Eyes of a Tiger

by LittleReporterGirl

Follow the story of young Abigail Abby Prewett through her days at Hogwarts. There is murder, loss, friendship, and, most importantly, love. If you liked my story "Dreams" you'll love this! Please Read and Review! I thrive off of reviews!

1. Year 1

Author's Note: Hello all! I should warn you, this is going to be a LONG fanfic, so if you don't have patience, you don't have to read it. I don't blame you for clicking the back button and forgetting it even exists, go on do it…for those of you who decided to stick around, get ready to read this awesome story. Well, I think it's awesome, but as I am the writer, that's rather biased. And now I am rambling. Anywho, if you liked my fanfic "Dreams" you'll LOVE this one…well, okay, so I can't GUARANTEE you'll love it, but I loved writing it and supposedly that's all that matters. Anywho, I'll shut up now and let you read it. Thanks for sticking with me you guys and I promise to respond to all reviews. Positive and negative reviews are accepted and appreciated. Thanks readers! Oh and yeah, I know it is kinda like "Dreams" but I've expanded on some of my ideas and…well it's NOT the same, that's my point. Thanks.

~TheVampyre13

Prologue

I was extremely excited about getting my acceptance letter into Hogwarts. I knew I would get one soon. My mom was a witch and my stepfather was a wizard. Mother assured me my biological father was a wizard, too. There's no way I could have ended up a Squib. The way I was raised, Squibs were almost as bad as Muggle-borns. It was all about purebloods in my family. My mother had been a Death Eater long before I was born. When Harry Potter vanquished the Dark Lord, she and my stepfather moved with my older sister Mary and myself to Diagon Alley to open a bookstore. I was only a year old at the time, so I don't remember it. They had tried to put the past behind them and forget all about the Dark Lord. That was, perhaps, their biggest mistake.

The apartment where we lived was directly above my parent's bookstore. There was a ladder with which you could climb up onto the roof. Every day for a week, I sat up there, staring at the sky, wondering when the owl would come with my acceptance letter into Hogwarts.

Finally it came. I remember the morning vividly. The early morning sky was tinged pink by the rising sun. The air was fresh and clear. It was going to be a beautiful day. I was sitting cross-legged on the roof, staring at the sky when I saw it. The faint speck of an owl on the horizon. I let out an excited whoop and got to my feet. The owl got closer and closer. She was a beautiful tawny owl with bright yellow eyes. She landed on my shoulder and dropped the letter into my hand.

"Thank you," I said to the bird, smiling. The bird let out a hoot and then took off. I read the letter quickly, though I knew what it said already. I had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Excited as any kid my age would be I hurried back downstairs to our apartment to show my parents. That's when I saw that the door was halfway open. It hadn't been like that an hour ago when my sister, Mary, left to go hang out with her friends. Almost immediately, a feeling of dread washed over me. Something bad was going to happen. The very air seemed angry. The letter in my hand almost fell to the floor.

I pushed the door open cautiously. Almost immediately, I was thrown against the wall by a powerful spell. The door slammed closed. I could see two figures, but they were robed in black and had their hoods up so I couldn't see their faces. My parents were on the floor. Mother had many bruises and was struggling against an invisible force to get to her wand a few feet away. My stepfather was bleeding heavily from a wound on his head and not entirely conscious, on the floor behind Mother. They both seemed frightened, as if they knew what was going to happen.

"Bind the girl's hands," hissed one of the figures, "And make her watch."

"This is their punishment for thinking they can forget the Dark Lord," said the one who had his wand raised to me. My hands were bound suddenly, not with rope, but with barbed wire. I struggled to free my hands and cried out when I felt the cold metal dig into my flesh. One of the figures laughed coldly as blood began to pour from my hands. Then they both turned to my parents, leaving me immobilized against the wall. The first figure raised his wand and shouted "Crucio!". Mother screamed and writhed in pain, tortured by some invisible force.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what they would do next. I heard a wand whoosh through the air and I felt something hot strike my face, leaving a gash that hurt so bad I screamed.

"You keep your eyes open and WATCH," commanded the second figure, "They deserve this."

I wished now more than ever that I had a wand…but I was too young. Blood was pouring from the wound on my face. I couldn't even open my left eye. I focused all of my energy on hating the two strangers, wanting them to die, to keep myself from thinking of the pain. Power emanated from my body suddenly and blasted the two men. They were knocked off guard, but only for a few seconds. My mother was inches from her wand by the time they got her back under control. The second figure had turned to me and raised his wand. Barbed wire appeared around my neck and legs, pinning me to the wall without the use of the other spell. I didn't dare move now. The second figure raised his wand and the barbed wire began to tighten…

"Leave the girl," hissed the first figure, "We have to finish these two off now. Someone's coming."

They both turned to my parents and raised their wands.

"Avada Kedavra!" they cried simultaneously. Green light filled the room, almost blinding me, but not so much that I didn't see my parents go flying backwards. They landed with a hard thud.

"Let's go," said the first figure and with a loud pop, they both disappeared.

I heard running footsteps on the stairs. My 16-year-old sister, Mary, and two full-grown wizards I didn't know burst into the room to find me pinned to the wall with barbed wire. My mother and stepfather's corpses lay motionless on the floor.

YEAR 1

Chapter 1 (A New Home)

I let out a sigh as I got off the train. I lifted my suitcase up so it wouldn't get in the mud. It was raining. I looked around, curious to see if I was being met by anyone. When I saw no one at all, I began to walk down the road in search of the address the wizard lawyer had hastily scribbled down on a piece of paper. I was nothing but a waste of time to him. Because of him and his hastening, I was now going to live with a man I had never, to my knowledge, even met.

It was a shabby little Muggle village that disgusted me. There was an immense hull of what once was a mill, shadowing the small, shabby houses. The street was a dirt road, so everything was muddy because of the rain. I passed by a dirty river that flowed along overgrown, rubbish-strewn banks. How anyone that my mother had once been friends with could possibly live here was beyond me. How any decent wizard could live anywhere close to this village was beyond me.

I walked along rows and rows of houses, checking street signs and getting very annoyed with the lack of good directions. Finally I found the street called Spinner's End, over which the chimney of the mill seemed more prominent. I passed a number of boarded and broken windows. To my relief, the street was empty, if anyone lived here at all. It was hard to tell. It was nighttime so anyone who lived there was probably locked safe in their homes, oblivious to my 11-year-old self struggling up the muddy road in search of a man I knew nothing about. All I knew was that he had supposedly been friends with my mother a long time ago, he lived at Spinner's End, and he was all I had in this world as of a week ago.

My sister wasn't with me. Trudging up the muddy road I thought of her and clenched my jaw. She was sixteen years old, but given extenuating circumstances, she had been allowed to find a job and her own place to live. They didn't judge her a fit guardian for me, however, and after a week spent at The Leaky Cauldron waiting on the Ministry of Magic to do their digging into my family history, trying to find a relative who would take me, I had been sent here. I had no living relatives, it turned out, and the only thing they had was a will my mother had written years ago that named someone I did not know as her beneficiary.

Finally I came to the house at the end of the road. It wasn't much to look at, as simple as the Muggle houses surrounding it. A single light was on in one of the downstairs windows. I trudged up to the door and knocked as loudly as I could given my injuries. The wounds on my hands hadn't healed yet and were tightly wrapped. The gash over my eye, which had taken forever to stop bleeding, had been clumsily healed by the lawyer. There was a bad scar over my eye now, but I could still see.

The door was opened by a greasy-haired, pale-faced man wearing all black. His expression showed mild disinterest.

"You must be Abigail Prewett," he said to me.

"Are you Severus Snape?" I inquired.

"I am. Come inside," he replied, stepping aside to let me in. The house wasn't much to look at on the inside either. I stepped directly into a small sitting room, which had a cell-like quality to it. The walls were completely covered in books, most of them bound in old leather. There was a threadbare sofa, an old armchair, and a rickety table which stood grouped together in a pool of dim light cast by the candle-filled light hanging from the ceiling. It had a distinct, rarely lived-in feel to it.

An old copy of the Evening Prophet was laying on the table. One of the headlines clearly read: "Suspicious Deaths: Julia Prewett and Tommy Rivers found dead!". I clenched my fists, which made my injuries from the barbed wire hurt. Snape gestured that I take a seat on the couch and I did so.

"Your mother and I were good friends. However, we haven't spoken in many years," he said to me as he walked towards the table. He waved his wand and a pitcher, along with two cups, appeared there. He poured a cup of what looked like warm apple cider and handed it to me. I accepted it and sipped it quietly. Warmth spread through my rain-soaked body.

"If you were Mother's friend, why I have I never heard of or met you?" I inquired boldly.

"Didn't I just say we hadn't spoken in years?" he replied coolly. I was surprised at his coolness, his attitude…his lack of empathy for me, despite the fact that I had just lost my parents. Everyone I had seen within the last week had coddled me, treated me like a helpless child…even the lawyer brought me ice cream the few times I saw him. I was slightly intrigued by this Snape, and a little annoyed at his lack of compassion. I was not beyond back-talking either.

"You would think, if she saw fit to name you beneficiary on her will, she would have mentioned you at some point in time," I retorted hotly, choosing to look around his house disdainfully rather than look at him, "…Not much for cleaning, are you?"

For a moment he looked as if he would quite like to hit me. Then his expression cleared.

"Julia and I were friends once. A very long time ago, when we were young. We grew apart, however. I don't think we've spoken in eleven years," he said calmly. His calmness annoyed me. Everything about him annoyed me. His house annoyed me, the town he lived in annoyed me, his voice annoyed me, and his cold black eyes annoyed me. I drained the glass of cider and handed it to him. He set it on the table. He walked over to once of the bookshelves and showed me a secret passageway.

"The spare room has been set up for you. It's not much," he said with a shrug, "Up the stairs, first room on the left. Bathroom is right across the hall. My room is at the end of the hall and the door is always locked."

I inclined my head slightly, getting to my feet. I picked up my suitcase and without another word, headed upstairs.

The room was empty except for a plain wooden bed with clean white bed sheets and a wooden dresser with a mirror. I tossed my suitcase unceremoniously on the floor. I didn't even change out of my wet clothes, just kicked off my muddy shoes before collapsing onto the bed. I curled myself into a ball. From where I lay on the bed I could see my reflection in the mirror. I looked pitiful.

"I'm not going to cry," I promised myself aloud, "I may hate it here, but it's better than being homeless."

Then the reality of everything came crashing down on me. There was no one left in the world who really cared what happened to me. Sure everyone had felt sympathetic about the death of my parents, but in reality I was nothing but a waste of their time. The lawyer I had been assigned, the Ministry workers who had searched for my relatives, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron who had to tend to me while I stayed there…and now there was this man, this Severus Snape, who was to be my guardian, who felt no empathy for me, who I hated almost as much as I hated my sister. He was all I had left in this world.

I awoke the next morning stiff and sore from sleeping in my wet clothes. I was also in a foul mood, which is always a bad way to wake up. I tried not thinking of anything as I dug through my suitcase to find clean clothes. I dressed in Muggle clothes- black jeans and a black T-shirt. Somehow the color just seemed appropriate. When I was dressed I looked in the mirror. My black hair was curly from having been wet and I pushed it behind my ears, too uncaring to find a brush. My eyes, one blue, one green were dull. I was used to my abnormal eyes. My gaze fell to the scar over my left eye, my blue eye. It stood out badly against my naturally pale skin. I ran my fingers slowly over the affliction as if I could somehow erase it. No such luck. I turned away from my reflection and made my way downstairs.

Snape was sitting at the table, reading the Daily Prophet and drinking pumpkin juice. He barely glanced at me when I entered the room.

"If you want breakfast, you'll have to find something yourself," he said, waving his hand carelessly towards what I assumed was the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen, which was also incredibly plain. Refrigerator, cabinets…almost no food. After some rummaging I found a bagel and went to sit at the table with Snape to eat. I didn't like the fact that his attention was on the paper, not on me.

"Why is your house so empty?" I asked coolly, taking a bite of my bagel. He didn't even glance up at me.

"I am only here a few months out of the year. I teach Potions at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft an Wizardry," he replied, still reading the paper.

"Oh. No one told me you were a teacher…I'm supposed to be going to Hogwarts this year…"

"I am well aware. You need to get your school things," he said. It was a statement, not a question, but I answered anyway.

"Yes."

"Very well. We can go to Diagon Alley today," he said dismissively.

Chapter 2 (Diagon Alley)

If there was one place I didn't want to ever have to go again it was Diagon Alley. If there had been any way at all possible for me to avoid it, I would have. Unfortunately, it was the only place we could go to get school supplies.

"Have you ever traveled by Floo Powder before?" Snape asked me.

"Of course," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Good. That is how we'll be getting to Diagon Alley. Go upstairs and get your list of Hogwarts things."

Unable to do anything else, I obeyed. When I came back downstairs, the list tucked into my jeans pocket, Snape was standing beside the fireplace was a pouch of glittering green Floo Powder. He said nothing, merely offered me the pouch first. I took a fistfull of the powder and tossed it into the fire. The fire roared and I stepped into the warmth of the flames.

"Diagon Alley," I said clearly. The flames whirled around me and within seconds I stepped out of the grate in The Leaky Cauldron. Tom, the barkeeper who had helped take care of me, greeted me.

"Back so soon, Abby?" he said from the bar.

"Going to buy my school things, Tom, with my guardian. He should be right along," I said, looking at the fireplace I had stepped out of. The fire roared a second time and Snape stepped out. A nervous-looking man wearing a turban around his head approached us almost as soon as Snape stepped out.

"H-hello there, S-Severus. H-have you h-heard the n-news?" stuttered the Professor. The stutter irritated me beyond belief.

"What news would that be, Quirrel?" Snape asked, his tone cold.

"H-Harry P-Potter. He was h-here earlier. C-caused q-quite a c-crowd," replied the man who was Quirrel.

"Isn't that interesting," Snape said in a voice that sounded as if he thought it was anything but, "Quirrel, this is Abigail Prewett. Abigail, this is Professor Quirrel. He teaches at Hogwarts."

I could tell Snape was only using this introduction as a change of subject, but I shrugged it off.

"P-Prewett, eh? M-must be J-Julia's daughter, right? T-terrible thing that h-happened," Quirrel stuttered, "S-so, you're s-staying with S-Severus, eh, Abigail?"

"Everyone just calls me Abby," I said quickly, "and yes."

"We must be going, Quirrel. We have much to do," Snape said, motioning for me to follow him.

I knew where the passage into Diagon Alley was and had used it many times before so I wasn't surprised when Snape tapped the brick with his wand and made the magical gateway appear.

"Our first stop should be Gringott's. I have a key to a vault that the lawyer gave me. He said it was everything Mother had saved for me to get my school things," I said to Snape. He inclined his head and walked up the cobbled streets towards Gringott's, the wizard bank.

I had gone in the bank only once before when I was young. The goblins had scared me then, so serious and dangerous-looking. I had held tight to my sister's hand the whole time. This time around, I was not afraid of the goblins. Snape walked up to one of the goblins desks.

"Abigail Prewett wishes to make a withdrawal," he said to the goblin. The goblin glanced at him then looked down at me.

"Have you your key, miss?" he asked me. I nodded my head numbly and handed him the small silver key the lawyer had given me. The goblin smiled at me kindly and took the key.

"Follow me, please," he said to us.

The goblin led us to a cart which took us, at an extremely fast pace, to Vault 667. He inserted the key and the heavy door swung forward. A good amount of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts were piled up. It wasn't a fortune, but it was more money than I had ever seen in once place before. Snape told me not to take too much. He recommended a good amount and, since I agreed that it was a good amount, I put the exact amount in the bag. After a moments consideration I put one extra Knut into the bag. Snape looked mildly irritated by my minor defiance but didn't say anything.

