Ask NOW! Ⅱ

Seeing the pointed stares of the girls, Severus flushes pink with mortification and irk, before he can retort back to Bethanie, Sylvia's annoyed bluish-gray eyes settle onto him making him quiet down. Sylvia's sleek hair glints as she moves her head away from being craned over her essay. Her sharp features become more pointed as she frowns. "No more of these shenanigans, Severus, it has become most tedious and is a waste of our time. We all know that Lily returns your feelings, therefore stop wasting time. Go and ask her already!"

Severus flushes even more, before becoming a bit pale. As if guessing her twin brother's thoughts Rowan murmurs, "Lily finds you attractive and you are her childhood best friend. She never going to say no to your request, Sev."

Gaining courage from Rowan and their friends' words, Severus leaps to his feet and marches out of the common room. Shaking his head in disappointment, Terry unhappily mutters under his breath, "That boy is simply far too Gryffindor-like at times. It simply isn't done for a Slytherin to wear their heart so blatantly upon their sleeve."

Rowan nods her head in understanding as Sylvia sends Terry a pointed glance, which causes Terry to hastily return to his studies. While Bethanie casually glances over to where Regulus is studying and shares a warm smile with her betrothed. These two happily return to their studies with shy, but pleased expressions on their faces.

Tiffany and Rowan share a mutual glance, before returning to their own studies. It was not Rowan nor Severus wished to ignore Severus's plight, but it was rather minuscule in the grand scheme of things. Plenty of pureblood girls from every house were brushing up against Severus including Rowan and their friends in hopes of persuading Severus to ask them to be their primary escort. It was futile since Severus already had Lily in mind.

That being said, there was a very real concern there as well. Lily was a muggleborn, and for Severus to ask Lily to be his primary escort at their presentation had simply never been done before. Even more so considering the importance that Rowan and Severus had to the pureblood families considering their lineages. Hence, the reason why Rowan had asked her grandfather to select a primary escort for her, a pureblood. As long as one of them was escorted by a pureblood, the pureblood family's concerns would quell down.

That and Rowan did not have anyone to ask. All her male friends were in a relationship except for Sirius and James. She would never ask Sirius because of his parents, and the fact that he seemed to be head over heels silly over the mysterious girl of his affections. And in her heart of hearts, she did not wish to ruin Sirius's chances considering that he was an idiot and needed all the help he could get. Still, she had yet to pry the identity of the girl from Sirius's mouth. It indicated to Rowan that Sirius was completely head over heels over the lass. Although not all was lost since from the clues she had already put together, she concluded that the object of Sirius's affections was a girl in their year, but most importantly someone they all knew. That certainly narrowed the candidate list by a good margin.

And as for James ignoring the fact James had permanent amnesia, they were now friends of sorts. It was not that Rowan disliked him, but even now, she knew that James still liked Lily. She could see his feelings in the way his hazel eyes looked at Lily with longing and other strong emotions for which she had no name for. She could never be cruel enough as to ask James to accompany her despite knowing full well that the object of his affection is Lily and Lily hopefully would accompany Severus.

Pulling her mind from her train of thoughts, Rowan returns back to her homework. She needed to finish calculating her Arithmancy assignment on the Winter Solstice. She was ¾'s done, and now needed to finish calculating the alignment of all the formulas together, before showing the final answer and her work computation. It was far easier said than done.

Time passed by and Rowan was at a crucial stage in her calculations, when Severus bursts into the common room and loudly says, "She said YES!" His face all flushed from having run down from the Gryffindor tower to the Slytherin dungeons.

An eerie chill descends over the Slytherin room as Rowan had lost her place at such a crucial stage. A dark icy look appears in Rowan's indigo midnight black-colored eyes. She wasn't the only one as other 5th & 7th years gaze at Severus with murder in their eyes. Sensing, that he might have been a bit too loud, Severus quietly hurries over to them and placidly sits down.

Rowan loudly taps her fingers against her table causing Severus to firmly keep his gaze down. "I am so pleased to hear the news, Severus, why not tell us what occurred," she menacingly asked all the while tapping her fingers against the table.

Sensing that his twin sister was truly irked, Severus quietly replies, "I managed to catch Willa, who was returning from the library at the entrance for Gryffindor. She went into the Gryffindor quarters and returned with Lily. And Lily said, yes."

The finger tapping of Rowan abruptly ceases as Rowan frigidly says, "Congratulations, Severus on your endeavor. Seeing that you are so pleased and most energetic, I am certain that you can take all our patrol duties for tomorrow and permit me to attend Slughorn's party. I have been neglected his invitations in past, and as of late, and he has been most insistent."

Terry almost opens his mouth to speak, but quickly changes his mind at Rowan's icy visage. Severus was on his own. He'd dug his own grave. And Slytherins were all about self-preservation!

Sensing that his twin sister was truly furious, Severus numbly replies, "That would be fine."

"Most excellent," Rowan crisply replied, before returning to her homework, but not before warningly saying, "And Severus, please be quieter next time."

Severus mutely nods his head as the icy chill in the air seems to vanish. He prudently decided to write to his grandfather another day to inform him of his decision. That and the fact that he wasn't certain how his grandfather would take the news. It was not that his grandfather disliked Lily, but his grandfather was a pureblood, who had disinherited their mother for eloping with a muggle, (an unknown squib, really). He would rather cushion the blow.

Peace returns to the common room but truly was rather quiet. More than a few were affected by Rowan's words and thought that the prudent action would be to remain silent. Prefect Prince was liable to take points by the dozens and assign detentions left and right. It was common sense, really. And for the rest of the afternoon, the Slytherin common room was very quiet.