It was a peaceful morning, with the exception of a light breeze that swept through a small thicket of trees, rustling the branches in harmony.

A few of the leaves snapped off and began spiraling down. Eventually, they fluttered around a boy, who was just at that moment walking underneath the trees.

However, the disgruntled boy paid no attention to the leaves, even when one of them got stuck in his black stringy hair.

Severus's father had been out late drinking. No surprise there. But the boy had no desire to be around when the man awoke with a hangover.

Which was why he was walking out in the woods as far away from home as possible.

Just as Severus was walking by a cluster of bushes, one of them began to rustle. He looked at it and was startled when someone burst out from behind it.

"Ha! Found you!"

On instinct, Severus jumped back as he felt his magic building up in self defence. But then he immediately saw that his assailant was just a girl his age. Severus sighed in relief as he felt his pent up magic quickly fade away.

Meanwhile, the girl stopped approaching him and gasped in horror before covering her face with her hands.

"Oh my goodness, I thought you were my cousin! I'm so so sorry!"

Now that he wasn't fearful for his life, Severus recognized the embarrassed girl's birdlike voice. That and the oversized cherry-patterned sweater she was wearing.

It was Lily's cousin. What was her name again? Mary? Millie?

Oh right, Molly.

Not sure what to do or say, Severus just awkwardly stood there. Finally, Molly lowered her hands and looked at him with a bashful expression.

"I uh, hope I didn't, um, scare you too much."

"You didn't scare me," Severus retorted. There was certainly no way he would admit that he had been frightened by a muggle.

But after he spoke, Molly peered at him for a moment. Then her face lit up as she eagerly pointed at him.

"Oh, I know you! We met yesterday. You're Lily's friend! Septimus right? "

"Severus," the boy corrected.

"Ohhh...Severus, right. Sorry, I'm uh, terrible with names. Of course, yours is a rather unusual one."

"Unusual?" Severus raised an eyebrow at the girl. Her eyes widened as if she realized how rude her statement sounded. She frantically waved her hands.

"Oh, but uh, not in a bad way! It's just um, you know, not a very common name. Not like my name, Molly. Now there's a name thats both common and uh, simple. So it's easier to remember, and uh..."

Severus rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. What's with this girl and her rambling?

Molly noticed his actions and stopped talking. She looked at her feet as her hands fell to her sides and clutched her dress.

"I'm uh, talking too much, arent I? Sorry, I sometimes do that when I'm, uh nervous or excited."

"Really? I hadn't noticed." The sarcasm practically dripped from his words. Severus wouldn't have been surprised if Molly got angry and walked away in a huff. Petunia certainly would have.

To his surprise, however, Molly giggled as she looked up at him.

"Yes well, it is a little hard not to notice isn't it?"

All of his irritation faded as Severus stared at Molly's bright smile. Once again, the strange warm feeling from yesterday began to fill him.

Overwhelmed, Severus began to awkwardly look away when Molly spoke.

"Oh by the way, I gave your message to Lily yesterday. You know, like you asked me to?"

At the mention of his best friend, Severus's head shot back to Molly.

"What did she say?" he asked, then winced at how eager his voice sounded.

However, Molly didn't appear to notice as she answered.

"She just said thank you. Though she really couldn't say much because of her nasty cough, poor thing."

Severus felt his stomach drop at the thought of Lily being miserable. But then Molly continued .

"But you should have seen the look on her face. She was so happy! You know, I wouldn't be surprised if your message made her feel a little better already."

A small smile appeared on Severus as he imagined Lily's bright smile. It filled him with pride that he was the cause of her joy.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Molly's voice.

"Oh! How silly of me! We're having such a good time, that I almost forgot about Tuney. You see, we were playing hide and seek and well, it's my turn to find her."

She then nervously fiddled her fingers.

"That's uh, why I sort of jumped at you earlier. I thought you were Tuney. Again, sorry about that. But anyway, you haven't seen her by any chance, have you?"

Severus shook his head as he answered, "No."

Molly shrugged. "Oh well, I didn't think so, but it didn't hurt to ask. Oh look! Maybe I can use this to find her."

Severus watched Molly as she crouched to pick something up from the ground. As she stood up, his eyes furrowed in confusion when he saw the object in her hand.

"A stick?"

"Oh it's not just any stick. See how it looks like the letter Y? That makes it a witching stick."

"A what?" Severus raised an eyebrow

"A witching stick. See, if you hold on to the two ends, like this," Molly demonstrated, "it's supposed to point you to whatever is hidden from you"

Severus scoffed. "Do you really expect me to believe that stick has magical powers?"

To his surprise, Molly giggled.

"Of course not. It's just fun to pretend that it does. I know there's no such thing as magic."

That's what you think, Severus smirked to himself. He briefly wondered how Molly would react if she knew he was a wizard.

"But can you imagine, what it would be like if magic was real? Think of all the bad things we could get rid of with a simple wish. Like maybe hunger in poorer countries."

Molly paused as a strange, almost wistful expression began to spread across her face.

"Or perhaps, a terrible sickness that could kill you. Leaving your family behind to miss you."

Severus puzzled over the girl's strange behavior, until she locked eyes with him and blinked as though she suddenly remembered he was there. She awkwardly smiled.

"Well um, I better go find Tuney. Before she thinks, you know, that I've abandoned her."

She held the witching stick in front of her and began to walk away. Severus couldn't help smirking as he watched her.

Muggles and their ideas. Wizards could simply cast a 'point me' spell. They had no need for something as ridiculous as a witching stick.

But then, after walking a few paces, Molly turned to look back at him.

"Do you want to come along?"

"What?" Severus blinked. Was she really asking...?

"I just though that after I find Tuney, you could join us. That is, if you want to..."

"No."

A startled, almost hurt expression flashed across Molly's face that caused Severus to shift uncomfortably.

"That is, I uh, have to get home."

Molly nodded in understanding.

"Oh, okay. Well then, bye Severus. It was nice talking to you. And dont worry. I'm sure Lily will get better sooner than you think." Molly resumed her journey with the stick in front of her.

Severus watched her leave with a stunned expression. That was the second time that Molly invited him to play with her. And he still couldn't figure out why.

Trying to piece it all together, Severus could only draw one conclusion.

Molly Hooper was a strange girl.

A/N: Soooo, after nearly four years, here's the second chapter. I'm really sorry about that. Real life kicked in and took away a lot of my time. I've written a little bit here a little bit there, rewriting this scraping that until I finally finished this chapter. I hope it was worth the wait. I honestly don't know when the next chapter will be out. I've also branched out to other fandoms so I don't know if I'll even finish some of my other stories.

Best Wishes,

Blacknight15