Disclaimer: Yes, yes, alright, I disclaim ownership - happy? Thomas is his, and I'm currently being shared between him owning me, and Roman owning me...oh, but Roman owns herself for the moment.
For my lone reviewer: Roman love, I'm not too certain I've even let Thomas know the URL yet, not to mention the fact that he apparently hasn't been online recently. .:Shrugs and grins:. I'm sure you'll hear about when he finds out .:snickers slightly:.
Rating: Slight inferences and innuendos, but all-in-all, still PG-13
- - -
Nessa slipped into the Great Hall the next morning and stood to one side, in the usual place that Roman and her met up – it was difficult being in a different House, but Nessa supposed it happened occasionally. Tapping her foot slightly, she glanced around a little nervously – Roman had been fairly cool towards her all of the day before, after the Thomas incident, and she wouldn't be too surprised if Roman still wasn't particularly happy.
Spotting Roman walk in, Nessa smiled at the girl hesitantly, and waved. Roman smiled faintly and headed over to her.
"Good morning, sweets," she said to Nessa, giving her a hug.
Nessa breathed a mental sigh of relief – she seemed normal enough.
"How was it in the Common Room last night?" she asked softly.
Roman chuckled.
"Have a look for yourself," she said, nodding towards the door.
Thomas entered the Great Hall, looking extremely awkward and as though he was trying to hide it. Nessa watched him walk across the Hall, and noticed something slightly bizarre.
"Uh...Roman, is there a reason why his stride is about half the length it should be?" she asked.
Roman grinned, looking a little malicious.
"It appears he had some difficulty with his sheets last night," she replied, not even bothering to look slightly innocent. "And from what I could hear this morning, certain pieces of his underclothing was a little bit tighter than they should have been..."
Nessa's eyes widened, and she continued to watch Thomas hobble across Hall. She let out a small giggle.
"Roman, that was terrible of you," she said, looking up at the taller girl.
"I know it was, and I'm full of remorse and shame," Roman replied swiftly, not looking at all repentant. She casually draped a possessive arm around Nessa's shoulder and chuckled softly.
"At least now he should learn to leave my Ness alone," she said, smiling down at her.
"If he's anything like Draco," Nessa began quietly, and then decided to leave alone. She nodded and smiled at Roman, before slipping out from under the girl's arm.
"I'll see you in Charms," she said cheerfully, and headed for the Hufflepuff Table.
- - -
Nessa watched in surprise as the majority of the Slytherins filed in late – that, however, was usual. What surprised her was the fact that Thomas was right in the middle of them.
"I didn't know he was a bloody Sixth year!" she hissed to Roman, who was sitting next to her.
Roman was frowning, not looking happy.
"I didn't know, either!" she grumbled, wishing she'd insisted that Nessa sit in the seat closest to the wall.
Thomas, on the other hand, appeared highly amused as he walked further into the classroom and noticed Nessa and Roman. He murmured something to the people surrounding him, and broke off, veering in the direction of Nessa.
"Damn it," Roman muttered, shuffling slightly closer to Nessa, and trying her best to look threatening.
Nessa raised her eyebrows at Roman's movements, but made no comment, instead smiling at the approaching Thomas.
"Good morning," she said to him politely.
Thomas grinned at her, and slipped into the empty seat beside her.
"Good morning, love," he replied, and then nodded at Roman.
"Morning," he said, sounding cold.
Roman barely inclined her head at him, not at all pleased that he was in the same Year as herself and Nessa. Nessa looked pointedly at Roman, who looked pointedly in the opposite direction and in turn found the opposite direction looking pointedly back at her.
"What?" Roman muttered, disgruntled.
"Nothing, dear," the opposite direction sighed, before moving off to become the same direction.
"Just as well," Roman replied, turning to follow it, "otherwise I'd have to curse you off the wall or something."
The opposite direction chuckled – or was it the same direction now? "My dear, I was cursed onto the wall - do you really think a little Sixth Year like yourself could change that?"
"I'd sure like to try," was the grumbled response.
It laughed and began to zoom around the four walls of the classroom, twittering madly.
Nessa looked at Roman in awe.
"How do you manage to set it off like that?" she asked, intrigued. "Nobody else except for Professor Flitwick can!"
"I guess I'm just privileged then."
