Severus's wand shot from his hand as he was severely thrown into the adjacent wall. He slid to the floor in a collapsed heap of pain; a small line of salty blood formed at his pursed lips.

The dark scepter stopped in mid air, before the Headmaster stepped forth and caught it. Ms. Morris, who had uttered the disarming spell, followed the older man into the large dining room then turned to advance on the crumpled professor. The normally composed caretaker of the supposed Ms. Emmale was unable to bottle her fury. She unveiled her own wand and prepared to do her worst.

Quickly becoming aware of his somewhat vulnerability, the Potions master cowered back against the wall.

"You," Ms. Morris growled, "You would have killed her..."

Dumbledore quickly caught her by the arms, hoping to prevent any further damage to his friend and colleague. "Madame, please," he coaxed, "You must calm down."

"I demand an explanation!" Ms. Morris exclaimed.

"Yes, as do I, Severus." He let go of the caretaker's arms and extended a hand to Snape to help him up from the floor.

But, meanwhile, the older woman's attention was otherwise diverted. At the window, stood a murky silhouette to which she rushed to attend. Upon reaching the casement, Mrs. Morris let out an anguished cry, "Good heavens."

So it had come to past, as she had worried. It was the first time that she had seen the true facade of the 'Mrs.' in over five years. Mrs. Morris's bright watery eyes smiled at 'her' and 'she' smiled back; they met in a loving embrace. Immediately, the caretaker's motherly-instincts shot into place, and she quickly began to look 'her' over, inspecting for ailments or wounds.

"I'm all right," 'she' said reassuringly, casting her friend's needless worrying aside, "thanks to you."

With a slight wave of hand, the Headmaster lit the great room; a small flame danced to each of the wall sconces, lighting them as it passed. The wave of bright light enveloped the room, and the shadowy figures of the two at the window were washed away. Ms. Morris bristled and slowly took a few steps away.

There, in place of the previous, stood a stranger. Long, brown hair had surrendered to a bob of shoulder length blond and the familiar blue-eyed gaze had disappeared.

Severus sighed, his face hardening. No matter how much he had wanted to believe that she could perhaps be existent.. tangible.. alive, he could no longer, for this woman wasn't her. She wasn't his Anne.

She brought her face to the light for the first time, her young features glowing brightly, and turned to look at Dumbledore. "Hello, Headmaster," her meek voice coined.

His face relaxed in a rare smile. "Hello, Erin."

Erin's face seemed to brighten even more. "I didn't know if you would remember me."

"Yes, yes," Dumbledore replied, "Graduating class of 1980, Ravenclaw, top N.E.W.T.S, if I recall correctly."

Erin sighed. "Yes."

He turned towards the Potions Master and snapped his fingers as if coming to a sudden realization. "Ah, Severus," he began, "I believe that you and Ms. Ravenswood have met."

Severus cleared his throat awkwardly and his black eyes faltered upon meeting the Headmaster's gaze. How could he face her? He had been threatening to kill her just moments ago. She would surely hate him, but what else was new - she being of Ravenclaw and he of Slytherin.

He bitterly forced his face towards her, and gave a quaint nod.

She returned the jester, her expressions the equal of his disdain. Severus. Where had she heard that name before? 'From school' her subconscious replied. School...

His name was Severus Snape, a Slytherin from her same year at Hogwarts. Erin's frown deepened; she remembered him well....

Black rays blossomed over the extensive grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the bright of day slowly crept away. The scarlet train engine bustled into Hogsmeade station along with its usual load of September-first-passengers (students being brought to school for the new term).

It was 1974, a year often remembered as that of long hair, miniskirts, the Beetles, and whispers of nameless shadow growing in the dark - Voldemort. A passing of days and cooling temperatures signaled yet another summer gone by; Sunday, September 1st had come quicker than expected.

The ride to school always seemed more crowded, than the trip home because of the arrival of over eighty new people at school. Though we eventually got used to it after a few months of the school year had passed, it was cool to complain about the new little "first years" that had just arrived. It was easy to forget that it was only a year prior that we had been first years ourselves.

Our second year was different than the first, much different. Everything was much more laid back. There wasn't the nerve wracking sorting ceremony to think about, nor the pressure to start meeting new people; I already had my friends:

"You know, I forget how much I love this place," Erin Ravenswood sighed, glancing out the compartment window. The sun was slowly crawling into the horizon and darkness had begun to set on the steadily approaching castle.

