"But not now." Aidan immediately added. Seeing Alva's reluctance to let the matter go for much longer, he clarified his reasoning. "If I explain things to you right now, I'll have to explain them again to Silas later."
Realisation painted her face as soon as he spoke. Understanding his point, she simply nodded and started walking towards her room —Head Boy and Girl got private rooms as a privilege.
"See you tomorrow, then." Alva said before disappearing into the girls' dormitory.
Sighing for what felt like the umpteenth time that day, Aidan stood up and decided it was high time he went to sleep too.
"And we still have the NEWTs to worry about..."
*
The following morning, Aidan woke up feeling spent. He was not in a good mood throughout breakfast, which was apparent to his classmates. Alva, in particular, understood she had probably overstepped several boundaries —but her curiosity was irrepressible. Not even her parents could stop her when she wanted to know something, which had got her into more trouble than she cared to admit.
There were only two positive things that morning for Aidan: Silas was having breakfast with them, since they shared first period, and that first period was DADA.
"Looking forward to Professor Finral's lesson?" Silas asked Aidan, chewing on a piece of sausage.
"Please swallow before speaking." Aidan replied, disgusted —for someone so savvy about pure-blood etiquette, Silas had appalling table manners. "And yes, you know it's my favourite subject."
"Is there something particular about DADA?" Alva asked, curiosity piqued.
"Prof. Finral Callahan." Silas answered matter-of-factly. "He is the particular thing."
"You should explain things properly if you're going to answer a–" Aidan stopped mid-sentence when he realised he himself had only given them half-truths. Biting his lip, he continued. "Anyway, Prof. Finral is an ex-Auror who fought in the First Wizarding War against Voldemort. He lived in the US after that, until the Headmistress offered him the position."
"He's the longest-standing DADA teacher at Hogwarts." Silas added as a fun fact. "He's lasted a decade now."
The Defence Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts had long been infamous for being cursed —to the point that even Alva had heard about it all the way at Durmstrang. The fact that the same professor had held the post for a decade now was proof enough that the curse had finally been lifted.
After breakfast, the group made their way to the third floor, where the DADA classroom was located. Fortunately, Ravenclaw and Slytherin shared the class, so their first period was spent together.
The classroom buzzed with quiet chatter until the heavy oak door clicked shut behind Professor Finral. He walked to the front of the room with the ease of someone who had faced far worse than teenage distraction, his weathered cloak trailing behind him.
"Welcome back to Defence Against the Dark Arts." he said, surveying the room with calm authority. "This year, we'll move beyond the basics of magical defence. NEWT level means I expect real effort. You're not children anymore —some of you will be working with danger by next year."
He paused and flicked his wand, causing a line of topics to appear on the blackboard in chalk-white script —Counter-Curses, Advanced Shielding, Magical Creatures of Darkness, Dark Rituals, and Emotionally-Charged Magic.
"Our first term will focus on creatures that feed on fear and despair. Some of you might already know their name —those who don't will learn soon enough. What matters is that they can't be hexed or jinxed like a common nuisance."
He let the words hang for a moment.
"There exists, however, one charm —one spell— that defends against them. It's tricky. Powerful. And very personal. We'll get to that soon enough, once I've knocked the fluff out of your duelling stances."
Aidan exchanged a glance with Alva and Silas. That was definitely about the Patronus.
"Until then." Finral said, giving them a knowing look. "steel your minds. If your emotions control your magic, these things will eat you alive."
With a flick of his wand, the blackboard rearranged itself into their first assignment.
*
Due to their lack of time between assignments and different timetables, the group was not able to meet up throughout the week. Alva had calmed down since she knew she was getting answers, but Aidan had been annoyed since he wanted to get done with it.
Fortunately for the group, the weekend had arrived and they now had the time to talk about everything they wanted to.
'Silas, let's meet up by the lake.' Aidan sent to their WiTalk group chat, which he had set up after their first day. 'It's time to talk about all of this.'
Silas replied almost immediately, the typing bubbles appearing and disappearing a few times before the message came through. 'Finally! I've been going mad all week wondering what's going on.'
'I'll go get some snacks from the kitchen.' Alva messaged. 'Did you know the house elves there are super friendly?'
Aidan chuckled softly at the screen. For all the chaos swirling around his life lately, there was something grounding about their friendship. After wearing his sweater, Aidan left the castle.
The grounds were calm in that late-morning haze, the summer warmth lingering just enough to make the breeze from the lake pleasant rather than chilling. Aidan spotted Silas quickly, lounging against a flat stone near the edge, his sleeves rolled up and sunglasses perched unnecessarily atop his head.
"You're not at the French Riviera, you know." Aidan called as he approached.
"Let me pretend." Silas grinned. "My stress needs a vacation."
Alva joined shortly after, a brown paper bag in hand, and plopped down beside them, handing each boy a wrapped pastry. For a moment, they sat in silence, letting the water lap quietly against the shore as they ate.
Then, Aidan exhaled and looked at them both.
"Alright." He said. "What I'm about to tell you… it's going to sound mad. But I swear on Merlin's beard, every word is true."
"And I hope you fulfil your part of the deal, Alva." Aidan added before taking a deep breath.
As the group was about to start their conversation, they heard a voice filled to the brim with mockery and sarcasm. It was the kind of voice that would make someone want to punch whoever was talking.
"Oh, would you look at that." It said. "There go the Honourables."
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Who do you think was speaking? Try to guess from which House the person is. Also let me know what you think of the story so far!