Hello! I've returned after like two years to finish this story! Apologies in advance for the short chapter, but I will be pumping out a few full length ones soon!

After everyone asked a lot of questions, mostly to Dumbledore or Severus about me rather than anyone asking me anything directly, the meeting was over. Everyone got up and started shuffling up the stairs. I tried to locate Dumbledore so I could ask him how he knew my mother, but he seemed to have disappeared. I wondered if he had turned himself invisible for some reason, but I couldn't figure out why. Everyone already knew he was here.

"I'll be back tomorrow, Molly will get you settled," Severus promised me before exiting swiftly.

I got up to follow the crowd out, but Mrs. Weasley stopped me. "Oh, don't bother, dear. We are just about to eat supper, I'm just going to show them out and round up the children."

So I sat back down while the room emptied around me. The only people who remained were two red headed men, whom I assumed was related to Molly, and the man that everyone was shooting rude looks to. He looked like he had filled up on the wine and was slumped over on the table.

Upstairs, I heard a commotion. A crash, and then a strange sound. It sounded like a woman was screaming at the top of her lungs profanities about the residents of the home. More yelling ensued until the sound was abruptly cut off.

A few moments later, I heard footsteps sounding on the steps, and the man who had been glaring at me reentered next to a tall gangly boy with wild black hair and glasses. Behind him re entered Molly, the woman with blue hair, a girl about my age with wildly curly brown hair, and a whole crowd of more red heads including two identical twins.

They didn't immediately seem to notice me at the far end of the room, so I sat back in my chair quietly and watched as the boy with black hair sat down and addressed the dirty man that was slumped over the table. He started awake drunkenly, and for some reason offered a rambling apology to the boy while he took out a pipe from his cloak and lit it.

"For the last time, Mundungus," Mrs. Weasley said heatedly, "will you please not smoke that thing in the kitchen, especially not when we're about to eat!"

Mundungus mumbled another apology and stowed it back away, but the smell wafted over to me and I couldn't help but cough. Suddenly a dozen pairs of eyes were on me.

"Haven't seen you around before," one of the twins said pointedly.

I stood up and walked over, hand outreached. "Sorry, it's been a long day. Well, month really," I said shyly. "My name is Suspiria Snape, nice to meet you."

I stopped a few feet away with my hand still stuck out but nobody reached out to greet me. They just stared at me in a stunned silence for so long that I eventually let my hand fall to my side. I could feel my face getting hot.

"I guess this is a good indication of how the rest of my new school is going to react," I finally said nervously.

The brunette girl finally spoke up. "Sorry, did you mean Snape as in Professor Snape?" she asked.

I nodded. "He's my dad," I told her.

One of the red head boys asked incredulously, "Why haven't we ever seen you at Hogwarts before?"

I was beginning to get annoyed at being treated like a freakshow. "I'm sorry, I imagine my existence must be really hard to understand for someone who's never had a parent pretend they didn't exist for most of their life," I said. The boy ducked his head, embarrassed, but my pent up annoyance began to flow. "My mother's dead, by the way. Murdered, protecting your cause, at the beginning of the summer. I didn't ask to be here, so whatever issues you all clearly have with my father don't even scratch the surface of the issues I have with my father. Are we clear?"

Now even the adults were staring at me, but I could see pity in their eyes. "Great, well I'm not really hungry, so if someone could show me to my room, I'd appreciate it." I shoved past everyone and stomped up the stairs. All I wanted to do was find an owl and write to Draco.

Once I reached the hallway, I spotted a second staircase that lead up and presumed that was where I would find the bedrooms. By the time I reached it, I heard somebody stumbling around behind me in the dark. I turned to see the redheaded girl squinting in the darkness and carefully walking towards me. I waited until I was pretty certain she could see me before calling out to her, "You don't have to miss dinner on my account. Just tell me what door it is."

The girl came and sat down on the bottom step next to me, and patted the spot next to her. "My name's Ginny Weasely," she introduced herself when she sat down. "All those boys in there, that look like me? They are my older brothers. I have two more that aren't even here, and they all went to Hogwarts before me. I know what it's like to be judged by a name. I've been 'another weasley' my entire life."

I looked over at her. "I know I seem really dramatic, but this is just another place my father has dumped me at and left. I was getting used to where I was at before this, and now I'm here, and soon I'll be at a new school where everyone will treat me like you all just did."

Ginny nodded. "Just give them a day. With everything that's been going on lately, no one has really been surprised for a while, so I guess they forgot how to react. I also think its hard to imagine your father having -er- going on a date."

I glanced over at her. "I'm not exactly the product of a loving and committed relationship," I told her. "I mean my mother literally moved me across an ocean."

I could tell Ginny had a lot more questions, but she didn't want to pry. I stood up. "It's late. I really just want to go to sleep. It's always better in the morning, right?" I said with a halfhearted smile.

She returned it genuinely, before standing up and showing me to my room. It was dusty, but the bed looked like it had been freshly made up, and I was suddenly exhausted, but there was something I wanted to do more than collapse into bed.

"Where can I find an owl?" I asked.

Ginny frowned. "The house is hidden. We aren't allowed to send any owls out, and haven't been able to all summer. Sorry," she added hastily after seeing my expression.

I wasn't sure what my face did, but I did my best to carefully compose it before nodding and responding, "Oh. Of course. I just had a conversation I never got to finish, that's all."