Chapter 3

Out of all the houses that I could have been in I had to be in the most annoying house of them all. I fully expected to be in Slytherin like my Mother and sister, or Ravenclaw as a close second! But, no I had to be in the house that was tainted with the likes of the irrational.

"Hmm… Where to put you, where to put you? I see Slytherin's in your family, and quite the cunning personality. Slytherin would be a great place for you…" The blasted Sorting Hat said. I could see the look of hope forming on Head Girl, Dahlia, and Slytherin Prefect, Lucius' faces.

"But I see an extreme amount of intellect, and a sense of wit… Ravenclaw would suit you as well." He paused. After spending about two more minutes debating Slytherin or Ravenclaw, he suddenly said, "Oh." As if something should have been obvious.

"It's all clear now. You're looking for a purpose for your life, and deep down you want learn to be who you really are. You're a courageous intellectual one, looking for a purpose, and to live outside of the shadows you find tend yourself in. I can now say without a doubt that you should be in…" He paused, I assumed for dramatic effect.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

My eyes widened in surprise. Gryffindor table roared and clapped, welcoming me warmly. I did my best to not look at them too much, and sat down at the empty end of the table. I glanced up as I sat down, seeing Lily smiling and waving me over to her. She sat beside Sirius Black and James Potter, which helped me make my decision of whether it was really worth moving or not. I shook my head 'no' at her, and began to continue reading my Charm book.

As we were walked to Gryffindor Tower after the Sorting and Start-of-Term Feast, our Prefects talked for what seemed to be forever about the rules, forbidden areas, and classes. It was all dreadfully boring.

"Psst, Clover." I heard. I saw Lily stood next to me with a nervous smile. I looked at her and nodded, greeting her.

"So, do you hate me now? I overheard that you're from a family that, well, doesn't like people like me. Muggle born, and you didn't want to sit with me so I just thought-" she paused, not seeming to know what to say next.

"I don't care about blood purity. People are people, and they all suck equally. Though I am quickly finding that some might not be as bad as others. So please don't misunderstand what happened at the Sorting. I'm just not particularly fond of sitting in big clumps of people, especially when one of those people is named Sirius Black." I asserted.

She was quiet for a second searching my eyes for what I assumed to be hatred. She shook her head and smiled.

"Oh, well I'm sorry if I'm worrying too much. Just, you're one of the only people I've talked to today, and you seem nice. I guess I'm just trying to say that I'm happy we're in the same house, and I really hope we can be friends!" She said cheerfully.

I looked at her in complete bewilderment. 'People usually aren't like this towards me. Normally they only talk to me when wanting something, or when they think it'd be funny to mess with the quiet girl. I'm not used to this, I don't know what to think. I don't understand this at all, but it'd be interesting to understand.' I thought.

After a few seconds of what probably looked like extreme confusion on my face, I decided to nod.

"I would like to be friends with you as well." I stated, trying to smile, but instead settling on a slight upturn of the corner of my lips. She gave a grin and proceeded to give me a hug. I awkwardly patted her back, 'What the hell did I get myself into?'

That night, Lily and I found that we'd be staying in the same room along with other two girls, Marlene and Mary. While Lily, Mary, and Marlene got acquainted, happily petting a very content Holden, I continued my studies listening to their conversation when our window got tapped. I opened it to see a familiar owl.

"Jane, what are you doing here?" I muttered.

"Do you have an owl AND a cat?" Mary Macdonald curiously asked, twirling an untamed curly brown lock in her almost bony finger.

'That might just be the stupidest questions I've ever been asked. Doesn't say clearly in the letter that you pick one?' I thought, eventually sighing because I knew that answering stupid questions was probably going to be life from then until seventh year.

"No, this is my older sister's." I answered.

"Is your sister a student here?" Lily asked.

"Yes, she's in Slytherin, and I believe she's supposed to be Head Girl." I replied as I took the note from the owl.

"A-A Slytherin? Oh, that's…unfortunate." Mary commented awkwardly, hazel eyes, fortunately for me, quickly beginning to avoid contact with my own.

