if one of them is dead.

chapter seventeen.

Lilith.

Lilith sat on the ground in her house. She was going through the many, many books in her and her father's house.

Severus sat in one of the chairs, reading the newest addition of the Daily Prophet, which talking about the ending to the Triwizard Tournament. What a train wreck that was.

Lilith felt bad for Cho, but worse for Potter. He saw it happen, and he wouldn't let go of Cedric.

Blaise had grabbed Lilith as soon as they all saw what had happened. They had never hugged each other harder.

Lilith grabbed her iced coffee and took a sip of it. It was one of the only times she hadn't gotten iced coffee with her friends.

She dusted off one of the books she had grabbed from an old cardboard box. The box was close to coming apart, and she was surprised it hadn't already.

Before setting the coffee down, she took another sip. She didn't bother with the title of the book, it was too faint to read anyway.

She stopped when she flipped to the very first page. It wasn't the first book that had the writing on it.

"Hey, Dad?" she asked.

"Yes?" he asked, looking at her from over the paper.

"Why do so many of these books say 'Property of the Half-Blood Prince?'"

Her father paused for a moment before shrugging. "No idea," he said, going back to his reading.

"You do know," she said, raising her brows at him. "Don't lie to me, Dad. I know you know why these say the half-blood prince. You just don't want to tell me."

"Indeed."

"Why won't you tell me?" she asked, turning her body to face him. "You either stole them or they used to belong to you. Tell me."

"I'm not going to tell you, Lily."

"Whyyyyyyy?"

"Because, you don't need to know."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, turning back to the books. She started going through more books. "You don't have to tell me, Dad. I already figured it out."

He sighed. "Sometimes I can't remember why you weren't sorted into Ravenclaw, and then it occurs to me two seconds later."

"Love you too."

"Hm."

There was a long silence. The only sound was the rustling of the newspaper and the quiet thumps of the books.

"'Pride and Prejudice'?"

"Hm?" Severus didn't even glance at her.

"'The Great Gatsby'? 'The Scarlet Letter'? 'A Tale of Two Cities'? 'The Catcher and the Rye'? 'Hamlet'? Dad, these are all muggle classics."

Severus shrugged. "Didn't even know I had them."

Lilith's eyes widened and she started searching through the books quicker. "Do you have 'Romeo and Juliet'? How many Shakespeare plays do you have? Do you have any Emily Dickson? Or Edgar Allen Poe?"

"Calm yourself, Lilith. I'm sure I have them somewhere."

She smiled to herself and sipped her coffee, putting the books in their own pile.

"Dad," she said after a moment, not bothering to turn to him, "Blaise owled me and told me that Draco owled him. And Draco had said that Vold— Sorry, the Dark Lord, is still going to rise to power soon." She finally turned to him. "Sadly, I do believe Potter when he said he was back. But is he really rising back to power so quickly?"

Severus shook his head. "You know I don't know much about that anymore, Lily."

She sighed and turned back to the books. "Yes, I know. I just don't think it would be amazing for him to ride to power again."

"Good."