A/N: Double yay! I have time during English today (when I should be working on a research paper…heh…) to write, so I'm going to crank out a chapter here and (hopefully) one in my Willy Wonka story.

Which you all should read, too. I like it a lot.

Anyways, on with the chapter!

Chapter 2

"I saw you looking at me yesterday," I said, sliding in next to Severus the next day. I hadn't realized he was in my Potions class until I saw him, sulking in the corner. Stacie gave me a look of 'what the hell are you doing' from across the room, but I just smiled and waved.

"You were mistaken," he said as he gathered his books to leave. I grabbed his arm.

"No, no. You're not going anywhere." He turned around and glared at me, but relented, spreading his books back out again. "So why were you looking at me yesterday?"

"I told you, I wasn't. You must have been seeing things." Slughorn began to drawl on about something Potions related. I never was a fan of that class – Astrology was always my thing. I loved being up in the tower at 11 o clock at night, staring at the stars and feeling incredibly small in the span of the universe.

"Nope, I wasn't, because Stacie and Ben both saw me." I paused. "You know, my friends."

"I'm guessing they're the only ones you have?"

I scoffed…even though it was totally true. "Like you have any."

"Oh, that really hurt," he said, his words dripping with sarcasm. "Are you making it your job to torture me or something?"

"Maybe." I put my chin on my hand and batted my eyelashes at him. "Or maybe I'm secretly in love with you."

He shook his head and started to gather his books again. "You're really starting to irritate me."

"Not my fault you can't take a joke." He moved to the next table over, where some blonde Slytherin was sitting. I could hear them whispering to each other, no doubt about how annoying that Ravenclaw girl was. Heh. Mission accomplished.

"What were you doing today?" Stacie asked me after class, looking completely panicked. "You know he could totally hex you or something!"

"Nothing. Just felt like being annoying," I said, tossing my bushy hair behind my shoulders. I needed a haircut. "I just wanted to know why he was looking at me. He really doesn't take a joke well. Besides, maybe I'll be a good influence on him."

"Not if he curses you," She stopped in front of me in the hallway. I heard kids behind me saying things like 'hey, move!' and 'Watch where you're standing'. "Listen, I don't know what you're thinking, but you know, as well as everyone else in this school, that the other three houses should stay away from the Slytherins."

I laughed. "There are nice people in that house, Stace. They're not all bad."

"Yeah, maybe, but the kid you keep picking on is not one of them." She sighed, snaking her arm into mine. "You really need to be careful with who you pick your fights with."

"We're not fighting; he's completely indifferent towards me. I'm the one who's fighting, and it's for something I believe in."

"Whatever. Just be careful." We walked the rest of the way to our common room in silence.

~*~

"I came as soon as I got your message," Dad said as he ran over to Lorissa and me. We were both sitting in the lobby, holding each other's hands. She had started to cry, and I was comforting her. "What is going on?"

I looked up at my father. His eyes were huge with worry. "Snape's alive."

"WHAAAT?!" He took a step back, and then ran over to me, getting down on his knees. "How is that…what?! That can't be right. He was dead. Harry said he was dead."

"Well, dad, either I stumbled on his twin at his house, or it's him. Annemarie is in the hospital room with him right now. We haven't heard anything yet, so we have no idea what's going on."

"I saw him, too," Lorissa piped in softly. "He looked like the pictures I saw of him."

"Jesus Christ," Dad ran a hand through his hair. "This is…wow. I have to call Stacie." He whipped out his phone and started dialing a fury of numbers. He walked over to the other side of the room so we couldn't hear his conversation.

Just then, I looked up and noticed someone rather familiar checking with the receptionist. She pointed over in my direction. He turned around and smiled.

"Harry!"

~*~

I threw my Transfiguration book up against the wall and let out a huge groan. I had been working on the same problem for an hour, and had gotten nowhere with it.

"Frustrated much?" Stacie said as she picked up my book and gave it back to me. I collapsed on my bed. She started laughing. "Oh, girl, you make me laugh. Let's go take a walk or something. Clear your mind."

I curled up in my pillow. "No, I think I'll just stay here and take a nap. My bed is really comfy right now."

She shrugged and turned back to her Divination homework. "Suit yourself."

The next thing I knew, it was 10:30 at night. Stacie and Samantha were both asleep – Stacie with her Divination book lying across her body. I looked over at my Transfiguration book, knowing that I should work on the problem…but opted to take a walk around the school instead.

Walks around Hogwarts were always very risky, especially at night. Filch was very hardcore with his security position; if he saw anyone out past 9, he'd practically have us expelled. I have to say, it was always much more fun with someone else there, but I didn't want to wake Stacie up for a walk that she had asked me about 5 hours before.

