The Hogwarts grounds were extensive, nowhere seemed to end. Little Black walked slowly without anyone observing her thanks to the cloak that made her invisible. She passed some students and they were surprised to see the movement of the grass without cause. She kept walking, looking for a place that was not inhabited by anyone since she needed a moment alone with nature. She reached a lake and sat a little close being careful not to fall. She took off her cloak and left it next to her and then sighed and felt her eyes get wet.

She cried as quietly as she could in the sunlight. She opened her eyes when she heard a movement in the water and approached out of curiosity.

A woman's face peeked out of the water smiling at the girl, Calynn moved closer as that smile filled her with joy, she came closer and closer as the creature took the child's hand and pulled her toward her, the girl was submerging more and more until the water reached her chin...

"Enough! Flipendo!" Shouted a voice behind the girl with a wand raised.

The spell gave the kind of mermaid who gave a cry of anger away from the girl and plunged into the lake. The little girl was baffled to see that she was with her chin in the water. When she reacted, Calynn turned to see who had caused the spell and watched Frank.

"What was that?" Asked Calynn, bewildered.

"A mermaid, but one of the bad ones," said the boy.

"Are they bad?" Calynn asked curiously.

"Some are bad and others... don't hurt," Frank explained.

"What has that creature done to me?" Asked little Black.

"She pulled you deep into the lake without you noticing," Frank said quickly. "At least I arrived on time."

"Thank you for saving me," the girl said.

"It was nothing, it is fortunate that this spell worked out so well," said the boy and then sat down next to Calynn who had moved a little further from the lake.

"What's bothering you? Why does a howler affect you so much? Are Malfoy's nicknames the ones that make you feel this way?" The boy questioned, flooding the little girl with all his questions.

"I can't say it," the girl simply answered.

"No matter how serious it is, I'm here to accompany you," Frank said as he touched her black hair with love. The girl did not answer, just gave him a smile that was enough for him. "I see you brought your things for herbology," the boy commented, observing the little girl's belongings.

"I thought that after going here I could start looking for the greenhouses, I wish we have class with Slytherin since I want to apologize to Severus for an argument," Calynn said enthusiastically.

"I advise you not to join that Severus child, it is not very safe," the boy advised seriously.

"Why do you say that?" Little Black replied surprised and unable to avoid a small gesture of anger.

"He's a little strange," Frank explained, trying not to sound rude.

"Sometimes he may seem strange, but he really isn't," the girl replied.

"Don't take it badly, I'm just saying it for your safety," Frank explained nervously.

"Severus may be strange, but I don't think he's capable of harming anyone," said the girl, quite sure.

"It's just advice," Frank repeated. "I tell you because I care about you."

The children got up from where they were to start looking for greenhouses where they would take herbology in less than half an hour.

"The truth is, Hogwarts is very nice," Calynn observed, changing the subject to the conversation.
She didn't want to talk more about Severus with Frank.

"Yes, since I was little, I knew that I would enter Hogwarts because since I was born my parents told me I was a wizard," said the boy, "just as you suppose."

"No, I found out a little before my letter arrived," Calynn said, giving him a smile.

"Didn't your parents tell you anything before?" Frank was surprised.

"No, I always lived a life of Muggles," the girl said with a shrug.

"How strange, I never went to Muggle school, but my parents used to read me some spell books so that I would gradually know the magical world. This is how I know the Flipendo spell, but so far, I have not had a chance to practice it." Said Frank.

There was a moment of silence when neither of them spokes.

"How did you know where I had gone?" Calynn asked.

"Because I would have gone there too," the boy confessed.

They both smiled as they blushed, there was something that made them understand each other.

"I think those are the greenhouses," said the little girl, pointing to a building that had many windows and from there it could be seen many plants that were inside the place. The students began to arrive from one extreme and realized that they shared class with Hufflepuff when they saw the yellowish robes appear among the bushes. Frank and Calynn walked toward the greenhouses with other students, going faster than other students because Frank was excited to take that class.

Lily stood beside her and began asking where she was, but when she was about to answer, the teacher came in to start class at the least looked as strict as Galatea and the subject was not as bad as History of Magic.

