-haired girl admonished Lylia with a beady glance, deciding to make a reference both to the blonde's dirtied attire after Hogsmeade and the famous Triwizard Tournament in one go.
Something inside Lylia snapped at the remark. Her answer was tart. "Then it's a good thing I don't have a random Hufflepuff to lose in a maze and have killed in a graveyard."
"Ms. Lylia!" Hank beamed in his bumblebee-striped sweater as he walked by to his table.
"You were saying?" Melinda smirked after a bite of a sandwich.
"I'm afraid she's right, Letum," Draco intervened before Lylia could retort. It was easier than telling Melinda exactly what he wanted Fluffy to do to her after all she's done to the group. He instead leaned over and gave the flier a good look-over. "Fighting with magic like that often involves injuries. I can't imagine a first-year getting very far."
"Kayla, look," Lylia pointed at the last couple of lines, leaning closer to her friend to make the conversation a bit more private. "It's… It's the guy who's at the top. I have to enter. I have to learn more about… about what happened."
Kayla's eyes widened, her face sympathetically expressing her friend's pain. "Oh, Lylia… You think maybe he-?"
"Knows something? Yeah." Lylia took up the flyer again right as Melinda reached for it, pretending to not notice the attempt. "I think he knows a lot. And I'll do anything if it means… understanding why THAT happened."
Kayla didn't say anything, looking worriedly down at the table.
"Kayla…" Lylia put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently in pleading for permission. "I…"
"Go for it."
"What…?"
Kayla removed Lylia's hand from her shoulder to grip it supportively, head turning to give her best friend a happy smile. "Go for it... And make sure you get your answers."
"With all this cheery-feely talk, I may lose my appetite," Melinda muttered as she glared after the leaving Lylia.
"Yeah; imagine, you're actually digesting food at this rate," replied Kayla with a smile as she began her lunch, 'accidentally' getting some garlic bread bits on her paper for Lestoat.
Lunch ended, and the students went to their third and final class.
Kayla reported to Quidditch in her new robes and gloves, admiring the embroidery. Traced in white thread on the backs of the gloves were three words: "Kiss My Ass."
There was a new Beater in town.
At the same time, Lylia headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts, taking her time but trying to make sure there were still other Ravenclaws behind her that were going to the same place. It was by this habit of checking over her shoulder for them that she was completely oblivious to the teacher standing by the classroom's door… until she walked right into him.
"Sorry, I was just…" the girl trailed off, her azure eyes gazing into the black ones of Professor Lestoat.
"You must be in my next class," smiled Lestoat with a blinding smile. His smile faded as Lylia lowered her eyes to her books. "Miss…?"
"Yeah, I am, I guess… I'm Lylia Letum… May I go in…?"
"Please, do." The newest professor stepped out of the aperture, taking in a deep inhale as Lylia passed. The sound his breath made as he drew it in sent an ungodly shudder through her as she hurried to a seat furthest from the door. The teacher, however, didn't seem at all uneasy as he shifted his chair to sit down facing the part of the room in which she seated herself.
The class proceeded as regularly as anyone may please, but Lylia soon found herself dozing off in her seat. She sat up straight and occasionally pinched herself under the desk to keep alert, and yet despite all her efforts the effects of sleepless nights reading the borrowed spellbook caught up with her. Her head lolled to the call of slumber's soothing veil, and just before she drifted off-
"Letum! Detention!"
Possibly no other word in the English language could startle Lylia back to her senses as the second one uttered by her teacher did. Years of a flawless record in school went down the drain in the blink of an eye.
If she wasn't a teenager, maybe that would've mattered to her…
Anyway, Lylia inwardly griped and sank a bit lower in her seat, her stomach flipping unpleasantly at the thought of returning to that room after hours. Something set her on edge about Professor Lestoat, and she didn't need any more problems at the moment.
"You don't look so good," Kayla immediately pried as she found Lylia in the hallway after classes ended. "You eat something weird at lunch?"
