Phantom lay in the Slytherin head girl dormitory's bed. It was much to large in her opinion. Everything was green, silver, and black. She guessed one or two of them was the Slytherin's colors. Shifting on the bed, she found sleep did not easily come to her. She had already checked out every corner of the large dormitory. Apparently everything she saw, she memorized so she could close her eyes and see every part of the house down to the dust on, what looked like, priceless antiques.

She groaned and turned around on her bed, causing it to let out a small noise. Sighing, she closed her eyes and counted up from one. Somewhere near 1,003,581 she fell into a restless sleep.

…...

The portrait opened. She had heard the slight creaking. Her eyes shot open and she slowly put her feet on the floor before undoing the ropes to the canopy so it would cascade down around the bed. She positioned herself to where she wasn't visible from the doorway.

The door slowly opened, and she slowed her breathing, her blood pressure rising with adrenaline. A hand slowly raised, nimble fingers holding a black wand.

"Lumos."

The wand gave off a bright light and cast shadows all over the room. Thankfully she had slowly dropped to the floor to where only the top half of her head was over the bed. She could now see who it was.

Professor Snape.

She let out a relieved breath she didn't know she was holding and said "What are you doing sneaking into a girls room?"

He started as she walked out from behind the canopy and narrowed his eyes. "I did no such thing. If you didn't hear me that was your own fault. Now it's time for breakfast and you shall be introduced in front of the school." He thrust his arm out to give her clothing. "Here is the school uniform. You must where it everyday except for holidays. I suggest you go to hogsmeade to get your supplies as it is a weekend and there are no classes on weekends."

He turned around and then hesitated before turning around and pointing his wand at her.

"Aetatis."

A yellowy substance shot out of his wand and stuck itself to her. It was a strange sensation as it covered her body, seeped into her. She could feel it running through her veins before it gathered in her chest, shot out in the form of 16.

"You will be tutored up to year six then. For now, you shall not be attending classes with your house for there will be no point in teaching someone who doesn't understand a word the teachers are saying and I despise doing unnecessary things."

Nodding her head, she watched as he walked out of the room, but not before he turned on the lights, and shut the door with a loud bang. Tilting her head to one side she thought I wonder why he is so bitter…

She sighed and walked towards her dresser. Laying her clothing on top of it, she proceeded to get undressed but had a slight problem. No bra. That is, until she picked up her clothing to find a bright green bra her size with matching underwear.

How did…

Forget it. She didn't even want to know. Putting them on, she felt herself shiver as she noticed they were perfect on her. There were only two people who knew of her coming here and she didn't want to play iny-miney-miney-moe to figure out which one had been the one to get her these. Or which one was that observant…

Pulling on the skirt, she proceeded to button up her shirt. She was almost done when there was a banging on her door. "Hurry up." was what he simply said. Finishing with her shirt, she put on the robe, socks, shoes, and brushed her hair before walking out. Watching him out of the corner of her eyes, she walked out of the portrait and waited for him to lead her to where they were supposed to go.

Once he took the lead, he lead her through a myriad of hallways saying "You shall respect your elders. No pranks allowed in the school. Curfew is at 9 on weekdays and 10 on weekends. You can always stay up in your dormitory once curfew has been passed to finish essays or something of the sort. The library is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. everyday. You may check out books but only 5 at once. The great hall is where you eat your meals. Breakfast is served at 9 a.m. Lunch is at 2 p.m. and dinner is at 7. It is 9:30 so you only have 30 minutes left to eat. Since you are a sixth year, you shall be able to go to hogsmeade. There is only one of these trips each year near Christmas time. There is two weeks Christmas break but since I will be here you are going to stay over break as well. There is a Yule ball this year that fifth years and up will be attending. It is mandatory and you don't have a choice. Your instructor of dance will be whomever is your head of house. There are other parties as well but you will not have to attend. They will be brought up by the headmaster. The forest outside is forbidden unless a teacher tells you otherwise. You-"

"It's forbidden?"

