Senna grumbled as usual while brewing potions for Lys, but since the neutralizer needed aged ingredients, Lys had to visit Snape again.
When she climbed off the Knight Bus, she was so dizzy she nearly knocked on the wrong door.
Mentally noting once again that she absolutely had to buy an owl, she found herself face-to-face with a distracted Snape who opened the door.
After entering, Lys first collapsed onto Snape's old, peeling sofa to recover, then asked him for the potion.
But when Lys brought the potion home, Senna stood with hands on her hips, eyeing Lys sideways. "Now I'm certain there's something seriously wrong with your brain—or maybe you don't have one at all. Look at what you've brought back!"
Lys's already hunched posture in front of Senna shrank even further.
Because it wasn't a neutralizer at all, but a powerful blocking agent...
"Severus, honestly, if I weren't in such a rush... I really wouldn't want to ride that damned bus." Lys collapsed onto that broken sofa for the second time that day.
"And it doesn't make sense—I'm the one with brain damage, not you. How could you mix up potions too?"
But Snape didn't respond, simply opening his potion cabinet door and letting Lys find what she needed herself.
Lys glanced at Snape, then at the potions in the cabinet that she was normally never allowed to see, and brazenly took several bottles.
Snape only glanced over without saying anything, maintaining that lost, absent state.
Lys was curious, but it was getting late—maybe she'd have time to come back and ask about it later...
Sitting in the constantly lurching Knight Bus, Lys swore once again that she absolutely had to buy an owl!
To distract herself from the discomfort, she began thinking about when and with what preparations she should return to that cave.
First, she needed to hurry up and throw that Horcrux back. Second, she had to search for where she'd left her willow wand... Hopefully, neither the Dark Lord nor anyone else would visit in the meantime.
Crouching outside the reading room door, Lys took a long while to recover before going in and handing the bag of potions to Senna.
Senna looked at Lys's bulging-veined arm as she handed over the potions, twisted her mouth, and reminded Noah to have chicken drumsticks tonight.
"Next time you go out, take your father with you—let him get some fresh air." Senna sorted through the potions while instructing Lys. "Noah's Apparition isn't great, but it's passable. Don't make him ride that broken-down bus—his leg isn't fully healed and can't handle the jolting."
Lys poured herself a glass of honey water and agreed.
Hearing this, Noah looked at his wife, then at his dizzy, nauseous little star, and his mouth quirked up strangely. But before Senna could cast a suspicious glance his way, he composed himself and nodded earnestly:
"Yes, except for that trip to the seaside, I really haven't been out much. Oh, I heard it snowed at the beach last time—shall we go take a look?"
But when Lys heard about going to see the sea, she retched violently again, nearly vomiting into her cup...
The next day, Lys took Noah and Gabon out to buy an owl. Senna, uninterested in birds, stayed home to watch the cauldron.
Father and daughter discussed what kind of owl to buy as they walked.
Lys wanted a large one—if it flew to the Malfoy estate, it might get bullied by the Malfoys' eagle owl and hawks.
Noah wanted one with a big appetite, so he wouldn't have to keep watching Gabon for feeding.
Still puzzling over Gabon's weight, Lys paused mid-step at that comment.
Standing in the pet shop, Lys was dazzled by the choice of owls perched overhead, and Noah was much the same. But their opinions differed—Noah fancied a large, white snowy owl.
But Lys disagreed. "That owl's too quiet—you can tell it won't eat much."
Noah considered this and actually agreed with her assessment, then continued looking around.
The pet shop owner, watching the two crane their necks around his shop for ages, finally spoke up:
"I have an adult owl here that someone's boarding with me. It has some personality issues—likes to fight—but it fits your requirements perfectly. Large size, big appetite. Would you like to see it?"
Noah hesitated. "What about its owner...?"
The shopkeeper quickly explained, "It belongs to my junior schoolmate. He usually sends rather fragile notes, but this owl tends to damage letters when it fights. Since it can't be given away or released because of this problem, he just left it with me. Shall I bring it out for you to see?"
Lys found this explanation oddly familiar and nodded.
When the owner brought out the owl's cage, both Lys and Gabon on her shoulder perked up immediately!
"Isn't this Professor Flitwick's bird? What was it called—Yoni, right?"
The shopkeeper looked surprised but nodded. Lys explained to a puzzled Noah, "This bird used to work at the postal service. Mum used it to send me my wand, and... ahem..." Lys felt a bit embarrassed here, "it gave me a lot of trouble because of Gabon! But after Gabon pinned it down and roughed it up once, I never saw it again. Has it been fired now? Hahaha..."
Lys's laughter enraged the somewhat dejected Yoni, who flapped its gray-black wings in the cage, apparently wanting to break out and teach its mocker a lesson.
But when Gabon lifted its head, the bird obediently folded its wings back, pretending it had always been perfectly well-behaved.
Seeing this, the shopkeeper's expression grew even stranger. "Since this owl came to me, it's never been this quiet... If you can guarantee it won't get eaten by Gabon unless it gets too arrogant, you can have it."
In the end, father and daughter left carrying this large gray-black owl and a bag of Gabon's treats.
Noah discovered that this owl was extremely clever. Though it constantly thought about provoking Little Star, it was very good at picking its moments—like right now:
Lys was waving her right hand, trying to catch this stupid bird that kept taunting her and defecating on her head!
If she weren't currently suffering magical side effects, she'd definitely pluck all the feathers off its backside!
"Gabon!"
Lys called for backup, but Gabon had seen through the whole game between human and bird. After catching the bird, she wouldn't let it eat it, then next time it would fight again and call for help.
Gabon adjusted its body, having just swallowed several eggs, and lazily sprawled back down.
When Lys called for Gabon, the bird rose slightly, saw that its unbeatable opponent wasn't moving at all, then went back to harassing Lys with renewed arrogance.
Noah nearby was shaking with suppressed laughter...
Fortunately, this bird did excellent work delivering mail—no more damaged packages. Perhaps it understood why it had been sent to the pet shop.
Once, despite terrible wind and snow outside, it brought back a note from Snape barely dampened.
But if this bird could read English, it probably wouldn't have protected the message so carefully.
Because Snape's note read:
I have to suspect that perhaps this bird shares the same muscle-filled brain as you. It smashed two of my windows simply because I didn't open them in time.
Lys thought the problem might be her fault, since she'd instructed the stupid bird to "go quickly and return quickly," meaning to protect it from bad weather. But the bird seemed to have taken her command far too seriously.
Moreover, this bird no longer responded to its old name Yoni—only when Lys shouted "silly bird" would it react.
With no choice, Lys had to name her owl: Cerebold (Silly Bird).
She was helpless about it, but later she didn't care anymore—she just wanted this bird's rear end to stay away from her hair!
"Cerebold, someday I'll turn you into Baldy-Bold!"
She struggled somewhat to wash bird droppings from her hair with her right hand. Ever since she'd stabbed her left hand hard into the cave floor to stay conscious, it had remained completely numb except for pain, unable to perform even simple movements.
And her hair—Lys looked at the dry, black, broken strands between her fingers and sighed.
After washing her hair, she looked in the mirror, observing the two streaks of black hair that had appeared at her right temple—dull, burnt black that stood out starkly against her rust-red curls.
She stared at them with disgust for a while before using a hair tie to pull her hair back and leaving the washroom. While staying alert for that silly bird, Lys began her exercise and study routine.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
The story isn't over...
🤔 Want to know what happens next to the characters?
🤫 Eager to explore the untold secrets of this world?
✍️ Ready to read more of my wildest stories?
✨patreon.com/DarkGolds