A/N: Okay, a few people are going to get mad at me for making Snape seem OOC, but I think that if he had a daughter, he would be somewhat decent to her. I don't own the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling or Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I only own Tacey and other original characters.

Chapter Two: Our Teachers are Simply Wonderful...

Not only did they steal my toiletry bag, but they also hid my trunk as well. They must really hate me. I don't have to worry about it much until the morning, when I have to get dressed for the first day of classes. I pretend that I'm still asleep when the girls in my dorm go down for breakfast. I can't find my things anywhere in the room. I open the door and yell down the stairs if anybody has seen my trunk. There's a bit of scattered laughter and somebody yells back to tell me that its out on the balcony. I swear angrily.

Breakfast is over by the time I come down to the Great Hall. I had waited until I was sure everybody was out of the common room before making a mad dash to the balcony. I get dressed underneath my blanket that I brought with me. Maybe I'll give the whole common room detention for this. I can do it now.

My first class is Charms. I try to pay attention as Flitwick speaks, but find myself doodling on my piece of parchment. I draw a girl that is falling falling falling. Ploosh! Into the inky depth of the ocean, arms flailing, desperately scrambling for the air she needs but can't reach it..

"Miss Snape!"

I jump. Flitwick and the entire class is staring at me. A lot of them are laughing, but stop when they see that Flitwick isn't laughing. What's the deal? I thought Flitwick was supposed to be this humorous little part-human part-goblin. He scurries over to my desk and snatches up my drawing. "I would think, Miss Snape," he says, "that you of all people, would want to pay attention in this class."

This is, unfortunately, very true. Thanks to my father being the Potions Master (HA!), my progress in my studies are easily reported to him. They've never had to actually send me to him, but there's always the threat.

I don't say anything to Flitwick. I learned early on that people don't care about what you have to say. All that stuff about your feelings is a bunch of crap. All people want you to do is to shut your trap and let them talk. That's what I let Flitwick do now. For such a small guy, he has a set of lungs. When his face has returned to its normal color, he goes on with his lecture.

The same thing happens in Transfigurations. McGonagall almost has a stroke when I ask to go to the restroom. I don't really have to go. I am just really bored. She doesn't want to let me go ( she's in the middle of the importance of OWLs. yawn.), but I tell her that Mother Nature has paid me an early visit. She lets me go reluctantly.

I sit in a stall two floors from the Transfigurations classroom. If I keep it up, my teachers will rip their hair out of their heads. Well, except for Professor Binns, who can't even he did care about me, being a ghost and all. I amuse myself for several minutes by thinking of Binns bald. And the other teachers, for that matter. McGonagall would look ten times better, I bet. I arrive back in class one minute to the bell. McGonagall is not happy.

Lunch goes badly, of course. And it isn't even because this weird girl with a name like the moon sits with me. I decide to call her Kinkajou. She has huge eyes- but great hair that I'll never have. The reason lunch is horrible is because I feel like it is the first day of my first year again. I see a few friends- or people I though were my friends- but they all look away. Think fast T.C. I could sit by Kinkajou. Or in the bathroom again. Or outside. Or, even worse, in the kitchens with the house elves (I have a strong house-elf phobia). Or maybe I can not eat at all. Walk right out the door.

Dang it! I see my father sitting next to Dumbledore. If I leave, he'd notice and I'd have to listen to him after class. I sit across from Kinkajou, who is engrossed in the latest from The Quibbler. The cover sports the images of Dumbledore and two people I don't recognize under the headline TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT: INTERNATIONAL UNITY OR ELABORATE SCAM?

It is as I am taking a bite from the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I made, that I see something out of the corner of my eye. Too late- a wad of mashed potatoes and peas hit me in the side of the head with a loud SPAT! The Great Hall, which has been buzzing with conversation, falls silent. All eyes are on me. Then, everybody bursts out laughing. Father had just left moments before to take care of his lesson, so he doesn't know what happens next. Which is the students, in unison, going "Oink, oink, oink!" and pushing their noses to look like a pig's.

I take off to the Entrance Hall and nearly hit the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody. I have his class tomorrow.

"Slow down lass, what's the hurry?"

I keep my mouth shut. Moody peers at me with both of his eyes, the normal and the weird one. "What's your name, lass?"

Should I incriminate myself? "Tacey Snape."

"Snape? Snape you said?" he asks. "Potion teacher's daughter?"

I nod. People used to ask me this all the time when I first came here. I didn't make many friends at first because they thought that I would rat them out to my father. Moody surprises me by giving me an ugly look.

"Well, hurry up and get out of my way, or it's detention for you!" he growled. I scamper up the stair until I back in the bathroom I was in before.

