With eyes closed, Lys felt as if she had awakened, or perhaps was avoiding some pain, separating from that small body.
She lifted the sleeve on her left arm, watching the child on the ground struggle, cry, and scream.
Numbed, with the body's magical response blocked, Noah grabbed the tender short hand and, under the chaotic full moon, used his untransformed, smooth and neat teeth to bite into the flesh of little Lys's forearm.
And then? And then... it's all a blur.
The shattered bones, the mother awakened by the screams.
After the chaos, Lys seemed like a spectator, watching her mother, possessed, counting the bottles on the ground, completely ignoring her young self whose left leg was also grabbed.
"Clearly, I drank them all, clearly, just this once without touching flesh, he wouldn't become a werewolf! Shameful waste of trash! Why don't you just die!" Clutching the wound that was bleeding profusely from an ambush, Senna barely summoned Cocoa.
In the midst of the blur, the three of them survived.
Looking back, the large house on the hilltop was ablaze, overshadowing the moonlight.
Lys wanted to return there, try to escape here, try to do something, but was pulled and couldn't leave her young self.
She was bound, sometimes wearing a cloak as a spectator, sometimes manipulating her young body, silently repeating the past.
When taken to St. Mungo's, all memories were chaotic, sporadic.
"Drinking all the potions in time was the key to his survival, otherwise, no matter what! He definitely wouldn't have lasted until you sent him to St. Mungo's."
"There's no hope, he can only live as a werewolf."
"Your daughter is considered lucky."
"We can't do anything about the spine in the lower back, but isn't it safer this way?"
Lys wanted to vomit, the colorful black space spun and twisted, filling those blurry memory fragments.
Lys's arm was festering, something flowed out of her body, always trying to repair her arm.
Something else fixed her arm, replacing the support of the bones.
Why can't I go home? Why doesn't dad come to comfort me? Why is there no food? Why? Why does it have to be so painful?
Can't it be without pain? Can't it be without darkness? I don't want this anymore, please...
Opening her eyes again, Lys was back in that dark room, following the sliver of light through the door crack, rubbing her eyes, she seemed to have just fallen asleep, dreaming of pain and fire.
Mom belongs to dad, dad belongs to mom, only I am the shameful waste that deserves to die...
Am I going to school? Like Helbo, as long as I don't give up, will I step onto fertile land?
"I'm sorry Lys, my family won't let me play with you." "Lily, I won't contact her or dark magic anymore." "Rat skin, did your mom abandon you?" "Child, you hurt them, you need to apologize." "It was just a lily." "Who told your snake to look so much like our practice tool?"
Snake? Whose snake? What snake?!
My snake! Separating from the young body again, Lys clutched her shoulder, searching everywhere, but was tightly bound in the memory of that black room.
From her memory, the only...
The only one! Only her own snake, her own Crunch! Only it completely belonged to her, only it always watched her! Where did she throw it!
Lys felt a headache, that long-lost feeling of nerves being frantically kicked, when she tried to rush out from here, something tried to explode out of her body.
But she couldn't fight the force that bound her, occasionally merging into chaotic memories, losing the ability to think.
The sound of crackling, is someone knocking on the door? Is it an owl delivering a letter? But there were never guests at home, and mom didn't allow owls to deliver letters home.
What sound, it hurts, my arm hurts!
It hurts, my head hurts!
It hurts... don't look at me, I'm wrong... look at me, even just a glance!
Mom, the mother who holds the power and resources for dad and me to survive, look at me...
Mom, I fed dad the last potion in time, I did something right, didn't I?
Mom, mom, I will fulfill the wishes of the one you love, please look at me more, okay?
The memories became more chaotic, clearly I was hungry picking fruit from a tree, but now what's with the wand I'm carving.
Where's my snake?
But shouldn't I be reading? In the library, why am I back in this semi-underground shop?
My head hurts, it's so cold.
Right, I just got off the boat as a new student at Hogwarts, my robe soaked with water, of course it's cold, a drying spell would... what's a drying spell?
Where's my snake?!
Such strong wind, where is this, the observatory, what is the observatory?
I hurt so much...
Who! Is! Pulling! My! Hair!
Forced to lift her head by pulling her hair, Lys squinted her long gray eyes, seeing the open grassland from the library window.
And the sun, whether setting or rising, was unclear.
"Are you alright, child?"
"Ugh... ugh, don't call me child, Crunch! Crunch!" She touched the bleeding wound on her right arm, holding the nearly falling willow wand, using the action of wiping off the blood on her robe to hide it.
"Don't worry, don't worry, I think your snake is very safe now, it's just a bit tired from crawling, it needs a little rest."
The white-bearded old man, oh no, it's our headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
He took the crumbling Lys on a stretcher and a stone basin filled with silver-red liquid, leaving the worried gaze of Madam Pince and others.
Madam Pince touched her high-collared shirt, watching the departing figures, recalling the despair and struggle that enveloped the child when she found her, and the self-harming behavior.
In the hospital wing, Lys hugged Crunch, whose belly was ground into several pieces of scales, and vowed that next time, she would definitely not solve it herself.
Poor Crunch, to deliver a letter it actually used a caterpillar crawling method to grind its belly!
Next time this happens, she will definitely tell the teacher!
This was already the fifth bottle of blood replenishing potion, along with magical stabilizer. Lys burped with the taste of potion, then watched her blood slowly seep out from the wound, then waved her wand to make the nearly full container disappear without a trace.
After sending her to the hospital wing, Professor Dumbledore took that basin of stuff and left. He could see the peculiar fluctuations there, he needed to quickly know what it was, whether it brought unknown harm to this child.
And Madam Pomfrey was busy trying to stop her bleeding.
"What kind of injury is this, how could it be like this? The blood won't stop, my goodness!"
Lys's right hand was a bloody mess, stuck with a large piece of cloth, blood flowing continuously.
Lys, indifferent, began to clean the protective gear, badges, gloves, headbands, all shattered along the way, touched the ammolite ring and labradorite bracelet on her left hand, Lys sighed, fortunately she didn't attach any magic to them, otherwise they would have shattered too.
Coughing out the residual blood from her throat, feeling more comfortable, Lys lay back on the bed, holding Crunch's tail, and fell asleep.
Don't think, don't think and it's alright.
Asleep, asleep and the pain is gone.
"""
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