Disclaimer: IT'S MINE, ALL MINE! …not really….sigh
Chapter one: The first meetings
Sabrina Snape sat quietly in the empty train compartment gazing out the window as houses, towns and vast landscapes passed by. Her stepmother had dropped her off at the train station earlier in the day without so much as a goodbye. Why her father decided to marry that woman was beyond her, but then again he hadn't exactly been all that sane since her mother killed herself three years ago…
Her thoughts drifted to her twin brother, Antonio who had not been accepted to Hogwarts. Tony, like every second-born son in the Snape family, turned out to be a squib. This was the first time that she would be totally separated from her twin, and her older brother was in St. Mungos with Wizard's Flu, so she was completely alone.
She was startled out of her thoughts by the compartment door suddenly opening and slamming shut. Standing there, leaning against the door was a handsome boy a year or two older than her, with light brown hair and amber brown eyes. He was dressed in his black Hogwarts uniform, and Sabrina could tell he was a Gryffindor by the patch on the front of his robes. They stared at each other in shock for a moment, but then he spoke, "I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here." He seemed very polite, and a little shy. Sabrina was lonely and needed someone to talk to so she figured why not talk to this cute boy? She flashed one of her famous smiles at him.
"I don't mind. My name's Sabrina, would you like to sit and talk with me for a while? I'm all alone and bored out of my mind." She said sweetly.
Remus stood there dumbfounded for a second. He had been playing a rather violent game of hide-and-seek with his friends, and had accidentally stumbled upon the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was small, even for her age, with pale blue eyes and curly black hair that fell to her waist.
Almost in a trace he sat down next to her and they began to talk. They found it surprisingly easy to talk to each other, like they were old friends meeting after a long absence. Remus told her all about Hogwarts, what staircases to watch out for, what classes you could get away with falling asleep in, and which teachers you needed to watch out for.
"Potions is definitely my worst class" Remus started, "I'm horrible at it, and Porfessor Izan always pairs me with Severus Snape, watch out for him, he's got to be the most arrogant, ill-tempered prat I've ever met in my life."
"I know, he's my brother. If you think dealing with him for one class period is bad, try living with him. He can be a right git, but he's really not that bad once you get to know him." Remus' jaw dropped and shock set in as the phrase "he's my brother" sank in.
"There's no way you're Severus Snape's sister." He said looking at her in total disbelief.
"Why is that so hard to believe?" she asked innocently.
"Well to put it nicely he's evil, scary and very, very strange. You're nice and normal, and you don't seem like you'd hex someone for looking at you the wrong way." Sabrina had to admit that he had a point; Severus was strange, even by Slytherin standards. He was constantly on is guard and very protective of people, especially of his best friend Crystal. Severus and Crystal had been best friends since they were very young, and knew practically everything about each other. Crystal had to be the only person alive that could put up with Severus and all his moodiness.
She decided to change the subject, she really didn't feel like talking about her family right now. "So what are James Potter and Sirius Black really like?" she was curious to find out if they were the jackasses Severus made them out to be.
Meanwhile in a different part of the train Sirius and James were looking for their friends. They had already found Peter, three times to be exact. He wasn't very good at Ultimate Hide and Seek, a game they had created. What made this game different from the traditional one was that there were two seekers and when a hider was found, the seeker screamed at the top of his lungs and tackled the hider.
"Where the bloody hell is Remus?" James said. They had been looking for him for nearly an hour.
"I bet he's in some dark corner snogging with some lass." Sirius said. James raised his eyebrows.
"No way he's too shy to even talk to girls. I hope the Slytherins didn't get him though, he has been gone a long time."
The pair continued their journey down the train, with no sign of their missing friends. They walked by a compartment and stopped short when they heard a familiar voice coming from inside. James looked at Sirius in total disbelief.
"I told you so." He said smirking. "He's in a dark corner, flirting and snogging with some hot chick." James shook his head…
"But he's supposed to be the good kid! He was terrified of girls last year!"
Sirius was about to say more, but spotted their portly acquaintance Peter and without warning Sirius screamed and bolted down the hall expecting to tackle him, but Peter dodged and Sirius ended up tackling a pretty redhead first-year instead.
Senna had been roaming around the train looking for a place to sit. She was minding her own business when some maniac came screaming down the hallway and knocked her to the ground.
Stunned and angry she yelled, "Get off!"
"Are you sure you want me to?" the boy replied cockily, wiggling his eyebrows. Senna gave him a warning glare but he still didn't move. He just smirked at her. Before he had time to react Senna kicked him off and had him pinned up against the wall.
Sirius tried his best not to laugh while the angry redhead glared at him with her ocean blue eyes. There was something different about her, her skin seemed to sparkle and she smelled like an ocean breeze. He couldn't help but think she was very captivating but this girl was also starting to strangle him with her tight hold.
"Frisky are we? I'm not really the bondage type, but for you, I'll make an exception" he said.
Senna released her hold and slapped him hard across the face.
"I've never been so insulted! If this is the way your people greet each other…I will not put up with it!" With that she stormed off down the hall muttering angrily to herself in some foreign tongue.
