The Come Amp Go Room

8/13/2019 The Come Amp Go Room

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Posted originally on the Archive of Our Ownathttp://archiveofourown.org/works/212172 .

Rating: Teen And Up AudiencesArchive Warning: No Archive Warnings ApplyCategory: Gen, M/MFandom: HarryPotter - J. K. RowlingRelationship: Harry/RonCharacter: Harry Potter, Ron WeasleyAdditional Tags: AUSeries: Part 13 ofTwo HouseholdsStats: Published: 2011-06-15 Words: 7294

The Come & Go Room

by mad_martha

Summary

Two worlds collide for just an hour, and two Slytherins meet

Notes

Crossover between my Two Households and Checkmate series.Please note that for all intents and purposes this is AU to bothseries; for obvious reasons thiscould not and does not happen inthe 'real' timelines. It's set maybe a couple of months beforeReparations in the Two Households universe and probably up tosix months or morebefore Earthy Pleasures in the Checkmateuniverse, so in other words Harry and Ron are both still at school

during the Spring Term of their final year.

This story was written for Esporamor, whoasked for it.

See the end of the work for more notes

Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on thefirst of February, almost exactly three months after he had left it to travel to

his ill-fated Confirmation vigil at the Church of the Holy Bones.

His health was still far from robust, his body somewhat frail and his strengthinclined to come and go unpredictably. But his healer felt that he hadreached a point where more might be gained by him returning to a
http://archiveofourown.org/series/8496http://archiveofourown.org/tags/AUhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Harry%20Potterhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Ron%20Weasleyhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Harry*s*Ronhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Harry%20Potter%20-%20J*d*%20K*d*%20Rowlinghttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Genhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/M*s*Mhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/No%20Archive%20Warnings%20Applyhttp://archiveofourown.org/works/212172http://users/mad_martha/pseuds/mad_marthahttp://archiveofourown.org/series/8496http://archiveofourown.org/tags/AUhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Ron%20Weasleyhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Harry%20Potterhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Harry*s*Ronhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Harry%20Potter%20-%20J*d*%20K*d*%20Rowlinghttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/M*s*Mhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Genhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/No%20Archive%20Warnings%20Applyhttp://archiveofourown.org/tags/Teen%20And%20Up%20Audienceshttp://archiveofourown.org/works/212172http://archiveofourown.org/


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semblance of normal life and so Harry did so, albeit with some modificationsto his daily routines in order to accommodate his continuing recuperation.One subject was dropped from his timetable entirely, and the others wererearranged to make it possible for him to rest more; he had to give upQuidditch entirely. The other pupils had to accustom themselves to seeinghim walk the corridors with the aid of a cane - if he wasn't sitting down in amoment of physical weakness, or leaning against something to catch hisbreath. The castle itself seemed to make an effort to be of assistance to

him, with the temperamental staircases showing unusual cooperation whenhe approached and every portrait and ghost keeping a discreet eye on himas he went about his business.

These latter details might have explained a curious incident that was tobefall Harry one wet and stormy day at the beginning of March.

It was Thursday morning and he had just left Herbology with the firmintention of returning to his dormitory and spending the empty lessonbefore lunch resting on his bed. The rest of his class hurried off either to

their next lesson or to study, but Harry had no intention of wasting hisstrength hiking from the greenhouses all the way up to the library,especially not in this weather which, when it wasn't raining and thundering,was trying to blow him clean across the school grounds. Instead he soughtout a hidden side door into the castle that he had discovered a while ago onthe Marauder's Map, which provided a shortcut to a set of stairs down intothe dungeons.

It was a route he had been using ever since he returned to school, so it cameas more than a surprise that day to open the familiar little door with itsblackened iron studs and big ring handle only to discover a tiny stone roombehind it containing a plain wooden bench.

Harry blinked and closed the door again without entering. He checked it -same old iron studs and varnished oak, the same iron ring with the wornpatch underneath where the ring had bumped the wood with repeated use.He found the Map and consulted it, turning his back into the wind to stop itflapping; there were his footprints by the ingress into the castle wall andthere was the little name label declaring that he was standing next to thedungeon shortcut as usual. The only slightly odd thing was a second labelbeside the door with the cryptic words Come & Goon it.

