I have in the past, been hesistant about writing Harry Potter fanfiction for the fact that in the end most of them can go unnoticed, and the whole Mythology can get twisted. Then I realised I could be writing Lord Of The Rings fanfiction and Harry Potter seemed tame by comparison. I'd rather have Rowling hate me than Tolkien.
So, Voldemort won. Dumbledore's fate is unknown and the Potter's had a daughter, not a son. Some names may sound familiar, that is all intentional.
On the rarely seen steps of the Ministry of Magic, a crowd gathered, undeterred by the lashing rain and thunder that had been rolling across the sky for three days. They watched as the round, rat like man slipped through the great doors and stood as though above them at the top of the steps, face twitching, fingers shaking as he unrolled the scroll he carried and cleared his throat.
"By Decree of the Minster of Magic, Britain, a state of Emergency is hereby in effect. A curfew is in place, any witch or wizard out after dark will be taken directly to Azkaban Prison on charges of Conspiracy and Treason." In the crowd, even the people who had been straining to hear the voice of the rat man paled in fear, clutching to the hands of the people around them, family or strangers. The man continued. "By order of the Minister for Magic, any Muggleborn witch or wizard is to surrender themselves to authorities for cleansing. By order of the Minister for Magic, any children of Muggle-Magic parentage must be surrendered to the Ministry for suitable placement. By order of the Minister for Magic, any persons associated with the Order Of The Phoenix or other similar vigilantly groups will be executed without trial on the charges of endangering Wizarding kind. These orders come from the Minister Of Magic for Britain, our Lord Voldemort. Long live our Lord."
"Is that it then Wormtail?" A heavily pregnant dark haired witch called from the crowd. A tall man attempted to pull her away, but determination in her eyes, and wand in her hand, she surged through the people until she stood before the rat man.
"Alice - don't." Her husband insisted.
"Traitor! Dumbledore trusted you!" Her voice broke with her screams as Wormtail began to back towards the doors. "You may lay at his feet, but you'll never be by his side!"
"Alice! Enough." Her husband managed to wrap his arms around her and dissaparate away, silence falling over the crowd, broken only by the thunder above them. The doors opened then and from within the Ministry, a group of black robed figures emerged, faces hidden under the ghastly masks they wore. The crowd scattered, disapparating as the Death Eaters began to draw their wands.
"Kill the Mudbloods." The Forefront Death Eater instructed. As jets of green light began to shoot through the crowd, above them in the crowds hovered a ghostly green skull, with a snake crawling from its mouth.
"Come on my darling." The red headed woman encouraged to the baby who stood on unsteady feet. "Come on Rosie, come to mummy."
"Don't listen to her Rose. Come to Daddy!" A dark haired man sat in the opposite direction, arms outstretched towards the dark haired child, who looked back and forth between the two of them before firmly planting herself on the ground, amusing herself with grabbing tuffs of grass to wrestle from the earth. The red haired woman sagged in disappointment for a moment before swooping the child from the ground, the two of them laughing as mother whirled daughter through the air.
"Let Daddy have a go Lily." The man encouraged, snatching his daughter lightly and racing to the other side of the small garden where he set her among the roses, blooming red. Roping his arm around his wife, he pulled her in for a kiss as their daughter happily played with the flowers that were her namesake. The rumble of thunder pulled them apart.
"Inside now I think." James declared, reaching down to pass Rose to her mother before gathering the remnants of their picnic lunch.
"Has there been any word James?" Lily asked as she set the baby down inside, taking the picnic basket from him and into the kitchen.
"Nothing." He said quietly, a silent conversation passed between their gazes as they thought about the implications of this development.
"Surely the others-" Lily was cut off by the sharp crack of apparation from their living room, and they both rushed to find a dishevelled Severus Snape gathering their daughter in his arms.
"What the Hell?" James roared as Snape thrust the crying baby into Lily's arms.
"Take her and leave." He ordered. "We don't have much time."
"What are you doing here?" Lily cried as Snape lifted a bag from his back and shoved it into James's arms.
"Your location has been compromised." He explained. "The Dark Lord comes for her." His pointed at the baby in Lily's arms.
