Plans to buy a pet

it was an unusual evening in the slytherin common room. There had been a rumor before about Ymous having destroyed a group of at least seven gryffindors trying to subdue Merula. Apparently Merula had cursed one of them in great hall. It didn't sound out of character for Merula. But Ymous having gone to her aid, that part was strange. Once Merula had yelled out her love for the boy, most of the other rumors were starting to make more sense.

people looked at Merula in disbelief. She had just shouted that Anon belonged to her at Ismelda, for some reason. No one knew what the conversation was prior to that.  There was dead silence in the room until, a slytherin girl broke it.

"Oh, this is precious. Merula has a crush on Anon. " She said with mocking tone at the girl.

"You can't be serious, Anon saves her from gryffindors and she immediately falls for him." Another slytherin said

At this point Merula was getting redder, and she looked around angrily. "What are you idiots looking at? I didn't fall for him because he meddled with my duel!" the girl who had mocked her backed out and shut up, she realized that it was a bad idea to cross Merula.

Rowan looked at Merula and turned to Anon, who was still reading his book and scribbling his usual notes. "Did you know about this, Anon?"

"I did." The boy said without raising his head from his book.

People had started whispering. Merula turned to look at Anon furiously, who looked at her and put his book away. The two stared at eachother for a while.

"Well?" She said angrily.

"I wasn't going to suggest announcing it like that, but I suppose this is fine." The boy said while also starting to turn red from the unexpected attention.

"God, you're such a dick. How can you be so nochalant about this?" She said accusingly.

"I'm perfectly comfortable with this, though you shouting it out like that caught me off guard."

The common room was completely silent, people were just following the conversation between the two mortal enemies turned lovers.

"Come on, Meru, this is good...  No more sneaking around after curfew, no more longing gazes hidden by facade of animosity." Anon said smiling. "Come, sit with me... Let people whisper if they wish, but we don't have to hide anymore."

Merula looked around the common room, she was more okay with this than she thought. The jealous look on some of the girl's eyes made it feel like such a victory. But Ismelda... She was destroyed, not few seconds after she had declared she had fallen for Anon. Merula snatched that hope from her, it was probably her first love too. Merula almost felt bad for her. Merula walked to the boy and made herself comfortable sitting on Anon's lap. She wrapped her arms around him and Anon put his hand in her hair. She rested her head on him and sighed contently. The boy showed her what he was reading, but she didn't care at that moment.


The great hall was full of people spreading rumors from that point on. Some people were speculating that Merula had used Love potions or Imperius on Anon. Others simply thought the two were destined to fall for eachother, no one could focus that much on fighting someone and not grow fond of that person. Whatever the case was, people were curious as to how the unlikely couple came to be and when Anon showed up for breakfast alone people immediately surrounded him.

"Anon, are you okay, did she use Amortentia on you?"

"No... Do I seem obsessed?" Anon shot down that rumor.

"Why would you duel your girlfriend that seriously, Anon?"

"She wont accept me not taking her seriously, making a slip like that could be fatal." Anon said trying to be patient at people starting to crowd him.

"Were you two together before or after you broke her arm, Ymous?"

"before."

"You broke your girlfriend's arm in a duel and you're still together, that sounds kinda serious."

"Uhhuh..."

"What's she like when you two are alone, I mean, is she super sweet and submissive when you're together, Is her tough personality a facad..."

Someone in the crowd noticed that Merula had entered the great hall, and the crowd immediately dispersed, and got out of her way when she sat infront of Anon.

"We need to eat breakfast together more often. People seem to leave you alone." Anon said, finally able to eat.

"Feh, your own fault for being so nice to everyone." Merula said while collecting food.

"By the way, good morning, my love." Anon said smiling mischievously.

Merula nearly choked on her scrambled eggs. "What are you... That is way too sappy, you idiot."

"I think I have the right to be sappy with you, Meru, since we're young lovers and all."

"Well, I'm not going to start calling you anything cute." Merula said slightly flustered.

"I thought idiot was your term of endearment for me." Anon said staring at the girls eyes, while she was eating her breakfast unladylikely.

"...Maybe" She smiled. "Good morning to you too... Idiot."

"I thought we'd go for a moonlit walk today, after classes, I thought I'd recite you poetry and we could go to the kitchen and steal light snacks." Anon said glancing at people who were eavesdropping on their conversation.

"I'd really love that." Merula said enjoying the surprised reactions.



Classes went much of the same, people used any opportunity to pester Anon with questions when Merula weren't around, and some braver students even asked Merula for a few questions.

"Why are you going out with Anon, Merula?" Some no-name ravenclaw asked the girl during potions class.

Merula, being aware of risks involved causing trouble near Snape just decided the safest thing to do was to humor any curious people.

"Have you seen him?" She asked. "I mean look at him, what girl could resist that" Merula said trying to make the ravenclaw feel stupid for asking.

"I... UHh... I can see it, when you put it like that." The ravenclaw girl said disappointed and left Merula alone.

Anon on the other hand was busy tending the couple's cauldron, everyone thought Snape would separate the two, now that they were going out on public, but he still forced them to share a cauldron. The potions teacher actually seemed to take a bit of an interest in the progress between the two, Anon just concentrated on picturing Merula's eyes the whole time. He felt terrified when Snape actually told the two to stay behind after the class.