Harry tapped a finger on the Map thoughtfully. "Come and Go" was one ofthe names the Hogwarts house-elves used for the Room of Requirement onthe seventh floor. As titles went, this was perfectly logical; the Room didhave a habit of appearing and disappearing, depending on the needs of itsusers. But Harry knew there was another room which fitted the title of"Come and Go" somewhat better, a room that had rather differentcharacteristics. This room was much smaller and didn't take on the featuresmost required by the user; instead it could move around the castle at will(and even around the grounds, apparently) and would take the user to the

place he or she most needed to go. This didn't always conform to theperson's own ideas of where he needed to be, however.

Harry's last encounter with the Come and Go Room had been a year ago,when he'd burned his hands in Potions and the room had appeared as he


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left the dungeons. For some reason it had decided he needed to go toHagrid's Hut and had promptly delivered him there, which was a little oddbut at least Hagrid had known what to do with him (which was more thanHarry could have said for himself at the time).

Harry felt a certain wariness of it today, mostly because he was tired andreally wanted to go to the dungeons rather than wherever the room thoughthe should be. But as his options were limited to trusting the room or

walking halfway around the castle in bad weather, he reluctantly turned theiron ring again and stepped inside, pulling the door shut behind him. Heslumped down on the bench, letting his book bag slide to the floor.Darkness and quiet enveloped him for a while.

An unspecified period later the door was pulled open from outside.

"There you are! I've been waiting for ages!" Ron Weasley paused, his eyesflicking over the small space Harry occupied. "What are you doing in thereanyway? And where the hell did it come from?"

"Who knows why this room does what it does?" Harry grumbled. "Give us ahand out, would you? And anyway, why aren't you in Charms?"

Ron's brows snapped together in a frown, but he took Harry's book bag fromhim and grabbed his outstretched arm, helping him up. "What happened to

you? And why would I be in Charms? I've just come from Herbology and nowI've got a free period. You should know, it was all your idea! And by theway, can you not do that thing you did with the seed drill when old Sprouty'sonly two feet away from me? I nearly snorted half a packet of Mustwortseeds down the back of her robe."

Harry stopped in the entrance to the Come and Go Room, staring at himblankly. "It's Thursday. You have double Charms in the morning. Besides,

you can't have just come from Herbology becauseI'vejust come from there!"

"Did someone knock you on the head or something?" Ron demanded. "Ofcourse you just came from Herbology, didn't I just say so? I only see youthere - oh! like twice a week! I don't have double Charms till tomorrow "

His voice trailed off as he looked Harry up and down, and his half-smilefaded. "What's with the walking stick?"

"Are you being funny?" Harry would have been indignant, if it hadn't beenfor the sudden sense of wrongness about this situation. He looked around;they were in a high-ceilinged room with bookcases, chairs, a couch and afireplace, but although it all looked vaguely familiar he couldn't quite placeit. And he didn't understand why Ron - his Ron, the Ron who fussed overhim like an anxious father-to-be half the time - was talking so roughly to himand pretending he'd never seen Harry exhausted or using a walking stickbefore. "Where are we?" he asked softly, and he surreptitiously gave hisright wrist a tiny shake to make his wand slip down into his palm.

"The Room of Requirement," Ron said readily enough, but now there was alook of suspicion on his face. "It wasyouridea, remember?"

It was about the right size for the Room of Requirement. But something was


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he couldn't shake the feeling that this was, somehow,Ron. A Ron. Not hisRon. Some other Ron from some other place, and the idea was so completelyinsane that he realised he must have passed out somewhere and was evennow hallucinating all of this.

At least he hoped he was.

"I need to sit down and take a potion," he muttered shakily, putting his wand

away. "And then I reckon I need to see Madam Pomfrey." Feeling weak andtrembly, Harry shuffled over to the couch and crawled into it gratefully. Ifthis was an hallucination, at least it came with comfortable furniture. "Idon't s'pose you could go get her for me, could you?" he threw over hisshoulder at the person-who-could-not-possibly-be-Ron. "Probably not," headded to himself under his breath.

"And you'll do what while I'm gone?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"Oh, I don't know - have a nervous breakdown, maybe? Wouldn't be the firsttime." He really needed one of his Strengthening Draughts, but they were inhis bag. He managed to get his wand out again, but all of his energyseemed to be draining out of his feet into the carpet and his acciowasfeeble. He didn't blame his bag for not responding to it.

"What's the matter with you anyway?"

Harry suppressed a long-suffering sigh with an effort. "What does it looklike? I'm ill. I need a potion from my bag."

There was a rustle and Ron appeared a couple of feet away from the arm of

the couch. He held up Harry's bag but he was carefully out of reach anddidn't actually offer it to him. "You want this?"

