“Mariah. . .wait up. . .” She turned around only to groan at the sight of Sirius Black jogging toward her. Just what she needed.

“What do you want, Sirius,” she sighed, not really caring one way or the other.

“I. . .I was wondering if you had a date yet. For the Yule Ball.”

“Were you, now?” she asked dryly before walking away.

He grabbed her arm, “No wait, please.”

Mariah yanked her arm out of his grasp, yet didn’t try to walk away again.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just. . .I’d really like to take you to the Yule Ball.” Sirius sounded almost nervous, thought Mariah. Was this a new tactic?

She shook her head and answered not unkindly, “I’m sorry, Sirius, but I’ve got other plans.” She may not like the chap, but she didn’t want to be rude.

“Let me guess,” he sneered, all signs of hesitance gone from his face. “You’re going with Snape.”

“I knew it,” Mariah snapped back, her ire rising. “It’s always about Severus. If I thought that your constant badgering had anything to do with your actually liking me as opposed to your hating Severus and the fact that I prefer his company to yours, I might actually consider it.”

He reached out to grab her hand again, but she shook him off. “Just stay away from me already. Go find someone who cares.”

She strode off back toward the library, fuming at Black’s nerve. When he first had started showing an interest in her, she was flattered despite her disinterest. She had wondered though what about her had attracted him, for as she’d told him they had little in common, and Mariah did not delude herself that she was a beauty. As time passed and she observed his behavior around Severus and his obvious obsession with the idea that the two of them were a couple, his behavior started making sense, albeit in a very unflattering way. She was just a means to an end, a way to hurt Severus yet again. As if he hadn’t done enough over the years.

Damn him, she thought before she plopped down at an empty table and turned her thoughts to her homework. He must be truly sick to try to use a person that way.

---

The writing really was the worst part of a project, Mariah was convinced. It was nearly midnight, and she was still working on finishing up her part of the Herbology project writeup. She fought to keep from yawning as she started on the next page of parchment. She’d probably be up another hour at least.

Tap-tap-tap. Mariah turned to the window to see Severus’s grumpy little black owl, Brutus, pecking at the window, parchment strapped to his leg. She hurried to let the bird in before her roommates were disturbed, then retrieved the scroll carefully. The owl gave her hand a sharp nip before flying of from whence he came.

”Ow. Friendly little bugger, isn’t he,” she muttered to herself as she opened the scroll and began to read.

“Enclosed you will find my portion of the Herbology Project report. I’m sure you will have no trouble integrating it with your own and turning it in by the appropriate deadline. No further contact between us shall be necessary.

S. Snape.”

Mariah fell back into her chair and reread the note, certain she must have read it wrong the first time. A thousand emotions played out in her head as she realized that no, she’d read it quite right the first time. Her heart pounded and stomach lurched as she passed through denial into horror, and from horror into anger and back into denial over the space of the next hour. The same words kept moving through her mind, words of confusion, of not knowing why he would say such a thing, of how dare he say such a thing. She had no idea what had brought on this sudden rush of antipathy, but knew it had to be a mistake.

She wanted to find him, to throw his nasty note back in his face and make him explain himself. But she couldn’t, she had no way of getting into the Slytherin dormitories. The bastard must have planned it that way. Unable to make herself study, she forced herself to turn off the light and crawl into bed, wand in hand. After casting Silencio around herself, she gave in to the tears she’d been struggling to hold back.

---

She cornered him after Herbology the next afternoon, she’d followed his speedy departure from the room and began to pace him. He tried to turn and walk the other way, but she followed, refusing to let him get away. She followed him all the way down to the Potions dungeon, where he suddenly stopped and turned towards her, his face a snide mask of disgust.

“Pray tell me, Hufflepuff, what part of ‘No further contact between us shall be necessary’ did you not understand? Do you need me to put it in smaller words for you? How’s this? Get the hell away from me.” He turned and strolled toward the back of the room and started pulling out ingredients, as if to start working.

Swallowing her shock, Mariah followed right after him, “What the devil is wrong with you? What did I do? Was it the hug? I’m so sorry about that, I only . . .”

“Did I say you did something, Hufflepuff? I think not,” he interrupted, still pulling bottles down from the shelves. “I merely implied I no longer have need of your presence.”