The door to the classroom opened again, and everyone looked expectantly at the space four feet off the ground. Instead of seeing old Flitwick's merry little face, however, their eyes were filled with the sight of a deep purple fabric.
"Ah good, you're all here," a soft, medium voice commented.
Nessa nearly fell off her chair, literally – she knew that voice!
Thomas, it seemed, had quick reflexes, and quickly prevented her from falling backwards.
"What's the matter, love?" he asked softly, looking at her expression.
Nessa blinked at the person who'd just walked into the room, slightly disbelievingly, and merely shook her head at Thomas, unable to answer.
Roman grinned, and took the opportunity to fill in for the other girl, forgetting temporarily who had asked the question.
"What she's trying to tell you, is that the dear Professor who just walked in is her own sister!"
Her eyes widened suddenly as she realised that she'd just spoken to Thomas, willingly and cheerfully. She slumped against the desk, looking unimpressed.
"Great, now I have to cut my tongue out," she muttered.
Thomas merely absorbed Roman's words, without acknowledging who had said them. He looked down at Nessa, a slight smile forming.
"The Charms professor is your sister?" he asked her.
Nessa nodded, her eyes bulging slightly and she looked to be in danger of choking.
Thomas smirked and drew Nessa close, putting an arm about her waist.
"You don't look so well, love," he drawled, still smirking.
Roman huffed, and thwacked her head on the desk a couple of times, her hands itching to slap the smirk off Malfoy's face.
'Do it,' a little voice murmured in her ear.
"I can't," she muttered back. "I'm sworn against physical violence..."
'So?' came the reply.
Roman glanced at her shoulder as a tiny mouse came crawling down from the wall behind her and perched there, snuffling at her expectantly. She sighed.
"Give it up," she informed it, picking it up by the tail and placing it gently on top of the head of the Slytherin girl sitting in the row in front of her.
'That's not nice!' the little voice said, apparently coming form the mouse as it snuffled again at Roman, and scrabbled lightly in the girl's hair to make itself comfortable anyway.
"What is with this classroom and harassing me?" she grumbled, ignoring the mouse and the Slytherin's screams.
Arness stood in the doorway, watching the Slytherin screaming and jumping around hysterically. She raised her eyebrows, stepped forward and carefully removed the mouse from the girl's head.
"That's quite enough, thank you," she said firmly, cradling the mouse gently in her fingers.
The girl's friend, looking highly embarrassed, reached out and pulled the other Slytherin back to her seat, murmuring quickly in her ear – she stopped screaming and flushed faintly, aware that she'd made an idiot of herself.
"Much better," Arness remarked mildly, walking to her desk and perching on the edge of it, absently stroking the mouse.
"I suppose you're all wondering where Professor Flitwick is," she began after a moment. "As it is, there's a very simple explanation – he requested that he be allowed to go on an extended holiday, and naturally the Headmaster agreed. It seems dear Filius," she continued, ignoring the mutters and glances she'd gained by breaking from tradition and using a fellow Professor's first name, "was feeling a little, shall we say—stressed by the end of last year." Her eyes flicked briefly over to Roman, who instantly sat up straight and tried to look innocent.
Arness grinned at her, not fooled in the slightest.
"Anyway, the only house-keeping sort of thing left for me to do is introduce myself," she said, standing up and looking around. "I'm Professor Arness Meneldur: to you I'm suppose to be Professor Meneldur, but quite frankly I don't care. Call me Arness, Professor, Crazy Woman, whatever, but please refrain from swearing at me directly."
She gently placed the mouse on her desk, where it sat quite calmly, little nose quivering slightly, and walked to the blackboard, clearing it with an absent with of her wand.
"Okay, so from what I've seen of Filius' files, you are all well above O.W.L standards, obviously, and he seems to believe that many of you are ready to move on at a faster pace than normal."
Arness turned to the class, grinning slightly. "I'm going to be testing his theory and setting you a charm that most people don't learn until about part-way through their Seventh Year. Don't stress," she said, over the top of the loud groans from the class. "This is not examinable, unless a large proportion of the class can perform it, in which case..." She grinned again, a gleam in her eyes.
She gave her wand another slight wave at the board, and words began to appear.
"Copy that down, and I'll explain it to you more fully, as well. The Sustain Charm," Arness pronounced, walking slowly across the front of the room. "I believe the textbook definition is something along the lines of, 'A charm designed to prolong and enhance one's energy and ability to continue, without rest, for extended periods of time."
