"Once upon a time there was a magical princess! She lived in a far off magical kingdom in a castle on hill. She was the most beautiful princess in the whole world and everyone loved her!" The blonde girl shifted the small boy on her lap and gave him a gentle pat on the head.

"Sissssy! That's girls stuff," the little boy spat making a disgusted face and wrinkling up his tiny nose. "I wanna hear a story about a evil monster."

"Well, Thomas, if you would let me finish...I was about to get to that part, now no more interruptions!" Althea cleared her throat and shifted her little brother once more as he wrapped his arms around her neck to listen intently to the rest of the bedtime story.

"Anyway, this princess lived in a beautiful castle but she had no friends at all."

"I thought you said everyone loved her?"

Althea shot a look to Thomas but decided to ignore his comment and carried on, "but she was under the rule of an evil prince." The girl looked down to the boy would was now completely sucked into his sister's tale. "The prince was bitter and angry with the world and locked the princess away every night forcing her to do the castle choirs like a house elf. Night after night the princess would scrub cauldrons and polish bottles-"

"Why didn't she run away during the day? I mean, didn't you say he only locked her up at night? She could have told someone, she could have got away," Thomas unlocked his arms from around the neck he was embracing and looked up at Althea with very real concern for the fictional princess. His sister just smiled and planted a kiss on his forehead.

"You're right, she had plenty of chances to escape...but she knew that in there somewhere there was good in the prince and she wanted to find that. Well, that's enough for now...it's much past your bedtime." She stood taking Thomas in her arms and then plopping him gently in bed.

"But," he said in protest, "what happens? What happens to the prince and princess?"

Althea tucked Thomas in and clicked off his bedside light. "He transforms into a handsome prince and they live happily ever after like every good fairytale should end." She smiled and cracked his door before telling him goodnight and before she even made it down the hall she heard his light snores.

Thomas was very precious to her...unlike most of her friends, her brother wouldn't be joining her at Hogwarts the next day or ever for that matter. It made her a bit sad that there would never be a time when she would watch him get sorted into his house or see him play on a quidditch team. Unlike her, he was a squib. He didn't inherit their father's magical abilities like she had. It didn't seem to bother him to much...yet.

The blonde headed girl lay in bed. Tomorrow she would return to Hogwarts for her seventh and last year. Also, the bedtime story she had told her brother kept repeating itself in her head. Granted, it wasn't much of a story, but it held some truth in her real life situation. She was by no means a beautiful princess and she wasn't exactly being held captive by an evil prince. It was more like her fluffy interpretation of what she was going to return to when she got back to Hogwarts- potions detention.

A certain cauldron explosion had landed her two months detention the last days of school. Considering school ended before her sentence was up she was to spend her first evening back in Severus Snape's classroom doing exactly what her imprisoned princess was doing. Althea's consciousness drifted in and out until finally she was in a deep sleep like the rest of her family.

The train ride to Hogwarts was a long one and Althea wasn't one for being in vehicles for long periods of time. After an hour she was already slumped over in her seat trying to dose off. It was a little hard considering the only cart she had caught was one next to a bunch of over-excited first years. Not to mention, inconveniently close to Cilwenu Snape. The whole ride so far had been a serious of awkward eye contact between her and the brunette.

It wasn't that she disliked Cilwenu at all. She happened to be her best friend. There were just certain obstacles that made speaking in public hard...such as her arrogant and snotty boyfriend, Draco Malfoy who was fastened neatly to her side. Althea caught herself staring, lost in thought, at the couple. The platinum blonde boy sneered at her and looked away in disgust muttering something that she was very thankful she couldn't hear.

"Pff, sneaky Slytherins. You better hope you don't get put in to Slytherin...it does something to your brain...Makes you a bloody prick." Althea said to a first year girl would looked absolutely petrified at the statement.

"My whole family was- was in h-hufflepuff," she girl retorted and shuffled her books in her hands. The older witch stayed silent, she felt a little bad for probably scaring the girl out of her wits, but decided that fretting about it wasn't going to solve anything...maybe now she would stay quiet for the rest of the ride.

"Althea!" The voice belonged to none other than the young Snape girl. She pushed through groups of younger students until she finally reached her Gryffindor friend. "Hey, wait up," she finally said as she placed a hand on Althea's shoulder.

"Where's Draco?" Althea snorted, but her harsh glare softened immediately. It had been all summer since she had seen her and she really couldn't deny that she had missed Cilwenu a lot. Quickly changing the subject she stepped aside to let some third years pass, "How has your summer been? Hopefully spending quality time with your father," she teased.

Cilwenu and her father, Severus Snape, didn't exactly see eye to eye. He had strict guidelines concerning her and Cilwenu was always more of a free spirit. Althea had never met Cilwenu's mother but she was willing to bet that Wenny had taken up more of her personality traits than her father.

"Ohhhh, please! The only person that wants to spend quality time with him is you!" She let out a small laugh and gave her friend a light nudge on the shoulder.

"You just don't want me to be your new mum! You know I'll forbid you to date that filthy Malfoy weasel!"

"Althea, I am forbiddon to hang out with you...and you see how well that is working out. Draco isn't filthy either." Althea decided not to point out to Cilwenu that she didn't deny him being a weasel but instead gave a mischievous smile that her friend mirrored. "Speaking of him, I should probably find him before he throws a tantrum."

With that the dark haired girl vanished in a crowd of black robes and Althea was left to fend for herself.

The ceremonial sorting of the first years went as every year did. Althea was pleased to see the poor girl on the train ride that had to endure her mood get sorted into Hufflepuff. She made sure to clap extra loud for that one.