AN: Since I seem to have forgotten to this at the start of the last chapter...
Disclaimer (covers entire story) : I (sadly) do not own Harry Potter. JKR and WB have that prestigious honour. I simply add my own spin to the characters within the HP universe. Anything you recognise is not mine, anything you don't is mine, so please don't sue me.
Reviews are always welcome, and I will try to reply to all of them, however there are no promises. Please keep in mind this is my first fanfic, so CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is welcome, FLAMES are not. If you are going to criticize, please keep it aimed at the work. I am also open to suggestions for the story.
The first few chapters will be rather short, as they will be used to set up the majority of the plot. They will (hopefully) get longer as the story progresses, but once again no promises. THERE WILL BE NO APOLOGIES FOR CLIFFHANGERS! They are an (occasionally) necessary part of creative writing. *ducks head as barrage of assorted fruit flies at monitor* Sorry.
Chapter 2 Two Letters
For six years, she had been the oddball. The weird one. The only Slytherin who would refuse to use her house to give her anything she wanted. She would sit on her own, in the dark, dank, cold Slytherin common room wishing the sorting hat had placed her anywhere else. She had endured the teasing, name calling, sneers and stares of her fellow house mates. She had endured much of the same from the students in the other houses, too. She couldn't really blame the latter for their behavior. After all, most of them had endured the same, or worse, from any number of Slytherins.
She sighed, shaking her head to clear the unpleasant thoughts. It wasn't that she wanted to be like her house mates, or even the other students, for that matter. She just wanted somewhere to belong. She had gotten two letters that morning. The first, from Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, came as no surprise to her. She had only returned home after finishing her sixth year there just two weeks ago, however she knew that the headmaster always sent her letter earlier than everyone else's' simply because she, unlike every other student, lived halfway around the world from the school in question. She had thought it odd that she was attending a school so far from her home, however the headmaster had assured her that the thousand year old enchanted parchment, which showed the names of all those who had magical abilities and were supposed to attend Hogwarts, had never been wrong. She looked down at the letter, and the object which had accompanied it – a head girl's badge. She simply couldn't understand why the headmaster would choose her. Sure, she had some of the best grades the school had ever seen, sure she had not one single blemish to marr her record, but she was, well meek. She couldn't possibly enforce the rules of Hogwarts. She had thought that had been proven when she had become a prefect. She had given out only one detention, and even then it had only been because one of the boys had been sent to the hospital wing, and had remained there for a week. She sighed once more, "Oh well, only one more year. The only way it'll get worse is if my house mates find out that I'm a filthy mudblood." She turned her attention to the other letter. It had remained unopened on her desk, due to her habit of reminiscing every time she received her Hogwarts' letter. She resigned herself to opening it, and grabbed the letter opener. She pulled out what appeared to be very expensive parchment, and began to read.