She snorted lightly and perched on the edge of her desk again. "Speaking simply, it temporarily gets rid of another's exhaustion. It is a difficult charm to cast, not only because you may accidentally transfer the exhaustion into yourself, but also because it requires a large amount of concentration. You have to concentrate, simultaneously, on saying the incantation – not too complicated, in-and-of itself – then on removing the exhaustion, but imagining it released out free, instead of into yourself. Now, the incantation is 'sustento vigoris' – remember, that's sus-TEN-to vi-GOR-is, make sure they're nice, long syllables. The wand movement is fairly simple – merely point it at the person and move it slowly and smoothly from side-to-side.
"Before we begin testing our abilities, however, I have to give you warning – the charm is designed to remove your exhaustion, yes? Well, it'll do that, and more – you won't notice getting tired for 24 hours or more, and then you'll just drop, regardless of where you are. So you'll be doing yourselves a favour if you at least try to go to sleep tonight, even if you don't feel tired – believe me, you'll actually be tired, but you can't tell.
"Okay, so once you've got those notes copied down," Arness finished, "then you can attempt the charm – but please remember everything I've told you..."
Arness continued talking, but Nessa tuned her out – she already knew what her sister would be saying, there was no point in listening. Finally recovering from her surprise, she quickly pushed up her left robe sleeve and scrawled down the notes from the board. Looking at her parchment, she sighed – she'd never have the same elegant hand-writing as Arness: it was physically impossible to write neatly and cleanly with a quill when you were left-handed!
Resting her elbows on the desk, and her chin in her hands, Nessa leaned slowly to the left, and peered at Roman's page – quick, small handwriting, not particularly neat, but intriguing. Leaning back over to the right, Nessa shot a quick smile at Thomas before looking down at his page – lazy, scrawled handwriting, with a lot of unnecessary loops between letters that shouldn't have been joined, but again intriguing. She sighed again, and balanced herself in the centre again, wrinkling her nose at her page – inkblots, smudges, fingerprints...name it, and it was there.
Finally noticing that Arness had finished talking, Nessa leaned down and pulled an inky-looking cloth from her bag. Scrubbing the side of her left hand, she grinned as all the ink stains came off – Roman could sure do wonders, when she put her mind to it. The cloth had been a birthday present several years ago, when Nessa had complained bitterly about the permanent ink stains she was getting on her hand from writing – the very next week, Roman had popped up on Nessa's birthday with the cloth, looking smug and pleased.
Suddenly looking over at the decidedly unhappy Roman, Nessa reached out and grasped her hand.
"Roman hun, what's the matter?" she asked softly, tilting her head upwards slightly to see the other girl better.
Roman glanced at Nessa, and forced a small smile.
"Matter?" she replied, almost sounding innocent "Why on earth should anything be the matter?!"
She smiled slightly painfully again, and turned away, muttering, "No, of course nothing is the matter - there's only a blonde-haired git laying his paws all over you, and you have nothing to say about it!"
She bumped her head lightly against the wall, and then wished she hadn't – that dratted face-in-the-wall thing might come back!
"Roman, if you wouldn't mind leaving the walls in one piece, please," Arness' voice floated over to the girl suddenly.
"As it is, you three are the only ones not paired up yet, so you'll have to work as a threesome..."
Thomas raised an eyebrow expressively, and smirked slightly.
"So, girls, what say you? A threesome?" he asked, still smirking, Turning his whole body, one leg on either side of the bench, he reached out and looped an arm around Nessa, pulling her close towards him.
Nessa gave a small, slightly nervous, chuckle, and glanced at Roman, expecting some sort of lewd response.
"Let's just get this over with..." Roman muttered, pulling out her wand and pushing her sleeves back, looking slightly ominous.
Pointing her wand at Thomas, over the top of Nessa's shoulder, she swished her wand energetically, and pronounced, "Sustento rigoris!"
Blinking, she casually folded her arms and looked thoughtful.
"Something's not quite right about that statement..." she commented, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.
Nessa giggled as Roman mispronounced the charm, but stopped suddenly. The hell-- ?
She scooted forwards along the seat, away from Thomas, and turned back to stare at him, her cheeks a bright red.
"Erm...Thomas?" she began hesitantly, but broke off, seeing the colour drain out of Thomas' face.