The girls went silent after this reply, and just looked at each other.

'Meet me outside your Common Room, please!

Lot's of love,

D&L'

I read over it immediately recognizing Dahlia's overly curly handwriting. I sighed and got up, leaving the room without a word.

I quietly crept out of the Fat Lady's portrait to see Dahlia and Lucius looking down at me. I braced myself, preparing to be thoroughly insulted for getting sorted into the wrong house.

'Oh Clover! You were supposed to be in Slytherin, how could you be stupid enough to go and get yourself sorted in Gryffindor of all places! Go find somewhere else to live!" Father would say devastated.

'Look at what you've done! You've completely broken my heart! You should have been in Hufflepuff, or at least gotten in Slytherin like your Grandmother wanted! Oh, now to throw away the yellow and black scarf I prematurely knitted for you! Three weeks of knitting down the drain!' Proteus would dramatically state in Shakespearean style of acting holding a Tragedy mask.

'You can no longer use our name for your protection. I would never have the Lepus name sullied by a filthy Gryffindor!' Grandfather and Grandmother would say in unison, and completely stoic. As I thought of all the possible insults I'd be getting for this major slip up, I seemed to have miss what Dahlia had been saying to me.

"Are you liking it, Clover?" she asked, now holding my shoulders and looking worryingly into my eyes. I blinked at her, snapping out of that bit of pessimistic overload.

"What?" I asked.

"She means, what do you think about being sorted here." Lucius asked, nose slightly raised.

"I did not! I mean are you liking all of this? Your house, your peers, everything! I, well, I just want to make sure my baby sister is enjoying her time here." She exclaimed, pulling me into an almost familiar hug of extreme tightness.

"Everything would be a hundred percent better if you would not trap me in this death of a hug!" I finally coughed, prompting her to let me go.

"So are you liking your roommates? I've worried about that since I know you prefer your space!" Dahlia asked.

"I mean, one of the girls is tolerable." I said, crossing my arms.

"Is she Pure blood?" Lucius questioned. I narrowed my eyes at the teen.

"I did not think to ask. It is not as if I go up to every person in my House and say, 'Hello, I'm Clover Lepus, are you of Pure Blood? No? Die." I articulated, already tired of hearing the 'Pure Blood, Muggle Born' mess.

"Well, cousin, let me just be the first to warn you. If you don't carefully think of who you choose to fraternize with, you may end up being thought of as a Blood Traitor. I don't know what I would do if your family's name which would, whether it be through marriage or not, sully my own name." He stated darkly.

He and I glared at each other for a good ten seconds before Dahlia finally cut in.

"Oh Lucius, please tell me you don't expect her to know about all of this now. Let's just let her sleep, a lot happened today, and she's probably very crabby tonight. Plus we need to continue on our rounds!" Dahlia lilted before giving me a affectionate kiss on the forehead. Once she cheerfully let go, I expressed my dislike of that action through the completely mature move of wiping the feeling of her kiss off of my forehead.

Behind us, the Fat Lady's portrait opened up again. All three of us looked curiously at the first two familiar figures coming out of the portrait. I was surprised to see a third being added to this idiot duet. I sighed, wondering why it had to be my luck that I continue to run into the pure essence of annoyance.

"Excuse me what are you three doing out of your rooms?" Lucius asked, stepping in front of the three boys.

Black had sighed at my cousin, apparently not caring to answer the question, while the short chubby boy accompanying them seemed to cower behind his two friends.

"Oh this is just a misunderstanding. You see…" James paused looking over at me standing next to Dahlia, "We were just coming out to reprehend our friend, Lepus, here! We knew she had left her room without permission, and we figured we'd convince her to come back so no one would get in trouble!" James gave an innocent smile to the ever sullen Lucius.

"Well she had written permission to leave her room boys, while you three don't. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to give you all a night of detention, and I'll be speaking to Professor McGonagall about just how many points you three will have cost your house." Dahlia stated.