Harry looked up at him. It was the weirdest feeling, staring into this facethat was just like his Ron's face but seeing the same shuttered look in thoseblue eyes that he had worked so hard to cultivate in his own. Thatexpression was the one he saw in the mirror sometimes. He said nothing.

After a moment Ron put his wand away and went to perch on the arm of thenearest chair. He propped Harry's bag on his knees and unbuckled thefront flap, flipping it open. He peered inside.

Harry fought to stay calm. He hated people poking around in his things -he'd never got over the way his cousin Dudley would raid his cupboardunder the stairs and break or steal anything he found. And he tensed whenhe saw Ron taking out the Marauder's Map, for he hadn't bothered to shut itdown before he'd put it back in his bag. In the hands of any of the otherSlytherins

Ron stared at it silently for a moment, then he looked up and his faceseemed to have lost a little colour. "Where did you get this?"

"I nicked it," Harry said, with perfect truth.

"Yeah, but who did you nick it from, arsehole?"

The anger in his voice surprised Harry. "From your brothers actually. But


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they nicked it first, and anyway it rightfully belongs to me. My dad andgodparents made it."

Ron stared at him for a long moment as though he couldn't think of anythingto say. Then to Harry's even greater surprise he put the Map back into thebag quite carefully and pulled something else out. Harry's Herbologynotebook. He tugged the leather tie around it undone and flipped it open,and stared at the inside of the front cover.

"Henry J. Potter," he said finally. "Henry?"

"That's what Harry's short for," Harry said with weary aggravation. "Look, ifyou're going to poke around in my stuff, could you at least give me one ofthose glass vials from the inner pocket - the ones with the blue wax sealswrapped in lambs wool. I'm going to pass out any minute if I don't have mypotion."

Ron gave him a suspicious look but perhaps something in Harry's faceconvinced him that this wasn't a ploy, for he fumbled the inner pocket openand pulled out one of the little bottles. Probably, Harry thought dourly, hereally lookedas though he might pass out. He was well aware that when hisstrength left him he tended to look quite spectacularly unwell. Ronapparently didn't trust him too far all the same, though, for he studied the

vial carefully, holding it up to the light, before he floated it over to Harry ona charm.

Harry broke the seal off the vial and drank the potion neat. It was vile buthe was used to that by now and waited in grim silence, fingers digging intothe arm of the couch, until the shiver-inducing draught did its work. He

