Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Not mine. I just borrowed them for a while. I promise to put them back when I'm done. Oh, nope, no money either...just for fun.

Many thanks to my betas, EverMystique and DuchessOfArcadia, for helping me clean up my many mistakes, and to Pookah for the shoulder and friendly advice. I really appreciate it more than you can possibly know.

The Polyjuice Potion was complete, so Severus measured out seven bottles of the glutinous substance, six he intended to sell to his housemates, no questions asked. He scraped half a goblet full off the bottom of the cauldron before he cleaned it with a Scourgify. He carried the goblet and one bottle to tuck into the desk Hermione used as a trunk.

"Oh, do I get one?" she asked, lying on her back on the bed with one leg balanced on her knee, reading.

"No," he said, closing the desk, "but I want to hide it just in case." Mulciber was getting behind in his essays and had actually been spending time in the library trying to catch up. Severus had found three of his hairs on his pillow and had them folded neatly in some toilet tissue in his pocket. It was a risk, but he was hoping that if anyone saw him leaving the castle with Hermione in Mulciber's form, no one would be suspicious, except maybe another Slytherin. But it did seem like most of his friends were too busy as of late to notice. Hurshiser and Rowe were still with the Ravenclaw girls; Thortenson was spending his free time with Linnet, and Avery was getting serious over Mysterie Myers. Even Rosier was getting cozy with one of the Hufflepuff Chasers, and Hodges was behind in his revision because of a bad interaction from two rogue jinxes, which had landed him a three-week stint in the hospital.

"It's been a late spring this year, but I want to see if I can find any of the lichens, crocus, pearlwort, and Giant Hogweed shoots today. Do you want to come?"

"Yes!" Hermione set down her book and rolled off the bed in one smooth motion, landing on her feet.

He laughed and then handed her one of Mulciber's robes, and his scarf, hat and coat with a smirk. "Here's the catch, you have to be a guy."

"Sure, I can do that," she replied. She held up the robe as he added the hairs to the Polyjuice Potion in the goblet. It turned a brownish-avocado grey. She looked at the potion and grimaced. "It smells like a rotten, overripe avocado."

He chuckled softly at her remark. "Drink this and put on his robe. I'll wait by the door." He turned and walked over to the desk to let her change. Even though she would look like Mulciber, and he'd seen Mulciber undress numerous times, he didn't feel right watching her undress.

He laughed as Mulciber walked into the room, smiling with anticipation, carrying the goblet. He took it and turned the goblet into a flask in case she needed to take another mouthful. "Hermione, relax your face." Her smile faded and he nodded. "Mulciber has an open-mouth, dopey look most of the time, like what he reads makes no sense, and he's not as well spoken as you are."

She tried and the result was spot on and absolutely hilarious.

They made it out of the dungeons, passing only a few lower-year Slytherins who gave them sly glances, and out of the castle without any hassles. The snow was ankle-deep until they were away from the general pathways where it was slightly deeper, but the edge of the forest had deep snowdrifts caused by the recent winds.

Severus hadn't wanted to wander too far, but he couldn't find any crocus along the tree line. He tried to keep the edge of the forest in view as they moved among the trees in search of the potion ingredients he wanted. The pearlwort wasn't in bloom yet, so he had to forgo collecting any, and he wasn't able to find any of the mushrooms he'd hoped to gather either. The deer-horn and silver mantel lichens were easier to find, and the Great Hogweed had plenty of new shoots to collect. However, he found several unicorn hairs and a small nest of woodlice to entice the bowtruckles so he could take a couple of nice straight branches from their birch tree to make new stirring rods.

When the potion started to wear off, Hermione swallowed another mouthful from the flask, grimacing and scrunching her nose in distaste. "Urgh, that's so vile! The cat tasted better."

"I could tell Mulciber you think so," he teased her.

Hermione grabbed a handful of snow.

"Don't you even think about it," he warned her before she took a bite of the snow and he sighed as he realized she wasn't going to throw it at him.

