This chapter has an R-18 scene in it.
Chapter 33:
– Amara –
The prefects' bathroom was ridiculous.
I had known Hogwarts liked showing off, obviously. The castle had staircases that moved because apparently walking in straight lines was too boring, portraits that gossiped harder than pureblood matrons, and doors that only opened if you tickled them in the exact right place like the whole school had been designed by a drunken pervert with a masonry budget.
But the prefects' bathroom was something else.
It was less a bathroom and more a private spa built for aristocrats who thought subtlety was a disease. Marble floors gleamed under golden light. Steam drifted in lazy curls from the enormous sunken bath taking up the center of the room. Taps shaped like jewel-eyed creatures lined one edge, each promising a different color or scent or absurd magical luxury. There were stained-glass windows high overhead, polished mirrors along the walls, stacks of fluffy towels, and enough space to host a small royal orgy.
Not that I was thinking about orgies… All the time at least.
I carefully lifted Nyx from where he had been tucked against my chest, warm and smug and entirely too pleased with himself. The little dark phoenix gave a sleepy chirp of protest, his black feathers puffing up as if I had committed some terrible betrayal by removing him from the safest, warmest spot in the known multiverse.
"Drama queen," I murmured.
He chirped again, softer this time, which somehow managed to sound indignant.
I took three towels from the nearest stack and folded them into a little nest on a stone bench well away from the water. Nyx blinked at it, inspected the offering with all the dignity of a tiny immortal bird prince, then stepped into the bundle, turned in a slow circle, and immediately tucked his head beneath one wing.
Asleep. Just like that.
I stared at him like that wasn't adorable. "You absolute freeloader."
Lily giggled beside me, and the sound slipped under my ribs before I could guard against it. "He's so cute."
I glanced sideways at her.
The bathroom's warm light softened everything about her. Her red hair looked softer. Her cheeks were pink from the heat, or nerves, or both. She had one hand pressed over her mouth, trying to smother another laugh as she watched Nyx sleep like he owned the entire room.
"He knows," I said dryly. "That's the problem."
Lily smiled wider. For one tiny, dangerous second, it was almost normal. Two girls in a bathroom before breakfast. A familiar sleeping in towels. Steam rising off a bath. Just Lily Evans smiling at me like I was someone she was happy to stand beside.
Then we both turned toward the bath.
The giggling died. The silence that replaced it was thicker than the steam.
Lily's fingers tightened in the edge of her robe. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. I watched the motion with entirely too much attention.
She turned back toward me slowly, and the nervousness in her green eyes became more noticeable. This was Lily Evans realizing she had invited a strange, beautiful, probably demonic girl into a private bath before breakfast and now had to actually follow through.
My mouth went dry. Oh, I am definitely going to hell. Then I remembered Lucifer was the king of Hell and he very much wanted to fuck me, so honestly, I was probably fine.
Lily let out a tiny breath, then reached up with both hands and began undoing the clasp of her robe.
I did not look away.
The robe slipped from Lily's shoulders in a whisper of fabric and pooled around her feet.
She stood there in front of me wearing a red bra and a matching red thong, and every clever thought in my head packed its bags and fled the country.
Fuck. Lily Evans is beautiful.
This Lily was younger, warmer, realer. Her skin was pale and smooth, dusted with faint freckles across her shoulders and collarbones. Her waist curved inward beneath the red lace, then flared into hips that made my fingers twitch with the urge to touch. Her breasts filled the bra beautifully, soft and full enough to draw my eyes before I could stop them. Her legs were long and pale and surprisingly strong-looking beneath the delicate line of that daring little thong.
My gaze moved from her face to her breasts, then lower, over the dip of her stomach, the curve of her hips, the roundness of her ass when she shifted nervously.
Lily noticed. Her blush deepened until it nearly matched her underwear.
I forced myself to breathe. I did not want to make her feel trapped. Or awkward. Or like I was some predatory monster cornering her in a bathroom.
Even if my instincts were purring that she smelled like nerves and want and warm skin.
So I moved next. Fair was fair.
I reached for the buttons of my uniform shirt and undid them one at a time. Lily's eyes followed every motion. She tried to look anywhere else for about half a second, failed spectacularly, and gave up.
Good girl. The thought slid through me smooth as sin, and I nearly groaned.
No. Absolutely not. Bad succubus queen. Do not start applying praise kinks to alternate-universe versions of your mother before breakfast.
Too late…
I shrugged out of the shirt and let it fall with the rest of my borrowed uniform. My skirt followed. Then my stockings.
Lily's lips parted. The gasp she made was soft, but the bathroom caught it anyway.
I looked up through my lashes and found her staring at me with open, helpless desire.
It was not subtle. Not even close. Her gaze swept over my body like she was trying to memorize me and apologize for doing it at the same time. My stomach tightened under the attention. I had been looked at before. Desired before. Worshipped before.
But this was Lily. This was green eyes gone dark, red lips parted, fingers curling against her own thighs because she did not know what to do with her hands.
I reached behind myself and unclasped my bra.
Lily stopped breathing.
The black lace slid down my arms and joined the pile of clothes at my feet. Cool steam-kissed air brushed over my large bare breasts, tightening my nipples instantly. Lily's eyes dropped to them like gravity had doubled.
I hooked my thumbs into my black thong and pushed it down slowly.
Lily made another sound. Not quite a gasp this time. Closer to a whimper.
My body reacted so violently that I had to press my thighs together.
That was new. Or not new, exactly. My body had always reacted eagerly to desire, but since the Hallows had melted into my soul and Death had apparently decided "succubus queen" was a reasonable thing to call someone, everything felt even MORE intense than it had before. And it was already very intense before…
I stepped out of the thong and stood naked in front of Lily for the second time since crashing into this world.
Her face had gone crimson. Her eyes had gone molten.
I should not have enjoyed that as much as I did.
But I did. Very much.
Lily's hands moved awkwardly to her own bra. For a moment, she hesitated, biting her lower lip hard enough to make my attention snap there.
Then she undid the clasp. The red bra slipped away.
Her breasts were gorgeous—soft, pale, tipped with pink nipples already tight from the heat and nerves and whatever thoughts were currently racing behind her wide green eyes.
I licked my lips before I could stop myself.
Lily's gaze caught the movement. Her whole body shivered. Then she hooked her fingers into the sides of her thong.
My pulse thundered. I had been fucked by Nightwing on a beach while Starfire guided my hips. I had taken Raven with my tail on a cruise ship while an alien princess watched from another bed. I had lain beneath Morgana le Fay and learned exactly how many ways an ancient dark witch could make me scream.