"I have Detention," Lylia answered as she rubbed the back of her neck wearily.
"With whom?"
"Professor Leweasel…" the blonde refused to make eye contact.
"Lestoat?" suggested Kayla helpfully.
"That guy, yeah…"
"You and people's names… Look, you'll be careful with that one, alright?" Kayla nudged her to grab her attention before they separated again at the Great Hall.
"Oh, yeah. Don't need to tell me twice with that one." Lylia shivered despite the warmth of the nearby dining chamber and kept walking, heading past and to the dungeons.
"May I ask why you need a third book?" Snape questioned of Lylia over a list of ingredients he was reviewing in the rear of his office.
"I finished the second one," the blonde answered bluntly, watching the Potions Master at work from beside the door, where she had been ordered to remain.
"And why so soon?" pressed the bat-like professor as he turned to fetch the next old, leather-bound book for her, an amused smirk crossing his lips at her previous answer while his back faced her.
"I need something to do in Detention with Professor Lestoat," stated Lylia.
Snape froze half-way across the room to her, his expression slowly setting in stone as a dark warning. "… Do not get Detention with that man again."
Lylia eliminated the distance between them, taking the book politely. "Uhm, alright, Professor..." Snape kept holding onto the book's other end.
"Do you understand me? Do not." His cold hand released the book and allowed her to step back with it.
"Yes, Professor… I understand." Lylia bowed her head in thanks and fear at the same time, still backing away until she reached the door.
"I thought you understood as well, but I was wrong with the Wolfsbane."
"I thought it was the most gorgeous misbehaviour I've ever performed, Professor." Bowing her head once more, Lylia left Snape's office.
"Perhaps… that's true," sighed the teacher after she had gone.
"Ahh, Lylia," said Lestoat as he let her into his classroom with one of his by-now-famous, stunning smiles. "I'm quite glad you showed up."
"I'd rather not face any greater punishment, Sir," Lylia strode past him with a straight back and self-carrying grace, as if the slightest defect in posture would betray an untold weakness. The professor took another deep, delighted inhale as she made her way to the same seat she had in her previous class session. Her invisible shield of impervious strength gained a crack as she shivered once more.
"How'd it go?" prompted Kayla the next morning as Lylia sat next to her.
"I shouldn't get Detention with him again," the blonde answered as she took an apple, biting into it resolutely. "It was alright. He just had me amuse myself for a couple hours…"
"That's good! C'mon, onto the new classes." Kayla hopped up and started out before Lylia could stop her. "I have Transfiguration today!"
"Charms for me," commented the Ravenclaw as she followed, eyes on the grey skies outside. "Was Professor Flitwick fun?"
"Oh, yeah. Just don't aim near anything breakable."
While Lylia was busy with learning Expelliarmus, Kayla made a brooch with a serpentine "S" engraved in emerald on its front. The following class was not much more exciting; while Kayla studied the importance of numbers in magic, Lylia ascended the Astronomy Tower and plopped down onto a rotund cushion.
"Our transcending class will begin with a unit of Tarot reading," Trelawney managed to say without hurting anyone with her enormous glasses. "I now request all of you to go to the closets in the back… and bring back a deck of cards."
Lylia sighed softly after she had retrieved the last deck of cards in the closet, looking over at her partner for the session. The older Gryffindor beside her cracked a wide grin at seeing the blonde's eyes on her.
"Hey!" she brushed a handful of unruly red hair over her shoulder, light green eyes glittering. "You're Lylia, right? I've seen you sitting with Hartland. She's my partner for Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Y-yeah… Uhm," Lylia tried to not sound rude as the two girls shuffled each other's decks. "You seem like you're a lot more used to this place than us…"
"I've been here three years, yeah." The redhead nodded and tossed more copper-coloured hairs away from her face. "I didn't take these classes in my other years, though. Figure I better get them in before exams and whatnot, ya know?"
"Oh, well, yes. That makes a lot more sense." Lylia smiled.
