Chapter 1: Welcome to Hogwarts

Amily Rutherford sat on the train in silence. She was new to the school, but in her seventh year. She had been in a small co-ed school in the US for magical individuals, but it had been burnt to the ground due to some poorly cast fiendfyre. Amily and the rest of her remaining schoolmates were transferred to different schools around the globe. She, with a great deal of luck, had managed a full scholarship to Hogwarts. So she sat in her seat reading a thick book, the binding was black with no discernable markings upon it at all. No title, no insignia, nothing. A whole armada of defense to hide a secret stash of Potions texts she read over and over again, simply for the fun of it.

She pulled her feet up and cuddled against the window. A dark figure walked into the compartment and sat in the seat nearest the door on the side opposite to her. She looked up to see a marble faced man sitting there. His hair was black and almost shoulder length, elegant if not a little greasy. He had a cloak already on, a black one, buttoned up as high as it would go on his neck. His eyes were cold, like the rest of him, but there was something else there, loneliness and a sorrow one would never see unless they looked carefully.

"May I help you with something?" he demanded coldly. Amily shook her head submissively and went back to her book. She sat with the book for some time, hoping slightly that he would leave, but when he did not she was glad of it, he was a quiet man, much in the same way she was quiet.

The train proceeded to chug along and she quickly finished the book. Amily lifted the lid to her trunk and placed the book delicately into a square compartment, exchanging it for her brand new potions text. The book was so new in fact that she had yet to charm away the title. She glanced at the man, but he was too engulfed on the underused attaché case in his lap. Amily set the book delicately onto the seat, face up, and retrieved her robe and the shield of the house she had been sorted into during the summer. Some dive called Slytherin. She pulled the green lined cloak on over her clothes, which were already the school uniform; she was bright with tactics like that. She carefully pinned the pin onto her right breast and smiled at the slight weight. In her old school they had just gone to school, they had roommates, but no houses. She turned around and her eyes fell upon the man, his eyes trained on her book.

"You read all of your school books so late?" he asked coldly. Amily frowned slightly.

"No, I've already read all of them," she replied, irritated, but still submissively polite.

"Except your potions text?" he asked, as if it were an insult directly to him.

"No," she repeated. "I've read it once already, I just-"she broke off. She found that she sincerely wanted this man's approval, and so she explained further. "I couldn't take potions last year and it's my favorite, please don't laugh," she mumbled. When he remained silent she looked up at his face; he was studying her, figuring that she was lying, she assumed.

"I see," he mused. Something of a smile, or perhaps more of a smirk, flickered across his face, at any rate it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. While Amily was wondering if he had actually shown any emotion at all or if it was simply a trick of the light a tall, wrinkly woman popped her head into the cabin.

"Severus, we need you to come up front, Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Zambini had a bit of an altercation and you need to deal with it," she said.

"Alright Minerva, I'm coming," he replied lazily. The woman nodded and walked back toward the front of the train.

"I am Professor Snape, Potions master and head of Slytherin house, Welcome to Hogwarts, Miss Rutherford," he said. He gave her a curt nod. She paused, confused, but not entirely sure why. She nodded back and he left.

"How'd he know my name?" she asked herself a minute or two later. She shook it off, he was her head of house, of course he would recognize that she was not one from before, he had probably even been there when she was sorted. Amily snuggled back to the window and went back to her book.

The time on the train went by fast as her mind curved away from potions, but to a subject very close to them. She had heard tell of the Potions master, but from what she could tell they were not true, or were told with prejudice. They had said he was ugly, and that was not true at all. He had a strong brow and a proud air about him. They said he favored Slytherins and from what she had already seen it must have been told by someone in another house, because he had looked severely irritated when called to separate Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini who were both Slytherins.

She shook the thoughts out of her head and stared at the page more intently hoping root of venomous tentacula and horn of unicorn would wash away the thoughts in her head.

A tall girl with wild, slightly frizzy, brown hair framing her gentle face poked her head in a short time later. "We're almost to the station," she informed Amily.

"Thanks," Amily replied. She placed a small green ribbon in the fold of the pages and closed the book.

"Leave your trunk, they'll bring it to your room," she added. Again Amily looked up and smiled.

"Thanks," she repeated.

"I'm Hermione Granger," the girl said with a small smile. Amily thrilled at the kindness.

"I'm Amily Rutherford," she replied. She took Hermione's hand and shook it brightly. A rush of excitement washed over her, showing clearly in a bout of verbal diarrhea which went some like: "I've heard loads about you! Last year, you were with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley when it all happened weren't you?".

"Yeah, how'd you?"

