Emergency

Sev took his nightgown and slippers out of his trunk and put them on. He went down to the Common Room, there were people but he didn't greet anyone, he ran straight outside, from there to the kitchens, grabbed four sandwiches and also ran back. He again passed through the Room without greeting anyone, went up to the bedroom, Tracked Anthony, who was in the light phase of sleep, Tracked Jack, who was still asleep in the Rave house. He took off his nightgown and went inside the canopy, drew the curtain, Hippolyta was out of bed. He conjured the Muffliato again, gave her the two sandwiches and they began to eat.

"I got out of bed so as not to cover it with crumbs," she said.

"Are you cold, honey?"

"No, Prince."

"You can wear my nightgown if you want," Sev offered.

"No, I'm not cold."

"And tonight you slept without your blanket."

"But you made me very warm, I haven't been cold at all," the girl reassured him.

"Sure…" That's why she put her leg over me, to have maximum contact with my body, he realized. "Poor girl… If we sleep together again, I'll spoon her, hug her from behind, sticking completely to her. And next year we will sleep together whenever she wants, especially in winter. I have to buy other pajamas. "Did you keep your diadem?" Sev asked him.

"Yes, Prince, in my trunk, and also the Cup. I have closed it with the spell you taught me."

"How smart my girl is."

"I have to return the Cup," she said.

"Of course, so that they can display it in the showcases on the third floor. You have already etched your name in the history of the school."

"Wow yes, the first year of playing."

"You're a heroine," he said.

"It's a shame that I couldn't start in my second year, I would have won six Cups."

"True. You give me the opportunity to start the talk I wanted to have with you. Let's start with one of the topics you talked about with Sirius. You told him that you wanted to retire from Quidditch so that I could become a Seeker in your place because you were going to be very busy and you would return to it in your sixth year, when I graduated. What do you think about the topic now?"

"I don't know what to think," the girl responded.

"You should not leave Quidditch, Hippolyta, not even because of the war. I already told you yesterday, you are a star, it's amazing how you fly. As soon as you finish school, with five championships under your belt, the Quidditch teams are going to fight over you. You will be part of a very important team, and I dare say that even before finishing school, if the war doesn't ruin it, you will be part of the United Kingdom team and compete in the World Cup. When is the next World Cup?"

"Within two years."

"There you have it," said Sev. "Word is going to spread about how you play, maybe next year the national team will come to see you to sign you. You shouldn't leave Quidditch for anything in the world. It will be your livelihood as soon as you graduate and you will earn a lot, a lot of money, you will be able to help your parents, who are not very rich, right?"

"No, they are not. But I preferred to play only in sixth and seventh year to win three championships and not five."

Sev laughed. "Hippolyta, you are obsessed with the number three, you are going too far. Think that five is also a good number, it is also odd, and fifteen, which was the day we met, is three times five, and not only that, it was the fifteenth of May, fifteenth of fifth month, and we met while you are in third year and I am in fifth year. Five is also your lucky number."

"Sure, you are right."

"And you have another lucky number, do you remember proclamation number seven?"

"I don't."

"I do. 'Seven players in Quidditch, seven years at school, seven days a week working for victory'," he recited. "Three sentences about the number seven, another odd, and three times seven, twenty-one, your two numbers multiplied."

"Sure…"

"There are many lucky numbers, Hippolyta, not just the odd multiples of three."

"Sure…"

"Have I convinced you not to leave Quidditch yet?"

"Not completely," she replied.

"Let's see, what doubt do you have?"

"I want you to also win a championship, to be equal in that too."

"Honey, I'm not sure I'll be able to win it, and not only that, I'm also going to be very busy, much more than you, I'm not going to be able to dedicate time to training," Sev excused himself.

"That last thing Sirius told me."

"Sure."

"But I'm very sorry that you don't have a Cup," Hippolyta lamented.

"But for me, the ones you win will be as if I won them, because I feel so close to you that all your achievements are also mine. Do you understand?"

"Sure."

"And it's enough for me to play a game like the one you're going to let me play next year, and win that game and that's it, I'll settle for that," he reassured her.

"Really?"

