"Watch out, Scor, you'll drop that thing on all of us" I said to Scor as he tried to balance his precariously perched trunk. He climbed up onto the back of the seat and pushed it onto the grating the installed for luggage. The seats were velvet red and a large window complimented the room. I watched silently as buildings disappeared and trees sprung up. "You know who we should go see?" Scor asked in a whisper to his other friends. "The Potter kids?" asked a few of his friends. There was a tallish kid, seemed rather slow, that Scorpio referred to as Goyle. "Scor, I don't think we should do that. I don't want to get on their bad side." I spoke up, even though he wasn't talking to me. Goyle scowled at me behind Scorpio's back. I sneered back at him and Scorpio whipped around just in time to see what his friend was doing. "Stop that, she's my friend!" he said, "I heard she's a mudblood," the sluggish boy snipped, obviously not raised with the open-mindedness Scor was. Scor made a face like he stepped on something awful "Heard it from where? Your idiot father? Lets go, Chuck." He said and we both stood up and grabbed our things, he stumbled under the weight of his trunk and had to wait a few moments to recover his balance. Giles hopped down onto my shoulders and hissed knowingly at Goyle.

We walked down the long train car but all the rooms were full of people neither of us knew. "Hey, here's the Potter kids" he said, stopping in front of me. He knocked on the door and I gasped "They only have two kids in there," he said "lets ask to join them. I wont say anything mean if you don't." A younger kid with half moon glasses and raven black hair opened the door, "Can we join you, the kids we were sitting with called her a you-know-what." The boy didn't seem to know what that was but assumed it was bad. "Of course, come in" he said opening the door wider. We put our luggage in the grating. I sat on the seat next to Scor, curled my feet up to me and moved my back smugly into the corner.

A girl with red hair and freckles stared at me from the seat across from me. "Hi, I'm Rose Weasley, what's your name?" She smiled, reaching out to shake my hand. I looked over to Scorpio and he nodded his approval. "My name's Charlotte Snape, but you can call my Chuck." I said shaking her hand cautiously. The black haired kid gasped, "Snape, like, the Snape?" He said. "If your talking about Severus he is my half brother, so yeah, the Snape." I said a little frustrated. "I didn't mean to be rude," he said "my middle name is Severus, oh and my first is Albus." I studied him and reached out to shake his hand as well. He accepted graciously and smiled. "So you're a Malfoy?" He asked directing his attention to my friend, possibly recognizing the bright blonde hair, he smiled cleverly. "And you're a Potter." He said laughing and extended his hand.

"Trolley! Anything from the trolley?" said a woman outside our train compartment. We all got up at the same time and someone stepped on Giles's tail, sending a hissing cat halfway across the room. "Oh, sorry." Rose said picking Giles up and gingerly checking his tail for injury. "He'll be fine," I said, noticing how she carefully stroked Giles' fur "lets go buy something." I added. I bought some weird magic candy and a pastry and stepped back inside before the others. I sat down next to the window and prepared to open a chocolate frog. "Wait!" said Rose, bustling in with a handful of candy and an armful of chocolate frogs. "Be careful with those, the frogs are enchanted to move and hop around." I examined the frogs with a newfound curiosity and opened a box with one hand over the top of the box. It hopped right into my hand and I found myself trying to work up the heart to eat it. "Oh, here." She said rolling her eyes. She muttered something a flicked her wand over the frog, which immediately froze. "Bon-appetite" she smiled at me.

The rest of the ride was full of frogs hopping around the room, being chased by Giles and getting a lot of cards from the boxes. "Already have that." "Got that one." "Err! Why can't I get a Dumbledore? Or a Snape?" at that I looked up confused. "Oh he was headmaster once and they made a card for him." Explained Albus. I re-opened my box, since I hadn't checked my card yet. Scor gasped, watching me take it out of the box. "It's a Snape!" he exclaimed. "Aw!" groaned Rose jealously. I looked at the picture of my brother, he stood, back straight, hair long and greasy looking. His eyes stared into mine and he smiled kindly up to me. "Wow, his card never smiles" Rose said, leaning over to get a good look. "I think he know who you are!" Said Potter jokingly. I didn't find it funny but instead of saying anything I turned the card over and read the back of the card.

It wasn't all positive, it mentioned how he took the school position by force and was a death eater. It also mentions how he died at Voldemort's hand, was a faithful spy for Dumbledore for years, and how he taught as the potions master for that duration of time as well. I turned it back over a looked over my brother one more time before shoving the card in my pocket. I had seen picture of him before. Mr. Malfoy showed the pictures to me, he looked so familiar. Probably because he look exactly like my father, although I haven't seen him since I was younger. I turned back to the corner and Scor pulled my shoulder down so I was lying down with my head on a pillow in his lap. He smiled down to me sadly. We told Albus and Rose where I was from because they were getting increasingly curious.

