Brogan’s cheeks were flaming and her eyes were brimming with shame, stupid hormones, but then she registered what was happening.  She looked quickly at her professor and he shot her a wink from beneath his bushy eyebrows.  Hermione was oblivious but clearly moved by Brogan’s mortification, and Ron was trying very hard, and pretty much failing, to not look smug.

Later that afternoon they met in the library but Ron quickly steered them to an empty classroom, “Hermione, she needs to do the magic and say the spells…”

Once the three of them were alone in the classroom neither Brogan nor Ron could stand to leave Hermione in the dark.  Ron locked and silenced the door to their room, Hermione turned to him with a look of utter confusion but he just beamed at her and then gestured to Brogan and nodded.  Brogan was crying, of course, and all she could do was gasp, “Mione!” and then she was in her arms and Hermione screamed “Harry!” and then she was crying too and that was when Ron realized that all of his best mates were girls now.  The shock was enough that he thought he might cry too but he manfully kept it together.

They conjured a couch and Hermione was stroking Brogan’s curls and holding her hand and trying to comprehend the messes that wizards could make with magic.  The story seemed to go by quicker this time and Hermione, once the shock was over, made Brogan actually do random spells with her wand while she was talking.  Ron and Brogan both assured her that Professor Flitwick had come up with the story just to give them an excuse to be together but Hermione really did think that Brogan needed to get better with her new wand so there was nothing else for it.

The Slytherins did trounce Gryffindor, it nearly killed Ron.  He kind of expected his team to lose because Brogan really was an excellent Seeker, better than Ginny unfortunately.  Ron had blocked a bunch of nice shots so he didn’t feel awful or anything, he worried that he might be merely rueful and not his normal oh my God we lost to the filthy Slytherins mood but he ended up in the filthy mood automatically so that was good, for keeping suspicions down at least.

Brogan was outrageously beautiful, her hair was a wild tangle but the weak sunlight picked out all the dark red glints.  Her wide cheeks were rosy from the wind and her smile was completely contagious.  Draco had swept her up in his arms and swung her around and around while she squealed.  Blaise had snatched her away and flung her straight up in the air then caught her again.  Somehow she ended up on Draco’s back with the team gathered around shouting and laughing.

They didn’t look like Slytherins at all, and Ron suddenly realized how dark and hard their lives were.  Ron’s own dad didn’t even pressure him to get a nice job at the Ministry, he could not imagine his dad pressuring him to be branded by a mad man and commit murder.  And clearly these were children the same age as him if they could laugh and scream about winning an inter-house Quidditch game.

Suddenly Harry’s plan for the greater good wasn’t so abstract, it wasn’t necessarily about shortening some theoretical war on the horizon it was about saving the lives of his classmates and keeping them safe from a lunatic serial killer.  Ron found himself not so upset about losing but feeling really proud of Brogan, and by extension unaccountably, proud of Draco Malfoy too.  It left a bizarre taste in his mouth; he shrugged and headed for the showers with his morose teammates.

Ron owled Brogan later that day and suggested a secret trip to her old dorm. Hermione had some study group thing with a bunch of Ravenclaws on Sunday night and Brogan could use her invisibility cloak to meet Ron by the Fat Lady and then sneak to the dorm.  It sounded wonderful to Brogan but she imagined that there was an 85% chance she might fall asleep there and Ron would have to carry her all the way back to the dungeons.

She should really warn her da but then he probably wouldn't let her go, because really how could he allow his underage daughter to sneak off to another house's boys dorm?  And she really wanted to go.  So she settled for leaving a note on her bed with her Hedwig doll (ha ha).  She figured her da might come in late from his lab but he always checked on her and if she was late coming back he would see the note at least.

Brogan dressed in her black cargo pants and her quietest shoes.  She thought for a moment of wearing the pom-pom slippers but there were about 6,000 stairs between her room and Ron's so she decided on trainers instead.  She almost wore a black t-shirt too, but that felt too Snapeish.  Then she was going to wear a dark green one but that was too Slytherin, finally she found a nice dark red one.  It was from the pile Bill had bought her of course, which meant it was more flattering than most of her tees.

While she was digging out her cloak she saw the Marauder's Map too and decided to bring it, she hadn't checked it yet to see if she was Harry Potter on the map or Brogan Snape.  Lastly she grabbed a bag of candy that Draco had bought her and finally, off she crept.