"Go ahead and gimme your deck. I'll read you first. By the way- I'm Karen."
"How'd you know my name, again?"
"Who here doesn't know it by now?" Karen flashed another grin. "Now- ready? I'll just go with a three-card reading this time, so we'll have enough time for more readings. I know, I know, it's normally… eight? No… That's question and answer. Let's make it more of a general reading, eh? Past, present, and future. Three. Not eight. Three…"
Lylia was no longer listening; her mind was wrapped again inside itself as she tried her best to decide on a question that needed divining. She could learn about her attraction for all this chaos… She could learn about the Tournament… She could learn about Talem.
"Okay, I'm ready."
Karen cut the deck thrice and laid one card down each time. She flipped over the cards one right after another, and then she examined them after they'd all been turned. She stared for a second in her surprise before laughing happily at Fate's joke. "I'm sorry, Lylia. I don't know how this happened! There's only one of each card in a deck normally. Someone must've gotten the decks' cards mixed up!"
Lylia just lowered her gaze from the cards to nod quietly: anything to not look at the reading again. From each of the three cards, the same twisted face stared grotesquely up at her in a skeletal grin. The title of each card read, "The Death."
"Thank you anyway… Karen."
At the end of the class, Lylia gathered her things and went hurriedly to lunch. Kayla didn't try to pressure her into revealing whatever happened in the previous class, but she was more than happy to go alongside Lylia to their last class of the day, Care of Magical Creatures.
"Do you think he's really as tall as they all say he is?"
"Hagrid's a man, Kayla. Not a legend."
"He's not a man, though! He's a half-giant!" Kayla bounced with each step.
"You weren't this excited when we went to go see Paul Bunyan."
"That's because you threw me in the trunk and told me we were just going to a wafflehouse." Kayla cast her friend a sideways glance, chuckling at the smile it brought to Lylia.
"In my defense, the giant statue was right next to a wafflehouse. And I left you with a perfectly good CD to listen to in the trunk."
"The BeeGees are terrible after five hours of straight listening."
"Fine. I'll give you the B-52's next time. Or Heart."
"What 'next time,' Lylia?"
The pair stopped outside, soaking in the filtered rays of sunlight through the boughs of the tree over them. Lylia's smile fell:
"There won't be a next time… will there."
"Sorry, Lyl… But we are in a whole new world."
"… A new, fantastic point of view?" Lylia gave a mischievous grin.
"… Oh my God." Kayla began to walk quickly down the path, away from her trailing friend. "I swear to God. If you start singing DISNEY on me-"
"No one to TELL us no, or WHERE to go! Now I'm in a whole new world with you!" Lylia's song swelled along the path and earned the pair several puzzled (or simply bewildered) glances.
"You'll be taking care of these delightful little fellas," Hagrid tugged crate after crate out of his home, passing one out to each student gathered. Kayla peered inside and blinked a few times.
"Professor Hagrid… What are they?"
Lylia made a face as she opened her crate, staring down a tawny-coloured ball of fur. "Puffskeins… Man, I didn't realize before that they were so closely related to the Tribble."
"They are Puffskeins," answered Hagrid as he handed Kayla her speckled brown one from its crate. The ball of fur and tongue licked Kayla's cheek and purred happily. "This'll be our main project for the class, along with the daily lessons. Feed 'em scraps, and keep 'em away from motor vehicles."
Lylia's Puffskein refused to leave its crate, just snarling quietly up at her.
"Mine's broken," she announced cheerfully.
"Nonsense! They're very loveable creatures, once ya get to know 'em. Just give yers some time, and 'e'll warm up to ya."
"His protests are stating otherwise," Lylia observed the churring, whirring beast within her crate.
When she tried giving the creature scraps at dinnertime, it promptly defied physics and threw the food right back at her somehow.
"Man, I give up." The blonde shook her head.
"What're you going to name him?" Melinda asked with her same smirk as always.
