After dinner and washing the dishes, Pomona felt she had no reason to stay any longer, unless she planned to spend the night in the apartment.
Being alone in a haunted house might be frightening, but Severus seemed able to handle it. He was no longer a child.
"I'll come again tomorrow," Pomona said to his tightly shut bedroom door. Then she took off her apron, gathered her things, and left the apartment.
On her way out, she ran into Mrs. Hall, who was carrying a large bag of rubbish. Pomona quickly stepped aside to let her pass. This time, Mrs. Hall did not look at her with the strange expression she had worn when they first met.
With Mrs. Hall there, Pomona could not take out her wand and cast Lumos. When this old house had been designed and built, no provision had been made for electrical wiring; gas lamps had still been in use then. Now, apart from historic sites, gas lamps had been phased out.
She could not imagine how inconvenient it was for an old woman to take out the rubbish downstairs in the dark. Why had Mrs. Hall not waited until daylight?
Her shoes made heavy sounds on the wooden stairs, as though someone were knocking on a door.
"I don't hate Muggles."
Pomona heard a voice behind her. She instinctively turned around, but saw only the pitch-black corridor.
"Because I do not fight for hatred."
Pomona glanced downstairs. Feeling Mrs. Hall must have gone far enough away, she raised her wand.
A blinding white light burst from its tip.
"Muggles are not inferior. They are simply different."
The voice still came from behind her.
"The Elder Wand is something worth fighting for to us, but to Muggles, possessing it would be utterly useless. It