“No need of my . . . I don’t understand. . .”

The Slytherin sneered, rolling his eyes. “What’s to understand, Hufflepuff? I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see you. Your existence is no longer relevant to me.”

“But I thought. . .I thought we were friends, Severus. . .I mean, we’d been getting along and all, and you. . . you smiled at me.” Why was he saying these horrible things? She can’t have imagined their growing friendship, could she?

“You Hufflepuffs are all so bloody gullible,” he jeered. “Fine, since you want me to spell it out for you, I will. You’ve served your purpose, and I have no further use for you. You served it quite brilliantly, I must admit and give compliments where they are due. Not for your contributions to the Herbology project, of course, as your contributions there were quite minimal. But I have to hand it to you, you were absolutely amazing with Black.”

Her jaw dropped. “With Black? What does he have to do with . . .”

“You still don’t get it, do you? Sirius Black thinks that he’s better than me, and it really stuck in his craw that I would have a girl when he didn’t. So when I realized that he thought you and I were. . .an item. . .I knew I had him right where I wanted him. You never wondered why all of a sudden I loved being seen with you in public? Certainly you didn’t think it was because I liked you? As if I would actually want to lower myself by associating with a stupid cow of a Hufflep-”

Mariah watched with satisfaction as Severus’ head swung back sharply when she slapped him. He raised a hand to his reddened cheek and stared down on her.

“Don’t call me Hufflepuff,” she sneered before turning and walking out of the room as gracefully as she could make her legs carry her through their shaking. The sound of his laughter followed her as she ran down the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She ran, barely able to see, back toward the safety of her Common room, nearly knocking into a large object as she did so.

“’Riah, what’s wrong?” She stopped and turned towards the large object, which turned out to be her Gryffindor neighbor. Her chin wavered at the concerned look in his eyes and she threw herself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. He took her in his arms, holding her head to his chest with one hand, the other around her back, bringing her close. She felt his fingers stroking her curls as he murmured gently to her. “Easy, now. It’s all right.”

The tenderness in his voice only made her sob harder, but Silas just held her, tight but gentle, and let her cry. Mariah didn’t know how long she stood weeping in his arms before she finally pulled back, wiping her face with the sleeve of her robe.

“I’m sorry,” she blubbered. “I. . .thank you. For letting me. . .you know.”

“S’okay,” he replied, one arm still around her waist. “That’s what your giant teddy bear of a neighbor is here for.”

He paused, looking down at her inquiringly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t think I can,” she sniffed. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Did somebody. . .hurt you?” Silas asked, his arm tightening around her as his jaw clenched. “If they did, I swear I’ll . . .”

“No!” Mariah assured him, “Not physically, anyway.”

His arm relaxed, though his eyes were still questioning. “Black?”

“No, I. . .I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s just. . .” Mariah felt the tears coming on again. “I feel like such a fool.”

“You are definitely not a fool, love,” Silas chided gently, hugging her close again. “And I would know. I mean, you’ve got the good sense to be friends with me, after all, and I’d never be friends with a fool.”

Mariah couldn’t help but laugh despite herself, Silas was really a dear to try to cheer her up. “You must be right, Si. Thanks.”

She looked up at him, a sudden thought popping out into words before she could stop them. “Would you go with me to the Yule Ball?”

Silas’ eyes widened. Mariah blushed and rambled on, “I’m sorry, you probably already have a date and even if you didn’t you’d want to go with a real date, not out of sympathy with someone who might as well be your kid sister. Just forget I asked.”

“Yes,” he answered, looking at her strangely in a way she didn’t recognize. She must have really shocked him.

“Yes, I knew you’d already have a date. I’m such a . . .”

“No, I don’t. Already have a date,” continued Silas slowly. “The girl I wanted to go with went and found her own date before I could ask her.”

“She did?” asked Mariah.

Silas nodded, “She did. So yes, I would be happy to go with you.”

“You would?” Mariah smiled, hugging him again. “You are the best!”

She wasn’t sure what had come over her, asking Silas, after all he was much older and he was, well, Silas, but since he was apparently in need of a sympathy date too, it would work out just perfect. Now neither one of them would have to go alone, and they’d both have a grand old time.