It was fun to creep up to Ron who was casually waiting for her and make him jump.  He seemed to be amused though, as if he had been expecting it.  He casually gave the password and slowly entered the common room, then he slowly strolled across it to give Brogan a chance to savor it once more and then he mounted the stairs to their old dorm. 

Nobody was around but that could change at any moment so after only a few minutes of snooping and being sad that her bed was completely gone as if she never was or something, they hopped onto Ron's bed and spelled the curtains shut and sound-proofed.

Brogan pulled off her cloak and Ron seemed surprised to see her in regular clothes, or maybe it was the red shirt.  They giggled though as Brogan dumped out her bag of candy and threw the map on top.  She somehow managed to mumble around the giant sourball in her mouth that she was up to no good and the map unfurled before them.   They quickly flipped to the tower and then found the dorm, then found Ron's bed and there they were Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter.

Brogan was a little surprised that it was her old name.  “How would magic know that you changed your name though?”  Ron asked.

“Huh?” replied Brogan.

“When you're a baby they have a naming ceremony and magic learns your name, when you get married if you change your name it's during another ceremony so magic knows.  I think to change it on the map you would need to do another naming ceremony or maybe an adoption one.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.  I'll have to ask Da about it when he's done grounding me for running off to a boy’s dorm room.”

Ron choked on his piece of candy for a while and then gasped, “Mate, I didn't think of that, do you want to leave now?”

“No, just try not to let me fall asleep, right?  I don't think you want to lug me down all those stairs.”

“Lugging is not a word I would use to describe carrying your speccy little self.”

Brogan kicked him, then realized she was still wearing shoes and stripped them off.

Ron grabbed a tiny little trainer, “mate, these are just like your old ones, but are they from the children’s department or something?” 

“Shut up Ron.”  But Ron was busy comparing the shoe to his own massive boat/shoe and she had to kick him again. 

They laughed a lot and finished all the candy.  Then they stretched out side by side on the smallish pillow and spoke seriously.  Brogan told Ron about the prophecy and he tried to analyze it with her.

Brogan asked about Hermione and Ron blushed but said that he sort of supposed he would probably end up with Hermione someday but he kind of wanted to date or at least mess around with other girls first.  Just so he wasn't completely green with her, since she had been with Victor and all.

Brogan got the feeling that his explanation would have made more sense to her before she was a girl but whatever.  They were quiet for a while and then Ron asked if she had ever kissed the ferret.  Brogan nodded, “yeah, I did.”

“Was it good?” prodded Ron.

Brogan felt a warm flush travel down her whole body, “yeah, it actually was really good.”

There was a long pause and then like a completely predictable freight train Ron asked, “Brogan, will you kiss me?”

Brogan rolled over and propped herself up on her arms so she could really look at Ron.  She saw insecurity in his blue eyes, she saw loyalty though and gentleness, and a little bit of mirth, and it was her best mate and now she was a hot girl, why not?  “I think I can do that Ron,” she breathed. 

But he put his hand up to stop her, “can you take off the eye charm again first?”

The request shocked her, she would have expected Ron to try and put as much distance between Brogan and Harry as he could in this situation, but instead he wanted to see the real her.  It reminded her of his first careful inspection of all her scars.  She hadn't any idea that Ron knew her scars at all but he did and now he wanted to see her eyes again.  Wizards were very open she decided as she canceled the spell again.  “If I tell you the words can you put them back?”  She asked, “Otherwise I have to track down Draco for it, Da won't or can't do it.”

“I can put them back,” Ron assured her.  “I just like the way they look when they're the right color, it's like Harry is shining through.”

“And you want to kiss Harry?”  Brogan could have shot herself for asking, because she wanted to kiss Ron now, lying next to him and seeing the heat in his eyes had excited her, but she didn't know if that question was a mood killer or not.

Ron chuckled though, low and deep, “yeah actually.  For kind of a long time too, there's always been something about you.  I have always wanted to love you, I think I wanted to take care of you ever since I first saw you but I knew you'd bite my head off.  So I sort of settled for loving you because I could tell there wasn't enough of that in your life.”

“Don't make me cry Ron, the kiss will be all wet and Cho-like, trust me, they aren't good like that.”

Ron smiled brightly and ran his huge hands through her hair and over her cheeks again and again while Brogan tried to get a hold of herself.  When she was ready Brogan leaned over him and carefully placed her lips on his. 

After, Brogan gave a huge naughty stretch and curled up on Ron's chest.  He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a happy kiss on top of her head.  They were both about to doze off when a jolt of horror went through Ron, “Snape!”