"Rose is a child, she is no threat." Lily insisted, even as she shifted her daughter onto
her hip to free her hand, digging in a flower pot on the mantle for Floo Powder.
"There's not point." Snape told her. "He cut off the Floo connection. Run if you must, just go!"
There were sounds of cracking, Lily gasped in fear at the number of wizards that could be heard appearing on her front lawn, James fumbled for a moment with the bag in his arms, trying to usher his wife towards the back of the house.
"We have to hide." He insisted.
"Disapparate, now!" Snape insisted. "I'll hold them off."
Lily looked back and forth between her daughter, and her estranged friend, and when she looked back into her daughter's eyes, so much like her husbands, she put back the wail that threatened to rip from her chest and handed Rose over to Snape, who looked at the infant with a horrified expression.
"Take her." They heard the door smash open and heard the first steps of the Death Eaters spilling into the house. "Go! You are still needed. You can keep her alive!"
"No." Snape shook his head, put James just picked up a toy rabbit from the ground and tucked it in Snape's arms, with his daughter, giving her a broken hearted look.
"Keep her safe." Red lights began to flash as Snape held the baby tightly and disapparated away.
As the roses of their little garden, their piece of paradise, burned to ashes, Lily and James held hands tightly, their thoughts on the daughter they would never see grow up, and even as they lifted their wands, James turned to his wife one more time.
"I love you."
Ten Years Later
"Uncle Sev." A bony finger poked him in his side. Snape groaned and rolled over, pulling the blankets higher. "Uncle Sev!"
He turned again and cracked an eyelid to see the small dark haired girl in front of him, clad in her long nightshirt, a badly worn rabbit missing an eye and ear, safely clasped in her hands.
"You are too old for this." He told her, turning over again.
"I had a nightmare." She complained.
"Think happy thoughts." Snape suggested coldly.
Without invitation, she scrambled into the bed, wiggling until she was tucked against his side, and relenting, Snape turned once more to wrap and arm around her.
"Goodnight Uncle Sev." She whispered. Snape, who now uncomfortable with the small child pulling the covers away, her cold feet tucked against his legs and her dark hair tickling his nose when he breathed, simply dragged the covers higher and made sure her rabbit was secure.
"Go to sleep Lylah." He ordered.
She woke, as she did most mornings, before the sun. Snape was up even earlier, hand wrapped around a mug of tea, hastily scanning through the Daily Prophet as though the newspaper would reveal more than the drivel of the previous days, and weeks, and years. When the small thundering of Lylah's footsteps caused the roof above his head to complain, he knew to pour her milk into her cereal bowl and pour water into her awaiting tea cup, he even held out her dressing gown so that when she came flying around the corner, hair streaming out behind her, she could slip straight into it, onto her seat with breakfast waiting.
"Anything different?" She asked, trying to lean over the table to read the paper upside down. In response, Snape snapped the paper up, allowing her to see nothing more than the headline of the front cover and the sports section on the back page.
"What's the proclamation?" Lylah questioned, frowning as she looked at the picture of the man on the front. "What silly rule has he come up with this time?"
"The Dark Lord will continue to issue these 'silly rules' until he is satisfied his control is supreme." Snape muttered.
"Why do you have so many meetings with him if you think his rules are silly?" Lylah asked with a child's curiosity and the beginnings of a teenagers smart mouth.
"Because one must not anger his country's dictator." Snape snapped at her. "Eat your breakfast and stop asking silly questions."
In grumpy silence, Lylah spooned in mouthfuls of cereal, still reading the small print on the front page.
"It's my Birthday next week." She suddenly announced, causing Snape to sigh and drop his paper to the table again so he could regard the child from across the table.
"I am aware of this fact. What of it?" He asked.
"I know what I want for my birthday." She declared. "I want a pet snake."
Snape spluttered into his tea. "Absolutely not. You will receive a gift befitting a young lady of your age, such as a dress or a new doll."
"I'm turning eleven, Uncle Sev." Lylah told him, face serious. "Dolls are for six year olds, and I have too many dresses."
