All characters belong to J. K. Rowling with the expception of Lucrezia.

I was very pleased with the amount of people who favorited and/or decided to watch this story. Thank you very very much. I have the first few chapters of this story already written and I will be releasing them gradually based on audiance reception. Thank you very much.

Additional note, the beginning of this chapter originally had Severus helping her with the potion but I changed it last minute. If anything doesn't flow quite right, please feel free to tell me in a review or a private message and it will be greatly appreciated. And remember, reviews and favorites and watches earn faster updates. Almost like magic. ;D

"Bloody Hell!" Lucrezia cursed. No juice was coming out of her sopophorous bean.

"Need some help?" A silky voice asked behind her. She jumped a little and her heart sped up as blood ran up Lucrezia's cheeks. She had been at Hogwarts for a few weeks and had learned much about Sirius Black through rumors and stories. He was friends with James Potter, also known as Prongs. Their friends were the prefect, Remus Lupin, and the shaking boy, Peter Pettigrew.

James Potter was completely and utterly unlovable. He hated Severus just because he was there. Lucrezia remembered overhearing how James was very pleased that he had almost managed to take Lily Evans away from Severus Snape. She learned that they had been wonderful friends but James had been jealous and wanted the pretty Lily for himself.

Tearing herself away from her thoughts, Lucrezia started to pay more attention to the voices near her.

"Oi! Padfoot! What are you doing over there!" James Potter. Prongs. He smirked at Sirius who was trying to help Lucrezia with her potion. She normally worked with Snape but he was absent today, leaving her alone.

"Ignore him. I just want to help. Honestly."

Lucrezia did as she was told and couldn't help the goosebumps that rose all over her as Sirius grabbed her hands and helped her get the correct ingredients into the small cauldron. She wished he would let go of her so she could pull the sleeves of her robes up but he noticed them anyways.

"Cold?" he smirked at her. She didn't answer. After a moment, he finally let go of her. "Alright. That should do it so now all you have to do is stir," As Lucrezia started to thank him, he interrupted. "It's Snape's work. Not mine. I just remember seeing this scribbled in his potions book once when James was messing with him. So thank him, not me. See you around."

Class ended and Lucrezia got all of her stuff up and walked out alone. She had a free period and wanted to spend it outside. On her way to the courtyard, she ran into Severus.

"How was potions?" he asked, frowning.

"Difficult without you. But Black helped me."

"Black?" Severus was completely taken aback at the fact that Sirius had helped her instead of badgered her for sex for once.

"Yeah. I couldn't get the juice out of my bean. He remembered something in your potions book that you wrote. He saw it once when James was messing with you, he said. I mean, I still would have rather you help me but at least he could, you know? Potions isn't my strong suit," she laughed. "No wonder Slughorn's never paid much attention to me."

"Actually, he wanted me to ask you about joining the Slug Club." Snape said.

"The what?" she asked.

"Just a club of his favorite students. Somehow he learned how talented you were at other types of magic, with or without a wand."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Its not much of anything; you just have dinner with him and go to parties and such every once in a while. I'm in it."

"It sounds alright. It couldn't hurt anything, could it?"

Just as Snape was about to answer, they were confronted by the Marauders.

"So, Snivelly, where were you today? Your darling friend here was practically begging Padfoot for help." Potter was being himself again. Snape looked angry and Sirius just looked like he didn't want to be there. Lucrezia didn't want to be either.

"Severus, I'm going to go. I have papers to write." she said quietly.

"Go ahead." he replied.

Lucrezia ducked into the courtyard, behind a pillar looking on in fascination. Surely they wouldn't do anything too bad with such a large audience? She looked at the five boys. Snape, with his sheets of black hair and unfeeling attitude. Lupin, with his clever reasoning blinded by acts of ignorance of his friends. James, with his pompous, prat-like tendencies. Peter, looking like a lackey among his three more popular friends. And Sirius, being handsome and kind, yet almost a slave to James' hate. He looked back at her.

"Uh, Prongs, I'll meet you somewhere later. I've got something to take care of."

"Oh Merlin's beard," she swore. Lucrezia dropped her things on purpose to use as a distraction.

