xxiii. apology

                                    

                                          
When the morning light came creeping through the lake's shallows and Harriet opened her eyes to the dappled green glow warming her bedsheets, she could little remember the eerie voice she'd heard in the dungeons the night before. Indeed, the whole evening felt fuzzy to Harriet, and if it weren't for the rumpled sheet of parchment she unearthed from her used robes, she would have thought it all just another strange dream.
                          
She stared down at the page, touching the spidery letters at the top, and thought, Snape was in an odd mood.
                          
Being a Sunday, Millicent and Pansy still slept, the latter snoring into her silk pillows, but the rest of the beds were empty and made, leaving Harriet to make her way into the washroom on her own, getting ready for the day. Livius stuck his nose out from under the bed's skirts when she returned, but he otherwise remained quiet, content to remain in his nest, the Warming Charm thrown over his blankets by Hermione. Kevin went into his favored pocket in her robes.
                          
Once washed and dressed, Harriet grabbed her school bag and headed into the common room, but found neither Hermione or Elara there. She continued out of the dorms into the castle itself, and—yawning all the while—meandered to the library.
                          
She ended up taking the wrong corridor twice, passing a bust without a face three times, and each time she did, it asked her odd, raspy questions. Finally, she found a portrait of a witch herding geese who was kind enough to point out the proper path—interrupted by loud, obnoxious honking every other syllable—and Harriet managed to get to her destination.
                          
"There you are, Harriet," Hermione said, lifting her head from a yellowing tome as the bespectacled witch wandered over to the table. Others sat with Hermione, including Elara—slumped in her seat and half-asleep—the Ravenclaws Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein, and—surprisingly—Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood. The two first years looked up when Hermione spoke.
                          
"Hello, Harriet," Luna said, pale eyes wide as they faceted on the other girl.
                          
"'Lo," Harriet replied to Luna and the table in general, taking the seat left open at Elara's side. The taller witch dragged her own bag off the chair with a tired grunt. "Bit keen for studying on a Sunday, aren't you all?"
                          
"You missed breakfast," Hermione informed her with an imperious arch of her brow. "So no, it's not early at all, really."
                          
Elara and Weasley seemed to disagree, but neither chose to say anything. The latter had dark circles under her eyes and appeared paler than usual behind her numerous freckles, and though her bias against Slytherin still stung, Harriet asked, "How are you, Ginny?"
                          
Ginny shrugged.
                          
Madam Pince made her rounds, lurking like an angry, well-read vulture, and so their conversation subsided, the two younger students consulting what looked like Hermione's Transfiguration notes from the year before while Hermione tackled a Charms project with the Ravenclaws and Elara paged through a Herbology text, working on a supplemental essay for Sprout.
                          
Harriet took out her notes from the evening prior and, smoothing the sheet against, neatly tore off the bit holding her lines, leaving behind her hasty scribbles about Birch's Law.
                          
"Hermione?" she asked, getting the other witch's attention. "D'you know anything about Birch's Law? Or—VERD?"
                          
"VERD?" Anthony said before Hermione had the chance. "Professor Flitwick told us we won't touch any of Horwell Birch's theorems until well into our fourth year—and only in Arithmancy, after we cover Agrippa."
                          
Hermione clicked her tongue. "Birch's theorems aren't strictly Arithmancy. VERD, in particular, is covered in other subjects beyond Arithmancy, Anthony. Especially in Defense."