He gave her an annoyed look and said "Yes. As in you are not to step foot in there unless you are with a teacher."

She thought about this for a second before she was brought out of her thoughts by his voice.

"It's forbidden for your own safety. Don't even think about going in there. There are many dangerous things in there that you wouldn't want to encounter. Especially since you don't have anything to defend yourself with. Even then, I wouldn't recommend it."

Instead of saying anything, she simply nodded. He looked at her meaningfully before continuing "If you have any questions or concerns ask your head of house."

They arrived at a large set of doors. He lay his hand on the knob and pushed it open to reveal four very large tables parallel to each other along with a large table upfront with teachers looking up at them. She caught Dumbledore's eyes and nodded to him, to which he smiled at. That sparkle was in his eyes again. He looked as if he had been in mid-sentence when they walked in. Professor Snape stomped up to the front table with his robe billowing behind him. Apparently he was making sure the other students knew he was there and not pleased. He glared at many of the students looking at him while she just walked with a bored expression on her face, although inside, she was amazed. It was beautiful, and her stomach rumbled as she looked at the food on the table.

Many of the boys were looking at her as if she were a piece of meat but she shook it off, ignoring the glares and curious looks from the girls. Only one person caught her eyes though. A girl with thin short black hair and hazel eyes looked at her curiously, as if trying to place her somewhere.

Anger welled up inside of her so suddenly, her eyes widened just a bit before she glared harshly at the girl. The girl smirked at her which only served to make Phantom more angry. Looking away from the girl, she put a bored mask on her face and walked towards the high table faster.

When she reached it, she stood up beside the place where the headmaster was sitting and relaxed her body to where she was leaning slightly back. Her robe fluttered backwards to reveal completely toned legs and her shirt rode up the tiniest bit to reveal a flattened toned stomach. Her arms dangled harmlessly back and she rested her head on the stand where Dumbledore sat. On the outside, she was completely relaxed, but on the inside she was seething and she didn't know why, which only served to irritate her more.

Dumbledore stood up and she glanced over at him when he started to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Phantom. Now this young lady has lost her memory so you must help her all that you can. She won't be attending regular classes until she catches up but I'm sure you will all give her a warm welcome." There was a myriad of claps from different table's. Most fervently from a pair of twins at the table to her right. She smirked at them and they winked at her. Chuckling a bit, she hoped she would be sorted into their house. They seemed to be good.

"Now then, we shall sort her."

An elderly woman stood up and pointed her wand where a stool appeared out of. It didn't surprise her. Anything that happened here probably wouldn't ever surprise her. The woman nodded to the chair and she walked over to it, sitting down on the edge with her feet hiked up and crossed at the ankles. The twins were shouting "Gryff-in-dor! Gryff-in-dor!" Others soon joined in, but the other table started chanting "Sly-ther-in! Sly-ther-in!"

She watched as the woman put a hat on her head, which started to move. It then spoke…in her head.

Hmmm…very intelligent…maybe Ravenclaw…but strong determination so maybe Gryffindor…oh but you strongly empathize with people so maybe Hufflepuff…hmm no…I see now…that cunning streak…the ability to assess a situation and plan an escape at such a speed…the ability to plan and enact that plan perfectly…you belong in…

"SLYTHERIN!"

The table to the far left cheered loudly, while the Gryffindor table booed. She got up and looked towards the high table towards Severus. Was he her head of house? Almost invisible to the naked eye, he nodded towards her and she smiled slightly. Walking down from the high table she walked over to her new house where she tried to find a place to sit. That is, until she heard her name being called. "Phantom! Over here!" The high screeching, nails against chalkboard, make you want to kill yourself, voice called to her and she walked over to where she found a girl, practically clinging to a blonde boy. He looked her up and down before ordering a slightly bigger boy to move over. She sat down where the boy just moved from and immediately was bombarded with questions.

"So what do you remember"

"What's your last name?"

"Is that your natural hair color?"

"How do you stay so skinny?"

