A/N: READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MY LAST STORY!!!! Just thought I'd give you a clue if you didn't read my last story, which you should if you want to read this one! A witch, Harper Skys, goes to Hogwarts, finds that she's Snape's niece, and has an adventure. During this adventure Harry and her are almost killed, Snape charged with attempted murder, Harper getting possessed by You-Know-Who, and there's another attempt on Harry's life. However, this attempt is by Harper, under the influence of Voldemort. When Harper defies him, she is killed. Snape is proved not guilty with the use of a time turner, then he goes back in time to save Harper, succeeds with some heroics, and life returns to normal. Lucius Malfoy is convicted with the attempted murder of Harry, and the murder of Harper, in consequence he is sentenced to Azkaban. Okay, I know that may have been a little fast, and rushed, but it serves you fine if you haven't read my last story.

Only the Beginning

When Snape woke up the sun was already shining through his window. He rolled out of his bed, and moodily slammed the window shade down.

Snape hadn't slept much that night. His dreams had been littered with visions of Voldemort, and his followers. Snape was beginning to see what he was going to have to do. He didn't want to think on that, however. He had more recent things to attend.

For example, the students would be arriving today. He sat down at his desk, after dressing. He set his lesson plans in front of himself. Then Snape began to roll up his sleeves, first his right, then his left. As he was rolling up his left, he recoiled in horror. Just like a few years ago, his mark was growing darker. The skull with the serpent tongue was growing more pronounced. However, it was not burning. Snape recognized this, as it had happened when Lord Voldemort had last grown stronger, in Harry's fourth year.

Snape swept out of his classroom to Dumbledore. He found Dumbledore with McGonagall. McGonagall was taken aback by Snape's intrusion, but he paid her no heed.

He thrust his left arm in their direction. McGonagall gasped, but quickly composed herself. Snape watched the blood drain from her face. Dumbledore gazed at the mark, not daring to remove his arm; his eyes had lost their usual sparkle. Then he began to pace across the room, muttering things. It seemed ages before he spoke.

"Well, this cannot be good," he said. "He is gaining power. We can no longer keep this to ourselves. Minerva, would you kindly go request Remus's presence, and send the quickest owl to Sirius?"

"Why them?" sneered Snape. "Black has no right here. And what can a werewolf do, but get in the way? I am sure you and I can handle this," Snape said when McGonagall disappeared. His black eyes glittered maliciously. Sirius Black and Snape could hardly stand to be near each other.

McGonagall returned with Lupin. The four professors sat down in silence, the tension building. Not even Dumbledore spoke.

A small pop! sounded in the back of the room. Black strode up to the front of the room in his human form. His eyes darted between the four professors. Then he sat down next to Lupin.

"Remus," he greeted.

"Sirius," returned Lupin.

"Voldemort is rising again," stated Dumbledore gloomily. "We are the only ones that can stop him, I fear," he paused, " he's growing faster, too." He began to pace again. All light was void from his eyes.

"Why only us?" growled Snape, his eyes alive with hatred.

"Severus, please put your differences aside," the head master said firmly. "We need you. We all have someone we love in danger." This was true, Snape had Harper, Lupin and Black had Harry, and McGonagall and Dumbledore had the rest of the school.

The students would be arriving soon. The teachers needed to prepare, and now they would need to make the nessacery precautions.

Suddenly, an eruption of noise spewed from the great hall. The students had arrived.

"Well, we can finish this later," said McGonagall, as she rose.

Then she took off towards the great hall to meet the students. The rest of them also left, Snape only pausing to glare back at Black and Lupin. Black shifted into a dog, and followed Lupin out.

The teachers all took their places at the table. Black sat at the end of the teachers' table. First the students that had been sorted took their place at their house table. Next piled in the first years, staring at the bewitched roof. Tonight the roof looked like a rapidly moving, cloudy sky.

Snape scanned the tables, recognizing students as he went. First the Slytherin table: Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle; then he skipped the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws: useless students; finally he examined the Gryffindor table: Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger, a jumble of Weaselys, and finally his own niece Harper Skys. Snape's eyes met hers, and he gave her a polite nod. Just last year he had met his niece, and then Voldemort killed her. Which had resulted in a time turner incident. He risked his whole cover by rescuing her, fortunately Voldemort had accepted his feeble excuse.

Snape was so deep in his thoughts that he took almost no notice of the sorting ceremony. Timid first years would sit on the stool, waiting for the hat to declare them in a house. Snape's loyalty lied with the good wizards, but he "belonged" to a dark one. So, he had mixed feelings about the new Slytherins. More of his favorite students, or more dark wizards?

Finally the ceremony ended, and a lavish dinner appeared. The elves had clearly out done themselves. Turkeys, puddings, mashed potatoes, rolls, pies, fried chicken, apple cider, fruits, and vegetables.

"Food!" shouted Ron, his eyes dancing with anticipation. He was drooling as he piled food on his plate. Apparently it had been a tight summer for the Weasleys'.

Harper grinned at Ron, he never ceased to amaze her. Many people mistake her as a Weasly, she had bright red hair like fire, but she was in much closer relation to Snape.

Harry also grinned, but also begun to make a mountain of food appear on his plate. Soon, between the two boys, the food reached half way to the ceiling. Hermoine rolled her eyes at the boys, how could they be so immature?

Soon, dinner came to an end, and students slowly made their way to their towers. When they got there, a cozy, warm fire met them.

Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and Harper scrambled to the seats closest to the fire, and plopped down into the larger, green, plush chairs. They began to quickly reminisce about their summers. Ron talked about the Quidditch World Cup, Hermoine about all the books she had read, Harry about threatening Dudley, and Harper about Snape's visit.

After she said this, she stared into the flickering flames. Her brow furrowed, she stood up. "You know, I need to go talk to Severus," she said. Then she left, making her way to the dungeon.

Nobody stopped her, it was still sinking into the trio that Harper's uncle was Snape!

When she got to the dungeon, it was as dark as Malfoy's hair was white. Timidly, she peeked in, and saw Snape at his desk, working on stacks of yellow papers.

Snape didn't even raise his head as he said "come in, Harper."

She entered, and sat in the desk directly in front of his desk. "Hey, Uncle Severus," she said in her Washington accent. She was from the states.

Snape set down his quill, raised his head, and an eyebrow. "Hello."

For some reason, Snape was blocking the content of the yellow papers from Harper's view. He looked paler than usual, and was strangely quiet.

"What's the matter?" asked Harper concerned.

"Nothing. I just have some things to deal with."

Harper was contemplating this when a large, black dog entered, and pushed the door shut. The dog's coat glimmered in the candlelight. The dog cocked his head at Harper, and then transformed into a man.

Snape glowered at him. "What, Black?" he snapped.

"I need to talk to you…about your…ah mission," gritted Black.

"Now?"

"What's goin' on?" asked Harper. "Tell me! Has this anything to do with last year?"

"No, kid," said Black, scowling, "this is only the beginning."