The Loop

“Very good Mr. Potter. I can certainly appreciate you conciseness. I had to read 15 of these essays this weekend. How you got the entire content into two feet of parchment is beyond me, but you did it my boy!” Slughorn remarked, handing James back his “Chemistry of Dittany” paper. The sycophant clapped James on the back chuckling.
“Black, Rhiannon. Decent, not your best work, but I doubt I’ve seen anything except for mediocrity out of you. Pity, considering your brother,” he slid a few seats down, back to where Sirius sat with James, “wrote a rather detailed piece. Mr. Black. Very good.”
Rhiannon slipped her essay under her book, bored. Who cared about Dittany, really? It’s easier to buy it than brew it.
“Severus Snape. Absolutely brilliant. You’re definitely giving Miss Evans here a run for her money. Another worthy show Miss Evans. I will never pair the two of you together, you’ll outsmart me by far!” Lily mouthed a “Thanks” to the Professor as her handed back her scroll. She smiled at Severus across the room, who smirked back, carefully folding his essay to read later.
“Speaking of ‘partners’, we’re going to be hosting an academic competition for the fifth years and up. Each of you can choose a partner from any house in your year. We can’t have it unevenly matched with the seventh years helping the fifth years, can we?” Slughorn joked jovially. The class murmured a forced laugh.
“Yes, let’s see….today is….the 16th of September. Competition for fifth years is….November 20th…that’ll give you a good two months to prepare and cram every morsel of knowledge you can from the last five years.” He smiled at Lily, knowing she didn’t have to cram.
“Competition, eh? This should be fun.” Rhiannon leaned over to Lily, who shared a table with her.
“It’s just for the heck of it. Probably to prepare us for NEWTS. No need to put on any pressure right?” She smiled serenely. Rhiannon wasn’t the best student, but only for lack of trying. Lily figured that forcing her to suddenly brush up on all the topics she’s been neglecting would prove to be stressful. She had returned to school in a bad mood as it was. She was shocked on the platform to see her thin, dark haired friend limping towards the train as James and Sirius carried her belonging. While attempting a complicated leap she had fallen and broken her knee, and injury a ballerina would never fully recover from. Rhiannon had brushed it off, joking that she finally had an excuse to quit, but Lily knew her dancing abilities were a great source of pride for her. It was one of three things she did better than Lily, the other two being being rich and being pureblooded.

The memory jumped to the library. The sun was setting in the large glass windows, casting long shadows on its inhabitants.
“Lily, can I speak with you?” Rhiannon asked curtly. Lily and James were sharing a table littered with various texts, hand scribbled notes strewn about.
“Sure.” She said, confused her friend seemed angry. Lily tried to dismiss Rhiannon’s moods. She was beginning to think the offhanded comments about her abusive home life were true, as Sirius often fell into the same patterns.
She followed the raven-haired girl to an empty spot a few tables down.
“I thought we were going to be partners for the Academics Competition. Slughorn told me you signed up with James.”
“I…I dunno. We never really said we were going to be partners…” Lily felt awful. Rhiannon assumed they would be because they always worked together in class when they could.
“I thought it was implied. I mean…” Rhiannon got flustered. She couldn’t fight with the girl. They never had said they were going to be partners, did they? “Why did you ask him instead of me? You hate James, remember? ‘Arrogant prat can kiss my arse’ and all that nonsense?” She couldn’t justify her anger, but she felt it so extremely. Who the hell was she supposed to work with, her brother?
“Well, he’s really intelligent, Ann. He’s been working so hard all term and really knows his stuff. Listen, I can go tell him—“
“Tell him what? ‘I’m sorry, Rhiannon’s making me work with her?’” She stated sardonically. “Good luck with the competition. Maybe Peter’s still free to work with me.” Rhiannon mumbled, limping out of the rooms.

