Content Warning: Mild discussion of the assault that happened in chapter 6.

Chapter 11: Secrets Amongst Friends

Brixton practically flew out of her bed and ran over to Luna's bed, next to her own. It was still early and she was awake long before it was actually necessary. The holiday break was over and her friends had all arrived late the night before. There had been no time to talk to her friends before bed so Brixton's patience had run its course. She leaned over and shook Luna gently. "What is it, Brixton?" she asked slowly opening her eyes and rubbing them.

"We have to go fetch Hermione. It's early but we don't have much time before I have to be in the dungeons before the first years," Brixton replied quietly as she turned away from her friend and flung open one of the drawers of her dresser. After fishing out a skirt, button up, tie, sweater, and striped scarf Brixton was careful to kind of hide behind the curtains of her bed while changing. Luna did not say anything but she stretched and got out of bed and followed her friend's lead. Soon both girls were dressed and ready to go. They made sure not to wake their dorm mates as they left.

Once they were in the Ravenclaw common room Luna pulled on Brixton's arm to stop her. "What's the matter?" she asked, "Why are we up so early and getting Hermione?"

"I have some really important things to discuss with you both that I wasn't comfortable writing about. I got you up so early because I can't wait until the end of day because I have my private lessons. This was the only option I really saw," she replied.

Luna, still not fully awake, yawned and nodded and the two started for the door. They practically ran through the castle as they made their way to the Gryffindor common room. It was so early that they didn't see anyone else other than Filch who eyed them suspiciously for being out of their common room at this time. However, probably due to Brixton being a prefect, he didn't say anything. It was not long before they made it to the Fat Lady's portrait but to Brixton it felt like a very long time indeed.

When they got to the portrait they found that the Fat Lady was still sleeping. Brixton cleared her throat loudly. That did not wake the Lady. Brixton didn't want to be rude but she did not have the time to spare so she said, "Excuse me, my Lady. I'm sorry to wake you."

Slowly opening her eyes the Lady responded, "Then what is it, my dear? It is so early."

"I'm in need of a favor, I'm afraid." Brixton replied. "We really need Hermione Granger to join us and obviously we can't go in to wake her. Is there anything you might be able to do to help us?"

The Lady contemplated this for a moment and said, "Alright, dear. I am going to assume that this is important and that you are not up to no good seeing as how you are a prefect. The best I can do is visit another portrait that hangs inside the common room. If you are lucky there will be a girl there that I can send to fetch Hermione for you. If not, I will wait until there is."

"Thank you, kind Lady," she smiled. Luna said her thanks as well. Brixton hoped that they would be lucky and there would be someone awake already to get Hermione. The Lady left her portrait with a small wave to the young women as she went.

It was only about two minutes later that the Lady returned. "You girls are in luck," she said. "Hermione herself was up reading by the fire. She said she would collect her things and be right out. If you don't mind, I would like to get a little more sleep," she said as she settled into her frame.

"Thank you very much for your help." Brixton said.

True to her word, it was only moments later that the door swung open and their friend came out. "Is everything alright?" Hermione asked. "I was reading a law book on Ministry policies when the Fat Lady said that you two were out here waiting on me."

Brixton said, "Everything is fine, I just need to speak to you and Luna privately and I don't have time to wait until after breakfast because I have to get to Potions class early to prepare for the first years. I can't wait until after classes because of my private lessons, so I had no other choice than to try to get you both before breakfast started. I want to go to the Room of Requirement."

"Okay," said Hermione as she looked over at Luna for some sort of explanation. Luna simply shrugged. Brixton grabbed them both by the wrist and pulled them with her down a nearby staircase.

They quickly walked in silence towards their destination. Once they had made it to the room of requirement Brixton stepped forward towards the door and imagined exactly what she required. She was very thankful that the room had been restored to its former glory after the fire. She believed it was Professor Flitwick that had succeeded in the task so she mentally made a note to compliment him on that later.

Leading the trio, Brixton opened the door to reveal a small but comfortable room with a round table in the center with three cushioned chairs. On the table sat a teapot with two cups, a goblet, and a variety of breakfast foods including Luna's favorite flavor of pudding. The three of them each took a seat and Brixton said, "First of all, I have missed you both very much and hope you had a wonderful holiday. I would like to hear how it went for both of you before I get into my own stuff. The pumpkin juice is for you, Hermione. I know you would prefer it to tea."