When we left the bank I pulled the list out of my pocket and looked at it for the first time since I had gotten the envelope the day my parents died.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

Of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for daywear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry nametags

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) By Miranda Goshawk

A history of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A beginners guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide in Self-protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

Snape seemed content just to follow me around while I gathered the things I would need. My first stop was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to get my school uniform. Snape waited outside while the unnaturally cheerful woman measured me and fitted me for my robes. I was glad to leave that shop and head towards the Cauldron Shop to get a pewter cauldron. When I had purchased the cauldron I put my other bag in it. The more shops I visited, the fuller and heavier my cauldron became. It was difficult to hold because my hands still hurt badly. Snape didn't even offer to carry it for me.

I was making an attempt to walk faster than Snape as we headed towards Flourish and Blotts to get my schoolbooks. I rounded a corner too fast and crashed headfirst into a girl. We both went crashing to the ground and the contents of my cauldron spilled all over the ground.

"Ow, what the-?" the girl began, then she looked me over, "You crashed into me."

"Sorry," I replied with a half-smile, "I didn't see you."

"It's okay," she replied with a shrug, "Want some help?"

I nodded and the girl helped me gather up the contents of my cauldron before they were trampled. The girl was slightly taller than me. She had red hair, blue eyes, and freckles. She was dressed in brightly-colored Muggle clothes- blue jeans, a bright pink top, and bright pink shoes.

"My name's Brandy, by the way," she said to me as she picked up the last bag and put it in my cauldron, "Brandy Spyres."

"I'm Abby Prewett. Nice to meet you, Brandy," I replied.

"Is this your first year at Hogwarts?"

"Yeah. I'm on my way to Flourish and Blotts to get my books."

"Cool. I could totally go with you. It's my first year, too. I'm really excited."

"Sure you can come with me," I said, "In fact, I'd enjoy the company."

Brandy and I talked the rest of the way to Flourish and Blotts. At one point she leaned close to me and whispered.

"Who is that guy in black skulking behind you?" she asked me.

"That's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions. …he's also my guardian," I replied after consideration.

"He's kinda creepy," she whispered back. I nodded my head in silent agreement.

Flourish and Blotts was now the only bookstore in Diagon Alley. They had been in competition with my parents bookstore for years. I wondered what would happen to all the books in my parents bookstore. I would have asked Snape, but Brandy was standing there. I didn't want my new friend to know about my parents just yet.

We went in Flourish and Blotts and Brandy and I found our books together. We went up to the counter and paid for them.

"Check it out," Brandy said, perusing one of her books eagerly, "The Dark Forces: A Guide in Self-protection. How cool is that?"

She had found a picture of a werewolf, mid-transfiguration.

"Very cool," I agreed, though my eyes had found themselves browsing through Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger. There were potions for everything…and poisons. Poisons sounded fun to me. Brandy and I would have stood there all day looking at our books, but Snape cleared his throat impatiently.

"You need to get your wand, Abigail," Snape said to me, "We should go to Ollivander's."

"It's Abby, not Abigail," I said forcefully.

"I've already gotten my wand," said Brandy proudly, "Yew and unicorn hair. 10 inches."

"Well, if you've already gotten yours, this is where we part ways."

"I guess so. I'll see you at Hogwarts, though. Later, Abby."

"See you at Hogwarts."

And she skipped off down the street, humming to herself. Her personality was a lot different than mine, but I thought she was fun. But now I was back with a scowling Snape. With a sigh I headed towards Ollivander's.

Chapter 3 (Knockturn Alley)

It was one of the few shops I had never been in before. I was really excited about getting my wand. My mind drifted back to the day my parents were killed. If I had had a wand then, maybe I could have done something…stopped them somehow. There was no doubt it was a powerful energy that had come from me. Mary told me afterwards it had shaken the whole building, which was why she had gotten to full-grown wizards to come upstairs with her.

Now I was thinking of my sister again, which darkened my mood considerably. Ollivander's was a slight disappointment. It was a tiny, empty place except for a single chair that Snape immediately occupied. I looked around the dusty shop at the thousands of narrow boxes neatly piled all the way up to the ceiling. The knowledge that all of these contained powerful wands enthralled me. Which is the most powerful? I wondered I need a powerful wand.

"Good afternoon," said a voice. I whirled quickly around as a man emerged from behind a stack of boxes. I relaxed slightly. It was an old man with wide, pale eyes. He didn't look very threatening.

"I didn't mean to startle you," Ollivander said warmly, "You must be Julia Prewett's daughter. You look a lot like your mother."

I didn't say anything. Ollivander looked sympathetic.

"Let's see if we can find you a wand, Miss Prewett," he said and began to browse the stacks of wands curiously. We tried ten different wands with no results before I asked the question that had been teeming inside of me.

"Which wand is the most powerful?" I blurted out as Ollivander put back the wand I had just tried. He paused briefly, then resumed searching for me a wand.

"No wand has any certain amount of power. What works well for one, may not work well for another. The strength of the wand depends directly on the strength of the witch or wizard," he said wisely. I tried to hide my disappointment. Snape was looking at me curiously and I turned away from him.

We spent a long time in Ollivander's, trying wand after wand. We spent so long there, went through so many wands, that I felt he would never find the right one for me. Finally, exasperated, Ollivander stopped searching and scratched his head thoughtfully.

"There is something I would like to try," he said, and then disappeared into the back room. A few minutes passed and Ollivander reappeared with another wand.

"This is a wand I made many years ago, as an experiment. Ten inches, blackwood, with a basilisk heartstring core. To my knowledge, no such core has been used as a wand before. When the opportunity came to make one, I could not pass it up. Blackwood is a very rare wood found only in certain parts of Africa. I thought it would make a wonderful wand. When it was completed I found it would not work quite right for me or anyone else who tried it. I had it out for a while, in the hope that it would act as a wand should, and choose a witch or wizard, but it did not," Ollivander said, taking the wand out of the box to show me. It was made of a very dark brown wood and it looked very sleek. Without being told, I reached out to take it from him. As soon as the wand touched my fingertips, warmth spread through me. The dust in the shop swirled around me and I felt…powerful. I waved it once and purple sparks flew out of the end. Ollivander's expression looked troubled, even as he told me the price and I paid him ten Galleons.

"Wait outside for me, Abigail," Snape said to me, "I wish to have a word with Mr. Ollivander."

"It's Abby, not Abigail," I said through clenched teeth. He ignored me and I stalked out of the store, annoyed.

I had absolutely no intention of waiting for Snape to have a word with Ollivander. We had only one more place to go before our shopping was complete and that was the Apothecary for potion ingredients. I knew Snape would find me if I went there, however, so I walked past it. Suddenly I saw a sign for a street that branched off of Diagon Alley. It was called Knockturn Alley. It had been forbidden to me as a child. Mother said it was dangerous. I no longer cared if it was dangerous. I left the brightly lit street and went down the dark and menacing Knockturn Alley.

Every shop I saw as I walked down the twisting alleyway seemed to be devoted to the Dark Arts. I saw a cage full of live black spiders, a shop selling poisonous candles, shrunken heads in a window display, and a 'pet shop' which consisted of lizards, snakes, spiders, rats, and other animals associated with dark arts. A long black snake in a cage was one of the animals on display in the window. I pressed my face against the glass to look at it. The snake lifted its head and looked at me, blinking its yellow eyes slowly. Its tongue flicked out once. I turned to go into the shop and found myself face to face with a group of three dirty-looking men.

"Like that snake, do you missy?" chuckled one of them. His teeth were crooked and his eyes were permanently crossed. He tried to grab me, but I ducked out of the way. I started for my wand, which was in a bag in my cauldron, but one of the other men knocked my cauldron out of my hand and the contents went spilling out for the second time today. Two of the men went for my belongings, but the first was approaching me, forcing me to back against the window.

A loud crack emitted through the air and the three men went running, as if stung. It was Snape, brandishing his own wand and looking furious. He used his wand to put all my belongings back into my cauldron. He picked up the cauldron and grabbed my arm with his other hand. He dragged me out of Knockturn Alley and back into the sunlit Diagon Alley. He rounded on me furiously.

"What were you thinking? Do you know what could have happened to you if I hadn't showed up?" he demanded angrily. He dropped my cauldron and raised his hand as if to strike me. He paused with his hand inches from me and looked me over. I was dirty and trembling, but I stared back at him defiantly. He blew out a sigh and let his hand fall. He released me and picked up my cauldron.

"You should have listened to me," was all he said before walking off towards the Apothecary. I followed him, still rattled by my adventure and promising myself silently that I would never go back to Knockturn Alley.

The Apothecary helped take my mind off my rattling experience. While it had a horrible smell, which reminded me of rotten eggs and cabbage, I was intrigued by the barrels of slimy stuff on the floor, the jars of herbs, dried roots, and powders on the shelves, and the bundles of feathers, fangs, and claws hanging from the ceiling. Snape went to the counter and asked the man for basic potion ingredients for me, I walked around looking at everything. I saw silver unicorn horns, black, tiny glittering things that were labeled as beetle eyes, silvery hairs that were labeled as unicorn hair, and some sort of poison-green colored skin.

"It's boomslang skin," Snape said quietly from behind me. I considered not saying anything in response, but he had saved me from Knockturn Alley…his anger had frightened me, admittedly, but I had been prepared for him to slap me and he hadn't. I was grateful for that.

"What's a boomslang?" I asked curiously, watching as he put the potion ingredients in my cauldron with my other things.

"A large tree-dwelling poisonous snake. It's native to southern Africa," he replied, "Boomslang skin is used in many advanced potions."

"And what are those?" I asked, pointing to a box of small stones.

"Bezoars. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat. It will save you from most poisons."

"Why would a goat eat a stone?" I inquired. Snape was at a loss for words.

Snape picked up my cauldron and left the Apothecary. I followed him rather reluctantly. He checked his watch.

"If you want to get an owl, a cat, or a toad you can go to Magical Menagerie or Eeylops Owl Emporium," he said to me, "I'd recommend and owl. They're the most useful."

I nodded my head in silent agreement and we walked off down the street towards Eeylops Owl Emporium. It was a dark shop, full of rustling and flickering bright eyes. We left the shop twenty minutes later. I carried a cage that held a solid black owl. He was sleeping now with his head under his wing. Snape and I went back to the Leaky Cauldron and we traveled back to his house using Floo Powder.

Chapter 4 (Friends)

I spent the next few weeks impatiently reading all of my schoolbooks. My owl, who I had named Arsenius after the author of my potions book, turned out to not be a very friendly owl. He pecked at my fingers whenever I got close to him. I think he hated me. I could see his bright orange eyes staring at me during the night when I was trying to sleep. Every night when I was almost asleep he would hoot loudly and wake me up. I tried letting him out at night but he would come back and tap on the window after an hour. Then he would peck me when I tried to let him in. So I ended up just leaving him in his cage most of the time.

My hands had been massacred by the men who had killed my parents. They healed on their own after a few weeks, but I was left with worse scars than the one on my face. In one of the Muggle shops in town I found black half-gloves that would cover the scars and, since I had no Muggle money, I stole them. I had never stolen anything before, but it wasn't so hard. I just took the tag off and slipped them into my pocket without anyone noticing. When I got back home I went directly up to my room and put them on, vowing that I would never take them off.

Snape spent a lot of time at Hogwarts, planning his classes, but he came home every night to cook supper, eat, and go to sleep. He wasn't a very good cook, but I didn't complain. He'd given me money to get food for breakfast and lunch as well as his permission to use the kitchen. I could have cooked supper for us both. I thought about it a few times, but I didn't feel like doing anything nice for him.

On the morning of September 1st I awoke more excited than I had ever been before in my life. I had everything packed into my trunk and made sure Arsenius was securely in his cage. He glared at me and hooted loudly as I checked the lock. With a little difficulty I got his cage and my trunk downstairs. Snape was waiting for me downstairs.

"How are we getting to the train station?" I asked curiously.

"You'll take a Muggle Taxi. I've already asked for one to be sent here," he replied, "When you get to the train station, all you have to do is walk straight at the wall between Platforms 9 and 10. It's a magical gateway."

"Wait, what do you mean? Aren't you coming with me?"

"I'm afraid not. I am going to Hogwarts using Apparation as soon as you leave to help prepare for the feast," he said. I was annoyed now that I had to go all by myself in a Muggle taxi and to Platform 9 ¾.

"Fine," I said dramatically, "Hopefully I won't get kidnapped on the way to Hogwarts."

A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth.

"No one would be that stupid. They'd toss you back out within five minutes of your incessant defiance and whining."

I glared at him and marched huffily outside to wait for the Muggle taxi.

The taxi driver was a middle-aged, fat, balding Muggle man who took one look at Arsenius in his cage and muttered something that sounded like 'bloody weirdo'. Irritated I got in and slammed the door. I turned my head to look back at the house as the taxi pulled away and I saw Snape standing on the front step. He waved to me and disappeared on the spot. I glared at the spot where he'd disappeared.

I didn't speak to the Muggle driver the whole ride to the train station. When we got there I paid him with the Muggle money Snape had given me and I walked inside. There were people all around, some Muggles, some wizards. It was easy for me to find the place between Platforms 9 and 10. I watched from afar as two girls with trunks casually leaned against the barrier and disappeared. None of the Muggles passing by noticed. I pushed my trunk and Arsenius's cage straight at the barrier without stopping. I passed through easily and let out the breath that I had held.

The Platform was teeming with young witches and wizards and their families. I had trouble getting Arsenius and my trunk onto the train and was surprised when a blonde-haired, green-eyed girl grabbed one end of my trunk and helped me get it onto the train. She reached for Arsenius and I passed him up.

"Thanks for helping me," I said as I boarded the train.

"No problem. You looked like you needed it," she replied with a smile, then she walked off towards an older girl who could only be her sister.

I dragged my trunk and Arsenius's cage into an empty compartment and stared out the window. Parents were hugging their children good-bye, kids were promising to write home, and some of both were crying. Anger and sadness washed over me and I punched the back of the seat to vent some frustration. I stopped looking out the window and sat down. I tried to focus on my excitement of going to Hogwarts. I'd be learning magic, making friends, and getting stronger.

The train began to move and after a few minutes my compartment door slid open and Brandy Spyres, the girl I had met in Diagon Alley, walked in.

"Hey, Abby. Can I sit with you?" she asked me.

"Sure," I said, smiling. I made room for her and her trunk in my compartment. She also had a cage containing a small snowy owl that was hooting excitedly. It's hooting awoke Arsenius, who glared at the small owl and ruffled his feathers.

"Sorry. That's Arsenius," I said to her sheepishly.

"He's a beautiful bird," she complimented.

"He's a bloody menace, that's what he is. He hates me," I replied, rolling my eyes. I poked one finger through the bars on Arsenius's cage as proof and pulled it back as he tried to bite it off. Brandy laughed loudly.

"I'm glad Chibi isn't like that," she said, opening her cage. The owl flew out, hooting happily, and zoomed around the room as fast as possible.

"She's such as spaz," Brandy said, laughing. The snowy owl landed on top of Arsenius's cage. She jumped up quickly as Arsenius tried to peck her feet. Chibi hooted as she zoomed around the cage, taunting Arsenius with her freedom.

"I wish I had an owl," said a woeful voice from the doorway. It was the blonde girl who had helped me get my trunk onto the train.

"You're that girl who helped me earlier," I said aloud, "Thanks again for that."

