Chapter 56: Night Landscape

-Hogwarts, 25th November 1976

The day after the incident at the castle everything had been " solved".

Severus spoke to the head of Slytherin and managed to convince him to finally do something to control the situation...

And to everyone's surprise, Professor Slughorn took action, and very soon all the pages of parchment that said "THE BEGINNING OF VOLDEMORT'S RISE TO POWER" that were in Slytherin were either burnt or taken out.

In the other houses the situation was the same, Amelia told the Head of House in Ravenclaw and he took it upon himself to talk to the Heads of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff to remove all these pages from their houses.

Of course, these three had thought about talking to Slughorn so that he would do the same, but Amelia informed them that she had already spoken to Severus Prince and that he would take care of informing the Head of Slytherin about everything.

The Heads of the other three houses doubted that Severus could convince the proud Slughorn to do anything, but it wasn't long before they found out that he had succeeded and that Slytherin had also returned everything to "normal" thanks to the intervention of their Head of House.

In addition to this, Headmaster Dumbledore was personally present to remove from the castle all the pages of parchment that were in the many corridors, rooms, and stairs.

With his help, it was only a matter of moments before the castle was restored to its former state.

And today, the 25th of November, Severus had arranged to watch the second Quidditch match of the tournament between Ravenclaw and Slytherin with Pandora.

This was going to be an interesting match as both Olivia Greengrass and Amelia Bones were going to be playing against each other.

Severus arranged to watch the Quidditch match with Pandora to take advantage of the fact that she didn't seem to care much about the result and even though Severus enjoys watching Quidditch matches a bit as they make him remember various things from the past, he doesn't really have any preference as to who wins.

Today Severus was wearing a white shirt, as usual, the typical Slytherin tie, his black waistcoat over the top, and his robes covering him along with black trouser.

Although this was the usual outfit for most young wizards in Hogwarts, being all suited, with a few personal touches to better suit his body and mobility, it looked very good, it was unfortunate that they didn't allow him to wear anything other than the Hogwarts stipulated clothing, but at least Severus did a good job with what he had.

Severus was ready to meet Pandora, and honestly, he was quite curious to know the outcome of the match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, even though he as Snape went to several matches, he never paid attention to how Olivia or Amelia played, so he wanted to see this as well.

Once he arrived at the meeting point, he waited for Pandora, a few minutes passed and she didn't come, so, with nothing else to do, he sat down and began to read quietly.

Several minutes passed and Pandora arrived just in time, her hair was a mess and her clothes weren't much better.

Still, she approached him and greeted him with a smile.

"It's good to see you Sev, did you have to wait too much?"

"Just a few minutes nothing important, now tell me, did something happen?" said Severus with a raised eyebrow as he saw how she seemed to have gone through a rather complicated situation, her appearance almost made him remember how Padme looked after.... well... after doing some intimate things together.

Of course, he wouldn't think Pandora did such a thing..., though anything was possible.

She just smiled embarrassed though her embarrassment was only for knowing that she left him waiting, if she knew what Severus remembered seeing her like that she would surely be embarrassed for something else.

"Sorry Sev, it turns out I wanted to try a new spell today, and well... it didn't go as I expected, and this was the result heh," she said as she pointed to herself.

"I see, maybe next time you'll have better luck, if you need me to give you a hand let me know."

"I'll think about it, thanksss. So..., are you ready to go?" she smiled.

"Sure, like a few minutes ago," Severus joked.

"And you, are you planning on going in that way?" he added.

"Hmm yeah, would you mind?"

"No, Not at all, let's go then."

"Great, then I'm more than ready to leave for the Quidditch match," Pandora said enthusiastically.

"By the way, they didn't say anything to you in Ravenclaw about watching today's match with a Slytherin?" asked Severus just out of curiosity.

"Uh-oh, well, some of them just protested a bit about it being an important match, that they need Ravenclaw's full support and that I can't be with someone from the opposing team..., but nothing important," said Pandora.

