"Minus points," Melanie said, waiting for the door to Snape's private quarters to open. After their interesting, and, well, fun night the night before, Snape invited her back tonight, promising another fun time. The previous night was full of sharing life stories (although Snape shared a lot less than Melanie), laughter over very random things, and a genuinely good time. Melanie smiled, remembering it, then wondered why Harry and Ron hated Snape so much.

"Hiya Severus!" she happily said, then, noticing the troubled look on his face, asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Snape muttered.

"What's going on? Yesterday we were totally fine talking to each other..."

"I know," he said, now looking almost vulnerable, "Thinking about my past yesterday made me think about when I was your age, that's all."

"You mean when you went to school here with James and Sirius and everyone?"

Snape flinched slightly at the mention of Harry's father and godfather, but simply nodded.

"Well? What happened?" Melanie pressed. This was the topic that he had constantly moved away from yesterday, and Melanie was very curious why.

"Harry Potter's father and his little gang had one goal when we went to school here," Snape sighed, looking as though he was reliving whatever experiences he had in his head, "And that was to make my time here horrible in every way possible."

"So that's why—" Melanie blurted out, but quickly stopped herself. Mentioning Harry didn't seem like the best idea now.

"Yes?" Snape asked, waiting for her to go on.

"Oh, nothing," she lied, then asked, "What did they do to you?"

"Everything they could," he replied, "Public humiliation, typical teenage things, whatever little pranks they could think of..."

"That's terrible," Melanie said, now fully understanding why Harry felt that Snape hated him.

"Are you friends with that Potter boy?"

"Not really...he's nice enough, but all he's ever talked about with me is how much he hates Potions class."

"Just like his father..." Snape said, "Let me know if he does anything that seems like something the Marauder's would have done...can you do that?"

"Sure," Melanie said, "After all his father did to you, I'll be sure to keep an eye on him."

Soon after that, Snape suggested that she go back to the Gryffindor common room and try to be as friendly as possible with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

This was easier said than done, as soon as she arrived in the common room, the three noticed her and quickly stopped talking about whatever it was held them deep in discussion.

"Y'know, Hogwarts food is very good," Ron said, a little too loudly. "Although some people wouldn't know," he added, very pointedly, still trying to look as though the three were still talking.

"I'm not stupid, you know," she snapped, but then remembered the spying hob she had promised Snape. "I'm sorry I've missed supper the past few days," she sweetly added.

She could not help but notice the incredulous glances exchanged, then Hermione looked to Harry, who nodded ever so slightly, then she said, "That's okay...want to work on your homework with us?"

"Okay!" Melanie exclaimed. They were making this so much easier for her!

By the time Ron had practically dozed off, Melanie had learned Harry's opinions on Snape (because he was assigned extra homework from him, he was in the mood to complain). With every mean comment he made about Snape, Melanie found it harder and harder not to say anything in Snape's defense, but she knew that she had to at least pretend to befriend them.

Hermione yawned, and announced that she was going to bed. When she left, Melanie asked Harry if she could borrow his invisibility cloak that night.

"Why?" Harry suspiciously asked.

"I want to...go up to the library later, and do more...research."

"Okay...I'll let you take the Marauder's Map with you, too. If they catch you and take away the cloak, I don't know what I would do."

'Perfect,' thought Melanie, 'I'll just go talk to Snape, and Harry won't know where I am since I'll have the Map!'

Harry got Melanie the cloak and map, woke up Ron, who was asleep sprawled out on a chair, and wished her luck.