The Room of Requirement

[kittydesade]

“Asfodel, not… not that!” Severus grabbed her hand just as she was about to add an ingredient. His grip was surprisingly strong for such a skinny boy, but not hard enough to make it painful. “Stupid…” he muttered under his breath.

“Sorry…”

They seemed to have come to the terms of an uneasy truce, especially when he had been able to establish his superiority in the field of Potions. She had quickly caught up to nearly every student born of a wizarding family in her year, although she was still having a little trouble in Potions and in Charms. Still it was easy enough to practice in their secret little study room, and Severus really was years ahead of his class. He probably wasn’t exactly willing to teach her, but he was even less willing to put up with the fits of temper that inevitably followed a failing quiz grade.

Besides, he really was a good tutor. Once they had settled down to study he was unfailingly patient with everything except the most stubborn stupidity or absentmindedness. Not always polite, but he was patient, and he explained things simply and easily. It seemed to come naturally to him, although she hadn’t yet dared to point it out yet. She wasn’t sure what kind of response she’d receive, for one thing.

“Now take it off the fire…” their joined hands lifted the cauldron. “There. Now do you think you can do that in class without mucking it up?”

She nodded. “Yes, I do think I can.”

“Good.”

They cleaned up in silence. Everything was done in silence, except when they were consulting each other on homework assignments. She asked him for advice and help much more often than the other way around, but apparently the Ravenclaw house had a reputation for being highly intelligent and skilled at study. Whenever he asked for her help he made reference to the fact, as though he wouldn’t ask normally but because she always had her nose stuck in a book she might actually be able to come up with the right answer. He’d even said that once, and she’d stared at him with hurt and amazement in her eyes until he’d muttered a clearly unfelt apology.

They settled back, he into his chair and she onto her couch to make notes on what she had had just learned. As seemed to be the norm she found it easier to concentrate in their tiny study room than in the Common Room of her house, or even in the library. Fewer eyes, fewer social groups to feel excluded from, fewer ways to feel homesick or alone. Not that this study room was really anything like her home, but at least she felt comfortable.

The sound of cloth tearing wide open dragged her attention, and she looked over just in time to see all of Severus’s books spilling over the floor. “Oh… damn.” It hadn’t looked as though the bag would have lasted much longer anyway, but from the way his face flushed and then grew pale…

“Reparo…” she pointed her wand at it, watching with the traces of lingering amazement as the seams mended themselves. Severus watched, too, and then whirled on her.

“Leave me alone!”

She blinked. All she had done was repair his bag for him. “I was only trying to help…” Why had that sent him into a rage?

“Well, don’t! I don’t need your help!” He jammed all his books into his bag again, and she could tell that it was already straining the seams again. “Just leave me alone!”

Her eyes widened; he knocked over two inkwells and a jar full of pens, not that he took any notice. The black ink dripped along the length of the table and onto the floor. “Severus…” she started to warn him to get his homework out of the way, but he caught it just in time and snatched it off the table. He also caught sight of the inkwells, and looked as though he might hurl one at her head.

“Leave me alone!”

“Severus!” she shouted, and practically chased him out of the room in concern. He might not be the most pleasant boy in school; far from it, but he was still the first real friend she’d made. After a week or two of hiding she had developed a reputation for being standoffish at worst, shy at best.

He was doing a good impression of standoffish at the moment, ignoring her and almost running down the hall with long, awkward steps. She wasn’t sure whether he was just running or running away from her, but she kept pace with him easily enough. At least she would until he actually started running, and then she knew he’d lose her easily, being several inches taller and longer in stride.

“Severus…” she started to say something, and then stopped as they were passed by a gaggle of Hufflepuffs, at least two of whom looked strangely at the sight of a Slytherin being chased by a worried-looking Ravenclaw. Evidently inter-house fraternization wasn’t the done thing around here. Except she’d seen all kinds of inter-house friendships, so perhaps it was just the Slytherins? That didn’t matter, her friend was…

“You!”

Severus had been in such a hurry to escape her that he’d run straight into another gaggle of students, this time a gaggle of Gryffindors. And Gryffindors who seemed to know him, she noticed with a growing sense of unease.

“Snivellus…” The apparent leader of the pack, a lanky boy with untidy black hair, seemed to take a positively unholy glee both in discovering who he’d just run into and in using that awful name for him. “Excellent.”

“And who is this?” the boy behind him asked, but Severus didn’t even look around.

“No one,” he snapped. “Now get out of my way.”

“Tut-tut…” The scruffy-haired boy whipped out his wand and in a second Severus had gone sprawling, his bag ripping open again and his books flying everywhere. “Manners, Snivellus, how many times do I have to…”

“Expelliarmus!”

It was a good thing her aim had been true on the first shot, because once all four boys and Severus were staring at her (the former with shock and the latter with bitter loathing) she couldn’t have managed a spell to save her own pride. She kept her wand out and pointed at the five boys anyway, figuring that that was better than turning tail and running like a kicked puppy.

“Who’s your friend, Snivellus?” the second boy asked, although he sounded more surprised than anything.

“Get away from me,” Severus snarled.

“Leave him alone.”

For a second they remained at an impasse. None of the four boys wanted to do anything with the Ravenclaw’s wand on them, Severus didn’t dare try and escape from their grip, and she was slowly regaining her wits enough to try and cast another spell. Severus recovered first, most likely because he had the least to recover from. Snarling insults at her and the boy (whose name she vaguely recognized as Potter) he picked himself up off the floor and ran, not even stopping for his books. The Potter boy looked from him to her, as though not sure who to chase after.

“Come on,” the second boy said, taking Potter’s arm. “Let’s go find Evans, hmm?’

Rowan didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until her legs kicked out from under her and she collapsed in a sighing heap. The corridor was still empty, although with her luck she wasn’t sure how long that would last. “Reparo,” she muttered at the bookbag, and stuffed all of Severus’s things back into it. She didn’t know her way to the Slytherin Common Room and wasn’t sure he’d be in there even if she could get in, but she’d leave it in their shared hiding place. He’d come back there. She was sure of it, even if she wasn’t sure of anything else anymore. Besides, she had to get her own books anyway.

She trudged back to the room, panicking a bit when she couldn’t find it at first. His usual chair was there, although someone had gone through and cleaned the ink off of it and the table. She left his books on the chair, thought about leaving a note for him and the discarded the idea when she realized she didn’t know what to say. She’d just have to figure out something when she saw him again in their next study session. If he ever wanted to see her again. It was a strange feeling. The thought hurt more than she’d expected it to.

And then again, why shouldn’t it? He was rapidly becoming her best friend in this strange yet fascinating place, a wonderful tutor, and an intriguing person in and of himself. She would miss him if he decided to stay away from her, despite only having known him a few short weeks.

But she still wasn’t going to start blubbering over it. Fiercely determined, and with a horrific though unintentional scowl on her face, she stormed out of the room.