Hermione smiled, "Thank you. My holiday was lovely. We spent most of it at the burrow, but all of us went to Christmas dinner at my parent's place. Arthur loved that, of course. It was nice to have such a big dinner at my childhood home again. With the war and all I was unsure that that would ever happen again. Oh! Fleur and Bill announced that they are expecting a baby which has Molly just over the moon."

"That's exciting!" Brixton said joyously; she had always loved babies. "I'm glad that you were able to be with your parents for Christmas. I think you did a wonderful thing by charming them. That must have been a hard thing to do, but you may have saved them a lot of torture or worse."

"Yes, I'm just thankful that I was able to undo it and they are back practicing dentistry and have been very understanding of what I did. They didn't like knowing how much danger we got ourselves into while hunting the horcruxes, but they were supportive of what we accomplished. Things with Mum and Dad are just like they always were and that feels so good," Hermione said happily as she reached for a pear. "What about you, Luna? How did your holiday go?"

Luna, who had been quiet this whole time, said softly, "Oh, it was good. Father and I spent the time quietly at home. I got some research done on Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. We never caught one when we visited Sweden a few years ago, but I am determined to one day. Anyway, I am much more interested in why you drug me out of bed so early, Brixton. I sense that it must be something very intriguing."

Brixton took a deep breath before blurting out, "I kissed Snape." The tension had been growing inside her of wanting to tell her friends for days and it just flew out of her mouth with very little thought.

"You did WHAT?" Hermione almost choked on her pumpkin juice.

Before Brixton could answer, Luna dreamily said, "Wow. A lot must have happened in the past couple of weeks."

"You have no idea," said Brixton as her cheeks grew red and she reached for her cup of tea.

Hermione immediately began to scold her friend, "How could you do that? What on Earth were you thinking? That is absolutely beyond the pale! I can't even imagine doing such a thing with a professor!"

Brixton interrupted Hermione, "Are you quite finished? You don't have to be able to understand it. I am about as attracted to Ron Weasley as I am an old boot and I don't go around questioning you."

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Surely you see that there is a grand difference between my relationship with Ron and you kissing a man twenty years your senior. Especially when you consider that he is in a position of power and could be taking advantage of you."

Brixton turned to Luna hoping to read her expression and see what she thought. Luna just quietly ate her pudding and it was hard to tell if she was just waiting for more details or if she had tuned out the conversation. Knowing her friend, Brixton assumed she was just taking it all in. After all, very little ever seemed to shock Luna.

Turning back to Hermione, Brixton said, "There is no possible way that he is taking advantage of me." There was great sadness in her tone. Not because she wanted to be taken advantage of, but because of how things had turned out the last time she saw Professor Snape.

Noticing the sadness that had changed Brixton's mood entirely, Hermione said gently, "Okay, just tell us what happened."

Brixton down and picked at a pecan tart and said, "Well, first I have to tell you about something that happened between Rikkon Brisbane and me." She paused. She didn't want to talk about Rikkon. She wanted to push the whole thing out of her of her mind and pretend that it hadn't happened. However, she knew that eventually word was going to spread through the school what had happened one way or another. When that did happen she didn't want her two best friends to find out through whispers and rumors. So she took a breath and said, "Right before the train left to take you all home for the holiday he somehow got through the spells keeping boys out of the girl's dormitory. He came in while I was alone reading. He…"

When she didn't continue Hermione turned to Luna with her eyes big. Luna, who had stopped eating, looked just as concerned as she was. They waited for a moment and watched their friend, who seemed determined not to look at them, before Luna softly asked, "He what, Brixton? What did he do?" As she asked this she reached across the round table and put her hand over Brixton's and gave it a gentle squeeze. After she let go a little, Brixton flipped her hand over in order to hold Luna's hand in her own.

"He… uh, he ripped off my shirt and he was going to do a lot more than that. I managed to stop him by lying about a much older boyfriend from Durmstrang." She finally looked up and met her friends' eyes.