He immediately scrambled up and fell out of the bed.  Neville and Seamus were just getting ready for bed so that was good; it wasn't as late as he feared.  Of course witnesses were bad.  And his pants were uncomfortable, but Brogan was still hidden behind the curtains so he scrambled back in before anyone could say anything.

In the ten seconds Ron was gone Brogan had crawled under the sheets and was swiftly falling asleep.  “Brogan,” he hissed, “we have to get you back to the dungeons!”

Brogan opened her piteous green eyes as wide as she could, “I don't want to, it's all scary and nightmares down there and I wake up every night cold and alone.  You're so warm Ron and the tower is home and you said you wanted to take care of me, please Ron, please can I stay and sleep?  I'm so tired.”

“Snape will put me in detention for the next two years!”  Ron whispered furiously.

“But I need to sleep,” said Brogan and her luminously green eyes filled with tears of frustration.  “Please?”

“I swear if you make me do this I'm putting these memories in a pensieve for him.”

“Okay, but start from when you fell out of the bed, right?”  and she gave him a look.

Ron found himself kissing Brogan again without quite realizing he had moved.  “No,” he said quite firmly, pulling away.  “If you stay it will be torture for me because you will sleep.  Come on, let's go.”

Brogan gave him a mighty pout but sat up and dragged her shoes on.  The map was still active so she snatched it up to see who was in the common room, pretty much everyone.  Great.

Ron pulled her up on his back and they draped the cloak over both of them.  They snuck out of Ron's curtains on the far side of the bed and slipped out the door when Seamus came back from brushing his teeth.

It was good that they were both under the cloak because otherwise Ron would have had to lie to ten people just to get to the door.  As it was Hermione seemed to be looking around for him.

Ron waited in front of the portrait for ten minutes before Ginny finally came in and he was able to slip out before it closed again.  He was a bit curious about where she was so late but mostly he was worried about Brogan falling off his back because she seemed to have fallen asleep again.

Just as Ron had made it to safety outside the common room and was wondering if he was going to have to carry her down all those stairs and then sneak all the way back -seriously it would take him half an hour at least to walk that far, he noticed a shadow round the corner further down the hall and come striding swiftly towards him.  Ron recognized Snape at once and to his own surprise pulled the cloak off.

Snape saw his daughter sound asleep sliding dangerously to the side on Weasley's back and stepped forward to take her in his own arms.  Ron saw his professor take a big breath, no doubt with which to berate him, and bravely started first.

“Sir, you need to do something so she can sleep more.  She's a mess like this!  She can't go on, she begged me to let her sleep in Gryffindor tower.  Before, when she lived there as a boy you know, she slept in my bed half the time.  She's always had these horrible nightmares and that's what works against them, me. 

It doesn't help if you spell her room unsilenceable, she doesn't make noise anyway.  The Dursley's beat that out of her, she wakes up with a tiny gasp and then she'll just lay there shaking and white for hours.  Sometimes, usually, she gets so scared she'll throw up too, that's why she can't ever gain weight like you think she should.  But if she isn't alone, if she's sleeping with someone else she doesn't have the nightmares.  I don't think she has visions either actually.

Harry used to get embarrassed about it, he would try to sleep alone but eventually he'd get desperate and come back.  I think that's why she keeps falling asleep all over the castle sir.”  Ron finished up.

“So Mr. Weasley, is that your reason for why I should not give you detention or are you actually suggesting that I let you return to your dorm with my sixteen year old daughter?”

“She's already asleep sir.  But you can take her home, just know that if you're expecting her to yell and wake you up with her nightmares, she won't.  And if you think she's going to come padding into your room with her Hedwig doll to wake you up, she won't.”

“You paint a vivid picture Mr. Weasley.  Tomorrow is Monday and her first class is Potions at 9:30, see that she isn't late.”  And with that Snape put Brogan back in Ron's arms and dropped the invisibility cloak over both of them.

It was tricky getting back in the common room but a few of the students had gone to bed while they were arguing in the hall.  Ron made it back to his bed without incident, he dropped Brogan there and went to brush his teeth and put his pajamas on.  When he got back he pulled off her sneakers and carefully removed her bra without taking off her shirt or seeing anything.  Then he snuggled down in bed and tucked the sleeping girl against his chest.  Brogan was curled up on her side like Ron and he wrapped an arm around her waist.  He leaned forward so his nose was in her hair and took a deep breath. 

