A Challenge.

Leaving the Sefirah castle, Loki began to wonder about his trip into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid.

'I should go visit the Unicorns next time too, and I should also take some honey so that I can make a Bowtruckle friend, they were so cute!'

As Loki entered the Great Hall for lunch, he spotted Dominic and went to sit by his side.

"You look happier?" Dominic asked Loki since he was humming and smiling even while eating.

"Have you ever met a Unicorn? No right? But I did!" Loki explained happily.

"Haha~ Sorry to burst your bubble but I've met unicorns too, have you ever met a dragon? I've seen one in person too!"

"WAAA~!" Loki's mouth hung open as he realised that Dragons were a thing in this world. "Seriously!?" Loki asked in a hushed whisper.

"Yes, seriously. I've seen an Antipodean Opaleye, they're called the Royal breed because of how beautiful they look." Dominic whispered back.

"Waaa~! Now I'm jealous." Loki said and wondered when he'd find and see an Antipodean Opaleye. "What was it like being in front of a dragon?" Loki asked.

"They're magnificent creatures. Though it is a bit of a shame that in dragon sanctuaries they are always kept under sedation and are rarely ever let to fly freely lest a muggle spots them."

"What?! That's cruel." Loki tried to reason but Dominic shook his head.

"Not very, can you imagine what would happen if word got out among the muggles that Dragons are still alive and by extension wizards? There'd be mass chaos and panic everywhere."

Loki looked unconvinced because he could immediately think of a solution, "Why don't they use areas extended with the undetectable extension charms and create unimpeded sanctuaries for the dragons?"

"Hmm…now that you mention it, that would help, but I'm sure someone has already tried and there must be a reason why it isn't used."

'Or a great scary Spectator can use the Dragons to do something and everyone wants to prevent that from happening?'

Seeing how the conversation would go nowhere from there Loki skipped the topic and asked something else instead, "Can you recommend me a book about magical creatures?"

"Fantastic beasts and where to find them, that's on the list isn't it? Have you looked at it? It's a great book."

"Hmm…I haven't looked into it yet since it didn't interest me earlier but now that you mention it there was a book like that wasn't there, for which class is it though?" Loki asked since none of his current classes had used the book.

"Typically it is used for the care of magical creatures classes from the third year but sometimes the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor uses it too."

"Huh, no wonder I didn't know about it, I haven't been going to that godforsaken class."

"You hate Professor Quirrell don't you.", Dominic said with a smile.

"How are you people even sitting in his class, he just keeps reading the textbook with all his stutters. And that smell of garlic! Eww."

"Haha~ It's always been like this for us."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know about the curse?"

"Curse? Which curse?"

"The Curse on the Defense Against Dark Arts Professor Position."

"There's a curse on it?"

"Yes, each professor we've had for the position of the Defense Against the Dark Arts has met an unfortunate end by the end of the year-"

"-so all the students theorise that Headmaster Dumbledore picks bad teachers on purpose. Even if that isn't true, can you imagine how many people would want to apply to start work on a cursed position that has claimed several lives already?"

"Huh. All I see is Headmaster Dumbledore hasn't paid people enough to rid them of the fear of the curse. He's being stingy. Like always. And isn't he supposed to be the greatest wizard of all time or like the second coming of Merlin or something then why hasn't he gotten rid of the curse yet?"

"Haha~ True, could be possible."

"Hmpf. I'm always right with conspiracy theories." Loki said with a proud expression.

"Have a pleasant weekend Loki.", Dominic said and left the table to probably go read some more while Loki spent the rest of the day improving his control over spirituality, by etching a variety of shapes on pieces of paper.

'*Sigh* I can still only make a triangle with small dots on the paper. This is hard. But at least I can see myself improving even if it is at an extremely slow pace.'

Once Loki had dinner he set off toward Snape's office where he was excited about the new work he would probably be assigned today.

'Sorting ingredients for a week straight has been annoying. I hope I get something else, maybe help the Professor in making some strange potion?'

After soft *knocks* Loki walked into the office when Snape asked him to enter.

Entering the office, Loki immediately spotted Snape using his ladle to fill small glass bottles with a thick red liquid potion that looked as red as blood or like liquid ruby.

"What is this professor?" Loki asked while Snape was calmly handling the potion.

Snape ignored Loki as usual and asked him a question instead, "What phase of the moon is it today Loki?"

"Erm….I didn't see the moon outside so is it New Moon or somewhere close to it?"

Snape looked up from his potion a little surprised but then he continued asking Loki questions, "What is the significance of a New Moon in Arithmancy?"

"New Moon would correspond to a zero but I don't know which one it is, the normal meaning or the reverse meaning. Perhaps the Full Moon is the normal meaning of divinity and purity but wait a second-"

"-I remember reading about werewolves and how they correspond to the Full Moon so the New Moon is about divinity and Purity?"

Snape said nothing so Loki assumed he was right.

"Stopper these bottles.", Snape said calmly and Loki picked up corks from a bin where they were gathered and began to stopper the bottles filled with the red potion liquid.

Time passed in silence with Snape filling bottles and Loki placing corks in them as slowly Loki found himself studying the ingredients that had been left on the table, ingredients that Snape hadn't fully used.

"Wormwood, Bubotuber pus, the liver of some animal, Ditany and the tail hair of some creature?" Loki mumbled. "Are you making a healing potion?" Loki threw out his best guess as Snape filled the last bottle.

Pulling out a watch and looking at it Snape noticed the time was ten past ten.

"You have twenty minutes to make a batch of healing potions.", Snape said stepping away from the cauldron.

"Wha-!?"

Before Loki could even finish his question, Snape vanished behind the door deep into his office leaving behind a befuddled Loki.