"No problem. My name's Jenny, by the way," she replied.

"Mine's Abby. And this is Brandy," I said, nodding to her.

"You wanna sit with us?" Brandy offered immediately. Jenny's expression brightened.

"Sure," she said, and came into the compartment, dragging her trunk behind her.

"Are you a first year as well?" Brandy asked her.

"Yeah. I'm so excited. I can't wait to learn Transfiguration…"

We talked the whole ride to Hogwarts. We were discussing the different classes and exchanging what little information we knew about Hogwarts when Arsenius hooted loudly. A brief silence fell and was then broken by Chibi's twittering. We all burst out laughing.

"What's your owl's name?" Jenny asked me.

"Arsenius. He's nothing but a nuisance. Watch," I said, lifting his cage. I stuck a finger through the bars and Arsenius began to hoot wildly and try to peck me. I pulled my finger back quickly and glared at my bird.

"Hmm…can I see him?" Jenny asked, reaching for the cage. I nodded indifferently and handed him to her. She brought the bird to eye level. Arsenius glared at her, surveying her. She stared calmly back at him. Finally Arsenius relaxed and hooted dolefully. Jenny reached for the latch on the cage. Arsenius didn't so much as blink. She put her hand in the cage and stroked his head gently. The bird didn't move. Jenny chuckled quietly as she withdrew her hand, latched the cage, and put him down. Brandy and I just stared, amazed.

When the trolley came around we all pitched in and bought some of everything. As we worked our way through the candy, talk turned to families and I stopped eating.

"Mum's a witch," Brandy was saying, "I think Dad's a Squib. He's not a Muggle, that's for sure. He works overseas and isn't home much."

"It's always just been me and Mom," Jenny said with a shrug, "She's a witch, too. She works for the Ministry of Magic."

They both looked at me expectantly.

"My parents are dead," I muttered, absentmindedly tearing up a candy wrapper, "I live with Snape. He teaches Potions at Hogwarts."

They looked curious about my parents but could tell I didn't want to talk about it, so they didn't press the matter.

"Has he taught you anything about potions?" Jenny asked me.

"No. He's the most boring, irritating person on Earth and he hates me."

"Why does he hate you?" Brandy inquired.

"Who knows? I hate him back, though," I said heatedly, "And I'll defy him every chance I get."

The compartment door slid open suddenly, interrupting our conversation. It was a girl with brown bushy hair and brown eyes. She was dressed in her Hogwarts robes. She looked flustered.

"Have any of you seen a toad?" she asked us, "A boy named Neville's lost one."

We all shook our heads wordlessly.

"Oh well. The search continues," she said with a sigh, "I expect we'll arrive shortly. You three should probably change into your robes as well."

"Alright," I said to her, "Thanks."

"Have you heard Harry Potter's on the train?" she asked us, "I've seen him."

"I expect he'll be in some of our classes," Jenny said thoughtfully, "I suppose we'll get used to seeing him, famous as he is."

The girl nodded in agreement and left.

We changed into our robes and shortly after that the train began to slow down. My excitement was mounting again. A voice echoed through the train instructing us to leave our luggage and it would be taken to the train separately. I was a little nervous about leaving my luggage behind, but there was nothing I could do about it. Arsenius hooted loudly as we left the compartment. All three of us looked back at him.

"He doesn't want to be left alone," Jenny said to me.

"Well what am I supposed to do about it? He's supposed to stay here," I replied with a shrug. Jenny looked thoughtful for a moment, then walked back in the compartment and covered Arsenius's cage with my black Muggle T-shirt.

"He can't see he's alone now," she explained. Arsenius didn't make anymore noise and we left the train with the rest of the students.

Chapter 5 (Hogwarts)

It was dark outside and I shivered a little in the cold night air. Everyone was looking curiously around the small platform. I saw a light bobbing its way towards us over the heads of the students.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" called a loud voice belonging to a giant of a man. He gave the call a few more times and told us all to follow him. We followed him, slipping and stumbling down a steep, narrow path. It was too dark to see anything on either side of the path. My friends stuck close to me, though I could barely see them because we were towards the back of the line, farthest away from any source of light.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the giant called, "jus' 'round this bend here."

A loud "Oooooh!" broke the silence a few seconds later. The narrow path opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side was a huge castle with a lot of towers. There were lights glittering in most of the windows, giving it a very mystical appearance indeed.

"No more'n four to a boat!" called the giant, pointing to a fleet of small boats sitting in the water by the shore.

Brandy, Jenny, and myself climbed into a boat. When everyone was in the boats began to move across the water by magic. We went through a long, dark tunnel, which apparently lead underneath the castle. We stopped when we reached a sort of underground harbor where we climbed out onto rocks and pebbles. We followed in the back of the line as the giant led us up a passageway into the rock, coming out onto smooth, damp grass in the shadow of the castle. We all walked up a flight of huge stone steps and crowded around a large, oak door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" the giant asked, speaking to a round-faced boy who I suspected was Neville, the boy who'd lost his toad on the train. The giant raised his huge fist and knocked three times on the door.

The door was opened by a tall, black-haired woman. She wore emerald green robes and looked very strict. She wore glasses and looked old.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said the giant.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door open wide to reveal a huge entrance hall. The stone walls were lit by torches, the ceiling was too high to see, and a magnificent marble staircase was directly in front of us.

"My sister told me Professor McGonagall teaches Transfiguration," Jenny whispered quietly to me and Brandy, "She doesn't look very nice, though, does she?"

"Wonder who's worse- her or Snape?" I murmured in response. McGonagall led all the first years into a small chamber off the hall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said loudly, "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The Four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while nay rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

She left the room and the murmuring of voices began. I pondered what she had said silently. I didn't like rules. I liked to test the limits, see how far they would stretch before I received consequences.

"What house do you think you'll be in?" Jenny was asking Brandy.

"Hopefully Ravenclaw. My mum was in Ravenclaw. How about you?" Brandy inquired.

"Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad, but I'll probably get Slytherin. My sister was in Slytherin," she replied, "How about you, Abby?"

"I dunno, just so long as it's not Hufflepuff," I answered with a shrug. They both nodded in agreement.

There was the sound of whooshing air and a few people screamed. I whirled around just in time to see about 20 pearly-white ghosts float through the back wall. They seemed to be arguing, not paying any attention at all to the first years.

"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-" One of them was saying.

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost- I say, what are you all doing here?" One said, finally noticing us.

"New students!" Exclaimed the Friar, "About to be sorted, I suppose? Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house you know?"

Jenny, Brandy, and I exchanged disgusted looks. Hufflepuff was nothing but a bunch of misfits. Mudbloods and Squibs who didn't fit in anywhere else.

"Move along now," Said Professor McGonagall's sharp voice, "The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin."

One by one the ghosts floated away, back through the wall.

"Now form a line and follow me," She said to us.

McGonagall led us through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall. I had heard stories about Hogwarts before, describing its beauty and splendor, but I had never imagined anything quite like this. It was lit by thousands of candles that floated in mid air above four long tables, the House Tables, where the older students were all sitting. The tables were laid with glittering gold plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. I could see Snape sitting there alongside Professor Quirrel and I scowled at him. He half-smiled at me and turned his head to talk to Quirrel. Rolling my eyes I noticed for the first time the ceiling, which was bewitched to look like the sky outside, according to Hogwarts, A History by Bathilda Bagshot. I had forgotten all about it until now.

"Look at all the stars," Brandy whispered, amazed, "Is there even a ceiling at all?"

"Of course there's a ceiling," I replied, "It's bewitched."

McGonagall led us to the front of the hall. We were now standing directly in front of Snape at the teacher's table. I glared at him pointedly before turning my attention on the hundreds of students, looking over the first years.

My eyes were almost immediately drawn to the Ravenclaw table where sat my sister, Mary. She had cut her brown hair since the last time I saw her, it now only reached her shoulders. Her sad brown eyes found mine. I sent her the same death glare I had sent Snape and turned my attention away from her. McGonagall had just placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool was a ragged black hat that I knew to be the Sorting Hat. Everyone was now staring at it, silent, waiting for something. Suddenly the brim of the hat opened wide and it began to sing.

"Oh you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a thinking cap!"

The whole hall burst into applause when the hat completed its song. Admittedly I was impressed that a hat could come up with rhymes like that. The hat bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still. Professor McGonagall stepped forward, holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit down on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!" Professor McGonagall said. The first girl walked forward anxiously and tried on the hat. There was a moments pause before the hat shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!" and the girl went to join the table.

Chapter 6 (The Sorting)

Jenny was the first out of our group to be called up to the Sorting Hat. She looked a little nervous as she approached the stool, but mostly she looked curious. She sat on the stool and McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her blonde head. A few minutes passed and I held my breath in anticipation.

"SLYTHERIN!" shouted the Sorting Hat. Brandy and I clapped loudly along with the Slytherins who were already seated. A few more people went, then the hall fell silent as Harry Potter's name was called. Whispers broke out all across the hall and people craned their necks to get a good look at him. When the hat shouted out "GRYFFINDOR!" Harry Potter received the loudest cheer yet. So loud that almost no one heard when McGonagall called out "Prewett, Abigail."

Almost no one was paying attention to me. They were still craning to get a look at Potter. Brandy was paying attention however, and so was Jenny. At the High Table Snape was watching me with no expression on his face whatsoever. I also noticed that the man sitting at the center of the table, in a large gold chair, was watching me curiously. He had long white hair and a beard, half-moon spectacles, and bright blue eyes. It could be none other than Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of our school.

McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on my head and it fell down over my eyes, enveloping me in complete blackness. Unease pricked at the back of my mind. I didn't like being surrounded by people and unable to see them.

"Hmm…interesting," said a tiny voice in my ear, the voice of the Sorting Hat, "You've had a rough time, haven't you? It's affected you greatly. The loss of your parents. A terrible tragedy indeed."

"I don't need your analysis of my past, just sort me," I hissed quietly.

"Hmm…well you've got brains, no doubt about that. You would fit well in Ravenclaw…"

"Don't you dare put me in Ravenclaw," I muttered darkly, thinking of my sister. I couldn't bear being in the same house as her.

"Indeed. Your mind is full of angry thoughts. You are too young to be so angry…but you have your reasons. Very well. Better be: SLYTHERIN!"

The hat shouted this last word and the Great Hall erupted in an automatic applause. I wrenched the hat off my head and handed it to McGonagall, glad to be able to see again. Jenny and Brandy were the only ones clapping with genuine enthusiasm. At least, that's what I thought until I turned my head slightly to see Snape clapping the loudest, though his face remained blank. Dumbledore's clap was slow, as if he was deep in thought.

I walked over to the Slytherin Table and sat down beside Jenny. I was clapped on the back by my fellow Slytherins, then we all settled down to watch the Sorting. When Brandy's name was called she skipped over to the stool and sat down airily. A few people chuckled appreciatively at her carefree attitude. I even saw Dumbledore smiling. Brandy spent only a few seconds under the hat before it cried "SLYTHERIN!" and she skipped over to where we sat, grinning.

"Alright, we all made Slytherin," Jenny said happily. Brandy opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the silence that fell as Albus Dumbledore stood up. The Sorting was complete. He was beaming at all the students, his arms opened wide.

"Welcome!" he said airily, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

Then he sat back down as almost everyone clapped and cheered. Jenny and I exchanged startled, confused looks while Brandy clapped loudly with the rest of the school. My attention was drawn immediately to the fact that the golden plates were now piled high with food. Chicken, pork chops, lamb chops, roast beef, sausage, bacon, steak, potatoes cooked every way possible, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, and a million other things.

As I began eating I noticed for the first time, a number of ghosts were seated around the Great Hall amongst the students. The one at the Slytherin table was seated beside a pale-faced, blonde boy. The ghost had blank, staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was the only ghost who looked like this, however. The others around the hall were all talking animatedly with the students.

The students at the Slytherin table were all talking amongst themselves as they ate, however. The pale-faced boy sitting beside the ghost started talking to me, to take his mind off the ghost, probably.

"My name's Draco Malfoy. What's yours?" he asked me. He spoke with a superior tone that made me not like him very much. Out of curiosity, I talked to him anyway.

"Abby Prewett," I replied, "Nice to meet you."

"Prewett? Where have I heard that name before?" Draco mused aloud. An older student, who happened to overhear, spoke up.

"I'll bet I know where. It was in the paper, a little over a month ago- a double murder. Julia Prewett and her husband Tommy Rivers," said the older student. I froze as a few students looked at me curiously, including my friends. I avoided their eyes and focused my attention entirely on my food. When I didn't say anything else, they lost interest and began to talk to other people.

When everyone finished eating the food disappeared from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later an assortment of desserts appeared. Ice cream of every flavor you could think of, pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs, doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, puddings…I tried a little bit of everything. Eventually the desserts disappeared, too, and I began to feel sleepy. Dumbledore got to his feet again and the hall fell silent.

"Ahem- Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well," Dumbledore said, "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor, on the right-hand side, is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death," Dumbledore said somberly. I suppressed a laugh at his serious tone and immediately decided that was one of the first things I wanted to check out.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. He gave his wand a flick and a long golden ribbon flew out the end and shaped itself into words.

"Everyone pick your favorite tune," Said Dumbledore, "And off we go!"

The entire school burst out in song at different tunes and volumes and tempos so that it gave me a headache. I refused to sing and sat there the entire time, picking at the fingernails on my right hand. I did get a laugh, however, when the last ones to finish singing were two red-headed, freckled twins who sang to the tune of a slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted the last few lines with his wand.

"Ah, music," Said Dumbledore, wiping his eyes, "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Chapter 7 (Slytherin)

"First years, follow the prefects," People began to say throughout the hall. Prefects were law-abiders who had the ability to dwell out punishments on troublemakers. The Prefects for Slytherin were Thomas Stump and Amy Frost. The first years all stood up and started to follow them out into the Entrance Hall. I walked with Jenny and Brandy as the Prefects led us towards a door that branched of the Entrance Hall. We were at the back of the line and I was about to walk in when a hand grabbed my shoulder. I let out a startled yelp and whirled around. It was Snape.

"Oh. What do you want?" I muttered, blushing at the fact that I had yelped. Brandy and Jenny looked him over suspiciously.

"To talk to you. In my office," he replied lightly.

"Why?" I asked darkly.

"Because I want to. You two can go on," Snape said to Jenny and Brandy. They couldn't do anything but turn and follow the rest of the Slytherins into the dungeons. We watched as the other students disappeared around a corner to the right. Snape beckoned for me to follow him into the dungeons. He took a passage to the left. Curious, I followed him.

He led me to his office, which was dark and had jars of various things on the shelves along the wall. Curious I peered into a jar of living cockroaches that were hissing. I tapped the glass and they squirmed angrily.

"Leave them alone, Abigail," Snape said suddenly. I glanced at him as he sat down at his desk. I tapped the jar twice more before walking over to his desk and flopping down in the chair in front of it.

"Did you know I'm Head of Slytherin House?" Snape asked me. I groaned loudly.

"No, I didn't know that. There's no escaping you, is there?"

He chose to ignore that. He studied me curiously as if he was really seeing me for the first time. His scrutiny irritated me.

"Are you going to tell me why you brought me hear or are you just going to keep staring at me like that?" I demanded loudly.

"Well, since I am your guardian, I thought I should tell you that…if you need help with anything, I'd be willing to help you. If you need some help with your schoolwork or if other students start giving you a hard time…"

It was my turn to study him curiously. Why was he being so nice to me all of a sudden?

"What caused this change of heart?" I asked apprehensively.

"What do you mean?"