could feel Ron's eyes on him and closed his own until the humiliatingtremors in his limbs eased up.

~~~

Ron Weasley watched the other boy warily for a moment or two, but he hadto admit to himself that he did look quite ill and therefore unlikely to enact

any funny business.

What Ron didn't get was why. That mattered far more to him than the who.If it was one of the other Slytherins then there would have to be a reason forthe charade and some sort of pay-off at the end of it. He knew he wasn't themost popular person in his house, but he was good at Quidditch - whichmattered a lot to Slytherins - and didn't get into any more trouble thananyone else. His friendship with Harry notwithstanding, he was a teamplayer for Slytherin and generally accounted reliable by their standards. Hedidn't like Draco Malfoy much and the feeling was mutual, but that was a

private thing and neither of them let it get in the way of joint interests. Hedidn't think he'd done anything recently, or even not so recently, that wouldmerit a trick on this scale.

And he was beginning to think that this couldn't be Polyjuice anyway. For


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one thing, however much this boy looked like Harry there were subtledifferences - he had an odd lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, forinstance. Polyjuice produced an exact physical copy of a person; Ron hadseen Harry less than half an hour ago and his friend had been in his usualrobust good health, so anyone Polyjuicing themselves into him would be inthe same pink condition. Not ill enough to need potions and a walking stick,and certainly not as thin, haggard and shaky as this person was.

But if he wasn't Harry, then who was he? He had the Marauder's Map in hisbag, a fascinating document that Harry had only shown him recently. Thename on the bookplate inside the Herbology notebook wasn't just Henry J.Potter - which was bizarre in and of itself - but was written in Harry's familiarsprawling handwriting. But the bookplate was a Slytherin one, identical tothe ones inside Ron's own books. And the wand he had pulled on Ronlooked just like Harry's wand, but he was wearing a Slytherin school tie andthe bands on his sweater and the badge on his robe were Slytherin.

Keeping one eye on the other boy, Ron rummaged a little more and found a

folded letter. When he opened it, it was addressed toDear Harryandsignedyour loving godfather, Sirius. Sirius was the name of one of Harry'suncles. Ron put it back and pulled out a couple of textbooks, each of themwith another Slytherin bookplate and Harry's name inside the cover.Parchment rolls had Harry's handwriting all over them. His quills werenibbled in the same way on the ends. There was a distinct absence ofHarry's favourite sweets, but there was a monogrammed handkerchief withan unfamiliar family crest in one corner that was wrapped around somethingthat turned out to be a small diptych-style photo frame. Ron flipped it open.

On the left a wizard and witch holding a small dark-haired baby; on the righttwo wizards in their thirties, one dark-haired and handsome and the otherone with brown hair and a warm smile. Ron could name all of them; he'd metHarry's parents and uncles the previous summer, after all. The only onemissing from the pictures was Peter Pettigrew.

This was entirely too much detail for this to be a hoax by one of his house-mates, Ron realised. This was too much detail for a hoax by anyone. Whichmeant what?

He put the photo frame back in the bag and closed it, putting in on the

chair. When he looked up at the other boy he noticed how grey andexhausted he looked, and felt a stab of concern. He did look awfully likeHarry, after all - could even beHarry, perhaps. Not Ron's Harry, but someother Harry from somewhere else.

Which was such a completely barking mad idea that he wanted to kickhimself, but Merlin's balls, how else was he supposed to explain it? This wasthe Room of Requirement after all. As far as Ron could tell, nobody knewexactly what the Room's limits were. As bonkers as it seemed, who couldsay if doing something like this wasn'twithin its range of abilities?

Not that this had been at all the thing he'd been thinking of when he arrivedhere. Studyingmight be the euphemism he and Harry used for their trystshere, but they usually aimed for something a little more cosy than thisrather strange study-like set up. And he certainly hadn't asked the Roomfor a arallel-universe version of his Harr . He liked the Harr he alread


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had, thanks very much.

And that begged the question of where his Harry was right now. He wasover twenty minutes late for their assignation.

Ron had a sudden and very unwelcome idea. He got up and went to sit atthe other end of the couch, and the-person-who-couldn't-be-his-Harryopened his eyes and looked at him warily.

"Just out of curiosity," Ron said, keeping his tone casual, "what am I going tofind when I open that door there?" He nodded towards the big door thatusually led out of the room.

"What do you think you're going to find?" Harry asked. His blank expressionwas as good as Ron's own, which was a little disconcerting to see on a facethat was usually open and cheerful.

"You're not Harry Potter," Ron said coolly. "Not the Harry Potter I know,anyway."

"Doesn't look like it, does it?"

"So that means I'm not the Ron Weasley you know."

The corner of the other boy's mouth twitched in a not entirely humoroushalf-smile. "No, you're really not."

That was interesting. But Ron would tackle that detail in a while; for themoment he was pursuing a more worrying question. "So - one of us isn't

where he should be. Or maybe both of us, right?"

Harry shrugged and nodded. "Looks that way."

"So if I left the room now, where would I be? In my Hogwarts or yours?"

"What makes you think I know?" A flash of irritation crossed Harry's face."This is a big surprise to me too, you know. I was heading for the dungeonsand ended up here instead! Believe me, this is notwhere I want to be."

There was a long pause. Ron wasn't sure what to say next and he thought

Harry wasn't either.

"So you're ill," he said finally. Harry chose not to answer this. "You look likemy Uncle Gideon when he had pneumonia. Why aren't you in the infirmary?"

"Obviously because I don't have pneumonia," Harry said, and now theirritation was overt. This was something new for Ron to witness; he hadseen his Harry looking rather peeved more than once, and occasionally hewould get annoyed at something, but nothing like thiswith real anger soclose to the surface and such stiff and resentful body language. Everymuscle in this Harry's body was constantly tensed, as though he was waiting

for someone to attack from any direction at any moment.

Perhaps he was. Ron maintained a similar level of wariness as he wentabout his day to day business at school, partly because he never knew ifsomeone was going to jump him - the Gryffindors, usually - and partly


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because not being cautious in Slytherin inevitably ended with you being atthe bottom of the pecking order, which was somewhere no Slytherin everwanted to be.

"So what's wrong with you?" He could be very persistent when he liked.

Harry turned green eyes on him that were clouded with pain and held aworld-weary expression far beyond his seventeen years. "What's it to you?"

he asked.

Ron shrugged. "Just curious. When I saw you at breakfast this morning youwere jigging about like a spring lamb. It's a bit weird to see you curled uplike an old man now, you know?"

For a second Harry looked wistful. "It'd be nice to jig about again," he said.

"Again? Well, at least you weren't born like this."

A tired smile crossed his lips. "No."

"So how did it happen?"

The smile widened reluctantly. "Anyone ever tell you you're a nosy git?"

"All the time," Ron said, beginning to grin. "So what happened?"

"I tangled with a certain Dark wizard," Harry said.

"And lost?"

That earned him a sharp look. "And won. He'sdead."

"Looks like he tried pretty hard to take you with him," Ron observed, but hekept the snarkiness out of the comment. The fact that the other wizard wasdead told him how serious an encounter it must have been.

"He nearly did. I was in a coma for a month afterwards." Harry gave him amirthless smile. "This is an improvement!"

"Yeah? Well, at least you're up and about then. Shitting on his grave'd beeven better, of course, but .. ."

He surprised a laugh out of Harry, and just like that most of the tensionseemed to leave his body. He relaxed back against the sofa cushions andsome of the pain lines around his mouth and eyes smoothed out, making himlook more like his actual age.

"He doesn't have a grave," he remarked. "I sort of disintegrated him ... or soyou told me afterwards. I don't really remember much about it."

"Nice job," Ron said respectfully. "You'll have to teach me that one."

"Why, are you likely to need it?" Harry's expression turned vaguely anxious."Is he still around?"

"Who?" Ron asked.


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"Voldemort!"

Ron raised his brows, perplexed. "Who's he?"

