Chapter 4
I am writing to you.
Lily heaved her trunk onto her bed. "Do you mind telling us why you're doing that?" asked Starr, one of Rebecca and Lily's roommates. "Why can't you leave it on the floor where it belongs?"
Rebecca opened her own trunk at the foot of her bed. She started sifting through the contents. She wanted to get a bit organized before they went to bed. The first day back at Hogwarts was always a bit crazy.
When she lifted a cloak from her trunk, something white fluttered out of it to the floor. An envelope. An envelope that she most certainly had not put there. She picked it up quickly and slid it up her sleeve. Starr and Lily were still arguing about whether Lily should leave her trunk on the ground. Rebecca laughed silently at them. You fools, she thought. Don't you have anything more important to fight about?
She climbed up on her bed and pulled the hangings halfway closed. "Going to sleep already?" someone called.
"Not yet," she called back.
With shaking hands, she opened the envelope. There was really no reason for her to be nervous, but for some reason, she was. She slid the sheet of parchment out of the envelope, unfolded it and read:
Dear Rebecca,
I'm sorry I couldn't sit with you on the train this year, but I needed to talk to someone. Please forgive me. I would like to talk to you. If you could meet me tomorrow before dinner in the library, I would appreciate it. I'm sorry to have gone through your trunk, but I was afraid to speak to you in person. You know how thirteen year old boys are; I would be teased to no end for talking to a girl privately, especially a Gryffindor girl.
Thinking of you,
Severus
Rebecca folded the letter and slid it back into its envelope, smiling. What thirteen year old boy wrote like that? "Thinking of you?" Her heart pounded.
Keeping her face calm, she slid off her bed and slipped the envelope into her trunk with her stationery. Lily and Starr were no longer arguing, but Starr was still complaining. Rebecca silently groaned. This would be her third year with Starr. As far as she could tell, Starr's hobbies included complaining, bragging, and fighting. She would make a wonderful Slytherin, thought Rebecca. At least, a Slytherin as the Gryffindors see them. The Slytherins really were nowhere as bad as her Gryffindor friends made them out to be.
Mechanically getting ready for bed, Rebecca realized that her real friends where mostly Slytherins. Mostly Slytherin boys. Boys like Rosier, Wilkes, Avery, and Lestrange. Since her main Slytherin connection was Severus, it was not surprising that she knew only a handful of Slytherin girls.
The next evening, an hour before dinner, Rebecca climbed out the portrait hole. She had to force herself not to run all the way to the library. She had only seen Severus from across the Great Hall that day at lunch, and she was dying to talk to him.
When she walked through the door, he was already there, apparently doing his homework. She had thought to bring a few books, too, so she spread them across the table and sat across from him.
"Hi," she murmured, keeping her voice as low as possible, lest Madam Pince throw them out.
Severus looked up. "Pity we don't have potions together this year. You could help me with this."
She checked her schedule. "I have it tomorrow morning. Is it really that hard?" She had never known Severus to have problems with Potions.
"No," he whispered. "I just can't keep my mind on it. It keeps wandering."
"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked, smiling.
He tossed down his quill. "No, I wanted you to come with me."
"Where?" She sounded doubtful. If he wanted to go somewhere, why had he asked her to meet him in the library, rather than wherever he wanted to be?
"My common room. We can study there."
She was shocked. The Slytherin common room was off-limits to her as a Gryffindor. She started to say so, but he interrupted her. "Have you ever seen it written down that no one is allowed in another house's common room? I didn't think so." He had not even given her time to answer.
He started gathering his papers and books. she did not move, so he gathered hers as well, and handed them to her. "Come on," he whispered. His eyes were pleading.
"Oh, all right," she mumbled, and followed him out of the library. He led her down into the dungeons. They stopped before a stone wall, and he said "draco." The wall slid open. Seeing her inquisitive look, he explained. "'Draco' is Latin for 'dragon.'"
Feeling jittery, she stepped into the room. The wall slid closed behind her. Severus led her to a chair by the fire and took one for himself. After a brief comparison of schedules, they found that they had both already had Defence Against the Dark Arts. Severus brought out his Defence book, and Rebecca pulled out her notes.
They were fully engrossed in their studying when Rebecca heard an all too familiar voice behind her. "Well, well, what have we here?"
She turned to see Lucius Malfoy walking towards her. Her heart sank. She felt Severus's hand touch her arm lightly, protectively. "Hi Lucius," she heard herself say.
The few people in the common room had stopped what they were doing and were looking at her. "And just how did you get in here?" asked Lucius.
"She came with me," said Severus calmly.
"Oh, she came in with Snape, the mudblood lover!" exclaimed Lucius to the others in the room.
Severus started to stand, but Rebecca caught his robes and pulled him back down. "Let me handle this," she told him through gritted teeth. She stood and walked over to her cousin. When she was near enough that only he could hear her, she whispered, "I wouldn't make such a big deal of it, if I were you. I just might let it 'slip' sometime that you're related to a mudblood." He started to say something, but she continued, by blood Lucius. I'm a blood relation. You of all people should know how much emphasis is put on blood relations." Then she turned, and without another word, walked back to Severus and picked up her notes.
Lucius followed her. "Listen to me," he spat, "don't you breathe a word-"
She held up her hand. "I'm through talking to you." she informed him. "And you are making it difficult for us to study." She looked up at him. He looked washed out, tired. She caved in. "All right, I won't tell. Just don't give us such a hard dime, all right?"
Lucius nodded stiffly and left the common room. Severus was staring at her. "We're cousins, remember? Just think what it would do to his reputation if people found out he was the blood relation of a mudblood."
This time it was Severus who flinched at the sound of the word. "You are incredible," he breathed.
"Of course I am. And I have good taste in friends."
Severus smiled. A fourth year boy across the room hooted, "Snape's got himself a girlfriend."
