victoria cullen34: Glad you're enjoying it! :)

TheAlleyKat: Sorting here we come ;)

sm3xyluvv: Thank you!

X Blue Eyed Demon X: So glad you love it!

electrogirl88: I'm glad everyone is enjoying it :) Sorry I'm a day or two late in updating, though! I've been looking at houses :P

luchi77181: Thanks! :D

September 1992 (First Year)

As the train pulled into the station, Olivia adjusted her robes. Even though her robes were blank, holding no house colors as of yet, the clip in holding her hair back showed two pewter coiled serpents around an emerald gem, a gift from the Malfoys.

She left Draco and the others before heading off with Hayden to meet with Hagrid who would take the first years on the boats across the lake. Olivia, Hayden, two other boys, and a girl with wavy white blond hair took a boat across the lake. Olivia had never seen the castle from this point of view and it was beautiful. She was in awe of the grandeur.

There was a winding rickety staircase leading up to the castle from the lake. Professor McGonagall was waiting for them at the entrance. Olivia waved a little and Minerva smiled at her. She waited for all the students to quiet down a bit before leading them into the castle.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she began. "Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates, but before you can take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin," she said, giving Olivia a slight smile. "While you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points; any rule-breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the House Cup. The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily." She turned and entered the hall, leaving them for a moment to gather themselves.

"Are you nervous?" asked the girl with blond hair, her voice was high, but smooth, and she spoke quietly. She seemed very curious to Olivia, her eyes wide with wonder.

"Not really," Olivia replied. "Do you know what house you'll be in?" she asked politely.

"I try not to make any assumptions, but my parents were in Ravenclaw. I'd be happy in any of the houses," she noted with honesty. "What about you?"

"My father was in Slytherin."

Minerva walked back to them, grabbing their attention. "We're ready now. Follow me." The doors to the Great Hall opened and Olivia heard many of the students gasp as they saw the ceiling and the many candles hovering overhead. She wasn't surprised as they were; she'd seen it many times before, having nearly grown up in the castle half of the time.

They followed the witch and Olivia saw her dad sitting with the other members of the staff. She saw him straighten, putting his attention on the ceremony. Pomona smiled widely at her and Olivia returned the sentiment.

"If you'll wait along here, please," Minerva pointed to the spot just in front of the steps to the platform where they would sit. There was a small stool where a hat sat, twisting and looking about. "Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words."

The headmaster stood from his seat and warned them against the Dark Forest, which was forbidden to students. Once he was seated again, the sorting hat began his song, speaking of each house with praise of their traits. It was exciting, her first year, her sorting, finally coming to pass.

"When I call your name, you will come forth, I shall place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses." Minera unrolled the long bit of parchment and took the hat from the stool. She glanced at the list and called out the first name, "Colin Creevey."

A boy jumped as his name was called and he pushed his way to the front, nearly tripping in his excitement. The hat was put on his head. "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat exclaimed loudly. The Gryffindor table yelled and clapped to welcome their newest classmate. The boy bounded towards the table cheering for him and sat amongst the other members.

"Luna Lovegood."

The girl who Olivia had spoken to before went forward, taking her seat on the stool and the hat was settled on her wild blond hair. Quickly, the hat announced, "RAVENCLAW!" Olivia wasn't surprised since she seemed like a very curious girl.

A couple more students were called, the hat sorting them into Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. "Hayden Mulciber."

Olivia smiled at him as he went forward to be sorted. She knew what the hat would say before it was even put on his head. "SLYTHERIN!" She clapped along with the other Slytherins as he went over to them.

"Olivia Snape."

She heard a few whispers among the students. Catching her dad's eye, he gave her an assuring nod. Settling onto the stool, the hat was placed on her head. "Hmm...," the hat mused, "the product of a Slytherin and a Gryffindor." Olivia's eyes widened with the information. "Ah, yes, you did not know. Both bravery and cunning run in your very blood, bravery on both sides, it seems," the hat continued. "But I know exactly where to put you. SLYTHERIN!"

