Hello all~ Um, this is just a little fic I started a few days ago as writing practice. It was only supposed to be this one chapter but I'm up to four now and have them planned through to eight so I figured, why not share it? It's a SnapeXOC fic if you couldn't tell but it'll be a pretty gradual thing, especially since my OC starts out in her first year.

Each chapter up till four is going to be a part of a year, just a moment, and then once we get to five some years might have two chapters instead of one.

Sorry if Lauren gets a little weepy sometimes. Just keep in mind within these first few chapters that she's a small child in a new place, far from home. Being a touch highstrung is understandable right? Right. Anyway, read on if you're still interested and enjoy! =3

Disclaimer: (Forgot about this XD) Only things I own here are Lauren and my idea for the plot. Everything else is property of its respective owners, mostly the wonderful J.K. Rowling unless otherwise stated.

Chapter 1 – Little Miss Disaster

Severus Snape found himself somewhat distracted as of late. It was only the beginning of the year but that boy, Harry Potter, was flouncing about the school now, taking his class now, and it made his blood boil and his heart ache.

The distraction was rather bad, on a personal level he knew he was performing well below par, but the first years, and even up to the seventh years didn't know how truly shaken his was.

The first years of Ravenclaw and Huffelpuff house were starting to guess though.

They were the batch unfortunate enough to tail the class of rowdy Gryffindor's and Slytherin's and tended to receive the run off of his temper. It wasn't so bad, except for the extra yelling, and the added shortness of his temper, and all the sarcastic, depreciating comments… It sucked.

Nervously the children shuffled in their seats, waiting for class to begin.

Near the front of the class a small girl sat, looking up at him with curious green eyes. Unlike the rest she did not keep her gaze down, she watched him through spectacles he thought too thick for a child of her age with something he thought was two parts wonder two parts fear.

She hadn't spoken a word in his class so far but when he asked a question her hand would twitch. He always opted to call on the less attentive students sitting in the back but today there would be no questions or lecture. Today they would be brewing their first potion.

He wanted to see how this mousy little thing, Lauren Dari her name was if he recalled, would do. She had at least passed the first quiz which was more than he could say for many of her peers. For a moment he met her eyes, checking her resolve. She did not look away but lowered her shoulders and gave him a sheepish smile.

Odd reaction. The fluffy bangs of her shaggy, dark brown hair dipped into the frame of the glasses and hid away that attentive gaze before they were brushed away by a light brown hand. Her smile brightened just a touch when she met his eyes again and he looked slowly away. He did not practice Legimancy on his students normally but for a moment he had considered. What was she thinking?

Everyone settled he launched right into his instruction, writing the process on the board as he told them rather shortly what to do and what was expected. His commentary was brief and punctuated with the final instruction of "no talking," that these students took to heart.

A dull silence filled the room and he made slow rounds, peering over shoulders with a stony face.

As he made the circle around the back a gasp then startled cry came from the front of the room, followed by the sound of a chair scraping against the dungeon floor and clattering to the ground.

He turned quickly, robes bellowing around him at the motion and then flaring as he stalked quickly to the center of the commotion.

Lauren cried softly as her hand stung from the burn the bubbling potion had splashed on her and tried her best to shuffle away from the still bubbling over cauldron on her desk. The girl beside her, a starry eyed child named Luna Lovegood, was also out of her seat but watching things with a calm face.

"What in the-" Snape grumbled as he regarded her and the mess. He quickly spelled away the potion and then seized the crying child by her arm to assess the wound.

She needed to see Madam Pomfrey.

A deeper scowl obscured his features as he regarded the rest of the class. "Behave yourselves" he said severely, yanking her along, out of the room.

"Imbecilic girl" he growled when they were a good ways down the hall, leaving the dungeons. "What did you do?"

She sniffled. "I-I dunno. I-I'm sorry Professor, I'm sorry."

She was practically groveling and he pulled her along in a way the shook her, almost made her lose her footing, and also put a stop to that. It was the perfect gesture to show his complete contempt for the situation.

They were stopped on a flight of stairs and he glared down at her for added affect. He had had some small bit of hope for the girl but that was gone now. She was just as hopeless as the rest of them, and just as frail as more tears welled up at the sight of his angered gaze.

She didn't look away though, again. Her eyes met his as she cried and she whimpered another pathetic "I'm sorry."

And she was. Lauren had never felt so bad about something in her life, that she could remember any way and she cried harder as he jostled her again in their continued walk.

The sight of the kindly, and very shocked nurse filled her with relief and she let herself be taken and cared for, blocking out the conversation as the teachers talked.

Professor Snape left a few minutes after that and her tears ebbed away while her hand was treated for the new boils and burns she'd acquired. She was allowed to stay till the end of the period and spent that time on one of the cots. She lay there, thinking about how terribly she'd just messed up. She'd wanted so badly to do well in potions and now…

A few more tears fell free from the eleven year olds eyes and she rolled on to her side. How could she fix this?

Back in the class room Severus collected her things to be sent to her next class. As he returned to his desk he went to make a failing mark beside her name for the day, stopping when he took note of what was written in her note book. It was a bizarrely comprehensive note on the properties of each ingredient and things that might be substituted for it along with a few reasons why. Things like:

Dried nettles as opposed to fresh nettles.

Pros – Cheaper, smaller likelihood of self-harm

Cons - Less potent, far less potent

Tube worms as substitute for Horn slugs? Bad idea. Might be unstable.

He glowered at the notes. Had she written these? No one else could have, no one else would have in that obnoxiously bright neon purple ink.

This was… interesting. He put down a mark, barely passing, and when class ended handed her things over to Miss. Lovegood. He would remember this.

What did you think? Good, bad, indifferent? Maybe a little fast? I think it might be a little fast but then again it was just writing practice to start with. XD Sorry if you didn't enjoy it. Feel free to tell me why and give some tips on how to get better~ And if you did enjoy it, well I'm very glad and I hope you'll read on to the next chapter when it's up.