"Samantha!" came my mother's muffled voice from the next room.

"What?" I called back, not bothering to stop strumming the guitar cradled in my arms. I traversed my way through the sheet music Terence Higgs had just sent me; we had been swapping music back and forth throughout the summer, hoping to keep our band, The Four Houses, going at Hogwarts when fall rolled around again. I parted my lips, inhaling deeply in order to add some new lyrics to the piece when she called out again, louder.

"Samantha!"

"What?" I called back again, all the air escaping me in a huff.

"Cut that out, I need to concentrate on this report for the Ministry," she snapped. With that tone, I could practically see her annoyed facial expression through the wall dividing us.

"I have to practice, Mother. And since you won't let me go flying, this is what I'm going to do to pass the time," I snapped back, repeating the bridge to make sure I knew it.

"You put that wretched instrument down this instant, young lady!" She swept into the room, nose in the air, robes fluttering in her wake. "It's not even yours, it's Theo's, so put it away!"

"Dad gave it to me, remember?" I said, my temper rising, but I kept my eyes on the sheet music in front of me as I played, bypassing the bridge entirely this time and skipping to the chorus. "And besides, I don't think he'd mind me playing it since he isn't around—"

"Don't you have work to be doing?"

I stopped strumming at those words and stared up at her. "Is that all you care about?"

The doorbell rang. Jumping up, I gratefully embraced the interruption, sheet music flying up into the air as I rushed away, the parchment landing awkwardly between the strings and flopping over onto the couch as I sped from the room.

"I know you have homework to be doing, young lady!" Mother called after me.

"Why don't you ask me what I'm practicing for instead, like a normal parent?" I called back, my hand on the doorknob. "All you care about are my marks in bloody Potions class!" I flung the door open angrily as I spoke and turned to face the unfortunate soul on the doorstep with a huff.

I froze.

I stared.

I gaped.

"Professor Snape?"

"Who's at the door, Samantha?" Mother shouted from her study.

I hesitantly cleared my throat. "Professor Snape," I repeated in response to her question.

"Who?"

"Professor Snape, my Potions instructor!" I said louder, watching the professor's eyebrows raise as I continued to stare disbelievingly at him.

"What Potions instructor?"

I groaned loudly in response, snapping out of my stunned stance and stepping back to allow Snape inside. "At Hogwarts! How many Potions instructors do you think I have?" I could hear Mother's footsteps crossing the house.

"Well, how am I supposed to know—oh! Severus!"

"Cassandra," Snape replied with a nod.

"You know each other?" I blurted before I could stop myself.

"Come in, Severus, come in. Can I get you anything? Samantha, go put the kettle on," Mother said graciously, gesturing grandly for the professor to follow her into the sitting room. I stared after them, stunned once again into stillness. How on earth did she know Snape?

I was snapped out of my reverie when I heard an enormous clunking noise. I bolted into the sitting room to find that Mother had tossed my guitar off the sofa and onto the floor, the sheet music formerly stuck in the frets now crumpled underneath.

"Mother!" I cried, rushing over and checking it for damages. An enormous crack was now running up the body of the instrument. I groaned.

"Tea, young lady! Now!" she barked.

I resisted the urge to bring my guitar down over her head and stomped into the kitchen to make her bloody tea.

"What a pleasant surprise," I heard my mother saying next door. "What brings you here after all these years?"

After all these years? I thought. Never mind if they knew each other, how long had they known each other?

Snape's voice was too quiet for me to hear, so I went about making the tea and decided that I didn't care. I ambled about the kitchen, putting together the usual tray, humming to myself. I sang through Terence's piece in my head, testing out a few words here and there. I wondered suddenly how I would be able to repair my guitar if I wasn't allowed to do magic outside of school. Mother certainly wouldn't repair it.

When the tea was ready, I carried the tray into the sitting room where the conversation immediately ceased. I set it down on the table and moved to collect my guitar from the floor.

"Miss Evans," Snape said civilly as I passed by him.

"Professor," I replied curtly. "How are—"

"How are Samantha's Potions marks? Since we were talking about them earlier, I have been ever so curious," Mother interrupted, her face a solid mask of false concern.

Snape raised an eyebrow at my mother before answering. "Top notch," he said shortly, no longer looking in my direction as I scooped up my guitar and examined it further. Yes, this would certainly require wandwork to fix.

Mother scoffed. "I should hope so, after all I went through to teach her. She's ever so stubborn. And so distracted since last summer. She should take more care."

"Take more care?" I ejaculated, flinging my guitar back into its spot on the sofa next to Snape. "What, to make sure Death Eaters don't come running after me and Dad that way I can concentrate better in class?"

"Well, it's certainly not my fault Theodore's dead, seeing as I wasn't there," Mother said primly.

"What, so it's my fault?" I spat, fists clenched at my side.

Mother pursed her lips and didn't answer.

All the air whooshed from my body as the silence stretched out. The silence rang ruthlessly in my ears. I could feel myself shaking. Did she really think—? How could she possibly accuse me of—?

The nightmare that had plagued my sleep for almost a year brought itself to the front of my mind, that wretched dream where I was forced to relive my father's death every single sodding night, the one where Mother's face would appear and tell me that I hadn't been good enough…and now here it was, in blinding reality.

My body was jerking spastically with the effort to keep from striking the horrid woman before me. I inhaled suddenly, a heaving gasp, my body unable to work without oxygen for any longer as I spun on the spot. I marched from the room, stomped up the staircase, packed a bag, and left the house. A wave of my wand arm brought the Knight Bus crashing to a halt before me, and I was whisked away from the place I could never call home.