Using the sneaking around techniques that I had learned from my infinite viewings of The Breakfast Club, I cautiously wound my way towards the big Astronomy tower. There were two towers – the big one and the smaller one. The big one was nice because it was, well, big, and it had more telescopes. There was one in particular that I always used, just because it was typically pointed in the direction of Orion – even if Orion wasn't always visible. Orion was my favorite constellation, since it was the first one that I was ever able to identify. Taking extremely light steps, I tiptoed my way over to said telescope and looked out.

"It's past time to be out," a voice said from the dark. It was Severus. I would have recognized that snarl anywhere.

"I could be telling you the same thing, Severus." I looked at Orion again, ignoring the fact that he was walking over towards me.

"How is it that you know my name? I don't feel like we've ever been properly introduced." He looked out of the telescope that was next to me.

"I asked around."

"Ah," he replied, looking over at me. I could feel his eyes burning holes into my cheeks. "I tried that with you. No one seems to know you exist."

I laughed. "That doesn't surprise me."

"Are you a figment of my imagination, then?"

"Nope. I'm real. Annemarie Carter."

"Pleasure, I suppose." He turned back to his telescope. "So what brings you up here this late at night?"

"Again, I could ask you the same question." I said with a smirk.

"I have permission to be up here at all hours of the night. I assume you do not."

"No. I just like to come up here."

"Well, then," he started, smirking the whole time, "as a Prefect of the Slytherin house, I'm going to have to turn you in."

I gasped. He was a Prefect? Shit. "You wouldn't!"

"Oh, I would. Especially since I really don't like you."

I started to pace. "Okay, seriously, I'll leave. You don't have to turn me in. I won't be out past 9 again. Just don't turn me in." Ben had told me some things about being turned in to Filch…and I really did not want to deal with any sort of beating. "Please". I gave him a puppy dogface. He looked at me, and then turned away. I thought I saw a little bit of color in his face.

"On one condition."

"Sure, anything."

"You leave me alone."

Something in me jerked. I didn't want to leave him alone. "Fine," I said, turning to walk out, "I'll leave you alone."

"Thank you. If Filch catches you, tell him that I said you could be out right now."

"Whatever," I shuffled down the stairs back to my room.

"Where'd you go?" Stacie said from one of the cushy chairs in the common room. I jumped when she spoke. I didn't think anyone was up.

"Out," I said, walking up the stairs to our room.

She began to follow me. "Did you go on a walk without me?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It was short."

"Where'd you go?"

"What are you, my mom?" I fluffed my pillow before crashing my face into it.

"Touchy, touchy." She got very close to my squished face. "Were you out with a guy?"

"Kind of," I said through my pillow. Stacie grabbed my shoulders and yanked me on my side.

"Do tell!"

"Well, I ran into Severus up in the Astronomy Tower-"

"Eew! You were out with him?!"

"No!" I threw my pillow at her, and then quickly retrieved it. "He just happened to be up there when I was up there. Turns out he's a prefect. He almost turned me in."

"How'd you get out of it?"

"I promised I'd leave him alone," I said with a sigh.

"And you don't want to leave him alone because…"

"I don't know!" I slammed my face back in my pillow. "He intrigues me, maybe. I guess." I sighed again, this time with a growl. "I don't know."

"Don't tell me you want to change him." She patted my hair, and then left to go to her bed. "Get some sleep. Maybe it will clear your head."

"Yeah, maybe so," I said, pulling my covers over my head. I wanted my head to clear up. I wanted to go back to normal…but something about him made me want to scream.

And not in a bad way.

~*~

I ignored Severus for the next month, which was hard to do, considering I saw him EVERYWHERE I WENT. It was as if he was purposefully stalking me, trying to get me to slip up, break my promise, and give him some sort of excuse to get me into trouble.

Arriving late to Potions one day (I thought I had gotten l lucky – Slughorn wasn't paying attention. He was so in to his lecture that he had closed his eyes and had started rocking back and forth.), I found that every seat but one was taken.

Guess who it was next to.

I shot a glare at Stacie, who sent me an "I-tried-to-save-the-seat-for-you" look. I sighed and took the seat, making sure I sat as far away from him as I could. I saw him look at me from the corner of my eye, and then smirk. I wanted to strangle him.

"Miss Carter, nice of you to join us," Slughorn said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm assuming this is not going to be a habitual occurrence?"

"No, sir," I said, rather monotone. I could tell Severus was looking at me, with that stupid smirk on his face. "It will not be one."

"Good. Then pay attention." He dived right back into his lecture, resuming the position he was in when I came in. Severus was softly laughing next to me. I put my head on my desk, resisting the temptation to completely tackle him and make good on my promise to scoop out his eyeballs with my bare hands. He continued to look at me and laugh until I finally gave up and looked over at him with huge eyes.

"Stop!" I whispered. He raised his eyebrows, and then shook his head, the smirk never leaving his face.

"What's your problem?" I asked after class, following him out. I faintly heard Stacie calling my name as we exited the room.

"Oh, so you're not leaving me alone anymore? Pity. I was rather enjoying it."

"I'm sure you were. Anyways, why were you laughing at me?"

