A/N: Hey guys! It's been a really long time since I touched this story last. My bad. I just haven't had much focus on this and my other projects on this site because of homework from college, scatterbrains, and focus on getting another one of my personal pieces published in the real world…So, yeah. This update was long overdue a long time ago…

Please enjoy.

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Avonlea had Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Carissa later that next day. Most of their classes were shared by the mere luck of having similar interests and skill levels. Carissa was in a higher level Potions class though while Avonlea was in Hagrid's Magical Creatures class. A sigh of relief had passed through the room when people realized that there wouldn't be any major accidents in Potions class again as long as Avonlea remained out of the dungeons.

She knew she was far from safe the instant she entered the classroom of the darkest man in the school. Even with her best friend – his daughter – at her side and the skill she had in that class, she knew that she was walking on constantly thin ice. Carissa sat next to her, drawing lazily on the corner of her parchment instead of taking notes with her boyfriend and girlfriend sitting close by while Avonlea took more notes than was probably necessary.

The students of Hogwarts used to be absolutely terrified of Snape because of his no-nonsense attitude and the way his voice as quiet as a wasp would hit them like a whip. Now that the war was over and he was revealed to be human like the rest of the world, they were more inclined to ignore his previous rules and toed the line between obedience and rebellion.

Her eyes remained glued on her notes as Professor Snape moved around the front of the classroom. She tried to tell her lungs to stop searching out his scent and her mind to stop processing the idea that he could be her mate. The very idea of him being able to snoop into the minds of students had her face flooding with heat and her quill scribbling down notes as the professor continued to speak.

"One final question remains," Professor Snape said from the front of the classroom, standing before the chalkboard covered in his perfect penmanship. "If the person I call upon can answer the question correctly, I will forget to assign a ten page paper as homework."

The majority of the class perked up at that news. They all wanted that question to be answered because of the day being Friday, but they also knew that whatever the question was, that it had to be super hard and probably not in the book at all. They held their breath as Snape's gaze moved slowly over them.

"Who was the first person to successfully derive the potion necessary to keep a werewolf harmless during the period of their Change?" Snape asked, folding his arms over his chest.

Someone squirmed from behind Avonlea, obviously knowing the answer. She glanced out of the corners of her eyes and saw the blank look on Carissa's face. It always surprised her when the girl didn't know an answer to something potion related, considering who her father was. But she knew the answer and hastily scribbled it on the corner of her paper. She was just about to shove the paper into her friend's line of sight when she heard her name.

"Miss Raven," Snape's voice hit her like a whip. "Would you care to give the answer? Should you have it in mind, of course…?"

Heat rose into Avonlea's face as she realized how many stares were suddenly upon her. She could feel the intensity of their stares even as she stared wild-eyed at the chalkboard beyond Snape's head. Her heart thudded painfully loud in her chest, making her nervous about who could hear it. She could practically hear the threats coming from the minds of her fellow classmates and the feelings of their hate grow the longer she stayed silent. Her body trembled under the stares and she had to bite her bottom lip to keep herself from throwing up.

"Miss Raven," Snape prompted with no less acid than he had shared with the other students before her. "Time is running out."

Carissa bumped Avonlea's arm with her elbow and whispered, "Say something, Lea. Say the answer."

Avonlea's fingers tightened on the quill in her hand to the point that it threatened to snap between them. "Rissa," she breathed through her teeth. "I can't…I just…"

"Miss Raven?" Snape's voice caused her to flinch.

Avonlea lowered her gaze to the wood of the desk in front of her. Carissa grabbed the parchment and peered at the answer that Avonlea had written down. She thrust her hand up in the air and wiggled her fingers.

"Sir! I know the answer!" she exclaimed.

Snape's dark gaze burned briefly on his daughter. "Good for you, Miss Marina. However, I did not ask if you knew what the answer was. I asked Miss Raven and her time to answer is running out."

"But -!"

"Be silent, Miss Marina or points will be taken away from your House."

Carissa lowered her hand and crossed her arms tightly, sinking back in her seat. "Bastard…" she breathed, staring at him with the intensity of Hellfire.