And somehow Lily Evans nervously pushing down a scrap of red lace nearly made my knees weak.
The thong slid down her thighs. She stepped out of it.
Naked, Lily folded her arms over herself for exactly three seconds before forcing them down again with visible effort, like she was refusing to hide after deciding to be brave.
That did something terrible to me.
I let my eyes travel over her openly now, because pretending would have been insulting. She was lovely.
Lily swallowed.
"Come on," she said, voice breathy and nervous and threaded through with desire she could not quite hide. "Let's get in the water, and we can bathe."
She turned toward the bath too quickly, like she needed somewhere safe to put her eyes.
I followed.
(R-18 Start)
A couple minutes later, there was no real surprise about what happened next.
In my defense, we had tried to bathe.
Briefly. Very briefly.
There had been soap involved. And water. And Lily sitting close enough that her wet thigh brushed mine under the surface. And me trying very, very hard not to notice how the heat made her pale skin flush pink all the way down her chest.
Then she had looked at me.
I had looked back.
And apparently that was all the restraint either of us owned.
Now water splashed violently around us as Lily gasped my name like she had forgotten every other word in the English language.
My horns were out.
So were my wings.
So was my tail.
Lily had seen all of it. She had not run. She had touched one trembling hand to my horn, whispered, "Beautiful," and then kissed me so hard my brain had stopped functioning.
That, naturally, had led to consequences.
Very wet consequences. Very loud consequences.
I had one arm wrapped around Lily's waist, holding her body tight against mine in the middle of the enormous bath. My other hand gripped her thigh, lifting one of her legs high around my hip so I could keep her open beneath the water. Her arms clung to my shoulders, nails biting into my skin, red hair plastered wetly to her neck and back.
She was flushed everywhere. Cheeks, neck, chest, breasts, stomach. Her freckles stood out like tiny sparks across pale skin. Her lips were swollen from kissing. Her green eyes were unfocused, glassy with pleasure, and absolutely ruined.
I had done that. Fuck, that was a dangerous thought.
My mouth closed around one of her breasts, and Lily sobbed.
Pure pleasure ripped out of her as I sucked her nipple between my lips, tongue circling the tight pink peak before I drew harder. Her back arched beautifully, pushing more of herself into my mouth. I groaned around her, because she tasted like bathwater and clean skin and Lily, and apparently that was enough to make the darkest parts of me purr.
"Amara," she gasped, hips jerking helplessly. "Oh—oh, Merlin—please—"
I released her nipple with a soft wet sound, then dragged my tongue across the curve of her breast to the other one. "Please what?"
She whimpered.
I smiled against her skin. Mean? Maybe. But Lily Evans made the prettiest noises when she was flustered, and I was not remotely strong enough to stop chasing them.
"Use your words," I murmured, kissing the freckles scattered over her chest. "You're the clever one, aren't you? You couldn't be Head Girl otherwise."
Her nails dug harder into my shoulders. "Keep touching me."
I grinned at her needy look. "Is that all?"
"Keep kissing me. Keep fucking me…"
My tail thrust deeper beneath the water.
Lily cried out with her head falling back. The water around us splashed up the marble edges of the bath. Some of it had turned faintly red around our hips before vanishing into the heat and bubbles.
That part had surprised me. Lily had been a virgin. The surprise had been how much it did to me knowing that I just deflowed her. There had been one brief second when my tail first pressed against her, when Lily had gone still and breathless and wide-eyed, and I had frozen with her, every instinct in me locking down.
I had asked if she wanted me to stop.
She had stared at me with her face bright red, trembling so hard I could feel it through the water. Then she had kissed me and whispered, "Don't you dare."
So I had not stopped. And then my incredibly sensitive succubus tail had pushed inside Lily Evans' no longer virgin pussy, and my entire soul had nearly shorted out.
The feedback was obscene. Worse than before. Better than before. When I had used my tail with Raven, it had been overwhelming, intimate, almost too much. This was different. Hotter. Even more sensitive and intense.
Or maybe Lily was just that tight.
Every slick pull of her inner pussy walls around my tail shot straight through me like lightning under my skin. I could feel everything. Every clench. Every flutter. Every desperate squeeze when I changed the angle and found something inside her that made her voice break.
My tail slid out slowly, and Lily shook in my arms.
Then I thrust back in.
Her moan bounced off the marble walls.
"Fuck," I hissed, my lips brushing her nipple. "You feel so good."
Lily made a strangled little sound, half embarrassment and half need. "I—I do?" The insecurity in her voice hit me somewhere soft.
I lifted my head and looked at her properly.
Her eyes searched mine like she was afraid I might laugh. Like part of her still expected shame to crash down now that she had crossed some invisible line she had been taught to guard. This brilliant, beautiful, brave witch was trembling in my arms, naked and wet and spread open on my tail, and somehow still wondering if she was wanted.
I kissed her. When I pulled back, I kept my forehead against hers. "Lily, you are making it very difficult not to embarrass myself."
She blinked at me, dazed. "What?"
I rolled my hips, and my tail dragged against that sweet place inside her again.
She gasped.
"I mean," I said, voice rough, "if you keep looking at me like that and squeezing me like that, I am going to lose my mind in a prefects' bathroom before breakfast."
A shaky laugh burst out of her, immediately turning into another moan when I moved again.
"There," I whispered, smiling against her mouth. "That's better."
"Amara," she pleaded, pulling me closer. "Please. Please, keep going. Don't stop."
I kissed down her throat. "I wasn't planning to."
Then I fucked her harder.
The bath was enormous, but the water still protested around us, slapping against marble, splashing over the edge in messy waves. Lily clung to me, one leg hooked around my waist while I held the other up and open. Her breasts pressed against my face whenever she arched forward, and I greedily took advantage, licking and sucking them until both pink nipples were swollen and wet from my mouth.
She was so responsive it was almost unfair.
Every kiss made her shiver.
Every scrape of my teeth over her nipple made her cunt clamp around my tail.
Every thrust dragged another desperate sound from her throat.
"Yes," Lily gasped. "Yes, like that—Amara, please—"
I shifted my grip under her thigh, lifting her a little higher. The movement changed the angle enough that the next thrust made her entire body seize.
Her eyes flew wide.
Oh. There it was. I grinned. "Found something?"
Lily slapped one trembling hand over her mouth.
I immediately caught her wrist and pulled it away. "No hiding," I said.
Her blush was glorious. "Someone might hear if they pass by the hallway."
"Then they'll know you're having a very educational morning."
"Amara!"
