Author's Note
I've decided not to write in the same style I used for Chapter 10 ("Nerves") again—it just took way too much time and energy. So if you happened to enjoy that one more, I'm sorry! But I hope you'll still enjoy the story as it unfolds.
_______________________________________________________
The greenhouse air clung to Illuna's robes as she lingered after Herbology, the scent of damp soil and crushed Dittany leaves thick in her lungs. Midnight perched on her shoulder, her tail flicking lazily as she surveyed the plants with an air of feline entitlement.
"Professor Sprout," Illuna began, her voice measured, "I apologize for Midnight's presence. She tends to… wander."
Sprout chuckled, wiping her hands on her dirt-streaked apron. "No worries, dear. She been visiting me for some time—sneaks in when classes begin usually . Fascinating little thing, isn't she?" She reached out, scratching under Midnight's chin. She purred, leaning into her touch like a traitor.
Illuna's eye widened "she usually doesn't let other touch her, she seems to like you" She hoisted Midnight into her arms, scrutinizing his smug face.
"Perhaps she's bored. Classes leave less time for… companionship." Sprout's said.
With a smirk she added "and I'm quite… experienced with cats"
Illuna raised an eyebrow.
Sprout's smile deepened, her eyes twinkling. "Oh, I've plenty of experience with cats. They're curious creatures—this one is really insistent on trying to get to my venomous tentacula?"
Illuna nodded "I'll keep her away from them from now on then.
Tessa was waiting outside, her butter-yellow scarf bright against the overcast sky. "So?" she asked, falling into step beside Illuna. "Vi's on prefect duty near the library. We'll need your friends to sweeten the deal—she'll need some convincing.
Illuna adjusted Midnight's weight on her shoulder. "Lily's charm should suffice. Severus's… presence may require tolerance."
Tessa snorted. "That bad?"
"He's like a Diricawl," Illuna mused. "Spiky exterior, soft interior… I think"
Tessa burst out laughing. "Merlin, tell him that to his face. I'll pay you."
They found Lily and Snape beneath their usual oak, its gnarled roots cradling them like an old guardian. Lily was scribbling notes, her hair a vibrant splash of red against the parchment, while Snape glowered at a potions text as if it had personally offended him.
"Introductions," Illuna announced. "Tessa Lavender, Hufflepuff first-year. Her sister, Vi, is a prefect who might help us."
Lily sprang up, beaming. "Brilliant! Nice to meet you, Tessa!"
Snape barely glanced up. "Charmed."
Tessa grinned. "Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the dungeons."
Lily elbowed Illuna. "This is Tessa? The one you mentioned in Herbology? She's exactly how you described."
Illuna stiffened. "I don't recall describing her."
"You said, and I quote, 'competent and tolerable.'" Lily smirked. "High praise from you."
Snape exhaled sharply through his nose. "Spare us the theatrics. Are we securing permission or not?"
Tessa leaned toward Lily, stage-whispering, "Is he always this sunny?"
"Only on good days," Lily deadpanned.
Snape shot them both a withering look, but Illuna caught the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth—almost amusement.
The group trekked toward the library, Tessa chattering about Vi's patrol routes while Lily matched her energy effortlessly. Illuna and Snape lagged behind, a silent duo in the storm of chatter.
Ahead, Lily groaned. "Merlin, these two. It's like herding Graphorns." She looped her arm through Tessa's. "Thank goodness you're here. Someone who actually talks."
"I only speak when necessary" Illuna protested.
"And I only talk to people I care about," Snape added iceily, then immediately regretted it when Lily gasped in mock excitement.
"I knew you cared" she said smugly
Tessa cackled. "You two are terrible at defending yourselves."
---
Tessa cupped her hands around her mouth and called down the corridor, "Vi? Where are you? You said you'd be patrolling near the—"
"I am patrolling."
A voice spoke directly behind them, so sudden that Lily yelped, Snape's shoulders jerked like he'd been electrocuted, and even Illuna's grip on Midnight tightened. Only Tessa didn't flinch—just spun around with an exasperated glare.
Vi stood there, arms crossed, her dark hair blending into the shadowed alcove she'd emerged from. Her crimson eyes gleamed with mischief.
"You said you'd stop sneaking up on me!" Tessa huffed.
Vi smirked. "At home, maybe. Never specified Hogwarts."
Lily, recovering, squinted between them. "You're sisters? But—different hair, different eyes…"
Snape gave a slow shrug. "Adoption, perhaps."
Illuna shook her head. "No, they're biological. Genetic recombination can produce striking phenotypic variance in siblings, especially if—"
"Illuna," Tessa groaned, cutting her off. "Not the time for the science lecture." She jabbed a finger at Vi. "And you—what are you doing lurking in dark corners? Avoiding responsibilities again?"
Vi's smirk didn't waver. "Prefects don't avoid. We strategically delegate." She tilted her head. "Now. What do you lot want?"
"Don't change the—!" Tessa began, but Lily, ever the diplomat, stepped forward.
