Disclaimer: This dramatization is an extension of some of what happens during Harry, Ron, and Hermione's 6th year at Hogwarts. It also covers flashbacks to Snape's first year of teaching. Since J.K. Rowling is yet to publish the 6th book, I'm very vague about what is happening in the wizarding world since only J.K. Rowling can truly write anything about Harry Potter. This is highly likely to disagree with a few facts, but since it's me writing, and not the author, please forgive me any goofs that I might make in relevance to the actual series. Thank you for choosing to read my story.

Chapter 3

Gabriella woke up early the next morning, looking about ay her quarters. She was, at first surprised to find herself here, but then she remembered the last few weeks at Hogwarts. She sighed in relief. Hogwarts was like the home that she hadn't had for a long time. Her dream had been very realistic, and she had found herself back at her grandmother's where she had been, as her grandmother said, nothing but a burden. Her entire life had changed since the accident, the accident that had killed her parents and sister, bringing the magical ability out in her. She had realized it when her grandmother came to adopt her.

Her grandmother had been staying at her house during the estate sale. Gabriella had begged to be allowed to keep some of the possessions, ones that had been precious to her sister or parents, but her grandmother insisted that she could only bring what could fit in one canvas bag that she supplied. Picking up her clothes and some of her family's most important possessions, she stuffed them into the bag. Before she had packed half of what she would have liked to keep, however, she saw that the bag was already full, and the drawstring was unlikely to close.

Gabriella had sat down in despair, crying. She picked up a small music box engraved with cherubs that played the song Unchained Melody. It had belonged to her sister, containing jewelry, which had been taken away for the sale. She picked it up, stuffing it inside of the bag, begging for it to fit. She hadn't taken the loss of her family very well, they had been very close, and she knew that it would be a very long time before she saw them again. Suddenly, Gabriella realized that her hand was touching the floor through the canvas bag. She looked at the bag. It was now only half full, but she knew that she hadn't removed anything. She glanced inside, and it looked like an infinite more amount of room than was possible. Gabriella tested it, placing a large stuffed animal of her sister's inside. She saw no difference on the outside. She placed in other items, photo albums of her mother's and dragon figures of her father's and blankets and pillows and other items such as CD players, any possessions that reminded her especially of her parents and sister.

She also added in supplies belonging to her rabbit and dogs. She knew that she might be able to persuade her grandmother to keep them, as long as she was responsible for everything that involved them and bought everything that they would need. She was already signed on for a job at a book store, where she would earn a fair amount of money without any back breaking work. She found that even a large bag of grass that belonged to her rabbit was able to fit inside without a problem.

She glanced about the room once more, and then stuck her foot inside, eventually slipping inside the entire thing herself. She glanced about. It was like a small room now. She was quite comfortable, and she was even able to lay down flat along the bag, without touching any of the parts. It was perfect! Gabriella scrambled back out side of it, pulled the drawstring shut, and tugged on the bag to hoist it to her shoulder. She tried again, grunting with the effort. The bag still appeared to be only half filled, but its weight was enormous! She tugged again, wishing that it wasn't so heavy. As she wished this Gabriella fell over on her side, the bag lying on top of her. It was light, she could easily lift it without much exertion.

Gabriella smiled again at the memory of her first magic. Her grandmother had never figured out how so much disappeared from the sale, and later, as Gabriella learned new magic, her grandmother was also stumped at how the animals never needed anything to be bought, and no matter what, Gabriella's clothing continued to fit. She eventually began to take Gabriella's earnings from her job, but still Gabriella never seemed to need anything, except for food, which her grandmother made sure was always made limited to her.

And then the letter came. Gabriella had left the next day, traveling to the school by apparition, which she later learned was illegal at her age. She hadn't been able to apparate inside the school grounds, so she had to walk the entire way to the castle, and when the rain came, she cast a spell on her bag so it wouldn't get wet, though the spell didn't work on herself. She had been found by the gameskeeper, a large man named Rubeus Hagrid, who agreed to take her animals to care for them. He mentioned that he had something of a fondness for animals, though he preferred ones of the larger and more dangerous sorts than regular house pets. He led her to the castle, where she met Dumbledore and took her first meal in the Great Hall.

And now she was at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had been correct in his speech the first night, she did learn quickly. Apparently she needed a wand and other materials, but Professor McGonagall took her to a place called Diagon Alley, where she was able to get everything that she wanted and needed. From there, all she had to do was learn the incantations and theories, and she excelled in all but one subject. In her classes, she got everything on the first try; except for in potions.

This brought a frown to her face. She didn't care too much for the potions master, a surly man name Severus Snape. She couldn't use the abilities that she already had in potions, so Professor Dumbledore had said that she should take more of potions and less of everything else. Neither she nor Professor Snape had cared for this news, but they had both accepted what he said without complaint. Neither of them would be the first to complain to the headmaster.

Gabriella sighed, swinging her legs off the side of the bed. In a flurry of cloth, she was suddenly in her robes instead of her pajamas. She straightened the hem a bit, then walked out of the rooms and down the hall to Snape's classroom. To get the lessons over quickly, they both had agreed to begin early, eating their breakfast in the dungeons on the days when he was teaching her. For a while, she had been happy enough, finding that they both liked bagels, a muggle food that was best when smothered in cream cheese. As soon as he realized this, however, bagels were suddenly "no longer available" and the food now available tended to be bland and soggy. Since Snape was not complaining about the fare that he provided, and ate it with her, Gabriella decided not to complain about it.