She was glad to be with Frank as he knows much about the subject, while he won twenty points for Gryffindor, without counting those who lost because of Meryl to whom fell the pot up leaving the mandrake on the floor crying all lung.

Calynn did not like much class as it was slightly disgusting, but not mentioned it to Frank because he also helped with many things. When they left class and started the march to the castle Lily began again with the questions that little Black had not been able to answer in class. When she had told her everything until her encounter with the mermaid, she interrupted her incredulously.

"If you wanted to kill yourself at least you would have let me know," the redhead joked.

"I'm sorry," Calynn apologized seriously.

"It's a joke," Lily confessed.

They kept talking and joking about it until they reached the castle and the future Death Eater stopped.

"Do you know where is Severus?" Asked the impatient girl.

"I think they were in Charms," ​​Lily said without giving it any importance.

"I'm going to look for him," said Little Black.

"I go with you," Lily added following her friend.

"I'll wait for you in the common room," Frank shouted to be heard.

The girls quickly climbed the stairs to the Charms classroom hoping to find the students of the house of snakes still in class, but to their bad luck the only one in the classroom was the teacher who collected their things.

"Why are you looking him for?" Lily asked.

"I want to apologize for the dispute we had a few days ago," the girl replied sweetly.

"You can see him at dinner," Lily said. "We also have to finish the duties of Binns!"

"What homework? Whose?" Calynn asked quickly with enough anguish.

"History of Magic, has left us a scroll full of gargoyles strike in 1911," said the redhead.

"Lily, we've only been at Hogwarts for three days and are you learning dates?" Calynn was surprised to hear the exact year of an event she no longer remembered.

"He repeated it many times as he read the same paragraph over twenty times before falling asleep" told Lily.

"I think I fell asleep before him," said Little Black.

Both laughed as they headed up to their common room to do the hard work of Professor Binns. Luckily, they met Meryl Frank and chatting in the common room about Herbology and how embarrassed she had been when she ended filled with dirt. When Frank and Meryl saw their friends arrive, they greeted them and prepared to chat when Lily said they had to finish their homework.

"Binns? Who is Binns?" Asked the dumbfounded blonde.

"Our Magic History teacher," Calynn said rolling her eyes as she pulled out a scroll to start writing.

"I just found out; did he leave us homework?" Meryl questioned hopefully.

"A parchment integer about Gargoyle Strike in 1911," Lily said as she took her pen and ink.

"A whole scroll! And what is the Gargoyle Strike? Did he ever mention it?" Expressed the blonde in anguish as she pulled out a crumpled parchment.

"He mentioned it when we were asleep" Calynn replied as she began to call her sheet of parchment.

"I've already done it, I can help you finish it," Frank said, sitting next to little Black who moved closer to the boy.

"It's very nice of you," Calynn thanked him.

"What would we do without Longbottom?" joked Meryl.

Frank helped them in what he could for her writings remain the same, although he knew that Binns did not engage in reading homework. Lily ended before her friends and went to explain to Meryl how to conclude the brief while Frank stayed with Calynn.

"We are almost done, just need to talk about the few years of the strike in 1912 and is ready," he assured politely.

"That's OK?" Asked the girl when she finished copying a little of her friend's writing.

Frank moved closer to her to see her writing and accidentally took her hand, but did not withdraw her hand, just turned to see her friend who was also looking at her.

"Excellent," the boy replied as he watched her giving her a smile.

They looked at each other for a moment and then separated again to continue the writing without realizing that Lily and Meryl looked at them sweetly.

The last to finish the job was Meryl who rose from the armchair to dance a little to celebrate attracting the attention of everyone present in the room. They were about to leave to go down to the Great Hall when an owl stung one of the windows of the room, the future Death Eater recognized her instantly and went to receive the letter so that the bird would leave later. She was glad he didn't find another red envelope, but she was still afraid of the content the letter brought.

"Who wrote you?" The blonde asked curiously as they descended the stairs.

"Oh, a friend I haven't seen for a long time," said little Black stuttering, trying to avoid the issue.

"Oh, good, where is she from?" Meryl asked again.

"From here, from England," she replied quickly.

