Greasy hair and a sullen, disdainful expression made Snape look like he was in no mood for pleasantries. Lys couldn't be bothered to speak, so she nodded at him and returned to her notes.
It was clearly Snape's first visit; he carefully read the reading room rules at the entrance before heading to the Potions section. He picked up a book and sat in a corner, nodding occasionally at interesting parts, quiet and focused.
When dinner time came, Lys waved her wand to bring the usually shrunken kitchenware to the transfigured skylight.
As she brought down the stewed chicken legs, she saw her father inviting Snape to join them. Lys remained expressionless, as long as her father didn't ask how she was doing at school.
"You're all classmates; there's no inconvenience. Has my daughter been causing you trouble at school?" If Snape left, it would imply that Lys Black had been a nuisance to him.
Seeing Lys Black standing on the stairs with a hinting look, Snape decided to give her this face.
"Sir, not at all. As Malfoy senior mentioned last time, Black's performance at school is excellent. But I really should be heading home, so as not to intrude."
As Snape turned to leave, Noah asked Lys before he reached the door, "Did you fight him at school? Why's he running away?"
His voice was loud enough that Snape paused at the door after paying and slammed it shut.
Looking out the window at the dark-haired boy blending into the distance, "Your classmate is quite interesting. He must be very solitary, right?"
That kind of defensiveness... another bullied child, perhaps...
Lys nodded, "A bit."
Noah used a knife and fork to dismantle the chicken leg. He noticed his daughter really liked chicken legs.
This was the second chicken leg meal in three days.
Lys, with a piece of bread in her left hand and a chicken leg in her right, finished her meal by the time Noah finished his first chicken leg, waiting to clear the table.
Noah waved his hand, indicating Lys should go read, "I'll clean up later. When your mom and I first got married without a house-elf, I did these things. Go on, next time bring more classmates over, they're really interesting."
"What's so interesting?" Senna happened to walk in and catch the last sentence.
"Lys's classmate, that black-haired kid, the gloomy one."
"I remember, smelled like potions. He must be good at Potions, right?" Senna said, handing her thin cloak to Lys.
"Yes, Mom. Professor Slughorn mentioned privately that he's the last of the Prince family."
Senna remembered that family well because a potion recipe she had been searching for was rumored to be in the collection of this ancient potion family.
"Your dad's right, invite more friends over." Sitting across from Noah, Senna washed her hands and quickly finished with a piece of bread in her left hand and a chicken leg in her right.
Noah was still struggling with his third chicken leg, while Lys checked the soup bowl's temperature. It wouldn't taste good cold. Why did Dad always eat so slowly?
Actually, Noah didn't like overcooked food; if these chicken legs were a bit rawer, they'd be better.
"Go read," Senna said, then touched the soup bowl and cast a warming spell that exploded the bowl.
After Lys cleaned up the mess, she grabbed her wand and returned to her little nook to continue organizing her notes.
The next day, Snape came again, sitting silently in the corner, reading intently.
After lunch, Mr. Ollivander, the wandmaker, arrived. He carefully read the reading room rules and then went to the catalog to quickly search for his target.
Seeing Ollivander struggling to find it, Lys put down her book and went to help, discovering he was looking for a wand-making book—the very one she had on her desk.
Seeing the book he wanted, Ollivander quickly started reading, "I'm terribly sorry, but learning new perspectives is always exciting. However, it's also the time when new students buy wands, so I might seem a bit restless, please forgive me."
Noah remembered this wizard who sold him his first wand, though he no longer used it. He told Ollivander he could take the book home, as long as he returned it, and then removed the book's name from the catalog.
Behind the counter, Lys looked at her half-written notes and decided that next time her father let her go shopping, she'd visit Ollivander's shop to ask questions and glean some knowledge from the wand-making master.
But Lys's wish didn't come true. There were too many people bringing their children to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies, even after a recent Death Eater incident. Kids still had to go to school.
Moreover, most of Diagon Alley was owned by nobles, and wizards believed they wouldn't easily allow anything to go wrong with their business.
Every shop was crowded, with many people coming in just to look around, some even mistaking it for a bookstore and trying to buy books.
Every day she had to explain to those without brains or whose eyes seemed replaced by dung beetles:
This is a reading room, not a bookstore!
Faced with yet another idiot asking where the textbook "Standard Book of Spells" was shelved, the door alarm went off.
Someone was trying to take a book out of the store without permission.
Lys flexed her wand hand and went to the child stopped at the door, retrieved the book, and cast a Silencing Charm on the howling child.
"Whose child is this, whose child?"
The wizard, engrossed in reading and forgetting he had brought his child out, quickly thanked her. Nearby, someone reminded him to watch his kid, as Fenrir Greyback had recently appeared near a wizarding gathering not far from here.
"That beast loves to bite young wizards to foster hatred. You must keep an eye on your child!"
Hearing this, Noah stiffened and glanced at Lys, who kept her head down, making it hard to see her expression, but she went to the shelf to put the book back.
Then she stepped outside and stayed for a long time, crafting a small chubby snake wood carving. Each time someone entered, the carving would say, "Starry Sea Reading Room, please maintain silence."
The number of people walking in by mistake decreased significantly, and Lys was about to relax when she saw another familiar face walk in.
It was Lupin, Remus Lupin.
Lys's face changed.
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