To bed
When Sev got to the Common Room of the dungeons, which was crowded, since it was Sunday and people were rested, he saw Lauren writing alone, concentrating, with her back turned, at the table in front of the glass window, but at the opposite end to the one they used to sit together.
Good… she's doing her homework. Do I greet her? I don't want to disturb her, but it would be nice to say good night. I'm going to go up for the notebook to write down what Cecile has explained to me, at least that about the three chords, less I forget it. I'll sit in my corner and we'll chat a bit.
He did it. She hasn't realized yet that I've sat here.I am going to take the opportunity to draw three diagrams of the keyboard and write down the chords with the corresponding fingers.
When he finished he projected to her, "Good night gorgeous."
She pretended that she was still writing. "Hello! What a surprise!"
"I'm glad you're studying."
"It is fantastic to do it with your help. How well you write and what beautiful handwriting you have."
"Look who is speaking, I still remember your letter," Sev said. "Too bad I burned it."
"Yeah... you hadn't discovered the warding spell yet."
"I hadn't."
"I will write you another so you can keep it," Lauren said.
"Oh... thank you very much, I will never get rid of it."
"I plan to do the same with all yours, I am not going to burn anything. I've talked to Lily for a while in the Library. She was with Lupin, but not with her friend."
"Cecile," he clarified.
"Ah okay. What are you up to?"
Ah… she's curious, Sev thought. "You will know at the proper time. It's nothing dangerous."
"You mysterious... I can tell it has something to do with the Room of Requirement."
This one is able to read me to find out. I'll occlude it. "You are right. But respect my privacy, please."
"That always, do not doubt it. Can't you give me a clue?" she asked.
"I can't."
"Well, I'll wait. Knowing you, I'm sure it's worth it."
"I hope so," he replied.
"Go to bed, come on, you've gotten up very early. We'll talk at breakfast or in class."
"Okay, but don't go to bed late either, don't think about staying up reading."
"No. I trust you," Lauren said. "As soon as I'm done with this I'm going to sleep."
That it will be past midnight, Sev thought. "Good night gorgeous."
She looked at him. "Good night, sweetie."
Merlin... I'm crazy about her.
Lauren looked down and focused again, and Sev went to bed.
The next day, in Arithmancy, he explained to Anthony how to get to Barnabas's portrait through the passage from the third to the seventh floor, asking him the three of them, Jack, Deborah and him, to come after dinner. He didn't told him yet that it was the Room of Requirement.
When they arrived, the four of them Disillusioned themselves and he briefly explained to them what they had to do to enter. They did it together, at some risk, four Slys so close to Gryff house. Sev waited until they were inside to explain everything. "We are in the Room of Requirement in its storage aspect."
"Wow… Prince," exclaimed Jack. "You discovered it."
"I did." Sev told them that he had read the teacher they had first thing that morning. "But we won't be able to use it for training yet, because I suspect that the book of Red Magic can be found here."
"I think so too," Deborah said. "There is no better place to hide something than in the middle of all this junk, it would discourage anyone."
"That is why I have called you all, we must try to get it as soon as possible," Sev said. "If we reveal ourselves, Dumbledore will probably remove it from our grasp."
"You've done well, Prince," Jack told him. "We'll spend as much time as we can, but you shouldn't risk being seen with us."
"Yeah, that's what I thought too." Sev explained to them the workings of the Room, which he told them he had tested with Lily that afternoon.
"Have you risked coming with Lily?" Jack asked.
"Yeah. Later I'll explain why," Sev replied.
"Okay."
The others said nothing. He told them what he suspected about where the books must be hidden and handed out copies of the opening spells, which he had made in the Dungeon Room at dawn.
"Have you done all this today by yourself?" Deborah asked surprised.
"Well yes. I tell you that we have to hurry," Sev answered.
Jack didn't say anything. (Jack understands,) Sev thought.
"Well, let's start searching as soon as possible," said Anthony.
"Prince, organize," this one was Jack.
"Deborah, you start from the left end, going along the longitudinal to the back covering the transversal ones on your right and going back along the adjacent one inspecting the transversal ones on your left," Sev ordered. Like Lauren started.
"Perfect, there I go," she replied.
"Anthony, also go to the left, calculate approximately one third of the room, and the same, towards the back transversal on the right and when returning on the left," Sev continued.
"Great, Prince," Anthony replied.
When Sev was left alone with Jack, he led him down the aisle to the right. On the way they opened a couple of cabinets that met the characteristics, but there were no books. They reached the end of the corridor.
"Wow… what a mirror," said Jack. "What a beauty."
"Read the inscription backwards," Sev said.
Jack did it. "Now I know why you brought Lily."
"Of course. And why I am bringing you now."
Jack understood. Sev was already pushing the rack away.
"Thank you very much Prince."
"I'm going to leave you alone so you can look at yourself. Take as long as you want, it's worth it. In the meantime, I'll start the adjacent corridor by checking the crossovers to the left. Do the same with this one when you're done. If I get to the end before you, I'll go back through it to meet you."
"Great, thank you very much again."
"You're welcome, brother."
Sev went to work, leaving Jack alone. He didn't find anything in the cabinets that he checked and he went back through the corridor that his friend was coming from until they met, an hour later. They both retraced Sev's steps, to return to the entrance from the back through the adjacent ones.
"Nothing, right?" Jack asked.
"No, but at least the ones that don't contain anything interesting are not closed, so we hardly waste time on that," Sev answered.
"Yes you're right. I think that between the three of us we will cover it in less than a week, I will propose that we skip dinner."
"Ugh... could be suspicious to Dumbledore."
"Always bloody Dumbledore. And propose to the Gryffs?" Jack asked.