"Then you will receive supplies for you when you start Hogwarts." Snape told her.
She looked crestfallen.
"It says in my school letter that I can bring a familiar." She insisted, conjuring the letter from nowhere are showing him a much read passage.
"A cat or a rat or a toad." Snape read. "And being a teacher there, I can assure you that a snake is not an acceptable pet for a first year. You can pick out a present when we visit Diagon Alley next month to buy school supplies."
"My birthday is next week." She pointed out again. "Maybe just an owl then?" She relented.
"If you continue with your whining, the only thing you will be receiving is a caning. Eat your breakfast and I won't hear another word of it." Snape barked, opening the newspaper between them again.
Frowning, Lylah turned back to her now soggy cereal, still eyeing the man on the front of the Prophet.
A week later, on the last day of July, Lylah bounded down the stairs in her usual manner to find her Uncle waiting as always, with her cereal, tea and robe. In the centre of the table, a large cage sat, where perched inside a snowy white owl peered through the bars with luminous eyes,
Lylah ignored the proffered robe, instead choosing to launch herself at her uncle in excitement, pressing kisses on his cheeks.
"She is for communication between home and school." Snape instructed as they walked along Diagon Alley later that day, both wearing black robes, Lylah's school list clutched between gloved hands. "Not for silly frivolities between other girls."
"Can I get a subscription to the Prophet?" Lylah asked as the entered Gringotts.
"Yes, although they will send their owls to you." Snape informed her, approaching a Goblin who was set high up. "Wait here." Snape instructed Lylah, who rolled her eyes and slumped against a wall while Snape handed the Goblin a key and disappeared into the volts, a place she'd never been allowed to see.
"I believe it's happy birthday, young Miss." A smooth voice interrupted her latest scan of her supply list, and Lylah bit back a frightened yelp as she looked into the gleaming red eyes of the man standing before her.
Looking no more than thirty, neatly shaven and dressed, it was not just the red eyes that frightened people, but the way that the Dark Lord held himself high, power rolling off him in waves. Even the other man who stood a few steps back, clutching a binder of parchment looked scared to be in his company.
"Have we met before, My Lord?" She finally asked timidly, avoiding eye contact, unsure of how to act in the man's presence.
He chuckled lightly. "A few times, you were a child then."
Lylah was about to retort that she was a child still, when the sliding sensation of something cold on her ankles made her look down to see a massive snake coiled about her feet, banishing in an instant her yearning for her own snake.
In a billow of robes, her Uncle appeared, smoothing out his appearance as he faced the Dark Lord, casually shifting Lylah so that she was almost behind him, but not gone from his sight completely. Nagini hissed at his, put moved away to coil around Voldemort's feet.
"My Lord." Snape greeted respectfully, hand firmly on Lylah's shoulder.
"Severus." Voldemort returned. "I was just talking to your niece here, her birthday today. An exciting day for any young lady. How old are you now?" He asked, leaning in close to her.
"Eleven." She voice in little more than a whisper.
"Well then." From his robes, he withdrew a small purple pouch that clinked with its movements, pressing it into her hand. "To help with your school supplies."
Lylah was quiet for a moment until Snape gave her a small shove.
"Thankyou." She said quietly, unable to look him in the eye.
"Your welcome." He gave the end of her long dark braid a slight tug that made her instantly resolve to cut her hair short first chance she got. "Severus, a meeting tonight." Voldemort informed his follower, who nodded and began to steer Lylah away, stopping at the last minute to bow to the man and nudging Lylah to do the same. Her movements were jerky and awkward and as soon as they were away from the bank, the two of them moved quickly down the street, speaking little as they gathered her necessary books and equipment, neither touching the money Voldemort had gift Lylah with.
Finally, when she was on a pedestal at Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions, did Snape finally speak.
"I will be away tonight." He informed her as robes were magically hemmed to suit her height, still far away from a growth spurt, she was small for her age.
"Will you be there for dinner?" Lylah asked quietly.
"Probably not." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Will you behave for the house elf?"
"I've always been good to Tippy." Lylah insisted, flinching as the seamstress managed to stab her with a needle.
