Calla Potter and the Little Sipping Girl

AU This story could not be anymore AU. Female Harry. Harry=Calla. Set in sixth year, Sirius is alive and Voldemort is gathering his forces. In her fifth year, Calla convinced Snape that she was a poor Occlumens. What he doesn't know is that she was hiding secrets from him that would have destroyed her, as well as given the Wizardring world a reason to despise muggles.

Severus Snape marched toward the Great Hall with a sneer firmly fixed on his face. He had just successfully taken away thirty points from Ravenclaw, confiscated one of Fred and George's pranks from a third year Hufflepuff, and presumably made Neville Longbottom pee his pants. It was a great day for the sour Potions Master.

He had just entered the Great Hall when a balloon whizzed violently by his head, followed by an aggravated Peeves. "What is going on here?" he snarled at two nearby sixth years. The duo shrugged and pointed up the table, to where the bane of his existence sat. Calla Potter was sitting morose, surrounded by her scarlet faced, laughing friends at Gryffindor table. The Potions Master sneered and drew himself up, approaching the group like a panther.

"Causing trouble, I see," Snape said dryly. The group stopped their horse play and turned to face him.

"We weren't doing anything wrong, sir," Dean Thomas said loudly. "We just let go of that balloon on accident because it got too full-"

"Silence, Mr. Thomas. I know one of Fred and George Weasley's gags when I see one. Ten points from Gryffindor for childish nonsense."

"Oh please," Calla spat. "That wasn't anything against the rules and you know it."

Snape grinned. "Five points for your cheek, Miss Potter. Perhaps I should ask your Head of House to cousel you on manners."

Calla turned to face him, her mother's eyes burning through a curtain of thick, red hair. "As if you have the right to talk, Professor. "

"And a week of detention, scrubbing the entire potions lab. Have you anything else to say, Miss Potter?"

Calla whipped her head around, which might have been a more intimidating act if a large Gryffindor scarf was not wrapped around her neck.

"Put away your nonsense. NOW, Mr. Thomas. You should be working."

Calla rolled her eyes as far as she could make them go, her adventure in Snape's memory swimming to the surface. Of course he expected to make everyone study as much as he did. 'Good luck,' she thought bitterly. 'No one except Hermione has that kind of study ethic, and she doesn't even walk around with her nose in a book twenty-four seven."

The group watched Snape walk to the Head Table before sinking into a chorus of groans.

"Why does he have to be so insufferable?" Ron breathed, pulling a bowl of crisps under his nose. "I absolutely hate him!"

Calla sighed, pulling at her scarf. "I know. Atleast we don't have him until tomorrow."

Hermione lowered her book, "I still don't understand why on Earth he had to pick on Sirius last weekend though. I know I'm always saying he's on our side, but sometimes I wonder if he wants everyone to hate him."

Calla didn't let his involvement in her parents deaths come up. "Maybe."

Calla wondered how Sirius was doing at his new cottage in the country. He had been beside himself when the Ministry practically gave it to him, begging him not to do anything vengeful. She wanted to be thankful towards Snape for his actions the year before. She doubted anyone else would have used Voldemort's attempt at trying to get into her mind as a trap to capture a few Death Eaters. He still didn't know the truth about her skills though.

When Dumbledore approached her, explaining how Voldemort was using her connection to him to torture her and find out information, it had frightened her. She had never wanted her mind to be used like that. She quickly came to terms with sharing her memories of the muggle world with Dumbledore, but then he had said it.

"I have asked Severus to teach you Occlumency."

The words sunk to the deepest pit of her bowels, and she could not breathe. Snape? Snape teach her Occlumency? The idea of that man swimming through her memories of Privet Drive, of the hotels, hit her like a speeding frigot.

"Oh, sir. But, couldn't you-you know-teach me yourself?"

Dumbledore's head inclined, his hands never leaving their clasped position infront of him. "No, my dear." The enormous sapphire on his right index finger glittered almost as brightly as his eyes as a ray of sunshine filtered in past Fawkes. "It would be too risky for me to allow you into my mind, as Tom might take advantage of it. No, Calla, Severus will be your teacher. He is almost as skilled as I am."

Calla shook, hidden in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Myrtle was off spying, so Calla had time to sit and panic. She had never felt more betrayed by the man at that time, even when she had been...there. Tied up...and Piers...

So the Occlumency lessons began. Calla and Hermione had practically destroyed the library looking for books on Occlumency and Legilimency. It was midnight before her first lesson when an idea hit Calla's head. All she had to do was do what she did then, to hide what she felt when they did that to her. She would do it to Snape as well. And he'd never know.

He didn't know. He picked and prodded at her brain, snarling about her incompetence and laziness. She was assaulted everynight, ending up on the floor in a cold sweat. Somehow, he never made it. Snape never expected that Calla would have anything particularly gruesome to hide, so he never looked for it. Instead, he looked for things to use as insults towards James Potter, and sneered when Marge's dogs chased her up the trees. He never got past the bullying; and, Calla assumed that Voldemort never could as well.

Snape considered her a poor Occlumens, and he was right. She often felt that had he become curious enough about the extremes of the bullying he saw in her childhood, he would have destroyed her. However, Snape still believed she was a spoiled, attention seeking prat. One that was nothing more than a poor imitation of her better, prettier, smarter mother.

Calla grinned into her cornish pasty. That suited her just fine.

TBS Working on second part today.

Criticism and comments are very much appreciated!

Love, Ember Spy :)-