I drove my tail back into that spot. Her protest broke into a moan so loud Nyx chirped sleepily from his towel nest across the room.
I froze.
Lily froze.
We both turned our heads.
Nyx shifted once, fluffing his tiny shadow-feathers, then went right back to sleep.
I stared at him for one long second. "Unbelievable."
Lily's face crumpled with helpless laughter.
Then my tail twitched inside her by accident, and her laughter dissolved into a breathless whimper.
"Oh, no," I murmured, turning back to her. "You are not getting saved by the bird."
She looked at me with wide, shining eyes. There was nervousness still. Of course there was. This was new for her. Huge. Dangerous. Probably not what she had expected when she suggested a bath. Or maybe it was?
But under the nerves was trust. And desire. So much desire. "Please," Lily whispered again, softer this time. "I want you to make me feel it again."
My throat tightened. Again? Apparently I had already made Lily Evans cum at least once before my brain fully caught up with the fact that this had become my morning.
Honestly, impressive work from both of us.
I kissed her again. Because apparently I had decided that thinking was optional, consequences were a future-Amara problem, and Lily Evans making needy little sounds against my mouth was more important than literally everything else in existence.
Her lips parted for me immediately. Eagerly. That should not have made satisfaction curl through me so intensely, but it did. I swallowed her soft gasp, my tongue sliding against hers as my hand wandered greedily over her wet skin.
Her body felt incredible beneath my palm. Warm from the bath, slick with water, trembling every time my fingers found somewhere sensitive. I traced the curve of her waist, the dip of her stomach, the flare of her hip. I palmed one breast and felt her arch into the touch with a breathless little cry, her nipple peaking hard against my wet palm.
"Amara," she moaned into my mouth.
I loved the way she said my name. That was dangerous. I already knew it was dangerous, and still, I wanted to hear it again. My tail kept moving inside her, sliding in and out of her tight, soaked pussy with a rhythm that made the water around us slap messily against the marble sides of the bath. Every thrust sent pleasure snapping back through me. Every clench of Lily's body around that sensitive appendage made my thighs shake beneath the water.
It was too much!
No, that was a lie. It was exactly enough, and that was the problem.
Lily whimpered as I thrust into her again.
I broke the kiss just long enough to drag my mouth down her neck. I kissed it, licked it, then scraped my teeth lightly against the vulnerable skin.
She shuddered. "Please…"
I groaned. I buried my face against her chest before she could see whatever stupid expression had crossed mine. Her breasts were perfect in my hands, soft and freckled and flushed, pink nipples swollen from my mouth. I took one between my lips again, sucking hard enough to make Lily cry out and grab the back of my head.
"Yes," she gasped. "Yes, don't stop. Please don't stop kissing me."
I had no intention of stopping.
I sucked and licked at her nipple, then switched to the other, giving it the same greedy attention while my fingers slid lower between us. Beneath the water, I found her clit again, swollen and slippery, and circled it in time with the push of my tail.
Lily's whole body jerked. "Oh—oh, God—"
"Wrong deity—" I muttered against her breast.
She made a helpless sound that might have been a laugh if it had not immediately collapsed into a moan.
My tail thrust harder.
The water churned around our hips. Lily's lifted leg trembled in my grip. Her other foot slipped against the bath floor, and I tightened my arm around her waist to keep her steady. She clung to me, nails scratching down my back, not hard enough to hurt with my healing but enough to make my wings flare and drip water everywhere.
"Amara," she panted. "Amara, I—"
"I've got you," I whispered. The words came out before I thought about them.
Lily's eyes went wide and wet and so painfully open that something in my chest twisted. Then her pussy clenched around my tail, and all the soft emotion in the world was abruptly hit by a freight train made of lust.
My hips stuttered. Oh, fuck. My pussy spasmed and clenched with nothing inside of it. My clit absolutely throbbed. The pleasure inside me spiked so fast I barely had time to understand what was happening, much less warn her. It rushed up my spine, through the base of my tail, into my stomach and breasts. My magic surged with it, dark and hot, making the air around us ripple.
"Lily," I gasped, but that was all I managed. Then I came and I came hard!
A broken groan tore out of me as my entire body locked. My wings spread out wide, knocking water over the edges of the bath in a violent sheet. My horns tingled. My claws pricked lightly into Lily's thigh before I forced my hand open. My back arched, breasts pressing against hers, every muscle shivering as the orgasm ripped through me like a spell gone beautifully wrong.
My tail went rigid inside her.
Lily gasped loudly.
I felt the tip of my tail swell up fast. The sensation was so intense I nearly blacked out. It expanded inside her, thickening just enough to stretch her tighter around me, and Lily's mouth fell open in stunned pleasure. Her eyes rolled back for a heartbeat, her nails digging into my shoulders as her body spasmed around my tail.
Then it started pumping into her.
Hot, thick succubus cum pulsed from the swollen tip of my tail deep inside Lily's pussy, each spurt sending another shock of pleasure through me so violent I could barely breathe. It was not like anything human. It was magic and lust and demonic instinct made liquid, pouring out of me in rhythmic pulses while Lily shook in my arms.
"Oh," Lily whimpered, voice wrecked. "Oh—Amara—"
"I didn't—fuck—I didn't mean—" Another pulse filled her. My apology disintegrated into a moan.
Lily came with me. Her tight pussy clamped down around my tail, milking me through it, dragging more from me with every helpless flutter. Her whole body curled into mine, trembling violently as she buried her face against my neck and cried out into my skin.
I held her through it. I had no choice. If I had let go, she would have slipped under the water, and if she had dragged me with her, I probably would have drowned in the prefects' bath with my tail buried inside Lily Evans.
The orgasm finally loosened its claws one shiver at a time. My tail pulsed once more inside her, weaker now, and Lily made a tiny broken sound against my shoulder.
Then stillness settled over us.
The water still sloshed gently around our bodies. My wings dripped. Lily panted against my neck. I stayed frozen, tail still buried inside Lily, arms locked around her, brain catching up to the fact that I had just filled an eighteen-year-old Lily Evans with magical succubus cum in a Hogwarts bathroom before breakfast.
There were probably prophecies less ridiculous than my life.
Slowly, very slowly, Lily lifted her head. Her face was flushed bright pink. Her pupils were huge. Her lips were swollen. Damp red hair clung to her cheeks. She looked wrecked.
She also looked… not upset. That was important. That was the only thing that mattered.
"Are you okay?" I asked, my voice rougher than I expected.
Lily blinked at me like understanding language had become a distant academic concept. Then she swallowed. "I think," she said breathlessly, "I understand why sex demons have such a reputation now..."
