Chapter 34: Blood, Stance, and Reality
A corner of the library. Candlelight cast a warm glow over thick pages.
Lily Evans could hold back no longer. She set down the hefty Potions reference and turned her earnest green eyes to the boy across from her.
"The duel in the Slytherin common room — against a fifth-year. I heard about it." Her voice was low, carrying pure, unprejudiced curiosity.
"They say you only used basic spells, but the results were completely different — as if we aren't studying the same textbook. How is that even possible?"
Regulus raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. He hadn't expected her to bring it up, though on reflection it made sense.
Slytherin's internal affairs never leaked in detail — that was an unspoken consensus among all Slytherins. The Dark Magic that surfaced at the welcome tournament, for instance, would stay inside those walls.
But Travers's humiliating defeat after picking a fight? That made for perfectly good gossip. Nobody was going to cover for him.
He looked up at her. There was no probing or hostility in Lily's curiosity — only fascination with magic itself. That made him willing to say more.
"The spells themselves are from the book, yes." He answered evenly. "The key is how you use them."