A Bend In Time

The next three weeks swiftly passed by and before they knew it, the 1st years had been at Hogwarts for almost two months. Rowan still had a long way to go as she had to go through each and every insignificant log, and all the while keeping an eye out for discrepancies and possible connections. And not to mention the added fact of being saddled with unexpected the Marauders in their research to cure Werewolfism.

With some relief, everyone finishes the last class of the day as in a day it would be all Hallows Eve with the Halloween Feast to be held in the Great Hall. The older students whisper of the great decorations and delicious food to be placed therein. Rowan slightly sighs in disappointment; she would have loved to dress up for Halloween.

"Alas, I guess one doesn't dress up as witches and wizards when one is magical," Rowan sadly thought to herself.

Seeing Rowan sitting at the Slytherin table Severus says, "So, are you done with your project yet?"

"Not even close. Besides I need to take some time off as our first tests are coming up and even, I need to study," Rowan matter-of-factly stated.

Severus snorts and says, "I will believe that when I see it with my own two eyes."

Rowan rolls her eyes as Wilkes cheerfully comes over and said, "Excited for the Halloween Feast tomorrow?"

"I hear it will be quite exciting," Severus replied as Rowan pokes her food with her fork.

Seeing Rowan ignore him, Wilkes grins and says, "Well, either way, I hear they'll have a sweet band."

"Really?" Rowan said with a bit of interest. Seeing Rowan's interest, Wilkes begins to regale them with tales about past glorious feasts. That by the end of dinner even Rowan was a bit excited for the feast.

After dinner, they all head back to the Slytherin common room area, where the October chill had long begun caused the students to wear thick, warm clothes and for fireplaces in the Slytherin common room area to roar with heat. Sitting near a warm flickering fire, Rowan and Severus play a match of wizarding chess against each other. Not long after, Terry Greengrass joined them, Severus's only male friend in Slytherin. Terry Greengrass has silky flaxen hair and hazel eyes. And though average height, he seems smaller as he is rather slender with a delicate figure that looked like he could be blown away by a gust of wind at any second.

Seeing Rowan trouncing Severus so thoroughly, Terry tactfully points out a counter move for Severus with his finger. Seeing Terry changing the flow of the game, Rowan finally says, "Severus just switch places with him already, Terry's clearly better at this than you are."

Severus gestured rudely at Rowan, before rising out of his seat and motions for Terry to switch places with him. Terry eagerly does as he is told as Severus sternly says, "You better beat her, she usually wins nine out of ten matches."

"You're just jealous," Rowan said with a snicker.

Terry sleepy eyes flicker for a moment and despite his fragile demeanor, his game style is anything but delicate. Rowan actually furrows her brows and rolls up her sleeves as she focuses solely on the match before them. The match soon turns into a violent aggressive match until Rowan finally tricks Terry by sacrificing her queen to entrap Terry's king.

Rowan lets out a breath and says, "Geez, Terry, you look all fragile like a porcelain doll, but your chess style is anything but-. You're an absolute monster on the field!"

Terry grins slyly back. "My family has expert wizard chess players."

Severus snickers at the comment. "Another match, Rowan?"

"I sincerely doubt I will win," Rowan truthfully grunted. "Terry had about a ten-move handicap and he still almost beat me."

"Don't be so modest, you're quite good yourself," Terry genuinely said.

"Well, alright then," Rowan relented at seeing Terry's eager expression.

The two of them begin to play as Severus watches over them. During a long pause, Rowan says, "So, Terry, Sev has been saying you're his friend is that true?"

Severus glares at Rowan and hissed. "I can make friends all by myself, Rowan!"

Terry grins back and says, "Severus is a bit serious and may even come across as harsh, but he's a good one, I can tell."

Rowan sighs with great depression as Severus loftily says, "What's wrong?"

"I had a bet running with Wilkes whether you actually had made a friend on your own in your own year," Rowan grumbled. "Looks like I lost the bet."

Terry chuckles in reply as Severus glares darkly at Rowan. But before Severus can retort, a first-year boy boldly says, "Well, if it isn't glass bones Terry."

Rowan glances up to see a boy with sharp-nosed features and a widow's peak. "Bugger off, Evan Avery!" Terry firmly hissed back as Rowan's eyes widen in recognition of the surname, a future Death-Eater.

The first-year boy standing behind Evan Avery is quite tall and rather broad-shouldered. With a stout nose and thick lips, the boy furrows his brows in anger and takes a threatening step. Avery notices the other boy's reaction and says, "Rosier, don't react to this riffraff's comments."

Rowan recognizes the Rosier surname as well and narrows her eyes. "That's quite funny considering Terry's Greengrass family belongs to one of the 28 sacred families." Rowan snapped.

Avery turns to eye Rowan and purses his lips together, before superciliously saying, "Let's go, Rosier." Turning on his heels, Avery marches away as Rosier gives them one last threating look before leaving the common room area.

"Who are those awful pricks?" Rowan asked.

Terry rolls his eyes and says, "Purebloods, who think they're better than everyone else. And sadly enough our other two roommates."

Rowan nods her head sagely as she is lost in thought for a moment. "So, those are the guys, Severus was supposed to be friends with? No wonder, Severus turned out to be somewhat of a bad apple, anyone would with such rotting friends," Rowan privately thought to herself as she casually eyed a nearby 1st year.

Golden-haired and handsome the 1st year boy easily chats up a giggling 2nd year girl, Damien Mulciber. Another Death Eater with a cruel streak, and other dubious tendencies.

"Ignore them, they're just trying to get a rise," Terry pointedly said, after seeing Rowan lost in thought.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about how to go about getting revenge without being caught," Rowan innocently said with a smile as she turned away from staring at Mulciber.

Terry narrows his eyes and just as innocently smiles back. "Rowan, I think we will become great friends," Terry said as his eyes twinkled wickedly.

Severus suddenly feels an ominous friendship form right before him as cold sweat appears on his back. Rowan and Terry mutely stare at each other as a rather dangerous friendship is formed. With great cheer, the two-resume playing wizard's chess, but all the while, Severus can't help but feel that board before him was actually a malevolent plan being concocted. Of course, it could all be his entire imagination. But somehow, he had a distinct feeling that was not the case at all.

And it wasn't three days later, Evans Avery and T. Rosier woke up to chicken feathers covering all of their body. The two boys were furious and demanded their head of house, Professor Slughorn look into it. Sadly, the culprits were never caught.