A laugh burst out of me so suddenly it almost hurt.
Lily laughed too, shaky and embarrassed, hiding her face against my shoulder even as her body gave another little aftershock around my tail.
I hissed through my teeth. "Careful," I muttered. "I am extremely sensitive right now."
Her breath warmed my skin. "I noticed."
I pulled back just enough to look at her. She was smiling. Shy. Dazed. Thoroughly debauched. But smiling.
Relief hit me harder than I wanted to admit. "I really didn't mean to do that without warning you," I said quietly.
Lily's expression softened. One wet hand lifted to my cheek, her fingers trembling slightly as they brushed my skin. "I know," she said. "And I don't mind… Some of the romance books we Witches like to read are way 'kinkier' than what we just did," she explained with a laugh. "There's this really popular one about a minotaur that's been going around…"
(R-18 END)
A couple minutes later, we had actually washed up.
For real this time. There was soap. There was shampoo. There had been a heroic amount of self-control from both of us, which deserved a plaque somewhere in the Hogwarts trophy room. Preferably one that said: For Services Rendered to Not Fucking Again Immediately.
The bathwater had been refreshed with a twist of one of the absurd golden taps, because apparently even ancient magical castles understood the importance of not sitting around in evidence. The faint pink tint had vanished, replaced by clear, steaming water that smelled faintly of lavender and something sweet I could not place.
Lily had shown me which tap made shampoo foam. She had asked if my tail needed washing separately, gone crimson the moment the words left her mouth, and then very bravely helped me wash it anyway while staring determinedly at my shoulder like eye contact would kill her.
Now we were in the shallow section of the enormous bath, where the water barely reached Lily's thighs. She sat on one of the submerged marble ledges with her back against the edge, wet red hair spilling over her shoulders, her bare breasts rising softly with each breath. Her skin glowed pink from heat and exertion, freckles scattered across her chest and arms like someone had flicked cinnamon over her with a paintbrush.
I lay stretched beside her with my head pillowed on her thigh. Lily's fingers moved through my hair in slow, careful circles, nails lightly scratching my scalp.
I moaned before I could stop myself. Not the loud, filthy kind from earlier. This one was softer. Embarrassingly content. The sound of a dangerous monster being defeated by basic affection and scalp scratches.
Lily's hands paused.
I cracked one eye open. "Do not stop."
She giggled. "So demanding."
"Yes I am. I love getting pampered after sex."
Her fingers resumed moving through my hair.
My eyes fell shut again instantly. Oh, that was good.
I had been touched in a lot of ways recently. Worshipped, teased, fucked, bitten, held down, held close. But this? This was gentle. Just Lily Evans humming softly under her breath while her fingers slid through my hair, working away knots I probably could have vanished with magic if I had been less pathetically starved for kindness.
Her humming was quiet and tuneless and perfect.
I kept my eyes closed and let myself float there, cheek against her warm thigh, the shallow water lapping softly against my shoulder. My wings had folded back into nothing beneath my skin. My horns had receded. My tail was gone too, mostly because I did not trust it not to get ideas.
Nyx slept on his towel throne across the room, tiny chest rising and falling, a smudge of shadow-black feathers tucked into white cotton.
"Amara?"
"Mm?"
Lily's fingers slowed but did not stop. "Thank you."
That made me open my eyes. I turned my head slightly, cheek still resting on her thigh, and looked up at her. This was a terrible angle for emotional conversations, by the way. Because looking up at Lily Evans from between the soft line of her thighs, past her stomach and naked breasts to her smiling, flushed face, made my brain briefly attempt to evacuate my skull.
"Ok?" I managed.
Lily's cheeks went pink again, though after what we had just done, that seemed almost ceremonial. She smiled down at me, shy but sincere. "Thank you for giving me such a good first time."
Oh, fuck me sideways. I felt my face heat. Me. Blushing. Like an idiot. A Succubus queen, Mistress of Death, destroyer of Horcruxes, eater of souls, certified magical menace, apparently undone because Lily Evans thanked me sweetly for ruining her virginity in a bathroom.
I stared up at her through damp lashes. Damn. I really am going to hell, aren't I? Then again, Lucifer would probably greet me at the gates with a drink and an insultingly smug smile, so whatever.
"You're welcome," I said, voice softer than I intended. Then, because sincerity was terrifying and needed to be bludgeoned with sarcasm before it grew teeth, I added, "I do try to provide quality service."
Lily laughed, and her thigh shifted under my cheek.
I grinned despite myself. Then the grin faded a little. "Seriously, though," I said. "Thank you for being amazing."
Her eyes softened.
I swallowed, suddenly fascinated by a bead of water sliding down her stomach. "And… sorry if this was all really fast. We met, what, yesterday? I crashed through your dormitory table naked, ate part of Voldemort's soul, disappeared into the Forbidden Forest before dawn, came back with a death bird in my cleavage, and then we had sex in the prefects' bath before breakfast."
Lily blinked. Then she snorted. Then she laughed so hard her hands slipped out of my hair entirely.
I lifted my head just enough to glare at her. "I am being emotionally vulnerable, Evans."
"I know," she said, still laughing. "I'm sorry. It's just—when you put it like that—"
"It sounds insane?"
"It sounds very insane."
"Good. Because it was."
Lily covered her mouth with one hand, shoulders shaking. "It was… fast. Yes."
I lowered my head back onto her thigh, because I had decided that was where I lived now. "Brutal honesty. That's lovely…"
"But," Lily said, and the laughter gentled into something more careful, "I also have a confession to make."
That made me go still. I opened both eyes and looked up at her. "What kind of confession?"
Lily's fingers went still in my hair. She looked guilty now, but not in the performative, manipulative way I knew from my mother. This was real guilt. Awkward and earnest and very Lily. "I was spying on you," she admitted.
My eyebrows rose.
"...In the hospital wing," she rushed on. "When you were talking to Professor Dumbledore. I was under James's invisibility cloak."
My stomach tightened. "You heard me talk about Sirius?"
She nodded slowly. "I heard you say he was your father. Or… would be? From the future. Sort of…?"
"So," I said, forcing my voice lighter, "you knew I was a time-travelling disaster with Sirius Black-related family issues, and you still decided to get naked with me?"
Lily's blush returned full force. "Well," she said, "I knew you probably were not going to stay here very long."
That sentence landed harder than expected. I went quiet.
Lily noticed. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean—"
"No, you're right." I stared at the rippling water. "I'm not staying. I can't."
