a/n: Still do not own anything Harry Potter. Please start reviewing! I can't improve if I don't have input.


April 14, 1977

Snape scurried down the corridor and out into the open courtyard. Classes were ending for the day and clusters of students were already discussing their plans for the weekend. Pesky little guttersnipes who aren't worth the thought process, he thought as he weaved as quickly as he could through the throngs. One day, they'd all know his name and whisper it with veneration.

"Snape! Hey Snape!" Severus stopped dead in his tracks at the call of his name. It wasn't so much that he was being summonsed but who was doing the summonsing. He turned to watch her march across the commons, past the hordes of people; she ran her hand through her mop of brown curls as she paraded by a certain clump of young men, not paying them any attention.

She pulled on the knot in her blue and bronze tie and threw it in her school bag flung over her left shoulder, glad to be rid of it for the weekend. She kept her eyes on her target though; she didn't want him to escape her path again.

Angry, Sirius growled a long, low growl as he watched the minx saunter across the grounds to the waiting Snivellus. What she saw in him, Sirius would never be able to guess.

"Careful, my friend. You don't want to do anything stupid. Padfoot, she does it on purpose, you know," Lupin said softly, watching his friend's reaction. "She wants to get the fur up on your back, as it is."

Sirius tucked a tuft of hair behind his ear and averted his gaze from the girl. She had finally caught up to Severus and the scrawny git had promptly stuck his arm out just enough from his side so that the girl could wrap her arms around it. It was just something a Snivellus would make a woman do. "You seem rather sure of yourself Moony."

"Being so enraptured with books, surely he's read a thing or two about the opposite sex," James quipped, flopping down next to Remus but still fully in view of Lily Evans, across the way with a group of fellow seventh years. "Well, there're always a few things you can't learn from books."

Remus shook his head, "Enlighten us, if you're so knowledgeable."

"Well," James began, pulling out a small figurine and placing it on his knee. He paused momentarily as the miniaturized Clabbert shook off some pocket lint and hopped up James' lapel, attracting the attention of a close cluster of fourth years. "You've gotta be willing to stand in the spotlight. But more importantly, you've got to let the girl know how you feel."

"Oh bloody hell," Sirius guffawed watching the spectacle his friend was putting on. "Is that what you call what you do? Who said I even liked the boffin boot?" He threw up his arms in dismay and mumbled something about wanting to grab some dinner early so he could do something-or-other, too inaudible to be understood. His friends dismissed it as usual Padfoot antics.

Marching across the green, Sirius was too bothered to hear the fervent whispers and giggles on his behalf that usually followed him. He was too focused on his quest to hear.

Once free of the incessant stares of the others, he took a hard right and doubled back toward the Forbidden Forest to find some much needed peace.


"You weren't exactly forthcoming with your arm, Sev," she started but upon seeing his blatant grimace she continued, "—erus. It makes a girl think you don't like her."

"Yes, well, we wouldn't want to inspire false thoughts in others, now would we?"

"What?" She asked innocently. She ran her tongue across her top teeth and her grin turned wicked. "You mean you don't want them to see us?"

"I don't want them to think I'm kowtowing to a female, is a more accurate assessment."

"Lovely. You know just how to make someone feel special."

"Flowery language is hardly my style," he said, pulling out his Potions book and making a few notes in the margin. He paused when he saw her tight look: lips pursed and eyes narrowed. "Even for one like you."

"Git."

"Faffer."

Popping her bottom jaw to the right, she did the best she could to conceal the smile that wouldn't leave her lips; Snape was a perfect sparring partner. "Writing more notes I see."

"Notes, corrections. Either or."

"Care to explain?"

"No," he responded rather icily, not bothering to lift his gaze from the text.

Determined to dispute his nickname for her, she pulled out her Charms textbook and flipped to the newest Charm Professor Flitwick had assigned. Scanning the grounds for anything that might be useful, she spotted a small, brown rodent scurrying across the grass near the Whomping Willow. "Accio Sciurus."

