Hello everyone,

Thank you all for your reviews for "The Lady of Slytherin". It was written by my friend Tess, and I'm doing the illustrations for it (go to my biography page for the link).

"Snips and Spirals" are the nicknames for Severus Snape and his best friend at Hogwarts, Britomartis Vox. Her creators are cooking up all sorts of adventures and pranks for this Slytherin pair -- they will make the Marauders' heads spin! Read "Valentine's Day" for the second story in the Snips and Spirals series! More will be posted soon, along with new illustrations.

Best wishes from Atana Potinija

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"The Lady of Slytherin"

by Lady Tesser

Hogwarts and all characters therein are the creation of one J.K. Rowling, while Britomartis Vox is the creation of Atana and myself. There, that covers everything, right?

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Chapter 1 – At Long Last Home

Britomartis Vox had not seen any of these hallowed grounds since she had left almost twenty years ago.

She should have known this was the first place to go to. When she had finally contacted Albus Dumbledore of her situation, he demanded that she come to the school at once, and he would find a way to help her bring her life back again.

She always thought most of the professors did not care for Slytherins, even after they graduated or left to other schools. But Headmaster Albus Dumbledore loved all pupils of Hogwarts, no matter what house they were part of or where they actually graduated from.

And he was always willing to help former students.

It was a cool summer night in Scotland, the salt spray from the lochs wafted over the cliff walls and into the quad of Hogwarts, scenting the air with a fine mist of salt and cool breezes. Students new and old walked or ran across the quad toward the Great Hall, their black robes fluttering behind them. She knew a school in London whose students wore similar robes. Christ's Hospital, that's right. Only wore them for mid-day meal, though.

Yes, she remembered these grounds ... she remembered crossing them, her head bowed low, gazing at the grasses or snow through her sunglasses, hiding from the world so they would continue to ignore her like they always had ... then blossoming into a young woman with the help of such ladies as Madame Hooch and Professor McGonagall and the Slytherin House Mother Rowena Price; Britomartis' head held high as she plowed through the throngs of students, her ash blonde knee-length hair whipping around her body.

She laid he hand against the cold stone of one of the buildings - a classroom building - feeling the energy of both the school and the stone fill her body. She gazed at her hand ... now beginning to show her age and tapering into long dragon-green lacquered nails. She was no longer that springy young woman full of hope; Life has taken its bites. She now stood on the grounds of her first real home, ash blonde hair now in a chin-length bob and the Gargoyles sunglasses still on her face. No one had seen her eyes since the funeral.

She came as a shy young girl to Hogwarts, her twelve siblings preceding her, only four of them still on campus but they were more concerned with Quidditch and finding boyfriends or girlfriends (Adonia wanted both!), while she - the youngest - went virtually unnoticed. After all, her parents were now grandparents ... of all things ...

Then spending three years here, breaking out of her shyness, trying out and making it on the Quidditch team, laughing and smiling ... given enough courage to face the world by the time her parents transferred her to Beauxbatons for her Fourth-Year because it was cheaper.

But Hogwarts was always her Home.

Did she really think she could leave Hogwarts the same way now? Spend a few terms with her beloved faculty and among hundreds of gifted students, to become alive again?

No, this pain was deeper than being neglected by too-busy parents. Deeper than the loneliness that Miss Price had finally pulled her out of, deeper than even the torment she had seen upperclassman Snape had been through when she attended.

Her other hand unconsciously reached for her dagger in the folds of her traveling robe. The pain was still there, like a dull roar at the bottom of her soul, but at least it was no longer tearing her into shreds every time she breathed.

Headmaster Dumbledore was right. She should have come here first instead of hiding for five years. Just standing in the quad was healing. And Hogwarts was the safest place on this world.

"Martis?"

She turned at the sound of her name. A thin woman in black and green robes hurried across the lawn in the dusk. Her red hair was streaked with gray, but even without the ornate hat, she knew this was one of her favorite teachers.

"Professor McGonagall," Britomartis answered. She realized she was still holding the dagger and she released it, brushing her robe aside as the older woman pulled her into a hug.

"It's Minerva, my dear," she replied, looking over the top of her glasses. "You are among friends now, not just former professors."

"Thank you. I'm sorry for imposing - "

"You aren't, Martis," McGonagall assured her. "We only wish you came to us sooner. The pain from the loss of your family to Death Eaters is too great a load for you carry alone."

"Now I'm told," the woman from Crete commented dryly. "I've brought my familiar."

A snakehead poked out from the folds of her robe, flickering its tongue out at the Professor. Minerva McGonagall nodded and smiled. "This one is new?"

"Yes. Medusa had died while I was carrying my fourth child, and in a fit of pregnancy hormones and advice from darling toddler children, this one ended upon being named 'Snookie-poo'."

McGonagall's smile became broader, as she guided her toward the Great Hall with an arm around the taller woman's waist. "She's welcomed here, especially since you'll be taking over House Mother duties for Slytherin."

"What happened to Miss Price?" Britomartis asked in alarm.

"She decided to retire. As she explained 'I can't keep up with the children anymore, Minerva, I have more arthritis spells on my joints than Carter had liver pills, and it'd be embarrassing if they all fall off at once in front of the children'." She chuckled. "And here you show up; you were always one of Rowena's favorite students, she insisted you had to be House Mother when you arrived."

"House Mother, too?" Britomartis said. "I would have been pleased with only being the school's religious teacher."

McGonagall smiled in her grandmotherly way. "My dear Martis ... Fate is a strange creature, while Coincidences are spiritual puns. You are meant to be here. You contacted us when we decided to establish a student chapel and a Worlds Religions teaching post, now Slytherin needs a House Mother for the girls' dorms. You are meant to be here."