"Ten points from Slytherin," Snape said in his waspish voice. "Miss Raven, speak or don't. Just don't waste my time."

Avonlea opened her mouth and closed it again. "I…"

OOOOOOOOO

Snape felt the hate of the class fall away from him and onto the shoulders of the blonde friend of his daughter. He did not miss the hellfire glares that they sent in Avonlea Raven's directions; he merely turned away from the scene and started erasing the blackboard. The thought of her inability to come up with the answer to his very simple question and therefore making him endure the grading of numerous papers had made him a little peeved too.

I shouldn't be surprised, Snape told himself. While her papers and her magical skills have promise, she lacks the voice to do anything without Carissa as her voice…Pity.

"Lea, go wait outside," he heard his daughter's voice ground out. "Katia, Cassius, wait with her or go eat. I'll be just a few minutes."

The quiet shuffle of bags, papers, and feet told Snape that the three named students were sweeping out of the room. He turned in time to see the young Avonlea glance his way with that uncertain look in her eyes. When she felt his stare on her, color flooded her ivory colored face and she turned away. The door closed behind her, taking that weird Fae-like creature from his sight.

"Dad!" Carissa growled, startling him with that word.

Snape turned his gaze upon the only child he knew that he would ever be blessed with. Or cursed with, depending on how he was feeling about it all. He saw very little of himself in the girl's appearance – her hair had the faint sheen of oil that plagued his – which never eluded the opinions of the other whores that had helped raise her. She had his dark eyes though and his ever-pale skin. Carissa also bore his talents at potion making, wielding magic, and Occlumency. The girl was easy to be angered as he was, but her anger was shown more in louder exclamations and the use of her fists rather than evil glares and waspish words that bit like acid into the person that angered him.

"Carissa," Snape said, allowing the desk to provide a natural barrier between him and the angry child before him. "Don't you have a class to be heading to?"

"You are a rat bastard, you know that!" Carissa spat at him, slamming her hands onto the desk. "A completely rotten, sick, rat bastard!"

"Language, Carissa."

"English!" Carissa growled her usual answer. "How could you do that? Right in front of me!"

Snape sighed. "I suppose you are talking about your friend's question that she failed to answer…Do not think that you can con me to get out of the paper. You must do as the other students do in this classroom."

"I could care less about the homework! I could care less about the other students! All I care about right now is how you screwed Avonlea over!" She leaned forward, glaring even darker than his own glare ever could. "You know that she doesn't like to speak in front of people when there is pressure on her to get the words right! And you know that the class already hates her because she's a know-it-all, Slytherin, and silent when they have other plans! And yet, you still singled her out as the scapegoat for you to assign a pointless paper!"

"Carissa, your friend is going to have to find her voice if she wishes to get anywhere in the world. If she cannot find it, then she will never amount to anything. She has promise, but she's squandering it through her fear of speaking aloud. And promise can only get you so far." His eyes narrowed. "Now get out of my sight or I shall give you detention away from Miss Raven and your lovers for a month."

The young witch straightened. "Your threats for detention and points don't work on me anymore, Dad! I want you to stay off of Lea's back and don't make her do something that the class will hate her for! Or I will make your life hell."

Snape glowered at her. "Threatening a professor is a crime in this school punishable by the severest terms, Carissa. And as your father, you must obey what I say and not question my actions. What would your mother say?"

"Some dad you are," Carissa spat at him. "Mom would be on my side if she was here to see what you're doing to my best friend! If Lea didn't need me, I would gladly get expelled from here so I wouldn't have the temptation to beat your ass every time I see you!"

"Carissa!" Snape hissed at her. "You are trying my patience! Get out of my classroom and do your homework! I expect fifteen pages on my desk on Monday!"

His daughter gave him a look straight from Hell which chilled him with icy fire. She glared at him and turned away, the desks of the class moving out of her way as she collected her things. Snape did not allow himself a moment to breathe until the door closed behind the angered child with an echoing bang.

"So much like her mother," Snape muttered to himself, shaking his head as he sat at his desk. "That child will be the death of me."