~~~

A world without Voldemort. The thought actually made Harry feel a littledizzy and he slid down in his seat until his head was resting on the back ofthe couch.

No Voldemort? Christ. There had to be a mistake ...

"Are you okay?" Ron asked him warily.

"You don't know who Voldemort is," Harry said flatly.

"Name's not ringing any bells, mate. Should I know him?"

"We've only lived in fear of him for over twenty years. Him and his DeathEaters."

"Death Eaters? You mean those idiots who tried to take over the Ministryjust after I was born? They're all in Azkaban."

Harry looked at him. He looked so much like Ron - he even sounded like Ron,and that grin he'd worn a few moments ago tugged painfully at Harry's heart

- but Harry wasn't fooled anymore. No matter the similarities, this Ron wasnot hisRon at all. They were two very different creatures.

"In Azkaban?" he asked. "So there areDeath Eaters then?"

"Past tense. The Aurors nabbed them all, so Dad says, and the blokeleading them ended up dead somehow."

He sounded so matter-of-fact about it. Harry stared at him blankly for amoment, trying to process the idea that Voldemort had got himself killed in afight with the Aurors.

Then Ron said something that really shook him.

"I thought your dad told you all this stuff?"

His dad. His dad.

Harry heard the words coming out of his mouth without quite being surehow he managed to shape them: "My parents are dead. Voldemort killedthem when I was a baby."

There was a split second of shock on Ron's face before his expression wentblank again. "I've met your parents," he said.

This was almost worse. Harry stared at him for a long time before he couldthink of something to say, and when he finally did he wanted to kick himself


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"Go ahead, say it. He's a nicer, happier person than I am."

"You said it, not me." Ron folded his arms, a mildly defensive posture atodds with his expression of neutral interest.

Harry managed a little shrug. "You wouldn't be the first person to tell meI'm a prickly, miserable bastard with an attitude problem. I don't have aproblem with that either."

"Why would you?" Harry raised a brow at him and Ron shrugged, smilingcynically. "People say that about me too."

"Does it work for you?" Harry asked, momentarily interested.

"Well,yeah!"

Harry grinned at the cheerful scorn in his voice. "Yeah, me too."

"Bollocks to anyone who doesn't like it," Ron added.

"Does helike it?" Harry shot at him.

Ron grinned. "'Course he does! I mean, okay, sometimes he tells me to fuckoff as well, but then he snogs me so it must be all right. I reckon it's a turnon for him," he confided.

"Too much information, Weasley!" Harry said, torn between amusement anddismay.

Ron snorted. "Come off it! You mean you wouldn't snog yours if he had a go

at you?"

An image of Ron, his ears red with annoyance, laying down the law withrighteous wrath and stabbing a finger wildly in the air, floated into Harry'smind, and he couldn't suppress a tiny rueful grin.

