Miss Slytherin

Book 6: Chapter 19

Expecting a talking surface but none, no red-eyed reflection, just her green ones.

"I think we should get back, it's almost dinner," Nicholas suggests, worried for the girl's well-being. He also wanted to find out where she was during those weeks that she didn't remember at all, should he investigate? He wasn't sure what to do.

"Fucking—Achoo! Valentine's day—achoo!"

"Alright! Who brought in the roses?" Blaise called around analyzing the common room for anyone who held a rose, sniffing for who sprayed rose perfume. "We talked about this people, chocolates and any type of flowers are allowed except for Roses."

"It's fine Blaise," Finley waves off, tugging up her slightly loose turtle neck up to her nose to prevent herself from smelling the scent. Sniffing once in a while due to her sneezing, there was no helping her at this time of night knowing that it would get worse the next day due to it being valentines day.

"Can I borrow your Ancient Runes notes?" She asks him, diverting the attention from her allergy, wanting to get shit done before anything else.

"Have you done your astronomy yet?" Blaise asks her as he handed his notes.

"Haven't... yet," she replied before sniffing again. Nauseated and exhausted, she seemed fine earlier, but she wasn't. Tugging down her turtle neck to wipe her nose, only to look down on her hand stained with red. "What the?"

"Finley!" Astoria's gasp was heard, looking up the majority of the people in the room looked at her in shock to see her nose bleeding. "Let's get you to the hospital wing," Blaise suggested, his voice stern masking his anxiety. Finley was still clueless as to why her nose was bleeding still but she didn't want to make a huge fuss about it.

"I'll just sleep it off," she tells him, grabbing a bunch more tissues and stuffing them up to her nose. "It must be the exhaustion," she mumbled, standing up from where she sat, not making any move to gather her things before leaving.

Her head down with tissues still stuffed in her nose, she made a sharp turn to exit the common room and slumped her back against the cold stone wall. Taking off the tissues to see the dampness, cursed herself for not grabbing more tissues to replace them. It was late to walk into the hospital wing, a miracle that no one found themselves in there the whole year apart from Katie Bell. The idea of going in Snake Bite was enticing but she wasn't up for a mood of consolation from her friend Adrian, even with the wondering information she could get it was just not worth it.

'A walk would be nice,' she thought, pushing herself off the wall, didn't matter if Mrs. Norris the ugly cat would find her nor did she care if Filch would tell on her to Snape. She hasn't had a conversation with the old guardian of hers since he suggested death poisoning her to Umbridge the year before, how her respect for him plummeted after that.

Walking around was a good idea, her luck that she hasn't had an encounter with both Filch and his dumb cat yet. There were two places she thought of visiting, one was the kitchen for sure, she barely ate anything for dinner with all her recalling of where her mind had been the past couple weeks, questioning herself what she had done or where had been.

The second place was the room of requirements, the one place that never failed to comfort her. Haven't visited the place since the 5th year, would it still comfort her now?

The seventh floor had never been this isolated before, the paintings were all asleep she could swear that she could hear some of them sleep talking too. Turning to the left, let her footsteps pat on the floors, imagining a room that would give her comfort. Would that have been too hard to ask? It's done it before.

Aimlessly walked around until she heard a door clock, facing her left to find a familiar door. Her favorite door.

Expecting something familiar like a cushioned chair, bookshelves, maybe some grass, and some singing flowers. After opening the door she saw none of those, it was an empty room. No other objects were inside but a fireplace, a pillow on the floor, and a mirror.

"Is this your way of comforting me?" She asked no one, maybe the room itself she wasn't so sure. She could have already lost her mind even.

Walking the spacious room, even if it was indeed empty it was warm still. Like she was coming back to a place she had so many fond memories of, letting herself sit on the cushioned floor facing the fireplace rather than the mirror. She wasn't up to facing her reflection who did nothing but nag her.

"Finley," a voice spoke an unfamiliar yet familiar voice. Was it a ghost?

She turns her head towards the mirror, thinking that it was her reflection tricking her again, but no. Her eyes in the mirror were still her own.

"You won't talk to me huh?" She asks her reflection, "did you finally take my advice to stop nagging me?"

No answer.

"It's good now I guess? One less thing to call me crazy by," she sighed. The room was filled with silence after that, only the fire crackling was heard, she stared at her reflection. Observing every inch of herself only now did she realize the difference.

Her reflection was of her but so different. Instead of black leggings and a lazy tank top wrapped in a knitted cardigan that she now wore, she saw herself wearing a more sophisticated Hogwarts uniform. Black cloak vest, a corset skirt, and a long-sleeved dress shirt peeking from underneath. Red and gold on her tie, she was frowning, confused, and frowning. Holding the snake amulet she gave Harry in one hand while she held a black gemmed ring she was too familiar with.

"What are you doing in here, Miss Potter?" A familiar nasal toned voice spoke from behind her, causing her to turn around to find herself face to face with the black-robed teacher. "Here I thought that you outgrew you... troublesome ways."

"A night stroll is troublesome now, huh?" She whispered to herself, standing up from the pillow she sat on. Knowing well that she was getting escorted back to the dungeons with a long lecture.

The walk back to the dungeons was excruciatingly long compared to the one she took when she went to the seventh floor, maybe it was because Snape was extra quiet and it scared her for what he was going to say to her. Even after years had passed since he decided to kick her out, here she was still afraid of him.

"Do you remember the first gift you gave me on my first Christmas in Hogwarts?" She asked, making a sad effort to start a conversation only to receive silence. So she continued.

"It was a book on potions and alchemy," she sighed, "and at the time I was very grateful because it helped on our search for Flamel's stone."

"And you had the urge to mention this, why?" The bitter professor asks her, harshly turning to face her with his eyes narrowed down at her.

"It was a good memory," she muttered as she looked down.

"And the year after that you gave me the talk regarding my vaults," she tells him, this time raising her head. "Even lent me a book about it, why?"

"There's no room for such trivial questions, Miss Potter—"

"You raised me, you should have known how curious I could get," she tells him, seeing the professor unaffected by her brave attempt to question him her breath hitched. "Unless... you knew what was going to happen next."