"You hate me, that's what I mean."

"I don't hate you, Abigail, you're just-"

"A waste of your time? Yeah, I get that a lot," I said hatefully, "And it's Abby, not Abigail! And I don't need your help!"

I stomped towards the door. On my way out I reached out and knocked the jar of cockroaches off the shelf. I heard it crash as I walked out the door.

It wasn't until after I had stomped angrily away that I realized I had no idea where I was going. I needed his help. He probably realized it by now, too. I wasn't going to go back and ask him for help. No way. I wandered around for the better part of 2 hours, looking for anything that could be the Slytherin dormitories. I found a number of secret passageways hidden by portraits, but none of them led to the Slytherin dorms.

I had just found my way back to a suit of armor I knew I had passed four times already when Snape stepped out of the shadows. He was half-smirking.

"What was that about not needing my help?" he asked sardonically.

"Shut up and show me how to find the Slytherin dormitories. I would know already if it weren't for you," I growled in response. He inclined his head slightly and motioned for me to walk with him.

"I am really starting to not like you," Snape said to me.

"Well I really don't like you, either," I retorted coolly.

The entrance to the Slytherin dorms was nothing more than a blank slab of wall in the dungeons. I had probably passed it a thousand times trying to find a place it could be.

"The password's 'serpent'," Snape said to me. The stone slab rolled aside and I walked inside. The stone slab closed behind me, separating Snape and I.

The Slytherin common room was a low, long underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was slowly dying in an elaborately carved mantelpiece before me. I could see the silhouettes of a few high-backed chairs, only two of which were occupied. Slumped back in the chairs, sound asleep, were Brandy and Jenny. I nudged them awake.

"Abby. What did Snape want?" Jenny asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Something stupid. You guys stayed up waiting on me?" I asked, slightly touched.

"Well we tried," Brandy answered, yawning, "You were gone for a long time."

"Tell us what happened," Jenny urged. I sighed and sat down in one of the chairs to tell them what had happened.

"I wonder why he was trying to be nice all of a sudden?" Brandy wondered aloud, "I got the impression he didn't like you at all when we were in Diagon Alley."

"He doesn't like me. He even told me that right before I came in here. If he doesn't like me, why'd he offer to help me? Why'd he even take me in, in the first place, after-…" I stopped short and looked away, thinking of my parents demise. My friends seemed to guess my train of thought. They had heard that older boy at dinner who talked about my parents. They'd put two and two together.

"It certainly is strange, Snape being nice," Jenny agreed. She yawned suddenly, very loudly.

"I'm exhausted," I said suddenly, "I've been wondering around in the hallway for hours. I am so ready to go to sleep."

"The girls dormitories are through here," Brandy said, nodding to a door to the left of the fireplace. I followed her and Jenny through the door. It led to a stone hallway lit with green torches. There were a lot of green doors with silver door knobs. Brandy and Jenny led me into the one that was farthest away.

We opened the door and stepped down into a room that was at a lower level than the hallway. It was a round, circular room. The floor and walls were stone. There were five four-poster beds hung with green, velvet curtains. There were silver torches with green flames at regular intervals all around the room. There were no windows. There was a portrait of a snake that slithered silently around its frame, looking around at us from time to time. The room had an eerie beauty to it and I fell in love with it immediately.

"Wow," I said breathlessly, "This room looks amazing."

"Shh…Pansy Parkinson is already asleep," Jenny whispered, nodding to the only bed that was already occupied.

"Okay. Goodnight you guys," I whispered, tiptoeing over to a bed where I noticed my trunk and Arsenius's cage sitting. I knew Hogwarts had an Owlery and I figured Arsenius was probably up in the Owlery, with the school owls. I pulled the green curtains around my bed and changed into my pajamas. The sheets, which were silver satin, were the softest sheets I had ever laid on and as soon as my head hit the satin pillow case I was asleep.

Chapter 8 (Classes)

My first week at Hogwarts was probably the most challenging week of my life. Just trying to find my classes on time was enough to make it so. There were 142 staircases at Hogwarts. They were all different shapes and sizes and they liked to change. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless asked politely- some turned out to not even be doors at all, just wall. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other. It was difficult to find your way around because it seemed to be ever-changing. The dungeons were the only place I had no trouble navigating and that was because I had spent hours wandering around there my first night.

The secret passageways I had found proved helpful, too. For instance, there was a passageway hidden by a statue of some famous wizard that led to a spot directly across from the Transfiguration classroom. Transfiguration class was taught by Professor McGonagall and our first class with her, she gave us a lecture. Fortunately for me I had long ago learned to tune things out when I didn't want to hear them. I barely glanced up when she turned her desk into a pig. Jenny, however, was listening attentively to everything she said.

"Today I will expect you all to attempt to transfigure matchsticks into needles," She said as she handed out matches, "I don't expect any of you to succeed."

I looked at my wand which I held in my left hand. It felt extremely natural for it to be there. I was nervous and excited about trying magic. I didn't really understand Transfiguration all that much. I looked around at my classmates. Everyone was tapping their matchsticks, trying to get them to do something. Jenny had her face screwed up in concentration. I looked back down at my matchstick. No one else was having any luck, so I decided to give it my best shot. I focused all my attention on the matchstick, envisioning it as a needle. I prodded it with the tip of my wand. It shimmered for a moment, then turned silver and pointed. I gaped openly at my needle.

"Hey, how'd you do that?" Brandy asked, frowning. I shrugged my shoulders, just as baffled as she was. Curious, McGonagall walked over to where I was sitting. For a moment she just stared at my needle. Then she swiped it up and examined it. She put another matchstick down and told me to do it again. I transfigured the matchstick into a needle again. McGonagall inclined her head.

"Looks like you have a natural talent for Transfiguration, Miss Prewett. Well done. Five points to Slytherin," she said. My fellow Slytherins clapped and redoubled their efforts to transfigure their matchsticks in the hope of getting more points.

By the end of the class only I had successfully transfigured my matchstick into a needle. Jenny's had turned silver, but it wasn't really a needle.

"I'm going to practice loads. By our next class with McGonagall, I'm going to be able to transfigure a matchstick into a needle," Jenny said as we headed towards our next class.

"Who cares about Transfiguration? It's Defense Against the Dark Arts I'm looking forward to," Brandy said eagerly. It just so happened that's what we had next.

Defense Against the Dark Arts turned out to be a joke, however. Quirrel was twitchy and he stuttered a lot. He was frightened of everything. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic to protect him from a vampire he'd met in Romania who he was afraid was coming back to get him someday. Brandy looked disgusted as we left the class.

"Stupid blighter. How can he teach Defense Against the Dark Arts? He's scared of his own subject!" she exclaimed.

From that day forward Brandy was determined to spend a good deal of time scaring the daylights out of Professor Quirrel, which wasn't at all difficult to do. She'd hide behind suits of armor and jump out from behind them when he passed. He'd yelp loudly and Jenny and I would get a good chuckle out of it as Brandy asked him a random question about our homework in her sweetest, most innocent voice. We soon learned that Brandy had a knack for getting away with anything. She got along fabulously with everyone, even people she hated. The teachers all adored her. None of them would ever send her to detention for anything.

Some of our other classes were Charms and History of Magic. Charms was taught by a tiny little wizard named Professor Flitwick. He had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. History of Magic was the only class taught by a ghost. It was the most boring out of all my classes. He had a monotonous voice and he droned on and on. We had Astrology every Thursday night at midnight where we studied the night sky through our telescopes. We also went three times a week out to the greenhouses for Herbology with Professor Sprout.

Friday morning at breakfast Jenny checked our schedule for the day. Brandy munched on a piece of toast and peered over her shoulder.

"Ah, not the Gryffindors!" she groaned loudly.

"What?" I asked curiously.

"We've got double Potions with the Gryffindors," Jenny said with a sigh.

"On the bright side, though, we've got Friday afternoons off," Brandy added, grinning, "We could go for a walk around the grounds. I hear there's all sorts of animals in the lake- even a giant squid!"

"I'm not going anywhere near a giant sq-" I began, but was cut off by the sound of about a hundred owls flying into the Great Hall, delivering mail to their owners. I hadn't received anything, of course, but I looked up to see Brandy's owl, Chibi streaking towards us with Arsenius close behind her, screeching angrily. Chibi landed in a bowl of scrambled eggs, sending eggs flying everywhere. I picked her up out of the bowl and picked bits of egg off her before handing her to Brandy.

"Sorry. I don't know what's got into Arsenius," I said to her, looking up at my owl. He glared at me reproachfully and landed on Jenny's shoulder, much to her surprise.

"You should call that bird 'Arse' for short," Brandy muttered, taking a letter from Chibi. I laughed loudly. Jenny just shook her head and fed Arsenius a bit of toast. He hooted affectionately at her after gulping down the toast and he flew off.

"Abby, I think your bird is in love with Jenny," Brandy said, grinning.

"I don't know why that stupid owl hates me so much," I said gloomily, "At least Chibi isn't like that."

Chibi hooted happily and flew from Brandy's shoulder to mine. Then she nipped my ear and began to fly around my head. Brandy and Jenny laughed.

As we left the hall to head down to the dorms to get our things I spotted Mary walking towards me. I had been avoiding her for the past week. I'd see her walking towards me and I would take off in the opposite direction. I did this now, making sure there was no way she could catch up to us before we disappeared into the Slytherin Common Room, where she couldn't follow.

"Abby, who is that girl?" Jenny asked me finally as I gathered my things for Potions class, "Every time you see her, you take off."

I looked at my friends. They both looked curious.

"She's my sister," I muttered, "and I hate her."

They didn't ask any more questions after that and we went to the Potions classroom.

Chapter 9 (Potions Class)

The Potions classroom was in one of the dungeons. I'd found it before. It wasn't that far from Snape's office. Jenny, Brandy, and myself lined up outside of the classroom along with our fellow Slytherins and the Gryffindors. When Snape opened the door we all filled in. As I passed him he smirked at me. I scowled. Jenny, Brandy, and I were the last ones in and there was no where else to sit but at a desk directly in front of Snape's. We sat down and I looked around curiously. There were pickled animals in jars all along the shelves.

As it turns out, it was a good thing we had Potions with the Gryffindors. I had thought Snape hated me…but he was a million times worse to Harry Potter. Snape started the class by taking roll call. He paused at Potter's name.

"Ah yes," he said quietly, "Harry Potter. Our new- celebrity."

Draco and his friends Crabbe and Goyle, sniggered quietly. Snape finished the roll call, not pausing at my name but looking at me and putting extra emphasis on Abigail. My other teachers had asked me if I preferred to be called Abby. Of course Snape wouldn't. He completed the roll call and looked up at the class. His black eyes glittered coldly in the faint light of the dungeon.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," He began in a voice that was barely more than a whisper, but everyone heard it because no one dared speak. It reminded me a bit of McGonagall's class.

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach," Snape said. I chuckled quietly, trying to ignore the goose bumps that had raised on my arms.

Silence followed his little speech. The girl whom I had met on the train, the one looking for a toad, was on the edge of her seat, looking desperate to prove that she wasn't a dunderhead. Harry Potter and his red-headed friend exchanged looks with raised eyebrows.

"Potter!" Snape said suddenly, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Potter glanced at his friend, who looked as clueless as he was. The girl's hand shot into the air. Jenny and Brandy were watching the altercation, fascinated and curious.

"The Draught of Living Death," I whispered quietly to my friends.

"I don't know, sir," said Potter quietly. Snape's lip curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut- fame clearly isn't everything. Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Snape asked him. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were shaking with silent laughter as Potter looked around, clueless. I allowed myself a small smile. I knew the answer to this. Snape himself had told me.

"I don't know, sir," Potter said finally.

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Snape asked, ignoring the girl whose hand was still up, "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"I don't know," said Potter quietly, "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

Hermione was the girl with her hand in the air. She was now standing up, her hand still raised. A few people laughed, including me. Snape was not pleased.

"Sit down," he barked at Hermione, "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. I quickly scribbled down what I had already known.

"And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."

As the lesson continued Snape put us all in pairs. I got paired with Brandy and Jenny got paired with Malfoy. We were to mix a simple potion that would cure boils. Snape swept around the dungeon classroom, watching everyone work, and criticizing almost everyone except Draco and myself. I was taking the cauldron off the fire when I accidentally burned my finger. I swore quietly and shook my hand furiously, trying to ease the pain of the burn. I caught Snape smirking at me and took another opportunity to glare at him.

Despite my burn, my potion turned out perfectly. I was the first one done and Snape peered curiously into my cauldron.

"Well done, Abigail," he said to me. I shrugged and didn't say anything. I wanted to snap at him that I didn't like being called Abigail, but I wasn't going to snap at him in front of the Gryffindors. Snape was commenting on Draco's perfectly stewed slugs when a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Clouds of acrid green smoke filled the room. Neville Longbottom had somehow managed to melt his cauldron into a twisted blob and their potion was spreading across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. I leapt onto my stool before the potion could reach me and covered my face with my robes so I wouldn't breathe in the foul-smelling smoke.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape furiously, clearing away the potion with one wave of his wand, "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Neville whimpered as angry red boils started to pop up all over his body.

"Take him to the hospital wing," Snape spat at the Gryffindor boy next to Neville, then he rounded on Potter, "You- Potter- why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."

Potter opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again when his friend stepped pointedly on his foot and muttered something.

"That wasn't very fair," Jenny pointed out quietly to me.

"Who cares?" I muttered in response, "The more points the Gryffindors lose, the better it is for us."

"Good point," she said, nodding her head.

When the class ended an hour later, Brandy, Jenny, and I cleared away our stuff and headed for the door.

"Abigail, can you wait a moment?" Snape said before I had even reached the door. I let out a frustrated sigh and turned my head to glare at him.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," I said to my friends. They nodded and left. I walked back towards Snape's desk. I dropped my bag on top of one of the tables and raised an eyebrow at Snape.

"McGonagall tells me you transfigured a matchstick into a needle on the first try," he said to me.

"Yeah, I did. So what?"

"She said you were the only one out of the Slytherins to accomplish it," he replied, "And you were the first one to finish your potion today. I am impressed."

I shrugged half-heartedly, not really knowing how to take his compliments.

"How are you doing in all your other classes?" he inquired.

"Fair enough, I suppose," I said carefully, "History of Magic is boring, Charms is easy, and Quirrel irritates me, but I'm good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, too."

"Yes, Quirrel does tend to be rather annoying most of the time," he agreed.

"You know something- until today, I thought you hated me. You don't hate me though, do you? Not near as much as you hate Potter."

"No, I don't hate you. You can be annoying, but…as far as children go, you aren't so bad," he replied with a shrug. I shifted uncomfortably. I didn't know what to make of his niceness…or at least, as close to nice as he could get. It was so much easier for me to hate him…

"Can I go? Jenny, Brandy, and I were supposed to go for a walk around the grounds," I muttered without looking at him.

"Of course. I will see you later, Abigail," he said dismissively. I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder.

"It's Abby, not Abigail," I said coolly as I headed for the door. He chuckled quietly.

"Have a nice walk around the grounds, Abigail, and be sure to stay out of the Forbidden Forest."

Chapter 10 (Exploring)

I found Jenny and Brandy down by the lake. They were peering in the water curiously.

"Seen the giant squid yet?" I asked as I approached.

"No. I saw a turtle though," Brandy said brightly, "What did Snape want?"

"He just asked me about my classes. Hey, do you guys want to go into the Forbidden Forest?" I asked eagerly, looking towards the darkness of the trees.

"Uh…Gee, Abby, I'd love to, but I'm supposed to meet Ian outside the Ravenclaw dormitories," Brandy said, smiling mischievously.