Severus just smiled in amusement, she didn't really care about such things.

"There seem to be a lot of Quidditch fans in the magical world who tend to react like that..."

" Yeah, it's quite normal, I know quite a few, but well, my housemates were too excited to discuss much, so they didn't really tell me too much," Pandora said.

The two walked together towards the Quidditch stadium, as they both chatted and joked about everything although the most important topic was the match, Amelia, Olivia, and the new spell Pandora was trying out.

They both arrived at the Quidditch stadium just in time for the match to start in a few minutes, apparently, their chatting on the way there delayed them a little, but luckily they were on time, although if they had been late, neither would have minded too much.

But since Olivia and Amelia were playing in the game, they didn't want to miss it either.

The game lasted a few hours.

The Ravenclaw players and students were victorious as they were the ones who won the game, apparently, it was a hard-fought game until Ravenclaw's seeker managed to catch the golden snitch...

A good game where both teams could have won and both Olivia and Amelia had a great game.

Even though Slytherin lost, there were almost no snakes complaining about the result, a rather quiet atmosphere...

Although there were a lot of frustrated students for not being able to win.

As well as many Ravenclaws celebrating the victory.

Now if Slytherin's defeat had been against Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, Severus was convinced that the snakes would be quite angry.

The first to leave were the Slytherin players while the Ravenclaw players stayed for a while.