Because Raven was waiting. Morgana was waiting. Dick, Kara, Kori, Bellatrix, Daphne, Astoria, Nyx—well, Nyx had cheated and come with me—but everyone else was still home. My home. My world. My disaster-filled, demon-haunted, superhero-infested, emotionally unstable home.
I had to get back. No matter what!
Lily's hand slid gently back into my hair. "I know…."
The understanding in her voice hurt worse than denial would have. She took a breath. "That's why I… rushed things a bit."
I looked back up at her. Lily's cheeks were scarlet now, but she held my gaze with a bravery that made something warm flutter inside me. "I knew whatever this was probably couldn't last," she said. "You're not from here. You have people waiting for you. You have a whole life somewhere else, even if it sounds terrifying and very confusing."
"That is an accurate review of the future."
Her mouth twitched. "But you're also gorgeous!"
I blinked up at her after those words.
"And strange," she continued, growing pinker by the second, "and funny, and dangerous, and sad in a way I wanted to understand even though I know that sounds horribly presumptuous. And I'm graduating this year, and everything outside Hogwarts feels like it's turning darker by the day, and I just…" She looked down, then back at me. "I wanted at least one epic romance at Hogwarts before I left and had to go out into the real world."
For a second, I could not speak. Then my lips curved despite myself. "You consider me epic romance material?"
Lily's blush deepened, but she laughed. "If a time-travelling demon from the future doesn't count, what does?"
I stared at her. Then I laughed too. "Fair point," I said.
Lily smiled down at me, and there was something painfully lovely in it. Just acceptance. A little sadness. A lot of courage. She leaned down slowly.
I could have met her halfway. Instead, I stayed where I was and let Lily Evans kiss me. It was softer than the desperate kisses from earlier. Slower. Her wet hair brushed my cheek as her lips touched mine, warm and gentle and still a little uncertain. I kissed her back just as gently, which was probably the most dangerous thing I had done all morning.
When she pulled away, her smile was wobbly but bright. "We should get dressed," she said.
I groaned. "Cruel woman."
"We still have time to make it to breakfast." Her stomach chose that exact moment to make a faint but unmistakable sound.
I looked at her.
Lily closed her eyes in mortification. "And I'm hungry now."
"After all that activity?" I asked innocently.
She splashed water at my face.
I sputtered, laughing as I wiped my eyes. "Assault. In a prefects' bathroom. From the Head Girl, no less!"
"You deserved it."
"I usually do."
Lily's expression softened again, and for one tiny moment I saw the question she did not ask. What happens when you leave?
I did not answer it. I could not. So instead, I lifted my head from her thigh, caught her hand, and pressed one kiss to her knuckles. "Come on, epic romance," I said. "Let's go scandalize everyone in the Great Hall when they see you walking funny."
Lily pouted down at me, but her expression told me that I was right.
Getting dressed after all that was somehow more awkward than getting naked had been.
Lily kept blushing every time our eyes met, which was deeply unfair because she had just very enthusiastically let me do things to her in a bath that would have made half the Hogwarts staff spontaneously combust. Yet apparently pulling on stockings afterward was where modesty decided to return from vacation.
I did not tease her too much. Mostly because I was a saint. Also because watching Lily Evans try to act dignified while limping slightly was already hilarious enough without my assistance.
Nyx woke only long enough to chirp sleepily when I tucked him back against my chest beneath my robes. He immediately burrowed into the warm valley between my breasts like a shameless little creature and went back to sleep.
Honestly, I respected the hustle.
By the time we left the prefects' bathroom, Lily had mostly recovered her Head Girl composure. Her robes were neat. Her hair was glossy and dry thanks to a charm she cast with only slightly trembling fingers. Her badge was pinned perfectly over her chest. Her chin was lifted.
The walk to the Great Hall felt like walking toward an execution conducted by gossip. The castle was awake now. Students filled the corridors in clusters of robes and chatter, and the moment they saw us, the whispers began.
At first, they were scattered little things.
A Hufflepuff girl nearly walked into a suit of armor because she was too busy staring at me. Two Ravenclaws turned around fully after passing us, their conversation dying mid-sentence. A Slytherin boy looked me up and down with such open appreciation that Lily's fingers tightened around mine.
Cute. Very cute. Then the whispers got louder.
"Is that the new girl?"
"She's in Gryffindor?"
"No bloody way!"
"Did Evans just come from the prefects' bathroom with her?"
"Why is the Head Girl blushing?"
"Is she limping?"
Lily's hand clenched harder around mine. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling.
Some of the whispers were absolutely about Lily. Why the famously composed Head Girl looked flushed enough to roast marshmallows. Why she was walking a little carefully. Why her hair was perfect but her eyes kept darting to me like I was a crime she had thoroughly enjoyed committing.
But most of the whispers were about me. Because I was hot. Because I wore Gryffindor robes over a body that absolutely did not look like it belonged in school uniform, and because my face made people forget their own names for a second…
The doors to the Great Hall stood open, spilling golden morning light and the roar of hundreds of students eating breakfast. The sound hit me first: laughter, clattering plates, scraping benches, owls fluttering overhead, voices overlapping into one enormous living noise.
Then the sights.
Four long tables stretched beneath a ceiling enchanted to reflect the pale morning sky. Candles floated overhead despite the daylight, because apparently Hogwarts believed in theatrical excess before breakfast. The staff table sat at the front, professors scattered along it, some eating, some reading, some already looking exhausted by the day's existence.
And the food.
Platters covered every table. Bacon, sausages, eggs, toast, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, porridge, fruit, pastries, jam jars, butter dishes, pitchers of juice, silver teapots. It looked like the castle had decided breakfast was less a meal and more a declaration of war against hunger.
My stomach made an opinionated little sound.
Lily glanced at me with her lips twitching.
"Not a word," I muttered.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
"My face is very polite."
"Your face is smug."
"My face," Lily said, still blushing faintly, "has had a very eventful morning."
I nearly choked.
A few nearby students definitely heard that and started whispering harder.
We reached the Gryffindor table, where two girls were waiting with expressions that could only be described as smug.
Marlene McKinnon and Alice—future Longbottom in another world, apparently current suspicious best friend in this one—sat shoulder to shoulder with identical shit-eating grins.
Lily saw them and immediately tried to become a different person. It did not work.
Marlene's grin widened. "Morning, Lily."
Alice looked pointedly at our joined hands. Then at Lily's face. Then down at the way Lily sat a little too carefully on the bench. Her eyebrows climbed. "Sleep well?" Alice asked sweetly. "You were both gone before we woke up?"
