Chapter 52: A Slytherin or a Gryffindor

"Why are you looking at me like that, I'm not going to expose my own cousin, besides even if I wanted to, there's no proof" explained Hermione clarifying that Severus had burned the evidence so no one would know quite what happened.

"Well..., it's weird," said Gwen staring at Hermione.

"What's weird?" asked Hermione confused.

"If I remember correctly, you were the only one who didn't react to the use of dark magic by the two of them and you even helped them right away to confront the wizards without bothering at first to get them killed, did Severus already tell you that he knew dark magic, even so, I don't understand how you didn't react to the death of those wizards," asked Gwen raising an eyebrow in a sign of doubt.

"Yes, now that you say it it's true, with the blonde we froze for a few moments, but your cousin didn't seem the least bit affected by you guys suddenly using dark magic to kill those wizards" Ethan pondered the obvious.

"Severus had already told me something or other and then I drew my own conclusions, it wasn't that difficult, besides that at the time I simply considered the threat over what kind of magic they were using and I can't worry about the death of others when my own life is in danger" explained Hermione while Severus only nodded bored, since it was true what she said, he had told her something or other, but because she had asked him.

"What I don't think is right is what they did afterward, I don't agree with the two of them killing the wizards who were already stunned, there was no need" Hermione reproached again.

She didn't blame them for defending themselves and killing in a confrontation, herself went through many situations like that, but killing an unprotected wizard was not an honorable thing to do.

"They were a threat," Severus said calmly.

"They no longer had wands and were stunned" Hermione refuted.

"They were still a threat, who knows what they could have done had they suddenly stood up" clarified Severus again calmly.

"We could have tied them up and restrained them," Hermione complained.

"They would still remain a threat and besides, we had no time to waste with Freyja injured" clarified Severus as he glared at her.

"I understand that.... it just doesn't seem to me like it was the way."

"That's where we think differently Hermione, if it had been a different situation I probably wouldn't have killed them, but we didn't have time to waste on scum."

Gwen and Ethan stood quietly listening to the two argue.

It was nothing new for them, Hermione and Severus had already argued a bit at the time when Sasaki and he started killing the stunned wizards, now they were just arguing again the same thing they had already debated before, only before Severus didn't bother to listen to Hermione's complaints.

Shortly after their conversation, the doctor who was treating Freyja finally left the medical room.

"How is Freyja?" asked the 5 as they got up from their seats.

" Calm everyone, she is fine, now she just needs to rest and she will be able to recover completely," said the doctor to the group of 5, making them sigh in relief.

"Thank you, thank you so much" Gwen thanked her as the rest also bowed in thanks.

"Oh dears, I didn't do too much, your friend is very strong and it was thanks to her elf blood that she has a higher magic resistance than the others," the medic told them with a kind smile.

"Elf?" wondered the 5 without understanding what she meant.

"That's right, didn't you know, your friend is clearly a half-elf, just by her ears you could tell her apart" the doctor commented puzzled.

None of the 5 knew what to say, Freyja always had normal ears and during the chaos of the battle, they paid no attention to Freyja's ears.

"This..., are you sure it's not because of the evil spell she received, maybe it caused that in her ears," said a confused Ethan.

"No dear, I have no doubt that she is half-human and half-elf, but from how disconcerted you 5 are I'm guessing she didn't tell you and it was the curse that showed her true identity" sighed the medic.

"Well... the truth is we didn't know, but obviously she had her reasons for not telling, we all have secrets," said Gwen.

"That's right, she will have her reasons and for that very reason, I would like to ask you doctor to keep her identity as a half-elf a secret," asked Severus kindly to the medic.

"Darling, you mustn't worry, if I hadn't thought that you already knew due to her being brought in that state, I would never have told you anything," said the kind doctor.

"Thank you" again all 5 thanked her.

"You may go in now, but remember she is still unconscious" with that the kind doctor let them into Freyja's room.

When they entered, the 5 saw Freyja lying sleeping like an angel on a white bed.

The five of them approached her and felt calmer.

Now that they knew that she was not going to have any after-effects from the spell, they could all be more at ease.

Sasaki on the other hand stared at Freyja and tightened his grip.

'It was my responsibility to take care of her, and she was the only one who ended up in a medical bed, damn, how come these things always happen to me' thought Sasaki with frustration and anger.

While the rest of the group calmly observed Freyja's ears and it was just as the doctor had said.

'Elf ears' thought the group.

"Looks like it's true then, Freyja is a half-elf," said Ethan as if anyone else would have doubted a professional medic in Ilvermorny.

"Yes, but that doesn't change anything and she should know that when she wakes up," Gwen told them seriously.

"Relax Gwen, no one blames Freyja for not telling us that and we are not going to force her to tell us anything either, when she feels like it, she will tell us her reasons," Severus said as he pulled out his wand and applied a silencing spell that transformed Freyja's ears back to how she had them before.

Everyone nodded in agreement with what Severus said.

"By the way guys, you said Freyja was from China didn't you?" asked Hermione suddenly.

Gwen and Severus who knew her the most nodded, while Ethan just listened and Sasaki still looked at Freyja with regret.

