Seekers of Light

Luke turned to look at Taylor, who was sitting on the sofa nearby. Her long bangs covered her eyes, but perhaps it was just an illusion—Luke always felt that beneath that curtain of hair, there was a blue phosphorescence.

Luke did not reveal himself immediately. Instead, he took three steps to his left.

Yet Taylor's gaze shifted a fraction to the left along with him. Luke frowned slightly, but still did not reveal himself. Silently, he activated his Legilimency.

Visibly, Taylor became confused at once. Her mouth fell open involuntarily, then pressed tightly shut again as though she were deliberately trying to maintain her image.

Yet the confusion on her face was still plain to see.

Luke gave a cold laugh and walked toward Taylor in his expensive custom-made shoes, enchanted with silencing magic.

Listening to the utterly silent room, Taylor found that the voices that had intermittently sounded in her mind had vanished, leaving only the sound of waves beyond the window.

She first looked around, then patted her head and closed her eyes, making a listening gesture. But when she opened them again a moment later, her eyes were still filled with confusion.

"Y-you're still there?"

Whatever composure and confidence Taylor had possessed at first seemed to have completely disappeared. Though she still held the sofa's armrests with both hands and kept her chin raised in a forceful sitting posture, she now looked like a wronged Rabbit.

"I'm here. Who are you?"

Luke suddenly canceled the Disillusionment Charm directly in front of Taylor.

They were less than ten centimeters apart. Startled by his sudden appearance and their extreme proximity, Taylor instinctively leaned back. If the Slytherin common room's sofa had not been sturdy enough, that dramatic movement might have sent both her and the sofa sprawling onto the floor.

Luke did not adjust his position just because he had frightened her.

Taylor raised her head to look at Luke. A gentle smile still hung on his face, but his eyes were now like deep whirlpools, revealing not the slightest emotion.

"Y-you should move back a little."

Taylor spoke softly.

Luke did not budge.

"Please move back a little."

Taylor pleaded softly.

Only then did Luke take a few steps back and sit on the sofa opposite her. He crossed his legs, rested both arms on the armrests, leaned sideways, propped his chin on his clenched left fist, and gripped his wand in his right hand.

"First tell me who you are. How did you find me?"

Luke's voice was icy, faintly carrying killing intent, as though he would lash out and hurt her at once if Taylor failed to give him an answer that satisfied him.

Taylor felt as though she were being watched by a snake, one that would sink its fangs into her without hesitation if it became unhappy.

But remembering her mission, she let out a long breath to calm herself. Then, with a solemn expression, she said to Luke, "My name is Taylor, Taylor Barbara. I am a Legilimens."

As she gave that answer, Taylor studied Luke's face carefully, trying to catch every tiny microexpression. Perhaps because of his Legilimency, she could no longer read Luke's mind, but her childhood training had also made her intimately familiar with human microexpressions. In the past, that had merely assisted her mind-reading; now, it was all she could rely on.

Although Luke's face showed little expression, Taylor still caught a fleeting moment of relief.

To be honest, an answer that usually made other Wizards immediately storm off—or even draw their wands in threat—actually made Luke breathe a sigh of relief.

Unlike the magic of Legilimency, Legilimens were born that way. Like Luke's Parseltongue, it was a kind of talent.

The similarity between those two talents was that neither was well-liked. In fact, both were despised and slandered.

Because of so many Dark Wizards, especially that noseless bastard's propaganda, Parseltongue had become synonymous with Dark Magic, even evil itself. It was as if anyone who could speak to snakes belonged on the stake.

Legilimens had