"You go away to school soon. We will not always be able to spend time together." Snape breached the subject carefully.
"You're a teacher there, aren't you" She asked. "I know you won't play favourites in class, but we can still talk."
"You will be sleeping in the dormitories." Snape reminded her.
"I know." Lylah sighed.
The bell above the shop door rang, and Lylah watched as a familiar man with long blonde hair escorted a younger version of himself through the door.
"Severus." The older man greeted her uncle with a sneer, and Lylah found her hand itching to grab the wand she had not yet bought and fling a curse that she had not yet learned towards the older man. "Miss Snape." He turned to acknowledge her presence.
"Mr. Malfoy." She barely attempted to contain her look of contempt.
"Lucius." Snape returned the sneer, but turning to the boy with an almost fond look on his face, quickly replaced with his typical hard expression. "Draco, ten already?"
"Uncle Severus." He inclined his head, and Lylah almost shouted out against the pale, pinched face boy using such familiar terms with her uncle.
"Eleven, actually." He corrected.
"Draco will start school next month." Lucius informed Snape as Draco was guided onto a pedestal beside Lylah.
"You must be Uncle Sev's charge." Draco drawled, instantly planting the seeds of dislike in Lylah's mind.
"I am his niece." She defended hotly. "He is my actual Uncle."
"Where are your parents then?" Draco asked, looking amused as robes were wrapped around him, the seamstress setting to work on the sizing.
"Dead." She snapped, allowing the seamstress to pass her another set of robes to alter.
"Too bad. My mother's up the street looking at wands." He informed her smartly.
"Is your mother going to hold you hand when they sort you as well?" Lylah retorted.
"I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been." He declared. "Imagine being a Hufflepuff, I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
Lylah was eternally grateful that at that moment, the seamstress allowed her to step down, least she use a few of her Uncle's favourite words on the idiotic boy. When her new school robes were finally bundled into a parcel and handed to her, she turned to find her uncle and Lucius still huddled in a private, tense conversation.
Her uncle simply handed her his money pouch, trusting her to pay the expenses so that he could finish his conversation, and by the time Lylah had correctly counted the money and received her change, she turned again to find the two men had separated, both wearing identical scowls.
"Come along then." Snape held open the door for her, neither of them sparing a second glance for the Malfoy's. "Have you thought of a name for your owl?"
"Hedwig." She told him, having settled on a name from one of the books from the extensive Snape library.
Her uncle nodded his approval and led her to Ollivander's Wand Shop, which although supposedly being the finest wand shop in Europe, did not boast an impressive interior. Instead, the sparse furniture and shelves lined and stacked with long thin boxes, were all covered in a fine layer of dust. Lylah found herself running a finger through the dust and frowning at the dirt she wiped away.
Ollivander, she found to be quite odd, muttering to himself as he scanned the rows of boxes, and when he finally noticed them standing there, he said nothing, simply withdrawing an unusually dust free box from directly under the counter.
"I have just the wand for you my dear." He removed the thing piece of wood gently, as though it was a fragile child, and almost reverently, he presented it to Lylah.
"You don't even know who I am." Lylah told him condescendingly.
"I know those eyes anywhere, just like your mother." Ollivander told her, thrusting the wand into her hands.
Lylah closed her eyes as she felt the magic of the wands, not quite like the other wands she'd held in her life, this was different. Thrumming with power in sync to her racing heart, she didn't even bother to wave it around and produce the customary shower of sparks before she pocketed it and nodded her head in agreement.
"We won't be requiring the box." She told him smartly, turning to gesture for her Uncle to pay.
"Yes we will." Snape held out the box for Lylah to put the wand into, before handing over a tidy sum of gold to Ollivander.
"Don't you want to know what kind of wand it is?" Ollivander asked Lylah, who nodded furiously, clutching onto the box tightly. "Eleven inches, holly, phoenix feather core."
"Let's go." Snape suddenly said, putting a hand on Lylah's shoulder and leading her from the shop, the girl completely missing the dark look Snape shot in Ollivander's direction.