"We need supervision for advanced Transfiguration practice," she said brightly. "McGonagall won't allow it without a prefect, and you're the one we know the most."
Vi arched a brow. "Flattery? From a Gryffindor? Merlin, you must be desperate."
"We are," Tessa grumbled. "And you're going to help, because—"
"oh do I now ?" Vi mused.
"Yes, you set my hair on fire!"
"That was a accident"
"Was it!?"
Lily gasped. "You set her hair on fire?"
"my first year at Hogwarts charm incident," Vi said breezily. "during charismas.
Tessa threw her hands up. "you shot me with flame!"
Snape, who had been observing the chaos with the air of a man watching flobberworms mate, finally spoke. "If you agree to this, you'll reduce your workload. Watching us requires no effort—just your presence. And if we're caught, we take the blame."
A beat. Vi studied him, then smirked. "Slytherin logic. I respect it." She flicked her prefect badge. "Fine. But if McGonagall asks, this was your idea, not mine."
Tessa groaned. "Unbelievable. You'll skulk in shadows but won't own up to your misdoings against me?"
Vi ruffled her sister's hair, dodging a half-hearted swipe. "Where's the fun in that?"
_______________________________________________________
The stone corridors stretched before them as the group made their way to McGonagall's office, the flickering torchlight casting their shadows long against the walls. Illuna walked slightly apart, her fingers absently tracing the edge of her textbook as she observed her friends with quiet fascination.
Tessa and Lily move like a matched set of Cornish pixies, she mused, watching the two redheads animatedly discussing some Herbology mishap, their laughter bouncing off the arched ceilings. *Instant kinship—perhaps inevitable. Both warm, both quick to smile. Though Tessa's humour has sharper edges, while Lily's is… brighter. Like sunlight versus candle flame.*
A dry voice cut through her thoughts. "If you stare any harder, you'll bore holes through their skulls."
Illuna blinked. Snape had fallen into step beside her, his expression as inscrutable as ever, though there was the faintest crease between his brows that she'd learned meant curiosity.
"Just observing group dynamics," she murmured. "You contribute strategically. Tessa and Lily dominate conversation. I speak only when—"
"Facts are required," Snape finished, his lips quirking. "An efficient system."
Illuna nodded. *Yes. Efficient.* The word settled comfortably in her chest. This odd collection of personalities shouldn't work—a loudmouthed Gryffindor, a rule-bending Hufflepuff, a sardonic Slytherin, and herself—yet somehow it did. Like a well-balanced potion where volatile ingredients stabilized each other.
A sudden weight on her shoulder made her startle.
"Daydreaming, little raven?" Vi's breath tickled her ear as the older girl materialized at her side, hand resting lightly on her shoulder. "We're here."
Illuna hadn't even noticed they'd reached the Transfiguration classroom. Through the half-open door, she could see Professor McGonagall at her desk, the rhythmic tapping of her quill against parchment the only sound in the otherwise silent room. The afternoon sunlight streaming through the high windows turned the dust motes into floating gold, catching in the stern lines of their professor's face as she looked up.
"Professor?" Lily stepped forward, her usual exuberance tempered into perfect respectful posture. "We were hoping to discuss supervised practice sessions for Transfiguration outside of class"
McGonagall's gaze swept over them like a hawk assessing particularly troublesome prey. "This isn't a duelling club, Miss Evans. Unsupervised practice—especially with advanced theory—is how students accidentally transfigure their themselves to a early grave."
Illuna saw her opening. "Which is precisely why we want supervision," she said, her voice measured. "Other students practice in their common rooms without oversight. We're asking to do this properly. Safely."
Snape added, tone drier than desert air, "And if anyone's going to attempt truly advanced Transfiguration, it certainly wouldn't be this group. We have some self-preservation instincts."
McGonagall's lips thinned, but Illuna caught the flicker of amusement in her eyes. The professor turned to Vi. "And you volunteered for this… babysitting duty?"
Vi shrugged, the picture of nonchalance. "Yeah, you could call it that."
For a long moment, the only sound was the distant chatter of students in the courtyard below. Then McGonagall sighed, setting down her quill with deliberate precision.
"Very well. But Miss Lavender—any hint of unsafe practice, and you report it immediately. No vanishing into secret passages."
Vi's mock-salute was almost, but not quite, disrespectful.
McGonagall continued "here are my conditions:
First, you tell no one of this
Second you'll do it within the room a will assign to you tomorrow
And lastly, you will not do it without Vi there"
All of them nodded in unison.
As they turned to leave, McGonagall's final warning followed them: "One midhap, and this privilege vanishes faster than a first-year's courage facing a boggart."
The heavy oak door had barely closed behind them when Tessa exhaled loudly. "Merlin's beard. So now we just have to… not set ourselves on fire?"
Snape didn't break stride as he replied, "A low bar, but given this group's history, let's not trip over it."
Lily's laughter echoed down the corridor, bright and uncontained, and Illuna found herself smiling too—just slightly—as they stepped into the golden afternoon light.