"Really. But I'm telling you something, right? I will only play it if no one from the national team has come to see you. If they come, I don't play it."

"Sure…"

"Are you already convinced?" Sev asked.

"I just won't have time to do everything, Prince. If I play for the national team and the World Cup I will also lose a lot of time on that, just the year of the OWLs, and I want to do two NEWTs."

"Honey, there are still two years left, if you organize yourself well you will have time to do everything. Look how busy I am and I have time to do everything I want, I'm even learning to play the piano. You are already a very good student, if we take advantage of the summers you will also be able to do it, and if you see that you are not capable, leave Astronomy, which is not a very good profession, or Defense, because I don't think you want to be an Auror, right? You want to fight even if you're not an Auror."

"Of course, like Brad," the girl responded.

"Well, when you reach fifth year you will think about it. I spent until Easter without deciding which OWL I was going to do, Potions or Defense, I was preparing both, and thanks to that, when the idea of Medimagic arose I was able to do it, because I only had to add Arithmancy to Potions."

"Sure."

"You still have more than a year to decide," he said.

"Okay."

"Convinced not to leave Quidditch?"

"Convinced," Hippolyta responded.

"That's how I like it. Look how difficult it is for me to raise you, huh? That was the least important topic of all we have to talk about, let's see if we have time between now and lunch."

"We'll have, we'll have."

"Very well, it's your turn," Sev continued. "You should know that yesterday I had a serious disagreement with Lily, my best friend, because she didn't want to betray what you talked about with her. You can't play it like that behind my back, if what you have to talk about is about me, you should do it with me too, that was what made the party sour for me and not the beer, now I'm angry with her."

"Oh... Prince... don't be mad at her, she didn't tell you because I was going to tell you."

"Well, then when we talk to each other I will see if I have reasons or not to remain angry with her, because at least she could have told me what the topic of the talk was about so that I wouldn't worry at that moment, and she didn't even tell me that, She preferred me to remain uneasy, and that is not being a good friend."

"And why didn't you ask me, Prince? I would have told you," said the girl.

"Because I had just gotten angry with you also about the beer. I got overwhelmed and went off to be alone, which is what I do to get better when I get angry, to be alone and think only of myself."

"Then it was my fault, Prince, don't be angry with her."

"Yes, maybe you're right. Since the topic of beer has come up, let's talk about it too, before the other thing, because now I'm calmer because I see that you're going to tell me about it. Have you already had time to reflect on it?"

"Yes, last night when you left I was thinking a lot about your father, and also while you went for the sandwiches, and remembering all the people who were drunk last night and it was embarrassing to see them. I never want to get drunk either."

"Very good, Hippolyta. That doesn't mean you can't drink from time to time, but first, when you're older. Now you still weigh very little, you would get drunk with just one Muggle beer, and even more so drinking as fast as you drink, and I'm not saying anything with other stronger drinks. Also, alcohol is a drug, do you know what a drug is?"

"I don't, Prince."

"A substance that if you get used to taking it often, you will become addicted. That means that you need it all the time, you can't do without it and everything else doesn't matter to you. What happened to my father, he missed work because he got drunk, he didn't do his job well, he was fired from work, we were left without money because my Mum didn't work and we didn't even have enough to eat, because he also spent the little money we had on getting drunk."

"Oh…"

"Do you understand how dangerous it is?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"And drinking, drunk, you wouldn't be able to do many of the things you like. Study, fight, fly, because it would be very dangerous, imagine flying drunk, you would fall off the broom."

They laughed.

"Have I finished convincing you not to get drunk?"

"Yes, Prince."

"And drinking only once in a while so as not to become addicted?"

"Of course."

"Look, if I find out I'll keep an eye on you, huh?" Sev warned.

"Of course, Prince. Now I'm beginning to understand what you told me yesterday that you wanted to read me thoroughly, you really had a lot of worries about me. I who told you that you no longer needed to worry about me, I was not right. I do need you to worry about me, because there are many things I don't know."

"Of course, Hippolyta, that's why."

They had finished eating.

"Let's get into bed again, come on, to be warmer," he proposed.