"I can't very well answer you all at once. One question at a time please. I don't remember anything at all. I don't remember my real name, phantom was a name I chose. Yes this is my natural hair color and I don't remember."

Despite her request, she was bombarded even further, so much so that she could barely keep up. Draco, who she found out was in fifth year, was the one who finally stopped the questions saying "I think that's enough. You can ask her questions later."

She nodded gratefully towards him and proceeded to converse with others around her. The girl with the high pitched voice turned out to be Pansy, a very proud pure-blood who was dating Draco Malfoy. She was also in fifth year. Actually, almost everyone around her was in fifth year. Feintly, she wondered how this had happened. Pansy kept insinuating that they were getting married. Said boy's eye twitched every time she mention marriage.

Pushing the theory that they weren't really engaged she said "So Draco, I hope you proposed at a beautiful place that she can remember when your together forever."

His eyes flicked over to hers and hardened as he said "I haven't proposed yet." The skin around his eyes tightened "but my parents are adamant that it be soon…"

Pansy laughed nervously "Draco…the way you say that makes it seem as if you don't want to get married"

Draco took a sip of his pumpkin juice and looked at her with an eyebrow raised "Oh really? I hadn't noticed…"

She immediately brightened up, obviously not getting the hint, "Oh Draco, I just knew you weren't saying that. I just know that when we get married it will be the best day of our lives, and we'll be together forever."

Draco sighed, someone giggled, and Phantom mumbled underneath her breath "Oh Merlin, now even I feel smothered…" Since she was sitting next to Draco Malfoy, she probably shouldn't have said that so she expected something to happen but not for him to step on her foot. Hard. Her jaw muscles tightened a bit as she stopped breathing for a moment. Closing her eyes, she breathed slowly in through her nose, before turning to answer someone's question and stomping on his own foot.

She heard him cough beside her and heard Pansy fuss to see if he had a fever. Phantom felt someone pinch her hand suddenly and she fake sneezed to cover the slight hiss of pain. Casually glancing at him, she noticed a ghost of a smirk as he pretended to converse with someone else. She continued to talk to a girl she learned was, Parvati Patil. Grabbing her fork, she casually, not letting anyone see her, let it fall to her lap. Soon enough, she let her hands fall to her lap as well and grabbed it. Then, as she was shifting her legs, she jabbed him in the side with it, making sure it would leave a bruise.

He sent himself into another coughing fit, which in turn made Pansy fuss over him again, but this time she was adamant that they go to see Madam Pomfrey, who she guessed was the resident nurse. After reassuring her that there wasn't anything wrong and making a loud complaint of the food they served here, he sent her an almost unnoticeable glare. Unless of course, you were looking for it. She smirked at that.

Once breakfast was finished, she rose with the others and walked with Parvati, who was actually a nice girl, if not a bit conceited, but she guessed all Slytherins were like that. She walked with her down to the dungeons until she was stopped by Professor Snape.

"You need to come with me so we can go to hogsmeade to get your stuff."

She nodded and said her goodbyes before walking behind the Professor to the gates of the castle. "Um Professor?"

"What?" His tone was still rude but less than normal so she took it as a cue that she could talk.

"What are we going to get."

He looked at her for a moment and then opened the gate saying "You will find out as we get them." As he stood in the middle of the forest and gate, he held out his elbow to her, which she immediately took. It seemed like instinct. She wished that she could just find out- A jerk in her navel brought her out of her thoughts and she felt like she was being squeezed into some kind of tube that was much to small. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. Then it was over and she stumbled as she tried to catch her footing. Taking a gulp of air she heard him say "Well I guess that means you've never done side-along apparation."

"Or maybe I have and I hated it, just like I do now."

He nodded and she looked around. There were stores all around her. He let go of her elbow and started walking quickly towards a large intimidating white store. As they walked inside, she heard someone say "Coming! Coming!" A slightly skinny man with thin hair came out wiping his hands before looking at Phantom, who was looking at him curiously. "Wand broke, my dear?"