"I've just never seen anyone be late to Slughorn's class. That's kind of taking your life in your own hands." He stopped and looked me square in the eyes with those black, burning eyes of his. "Let's go back to you leaving me alone, okay? Sound good to you?"

"Whatever," I said as Stacie dragged me away. Our eyes didn't break their connection until Stacie grabbed my face and turned it towards hers.

"And I thought you were leaving him alone," she said, her words full of anger and worry.

"I was…until he started laughing at me."

"Who gives a shit?" She said, pulling me into a corner. "Look, PM, something's not right with him. I can sense it. I really think you should stay away from him from now on."

"Planning on it."

She smiled. "Good. Glad to hear it."

~*~

"He's looking at you again," Ben said the next morning as we sat down to breakfast. I had not slept well the night before, so I was rather groggy and grumpy.

"I don't give a shit. Give me some coffee."

"All there is is pumpkin juice," Stacie said, passing me the pitcher.

"Fine, whatever," I said, taking the pitcher. I was pouring the drink into my goblet when all of the sudden, some kid bumped my elbow. I ended up spilling it all over myself. Stacie got some of it, too, and stood up in shock. I banged my head against the grand table, and then stood up and walked out. Stacie came with me, squeezing out her robes as she went. As I looked back at Ben, who gave me a sympathy look, I noticed two people sitting next to Severus, laughing and pointing at me. He was smirking.

I was pissed. "Oh my God, I think Severus sent people over to do that to me."

"What?" Stacie was leaving a trail of pumpkin juice to the Ravenclaw dorms. "Did you piss him off again? I thought I said to leave him alone."

"I haven't talked to him since yesterday, and I didn't really say anything then," I said, starting to leave my own trail. "God, I smell like a pumpkin! There's pumpkin pulp in my hair! Gross!" We climbed in our dorm and changed our robes. Stacie twirled her wand and dried both of us off. She was always good at the vanity spells. I was good at the ones that made things do things, like accio or leviosa. Flitwick had always liked me when I took his class – I was really good at Charms.

"Thanks, Stace."

"Not a problem." She smiled. "Oh, I missed something." She grabbed a piece of pulp out of my hair. "There we go. That's better."

"Can I kill him?"

"No. Don't be crazy. Just ignore him."

I sighed. "All right, fine. But if he does something else, I'll kill him."

~*~

I sat next to Stacie the next Potions class. Severus was sitting behind me. I looked behind me and shot him a glare before turning back around. I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head – I thought my brains were going to melt and pour out of my ears. The class went smoothly, however, and Slughorn even gave Stacie and I points for our house for our excellent potion. We both had no idea how we got it to be excellent, but were happy with the result nonetheless.

"I want to talk to him," I said as we were leaving class. Stacie shot me a look.

"Why?"

"I want to know why he did what he did yesterday."

"Who cares? It happened. He's creepy."

"I care," I said, stomping off towards him. I was wearing the loud flats I wore the first time I yelled at him.

"Why did you have people spill juice on me?" I said, one volume level below yelling. "That was totally uncalled for."

"I didn't do that," he said, a little taken aback. "Narcissa decided to do that. I had no part."

"Then why were you smirking along with them?"

"I thought it was kind of humorous," he said, trying to quicken his pace to get away from me. He thought my short little legs weren't a match for his huge stride. He was wrong. "Keep in mind, I don't like you."

"Well, I don't like you, either, but you keep popping up everywhere." I stopped in front of him. "Is that on purpose? Are you stalking me or something?"

"No," he said, trying to get around me. I moved every time, blocking his way. He started to growl. "Move."

"No. I want to know the truth."

"You're the one who started this. I don't owe you an explanation. If anyone does, you owe me one. I still don't know why you accosted me."

"Because you said what you did to Lily!" I said, stomping my foot on the ground. The halls had started to clear, but the group of kids that were left looked at my small tantrum. "And I had just found out about it, and I hate it when people do what you did. It makes me crazy. I don't care if it was a year ago. It doesn't matter. What people like you say and do makes me-"

"People like me?" He crossed his arms, obviously furious. "What would you know about people like me?"

"I know the type," I said, glaring at him. "Mean, angry, terrible people who don't care about anyone else but themselves!"

"You don't know anything," he said, turning around and walking off. I ran to catch up with him, my heels clacking on the floor. The hall had cleared out completely – it was just he and I.

"Yes I do!" I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. "I know a lot about people like you, and I despise them!"

"There you go with the 'people like me' phrase again! You don't know who I am, or who the people like me are!"

It was then that my entire perception of him changed. He raised his robe arm and showed me the inside of his left wrist. It was covered in a dark, snake-like tattoo. I audibly gasped, my eyes growing wide. The intrigue he had on me disappeared. I felt tears start to form as I backed up a few paces, and then took off down the hall, too scared to even think.

A/N: Haha, when I wrote the last part, I went "OH, SHIT!"

Heh.

Much more to come, I promise! Love you guys!