By Your Side

"He didn't give you any trouble, did he?"

Anna waited until Lucius was completely out of sight before asking.

"We only talked for a bit. I know exactly where I stand now."

His answer made the girl frown. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"I'm worried he might use something to threaten you.

And I know you could never stand on Voldemort's side again, and I haven't expected you to join my side in the future, either.

You're free now, Severus."

Anna's voice was gentle. As though she had made some kind of decision, she continued.

"If my spending time with Lily and you makes other people automatically put you on my side, and that leads to nasty remarks or even threats, then I'll stay away from you both..."

"Miss Anna, are you joking?"

Seeing her grow more dejected as she spoke, Snape immediately interrupted her.

"Where I want to stand is my business. Just as you said, I'm free.

So even if I stand beside you, that's my own choice. It has nothing to do with anyone else.

As for Lily, she's stronger and braver than you think, and she knows how to handle her relationships with the people around her.

If you have time to spare, you'd be better off thinking about how you're going to face Voldemort the next time you see him!"

For no reason he could name, Anna's words stirred a nameless anger in him.

She always stood in front of everyone else and never considered herself, taking it for granted that this was for their own good, even if it made her sad.

Her flaw had been laid bare in the Mirror of Erised, where she couldn't see herself. He had thought that after that outburst of magic, she would realize it and gradually change, but now it seemed she hadn't.

Although he had spoken harshly to her, Anna knew he was comforting her in his own way and rejecting her proposal. Her mood immediately lifted.

"Severus, did you just say you chose to stand beside me?"

She felt a little pleased, and as the two walked back to their dormitories, the girl's steps grew lighter.

"Mm."

He reluctantly answered, but by standing beside her, he didn't mean joining the Acolytes. He simply meant standing beside her as a person.

Supporting everything she did and choosing to face their common enemy with her. That was all.

He believed Anna understood what he meant, too.

Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor Common Room, Lily's roommate also brought up the subject of Anna.

"Lily, I know Miss Anna is very good to you, but she's still a member of Slytherin, and she's connected to Grindelwald from decades ago. You're a Gryffindor student now. Is that really all right?"

Lilian Strachey sat on her bed, looking worriedly at the red-haired girl who was still sorting through her candy.

"But Anna is Anna. She didn't choose the family she was born into, and I was already good friends with her before she entered Slytherin House."

Lily spoke without concern. She picked out a lot of candy, sat down beside Lilian, and stuffed it into her arms.

"And you've seen it too. She doesn't like pure-blood ideology. She thinks everyone's the same, whether they're pure-bloods or Muggle-born wizards. Don't you think she's right?"

Listening to Lily's rebuttal, Lilian didn't know what to say for a moment.

Like Lily, she was a Muggle-born witch, and neither of her parents could do magic.

Before coming to Hogwarts, she had thought everyone was the same. She hadn't expected the Witching World to have such a thing as blood status, or that the students wouldn't get along as well as they had at her Muggle primary school.

After learning about pure-blood ideology, she naturally thought Miss Anna was right. But Gryffindor and Slytherin had been known to dislike each other for a thousand years, and that wouldn't change overnight because of one person.

But her roommate and good friend didn't care about any of that and insisted on being friends with Anna and the others. Some Gryffindor students were already talking about it behind her back.

"How about this, Lilian? Let's sit at the Slytherin table tonight and see what the other people in that house say to us.

As for Gryffindor, we'll explain that it's an adventure for the brave. The school rules don't say we can't visit another house's table at a feast anyway. What do you think?"

The Halloween Feast at Hogwarts wasn't like the one shown in the movies from the original world, where everyone sat together and ate properly. The older students wore all sorts of outlandish costumes and made themselves look completely different. This was especially true in Gryffindor, where novel outfits appeared one after another, making the scene somewhat chaotic.

Lily had come up with an idea that would shock everyone. Clearly, in the years she had spent with Anna, she had grown bolder than in her previous life.

After hearing Lily's daring proposal, Lilian admitted she was a little tempted.

The courage hidden in the blood of a Gryffindor little lion was beginning to stir.

"Just the two of us? Won't we stand out too much?"

She subconsciously wanted to drag more people into it. Maybe then they wouldn't stand out so much?

"I've thought of a few good candidates. Wait here, I'll go find them."

Lily got off the bed and immediately left the dormitory to find the little group that looked perfectly suited to this sort of thing.

And so, as the feast drew near, Anna sat at the Slytherin table and looked at the masked figures beside her. In the end, she couldn't hold back and laughed out loud without a shred of tact, nearly pounding the table with her fist.

Good heavens! She had never imagined that Lily would do something so surprising one day. She had really seen something new today.

"Severus, you were right. Lily is even braver and stronger than I imagined."

With one hand against her forehead, she leaned toward the person beside her and, forcibly holding back her laughter, whispered to the person whose face had turned ashen.

"Ahem, Lily, how about I go over to Gryffindor with you? It's too quiet here. I think you'd prefer somewhere livelier."

After receiving Snape's death stare, Anna cleared her throat and proposed an alternative.

"But Anna, you come over to our side every morning. Can't we come over to yours for a change?"

She had already made up her mind to stay. The people beside her had breathed a sigh of relief at Anna's words, only for Lily to immediately counter her.

"Uh, yes, of course. No problem. But Mr. Potter and his friends beside you seem a little reluctant."

She pointed at James Potter and his group. Although nearly two months had passed since the Invisibility Cloak incident, the four of them were still shaken.

If it weren't for the fact that the adorable Lily had asked him to do this for the first time, Potter declared that he would never have sat at the Slytherin table in his life!

"No, we're very happy, really."

He gritted his teeth, unwilling to admit defeat in front of Lily and Anna. The other three had come along out of brotherly loyalty, unwilling to let their good friend venture into the snake pit alone.

"All right, but please don't force yourselves."

Anna gave them a "kind" reminder.

She had originally wanted to find an opportunity to improve relations between the houses. She hadn't expected Lily to bring the matter up ahead of her, so she would use this to take the first step.

The second grand feast since the new students' arrival was about to begin.