"Thought so," Ron said smugly.

~~~

He needed to smile more, Ron decided. His moods were too dark even forRon's liking and while he could appreciate why that might be (the near fatalencounter with a dark wizard - how the hell had that happened? - andhearing that this Harry's parents had been murdered when he was a babyhad come as a nastier surprise than he liked to admit), he thought it didHarry a world of good just to relax and grin for a moment.

"So what's he like?" he asked, unable to resist asking any longer.

Harry's bright green eyes flew to his, startled. "What - my Ron?"

"No, your Malfoy," Ron said dryly.


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"He's a total arse," Harry said at once, and Ron rolled his eyes.

"Not reallyMalfoy, you prat! I could guess that he'san arse!" Then he sawHarry's sly grin and could have slapped himself for being an idiot.

"Gotcha!" Harry said, clearly amused.

Ron expressed his opinion of this in a few pithy and unrepeatable words,

which seemed to delight Harry even more.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth, Weasley?" he taunted, eyes dancing.

"Yeah, and twice on Sundays!" Ron retorted.

Harry laughed until he was limp and Ron watched him, smiling andwondering if he had somehow hit upon another similarity with hisdoppelganger. Apparently they could both make this Harry laugh, whichreassured him a little; at least he wasn't always as grim as he seemed.

"Go on," he said, when the paroxysm was over. "What's he like?"

"Gryffindor," Harry said after a moment, and he raised his brows at Ron'sresigned nod. "Not surprised?"

"Nah. My whole family have been Gryffindors."

"Some things don't change then. How did you end up in Slytherin?"

Ron shrugged, remembering the moment when the Sorting Hat had droppedover his eyes. He'd had to be determined; the Hat had been a little taken

aback by a Weasley who didn't want to be a Gryffindor although it hadn'texactly argued with him.

"I told the Sorting Hat I didn't want to be in the same house as the twins," hesaid. Harry got an odd sort of little half-smile when he said that. "What?"

"I did something similar."

"Yeah?"

Harry's smile became rueful again. "I said I didn't want to be in the samehouse as you!"

It was hard not to feel affronted by this. "What did I ever do to you?"

Harry waved him off, grinning. "We had a row on the train," he explained."Malfoy was involved ... it was stupid, but I was steaming mad by the timewe got to the Great Hall. And you didn't help, you stiff-necked arsey git!"

"Well if you're going to letMalfoyget involved in stuff ... !"

"I said it was stupid, didn't I? Took me ages to get around you after that.""You're lucky I let you," Ron pointed out, but he was intrigued. "How longdid it take?" Harry squirmed a little, making him grin slyly. "Come on,Potter, cough it up! How long?"


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"Nearly six years," Harry admitted, and it was Ron's turn to roar withlaughter. "I s'pose you should tell me what yours is like," he said when Ronhad recovered.

"Don't you want to know?" Ron asked, detecting the reluctance in the otherboy's voice.

"You've already told me he's had it good most of his life," Harry said with a

twisted smile. "I'm not sure I can take much more good news on that front."

"He's a Hufflepuff," Ron offered, and he laughed at Harry's incredulousexpression.

"Does that even make sense? Except in a really daft way ..."

"Nah, it makes sense, believe me. He's hard-working, honest, trusting "Harry made gagging sounds. "Loses his clothes at the drop of a wand ..."

"In your dreams!"

"Straight up." Ron grinned. "Best day's work I ever did was teaching him toplay Strip Chess."

"You could neverhave pulled that one on me," Harry told him.

"Would you even have tried playing chess with me?"

"I don't even try to play chess with myRon!"

"There you go then!" Ron smirked. "You should try it sometime. Live a

little."

Harry let out a tiny breath of laughter and let his head tip back against theback of the sofa again, closing his eyes. "Yeah - I should definitely live alittle."

Ron eyed him, concerned. His face had lost some colour again and the linesof exhaustion were back around his eyes and mouth. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm just permanently knackered these days." His voice was fadingout too. "It gets old, you know?"

"I'll bet." Ron bit his lip. "You should sleep it off. Nobody's going to botheryou in here I'll keep watch if you like."

Harry opened his eyes a crack and produced a weak facsimile of a grin. "Younick the Map from my bag and I'll hunt you down somehow," he murmured.

This didn't sound entirely like a joke to Ron, which he approved of. Hewouldn't trust himself not to pinch something that useful either. If it cameto that, he knew he wouldn't normally trust this Harry not to pull some trick

on him, but under the circumstances ...

"You're a Slytherin," he told him gruffly. "All the usual rules are suspended."

Harry managed a nod and his eyes slid shut again, and within moments Ron


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could tell that he'd fallen asleep. He watched him a little nervously for awhile, not because he suspected a trick but because Harry really didlookdrained and unwell, then got to his feet. His own Harry still hadn't turnedup, which perhaps was a good thing under the circumstances (two Harrys inthe same place - entirely too mind-bending for Ron to even contemplate), buthe thought perhaps it was time to investigate what lay behind the doorwayout of the Room.

For all that this encounter had been interesting, Ron sincerely hoped thathe would find his own Hogwarts there.