Hermione and Luna had almost mirrored expressions of horror. Hermione was the first to speak. She said, "That pig! That is just awful! He goes around school acting like he's some hotshot just because girls find him handsome and he's reasonably intelligent. I always thought he was awful, but I never have had many interactions with him. I'm so thankful that you were able to stop him. Are you, okay? Did you tell anyone?" By this point she looked as though she was ready to go find Rikkon and flay him alive herself.

Brixton bit her lip before saying, "It gets worse." She stood up from the table and removed her scarf from her neck. Immediately both Hermione and Luna gasped. Brixton ignored them, took off her sweater, and began unbuttoning her shirt. By the time she was down to her bra Hermione had her hand over her mouth in shock and Luna's eyes were practically bulging out of her head but they remained silent.

Turning around to show them her back, Brixton said, "He cursed me. He got so mad that he put this unbelievably awful curse on me."

"I'm so sorry," said Luna.

Hermione chimed in, "Curses are probably my least favorite subject to study, but surely there is something we can do. There has to be something to cure it."

Brixton shook her head and began putting her clothes back on. Anger filled her voice as she said, "This is after being cured. There is nothing more that can be done. It was even more horrible before. Each of those circular scars was a huge bloody boil and they would pop when they were touched even the slightest bit. When they popped they would fill back up. The pain was so bad I was barely able to speak. I somehow managed to crawl to the common room and yell for Dobby. I asked him to fetch Madam Pomfrey, but she was visiting her family for the holiday. So, the only thing I could think of was to ask for Professor Snape."

Once Brixton was fully dressed and her scarf was back in place she settled back into her seat and poured herself some more tea. Hermione asked, "What happened when Snape came?"

"He took me to his classroom. He had this healing balm that he used. He had to rub it all over me and when he did the boils would pop but not refill themselves. It was so painful. When…"

Uncharacteristically, Luna interrupted saying, "You mean he had to touch basically half your body while you didn't have a shirt on?" she blushed.

"Yes," answered Brixton, her own face was also turning red. "But I had my bedsheet to mostly cover myself up with and he used his cloak to cover me more on top of that. It was embarrassing, but it wasn't all that bad. Besides, the pain was so bad I probably would have let Malfoy do it if he could get the job done." This broke a lot of the tension in the air and the ladies shared a short laugh.

Hermione asked, "So, how did that lead to kissing?"

Brixton confessed, "Well you know how a couple months ago when I admitted to fancying him?" Her friends nodded so she continued, "Well, I really meant it when I said it was just as silly crush. I'd never even had a crush on anyone before. I thought it would pass and I also thought it was so outlandish that nothing would ever come of it. In fact, I made a lot of effort to swallow those feelings. But, all that time spent working with him I couldn't help but feel stronger and stronger for him. I've never felt this way about anyone. It's like the warmest feeling inside my chest."

Impatiently, Hermione interrupted, "Yes, I know what that feels like. You are killing me. Just get to the kissing."

"Well," Brixton said slowly, "I lost so much blood during the curing process that I passed out. I guess he gave me a potion or something. I know I had a bitter taste in my mouth. Anyway, when I came to his face was so close to mine and I just couldn't help myself. Before I knew it I was kissing him."

Luna chimed in, "Did he kiss you back?"

"Yes, for a while. But I wasn't thinking and I accidentally dropped the cloak covering me up and I think it snapped him out of it. He turned away really fast. He basically said that we couldn't do that, that it was improper, and that he still loved Harry's mom," Brixton said while chewing her lip.

"He's right, you know," Hermione was trying not to lecture, but couldn't help herself. "He could lose his job, you might lose your chance at a job here yourself, who knows how badly things could turn out. He did the right thing by stopping you."

"Well," Brixton replied, "that's not the end of it. He told me the kiss was wonderful. He also didn't seem to mind me calling him Severus as long as we were alone." She purposefully left out the part where he had said it was his first kiss out of respect for his privacy. It just seemed like something he wouldn't want others to know.

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "You said 'didn't'. Did something else happen?"