Mulciber's eyebrows rose and he smirked mischievously, a very non-Mulciber-like expression, just before Hermione closed her fingers about the clump of snow and chucked it at him.

"I thought I said..." he started to say as another clump of snow was hurled at him. He swept it away with a sweep of his hand and a wandless spell. "Not funny."

"Oh, I dunno, I think it's hilarious," she said. It was so odd seeing Mulciber smiling merrily at him while grabbing more snow. Hermione chucked it at him, and he ducked as he swatted the snowball away with his arm.

He grabbed a handful of snow and tossed it at her. Hermione squealed and ducked as they both scooped up more snow. Hers missed...his didn't. But as he leaned down, a small bit fell onto his head.

"You're asking for it," he said, quickly packing an extra large clump of snow together.

"That was from the tree!" she squealed in a most un-Mulciber-like manner as his snowball splattered on her shoulder, getting her cheek as well. Hermione lobbed one at him that hit his arm.

They both scooped more snow and threw them. He was faster, hitting her squarely just before hers hit him. "Oh, now you've done it." He lunged forward and caught her scarf, yanking her to him as he scooped up a huge handful of snow.

"Severus, no," she protested futilely as he smashed the snow on the back of her neck getting some of it under the scarf.

She shrieked as she struggled to get away, only managing to trip him. But he hadn't let go, which only made her land on top of him. The fall winded him, and it took him a moment to catch his breath as she stared at him nose to nose. He flicked a bit of snow at Mulciber's grinning face, and she pushed herself up, wiping her face as she flipped onto her back next to him, laughing. Severus scrambled up, turned to offer a hand and froze. Mulciber was sliding his legs apart, then together while at the same time flapping his arms up and down in the snow bank.

"What are you doing?"

"Making an angel," Hermione stated as she raised a hand for help up. Severus grasped it and hauled her up. Once on her feet, she turned to look at her impression in the snow. "See, it's an angel: head, wings, dress..."

He looked at the depression and supposed it did look like an angel.

"Now you make one?"

He looked at her as if she'd lost her Gobstones. "I don't flail about in the snow."

"Why not?" she asked, and he laughed at seeing such an exuberantly playful expression on Mulciber's face. "Don't wizards make snow angels?"

"No, we make snow castles and snow sculptures," he stated and immediately regretted it as Mulciber's eyes widened in wonder. "Let me guess, you want to learn how."

He dropped his head as she replied, "Oh, yes!"

He sighed and dropped to his knees in front of a tall snowdrift. "If you ever tell anyone that I..."

"Like whom?" she asked, interrupting him. "I'm not about to go bragging to your housemates that you attempted..."

"Attempted? I'll have you know that I..." he started say rather defensively and then scowled at her smug expression. "I said I'd do it. Now stand back and give me some room." Severus took one of his birch branches and started outlining his castle, scooping snow away.

Hermione kneeled down next to him and helped to remove the excess snow. He patted new snow on sections where it was needed, poked depressions for windows and doors, using his stick to make smooth walls and crenellations. He picked up a wad of snow, uttering a nonverbal wandless charm and formed a few turrets on the sides.

He marked where he wanted her to build a wall around the castle, indicating where he wanted to put towers. As he used wandless magic to refine the castle, Hermione built his wall and three towers. After finishing the last cone-shaped roof, he backed up and fixed the towers, adding crenellations, long thin window slots, and smoothing the sides. He sat back and evaluated his handy work.

"Severus, that's amazing," Hermione said in awe, unaware that the potion was just beginning to wear off.

"You need more potion," he suggested, shrugging off her compliment.

"Do I have to?" she groaned, clearly not amenable to drinking essence of Mulciber again.

He looked over his shoulder and realized how far they had walked. "If you're okay in his robes, you don't have to for now. We won't be seen from this distance." He stood up, drew his wand and aimed for the snow castle. "Crystallinus." The snow took on a nearly transparent sheen, iridescent with rainbows of colors glowing lustrously, making the castle look like one from a fairly tale.

