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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒
"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠, 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠."
—𝐻𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑦 𝑊𝑎𝑑𝑠𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟑𝟐𝟖𝟖

⋆⋆⋆✧⋆⋆⋆

𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 than a month had passed since the second task, and things had only become more hectic.

While the rest of the castle grew excited about the upcoming third and final task, Liliana only grew more and more worried about the fate of both her boyfriend and one of her close friends. If one of them were to die . . . She didn't even want to think about it.

However, there was still plenty of time before they even could find out what the third task would entail. It was the beginning of April, so Liliana had to wait in suspense for about another month and a half. Cedric seemed to be just as worried, although he tried to hide it behind every reassuring smile he gave her whenever someone brought it up.

However, right now, their minds were rather preoccupied with the Potions study that they were doing, alongside Riley, Evangeline, Devon, and Wesley in the Hufflepuff common room. They were to write a test about Laughing Potion the next day, and while Liliana and Wesley had already been studying together for it for the past week, the other four took it upon themselves to wait until the night before (as usual).

"This is so hard," Devon grumbled loudly as he peered down at the contents of the textbook, his fingers gripping tightly on the edge of the worn-out book that sat in his lap. "How does that git expect us to memorize all this nonsense by tomorrow?"

"You're saying that as if he didn't give us a full week to study," Wesley pointed out, his eyebrows raised.

"Did he?" Riley scrunched his nose as he squinted his brown eyes towards the ceiling. "I only remember him mentioning it once, and that was today."

"That's because you've been sleeping in class for the whole week." Evangeline rolled her eyes in amusement as she nudged him with her elbow. "I don't understand how Snape didn't catch you."

"I'm just that good." Riley winked at her before looking back towards the scrawled writing on the parchment paper in front of him.

Cedric shifted closer to Liliana on the couch, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at the page. "Remind me once more what Alihotsy is?"

"It's a tree, which is also known as the Hyena Tree. Its leaves can cause hysteria and uncontrollable laughter, which is obviously why it's used in the Laughing Potion," Liliana explained as she looked down at the list of ingredients that was shown on the left page.

He planted a kiss on her forehead. "Thanks."

"Mhm." She leaned into his side as he wrapped his free arm around her, the other hand holding onto his textbook.

"Why aren't you two studying?" Devon complained as he gestured towards Liliana and Wesley, who exchanged looks of irritation. "I thought you guys were the study freaks!"

"Because, idiot," Wesley replied as he rolled his eyes, "we've already been studying all week! We know everything there is to know."

"Oh, yeah?" Riley gave them a challenging smirk. His eyes shifted to Liliana, who then raised her eyebrows at him, and he demanded, "So, Miss Know-It-All, list the ingredients of the potion."