Late at night, Aisling lay alone on a velvet sofa in the Slytherin Common Room, reading. The other students had all returned to their dormitories to sleep, leaving only her studying by lamplight.
By the dim light of the chandelier, Aisling carefully studied the book she had borrowed from Roy last week.
She had asked for the book herself. Ever since they had joined forces on that freezing playground, Aisling and Roy's relationship had completely reconciled. Though they still acted as though they were bitter enemies before the entire school, their private meetings on the playground twice a week made one thing clear: even if they disliked each other's personalities and values, they could at least tolerate each other now.
When they had met on the playground last Tuesday, after discussing their plan, Aisling had asked about the illusion spell Roy had used to defeat her in the dueling competition. The next day, Roy had lent her this book.
Roy was not worried in the slightest that Aisling might surpass him, and had been very generous about lending it to her. The book even contained notes and insights from his own studies. Although his handwriting was crooked and messy, the annotations beside it were quite useful, including several spells he had simplified himself.
Aisling had later asked about Ancient Magic as well. Roy had been quite surprised that she knew he had a talent for it, then showed her a few handy little applications of Ancient Magic. Aisling had tried learning them, only to discover that she simply could not do it.
She had spent the past two days studying this book on illusion spells. She had never expected Roy to have already mastered such a complicated book. Without Roy's crooked notes and explanations in the margins, it would have