He turned and looked at Hermione, smugly satisfied by her expression of bewildered awe.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

He shrugged, not willing to tell her about the castles he and Lily used to make. "Something to do over Christmas hols when Mum insisted I go out and play. Not much to do in my town, so I suppose I made them to amuse myself." He quickly amended, "At first they were forts...not castles like this one," he admitted, so she'd not think him a ponce.

"What else can you do?" she asked, still staring at the snow castle.

He shrugged. "I don't do much anymore," he admitted. "I haven't done this in ages." In fact, it was only during the Christmas before last, his last Christmas with Lily, that he'd made a snow castle and a dragon for her. He didn't want to think about that...not ever again. "We should go back," he suggested.

"Do we have to?" she asked, looking up at him through her lashes.

He stared at a stray curl that fluttered against her cheek from the light breeze. He looked up to try to determine the time and shrugged. "Another half hour maybe, but I need to get you back before everyone heads to the common room to get ready for dinner. It'd look rather suspicious if Mulciber was seen passing himself in the corridors or, worse, someone we pass had seen the real Mulciber in passing... This is really risky, Hermione."

"You could just Disillusion me again," she entreated hopefully.

He shook his head, saying, "It's still best that I be seen walking with someone than have a second set of unexplainable tracks appearing in the snow." He looked up at the castle and shrugged. "I suppose we can wait until we are closer. You're not easily recognizable from this distance." He hoped.

When they got closer to the castle, he told her to take more potion, so she pulled out the flask, raised it in mock salutation him and said, "Bottoms up."

The change happened quickly enough, her cute face morphing into Mulciber's scruffy one, and he looked away wishing she didn't have to use the potion. They walked slowly, talking about the various plants that he'd discovered growing on the school grounds, and the best time to cultivate them for optimum efficacy. It was funny having this conversation with her and seeing Mulciber's face. He just couldn't imagine the real Mulciber ever being this interested in Herbology or Potions or this willing to talk about anything academically.

When they got near the castle, he asked her to dumb down a bit and reminded her to stop smiling. In the Entrance Hall, the Slytherin fifth-year prefect and his girlfriend gave them furtive glances, and they passed several second-years, Thortenson, and Hodges on the stairs to the dungeons. Thankfully, Hermione only grunted in greeting with a jerk of her head, so like Mulciber it was amusing, except passing his mates made Severus nervous. They were nearly at the classroom when Rowe, Rosier, and Atkinson turned the corner.

"Oi, Mulciber, you done with my notes from Care of Magical Creatures yet?" Rosier asked, stopping in front of Hermione.

"Yeah. They're in my trunk," she said, a little too nicely while attempting to make her face look dopey.

"I thought you had them with you in the library?" Rosier asked.

Hermione shrugged, not a thing Mulciber would have done, and Severus fought to control his expression to a mask of indifference. "I dropped my bag off..."

"Look, I don't have time...I have to get to my potion," Severus interrupted. "So if you want my help before dinner, we need to go, or you can meet me in my lab."

"Well, since you're apparently done with them...enough to go play in the snow...I need them back at dinner," Rosier stated.

Severus cringed inwardly, wondering when Rosier had seen them. He started to walk off and Hermione called out, "Severus, wait." He didn't turn around but did slow down slightly.

"I'll give them to you at dinner," Hermione said as she hurried after Severus.

He was mentally crossing his fingers that his housemates didn't pick up on Mulciber's difference of behavior.

"What happens if Mulciber doesn't have his notes at dinner?" Hermione asked softly when she'd caught up to him.

Severus opened the door of the classroom noticing that the potion was wearing off again. Damn, that's cutting it way too close. "He'll have them; I'll see to it. If he complains...I'll lend him mine."

Hermione nodded and walked over to her bed to change.

"I have to go," he said, just as she disappeared. "I have to make sure those guys don't get suspicious."

