Chapter One

To Rae, Hogwarts had never looked more inviting than when she was stuck outside in a greenhouse. Professor Calhoun wasn't that bad – nor was the class. But it was the fact that it was forty degrees out and slightly humid that made her wish for the bell to hurry up more than ever. Her skin was cold, but at the same time, sort of damp and sticky, making her all the more uncomfortable.

Rae sneezed as she took a rather strong whiff of fertilizer. Several people in front of her turned around, a few of them looking rather disgusted. Rae had never really understood why some people turned their noses up at her. It wasn't like she was in Gryffindor.

There was the bell. Rae stood up and, being at the back of the class, was the first one out of the greenhouse. She walked briskly up the hill towards the castle, eager to get into the warm dry air. Her pants rustled quietly, and the hem of them drug in the frostbitten grass. She tugged at her cloak, adjusting it to suit the position of her bag.

The Entrance Hall greeted her with several hundred students, all of them making their way into the Great Hall for lunch. Tossing her bag and cloak behind a large statue, she pushed her way through the crowd.

A sharp jab in the side knocked Rae over sideways, landing her on the floor.

"Watch out, damn it!" she yelled, blowing her black hair out of her face, though she doubted whether she could be heard over the noise. She had not even seen who had caused her sudden change of position. Rae tried to stand up, though this was difficult to do, considering that nobody was paying her the slightest bit of attention. She swore under her breath several more times before feeling someone grab her by the wrist and hoist her back up to her feet.

Rae's eyes, fast though they were, weren't fast enough to catch the face of who had helped her up. She stared around blindly, only to be caught once again in the ever-steady current of students.

In a matter of minutes, she was seated at the Slytherin table at the far end, her back to the wall. Rae had learned long ago not to present her back to the enemy – especially at meal times. Food was much more aerodynamic than it seemed.

Two tables away, Sirius Black shook his own black hair out of his face as he looked up from his conversation. His eyes traveled along each table in the Great Hall, finally coming to a rest on the dark girl sitting by herself at the far end of the Slytherin table.

He had seen her once before – in the hallway about ten minutes earlier. She was wearing the same pants as he – highly recognizable, Tripp bondage pants. Her shirt bore the AC/DC emblem on the front.

She was clearly a rocker – as was he. He looked down at his own faded Black Sabbath shirt he had bought four years ago at his first show.

"Padfoot? Hello? Earth to Padfoot! Wake up, man!"

James Potter's voice echoed in his ear, making him jump in a startled sort of way.

"Wha- what?" He averted his eyes back down to his best friend, who was looking at him rather skeptically.

"Padfoot, you really need to stop spacing out like that-"

"I wasn't spacing out!" he defended, waving his arms. "I was just- well-"

"He doesn't know." Remus Lupin said knowledgably.

Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed, once again looking over towards the girl.

"Who are you looking at?" a boy called Peter Pettigrew asked, sitting down on the other side of Remus.

"You mean what am I looking at?" he said jerkily, snapping his eyes back down to the Gryffindor table.

"No, who," he said almost accusingly. "It certainly wasn't a what-"

"Who, eh?" James smirked, his eyes following to where Sirius's had been. "Would it be... oh, I don't know – Miss Blackness over there at the Slytherin table?"

"N- no..." he said immediately. Sirius could feel his face coloring. This was getting frustrating. "Why are you all staring at me?"

"Any girl in this school would give her right arm to date you. And you choose one who isn't very well acquainted with the sunlight."

"Shut up...." Sirius muttered, then continued his lunch, James still smirking at him every so often.

Rae ate quickly and retrieved her bag and cloak from behind the statue before heading down a few staircases into the dungeons for Potions. She would make a quick stop by her dorm before heading to class.

"Blood work," she murmured to the solid brick wall. It became hazy in a small archway, and then disappeared to a fine mist. Upon her entering, the passage sealed itself. Rae dropped her bag in a chair and headed to the left of two staircases leading down through yet another solid brick wall.

Even at midday, the rooms were lit with an eerie greenish glow emitting from the odd shaped lamps that hung overhead. Rae opened the trunk at the end of her four-poster bed and dug around until she came upon her potion's book, 1,000 Magical Herbs and Fungi.

Rae stopped short of heading back up the stairs and took off her cloak again, replacing it with a black, hooded sweatshirt that read Famous Stars and Straps. Picking up the book, she mounted the stairs and arrived in the common room again. A rather greasy looking kid, who was sitting beside the hearth, jumped as her chains clanked slightly and announced her arrival.

Rae ignored him. Severus Snape was in the same year as her, although he didn't look it. He was extremely skinny, and had greasy black hair that just touched his shoulders – and he was always nervous. Any other person in the school would say he was "one of those Goths," but in truth, he was nothing but a weird kid who was up to his eyeballs in the Dark Arts.

Shouldering her bag once again, she walked out the entrance and back up the corridor towards the dungeons that were used as classrooms.

The usual small crowd had gathered outside Madame Julienne's dungeon. Madame Julienne – a squat witch with an attitude to curl your hair – was the potions mistress of Hogwarts. Most of the time, she was a nice lady, but when she was in one of her tempers, you had best steer clear of crossing her.

"Hurry up, now, everyone!" she called out over the chattering class from just inside the dungeon. Her tone of voice said that today she was in a favorable mood – always a good thing.

Rae filtered herself through the crowd of Slytherins and Gryffindors and took her usual seat at the back of the class. She set her bag down beside her desk and folded her arms, resting her head in them. She stared straight ahead, her eyes sort of out of focus.