Surprisingly, I came to terms with the fact of having to go back to Malfoy Manor for two weeks rather easily.

Even Draco admitted he expected a bit more of turmoil regarding the subject. I wouldn't say he was pleasantly surprised, but he was surprised, nonetheless.

I wasn't quite sure where the sudden contentment with going back there came from. After all, I had nothing but awful memories in that house.

Maybe, subconsciously, knowing what I knew about Snape now made me feel safer, in a way. If he truly, well, loved my mother, there must be a shred of something within him that made him care. Even if it was simply because I had her facial features.

The concept was still odd to me, and I swallowed thickly at the thought before I shoved a piece of toast in my mouth.

Apart from that; if I truly was as important as Dumbledore had concluded, and Snape truly was on our side, he wouldn't-- couldn't let anything happen to me.

Though, he did nothing when I was being tortured, I remembered.

My heavy sigh caught Wren's attention, and she quirked an eyebrow before putting a hand on my back in a reassuring manner.

My head snapped over to her at the touch, and I forced a small smile onto my lips. "It makes sense you don't want to go home for the holidays," I began, hoping the topic would distract from my foul mood. "But I don't understand why you're not staying with Luna?"

She snickered absently, turning on her seat to throw a look over to her girlfriend's table. She sighed, then, shaking her head slowly.

"I'd ruin the whole thing for her," Wren muttered, seeming as if she wanted nothing more than to actually go with her. "She's been worrying about her father, with the Quibbler and what they publish and all that. And she was so excited to spend time with him. Me glooming around, wondering why I don't have the relationship with my mother that she has with her father-" Her eyes glazed over, her mind clearly somewhere else for a moment. "-It would be selfish. She deserves to spend some uninterrupted time with him, I guess."

Her mood lightened up just the smallest bit, nodding to herself at her own thoughts. "I can annoy her as much as I want when she comes back, anyway." She smiled softly. Knowing her, she was probably already looking forward to that, and Luna hadn't even left yet. "And besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?"

I hummed lowly in agreement, though didn't say anything else.

Wren cleared her throat, eyes falling back on me. "What I still don't understand is why you aren't staying, too," She mumbled, a mouth full of food keeping her from properly annunciating her words.

I hated this topic of conversation more than anything. Because every time it came up, it meant I had to lie to her. Telling her I had to go back to Malfoy Manor because I was actually their prisoner and they tortured me in the summer wasn't really something I could just drop.

It never seemed like I found the right moment for it.

I was probably too much of a coward to try and find one, in the first place.

"I'm staying with-"

"-The Weasley's." She quickly interrupted, waving my pathetic excuse of a lie off.

It was the first thing that came to mind when she asked me that one evening, and after it first slipped out, I couldn't really take it back anymore. So I just ran with it.

She'd been suspicious about it ever since.

"Yes, as you've said," She went on. "But you don't like the Weasley's."

I shook my head furiously as if her comment had offended me deeply. "Wrong. I don't like Ron," I corrected, my eyes darting over to Draco for a mere second. Though, it was enough to notice his grey eyes already on me. I wasn't sure if he could hear our conversation from his spot quite a few seats down. "Fred and George make up for that, though. And Molly is just wonderful. It all works out, see?" I concluded.

I hated lying to her, and in hopes she'd stop looking at me when I diverted my eyes off of her, they darted back over to Draco once more. The simple sight of him so far away made me sigh.

Why did things have to be so fucking complicated?

After a little more probing, she quit it; giving up with a heavy sigh before focusing on our last breakfast together, for a while.

I wish I was actually going to stay at the Weasley's. I could force her to come with me, then. And I wouldn't have to wonder how awful her Christmas was going to be, now that Hogwarts wasn't really Hogwarts anymore.

The rest of our time in the Great Hall, we remained silent. Both hanging after our own thoughts. Merlin knew we both had enough to worry about.

Though, a timid tap on my shoulder had me snap out of my thoughts, and I turned around with furrowed brows.

And there he was, Neville Longbottom, standing nothing but a few feet away from the Slytherin table.

His presence perked a few other Slytherin's curiosity, and they sent inquiring glares at the boy. I saw both Crabbe and Goyle get up with a cocky smile on their lips, though Draco, who sat in between the two and opposite of Blaise and Pansy, simply pushed them back into their seats by their shoulders.

The motion didn't go unnoticed by Blaise, and he perked a brow at the strange sight of Draco Malfoy holding back anyone from bullying Neville Longbottom, of all people.

My attention back on the Gryffindor, I raised my brows in expectation, waiting for him to say whatever he came here to say.

"I'd like to show you something," He simply stated, after his eyes flew over the house table once. He seemed a bit uneasy, though his voice was clear and steady.

"Oh," I exhaled, nodding as I wrapped my head around his request. My eyes fell onto Wren, her expression just as confused as my own. I shrugged, before getting off my seat. "We don't have much time before departure," I reminded Neville, and he nodded as he began walking out of the hall.

"It'll only take a few minutes."

Our little journey through the castle was silent, neither of us saying a word as we roamed the empty hallways of the castle I'd leave behind in just a few hours.

I wondered whether Neville would stay over Christmas.

Only when we turned into a particular corridor on the seventh floor did I recognise where he was taking me. He began speaking at the same time as I noticed the door to the room of requirement appearing.

"I feel like we all owe this to you, and I feel like it would've been unfair to keep you out of the loop when you're the only reason I thought about it in the first place."

His words made absolutely nothing clearer. They actually confused me a lot more. Though Neville seemed to notice, he didn't bother explaining any further as he opened the door for me to step through.

The room was almost unrecognisable from what I left behind the last time we were here. Granted, it's been around a month since, but still.

The room was much bigger than before, hammocks in all sizes and colours hanging from the ceilings, and a single balcony extending into the room a little.

It reminded me of a rather gigantic ship's cabin with the windowless walls and large tapestries decorating them.

A second look confirmed that they weren't just colourful hangings, but instead the house banners. I counted three of them; Hufflepuff's badger on a yellow background. Ravenclaw's eagle against the beautiful midnight blue, and Gryffindor's golden lion on the crimson coloured background.

Then, my eyes flew over the rest of the room, realising it wasn't just Neville and me in here as I caught the numerous glance thrown my way.

Something told me the Slytherin banner wasn't on the walls for a reason, and for a moment, I wondered whether Neville had brought me here to have me executed.

All of his friends seemed to want to do nothing less, judging by their expressions that were anything but pleased.

I cleared my throat rather awkwardly, attention shifting back onto Neville who gave the group a glare that reminded me of the one I gave Draco that day the three of us were in here.

Then, he looked back at me, a small huff leaving his lips. "After you left the room of requirement that day, it immediately turned into this." He gestured towards the room in all its glory, his voice low so his friends wouldn't hear him.

"They're not really fond of the idea of bringing you into this, seeing as you're Slytherin and all that." He mockingly rolled his eyes, making a subtle grin form in the corner of my mouth. "But I trust you. And with time, they will realise they can, too. So I just wanted to bring you into it," He shrugged, his eyes scanning the room again.

My gaze followed his just in time to see the emerald green tapestry appear, decorating a bare stretch of wall, the silver serpent on it surprising me slightly.

Neville smiled at the sight.

"Just know you're always welcome here. It's probably not much easier for you during all this than it is for us."

A/N: Neville baby :( ily

Also the fact JK hated Slytherins so much she couldn't comprehend any of them staying in the room of requirement with the rest of the houses???? like tf you think they weren't affected and scared by literal death eaters running the castle? I hate u :)

Hope you enjoyed <3