"Won't they be if you go now...you're supposedly checking on your potion?"

He swore softly and slowly counted to fifty before turning on his heel. "I'll be back after dinner, and if you want to shower, I'll sneak you in late after everyone has fallen asleep."

Hermione appeared, pulling on a jumper he'd lent her from Avery's trunk. It was huge on her, and she looked really adorable in it. "Okay, I'll be here."

He turned to leave. "You better be, my little Gryffindor, or I won't let you have any pudding."

A few days later, Hermione was sitting crossed-legged on the bed, reading the heavy tome on her lap, when the door opened. She leaned around the bed hangings and sucked in her breath as soon as she realized it wasn't Severus. The wizard was stocky, large and had short, spiky hair and a slightly pock-marked complexion. She saw a flash of silver from a badge on his robes, and cringed as she realized he was a prefect.

"Not here, damn it." He turned his back to her to look at the items on the benches, examining the blankets, picking up and setting back her plate and cutlery, and looking inside the pitcher. "What the...?"

She stayed on the bed, her knees grasped in her arms as she watched him, praying that he wouldn't find her, and wondering why he hadn't knocked before entering. Not that it mattered now; if he came her way, she was trapped.

The boy picked up one of Severus' cauldrons and turned to face the desk and worktable. "Now why would you need to elongate and widen a desk? You've never done that before," he said, fingering the top of the desk. His fingers drummed on the side of the cauldron as he walked over to the worktable, examining it. "And you changed the size of the professor's desk...made it bigger." He set the cauldron on one of the burners, and opened the long narrow drawer. He slammed the drawer closed and looked up, his gaze sweeping the room.

Hermione swallowed in fear. She tried to control her breathing, knowing that he wouldn't see her unless he actually walked over to the bed and passed the spells Severus had applied to her corner of the room. But her heart was racing, making loud thumps she could hear, and she was trying desperately to take slow, silent breaths, but her breathing was becoming erratic the more she tried to control it.

"Really made yourself at home in here, haven't you, Snape?" he asked, turning around slowly.

Hermione tried to relax a little as he leaned against the worktable and stared at the wall. In the silence, Hermione felt totally exposed. She dared not move, counting to five with each inhalation and exhalation to keep her breathing slow and even, ignoring the thunderous beat of her heart. She swallowed, being careful not to stare at the boy, keeping her eyes on the moving picture in her book, hoping that he wouldn't feel her presence and turn around. She glanced up and back down, too keenly aware of his presence. He turned again, his gaze sweeping the room again, and she fought against holding her breath, still forcing her breathing to the count of five. After what felt like an eternity, he turned and leaned back against the desk, crossing his arms. She was surprised to see his wand held in his hand.

The door opened and another boy came in, making the first one turn around. "I don't know where he is," the new arrival said worriedly, making Hermione suck in her breath in response. He was a thin, wiry looking guy with stringy ash-blond hair and crooked nose, but it was the expression that made her cringe. It was a dopy, slack-mouthed expression, and his pale watery-blue eyes seemed doltish. "I looked in the library, and Rosier checked the hospital. Nothin', he ain't nowhere."

Hermione looked at her stocking-clad feet and pleaded silently for them to go away, making furtive glances at them through bed hangings. She grabbed her wand and slid quietly to the other side of the bed, ready to hide under it if necessary.

The first boy swore and slammed his fist on the desk. "I knew it! It's them Gryffindors. Get everyone together in the common room." The other boy turned to go. "No, wait." The thin boy froze and turned around. "Take Rowe and Hurshiser and check out the forest. I'll round up everyone else to check all the classrooms and broom cupboards. He has to be somewhere!"

The thin boy, she assumed was Severus' friend Mulciber, nodded and left, leaving the door open. "Damn it," the stocky boy swore, banging his hand on the desk again. "When I...if he's hurt, they're going to pay!" He shoved off from the desk and strode purposefully from the room.

