September 6th, 1991

Severus Snape had always been a strange man. People who knew him would never deny it and the others who whispered about it would have been right. But even now after everything the man had gone through, with everything he had sacrificed, with everything he had lost...he had never felt as torn as he felt now. How could he feel anything but vexatious knowing that Lily Potter's daughter looked exactly like her?

Hearing the other professors talk about the Potters was painful; and they always talked about the Potters. The Potters were the latest craze, worse than trends of music or hairstyles, something that was much more interesting than a book or clothes - because they were heroes. Harry Potter, the pride and saviour of the wizarding world, seemed to be nothing exceptional. He couldn't do spells without effort and he hadn't read forward in his books enough to learn the incantations for them. As for the girl, Audrey, she seemed to fair even worse in her studies this first week in classes. Apparently her spells were completely misdirected and her wand often misfired – and that was not at all like Lily. Lily was a perfectionist, particularly with charms whereas apparently her daughter had already stabbed her feather threw a desk.

She was unlike Lily in other ways as well, the most noticeable being her induction into the Slytherin House. Lily had never had any of the traits of a Slytherin; as smart as she could be she was never cunning, as much as she liked her freedom she was never sly, as much as she observed she was never calculating...but the look that would sometimes pass through her daughters eyes – Lily's eyes – was almost terrifying to the stern, bitter man. The look was so familiar, so forsaken, that all Severus Snape could wonder was if that's how he, himself, had looked when he was that age. Was that how he had looked when he had been separated from his best friend, just as the girl had been separated from her brother? A brother who the world saw as so much better, who seemed so much more good, who somehow seemed so much more important. Lily had never seemedthose things because Lily had been those things, and Severus Snape wondered if his eyes had looked just like that when he had been deemed unworthy and unequal to his own best friend.

Today was the first day he would get to experience the 'joy' that was the Potter twins. He had watched them during breakfast, as he had watched them every meal, and acknowledged their friend circles and enemies. While the boy had ganged up with Gryffindor favourites like Longbottom, Weasley, and a muggle born he had not met, it seemed that he had already made himself an enemy. Yes, it seemed that Draco Malfoy, the boy Severus Snape himself had helped to raise and tutor, was the enemy of Harry Potter and trying with increasing determination to be close to the boy's twin sister.

Audrey Potter had ganged up with Daphne Greengrass who was friends with Pansy Parkinson – the very girl that seemed to have become Audrey's House nemesis. The day before she had started to grow a little fonder and make some sort of friendship with Theodore Nott, a quiet boy who seemed amused by Audrey's more go-get-'em attitude. The twins had a strange mix of allies.

He left breakfast early, as he always did, to prepare for class. He had not been surprised by his earlier casing of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws – they were well read and had done their research before their first class. It was the same with those students every year, save for the odd idiot or the extremely rare intellectual.

Slytherins and Gryffindors were always more insulting.

The class started to fill in slowly, Harry Potter sure to sit in the back and Audrey Potter trying to drag her friend toward the front – though Greengrass, the bossy little thing she seemed to be, refused to sit any closer than the third row of desks.

Snape began with roll call, unable to stop himself from meeting the emerald eyes of Audrey Potter when he called her name. Harry Potter, who looked just like his father, was easy to pick out of a crowd and he couldn't help himself from commenting on it.

"Ah, yes," he sneered when Harry announced himself. "Harry Potter. Our new celebrity."

Some of the Slytherins that Potter had made rivals with sniggered. They must have known what to expect thanks to Potter's new placement in Gryffindor House - Snape was always reliably cruel to the whole of Gryffindor House. Snape's eyes flickered to the girl – Lily's girl – who lowered herself in her seat.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," Snape began, unable to mock the boy any more now that he saw how uncomfortable it made the girl. It was an unnecessary tug in his chest that made him feel guilt for the girl who quite clearly was nothing like her predecessor, no matter how alike they may look. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Silence followed his speech, as it always did. In front of him, the mirror image of Lily Potter looked just as amazed as her mother had, once upon a time, during the first speech they had sat through. It was like looking into his own past and it made him feel sick...and furious.

"Potter!" Snape said suddenly, making both the boy and girl across the room from one another jump, but his eyes looked down at the boy darkly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Neither Potter moved, neither of them knew the answer, even if the girl was at least looking at her potions book in front of her nervously, reading to search for the answer. It was nice, seeing that at least one of them had a brain – he had expected less considering the past of their father: an imbecile who had not only passed on his looks and despicable personality, but had even spread his incompetence onto another generation.