“Snape” Slughorn answered, flipping through the sign-up sheets.
“That’s is? Pettigrew? Lupin? No one? Just Snape?” She was defeated.
“Unfortunately, his mother’s been ill and he’s missed a few days of class and was unable to sign up on Monday. And you tried to sign up with someone who already had a partner. Severus will be a very worthy competitor. I can imagine he won’t be too pleasure either.” Rhiannon could almost hear him thinking, ‘So much wasted potential.’ Fuck him.

“No one has to know we were the last two losers to get picked so we got stuck working together.” She theorized.
“I’m used to getting picked last. I’m used to doing all the work myself. However, what I’m not used to doing is all the work for some pretty little princess who thinks just because she’s a rich pureblood she’s entitled to slack the fuck off for five years and then not endure the embarrassment of falling on her face.” Asshole.
There was a flicker of pain on her face she immediately covered up.
“Imagine how my brother is going to torture you Snivellus, when he finds out you’re mistreating me?” She responded coolly.
“Is that a threat? I could kill your brother four times before he hit the ground.” And it was true.
“Please, I could kick your ass.”
“Yeah, with the little gimp of yours? What happened, you spent too much time of your knees sucking off Ramierez in the Room of Requirement? That’s what he’s telling everyone.” She looked livid and Severus realized too late he should’ve kept his mouth shut. Alejandro Ramierez was a 7th year Ravenclaw that Rhiannon casually dated in the past until he was caught making out with Joanna Whist at the Snow Ball.
“Did he tell you I did that?” She demanded quietly.
“He told everyone that.” He almost felt bad.
“Are you shitting me? He really told people I did that? He told everyone? Who’s everyone?”
“Everyone. Like, all the Slytherins talked about it for a bit, because you were a fourth year and he was a sixth—“ Then it hit her.
“The Slut of Ravenclaw Tower. That’s me. That’s who all your creepy friends are whispering about when I walk past.” Her eyes darted from side to side and her breathing became rapid. “I never—“ She stopped herself. She didn’t need to explain herself to Snape, who would never believe her. She didn’t know how Lily could be friends with him. She stormed out.

