"Nikki! Wait up!" Samuel yelled after his twin sister as she raced up the road in front of her.
"Oh my God! Samuel, get over here, there's someone lying in the road! I… I think she's dead!"
"What?" Yelled Samuel when he reached his sister. "Oh my… come on, help me drag her to the house."

* * * * *

"Do you think she'll pull through?" Elaine heard someone, it sounded like a boy her age, say above her.
"The doctor said she'd live, wait I think she's waking up," a girl's voice said as Elaine opened her eye.
"Where am I?" Elaine asked staring at the almost identical faces of the two teenagers looking down at her.
"We found you on the side of the road half dead. How did you come to be there? What happened?" The girl asked.
"Julia, he, he killed her. He killed my mom and my sister, than he killed Julia. He was after me, but he killed her. So I ran and ran and ran, and I fell. Julia's dead, she's dead!" Elaine sobbed out, tears streaming down her face.
"What? Whose Julia is she your mom, or your sister? Who killed her?" The boy asked.
"No, Julia is my God mom. I don't know who killed her, Julia said his name was Daniel," Elaine cried, still sobbing hysterically.
"Okay, Nikki call the police, we need to find this Julia, and we need, uh to do, uh other stuff!" The boy said frantically to his sister.

* * * * *

Four days later Elaine was sitting in the living room of the Colby's house (the people who found her) and was sitting through another interview with the police (they had found Julia's body, but not her murderer) and listening to the same questions. It went a little like this:
Did you see the face of the murderer? Yes
Can you describe him? Yes
What time did this happen at? About 10:00 p.m.
Did you see the face of the murderer? Again, yes
Do you have any other relatives? Not that I know of, but I do remember that my mom said something about her half brother in Scotland
"Hmmm. Now that last question was a new one," Elaine thought, "I suppose now that my use as a witness has been spent, they're trying to get rid of me. A whole new life, a new start, and maybe, just maybe a place where that man can never hurt another person I love again."

* * * * *

Dear Ms. Sampton:
Your information has been very useful to us, and we have managed to contact your uncle. He has arranged for you to take a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland. He will then have you take a train to Dumfries, Scotland. All the information will be on your plane ticket. We will let you know if there are any new developments in the case. Have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Tom Shielding
Roseville Police Department

"Humph! Have a nice day? As if! Now I have to move to Scotland, away from all my friends and everything I have come to love? It's not fair!" Elaine said angrily.
"It'll be alright, Elaine. Maybe you'll like Scotland, but you'll never know until you go there," Nikki said.
"Yeah, and I guess I'm going to find out soon, since my plane leaves in 20 minutes."
"I guess so."

* * * * *

It was a few hours later and, after many tearful goodbyes, Elaine was on the plane towards her destiny. There were only four more hours until she landed, and then a two-hour bus ride to Dumfries. She wondered what her uncle was like, she had never met him, only heard him mentioned by her mother occasionally, and she was four at the time, so she didn't even remember much of what she had already heard.
The police had told her a little bit about her uncle, but not enough to know if he was a bad person, or a good person. All the police had told her was that he was a professor in Scotland, and his name was Severus Snape.

* * * * *

"Professor Dumbledore, I need to ask a favor of you," Professor Severus Snape asked in his usual menacing tone. He seemed to be most comfortable being nasty, even to the Headmaster.
"Go ahead Professor, ask away," the Headmaster said pleasantly.
"I need a week off. My niece is coming from America, and I need to meet her in Dumfries."
"You have a niece Severus? I never knew that, hmm, the things we learn at times that seem unimportant. How is she your niece?"
"When my mother died, my father remarried to an American muggle and they had two children. Amanda and Alex. I was already 18 by that time, so I did not know either of them very well. Elaine, my niece, is Amanda's youngest daughter. Amanda and her oldest daughter were killed when Elaine was four by the same person who just recently killed her God mother Julia Smith."
"Ah, I see. What time is the young girl coming in, and will she be attending our school?"
"Elaine will be arriving at 6:00 p.m. and no she is a muggle as far as I know."
"Well then, you only have 1 hour until she arrives, and yes you may have the week off to get her acquainted with her new surroundings."
"Thank you Headmaster," and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.

* * * * *

"Well, here I am, but no uncle in sight. Wait, okay, how am I supposed to know what my uncle looks like, if I've never met him?" Elaine sighed sitting down on the bench outside the train station. She looked around in the crowd and saw a man in khaki pants and a black polo shirt coming her way. He was tall and had black hair that looked rather greasy. He also had an abnormally large nose, and wore a sneer on his face.
"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to be a Ms. Elaine Sampton, would you," the man asked.
"Yes, I would, and you wouldn't be Mr. Severus Snape, would you?" Elaine replied.
"You certainly do have a lot of your grandfather in you."
"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"
"Good, definitely a good thing. Well I suppose we better be going if we want to get home before 8:00 p.m. Oh are you hungry?"
"No, I am fine. So where exactly do you live?"
"Well, that's on the list of the many things I have to talk to you about, now we need to go," he said rather impatiently.
"Okay, well, um where's the car?"
"It's over here," he said leading her to the car that would give her the ride that would alter her life forever.