"Tell me about it," Donna Linn, the small oriental girl at Erin's side, said, "the whole summer I was stuck at home babysitting my two whiney little sisters." She made a face, taking a bite of a chocolate frog.

"Hey," Erin frowned, "I watched them just as much as you and they aren't even my sisters."

As next door neighbors, Donna Linn and I were inseparable; we were best friends, yet we always fought. Blame it on our severely contrasting personalities.

Donna came from a large Chinese family of five daughters. As the middle child, household responsibilities were usually kicked down to her, including babysitting. Her parents worked, as did her two older sisters, Darlene and Deanna, so obviously it was left up to Donna to watch the little ones until the school term began again.

With a quiet "tut," Donna crossed her arms over her chest and turned away. The remaining trio of girls, who occupied the opposite compartment bench, just rolled their eyes, quite used to such behavior from their two friends.

"Did I ask you to help me baby sit?" Donna asked, an angry blush forming at her cheeks. "No, I didn't," she continued to rant, "If it hurt you so much, why did you even bother coming over?"

"Will you two stop? Good Godric, we haven't even made it to the castle yet," the woman nearest the window remarked.

Erin's eyes were venomous.

"Melissa's right. I'm sorry, Erin," Donna sighed.

Neither had changed over the summer. Erin was the same old Erin and Donna was just, well, Donna. But surprisingly Erin sat up no longer peeved. "Yeah, me too," she shrugged.

She smiled, as did the rest.

There were five of us: Donna Linn, Melissa Tucker, Anne Emmale, Katie Rhetman, and me, Erin Ravenswood. We were all best friends and had been ever since our first year when we had each been sorted into Ravenclaw house at school.

Donna was the only one that I knew from our year when I first came to Hogwarts. Melissa had grown up in Paris, France, but had chosen Hogwarts over the customary French school of magic, Beauxbatons. Katie was from London and Anne lived somewhere in Scotland.

The door of the compartment slid open and a strange face popped in; it was a seventh year, most likely a prefect. He made a silly sort of bow to the girls and said, "Prepare yourselves; we are to arrive soon."

"Alright," Anne replied, "thank you." She stood and gave a noble nod of her head.

"Y-yes." The boy blushed, turned on heel and left.

Giggles erupted from the compartment.

"How do you do that?" Melissa asked incredulously.

"It's a gift," the brunette replied.

One by one, they descended from the train to the crowded platform full of students below. A large, billowing fog flagged the tops of their heads. Just down the way a large, burly man with a lantern stepped out into the mist of students. Several people jumped at the sight of Hagrid, the young half-giant groundskeeper.

"Alrigh' there, everyone?" his great booming voice called. He beamed down at everyone, stopping to greet several from the mass personally. Once making his way further down the platform and it seemed most had excited the train, Hagrid began his familiar call:

"Firs' years! Over here.. firs' years. This way, please! Follow me."

Slowly the crowd began to thin and the youth were able to filter in the direction of the carriages. Beyond the small train depot, at the top of a hill was the landing where the climb to the castle always started; several dozen wheel-less, black carriages were lined up near the lakeside, magically bobbing ever so slightly above the ground.

Anne neared the row of floating surreys, suddenly becoming aware of the absence of her friends. She glanced out into the sea of heads, but failed to come across a familiar face.

The door of the coach nearest to her slowly creaked ajar.

Anne would have preferred to find someone she knew for the ride up the hill, but she went ahead and turned to climb up through the opened door.

Suddenly, from within the dark grey depths of the coach out stretched a hand. And her blue grey eyes met his.

She glanced at his palm awkwardly, yet took it anyway and stepped inside. Anne sat down opposite the shadowy figure and he pulled the door closed.

*

Several meters away, Erin and Melissa also climbed into one of the carriages. There were already a few students in occupancy, three Gryffindor fifth years. They [E and M], too, had gotten separated from their Ravenclaw companions amidst the hustle and bustle of the clearing, but had luckily managed to come across one another whilst searching for a carriage with enough room.

Just across the lake the first years were nervously loading into the wooden boats at the school's dock. Once there were no remaining new students at the shore, the large gamekeeper ordered the fleet forward toward the school.

