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THE CONVERSATIONS AT THE Hogwarts Academy for the ulterior arts never devoted themselves to the things that needed to be discussed.
The students did not waste their words talking about the incidents, or the ivy that had spread itself over the masonry from the old castle during the holidays and was trying to break into the old castle, or what would happen if it succeeded.
They did not speak of the unusual lives they led during the school months, or of the truths that lay open and begged for the attention of the brave. Everything was left unsaid, but not immediately incomprehensible.
Even if someone felt the need to address the odd shadows, or the invisible menace that lurked and waited until a mistake was made, it was stopped with just one sentence. 'Absent words are the answers of the silent ones.' Even if they did not always understand the phrase immediately, they also began to be silent and with the silence came the answers.
Alethea liked listening to the students skirt around anything anomalous and the scraps of what was said, made the academy seem like an ordinary school. It wouldn't even occur to her that it was a magical one, if she just listened and didn't know anything herself.
"I don't like how quiet yer today. It's lik' a'm talking to a corpse." the sonorous voice of Delilah Haworth snapped Alethea out of her thoughts. Her short, sun-kissed hair bobbed as she dropped her head onto her hand and piercing green eyes narrowed slightly in disapproval or due to the persistent oil lamps blinding her.
"I don't sleep well anymore. Forgive me," Alethea murmured her lies, trying to feel with her fingers the spot on her neck that had been aching for weeks.
Her thoughts and absence were solely on the Professor and her looming doom, which lay entirely in his hands to bring upon her. Just because she had not yet been summoned to the Headmaster's office, and her expulsion had been handed over with the red letter, did not mean that her misdeed was safe with Professor Riddle.
He might have been just waiting for the perfect moment. What for was still a mystery to her.
Suspiciously, Delilah's thin eyebrows furrowed and a characteristic look of incredulousness appeared on her face. "Poor sleep does not explain bad hearing or the regression of yer communication system."
"Unfortunately, bad sleep causes it. Got nightmares again," she reassured her friend with a half-truth.
She did indeed have nightmares, and would most certainly suffer from them for the rest of her life at this time of year; would never be able to escape their grip for good. What she did not reveal was that her poor sleep was also due to her magic, which was keeping her awake, begging her to return to the hidden chamber.
Never would she consider telling Delilah the truth about her magic. Alethea would guard that secret with her life for so many reasons that would also forever remain unsaid. She loved Delilah so much that she wanted to protect her from her reality.
