The Year of the Revolution II. The Discovery of Friendship

20. Twins

Lily and Sev were spending the night at the Prince's Haven.

"What was that new thing you wanted to teach me about Defense?" she asked him.

"Ah, yes..." he sighed. "Let's sit down."

'Merlin! Every time Sev suggests that we sit down, it's to give me bad news.'

They sat down, and Lily must have looked fearful because Sev continued, "Don't worry... Look, today I want us to do two things, first something very ugly and later something very beautiful."

Lily looked at him in fear, he took her by the shoulders. "Let's see, Lily, Defense. It may be the case that your life is in danger, and then you need something immediate and effective. Don't worry, I'm not going to teach you how to cast an Avada, you wouldn't be able to. But it is a spell that, without actually killing, can get you out of trouble because it is very impressive, it scares, and it also has a counterspell, with which you can repair the damage caused. It is Dark Magic but it is not Unforgivable. Only I know it because it is my invention and I have never pronounced it, I do it non-verbal so that they don't copy it. First I'm going to do it with a cushion, to give you an idea of what it can do."

He got up and brought one of the enlarged cushions from the back of the classroom, the ones they used to fall on when Dueling. He put it in the center and went back up on the dais. "Come closer to see."

Lily got up and stood next to him.

"Now I must enter the proper state to cast it, damaging spells require intention." He took a deep breath and evoked, 'Any random enemy hurting Lily.'

"Sectumsempra!" he exclaimed, pointing his wand at the mattress, where numerous clean cuts appeared.

"But that's a Diffindo... wildly."

"It has nothing to do, try to repair it."

Lily walked over to the cushion and cast the Reparo with her wand to no avail.

"I told you, it's Dark Magic. You have already seen how the cushion has been, imagine the body of an enemy."

"Ah..." Lily realized.

"Do you understand? But they only dies if you let them bleed out, I already told you that it has a counterspell, they can be healed. Listen and try to learn it."

Sev leaned over the cushion and, pointing his wand at the path of each cut, murmured an incantation that sounded like a song. These were closed one by one.

"Have you seen? It has a remedy, Now you."

She looked at him scared.

"Come on, Lily, it's a cushion. Stand here," he led her to the foot of the dais. "You have to think of someone who wants to hurt you... or me. Think about the Death Eaters."

"Sectum... what?"

"Sectumsempra."

Lily concentrated. She had never been the victim of an actual attack, nor had she even witnessed it. She pictured when Avery and Mulciber threatened them on the train. "Sectumsempra!" Just a tiny cut appeared on the cushion.

Sev was torn between laughing and despairing. "What have you thought, Lily?"

"About Mulciber and Avery on the train."

Sev rolled his eyes and snorted. He tried to talk to her calmly. "Is that the most terrible thing you can think of that could happen to us? Think, I don't know, that we are cornered against many of them, it's more likely than you think."