Hermione stayed where she was, her mind a warring whirl of possibilities, each far worse than the other.

She got up, paced and threw herself on the bed, wishing that she had Harry's map.

She sat on the bed and stared at the door, wondering what had happened to Severus, trying not to think the worst. If he was hurt, no one knew she was here. But if he was hurt, there was nothing she could do for him. She couldn't even go see him in the hospital wing.

She ran her hands over her face, trying to keep the rising anxiety she felt under control. It would do her no good to panic.

Hermione fell back onto the bed and covered her eyes, willing her worried mind to relax and stop speculating the worst scenarios.

After what seemed an eternity, Hermione's stomach grumbled. She had no idea how long it had been. She paced and tried to keep calm as she ate some of the leftover food that she had stored. By now, she knew the precise number of steps it took her to cross the classroom, from wall to wall, and from the door to each piece of furniture in her confined space.

The timer went off, and she checked the potion, wondering if she should try to finish it for him. His book and his directions were still on the worktable where he'd left them. She decided that he'd be unhappy if the potion spoiled. "Besides, what's the worse I can do...ruin it? If I leave it alone, it'd be ruined anyway, so no harm done, right?" she asked the empty room.

She measured out the beetles eyes, adding them in while stirring just as his annotations suggested...well, the one not crossed out. She reset the timer for the six-hour interval before reading the next step, tracing his added comments between the lines of the directions with her finger. At an angle... Paper thin. I can do that. On the right margin he'd written: Rinse the astragalus root before slicing. Astragalus root...the directions don't call for astragalus root! Juniper berries are next. But it was written more or less above the juniper berries.

She tried repeatedly to lie down to sleep until morning, knowing that she had six hours to wait for the potion unless Severus showed up first, but she was too pent up with worry to relax. She tried eating a bit of éclair, but it turned her stomach and she vanished the remaining half. She lay down again and hugged her pillow, trying desperately to think about anything else other than Severus' body shoved in a broom closet, broken, magically deformed or bleeding.

The timer startled her, making her jump up, her hands trembling slightly and feeling nervous. Somehow, she managed to keep her shaky hand steady enough to clean, peel, and rinse the astragalus root Severus had placed on the dish before she sliced the entire root well enough, although she had to guess how much to use. She stirred the required twenty times and reset the timer for another six hours. She ate a roll as she paced, then fell back on her bed and curled up in a ball, staring at the door, wishing it would open again.

The timer startled her awake again. She cut the juniper berries in half, then in slices according to his notes and reset the timer for nine hours. Hermione decided to read in bed as she ate a chicken leg and an apple. After a while, she became exhausted and laid down. When she awoke, she had no idea how long she'd slept except to judge it by time left on the timer.

When it went off, she lowered the flame to let the potion simmer and paced for a while before lying down again. When the timer went off again, she doused the flame and removed the cauldron to the cooling rack. She looked around, wondering how she'd be able to find out if Severus was all right or not. She checked the finished potion wondering if the slightly darker shade of goldenrod was the way it was supposed to be or not, considering it was much darker than the book indicated in the color swatch.

She tried reading but couldn't concentrate. She tried analyzing what effect the astragalus root would have on the potion, but couldn't find what she wanted in his annotations or in his books. Frustrated, she tried practicing the spells he'd taught her on the water pitcher. Without Severus' regular visits, she had no idea what time of day it was or even how much time had passed, and she missed him dearly.

She was about to go lie down again when suddenly the door opened and Hermione turned, feeling like a deer mesmerized by headlights. She quickly scooted back into the space beside her bed.

Severus struggled to open the door to the classroom, his arms laden with his recent delivery of his potion ingredients tucked under his arm and his bag loaded with books. He'd just drop off the ingredients and books and then go to the kitchens to nick some food. He'd not seen Hermione since Monday, and that was right after breakfast, so he knew she'd have to be starving by now. He had no idea how much leftover food she'd stored on the shelves, but he fervently hoped it had been adequate enough to suffice her these last three days.