She grinned as the table applauded. Her dad was clapping for her, too, though his face was the usual mask. The headmaster winked as she took her place next to Hayden. The rest of the students were sorted, many of them going to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, but Slytherin had a fair share. Oddly, she was the only Slytherin girl in her year. She watched the youngest Weasley girl as she was sorted into Gryffindor with all her brothers and she remembered Draco's plan. Her first year was likely to be eventful to say the least.

As the feast started, Olivia talked with Hayden and Draco, who sat only a couple seats over. She noticed the Parkinson girl, who she remembered from years before, trying her best to get Draco's attention. Olivia purposefully would ask him something whenever she tried to talk to him, doing him a great favor.

When things were drawing to a close, the prefects were assigned to lead the students to their houses. Olivia already knew the way, but she stayed close so she was able to catch the password before they entered the common room. They were shown the location of their dorms. Olivia would share with two girls in the second year since she had no roommates in her own year. She was only grateful that Pansy wasn't one of them.

"Millicent Bulstrode," said a rather largely built girl, holding her hand out to Olivia.

"Olivia Snape," she replied, taking the girl's hand and shaking it. Millicent was quiet for the most part, which was just fine with Olivia. The girl seemed to keep to herself, ignoring the other girl in the room whose name was Aster Throckmorton. She had only said her name with a wave while she unpacked her things. Olivia decided that, if her two roommates were as private as she, this year would go quite perfectly.

Olivia's classes started off fine; she was completely bored in Potions, but she knew her dad expected that. Hayden was her partner so she focused on helping him. It was starting to cross her mind that studying the subjects the previous year hadn't been a good idea. She completed most things ahead of others and had to just sit through the lectures without much to occupy her mind.

It was wonderful, getting to use magic finally. She loved even the simplest of spells, but wanted to do so much more. Maybe when she had the chance to go to the library, she could find something to grab her attention.

The worst of it all was the new Defense teacher, Lockhart. He was an absolute imbecile. Olivia didn't know what possessed the headmaster to hire him in the first place. If he wasn't quizzing them on his personal life and taste, he was attempting to impress them with the dumbest of subjects. Honestly, she knew she would fail the class, but it didn't phase her one bit.

It was Friday and she had double potions. They were brewing a simple, but dangerous potion. Severus warned them all at the beginning that instructions were to be followed carefully. Olivia and Hayden were working silently. She would nod to him when the next ingredient was to be added. They worked well together, Hayden obviously trusting her knowledge of the subject.

She couldn't help but notice that at the table next to them was a Gryffindor student who was just being utterly careless. His burner was on high, his stirring erratic, and he tended to just toss ingredients in rather than adding them carefully. It was pointless to correct him. It wouldn't do anyone favors; he'd have to learn his lesson on his own. Olivia just shook her head and continued her own potion.

Hayden turned the burner off and was letting the cauldron cool as she started cleaning up their space. She took their ingredients back to the stores and was coming back to their table where Hayden was waiting to bottle up a portion of the brew for grading. Olivia happened to glance over at the Gryffindor who was just about to dump the entire bunch of leeches into the cauldron rather than one at a time as the text stated. She knew immediately what the reaction would be.

Reacting quickly, she grabbed the lid from her table and slammed it over his cauldron just as the leeches went in. The boy started to yell at her, but the cauldron shook as it began to boil over, spatter, and spew. The boy hissed in pain as a bit was spat onto his chin. Olivia felt a bit hit her wrist, but she kept the lid held down until the boiling ceased.

Severus acted quickly, extinguishing the burner and casting a cooling charm over the cauldron when he heard Olivia slam the lid down, but it wasn't quick enough to prevent the boiling all together, just the worst of it.

"Idiot," she hissed when the potion stopped sputtering from the gap between the cauldron and its lid. "Do you realize at all what could've happened?" Olivia shook her hand in pain. Her hands her red from the heat and she had a blister beginning to form on her wrist.

