With nothing else to do, I decided it was time to finish the last books in the library. There were only two more books after a thousand ways to ruin your cauldron I hadn’t read, so I should manage it in two, maybe three days. At least if I did nothing but read and eat. But I guess those times were over, as I wanted to spend time with Will and I needed to prepare lessons as well.

This time I only met a first grade boy in the potion section, but he was so immersed in a book that he didn’t even notice me. I noticed that he was in aunt’s house, which reminded me that he was the only one in his house and his grade. He is probably lonely.

I sat down and started to read one of the three most boring books this section had to offer, but I couldn’t concentrate on it. The boy painfully reminded me of myself. While I wasn’t exactly the only one in mother’s house at the time, I could as well have been. No one wanted to talk to the girl, who didn’t even get a wand. I also started to get absorbed into the library and spent most of my time reading about potions. That I didn’t finish the section until now is only because it was one of the largest. The Herbology section wasn’t even half as large, and the Magical Creature “section” was barely half a shelf full of books. It was quite apparent that the library, which had existed even before the castle became a school, was in the possession of a family of potion masters.

“What are you reading?” I decided to give in to my wish to help him. No need for him to feel as alone as I did.

He looked up to answer me only for his eyes to widen when he saw me.

“Don’t be scared. No matter what you heard about me, I won’t harm you.” It was always the same with the first years. By now, I thought even the parents at home were telling them farytails about an evil white-haired girl with red eyes, or I wouldn’t be able to explain how they started to fear me so instinctively.

“I… I…. I’m sorry; I didn’t know you were reading here. I will leave immediately.” said the boy and frantically started to collect his stuff.

“No wait. I really meant it. I won’t do anything to you. On the contrary, I wanted to help you. Maybe talk to you. My name is Charlotte.” He looked at me doubtingly.

“Look, I don’t know your name because I didn’t really listen at the entrance ceremony, but I’m a student like you. Just a little older than you. But I swear that despite playing a few pranks on people who deserved it, I have never done anything bad to someone.” He seemed to calm down a little. Good, I feared that my attempt at talking to the boy would have just led to him fleeing.

“What is your name?”

“Bernhard Cynric, Madam.” Ouch, that hurt. Did he really just call me Madam? I’m not that old, and I look even younger. Damned kids these days.

“Please call me Charlotte. So, what were you reading?”

He looked a little embarrassed and just showed me the book cover.

“Potion’s for idiots; well, you don’t look like an idiot to me, Mr. Cynric, or can I call you Bernhard? All students call each other by their first names.” I waited for him to nod before I continued, “Great. So, Bernhard, the thing is that this book is not only old; it was also written by an idiot. The author wasn’t even a proper potion master. He was just some hobby herbalist who tried to earn some money on the side with potions. Well, he wasn’t really that incompetent, but there are better books to get started. Here, look at this book. Don’t worry about the title, somehow it became a custom to belittle the reader of beginner books. But this book has a better structure to get into the topic, no errors I'm aware of, and most things you learn in your first year are in there too, but quite simplified.”

He stared between me and the book I handed him.

“Potions even a troll could brew? Really?” he stared at me with scepsis.

“Yes really. Look at the author's name, and you will understand.”

“Severin Salamand. You mean Founder Salamand wrote this book?”

"Yes, he wrote it, around five years after the founding.” I don’t need to tell him that he wrote it to make me interested in potions when I was nine years old. But I guess one story wouldn’t hurt.

“And believe it or not, Uncle had tested if trolls could brew them after some students challenged him to proof it. Turns out that they can actually learn the first three potions of the book. I mean, three different trolls managed to learn one potion each. But still, trolls could technically learn those potions.” Well, Uncle had to put really a lot of effort into it, and it took him half a year because trolls were so increadibly stupid and they didn’t really understand what they were doing. They were just mimicking Uncle because they earned some snacks by doing so. But hey, a troll brewed a potion that removes the smell of sweaty feet. Hopefully, it will become part of troll culture.

“Thank you. Does Uncle mean that you are related to Founder Salamand?” he asked curiously.

“Yes, I mean, I was adopted when I was little, and all founders are kind of my family, but Helga Humblehill is my adoptive mother.” I told him, and the emotions in his eyes transformed from curiosity to envy.

“It’s not as great as it sounds. I can’t use magic. That’s the reason I spent quite a lot of time with potions.” His reaction was the usual one. Pity. I couldn’t really blame him. After all this time, I got used to it. The only thing that still irritates me is that they pity me, not for being adopted or for being an orphan. As if getting adopted was the cure for losing your real parents, but not being able to use magic was the worst one could experience.

“So anyway, if you have any questions regarding it, I will be glad to answer them. Generally, if there is no foolish wand waving involved, you can ask me. If you want to, I can introduce you to my brother too. He is a first year as well, so maybe you can become friends.” He looked at me a little skeptically. Was it that I called wand waving foolish, or was it that I wanted to introduce my brother to him?

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“Is he also unable to use magic?”

“What? No. My situation is just a little... unique, he is... normal.” Okay, I was officially not interested in helping him anymore. Or at least not as enthusiastic as before. Magic wasn’t the most important thing in the world.

“Then yes.” Kids could be so brutally honest sometimes without realizing what they are doing, but I guess I can’t really blame him. He was probably eager to talk about the things he learned in the past two weeks, and only someone who can use magic is able to really understand what a spell feels like when you cast it.

“Good, I will introduce you during dinner. For now, we should continue to do what we came here for.” I didn’t want to delay finishing these books any longer. I procrastinated too much already. Technically, reading these books was also a form of procrastination because I was already fully capable of starting to work on my own potion recipe. Anyway, brewing a lot of snake venom antidotes in the same cauldron can make the next hair grow tincture taste spicy, but it stays the same otherwise. How interesting. Not.