"Who's Ian?" I asked, frowning.

"A second-year Ravenclaw boy," Jenny said, rolling her eyes, "Brandy fancies him."

"I do not," Brandy said defensively, "We're just friends."

"Sure you are."

"What about you, Jenny? You wanna explore the forest?" I asked her.

"Not really. I wanted to go back up to the castle and practice Transfiguration. Will you come with me? Maybe you could help."

"Alright, then."

I did spend a little time trying to help Jenny with her Transfiguration, but as the day grew later I stretched out on one of the black leather couches in the Common Room to read a book of more complicated spells I had checked out of the library. I dog-eared quite a few interesting pages. Slowly, the Common Room empty as everyone headed off to bed. Brandy was the last one to go to bed. She asked if I was coming.

"I think I'll stay up reading for a while. I'll see you in the morning," I said, turning a page in my book.

"Alright. Goodnight," she said, heading for the dormitories.

"Goodnight."

I waited ten minutes after Brandy left before flipping back a few pages in my book to a page that I had dog-eared. It was a page on something called a Disillusionment Charm that made the recipient almost completely invisible, depending on how well it was done. I pulled out my wand and, after reading the page thoroughly, attempted my first ever Disillusionment Charm. Something cold trickled down my back, making me shiver. I looked down at my feet- only I had no feet. Or legs, or a stomach, or arms…I was completely invisible. I grinned to myself and stowed my wand in my invisible pocket. Now would be the perfect opportunity to check out the Forbidden Forest.

It wasn't hard to sneak out of the castle completely undetected. I walked right past Filch, the caretaker, without being found out. I even walked past McGonagall. I was feeling very accomplished as I left the castle. The moon was bright, the night air cool. I inhaled deeply, loving the night air. I went directly to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Deep within the forest something howled. I walked in fearlessly.

I stuck close to the edge of the forest because I didn't want to risk getting lost forever in the Forbidden Forest. A cloud of bats flew over my head. I grinned and tried to run and catch up with them. I loved bats. I couldn't catch up with them, however, and soon enough they were out of sight. I wandered around the forest for almost an hour, looking for any reason it might be made forbidden by the school.

All of a sudden, loud howling surrounded me. It wasn't the howl of a werewolf, thankfully, just a regular wolf. Still, a wolf could be rather frightening. I thought perhaps it was only one and the howl was echoing. Surely I could take on one wolf? But no. It was a whole pack. Within seconds they had me surrounded. Their yellow eyes were fixed on my invisible form.

"I guess wolves can see through Disillusionment Charms, huh?" I murmured aloud. I had my wand out and ready. Growling and snarling the wolves converged on me. They were drooling and snapping at me.

"Stupefy!" I shouted, flicking my wand. Three of the wolves fell back with a yelp, the other two jumped. They knocked me to the ground and my wand went flying. I covered my face with my arms and kicked at the wolves on top of me. I knocked one of them to the side, but it came back even more angry than before. I punched and kicked at every inch of them I could reach, but to no avail. They were too large and too heavy for me to get rid of on my own. I cringed, waiting for the worst. I could feel their hot breath, hear their low growls, then-

"Confringo!" shouted a familiar voice. The wolves went flying off of me. I lay there, motionless. Then Snape appeared in my line of view, furious as I had ever seen him.

"Foolish girl! You must have a death wish!" he snarled at me. I didn't say anything. He reached down with one hand and grabbed my arm, quite accurately considering I was invisible.

"I…uh…uhm…" I stammered, unable to say anything. He looked me over, or at least tried to. There was a moment of silence and Snape took a deep breath, calming himself, but did not release my arm.

"This Disillusionment Charm is flawless. Did you cast it yourself?" he asked me.

"Yeah," I replied, my mouth dry.

"Lift it. I want to be able to see you."

"I, uh…didn't read that far in the book yet," I muttered, thinking now that it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

"What an incredibly stupid thing to do," Snape said, the exact same thing I had been thinking. He tapped me on the head with his wand and I felt something hot trickle down my back. I became visible once more.

My arms and face were covered with scratches. I was also covered in dirt and leaves from the ground.

"What were you thinking?" Snape demanded, his grip on my arm tightening, "You could have been killed! Why did you come here after I told you not to?"

I didn't say anything. I bit my lip nervously. Snape pushed me hard against the nearest tree.

"Did you do it just because I told you not to, or do you have a death wish?!" he challenged furiously.

"N-no…" I finally managed to say, "I did it because…because I was curious. I wanted to see what was in here."

There was more silence. Snape took a few more breaths and released me from where he had me pinned to a tree.

"There are reasons, Abigail Prewett, that some things are forbidden. Now, let's get you out of here," he said finally. I nodded my head. I grabbed my wand off the ground.

"I could have taken them," I said as we walked out of the forest, "There were more before you arrived."

He shook his head and didn't say anything.

We walked back to the castle together and down to the dungeons. Instead of taking the hallway back to the Slytherin Common Room he motioned for me to follow him down to his office.

Snape sat me on the edge of his desk and with one wave of his wand removed all trace of dirt and leaves from me. He then went over every inch of me, healing my scratches with his wand. He didn't speak the whole time he was doing it and neither did I, but when he went to remove my gloves I popped his hand away.

"No," I said to him.

"Why do you always keep your hands covered?" he asked curiously.

"Don't ask me that. I don't want to talk about that," I muttered, looking away. He surveyed me quietly for a minute. Finally he shrugged and continued to heal the scratches on my arms. When he was finished I got up off the desk and checked my watch. It was 2:00 in the morning.

"Go to bed, Abigail. Get some sleep," Snape said to me. I nodded my head tiredly and headed for the door. I paused in the doorway.

"Don't call me Abigail," I said sleepily, "…but thanks…for saving me and healing me."

He inclined his head slightly and I left the room.

Chapter 11 (Bullies)

A few days later I found myself sitting in the Common Room, reading my Potions textbook, when two 7th year Slytherins, who had been watching me from across the room, came and stood directly in front of me. One of them, a boy with short blonde hair and bright blue eyes, snatched my book from me.

"Whatcha reading, firstie?" he asked, flipping through the pages of my text book.

"A Potions textbook? What a nerd!" guffawed the other one. He was bald and had the same bright blue eyes as the other one. They were bigger than me and probably stronger, but I wasn't scared of them.

"Give me back my book," I said angrily.

"Ooh, this little firstie has a nasty temper. Where'd you get that scar on your eye, firstie? Did you get into a fight with a toddler?" sneered the first boy.

"Looks like someone tried to cut her eye out," said the second boy. My wand was lying right beside me. It took me only a second to grab it and yell "Furnunculus!"

The boys were blasted backwards by the strength of my spell. When they got to their feet angry boils were springing up all over their bodies. It was a curse I had learned in the library book I had been reading. This was the first time I had used it and, I had to say, I was impressed.

"You little b-" the second boy began, but was cut off by the older boy who strode across the room and tossed my Potions textbook into the fire. Furious, I leapt to my feet.

"That cost me money!" I shouted at him.

"I don't care," he retorted coolly. I let out a furious growl.

"Locomotor Mortis!" I shouted, waving my wand again. The first boy's legs locked together and he fell to the floor. The second boy tried to run towards the door, but I cursed him too and he fell to the floor beside his friend. Then, anxious because I had cursed two students, and pissed because they had burned my Potions book, I left the Common Room and went out onto Hogwarts grounds.

Snape found me out there and hour later, sitting up in a tree. I saw him as he approached and didn't even bother trying to hide. It looked as if he knew exactly where I was. He stopped as he reached the tree and looked up at me. I stared out over the lake, pretending he wasn't there.

"I hear you cursed two older students, Abigail," he called up to me.

"Prove it," I challenged, looking down at him. I was expecting him to look angry, but he didn't. He sort-of smiled at me.

"I can't," he said with a shrug, "But it was some really nifty magic. Where did you learn it?"

"Hmm…if I was to have learned those spells and used them, which I am not saying I did, I would have to say I learned them in a library book," I replied smartly.

"Was it your first time using them or had you practiced them before?" he inquired.

"First time," I answered with a shrug.

"You did good."

I stared at him wordlessly.

"Say that again," I said, frowning confusedly.

"You did good," he repeated.

"I cursed two 7th years!" I exclaimed.

"And, I'm assuming you had a good reason?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then I am not concerned about it. I'm impressed. You're only a first year, but you beat two 7th years."

"They threw my Potions textbook into the fireplace," I muttered quietly.

"So that's why you cursed them?"

"The second time. The first time it was because…they were teasing me about my scar," I admitted softly, absently touching the scar over my left eye.

"Ah. Is that from-?"

"The men who killed my parents," I finished faintly. He didn't say anything. I got the feeling maybe he didn't really know what to say. With a sigh I jumped down out of the tree, landing on my feet beside him.

"We can get you another Potions textbook," he said to me, "From the extra ones in the store cupboard."

"Alright," I said with a weak smile. I think it was his idea of trying to cheer me up.

I followed Snape down to the Potions classroom and over to the store cupboard. He unlocked it and turned on the overhead light. There were rows and rows of shelves containing herbs of all sorts and various jars filled with various things, including some already made potions. Books were stacked up on the floor all the way up to where the first shelf was. There were books for all grades. They were by no means new books. Covers were torn, stained, or missing. Some had pages missing.

We found one that wasn't so bad. It had a huge dark stain on the back that looked like blood, but was probably just red ink. It seemed not to have any pages missing and wasn't doodled in very much. Snape flipped through the pages, making sure there weren't any missing. When he reached the back cover he paused briefly, a slightly surprised look on his face. Then he cleared his expression, closed the book, and handed it to me.

Later that night I was sitting by the fire again, reading my textbook. I had found a lot of scribbled notes and hints from the previous owner, whom the back cover identified as 'The Half-Blood Prince'. I couldn't wait to try out his hints.

"Hey Abby," Jenny said as she and Brandy walked into the Common Room, "Did you hear what happened to those 7th year boys you cursed?"

"No, what happened?" I asked, frowning slightly.

"Rumor has it they were given detention," Brandy replied, "…by Professor Snape."

"Huh," I said, intrigued by this new information. I turned my attention back to my Potions book, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about Snape. He had done something nice for me. Maybe he didn't dislike me as much as I thought he did. Maybe that's just the way he always was. I already knew he didn't like to show any emotion. Maybe this was his subtle way of showing he didn't dislike me.

I stayed up late that night reading my Potions book. At a little past midnight the entrance to the Common Room opened. Startled, I grabbed my wand and jumped up. Then I heard a soft chuckle.

"Why are you still up, Abigail. You should be sleeping," said Snape's voice. He stepped out of the shadows into the light of the fire.

"I was reading. What are you doing?" I inquired.

"Putting up a notice. The first years are going to have flying lessons with the Gryffindors on Thursday," he replied.

"Oh."

He pinned up the notice and walked back towards the entrance.

"You should go to sleep. Goodnight, Abigail," he said as he left. I didn't bother telling him to call me Abby.

Thursday afternoon I made my way out to the Quidditch pitch with my fellow Slytherin first years. We arrived shortly before the Gryffindors. There were twenty broomsticks lined up on the ground. The teacher, Madam Hooch, was a woman with short grey hair and yellow eyes that reminded me of a hawks.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked, "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

I looked down at the broomstick beside me. It was black and some of the paint was chipped.

"Stick your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch, "and say Up!"

"UP!" Everyone shouted.

My broomstick jumped into my hand, almost knocking me off balance. Beside me Brandy's broomstick was floating upwards slowly towards her hand.

"Great, I got the lazy broomstick," she muttered to me and grinned. I smiled and shook my head. Jenny's broom hadn't even lifted up off the ground. It was turning in circles.

"Up!" Jenny said forcefully, but the broom ignored her. She sighed impatiently and glared at her broomstick. It floated upwards into her hand.

Madam Hooch walked around, checking our grips. She stopped at Draco who was beside me.

"You're holding it wrong. Your hands should be here and here," She said, indicting to points on the handle.

"I've been flying for years," He protested.

"Well then you've been doing it wrong for years," She retorted and everyone laughed, except a few Slytherins. Jenny, Brandy, and I shared a grin.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch, "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and the come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle- three- two-"

Neville kicked off hard before the whistle had even touched her lips. He was rising straight up, until he reached 20 feet. Finally, he looked down, turned white as a sheet, and fell off sideways. He hit the ground with a loud WHAM that reverberated in my head. Everyone rushed towards him and I looked up. His broomstick was still rising and starting to drift towards the forest. I pulled out my wand, pointed it, and said Accio. The broomstick came straight back into my hand. I turned around in time to see Madam Hooch escorting Neville to the hospital wing.

As soon as they were gone Draco burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" He asked with a smirk. The other Slytherins joined in his laughter. I tossed Neville's broomstick onto the ground and sat down with my back to the whole thing. I only turned around when I heard Potter and Draco fighting. Draco had picked up Neville's remembrall off the ground and was on his broomstick, going to put it in a tree or something. Potter went after him. I watched them flying and was impressed with both their skills. I wanted to try out flying, but didn't figure it'd be worth getting caught, which did happen to Potter. Professor McGonagall had seen him from her window and she quickly escorted him back up to the castle.

Madam Hooch returned a few minutes later and commenced with our flying lessons. It felt good to finally be in the air, even if I was only allowed to hover for a moment before touching back down to the ground. I watched as Madam Hooch stowed the broomsticks in the broom shed and then led us all back up to the castle.

Chapter 12 (Flying)

I waited until everyone had gone to sleep that night, under pretense of reading a library book. When the Common Room was empty I cast my Disillusionment Charm. Completely invisible, I left the Common Room and made my way down to the grounds. I was almost out of the castle when I saw Potter and two of his friends sneaking around the stairs. Apparently I wasn't the only one sneaking about. I decided it was best to ignore them and continued on my way.

I made my way out to the broom shed to 'borrow' a broomstick. The door was locked, of course. I pulled out my wand and tapped the lock.

"Alohomora," I whispered and I heard the lock click open. I chose the same broomstick I had ridden earlier that day. Flying had felt so wonderful, so amazing. I had felt so free…so happy. It had been a long time since I felt like that. I closed the door to the broom shed and swung a leg over my broomstick.

I flew for hours- around the castle, over the forest a ways, and over the lake, letting my feet trail in the water, which is where I was when I heard a voice.

"Abigail!" said a loud, familiar voice. Startled, I lost grip of my broomstick. I turned upside down, then fell headfirst into the lake. For some reason I froze up and started drowning. I thrashed around and swallowed what felt like half the lake before I felt myself being lifted out of the water. I was deposited onto the shore with a plop and I began coughing up water. Something warm trickled down my back as my Disillusionment Charm was lifted. I was still coughing up water, still choking, unable to breathe.

"Anapneo!" Snape said, waving his wand again. With a final heave I coughed up all the water in my lungs. I took long, deep breaths, unable to speak, my eyes watering. When I could finally speak again, I glared at Snape.

"What did you do that for?" I demanded furiously, "You almost killed me!"

"I didn't know you were going to fall," he retorted, "and I didn't almost kill you. You're alive, aren't you?"

"Barely," I snapped back. He didn't say anything for a while and I got the feeling that Snape felt guilty about making me fall and being defensive was his way of dealing with it.

"Never mind," I said with a sigh, "Forget about it."

He extended a hand and helped me to my feet.

"What were you doing anyway?" he asked me.

"Flying," I replied promptly.

"Really?" he asked sarcastically, "I meant why were you flying? It's almost midnight. You should be in bed."

"Uh…couldn't sleep?"

"Try again."