"I prefer that you not risk being seen together. We are very close to their house."
"Yeah… well, then whatever it takes. We will come after school and after dinner."
"Brilliant. Thanks Jack."
At twenty minutes to ten they returned to the entrance. Each one had marked how far they had come. Sev explained to them what they should demand to hide the books if they found them in the following days. He asked Anthony that if it happened he would let him know as soon as it was safe and they would arrange another meeting.
They returned home together. Sev waited at the exit of the passage so as not to arrive at the same time as them. Lauren was in the Common Room, surrounded by people. She's reading. They gave to each other a fleeting glance. I'm going to go to bed to study, we'll talk tonight, he thought.
Shortly after twelve, his roommates were asleep and he went downstairs to the empty Common Room. It wasn't, she already was waiting for him. Disillusioned, she appeared when he sat in his corner, and immediately re-cast the warding spells and lit the candle. "All in order."
"Thank you, gorgeous."
"Have you found anything?"
"We haven't," Sev replied. "But it will cost less than we expected, the cabinets that do not contain anything interesting are open. And they will spend afternoons and evenings searching. As soon as they find it, Anthony will let me know."
"Great, we'll make it, there are still almost three weeks left."
"Sure, there's plenty of time."
"Ugh… what a relief. Meeting the deadlines," Lauren said. "How about the rest?"
"I have done your today's homework."
"Severus, you are spoiling me."
"Look who is speaking. I see that you also bring me something."
"I do. I've been thinking about Tom Riddle being Voldemort. Because Riddle isn't a wizarding last name, it's Muggle."
"Wow, it's true," he realized.
"And I thought that was precisely why he changed his name."
"Sure, he defends the dogma of blood purity."
"Do you know? I like Muggle puzzles, the ones that come up in the newspapers," she said.
"True. I noticed them at Easter, when my mother brought me some."
"Ah... Have you written to her?"
"I have," Sev replied. "I sent her the owl early this morning, I expect she will answer me at breakfast tomorrow, I told her it was urgent."
"Brilliant. So, if you agree, today we don't drink potion, we'll reserve it for the news that comes to us."
"Okay."
"What I was telling you, do you know what an anagram is?" Lauren asked.
"I don't."
"It is about rearranging the letters of a phrase or word, so that they form another, such as Rome and more."
"Oh…"
"Look at my progress." She handed him a scroll. At the top of it was:
T O M R I D D L E
V O L D E M O R T
"Almost all of them match!" he exclaimed.
"Sure, but there are some missing and superfluous, we lack words, perhaps his second last name.He calls himself 'Dark Lord' I have added the 'Lord'," she pointed to the bottom of the parchment.
T O M R I D D L E
L O R D V O L D E M O R T
"You have five letters, but the I is still superfluous at the top, there are also some words missing at the bottom," Sev said.
"Yes, give me a hand, come on."
"Ugh... I'm into numbers. Let me think." I means me, he thought. "He is terribly self-centered. 'I am'?"
"Maybe... Let's see..."
T O M R I D D L E
I D V O L D E M O R T
"That's it," Lauren said. "All the first name and last name letters have disappeared.The ones that remain must be his second name or his mother's surname." She wrote:
O
And she showed it to him. "Help me, come on.Now we have to order them."
"Ugh... Lauren, you know much more about wizarding surnames than I do."
"It's true, let me think…" She spent a couple of minutes in silence. "I have it, but it's not a last name, it's his second name. Marvolo."
"I never heard it."
"It is an ancient wizarding name, perhaps from some ancestor through his maternal line, perhaps his own grandfather," Lauren suggested. "He's a halfblood, with a Muggle father and a witch mother, just like you. We will have to wait and see what your mother tells you about Riddle."
"Wow, Lauren, you are a wonder."
"I would not have succeeded without your help, I spent the whole afternoon thinking about the I that was left over and it occurred to you instantly."
"You never rest."
"Nor you," she replied. "We can deduce at least one implication. What historical figure does Voldemort remind you of?"
"Hitler."
"That one. Because of the dogma of blood purity, but there is something else you may not know."
"What?" Sev asked.
"Hitler had Jewish ancestry."
"The same race that he tried to exterminate. And Voldemort is of Muggle ancestry and the World War was during his time at school."
"He was inspired by him," Lauren deduced.
"Booaah… what a danger."
"We have to finish him off. If he wins the Wizarding War he is capable of exterminating the entire humanity. He hates Muggles for some reason."
"Maybe he was like me. An abusive father," he said.
"It can be. What a paradox. You are two sides of the same coin, but in a good way. You are destined to beat him." She smiled charmingly at him.
"Never without your help, Lauren."
"I don't know what I would do without you,"they both said at the same time.
Sev thought, She has not asked me about Jack, if I have taken him to the mirror.She has become more attached to me, with everything we have experienced since Easter.Well, she needs gas too and he can't give her any at the moment.
"Do you have something else to tell me?" he asked her.
"I don't."
"So... shall we go to bed?"
"To yours or to mine?" she asked.
Whoah… Sev dropped his head onto the table, covering himself with his arm, laughing sheepishly.
"I was kidding, I was kidding…" Lauren was laughing too.
I already told you that I have given her gasoline, she is like a motorcycle, he thought. I'm going to slow her down a bit. "I have taken Jack to the mirror."
"Oh really?" she asked, excited.
Well… she hasn't forgotten him. "Yeah."
"And has he told you what he has seen?"
"He hasn't."
"Well, normal. If he has seen me or everyone, it would have been putting the cards on the table prematurely," Lauren said.
"Yes, that's what I think too."
They went to bed, each to their own.