"Medium Rare," responded Lylia with a glare at both beings.
Kayla entered the Great Hall, tardy for only the second time in her residence at Hogwarts, and dragged Malfoy by the cloak hood to their seats by Melinda and Lylia.
"What'd he do?" asked Lylia with wide eyes.
"HE was hanging out with his cronies in the Transfiguration Courtyard all of today." Kayla's answer was brief but portent. Draco gave a fearful sigh, sliding into his seat.
"They kidnapped me."
"You were willing."
"They kidnapped me with my consent."
"That goes against the definition of kidnapping."
"Love spat," threw in Melinda.
"Stay out of it!"
"Yeah!"
"Shut up, Draco. You're not off the hook yet."
Silence.
And so, the days began to slip away. Lylia would spend her nights sleeplessly reading spellbook after spellbook, taking pages upon pages of notes that spilled over her bedstand and trunk at the foot of her bed. Helena would sit atop the four-poster bed and watch, saying nothing but keeping the eternal, sad gaze. Kayla would spend the nights with Draco in the Common Room, just talking about their days or enjoying each other's company. They would kiss now and then, but other than that they had purely platonic relations in the eyes of the Slytherins. In contrast, the other Ravenclaws began to see Lylia as an external entity, a student who just happened to wear blue and silver: she never attended their parties or played sports with the boys or discussed beauty products with the other girls. She had always seemed to attract injury somehow anyway, right? Ravenclaws don't attract any sort of danger; they're too smart for that.
Kayla excused herself from her regular routine one night, instead going to the kitchens with a bag. She filled it with meat that the House Elves happily gave her, and she made her way up stairwell after stairwell, lost several times but eventually finding a certain room she had visited only once before. Opening its door, the trepid brunette padded over to a moonlit Occamy that shone its white down gently in the corner.
"Oh, Eli," she said as she began laying down the meat in front of it. "How can you possibly know what has happened…?"
The bird raised itself and swallowed each piece of food before stopping and examining Kayla, nuzzling her shoulder with its beak as if asking where its master was.
"I… I'm sorry, Eli…" Kayla stroked his head's gray fuzz with a catch in her breath. "He won't be coming back… But… I'll take care of you. Just you see… I even checked out a book from the Library on caring for guys like you… I'll let you out and let you fly, once a week… Every Monday, you'll get to go out for a few hours to eat and be free…" Her tears dotted the flawless plumes as she laid her head tenderly on top of Eli's.
"That'll be enough for you to be happy… Won't it…? We'll all be happy…"
The night before the tournament, Lylia went to Snape's office and knocked at the door. He opened it as irritably as usual, but this time he made no show of surprise to see her standing there.
"May I help you, Letum…?"
"Professor, I was wondering if you had a potion."
"… On occasion I have been known to have them, yes."
"I need one that'll keep me awake all of tonight. So I can study."
Snape eyed his pupil's weary state steadily. He then vanished inside before returning with a vial of light blue liquid. "Drink this now, then..."
Lylia smiled at him in thanks before uncorking and upending the liquid. She blinked a few times as if to clear her vision, making a confused face before falling asleep upright and passing out.
Kayla stopped half-way down the hall to the Slytherin Common Room, seeing Snape ahead carrying Lylia in his arms. He stopped as well when he saw her.
"Professor Snape."
"Ms. Hartland."
"May I ask why you're carrying Lylia? And why she's sleeping?"
"Your friend Ms. Letum seems to have fainted in the hallway after running some sort of errand. I'm escorting her to the Ravenclaw Tower."
"… Right."
"May I ask what you're doing after hours, without an alibi, outside your dormitory?"
"What time is it, Professor Snape?"
"Half past midnight."
"… Goodnight, Professor Snape." Kayla rushed past him and onward to her dorm.
The entire student body became immensely busy on the day of the Dueling Tournament. Entrants were signing up at the Staff Table; teams and alliances were forming; fangirls were frolicking around with their hoards of comrades; and two very special twins were walking down the main rows of the Great Hall, each wearing a giant sandwich board marking tallies of bets.