I slid onto the bench on Lily's other side, because if I had to watch this disaster, I wanted a good seat. "Good morning," I said brightly.
Marlene looked past Lily at me, her grin sharpening. "Oh, I bet it was."
"Marlene!" Lily hissed.
"What? I said good morning."
"You did not."
"I absolutely did."
Alice leaned forward, eyes dancing. "We woke up and both of you were gone."
"How mysterious…" Marlene said.
"Very mysterious…" Alice added. "And then you come back holding hands. While Lily is glowing no less."
"I am not glowing!" Lily snapped.
Marlene's eyes dipped briefly, then returned to Lily's mortified face. "No, you're definitely glowing."
Alice nodded solemnly. "Also limping."
Lily made a strangled sound and buried her face in her hands.
I loved her friends immediately. Which was inconvenient. I did not need to get attached to more people in a universe I planned to leave. That was how emotional damage happened. I was already operating at dangerous levels of emotional damage.
Still, I could not help smiling. "Be gentle with her," I said. "She's had a busy morning."
Lily elbowed me in the ribs. It did absolutely nothing because of my enhanced body, but I made a dramatic pained noise anyway.
Marlene cackled. Alice covered her mouth with her shoulders shaking.
Lily looked like she was considering feeding herself to the giant squid in the lake out the windows.
Before anyone could say something even worse, a goblet appeared beside my plate with a soft little pop. That was convenient. I picked it up and took a cautious sip.
I paused. Pumpkin juice? That had to be pumpkin juice. It tasted like someone had liquefied pumpkin pie, removed most of the spice, added a weird autumnal sweetness, and decided children should drink it before classes. Not bad, actually. Strange, but not bad.
I filled my plate with bacon and eggs, then added toast because my body had burned through an absurd amount of energy since dawn. Deathly evolution, emotional revelations, sex in magical baths—all of it required some breakfast to refuel myself. A lot of breakfast. The first bite of bacon was crisp, salty, hot, and perfect. I closed my eyes for half a second. "Okay," I admitted. "The bacon is really good." The elf slaves that cook all this do good work.
Lily smiled beside me and started filling her own plate. She took eggs, toast, fruit, then hesitated before adding more bacon than I expected.
I glanced at her.
She pointed her fork at me. "I don't usually eat this much, but I need the calories after all that exercise!"
I nearly laughed into my pumpkin juice.
…I had just started truly appreciating the miracle that was Hogwarts bacon when someone dropped onto the bench beside me.
I paused mid-bite. There were plenty of reasonable possibilities. Another curious Gryffindor. Someone from Lily's year. A random boy with more confidence than survival instincts. Maybe one of the professors had decided to intervene before the Great Hall's gossip reached critical mass and exploded through the ceiling.
Then I turned my head and nearly froze. Sirius Black sat beside me, young and alive and grinning like trouble had chosen a favorite son.
For one heartbeat, the Great Hall disappeared. The noise blurred. The food vanished. The ceiling, the tables, the students, Lily's warm hand brushing mine under the bench. All of it fell away beneath the impossible sight of him.
Sirius. And this was not older, wounded, bitter, and still trying so hard to smile for me despite everything the world had taken from him. He was young and healthy. Beautiful, honestly, in that infuriating Black-family way. Dark hair falling around his face with effortless arrogance. Grey eyes bright with mischief. Easy smile. The kind of boy who knew he was handsome and had decided to make that everyone else's problem.
My chest tightened so hard it hurt. This was not my Sirius. I knew that. I knew it with the same certainty I knew this was not my timeline, not my Hogwarts, not my life. My Sirius was gone. Murdered.
Still. Seeing him alive again felt like someone had shoved a knife under my ribs and twisted it into something almost beautiful.
Then I noticed where his eyes were. Ah. Right.
He was looking at me like I was hot. Which, to be fair, I was. Objectively. Supernaturally. Annoyingly.
But no. Absolutely fucking not! That look needed to be shut down immediately!
And yes, I was fully aware this was wildly hypocritical considering I had literally fucked Lily Evans in the prefects' bathroom less than an hour ago. But Lily was not the younger alternate-universe version of the dead man I considered my father, so she got an exception.
Also, I was a demon. Demons were allowed to be hypocritical. I was pretty sure that was in the handbook.
"Hey there," Sirius said, leaning one elbow on the table like he had practiced being insufferably charming in mirrors. "The name's Sirius Black." He gave me a grin that probably worked on most girls.
It did not work on me. For emotional reasons. Mostly.
"You're new here, right?" he continued. "I heard Evans has been showing you around, but if you're interested, I can give you a much more… 'in-depth' tour of Hogwarts." Then he wiggled his eyebrows. He actually wiggled his eyebrows.
I stared at him. Somewhere in the afterlife, my Sirius was either howling with laughter or trying to crawl out of death purely to smack his younger self. Probably both.
Beside me, Lily went very still.
Across the table, Marlene's eyes lit up like she had just been handed front-row seats to a duel, a scandal, and a Quidditch final all at once.
Alice looked like she was seconds from choking on toast.
I slowly set down my fork. Then I smiled. "Amara," I said.
Sirius's grin widened. "Pretty name."
"Amara Black."
The grin froze. It was honestly beautiful. Sirius blinked once. Then again. His gaze snapped from my face to my hair, back to my eyes, then down to where my robes failed spectacularly at hiding my body, then back to my face with an expression that suggested his entire flirtation engine had just thrown a piston. "...Black?" he repeated.
I rested my chin on my hand and smiled wider. "Yes."
"As in…"
"As in the Black family, yes."
His confidence faltered in real time. "Huh."
"Something wrong?"
"No," he said quickly. "No, just—er—I've never heard of anyone in the family named Amara."
"You wouldn't have," I said smoothly. "I'm from an American branch that split off and kept ourselves hidden." That was probably a terrible lie. I had no idea if the Black family had an American branch in this timeline. I had no idea if pureblood records would back me up, if someone would check, if Walburga would somehow materialize from a fireplace to scream at everyone about proper genealogy.
But Sirius was eighteen, impulsive, and had just discovered he might have accidentally flirted with a hot cousin. The lie did not need to be perfect.
Sirius stared at me for another long second. Then he groaned. Sirius Black threw his head back slightly and groaned like fate had personally wronged him. "Of course," he said pitifully. "Of course the hot new transfer girl turns out to be my freaking cousin."
Lily, who had been holding herself very stiffly beside me, relaxed so suddenly her shoulder bumped mine.
I laughed before I could stop myself. The sound came out softer than expected.
