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Bonus Chapter 23.5: Building Bonds
🕑 Added 2025-02-14 05:30:01 +0000 UTC(Severus’s POV)
I had never been good at making friends.
At Hogwarts, relationships were built on necessity, not companionship. In Slytherin, alliances were political—a means to an end. With the rest of the school? I had been an outcast at best, a target at worst.
Even with Lily, the closest thing I had ever had to a real friend, our bond had been fragile—one built on childhood naivety, one that crumbled the moment I no longer fit into her simplistic, black-and-white worldview.
But Ilvermorny…Ilvermorny was different.
And no matter how much I told myself that I didn’t care, that I didn’t need anyone…
I found myself drawn in before I even realized it.
At some point—I wasn’t sure when—I stopped just being an observer in their ridiculous group. One moment, I was simply sitting nearby during meals.
The next?
Evie and Kiera were pulling me into conversations.
Aurora was debating magical theory with me.
Jonas and Ben were casually including me in dueling practices.
Alessandro was actively dragging me into chaos.
That last part, in particular, was unavoidable.
If I had to blame anyone for my unwanted social life, it would be Alessandro.
My obnoxious, overly persistent, reckless dormmate had made it his personal mission to involve me in as many absurd situations as possible.
And despite my best efforts, he kept succeeding.
A betting pool on which professor would snap first (Evie won—Transfiguration professor lost their temper first).
A ridiculous potion challenge that ended with Alessandro nearly burning his eyebrows off.
Forcing me to try some American candy that turned my tongue green for an entire day.
“You’re an absolute menace, De Luca,” I muttered one afternoon, watching him scrape remnants of singed hair from his cauldron.
Alessandro grinned, utterly unrepentant. “I live to keep life interesting, compagno.”
I sighed deeply. “Some of us prefer to survive the week intact.”
“Boring.”
I rolled my eyes—but I wasn’t actually annoyed.
If Alessandro was the chaotic instigator, then Kiera and Evie were the ones who managed to break through my defenses without me realizing it.
It started with small things.
A shared table in the Ilvermorny Grand Hall. The occasional group study session (where Evie definitely did not study). A casual joke that I made—and for once, instead of offense, it was met with laughter.
That was new. And then, somehow, I was just part of it.
Evie forcing me to sit with them in the common room. Kiera dragging me into casual discussions like I had always been included. Both of them teasing me mercilessly—but never cruelly.
“You’re surprisingly tolerable for a brooding intellectual,” Kiera commented one evening, tossing a pillow at me.
Without looking up from my book, I caught it in one hand and set it aside. “That says more about your standards than it does about me.”
Evie grinned. “Oh, he’s good at this.”
I flicked my wand, refilling Kiera’s teacup without thinking. Neither of them commented on it. Somehow, that meant more than words.
Aurora was the first person I had ever met who could match me in sheer intellectual curiosity.
She was the only one in our group who could sit with me for hours, poring over ancient texts and dissecting magical theories without getting bored.
During our first Charms class together, she instantly picked up on what I was doing—where other students simply cast spells, she understood magic.
“You don’t just want to cast spells,” she said one evening, watching as I experimented with layering charms. “You want to rewrite them.”
I glanced at her, mildly surprised by how quickly she had caught on.
Aurora smirked. “You should write a paper.”
I huffed. “I doubt anyone in Britain would care.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Then don’t publish it in Britain.”
That…That was actually a thought. And for the first time, I considered it.
Then there was Jonas and Ben—the people I was most hesitant to get to know. But Jonas and Ben weren’t like the Gryffindor duelists at Hogwarts.
They weren’t arrogant show-offs like Potter and Black. They didn’t fight to prove superiority—they fought because they loved the craft.
Jonas was quick, precise, and a strategist. Ben was brutal, strong, but faster than he looked.
Sparring with them was… genuinely enjoyable. Then one evening, they challenged me together. I thought it would be chaotic, messy, uneven.
Instead—I thrived.
Jonas was predictable. Ben was fast. I was both.
When I disarmed Jonas and dodged Ben’s hex in the same breath, both of them looked at me with something I had never seen before—Respect.
Ben grinned, shaking his head. “Damn, Shafiq.”
Jonas smirked. “Alright. You’re one of us now.”
I wasn’t sure when it happened.
When casual conversations turned into inside jokes. When sparring turned into trust. When I stopped feeling like I needed to keep my guard up.
One evening, I sat by the fireplace in the common room, half-listening as Alessandro argued with Evie over something completely ridiculous.
Jonas was tuning his enchanted violin. Aurora was scribbling in a research book. Kiera and Ben were playing a wizarding card game.
And I was just… there.
No one was waiting for me to prove myself. No one was planning to turn on me. No one was looking at me like I was a liability or a threat.
They just… accepted me. I hadn’t even realized I was smirking slightly until Alessandro grinned at me.
“See? You’re having fun.”
I rolled my eyes. “I am tolerating your existence.”
Evie tossed a pillow at me. “Same thing.”
Aurora smirked. “Welcome to the group, Shafiq.”
And that night, as I walked back to my dorm, I realized—I had friends. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t just surviving. I was living.
And I wasn’t sure what to do with that.
Comments
firerock laser
I'm happy for him. God knows life is too short to spend alone