Ron woke up at his usual time and carefully extricated himself from the girl in his arms, careful not to jostle her awake.  He casually got himself dressed and ushered his friends out of the room before doubling back for a forgotten book.  He gave explicit instructions for them not to wait, and to tell Hermione not to wait, and then he dove into his bed and back to Brogan.

She was just waking up, her hair was wild and her sleepy eyes were glowing in the semi-dark like a cat's.  Ron kissed her on the lips before she was really alert.  Her eyes popped open and she kissed him back with a naughty smile.  If Ron had found her irresistible the night before when she was trying to stay it was worse now when she was rumpled and apparently horny.  “Thanks Ron,” she purred, “I slept so well last night.  I feel amazing now.”

Ron kissed her again and rubbed her cheek with his thumb.  “Yeah well, your Da knows you slept here, so good luck with that.”  Brogan shrugged, not too worried.  “He doesn't want you to be late for Potions so you'd better get up soon.

And I'd better go before Hermione comes in looking for me.”

Brogan paled at those words, “are you and Hermione dating?”

Ron pecked her quickly, “No, of course not.  I wouldn't have done anything with you if we were.”  He pecked her again.  And then again, and then she leaned back on the pillows and he followed her.  Her leg came up to wrap around his hips and her hands wandered over the wide expanse of his back.  He really was big and now that she wasn't competing against his size, not that there was ever a competition, but now she felt like she could appreciate him for himself and himself was pretty fine.  Their kisses wound down, until they were just breathing each other's air.  And finally Brogan took a deep breath and decided she did need to get up. 

Ron leaned back and allowed her.  They stared at each other for a while and then Brogan drew her wand and pointed it at Ron's lips.  She murmured a tiny healing charm and they looked a little less well-kissed.  Ron drew his wand and pointed it to her eyes then looked at her expectantly.  “Oculis coloris, and then just imagine the color you want.” 

Ron quirked a smile, “but they are the color I want.”

Brogan blushed and gave him a fake glare.  Ron pecked her on the nose and then did a fake serious cough, he raised his wand again and firmly said the spell.

Brogan snuck out right behind him, safely under the cloak.  She darted down to the dungeons praying she would have time for a shower.  There was time for a shower but she ended up with a bagel in one hand as she darted into the classroom.  Slughorn gave her an indulgent look and told her to make sure she finished before the brewing began.  She blushed prettily and thanked him profusely.  Slughorn considered himself well repaid.

And then she just had to worry about Draco's curiosity.  And also hope that Hermione (or anyone else) wouldn't notice the pink tips on Ron's ears.

Snape was pleased with how happy and calm Brogan seemed that day and he realized that Ron must have spoken some truth about her sleeping better with another person.  His mind began to work on the problem at hand and before the day was out he found himself in the library with a wizard parenting book (the cover was charmed to look like it was about the darkest of dark arts) trusting that there were other much more paranoid parents than himself out there he was rewarded by finding a spell that alerted someone when the subject awoke.  After dinner that night, when they were both reading quietly in the little sitting room he cast the charm on Brogan.

Hours later he found himself jolted awake with no idea why.  The dungeons were as quiet as ever and that was what finally jogged his sleepy mind to remember the spell.  He pulled on a dressing gown and crept to Brogan's room, she was curled up with the sheet in her mouth, just like that night months ago.  Tears were leaking out of her eyes and her shoulders shook.  The Hedwig doll was forgotten on the floor.  Snape whispered her name from the doorway and she looked at him fearfully.  Severus cursed the Dursleys and approached the bed.  He sat down with his back against the headboard and tucked his legs under her warm blankets, then he pulled her on to his lap, tucked her head beneath his chin and pulled up the covers.

After a long long time she whispered, “m' sorry I woke you up Da.”

“Hush, foolish child.” and he tightened his arms.  She was warm and cuddly and Severus felt his heart melting. 

It was so sweet that first night, by Thursday though he was a wreck and so was she.  Tuesday night she had thrown up everywhere before he arrived and been completely hysterical about the mess and cleaning it, Wednesday (sadly) was the same.  She was pale and shaky as she dressed for classes on Thursday, in addition to the nightmares and the vomiting she felt horrible that somehow her da kept waking up.

She guessed he had put some monitoring spell on her but she couldn't figure out which to remove it, she had checked all his darkest dark arts books and hadn't found it yet.  Her da was not dealing well either, he was livid that his daughter was suffering and he wasn't helping as much as he wanted to.  And he was exhausted and falling back into his Snapeish ways.

