A/N Alright, here is where the story actually gets started...

However desperate Mac was to be getting back to Hogwarts, she was still sad to be leaving Jamie. Her parents, who didn't really like her anyways, had declined to come to the train station with her. In fact, they hadn't really spoken to her after the credit card fiasco, except for to yell at her. Jamie, who had somehow found out about this, decided that he would drive Mac to the train station on September 1st. She had argued, but he had insisted.

When they reached the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, Mac had insisted that he go no further. It wasn't safe for him to be seen with her on the platform, not when she had so many enemies and he had no way to defend himself. He had tried to change her decision, but she wouldn't budge. So after a hug goodbye and a promise to owl often, Mac had proceeded through to the platform by herself.

She dragged her heavy trunk up onto the train, blocking out the tearful goodbyes surrounding her. She had grown to be highly skilled in blocking things out over the years, so she was able to completely ignore them and not ask herself why no one was there for her.

Once on the train, Mac began to search for an empty compartment. Since it was still relatively early, she didn't have much difficulty finding one. The third window she looked through revealed unused seats, so she pushed the door open and forced her trunk onto the luggage rack.

Mac settled into the plush red seat of the empty compartment she had found. It felt wonderful to finally be going back to Hogwarts. She felt at home there as she never had with her parents, because she fit in. Maybe not with the Slytherins, or even the students in general, but the school and the sense of magic. She didn't feel like a freak like she did at home.

She started thinking about which NEWT classes she was taking this year. She pulled out her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook, admiring the way its shiny, new cover gleamed in the sun. It was her favorite class, and her best. She was curious to see how much of the material she already knew from her time with Sev over the summer. Thinking of Sev, she wondered why he hadn't found her yet.

She was broken out of her thoughts when the glass door slid open. Finally, she grinned, Sev was here. The smile slid off her face when she realized that it wasn't Sev, to be replaced by her usual look of cold indifference, a look that often convinced people to leave her alone.

The four boys in the doorway, however, were not cowed. In fact, they didn't even seem to notice her less than welcoming demeanor. They did notice her outward appearance, though. She had shoulder length, curly, dark brown hair with straight, long bangs that swept off to the side, occasionally falling over her left eye. This accented the small silver hoop in her right eyebrow. She was slender and average height and was wearing jeans and an off-the-shoulder black silk shirt, showing her pale skin. They were all trying to remember if they had seen her before, but none of them could recall.

The boy in the front pushed his hand back through his hair, making the black strands even more disorderly then they had been, and asked, "Do you mind if we sit here?"

They all ignored her response and began to sit down. The sandy haired boy, however, looked at her quizzically and questioned, "Did you say something?"

"Actually, yes, I did," Mac replied, rolling her eyes. "I said 'No.'"

They all stared at her in shock, as if they'd never before been refused something, which, she guessed, they hadn't. None of them moved, though, except the muscular one with the smooth, black hair and aristocratic features, who moved closer to Mac and said, "Would you still say that if I asked you to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Yes," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Wait," he said, "yes, you would go with me?"

"No, Black, yes, I would still say that and no, I wouldn't go with you."

Black looked stunned. Mac guessed that being refused twice in five minutes wasn't good for his enormous ego. "Why not?"

"You're not my type," replied Mac, trying to keep from laughing because that would ruin her fun.

"I'm everybody's type," said Black with what he obviously thought was a sexy smirk. By this point, the other three boys were watching with interest, heads tilted slightly as if this would help them to better catch every word. After all, it wasn't every day that their friend Sirius Black, THE Sirius Black, was turned down.

"No, I'm not into bigheaded jerks who think they're better than everyone else, so they can do whatever they want. I don't like guys with egos so huge, they engulf their intelligence, which there wasn't much of to begin with, and who think that it's a good thing to date twenty different girls every year.

"Plus," she added thoughtfully, "I'm not big on the idea of dating a guy who obviously spends at least twice as long as I do in front of the mirror every morning, fixing his hair."

Black's hand flew to his head, but he stopped before he touched it. All the boys were staring at her like she had turned green or grown an extra head. "It was seventeen, not twenty," he muttered, and then continued, louder, "Girls don't treat me like that."

"Girls from your house don't," Mac corrected.

"Or Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw," he retorted. He's almost got it, thought Mac. She nodded, prompting him forward. He stared at her, looking like he was deep in thought.

"Wait, you can't be," he started, then stopped again. Let his slow mind catch up, she thought, he'll have it in a second.

"You're a Slytherin?" he exclaimed, with a mixture of shock and revulsion in his voice. Merlin, what about her was more revolting then his pigheaded arrogance? This time, she spoke her thoughts out loud. "You finally got it. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Normally, this would have provoked him, but he looked slightly shellshocked. The slightly shorter, sandy haired boy said, "But you're wearing Muggle clothes."

"Good job, Lupin," Mac said in a falsely sweet voice, "You get an O in useless observations."

"Get out of our compartment!" demanded the boy with messy hair, his face turning red and his dark eyes flashing behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

"Potter," she sighed, sounding like she was explaining something to a five year old, "I was here first. This is my compartment."

"Not anymore, it's not."

"Good to see you're still with us, Black," she replied sarcastically.

"Out," ordered Black, pulling out his wand. At this, everyone suddenly had their wands in their hands.