Today's potions lesson began with a relatively easy potion. In all of her other lessons (now spread out every other day between potions lessons) she was almost up to date with the 5th year class. In her potions class, however, she was still at the level of the first years. This was partly because of Snape; he was constantly sneering over her shoulder, making snide comments about what she was putting into her cauldron. It was also because she was unable to use the rest of her magical abilities in this class, which was why she was now required to take potions every other day from morning to evening, only breaking for lunch.

Gabriella silently measured out the amount of powdered root of Devil's Snare, required in a very small amount. She lifted the cup containing the powdered roots, slowly sprinkling it into the cauldron, which began to smoke blue. A sudden voice next to her ear startled her into spilling the rest of the root in far too quickly. She turned around slowly in her chair to face Snape, who was leaning behind her with his greasy hair framing his face. She spoke in calm and measured voice, ignoring the potion behind her that was now smoking lime green, instead of the pale blue that it was supposed to be.

"Yes, sir?" she said stiffly.

"I said that you were adding the root too quickly. And now, I'm afraid, you have added too much." he sneered. Gabriella shut her eyes, doing her best to control her temper that seemed to rise exceptionally quickly when around Professor Snape.

"Maybe you could teach me in a manner that doesn't surprise me into adding too much."

"It is not my fault that you have destroyed yet another potion." He waved his wand, causing the entire mess to disappear from her cauldron. "Now, let's try again."

"Sir?"

Snape stared coldly. "Yes?"

"Do you think we could try a different method?"

"This is the method that I will use in class. I do not intend to change my teaching methods just so that one student can succeed. Now if you'll-"but he was interrupted once again.

"I'm not asking you to do so. For as long as we have these private lessons, we can discuss the properties of each ingredient and why it has to be placed inside in a certain way and amount. I understand the properties of most of the ingredients, and why certain steps have to be taken to achieve certain results, but I can't seem to be able to connect them together." Seeing Snape's cold, yet interested glare, she continued. "After a short while, I'll be able to better understand what I'm doing when I'm making the potions and I should make fewer mistakes than I now do." Snape considered this skeptically.

"And if it doesn't work, than neither of us are any worse off than we are now." she added.

Snape considered her coldly for a moment. Then he nodded once. "We shall try it.

However," he added, seeing Gabriella begin to grin. "I do not expect for you to be any better than you already are. We shall begin at the last potion you were able to successfully complete, which was mid-way through the potions book for first years. Now, if you would, turn to page 267..."

Looking back, Gabriella realized that at that moment, she realized that there might be some decency deep inside of Severus Snape.

Harry sat in potions class, pondering why Snape would attack a student, ignoring his potion, which was bubbling and submitting a hideous odor of rotten fruit. The class was working on a difficult potion that was used to put someone into a temporary slumber. When correctly mixed, it should have omitted a pleasant odor to tantalize someone into drinking it. His potion obviously was not up to standards. Snape noticed this right away.

"Once again, you have made a mess of a potion that is not difficult." He waved his wand, causing the potion to disappear. "Tonight, you shall write an essay on the proper usage of asphodel in this potion. Yes, Malfoy?" Snape turned around to respond to Draco's upraised hand.

"I was wondering sir, considering that Professor McGonagall told the Gryffindors about Gabriella Gisaf, I was wondering if you could tell us about her from your point of view. McGonagall told them that this Gisaf girl was amazing in academics and stuff, but I'm sure that... that...." Malfoy trailed off at this point as he realized that Snape's face was white and shaking with anger.

"You would do very well to keep your nose out of business that does not concern you!" Snape hissed. "You shall also address your superiors by their proper titles, in this case Professor McGonagall is appropriate. Ten points from Slytherin!" At this Snape turned on his heel and stormed out of his classroom and into his private quarters. His shout reverberated through the classroom from his rooms. "Class dismissed!"

At this the entire class sat in complete silence for one moment, before rising in unison to pack their things and hurry out of the classroom, in case Snape decided to come out and deduct more points from someone, or worse.

Harry and Hermione separated themselves from the crowd heading towards the Great Hall for lunch (Ron had not been accepted into N.E.W.T. potions to his great relief) and instead headed for the grounds outside. They headed for a large birch tree, talking the entire time.

"Did you see that! Snape must have done something awful to that girl!" Harry exclaimed.

"Not necessarily, maybe he's just having a bad day." Hermione stated nervously.

"If he was having a bad day, I think he would have taken it out on me, not on a member of his own house!" Harry sat down beneath the tree.

"I still think that this whole thing is something made up by Malfoy."

"Then why didn't McGonagall say so? She would want to make sure that bad rumors weren't spreading about a colleague of hers, no matter how much she might hate them." Harry paused, scratching his chin in concentration. "In fact, why doesn't anyone know what happened to her? You'd think that everyone would know about a wandless. That would be big news."

"Maybe they want to keep her quiet, maybe she works against Voldemort."

"I think maybe Snape murdered her." Hermione rolled her eyes. "That would have been around the time that Voldemort was at the height of his power. Snape might have killed her so that she wouldn't be able to fight against Voldemort."

"How many times do I have to mention that Dumbledore trusts Snape and so should we." Hermione cast Harry a despairing glance. Seeing that Harry was about to open his mouth to defend his case more, she swiftly added "We ought to get to lunch. I really don't want to go to Arithmancy on an empty stomach." Hermione stood up and strode up the grounds to the castle, leaving Harry deep in thought.