Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize. A major change I did make for the sake of my story was that both Bellatrix Black (at this time) and Rodolphus Lestrange were in the same year as Severus and the other Marauders. Also, that Narcissa is now Bellatrix's older sister. And I added my own characters.

AN:- I feel really good about this one and hope you give it a chance and enjoy it.

Chapter 1

Samantha Cromwell ran along side the Hogwarts Express as it started to move along the tracks. She was going to miss it, she knew it. Never again was she letting her brother drop her to the train station in his beat up little 1960 Chevy. She reached out to grab for the railing and missed it by two inches. She could feel people watching her as she ran and knew that it was dangerous but she had to get on this train. Gathering her momentum she gave her run all she had and sprang forward one last time. Her hands touched the railing and she swung her legs onto the platform of the last compartment of the train.

Breathing heavily she turned to watch the train station grow smaller as the distance between her and it became greater. She sighed at her earlier thought. She wouldn't even need her brother to drop her off at the train station again since this was her last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was excited school was almost over but it will be a big change from school life to working life, she didn't even have an idea of what she wanted to become. A Professor? – but of what subject? She didn't have a favorite. An Auror? – Yeah, well she didn't fancy the idea of hunting down Death Eaters, especially from the horrible stories of them in the Daily Prophet. Another two Aurors were found murdered this summer. Didn't she see a Careers Counselor last year? How come no possible occupations came to mind for her?

Shifting her wand from sticking into her side to laying flat against her thigh she headed for the door which led into the hall of compartments. She headed for the front of the cart and opened the first compartment to find it full of Hufflepuff students.

After finding six more compartments full and one with two people she despised she found herself facing the last compartment at the very end of the cart. Why hadn't she started here in the first place she wondered?

She pulled open the sliding door to find one person sitting near the window. She could tell that it was a boy but his face was hidden behind a Potions textbook. She glanced at the uniform and realized that whoever it was was a Slytherin. Great, she thought. She had nothing against individuals, but Slytherins weren't the friendliest of people. However, being a Gryffindor she was definitely capable of holding her own against a Slytherin.

She cleared her throat but the guy remained the same. Snotty, she thought. Shrugging she walked into the compartment and sat down in the seat opposite the boy, wanting to watch the scenery as they made their way towards Hogwarts. She gazed outside for a few minutes but her curiosity won and she looked at the book that was staring back at her. It was a potions book, however not one that was a part of the school's Potions list. Weirdo – reading a book he hadn't even been required to read.

Tired of reading the title and Author's name over and over she looked at the pale hands holding the book. They were long and sort of thin – not creepy thin but thin, the nails where neatly short but could have been cleaned under a bit more. She noticed a multitude of scars on the back of the palm of the hands and over the pale knuckles, some were quite large. Then she glanced at the black hair that was visible over the top of the book. Who was this? And why did this book seem to be so big all of a sudden? she wondered.

She was about to say something when the book lowered and a thin pale face with dark eyes, and a bored expression became visible. The boy's shoulder length black hair hid most of his face. Severus Snape. She should have guessed.

"Don't you know that it is rude to stare, Gryffindor?" He asked slowly in a calm tone.

She scoffed, "Rude? Coming from a Slytherin…that's ironic."

"Should I point out that this here was my compartment that you have invited yourself into?" he said bitterly with a hint of warning.

"Don't tell me your one of those Slytherins that thinks that they own everything since their 'Pureblood' family donated so much to the school?" she said with disgust.

Something crossed his face and it wasn't a pleasant thing to watch. It wasn't so much anger as something else – but she couldn't make it out since it was gone as quickly as it came.

He was quiet for a moment and Samantha tried not to blink as she stared into his black black eyes. Then she watched as his eyes narrowed and a superior expression took its rightful place on his true Slytherin's face.

"'That thinks that they'? Are we honestly in the same year group?" he said and raised his book again over his face.

Samantha stared at his book again. 'That thinks that they'? There was nothing wrong with that grammar…was there? '…one of those Slytherin's that thinks that they own everything…' There was absolutely nothing wrong with that statement! She sucked in a breath but then realized that too much time had passed to make a comeback – so she let it slide. He deliberately did that, to confuse her and use the opportunity that she used to mull over it to make her look like a fool. Point for Slytherin.

What seemed like hours later Samantha found herself slouched in her seat staring blindly out of the window at the green upon green upon blue outside. She had done nothing for the past…however long it had been. And he had done nothing but sit there and read, frequently flipping pages but that was all.

Sighing she sat up and pulled out her wand. She took a pouch out of her robe pocket, opened it and took out a small trunk and placed it on the floor. She waved her wand over it and wordlessly used a spell to enlarge it. Putting the pouch and wand back into her robe pocket she opened her trunk. She rummaged for a second then pulled out a book that had the cover of an Astronomy textbook but in truth was a muggle romance novel. Yes, she did have girlish tendencies. She sat back and started reading it.