"I understand that Chinese magical society is quite conservative, as are the pureblood noble houses" Hermione commented.

"You mean Freyja was likely discriminated before coming to the USA?" asked Gwen.

"Well, I can't say for sure, but the possibility is there" Hermione replied and then looked at Freyja sadly.

'I can't imagine what she had to go through in a society like that, if Hogwarts alone was hard for me the first few years with the insults from the Slytherins, I can't imagine a whole society' Hermione thought and then looked at Sasaki who had stared at Freyja.

'He seems to process everything that happened today worse than Severus, maybe I should tell him to talk to Sasaki to calm him down, or I could try, Severus must already be going through too much to have to bother him with something else' Hermione said to herself and decided that it would be best if she talked to Sasaki.

She really wanted to talk to Severus who was her biggest concern, she wanted to comfort him and support him as he had helped her when she arrived at this time with no one by her side.

He had been her support without asking for anything in return, and she was grateful for that, and now she saw that he was in a bad moment and she really wanted to help him, but she knew that now Severus didn't need comfort.

She knew Severus was a very intelligent, dedicated, and calm person, he was also quite dark and terrifying when he got angry but there were many more things that defined him.

But it was pride that defined Severus the most, he thought he was better than others and she could understand that since she always considered herself smarter than the majority, but Severus was the type of person who preferred to deal with his personal problems alone.

He would take advice and listen to what others had to say, but he didn't like others intervening in his personal affairs.

And if she had seen that Severus needed advice she would have given it to him, but now he seemed better off alone than with her meddling and bothering him.

A short time later Freyja woke up.

"Freyja!...are you okay?" said Sasaki quickly who was beside her.

Little Freyja smiled wordlessly and then nodded her head reassuringly.

"Freyja how are you feeling?" asked Gwen as she grabbed Freyja's warm hand.

"A little dizzy, as if I'm drunk" replied Freyja.

"Oh, and how do you know what it feels like to be drunk? I thought you never drank" asked Severus smiling warmly at her.

"Hehe, I read it in a magazine that explained how it felt and I assumed it was the same feeling," said Freyja sticking out her tongue mischievously.

Severus could only laugh lightly at her little friend's behavior.

They all continued to chat with her for a while without mentioning anything about her being a half-elf.

Then she began to yawn.

"You're tired, you'd better rest Freyja, you must recover," Severus told her.

"But...but, I'm not tired" Freyja complained with a cute pout, but her yawns gave her away.

"Come on everyone, let's let Freyja rest, otherwise the doctor won't let us come to see you," Gwen told her.

"Yes, rest now, then we can keep talking all you want, I promise" Severus promised her.

Seeing that Severus and Gwen were leaving her no choice, Freyja quickly searched with her eyes focused on Sasaki.

"Severus and Gwen are right, you'd better rest," Sasaki told her despite being tempted by the cute imploring look she was giving him.

"Ugh, fine, but you'd better come often, I don't like doctors," Freyja said accepting that she had no choice.

"We promise, now go to sleep," Gwen told her with a smile as she covered her up and had everyone else leave the room to let her sleep peacefully.

After letting Freyja sleep, the first to say goodbye to the group was Sasaki who left the group without saying much.

"Well, I should go too, I'm sure my sister will want to know everything that happened today, you know how she is," Ethan said goodbye to the group.

Severus nodded as he knew how much his sister cared about him.

"I understand, good luck telling her everything that happened today" replied Severus amused knowing that it wouldn't be easy for him to do that at all.

"Yeah, I don't think she'll like it one bit when she finds out" sighed Ethan as he left.

"If he doesn't find out already" clarified Severus making Ethan's face darken at the thought of that possibility.

"I have to go home too, although my parents should know everything by now, they're going to want to know things from my side" Gwen greeted as well.

"That sounds like trouble too," Hermione said with a smile remembering her parents.

"Not so much, my mom is pretty calm, my dad?... well..., he can be a problem," said Gwen thinking about how overprotective her father could be with some things.

"Being an Auror he must have seen a lot of things so it's understandable from his part."

"I guess so, see you Hermione, Prince, good luck" Gwen said as she walked away.

"See you Gwen" they both greeted her.

"Hermione, I have a few things to do before I go to the manor, anyway I'll meet you there, yes?" said Severus as he was getting ready to leave

"No problem Severus, see you there" nodded Hermione with a smile.

"Perfect, see you in a bit then," said Severus as he turned to leave.

"Severus!" Hermione called out to him suddenly.

"Yes?" asked Severus turning around to see her.

"You..., just don't do anything dumb please."

"Come on Hermione, you know I'm a Slytherin not a Gryffindor" Severus scoffed.

"I know, but I'd rather make sure."

"Thank you for your concern, but for now you don't have to worry, if anything had happened to Freyja then I might have acted like a Gryffindor" Severus said with a smile as he turned and walked away again.

"If only you realized that you have more Gryffindor in you than you think" Hermione mumbled.

Severus didn't get to hear her and continued walking away.

After that, Hermione made up her mind and quickly went to find Sasaki to talk to him.

She had already seen that look he had, she had seen it in Professor Snape's memories, it was very similar to the look Snape had when he decided to become a death eater.