I finished the book around four hours later. Bernhard had already left because he needed to attend a lesson. In a way, I was a little envious. Getting everything spoon-fed during a lesson was heaven compared to aimlessly reading books in the library. But I guess studying by yourself was an important step into becoming an independent researcher. Not that I wanted to become a dedicated one, but being able to learn things by yourself without a teacher holding your hand was something I should learn sooner rather than later, as I was sure to reach a level where no teacher would be able to teach me in any subject that interested me. The reason for that was my inability to age. Even if I invested only an hour a day in a subject after six or seven hundred years, I would know more about the subject than anyone who dedicated his entire life to it. An idea that was still so foreign to me that I had to admit that the realization hadn’t really struck me yet. At least not on a level where I could say that I would make plans that need hundreds of years to be achieved. But learning a few fundamentals early on couldn’t hurt.

Just as I was about to arrive at the great hall, I was hugged from behind. I was so shocked and surprised that my whole body tensed.

"Hello, Charly, how was it in the library?” Couldn’t Will just greet me like a normal person? If I hadn’t frozen, I was sure that I could have seriously hurt him by accident.

“Yes, just two more books. How was dark magic with uncle?” I said not wanting to remind him just yet, as I realized that it was nice if one overlocked the surprise factor.

“Dark magic will never be my favorite subject, I think. In most cases, it's just gruesome and destructive. I mean, today we learned a spell that can painfully kill someone within 3 days if one doesn’t cast the counter-spell. The bad thing is that it kills not only your target but every person your target comes into contact with. Which is also the only way you can actually survive longer because the spell gets weakened a little with each infection. That is a spell to wipe out entire villages. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.” That really sounded gruesome. I wasn’t sure why Uncle taught them something like that, but it was probably because of the war. Maybe it was also a regular topic in Uncle's classes in the sixth year, but I was sure that spells like this were normally not taught. At least I hoped so. But Uncle probably only wanted to teach them the counterspell, or maybe it was just a lesson for them to learn what could be used in the war and to be able to defend themselves against things like that. Yes, probably was that.

“Well, dark magic is quite extreme, no matter what you do with it. Don’t forget that dark magic can also have quite powerful healing spells. Anyway, can I do something to cheer you up?” Healing spells were the only thing I studied about dark magic because I hoped for a spell that could heal my arm. Turns out that was a false hope. At least if the caster wasn’t willing to sacrifice a significant amount of his life force in exchange for my arm. So much in fact, that it would probably take the person out for months until he recovered. That was the main reason why dark magic was labeled as such. The risks for the caster were sometimes higher than for the victim. Even death was a possibility. For some time, I thought, with my inability to use normal magic, that black magic was the answer, but it just amplified the negative impact by ten times. So, no black magic for me.

“It’s fine. I just wanted to rant a little. Also, you left quite a good impression on my friends. They couldn’t stop talking about you on the whole way to dark magic and afterwards to transfiguration.”

“What, why would they talk about me? What did they say?” Now I was curious. I already got a glimpse at how they talked about girls, and hearing them talk about me now made me wish I could have listened in.”

“Oh, that… Ahm… I would rather not repeat it. I mean, it was all positive, but... well, let's just say you trust me on the fact that they have a good impression of you.” What? How could he tease me like that and then let me hang? That wasn’t fair. And coming up with trust after I told him we needed to slowly build it up was unfair as well.

“You look cute when you make that face. But I won’t repeat what they said.” Oh no, I pouted again. I’m a lost cause, ain’t I? But he said I looked cute. So maybe…. No, no I need to keep some dignity. It’s fine if I play the child in front of mother, but I don’t want to make it a habit in front of him.

“You are mean. And because you are mean, you and those friends that have such a good impression of me have to eat alone.” I mean, I still needed to introduce Bernhard to my brother, so I wouldn’t have time anyway, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“Haha. Don’t be like that. I promise that I will make it up to you.” Oh, that sounded interesting. But I couldn’t make it too easy for him, right? And I also couldn’t eat with him as I didn’t have the time.

“How? What will you do?”

“It’s meant to be a surprise for tomorrow. But if you want to know, I will tell you.” I contemplated it a little and realized I was in a small dilemma. I wanted him to tell me, but then I would probably need to eat with him. Okey, let's be real; if I explained it to him, he would understand it, but it would still feel a little mean.

“Then let it be a surprise. I forgive you, but I will still eat with my brother, because I wanted to introduce him to a first-year student I met in the library. He is Aunt Seraphina’s new student. The only one, and I thought he would want to have a friend.”

“That is fine. It’s always nice to see you taking care of other students.” Oh right, he thought for some time that I’m some kind of vigilante that helps new students. Glad that isn’t the case anymore. Behaving like some kind of moral role model would be quite tiring.

“Lorain told me you take care of younger students too. You even help them with their homework. Compared to that, introducing someone to my brother is not really worth mentioning.”

“Just on the weekends, and even that will get less when we spend more time together.” Great, now I’m the reason he stops to help the young ones. I can already imagine the rumors of how I corrupted him. But it was still sweet that spending time with me was more important to him than helping a few clueless kids.

“When not if?” I asked him teasingly.

“Definitely. Can’t let you get away now.” It felt good that he got a little more confident and pushy. I mean, haven’t I told him that we should let it start a little bit slower? But asking to spend the weekends together isn’t too much to ask for, I guess. Unless, of course, we only want to see each other during the meals, which would probably get a little monotonic after some time.

“Awww, how could I say no to something like that.” I said and gave him a small peck on his slightly dry lips.