Aunt Catherine's words were harsh. A more fragile girl would have burst into tears long ago, but Elizabeth retorted without hesitation. "I'll do whatever makes me happy. It's none of your business, and it's none of the business of anyone who has nothing to do with me!"
Elizabeth and Mr Darcy were both unmarried, simply engaging in a normal relationship between a man and a woman, yet Aunt Catherine claimed that Elizabeth had no regard whatsoever for her nephew's dignity or reputation.
"Unreasonable," Pomona said as she looked at the book.
"Who's unreasonable?" Severus asked, gazing at the Black Lake.
"Who else could it be?" Pomona said, spreading the book open on his lap.
He glanced at the book, letting it flutter faintly on his knees in the summer breeze.
Then Pomona suddenly remembered something, and she felt even worse.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked casually.
"It was very cold that day," Pomona said dejectedly. Harry had been left at the Dursley family's doorstep; she did not know whether he had been cold.
"How did you think of that?" he asked, baffled.
"Do you really want to know?" Pomona asked.
He stared at her as if he wanted to know how her brain was constructed.
"Have you ever noticed Muggle fire stations? There's a box installed in the wall. If someone wants to abandon a child, they can put the baby inside. It has insulation, so the baby won't freeze," Pomona said.
"And then?" Severus asked.
Pomona remembered that she had not said which day "that day" had been—the Halloween of 1981.
Any wizard would understand what that day meant. It was self-evident.
"Nothing." Pomona tried to muddle through it and reached for the book on his lap.
He caught her hand. In his eyes, Pomona saw resolve.
"Do