"Professor," he said, the colour suddenly flooding back into his cheeks, turning an even bright shade of red than Nessa. "I just need to, uh—yeah."
Sliding carefully to the end of the bench, he stood up, holding his robes out awkwardly, and headed for the door, racing the last few feet, and disappearing down the corridor.
Roman grinned slightly, before schooling her expression into one of slight surprise.
"Well...what was that all about?" she asked innocently, looking down at Nessa.
Nessa flushed again.
"Um...your charm," she said softly, not quite meeting Roman's eyes. "It kind of...ahh...well, let's just say he'll be heading for the infirmary..." she finished lamely, gesturing slightly to try and demonstrate what she meant. Biting her lip lightly, she held her arm out straight in front of her, and slowly raised her hand to point upwards, looking meaningfully at Roman.
Roman tilted her head to one side, her top hat in danger of sliding off, watching Nessa's little demonstration, and smirked suddenly, looking surprisingly evil.
"Well, you don't say!" she replied to Nessa, grinning. "I take it he's heading for the in-FIRM-ary, then?" She snickered slightly.
Nessa coughed, looking highly embarrassed, and nodded faintly.
Roman burst out into peals of laughter, collapsing against the desk.
Nessa watched Roman, confused slightly, and then frowned suddenly.
"That wasn't funny," she informed her friend, crossing her arms. "If you care to recall, I was sitting right in front of him..."
Roman sat up straight, and looked at Nessa, calming down slightly.
"I know...I'm sorry I had to traumatise you like that, pet," she said, beginning to giggle again. "But his expression was priceless!" She collapsed against the desk again, burying her face in her arms.
Nessa watched Roman, her face unreadable for a moment.
"You know, I sometimes wonder why I put up with you," she murmured softly, shaking her head slightly.
Roman lifted her head, opened her mouth to reply, and promptly burst out into giggles again.
Nessa tapped her fingers lightly on the desk, looking faintly annoyed.
"I'm sorry, pet," Roman managed, giggling still. "I really...no, no, I'm not really, really sorry," she enunciated carefully. "I mean, I am sorry that I put you through that, but I'm definitely not sorry that I put him through that."
"I...see," Nessa replied softly after a moment, still watching Roman, and obviously not entirely amused. She gave a very small smile, and turned away, pulling out a scrap of parchment and scribbling on it aimlessly, her face turned carefully away from Roman.
Roman didn't notice for a moment, too caught up in recovering any frayed strands of dignity she could to see Nessa looked unamused. Straightening her top hat carefully, she looked at Nessa, grinning. Seeing only the back of Ness' head, she raised an eyebrow slightly.
"So...ah, what're you doing?" she asked, attempting any form of conversation.
Nessa shrugged faintly, continuing to scratch some lines on the parchment.
"Dunno," she replied, voice soft and slightly sharper than usual.
Roman nodded and smiled slightly uneasily, reaching up and rubbing the back of her neck.
"Erm – how about we go down to the lake after this?" she suggested. "I mean, we've both got a spare block next..."
Nessa shrugged again, jabbing her quill down onto the parchment.
"Dunno," came the short reply, the quill looking to be in danger to breaking.
Roman sighed quietly – bloody hell, but the girl was stubborn at times!
"Have I offended you?" she asked softly, reaching out and gently taking the quill out of Nessa's hand.
Nessa sighed, and rubbed her hand over her eyes.
"Yes, no...I don't know," she replied after a moment, looking down at the desk. "I just...damn it, I don't know!" she growled faintly, slapping her hand down onto the desk.
It was true, she didn't know – she just couldn't think straight! All she knew for certain was that she was very confused, and she wasn't even certain of why.
"Alright, everyone, you can go now!" Arness' voice cut through her reverie. "Keeping practising that charm – I suspect Professor Flitwick was right in his theory..."
Nessa slowly picked up her bag and shoved everything into it, unusually untidy. Slinging it over her shoulder, she waved slightly at Arness and disappeared out the classroom door. She walked down the corridor for a while, feeling distinctly uncomfortable, before turning to Roman, who had managed to catch up with her.
"Erm...I think I might just go back to the Common Room, if that's alright," she said quietly, not quite looking at Roman. "I have a couple of things I need to do..."
Roman eyed her carefully, before nodding reluctantly. "Alright, pet," she replied. "I'll see you at lunch, okay?"