"It's time to change." Rose said. "You girls change here, we'll go change in the bathroom." Albus said, pulling out his robes and going to the hallway. He was knocked down by someone in the hall, "Hahahaha, hey Slytherin" Said a boy who looked very much like him, perhaps a little more older and cynical. "James, go away." Albus said, standing and brushing himself off. "Whatever" James said walking off in the other direction, already in his robes. Both the boys stalked off angrily as Albus explained that that was his older brother. I changed into my robes quickly; glad I had an undershirt and shorts on underneath. My robes were no better than Rose's but some of my other stuff was.

She didn't seem to care and we started talking about which house we were going to be in. "I'm going to be in Ravenclaw, my mother has been tutoring me on magic since I was 7." She said, that explained the spell she knew for the frogs. "I'm going to be in Slytherin like my brother." I said confidently. "Well I hope we can still be friends, and we can still eat lunch together," she said nicely. The boys got back and Albus was still fuming over the debacle with his brother.

We got there after another twenty minutes or so. "Firs' years over here!" Yelled a huge bearded man as we lugged our luggage off the train. "Hagrid!" Rose and Albus said running over and hugging him. "We've known him forever." Rose said over her shoulder. "An' who migh' you be?" Hagrid asked us patting me on the shoulder. I shook, scared silly. "Don't be scared Chuck" Rose said hugging me; she calmed me down easily. I shook his huge hand; I could tell he had to be careful not to crush my fingers. He seemed to be shocked by the fact that I was a Snape as well and talked to me about my brother all the way to the lake. "An' yer Draco's little one, huh?" He asked Scorpio, Scor nodded excitedly, waiting for a story about his dad. "Yer' dad tried to get my favorite Hippogriff killed, ya know." Scor seemed down heartened by this "I know, my dad told me how horrible he was as a kid." He said staring at his boots. "Well at leas' you aren't, righ' Scorpio?" He said forgivingly.

All four of us sat in the same boat as it sailed us across the lake, which sparkled in the dimming light. By the time we got there, all other years were sitting in a large room lined with long wooden tables. I noticed that there were tapestries with the house coat of arms above the tables. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin hung over the tables, flickering in imaginary wind.

They shuffled us in and a teacher stood with a scroll calling out names. The students called would unsurely walk up the steps to a stool where they would place a hat on them. The hat came to life and called out a house for that student. None of them seemed disappointed by their house. "Scorpio Malfoy!" It took only a few seconds for it to call out "Slytherin!" he walked happily down to his table. "Albus Potter!" Albus walked up the steps; I know he was worried about getting into Slytherin. Sure enough he sat down and it took a few seconds longer than normal for it to yell out "Slytherin!" He was shocked and looked to the teacher as if hoping this was a mistake, she shooed him to his table and called the next kid. He sat next to Scor and seemed to decide it wasn't horrible being in that house if he had a friend there.

"Charlotte Snape!" everyone, including the teachers, gasped this time, some of the first years were clueless though. I swept up to the stool and sat down, sitting as straight as possible, avoiding the teachers eyes. She placed the hat on my head and it sunk down to my nose. Silence. "You're a little complex aren't you? You would make a fantastic Hufflepuff." I shook my head "Slytherin!" I whispered. It was a full 3 minutes before I convinced him to call out "Slytherin!" I walked down and sat next to Albus and Scorpio, the rest of the table cheered deafeningly. It wasn't only the Slytherins; a group of older Gryffindors, lots of Ravenclaws, and a clump of Hufflepuffs cheered my table on. The teachers clapped and laughed and someone was looking something up in a scroll.

After a few minutes it was Rose' turn. "Rose Weasley!" She walked up frowning, I'm sure she was hoping at least one of us would be in Ravenclaw with her. The teacher was fixing the hat and she moved over to Rose, placing it gingerly on her head "Slytherin!" Albus, Scor, and I all gasped and Rose seemed pleasantly stunned, she would be with all of her friends after all. She walked over and was cheered as well, but on the way Goyle tripped her. She fell and cried in pain, holding her arm. Goyle was panicking, and pretended like she tripped herself, kneeling over to help her up. I ran over to her and shoved Golye back in his seat. "Get off her you half wit buffoon!" I yelled a bit louder than was appropriate and helped Rose up. We walked back to our seat and all eyes were trained on us. This was going to be an interesting year.

To be continued…