Hermione rushed forward as soon as he'd pushed his way through the door and walked into the room.

"You're alive!" she cried out, flinging herself into his arms the moment he stood up from depositing the ingredients on the desk and his bag on a chair. "Oh, thank God!"

"Of course..." he barely had time to say before her arms wrapped around him in a crushing strangle of his sore ribs. Severus didn't know how to respond. His hands landed on her back, unsure of where to go. No one had hugged him like this since... Lily, the first time he'd been discharged from the hospital wing. A warm wetness seeped through his shirt. "Hermione?" he asked, trying to pull back from her grasp to look at her face.

Hermione looked up and kissed him...well, actually kissed the side of his mouth...but close enough to count as a kiss, sort of. He jerked his head in shock, and she buried her head against his chest, crying.

"I-I was s-so worried," she choked out between sobs against his shirt.

He wrapped his arms around her, this time stroking her back to try to reassure her he was all right, ignoring the pain of his recently mended ribs, wrist, and ankle. "Hush, I'm fine." He'd hoped that she'd been all right, but Madam Pomfrey had insisted that he say in the hospital wing a few days, no matter how much he'd protested that he had to leave. He'd still left tonight against her wishes, saying that if he didn't go, her potion would be ruined, and promised to see her before his first lesson tomorrow. She'd even insisted on escorting him to the Entrance Hall and watched him leave down the dungeon stairs so he'd not be confronted by his nemeses on his way to his common room.

Hermione looked up, fresh tears making tracks down her face, and her nose was runny. "W-what hap-pened?" she continued to stammer out between racking sobs. "W-where were y-you?"

He assumed that she would be worried, but was really taken aback that she was this upset over his absence and what had happened to him. "I went back to collect some herbs and fungi after Care of Magical Creatures in the forest and ran into a few bullies. They disarmed and stunned me, then left."

"What?!" she screeched, finally letting go of him.

Severus was so glad that he'd put the muffling charm on the door. "Two centaurs found me and were discussing what to do with me when Rowe and Hurshiser came. Of course, they are seventeen and adults, but the centaurs know me, and we have a rapport of sorts. They let Rowe undo the spells and take me back to the castle." It was an abbreviated version of what had happened, but it was good enough to suffice. If she was this upset, there was no point telling her the whole truth.

Her eyes were huge with worry. "He...he said you'd been attacked, and the other guy said you weren't in the hospital... He was going to search every classroom looking for you," she said, clasping her hands together against her chest, then balling them into fists as if not sure what to do with them.

"Wait a minute...what guy...where?" he asked, grasping her shoulders.

"In here," she choked out, gripping one hand with the other. "He just walked in! He didn't knock or anything! I was so afraid of him. He looked like a brute, and he was pacing about, looking at everything."

"And where were you?" he asked, wanting the details of what had happened even if he had to shake it out of her. "Did he see you?"

"No, I was on my bed," she replied, still looking at him with huge tears swimming in her eyes. "I was afraid to even breathe...then the second guy came in and told him that you weren't in the hospital... I was so worried for you." Four tears rolled down her cheeks, and she sniffed loudly.

"I'm fine," he said. He was going to have to calm her down if he was going to get any answers. "Bruised ribs, but in one piece."

She nodded, her gaze sweeping over him as if trying to assess his condition herself. "It was Potter and Black who attacked you again, wasn't it?"

"Who else," he sneered. "Hermione, I'm fine. It takes more than being disarmed by two bullies, hit with a Body-Bind, hung upside-down, and Stunned to hurt me." He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped her face, then held it up to her nose. "Blow."

She blew and he dropped the soiled cloth on the corner of the table. She looked up and gave him a weak smile. "They really are prats, aren't they?"

"Yeah," he admitted, rubbing her arms a little, not knowing how to calm down a crying girl. "Look, I'm fine now. Still sore, but all right. Are you hungry? I can get some food."