"Nope, lost my memory and have no idea where it is." He looked a bit surprised before chuckling to himself. "I'm guessing you've told a myriad of people."

She smiled despite herself, feeling very welcome in this shop of his. Clapping his hands together, he said "well then, it's time to find you a wand. Hold out your dominant hand please dear." Raising her right arm, she saw him take out his own wand and wave it to bring the measuring tape over to her arm which immediately measured her arm "9 ½ inches. Hmmm maybe…" She watched as he went into the back of the store and brought out a few boxes. Watching as he pulled out a wand and handed it to her. Something didn't feel right, but she swung it anyway. The lamp exploded.

"I don't think this one is the one for me."

He shook his head and handed her the next one.

The others had similar experiences and after a while, she started to get discouraged. She watched as he took a thoughtful stance and started mumbling to himself, before he walked down the staircase to where he was before. He came up blowing dust off a box and waving it away from his face.

"This is one of my experimental wands. It has two cores of unicorn heartstring and centaur hair. The wood is made of weeping willow."

She nodded her head and took it in her fingers. Immediately, she felt a connection, like she had another limb. The air gathered around her as it gave off a glow similar to the light she had seen. She knew this was the one.

"Interesting… Well since that one was one of the ones I was going to throw away but it seems to work for you. Ill take 5 galleons for it."

"Charge it to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Okay."

Professor turned and started walking towards the door. She smiled at him softly, holding her wand close to her heart "Thank you for the wand, sir. I'll make sure to take good care of it." Hearing the ding of the door opening, she hurried over to her Professor but was stopped when she heard the man calling back to her "Come visit me sometime. My name's Gregorovitvch Ollivander, what's yours dear?" She smiled at him fully with her hand on the door "Phantom. My name's Phantom.

With that said, she ran to catch up with her Professor who was now walking to another shop. When they walked in, she saw a myriad of different animals.

"This is where you will get your familiar."

"My familiar?"

"The animal that you will keep with you for the rest of your life, also, you will get an owl. So you can send and receive mail." Walking through the isle's she looked around. There were cats, rodents, birds, and other animals all holed up in cages. She somehow related to them, like she had once been caged in such a way, but in a different way. She paused when she saw a small puppy that looked much like a wolf. Actually, it looked exactly like a wolf. It was on the bottom row and she had to sit on her knees to look at it. It raised it's head and looked at her warily. It was quite a big puppy. It's red fur coat matched her own hair and had beautiful ice colored eyes. Although it had a lot of debris on its coat and the smell of piss and shit wafted over to her nose, she absolutely fell in love with the creature.

"Oh you don't want that puppy dear, she bites, howls and is very aggressive."

Bile rose up in her throat as she said "I'll take her."

"Are you sure ma'am? There are many others here."

"I'm sure."

She rose her hand up to the cage, allowing it to sniff her hand. It growled at her.

"If your sure dear. There are no refunds because we have so many dogs so this is final… Are you su-"

"I'm sure."

She looked at the puppy and took a roll out of her pocket. Tearing off a piece, she lay it on her flat palm towards the puppy. It's ears picked up and it sniffed it warily. She looked up at her, looked at it, looked at her, and looked at it again before slowly putting her snout slightly out of the cage to grab it with her teeth and drag it inside to eat it.

The woman came back and said "Well the puppy is yours… I hope you know what your doing."

"I do."

The cage opened and she watched as the puppy looked at her and growled at her menacingly, and she growled right back at it before quickly reaching in to grab it by the nape of its neck and drag it towards her. She picked it up and pet it head, before holding the rest of the roll to its mouth. She looked at her before eating the roll. She was such a big puppy but so underdeveloped that she guessed it was 3 months old. She gobbled the roll up and licked her fingers before looking at her for a long time. The dog was the first to break eye contact and lay it's head down on her shoulder. The cashier was apparently amazed. "That is simply amazing dear. I knew all it needed was tough love but my father was like no, don't hurt the dog. It's just misunderstood. I knew-"

"He was right. I didn't hurt the dog at all. I simply did what her mother would have done had she been here. She is misunderstood, and if you couldn't see that then I feel sorry for you. There is no such thing as a bad animal, just bad people."