"Alright…I just wanted to go flying. I really like it. And I like nighttime better than daytime. …you aren't going to rat me out, are you?" I asked nervously.

"Of course not. As long as your schoolwork doesn't suffer and you don't get caught, I see no reason to turn you in," he replied with a shrug. I surveyed him silently and decided he was telling the truth.

"You know, you really aren't so bad," I said to him, staring out over the water.

"Yeah…if you tell anybody, I'll drop you off the edge of the Astronomy Tower," he threatened. There was a touch of humor in his voice.

"I always thought your threat of choice would be a poison," I said with a smile.

"Most of the time it is," he replied, allowing himself a half-smile.

"I think poison would be my choice of threat, too," I said, thinking about it, "I really like Potions class."

"You do have a knack for it," he admitted.

"Apparently I have a knack for everything. Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology…but Potions is the only thing I really enjoy."

"You know, Abigail," he said slowly, "if you wanted to help me when I brew potions, when I don't have classes to teach, I would have no objection."

"Really?" I asked interestedly, "I would like that."

He nodded his head. I noticed, for the first time, my broomstick. It was still floating over the lake. I pointed my wand at it.

"Accio," I said, and the broom came zooming towards me.

"You've mastered the Summoning Charm already?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah," I replied with a shrug. I swung one leg over my broomstick and took off flying again. Snape watched me for a little while and I watched him out of the corner of my eye. I was thinking about him as I flew. He wasn't so bad, after all. Maybe living with him wasn't such a bad thing.

When he started back towards the castle I chased after him on my broomstick. I hovered a few feet above him.

"Where are you going?" I demanded. He looked up at me.

"To bed. I am tired," he replied coolly.

"Oh. Okay. Goodnight, then," I said to him.

"Goodnight, Abigail."

I watched him disappear into the castle. I flew around for a few more minutes before putting the broom back in the broom shed, re-locking the door, and heading in to bed.

That night I had a strange dream. It was very vivid, but the next morning when I tried to recall it, I could only remember flashes. It had something to do with Harry Potter and a three-headed dog. There had been music, too. A harp, I think. I decided it was nothing more than a bizarre dream and pushed it to the back of my mind.

As Halloween day got closer and closer I began to feel moodier and moodier. I got along with Snape for the most part, and he'd even let me help brew complex potions. Well mostly I had run back and forth to the store cupboard to get ingredients, or crushed and sliced things for him, but I had fun.

One evening, we had just finished brewing an Invigoration Draught and I was bottling it for Snape when he asked me a question.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked casually, "For the past month or so you seem…agitated."

"It's nothing," I muttered, shoving a stopper into the bottle.

"Something's wrong with you," he said, taking the bottle from me and setting it down on the desk. He looked at me, his black eyes boring into my multicolored ones. I looked away.

"If you must know…my birthday's coming up. October 31st. Halloween," I said without looking at him, "It'll be my first birthday without my parents and my sister there…"

"Ah. I see," Snape replied quietly. He looked thoughtful, but didn't say anything else on the subject. He picked up the potion and took it to the storage room to put on the shelf.

Chapter 13 (Halloween)

Halloween morning dawned early for me. I was up before anyone else. There was a small pile of presents at the foot of my bed. Without waking my friends I sat down and began opening them, feeling mellow. The first was a box of chocolate frogs from Brandy, the second was a book of spells from Jenny. Only two presents remained. One was from my sister Mary and, against my better judgment, I opened it. It was a framed picture of our family. My parents waved up at me. In the picture I was only two years old and I was scowling. Mary, who was seven, smiled sweetly. I felt a lump form in my throat and I put the picture in my trunk and closed the lid.

My final present was wrapped in plain black paper. There was no note or tag to let me know who it was from. Curious, I unwrapped it to find another book. Curses and Counter curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian. It no longer mattered who it was from. I sat with my back against my bed and immediately began skimming through it.

I had to close the book, however, when my friends woke up. Pansy Parkinson, who wasn't so much a friend as an acquaintance, wished me a Happy Birthday before leaving the dorm. I thanked Jenny and Brandy for their gifts and we went down to the Great Hall to eat breakfast, though I didn't eat much.

The rest of the day I was sullen. I could smell baking pumpkins wafting through the corridors as I went to my classes. Not even Professor Flitwick telling us we were finally going to start Levitation Charms cheered me up. He broke us into pairs to practice and I got paired with Jenny. Brandy, much to her annoyance, was paired with one of Malfoy's friends, Goyle. I took a moment to scan the page of the textbook, though I had already read it many times before.

I watched as my classmates tried again and again to get their feathers to rise. I could easily point out what each of them were doing wrong. Malfoy wasn't waving his wand correctly, Pansy Parkinson was flicking her wrist wrong, Crabbe and Goyle were both mispronouncing the incantation. I didn't point out any of their flaws, but turned my attention to my own feather. Jenny wasn't having much luck. She was causing the feather to shoot off the edge of the desk. It fluttered to the floor and she frowned. I sighed and pointed my wand at the feather on the floor.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" I said, waving my wand. The feather leapt into the air, following the tip of my wand. My classmates looked up curiously as I lifted the feather higher and higher and began to trace figure 8's in the air.

"Woo-hoo, Abby!" Brandy exclaimed as put the feather down and picked up the chalk from the chalkboard and signed my name on the board. A few of my classmates applauded me. I grinned. Sometimes I liked to show-off.

"Extraordinary! 10 points to Slytherin, for Miss Prewett's masterful skills of levitation!" said an amazed Professor Flitwick, "Who taught you such expert levitation?"

"I guess I taught myself," I said quietly, "I like to read."

Later that evening, before the Halloween feast, I was down in Snape's office. We were brewing a Sleeping Draught. I guess he was hoping to cheer me up by letting me help.

"Professor Flitwick told me earlier that you expressed masterful skills of the Levitation Charm this morning," Snape said as I finished slicing the valerian roots.

"I was showing off a little," I admitted, allowing myself a small smile.

"Have you come across anything in your classes that you've had any difficulty with?"

"Well, this may not count but I am having trouble cutting these Sopohorous Beans," I said, nodding to the table in front of me where I had been trying, unsuccessfully, to cut the small bean. He walked over to where I was standing, a small smile on his face. He picked up the silver dagger and crushed them with the flat side of it. Juice squirted out of it.

"A little trick I've learned over the years," he said with a small smile.

"Useful," I agreed.

When we finished the potion Snape and I walked down to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast. I hadn't really wanted to go, but Snape persuaded me, saying it was something I didn't want to miss. He was right, of course. Candles in Jack-o-lanterns flickered as hundreds of live bats swooped over the tables in clouds. I watched the bats, fascinated, while people around me began to eat. I loved bats. I was ecstatic when one came and landed on my shoulder. I had really wanted one to land on my shoulder.

The doors to the Great Hall burst open suddenly, breaking my concentration. The bat took off. Professor Quirrel came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew, terror on his face. All eyes were on him as he reached Dumbledore's chair.

"Troll- in the dungeons- thought you ought to know."

Then he fainted. There was an uproar of students, most of them frightened. My eyes were on Quirrel.

Stupid bloody coward, I thought to myself. Fireworks exploded from Dumbledore's wand and he commanded silence. My eyes were the only ones still on Quirrel and I saw him slip off as Dumbledore started trying to clear the students off to their Common Rooms. Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to me, I cast my Disillusionment Charm over myself and made my way to the door Quirrel had snuck off through. I wasn't the only one who had noticed, apparently. Snape was also making his way out the door.

I followed him at a distance. He didn't seem to know I was there. I was surprised because he had found me many times before when I was completely invisible- the time in the forest, and the time I was flying. He had found me a few times since then, also. Mostly when I was flying. He sometimes came out just to watch me.

Snape and I followed Quirrel's trail up to the third floor corridor. Snape seemed to have guessed he was heading there. I remembered from Dumbledore's start-of-term speech that the 3rd floor corridor, on the right hand side, was out of bounds. I had the feeling I was about to find out why. Snape unlocked a locked door with his wand and went inside. A few minutes passed and I didn't follow him inside. I could hear loud ferocious barking. When I heard Snape cry out, I did run in, my wand raised.

I don't know what I was expecting, but a three-headed dog wasn't it. It looked just like the three-headed-dog from my dream, only one of the heads had it's teeth locked onto Snape's leg. The other two heads were trying to snap at him. Snape's wand was lying on the ground a few feet away.

"Confundo!" I shouted, brandishing my own wand at the dog holding Snape. The dog dropped him to the ground. He snatched his wand up off the floor and limped towards the door. The effect of my Confundus Charm was very brief. They dogs immediately started trying to bite him again. Fortunately, he was quick enough to limp out the door. I slammed the door shut and pointed my wand at the lock.

"Colloportus," I said, panting slightly. The lock clicked into place. My heart was pounding as I turned to Snape, who was already limping down the staircase. I could hear a commotion on the floor below us.

"You should be in the Slytherin Common Room, Abigail," Snape hissed quietly. I didn't say anything. I could see McGonagall running as fast as she could towards the girls bathroom, where the noise was coming from. Snape ran after her as best as he could with his limp. Quirrel caught up with us as well. I saw Snape shoot him a death glare.

Chapter 14 (Talent)

McGonagall burst into the girl's bathroom, Snape and myself close behind her, and Quirrel bringing up the rear. I slipped off to the side so no one would accidentally bump into me. A large troll lay unconscious on the floor. Harry Potter and his friend Ron Weasley stood over the troll, the wands in their hands, looking stunned. Hermione Granger was in the corner, looking terrified, her back pressed against the wall. Quirrel took one look at the troll, let out a whimper, and sat down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Snape bent over the troll, examining it. He was being careful not to let his injury show. McGonagall was staring at Potter and Weasley, her face livid.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said McGonagall with a cold fury in her voice. She sounded even angrier than Snape when he'd said those exact words to me in the Forbidden Forest.

"You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?" McGonagall demanded.

Snape looked at Potter, his gaze swift and calculating. Potter looked at the ground.

"Please, Professor McGonagall- they were looking for me," said a small voice. It was Hermione Granger.

"Miss Granger!" McGonagall exclaimed, shocked.

"I went looking for the troll because I- I thought I could deal with it on my own- you know, because I've read all about them."

Weasley dropped his wand, surprised. I could tell Hermione was lying. I didn't really know I could tell. To me, it seemed like she radiated guilt and unease…and something that I sensed as a lie.

"If they hadn't found me," Hermione continued, "I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

"Well- in that case…Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?" McGonagall said, staring at the three of them. Hermione hung her head.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said McGonagall, "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Hermione left and McGonagall turned to Potter and Weasley.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

Potter and Weasley hurried off out of the bathroom. I could tell that McGonagall, beneath her stern disapproval, was actually impressed. A few more teachers arrived to help take off the troll. McGonagall and Snape walked off together and, curious, I followed.

"Looks like Miss Granger isn't as clever as you thought, Minerva," Snape said, a slight smirk on his face.

"Nonsense, Severus. Three students from my house just took down a fully-grown mountain troll," McGonagall said haughtily.

"It was sheer luck, nothing more," Snape retorted.

"Well, Flitwick told me Miss Granger was the only Gryffindor to manage the Levitation Charm on her first try," McGonagall bragged.

"He told Abigail she exemplified masterful skills of levitation. She even wrote her name on the board by levitating a piece of chalk."

"Sounds like she was showing off, to me," McGonagall retorted, then she walked off up the stairs.

I walked over to stand beside Snape.

"Is it common for you and McGonagall to compare me and Hermione Granger?" I inquired, frowning slightly.

"Well we do have a small competition going, yes," he admitted. I couldn't decide if I liked this or not. Snape motioned for me to follow him into the dungeons. He was limping and leaving a small trail of blood. I wondered just how bad his leg was. Using my wand I cleaned up the trail of blood he was leaving as quietly as possible.

We went into his office and he sat down in his chair. His face was very white now. I could sense he was badly hurt. Instead of sitting down in my usual seat I walked over to the other side of his desk.

"Let me see you leg," I said to him. He looked reluctant at first, but finally pulled up his robes for me to see. His leg was bloody and mangled. It turned my stomach slightly to see it. I raised my wand.

"Ferula," I said firmly. Bandages shot out of the end of my wand and wrapped themselves tightly around his leg. He looked surprised and impressed.

"You've lost a lot of blood, Snape. You should probably go to the Hospital Wing," I advised. He shook his head.

"Go into the store room and look on the second shelf. You'll see a vial of a deep red potion. Get it for me," he said to me. I obeyed gladly.

"Blood Replenishing Potion?" I guessed as he drank it. He drained the vial and nodded his head.

"Very good, Abigail. You could be a nurse when you grow up," he said, a little of the color returning to his face.

"I don't think I would make a good nurse. Just looking at that made me nauseous," I said, nodding to his leg, "What were you even doing trying to get past that monster anyway?"

Snape let out a sigh.

"I was following Quirrel. Or, at least, I thought I was. I suspected he would be trying to get past the three-headed-dog."

"What's past the three-headed-dog?" I inquired. He surveyed me quietly.

"Something that you need not worry about. Abigail, promise me you won't go trying to get past that dog," he said forcefully.

"After what that thing did to you? Fat chance," I snorted, "Nothing could be that great."

I was telling the truth and he knew it. Relief emanated from him, though his face remained blank.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked, sitting down in my usual chair.

"Does it have something to do with the three-headed-dog?" he asked guardedly.

"No. I've noticed that…well, it seems silly, but…it seems like I can tell how people are feeling, most of the time…even if they are trying to act like they don't feel that way."

He raised an eyebrow and I could tell he didn't really understand my explanation, so I decided to give an example.

"Like earlier, when McGonagall was scolding her students…to me it felt like, underneath her stern demeanor, she was proud of them," I explained.

"I see," he said thoughtfully. He was silent for a little while, thinking. I thought back at different periods in my life where I had known what people were feeling. I had never paid much attention to it before, but I realized I could tell exactly what people were feeling. The lawyer who had to take care of me while the Ministry searched for any remaining family- I had known that I was a waste of his time and he didn't like me very much, even though he had never been anything but kind to me. He was empathetic because…because it was his job.

"I suppose," said Snape, interrupting my thoughts, "That a person could be hypersensitive to feelings. Many wizards and witches have strange talents. This could very well be yours. You should return to your house Common Room, Abigail. You must be hungry."

I inclined my head slightly and stood up. I glanced at his leg, feeling a brief moment of worry, but I continued towards the door. I paused again, the door halfway open, and looked back at him.

"I don't like Quirrel very much either. Something about him feels…fake…I don't really know how to describe it…He seems…like he's not really doing what he wants to do, but what someone else wants him to do and he's glad to do it," I informed him, frowning slightly. His face also creased into a slight frown. Then he cleared his expression.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Abigail," he assured me.

"If you say so…and don't call me Abigail," I said, eyes flashing dangerously. It didn't bother me so much as it used to, but it would be nice if he would just call me Abby.

"Happy Birthday," he said, chuckling quietly. I shook my head and left the room, closing the door behind me.

Chapter 15 (The Forest)

A few days later when we had our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class after the incident with the troll, Brandy sat on the couch in the Common Room, her arms crossed, blatantly refusing to go.

"I don't think I want to be taught by some blundering idiot who fainted just because he saw a troll," she said stubbornly, "If two first-year Gryffindors could defeat it and not Professor Quirrel, then I would rather they teach the class."

"It was sheer dumb luck that they defeated the troll. They could have died," I said to her.

"Besides, if you don't go to Defense Against the Dark Arts class, you'll get into trouble," Jenny said. We all exchanged looks. Brandy never got in trouble for anything.