A piece of paper appeared on his desk in a flash of fire. Sighing, Snape took the paper up and unfolded it, thinking that it was nothing but a quick message from the Headmistress. His eyes narrowed when he saw the words scratched onto the paper.

"Can this day become any more tiresome?" he wondered aloud, crumbling the paper in his fingers.

OOOOOOOOO

Avonlea clutched her books to her chest as she walked down the halls of the castle. Her stomach hurt too much for her to go to the Great Hall for dinner and she knew that even if she hadn't felt so sick from that, she wouldn't have gone anyway. The evil glares of her classmates never lost their intensity when they fell upon her back. The whispering didn't go unnoticed and she knew that if they could get away with it, there would be a number of curses that would be sent her way with nasty consequences. She kept her gaze low and hurried towards the place where she knew an understanding creature would be haunting.

"Firenze," she said, finding the centaur just outside the castle. "May I speak with you?"

The centaur turned his head and his eyes softened as he looked at her. "Miss Raven," he said, bowing his head slightly in acknowledgement. "I have expected you to come to me for many moons now."

Heat flooded her cheeks as she looked up at the centaur. "You knew for a while what I have been becoming, I see."

"It was apparent in the first glance I had of you," Firenze told her. "You were not aware of it though, and I was not sure it was my place to tell you."

"I wish someone would have told me before it got too late. How was I supposed to know that my Veela blood would give me the horrid reality of turning into a vampire? They don't tell that part in any book I've read about Veela." She rubbed the side of her neck. "Then again, I didn't find very many books about the Veela race that I could easily get access to. It's all getting to be too much to handle at once."

Firenze nodded, his tail swishing a little. "There is not a lot of knowledge recorded on paper about the Veela race. It is understandable, therefore, that you found nothing helpful. The Veela race is a mysterious one that is only known for their extreme beauty and fiery anger."

"Well, I think more people should be aware that Veelas who don't find their mate before they hit the age of seventeen will become vampires. Blood-sucking monsters that people shun forever…I'm going to become one of them. A monster."

The centaur reached out and placed his hand on Avonlea's shoulder. "You will not become a monster, Miss Raven. In time, you will find the answers you seek and you will defeat the bloodlust that has begun to creep up to you." He gestured with his other hand up at the sky. "The stars have already told your fate and it will be hard, but you will triumph."

The blonde Halfling looked up at the sky and scanned the stars, but they never really made sense to her. None of the stories that they proclaimed had been revealed to her through her own observations. All she saw was stars in random patterns on a black blanket that spanned out in all directions for forever. It took someone who had been raised to decipher the patterns to make the stars seem clearer in their never ending tales.

"Firenze, is there anything you can tell me that will point me in the right direction?" Avonlea asked, her gaze returning to the centaur once more.

"Only this," Firenze said softly. "Follow your heart, even in the hardest of times. Follow it and everything will fall into place. I bid you a good evening, Miss Raven."

Avonlea watched in silence as the centaur walked away into the darkness of the castle grounds. Her chest felt tight as she stood there, staring out at the world. The feeling that she should run away filled her again. She could do it, she knew. She could be gone before anyone would notice and then it would be too late for them to bring her back.

But where would I go? Avonlea wondered, hugging her books to her chest. Where would I go that I could be hidden from everyone forever? And what would I do if I gave into the vampire tendencies? Could I live with myself knowing that I must feed on other humans to survive? Biting Rissa is bad enough…how could I do it to complete strangers every time I get a little peckish?

"I won't become a monster," Avonlea whispered, turning her back on the world beyond the castle doors. "Not if I can help it."

She hurried back into the main part of the castle and moved quickly past the Great Hall's entrance. If anyone called out to her, she didn't notice. Ducking her head down and keeping an eye on her feet, she was determined to go unnoticed to her new room. Fate, it seemed, really hated her.

"Hey Raven!" someone growled, stepping into her path. "I've gotta bone to pick with you."

Avonlea stopped a few feet away from the person addressing her. She glanced up and saw that it was one of her Slytherin housemates and some of his cronies were standing around him. She took in a deep breath and tried to find her inner strength.

"What do you want?" she asked, trying to keep her gaze on his but failing slightly.