"I'd recommend twenty points, each." Lucius verbalized, emphasizing the 'each.'

"Back to your rooms, now, and be careful, all of you." Dahlia said waving us into the painting.

"This is your fault, you know." Sirius declared as we stepped inside the portrait

"Honestly, it is your own fault for leaving right after curfew. You easily could have waited a little longer, of course Prefects will patrol right after curfew. It's their job to catch the idiots that wrongfully believe themselves to be clever. Take some responsibility for your own stupidity." I replied in a deadpan.

"You could have done something before those Slytherins deducted points! This is your house too, you know! Have some loyalty!" James expressed angrily.

"You could have just decided not to do something that would make the House lose points before classes even start." I said, quickly getting tired of this argument.

"W-w-well I mean we are all Gryffindor, where p-people tend to be loyal. You could have at least tried to-" the short chubby boy piped up.

"No, I didn't have to do anything. This conversation is completely illogical, and you three need a reality check. I'd happily deliver it, but honestly this conversation is quickly boring me, and I have better things I could be spending brainpower on." I said before speeding past the boys up to my room.

The next morning I was met with glares as I headed to breakfast. At first I was confused, since I hadn't really talked to many people, so they had no reason to have disliked me already. I expected all this in at least a couple weeks. I sat down at the end of the empty end of the table, away from the group of first and second years that were happily eating.

"She's a freak though! Pettigrew, Potter, and I all got detention because of the girl!" Sirius said just loud enough for me to hear.

"Not only that, but she even lost us points! The year hasn't even started and we're already behind! And she was completely unconcerned with the fact that she did nothing to stop us from starting from a disadvantage. " James declared.

"She's practically a Slytherin in a Gryffindor robe, I'd say. A little House Traitor!" Sirius said a little louder, making full eye contact with me.

Now, I had a few options for how I could take this direct slander. I could point out each and every flaw in their logic which would make the two look like bumbling idiots with minimum effort, but it would give the boys what they wanted, a reaction. Next option was to ignore the two which would annoy them, but also indirectly confirm what they were saying to other people. At that moment, I had decided to not care. I didn't know any of them, and I didn't care to know any of their lot. So I said nothing, but I didn't expect Lily to chime in.

"Why don't you just leave her alone! If it was her fault, she'd be in trouble like the rest of you! You're the ones who were sneaking out, you were the ones who got caught! Blaming it on an innocent person is ridiculous!" Lily exclaimed, proudly sitting down next to me.

My eyes widened at the girl. I had just met her the day before and she was here, defending me as if she's known me for a long time. I looked at the boys who had gone oddly silent, Potter in particular looking like he had just been caught putting his hand in a cookie jar.

"So did you sleep well, Clover?" she asked with smile, now seeming to ignore anything and everything happening on the other side of the table. I nodded, not even sure what to say to her. So I thought it'd be best to go with my manners.

"Thank you, Evans. I appreciate you standing up for me." I said, before quickly deciding to at least open up a little, maybe for sincerities sake. "No one has really ever done that for me before, and it's less exhausting to have someone else say what I was thinking." I finished.

"Oh it's fine! I wasn't going to let arrogant gits like them try to ruin you like that! I wouldn't be able to sit around and watch that happen to anyone!" Lily said. I lifted the corners of my mouth, ever so slightly to show my appreciation as best as I can.

"CloClo!" I heard from behind me, as a hand began to affectionately ruffle my hair. As if by reflex I began swatting my sister's hand away.

"Dahlia, can you please-"

"Who is this?" Dahlia interrupted looking at me expectedly.

"I'm Lily Evans, it's nice to meet you." Lily said with a slightly worried smile. I momentarily wondered why she seemed worried about someone like Dahlia when I realized that the whole "Death to all Muggle Borns" Slytherin stereotype was something that Muggle born people actually had to worry about.

"The pleasure's all mine, Evans. I'm Dahlia, this little ice cube's older sister." She said with a grin, offering her hand to the girl. Lily hesitantly took it, giving a nervous laugh.

