Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original story or characters from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. This is simply a fan tribute and all licensing and copyrights go to their respected owners.

The Broken Path

By: RecessionBlue

Chapter One

Summer vacation came and went and as always Severus Snape dreaded the start of another school year at Hogwarts. Inevitable as it may be, the beginning of the year always made him cringe at the thought of having to walk the halls as he did now with all the other unforgiving bags of pus that made up his peers. The one thought that gave him comfort was that this was the start of his final year and he would only have to brave the masses for a short while longer. As he smiled at this thought, he felt something wet and heavy hit his head and pulled out a rather large spitball from his greasy hair.

"Hey, don't eat it all at once, Snivellus!"

Looking over his shoulder, he saw James Potter high-five his obnoxious friend, Sirius Black. Before Severus could flip them off, Lucius clapped him on the back and guided him towards their potions class.

"Did you see that, Lucius? What assholes, the lot of them."

"Yes, but as our Prefect, I can't let you get in trouble for the likes of them. Plus, that blood traitor Sirius is as good as the howling bitches that my mother breeds."

Snickering at the thought of Sirius as a King Charles spaniel with tits, Severus pushed the door open to their Advanced Potions class.

"I'm just ready to be done with it, Lucius, all of it. I've been thinking what I want to do after Hogwarts, and I think what we talked about last year is still sounding like an excellent plan."

"Well, you know we can't talk about that here. Plus, it won't do us good unless we get an in. Exclusive bunch, you hear?"

As they took their seats, Severus opened up his Advanced Potions book and turned it to the middle. Lucius spied the writing inside as he flipped the pages and groaned.

"So I see you've been busy since last year?"

"Yeah, this is the only class besides Defense against the Dark Arts that I really enjoy. I took the time during the summer to improve quite a bit of this year's spells, but I didn't get nearly as far as I hoped.

Lucius rolled his eyes and opened his book to the middle as well.

"Yeah, okay Severus. One day you'll have a life."

"Life is overrated; liquid magic, however, is bottled fame. Or did you forget all the great antics my potion making gave us last year?"

"Yeah, causing James to grope Remus in Herbology is hardy fame. You need to get a girl."

Severus' eyes drifted to the far end of the room to spy Lily Evans, the girl he loved since childhood, sitting next to another girl giggling about something semi-laughable, and sighed. Her red hair bounced up and down as she shook her head at something the girl said and waved it away like it was hilariously offensive. He stared down at his desk as Lucius tapped his wand on the table, irritably, and rolled his eyes again.

"Look, that girl is never going to be with you and you better get it through your thick skull, my friend. Plus, after graduation if things go to plan, she'll definitely want nothing to do with you."

"I thought women like power, though?"

"That girl is not a woman, plus she's nothing but a disgusting little mudblood who is cavorting with that nasty cooze, James Potter."

Severus winced, and Lucius smiled.

"Oh cheer up, Sniveling Severus. Plus, I might know a little something that would possibly make your day."

"What, that your mother wants to jump my bones?"

Lucius punched him in the arm and drew in close to whisper in his ear.

"What if I told you I know how we're going to get into our special club?"

"Oh get off it. We have to know people, and let's face it, we don't."

"Not now, but you will by the end of the year."

"Bugger!"

"Shhh, you dope. Listen, you know how Narcissa knows someone with a connection?"

"Yes, Bellatrix, and?"

"Well, her friend told Bellatrix, who told Narcissa, that there's a girl who's coming overseas to Hogwarts this year who's supposed to be already in."

"You lie, why would a girl from overseas, much less a Hogwarts student, have an in?"

"Beats me, but if it's true, then I believe it's time you found yourself a girl. Not just any girl, however, but that girl."

"I don't know, Lucius, it sounds ridiculous…"

"Look, don't you screw this up. I would myself, but I have Narcissa to think about. The last thing I want is to bugger that up, you know? I'm going to propose to her at graduation, and I'm not going to put that in danger. So it's you, Severus."

Severus looked up at Lily again and this time she was showing a picture to the girl and blushing wildly. He didn't have to be psychic to understand she was showing the girl a snapshot of her and James, taken probably over the summer, and he began to feel nauseated. Averting his eyes from Lucius, he tapped his slim fingers on the wooden desk and began to look around the classroom.

"Say, where is the Professor anyway? He's at least ten minutes late."

"Probably getting smashed in the teacher's lounge, but don't try to change the subject, you in?"

"We'll see."

"Severus?"

"…"

Before Lucius could inquire further, Professor Slughorn scuttled into the classroom and trumpeted loudly that he was never late, but always right on time. Severus sighed and stared down at his book. He had never felt so lonely and misunderstood.

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Sophie Meade stared at her reflection in her full-length mirror and sighed. She tried to comb down her curly/kinky shoulder length black hair, but it kept bouncing back perkily and, becoming frustrated, she threw the pick on her queen-sized four-post bed. She could hear her mother's delicate footsteps as she made her way up the stairs of their luxurious Georgia plantation and the creaks of the old house made her smile. When her mother, Labella Lacroix-Meade, knocked on her heavy door, Sophie kicked back on her bed.

"Come in, mamma!"

As Labella entered the room, Sophie could see her mother's radiant smile creep upon her light-skinned face and the warmth radiated from one to another as she gave her daughter a tight hug.

"Oh, my petite bebe, you're goan to make your parent's so proud!"

"I know, mamma, but I'm scared."