James could only watch and laugh as his best friend made a complete ass of himself. Sirius tended to speak without thinking. This wasn't the first time that Sirius had been attacked for saying something stupid. Last year he got canned by a Slytherin 7th year for painting "Slytherins are all ugly inbreeds" in their Quidditch locker room. James shuttered at the memory; the entire Slytherin house was scary beyond all reason.
Sirius walked back over to James, looking confused. "I can't believe she hit me."
"Sirius you're an idiot."
"Well I didn't think she was going to hit me. I was just joking." He said miserably, rubbing his face where an angry red mark was beginning to appear.
Remus cautiously peeked out the door of his compartment. He was just in time to see Sirius miss tackling Peter and land on an innocent bystander. He couldn't hear what Sirius said to the poor girl but it must have been offensive because she threw his up against the wall. Sirius, being Sirius, made another comment and the girl slapped him for it. Behind him Remus could hear Sabrina get up. "What was that?" she asked.
"I believe that Sirius just got told off by some girl. He's really not that bad I promise…he's just bad at knowing when to talk and when to shut his trap."
Remus had to suppress laughter at imagining what Sirius could have said to get that kind of a reaction from a girl.
Senna stormed down the hall away from the stupid git who had tackled her. Was that normal human behavior? She had no idea. This was her first day having interactions with any humans other than her father, how was she supposed to know the customs of these people? Senna couldn't shake the feelings of loneliness and fright. She didn't know anyone here and if everyone was that strange she wasn't sure if she would make friends. As far as she knew she was the first mermaid, well half-mermaid, ever to be accepted to Hogwarts. Everything was so new to her, having legs alone had been enough to confuse her for hours.
The hallway was empty and Senna was getting increasingly depressed with every compartment she passed. All of there were full of friends, laughing and having fun. Not paying attention, Senna was too late to stop herself from running into an opening compartment door. Before she could register what had happened she was on the floor looking up at a worried face.
"Oh my, are you alright?" said a cute girl with copper hair.
Lily had been about to step out of her compartment when someone had smacked into the door. She helped the dazed girl up and led her to a seat inside the compartment.
"Eh, I do not believe that I am injured." said the girl with fiery red hair. "But this is the second time that I have met the ground of this train today and I am getting right bothered with it. As an after thought she added, "My name is Senna Amillia Denilem Rolinus Florina Nylavac, pleased to make you're acquaintance."
"Um, I'm Lily Evens, nice to meet you. You're not from around here are you?"
"Is it that obvious?" asked the girl blushing.
Lily laughed and the girl gave a shy smile.
"Yeah, but that's ok. I'm a first year too, and I'm a muggle born so I haven't got a clue of what to expect this year."
"Yes me as well, Um I have a question, Is it normal for a male to come screaming and tackle you to the ground?" Lily gave her a questioning look and answered, "No"
"Oh good, now I don't feel bad about nearly beating him up." Lily chuckled at that response.
"So you said you are muggle born, not to be rude, but would you mind telling me what that means? Lily gave Senna a funny look and Senna was immediately embarrassed. "If the question is to uncomfortable I will not press you for an answer."
'Wow', Lily thought, 'this girl must have never had any contact with wizards before… ever.' "Oh no, I'm sorry I was just surprised that's all." The two girls spent a lot of time talking and discussing themselves. Senna told Lily how she was half mermaid and lived off the Southern tip of Italy. Lily told Senna about her family and how everyone was so excited about her being a witch, well everyone except her sister. The more Senna heard about Lily's sister the less she liked the girl. After sometime Lily stood up suddenly and exclaimed that she needed to use the lavatory.
Further down the hall in their own compartment James, Remus, Sirius, Peter and Sabrina sat. While the others were talking Sirius was off in his own little world. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a girl with red hair walk by. He had an inner argument with himself about if he should run after her or not. He wanted to apologize for what he had done earlier. Did he dare risk getting smacked again? In the end he figured it would be better if he went and apologized, after all Hogwarts wasn't that big of a school, he might be stuck with this girl for a long time.
Exiting the compartment he walked in the direction the girl had walked off in. "I better not run after her", he mumbled to himself, "she might think I'm going to attack her again. "
Lily could hear someone following her. She didn't think much of it until she heard him talking to himself, then she started to get really nervous. At first she couldn't make out what he was saying then she distinctly heard, "she might think I'm going to attack her again." This must be the same weirdo who jumped Senna. She tried in vain to keep herself clam as she quickened her pace.
Lily felt a hand grip her shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She screamed, grabbed her wand out of her pocket, (though she wasn't sure how to use it yet) and aimed it at the freak who was sneaking up on her. He was definitely the same one that attacked Senna, he matched her description perfectly: tall, black hair, blue eyes, cute but insane.
Sirius was so thrown by the girls scream that impulsively he jumped back but he didn't land on his feet. The first thought that entered his head was that his backside was going to hurt for days after this.
Several compartment doors opened and James, Remus, Peter, and Sabrina exited theirs to see what havoc Sirius was causing now.