"Come on."

They got into bed.

"How do you want to lie, looking at each other or hugging each other?" Sev asked.

"Looking at each other, because I want you to see that I'm telling you the truth so you don't have to read me."

"Okay."

They lay face to face.

"Come on, it's your turn. What did you talk about yesterday with Lily?" he asked.

"I asked her for help to help you."

"Oh... with my problem with girls?"

"That is."

"Of course... That's why she didn't want to tell me anything, girls' secrets," Sev deduced.

"Of course, Prince, that was why."

"Well, my anger with her has passed, now I feel terrible."

"And when are you going to see her again?" asked Hippolyta.

"I wasn't planning to see her until tomorrow night, but I have ways to communicate with her. I'll fix it today, don't worry. Tell me, come on."

"First I asked her if you were dating and she told me that you had stopped doing it two weeks ago, but that you didn't break up with her and on Thursday you kissed her. You're in a mess, Prince, and you must be hurting her too by not telling her the truth. You hadn't told her about me, you're not that honest."

Oh… so Lily thinks we're not together anymore and we left it when I clung to Hippolyta, Sev thought. But on Thursday we were in the clearing, we kissed, we talked about many things and we made our Patronus. She is blaming me and she is the one who has changed since Thursday, probably because of the night she spent with Sirius. I have lost her, but it was not because of what I did or didn't do, but because she clung to him. Ugh… "Hippolyta, I didn't tell her about you because you and I, for the moment, are just friends, we haven't had anything committed yet. And because I have the right to reserve what I feel for you in the meantime, just as I don't demand that she tell me everything she feels about other people. The important thing between her and me is what we feel for each other, and I haven't stopped feeling that, I haven't stopped loving her at any time, I just lost the desire to do couple things with her for a few days, but it wasn't because of her, I didn't feel like doing it with anyone."

"Oh... And why didn't you tell me that you loved her too?"

"I was thinking of doing it, of course, at the right time. I repeat, you and I are still just friends, and you are still overcoming your problem with food. I didn't want to give you another headache just yet about things you may not understand."

"Sure…"

"Did she tell you anything else about me?" he asked.

"Yes, Prince, but I can't tell you, that's also why I didn't want you to read me. I think these are things that you have to talk about among yourselves, I'm not going to interfere."

Ugh... maybe she told her that she doesn't love me anymore and of course, Hippolyta doesn't want to upset me that way, it's something between Lily and me. "You are absolutely right, Hippolyta. I will talk to her and I will not read you in that aspect at all, it would be making you betray the trust she placed in you. You are very wise, honey."

"Of course, what I said to her yesterday when she told me that I was too little for you and what I'm telling you now because you thought I wouldn't understand those things. I look little because I'm not yet developed, but in my head I'm not that little, huh? My parents always tell me everything and talk to me about things, they have told me in detail how they fell in love and all the things that happened to them together. I don't have experiences of my own, but I do have those of my parents, because they have a lot of trust in me for that."

"Of course, I understand. Was Lily feeling very bad?"

"Yes, she started to cry," the girl answered. "Because she told me your story and I told her that she was very silly, she spent six years without realizing that you loved her, when I realized that you loved me from the first time you looked me in the eyes, before you even knew it yourself."

"You're right, for that she was silly, yes."

"I scolded her, so you know, because that was why you thought about becoming a Death Eater, right? Because you only had her and you couldn't even tell her that you loved her so that you wouldn't stop being friends with her."

"Spot on, Hippolyta. I feel terrible, because her not loving me was no excuse for thinking about becoming a Death Eater."

"Yes it was, Prince, if you had nothing else in life, with the life you had led, always suffering, you had nothing good to offer."

"That's not so, she did me a lot of good for many years, and she even saved me from being a Death Eater when she fell in love with me."

"Yeah. Ugh… So I feel bad now too, I crossed the line."

"She didn't explain that to you?" Sev asked.

"No, she agreed with me."

"Then don't feel bad, she should have explained it to you."

"It wasn't her fault, I was in a hurry," she clarified. "Can you also apologize to her on my behalf?"

"Of course, I'll do it."

