Disclaimers: The characters are not mine, and never will. They belong to JKR, and ever will.
A/N: I just invented a new character for this story, the war is over, and Snape still alive, as it should have been, I dare say, at least up to my mind. English is not my first language, so I would be pleased to get some reviews to improve my writing and the vocabulary.
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'OH! I see! There is a lot of courage… and plenty of skill. Though you're older than all the other heads I'm usually placed
on. And you have a great talent to cover your emotions. You first think and than talk, don't you?'
'Well, yes, that is. What is that supposed to mean?'
'You are intelligent, my girl. I would say little, but you aren't. You are capable of thinking. For that, you would be great in
Ravenclaw. But, wait… there is something more. You are a true friend, aren't you? And loyal as well. But that won't come
easily. You don't trust imediately. One's to gain your friendship, which leaves you alone most of the time!'
'That is not true, you know. I do have friends. Few, that may be so, but true.'
'I may assume, then. Well, you've got no friends here, as a matter of fact. And the only house you will find the friends you're
looking for, is…… GRIFFINDOR!!!'
The strange, tall girl took off the sorting hat and turned to face the table that had just started to cheer. That had to be Griffindor,
then. She sat down in a chair and faced the old man, wearing bright blue robes and halfmoon spectacles. "Welcome then in the
house of Griffindor, Miss Rivkin. We all wish you the best." He sat down on his own chair and started eating. The girl had
placed herself between a girl with bushy brown hair and a boy with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehad. "Hi!" the girl said in
a low voice while she helped herself to a pair of potatoes. "My name is Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you!" The girl looked
up at her face to see it smiling. She smiled to. "Hello, Hermione. I'm Hope Rivkin. Don't ask what my mother tought. I'm
pleased." She offered Hermione her hand. "Hope is a really beautiful name and so meanful and encouraging, isn't it, Harry?"
The boy with the scar nodded. So it was really Harry Potter. The one who beat the Dark Lord twice. But he had not stopped her
parents being killed. But that was not his fault, Hope knew. Harry looked at her. "I'm Harry, Hey Hope!" he simply said. "Yeah,
I knew." He scanned her, she could tell by the look on his face. She was tall and musculus, not yet heavy. Her face was a cute
one, that looked older than she could possibly be. Her hair was all lilac. If that was normal or magically forged Harry could not
tell, but she looked good and very handsome. Ron looked at her in great interest. "It's Ron Weasley, nice to see you!" She
smiled.
The food was good, but she wasn't able to taste all the things she wanted to."We're all in mid-terms already, how come you
arrived that late and did not start with us in the first year?" Hope looked at Hermione to find that she was really interested and
not just making any conversation. Yet she did not move her face or showed that she was affected so badly by this question. "I
went to Carglenloo Acient School for Healers and Mediwitches in Ireland. My familie always had been very good in healing, so
we decided that I should go there. During the war my parents had been killed and the school got destroied. My nearest relatives
live close to London. So I went to live with them and do my exams here. I'm a little bit older than you are, in Ireland school
starts with about twelve. And well, now I'm here." Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at her with shock and horror on their
faces. How could she just speak about her parents being killed and leaving her home with no emotion at all. "We're so sorry.
That must be…"
"Thank you, but I don't whant your regrets. Don't missunderstand me, that's really kind of you that you are concerned. But that
won't make them alive again. So no need to pity. One can spend all his life on pitting, and that's not what I will do. It
happened." At least now Hermione understood why she was so cold. It was her protection against intimidation and insults, but
it was not right to cover all emotion with that little smile on her face, that conceled all other shiftes. She never had looked
different that evening. She just smiled a little. She now saw that Hope was scanning the high table with her eyes, the only part of
her body that constantly seemed to move. She paused on every teacher for a moment, a little bit longer on Dumbledore, perhaps,
when she finally reached Snape. Severus Snape, the poitions master of Hogwarts. He looked back at her, directly into the eyes.
Hope felt how he tried legilimency on her, but she quickly shielded her mind. He got aware of her being able to do occlumency
and hastily looked away."Hermione, please tell me who the tall pale one is…" Hermione needed not to look at the high table to
know who she meant. "That's professor Snape. He's the…"
"Poitions, I dare say. Otherwise he wouldn't have that oily hair… He just tried legilimency on me. I wonder what he was
looking for…." Hermione gasped. "He did what? And what has he seen?" Hope looked at her, not showing if she was upset or
thinking she was silly by asking that, and smiled: "He has not seen anything, I believe. I'm totally aware of doing occlumency.
But it shocked him, he does not dare to look at me again…"
Meanwhile professor Severus Snape had been looking at the new girl in interest for a while. She had been sorted into
Gryffindor and sat between Potter and Granger. She was really interesting, indeed. She was older than all other students, Albus
had told him. And she looked intelligent. And, he had to admit, handsome, even if her eyes showed that deep pain inside that he
just knew to well. She had suffered a lot, like him. Normaly he didn't like his students, but she was different. She really was, he
could feel that. He watched her a few minutes. She was constantly smiling, but it was a certain smile with no emotion he had
always used when he had been among the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord. That was not up to the usual with these youngsters.
Normally he could tell by the looks on their faces, their moving and acting what they were up to, but with her he couldn't. She
looked at him exactly that moment, their eyes met for a second, and without really knowing why, he thought 'Legilimence!'.
But as soon as his mind he found hers, he was blocked. She knew how to shield her mind as well, and with great power that
made him quickly look away. She just knew how to do Occlumency. There were few students who ever managed to do that so
well, not even holy Potter, he had recently achieved very poor results in shielding his mind. But this girl, she knew what to do,
and so she did. Snape did not dare to look at her again. Maybe she was also able to do Legilimency on him… and he loved his
thoughts covered like her. After dinner he left the room quiet fast to avoid meeting her in the great hall. It was the next day she
should see him again, in the dungeons classroom in poitions. Then she could show what kind of witch she was.