* * * * *

"Well, I suppose I should begin by asking you some questions. First off, has anything unusual ever happened when you were upset or angry?" Her uncle asked.
"Well, actually, when my mom, well have you been acquainted with my, uh unusual history?"
"Yes."
"Well after I stabbed the killer, I ran away, but somehow, I don't know how, he was right behind me. I turned around, he reached out to grab me, and I put my hands up. I closed my eyes because I was scared and He flew backwards, fast and hard. He hit a pickup truck and stood up. He looked at me and said that he would come back to get me another time. Then he just disappeared." When Elaine finished she looked at her uncle and was surprised to that he had become a little pale in the face.
"Uncle…Uncle Severus, are you okay?"
"Has anything else happened?" He said dismissing the question.
"Well, um, you wont believe me."
"Yes I will, believe me, I will," he said rather nastily.
"Fine, but I don't say I didn't warn you! Okay, sometimes I have noticed that when my moods change, so does the weather. One time it got a bit out of hand. I had just learned that I had to go to a God home, and I was crying in my room, when my bed caught on fire. It quickly spread around my room, and soon I was engulfed in smoke. I didn't know what to do, but I had a feeling a hunch I guess, to put my hands together. When I did I began to think about water and as I thought I felt my hands become damp, and then wet. Soon a small ball of water was formed in my hands. I threw it on the fire and it went out. Stuff like that has been happening more and more."
"I see, well, that is interesting," he said coolly, but as Elaine had noticed was looking paler by the second.
"What is so interesting, the fact that I'm insane?"
"I'll explain later," He said as the car rounded the last turn into a small hamlet. He pulled up to a little inn, and parked outside. He went in and motioned for me to follow. There were people in the inn, which I guess was a pub too, since they all had drinks in their hands, and they all stopped when we went in.
"Oh, uh, hello Professor Snape," A woman in a purple robe said to Elaine's Uncle.
Suddenly Elaine noticed how strange everyone was dressed. They were all in robes, and were wearing pointy witch hats.
"Uhhhh, okay… Um Uncle Severus, what is going on here?"
"I'll explain later," he said.
"Snape, what ay ya doin' in those muggle clothes?" A man asked.
"Had to go to London," he replied icily, "And its Professor Snape."
"Ah, who's the lass?" A woman in pink robes asked.
"She is my niece, Elaine," Snape replied.
"You, uh, you have a niece, Professor Snape, the first man asked again.
"Yes, and she just got back from a very long trip. I would like to rent her a room."
"Why isn't she going up to 'Ogwarts with you Professor Snape? I'm sure Dumbledore could fix 'er up a room," a different man asked.
"Uh, Uncle Severus, what is Hogwarts, and a muggle and Dumbledore, and why are these people in such funny costumes, and I'm not even going to mention the absurdly large number of broomsticks in the corner. Oh let me guess, you'll explain later? Well latter's not good, enough!" Elaine said crossly.
"Yup, she's your niece, she is not as quiet as you though, but she has your temper! But she doesn't look a thing like you, why with the neat little mop of brown hair, and those eyes! I haven't seen eyes like those, since I saws 'Arry Potter."
"Yes, I suppose so," Snape said stiffly, and with that he left.
"Okay…I'm going to do us all a favor and just go to sleep, with no questions," Elaine said, as the innkeeper handed her a key to the room.

* * * * *

That night Elaine had a strange dream.
She was in a dark dungeon sitting in a desk and her uncle was sneering at her with the utmost hatred. When she asked him what was wrong, her uncle held up a mirror and she saw her eyes and then her face, and they started to change into a teenage boys face. He had glasses and his nose was a bit longer but his eyes, his eyes were just like hers and did not change. Then her uncle threw the mirror down and said in a voice full of hate "You see you have become what I have always hated!" Elaine woke up with a start, sweat streaming down her face. She blinked her eyes once or twice, then lay back down and went to sleep.

* * * * *

"Miss Snape, time to get up, your uncles come to collect you," a woman said shaking Elaine awake.
"I'm not Miss Snape, I'm Miss Sampton, thank you very much," Elaine said yawning.
"My pardons miss, so, how do you like your uncle? He's always seemed a bit, well cold. I never knew 'e 'ad any family, he always seemed to be a loner, if you ask me. And now he shows up with a teenage niece, I mean, are you here for the month, or the year, or some kinda exchange student thingy, because I know I wouldn't want to spend more than that living with the potion's master," the girl said all of this without taking a single breath. A lot of what she had said was new to her. Obviously her Uncle was not liked, and did not have a family, but what was this about potion's master?
"Uh, excuse my ignorance, but what is a potion's master?" Elaine asked the woman.
"I will explain later, Elaine, now please hurry up and get ready, we need to go see Professor Dumbledore soon," her uncle said appearing out of nowhere and then leaving.
"Will you please leave, so I can get dressed, Elaine asked the woman, now sitting on the bed, still chatting away.
"Yeah, 'o course! Oh and will you be needing your robes pressed?"
"My robes, what are my robes?"
"You know, your wizard clothes! What I'm wearing!" She said, as if this were obvious.
"I don't have any robes, I just have regular clothes, you know, pants, t-shirts."
"Oh my good golly gosh! Are, are you a muggle?"
"Uh, is muggle a good thing or a bad thing?"
"'Ow in the word can ol' pure blood Snape have a muggle niece? It just don' make any sense!" The woman said as she exited Elaine's room leaving Elaine with many questions.