"You defeated Voldemort, every witch and wizard in the world knows," she replied, a bit calmer and determined to regain her calm demeanor.

"Most only know about Harry, some of Ron, but I hadn't heard any stories about me," Hermione mused, clearly flattered.

"Really? Most of my friends won't stop mentioning you. It was bravest on your part, because you're Mud-ggle born, they had it out for you just as much as for Harry Potter! And there was no reason to keep you alive if you got caught," Amily mused genuinely. Hermione smiled, clearly having missed the near slip, and a light rose color rising into her cheeks. She chastised herself internally as she stood there with Hermione, the habit of the cruel name it seemed would die hard.

"I have to go, Prefect, you know, but I'll see you around," Hermione said with a grin. Amily smiled brightly in return.

Hermione retracted herself from the door and was gone. A short time later Amily felt the train dive forward shortly and then stop entirely. She made her way out into the crowd of people. She spotted a dark haired Slytherin girl and decided to follow her. The Slytherin made her way to a massive white carriage pulled by great black horse-like beasts. Amily marveled at them for only a moment before walking toward the carriages.

"Amily!" came Hermione's voice from a yard or so away. Amily spun to see Hermione waving beside a tall red haired boy, his clone -slightly shorter and in female form - , and a black haired, emerald eyed boy. She recognized them from the stories she heard and hurried over.

"This is Amily," Hermione introduced. The redhead, Ron she assumed, gave a shrug and a small nod of acknowledgment. His little sister was much warmer; she grinned widely and waved, adding that her name was Ginny. And finally the mysterious Harry Potter smiled in a noncommittal way and shook her hand.

"You're riding with us then?" Ginny asked, somewhat hopeful if not at least kind.

"Am I allowed to?" she asked.

"Sure," Hermione responded before Ron could, as his mouth was open with intent. The five of them piled into one of the carriages.

"Umm, what are those things pulling the carriage? They're sort of creepy," Amily managed, as she locked eyes with one of the ghastly creatures.

The carriage was quiet for some time, before Hermione managed: "You can see them?" Her voice was weighed down with an abnormal amount of pity.

"Yes, why?"

"They're Thestrals… why can you see them?" Ron asked. Hermione jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow. The word flashed into Amily's mind, connected with something she had once read and her eyes were immediately downcast.

"You don't have to answer-"

"Yes. She does. If she's riding with us, if a Slytherin is riding with us, then we need some way to know she's not one of Malfoy's minions," Ron grumbled, his eyes focused on Amily and all of her green.

"The reason I'm here is because there was an accident at my school last year, some fire charm." She paused and focused intently on her feet. "Cursed fire, I can't remember what the spell was, but I was hidden, when it was set. I watched my little sister burn, I watched her die, but somehow I made it outside. The teachers put it out… or it went out… I guess I can see them because I saw her die." Amily didn't look up; she sniffed, trying to hold away the tears. She felt small arms around her and she saw long, red hair dangle beside her.

"I'm so sorry, that must have been horrible," Ginny whispered.

"Thanks," Amily mumbled, she made no move to return Ginny's hug, so eventually Ginny simply let go. The carriage was quiet the entire rest of the way to the castle. When they arrived they went their separate ways: Amily to the Slytherin table, and the rest to Gryffindor. Amily sat at the end closest to the middle of the room, allowing people to sit where ever else they liked. She looked up at the Professor's table, studying the Professors. Her eyes fell upon Professor Snape, talking to a small fluffy looking man. She forced herself to look away from the curvature of his face, the points of his cheeks, and the curve of his slim lips. She focused on her lap.

"Hi," came a slow, deep voice. Amily turned to see a large boy, possibly six feet tall. He had dark almond colored eyes and dark hair cropped close to his head.

"Hi…" Amily replied with a small smile on her face.

"Can I sit there?" he asked quietly. Amily nodded and he sat down.

"Greg Goyle," he said and offered her his hand. She took it and shook it.

"Amily Rutherford," she replied. He smiled at her and before he could say anything in response the head Mistress lost her patience, because apparently she had been after their attention for several minutes. She pressed her wand to her throat and her shrill voice echoed through the great hall.

"SILENCE!" Everyone winced and stared at her. She went on, explaining the 'Dos and Don'ts of Hogwarts'. Her speech went on for some time, and when it finally ended the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and the Transfiguration teacher which would be replacing her stood up. The Defence teacher was called Professor Alexander Crozwix, and the Transfigurations teacher was a beautiful witch named Professor Sophie Savf. They stood awkwardly for a short time. When they sat down food appeared upon the tables on massive golden plates. Amily helped herself to a small bowl of salad and doused it with dressing. She prodded the small helping with her fork for a minute, and then went into a daydreaming state.