Some time later she was bored with the book and threw it back into her trunk to look back at the boy sitting quietly in front of her. His undisturbed silence was slowly starting to irritate her.

"So, how was your summer?" she asked, giving in to her good natured side.

She didn't think he would answer her, and he didn't but he slammed his book onto his thighs and glared at her.

"Have you got absolutely nothing better to do then bother those around you? You haven't stopped fidgeting since you first sat down." He said in a snide yet calm tone.

"Oh, so you did notice. You're like a statue sitting there reading a book that isn't even on our Potions list." He turned his face to stare blankly outside. "So, how was your summer?" she tried again.

Of course he ignored her and after a few minutes he was hidden behind that book again. She smiled to herself and started humming.

So this was how Severus Snape really acted. Then what everyone said about him was really true. He was unpleasant, weird, rude and not likeable at all. She had heard much worse gossip about him but she couldn't tell if they were also correct from this short exchange. He did have a rather large nose, but not freakishly so that it made his face look weird, and his hair did look sort of greasy she guessed. She knew many people disliked him, for many other reasons besides being a Slytherin.

She had seen him around school and perhaps had a few classes with him over the years but she had never actually spoken to him. She had heard most of what she knew about him from hanging around with Lily Evans, Alexis Honey, Annabel Shrew and the Marauders, who were James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. She knew that the four boys bullied him frequently, and though she didn't approve of such childishness she had never really witnessed any of the incidences - just heard it from the boys. She knew that Lily Evans had grown up with him but they hadn't really talked much in school, or she had never seen it anyway. Then Lily had ended their awkward-already-perished friendship almost three years earlier after he had called her a Mudblood. Samantha remembered the day Lily came into the girls dormitory crying and told her, Alexis and Annabel what had happened. All she had tried to do was help him and he just slashed out at her.

Dirty. She looked at the boy across from her and agreed with most of the things she already knew about him. If he had called her such a thing, even if he had been her friend at some point, no one would have heard her cry about it because she wouldn't have wanted to be suspected in his untimely death. Slytherins. They needed to be knocked off of those high horses.

Snape was going to go insane. Either he was going to go insane or he was going to show his vast knowledge in the Dark Arts and use two of the Unforgivable Curses on this stupid naive Gryffindor. He took a quick glance outside the window to his right and from where they were it would be at least another hour to get to Hogwarts.

She had asked how his summer was, nosy, wanting to get information of which didn't concern her. It was no different form the other summers he had experienced, he thought bitterly. At Spinner's End he would want nothing but to be back in school, but then at school he would want nothing but to be anywhere else, except for Spinner's End. Thank heavens the final year has finally arrived. This will be the last year he would be tied down or ridiculed, as soon as it was done he would be free to do whatever he pleased and he could finally get away from everyone he hated so dearly.

He had originally planned to travel and gather more knowledge to decide which fields to go further into, whether it being Potions or Defense Against the Dark Arts. But from the looks of things he will have to excel in the Dark Arts. He smiled to himself. The war was still raging on; Lord Voldemort was gathering more and more followers and growing more powerful. Not coming from money and even if he had his parents would have never helped him out, he was going to leave Hogwarts broke, with no connections and nowhere to go. He knew quite a bit about the Dark Lord and the fools in the Ministry to know that the Ministry of Magic will fall under Lord Voldemort's fist.

He and most of his fellow Slytherins were all excited about leaving Hogwarts to join the Dark Lord in fixing the Wizardry world and gaining total domination. Power. That was something Severus Snape wanted. It was something he was never allowed to have and something he was restraining himself of obtaining until he graduated from Hogwarts.

He was jarred from his thoughts by a soft laugh from the Samantha Cromwell girl. Yes, he knew who she was, an arrogant blonde haired, blue eyed Prefect of Gryffindor – his enemy house. She was best friends with Lily and hang out with the Marauders. Gryffindor students are said to represented bravery and chivalry – more like retards and prats. They didn't care about school work as much as much as they cared about people acknowledging them.

The Great Hall was vibrant with so many students chatting about their summers, about expectations of the new school year and exciting upcoming events. They only students that weren't moving around or chatting were the First Years. Samantha walked through the rows of future Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws or Slytherins - making sure they stood in the right order in which the sorting hat will call them. Most of them looked nervous, some terrified and others just looked hungry.

Finished with helping Professor McGonagall, she headed into the Great Hall and walked towards the Gryffindor table. She headed straight for her two friends Annabel Shrew and Alexis Honey, who were waving her over enthusiastically. She sat between them and they both formed a hug around her.

