Author's Notes: Hey, this is my very first fanfic, so please be kind! Leave me a review and let me know what you think, please! I'd reallY, really appreciate it! Oh, also, this is set during GoF, the day after the other schools arrive.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters/places within it. I'm but a mere fan.

Had he thought about it a moment, he would've realized that the girl's laugh was different and there could could easily have been another girl with the same name. The moment he heard giggling and a girl's loud cry, exclaiming, "Lily!" he should've seen the situation for what it was and continued on with no change in his demeanor. But he didn't think, not when she was concerned. Just the mere action of her being drug to the forefront of his consciousness had him practically racing down the corridor to catch a glimpse of her, to see if it was true. He had never been one for thinking a lot, not while Lily Evans was around. He was always too busy watching her, fascinated by this girl he had the good fortune of befriending and every little thing she did.

However, upon reaching the location from which the voices had resonated from, he quickly realized he had been far too quick in his assumptions. It was impossible, after all. The leaping, racing pulse and strange hope to see a dead woman walk through these halls once more had simmered into an empty, aching feeling in his chest. He felt stupidity wash over him; what a fool he'd been. What had he been thinking? He'd gone tearing off down the hall to catch a glimpse of a girl who had long been gone. What could he possibly expected to have happened anyhow? Perhaps just a glimpse of that red hair that he so often saw in his dreams...It had been a long while since he had felt this way, had the past affect him so suddenly to the point he rather surprised himself.

It was then that he noticed the startled gazes of three girls, two he recognized as fifth-years at Hogwarts and another who was clearly a Beauxbatons student if her outfit was anything to go off of. She was wearing the same silky, light blue dress they had all worn on arrival to the castle. He knew that neither of the students he knew were named Lily, so he naturally assumed that it must be the name of this French student. The two familiar girls stood in front, closest to him, while this Lily girl stood cautiously behind them. Upon immediately noticing his apparently hurried walk to get there, they appeared to expect the worst from their scrutinizing Potions professor. When had he ever not taken up on an opportunity to take away house points for even the most trivial of reasons? One glance and Snape could tell that they were definitely afraid of his sudden appearance and were mentally scrambling to find any previous behavior that could possibly be construed as rule-breaking.

He surmised that he too, would need a cover story for being caught by people he'd least want to be around when in such a precarious situation, but he supposed that with his many years of experience taking on a role and lying through his teeth while in presence of the darkest wizard of all time, he could quite easily come up with something to escape a mere group of underage girls.

He instantly gathered himself up and looked down his nose at them, giving off his more imperious teacher aura. He saw them squirm as they clearly didn't know what they'd been doing that he was displeased with them for, to which he simply smirked. To them, his face showed nothing than open disdain, though internally, he to hurried to appropriate a story that explained his being there should it be asked of him as well.

"Miss Williams," he began, addressing the Ravenclaw on his left, "perhaps you could explain what you and Miss Hall were doing cavorting around in the hallways making such a racket, that anybody walking by in any of the adjoining corridors could undoubtably hear it?"

"You mean…..we were talking too loud, Professor?" asked Miss Williams.

Insolent girl. Isn't that what he had just said not a moment before? He would swear that most children at this school had some form of severe hearing problem judging from the way he was forever repeating information he has said not a minute previously. It annoyed him to no end and only increased his irritation at the unfortunately convenient girl, attempting to look as innocent as possible just in case he decided to punish her for something as ridiculous as looking too guilty.

"Is that not what I just said?" he drawled, one eyebrow cocked challengingly.

"Umm... I think so..," she said slowly, showing every ounce of the confusion eating away at her cranium.

Snape simply gave her a small, annoyed glare and said, "Perhaps if you would pay attention and listen the first time something is said, you would know, Williams."

The staccato, snapping time in which he voiced her name caused the girl to flinch slightly and appear even more nervous, if that was even possible.

"I'm really sorry, Professor. We were just-"

She was cut off by a voice coming from behind her that said, "No. I cannot let you do this. It was my fault, sir. I made all the noise. The others told me a joke and I must have laughed too loudly. They didn't mean any disrespect and I won't let them get punished for something I did. I apologize if it offended you and I assure you it will not happen again."

Snape lifted his gaze from the quivering Miss Williams and pivoted slightly to face the girl with the familiar accent, but clearly French school uniform. The audacity of the girl astounded him, and he simply watched her with impenetrable, dark eyes, though she didn't immediately look away from him as most would have already. He didn't know quite what to make of that.

Unable to ignore her any longer than he already had, he replied, "You are none of my concern unless your behavior gets so out of hand that I am forced to take you to your freakishly tall headmistress and complain."

At the line about her headmistress, the girl opened her mouth to say something in return, but Snape cut her off, continuing, "Believe me, I will be extremely annoyed if I must do so, and I would strongly advise that you avoid that at all costs."

The girl simply looked at him again, her gaze never straying from the sneer he was sending her way. She unnerved him somehow. Perhaps it was the fact that his guard had been brought crumbling down so recently, but whatever the reason, he most certainly didn't like it.

Snape shifted his gaze from her, back to the two girls he knew how to better handle, and said, "Ten points from each of your houses. Had I not been interrupted, it might have been less." He gave a pointed glance at the Beauxbaton's student just behind them, who was still watching him strangely, though now her gaze held an extra angry effect that it had lacked before. She was upset that her taking responsibility for her friend's misdeeds hadn't earned them any extra benefit or gotten them off the hook, though Snape was hardly surprised by her reaction. Likely the girl figured that her claim would be sure to get them out of trouble as his role as Hogwart's teacher didn't give him clearance to give her detention.

"Be sure to watch your behavior from now on and be mindful of how loud you are, even if enjoying the company of your little..French.. friends..." He said the word with just enough questioning disdain that the girl clearly felt obliged to answer.

"Oui," she began with a defiant smirk. "I am French, but I was born British. My family moved to France for my father's job the summer I turned eleven. Ever since I've spent my school years at Beauxbaton's and my summer's here in Britain with my grandparents. My accent hasn't changed, though my residency has. As for my friends, I've known these two for many years, we used to live near by one another. We've maintained contact over the years, though of course we don't see each other very often anymore. If that answers all your questions, sir."

Well, that explained her accent and fast friendship with the two airheads in front of him. He didn't like her tone, though. "Hmm...Charming, truly. However, I don't remember asking for your whole life story. I don't remember asking anything at all, really."

"Ah, then I apologize, ugh..sir. I must have mistaken your previous comment for a question when clearly you probably just want to go on with your day. We won't waste any more of your time, then."

His lip curled as he regarded her once more before deciding to simply ignore her altogether and turned back to his own students. After enjoying a few extra moments of watching their obvious discomfort, he cautioned them with, " I fail to see any excuse for your behavior, ten points will still be taken from each of you. Be sure this doesn't happen again, or next time it will be thirty each." He gave both of them a stern glance before walking away from the small group towards the more accommodating dungeons he was so used to inhabiting.

Trying to put all of this behind him as much as possible, he couldn't help but overhear their comments, "I can certainly see why people call him the bat of the dungeons...," that French girl must have said.

"Or a vampire..." the Hufflepuff giggled.

He couldn't wait for this bloody year to be over, this pointless tournament had only seemed to bring more painful memories to surface. The sooner their guests left, the better.