"I don't know, sir," the boy was quiet, his voice nervous. It made Snape sneer at him - his father would not have known the answer either, but he would have made a scene. Lily would have known the answer, but she would have sounded just like he did...it was an upsetting realization.

"Tut, tut – clearly fame isn't everything." Snape's eyes glazed over the class for a moment, before they found the boy again. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"I don't know, sir," the boy said again.

"Pity," Snape relished in the humiliation of the boy, even if he had trouble looking him in the eyes when he was so embarrassed. His gaze turned toward the redhead near the front of the room, the girl with Lily's face and what must have been her father's craving for attention. "You, Miss Potter, do you know where I would find a bezoar?"

Snape had almost sneered the name...Potter. Yes, that was not something to be forgotten – these two were Potters. And he hated the Potters. Lily Evans had been one person, but she had turned into something untouchable, something completely unfathomable when she had become Lily Potter. His blood burned just from the idea while the girl, the girl who looked like her, gave a defiant glare he had never seen Lily Evans grant the worst of her enemies.

"Bezoars come from goat stomachs," she said in a voice that was not as gentle as he always pictured it would have been. No, her voice was lower, it held more clout. She was confident, too, closer towards arrogance than Lily had ever been and, sadly, she was absolutely right. "They protect from poisons."

"Well," he said after a moment. "At least one of you thought to open a book before coming. Let's try again, Mr Potter – what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"I don't know," Harry said quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

"A point will be taken for your cheek, Potter. Now let's ask a Slytherin, first," he turned around toward the redhead again, her face set and gaze unwavering. "Miss Potter, what about you?"

Her eyes flickered to Greengrass momentarily, the girl who seemed to be a friend without the friendship, who purposely avoided the eyes of Potter. "Monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"Are you hard of hearing, Miss Potter?"

Her face flushed, another glimpse of how much she could look like her mother and yet, the dark look in her eyes only made her seem so much more different. He watched as her nose wrinkled in a familiar way that made his breath hitch painfully while she tried to answer him calmly.

"No, sir," her voice had lowered even more bitterly. It made his eyebrow raise. "I just – aren't they the same plant, but usually called asonite?"

"Aconite," Snape corrected, giving a frown. Her mother would have gotten that right, too...but it was a lucky guess. No Potter could ever be good at potions, even if their mother had been Lily Evans. "Well, besides your poor pronunciation, you seem to have some general knowledge, Potter. But knowledge is not equivalent to skill...well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

The class continued on through the double placement, Snape observing and testing their skills as he always did. Of course those who were raised in wizarding society were generally more knowledgeable than others because they had an idea as to what was being asked of them. Draco Malfoy, his student years before he began Hogwarts, was well rehearsed in the boil cure he was making them brew. There were other surprises: Hermione Granger, a Gryffindor who was technical and looked to have already memorized the potion and Theodore Nott , who was also notably advanced in his technical breakdown of the instructions.

"Audrey, no, it says to stew the horned slugs before putting in the nettles!" Greengrass had been trying to keep her voice down, but no warning about mucking up a potion could ever escape Snape's attention. He quickly turned toward the duo with narrowed eyes.

"Miss Potter," he said, watching as she placed half of the dried nettles into the boiling cauldron. "I see you feel yourself above the rules everyone else is following."

"No, sir," she gritted out quickly, hiding behind her hair as she looked through her potions kit. "I am not better than the rules, I just like finding loopholes."

"Loopholes?" he repeated with a skeptical frown. "You think that there are loopholes to an art like potion making?"

"That may have been the wrong word," she said carefully. "Potion making is an art, but I don't like doing things like everyone else. I think differently."

"'You think differently'?"

"Well," she fidgeted a bit before grabbing something out of her partner's hand, Snape watched as she dropped in two porcupine quills. "I read through all of the potions ingredients, their uses and their relative potions in our textbooks and I started noticing patterns. And patterns make more sense to me than instructions. When the potion I made the other day worked out I knew that I had caught onto the right pattern...and I hadn't followed any instructions."

"What 'patterns' did you follow for which potion?" Snape asked carefully.

