The following day Neville sat beside Jane as they waited for their class to begin. Okay. Act like I'm fourteen. That's easy enough. Just throw spitballs and act awkward around boys. She glanced to her side. She was glad that Neville was there. Well, maybe not all boys. He seemed somewhat at odds with the other students. His apparent inability to effectively relate to his peers drew Jane to him. He's just as ill-fitting here as I am. Well, maybe not just as much. But more so than most.

She looked at him and noticed that he had been watching her. She smiled at him warmly, hoping that he would understand its meaning. It's okay to look at me. It's okay to be curious. I won't bite your head off. He smiled back.

At that moment the door burst open from behind them. A man, incredibly pale, with black greasy hair framing a dour face marched through to the front of the room.

"Open your books to page one hundred and fifty six."

Unpleasantly amused, Jane did as he commanded. Here we go...

"Today you will be making potions in pairs so that I can gain an understanding of just how much you have forgotten over the summer. Pull out whatever ingredients you will be requiring and get to work."

Jane's eyes widened. She had never made a potion before. And she did not know anyone in the class other than Neville. She shot a glance at him, hoping that he would help her.

"Want to work together?" He asked timidly

Relief rushed through her. Thank you God for giving me Neville.

"Yes. Thank you."

"I'm not that good."

"Neither am I. I've never made a potion before in my life. But I'm sure it won't matter. Isn't the point of today's lesson to gauge where we're at? That's what he said."

Neville inhaled deeply, worry spreading across his face.

"That's Snape. He's, well, he's sort of evil."

Jane almost laughed, but the look on Neville's face prevented her from acting on the impulse.

"Oh. Then this should be fun."

The two of them began to work. Neville was, as he had warned, not very talented at making potions. And Jane in her inexperience had no idea what she was doing. Between the two of them they were hopeless. While attempting to stir in an ingredient, Neville had accidently dropped am entire vile into the cauldron. In her reading of the directions, Jane had forgotten to include a step. As the class neared an end, their potion looked nothing like what the potions of their classmates did.

The final step of the directions involved a spell.

"Do you want to try this, or shall I?" asked Neville

"Um, what do I need to do?"

"Just hold your want over the cauldron and recite what it says here." He pointed to the book in front of them.

"My what?"

"Your wand."

Oh crap.

She looked down. She had not gotten a wand. No one had told her that she would need one.

"Um, I don't have one."

"What?"

"No one told me that I would need one. I'm new to this, remember?"

She looked at him, pleading for his understanding. To her relief, he smiled soothingly at her.

"Then I guess I'll take a shot at it." Neville pulled out his wand and held it over the cauldron, reciting the incantation. Nothing happened.

"Pitiful Longbottom." Came a voice from just behind them.

Snape had made his way around the class room and was now overseeing the blunder that Jane and Neville had created.

"And I suppose you –" He indicated Jane, "had a hand in this?"

He's being mean. That's okay, he's mean to everyone. Just deal with it. Normal fourteen year old girls would just take this.

"I thought that you had been tested and deemed fit for the fourth year. Apparently the Headmaster overestimated your abilities."

"I – uh, I –" She stammered

"You, uh, you what? Pull out your wand and try to fix this mess."

"I don't have one."

This seemed to pleasantly surprise him. He leaned in a little closer to her but raised his voice so that the other students could hear him.

"You don't have a wand?"

"No."

"Then it seems certain that the Headmaster overestimated your abilities. If this is truly the case then I suggest you avoid working with Longbottom again. Between the two of you who knows what disasters you could cause."

Snape glowered down at her a very slight smirk emerging as he insulted her. Several students chuckled slightly. He began to walk away.

Let him walk away. Normal fourteen year old girls would just take this. Let him walk away.

"That's not fair. Professor, she's never done a spell before. I mean, she doesn't even have her own wand. No one told her she would need one." Neville tried to defend her.

"What was that Longbottom?" He asked, clearly offended

"I said that that's not fair. She didn't realize that she would need a wand. And this is her first potion. Give her a break."

"I don't give breaks."

"But –"

"But nothing. And I don't appreciate being questioned, especially by someone that is as obviously incompetent and pathetic as you are. Detention."

Jane looked at Neville, who sat defeated next to her. He was the first person to have ever tried to defend her. The first person to try and be friends with her. And Snape had just hurt him.

