Sarah watched from her window, the lights of the carriages dancing up to the school. "It's beautiful…" she whispered to herself. Rain fell from the darkest of gray sky and she could hear it all very well.
She was brought out of her slight trance by a knock on her door. Stepping over her vast mountains of books into the carpeted valleys, she made her way to answer it. She had expected Remus, seeing as he had been the one to help her there, but it was not. It, instead, was a very hansom man indeed. He had dark hair, dark eyes, was taller than Remus, and had a mysterious way about him.
Sirius looked through the doorway at the girl his friend had told him to escort to the main hall. Looks pretty young to me Mooney, he thought to himself.
"Hello, there. I'm Sirius," he extended his hand in greeting, "Sirius Black."
Sarah's eyes grew wide with recognition. "Greetings and hallucinations! Albus has told me only good things about you…for the past…four years, at any rate."
Now what would Albus be doing telling toddlers about me, Sirius sniggered inwardly.
After a short while of just standing there in silence, Sirius' hand still extended in an unnoticed greeting, Sarah grabbed her robe, dark blue, and slipped out her door.
"What? Not going to invite me in?" Sirius said in mock hurt.
"Of course not, Mr. Black; we've only just met."
Sirius was not sure what to make of that. She kind of sounded like she was joking, but not enough to laugh, so he settled upon just giving her an odd look.
They made their way down, through the staff entrance of the great hall and sat in their places, all the time Sarah wondering what Mr. Black taught, or if he even taught at all. When they got there, they sat in their designated places, Sirius by Remus, Sarah next to Sirius.
"What do you make of her?" Remus asked.
"Why don't you just fall in love with Hermione and get that friend thing out of the way?" Sirius replied.
"What!"
"I mean how old is she? She seems like she would be about Harry's age, doesn't she? Well, if it's young you're looking for, why don't you just go with Hermione since you two already know each other. Come to think of it, you two would probably get along well enough together seeing as you're both bookworms."
"You're sick, you know this don't you?"
Sirius chuckled. "Why do you like her anyway? She's not that attractive even if she does have a youthful air about her."
"You two do realize you're talking too loudly to be talking about me in private, right?"
Both men looked over at Sarah who was just staring strait ahead, though there was more pink in her cheeks, barely visible beneath her mask glasses.
"And what makes you think we're talking about you?" Sirius finally asked.
Sarah shifted uncomfortably in her seat and gave Mr. Sirius a quick glance. "I do own a mirror Mr. Black" she said before, again, staring forward.
Sirius felt two things at that moment: Guilt and a hard nudge from Remus.
The three sat in silence for most of the rest of the evening. Dumbledore reintroduce Remus— Professor Lupin – and then Sirius—Both of whom, got much applause, particularly from the Gryffindor. They got so much applause that what Sarah got hardly seemed a welcome at all, but even though the clapping was unenthused, and there were no excited whistles, Sarah was smart enough to know that what she got was probably the average, just shadowed by the greetings that came before hers.
After everyone was put in their proper place and introduced, the sorting hat sang its song, an unusually quirky tune about new beginnings and old friends. All of the teachers except Sarah, and all of the older students, wondered to themselves what had brought this newfound happiness in the hat, but it was soon forgotten and everyone was quickly drawn into conversation.
When the dinner was half over, Sirius and Remus began another discussion, something about the Gryffindor quiditch team and Harry and their classes, lives, etc. Sarah was not really listening; it was not her conversation to listen to. She ate in silence, virtually alone and a bit disappointed at the people Albus had spoken so fondly of.
If they're so outgoing, then how come all I've seen between these two so far is secrets? She thought to herself.
Sarah finished eating. As wonderful as the meal was, it did not make up for the rancid taste of being disregarded the entire night by the ones she had hoped to become fast friends with.
She scooted her chair back as quietly as she could and made her way to the back exit, behind the teachers, but was stopped by a familiar, chilling voice.
"Well if it isn't the young Posterum daughter. I might have known that you'd be the one taking Flitwik's place."
Sarah closed her eyes, hoping that the voice she heard did not belong to the face she thought it did. Opening them again to face the one who greeted her, she answered. "Hello Severus. You're looking well," she lied.
"You do not have to make petty attempts of flattery at my expense, Cairus. I am not a guest at you home tonight, as you well know."
"Yes, I do know that. This place is not at all like my home, you know that as well as I, yet you still haunt me. Why is that?"
Professor Snape made an odd growling noise from deep within the caverns of his throat. "I, madam, am the teacher of potions, and am many years your senior as a teacher at this school."
"That's funny, by the looks of you, you're many decades my senior just in life. What's a few years at a century-old school?"
Severus smirked in a malicious way that could curdle milk. Sarah mentally shuddered. "You've sharpened your tongue in the Americas, I see. Too bad their idiotic way of life probably dulled your mind, or perhaps you fit in rather nicely there, Cairus."
"The muggles I met there are fifty times your wiser." she replied with a brilliant smile.
The leer on Severus' face melted off and his eyes seemed to deepen a bit. Sarah turned around and saw Sirius behind her. He was watching them both with what seemed like expectation to continue. "Well?" he said, looking at Severus, "Don't let me stand in the way, it's all entertaining to me."
"Goodnight, Cairus." Severus said, not breaking eye contact with Sirius, "I look forward to more or these little…chance meetings of ours…later." He left with an intensity that Sarah had rarely seen before; his cloak leapt behind him as he turned and left.
"What was all that about?" Sirius asked. "You two seemed to have met before. Where?"
"Not that it is any of your business, but he happens to be a friend of my father's. Now if you'll excuse me; good evening Mr. Black." With that, she left through the same door Snape had moments before. The corridor on the other side was dark and cold, lit and warmed only by the evenly placed torches on the walls. She had not walked too far before she saw a shadowed form in the hall before her.
"Why did you bother saying 'goodnight' if you were just going to wait for me down the hall?"
Severus left her question unanswered. "You've made the wrong friends quickly."
"It's not my fault I know you, so don't even try to place the blame on me, Sever—"
"You know very well who I'm talking about, Cairus! Black!"
"First of all, you austere vampire, you know that is not my name anymore! And second of all, I'd much prefer being friends with an accused murderer than a real one, so you can just shove off and do what you seemed to have been so good at the past fifteen years and just ignore me!" Sarah shoved past him, then, and continued on what she thought was the way to her room.
Three hours later, she still did not know where she was. About a hour ago, she'd heard all the students going to their dormitories and tried to follow the sound to the stairs, but her attempts had failed and so she continue wandering. And now here she was, on an unfamiliar floor in an unfamiliar wing.
"Are you lost again?"
Sarah jumped and turned around. "Remus! I mean," she composed herself, "Professor Lupin, what are doing here?" She looked around at her surroundings.
"This is the third floor, Sarah, I sleep here, work here…pretty much my life resides on this floor. Why are you here? Are you lost again?"
"Only as lost as I think I am. But, nonetheless, I don't suppose you'd be willing to help me again, would you?"
"Of course. Come with me, then."
FYI to anyone who got a bit confused:
I'm writing a prequel, so if you got confused, sorry and wait a bit…a week…two weeks, tops.