Then, suddenly, Black's wand flew out of his hand. Now Mac had two wands. Black seethed, "What the bloody hell?"

"Nonverbal spells, Black," smirked Mac. Potter looked like he was about to hex her, so she got ready. But it never came. All of them were staring behind her. She cautiously turned to see the compartment door open and another boy leaning against the doorframe.

He was wearing a black leather jacket, a t-shirt, and jeans. He was tall and slender, yet muscular enough to fill out his clothes nicely. His jet-black hair was short and slightly spiky, and he had a small silver stud piercing the skin just below his lower lip. Mac grinned. "Hi, Sev. You're running a little late."

"A little. You need any help?" Sev asked, jerking his head towards the boys in the compartment.

"Nah, I was finished with them, anyway. Just amusing myself until you got here," Mac said, tucking her wand away. She tossed Black's wand back to him, but he was still staring. It bounced harmlessly off of his shoulder and rolled to a stop on the floor. She had never seen anyone's eyes bulge out like that. And people actually thought he was attractive. "You can keep the compartment."

Mac flicked her wand at her trunk, shrinking it, then grabbed it. She and Sev exited the compartment, not bothering to shut the door. As they walked away, the babble of voices rose behind them. "That was Snivellus… who the hell was she… how'd he get to look like that… she took my wand… he had his lip pierced… why didn't they hex us… do we know her, she knew all our names… that was SNIVELLUS!"

Mac and Sev looked at each other for a second, and then burst out laughing. They continued to walk down the corridor, looking for another empty compartment. The train was starting, so most of them were already full of giggling girls, strutting boys, and nervous first years, all chatting animatedly about the coming year without a care in the world. Mac found them all very annoying, perhaps because she had never been given the opportunity to be like that.

And then there were the Slytherins, who always looked like they were plotting, who sneered when anyone they disapproved of walked by. And that was a lot of people. They saw Mac and Sev walk by, and magically slid the door open. Apparently they weren't important enough to warrant someone getting up to open the door. Bellatrix Black, a darkly beautiful girl with heavy lidded eyes and a tangle of black hair, said, "Come sit with us, Severus. No need to hang around that filthy little mudblood."

Sev almost gave his customary affirmative answer, then remembered that this year was supposed to be different. But he still couldn't insult them, as Mac had told him, he already had enough trouble from the Marauders. "No thanks, I'll just keep looking for an empty compartment."

Black looked angry, but she didn't reveal it, except through her eyes. The rest of the students in the compartment gave Sev looks that told him that they obviously thought he had made the wrong decision. Then the door slid shut, and they were hidden from view. Sev shook the incident off, choosing not to think about it. "Come on Mac, I'm sure there's still somewhere left to sit."

Finally, near the back of the train, they found a compartment where they could stay. A few students, obviously first years, were in the compartment, and looked up when they heard the door slide open. Mac looked in and gave her most threatening glare, bared teeth and drawn eyebrows included. She loved that her new eyebrow ring emphasized her threatening-face eyebrows. The girl in front gave a squeak and, spinning around, ran out the door, grabbing a friend's arm and dragging her along. The rest of them took only seconds to vacate the compartment.

"Cool, I didn't even have to say anything," commented Mac. "I guess this makeover was actually in some way practical. I now have scary clothes and a punk haircut and a weird piercing to scare the little kids. So do you. We can be scary together! This year, it won't be us getting scared!"

Sev grinned and piled the existing trunks outside the door, then lay down along the right hand wall on the seats, taking up the entire bench. Mac sat down, slouched with her legs stretched out in front of her, on the other side. "So, are you glad to be going back?"

Sev considered for a moment. "Hogwarts is my home, and will always be my favorite place, so, yah, I guess I am. But still, this year seems like it's going to be different, which is good, which is what I wanted, but also more, I don't know…"

"Dangerous?" finished Mac, cutting off his rambling.

"Yah, with this Lord Voldemort and… I don't know if I told you this, but last year I heard some of the other Slytherins talking of joining the Death Eaters."

"Actually I didn't know. But since you wouldn't, I don't really care. It's not like the rest of them could be any worse than they already are."

Sev wanted to tell her to be careful, but he couldn't. It wasn't the sort of thing he was capable of saying. So, instead, he changed the subject and replied, "So, how was your mother after you stole her credit thingy? I avoid her when I go to your house."

"Actually, she was better than usual. She was so upset about the credit CARD that she didn't talk to me. So I just had to deal with my dad calling me a freak. They still seem to think there is some chance of me going to finishing school, so they were really upset about the eyebrow ring, too. Which, I don't think I need to tell you, I thought was funny."

"Of course." This seemingly agreeing response was accompanied by an eye-roll.

They chatted for the rest of the ride, happy when the train came to a stop because that meant that they could head up to the school for the delicious Welcome Back feast. It was good to be home.

A/N Don't worry, the Marauders aren't going to be the villains of the fic. There is going to be a mix of important characters.

I haven't been getting many reviews, which makes me sad. So I'm resorting to blackmail. I'm not updating again for two weeks, but I'll take a day off of that for every review I get (minimum two days until I update). And they don't have to be good, I like compliments, advice, suggestions, opinions, even people telling me they don't like it. Just let me know that someone is actually reading this!