My fingers fumble through my hair as I try to get out the food. Bits of peas and mashed potatoes are still stuck, though. I look in the mirror. I'm pathetic. Really I am. If you looked loser up in the dictionary, you'd see my picture next to it. I wash my face, annoyed that it means that I'll have to wash my hair again. My face in the mirror triggers something in my memory.

i Daddy's in front of me, trying to get me to talk. I can't. My lips are rubber. I'm in his bathroom, heaving into the toilet. Darkness...

I'm walking through a sea of people. They're all running around, like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Somebody squealed! Cho's face- so angry- in my. Somebody slaps me. /i

The tears smear down my face. I now looked like a raccoon. I turn the hot faucet all the way up and wipe away the smears.

"Tacey?"

It's Cedric. He has followed me to check and see if I'm okay. I am touched by his concern. I turn down the water and tell him that I'm fine. It comes out in a croak. Now I'm a frog. Great.

I must be going insane.

-----

Potions follows lunch like day follows night. I arrive a minute before the bell rings and there is only seat left. Next to Cho Chang, my ex-best friend. Small titters erupt across the class as I sit next to Cho. They are quickly squashed by Daddy- er, I mean, Professor Snape. Someone behind me pulls my hair. I clench and unclench my jaw, resisting the urge to throttle each and everyone of them to make them understand. Instead, I just sit there like an idiot.

After Professor Snape lectures, he sets us to the task of making this potion that I can't pronounce. I can hear the others complain as they cut their ingredients.

Cho lights the fire under our cauldron and I am to dice the ingredients. I stare at the spider I am supposed to cut. I wonder if it was related to the spider that frightened Miss Muffet. I stand over it with my knife. The room's volume level has suddenly lowered to a quiet buzz by the blood pounding in my ears. The spider doesn't say a word. That's because it is already dead. A scream starts in my throat. I can feel the cut, smelled the mold, cold stone floors.

I don't remember passing out. I hear on the grape vine later that I hit my head on the table on the way down. They had to take me up to the hospital wing to clean up the gash on my forehead. Madame Pomfrey peers into my eyes. I wonder if she can see beyond them, at the secrets hidden. If she can, will she tell my dad? Ship me off to St. Mungo's? Do I care? All I want to do is sleep. The point of not talking about it, at repressing the memory, is to make it disappear. Maybe it will if I get someone to cut it out. Go to one of those nutters in muggle hospitals. What are they called? Doctors?

Thanks to my being in the hospital wing, I miss dinner. The bite of my sandwich for lunch has long since disappeared. My stomach gives a moan of protest. I consider going to the kitchens, despite my house elf phobia, but squash the idea. I don't feel like eating anything. A first year, Hufflepuff by the looks of it, approaches me. She keeps fidgeting with her tie. I can see her friends laughing behind her. She must have gotten the short straw.

"P-professor Snape wants to see you in his office," she stutters. Then she runs off, like I was the plague. Great. Even the first years hate me.

I walk to my father's office, which is right next to his classroom. His office is really cool too. It has weird stuff floating in jars and books that he will not let me read under any circumstances. This makes me think that they are his personal diaries. The only sign he has of being a normal human being is a picture of me getting my acceptance letter to Hogwarts. I need him to get rid of that.

Daddy is already sitting at his desk. When I enter the room, he looks up from whatever he is looking at on his desk. I'm kind of glad I inherited my looks from my mother. My life would be so much worse if I had his long nose.

"Tacey," he says. "Please, sit. I've heard you've had quite a day."

I bet. My cuticles look like mangled pulps. I pick at one until a bubble of blood oozes out. Pop. A trickle of blood down my thumb. If I were a vampire, it wouldn't sting as it did.

"Tacey," my father says again. "I'm worried about you. Ever since that night, you haven't been the same since... since that night. I-"

My head snaps up. Something is clawing at me from the pit of my stomach. "Don't talk about that," I say in this deadly voice. "Don't you ever talk about that night ever again, you hear? NEVER AGAIN!"

"Tacey..." Daddy looks unhappy. "Please, let's talk about this..."

"No." I am tired of talking. He has tried to get me to talk all summer. "I don't want to talk about it. Leave me the heck alone."

I grab my book bag and storm out of the room. I pass the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher on my way onto the main floor. He is holding a blond boy by the ear. I find out a minute later what has happened: the blonde boy had tried to jinx Harry Potter and got caught. People are laughing about it in the Entrance Hall.

And they think I'm the freak.

I know that I should start my homework when I get to the common room, but my bed is sending out serious sleep rays. I can't help myself. The creepy house elves know how to make a girl feel comfortable. I snuggle underneath my comforter. I shut the curtains to my bed to block out the world around me.

A/N: Please Review. I know you want to.