Sirius glanced at me, his expression comically mournful, but the heat in his eyes had vanished completely.
"I still wouldn't mind getting to know you," I offered.
Sirius rebounded instantly, because apparently the boy had emotional elasticity other people would kill for. "Well, I wouldn't mind getting to know a member of my family who isn't all about dark magic and blood purity." He paused, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You're not about that stuff, are you?"
I looked at him. I grinned. "I love dark magic," I said with a cheeky grin. That was the honest truth after all.
Sirius's expression did something complicated.
Lily's elbow twitched, probably considering whether she needed to stop me from causing an incident before toast.
"But," I continued, "I despise anyone who thinks blood purity actually matters."
Sirius studied me.
I held his gaze. Blood purity was stupid. Blood was useful for rituals, curses, ancestry, inheritance, and occasionally turning someone's veins into boiling soup when they annoyed me enough. But as a measure of worth? Please. I had met purebloods who could barely cast under pressure and Muggleborns who could reshape the world if someone handed them the right book and enough spite.
Blood did not make people powerful. Choices did. Pain did. Obsession did. Love did, annoyingly.
"And," I added, because apparently I had woken up and chosen violence, "I just shagged Lily Evans in the prefects' bathroom, so obviously I'm dating a Muggleborn and don't care."
Lily choked next to me. Pumpkin juice went down the wrong way, and she doubled forward coughing while smacking me in the shoulder with one hand. "Amara!"
I barely moved under the impact, but I looked deeply wounded anyway. "What? Was that not public information?"
"No!"
"It was about to be. You are not subtle right now."
Marlene and Alice were cackling. Marlene had one hand over her stomach. Alice was bright red and half-collapsed against the table, wheezing like my emotional support scandal had physically attacked her.
Sirius, meanwhile, had gone crimson. That was unexpected. His eyes had unfocused slightly, and I could practically see the exact moment his imagination supplied visuals. Then he muttered, very quietly, "Nice."
Lily made a sound of pure betrayal.
I stared at Sirius.
He cleared his throat and looked away, suddenly very interested in a sausage on his plate. "I mean, ah, good for Evans. Respectfully."
"Pfft—Respectfully!" Marlene repeated, losing another battle with laughter.
Lily buried her face in both hands again. I patted her back. She swatted me without looking.
Sirius recovered faster than she did, because of course he did. "Too bad James is going to be a bit disappointed, though."
The name hit wrong. James Potter existed somewhere farther down this table. Young and alive and probably not yet the monster who had pointed a wand at my chest and called me a pathetic squib. Not yet the man who had wanted me dead because of a prophecy. Not yet the father who had tried to sell me like breeding stock.
Or maybe never that man at all. Different world. Different choices. Still, my hand tightened around my fork.
Lily noticed me looking upset but obviously didn't know why. Her knee pressed against mine beneath the table, small and grounding.
Sirius kept talking, oblivious or pretending to be. "Oh well. I keep telling him there are plenty of other women at Hogwarts and I can hook him up. All he has to do is ask."
Lily dropped her hands from her face and shot him a flat look. The look on her face told me that she was currently representing all of those 'other women' at Hogwarts. "How very generous of you."
He tilted his head and smirked at her, leaning around me. "I am a generous soul."
She rolled her eyes. "You are an idiot."
His grin was still there. "Also true!"
I took a slow breath and forced my fingers to loosen before I bent the fork in half.
I watched the exchange with a strange, tight feeling that began to loosen inside me. It should have been painful. And it was. But it was also… absurdly normal.
Sirius teasing. Lily snapping back. Marlene and Alice grinning. The Gryffindor table alive around us. James Potter reduced to an annoying teenage boy with a crush instead of the monster from my nightmares. It made me want to laugh. It made me want to burn something. My emotions were developing a lot more range now that my skills and drawbacks were less metaphysical concepts and were now just a part of me.
Sirius leaned closer, his tone shifting slightly. Less teasing now. More serious beneath the grin. "Jokes aside, you should watch out for Snivelus."
Lily stiffened.
Snivelus? Does he mean Severus Snape?
I glanced at Lily, because her reaction had been immediate.
The second Sirius said that ridiculous nickname, her shoulders stiffened, her mouth tightened, and something complicated passed behind her eyes. Anger. Hurt. Guilt. Exhaustion. The emotional cocktail of someone whose past had just walked into breakfast and wiped its greasy boots on the table.
So, yes. Snivelus definitely meant Severus Snape.
Wonderful. I did not know why I would have to watch out for a guy I had not even met in my own timeline, let alone this one. In my world, Snape had been a name attached to old stories, future betrayals, dead loyalties, and the kind of bitter obsession that apparently survived decades. Here, he was just some teenage Slytherin with poor hair care, worse politics, and—if Sirius's warning meant anything—a disturbing interest in Lily.
Which meant he had already annoyed me conceptually. "What exactly am I watching out for?" I asked.
Sirius opened his mouth, probably to say something dramatic and unhelpful.
Lily cut him off. "Nothing! He doesn't matter!"
Marlene snorted. Alice gave Lily a look that suggested she respected the lie but found it deeply stupid.
I turned my head slowly toward Lily. She avoided my eyes by becoming very interested in buttering toast.
"Lily," I said.
"It's complicated…" she whined.
"That is almost never a good answer."
"It is when the alternative is discussing Severus Snape at breakfast," she said tightly.
Sirius made a face. "See? Even saying his name makes the eggs taste worse."
She glared at him.
"What? It's true!" he added quickly.
I looked between them, then decided I did not actually need the full explanation right this second. Lily's expression had gone too brittle. Whatever history sat there, it was raw. I could pry later.
Or set someone on fire later. Both were valid investigative techniques.
"I'm sure I can handle one greasy Slytherin," I said lightly.
Sirius leaned back with a grin that did not quite hide the warning in his eyes. "Probably. Still, if he starts hovering around corners looking like a cursed bat with abandonment issues, don't drink anything he gives you."
"Sound advice in general," I said. My goblet, empty after my earlier pumpkin juice experiments, vanished and reappeared full again with a soft pop.
Convenient. Too convenient, in hindsight. But I had been distracted by Sirius Black being alive beside me, Lily Evans being warm against my other side, Marlene and Alice watching us like we were a serialized romance they planned to review loudly, and the general absurdity of my life.
So I reached for the goblet. Lifted it and sipped. And I immediately realized something was very wrong.
The swallow stopped halfway down like invisible claws had clamped around my windpipe. My fingers spasmed around the goblet, metal denting beneath my grip with a sharp little crunch. The pumpkin juice hit my stomach, and fire bloomed there. A burning agony that clawed through my stomach lining and surged outward through my veins.