Screw normal.

Staring down at the table Jane laughed. A soft cackle, inherently condescending. Barely loud enough to be heard by Snape.

"Do you find something amusing Ms –" he glanced down at a sheet of parchment he was holding "Doe?"

He had asked her loudly, so the whole class could hear.

"That depends." She looked up at Snape, catching his eyes with hers. "Do you find irony funny?"

He shifted his gaze from hers, trying to hide his discomfort.

"Or how about sheer and utter hypocrisy?"

"I would watch what you say Ms. Doe. Just because you're new here doesn't mean that I won't give you a detention."

"Oh, I'm a shakin'" She replied coolly.

"You can join Longbottom in detention."

"May I ask you a question?" She asked politely

He did not respond. He glared at her.

"Are you too stupid to notice the irony in your attack on Neville, or are you just that hypocritical?"

"Excuse me?!" He exclaimed.

The smirk was gone. He took several steps towards Jane. She stood, making herself eye level with Snape. She stared at him. He couldn't escape.

"It's ironic because you called him pathetic and incompetent when in reality, you are obviously both of these things."

"That is enough. Detention for a month."

"Any inability of your students to perform any random task that you assign them is your fault. It is a result of your inadequate preparation. Neville's failure is your failure. So you attacking him is completely unfair when you should really be attacking yourself. He is not an incompetent student. You are an incompetent professor."

Snape's face tightened. His lips were so thin that they were barely noticeable.

"That is completely inappropriate." He said sternly.

"Yes, I agree. It is." Jane said, smirking at him.

"Two months detention."

Jane laughed again.

"And pathetic? I mean, come on." With the force of her anger fully behind her now Jane began walking towards Snape, completely abandoning and attempt at normalcy.

"Stop this now."

"Don't you find it a little pathetic that a grown man such as yourself feels compelled to insult his students less than half his age so that he can feel better about himself? I mean, if you were really as badass as you act then would you really be teaching a bunch of fourteen year olds? "

"Four months detention."

"No. You wouldn't. You're just faking it. Trying to intimidate us all so that you can feel stronger and more powerful than you actually are. That is pathetic in a way that Neville could never be. In a way that only someone as sad and miserable as you could be."

Snape stood stunned.

"So let me ask you again: Are you too stupid to notice the irony, or are you just that pathetically hypocritical?"

"Detention for one year."

"Wonderful. I can't wait to have more insightful conversations with you."

"Get out of my classroom."

"Gladly."

Jane turned from Snape, walked past Neville who was staring at her, white-faced, opened the door, passed through it, and slammed it shut behind her.

"Well that was quite impressive."

Jane turned to see a slender boy with silver blonde hair approach her, his eyes maliciously focused.

"Yeah, something like that." She said, matching his gaze.

It was after the class she had walked out of had ended. She was waiting in the hall for Neville.

The boy smiled at her.

"I'm Draco Malfoy." He said, his lips curling.

"Jane Doe." She said, somewhat hesitantly.

Neville walked out of the classroom and headed towards her, but froze when he saw who she was talking to.

"Jane Doe?" Asked Draco. "What kind of a name is that?"

He turned from her to his friends and began to chuckle.

"I've been called other things, but none of them stuck." She said.

He turned back to her, eyes narrowing as he grinned.

"I can think of a few things someone would call you." He said scathingly.

"Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you." She replied, her tone mild.

Draco laughed. Neville, having gotten close enough to hear them, smiled a little.

"So, seriously. What's your real name?" Asked Draco.

"Seriously. Jane Doe."

"What, your parents couldn't think of anything more original." He asked, his voice mocking.

"That would require that they take the time to think about me at all. Which they didn't." She said, her tone suddenly becoming serious.

Draco looked at her, his smile absent.

"Why not?" He asked.

"I don't know. And if I had the opportunity to ask them I'm not sure if I would. They abandoned me. Without a birth certificate. Without a name. Other people took care of me, tried giving me a name – an identity – but none of them suited me. By that point I had already become a no one." She said, staring at Draco.

Draco looked at her, for a moment his jaw dropped. Neville watched from beyond Draco's gaze, his expression one of empathy.

"I can see where you get your issues with authority figures." He said, sneering once again.

Jane looked at him, matched his expression.

"You have no idea."