"Well you won't learn anything sitting here, either," Jenny added quickly. I had an idea already, but I didn't know how well it would work out.

"I have an idea…a way to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts. Just go to Quirrel's class. I'll have to think about it some more," I said to her. Finally she agreed and the three of us walked off towards Quirrel's class.

My idea was to ask Snape to teach us. I didn't know how well he was going to react, but I had heard that he had applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post every year since he started teaching. I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

By some bizarre stroke of luck, halfway through Quirrel's class, Snape came walking through the door. He walked up to Quirrel's desk where he sat and talked to him quietly.

"Oh, y-yes, of c-course," Quirrel stammered, nodding his head. He looked up at the class and his eyes swept the room and landed on me.

"M-miss Prewett. G-gather your t-things. Professor S-Snape wants you," Quirrel said to me. There were a few sniggers and jeers from some of my classmates. I shot them all a death glare as I shoved my books into my bag.

"Quiet," Snape said to the class, dangerous authority ringing in his voice. They all fell silent. All eyes were on me as Snape led me out of the classroom.

Once Snape had shut the door behind us I let out a breath of air that I had apparently been holding.

"I'm not complaining or anything, but why'd you pull me out of Quirrel's class? Shouldn't you be teaching?" I inquired curiously.

"There is only one student who passed into my N.E.W.T. level Potions class," he answered, "And he has detention. I pulled you out of Quirrel's class because I have to go into the Forbidden Forest in search of Unicorn Horns. The stores are running low and they're very expensive. It's easier just to look for them in the forest."

"But students aren't allowed in the forest. I almost got killed, remember?"

"Vividly," he repeated dryly, "…but you will be fine if you are with me. It's not uncommon for students to go into the forest with Hagrid to serve detention. But I thought you'd enjoy it."

"Of course I will. Gathering potion ingredients fresh from the forest. It'll be fun," I said, smiling slightly.

"We have to be careful though. Keep your wand with you at all times."

"I'm not a bloody idiot, Snape," I said, rolling my eyes, "I do learn from my experiences."

I followed Snape into the Forbidden Forest with my wand held tightly in my hand. We followed a dark and narrow dirt path into the trees. It had been bright and the sun had been shining outside. Here, the sun couldn't penetrate the thickness of the trees and it was a lot cooler. We both lit the tips of our wands so we could see better.

"Can I ask you something, Snape?" I inquired as we walked.

"May as well," he replied with a shrug.

"Well, me and my friends were talking and…we all agree that there's no way Quirrel can teach us anything. Brandy almost refused to go to his class this morning. Anyway, I was wondering if maybe you could…"

He stopped to look at me.

"You want me to teach you?" he asked.

"Yeah. I mean, I can understand if you don't want to, but we really need to know stuff for the finals…"

He didn't say anything for a moment and I could tell he liked the idea. He resumed walking.

"I'll have to think about it," he said dryly. I nodded my head and smiled to myself. I knew he had already decided to do it.

He stopped suddenly and looked down. Curious, I peered down, too. He had stepped in something silvery and shining. I made of move to touch it, but Snape stopped my hand.

"Don't touch it," he said to me.

"What is it?" I asked curiously, bringing my wand closer to examine it.

"Unicorn blood," he replied. He continued walking along the path. Every few feet the light of our wands would illuminate more spots of blood.

"Why-?" I began.

"Shh," Snape hissed forcefully. I obeyed immediately. He was walking as quietly as possible and so was I. We came around the corner of the path and there in our path lay a dead unicorn. A large black figure stood hunched over it. It turned around to face us. There was no visible face or hands, but you could tell it was something…evil…something not human. Snape stood between me and the figure, his wand raised. The figure took a long look at him before hissing loudly and gliding off in the opposite direction. As soon as it was gone, Snape turned me around and pushed me down the path back towards the castle.

"We have to get out of here. Now," Snape said urgently.

"Why? What was that?" I asked quickly. He didn't say anything, but with his wand raised high, he started back down the dirt path. It was hard for me to read Snape because of how hard he was trying to not look scared. But if I concentrated, I could tell, in that way I could sometimes tell feelings, that he was slightly frightened. There was also some sort of knowledge…he knew something about the cloaked figure that I did not.

By the time we reached where the forest ended at the edge of Hogwarts grounds, he had calmed down some. His emotions had calmed as we walked and I suspected he had formed some sort of plan.

"We need to tell Hagrid about the unicorn," he said to me, "Do you think you can do that while I go talk to Dumbledore?"

"Why do you have to go talk to Dumbledore? Is it because of that scary thing?" I asked curiously.

"Don't ask me questions right now, Abigail, okay? I'll answer what I can later. Go tell Hagrid about the unicorn, and tell him to be careful. Don't tell him about the hooded figure. Don't say anything about it to anybody, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

I watched Snape continue off towards the castle before walking down the path to Hagrid's hut. I knocked on the door and waited. Loud barks came from inside the hut. Hagrid opened the door, his large hand firm around the collar of a big black boarhound, who was straining to get at me. I took a cautious step backwards.

"Sorry. Tha's only Fang. He wouldn't do anythin' but slobber on ye," Hagrid said to me.

"Right. Professor Snape told me to come tell you- he was searching for unicorn horns in the forest when we came across a dead one in the middle of the path. It had been killed."

"Tha's a shame. It's a terrible crime to slay a unicorn. I'll have to go out into the fores' an' bury it," he said remorsefully.

"Snape said to tell you to be cautious," I added quickly, "You should probably take Fang."

Hagrid nodded his big head and picked up something from inside his hut. It was a large crossbow. He let go of Fang's collar and the boarhound darted out to jump on me. He had his front paws on my chest and was trying to lick my face. I looked him dead in the eye, commanding him with my gaze to stop. He sat down obediently at my feet.

"Yer pretty talented with animals," Hagrid commented as he shut the door to his hut.

"I'm pretty talented at a lot of things," I said with a sigh before walking back down the path towards the school.

Chapter 16 (Defense Against the Dark Arts)

After getting back to the school I went and waited down in Snape's office for him to get done with Dumbledore. I suppose my waiting for him there could count as breaking into his office, because he usually kept it locked. I re-locked it once I was inside so he'd be surprised to find me. It was fifteen minutes before Snape came down to his office, and when he opened the door to find me sitting in his desk he did not seem surprised.

"Get out of my chair, Abigail," he said as he walked in and closed the door behind himself. Grinning, I jumped up and went to my usual seat.

"How did you know I was in here?" I asked curiously. He said nothing, but smiled mysteriously.

"So what did Dumbledore say?" I asked once he had sat down.

"He said not to worry about it," Snape replied, "And you shouldn't. Don't worry anyone else with it either."

I frowned slightly.

"Now, as for what you asked me in the forest, I think I will teach you. How many friends did you say?" He asked me, changing the subject.

"Just two. Jennifer Burke and Brandy Spyres."

"Very well. Tell them to come to the Potions classroom with you at 9:00pm," Snape said to me.

"Alright…but what if we get caught out after hours?" I inquired.

"You shouldn't get caught. I am the only teacher who patrols these corridors at night. Sometimes Filch does, too, but not tonight," he said surely.

"Fine. See you at 9:00," I said, standing up to leave.

My friends were pleased with my choice of Quirrel's replacement teacher. They followed me quietly through the corridors until we reached the Potions classroom. The door was locked. I unlocked it with Alohomora and went inside. Snape was sitting at his desk in the front of the classroom. He was writing something and looked up when we entered.

"Hello Abigail. I was just grading some papers, but it can wait. Let's get started," he said, standing up.

He started explaining the Shield Charm to us. It was the first thing we were to learn.

"A Shield Charm will protect you from most minor spells. Miss Spyres, I want you to shoot Stunning Spells at Miss Burke while she tries to produce a Shield Charm. After a while, you can switch roles," Snape said to my friends.

"What about me?" I demanded as they started to move desks out of the way to give them room to practice.

"You'll be working with me, Abigail," Snape replied, smiling slightly, "I suspect you will master the Shield Charm easily."

He was right, of course. After five minutes of practicing the Shield Charm he signaled for me to stop. Jenny and Brandy continued their practicing.

"I have an idea that I think will be a challenge for you, Abigail," Snape said to me.

"We'll see about that. What's your idea?" I inquired, smiling to myself. I felt confident that I could master whatever he threw at me.

"Nonverbal spells," he replied, "I think you're more than capable of doing it, but it will be a challenge for you to master. It's something you usually wouldn't learn until your sixth year, but I think if you try hard enough you can do it now."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot."

"You need only think the name of the spell. It's hard to do, but if you put enough force behind it, you can do it. I'll let you try on your own before I start throwing spells at you."

I nodded my head and raised my wand. Protego! I thought, brandishing my wand. Nothing happened. I tried again…and again.

"This isn't going to be as easy as I thought," I said aloud.

Jenny, Brandy, and I met with Snape twice a week after that. They steadily mastered the Shield Charm verbally while I sat in the corner with my wand raised, biting my lip to keep from screaming aloud, still unable to get anything to come out of my wand.

Early one Saturday morning we all bundled up and made our way out to the Quidditch stands for what was sure to be the biggest match of the season. Gryffindor versus Slytherin, with Harry Potter as the Gryffindor's new Seeker. I sat between Jenny and Brandy, shivering in the cold morning air. I could see Snape sitting in the teachers stands across from us. He didn't look too concerned with the cold. Quirrel was sitting on one side of him.

About midway through the match, after Slytherin had just scored, Potter's broomstick began jerking and twitching, carrying him higher, farther and farther from the field below him. People all over the stands were pointing up at him now, watching fearfully. I looked across at the teacher's stands. The first thing I noticed was that neither Quirrel nor Snape was breaking eye contact with Potter's broom. Both were muttering something indistinguishable. Suddenly, Snape's cloak caught fire and they both began stomping it out. In the sky above them, Potter climbed back onto his broomstick and flew down towards the ground. He hit the ground on all fours and coughed up the Golden Snitch. Gryffindor won the match.

As teachers and students made their way back to the castle, I slipped away from my friends and found Snape. He looked furious. I looked around to make sure no one else was listening.

"What was that?" I asked him curiously, "Was it you or Quirrel jinxing Potter's broom?"

"Quirrel, of course. I would never harm a student," he replied, "I'm going to referee the next Quidditch match to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Good thinking," I said with a nod, "Are you going to tell Dumbledore?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

Later that night I couldn't sleep. The Slytherin dormitories were cold and drafty. Warm, silver blankets had been laid on each of our beds, but they didn't help me much. I wasn't tired. I didn't want to go outside because of how cold it was, but I decided it wouldn't be so bad exploring the castle. So I donned my Disillusionment Charm and snuck out of the dorms.

I made my way through a number of empty classrooms, looking for something to satisfy my curiosity for the night. I stayed far away from the forbidden third floor corridor. I wasn't that curious!

What I finally did find was an unused classroom piled full of old desks and chairs, and an upturned trashcan. I was about to leave the room when the reflection of something caught my eye. It was a large ornate mirror, leaning against the back wall. Curious I walked closer to where I stood directly before it. An inscription was carved around the top: erased stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

I looked at my reflection. The scar over my blue eye shone eerily in the light that came through the door I had left cracked open. Suddenly, it was not only my reflection I saw in the mirror. I whirled around, expecting to see someone behind me. There was no one. Slowly, I turned and looked back into the mirror. The people were still there. On closer inspection I recognized them. My mother, my step-father, my sister…they were all there beside me.

My heart pounding I sat down cross-legged on the floor. Curious, I reached out and touched the glass. Nothing happened. A part of me had hoped I would be transported through by magic. No such luck. Still, I was content to sit there and stare at them all night. And I did.

It was getting late, 4:00 in the morning, according to my watch, when I heard footsteps coming up the corridor. Then into the classroom. It was Snape, of course. He walked over to where I was sitting and tapped me on the head with his wand, lifting my Disillusionment Charm.

"What are you doing, Abigail?" he asked me.

"This mirror," I murmured sleepily, "I can see my family."

He looked into the mirror. For a split second his defenses were completely down. I saw an expression of pain on his face. His feelings were unguarded in that moment and I felt everything he was feeling- sadness, sorrow, grief, loss. Then he closed off his emotions and wiped all trace of expression off of his face. He did not look in the mirror again.

"This is the Mirror of Erised," he said to me, "Dumbledore put it here. It shows whoever looks into it…whatever it is they most desire in the world. It isn't good for you to sit here and stare into it, Abigail. Come on."

He extended his hand and I allowed him to help me to my feet.

Snape walked with me all the way back to the Slytherin Common Room. Then he paused.

"Promise me you won't go back there, Abigail. If you do, I will have to tell Dumbledore to move the mirror. …people have gone mad, staring into the Mirror of Erised," he said to me.

"Okay," I murmured sleepily, "Whatever you say, Snape."

I was so tired, it didn't really matter to me anymore. He nodded his head briefly, then left. Too sleepy to make it to my bed, I lay down on one of the leather couches in front of the fireplace and fell asleep.

Chapter 17 (Christmas)

Christmas morning dawned early for me. The dormitory was empty- almost everyone I knew had gone home for the holidays. Home to their families. Jenny and Brandy had invited me to come to either of their houses for the holidays, but I had declined. This was my first Christmas without my parents.

I awoke Christmas morning feeling gloomy. That is until I saw the pile of presents at the foot of my bed. Both of my friends had given me candy- Chocolate Frogs from Brandy and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from Jenny. There was an unmarked present which contained a book: Nonverbal Spells and Their Advantages by Alphidious Zimmermin. My last present was an envelope addressed to me from my sister, Mary.

Abby,

I'm really, really sorry that they wouldn't let you come and live with me. It's not my fault. I would have taken you in, but they wouldn't let me. I wish you would talk to me. I miss you a lot. I miss Mom and Dad, too. I really want us to be friends again. I really miss you. Please talk to me.

Love,

Mary

I blew out a sigh as I folded the note and put it back in the envelope. I tossed all of my presents into my trunk except my new book, which I took into the empty Common Room to read.

When it came time to go down to the Great Hall for Christmas dinner, I had already decided to make amends with Mary. After all, she was the only family I had left. I almost got too distracted by the feast to go talk to Mary. There were roast turkey, mountains of roast and potatoes, tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce. Every few feet along the table there were stacks of wizard crackers that blasted like cannons and held things like many live, white mice, flowered bonnets, a pack of luminous balloons, and all sorts of things.

After pudding had been served I left the nearly-deserted Slytherin table and walked over to the Ravenclaw table where my sister sat alone. She looked surprised to see me coming towards her, but welcomed me openly. She got to her feet and hugged me tightly, which I merely tolerated.

"Oh, Abby. I'm so glad you're speaking to me again," she said tearfully, "I haven't got a chance to talk to you about anything!"

"What do you want to talk about?" I muttered, sitting down beside her.

"I want to hear your version of what happened that day…but that can wait, if you don't feel like talking about it. Also- you're living with Professor Snape, right?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah."

"I met him once before. You're too young to remember, but I was maybe 6 or 7. He came to our house while Dad was at work. He and Mom sat in the kitchen talking for a long time. Mom sounded upset…not by Professor Snape, she had been upset before he came over. I don't know why. They wouldn't let me listen in on the conversation, either. I had to go play in the backyard until he left."

Intrigued by this new piece of information, I stored it away to think on later. Mary wanted to know what happened the day our parents died. I had to tell her…I hadn't told anyone else but Ministry of Magic officials. I needed to tell someone. So I took a deep breath and began my story, starting with how I went up on the roof to await my Hogwarts letter.