"You got us a large paper to write on the weekend," the boy said, crossing his arms. "That's no way to start a weekend."

"Then I suggest that you get started on it as soon as possible, so you can enjoy your weekend," Avonlea told him. "Now if you don't mind, I have a stack of homework to attend to."

The Slytherin moved closer. "I don't think you're going to do any homework tonight, Raven. You're going to pay for ruining my weekend."

Swallowing softly, Avonlea looked up at him. "How?"

A sick feeling welled up inside her when she felt his gaze wander up and down her body, practically stripping her of her clothing with just his eyes. She shivered slightly and didn't miss the smug smirk that crossed his lips. His eyes were full of lust when they found hers again.

"I can think of a few ways that will make up for what you've done to my weekend. And who knows? You could make the weekend even better than I planned."

"Sod off," she said with a bit of acid. "I'm not going anywhere with you or your cronies. Now, if you'll be so kind, I have to go write my paper."

The Slytherin stepped into her way again and grabbed her arm just below the shoulder and squeezed. "You're going to do what I say, Raven. Or else."

Avonlea looked down at the hand that he had on her arm and narrowed her eyes. Her blood started to boil and she felt her inner Veela starting to come out. She pushed his hand off of her, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. A small rotation of her hips had the boys getting glassy eyed.

"Don't touch me again," she ordered, leaning close to him so that her breath hit his face. "I won't hesitate to rip your arm off. No one touches me like that. No one." She moved a step back. "Now go away."

Like puppets on a string, her housemate and his cronies moved away from her. Avonlea sighed with relief and shifted her shoulders with a slightly visible shudder.

"Didn't think that would work at all," Avonlea muttered to herself.

Someone clapped slowly, startling her. She let herself breathe again when she saw that it was only Carissa. The daughter of Snape smiled and clapped her hands awkwardly as she approached Avonlea with a small bag of food in her hand.

"Bravo, Lea, bravo," Carissa teased, wrapping an arm around her friend's shoulders. "I didn't think you had it in you to use your Veela powers. Or to stand up against a bully like that ass-hat housemate of ours on your own."

"I didn't think that I could do that either." Avonlea shrugged. "He made me mad though. I had to do something, Rissa."

"Okay. But what did he do, besides breathe, that pissed you off so much that you went into Veela mode on him?"

"He tried to stake his claim to me in his bed. Or wherever that worm takes his conquests." Avonlea was startled to find her teeth biting down on her lip. "No one takes me to their bed except for my mate…No one else."

Carissa's eyebrows rose up and her lips pulled into a half-smile. "Easy girl, easy. No need to rip someone's head off yet." She moved her hand down to take hold of one of Avonlea's. "Geez, I didn't know you were so protective of a mate you don't have yet. Seriously, what's with the 'mine only' attitude?"

"I couldn't tell you where that came from," Avonlea admitted, readjusting her grip on her books. "I just hope that it's not permanent. God, could you imagine what would happen if I freaked out like that in front of a class?"

"Uh-huh, I definitely could." Carissa tapped her fingers against her teeth. "Those might make a problem for you too. Better put 'em away, unless you're feeling a little peckish for the red nectar of life…?"

Avonlea almost dropped her books when she pressed a hand to her mouth. She could feel the sharpness of her upper canines pricking against the thin skin of her hand. A small wrinkle furrowed between her brows as she focused on shrinking her canines back to their normal size. It took a moment, but she managed.

"No…no, I'm not peckish for – for that," Avonlea whispered, letting her hand fall. "See? No more fangs."

"Uh-huh." Carissa didn't look completely convinced, but made no more comments about the situation. "Shall we go to our place and eat what's here before we attempt to do our homework tonight?"

"Yes and yes, you can look off of my homework if you need to. We'll get it done, so you can spend more time with Katia and Cassius. Okay?"

"And you wonder why you're my best friend in this world." Carissa escorted her friend towards the stairs. "C'mon and let me tell you how I dealt with the evil, soft-hearted man that is my father. It's a truly heroic tale, if I do say so myself…"

OOOOOOOOO

A/N: Well, there's that. Please don't forget to review after reading this! Thanks! -Scarlet