"Yes, I'm hungry," she said and clasped his hand as if wanting to keep him with her. "I ate up all the leftovers I had stored on the benches. Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'll get you something to eat." He used his free hand to wipe away the tears on her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Hermione, I'm fine...will be. I have to go back to see Madam Pomfrey tomorrow after breakfast, but I can sleep in my own bed. She knows I brew her potions...damn! My potion!" He pulled his hand free from her grasp and hurried over to the worktable.

"I finished it the best I could," she said, coming up behind him. She sounded so uncertain, but as far as he could tell, the potion was perfect...a little congealed, but usable. Madam Pomfrey would find it more than acceptable. "No, you did a good job. Apparently, you didn't have any trouble figuring out when to add the astragalus root. How much did you add?"

"Most of it," she said, "All the fleshy part."

He nodded, pleased with her answer as he scooped some up with his spoon and let it drain back into the cauldron, checking the color. The dark mustard had a honey hue as he'd hoped. "How did you cut the juniper?"

"In half, then in slices...it's what you wrote on the margin." She smiled at him but still sounded uncertain.

He turned around and gripped her chin to make her look up at him. "You did well. It's nearly perfect. Thank you." She hugged him again, this time not as fiercely, but uncomfortable all the same. "Hermione, my ribs."

She let go immediately. "I'm so sorry," she replied, bringing her hands together and looking down at her fingers. "I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that... sorry."

He was still blown over by how upset she was over his abuse. No one in his house had been this worried. At least she'd stopped crying. "Let me go get you some food. I'll be right back, I promise." He ran all the way to the kitchens. The elves piled up food on a platter like before, but his wrist still hurt, and he couldn't really carry the heavily laden tray. One elf followed him to the classroom, carrying the tray for him. He thanked the house-elf, not wanting the elf to open the door in case he'd see Hermione. "I can levitate it from here, thank you." The elf bowed and disappeared with a pop.

Hermione came rushing forward to grab the tray as he floated it into the room.

"So what would you like to do...besides go to the library since it's nearly curfew?" he asked,

"Would you like to play some gin?" she asked hopefully, eating a chicken leg with one hand and holding a roll in the other.

"Sure. After you eat," he said, filling their cups with pumpkin juice.

"Severus, why did the spell on the door fail?" she asked between bites.

He looked up, his brow creasing as he considered her question. "Not all spells are foolproof, impenetrable, or unbreakable. Repelling charms are only as strong as the caster and the will of the person affected. If the will is strong enough or if the person is determined enough, they can fight off the effects or ignore the magical suggestion. I assume my friends were too concerned about me that they barged in regardless of the compulsion to knock first."

"The charm doesn't affect me," she said, taking another chicken leg.

He was watching her devour the food, feeling a pang of guilt. "It wouldn't...you know it's there and that you don't have to knock...but anyone else would be. Repelling and compulsion charms are cast to affect an object: person, place, or thing...in this case, the door...to make someone else do something, such as knock or go away. At the game, Mulciber had a sense that someone was sitting beside me even though the spell was supposed to make him compelled to look away. He couldn't see you, but he's the suspicious type. Only he was distracted by the game, and it broke his concentration. The Compulsion Charm makes someone do something minor, like washing your hands before leaving the loo, but it can't be anything threatening or harmful...just simple things, like knocking before opening a door."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh." He smiled when she wiped her hands on a rag and set it aside, now that her hunger was sated. "Would you like a shower?"

"Oh, yes, please," she answered, looking quite relieved at his offer.

He waited as she stashed the leftovers and then hurriedly collected her things, thinking that a shower would do him some good and the hot water would ease his aches and pains. He momentarily wished that he could sneak them into the prefect bathroom, but Avery would want to go so that wasn't an option.

"I'm ready," she said, her arms full.

"Okay, let's go. Stay close, I don't want to get separated."

"No problem," she replied.

~ T. B. C. ~