The Hospital Wing was hushed. After a good long while, the boys reluctantly tore their gaze away from the doorway. Then, their brows furrowed, they turned to Snape, silently questioning what exactly made him so special.
Abbott looked a bit hesitant, his lips moving. But after a quick glance at Mary's expression out of the corner of his eye, he swallowed whatever he was about to say, wisely choosing to remain silent.
"You rest up now," Snape said, giving Abbott's leg a hearty pat. "We're off."
Mary glared fiercely at Abbott and then followed suit, leaving at a swift pace, practically dragging Pandora along. Pandora had intended to call Snape to join them, but Mary's grip on her arm left her no choice but to keep moving. Their voices drifted back to Snape, faint and fragmented.
"How can you not be angry... the way she looked... I'm telling you..."
"Why be angry? She's quite pretty, isn't she?"
"Why can't I make you understand... the way they were..."
"I don't understand either..."
Mary huffily stamped her foot, then simply abandoned Pandora and walked off on her own.
---
The very next day, Abbott's twisted ankle was completely healed.
"Mate," Abbott said, looking at Snape with admiration in the corridor leading to the Transfiguration classroom, "so you were the one who blew up the school, then?"
"Tsk, tsk," he tutted, shaking his head in wonder. "I really don't know what to say about you, pulling off something so monumental and not even getting expelled."
"Speaking of expelled, Severus," Abbott sighed, a little glumly, "it's just the two of us left in the dorm now, isn't it? Don't you think our dorm has bad luck or something? Avery isn't even coming to school anymore."
"Ah, well, he was a bit annoying, but I really wonder what rotten luck he ran into..."
Snape couldn't shake the feeling that Abbott's words carried a hidden meaning, like he was subtly complaining. "It's because they talked too much. That's why they had bad luck."
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"What's even more infuriating," Abbott continued to grumble to himself, his tone shifting from wistful to indignant, his teeth grinding, "why did Madam Rosmerta invite *you* to her pub? What makes you any better looking than me?"
"Perhaps she prefers humans to tree frog-monkeys with green herbal bandages on their feet?"
With that, Snape dashed into the classroom in a few swift strides. Professor McGonagall was already there.
During Transfiguration class, Pandora kept pressing Abbott, wanting to know what healing magic or restorative herbs he'd used to so quickly fix an injury Madam Pomfrey herself had struggled with. Abbott mumbled and prevaricated for a long time before finally managing to attribute it to some special herbs his father had acquired through a friend from the Brazilian magical school, Castelobruxo.
"Abbott, Flahos, what are you two chattering about so happily?"
Professor McGonagall chastised them sternly. "Mr. Abbott, please tell me the five principal exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."
"Poo..." Abbott mumbled out a word, looking unsure.
"What?" Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows in astonishment, her eyes wide, looking as though she might burst out laughing in exasperation. "Oh, Merlin's trousers, are you planning to eat excrement? When you graduate, don't you dare say I taught you Transfiguration. No, I must give you extra lessons."
"Oh, no—" Abbott let out a groan of despair.
The class erupted in laughter.
"Ahem, ahem, Flahos, do you know?" Professor McGonagall looked at Pandora with a hint of hesitation, then quickly added, "You don't have to speak if you don't know."
"The first exception is **food**," Pandora said softly and unhurriedly. "We cannot conjure true food out of thin air. However, fake food can be eaten. I've eaten pumpkin pasties made of air; they were quite tasty, not filling but they kept hunger at bay."
"And what else?" Professor McGonagall interrupted Pandora's elaboration.
"The second exception is **living things**; we cannot create living beings from inanimate objects."
"Yes, yes," Professor McGonagall nodded in satisfaction, pointing to a nosy crow on the desk. "It was a teapot just now. Even though it appears to be a living creature at the moment, its essence has not changed."
"The third exception is **magical items**, such as Galleons..."
Pandora's mastery of Transfiguration left Professor McGonagall with nothing to fault, and she glared back at Abbott. "Remember, six-thirty tonight. Oh, why can't you simply allow me a moment of peace...?"
Hearing that, Snape instinctively hunched behind his copy of *A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration*. It hadn't been that long since his last detention, after all.
---
Later, after dinner, eight long-eared owls swooped into the Great Hall, carrying a large package, knocking Snape's plate onto the floor. Generally, owls didn't deliver in the evening, but Snape had paid an extra three Galleons for express delivery.
Everyone around him looked on curiously, wondering what was in the large package, but he had no intention of opening it there.
"Reducio," Snape said, pointing his wand at the package. The package swiftly shrank to about one-fifth of its original size. He cast the spell again, then laboriously carried the package to a long bench.
"Pandora, have you been doing any experiments lately?"
"No, so many things are gone."
"Let's go to the lab," Snape suggested. "Let's see what's left."
---
Soon after, they found themselves once again in the Room of Requirement. Pandora looked rather crestfallen at the meager magical materials and experimental apparatus left in the laboratory, her spirits low as she tidied the workbench.
"Hey, Pandora," Snape said, pointing to the small package he'd brought into the room. "Engorgio, Engorgio."
"Open it and see."
Opening the package revealed dozens of small boxes, each bearing the label of Slughorn & Jigger's Apothecary.
"I wasn't sure exactly what you needed, so I just asked them to send a little of everything. As for the experimental equipment, you'll have to make those yourself; I haven't seen anything similar on the market."
"No," Pandora said, shaking her head. "I can't take them."
"Take them," he insisted. "You lost your things because you were helping me."
Pandora still wouldn't agree.
"Alright then, consider it a conditional sponsorship from me. You'll have to share the results of your experiments with me. And also, from now on, it's best if you tell me before you start any experiments. You mentioned 'I have a way' back in that passage, and that 'way' was far too grand, far too frightening..."
"Thank you, Severus."
"You're welcome."