"Need some more help?" said a kind voice above her. She was at knee level with him looking at his shoes, polished and shined. No doubt by a house elf. Lucrezia thought of her tattered, ill fitted robes that trailed the floor slightly because of how long they were.

"That's fine, thank you." Lucrezia said curtly. But he was already leaning down to help her.

"Here," he handed her the quills and books she dropped. "Can we talk? Please?"

"Sirius," Lucrezia sighed. He grabbed her hand.

"Please." She couldn't let him ask again so she just nodded.

They stood up together and he kept holding her hand and started walking her back toward the castle. She suddenly remembered James and Severus.

"Wait, no. Not now. I need to take care of something, if you don't mind." The look on his face was confused. "I have to help my friend." She pried her hand from his, dropped her stuff again and ran toward where James and Severus still were.

"Levicorpus!" She yelled at James. He was hoisted into the air by his ankle, but that wasn't enough for her. "Serpensortia!" She yelled again. She felt a sense of joy every time she used that spell. Every time she saw that large snake blast out of the tip of her wand. She always thought the basilisk venom in her wand is what made that curse so powerful, and so easy.

"Expelliarmus!" Her trusted wand was blasted straight out of her hand by Remus Lupin. Seconds later, Sirius himself shot fire from his wand at the snake.

"Oppugno!" James yelled. Seven birds shot straight at Severus and he fell to the ground. A moment later he started walking away. Lucrezia grabbed her wand and pulled up her tattered robes a little to run after him.

"Severus, wait!" She told him.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"It's more of what you want." Lucrezia smirked. He didn't answer her so she continued. "Wanna get them back?" He just nodded and smiled a little and then started walking away.

"Thank you. By the way." he said without looking back at her.

"No problem. You go relax in the common room. I have something to take care of. I'll be back with a gift for you."

She walked back to where she got her stuff and, sure enough, there was Sirius. He looked angry and Lucrezia just smiled at him and bent down to grab her things again. After a moment, she looked up at him. "Aren't you going to help me?" She smirked.

"Lucrezia."

"Yes?" she asked.

"Can we go and talk now?" Sirius got on his knees and helped her get her stuff back together. Lucrezia nodded and grabbed his hand.

"And where will we be going?" She asked as he led her back toward the castle yet again.

"Floor seven. The Room of Requirement."

"Where?" Lucrezia asked, puzzled.

"Just come on." He took off running, still holding onto her hand.

"Wait!" Sirius turned around to face her and had an almost scared look on his face; a look that almost made it seem like he was afraid she would leave him again. "My robes. Just hold on a second." Lucrezia let go of his hands and dropped all of her stuff on the floor beside them. She cast a charm to make them invisible for the time being, grabbed most of her holey robes in one hand and united the other back with Sirius' waiting one. He smiled and took off running with her again.

After several flights of stairs, Sirius put his hands over Lucrezia's eyes. She smiled.

"What is it you require, Miss Reynolds?"

"A place to talk to you, of course." She smiled as she said it.

"And who am I?" Sirius asked.

"You, my fellow Hogwarts student, are Sirius. Sirius Black," she made a dramatic pause. "Mr. Black." She finally stated.

"And you require a place to talk to me?"

"Yes."

He uncovered her eyes. In front of her was a large door being carved into the wall like a scar.

"This," Sirius said. "is the Room of Requirement."

The room was large and empty. The only objects there were a table and two chairs directly across from each other. Lucrezia sighed. This was for Severus. This wasn't a date or anything. It was only to get information about Potter. Information to help Severus get back at James.

"So," Sirius said awkwardly. "How are you and Sniv- er I mean Severus."

"The same. Same as always. Still upset about Lily, too." Lucrezia found herself frowning as she said this. What did it matter if Snape was still caught up in Lily? He was still like a teacher to her.

"That's upsetting. I wish there was something I could do. You probably don't believe this but I really am sorry about how James is all the time. He just…" He paused as if he wasn't sure if he should be telling Lucrezia about any of this.