Snape lifted his eyes to his companion and asked, "What do you intend to do with that squirrel?"

"Practice. Unless you'd like to be turned green."

"Is that why you grace me with your presence every day? You hope to turn your magic on me?"

"No."

"Then why?"

She sighed and performed the charm, "Colôris smaragdinus," rather easily on the small rodent; it started to ferociously clean its emerald green paws.

Sirius threaded stealthily between the tall trees at the edge of the forest, his four paws easily finding proper footing between the dead branches and roots. Kicking himself for having such a weak disposition towards the opposite sex, specifically one member of that sex, he let his feet do the walking and before he knew it, he was spying on her. He could see them quite easily now and their voices were starting to sound clearer with each step he took. His heart had nearly leapt to his throat when Dani had scanned the forest and he felt certain that she would see him and his secret would be out. Of course, she might not have been able to truly see him, hopefully, and she would just assume him to be a Forbidden Forest creature who was wandering a bit out of its comfort zone.

"...You're the only person that doesn't want anything from me. And you didn't clutch onto me because I have the bollocks to stand up for what I believe. All those silly prats who think that by being my friend it will make them popular--forget them. That's why I like you."

"Because I don't care to be popular?"

"No. Because we both have nothing to lose and everything to gain from this."

"It does feel rather good to see the reactions on some of their faces, not that I really care."

"Right. That nutter Sirius is the best of all," she remarked, noting the flush that tinted Severus' ears an angry shade of red. "If he only knew that girls liked him to get closer to Potter, he'd howl."

Sirius had heard enough. Running as fast and far as he could, he put as much distance between himself and the wench as he could. Some people just aren't worth the aggravation.


1996

Dani padded barefoot down the long hallway and staircase to the kitchen of Grimmauld Place in search of something to quell her appetite. She didn't know how long she had been asleep but her stomach told her it had been several hours since the last time she had eaten and that was all she cared about at the moment.

The basement was cool and dark and a shiver ran involuntarily up her spine making her hair stand on end as she reached the cupboard. It had been quite a while since she felt like that, and she knew instantly why.

"Sirius," she breathed. She turned around slowly, letting the moment seep into her memory. Even in the shadows, his steel gray eyes still had the same intensity as always and right now, that intensity was bordering anger and hate. "When I got word that you had disappeared, just vanished through the veil, I couldn't believe it. So, forgive me for not sending a 'welcome home' card when you came back out of the blue. I didn't assume anything less from you. Besides, I was otherwise detained."

Sirius merely stared at her, trying to process what exactly she had meant by her comment: a joke or a hateful remark? "How did you know?"

"Owls. I've stayed in touch with Dumbledore."

"Ah. Yes," he mumbled, using as few words as possible.

"So cold, Sirius. But why would I expect anything more? You've disliked me for how long now?" She hated her initial comment to him. There was just something about seeing him that drudged up the feelings she had for him as a youth at Hogwarts.

Shaking his head slowly, he murmured, "I think you can answer that better than I. Let's just say, a day less than you've hated me."

And with that, her shoulders fell along with her spirit. "Sirius," she said quietly, "I've never hated you."

"Could have fooled me."

"Why? Because of what happened? Or because of the friendships that I kept?" She let the silence grow to an uncomfortable level before finally speaking again. "It's a shame, really."

"What's that," he asked, not really sure he wanted an answer.

"I think someone hates someone here. But it's not me. In fact, I don't know if either is me." She stepped over to table and leaned over it to study Sirius' face. His time in Azkaban had been harsh but the nightmares he acquired in the past few months seemed to wear on him more than anything else. It hurt her to see the childhood chum she knew long ago had completely died from his eyes. She ran a finger down his jaw line and pursed her lips in thought. Calmly Danielle muttered, "Sirius, I think it's time you exercise your demons. Or at the very least, grow up."

He watched as she turned and climbed the steps, leaving him to the silence again. Their first meeting didn't go at all as he wanted but exactly as he had thought. Things were never going to change.

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