Prologue:

It was an unsophisticated Age of the Wizarding World, an age where blood status highlighted and defined who a wizard was, marking social standing and acceptance. Pure-bloods reveled at the ideology that Magic should be practiced by those of Magical-Blood, and bolstered their stance by proving their bloodlines through the centuries. While those of purely Muggle-blooded descent struggle within the Wizarding World to prove themselves competent witches and wizards amidst such archaic ideologies, continually facing skepticism, insults, and violence by those Pure-Bloods who wish to separate the Wizarding World from the Muggle World. Still, those who were born Half-Blooded struggled with their identity of self amidst social stigmas against Muggle-Born, often times working twice as hard to prove themselves worthy to practice Magic to Pure-Bloods and prove themselves humble enough to Muggle-Borns.

Despite attempts throughout the Wizarding Age by select open-minded Witches and Wizard to break down the ideologies surrounding the importance of bloodlines, it prevailed and lived on to the present day. Marriage, then, became essential to preserve Pure-bloodedness and to avoid Half-Blooded offspring. The essence of marriage became the defining attribute to upholding the Family honor: any marriage to a Muggleborn, or even a Half-Blood, could taint the family name within society. Thus, many Pure-Blooded and untainted Wizarding households insist upon arraigned marriages for the children. Resistance to an arranged marriage by anyone has often resulted in severe punishments inflicted by family members, and even death.

However important bloodlines are within the traditional Wizarding World, it was ever-clear that having a child, whether it be pure-blooded or half-blooded, was favored than not producing heirs. Thus, any relation that did not produce children was seen as an abomination to the greater society: werewolf relations to humans, all homosexual relations, and those heterosexual relations that did not produce children. Ancient Laws banning homosexual marriage, or any sign of homosexual relations, along with werewolf relations, prevailed despite attempts to ban such barbaric laws. If caught engaging in homosexual or werewolf relations, one was tried in the Wizengamot and if found guilty would receive severe punishments before being handed to the dementors for a final kiss in life.

Professor Dumbledore of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has attempted, fruitlessly, to dismantle the Ancient laws and was always several votes short of succeeding. The view that homosexuality was a disease of the Muggles that filtered into the Wizarding World could not be shaken out of the Pure-Bloods who served as seat members of the Wizengamot. Twice Dumbledore had brought up the issue for voting and twice it had failed. Having given up on the council of Pure-Bloods within the Wizengamot, he retired to teach at the school in hopes to inspire the future generation towards change.

The year was 1956 and several of the younger generation, under Dumbledore's wing, would be the ones to bring that change.

Chapter 1: Hogwarts Express

Lily Evans stumbled onto Platform nine and three quarters, pushing her loaded cart before her. She had waved goodbye to her mother and father before crossing into the platform and felt sad that Petunia had refused to accompany them, as she did all the previous years, to bid her elder sister farewell. Attempts to mend their relationship over the summer were fruitless and Lily was sorry for that. She knew that the hurt and jealousy ran too deep, and so long as Lily continued to pursue a Magical lifestyle that Petunia could never engage, she knew that their relationship would continue to drift further apart. She sighed.

"You've arrived."

Lily turned to see Severus Snape standing before her. He had grown taller over the summer, and his hair
was longer. She smiled as she pulled him into an embrace. He always felt good in her arms; she was comfortable, serene.

"I've missed you, Sev," Lily stated. The words breathed out naturally from her depth.

"I missed you more," Severus stated. "I'm sorry I wasn't around this summer. I wanted to visit but…"

"I understand," Lily said, breaking out of the embrace to look up at him. Her smile radiated, "you were busy interning for the Aurors at the Ministry and I can only imagine what that was like…"

"I've got loads of stories!" Severus began, "if you want, I'll tell you on the train… That is, if you want to sit next to me?"

Lily looked up at him and cupped the side of his gentle face, "what sort of question is that, Sev?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you wanted to sit with your Gryffindor friends…" He faltered at the mention of it.

"No, I want to sit next to you."

Lily smiled at him and Severus felt his heart shift in his chest. Together, they packed her luggage onto the train before making their way to an empty compartment. Severus began telling her stories of Aurors arresting wizards who had broken Magical laws. While in the middle of discussing a specific incident, the compartment doors opened to reveal the gang of four known as the Marauders. Their leader, James, stood wild eyed at finding Lily sitting so closely to Severus, who was nothing but Slytherin scum to him.

"Lily, what are you doing sitting here with him?" James asked.

"That is none of your business," Lily began, "who I hang out with and what I do with my time is my own affair and it would behoove you to accept that axiom and leave us be."

"Yeah but…" continued James, glaring at the Slytherin with utter disgust, "you wrote in your letter that you'd sit with us on the train and tell us about your summer vacation…"

Lily rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to repeat myself."

Lily turned to stare at an uncomfortable Severus and placed a hand on his thigh for reassurance. She heard Sirius growl behind her, "you're ditching US for a lowlife pussy son of a …"

"Sirius…"

A melodious voice stated the name and they all turned to face the source. Lily felt her heart skip a beat as her eyes averted to an elder student gracefully standing in the hallway. Brown eyes glowed from the porcelain face, elegant hair of a unique mixture of fair-blonde and dark-brown weaved around her perfect body, her eyebrows arched regally defining her presence before them, and Lily's eyes absorbed the entire of her before finding their way to her breasts, which heaved with every breath under the constraints of the Emerald dress.

"Narcissa," Sirius stuttered, clearly shocked to find who had called his name.

"Have I disrupted something?" The words flowed from her lips like the serene water in a stream. Her eyes moved from Sirius to Severus, who had perched up a little taller on his seat upon her arrival.

"We were just…" Sirius began, struggling to find the words.