Snape seemed really strange, when the two students sat infront of his desk, the professor looked at the both of them without focusing on one. Which made Anon relax somehow, Legilimency required concentration, and Snape's eyes were moving too much.

"Ms. Snyde, Mr. Ymous..." He started with his dry emotionless tone. "You're both aware that you took off during your last punishment."

Ah fuck, the two of them thought, they had completely forgot that Snape was supposed to give them some punishment again. They just lowered their heads and accepted their fates. Then Anon got the idea of taking Merula's hand. This might've had an effect on Snape.

"However, in light of your... Recent progresses, and... Let's say your more mature approach in sorting your differences." Snape said and scowled a little less. "I'm going to forgo the punishment I had planned for you two."

Anon and Merula just looked at eachother surprised and then Snape.

"Of course, being lenient is unexpected from me... I admit that, but seeing you two behave does warrant some." Snape said in his emotionless tone. "I will however expect that you will no longer break school rules again, and that you will finally let other students focus during potions classes. Otherwise I will be forced to break you two up during classes and go with my punishment anyway."

"Thank you, Professor." The two said simultaneously.

Anon was curious to the sudden change in Snape's character, was he going soft on them, he decided to push it.

"If I may say... Professor." He started trying to sound as respectful as possible. "I think you played a huge part in our reconciliation, thank you." He and Merula studied carefully his reaction.

"Hmm... I assure you, it was not my intention, but so long as you two cease your incessant bickering It might not have been a total waste of my time." He said trying to sound disgusted and uninterested. "Well, that is all, dismissed."

"Thank you." Both of them said again and walked away.

"Well... " Snape said before the two left his office. "I think, 50 points to slytherin is in order to somewhat offset all the points you two lost when you were at eachother's throats. But you two are not to mention my leniency or that I rewarded you for acting like slytherins should to anyone, understood?"

"Yes, Professor" both of them agreed, and left the office holding hands.



The two waited till they got to the magical room at seventh floor before they both burst into laughter.

"Merlin's beard, what is wrong Snape, Forget about us, he's the one who everyone should be spreading rumors about." Anon laughed.

"That was disturbing." Merula agreed.

The two laughed for a bit and sat on the sofa. Anon waited for the girl to collect herself and get serious, and when she stopped smiling he started.

"Avada Kedavra." He said calmly.

Merula had expected it for a long time now, but finally reaching this point made her feel slightly anxious.

"This is the point of no return, Merula." The boy scanned the girl's eyes, she wasn't hesitating and listened to him attentively.

"From this point on, there will be no notes on the subject, there is still another magic we need to learn, but the Killing curse is the first step to that, so we need to learn that first."

"How are we going to practice this?" Merula asked.

"I am going to give you homework, Meru." Anon said smiling, he knew she was going snap back at him.

"Don't act cute, Idiot... You giving me homework?"

"Yes, homework." Anon said smiling at the girl's angry reaction.

"Fine, what's the homework then."

"Patience, first you need to understand the spell, there is a reason why it's surprisingly easy to learn the incantation. Most people will never be able to use it, it's similar to a patronus in that regard."

"Can you do a Patronus, Anon?" The girl asked curiously, she wanted to know what Anon's patronus might be, so much that she ignored Anon being condescending.

"No. And both of us will forever forsake the ability to use that spell."

"You think the stories about maggots consuming the user are true?" Merula asked surprised.

"I don't know, I don't care to find out... But I don't like it. It leaves us vulnerable to dementors, and that is a serious issue. but enough about patronuses."

"Okay, but I am curious, what do you think your patronus would be?"

"Probably a blackbird." Anon said dismissively.

"Why a blackbird? Mine would definitely be something cooler, like... A Dragon or a Tarantula Hawk." The girl said.

"Anyway, back to the subject at hand, the killing curse... Being able to cast it is enough, you need to completely focus on killing. Without remorse, completely accepting that you are ending a life."

"You knew crucio before me, do you know Avada Kedavra, Anon?" Merula asked curious.

"I do."

"Have you used it to kill someone?" Merula asked surprised

"I tried to, but failed. Like I said. It's extremely difficult."

"Who did you try to kill?"

"Jacob." Anon said calmly.

"Y-you tried to kill your brother? What..." Merula was confused.

"Yes, but that's a story for another time. We are running short on time."

"Fine, what do you want me to do then?"

"What animals do you absolutely loathe?" Anon asked. "Something that isn't too outlandish, like sphixes or thestrals or something..."

"Rats" the girl said after thinking about it for a while. "I hate rats."

"That's convenient, we're going to go on a date in Hogsmeade next weekend. I will buy you a rat, which you will then kill. That is your homework, Take as long as you need, just make sure the rat doesn't starve."

"You want me to come back here to try to kill a rat?" Merula said annoyed.

"Well, it would be convenient if you could just kill it on one try, but I doubt that will happen."

"You don't think I'm powerful enough for this?" Merula asked angrily.

Anon gently pressed the girl down on the sofa and pressed his forehead on hers and stared deep in her eyes and smiled.

"Prove me wrong, my love..."