A month later, Lylah and a trunk full of well read books were standing on Platform 9 3/4, watching as other families embraced furiously, parents and children sobbed in each others arms while reunited classmates rapidly exchanged stories of their summer adventures.
Inside her cage, Hedwig sat, wings hunched as people jostled around, racing each other to get the best seats on the train, discussing what treats they were going to buy with their summer earnings, and what clothes they had purchased. Two boys on the platform had opened their trunks, belongings spilling around them as they compared brooms with each other.
"Well then." Snape stood awkwardly beside her, hand on her shoulder as she prepared to board the train.
"Are you disapparating to the school?" Lylah asked, taking from him her satchel and settling it on her shoulders.
"To Hogsmeade." He corrected. After another moments silence, he suddenly dug through his pockets and haded her a few sickles. "For the food cart." He explained, and she nodded her thanks.
"I'd better go then." She said, gathering Hedwig's cage.
"Shall I help with your luggage?" Snape asked, giving a nasty glare to three red head boys who ran past, almost knocking Lylah over.
"It's fine." She said, although allowing her uncle to put a feather light spell so that she could easily carry all her belongings onto the train.
"I will see you at the school." He said by way of farewell, and for a moment, Lylah dropped her belongings and hugged him around the waist, before racing onto the Hogwarts Express.
Somehow, she managed to find an empty compartment, neat and clean from magical assistance, and once she had stored her luggage, she stared out the window at the families who were still clutching each other, feeling for the first time in a long time, a stab of sadness.
Pushing those feelings aside, she retrieved from her satchel, a copy of 'Hogwarts: A History', a birthday gift from one of her Uncle's co-workers, opening it to a dog eared page.
"Excuse me." A voice pulled her from the book, and Lylah realised that while she'd been reading, the train had started moving through the countryside, the door to her compartment had been opened and a sheepish looking red head boy was standing in the doorway.
"Hello." She carefully set her book down in her lap and looked over the boy.
"Do you mind?" He gestured to the empty seats. "The other compartments are all full."
"No problem at all." Lylah indicated towards the empty seat and the boy gave her a grateful, relived look as he dragged his trunk inside and slumped down in the seat across from her.
"First year as well?" He asked, inspecting her luggage in the overhead, all new and undamaged, perfect next to his own battered trunk.
"Easy to tell?" She asked. "My Uncle's a teacher, so I've been in the castle before."
"Wicked." The boy explained. "I'm Ronald Weasley, Ron."
"Lylah Snape." She shook his proffered hand.
"Snape?" He asked, looking a little frightened.
"I assume you know my uncle?" Lylah asked. "It's okay, I'm nothing like him."
"Oh, okay then." Ron settled back, still looking a little uncertain.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Lylah asked, remembering the wild red heads at the train station.
"Five brothers." Ron admitted. "All older. And a younger sister."
"All at Hogwarts?" Lylah asked, fascinated.
"Well no, Bill and Charlie, they're the older ones, they graduated." Ron explained.
"And the others?" Lylah questioned.
"Fred and George." Ron said. "They're twins, and Percy, but he's a right prat."
Lylah giggled as Ron began to entertain her with stories of the twins pranks, but they were interrupted by a plump woman with a kind face pushing a trolley loaded with food.
"Anything from the Lunch Trolley dears?" She asked, Ron's face lit up as he looked at all the sweets loaded there, but his expression dropped as he pulled a lumpy sandwich from his pocket and gave it a little wave.
"I'm right, thanks." He said.
Lylah felt around for the money her uncle had given her.
"Perhaps you could help me try some?" Lylah asked, watching as his face brightened up again. With Ron's help, Lylah perused though the food there, selecting as many different treats as they could, and by the time the trolley was pushed away, they were surrounded by a multitude of treats her uncle had never let her eat regularly.
"Have you tried these before?" Ron asked, throwing in her direction a packet of assorted jellybeans.
"Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans." Lylah read aloud. "How many flavours can there be?"
"You want to be careful with those." Ron warned. "When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour. You get your normal ones like chocolate, peppermint and marmalade, but then you get those like spinach, and liver, and tripe."
