Tom stared back at Cassiopeia, his expression unreadable. After a moment he slowly walked closer to the fireside where she was sitting.
"You really want to translate these runes?" he asked, slight disbelief ringing in his tone. Cassiopeia turned to look at him. Even though she didn't reply, he saw it in her eyes that she was serious. He eyed her for another moment. Then he cocked his head and said, "Ok, let's do it."
He pulled his wand from his pocket and flicked it at the fireplace, lighting the fire. Then he summoned two more books as well as some sheets of parchment and a quill and took a seat in the armchair again. He leaned forward to pick up the stone and examined it for a while before he finally said, "I'll do the second row of runes."
Cassiopeia nodded silently. Tom carefully copied the runes onto the parchment, opened one of the books and started translating the first rune.
After a while Cassiopeia glanced at Tom from the corner of her eye. He was completely immersed in his work and she couldn't suppress a smile, realizing only now how much she had actually missed this, how she had missed studying alongside him and seeing this innocent look of intense concentration on his face.
Her thoughts travelled back to their conversation from earlier. Honestly, she hadn't been expecting him to stay and help with the translation. After all, she was well aware that Ancient Runes had never been his favourite subject even though he had naturally excelled in it. But then again, there was no subject he hadn't bested everyone in.
She had known he was going to investigate where she was disappearing to sooner or later and that she would need a convincing explanation when the time came and she had been ready for quite a while by now.
Even if she had not been absolutely honest about her whereabouts she hadn't been lying either. She had in fact started visiting with Professor Mangroves a while ago. He had shown her the many artefacts he had gathered on his trips to Ireland. They were all covered with complicated ancient runes he claimed to have never seen before. Cassiopeia's curiosity had instantly stirred, along with the realization that this was the perfect cover for her absence while teaching.
She had spent quite some time with Professor Mangroves, fully aware that it was far easier to perform a successful Memory Charm on the old professor which would provide a cast-iron memory that would withstand Tom's inquisition if there was some truth at the bottom of the memory she planted into his mind.
"I thought I was going to help you, not that I was going to do it all by myself," Tom suddenly remarked drily, interrupting her train of thought.
Cassiopeia's gaze shot up again, only to see Tom looking at her, his ususal smirk on his face. When their eyes met, he turned his attention back to the book in front of him and Cassiopeia resumed her translation as well.
It was already way past midnight when Tom finally closed his book with a loud thud. "I'm done. What about you?"
Cassiopeia finished scribbling a few words on her parchment and shoved it over to him. "Same."
Tom took the parchment and eyed the notes for a while. "Seems to make sense, that translation." He held his own notes out for her and Cassiopeia read them carefully.
"Mangroves will be delighted when I tell him you helped with the runes. Don't you want to join us next time?"
Tom raised an eyebrow. "I guess that question's only rhetorical," he smirked. Then he got up. "I assume you're aware that I hate Ancient Runes." He paused. "So I'd rather you'd choose something else next time."
*********
The weeks passed and Cassiopeia accustomed herself more and more to her new life. She didn't know if Tom had paid Professor Mangroves a visit to check up on her story but he never asked for her whereabouts again. She continued visiting with the professor, discussing the runes and translations with him and secretly keeping refreshing her Memory Charm on him.
The professor never mentioned Tom but then again, if Tom had been there he surely had altered the old man's memory as well.
The school year was passing rather quickly and her students were advancing well. They were all very clever which made teaching them a lot of fun. Of course that was probably due to the fact that only those Muggle-born children got the chance to attend school who had proved to be unusually talented during the programme at the asylums.
Yet there were a few children who stood out in particular.
In third year there was a boy with dark brown hair and intelligent eyes who had caught Cassiopeia's attention the moment she had first seen him. It had not only been his looks but also his thirst for knowledge that had reminded her of the way Tom had once been.
When she had mentioned the boy, Ben, to the other teachers they had all been full of praise. But Ben wasn't the only one who was more skilled at magic than the others. There were also Livia and Max in fourth year, as well as Jonathan and Anna in fifth.
Cassiopeia knew that the tasks she set for the respective classes were not challenging these kids sufficiently. Yet she had already reached the limits of what was allowed to be taught at this school. The school instructions clearly prohibited teaching further knowledge to the children and Cassiopeia had decided to keep with the rules for once.
She was sitting in the staff room with Percival and Lance when she overheard a whispered conversation between the two of them. They were obviously arguing about something and Cassiopeia couldn't help but listen in.
"I told you, it's the three of them at maximum. The more they are the riskier it gets," Lance was hissing.
Cassiopeia couldn't hear what Percival replied but obviously he disagreed because Lance vehemently shook his head and hissed, "If you involve more of them you're risking to expose not only yourself but all of us. Just stop it."
This time Percival's reply was audible. "But they'd deserve some extra lessons as well..." His voice trailed away as he suddenly realized that Cassiopeia was watching them.
*****
Author's note: Thanks for reading, voting and commenting! I'm always so happy to read what you think :)