Disclaimer: I do not own harry potter, only the plot. I do not make any profit off this story.

First period potions was the last place Nutmeg wanted to be. Looking up from her mangled attempt at a sleeping drought, she couldn't see any part of the instructions which she had done wrong. Not only was it her worst subject, but Severus had not shown up to class. It wasn't like him to miss a class unless it was absolutely necessary. Actually, she can't ever recall him missing potions. Sometime umongst her wonderings she knocked over her potion and the entire classroom went up in smoke, so thick Meg couldn't see her fallen cauldron right in front of her.

"Evanesco!" the smoke cleared immediately and the spilled drought had vanished as well, "Ms. LeTore, if you're not going to pay attention to what you're doing then leave. You're not going to pass your O.W.L.S like that. Neither will the rest of the class with all your bumbling." She looked up from where the mess had previously been to see a very irritated potions master.

"Sorry, Proffessor Slughorn, it won't happen again." Meg gathered her cauldron back up and refered back to her potions book to start over. However much she ment her apology, she couldn't help spills and explosions that came later still with no finished product. The class was over and there was no possible way she had passed that days assignment.

"Chizpurfle." Meg had made sure the Slytherin common room was empty, being a Hufflepuff herself she wasn't supposed to even know where it was. Often enough, though, she had snuck in to see Severus, fate would have it they were put in separate houses. The passage way opened to allow her into the familiar dungeon like room darkly lit with green lamps. "Severus? Are you here?" She walked further into the common room to see a boy with greasy hair bent over a book on the couch. She walked behind him and lightly touched his shoulder to get his attention.

Startled by the sudden presence of her hand, Severus looked up from the potions book, quil in hand, to find his best friend standing behind him. "Meg, what are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd check up on you, is all. You missed potions this morning." Meg looked over his shoulder at what he was writing, but he pulled away and turned the other direction.

"Oh, I, I must have lost track of the time." He looked down once more and continued to write his notes upon the pages of his text book. It seemed he wasn't much paying attention to anything but that book and what ever it was he was writing. For the past five years at Hogwarts it was very rare for them to be apart, just as it was before Hogwarts and magic. Still, just the same, it was also rare that Severus didn't have his nose in a book, a very large book at that. While in his studies and moments like these she found her time better spent just leaving him be.

"Sure you don't want to come outside Sevey?" All she got in response was a passive grunt as Severus continued to focus on his work. Before Meg left she made a quick glance backwards at the boy, and couldn't help but smile to herself.

The corridors back from the Slytherin common room were sometimes quite tricky to navigate, but she soon found the light of the sun shining in the main corridors once again.

Traveling the grounds wasn't at all something she did very often. The day was so beautiful, however, she just couldn't contain herself, even the womping willow was somewhat peaceful. A pair of blue jays flew accross her path as she was heading down towards the Great Lake and caught her off gaurd. Watching the two birds flutter off throughout the air she lost her footing, causing her to trip over the loose gravel and stones.

"Seems everytime I see you you're on the ground, Nutmeg." Sirius Black and his pack of sniveling Gryffindors were headed her way, and getting close. She pulled herself back to her feet and came face to face with Black and Potter. Behind the pair were two other boys from Gryffindor house. One was rather fat and mouse like, the other was slightly pale with dark brown hair.

"It's LeTore, to you Black if you don't mind." Meg looked down at her robes covered with gravel and dirt and dusted herself off.

"Come now, I'd like to know you on a bit of a first name basis, Meg." His friends began to laugh, but he kept his face straight and just smiled at her. A moment of silence passed after his remark to which she had nothing to say.

"Whats the matter LeTore? Not much of a talker when your precious Snivellus isn't around?" James Potter stepped forward, the same stupid smirk he had every time he mentioned Severus. How she would just love to teach him his lesson, the arrogant git. Her hand clucthed tighter around her wand. "Missing your little puppet are you?"

"And whats with you Potter? Feeling insecure with no one to ridicule?" He was pathetic like the rest of them, the whole lot of them.

"James, must you irritate her?" Meg felt Blacks hand run through her hair. "That was quite a fall, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She jerked away from him as fast as she possibly could. "Just great. Actually." She gave a glare at Potter and tried to make her way back up to the castle, only the persistant Black cut her off. Black was as charming and handsome as they come, but she'd seen him at his worst too. Though he wasn't nearly as bad as Potter, his worst wasn't exactly pleasant.

"You could be a bit more friendly than that couldn't you, Meg? I havn't done anything to you." He said it with that smile of his, the same smile he gave her when she ran into him at the train station thier first year. However her hostility towards him wasn't due to what he had done to her, but what he had done to Severus. Potter wasn't the only one who was a pompous git, though Black to a lesser degree, he still chimed in on the ridicule and humiliation. She couldn't really help but hate him, just standing by watching and participating in the cruel jokes preformed by his best friend. "It's not about Snape is it, the bloody grease ball can take care of himself, I reckon."

"Waddiwasi." Meg had pulled out her wand and sent a rock at high speeds to hit Black right in the nose.

"My face, my beautiful face!" Black held his nose as he bent over, the stone obviously effective but not very harmful. Potter pulled out his wand as well followed by the other two, a boy named Lupin and another they referred to as Wormtail. "Bloody hell." By the time Black had recovered Meg had made her way half way up the path and back to the castle. On her way to the basement, she ran into another Gryffindor, much to her dismay it happened to be Lilly Evans.

"Nutmeg!" Lilly ran up to her, this was not a good day. "Have you seen Sev? He wasn't in class this morning and I can't seem to find him anywhere." Lilly had also befriended Severus just two years ago, not long after that did it spark an unexpected jealousy in Meg to see them together. She hated to see the look in Severus' eyes when Lilly approached them, when she talked, it was like nothing else existed to him.

"No, I haven't Lilly, I'm sorry." Of course Meg lied, why would she want Lilly disturbing him right now anyway? It's not like she needed anything important. Without waiting for a reply she darted down to the basement and into the Hufflepuff common room. She was convinced that there was absolutely nothing that could make her day worse.