Lylah delicately wrinkled her nose and set the beans aside, picking up a chocolate frog instead.
"I've had these before." She exclaimed, opening the box and with the ease of practice, catching the live chocolate and biting its head off. She offered the still wriggling second half to Ron who shoved it in his mouth along with all the other food he'd yet to chose and swallow, while Lylah delicately took the collectors card from inside the box.
"Who'd you get?" Ron asked.
"Black." Lylah said, putting the card back in the box and setting it on the seat.
"Like the Headmaster?"
"Yes, do you collect them?" She inquired casually.
"I used to, but then all the old ones started getting replaced with Death Eaters." Ron shrugged.
"They asked my uncle if he wanted his own card." Lylah told him. "He threatened to hex them."
"I heard they want to release a card of You-Know-Who." Ron mentioned, actually swallowing his mouthful of food. "But they can't put his face, or name, or any details."
"A blank card is no fun." Lylah said, grabbing a liquorish wand and giving half to Ron.
"Has anyone seen a toad." The compartment door slid open again and there stood a pale faced girl, already in her school robes, with dark haired weaved neatly at the back of her head. "A girl named Lucy has lost one."
"No toads in here." Lylah told her, the girl's eyes going past her face and onto Lylah's abandoned copy of 'Hogwarts: A History'.
"Fascinating book, isn't it?" She asked, sitting down next to Lylah and picking up her copy. "I'm Hermione Prewitt." She introduced, turning slightly, giving Lylah full view of the yellow armband she wore on her upper right arm.
"You're Muggleborn?" Ron gaped, food still half chewed in his mouth. Insulted, the girl stood up, snapping her robes straight again.
"I was adopted by a respectable pureblood family." She informed him sourly. "And they at least, can afford to buy me new school supplies." She eyed Ron's battered trunk.
"Lylah Snape." Lylah stood and offered the other girl her hand, Hermione stared at her for a second before shaking her hand, eyeing the lack of an armband.
"Snape doesn't sound like a pureblood name." She replied.
"Even if it was." Lylah bit back, no longer liking the girl in front of her. "My uncle is a teacher, and," she leaned closer and said quietly, "he was part of the Dark Lord's Inner Circle."
Wisely, Hermione backed away.
"I'll probably be seeing you both in class then." She nodded before leaving the compartment quickly.
Ron didn't look her in the eye as she sat back down, but conversation was quickly struck up again as they began to try the Bertie Bott's Beans, laughing until it began to grow dark.
"Robes on." An older student stopped briefly to issue the instruction before moving on, and ever the gentleman, Ron disappeared to find a bathroom to change in while Lylah slipped her robes on in the compartment.
When Ron returned, Lylah was able to see the red armband on his upper right arm.
Ron blushed as she looked and tried to cover it with shaking fingers.
"It means blood traitor." He told her, head down, ashamed.
"There's nothing wrong with fighting for what you believe in." Lylah told him pensively. "The armbands thing is just stupid."
Ron grinned at her, then his smile faded just a bit. "So, you think you'll be in Slytherin then?"
Lylah sighed and shrugged a little. "My uncle keeps telling me I'm destined for Ravenclaw, and he'll disown me if I become a Hufflepuff."
"All my family's been in Gryffindor." Ron revealed.
"Maybe we'll have classes together." Lylah mused as the train began to roll to a stop and the prefects began to usher the students from the train. "It was nice meeting you Ronald Weasley."
"First Years!" The voice that called them was high and sharp. It issued from the mouth of a pale, stern faced witch with black tangled hair and a half crazed expression on her face. The tattered dress she wore in lieu of robes seemed to suit the escaped lunatic image she was trying to achieve. She would have beautiful if not for her shadowed, heavily lidded eyes, the skin of her face stretched taunt across her skull.
"Lestrange. We're doomed." One of the other children muttered, being hushed by their peers as they grouped together to approach the dark witch.
"Well?" She snapped. "Follow me." Turning sharply on her heel, she began to lead them towards the lake, and it crossed the mind of more than one child that this formidable woman would be more than happy to drown them in the murky depths.