As the students began to leave the stadium, Severus joined Pandora and they decided to go and congratulate Amelia.

~~~~~~~

- Hogwarts, December 12th.

The night sky stretched over Hogwarts and Gryffindor Tower.

In the women's dormitories in Gryffindor, Lily Evans closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and leaning a little closer against the window frame of her room.

The cold, the darkness, the stars, the flecks of light on the glassy lake, they were beautiful.

They were among the most beautiful things Lily could imagine, especially when she remembered how she used to spend her first days at Hogwarts far away from home, far away from her parents...

When she was just starting Hogwarts her first years were difficult, she had a hard time adjusting to being away from her parents for so long, in a completely new world...

Yes, it was exciting, it was magnificent, it was magical...

Who wouldn't want to live in a magical world?

But she always had a good life with her family and her mates in the Muggle world, so even though everything was magical, it was still hard to be away from everything she knew.

It was those nights when she felt furthest away from her family that Severus used to sneak off with her into the castle to look up at the night sky and tell her all sorts of stories in an attempt to distract her a little.

Lily could only laugh at the thought of the nervous and tense expressions Severus' face made when she looked like she was about to cry.

He was a genius at many things, but when it came to dealing with feelings, emotions, or a crying girl, he was a disaster, but at least he tried, despite the awkwardness, he always had when faced with such situations.

Severus' attempts to help her may never have been very efficient, but his company was enough to make her feel comfortable in those cold, dark, depressing moments.

Those moments and memories were the ones that made her fall in love with the night landscape...

That's why there were days when she used to spend hours looking at this landscape like today, but this had to end.

"Lily, are you awake?" came Marlene's voice from her own bed, and Lily turned to see her friend, peering through the curtains of her bed.

She was still mostly lost in the landscape and memories.

"You know this is the fifth night already."

'It was the fourth' Lily thought, but she didn't argue the point because she knew it was true that ever since she had returned to Hogwarts this year she had been getting lost in her memories as she looked at the nightscape, she had already been several nights without a proper night's sleep.

"Go back to sleep, Mar."

But her friend just rolled her eyes and stood up and walked over to her, then Marlene stared at her seriously.

Sighing, Lily turned her gaze away, rested her chin on her hands, and closed her eyes, praying for sleep ... just five or six hours ...

The fourth night in a row... The fourth sleepless, beautiful, exhausting night in a row.

And the seventh time this month.

'A new record' thought Lily considering it hadn't been that long since December had started.

"Lily!" called back the voice of her friend who was now standing in front of her.

Lily turned her head away, she didn't want to pay attention to her, she didn't want to be kept away from this...

"Lily, it's 9:30 at night!"

"So?" asked Lily, it wasn't that late yet, well she might have missed dinner at eight but she doubted Marlene would get up just to tell her that...

'Shit' suddenly she remembered something important, Lily's eyes widened and now there was also Alice standing over her next to Marlene, her hands on her perfectly slim hips, while one brown eyebrow was arched.

Even Alice had come to the dormitory to fetch her, that must be why Marlene stood up.

"You slept on the windowsill again and missed dinner, Lily," Marlene said, as Lily stood up.

"Alice. Is it 9:30?" asked Lily ignoring what Marlene said, she didn't have time to argue about it.

Alice nodded.

"So our partners...?"

"They went to the feast half an hour ago. When I saw you weren't with your partner I assumed you were here again lost in your thoughts, so I told them to wait for us there and that we would go later," Alice said.

"Or would you rather not go?" she asked.

"No, it's fine, just give me a few minutes and I'll be ready," Lily said and then looked around the dormitory, trying to find her clothes for the party.

Alice, with a slight smile on her painted pink lips, pointed to Lily's bed.

"Thanks," Lily said grabbing her clothes and heading to the dresser.

"You know, you should talk to Poppy," said Marlene who was now sitting on her bed.

"What do you mean?" asked Lily, only half paying attention as she quickly changed and put on her makeup.

"Well, maybe Poppy could tell you what's been going on with you lately."

Lily gazed with her green eyes at Marlene in her mirror reflection.

"It's nothing serious..."

"Probably not," Alice said interjecting into the conversation.

"But it's affecting you, that's for sure" she added.

"Oh... yes, umm well, it probably has something to do with school being so stressful lately and you know... all the rest of it..." said Lily running a hand over her soft, beautiful red hair and deciding that she would have to comb it a bit.

"Right" Marlene nodded,

"I'm sure it is for that, but Poppy could help with it" she added.

Lily bit down on her fleshy red lip leaving a faint mark on her white teeth from the red rouge she was wearing.

"What about you two? Are you... Losing sleep...?"

"Oh no, I'm fine, sure I have my days with some boys, but nothing serious, well...studying can be a pain but only that" Marlene replied lightly.

Nodding Lily turned to look at Alice.

"Neither, I mean, maybe once in a while, but nothing serious, considering... you know..., Frank's position," Alice said, her tone of voice a little louder and more concerned than usual.

Yes, her boyfriend Frank Longbottom was already an Auror and part of the Order of the Phoenix...

Given the recent events in the magical world with the Dark Lord and his followers creating chaos, it's only natural that she would be worried about him.

Especially now that the threat seems to be getting worse every day, since what happened on the 1st of November it seems that the Dark Lord stopped caring about the consequences of his actions, it was no longer a war in the shadows, now it was public...

Now the entire magical community knew about him and feared him...

If before the people and the newspaper preferred to pretend that everything was under control, now it was impossible to continue thinking that, there was a war and no one could be sure that the Ministry of Magic would manage to win it.

"Alice..., I'm sure Frank will be fine, he's a very skilled and strong wizard, he knows how to take care of himself."

"I know, thank you, Lily" Alice just smiled.

"Now hurry up we're going to be very late already" she added.

A few minutes passed and Lily was finally ready.

"Alright shall we go then?" asked Alice.

"Yes, let's go" sighed Lily as she looked in the mirror at her reflection deprived of sleep, she was already tired just thinking about how much talking she would have to do at the feast, especially since they would ask her why she was so late, she would have to come up with some excuse.

Alice shook her head already knowing what she was thinking.

"We'll see you later, Mar."

"Right. See you, have a good time you two..." said Marlene.

"Oh and ... Lily... I'm sure it's nothing bad, but just in case try to relax with your partner, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to help you" she joked with a coquettishly smile as she winked at her.

Lily just rolled her eyes, Marlene had a lot of strange ideas...

She finally left the room with Alice and they both headed for Professor Slughorn's party.