It was a week until the competition. The mood in dungeon number 7 had improved greatly. Severus and Rhiannon had reached some sort of unspoken understanding in hopes of winning the competition. Severus had even apologized for being so cruel to her on the first day, in his own way. Rhiannon was a bit of a flirt and had a reputation for dating a lot of guy casually, so it wasn’t a big stretch that she would perform sexual favors for older boys. He was shocked that she took it so harshly and was even more shocked when she continually showed up to their evening study sessions wearing tight and low-cut shirts that could only confirm the false rumors. Since injuring her knee in the early summer she had gained some weight on her formerly frail frame, adding some curves to her skeleton. For a ballerina, her breasts were already a burden. Despite her small build, she always had fuller breasts than the other girls. It hadn’t stood in the way of her talent, but she always went through great lengths to hide them, especially on the practice floor and at recitals. She had filled out to a comfortable C cup and reveled in the fact that she didn’t have to hide them. She was wearing her school uniform, only with pants instead of a skirt. Being late November, the temperature quickly plummeted. Only the fools still wore skirts. Tonight they were pouring over potions texts, quizzing each other on random facts and theories, Severus randomly glancing up to steal a glance down her low-buttoned shirt. He loved Lily, but this was glorious.
Rhiannon silently praised herself. If there was one thing that would put anyone is a good mood it was breasts, and Severus was no different.
“Seven characteristics of Latian Roots” He asked, retuning his eyes to his book.
“Asexual reproduction, summer bloom, poisonous to herbivores, hooked roots, grows in temperate regions, cousin to Cacus Plants. He defeated Bina the Great at the Battle of Greta, 1098.”
“Malfula the Wise. Spell to create a patronus?”
“Expecto patronum. Do it.”
“Do what?”
“Conjure a patronus.”
“That won’t be on there.”
“Severus, it says ‘the competition will cover basic knowledge as well as practical application’”
“The patronus is more complex than fifth year magic.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. She conjured a patronus once. It was a fucking bat.
“I suppose I don’t have enough happy memories to properly produce one anyway.” She said. She didn’t know why she felt compelled to say it. He seemed so sad on the inside, just like her.
“You have the two best friends in the world, James Potter and Sirius Black. They’re a fucking barrel of laughs. I can’t imagine why you can’t make one.” He was so sarcastic. He had leaned forward onto the table, arching his back upwards in an amazing stretch. His head’s low position on the table allowed him a fantastic view of her cleavage as she leaned over to stretch out of her arms and let out a yawn.
“Sometimes I think it’s odd how some people are so miserable on the inside and you’d never know it without them telling you.” She remarked, quietly. Their eyes met and held their gaze. For a moment their shields were down. The arrogant snob, desperately wanting the affection of her brother who focused all his attention on his best friend, the boy she hopelessly adored, who loved her like a sister. The girl whose parents constantly told her she was no good but at the same time better than everyone else. The boy who only had one friend he felt slipping away. The dark child with the abusive father and the chronically ill mother who could no longer properly care for herself. His future was so uncertain while hers was all played out. Leave school, marry a pureblood, pop out a few babies, drink martinis, push your girls into ballet, punch your boys until they become the people you want them to be. They were sitting next to each other on the table’s edge, closer now than they were ten seconds ago even though neither had moved.
He broke the stare when she suddenly leaned towards him and recoiled slightly. He had spent 15 years being broken by his father’s hand. It was instinct to pull away but another, second instinct to stand his ground even when he couldn’t fight back. His eyes opened wider when he realized her reasons for leaning towards him. Their eyes met again, confused and wanton, both of them. He quickly moved in again, covering the distance he had created by moving away in the first place. They both hesitated, lips an inch apart.
They met each other halfway. It was Severus’ first kiss; he was ashamed to admit, at the age of 15. It was one of many of Rhiannon, who was always seen on the arm of one boy or another, including James Potter at one point, for a few weeks last year. For a few seconds it was just lips pressed roughly on lips until Severus pulled back a bit. His rational mind had taken over, but shut down the instant his lips left hers. It felt so good, wrapping his hand into her long hair, her hand on the collar of his shirt. Her mouth opened, leaving his lips wet, caressed by her tongue. For a second she thought he wasn’t going to deepen the kiss, but he opened his mouth to her. It hadn’t occurred to her that this might be his first, and she felt herself smiling against his warm mouth as their tongues slowly passed over one another’s.
Suddenly there was a burst of light and the kiss was immediately broken. Most looked incredulously at each other for a split second, before turning towards the open door, where Remus Lupin stood dumbstruck. They all stared for a second.
“I….I’m sorry.” Remus said quickly before turning on his heel and power walking down the hall.
Rhiannon flew from her seat. “Remus!” He didn’t turn around. “Remus! Remus! Wait! I have a bad knee!” The thought for her painfully limping after him made him stop ad turn towards her.
“Remus, I…” She looked him in the eye. She knew he had a crush on her and couldn’t really think of anything to say to him, especially with that thinly-veiled look of pain on his face.
“Remus. Is there any chance you didn’t see that?”
He laughed lightly. She was so charming when she wanted to be, just like her brother, she was impossible to remain mad at. “You missed dinner. Skipped straight to dessert?”
“I dunno what happened. Seriously, it….you know. Just happened. Too much studying. Makes a person crazy.”
“I won’t tell Sirius, don’t worry.”
“Thanks, Rem. Do you think it’s too late to get some tea?”
“I swiped you an apple. And it’s never too late for tea, we’re British.”
“Thanks, I’ll go get my bag.”
She doubled back to the dungeon. Severus was cleaning up his text books and sliding them into her tattered bag. He glanced up embarrassed when she returned.
“I need my bag.” She said awkwardly, picking it up from a nearby chair.
“Yeah….um…I would brush up on those metabolic poisons before tomorrow. We only have a week.”
“I will. Good night”. She made her way towards the door. He looked anguished.
“Rhiannon.” He stopped her. Such vulnerability in his voice. She wondered why.
“Your brother is going to kick my ass.” She never fully understood the impact of her brother’s harmless teasing until that moment.
“He won’t find out. I promise. Night.”