The Unknown of the Order (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Kept in the Dark

For the next few weeks, Barnaby remained confined to that bedroom, except for bathroom breaks. Sarah was at his side constantly, and the only time they saw anyone else was when Penny brought them meals. Barnaby supposed they were coming up with a plan to get rid of the Death Eaters, but of course, no one told him anything about it. 

They continued to practice occlumency for hours on end. Barnaby hadn't felt Elena's presence in his head since Halloween, and now he could pretty much keep Sarah out of his brain at will before his exhaustion got the better of him, but they still couldn't be sure one or both the Andrels weren't listening in.

"I don't get how she found you again. You've become a rather accomplished occlumens," said Sarah. "And the physical distance alone should make it harder for Elena to see in your mind than me. I suppose she could be a far more powerful legilimens than me, but that seems unlikely given that I'm a natural-born legilimens, and I've been practicing way longer than her."

"Is there some kind of Dark Magic that helps you be a better one?" asked Barnaby. "Maybe that's why the Dark Lord and Snape are supposed to be so good at it."

"If there is, I've never heard of it." She sighed and sat back on the bed. "Different factors can effect how well legilimency works. Jacob can access my mind easily because we're blood related. Maybe having your fate so intertwined with hers when you made an unbreakable vow gave you some kind of permeant connection somehow?"

"Maybe," he said, though he didn't care much for the idea. From the look on Sarah's face, he guessed she didn't either. "If that's the case, why did I only feel the connection last night?"

"Maybe it was the first time she tried to open the connection. Maybe she's been trying for weeks but this is the first time it's worked. Sleep can make the mind more vulnerable to legilimency, but so can powerful or uncontrolled emotions. Were you feeling a powerful emotion when you felt her presence?"

He thought about lying, but that hadn't done him any good last time.

"Yes."

In truth, he'd been feeling a swirl of strong emotions at the moment he'd first noticed Elena's presence. Though he'd very nearly convinced himself weeks ago that he'd come to think of Sarah as merely a friend, his true feelings had been harder to deny each day since Elena had left. 

The night of the party, he told himself it was a bad idea to ask her to dance, but he'd done it anyway. It was a bad idea to watch the way her body moved as she danced, it was a bad idea to let himself focus on her eyes, it was definitely a bad idea to let himself hope. But he'd done it all. All that and more. Perhaps it had been a good thing, in a way, that he'd felt Elena in is mind when he did. He might have done something stupid otherwise. 

Sarah said nothing, but nodded and stared vaguely at the ground. 

They were interrupted from their thoughts by a light knock on the door. Penny entered, a tray with their supper floating behind her. 

"Vegetable soup, but without much vegetable I'm afraid," she said, guiding the tray to rest on the desk in between the beds. "The food situation is--well, nevermind." She glanced apologetically at Barnaby. 

He just nodded. He wasn't meant to know anything at all about what was happening downstairs, no matter how trivial it might seem. Still, Penny hovered in the room a moment, as if she had something she were longing to tell them. 

"Well...goodnight," she said at last, before turning on her heel and closing the door behind her. 

The pair of them ate their soup in silence, then Barnaby picked up the tray and sat it outside their door for someone to collect.