"Mr. Carlton!" The professor yelled at him. "Did I not specifically state that the instructions were to be followed carefully?! Tell me, since you obviously know better, what does the text state with regards to the leeches?" The boy opened and closed his mouth like a fish, trying to find the words. "You are extremely lucky that Miss Snape blocked that reaction or it's highly possible you would be spending the weekend in the Hospital Wing covered in Burn Salve, or worse blinded from the splash of boiling liquid."

Olivia very rarely had seen her dad so angry, enraged at the utter stupidity of some people. The boy was embarrassed at his verbal lashing. He touched the burn on his chin and neck where a few blisters were forming.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for refusal to follow instructions. Get to the Hospital Wing," he sneered. "Now!" He vanished the cauldron's mess as the boy turned and left. Severus glanced over the student who had the unfortunate luck to be paired with the boy, but saw no injury. He turned to Olivia and saw her holding her wrist. "Miss Snape," he held out his hand, "your wrist." She held out her arm and he glanced at the blister as well as her hands. "You're finished with your potion?
"Yes, Sir."

"Miss Snape, would you explain the reaction that just took place? Why does the text specifically state to add leeches one at a time?"

"Leeches, when in contact with porcupine quill and nettle, causes overheating. When added one at a time, the overheating can be minimized and will not cause the brew to boil over. When added all at once, the brew with boil over."

"Twenty points to Slytherin for observance and foresight to prevent mass injury to yourself and your classmates." He turned to Hayden and took the vial of potion from him. "Mr. Mulciber, would you escort Miss Snape to the Hospital Wing? I'll see to the rest of your potion."

"Yes, Sir," Hayden replied, gathering both his and Olivia's things. When they were outside of the class, the door closed behind them. "You moved bloody quick," Hayden said, surprised at her reaction.

"If that idiot hadn't dumped in all those leeches, I wouldn't have had to." Olivia was mad. "That potion would have splattered right onto us, probably, and into our completed potion. Idiot."

"Well, I'm very grateful to not have blisters and to have to redo our potion," he laughed.

When they reached the Hospital Wing, her wrist was covered in Burn Salve and wrapped. Her wrist would be healed by dinnertime, hopefully. Olivia spent the rest of the afternoon cursing her luck and reckless and impatient Gryffindors. She had practically saved that boy and ended up getting injured in the process.

She sat in the library, finishing up an essay for Professor McGonagall, when she heard Draco approach. He'd asked her to meet him there. It was Saturday morning and she was surprised to see him practically beaming.

"What has you all excited?" she asked, laughing at his expression.

"You're looking at Slytherin's new Seeker," he said smugly.

"What?" she whispered, "When did this happen?"

"Just yesterday," he said, sitting down at the table. "I was talking to Marcus Flint earlier this week. I sent a letter to Father and he made a rather nice contribution in the form of seven Nimbus 2001's."

"Are you serious?!" Olivia was beyond excited for them. "That's amazing! We'll definitely win the cup this year. Congratulations!"

"Thank you." Draco took out a couple of books. "I heard you had an incident in Potions yesterday."

"Ugh, don't even get me started," she made a noise of disgust. "Gryffindor git."

"Tell me about it. I swear it's something every time you turn around. Monday I got bit by a bloody Mandrake, Wednesday that stupid Lockhart set a swarm of Cornish Pixies on the class, and then I have to come to the understanding that I'm just going to fail that class because I don't know his favorite bloody color."

Olivia laughed at him. "Well, at least your week ended with some good news!"

"Yeah," he said, his mood lightening. "Anyways, we need to get started on figuring out this chamber business."

"I've been thinking. We're fairly certain that it's a basilisk. I think the best way to figure out where the chamber opens is to figure out first how the thing gets around. It's a giant snake, it can't just hide anywhere."

"You're right," Draco said, chewing his lip in thought. "The castle was probably searched over many times so anything obvious is out, hidden tunnels or openings in the walls. It has to be something they would already expect to exist."

"You said a student died the last time, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if there was a student death, that would be public knowledge. The Daily Prophet, it would've made the front page; there has to be some information there that would give us a clue. What if she search through the Prophet starting in the 1940's?"