Brixton sighed, "Well going back to Rikkon, he was expelled. His family is disputing the claims that he assaulted and cursed me though. So, there has to be a formal trial at the Ministry. I practically begged Snape and McGonagall not to make me go to the trial. So, I think trying to spare me, he suggested extracting the memory so that the two of them could watch it and witness on my behalf. So, that's what we did. He helped me get the memory out and we had to watch it to make sure it was accurate. It was horrible. He let me hold his hand though."

"Okay, but what happened to make you say that he didn't mind? Did something change?" Hermione pressed.

Brixton answered, "Yes. He is trying to make amends with people and I guess work on himself as a person. Kind of discover his new self now that he doesn't have to be a Death Eater anymore. I suggested that he go see Remus Lupin. I thought maybe it might help him come to terms with his past a little if he talked to someone who was there and part of it. He called me to the classroom to brew enough Wolfsbane with him to last Remus a year."

"Oh! How did that go?" Hermione perked up with academic interest.

"Not the point, but it went really well. We actually were so in sync with each other that we finished at the same time. Back to the point, I asked him while we were brewing to talk about Harry's mom. You know, Harry kept that part of the memories a secret from the public but we told you guys, Ron, and Neville. I'm sure you remember that he felt it was necessary to share with just us friends to explain everything. Anyway, it doesn't seem like Severus has any friends so I thought it would be good for him to have someone to talk to about her," Brixton said softly. She was getting to really upsetting part and was beginning to feel sad again.

"Wow. That's very thoughtful and mature of you considering your feelings," said Luna as she sipped her tea.

"Yes, well. He did talk about her for a while and the conversation just took a turn that led me to telling him that I thought he was 'brilliant, brave, and loyal'. After that he said that he was undeserving of my affections. He just looked so… broken. I couldn't help myself. I just kissed him again. I wanted him to feel how much I care about him. I didn't want him to feel so alone."

"I can't believe you kissed him again!" said Hermione crossly.

"Well, he tried to stop me and that led me to telling him exactly how strongly I feel for him. Somehow that was enough to make him kiss me. He actually picked me up, sat me on a table, and I really don't want to get into all the details but it got very heated," she blushed and for a moment couldn't meet her friends' gazes. She continued, "But then I don't even know what went wrong. He just pulled away and when I asked why he snapped at me that I had to keep my hands to myself. It all went bad in an instant and I don't know why. He was so angry I couldn't even ask him about it so I just left and I haven't seen him since."

Luna again grabbed her friend's hand and said, "I'm sorry he reacted that way. I am sure he feels conflicted about his feelings for you and what he feels is proper conduct with a student. You also said that you had just been talking about Harry's mother. That leaves a lot of reasons for him to get his feelings mixed up. I would give it a while and see if maybe he will talk to you about it."

Before Brixton could answer Hermione said, "I think that is a horrible idea. It's probably best to leave him alone and remember that you are a student. I know that you are of legal age, but it's still wildly improper to carry on like that."

"Hermione, I love you but if you don't stop with the lecturing I'm never going to talk to you about anything personal ever again," snapped Brixton.

"I'm sorry, I just…" Hermione started to say.

"Don't bother," Brixton interrupted. "I know your motives are in the right place. I just can't help how I feel. You will be happy to hear that I actually plan on acting like I have no feelings towards the man. That's what he wants so I'm going to respect it. I'm also still mad at him for having acted like a child instead of just telling me what's wrong. Anyways, I have to hurry in order to be in the dungeons in time. I appreciate you both for letting me share my secrets. You both have no idea how good it is to be amongst friends again. It was a long holiday without you guys."

The three friends left their breakfast table without cleaning up anything, knowing that the Room of Requirement would take care of itself. They all hugged and said their goodbyes and Brixton rushed to the Potions class. Although she felt better having talked to her friends, Brixton was very apprehensive about facing her professor.

Author's Note: I'm sorry that this chapter was basically one long recap, but I felt it was necessary to have this actual conversation and not just gloss over it. I hoped to portray how important her friends are to her and how she would share even her deepest secrets with them. I hope there was enough fluff though to keep it interesting. Thank you for reading! Also, thank you to kimr0519 and Forgive-Me-Severus for your reviews. Reviews inspire me to type faster!