Ah. Well. This was new. Someone has poisoned me.
Approximately thirty seconds after Sirius warned me to watch out for Snape. Subtlety was apparently dead in this timeline.
"Amara?" Lily's voice cut through the sudden roaring in my ears.
I tried to answer. Nothing came out.
Her hand landed on my arm. "Amara, what's wrong?"
Sirius's teasing expression vanished instantly. "Amara?"
The pain sharpened. My stomach twisted like something inside it had brought a knife. Heat licked up my throat, trying to burn its way back out. My vision flickered at the edges, not black, but red—dark red, blood red, rage red.
Nyx stirred beneath my robes. A tiny alarmed chirp pressed against my chest.
Not now, baby bird.
I forced my face still. That was harder than it should have been. My body wanted to react. My magic wanted to explode outward and turn the entire Great Hall into an autopsy. My instincts wanted claws, wings, tail, fire, screaming. Something had dared put poison in my body. Something had dared do that while Lily's hand was on my arm and Sirius Black was sitting beside me alive and young and looking suddenly terrified.
I stamped down hard on those emotions.
My regeneration surged first. It moved like a tide under my skin, fast and brutal, sealing damage before the poison could fully take root. Cells burned, died, remade themselves. My throat tore open enough to breathe, then healed. My stomach lining dissolved in patches, then knitted back together stronger than before.
Then my dark magic woke up. It uncoiled from the deep places Death had carved inside me, black and silver and hungry. It found the poison like a predator catching scent. The foreign magic tried to cling, tried to burrow into blood and nerves and gut.
My magic ate it. There was no better word. The poison vanished in pieces, stripped apart, smothered, devoured, erased so completely that even the lingering burn faded to nothing. One second, my stomach was full of liquid agony. The next, it was simply… gone.
My throat loosened. Air rushed in. I coughed once and then twice.
Lily's grip tightened. "Amara!"
Sirius had half-risen from the bench, with his wand already in his hand. Across the table, Marlene had hers out too, face sharp and pale. Alice looked terrified but ready to start hexing people purely on principle.
The entire Gryffindor section near us had gone quiet.
I coughed one more time, then forced a smile. "I'm fine," I rasped.
Lily did not look convinced for even half a second. "You couldn't breathe."
I waved her off. "I'm fine. It was just… Some pumpkin juice went down the wrong pipe."
Sirius stared at me.
Marlene stared at me.
Alice stared at me.
Lily stared at me like she had personally invented disbelief.
I picked up a piece of toast and took a bite because apparently that was what casual people did after nearly being poisoned at breakfast. It crunched nicely.
"That," Sirius said slowly, still holding his wand, "did not look like pumpkin juice going down the wrong pipe."
"Maybe I have a dramatic throat."
Marlene choked.
Alice whispered, "Merlin."
Lily's eyes narrowed. "Amara…?"
I gave her my most innocent smile.
Judging by her expression, it was a terrible smile. Zero credibility. Possibly negative credibility.
Sirius slowly lowered himself back onto the bench, though he did not put his wand away. "For a second there, I thought Snivellus had just poisoned you out of nowhere or something!"
The sentence landed with all the subtlety of a brick through stained glass.
I fake-rolled my eyes. "Please. I doubt anyone would try to blatantly kill me in Hogwarts…"
Every person within earshot looked at me like I had just said something incredibly stupid.
Which, fair.
This was Hogwarts. A school where children apparently learned beside staircases that could toss them into corridors, lived near a forest full of murder-spiders and worse, and had a giant lake containing flesh-eating merpeople who everyone just politely pretended were fine.
Maybe attempted murder at breakfast was less surprising than I wanted it to be?
Still, I kept my expression bored and dismissive. Inside, my mind had gone cold. Very cold. My head tilted slightly toward the Slytherin table. My eyes swept along the green-and-silver line of students. Several boys watched the Gryffindor table with expressions ranging from curiosity to disgust. A few girls whispered behind raised hands.
No greasy hair. No big nose. No obvious Severus Snape-shaped rat staring at me with guilt, triumph, or obsessive rage. If it was him, it looks like he wasn't at the scene of his own crime…
Lily followed my gaze. Her voice dropped. "Amara… Are you sure you are ok?"
I turned back with a bright smile. "What?"
"That was not nothing. You were choking on more than just pumpkin juice."
"That's not true. I am the picture of health."
She pointed at the table in front of me. "You dented your goblet."
I looked down. Yes. The metal goblet was bent inward where my fingers had crushed it. Rude of it to expose me like that. I set it carefully on the table and pushed it away. "Such cheap craftsmanship. Where is the school budget going these days, am I right? I bet they spend it all on fancy racing rooms for the Quidditch teams!"
Sirius barked a laugh despite himself, but his eyes stayed narrowed. He glanced around the Great Hall like he was searching for Snape as well. He was smarter than he acted. My Sirius had been too.
Lily leaned closer, her voice low enough that only our little group could hear. "Tell me the truth. Were you poisoned just now?"
I met her eyes. For one second, I considered lying again. Then I remembered her in the bath, brave and blushing and telling me she knew I would leave. I remembered her hand in my hair. Her worry at the castle doors. Her choosing not to run when my horns came out.
I still lied. "Yes," I said sweetly, "I was poisoned by the sheer horror of English pumpkin-based beverages. Seriously, what's wrong with plain orange juice?"
That made her pout at me. "Amara!"
"I'm fine…."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the answer you are getting at breakfast."
Sirius leaned forward, voice equally low. "If Snape did something—"
"We don't know that he did," Lily snapped at Sirius. "I'm not friends with him anymore after he changed in fifth year, but I don't think he'd try to kill someone he never met!"
"I don't know who did it," I said quietly. That was true enough. "But," I added, picking up my fork again, "I am going to find out. And they won't like it when I do."
Lily's fingers brushed mine beneath the table. "No murder before breakfast," she reminded me softly.
I smiled down at my eggs. "Of course. Everyone knows murder is best performed on a full stomach."
Sirius looked at me like he was reassessing every assumption he had made since sitting down beside me.
I took another bite of bacon and let the noise of the Great Hall slowly resume around us. Whispers picked back up. Forks scraped plates. Students laughed nervously and pretended not to stare.
My smile stayed lazy. My posture stayed relaxed. Inside, my magic stretched awake, dark and patient and very, very angry. Someone in this castle had tried to kill me with poisoned pumpkin juice.
I did not know if it was Severus Snape.
But I would find out.
XXX