Chapter Two

The boat ride to the castle was extremely intimidating for me as an 11 year-old girl. Especially because I was still a little nervous about what house I would be in. Ron said that lots of Slytherins were evil, but I certainly didn't think of my father and Alice as evil people, and as for my mother..I concluded that she couldn't be evil because if she was my father never would have given her the time of day. I figured that I would have been in Slytherin anyway because both of my parents were.

When we entered the castle, we were all in awe. It was one of the most beautiful structures that any of us had ever seen. As for me, it was one of the only structures that I had ever seen. We were greeted by a woman that appeared to be in her late forties. She introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. She came across as a nice, but no nonsense woman, which I liked because she reminded me of Alice. Just then the boy that had been looking for his toad earlier, Neville, found him. The toad jumped right in the front during McGonagall's introduction speech. Neville seemed a bit frazzled and awkwardly stepped back, he was a bit awkward, but I thought it was adorable. I stood next to Harry and Ron as McGonagall lead us through the halls to the sorting hat.

A boy with greasy, slicked back, blonde hair introduced himself to us as Draco Malfoy. I was taken back by the cruel words that he expressed to Ron. I stayed quiet, unsure of how to not seem anti-social. He tried to convince Harry that if they became friends, he would help him stay away from the wrong sort of crowd, referring to Ron. He held out his hand for Harry to take, but Harry refused to take it.

"I think I can decide the wrong sort for myself, thank you."

Malfoy remained with a shocked look on his face that soon turned into a scowl. I turned my head away, hoping that he wouldn't pick on me next.

"Are you okay?" asked a girl, who seemed to have noticed my discomfort.

I nodded.

"Fine, just a bit nervous."

"I'm Chloe Mariano," she said, holding out her hand.

"Annalise Snape."

She gasped as I shook her hand.

"It's so good to meet you. Our fathers used to work together."

To be honest, I didn't know that my father worked anywhere other than Hogwarts, but I shrugged it off as something that happened before I was born.

"Nice to meet you too," I said.

"So I guess that we'll be in Slytherin together."

I smiled at the thought, surely my father would be proud. McGonagall called all of the names of my new friends. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all in Gryffindor and Chloe was in Slytherin. My nerves were getting the best of me.

"Annalise Snape..." McGonagall trailed off, revealing a shocked tone.

The once quiet room erupted into gasps and whispers. I even heard one person question the fact that I was Severus Snape's daughter. McGonagall took another look at the paper then at me then at my father and then at the paper again. This made me think that my father didn't tell anyone about me, not even the teachers knew! I gave him a confused, yet nervous look as I sat in the chair.

"Oh, you're the daughter of Severus Snape? The infamous Slytherin? Surely, you're looking forward to going into Slytherin as your father and mother have done before you? You would be great in Slytherin, but Gryffindor would suit you as well. Shy on the surface, but there lies something deeper."

My eyes shifted to look at my father's face, but I couldn't see anything past the brim of the hat.

"Slytherin, please," I whispered towards the hat.

"Slytherin? Are you sure? Of course, you're sure. You want to be great, you want to prove that you're more than you've been given, more than you are. Slytherin could help you with that."

I nodded my head, hoping the hat would agree.

"But the deep, burning courage that lies within you leads me to believe that I know where you really should be...Gryffindor!" The sorting hat shouted.

The room went silent. Everyone looked up at me when I stood up, but suddenly the Gryffindor table exploded into cheers of excitement while Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff stared in shock, the Slytherins were were clearly upset and a bit confused that a girl that was supposed to be in their house was put a rival house. At that moment, the only opinion that mattered was my father's. I looked over to his direction. He was no longer calm, but full of rage. He was silent, but when his eyes met mine, he turned away with disgust. I saw Chloe looking over at me, she noticed the sad look on my face and she mouthed, "It's okay." I blinked away tears and tried not to cry as I took my seat next to Hermione, but she even gave me an odd look. Ron and Harry gave me looks of sympathy. The entire situation just gave me a feeling that screamed Welcome to Hogwarts, you're a failure.