"Er-" she sent a glance to Daphne who made a hiss at the back of her throat to try and silence the Potter twin. "It was a sleeping draught, sir. Just a basic one. I just get how things...mesh."

"Mesh," he repeated again, watching as she dropped in the rest of the dried nettles and told Daphne to take it off the flame, Greengrass almost burnt herself in the process. Once the bubbles stopped flowing to the top of the cauldron, Potter put in the other half of the horned slug and the remainder of the porcupine quills. Snape watched with a depressing satisfaction as the potion settled with a ripple that fed into ripples of the proper orange of the finished potion.

Audrey Potter looked up to him with pride, her eyes boring into him a little less than innocently, though the smugness behind it was something that he had never seen in Lily's eyes before. It reminded him again, that she may look like Lily, but Lily was gone and she was never coming back. In her stead was this girl, a girl who may have been good at potions like her mother and who may look like her mother, but she was not her mother. She was different, because Audrey Potter had to do something that Lily had never been victim to...Audrey Potter had something to prove.

Halloween fell quickly at Hogwarts, though the time had not gone as speedily. Severus Snape had not been prepared for what the Potter twins would bring with them to the school: apparently Harry Potter was great with spell work, but Snape had not seen such greatness within the potions classroom. Audrey Potter was apparently not getting any better with her spell work, whereas her potions were devastatingly incomparable. She was finding patterns in potions ingredients that he had not found until he was a later teen.

The girl that looked like Lily thought unlike anyone he had ever met. She had an advanced knowledge of potions ingredients – herbs or animal parts – and knew how exactly how each and every component would chemically react to another. She understood what would dissolve, what would coagulate, and what would neutralize; it was a sixth sense towards potion making that he had never seen from a student, besides maybe himself.

In the past few weeks of mid to late October, however, he had gotten the unfortunate pleasure to encounter the other side of Audrey Potter. Thanks to her growing enmity with Pansy Parkinson, the girl had been spending multiple nights in detention with him – which would include tonight after the Halloween feast. It had been hard, punishing someone who looked just like Lily Evans, but when he began to witness her growing mischievous side and budding friendship with the infamous Weasley twins, he realized that she may have been more like her father than he would have feared, so he kept her safely out of the public eye and away from the things creeping behind the doors of Hogwarts this year.

The feast was as it always looked: full of food and candy, live bats fluttering between the enchanted black clouds that hung low from the ceiling, the candles in the faced pumpkins flickering seasonally. Snape's eyes flickered between the two twins, as they usually did. Harry Potter; the boy who seemed to constantly look for trouble in Forbidden areas of the school and grounds. And his sister, Audrey Potter; the girl who seemed to constantly cause trouble thanks to her striving for other people to consider her as seriously as her other Slytherin counterparts.

Harry Potter was eating and talking to his immature and untalented friends, hearing gossip and being childish as usual. Audrey Potter was laughing with Nott while Greengrass seemed to be upset with her again. Both of them seemed to be laughing at some insult to Draco Malfoy – who was still continuing to attempt a friendship with her.

He was worse than James had been to Lily...and yet it was horribly reminiscent of himself.

It was strange, looking at the two of them. It was like looking in a mirror, seeing someone known to privileged like Malfoy while he worked to get to a girl that came from nothing and was still so much more than he was. The Potter Girl thought in different ways, felt in ways that Malfoy had never been - and probably would never be - able, and she had a strange loyalty that most Slytherins couldn't find. It made her stick out like a sore thumb.

Still, Audrey Potter hadn't yet proved whatever it was she was felt the need to, which could be seen by the amount of detentions she had landed herself in, as well as the bitterness she seemed to carry on her shoulders.

Not even Snape looked up to notice when the doors to the Great Hall opened: students late for the feast was not something uncommon or extraordinary, but his attention was grabbed quickly when Quirinus Quirrel came stumbling into the middle of the room. The man's turban was askew and terror rang from across his face and behind his eyes - it nearly looked genuine. Quirrel all but demanded attention when he took the time to reach the Headmaster, slumping against the table in front of all of the teachers.

"Troll," Quirrel gasped, loudly enough to fill the entire hall. "In the dungeons – thought you ought to know."

And then he fainted.

A cacophony of sound started to tremble the entire Great Hall. The silverware vibrated on the tables and the glass windows shivered against the screams and fear that resonated throughout the entire room. The students scrambling around them were in an uproar, the only calm coming from the purple sparks Dumbledore released to silence the group.