"Why don't she go to Hogwarts if she is from here? She must be a witch to be able to occupy the mail by owl," observed the blonde.

"I'm sorry, she's from... from... France!" The girl whispered very nervously.

"How nice you can write each other, although this owl looks a lot like the one in the morning that the one that brought you the howler, but I think it's a coincidence, doesn't it?" Meryl mentioned ending with a certain tone of mystery, letting the girl understand that the blonde had not believed her much.

"Yes, coincidence," said Little Black before turning to see Lily and giving her a worried look.

When they arrived at the Great Hall almost all the students were already there enjoying the delicious dishes offered by Hogwarts every day. The children sat in their usual places a little removed from the center of the table. Their dinner was beginning to be served when a head peeked over the table.

"Hello, lions!" The transparent head shouted.

Meryl who had the pumpkin pie spoon halfway dropped when she saw the ghost and stained all the tunic.

"It's not really my day today," the little girl replied, remembering when she had soiled dirt in Herbology class that morning.

"I'm sorry," said the ghost. "My name is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, better known as Nick almost beheaded, but I prefer the first..."

"Almost beheaded?" Repeated Lily confusedly interrupting the ghost.

The ghost left the table and placed himself in front of the children, put a hand to his hair and pulled his head to see that he had almost cut his entire head leaving only a small piece. Everyone gave a shout of fright to see that.

"I'm glad to have new students in my favorite house," the ghost recited proudly after putting his head on. "Welcome!"

"Thanks, Nick," Frank replied.

"Frank Longbottom?" He asked when he heard the boy's voice. He nodded slowly and gave the ghost a smile. "I liked your mother, you come from a Gryffindor family!" Said the ghost quite proudly. The boy said nothing, just nodded without being able to hide the pleasure of having been recognized. "Well, I will let you eat and enjoy the castle."

The dinner was quiet, they talked about the busy day that awaited them tomorrow as they have the Astronomy class at midnight.

"Why should it be at that time? Why can't it be in the morning?" Meryl replied quite angrily.

"Maybe because it's Astronomy and we need the stars," Lily scoffed.

"True, it must be because of that..." the blonde replied as she thought about what the redhead had just said.

When they finished dinner, they quickly headed back to the common room. They were about to reach the dining room door when little Black stopped dead and began to return to the tables.

"Where are you going?" Asked Frank.

"To look for Severus," she said before disappearing among the students.

When she arrived at the Slytherin table everyone presents started looking at her strangely and with disgust, she kept walking and found Severus sitting still with food on the plate, she was already talking to him when a child screamed.

"What are you doing here, disgusting Gryffindor? Are you coming to contaminate us with your disgusting blood?" Malfoy's proud voice mentioned that to her surprise he was sitting next to Snape. The girl did not answer to not give importance to him. "I see that you have learned to respect your elders a little and not answer them," Lucius scoffed as all the snakes laughed, Lucius nudged Severus to do it too and he smiled a little smile. When the girl noticed Severus' face, she felt so bad that all she did was turn around and go back where she had been, leaving behind the laughter of Slytherin's students.

When she reached the dining room door a boy approached her and stood beside her to accompany her up the stairs.

"Malfoy again?" Frank asked her. He had noticed the little girl's anger without her saying a word.

"Yes, but it's not worth it," the girl replied.

"Okay, but I want you to know that I can help you with anything," Frank said as he took her hand to climb more stairs.

When they reached the common room, they said goodbye to a hug and each went up to his bedroom, when Calynn entered the room she went to her bed and closed the canopy. She sat down and took the letter that had come from her mother from her pocket. Although it really was just a note.

"I just want to remind you of the previous warnings and don't think how to get away from the Christmas holidays because I will do my best to bring you here"

The girl just read the note and was relieved to know it was a reminder and nothing worse than she expected, she put the letter back in the envelope as a precaution and stored it in her locked trunk.

She addressed Lily who was sitting on her bed reading the Magic History book, greeted her and sat next to her.

"Can I ask you something?" Little Black questioned as she blushed slightly.

Lily nodded as she closed her book.

"How do you know how to distinguish between love and friendship?" She questioned with some shame and curiosity at the same time.