****I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters…I merely play around with them for my own enjoyment ***

This is my first story, so please bear with me. Feel free to leave suggestions, but go easy on me. I'm definitely not an English major. Reviews are definitely helpful ;)

Once again, thank you to my awesome beta, Lupin's Mistress, for being absolutely amazing!

Waking up to a tear induced headache is not my definition of fun. I lay in bed wondering why on earth I fell asleep crying, when it hits me: He doesn't want me. I wanted to stay in bed. Getting up and going down to the Great Hall just for him to reject me again wasn't something I wanted to experience at the moment.

Still, I dragged myself out of bed and into my bathroom for a shower. In the shower I just stood there, head tipped back, letting the water hit my face. I would have stood there for an hour if I hadn't heard someone knocking on my portrait. I grabbed a towel and my bathrobe, before heading out to open the portrait. I was surprised to find Hermione on the other side.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep you from your shower. I was just worried about you since you weren't at breakfast and you didn't seem quite right at dinner last night," Hermione gushed out.

"No, it's fine. I needed to get out anyway. I was getting a little pruney," I said with a small smile that didn't quite reach my eyes. "Come on in and have a seat. I'm going to go put some clothes on."

She nodded and came in to sit on my couch. I walked into my room to get dressed and took my time before heading back out to Hermione.

"So…" I mumbled when I returned.

"Alright, let's just cut to the chase here, who did you get?" she blurted out.

I looked at her surprised at her outburst before responding, "Severus."

Her eyes grew wide and she took a moment to compose herself before she spoke again, "Snape? They paired you with Snape? What were they thinking?"

I looked down, suddenly interested in the floor. "I don't know, but they did. I was actually pleasantly surprised at first."

"What? Why? How?" she questioned incredulously.

"Why wouldn't I be? He's smart, brave, loyal, he's got this amazingly silky voice, and his hands…have you seen his hands? I bet he could do amazing things with those hands," my voice must have been dreamy as I listed his qualities, but it changed when I thought back to his refusal of me, "It doesn't matter though. He doesn't want me."

Hermione sat there shocked, she didn't seem to know what to think, but then with a thoughtful look, she did her best to reassure me, "I'm not sure that's the case."

"We got our letters at the same time. As soon as he read his, he stormed out. What else could it be?" I asked her miserably.

"I don't know, Elle. I don't know. It just doesn't make sense. I mean, I know he's not happy about being forced to marry but he seemed to like you. Well, as much as Snape can like someone," she told me.

"I thought we were becoming friends, but now I really don't know what to think."

"Well, you've got three months to get it figured out. Let's not dwell on it right now," she assured me.

We sat and talked until lunch time. When my stomach growled, Hermione convinced me to go with her to the Great Hall. Once there, I sat by Hermione and tried not to pay attention to anything else around me. This proved harder than I first thought, because halfway through my meal, I felt someone looking at me. I raised my eyes from my plate and was met with Severus' eyes and his blank face. I blushed and looked back down to my plate. I sat there for a few more minutes before mumbling my goodbyes to Hermione and heading back to my rooms.

I've always found that music helps to cheer me up when I'm feeling down. After everything that's happened, it's what I needed. I found my guitar and dug out my chord sheets. I pushed everything else away and focused on the songs as I began to sing

And All Shall Fade
The Flowers of Spring
The World and all the Sorrows
At the heart of everything

but still it stays
the butterfly sings
and opens purple summer
with a flutter of its wings

The earth will wave with corn
the grey-fly choir will mourn
And mares will neigh
With Stallions that they mate
Foals they've born

And all shall know the wonder of purple summer...

And yet i wait
the swallow brings
a song too hard to follow
that no one else can sing

the fences sway
the porches swing
the clouds begin to thunder
crickets wander murmuring

the earth will wave with corn
the grey-fly choir will mourn
and mares with neigh
with stallions that they mate
foals they've born

And all shall know the wonder
I will sing the song of purple summer.

And all shall know the wonder
I will sing the song of purple summer.

All shall know the wonder of purple summer...

I let the last chord fade in the air as sat there thinking over my life since I'd arrived at Hogwarts. My life had completely turned upside-down. Life was completely different. I was completely different.

The next couple of weeks blurred together: between writing lesson plans, talking with Hermione, and playing my guitar, I was able to sufficiently distract myself from the matter at hand. Another distraction came about a week before classes. I got a floo call from my best friend, John.

"Hey, Boo, I feel like I haven't talked with you in far too long. I have so much to tell you!" he gushed.

I laughed at him. "Oh you do, do you?" He could definitely make me laugh. I missed him so much.

"Yes! Ok, so I decided that you're way too far away from me and that needs to change. I've decided to move to London and try my hand at acting there. I'm hoping it'll be better than in Kansas City. Maybe they'll think of my accent as a novelty or something, but I can do a mean British accent if I need to. Maybe I can get a teaching job there as well. Plus, I need to be near my best friend. I'm going through withdrawals here. I'm not okay with this," I could practically picture him pouting.

"You'll definitely be close enough to apparate to Hogsmeade and come see me if you do that. It'd be nice to see you. I'd love to be able to see my best friend more often." The thought of actually seeing my best friend put a smile on my face.

"Agreed! Anyway, I'm kind of already in London and I want to see you…like yesterday."

"That can be arranged. I can meet you in Hogsmeade in about an hour or so. Does that sound alright?" I asked.

"That will be sufficient. One hour. Okay, love you, bye," he sang.

I laughed again. "Love you, bye," I sang back.

I walked into Hogsmeade a while later to meet John. I didn't have to wait long before I saw him. I smiled when I caught his attention and was soon almost knocked over when he practically jumped on me.

"Elle! I missed you so much, Boo," he said excitedly once he pulled back.

I smiled at him. "I missed you too. You have no idea how happy I am that you're moving to London."

"Oh I think I have an idea." He smiled back.

We spend the rest of the day catching up. We spend hours talking about anything and everything. We briefly talked about the Marriage Law, but when he saw my sad face, he quickly changed the subject. It was so nice to see my best friend again and take my mind off of the upcoming school year and Severus. He's one of those people that can make me feel better about myself without even trying.

After John's visit, I made the trek back up to Hogwarts and to my rooms and went to bed.