Nessa nodded slightly, and began to walk off, buried deep in her thoughts.
Roman stood in the corridor, ignoring the complaints from the other students, and watched Nessa until she disappeared from view. Sighing quietly, she shook her head lightly, and turned on her heel, walking aimlessly through the castle.
- - -
Nessa kept her back straight and her pace slow and steady, until she rounded the first corner. Pressing back against the wall, she cautiously peeked back down the corridor, and gave a small sigh of relief – at least Roman hadn't questioned her or attempted to follow.
Clutching her extra books against her chest, she ignored the strange looks she was getting while she debated what to do next. Should she go up to the Common Room, like she'd told Roman, or should she go to the infirmary and visit Thomas to apologise for her friend's behaviour. Or, and this was the hardest one, should she turn on her heel and find Roman, to apologise for her own behaviour. She twitched her shoulders, feeling uncomfortable – none of them seemed like particularly appealing ideas. Going to the Common Room would just raise questions from her House mates, who knew she spent every spare moment with Rome. Of course, going to visit Thomas would probably be uncomfortable for the pair of them, not to mention probably start rumours flying if they weren't already, after that little charade in Charms. As for apologising to Roman – that had always been difficult. They'd only fought, properly, a couple of times, and each time Nessa had been far more emotional when apologising than she'd meant to be – she was always more emotional than she meant to be, if she was going to be completely honest.
She sighed again, and leant her head back against the cold stone wall behind her – talk about your difficult decisions! Biting her lip lightly, she pushed herself away from the wall and walked slowly down the corridor, heading for the Hufflepuff Common Room to dump her bag before going to find Roman.
- - -
"Ah...Roman love?" Nessa said quietly, hesitantly, ducking under the branches of the weeping willow that was growing at the edge of the lake.
"I thought you were going to the Common Room," Roman said, her voice floating down to her.
Nessa flushed slightly and nodded.
"So did I," she replied softly, "except...well, to be honest I got bored, and I wanted to...apologise...."
Hearing a faint thud behind her, she turned around and smiled faintly at Roman.
"Been playing up in the trees again?" she asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.
Roman shrugged lightly.
"I had nothing better to do," she replied, looking at Nessa slightly reproachfully.
Nessa bit her lip and wrinkled her nose – she hated it when Roman looked at her like that. She jumped slightly as Roman reached out and ran her finger down Ness' nose.
"I've told you before, pet, don't do that," Roman said gently, smiling down at the shorter girl.
Nessa flushed slightly and cleared her throat, not looking at Roman, but at the ground.
"Rome, I just wanted to...apologise for before," she began quietly. "I shouldn't have gotten annoyed with you over something like that – it was only a prank after all..."
Roman rubbed the back of her neck, looking faintly embarrassed.
"Nessa love," she replied, "you don't need to apologise-- ..."
"Yes, I do," Nessa cut in firmly yet softly, finally looking up at Roman. "It was only a prank, and I was all ready to scream and yell at you for it, which wasn't a fair reaction. I mean, in other circumstances, I'd have been laughing and congratulating you on working out yet another new spell, but instead..." She shrugged expressively.
"Ness, seriously, it's alright," Roman started again, laughing faintly and still looking embarrassed. "You don't need to apologise, okay?"
Nessa sighed lightly and reached out, placing her hand Roman's arm.
"I understand what you're saying," she replied quietly, raising her eyes to meet the other girl's gaze, "but apologising is possibly the only way that I'm going to feel a little better about the Charms thing." She let out a soft, rueful laugh. "Selfish, aren't I?"
Roman grinned, and covered Nessa's hand with her own.
"I wouldn't say selfish, love, because now I understand what you're saying," she said to Nessa, chuckling slightly, and pulling the smaller girl into a hug.
Nessa smiled as well, and rested her head against Roman's shoulder, turning her face towards Rome's neck and closing her eyes. She stayed there for a moment, before impulsively stretching up and kissing Roman on the cheek.
"Thank you," she breathed softly, smiling, before gently disentangling herself from Roman.
"Anyway, I should get back to the Common Room, I do actually have stuff to do but I couldn't concentrate before," she added, raising an eyebrow slightly and grinning. "I'll see you later, okay?"
Kissing Roman's cheek again, she wandered back towards the castle, leaving a slightly bemused Roman staring after her.
- - -