New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
✦
The three of them wandered through the narrow corridor without any real direction.
Lily kept grumbling behind Callan.
“Callan, how could you speak up for people like that?
“It is not as if you could not beat them. You are obviously strong enough.”
Snape silently nodded behind her.
Callan suddenly felt that something was off.
He stopped at once and looked at the two of them suspiciously.
“After I left early, did something happen between you two that I do not know about?”
He looked at Lily.
“Since when did you start calling Snape Sev?
“Why are you suddenly so close?”
“And you.”
Callan turned to Snape.
“Since when do you ask me for help so directly?
“I thought you would say nothing at all.”
“What exactly happened?”
Lily and Snape exchanged a glance.
Then Lily spoke to Callan with an almost proud expression.
“We were going to tell you. After we bought our wands, Mr. Ollivander said all those things, remember?”
Callan nodded.
Of course he remembered their wands.
Lily continued happily, “Later, Sev and I talked about what he said and realized those weaknesses might be easy to solve.
If I’m insecure, then if Sev stops being so interested in Dark magic, perhaps I will feel better.
“And you already dislike Dark magic, Callan.
“So Sev and I made a promise. If I keep calling him that, he will try to learn more ordinary magic and slowly give up Dark magic.”
‘Good work, kid.’
Callan narrowed his eyes slightly and studied Snape.
Then he asked Lily, “And me?
“This does not seem to have much to do with me.”
“Of course it does,” Lily said.
“You are stronger than Sev.”
As she spoke, she lifted her trunk with surprising ease.
“Sev said a Levitation Charm with this much power is probably something only older students can manage.
At least, it would never happen among lower years.
“And what you use is not Dark magic.”
Snape nodded again.
It seemed that while Callan had been away, Snape had finally thought this through and accepted it honestly.
Callan frowned.
“But my situation may be talent. It might not be something others can copy.”
Lily pouted unhappily.
“What do you mean, talent?
Without effort, how would talent matter?
“It is not as if we have never seen how you usually are.
You are either reading or practicing that wandless magic of yours.
“If Sev follows your way of doing things, he might be able to reach your level too.”
“Am I usually that intense?”
Callan blinked, genuinely confused.
“Yes. Absolutely.”
Lily nodded firmly, her little face serious.
Snape did the same.
In truth, if they had not grown used to it, Callan’s diligence would have driven both of them mad already.
The thought that Hogwarts might be full of students like him made the two future top students feel, for a moment, that good marks were hopeless.
“Oh?”
Callan smiled oddly.
If not for the second elder-wood wand, he might actually have believed Lily’s argument.
He looked Snape up and down.
“Then try to catch up. I do advise you to prepare yourself, though. This will not be easy.”
For Snape, it might even be impossible.
Snape did not hear the meaning beneath his words.
He took it as Callan’s usual disdain, no different from what Callan had said after the attack, and merely curled his lip without answering.
The three continued searching for an empty compartment.
Lily kept talking behind Callan.
“Speaking of wands, yours seems to be the best. It does not have any especially obvious flaw, and it is particularly loyal. Not like mine.”
Without turning back, Callan reminded her, “That is the wrong way to think about it. The wand chooses the wizard, not the wizard the wand. The kind of person you are determines what kind of wand will suit you.”
Lily considered his words carefully and looked at Snape with concern.
At that moment, Callan stopped before a compartment door.
“There seems to be space here.”
He slid the door open.
Only two people were inside, a boy and a girl, sitting opposite each other.
The boy was chattering on and on about something, and the girl was laughing hard.
“You know, there may even be largemouth Gulping Plimpies.
They are a variety of Plimpy…
Oh, hello.
Are you first-years too?
“I am Xenophilius Lovegood.”
Young Mr.
Lovegood greeted the three warmly.
He looked extremely strange, wearing a necklace made of bottle caps gathered from who knew where, his wand tucked behind one ear, and an odd…
diadem?
on his head.
“What is that?” Lily asked curiously, pointing to the diadem.
“This?”
Lovegood seemed delighted that someone had asked.
He took it off.
Curved golden tubes like hearing aids extended from either side, a pair of sparkling blue little wings stood on the band over the top, and an orange radish stuck out from the other band.
“This is my dearest invention,” Lovegood said excitedly.
“Fashioned to the proportions of the beautiful Rowena Ravenclaw’s head.
A perfect fit.
“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”
He pointed to each part in turn.
“These are Wrackspurt siphons, which draw all interference away from the thinker.
This,” he pointed at the little wings, “is a Billywig propeller, meant to induce an elevated frame of mind.
And finally…” He pointed to the orange radish.
“A Dirigible Plum, to increase one’s ability to accept the unusual.”
“What do you think?”
Lovegood looked at the three of them, apparently waiting for praise.
“Um…”
Lily looked at Callan and Snape in turn.
Neither seemed willing to speak, so she focused on the girl instead.
“What do you think?”
The girl was dressed much more normally, but she still shook her head while giggling.
“Hahaha, I have no idea what he is talking about.”
“Then why are you laughing?” Lily asked strangely.
The girl laughed even harder.
“Because don’t you think he’s interesting?”
For no reason at all, Callan suddenly sensed the unmistakable, cloying air of young romance.
He spoke abruptly.
“And you are?”
The girl smiled.
“You can call me Pandora.”
“Sorry to disturb you.”
Callan shut the compartment door without hesitation.
Yes.
Confirmed.
That was romance.
It seemed Luna’s future was safe too.
Completely safe.
“Let’s keep looking.”
Lily and Snape immediately nodded in agreement.
Before long, the three found another available compartment, and this one had only one boy inside.
They looked at one another.
Callan took a deep breath and opened the door first.
“Hello.”
The boy greeted them just as warmly when he saw them.
“Are you first-years too?
“I am Steve Scamander.”
“Scamander?”
Callan asked curiously, “Is Newt Scamander your…?”
“That’s right.”
Steve smiled and took out a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, pointing to the author’s name.
“My father wrote this book.”
“Hello.”
Callan crossed the compartment in a single stride.
Lily and Snape were both startled, but Callan paid them no mind and shook Steve’s hand vigorously.
“I am Ashworth, Callan Ashworth. We are first-years too.”
“Oh. H-hello.”
Steve seemed somewhat frightened by Callan’s enthusiasm.
“What are you two waiting for? Come in.”
Callan kept turning back to wave Lily and Snape inside.
“Oh. Right. Right.”
The two entered in a daze and closed the compartment door.
✦
✦
✦
Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.