Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except for Amy. Though, of course, her last name and her family also belongs to J.K.Rowling.
Plot: A/U. Well, Amy is in her sixth year at Hogwarts and something happens that changes her life and that of Snape as well.
Chapter 1: A new year
The early morning sun shone through the window of the girl's dormitory up in Gryffindor tower on the second of September. Amy Weasley opened her eyes sleepily when she felt the warm light on her face. She looked around at the other beds in the room. Jessica, Ruth, Mandy and Sarah, her roommates, still seemed to be asleep. As quietly as possible she got up and got went to the bathroom to wash herself and get changed. Wondering whether her brothers would already be up, she went down to the Great Hall to have an early breakfast.
As she had thought, Charlie and Bill were not yet there. She was just helping her to some toast when two rough hands closed around her eyes.
"Guess who!" a very familiar voice said from behind her.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe you're my oh so funny brother Charlie," she said in a thoughtful tone.
"No, it's not," said her brother and the hands lifted from her eyes.
She blinked for a moment, then realised that she had been tricked as her twin brother was sitting opposite her. She turned around and looked up into Bill's grinning face.
"How dare you," she laughed. Her older brother sat down next to her.
"How come you're already up?"
"I wanted to beat the famous Head Boy Bill Weasley for once in my life."
"Very funny, "he smirked.
They started on their breakfast. Soon the Great Hall started to fill. Professor McGonagall started to walk down the long table, handing out timetables. Amy gazed down at hers, when she heard Charlie moan.
"What's wrong with you? That's not that bad!"
"Are you kidding? Look at today! Double Potions first and then History of Magic! Just because you are the best in Potions doesn't mean I have to like it."
Amy went slightly pink. "I'm not the best in Potions."
"'Course you are," said Bill after swallowing down a mouthful of coffee. "Anyway, I'm not better off than you, double Arithmancy and Ancient Runes."
"By the way, you only like Potions because of Snape," Charlie grinned at her.
"No I don't!" Amy blushed even more.
"You had a crush on him in our second year."
"I was twelve! He was a new teacher!"
"So?"
Amy looked around. All around them fellow students were having breakfast. "Nothing. It's nothing. I'm just learning hard."
Charlie and Bill exchanged looks that made Amy sure that they'd come back to the topic later. She was quite relieved when her twin checked his watch and thought it better to get their bags and head off to the dungeons.
Charlie and Amy settled down in their dark corner of Snape's dungeon as usual. The door fell shut with a loud crash and the Potions master swept up to the front of the class.
"I want to make it clear once and for all. Only those of you who have achieved an "Outstanding" in their Potions O.W.L. examination will have the pleasure to carry on with this subject next year." His eyes darted through the room and fixed for a second on Amy. "Still," he continued, "I expect the same effort of those who failed to do so. Today you will brew the Freezing Draft. If brewed properly, this potion will freeze the drinker in an instant. If not, he will freeze slowly and die. Instructions on the board." He flicked his wand at the board, where the ingredients and instruction for the Freezing Draft appeared.
Everybody started to work immediately. The potion proved to be quite difficult, but Amy had mastered worse than this. It appeared, however, that some of the others had rather big problems, especially Ethel Fredericks, whose cauldron exploded halfway through the lesson and caused quite a diversion when Simon Rosier, an enormous Slytherin, was hit by some of the liquid and suddenly grew frost boils. Snape swooped down on poor Ethel within a second.
"What, for heaven's sake, have you forgotten to do? Can you at least tell me?"
Ethel was so shocked and frightened of Snape that all she could do was shake her head.
"Miss Weasley?" he asked in a bored voice without looking away from Ethel.
"Stirr ten times clockwise after adding the boomslang skin," Amy answered from the other side of the room, sitting in front of her finished potion.
"Correct. That's zero marks for today, Miss Fredericks." He turned around and gazed at Amy. "I suppose you have finished your Freezing Draft, Miss Weasley? Take Rosier up to the hospital wing then." Amy sighed, filled a sample of her potion into a glass phial, corked it, gave it to Snape and guided Rosier out of the dungeon, who was now shivering all over.
After explaining to Madam Pomfrey what had happened, there was only enough time left for Amy to return to Snape's dungeon and getting her bag before History of Magic. Nice way to spend your break, she thought, taking that Slytherin bloke up to the hospital wing...
When she arrived in the Entrance Hall, she saw Charlie, who had brought along her bag, waiting for her.
"Oh, thanks!" she said, shouldering her things.
"It's ok," her brother replied as they headed of for Professor Binns' classroom. "By the way, Snape said that everyone who wanted to do a N.E.W.T. in Potions should turn up to a talk to him."
"Well, fine. But what does he want that for?"
"Maybe he wants to talk us out of it," he shrugged. "As if we were doing it just for the fun of it."
They reached Professor Binns class and settled down.
"Well, didn't he say when we should turn up at his office?" Amy said as she pulled out parchment, quill and A History of Magic.
"I guess after dinner is best," Charlie answered and folded his arms.
I'll do that tonight, then, thought Amy.
"Oh don't do that!" Charlie said suddenly.
"What?" Amy asked nonplussed.
"Tell me your thoughts! I thought you were controlling that."
"Oh, well, sorry," Amy stammered. She hadn't realised she had transported her thoughts. She was a sensimensmagus, meaning she could for one transport her thoughts to other people, and also could sense the emotions of other people. Actually she was controlling this power all the time, as having so many emotions around her at school made her head ache. She hadn't transported thoughts to anybody for over a year as well. Just then Professor Binns came gliding in through the blackboard as usual and put a stop to her thoughts. She grabbed her quill and started taking notes.
Lunch would have been a nice time if Bill hadn't bored Amy and Charlie with a long talk about his Ancient Runes essay that would take him hours to write. Finally Charlie tried to bring him off his track.
"So, what's next for you?" he asked.
"What? Oh, it's Transfiguration and Charms. What've you got?"
Amy glanced down her timetable. "Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration. That's not that bad."
Sure enough, the afternoon proved to be rather enjoyable. Professor Kettleburn made them take care of a bunch of Kneazles that had a bad cold and Professor McGonagall had them turn pigs into hams and back again. Smiling, Amy settled down at the Gryffindor table for dinner and helped herself to some chicken-and-ham pie.
"What are you smiling about?" Bill asked as he sat down opposite her.
I won't tell him yet, she thought, let's see how long it keeps asking.
"Well, then don't tell me," Bill said. "What's she smiling about, Charlie?"
Amy lifted an eyebrow. "You heard my thoughts?"
"Yeah, you should control that a bit better, you know," Bill answered grinning.
"I try, I just don't know why it doesn't work properly today."
"So what is so good that you smile as if you'd found a bag of Galleons. You haven't found a bag of Galleons, have you?"
"No, but I just got awarded ten points by McGonagall."
"What for?"
"Oh, you should have seen it," said Charlie. "She turned her pig into a ham and back again so fast that Ethel got sick from watching. McGonagall was so impressed and happy she awarded ten points for it."
"Yeah, and then she asked me to take Ethel to the hospital wing because she had thrown up over her ham."
Having retold the story of poor Ethel, Amy didn't feel all to hungry anymore. Five minutes later she got up and headed off for the dungeons. Another five minutes later she was standing in front of Snape's office. Hoping he was already inside, she rapped on the door.