*

Thin beams of crystalline moonlight glowed throughout the right side of the coach, highlighting the young woman in its midst; her soft brown curls shimmered brightly like a halo around her darkly cloaked form. She smiled. "Hello."

He had seen her before, but they had never spoken, as she was not a member of his house. Small talk among Slytherins was rare enough, much less exchanging words with anyone outside the crest of the serpent.

Strangely, he found himself remarking on her voice; it was beautiful - like bells.

'What the hell,' he thought. No one will ever know.

Just as he made to reply, he was cut short by the appearance of a face at the windowsill - a thin young man of blond hair, and icy eyes.

"Severus," one arrogant Lucius Malfoy coined.

Both Anne and the young Snape instantly recoiled, hoping to in some way lessen the severe confrontation that would inevitably follow. Lucius entered the coach, as well as several other Slytherins the like.

"Ah, Severus, we wondered where you'd gone," Jerry Parkinson, a tall third year, greeted airily, "now we know."

Malfoy glanced at Severus, then turned to extend a venomous gaze upon Anne. "Ah, Emmale is it?"

She nodded.

"Anne Emmale. Ravenclaw.. second year."

"Yes," Anne replied.

Lucius thin lips twisted into a sly grin. Several snickers erupted from the darkness.

"Then you must know Narcissus." His smile widened as he turned to acknowledge the girl at his side:

Narcissus Facett - one of the richest, prettiest, most sought after girls in the entire school. She was in Ravenclaw house too, but apparently that wasn't too much of a set back for Mr. King Snake. Not two months into our first year, it was made well known that the item of Malfoy and Facett was not to be reckoned with.

Luckily enough the five of us were in a different dormitory room than Narcissus, so up until this point we had avoided any intermingling with the serpent.

Narcissus returned his smile, revealing a row of perfect teeth, as Malfoy slid an arm around her waist. However, as she glanced away from her boyfriend her pretty face was swabbed of anything remotely close to friendliness.

Anne forced a smile. "Hello, Narcissus."

"Pleasure," she replied nonchalantly.

*

The huge oak front doors opened and the trail of students entered the castle. Anne craned her neck to look over the crowd before her as she climbed the steps to the entrance. A tightly fitted bun could be seen leading them through the empty chamber hall; from what Anne could tell, Professor McGonagall had not changed much besides a few lighter streaks of grey to her traditional bun.

Anne continued on by herself, having instantly taken off, away from the Slytherins once they had arrived at the entrance gate to the castle grounds. She could still faintly make out Narcissus Facett's loathing tone just behind her; her pace quickened, as she didn't want to chance a second encounter with them.

Inside the Great Hall, the crowd of students finally made their way to their house tables after a few rounds of "hellos" to faces missed over the summer holidays. Anne gratefully discovered her four long lost friends sitting at their normal spot two-thirds down the Ravenclaw dinner table.

"Anne," Katie exclaimed, waving her over.

Anne trudged over to the table, the ache of the day lagging at her shoulders, and joined her friends. Donna smiled at her. "Where have you been?"

"Yeah, we've been looking all over for you."

Anne sighed exhaustedly. This was not her night. Sure, she was happy to be back at school, but she was awfully worn out.

The hours before the welcoming feast were always like that. Everyone came in wearily, exhausted from a full day's worth of travel. Besides the journey on the Hogwarts Express, anyone who lived elsewhere than London also had to find means of getting to King's Cross Station, whether by knight bus, car, floo powder, or apparating (for those who had passed their test).

And besides the food purchased from the snack-trolley lady, we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast.

Chin rested in her hand, Anne absentmindedly played with her fork. "You'll never believe what happened." She smiled shyly.

This immediately peaked the girl's interests. Anne had always been more serious than the rest of them. She was polite and mature, nothing near the giddy teenager a thirteen-year-old would be expected to be. So on the rare occasion that Anne might have a crazy story to tell, everyone listened.

Melissa urged her one excitedly: "Tell us!"

But before she could begin, McGonagall entered the hall with the first year students. The hum of the older students already sitting at the house tables died and all attention fell upon the approaching crowd.

"Later," Anne whispered.

Rubeus Hagrid took a seat amongst the staff at the head table as the Transfiguration professor climbed the carpeted runway to the front of the room. Placing a small three-legged stool out in the center of attention, she announced the beginning of the ceremony.