The Hospital Wing was quiet.
After a long while, the male students reluctantly tore their gazes away from the doorway.
Then, frowning, they turned to look at Snape, silently wondering what on earth was so special about him.
Abbott hesitated, his lips parting slightly.
But after sneaking a glance at Mary's expression from the corner of his eye, he swallowed back the words and wisely chose to stay silent.
"Rest well," Snape said, giving Abbott's leg a firm pat. "We're leaving."
Mary shot Abbott a vicious glare, then left with them.
She walked quickly, dragging Pandora along at a hurried pace.
Pandora had wanted to turn back and call to Snape to come with them, but Mary clutched her arm so tightly that she couldn't stop.
Their voices drifted back to Snape's ears from afar, intermittent and broken.
"How can you not be angry... the way she looked... I'm telling you..."
"Why be angry... she's quite pretty..."
"Why can't I explain it... the way they... "
"I don't understand it either..."
Mary stomped her foot in exasperation and finally left Pandora behind, storming off alone.
...
The next day, Abbott's twisted ankle was already healed.
"Mate," on the corridor leading to the Transfiguration classroom, Abbott looked at Snape with admiration. "So it was you who blew up the school."
"Click, click." He shook his head in amazement. "I really don't know what to say to you. You pulled off something so earth-shattering, and you weren't even expelled."
"Speaking of expulsions, Severus," Abbott sighed, a little gloomy, "there's just the two of us left in the dormitory now. Don't you think our dorm has some bad feng shui? Even Avery's stopped coming to school.
"Sigh, he was annoying, sure, but who knows what kind of misfortune he's run into..."
Snape felt as though Abbott's words carried a veiled jab: Because they talked too much, they ended up unlucky.
"What's even more infuriating," Abbott muttered on, shifting from sighing to angry grumbling, his teeth grinding audibly, "is why Madam Rosmerta invited you to her pub. How am I less handsome than you?"
"Maybe she prefers humans, rather than tree frogs with their feet wrapped in green herbs?"
Snape finished his retort, then hurried into the classroom in three long strides. By then, Professor McGonagall was already inside.
During Transfiguration class, Pandora saw Abbott and kept asking what healing spell or herb he had used to cure an injury that even Madam Pomfrey couldn't manage.
Abbott stammered for ages, and in the end, managed to push the story off onto some "special herb" his father's friend had purchased from Castelobruxo, the Brazilian wizarding school.
"Abbott, Flawhos, what are you chatting about so happily?"
Professor McGonagall's stern voice cut across the classroom.
"Mr. Abbott, tell me the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."
"Excrement... (poo)..." Abbott muttered uncertainly, blurting out a single word.
"What?" Professor McGonagall's eyebrows shot up in astonishment. Her eyes widened so much it looked as though she was about to laugh from sheer outrage.
"Oh, Merlin's pants, do you plan to live on excrement?
"When you graduate, don't you dare say you learned Transfiguration from me.
"No, this won't do. I'll have to tutor you personally."
"Oh, no-" Abbott groaned in despair.
The class erupted in laughter.
"Ahem, Flawhos, do you know the answer?" Professor McGonagall hesitated, glancing at Pandora. Then quickly added, "If not, you don't have to say."
"The first exception is food," Pandora said calmly, her voice soft and steady. "We cannot create true food out of nothing.
"But fake food can be edible. I once ate pumpkin pies made out of thin air. They tasted good, they didn't fill you, but they eased hunger."
"And the next one," Professor McGonagall interrupted, reining in Pandora's free-flowing explanation.
"The second exception is living beings. We cannot create life from non-living matter."
"Yes, yes," Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly, pointing to a raven perched on the desk, craning its neck curiously. "It was a teapot just moments ago. Even though it now appears to be a living creature, 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 criticize. She then turned her sharp eyes back to Abbott.
"Remember, six-thirty this evening. Sigh, why won't you students let me have even a moment of free time..."
Hearing this, Snape instinctively ducked behind his Guide to Advanced Transfiguration. His last detention wasn't that long ago.
Later, at supper, eight long-eared owls swooped into the Great Hall carrying a large parcel. In the process, they knocked Snape's dinner plate to the ground.
Ordinarily, owls did not deliver packages at dusk, but this was an extra service Snape had purchased, an express delivery, for three additional Galleons.
Everyone nearby stared curiously at Snape, eager to see what was in the parcel, but he had no intention of opening it here.
"Reducio." Snape pointed his wand at the package.
The parcel shrank to about one-fifth of its original size.
He repeated the spell once more, then heaved the package up onto the bench.
"Pandora, have you done any experiments recently?"
"No, I haven't. A lot of things are gone."
"Let's go check the lab," Snape said. "See what's left."
Once again, they went to the Room of Requirement.
Pandora's expression grew melancholy as she looked around the laboratory at the dwindling supplies and scattered equipment. With a heavy heart, she began tidying the table.
"Hey, Pandora." Snape spoke while pointing to the small package he had brought into the room. "Engorgio. Engorgio.
"Go on, open it."
Inside were dozens of small boxes, each stamped with the logo of Slugg & Jiggers Apothecary.
"I didn't know what you needed, so I ordered a little of everything. But as for the equipment, you'll have to make that yourself. I didn't see anything like it in the shops."
"No," Pandora shook her head. "I can't accept this."
"Take it. You only lost those things because you were helping me."
Still, Pandora refused.
"Then let's call it conditional sponsorship. You must share the results of your experiments with me.
"And in the future, tell me before you start experimenting.
"When you mentioned in the passageway, 'I have a way', that way was far too big, far too terrifying..."
"Thank you, Severus."
"You're welcome."