"Prefects," he said calmly, "lead your Houses back to their dormitories immediately."

The prefects, or most of the prefects, came to life in that moment and grabbed the attention of the students to bring them to order. Snape watched them go, he watched while they brought Quirinus 'back to consciousness' who said that he wanted to go on a hunt for the escaped troll...but Severus new better immediately. Severus knew what Quirrel really wanted.

Running full tilt, pushing past students and legging up the staircases that people seemed to be avoiding - probably because they also led to the dungeons, Snape ran and reached the third floor corridor. He knew what to expect, he expected another attempt at a break in and Snape was ready to head off the burglar.

Quirrel – Quirrel had surrendered himself to a darker version of what could have been. The little man had been so afraid of life, but now he was trying to resurrect something that had long since been dead and gone. He was making a mistake, but it was not a mistake that Snape would let Quirrel get away with. He was not bewitched, he was not being threatened by someone who was gone, Quirrel was desperate. And Snape knew, from experience, that it was the desperate men who would do the most dangerous of things.

Quirrel was nowhere in sight of the third floor room where Snape stood. He was so ready to finally be able to prove the man's real intentions, but he was starting to worry that perhaps he had been too late. Could Quirrel have outran him to get to the door - was he just waiting outside the door to meet someone who had already gone through it?

Even if he hadn't, there would be no harm in going in to ensure that the stone was safe. Who wouldn't want to ensure that the Elixir of Life was safe...and if he got a glimpse at the allusive Mirror of Erised again, he wouldn't complain.

It was always nice to see Lily again.

Snape pulled open the door with new found vigor, pulling the heavy wood and stepping through to come face to face with a vicious looking Cerebus. Each of its three furry heads stared at Snape reproachfully before they started to bark, the four legs tearing toward him with teeth snapping.

"Immobulous!" he shot at the creature, but not before one of the dog heads got in a snap to his leg, tearing at his skin and tendons as he tried to shake Snape until he could no longer move. Snape, breathing heavily through the pain, tried again. "Petrificus Totalus!"

The dog, or dogs, froze and he made quick work of wrenching himself out of their jaws. His leg was wounded, but it was nothing that a little Essence of Dittany wouldn't close. He may limp for a while, but it would just be a reminder to Quirrel that he had waited for him, that he had known...

Closing the door behind him and letting the three-headed dog wake up to protect the trap door again, Snape saw the turban of the suspected man running down the stairs again – he must have heard Snape's spells while he had tried entering and gone running.

Snape was not ready to let this go yet, it had taken him two months to be able to prove the stuttering fool's intentions and he wasn't about to let him get away on a technicality like 'he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time'. Following the man down the stairs they both stopped when they were bombarded by the sound of screams and thumps that shook the floor – the troll was with them on the first floor.

Following Quirrel, who took off running again, the two men almost ran headfirst into Professor McGonagall, who was out of breath and clutching her wand.

"Oh, thank heavens!" she said, looking at the two of them. "It's coming from in here, come..."

But when they entered the first-floor ladies toilets, they were met with a sight that they did not expect. The room was destroyed, an obvious statement from the troll that lay in the middle of the room. Water was flying into the air with a hiss and pooling on the floor at their feet, the stalls had been crushed and the sinks had been shattered and in the middle of all the mess were four students. One could guess Severus Snape's shock when he saw three drenched Gryffindors and a very pale Slytherin. The teachers moved quickly, checking on the status of the troll sprawled against the tile and watching as Weasley pulled up a soaked and breathless Granger while Potter pulled up his drenched and terrified twin.

Snape bent overtop of the troll, examining the ugly and unconscious humanoid for signs that it was still alive to try and retrieve memories from later as well as checking on how long it would stay out cold. To the side Severus could see the girl moving around the room carefully with a shake to her steps that shattered the confident image she always wore.

"H-Harry, I-"

"You're alright, come on, let's get out of the puddles..." he said quietly, pulling his sister away.

"I didn't mean t-to-"

"You did great, come on, we'll figure out what happened later. Let's get you out of the water."

"What on earth were you thinking?" Professor McGonagall hissed when Potter had placed his sister in line with his friends and he. Still she shook, her emerald eyes darting from side to side of the wrecked bathroom as if something else would come to destroy it. Snape nearly felt sick when he saw the fear - he'd seen that fear in his nightmares for ten long years. He became even more nauseous when his eyes found Quirrel, who was examining Audrey very carefully, and taking in every sign of fear she had. It was not good to have a desperate man looking for a scapegoat like a Potter. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitories?"

