Chapter 2

"Oh. My. Word!" Hermione Granger kept shaking her head. Ron Weasley sat to her left, and had yet to pick his jaw up off of the floor. Harry Potter was seated across from Hermione, Ron's sister, Ginny was next to Harry. Harry resolved himself to questioning the obvious, as per usual.

"Who-who was that girl? And why did Malfoy even bother with her?" Hermione rolled her eyes at the question and replied sharply.

"Why does Malfoy bother with anyone? He's miserable and evil. And about Lorelai; weren't you listening to anything that Mrs. Weasley said?"

"Well, yes," said Harry, frowning from the obvious chastising by Hermione, "but I don't recall her mentioning anything about a feisty redhead Muggle who would openly threaten one of the Malfoy's!" he replied, near exasperation.

"Fair enough," Hermione conceded. "That was Lorelai Green. Her mother is American, and no one really knows who her father is, but to everyone's knowledge, he is a Muggle like her mother. She is 16 and a sixth year, and from what I've researched, it's very puzzling as to why she's a Slytherin, of all things..."

"Yes, Mum said she expected her to be a Gryffindor!" Ginny interjected.

"Anyway..." Hermione drew out the word pointedly.

"Sorry!" Ginny squeaked.

"Quite alright. Lorelai has extraordinary talents. From my research, it seems that she's telling the truth when she suggested that she could kick Malfoy's arse. But because both of her parents are Muggles, no one knows where her powers derive from." She slumped, out of breath and obviously satisfied with herself.

"So the mystery, 'Mione, lies solely in the source of her powers?" Harry concluded.

"And in her attitude! I want to learn how to swing my hips like that when I leave a room!" Ginny giggled when her brother groaned at her statement. Ron shook his head and grabbed a chicken leg out of the bowl in front of him.

Severus Snape ran through everything he could possibly say to her while charging forth to the Slytherin common room. "Hello, Lorelai, don't forget that as far as everyone is concerned, we've never met." Or how about, "Don't look at me because I'm not quite sure that you aren't evil, even though you saved my life!" Or even, "I'm glad you took out your nose ring; it looked atrocious!" He shook that thought out of his head as if shaking hair out of his eyes and burst into the common room after muttering the password at the door. He didn't have to search for her; aside from her, the room was empty.

She was sitting in a chair by the fire in the dimly lit room, shrouded in the black cloak she must have thrown on upon arriving. Her right elbow was positioned on the armrest, allowing the height for her right hand to prop up her head. The shadows skipped along her prominent, feminine features. Snape gathered himself and said commandingly, as if even to convince himself,

"Lorelai, what are you doing? You're lucky that no one else knew what you whispered into Malfoy's ear! For the low profile that you are trying to keep, you are making it difficult on yourself! How could you risk speaking to him in Parsel-tongue, of all things!"

Lorelai glanced up and asked casually, "How did you know what I said?"

"I had to throw an eavesdropping spell when you whispered in his ear. You have no idea what you might have unleashed! You're lucky this room is empty, because the verbal lashing you are about to receive..." He trailed off as he noticed that she lazily looked over at him and gave him a genuine smile.

"Now, Severus, don't worry. I'm not going to be out of line. You should know by now that I don't make rash decisions! I'm not going to hurt anyone, least of all Draco. I wouldn't give him that satisfaction. Besides, if anyone knew I could really kick his ass, it might cause problems. But I do apologize, there's so much to get used to, here. I'll just watch what I say. No worries," she repeated.

"Miss Green," he began, emphasizing the formality, "From now on, you will address me as Professor Snape. I will not tolerate anything less. Even if we, erm, 'worked' together this summer, school is beginning now. You will treat me with the same respect as commanded from everyone else, and I will not hesitate to discipline you should you fall foul of that expectation." Lorelai lowered her eyes as he reprimanded her, and crossed her arms in front of her chest, visibly hurt.

"Very well, Professor. Please accept my apologies for my disrespect. Good evening." She turned and all but ran up the stairs to her dormitory and her comforting single room, a luxury for sixth and seventh years. Snape remained near the fireplace until its warmth reminded him that it would be beneficial to leave and prepare for classes in the morning.

Neither one noticed the silver eyes that had drawn in the entire scene. Draco Malfoy stepped out from behind the Grecian column opposite the fireplace.

Well, this was certainly interesting. He felt a chill as he remembered what she whispered in his ear...he heard, "watch yourself," or maybe that's just what he understood. Because if he wasn't mistaken, she had hissed those two words...in parsel-tongue! He remembered the burning in his eyes as well. This girl was not the ordinary Mud-blood. Perhaps Snape could answer his questions, since he seemed to know her oh-so-well.

Draco snickered to himself. As infuriating as this girl was sure to prove to be, it would at least be fun to find out her history, to know what about her made Snape cringe. Or if nothing else, she was a challenge. It might be fun to make the 'poor girl' fall in love with him and then break her little heart. It had been too long since he'd seriously manipulated anyone. And Father would be proud! He shook his head. No, that was amateur.

"But don't you think you may be underestimating her? She left you speechless! You're just upset with her because she is the only person to successfully humiliate you in front of the entire school!" Draco stopped in his thought process. A slow grin spread across his face and he scoffed at his conscience.

"No," he countered. "I think that as soon as I know what's happened between her and Snape, I'll be able to exact ample revenge!" Suddenly, the glint of hurt in her eyes at the uttering of "Mud-blood!" was brought back to his memory, and he suffered a twinge of...guilt? I really need to get over this conscience thing. It's slowing me down. But what was really bothering him went far beyond the humiliation in the Great Hall. That burning...she seemed to look straight through at the person that he wanted to be, but had no idea of how to reach. He was sure that she may have seen the pressure he suffered constantly, and the personality he wore just because he didn't know how else to be...and the fact that he liked being the "bad-boy," because he had respect from others.

His thoughts were interrupted as Pansy came by his side. She grabbed his arm, and he turned around and looked at her, glimpsed the desire in her eyes, and gruffly said, "Lets go, then."

He thoughtfully made his way to his room with Pansy and slammed the door.

a/n: sorry this one is so short! I'm working on chapter 3...please review!