Grinning they stated in unison, "Missed you on the train."

Annabel, whose short black hair framed her pixie face, pouted. She was short and petite. Alexis who was just a few inches taller then Annabel, slightly chubby, but still pretty and whose wild brown hair tangled over her shoulders, gave Samantha an accusatory stare.

Samantha frowned, "Toby."

"Say no more." Alexis said, raising her hands up in surrender.

"You think your parents would have learnt from the last time he had to take you to the Station." Annabel mused in her soft voice, shaking her head.

Samantha laughed, remembering the last time her brother had taken her to the train station. "That was three years ago, he had just gotten his license, perhaps they thought he had matured since then." She had missed the train completely due to his inability to avoid uncharted shortcuts and had to go back home where her father took her straight to school.

Alexis scoffed, "Toby? Right…Honestly, your parents must be wonderful people to think so highly of him."

"Well I did agree to go along with him." Samantha confessed. Changing the subject she grinned and asked, "How were your summers?"

Alexis went first, "Boring. Same as last summer, I was forced to head north to my mother's family in Scotland. They're all muggles you see, the type that would burn me at stake if they ever found out that I was a witch." She said casually.

Samantha smiled, "That sounds lovely, my dear lass. What no Scottish romance tales with an aggressive man in a kilt and two pitchers of beer in both hands?"

Alexis grimaced, "First of all they lived in the middle of nowhere. Four aunts, twelve female cousins and all the men worked on the farms all day, the only chance I had at romance would have been with a relative or a sheep."

Annabel laughed, "I love sheep, they're the cutest farm animal."

"What of your summer, Annabel?" Alexis asked in suspicion.

"Oh, well we didn't travel. My parents invited a family to come visit for the summer; I thought they were a friend of the family. They had a three year old daughter and an eighteen year old son -"

"Ah," Alexis dragged out, wiggling her eyebrows at Samantha.

"That's what I thought as well until my mother told me that we were cousins." Annabel's cheeks pinkened. "Thank heavens I didn't kiss him that time he tried to kiss me. Could you imagine?! A cousin! It seems our summers were not so different, Alexis." Then she turned to Samantha, "How was America, Sam?"

They both looked excited as if what she told them about her vacation would erase their bland summers. "Oh, well it was lovely. We divided the summer between New York and California."

"Wow, California." Annabel sighed, "You do seem to have a tan, doesn't she Alexis?"

"Yes, but how was New York?" Alexis pushed.

"It was great. There were so many people walking around! It was like being in London but then not really. We went to the theater, all the landmarks and they have the best pizza restaurants, they had lots of rude people though."

"What were the boys like in California?" Annabel almost squealed.

Samantha laughed, "Oh they were most quiet handsome, but extremely dull, sadly. And sorry, no romance stories for me either." She looked at the empty table in front of her, "Mum, made me go everywhere with Toby. All he did was drool over the girls in bikinis at the beach. He's extremely vulgar that one.

"Oh," Annabel sounded disappointed. Then her face lit up again and she opened her mouth to say something else but the Great Hall started to quiet down as Headmaster Dumbledore got to his feet and started the opening speech.

Samantha tried to concentrate on what was being said but couldn't as someone started to whisper in her ear.

"Hey, Sam, how was your summer?"

She turned to see Sirius Black sitting behind her. Annabel who had originally sat there was sending her an apologetic look from behind him. Samantha narrowed her eyes but turned her attention to the handsome boy, whose black haired head was to close to her and whose grey eyes were staring intently into her blue ones.

"Shh." She said and turned back to the front of the Great Hall.

"How was your summer?" he persisted.

Giving in she answered, "It was fine, Sirius."

There was an expectant pause then, "Mine was good to."

"That's great." She said and made it sound dismissive.

But either he didn't get it or he was just ignoring it, "Hey, Sam I was wondering -?"

"Sirius, can we talk later?" She cut in and blocked out his response as the Sorting Hat was brought out on a stool to sort the first years into their houses. This was her favorite part of the school year opening ceremony, since this was a great point in the future of each and every one of those students. Which ever house they were sorted into would define their lives for the next seven years and a bit of their destiny.

The first student made his way up the podium towards the hat and it was placed over his head. "Ravenclaw!" the hat yelled after two seconds.

A roar sounded from the Ravenclaw row of tables. It continued this way for all the students, some taking longer than others as the sorting hat read into their minds and came to a conclusion. The Sorting Hat would yell out a house name and the said house would burst out in glee to welcome their new comrades.

AN:- Hope you like the characters you've seen so far.

If you liked the first chapter I hope that you will Review!...if you did not....thats to bad and guess what? - Review!