As they walked, closely together, Lylah found herself being jostled towards the front of the group, where most were hesitant to walk close to Lestrange.
"Hello Aunty." Draco Malfoy, it seemed, did not fear his aunt like the other students, but the way he shrunk back as she turned to regard him, betray his nervousness around the woman.
"Draco." She nodded, her eyes growing wider with delight when she saw Lylah hunching her shoulders and trying to see where she was walking on the dark path. "Little Snape." Her voice grew to a sing song and she allowed the other children to pass her, filing towards a small fleet of tiny boats moored to a pier, so that she could grab Lylah by the arm and haul her from the crowd.
"Mrs. Lestrange." Lylah muttered by way of greeting, remembering the dark acts for which this woman was well known.
"Call me Bellatrix." She said, malice trickling into her soft voice. "Or Professor, I teach the Dark Arts." She declared proudly. Lylah silently agreed that she was perfect for the job, but wisely chose to remain silent. Bellatrix gave Lylah a not so gentle shove towards the pier and sharing a boat with her, when the last student was sitting the boats began to drift towards the magnificent castle, merely lights against the night sky, reflecting off the water.
When they reached the other side of the lake, they were led through a narrow tunnel, Bellatrix having no qualms about shoving aside a yellow armband wearing student in order to reach the front, and when they reached what appeared to be a dead end, she turned to face them.
"Had my way, half of you would not be here." She declared, glaring at the muggleborn students. "That's a warning, watch your step." She drew her wand and in turn pointed it at each of the yellow and red armband wearing pupils before an invisible door opened and another, older, witch emerged.
"I will take things from here." She announced, her stern eyes looking them over, the faintest trace of a Scottish accent audible in the way she spoke. She held her head high, dressed in fine emerald green robes with a crooked pointed hat perched on her tightly bound grey streaked hair. Bellatrix stared at the older witch for a moment in contempt before she disappeared down a passageway, the students heard the echo of a cackling laugh and suppressed shudders.
"I am Professor McGonagall." The witch introduced, apparently undisturbed by Lestrange's behaviour.. "I am the Transfiguration teacher here at Hogwarts. In a moment, each of you will be sorted into one of four houses. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, or my own house, Gryffindor. You will eat, sleep and attend classes with your housemates. Your positive actions will earn points for your house, while misbehaviour will result in point loss. Follow me."
They followed her through another tunnel, and through several doors until they were forced to file in a straight line through a smaller door leading into the Great Hall, Lylah recognising it from her own previous adventures in Hogwarts as a younger child.
Looking up a ceiling, she could see the night sky, as though the roof was simply gone, and she heard the informative voice of Hermione Prewitt say tartly.
"It's enchanted to look like the night sky, I read it in 'Hogwarts: A History'."
Lylah having seen the ceiling before, chose instead to look up at the teacher's table, elevated on a dais so that the figures there could lord over the students. Recognising her uncle, Lylah gave a small wave, which he returned with a solemn nod in her direction. Letting her eyes drift, she recognised several other teachers she had been previously introduced to, and several she had never seen before, and at the centre of the table, supreme to even Headmaster Black, Voldemort watched the children enter through wicked red eyes.
McGonagall wasted no time in setting a large, battered hat upon a stool in front of the school, ushering the first years closer, she unrolled a scroll and proceeded to start reading names in a sharp voice that echoed around the silent hall.
"I read that the hat used to sing songs each year." The voice of Hermione Prewitt hissed in Lylah's ear.
"That was stopped when it kept issuing the Dark Lord threats." Lylah murmured, watching as a delighting Hannah Abbott was sorted into Hufflepuff. When Susan Bones went to sit on the stool, her shaking hands smoothed a red armband, an expression of anger on her face as she sat beneath the hat, which contemplated the girl's fate for a moment before sending her to Hufflepuff as well.
As each student was sorted, the receiving house gave a polite round of applause, the sounds dying down instantly as each new student sat, and when her name was called, Hermione Prewitt straightened her shoulders and moved quickly, sitting under the hat for a few moments, before the hat sorted her into Gryffindor, with a smug expression, the girl moved to her table at sat, watching her classmates.