They looked at each other grimly over the breakfast table, Brogan was just pushing food around and her da was throwing back mug after steaming mug of coffee.  Finally he looked up at her and said, “Brogan, if Mr. Weasley doesn't have an issue perhaps you should take your cloak tonight and visit him again.”

“Oh Da, I'm sorry that Ron,” and she trailed off, unsure how to finish it.  Sorry that I trust Ron unconsciously more than I trust you?  Sorry that he was there when I was eleven and you weren't?  Sorry he's kind and you were a snarky git?  She sighed and just looked at him sorrowfully. 

Severus sighed himself and then took her hand, “we will figure it out Brogan, you just need to concentrate on taking care of yourself.  All right?

If Ron can comfort you so that you can sleep the whole night without trouble then that's the important thing.”

Brogan irritably brushed the tears from her eyes, stupid tears, “thanks Da'” she murmured and gathered her bag to leave for her day.

She managed to sneak to the owlery before lunch started, Hedwig was there and they had a mini reunion.  Then Brogan realized she could use Hedwig to send her note to Ron, she had been planning on using a school owl but nobody would really notice if Hedwig brought Ron a note. 

Brogan had forgotten about Ginny's curiosity but she was engrossed in something else and didn't notice.  Hermione also didn't notice as Ron's ear tips turned pink but Brogan was watching for it.  Ron caught her eye and nodded once sharply, it seemed like they were set for meeting by the Fat Lady at ten that night.

Nine thirty found Brogan in her room with clothes everywhere.  She wanted to wear something comfortable to sleep in but not too much like pajamas; she hoped they would fool around some more but wasn't sure how much further she wanted to go.  She settled on sweatpants and a t-shirt and then she tore them off, then she put them back on and then she found her most flattering tiny white t-shirt and decided that it was enough to balance the sweats.  Not that the sweats were as unsexy as she thought, they hugged her curves rather well and rode pretty low on her hips.  In a final fit of rashness she slithered out of her bra and left it behind.  A few hours without wouldn't bother her and it was much better than sleeping in it or leaving it in Ron's bed like she had on Sunday night. 

After she decided to brush her teeth too she had to run a bit to make it to the Fat Lady on time.  She was under the cloak so thankfully nobody saw her bouncing up the stairs but when she was finally ensconced in Ron's bed and he had tugged the cloak off there were trickles of sweat on her neck and trailing down between her breasts.  They each leaned in immediately for a kiss and they were still panting into each other when Ron pulled out his wand and held it to her temple, whispering 'finite' and then diving in for another frantic kiss when the green eyes he loved so much gazed trustingly up at him.  “Oh God Harry,” he groaned, “when you look at me like that it just makes me crazy.  How can you look at me like that after all the times I was such a twat?”

Brogan shrugged and slid her hands under his shirt, pulling it up over his head.  His chest was as big as his back, duh, and her small hands were like moths fluttering trying to touch him everywhere at once.  They froze when they heard the door bang open, and then they each scrambled for their wands, locking the curtains, silencing their cocoon.

Sleeping together half dressed was almost as wonderful as waking up tangled together.  Ron knew he had to leave and get dressed and go to classes but in the early morning light he could see how worn Brogan looked even after sleeping.  The dark under her eyes was better but her face was a little pinched and he wished her hips didn't jut out quite so much.

“Come here every night,” he whispered, “let me take care of you.  And eat something, okay, we knock together like bags of bones.  Eh?”

Brogan blushed and then grinned at him, “okay.”  He kissed her nose and then sighed and lifted his wand to reapply the eye charm, as bad as it would be to get caught with Brogan in his bed, caught with a semi-naked girl Harry Potter would be really bad.

“See you in potions,” she whispered as he carefully parted his curtains to steal out and start his day.  Brogan took a deep whiff of Ron from his pillow and then dragged on her own clothes and the cloak.  She slid out and paused to absorb the banter and energy of her old mates getting ready for their days.  She almost laughed out loud at one point when Seamus caught sight of a dark spot on Ron's neck and started interrogating him. 

The boys all left the room in a noisy herd and she was right there with them, only invisible and silent beneath her cloak.  She stayed with them until they turned for the Great Hall and the dungeons were the other way.  Once she was alone outside her da's door she could have taken off the cloak and strolled in but for some reason she kept it on, wanting to inspect herself for marks in the bathroom before anyone saw her.  So she whispered the password and slid through the door, unnoticed by Draco and Severus who were having a tetchy breakfast together.