"I just had to come over and see who my baby sister over here deemed as tolerable enough to count as a friend, and I must say that I'm not disappointed."

"Dahlia! Don't you have things to do? Like sucking up to Professors or guiding your House or something?!" I exclaimed, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Oh, fine-fine, don't blow a gasket, CloClo," she said getting up.

"Have a good first day of classes, girls! Oh and Lily! Make sure to take good care of my sister!" she sang, quickly walking off to a confused table of Slytherins. It was quickly becoming apparent to me just how much of an outlier she was within her house.

"Wow she was…"

"Nicer than you expected, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, others had told me on the train that Slytherin was full of evil Dark wizards that hated Muggle born wizards." She softly said.

"Well, whoever those people were obviously never met her…" I said, finally starting on breakfast.

"So was she the first Slytherin you've met? You seemed a bit nervous." I asked while stuffing a mouth full of bacon.

"Oh no, actually one of my best friends was sorted into Slytherin. But I mean outside of him, I don't know any of them. And according to what people were saying on the train, I don't know if I really want to get to know many of them." Lily said quietly.

"His name is Severus, and he's been a friend of mine for a couple years! I actually think you two would get along really well!" she fondly continued.

"Hm. Well I hope I can meet him later, I'd really rather not meet too many people at once if humanly possible." I expressed, eyes solely focused on my breakfast.

"But he's right there, and I haven't even gotten to talk to him since the Sorting!" Lily exclaimed.

"Oh wait he's coming over here! Morning Sev!"

I inwardly sighed at the fact that here I was meeting another person. I quickly began thinking this friend business was more trouble than it's worth.

"Morning, Lily." He greeted with an awkward tightlipped smile, setting down his plate a little too quickly, and taking the seat next to Lily.

"Are you excited about Potions? I've been reading the book and we're supposed to be doing the Forgetfulness Potion this year! Then in Defense Against Dark Arts we'll actually be learning the Vermillious and Verdimillious charms! You can actually do damage with those ones." He said excitedly keeping complete eye contact with Lily who began giggling.

"Gosh Sev, I don't remember the last time I've seen you this excited about anything! Actually your excitement about school reminds me a lot of my new friend here, Clover." She said gesturing to me.

'Oh great, I'm being dragged into the conversation…' I thought ecstatically.

"She's been doing nothing but studying since I've met her! It's quite admirable in my opinion!"

"Oh, it's nothing to be in awe about. I'd personally just rather not let the likes of," I paused motioning towards Potter's gang, "them do better than me in my classes."

"Well, I don't think you need to put much effort into that. I doubt those gits will get anything better than a Troll in any of their classes." Snape grumbled, showing distaste for my housemates.

"Who knows, maybe they'll have to make an entirely new grade for that level of ignorance." I said, stuffing my mouth full of the last bit of pancake.

Snape chuckled, while Lily looked as if she was trying to hold in a smile.

"I'm Severus Snape, nice to meet you." He said offering a hand, as if suddenly deciding I was worth talking to.

"Nice to meet you as well, Snape. I'm sorry to cut this whole meeting thing short, but I'm going to try to find a seat on the back row if I can help it. And I'm sure that area will be packed full of students up to tomfoolery. So I guess I'll be seeing you two in class." I said quickly getting up, apparently just narrowly missing a spoonful of egg that was shot through the air in my direction. I saw Sirius, Potter, and the third boy who I at the time didn't care to remember the name of, laughing. As I walked out hearing Lily throw some insults at the boys, I couldn't help but think:

'I hate this blasted house.'

And I think to myself, I hate this blasted house!~ Just kidding, but please forgive me for the slow pacing. Before this is a romance, this will be a Friendship story, and a story about Clover learning new things about herself. The romance will come eventually, but it will have to come later (we need the context!)Plus, I just personally highly doubt that someone like Clover would immediately get along with our favorite Marauders. So next chapter will be up soon where we'll slowly be putting more of the good stuff! Again please leave a review and give me advice on how to do better because I know that I'm still learning!

Thank you for reading!