~~~

Whispering voices woke Harry up and dragged him back into the real world.

"He's in here "

"Oh thank goodness! When the portraits said they hadn't seen him allmorning, I was really worried."

"His book bag's here too. Why did he come all the way up here?"

"I wish I'd walked up to the castle with him now."

The sofa dipped a little as someone sat down beside him. "Harry mate, areyou okay?"

That was Ron's voice. Harry was half afraid to open his eyes, but when hedid it was to see Ron's familiar, worried face above an untidy Gryffindor tieand sweater. That had been another weird thing about the Slytherin Ron,he mused as he drifted on the edge of full consciousness. He'd been entirelytoo neat and tidy, albeit that he had obviously been wearing a hand-me-down robe.

"Harry?" Ron slid a hand into the nape of Harry's neck and squeezed verygently. "Come on, mate, wake up. Are you okay?"

"Hm ..." Harry said.

Four other concerned faces were hovering in front of him - HermioneGranger, Amy Snodgrass, Blaise Zabini and Tony Goldstein.

"It's lunchtime," Blaise told him. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"Do you feel poorly?" Amy asked anxiously. "I'll get Madam Pomfrey - "

"'M okay," Harry managed. He made a vague attempt to sit up, but was

foiled by a cloak that seemed to have been tucked around him very firmly.Hermione tugged it free for him and she and Ron helped him to sit up alittle.

"At least you picked a quiet place to rest," she remarked, folding up the


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cloak and draping it over the arm of the sofa. "Didn't walking up all thosestairs sort of defeat the purpose, though?"

"Didn't walk up the stairs," Harry said. "Was going to the dungeons .. . Comeand Go Room appeared and brought me here instead."

"Come and Go Room?" Tony asked, confused. He looked around. "Isn't thatanother name for this place?"

Harry shook his head, waking up a little more. If nothing else, theMarauder's Map had finally laid that detail to rest; the Room of Requirementand Come and Go Room were two separate entities.

"It's like a cupboard," he said. "Takes you places ... sort of random, though.It was pretending to be a side door."

"Great!" Ron said irritably. "Just as I thought this castle couldn't get moreweird, it does."

Harry reflected that it was just as well Ron didn't know howweird. Althoughhe was pretty sure he'd been dreaming the whole Slytherin Ron thing, and ifthat was the case maybe he needed to speak to Madam Pomfrey anyway. Hehadn't realised any of his potions could cause hallucinations and whatnot,and he didn't want it to happen again - intriguing though this episode hadbeen.

"I've seen it before," he told Ron instead. "It took me to Hagrid's once."

"Why?"

"No idea. It just takes you places. You can't control it."

"That doesn't sound very useful," Blaise observed, his tone very dry.

"Don't think it's meant to be," Harry admitted. "Like the staircases, really."

"Well, at least it brought you here," Amy said philosophically. "You couldhave ended up anywhere . .. like the Hufflepuff common room."

"Or the Astronomy Tower," Tony added, grinning.

"Or Snape's bedroom," Ron suggested, which provoked some horrified andamused sounds from the others.

Harry snorted. "I don't reckon he has one! I bet when he's finished for theday he goes and stands in a corner and switches himself off."

"Honestly!" Hermione said in a disapproving voice, but there was a smilelurking at the corners of her mouth. "Harry, Blaise is right - it's lunchtime.Do you feel well enough to come down to the Great Hall, or do you want oneof us to run down to the kitchens for you?"

"I'm all right. I'll come downstairs." With an effort, and some help from Ron,Harry got to his feet. Blaise passed him his walking stick and Tony matter-of-factly picked up his book bag. Harry felt an odd twinge when he sawthis. "Hang on a minute, Goldstein ..."


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He took the bag and rested it on the arm of the sofa while he opened it. TheMarauder's Map was still there, along with the rest of his possessions. Acorked but empty vial proved that he'd at least taken a StrengtheningDraught though.

