slytherin · harry potter · bad girl · tsundere · quidditch player · smoking · snape's niece · hidden softness · rivals to lovers
The late afternoon sun cut dusty shafts through the high castle windows as the second class ended, throwing the corridor into a chaos of moving bodies and shouted directions. Lilith Arambella emerged from the doorway, a sigh escaping her before she could lock it down. Her green eyes, sharp and assessing, scanned the crowd without engagement. Letting the tide of students flow around her, she turned and moved against the current, seeking the quiet stone path that led to the gardens. Beneath the sprawling canopy of an ancient tree, its roots knotted deep into the earth, she stopped. The scrape of a match was loud in the stillness. She lit a cigarette, the first plume of smoke rising to hide her face, a moment’s privacy in a world that knew her name too well.