Britomartis was shocked to discover tears were streaming down her face from under her sunglasses. "I'm home again. I'm home again."

"Yes, my dear; you're home at last."

* * *

Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master, took his customary place at the end of the head table in the Great Hall, glaring down the row of tables of students comprising his House of Slytherin. A large section was empty, ready for new house members to be added from the Sorting Ceremony.

Another year, another group of annoying First-Years about to make mistakes.

He was promised a new House Mother for the girls' dorms, which was favorable to him, since he desired as little contact with the students when out-of-class as possible.

Snape brushed his black hair from his mouth with his slender fingers, watching the doors open.

The First-Years were filed in, waiting quietly at the foot of the faculty dais. Behind them, Professor McGonagall entered with a tall, ash-blonde woman wearing sunglasses, a snake wrapped around her shoulders.

No, wait ...

Dumbledore stood, his long white beard falling like snow down his chest. "Good evening, students. I have a few beginning of term announcements to make. One - students must never enter the Forbidden Forest. Students must never enter the third floor rooms for any reason on pain of a most terrible death. I also have a message from Mr. Filch the groundskeeper: that anyone who touches Mrs. Norris will be severely punished and buried in the rose gardens. And I have one more announcement ... Miss Rowena Price has retired as Slytherin House Mother this year - "

The Slytherin students all exhaled in disappointment. A glare from their House Master (Snape himself) shut them up quickly.

Dumbledore raised his hand. " - However, we have a new House Mother for the girls' dorms ... a former Hogwarts student and a Slytherin herself, Professor Britomartis Vox, who will also be the school's High Priestess for the student chapel and the Worlds Religions instructor."

Snape stared at the woman as she bowed her head graciously toward the faculty and then to the students who politely applauded. Yes, make the hair knee-length, slightly younger all over, pre-teen skinny, wearing the uniform of Hogwarts ... this was indeed Miss Britomartis, a Slytherin two years younger than himself and one of the few people who did not hate him.

Memories flooded his mind, memories of those years he was tormented by the Marauders. Lily Evans did not hate him - perhaps felt pity - but Britomartis was the one who treated him like a human being. Both ... seemed to know the other was a loner. While he lashed out, she pulled in, studying in the library. While he had been sucked further into the darkness, she managed to pull herself out.

He had been horrified when she had found him in the library one evening during his Third-Year when everyone was supposed to be at dinner - he had been sobbing, still covered in mud from Sirius Black dragging him through it. He wanted to run from her, but her strong hand held onto his arm and pulled him against her small chest, holding him tightly and stroking his uncombed greasy hair. This First-Year girl, whom he had never talked to or even looked at, just automatically came to his salvation. She had comforted him, saying nothing, but half-humming/half-singing a song he never heard nor could understand, only that he felt ... safe. And perhaps even ... loved.

He pushed that memory aside, only to recall another one during his Fourth- Year, when the Marauders had pulled him bodily into a local creek and shoved his head under water, screaming about needing a bath and dumping harsh lye soap all over his head and suffocating him - suffocating or drowning him, he could not tell.

Then feeling himself being pulled out, someone's robe wiping the soap from his face and using the voice of Gods as she said, "Potter! Black! Lupin! Pettigrew! Bullies and cold-hearted - " The language was ancient, but it carried many threats and brutal truths, many of which he had looked up later and found them to be from the ancient language of Britomartis' native Crete.

He had washed the lye soap out of his face, his eyes burning like hot pokers had been shoved through. Hands helped him wash the soap off. Angry, humiliated, he had slapped them away as he tried not to burst into sobs again. Still, she had remained, eventually helping him up and taking him to the infirmary when he discovered he could not open his eyes at all.

He had been almost blinded. He certainly would have been if she had not stepped in when she did. When he did get his sight back, he went to the library to thank her, but the words could never leave his throat.

Young Severus Snape had to avoid her ... he wanted to be near her, and he could not allow that (and yet they stuck together throughout the three years they knew each other). No one could be close to him. No one would want to. After all, he was a 'slimy greasy git' of a teenager that made girls vomit in his presence.

Had it been nearly twenty years, though?

Professor Snape gazed at her. Still wore the sunglasses. Of course. They had once talked about it while she was helping him in his incantations course (he had a terrible stutter that one year ... he did not want to think about why); she said her sunglasses were a 'shield' between her and the world, she could look at people and they would not know, and they could not read her soul by her eyes. And once he thought about it, he realized his long unwashed and uncombed hair was his own shield. He could hide his face, not see anyone, and become 'invisible'.

But she had blossomed. She never turned to darkness. She became a part of the world. And she had transferred to the French school, leaving him completely and utterly alone his last two years, alone against the Marauders and their sadistic treatments ... He had almost broken down when he had finally joined Hogwarts' staff and learned through the younger sibling of a former Slytherin classmate that Britomartis had returned to Crete to become a priestess to some Goddess and had married. He never knew why he felt such ... disappointment.

Why was she here as both Slytherin House Mother and a professor of Worlds Religions?

He had been remembering and concentrating so much, he had not noticed the Sorting Ceremony had begun and was already on the last student - a little redheaded girl, who nervously sat up on the stool. Snape almost allowed a smirk to escape as he imagined just whispering 'boo' at her and making her jump out of her skin. Perhaps in Potions class.

McGonagall held the hat just inches over the child's head as it blurted out - "Redheaded girl child - yet ANOTHER Weasley?? Let's put it in Gryffindor, too."

The Gryffindors cheered, while Snape studied his own additions. Most of them frowning children, some of them leering, others quiet and brooding like he was at that age.

First-Years. And Britomartis Vox once again.