"Why? What's on my bebe's mind?"

Labella sat next to her daughter on her bed and placed an arm around her. Sophie shrugged her shoulders and twiddled her fingers.

"I don't know I'm just nervous. What if the Dark Lord doesn't think I'm pretty? Or that I'm not worth his time? I'm going so far away from home and I just-"

"-now you just hold right on, Miss Sophie. You doan have a thing to worry 'bout. After all, you take your good looks from your mamma, not your papa, thank goodness."

Sophie giggled as Labella took an antique hand mirror from the night stand and placed it in front of her.

"I kid, but look at me, Sophie. Take a good look, now, child."

Sophie stared at her mother's dark brown eyes and saw her beautiful Louisiana-Creole face beaming with pride. The large, black kinky hair she inherited from her mother stood up high and out big, and her smooth light-colored African-American skin gleamed in the light. The bones in her face were very angular and her body was as curvaceous as the women in the magazines.

"You're beautiful, mamma."

"Thank you, bebe. Now look at yo'self and tell me what you see."

Looking in the mirror, Sophie could see the angular stretch of her face that she shared. Her skin was a light café au lait, and besides her father's bright glittering emerald eyes, she could see a ghost of her mother at seventeen. She clutched a feminine hand around her chest, round, full breasts poking out tauntingly of the dark brown dress she was wearing, and saw the model she saw in her mother. Labella took a daisy from her vase on the night stand and placed it lovingly behind Sophie's ear, the white petals poking out from her hair as to say hello, and smiled approvingly.

"See, my petite? You look a lot like yo'mother when she was a child. Now I don't mean to brag, but yo'mamma seems to think she was quite a catch back in the day."

Out of nowhere, her father's deep Georgia voice boomed outward as he, Richard Daughtry Meade, walked into the room.

"Why I have to disagree, my dear (coming out 'deah'), I still happen to think you're just as much of a catch today as you were then."

"Richard, you never stop makin' this Louisiana-girl smile! Our petite Sophie seems to have a case o'the jitters, now I been tryin' to tell her she has nothing to frown 'bout, but I happen to think she need her papa to tell her the facts."

"Daddy, it's just I'm nervous. I've been going to Langston Academy for Magic since I was in grade school. You and mamma are from old magic, I know, and I know my pureblood history, but…"

"But?"

"But…I'm just so afraid to leave."

Richard looked at Labella and they both sighed at the same time. Labella kissed Sophie on the cheek as she turned to leave downstairs, her flowing blue dress fluttering behind her. Richard ran a large hand through his wavy blonde hair and sat on the bed next to Sophie.

"Darlin', you can't have second thoughts about this. You're a very important person to the Guild, and we already went through how you're an ambassador of sorts."

"Yes, daddy, but-"

"-but dear, it's too late to back out. You were sure five months ago when you got the invitation. This isn't like a school function or a date with a friend, you committed to it and now, well darlin', you're gonna be stuck with it. You're an adult in the wizarding community now, and we talked about this for a long time before you decided it's what you wanted to do. My mother had a sayin', 'You reap what you sow', and this is what you planted honey. It's time to collect."

Sophie stared down at her knee-high moccasins and twirled a piece of the fray in her fingers.

"Yes, daddy, I know. And I'm ready, I am. It's just so far away."

Richard laughed and gave his daughter a bear-hug.

"Honey, we're closer than you think! We'll send you a letter by hawk every week."

"It's owls over in Europe, daddy."

"Well, those Brits and Scots may do the owl thing, but here in Georgia we have style."

Sophie giggled as he playfully punched her arm. She gave him a hug and smelled the strong scent of his aftershave and the undertone of cinnamon and closed her eyes.

"I love you, daddy."

"I love you too, my honey-bee. You'll be perfect; I'm sure one hundred percent."

Before she could retort, she heard her mother call up from the kitchen below.

"Doan forget to grab Sticks an' put him in his cart, bebe! Now hurry up, the plane's goan be leavin' here soon now!"

Sophie whistled loudly and, suddenly, her slick tabby cat Sticks meowed from downstairs.

"You better go get Sticks before he gets in ya mamma's purse again. She 'bout had a fit when she toted him all the way down to the Daughters of American Southern Purebloods meeting that day."

As he got up to leave, Sophie turned back to the mirror and looked at her radiant green eyes. Her father's best gift to her physical prowess, the eyes of so many of her pureblood ancestors, stared back at her with a glint of excitement and fear all wrapped up into one. Richard cleared his throat as she looked up and saw him standing in the door.

"Are you ready, honey-bee?"

"Yes, daddy, I think I am."

********************************************

* Just a note on the accents of the Meade's, I don't mean to personify a certain stereotype or any of that nonsense, but I tried my best to write how they talk. An accent is very hard to write for me, and being a Southern lady myself, I would probably butcher my own if I were to place it on paper. So, please don't be offended if you're from Louisiana or Georgia and I got it wrong, because I'm trying to get it right. But on another note, if you haven't noticed already, the story is set during the seventh year at Hogwarts for Snape and the crew. Could anyone give an accurate date on which this happened? If not, I'm going to assume it was the late seventies, since Harry was one in 1981 when his parents died. So, class of 1977 is what I'm going with. Also, it's rated M for later happenings. This is an actual story; however, it will get a little hot under the collar around the end. So if you need a quick fix, this is not the story for you, sorry guys.

Any comments? Let me know, and hope you enjoy it!