Kayla's astonishment made itself obvious in her expression as she entered the Hall with Karen, both of them watching as Fred and George Weasley walked up to them with matching smiles.
"Care to make a bet on the Tournament outcome, ladies?"
"Of course they would, Fred. These two obviously have their wits about them."
"That is, if they can catch their breath, George."
"We'll walk you girlies through it, then. See these marks here?" George nodded at the chalked tallies on each sandwich board, one section above each pocket. "There's this line of pockets along the bottom here that hold the papers on which betting person in question writes their name and respective betting amounts. The tallies above each pocket here show the number of individuals betting on each person! And the name of the person on which the stakes are being put is at the top here, in this line." He pointed at the names of duelists above each tally section.
"Twenty galleons on Lylia Letum," Karen deposited a slip saying so in the small pocket labeled with the Ravenclaw's name.
"I'm sorry?" Fred gave a laugh and shared a glance with George. "Wouldn't you rather be putting your money on someone higher up the food chain?"
"I'm a first-year too, you know," Kayla raised an eyebrow.
"Sure, but you're not trying to go against Elden Lesperance," explained George in a pointedly rococo voice. "The guy's unstoppable with magic. A real prodigy. And didn't you know? He's a half-Veela!"
"Aside from that making him extremely pretty, he's probably the only one of his kind in the world," Fred elucidated with another grin. "Magic's in his blood, mate."
"Five hundred galleons on Lylia Letum," Kayla answered and dropped her respective note into the right pouch, pretending to not worry about how it now contained all her Gringotts vault's money. "Real magic comes from the soul."
"There's just no pleasing them," George gave a sigh after the shock of the bet.
"We best be on," Fred nudged his brother toward the exit. "They'll start moving these midgets out to the stands soon."
With one more confident grin at the girls, the identical pair went around them and left the Great Hall.
"Where are they heading?" asked Kayla with a glance at the ginger beside her.
"Out to the Stadium," beamed Karen. "Go get your boyfriend so we can head on out!"
Not commenting on the way Karen labeled Draco, Kayla departed to go fetch him, eager to go investigate this mysterious new location.
Lylia sat noiselessly by herself in one of the tents holding contestants, wishing in the back of her mind that she had brought her book with her for some last-minute studying. Around her, students chattered and discussed various aspects of the tournament. Some were talking about how easy their success would be achieved; others debated how they would spend the money they were going to win in their bets. The aurulent-haired Ravenclaw said nothing to any of them, just staring at her shoes and thinking of how she would ever manage to confront the man she needed to badly to talk to. Her sense told her how Lesperance would never fairly speak to her if not in front of the public that so adored him, but her fear told her that she should flee now and seek him out in private. Her cowardice would have told her to beg for his audience, but her pain over Talem's disappearance had thrown her cowardice forever into shadow.
Ever since the first headline read "HOGWARTS STUDENT LOST IN FIRE, PRESUMED DEAD," Lylia held no place for cowardice in her heart. If Talem had cast out his own in order to defend her from the man he feared more than anything… How could she live with herself for harbouring that same emotion in her solitary mind? Now, when she was about to go on her own to try and gain closure, gain relief, gain ANY sort of sign that it WAS all Lesperance's fault?
She blamed him. Lylia blamed him for all of it. He had nothing to do with the explosion, the attack, but it didn't matter. She paid no heed to the rumors circulating about a dark group of wizards that had organized the attack. She didn't file away the stories of how no one knew why the Three Broomsticks was targeted. She knew only her hatred for that singular smirk that ended an innocent, selfless boy's life just last month. Those bottomless indigo eyes knew no mercy, and she intended to show them none. That face she hated more than anything seemed glued behind her eyes as she stood and prepared to go out into the arena, having no idea what lay ahead but knowing full well what she needed to accomplish.
She would never forget that boy.