She imagined she was in potions class, they were making a particularly complicated truth serum, which, by sheer luck she had already done. Snape was complimenting her skill. And then suddenly he wasn't talking about her skills, he was talking about her eyes, telling her they were the most amazing shade of silver he'd ever had the luck to stumble across. Next thing she knew he was standing behind her, his arms outstretched, holding a wooden dipper with her and stirring the potion. His form moving behind her, she felt every muscle against her back as they curved the plank about in the frothing brew.

She was torn out of her fantasy by Gregory pointing out that she'd been stirring her salad for about five minutes and had not touched it yet. She blushed and silently scolded herself for thinking such a thing about a teacher.

She pushed the salad aside and smiled sheepishly at Goyle, telling him that she wasn't hungry and should not have dished it anyway. Minutes ticked by and Goyle went back to eating. She stole a glance at the Professors' table and saw Snape focused upon his goblet. He stared into the liquid as if it told some amazing secret and he was slowly unraveling the tapestry which told it. She looked back at her own table to find that the dinner had vanished and that now there were mounds of desserts piled there. Her eyes grew wide and she piled numerous desserts upon her plate.

"I thought you weren't hungry," Goyle chuckled beside her.

"This is different," she assured him with a smile. She nibbled on a chocolate, and again was lost in her fantasy world, a habit she had fallen to over the summer to escape the sorrow of her real world. Of course, over the summer, the fantasies were of princesses caught in castles, not sleek half-naked potions masters teasing her with chocolates. She snapped quickly back, her face beet red, but she hid it behind a veil of her caramel colored hair. She went on devouring the treats, forcing herself to focus on the real world, as opposed to her suddenly Snape filled dream one.

"Alright, I assume you've all had your fills, you may now be off you your dormitories, good evening," McGonagall said. Amily resolved to follow Gregory, and so did not leap to her feet when the other students rushed out of the hall. However as the last of the other Sythrins were leaving it became aparant that Greg and his companion weren't going anywhere for quite some while. Amily approached McGonagall.

"Mistress, I can't say that I know where my dormitory is," she mumbled, embarrassed by her own ignorance.

"Oh, of course," McGonagall said with a smile. "Severus, could you show Amily to the Slytherin dormitories?" she called. Severus Snape turned, having been talking to a house-elf about something, and nodded lazily. The house-elf disappeared with a loud pop, and Snape strode toward them. Each step perfectly planted, he simply oozed grace.

"Come along then Miss Rutherford." Amily nodded quickly and walked after him, having to take a step and a half of for each of his long strides. He led her without glancing down at her, down this hall, and through that passageway, until he came to a blank stone wall, seemingly like a dozen others they had passed.

"The password is Parslemouth, it will be changed every month or so, so check the board in there," he said. He paused and looked down at her. "Do you really always read your Potions text twice?" he asked.

"No sir, it's usually more than that, but I've been busy," she replied. It was honest, certainly, but it was also an attempt at skirting into his good favor. Once again the smile danced across his face and while it wasn't there any longer than its predecessor she knew it had been there.

"I see, well then, I'll see you in class tomorrow, first thing," he said with a stiff nod. Amily smiled slightly and then turned to the wall, now noting a distinctly serpentine crack at her eye level, she muttered the word and the small crack slithered quickly in both directions and split open, revealing a smooth archway before her. Seeing as it was nine o'clock, she decided to go to bed early, it had been a very stressful day, and more importantly, she had something to dream about.

She walked quickly through the common room, taking very little of it in, and hurried up a short staircase, she was lucky enough to be just behind the Slytherin Prefect explaining that "up to the left were the girls' dorms, and down to the right were the boys." She let him finish and the people filed in their given directions. Amily quickly found her room, she, having enrolled late, had a room all to herself at the end of the corridor. The walls were dark stone, green fabric curtains were hung over three of the four walls to give the illusion of warmth. The floor was hardwood, with a large green circular rug on it. The bed sat in the corner, a circle accepts that the part against the walls was a corner to fit. Piled in said corner was a mound of green, black, and grey pillows. She lay down on the bed, looking around for a moment. Her trunk had been placed against the opposite wall, just between the door she had just come in through and silver slide open doors, one of which was open to show a small walk in wardrobe. Amily took her wand from her pocket, tapped her own shoulder with it, and instantly her robe hung on the door, her clothes in a dirty clothes basket, and she was wearing a silver nightgown, a simple substitution charm. She curled up under the thick emerald green comforter and closed her eyes. Within minutes she was asleep, whisked away to her secret little mental world.