"I'll keep telling you, okay?"

"Go on, of course."

"I explained to her about our Patronus, about the lot of incorporeals that we had in a single day and three different corporeals in four hours," continued the girl. "I did it because first I had told her that I didn't mind if you were also with her if you loved her, but then, when she told me your story, I changed my mind, because I thought that she had also made you suffer for six years and I told her that it no longer seemed right to me that you were with her."

And probably because Lily also told her that she doesn't love me anymore, he deduced. "Oh... And what did she say to you?"

"She also agreed with me."

There it is. Lily doesn't want to be with me anymore. "Sure. I'm going to explain to you about the Patronus. I also have a twin with her."

"Oh… really?"

"Yes, Hippolyta. The last time I tried them I had three twins, the third is with a girl I can't tell who she is, not yet."

"Okay."

"But I have had four, I also had them with Deborah and Valerie, and they all did things like ours."

"Wow, Prince..." very admired. "Four different Patronus that do things, incredible…"

"Of course, that's why I tell you that while I really love the girls, I have Patronus with them. And Valerie and Deborah's ones don't work anymore."

"Yeah. You have stopped loving them."

"No, I love them very much, but only as friends," Sev explained.

"Sure. But you still love Lily and the other girl."

"That's it, honey, but I had already decided not to be with the other girl again no matter how much I love her. I don't feel about her the way I feel about Lily and you. It is with you both that I want to be with. And with you specifically, because of how you are willing to take care of me and everything else."

"Oh... That's what she told me, because of things we talked about later," she said. "Just know that I wouldn't mind if you were with Lily or any other girl if you love them, but really, without being in a mess."

"Thank you, Hippolyta, for giving me freedom."

"But don't put them in a mess either, let them know everything, just like you're telling me everything."

"True. I think I made a big mistake not explaining everything to Lily from the first moment, but if I didn't it was because I think what we have is so special that I wanted to keep it to myself."

"I understand, Prince, but you're just making a mess of yourself, you should let us help you."

"Yes, I realize it."

"Because she was willing to help you, to help us both, she offered me and you to sleep together at her house, in the guest room."

"What are you saying?" amazed.

"What you are hearing. And she proposed it to me, huh?"

As I said, Lily no longer wants to be with me, and she will be calmer if I can be with Hippolyta, he deduced. "Oh…"

"But of course, I told her that was impossible because I can't know where you live without knowing Occlumency, I go to Diagon a lot in the summer to visit my
Dad at the bookstore and I can run into Lestrange any day."

"Ugh... Hippolyta, then we have another problem..." very alarmed.

"Yes, I have already thought about it too, that she can read me and find out what is happening at school."

"That wouldn't be the most serious thing, she's going to do it anyway by reading any student in Diagon this summer. The most serious thing would be if she found out what you have with me. She would go for you. You have to be taught Occlumency. How many problems are you giving me, Hippolyta, how could you not tell me that when you knew about Lestrange?"

"Because I hadn't realized it yet, I started to connect the dots when you told me yesterday about Occlumency."

"Of course, it wasn't your fault, it was my fault, I've known about your Dad's bookstore since Tuesday. It doesn't matter. I'm going to stop doing everything I have to do if I have to. Upon returning from the Quidditch pitch we'll go to the clearing where you were yesterday with your friends. You're going to learn to occlude in three days like my name is Prince."

"I'm going to learn today, Prince."

"I'm almost sure of it. But in exchange you have to swear to me, not promise me, swear to me, for whatever you want most, that you will never, ever lie to me, or hide anything important from me, because I will no longer be able to read you if you don't want to."

"I swear to you, Prince. I already realize that you put my life before everything else and know at all times what to do to help me. And what I told you yesterday, we must stay alive for each other. I swear to you by what I love most, which is you."

Sev sighed in relief. "Honey, give me a hug."

They hugged each other very tightly.

"I love you more than my life, Hippolyta."

"And I love you, for a long time too, since before I met you."

"I already know. We have to talk about that too, but let's go in parts, keep telling me what you talked about with Lily yesterday."

"Okay, then we separate, Prince, I want you to keep looking into my eyes."