"Honestly Sirius, will you leave the girls alone? Scaring the hell out of them is no way to get them to like you." James said, helping his friend off the floor.
"Maybe we should just lock him in a cage where he can't bother anyone." Peter offered.
"Peter, maybe you should just shut the hell up." Sirius said grumpily. Standing up Sirius finally got a look at the girl. She had backed away from them and was holding her wand in her hand, she was clearly nervous. Sirius liked the fact that he made her nervous. Although the Sorting Hat had placed him in Gryffindor, he still had some of his family's Slytherin tendencies. Looking at her face he could see that it was a different girl form the one who had very bluntly expressed her distaste for being tackled. By the way she stood Sirius could tell that this girl was mush shyer and more timid. Her eyes couldn't seem to focus on one person in the group and kept darting from one member to another.
Sabrina picked up on the girl's nervousness and stepped forward to introduce herself, and calm the girl down. She looked terrified.
"Hello, I'm Sabrina. Don't mind Sirius he's relatively harmless, what's your name?"
"Lily Evans"
"Well it's very nice to meet you Lily." Sabrina said while shaking the girl's hand. Lily's eyes fell on to the group of boys standing behind Sabrina, "Oh and this is Remus" she said motioning to the boy with brown hair and brown eyes. His robe could have been taken better care of lily noticed as there were small holes and patches.
"This is Sirius, but you've already met him." It took a lot of strength on Sabrina's part to say this without giggling. "This is James" she said pointing to the boy with shaggy unkempt hair and glasses. He also had large brown eyes that gazed out at Lily from beneath the glasses. Lily loved brown eyes.
"And this is….eh…well…"
"Peter" squeaked the fat boy whose voice sounded very high next to Sabrina's
"Right" she went on "Neter."
Finding this incredibly funny James punched peter in the shoulder. "You hear that Pete? Neter! I recon we should start calling you that from now on!"
"It's Peter not Neter" Peter said as the other boys started to laugh at him.
"Sorry" exclaimed Sabrina, although she was too amused to actually be sincere.
Out of the whole group, Lily felt the most uncomfortable about Peter. He seemed nice enough, but there was just something… different about him. He seemed a little uneasy and twitchy, he jumped every time someone started talking to him. James was on the bossy side. He gave Lily the impression that he was the type that thought he was the greatest thing to ever grace the planet. Sirius was more laid back and less pigheaded, but he still made her nervous. Remus seemed much more quiet and shy than the rest of his companions. Again Lily got the feeling that there was something different about the boy, but it wasn't the same as it was with Peter. Sabrina was very friendly and talkative but when the subject of family came up she got very quiet and looked uncomfortable. The boys except for Remus didn't seem to notice this.
Lily finally remembered about Senna who had been sitting alone in compartment for quite some time, and was about to go get her and introduce her to the group when she came walking down the hall she almost walked right into…"You!" she directed at Sirius with a mix of surprise and anger.
"Who me?" he said innocently, he decided that now would not be the time to joke around with her, considering she was looking at him like she wanted him to spontaneously combust, "Oh well yes I meant to come find you and apologize, good thing you found me." The boy said lightly. "Listen I'm really sorry about what happened before, didn't mean to startle you." The boy gave Senna a lopsided grin that was just so cute that Senna couldn't help but smile back. Noticing the rest of the people in the hall she introduced herself and she and Lily were invited into their compartment. Now surrounded by a large group of people Senna didn't feel nearly as lonely and depressed.
The group of boys explained a lot about Hogwarts to her and Lily. They told them about the four houses, Gryffindor - the house they were in, Ravenclaw, the house for really smart kids, Hufflepuff, the house for "dumb blondes" according to James. This earned him a rather menacing look fro the girls, and Slytherin, "the worst and ugliest group of people on the face of the planet" also according to James.
"Not all Slytherins are horrible people, that's just a stereotype." Growled Sabrina, who shot the famous "Snape glare of death" at James. He looked at her as if she had sprouted another head.
"I'm sorry but have you ever talked to your brother? If that was gonna be the example, think again sweetie. Most Slytherins are sniveling liars and cheaters."
Sabrina stopped talking for a while after that. She had really taken to heart what James had said about her brother.
When the tension between James and Sabrina calmed down and the group moved off the topic of Slytherins the train ride became much more pleasant and enjoyable. While the group was chatting about the different uses of dungbombs an older student stuck his head into the compartment. "Ten minutes till we reach Hogwarts, make sure you're ready." With that the boy moved on the next compartment.
The train slowed and finally came to a halt at the small station in Hogsmeade. Students poured out of the train onto the platform and a loud voice boomed over the crowd.
"Fir's years this way!"
The three girls said goodbye to their new friends and followed a giant man and climbed into a little boat that took them across the lake to Hogwarts. No one said a word for the entire ride. Each girl was watching the enormous castle draw closer and wondering what the year would bring.
A/N: woot! It's finally up! I had to make a lot of changes, but it's so much better now happy dance ok, now push the little button review. Come on, you know you want to.