It Had To Be You

Chapter Four: Someday, Someway, You'll Come And Stay

Harry remained cationic in the wake of his argument and subsequent rejection of Severus's courtship, and all throughout the rest of the weekend. He had escaped to the Room of Requirement on more than one occasion, with Dobby bringing him meals from the Hogwarts kitchen, and flitted in and out of a fitful sleep. Ron and Hermione tried to get him out of there, with help from Ginny and Draco, and Neville and Luna, but nothing they did or said would open the doors to the Room of Hidden Things.

Come Monday, Harry remained in his catatonic state, but he still mustered up the energy to ask the room to provide him with a shower, robes to wear, and breakfast. Dobby had come in on Saturday afternoon to bring him his school bag, and when Harry was not attempting to sleep, he had been getting ahead on various assignments. Once Harry came out of the room, he headed directly to his first class of the day, charms, and hoped that Professor Flitwick wouldn't mind him arriving early.

And so the state remained, and even when the first month of school had ended, Harry had barely said two sentences to his circle of friends. The purple bruises beneath his eyes steadily grew darker, and the only times he did speak was when Hermione reminded him to study, Ron and Ginny requested that he eat, Luna queried about his well-being, Draco told him to suck it up (which got him an elbow in the ribs and an earful from Ginny), and Neville made sure that various other students kept a wide berth between themselves and Harry. Altogether, Harry was miserable, the only things managing to stay constant were his friends, mealtimes, and the study schedule that Hermione constantly pushed underneath his nose.

Severus wasn't having an easy go of it either. In the weeks since Harry had broken off their courtship, he had taken as many points as possible, and not just from Gryffindor. He would yell at Seamus for making his cauldron explode; he would scold Draco for not paying attention; he would chastise Anthony Goldstein of Ravenclaw for consistently attempting to explain the topic 'better' to his fellow cohorts; and he even reprimanded Susan Bones of Hufflepuff for visibly grieving the death of her aunt, Amelia, which had happened the term before. And every night, he would stomp back to his inner rooms, secretly pleased that Draco spent his time until curfew in Gryffindor Tower with his new paramour, Ginny Weasley, and drown his sorrows in various bottles of Firewhiskey.

Finally, in the middle of October, Hermione had decided that enough was enough, and she dragged Harry to the Room of Requirement, and Harry was only slightly taken aback to see that Ron, Ginny, Draco, Neville, and Luna had all gathered there. Once they had all sat down, Dobby popped in, and quickly climbed up into Harry's lap. Harry found that, combined from the lack of sleep and utter happiness he'd experienced upon his initial arrival at Hogwarts at the age of eleven, he couldn't stop laughing at the situation which had been handed to him.

"Harry," Hermione said, speaking tentatively once his laughter had subsided. "Harry, what happened between you and Professor Snape?"

Harry scoffed. "What do you care?"

"We may not understand the dynamics of it, mate, but we do want to see you happy," Ron said, giving Harry a hard look.

Harry school his head. "Doesn't matter."

"Your brain's gone quite fuzzy, Harry," Luna observed quietly, from where she was draped across Neville's own lap. "We're all legitimately worried about you."

"I may not know too much about love—anymore!" Draco said quickly when Ginny fixed him with a warning look. "But I do know my godfather. I know when he's upset about something, and it is plain to see why that is. Neither of you are functioning like normal, and we're all here to get to the bottom of it."

"Courtships are sacred, Harry," Neville put in. "They stemmed from arranged marriages back when the whole Pureblood thing was more universal."

"Are you and Luna arranged?" Ginny asked.