When I finished telling the story Mary was wiping tears out of her eyes. I tried not to look at her, feeling odd. I noticed Snape watching us curiously, but I didn't acknowledge him.

"Can I see your hands?" she asked me suddenly, "Maybe I know a spell to-"

"No," I said quickly, firmly, "There is no spell to heal it now. And I don't want anyone to see. Not even you."

"Well, okay, I guess. …it's Christmas, let's talk about something happier. How are you liking first year at Hogwarts?" Mary asked me.

Mary and I talked for a very long time. Finally, I returned to the Slytherin Common Room alone. Before leaving me, Mary had told me the location of the Ravenclaw Common Room and how to get in, if I ever needed her for anything. I still found myself not forgiving her completely, but she was my sister and a part of me wanted her back.

After supper that night, where I sat with Mary again, I followed Snape out of the Great Hall. He half-smiled when he saw me walking towards him.

"Merry Christmas, Abigail," he said to me.

"Thanks…but don't call me Abigail," I added quickly. He didn't bother to respond, as he always did.

"I saw you talking to your sister," he said finally as we walked towards his office, "Have you two worked things out?"

"For the most part, I suppose. She remembers seeing you once when she was little."

Snape looked surprised.

"I would not have expected her to. I only caught a glimpse of her. Julia made her go play in the backyard while we talked."

"What were you talking about?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing that you need to worry about," he responded lightly. Irritated that he was withholding information from me, I turned and walked off towards the Common Room.

When Draco returned from Christmas break he caught me reading the book I had gotten for my birthday: Curses and Counter curses by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

"Where'd you get that?" Draco demanded curiously. I sighed and closed my book.

"My birthday a few months ago," I replied simply.

"Let me see it," he said, reaching for my book. I snatched it out of his reach.

"I don't lend my books to people," I said coolly.

"Alright, well you teach me something then."

I sighed. This would be the only way to get him off my back for a while.

"Alright. I'll teach you the Leg-Locker Curse…but you have to find someone to practice it on," I said to Draco. He nodded and looked around the Common Room.

"Crabbe," he said loudly, "Get over here."

Crabbe, who had been dozing in a chair by the fireplace, started, and then lumbered over to where Malfoy stood.

"Alright, what's the incantation?" Malfoy asked me, pulling out his wand. I told him the incantation and how to flick his wand. After a few practices flicking his wand, he turned to Crabbe.

"Locomotor Mortis," Draco said, giving his wand a flick. Crabbe's feet snapped together and he crashed to the floor. Draco stood there laughing. I pulled out my wand and performed the counter curse before helping Crabbe to his feet.

"That was brilliant, Abby, thanks. I'm going to go try it out on some Gryffindors. Come on, Crabbe," Draco said, heading for the exit. As soon as they were gone I sat back down on the couch and resumed reading.

Chapter 18 (The Quidditch Match)

Classes started up again after Christmas break and with classes came Quidditch practice as well. The date of the Quidditch match every Slytherin was looking forward to was drawing closer. It was Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff…with Snape as a referee!

"There's no way we can lose," Draco said at breakfast the morning of the match, "Gryffindor will lose to Hufflepuff, of course, and then we'll be playing Hufflepuff in the finals. There's no way we can lose to a bunch of Mudbloods."

"Watch your language, Draco," said a voice from behind me. I jumped slightly and turned my head to look up at Snape.

"Yes, sir," said Draco obediently. Feelings of strong hatred were emanating from Snape clearly…or at least, they were clear to me. I got to my feet and followed Snape out towards the Quidditch pitch. We didn't walk very fast so we could talk, now that no one else was around.

"Why do you hate the word 'Mudblood'?" I asked curiously. He was surprised…then he quickly stonewalled all his emotions.

"Hey, no fair! How are you doing that?" I inquired, "How are you blocking your emotions?"

"Years and years of practice. I may teach you one day," he replied simply.

When the Quidditch match started I went up to the stands to sit with Jenny and Brandy. Draco and his cronies slipped away from the Slytherin stands and went to the Gryffindor stands to bother Potter's friends.

"Hey look," said Jenny, "It's Dumbledore. He hardly ever comes to Quidditch matches."

I looked to where she was pointing and saw it was indeed Dumbledore sitting with the teachers. I then looked down to Snape on the field. He looked furious.

I watched as the game progressed. Snape gave Hufflepuff a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him…on purpose! Potter was circling the field like a hawk, keeping an eye out for the Golden Snitch. Shortly after Snape gave Hufflepuff another penalty Potter swooped into a spectacular dive, drawing cheers from the crowd as he streaked like a bullet towards the ground. He rocketed past Snape before he could even turn around, and caught the Golden Snitch.

Cheers erupted from the stands and boos from the Slytherins. As the Gryffindors poured out onto the field, I slipped down to Snape's side. He was white-faced and tight-lipped. Dumbledore came down onto the field and clapped Potter on the shoulder. Snape spat bitterly onto the ground.

"We could still beat them in the finals," I said optimistically.

"There was no point in me refereeing if Dumbledore was just going to show up," Snape said sullenly. I shrugged my shoulders and motioned for him to follow me out of the crowd of cheerful Gryffindors.

"Let's go get some dinner," I said, nodding to the crowd that was making its way back up to the castle.

Midway through dinner I noticed Snape sneaking out of the Great Hall. A part of me wanted to follow him, but I didn't. I figured he was still brooding over Gryffindor's victory. I didn't ask him about it later either. I knew he wouldn't tell me, whatever he was doing.

On my way out of the Great Hall I noticed Potter, Weasley, and Granger whispering about something. Curious, I donned my Disillusionment Charm and followed them into an empty classroom. Potter quickly told his friends how he had seen Snape and Quirrel in the woods. Snape had been threatening Quirrel.

"So we were right, it is the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrel to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy- and he said something about Quirrel's 'hocus-pocus'- I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrel would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through-" Potter was saying.

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrel stands up to Snape?" said Granger in alarm.

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Weasley.

I left the empty classroom, my mind teeming with their conversation. What was a Sorcerer's Stone? And why would Snape want Quirrel to help him get it? And what was a Fluffy? I noticed Snape heading down to the dungeons and caught up with him. He sensed I was there immediately and slowed down to let me catch up.

"What are you sneaking around for, Abigail?" he asked me.

"I'll tell you when we get to your office. I overheard something that concerns you."

Intrigued, he nodded his head.

We walked into his office and he locked the door behind us as I sat down in my usual chair.

"What's a Sorcerer's Stone?" I asked as soon as he sat down. He didn't bother hiding his surprise.

"Where did you hear about it?" he demanded, frowning slightly, "Students aren't supposed to know…"

"I overheard it somewhere."

"Where?"

"Tell me what it is, and I'll tell you where I heard it," I challenged. He glared at me meaningfully, then sighed.

"Alright, I'll tell you…but only because I know you won't tell anyone else. If you do, I'll-"

"Drop me off the edge of the Astronomy Tower?" I asked humorously, "Or poison me?"

"Or both. Now listen, because I won't repeat myself-" he began, "The Sorcerer's Stone is a stone belonging to the infamous Nicholas Flamel. It's a legendary substance with amazing powers. It can transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. Nicholas Flamel is currently six hundred and sixty-five years old."

"Okay…what's a 'Fluffy'?" I inquired. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"I believe it is what Hagrid calls the three-headed dog. Now tell me, where did you hear all of this?"

I told Snape what I had heard when eavesdropping on Potter and his friends. He fell silent and looked thoughtful for a little while.

"Well?" I asked after about three minutes of silence.

"Well what?"

"Are you after the Sorcerer's Stone?" I inquired. He stared at me, then laughed quietly.

"Of course not. Immortality is the last thing I want."

"I didn't think you were after the stone, but…Quirrel is, isn't he?"

"I think so. Now, don't tell anyone what I've told you, alright? I know you don't like to listen to me, but-"

"I'm not an idiot. I know when to keep my mouth shut. I know when listening to you is actually crucial," I replied smartly.

"Good girl. Run along now. You have exams coming up. You should be studying."

I made a face, then left his office. I had no intention of studying. It wasn't necessary. Not for me.

Chapter 19 (End of the Year)

As it came time for our exams the weather outside turned hot. The large classroom where we did our written exams was sweltering hot. We were given special quills to take the exams with, ones that had been bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell. The written exams were mostly boring and I felt like I had done well on them.

There were practical exams, too. In Charms, Professor Flitwick called us in one by one to see if we could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. In McGonagall's class we were to transfigure a mouse into a snuffbox. Points were given for how pretty it was. It wasn't difficult for me to transfigure my white mouse into a small blue and silver snuffbox. McGonagall approved and I wondered how well I had done compared to Hermione Granger.

During our Potions exam Snape tried to make everyone nervous by breathing down our necks while we made our Forgetfulness potion. He didn't intimidate me, however, and I remained calm as I measured nettles and sliced Scurvy-Grass to add to my potion. When I finished my potion, I grinned broadly and cleared away the table. Snape peered into my cauldron and nodded approvingly before walking off to inspect everyone else's.

The very last exam was History of Magic, which was a written exam. One whole hour of answering questions then I was free. I couldn't help cheering with my classmates. We had a whole week of free time before our exam results came back. I left the classroom cheerfully and accepted Jenny's offer to walk down to the lake with her and Brandy.

"Well this is it, isn't it? Once our exam results get back it'll be almost time to go home for the summer," Jenny said as we walked around the lake. Some Gryffindor boys were poking the tentacles of the giant squid resting in the shallows.

"We'll keep in touch, won't we?" Brandy asked.

"Definitely," I agreed, "We can meet up in Diagon Alley to get our school things when the letter comes, too."

"You guys could come to my house over the summer if you want to," Jenny added quickly, "Especially since Abby has to go back to Snape's house."

They both made faces. I chuckled softly.

"He's not really so bad, you know? I think I should probably stick around though. He can't cook worth a damn and I'm planning on learning how so we don't starve to death over the summer," I said with a grin, "I could come before school starts back though. He stays gone most of the month leading up to the beginning of the school year."

"That'd work out brilliantly. You could come with us to get on the Hogwarts Express so you don't have to take the Muggle taxi," Brandy said.

"Mum has some cook books I could send you, if you want me to," Jenny said. I nodded my head eagerly.

I awoke one morning to find the Common Room abuzz with talk of something that had happened during the night. Jenny tried to explain to me- something about Potter and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In the end I slipped off to Snape's office to ask him what had happened. He was sitting at his desk, writing something, and frowning.

"So what exactly happened?" I asked, sitting down across from him. He sighed and stopped writing.

"Potter and his friends, who were still laboring under the false delusion that I was after the Stone, got past the three-headed dog as well as all the other enchantments guarding it. Potter was the only one to reach the Stone and when he got there Quirrel had it," he said to me.

"Someone was saying something about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. How does he play into this?" I inquired.

"According to Dumbledore, Quirrel had apparently been sharing his body with the Dark Lord for many months in an attempt to restore the Dark Lord to his former glory. Fortunately, it turns out that the Dark Lord cannot touch Potter without being badly wounded. So Potter triumphed again and the Dark Lord is vanquished once more."

"Wow. To think, all this happened while I was asleep," I mused.

"I don't want to think on it anymore. You shouldn't either," he said with a sigh.

"Alright then- tell me how well I did on my Potions exam," I said to him. He smiled, his small twisted smile.

"Full marks, of course," he replied, "And McGonagall grudgingly told me you got full marks in Transfiguration as well."

"What about Hermione?" I asked curiously.

"Well…she didn't do as well in Potions," he said, still smiling, "No one did."

The next evening I followed Brandy and Jenny down to the Great Hall for the end-of-term feast. The Great Hall was decked out in Slytherin colors of green and silver to celebrate our winning the house cup for the seventh year in a row. There was a huge banner behind the High Table showing the Slytherin serpent.

When Potter walked into the already full Great Hall there was a sudden hush- then everyone started talking loudly at once. People were standing up to look at him as he slipped into a seat between Weasley and Granger. Dumbledore arrived moments later and the babble died away.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully, "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were…you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with 312 points; in thirds, Hufflepuff, with 352 points; Ravenclaw has 426 and Slytherin, 472."

I joined in my fellow Slytherin's cheering and stomping. Draco clanged his goblet against the table.

"Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore, "However, recent events must be taken into account. Ahem, I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes…First- to Mr. Ronald Weasley…for the best played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points. Second- to Miss Hermione Granger…for the cool use of logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points. Third- to Mr. Harry Potter…for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

The roar from their table was deafening. Gryffindor and Slytherin were now tied for first place. Draco looked like he was about to puke. Dumbledore raised his hand for silence.

"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom. Which means we need a little change of decoration," Dumbledore said. He clapped his hands and the green and silver banners turned to scarlet and gold. The huge snake vanished and a Gryffindor lion took its place. I watched Snape shake hands with McGonagall, smiling as if he'd rather be force-fed rat poison. I smiled sadly before turning to the feast that had appeared on the plates in front of us.

After the feast I caught up with Snape as he left the Great Hall. He didn't look at all happy.

"So tomorrow- Do I take the Hogwarts Express?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. I've arranged for another taxi to take you back home. I'll probably be there by the time you get home," he replied. I nodded my head and turned down the corridor towards the Slytherin Common Room.

The next morning there was a last minute scuffle to get things packed away. Arsenius, my owl, was in his cage, watching me as I searched for my Transfiguration textbook. I found myself looking under the bed nearest to the painting of the slithering snake when I heard a quiet voice.

"Only the Heir of Slytherin can find the hidden chamber."

I jumped up and looked around. There was no one else in the room. I pressed my ear closer to the portrait of the slithering snake and heard it repeat the sentences.

"Hey Abby, what are you doing?" Brandy asked loudly as she and Jenny came into the dormitory.

"Shh…Can you hear it?" I asked them. They both looked confused.

"Uh…no. What are we supposed to be hearing, Abby?" Brandy asked.

"The snake. It's talking. Come here, listen."

They both pressed their ears to the portrait and frowned.

"All I can hear is hissing, Abby," Jenny said gently.

"That's all I hear, too. …maybe you're just tired and hearing things?" Brandy said anxiously.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," I said weakly, nodding my head, but I could still hear the snake, clear as day.

Notices were handed out to all the students, warning them not to do magic over the summer. I had already read up on 'The Trace' of course, and I had an idea how to get past the restriction. On the Hogwart's Express, Jenny, Brandy, and I talked excitedly about what we would do over the summer. As we started passing Muggle towns we shed our robes and pulled on Muggle clothes. I was surprised to find I hadn't grown much and my clothes still fit fine.

When the train pulled to a stop at King's Cross Station Brandy, Jenny, and I climbed off with the other students. Brandy's mother, a red-haired, blue-eyed woman was waiting for her. She smiled when Brandy introduced Jenny and myself. Jenny's mother, who had brown hair and green eyes, was waiting for her along with a girl who was probably Jenny's older sister, Hailey, whom she had mentioned before. I said goodbye to my friends and looked around. There was no one waiting for me, except a yellow taxi cab with the same Muggle driver as before.

We didn't speak the whole ride back to Spinner's End and when I got out he didn't ask for money, merely drove away. With Arsenius in one hand and my trunk in the other, I made my way up the steps and into Snape's house. He was nowhere to be found so I took my things upstairs. The first thing I did was let Arsenius out so he could go fly around and not bug me. Then I unpacked my trunk, spreading my things around so that it felt a little more like home, as it should. I sighed as I sat down on my bed. I was going to miss Hogwarts.

Author's Note: Well, that wasn't so bad, now was it? I'll be posting Year 2 after I get some reviews. Thanks readers! J

~TheVampyre13