"Okay. Let's see if we have time to talk about everything before lunch."

"We were thinking about a way that you and I could sleep together in the summer, so that you wouldn't spend the entire summer without having at least that with me."

That said, Lily doesn't even want to sleep with me anymore. "Oh…"

"It occurred to me that we could team up with Deborah to sleep near her house, in the countryside, in a tent," the girl explained.

"Not that, Hippolyta, not even joking, you get cold at night. If we do it, we'll do it the way is due, in a bed."

"I thought that because I thought it would put you in a lot of trouble doing it at other people's houses secretly from their parents, in case they caught us."

"Of course I'm in trouble, but not for me, but for you, so that your parents might find out."

"Don't worry about my parents, that's the least of it. I was willing, as a last solution, to tell them everything and let them let us sleep together at my house," she proposed.

"Oh, honey... I really appreciate it, that you were willing to tell your parents something like that just so you could sleep with me, but again, Lestrange. Your Dad is in Diagon all the time, she might as well read him."

"She could also find out that we are friends, if you visit me at my house and all that."

"Well yes, something I hadn't thought about," he lamented. "Ugh… what a problem. Too late to fix it, you already told them about me in your letter, didn't you?"

"I did, Prince."

"How I messed up, Merlin…"

"Do not suffer, Prince, please, it is a risk that must be taken. Lestrange never goes to my Dad's bookstore, she has never been there. And if he passes her on the street, he leaves as quickly as possible, he barely stops on the street, only if he has to do some shopping or if he goes to the Cauldron to have a coffee when he finishes working. But in the summer he never does, because when I'm home he comes back as soon as possible Apparating, and she doesn't know that he has a daughter who is at Hogwarts."

"But she can deduce it from his age. We should also teach your parents Occlumency. We'll take the Pensieve and let Jack teach them."

"What is a Pensieve?"

"This afternoon I'll explain it to you," said Sev. "So, does your Dad know Lestrange?"

"Of course he knows her, everyone in Diagon knows her, she's always shopping there, at Gringotts and in the stores. I also recognize her if I see her."

"Sure. In this afternoon's letter, without alarming him, tell him to go home directly, not to stop by the Cauldron for the remaining days until you arrive and we can talk to him in person, and not to let your Mum visit him either."

"Okay, Prince. I think he must have realized it by now, huh?"

"True, not like me. How bad I feel, Hippolyta."

"Don't worry, Prince, we'll fix it."

"It's just that by wanting to help you I have complicated your life."

"No, Prince, don't think that. You are helping me a lot, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be healing from the food thing."

"Yes, you're right. Give me another hug, come on."

They hugged each other very tightly again.

"Come on, Prince, don't suffer, we are in times of war, we are all at risk. You were willing to go to Diagon just to see my Dad to talk to him about my problem if I wasn't given permission to give you my address. You were willing to risk your life for me."

"Not so much, honey. You see, we adults have learned a very ancient magic with which we are fully protected, going with Deborah and Valerie the risk I would run is minimal."

"Oh…"

"As soon as you learn Occlumency we will also teach it to you and your parents," he proposed. "Do you realize that you had to talk to me about things and not with Lily?"

"Well yes, because yesterday I already told her that Lestrange could read me in Diagon and she didn't realize that she could read about the Army or about us loving each other."

"Of course, honey, Lily is a bit silly when it comes to those things. Lestrange's going to find out about the Army, there's no way out of that, but we must prevent her from finding out that we love each other at all costs. I've been very stupid too, I should have realized it as soon as we told each other the first day we went to the pond. I'm a mess."

"It doesn't matter, Prince, we'll fix it. And it wasn't just your fault, the whole family knows it and no one has realized it."

"Well yes, you are absolutely right, because everyone has known that your Dad works in Diagon since Tuesday. This time they failed me completely. Let's leave the topic of sleeping together in the summer, it's not urgent, we'll see how we do it. If you did it for me, know that you don't have to rush for me, I could easily spend two months of my life sleeping alone."

"Ugh... but I want…"

"I want to too, honey, but we'll talk about it another time."