"Something wrong?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head, feeling foolish. "I had a really weird dream and just

needed to check."

"Weird how?"

Harry saw Ron's raised brows and grinned a little. He shook his head."Maybe I'll tell you later!"

"That kind of weird, eh?" Tony murmured wickedly, as he firmly took Harry'sbag away from him.

"You're a right pervert on the quiet, aren't you?" Harry told him.

"Everyone needs a hobby."

"True."

"Don't forget your cloak," Amy said, picking it up and holding it out.

"Want me to carry that for you?" Ron asked, seeing Harry peering at it.

"No - no, it's okay." Harry took it from Amy, looking puzzled. "I must be

losing my marbles. I didn't think I bothered with my cloak this morning,because I've got warming and waterproofing charms on my robes ..."

His voice trailed off as he held it up. It was far too long for him and shabbierthan his own cloak besides. Feeling very odd indeed, Harry looked at thename tab inside the neck. It had obviously been replaced a couple of timesand the latest strip was embroidered neatly withR. Weasley. Perhaps it was

just one of Ron's, for they spent enough time together ... but when heturned it over to look at the badge, it had the familiar Slytherin device on theleft breast.

"Looks like you accidentally picked up one of Goyle's," Blaise commented.

"Yeah, looks like it," Harry muttered, quickly folding the name tab insidebefore one of them could see it.

A scrap of paper fluttered out of the hood and he caught it. It was a smallsheet of the Slytherin-headed notepaper that was available in pads on thewriting desks in their Common Room, and there was a short note on it inRon's familiar looped handwriting:

You were out for the count when I left, so I didn't wake you. Tell the Gryffindorme to keep a sharp eye on you. I reckon you don't eat enough, sleep enough orgiggle enough, so he needs to do better.


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And get him to teach you to play Strip Chess. You'll love it.

R.

"Are you all right?" Ron asked, concerned at the odd look on Harry's face."You sure you don't want me to get Dobby to bring your lunch up here? You

don't want to miss whatever exciting bit of grub your diet sheet says you canhave today."

Harry had to smile at this, for what his diet sheet (which was carefullyguarded and closely adhered to by the chief house-elf of Hogwarts) saidcould be summarised as steamed and easily digestible. Steamed fish andboiled rice got a bit tedious after a while, as did chicken soup.

"I'm coming," he said, and he folded the bit of paper up and pushed it intohis pocket.

"Ron .. ." he added, when the others were mostly out of the door, "have youever played Strip Chess?"

~ finis ~

End Notes

It was Esporamor who suggested that it would be good if SlytherinHarry and Slytherin Ron could meet. My initial thought was that itwould never work; there's a whole essay bubbling somewhere atthe back of my mind about the different natures and personalitiesof each of my characters, and to me it's a fact that these two arewithout a doubt the most messed-up and difficult of the bunch.How could they possibly get along? Then I started thinking about

it, which is fatal, and an idea sprang to mind. I leave it to you todecide if it works.

I know the Come and Go Room is just another name for the Room ofRequirement in the books; however, in this story it seemed like ahandy title to use for the other little room I made up when I waswriting Two Households III: Growing Pains. I've been thinkingabout it while I've been writing this story and I've decided that itwas a spin-off project by the Founders when they were buildingHogwarts, employing the same quirky brand of illogic behind therandomly moving staircases. It's clearly not mentioned in

Hogwarts: A History anymore than the Room of Requirement is(despite what Hermione says in the movie, for she doesn't knowabout it in the books), which suggests that there may be quite afew things in the castle that have evaded its biographers. I putboth on the Marauder's Map, though, because I would personally


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be astonished if Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongshadn't found them at some point.

Would Slytherin Harry and Slytherin Ron get along? Well ... not asthe people they are in their respective universes. There's a goodreason why I chose to set this at a time when Harry is physically

vulnerable; I don't believe either of them would be prepared totrust each other or even give each other the benefit of the doubt

otherwise. As it is, Harry's too frail to get into a pissing match andRon is (somewhat reluctantly) moved to be sympathetic.

Having said that, someone also suggested to me that it would beinteresting to write an AU where both of them are in Slytherintogether. I made a flippant remark to the effect that if Draco wasalso in Hufflepuff, I would have all the makings of a HogwartsDangerous Liaisons. Oh, the temptation ...

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Documents

The Come Amp Go Room