"Snape, Lylah." Lylah gave a start as her name was called, and sat down on the stool, blushing under the realisation that everyone in the hall was staring at her as the hat began to whisper in her ear.
"Well, well, what have we here?" The hat asked, and Lylah began to feel uncomfortable in the idea that a hat of all things was rummaging around in her brain and examining her characteristics. "Certainly not Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw, you are smart, Slytherin would take you far. No. GRYFFINDOR."
McGonagall removed the hat from her head and allowed her to move to the Gryffindor table where she sat next to Hermione Prewitt who gave her a quiet congratulations as the next student sat down. Looking around the Gryffindor table, Lylah was shocked to find that she was one of the only students in her house who didn't wear an armband marking her as a muggleborn, half-blood or blood traitor.
Glancing up at the Head table, Lylah saw her uncle giving her a contemplative look, eyebrows arched as he regarded the banner she sat underneath, and moving along Lylah felt an uncomfortable shiver go down her spine when she realised that Voldemort was looking at her in the same contemplative manner.
"Weasley, Ronald." McGonagall called, and when the red head sat down, the hat had barely touched his head when it called out Gryffindor. Lylah cheered along with her classmates as Ron slid along the bench next to her, looking relived as he received hearty claps on the back from his brothers.
Finally, after sending Zabini, Blaise to Slytherin, McGonagall rolled up her list and removed the hat, returning moments later to take her seat on the end of the Head table.
There was quiet again as Headmaster Black stood, looking around at the students sitting there expectantly.
"Welcome Back." He greeted, although he didn't sound at all like he meant it. "To our First Years, some rules. Going into the Forbidden Forest is forbidden without teacher instructions. Curfew must be obeyed. No curses in the halls unless instructed by a teacher, armbands to be worn by students who are required to wear them. That is all."
He sat back down and almost instantly, the tables were groaning under the weight of a feast, every type of food in front of the students.
The silence that until then had been tense was broken by the gentle murmuring of students that turned into loud chatter that filled the Great Hall as students began to become at ease with the eyes of the Dark Lord upon them.
"He doesn't seem very happy to be Headmaster." Ron mutter to Lylah as they began to load up their plates, jerking his head in the direction of the Head table.
"Well if he stuffs up, he doesn't just get fired, he'll get killed." Someone added.
"I heard he threw a hissy fit because You-Know-Who has a bigger office." One of the older students threw in as they reached across to grab a bread roll.
"That's silly." Someone rebuked. "Why would he need an office here anyway."
"To make sure we're all suitably scared of him." Everyone laughed quietly before settling down and casting worried glances towards Voldemort.
"I think he's succeeded in scaring people." Lylah whispered to Ron as he handed her a platter, grinning at her comment.
"Who decided that Regulus Black would make a good Headmaster anyway?" Ron asked. "His brother's a blood traitor."
"Black has a brother?" A fellow first year asked curiously. "Blood traitor brother?"
"He was in the Order." Ron informed them, feeling momentarily superior.
"With our mum and dad." Ron's red head twin brothers informed them in unison.
"What happened to him?" Lylah asked in between mouthfuls of potatoes.
"Dunno." Ron shrugged. "Died or something."
Lylah settled back in her chair, full, watching as the other students finished their dinners, mind racing about the stories her uncle had told her about Regulus Black and his usurpation of the previous Headmaster.
"Say Hermione." She turned to the girl next to her, who turned to her eagerly. "Can you remember the last Headmaster's name?"
"Before Black, Carrow ran things in You-Know-Who's stead." Hermione said.
"But before that?" Lylah pressed. Hermione frowned and shook her head.
"I don't know, it was omitted from 'Hogwarts: A History'." She said, looking annoyed about this. "But I can look in the library, I hear it has three layers and a restricted section!"
Lylah tuned out the girl's incessant ramblings about the library, choosing instead to watch her uncle and the Headmaster at the table, missing the eyes of Voldemort, watching her.
So there it is. I intend to have my Harry-character form a mentor bond with Voldemort, and perhaps a sexual relationship to follow (when's she older of course) But it all depends of how things pan out.