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[sixthhandlion]

For anyone who knew Ron, finding him at one of the tables in the rec room, surrounded by books and papers might have convinced them that the island was messing around with people's minds again. At his best, he'd always procrastinated until the night before assignments were due to write them, and getting him to do any studying when he didn't have to

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[useabezoar]

Much to Snape's displeasure, there was no good time to visit the rec room in search of something new to read. Even in the dead of night, there were always people about. It didn't matter how well he planned, he still found himself surrounded by people, when all he wanted was a book or two.

Today, he'd gone in with the intention of returning a few Muggle history texts, and instead found himself staring down at a table full of Quidditch books. At the end of the table was another ginger, sketching away. Snape instantly frowned. On the island, ginger didn't necessarily equate to Weasley, but he was fairly certain this could be nothing but.

"Which one are you, then?" he asked brusquely.

[sixthhandlion]

Ron had met a lot of people since arriving on the island. Surprisingly, with a few notable exceptions, most of them had been rather pleasant. This man, however, was not.

"What do you mean 'which one'?" he asked, looking up with a frown.

[useabezoar]

"You're a wizard, clearly," he said, gesturing sharply at the Quidditch books. "A Weasley, I'm guessing; the lot of you are crawling all over here, too. So, which one are you?"

He'd been told by others on the island that perhaps he shouldn't be quite so rude to others.

Snape didn't agree with that.

[sixthhandlion]

Ron had heard that Snape was on the island. That somehow, Ron's least favorite professor from home-- and that was accomplishment, considering they'd had not one, but two Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers who'd turned out to be Death Eaters-- was on the island, from a time long before he'd been their teacher.

This had to be Snape. Ron knew that look. He'd seen that same look every week for years.

"Ron Weasley," he replied.

[useabezoar]

"Ah," he said simply. Snape folded his arms over his chest and glared down at this Ron Weasley character. He didn't know the name, and figured this Weasley was either far before, or far after, his time.

It didn't matter. He imagined they were all interchangeable, anyway,

"And what are you doing, Ron Weasley?" he asked, arching one eyebrow as he stared at the sketches Ron had been making,

[sixthhandlion]

As soon as Ron realized just who he was talking to, the very last thing he wanted to do was tell him just what he was working on. He halfway expected Snape to start marking errors on the paper, just as he'd done with just about every potions assignment Ron'd had at Hogwarts.

"It's meant to be a hippogriff," Ron replied, immediately regretting the fact that he'd said so. He knew it was mental for him to still be scared of Snape; he wasn't his Professor anymore, and he was maybe young enough that he'd never even been a Professor at Hogwarts, but he still felt that way, all the same.

[useabezoar]

Snape leaned forward, getting a bit closer to the table to look a the drawing, then rocked back on his heels.

"A hippogriff," he repeated, tone dry as he squinted at the drawing.

"Close," he said after some silence. "But no."

[sixthhandlion]

"Yeah, I know," Ron said, and frowned at his drawing. He'd gotten the beak all wrong, that was for sure, but that was only because he'd been trying to draw from memory. Maybe if he went and found Buckbeak, he'd be able to do a better job, provided Ron could get him to stay still long enough to be drawn.

"They're not as easy to get right as they look."

[useabezoar]

He snorted, something that was as close to a disdainful laugh as Snape could ever get.

"Obviously," he drawled. He resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. "Have you ever even seen a hippogriff? Or are you just guessing?"

[sixthhandlion]

"Of course I've seen one," Ron protested, obviously offended that Snape would think he hadn't, "My best friend owns one."

And even if Sirius hadn't given Harry Buckbeak, he'd seen hippogriffs loads of times back home.

[useabezoar]

"Well, then," Snape said, staring down at the paper, "perhaps you should have studied it more intently, Weasley."

He sighed heavily and shook his head, muttering under his breath. "A pet hippogriff, of all things. What next?"

[sixthhandlion]

"It's Ron," he muttered, something about the way Snape said his name prompting Ron to correct him. He wasn't his professor anymore; he didn't look much older than Ron was, actually.

"And one guy here's got a dragon, so at least it's not that."

[useabezoar]

"A dragon?" Snape repeated, eyes widening just a bit. Between dragons, thestrals, and dinosaurs everywhere, this island was bursting to the seams with animals that shouldn't be there. "Dragons aren't pets, Ron Weasley. Dragons are most dangerous."

He thought of all the possible uses for dragons and dragon parts, and was immediately irritated that he couldn't use the parts for anything. Most of the uses required the dragons to be dead, after all.