Snape sent a dark look to the boy, he knew somehow that it was his fault. He looked just like his father and even though both of the twins seemed to have the man's arrogance, it was the first time he had taken the side of the girl. It was because of the fear, because of the fear that was emanating from the girl, somehow he just knew that someone like her would never play any part in this little cry for attention.

"Please, Professor McGonagall – they were looking for me." It was the bushy brunette, the muggle born with acute technicality in all her classes, who had spoken. Minerva looked shocked, for good reason as the strength in her voice indicated she was lying.

"Miss Granger!"

"I went looking for the troll because I – I thought I could deal with it on my own – you know, because I've read all about them." All three of the students were looking at her with wide eyes. It did not take a genius to know that she was lying for them, Snape just couldn't help but wonder why.

"Hermione-" the girl began slowly, her green eyes flickering to the professors before back to the girl in question.

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose, Ron knocked it out with its own club and Audrey..." she stopped speaking, sending a look with furrowed brows to the girl, who had wide eyes and was slowly shaking her head. Snape's eyes narrowed suspiciously...what was it that Miss Potter had done in this mess? "Well, she knew they didn't have time to come and fetch anyone and tried to get me out of harm's way. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

While the boys and the other girl tried to look composed, Snape thought back to the exchange between Audrey and Hermione – what had happened there? There was a piece of the puzzle that he was missing, something that would explain why a Gryffindor would lie for a Slytherin.

"Well – in that case... " Professor McGonagall began tightly, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

The Know-It-All hung her head. Snape couldn't tell who they were trying to fool – themselves or the professors – because there was no way in hell that the Know-It-All would dare defy the rules. It was a habit of her kind of personality. The Potters, on the other hand, were much more likely. He could see the boy going to hunt down the troll and the girl trying to stop him, anyone could have taken a look at her and known that she would not have let herself be caught in this mess -she was absolutely petrified.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," Professor McGonagall shook her head at her. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses."

Granger looked at the three left in the bathroom before nodding her head and leaving slowly, obviously trying to hear what would happen to her apparent 'saviours'.

"Well, I still say you were lucky...but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll," McGonagall began sternly, her eyes flickering between them. "However, you each win your House five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

Potter helped his sister out of the room, waiting to make sure she was alright before the three parted ways by the staircase. They walked slowly, the girl grabbing at her head as if she had hurt it and the boys whispering to one another about something or other. It was while they were watching that Minerva looked at him curiously.

"How did that thing get in here, Severus?"

"I don't know," he lied, his glare falling quickly to Quirrel who was still bent over the troll.

"What do you think she meant?" She continued, her eyes focused on The Potter Girl's back. "What do you think Miss Granger meant when she could not finish her sentence?"

"Who knows, Minerva," Snape tried to sound impassive. "Those Potters are said to be able to do anything."

"Someone sh-should f-follow them b-b-back," Quirrel popped up behind them. "I'd be g-g-glad if someone else c-can dispose of th-th-the troll..."

"I will be following them back, before doing a round of the castle," Snape said pointedly, his dark eyes burning through Quirrel's facade. He could see how annoyed the man was by having to deal with the troll he had let in, but now he would not get the chance to do anymore harm - particularly to the twins.

Snape's eyes darted off to the staircase, where Audrey could no longer be seen. Neither Quirrel nor Minerva decided to argue with him over who would see to Miss Potter's safety, so he didn't feel bad as he went to make sure that she was alright. He couldn't stop himself from needing to. He had never seen the girl break as she had, he had never seen the girl finally throw away the arrogant mask she wore so that people wouldn't realize what she really was.

So no, he couldn't let Audrey Potter get hurt. He couldn't let her walk alone when Quirrel was stalking the halls for another distraction – not now that she finally did remind him of his Lily...

Based off of my story Green Eyed Monster, which will returning with the plot of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this Friday.

I do not own the Harry Potter universe or its characters. I do own Audrey Potter, her ridiculously vivid potion-making skills, and her wicked nicknames.

Thanks go out to xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, Angel of the Night Watchers, and Dustfinger's cheering section for their thoughts.

Enjoy the flashbacks and please review :)