"Leaving." Severus finished the sentence for him, a mark of defiance against the vulgar statements made earlier.

Lily watched the exchanges with admiration. She had never seen Sirius, James, and Severus so enamored by anyone, or anything. She, herself, was drawn to the figure before them and in an unexplainable way she felt the need to know everything about Narcissa.

"Then I've arrived at the perfect moment. Sirius, your mother wanted you to have this. You've seemed to have forgotten it while boarding the train," she handed him a package while saying it. There was a motherly quality to her, an aura of womanhood that couldn't be denied.

"Thanks…" Sirius said and looked down with disinterest at what his mother could have possibly wanted him to have that he hadn't grabbed from his own home. Knowing that he couldn't bully Severus in the presence of Narcissa, he motioned the Marauders to leave the compartment. When they were several feet away, Narcissa clarified a point for him: "If you ever insult a member of my house again, Sirius, so help me I will teach you your place."

She looked threatening as she said it, her chin hung high and her brown eyes pierced through the Marauders at Sirius. Lily watched in envy and deep admiration, she wished she could have such an effect on them in the way that this girl did. Now that she came to think of it, who was this girl? Other than knowing her name and the house she belonged to, she had no recollection of ever hearing about her or seeing her around the castle.

Narcissa stepped into the compartment and sat across from Lily and Severus. She eyed the Gryffindor with a sense of mistrust before averting her eyes to Severus.

"How are you?" She touched Severus' knee gently and Lily felt an odd sensation build within her.

"I'm fine," Severus quickly stated and glanced between Lily, who was staring at Narcissa's prefect badge in wonder, to Narcissa, whose fixated gaze was upon him.

"And you are?" She asked, eyeing the Gryffindor robes worn by Lily before finding Emerald eyes.

"Lily Evans," she said, barely finding the words.

"A Gryffindor…" she snarled, looking at Severus quizzically.

"And what's wrong with that fact?" Lily challenged, snapping out of her trance. Though she didn't like many of her fellow Gryffindor classmates, that didn't delegitimize all the good qualities attached with the Gryffindor House, bravery being one and what she was also attempting to display.

Narcissa arched her eyebrows, not feeling obligated to respond to a Gryffindor. "My father requested the reports; I suggest you send them with an owl as soon as possible…" Narcissa said and when Severus nodded, she stood to leave when a hand clasped her wrists.

"Don't ignore me! That's rude…" Lily stated.

"How dare you touch me," Narcissa whispered and shook her hand from Lily's grasp before pointing her wand at Lily's neck. Severus began mumbling but the doors to the compartment opened revealing the two people he feared more than her: Bellatrix Black and Lucius Malfoy.

"Cissy, we've been looking all over for…" Bellatrix stopped when she saw her sister's wand pointed at the Gryffindor sitting aside Severus. "What is that mudblood doing here?" Bellatrix growled, pulling her wand out as backup. Lucius stared between Severus and the Black sisters, not daring to look at the pathetic form between them.

"I'll handle this…" Lucius said, putting his hand on the smalls of Narcissa's back, but she didn't move, her haunting gaze still held on the Gryffindor, which she now learned was a mudblood: the scum of the Earth. Worse than regular Muggles were those who dared enter their Magical world.

"NO!" Severus stood, blocking Lily behind his body. "She's…she's…"

"A Filthy Mudblood!" Bellatrix jeered. "How dare you associate with that…disgusting creature."

"…SPYING ON SIRIUS FOR ME!" Severus dared state the words. Their shocked expressions were priceless and Lily's eyes, which were full of tears from their cruel remarks, widened in repulsion. She stood up and shoved her way through the three Slytherins blocking her path. Bellatrix sneered as she walked past her and Narcissa stood there staring at Severus, searching for the truth in his eyes.

"Explain yourself," Lucius, the head boy of Slytherin, said. "Lest you want me to report this to Professor Slughorn…"

"… I can't say what it's for. I wasn't supposed to say anything at all about it…"

"You're lying…" Narcissa accused, "You're lying to cover up the fact that she's your friend."

"No, I would never…" Severus began, sweat pouring down the side of his face. He was mumbling in extreme nervousness.

"So then tell us," Lucius said, playing with the wand in his hands as it faced Severus, "tell us of this plan to spy on Sirius. And who is this girl who is so willing to help a Slytherin."

"Someone asked me to spy on Sirius, to make sure he wasn't tainting the name of Black while in Gryffindor and since the mudblood is vulnerable, as she is not exactly an accepted member of the Gryffindors in the way that others are, I took advantage of that and questioned her about Sirius. But you all blew my cover in front of her and now, it is unclear if she will trust me."

Lies, they were all lies and Narcissa saw through them. Bellatrix and Lucius, on the other hand, were entirely convinced and sat down within the compartment to question Severus further about what he had discovered about Sirius Black. Bellatrix eagerly listened to every lie that poured out of Severus' mouth, as she would never want any dishonor to come to the Great House of Black. Lucius also listened with admiration. After all, he hoped that his crush on Narcissa would develop into a relationship, which would one day lead to marriage. Marrying a member of a tainted house wouldn't seem acceptable to him.

Now that Narcissa thought about it, she wouldn't mind being left alone from Lucius. Though he was handsome, with beautiful grayish-blue eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair, and he came from a Pure-Blood family that the Blacks approved of, she just didn't feel anything romantic towards him. He was the perfect mate for her in every sense of her societal and family obligations, but she always believed in love persevering and not once in the years she had known him had she felt anything more than a slight physical attraction to him. She sighed and leaned her head back and closed her eyes. An image of beautiful Emerald eyes between long locks of Red hair found its way into her thoughts, but she didn't have the strength to fight it. Overwhelmed and exhausted, she drifted into sleep as the Hogwarts Express made its way towards the castle.