"That's a good idea. I can take the even years and you take the odd? I have quidditch practice and we'll both have homework to keep up with. We can split them and do it in our spare time and maybe we can get it done quicker."

The task was easier said than done. They spent the better part of three hours going through papers, only getting through a few months each. Three hundred and sixty-five papers per year...they had a long way to go. They went to lunch and came back to start where they left off.

Olivia enjoyed getting to spend the Saturday with Draco even though they were perusing old Prophets. They got to laugh at some of the old photos of people they knew of and even some rather ridiculous articles. At one point they did get tired of the same old thing and took a break to talk about Draco's classes and what the second years were studying. She ranted about how bored she was with her own and that she wished she could move into the second year classes.

"So, when is your first practice?" she asked Draco over dinner.

"Tomorrow, at dawn actually," Draco said, not really enjoying the fact of getting up so early. "Flint wants to get a head start on practicing this year, especially getting adjusted to the new additions." Olivia knew he meant both himself and the new brooms.

"I'd love to go watch," Olivia said. Draco nodded as he started in on his shepherd's pie. Dinner went by fairly quickly. Draco wanted to get to bed early so he'd have plenty of sleep for quidditch practice. Olivia didn't blame him; dawn was awfully early for anyone on a weekend.

They were up early, Olivia was excited to see Draco practice. Not only was it his first practice as Seeker, but it was her first time seeing actual quidditch at Hogwarts. It was great to see her house's potential. She went to find a seat along the sidelines, finding it slightly odd that there were so many Gryffindor's out so early in the morning along the quidditch pitch. Something was off.

She saw Slytherin head out, dressed in their green and obviously ready to practice, but then, she saw a mass of red also moving onto the pitch. "Uh oh," she muttered to herself, getting up from her seat as she saw two other Gryffindors do the same.

Olivia saw Flint hand a bit of parchment over to the captain of the other team, who look defeated. As she approached, she could overhear their conversation. "You've got a new Seeker? Who?" the Gryffindor captain asked. Flint just smirked as Draco came to the front of the group.

"Malfoy?" Potter asked, laughing slightly. Olivia narrowed her eyes at him, not liking his obvious disbelief in Draco. A couple of the other teammates were laughing too.

"That's right," Draco said, "and that's not all that's new this year." The team proudly held their new brooms and the Gryffindors looked astonished...and some jealous.

"Those are Nimbus 2001s," the Weasley boy said from the side. "How'd you get those?" Olivia rolled her eyes.

"A gift from Draco's father," Flint answered honestly.

"You see, Weasley, unlike some, my father can afford the best," Draco said. It didn't bother her anymore, his or his father's comments on the family's finances, not after what Mr. Weasley had pulled to get the Malfoy's family estate raided.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in; they got in on pure talent," Granger said, which made Olivia seethe. They didn't have any idea what Slytherin did to train and prepare their team. The girl had no clue that Draco had been flying since he was three and was more than capable of being Seeker as long as he focused on his task. Just because Draco made use of his resources, didn't make him any less worthy of being part of the team. His father's contribution just made their team so much faster than the others.

The comment had obviously caused the same reaction in Draco. He stepped forward, looking the girl in the eye, his gaze burning into her. "No one asked your opinion...filthy little mudblood."

"You'll pay for that one, Malfoy," the Weasley boy said, pulling his wand out. "Eat slugs!"

The spell rebounded and hit the red-haired boy, causing him to fly back a few feet. The Slytherins laughed as the boy started to heave. Served him right, trying to hex Draco for merely defending himself against Granger's comment. While Olivia didn't like the word Draco had used, she knew he was angry and had a tendency to let that get the best of him. It was probably all he could think of in the moment.

She had to laugh too when they drug the boy from the pitch as he hurled up fully grown slugs. That had to be absolutely disgusting. Flint just waved it off and continued onto the pitch as the Gryffindors dissipated. Olivia sat on the sidelines and watched their practice go on as if nothing had happened.