Two Houses (HarryxDraco)

Chapter 21

Although the sun was still bright and high in the sky, the temperature had noticeably dipped in recent days and the lush green foliage of the Forbidden Forest transformed into a sea of red and gold. Liv was already regretting wearing her hair down today as the blustery wind whipped her long, fair hair into the air and across her face. Pausing to check her appearance as she passed a shop window, she tried in vain to brush it down but quickly realised that her efforts were in vain and gave up trying to maintain a tidy appearance. Looking down the busy high street full of students, she found that she wasn't the only one fighting a losing battle with the wind. People had thick scarves wrapped around their faces, heads bowed as they faced off against the treacherous gale. One witch squealed as a particularly strong gust of wind blew her pointed hat off of her head and sent it careening down the street.

Despite the weather, Liv always loved visiting Hogsmeade. Having grown up in a secluded Muggle seaside town, she had always anxiously looked forward to the school day trips to the only all-wizarding village in Britain, relishing the opportunity to immerse herself in the magical world and its culture, which still felt relatively foreign to her then. The chance to spend time in the village again was one of the benefits of taking up the teaching post at Hogwarts and she was relieved to find that even after all of these years, Hogsmeade had remained relatively unchanged; Honeydukes was still packed with excitable, sweet-toothed students, Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop was still open for business, and the Hog's Head Inn remained the homestead to a host of shady and interesting characters. It was just as magical as she remembered.

Liv peered into the window of Gladrags Wizardwear and was pleased to see that it was packed full of students looking for costumes for the upcoming Halloween party. While her suggestion to perform Romeo and Juliet had been met with mixed responses from students and staff members alike, the costume party had been received with universal enthusiasm. Liv pulled her cloak more tightly around her neck and continued down the high street. Ah well, at least one of her ideas was popular.

In the few weeks since term had started, Liv had quickly fallen into a routine: she would get up early on Saturday morning but instead of having breakfast in the Great Hall with everyone else, she would go to Madam Puddifoot's for tea and crumpets. Sometimes, Professor Slughorn would accompany her when the weather was fair, but he had declined her invitation today when he had looked out of the window of his living quarters and saw how windy it was. She would then pop over to the post office and send a letter to Andromeda, asking how Teddy was keeping and sometimes sending him little gifts like children's books and clothing. She would then head to her favourite shop in the whole village, Tomes and Scrolls, to find new books to add to her ever-growing collection.

Liv pushed open the door to the cramped bookshop and quickly closed it behind her, cutting off the blustering wind. She let out a small sigh of relief, enjoying the warmth within and the sweet, musky smell of thousands of old books. Not surprisingly, it was much quieter here than it was in Honeydukes or Dervish and Banges. A few of the older students milled about the maze of bookcases, stacked from floor to ceiling with ancient tomes and magical manuscripts. Liv smiled politely to the old shopkeeper as she weaved her way between the shelves, pretending to take interest in random books as she ventured deeper into the heart of the shop, occasionally pulling one off of the shelf and turning it over in her hand before placing it back without reading the title. Slowly, she made her way to the farthest corner of the shop. She was careful not to be seen hanging around in this particular section of the shop—the last thing she needed was for a student to catch sight of the books she was perusing and spread gossip about her at the school.

Liv hid behind one of the bookshelves as Hermione Granger came into view, but the studious Gryffindor was nose deep in a book and didn't notice her Muggle Studies professor as she walked past and disappeared out of sight. Once Liv was sure that the coast was clear, she stepped out from her hiding place and hurried towards the nearby shelf that had a small sign above it reading Relationships and Dating, looking for one book in particular. Pulling a copy of Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches off of the shelf, she opened it at the section detailing how to ask the object of your affections out on a date: