lahy-uh-nis

“Yes — I’ve said I don’t doubt that, so don’t worry; you point has been made.”

“Right, thanks.”

“What have you got to do that’s so much more important than dashing off a note to your poor, pitiable mate Lily, who’s at home with no letters? Where’s that charitable Christmas spirit, Dork?”

“Well, my charitable Christmas spirit might have ended with that nickname.” She grinned but she did in fact hate that particular nickname as it was more often than not used as an insult. “And you aren’t pitiable, you might be the most popular person I know, you won’t miss letters from me.”

“McGonagall, for example, is n—” she stopped herself then, a laugh pushing past her lips in stead. “Don’t worry — I’m joking. I suppose I just have a selective memory. School stuff I remember perfectly, but things like these and birthdays, for example, I just can’t seem to remember.”

“I loathe birthdays, I never remember but I also don’t really celebrate. Everyone hypes them and I’m just a neutral party.” She was quick to change the subject to something that was still sort of uncomfortable but less so at least.

“Oh my God,” Gideon complains, had she always been this annoying. “My cat, obviously, although that would be a fantastic name for an owl,” he says.

“It isn’t obvious, but sure.” She was offended, what she had even done wrong?

“By cheating, of course,” she said with a smirk. “Oh, and don’t tell anyone this, but sexual favours work well, too. Well, only on certain teachers.”

A blush crept into Dorcas’s cheeks, she was loathe that it happened. “Alice, please.”

Gideon furrows his brows at her tone before he shrugs, “Well, I’ll take that as a no. This little vixen keeps coming to visit my Meowzers.”

“You’ll take that as a no? I literally just flat out said no--” She was perplexed but she didn’t have enough energy to argue logic. “Meowzers?”

“Not boring at all, actually, but that’s on you. If your letters are boring I insist you start making things up.”

“You’re not my mother Lily, you can’t insist I do anything. Plus, I’ll be much too busy to spend my time embellishing letters for your entertainment, sorry.”

“All I want for Christmas is that everybody write me over break. I’m not kidding.”

“How boring Lily, seriously?”

“Is this your cat? Because I have something very dire to tell you if so.”

“I don’t own a cat.”

“Isn’t it embarassing that I still don’t know where all the trick steps are?”

“Actually, yes. How do you manage to pass your exams with such a dismal memory?” She smirked at Alice, hoping she’d get that Dorcas was kidding around.

She couldn’t suppress a feeling of amusement, and Minerva shook her head. “Don’t worry, miss Meadowes, I don’t at all think that you would.”

“But I could, I think that’s my point.”

He grinned proudly, he always did when someone complimented his work. It was something to be proud of, and that wasn’t hard for him to admit. Still, he nodded at her next words. “It’s all been a bit messy, hasn’t it?” He looked concerned, these were students he’d gone to school with, they shouldn’t have these worries. “Well I promise I, personally, and the rest of the official Aurors are doing the best we can to keep it safe from now on.”

She shrugged, noncommittal “I ignore most of it, still just a teenage girl at the moment, I want to hold on to that.” It was the most honest she’d been with anyone in a while. This caused her to laugh “The Aurors, right. No offense Kingsley. But to blow this so out of proportion, it makes you all look worse, not better.”

I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.

Literature had fueled her childhood fantasies and convinced her that one day she would be the heroine of her own narrative.