"Just what, Sirius? Just a prat? Just the guy who hates Severus and I simply because we exist? And what are you? Hm? Just the guy who always tells James of our presence? Just the guy who disarmed me and then actually expected me to talk cordially to you afterwards? What do you want from me, Sirius?"

"I want to know what you want from Snape." Lucrezia looked at Sirius blankly. "I can tell from the way you look at him. You love him and he loves Lily and you know it. And James doesn't even want Lily, even. He just wants something to take away from Snape."

"What?" There were tears in her eyes. Somehow, she began to hate James Potter even more.

"James just wants to take something away from Severus. You didn't know? Lily is just a trophy to him, something to ruin Snape's life even more."

"Sirius," Lucrezia said after a long silence. "Thank you. I need to get over Severus. I need to understand that it's never going to happen between us." She could have sworn she saw a happy glint inside of Sirius' eyes. Why happy? Was it because she was finally giving up on Snape? Was she?

"Yes." she said aloud. She was.

"I think that you should walk me back to my dorm." The happy glint faded from his eyes; he didn't want her to leave just yet.

"I don't know where it is." He admitted. Shouldn't he know from all the times he'd been staring at the Marauder's Map? Shouldn't he know where the Slytherin common room was after all the moments he'd spent looking at her labeled dot on it?

"Then," She stood up and grabbed his hand, smiling. "I guess I'll be walking you to my dorm and then you can walk yourself back to yours."

"That sounds alright."

The whole walk from the seventh floor to the dungeons was long but happy. They stopped by to grab Lucrezia's still invisible things and they talked about everything from her wand to his parents and family and what it was like to have run away and move in with James in the past recent months.

"I think this is where you leave me." Lucrezia suddenly said.

"The dungeons?" Sirius asked. Lucrezia laughed.

"Are you really surprised?" She smiled and went to walk away but he grabbed her wrist. She looked at him a little happy, a little scared, but completely surprised.

"I have something for you," he said after a moment. He went through the pockets of his fine, expensive robes and pulled out a large piece of parchment. "It's a map. It'll show all of Hogwarts, every corner. It'll show everything and everyone and where they are. All the time. I thought that if you ever wanted to meet up with me anytime that you could simply… walk off the map? Into the Room of Requirement?" She didn't say anything. "I don't know. I just thought you may be interested. Sorry to waste your time. I had a nice night. Bye I guess."

"No. Don't leave. I'm just a little surprised. I would love to see you again. You're a good person and I like being with you." She grabbed the map. "Thank you."

Sirius looked as though he was about kiss her goodnight so when he leaned in, she turned her head away. Lucrezia wasn't ready for that just yet. But it didn't matter; he wasn't going to anyways.

"I don't believe you're poor. I can tell from your walk that you're wealthy. And that you're hiding something." He kissed her cheek and walked back up the stairs leaving her alone near the opening to the Slytherin common room. She just looked back at him with a dumbstruck look on her face and slowly walked back into the common room.

"How'd it go?" Severus said excitedly. Lucrezia hesitated.

"Severus," she sighed. "James doesn't want Lily. At all. He just wants something to take away from you." Snape's expression changed for just a fraction of a moment but he quickly recovered himself and turned to walk out of the common room.

"Where are you going?" she yelled after him. He didn't stop or slow down. "Damn, it, Severus!" She walked out of the dungeons after him. "You don't even know where he is!"

"Do you?" He finally stopped and looked at her.

She hesitated again, thinking of the map Sirius had given her. She shook her head. "No. I don't. I'm sorry."

"He can just have her. She doesn't want anything to do with me anymore."

He walked back to the common room and was followed by a silent Lucrezia.

"Hey," Snape said while they were about to go into their separate dorms. "Hold out your hand. Please. I want to give you something." She held out her hand. "Serpensortia," he said softly. But this time, the curse was different. A small snake shot out of his wand and curled around the index and middle fingers on her right hand. It settled there and turned to silver stone and scales right before her eyes. The eyes, however, remained the same: cold and uncaring.

"To remember me," Severus said after a moment. "Goodnight, Lucrezia."

She did not answer. She just looked at him and watched as he glided to the boys' dorm. Every day, he seemed to grow up a little more. Less like a spider and more like a bat.