With that said, she walked out, with her professor's eyes watching her the whole time. When she walked out, she realized that he still hadn't followed her and assumed he was apologizing for her behavior seeing as she wouldn't. She snorted. Whatever. The lady deserved it. You shouldn't work with creatures if you don't understand them. Petting the puppy, she smiled when it licked her face and it whined so she let it down. It seemed curious of everything and sniffed everything around her but never went to far.

"You need a name." It looked up at her with it's ears perked in her direction. She thought for a moment, her eyes lingering on the dog er…wolf whatever. Suddenly inspiration hit and she said "Ruby." Leaning down on her knees, she said "Ruby." She barked. Chuckling she said "You like it?" Another bark. "Then that will be your name. Ruby." Holding out her hand, she curled her fingers and said "Ruby, come here." Ruby padded over to her and she was amazed that the wolf-like creature knew what she was saying. Petting her head she smiled at her, and that's when her professor walked out. He looked at her and said simply "You need an owl." That surprised her. She had heard him before and nodded simply to him before looking at ruby and back at the store. Sighing, she didn't want the dog to think she was taking her back to the horrible place and simple walked over to it, leaving the door wide open for her to come in if she wanted. Surprisingly, she came right in and she proceeded to look through the owls until she came upon a simple black owl with coal black eyes. It seemed majestic and opened one eye to look at her. The girl came back with a scathing remark "Are you sure you want that one? A little to normal isn't he?"

She didn't rise to the bait and simply said "Yes I'll take him." Instead of waiting, she wanted to name him now. Looking at him she said "Onyx. That shall be your name." The cage magically opened and she reached in to pet its feathers. It pecked her. Hard. Her dog barked. It hooted. She tilted her head at it, and it did the same before it flew out and landed on her shoulders, closing it's eyes. Bringing her hand out of the cage, she applied pressure to the small bleeding incision and soon it stopped.

"Will that be all?" This was said as if it was painful for the girl. Just to piss her off she smirked and said "Yes that will be."

Walking out of the store with her professor, she let him take the lead this time. Her wolf-like dog beside her and her owl perched on her shoulder. This time was different because Severus took stride only a bit faster than her, easy enough for her to keep up with.

"Attracted to lost causes are we?" It was said scathingly.

She took a deep breath inward to calm herself before saying "There is no such thing as a lost cause." He said nothing more but instead led her into a shop where he talked to the shop keeper. She didn't pay much attention to him but instead focused on her puppy. It was chasing it's tail and it made a ghost of a smile appear on her face. She didn't know why, but it felt like a long time since she had been this peaceful.

A baggy was held dangling in front of her face and she took it from the fingers that held it. What is this.

"It has your clothes in it."

"Did you shrink them?"

"Yes, and it is a bottomless bag."

"Won't they get lost in it"

"No, all you have to do is reach within the bag to sift through all of your stuff. It will never be filled. There is also a reduced weight charm added to it. You will know when it's empty and you will know when it has something in it." He was right it was a bit to heavy for such a small baggy but not to much so. Happy with it, she put it in her pocket on the inside of her robes. Turning around, she walked back out with her professor and familiars. He led her to another store to stuff her baggy with books and supplies, but she had to carry the cauldron.

Soon she handed him the cauldron and picked up her puppy before looping her other arm around his. It was a bit hard but they apparated to the castle, where the owl immediately took for air and her puppy jumped down, a bit confused. Ruby started sniffing everything around her and the professor opened the gate to which Ruby took the initiative and ran right in, pushing past Severus in the process. He sent the wolf-like dog a glare and she growled at him in return. Phantom giggled at that sight to which Ruby's ears perked up towards her and she dashed towards her and attempted to jump up on her. Phantom wasn't having any of that so she took her paws and turned her body then let go, ruby landing harmlessly next to her. Phantom took it a step further saying "No." in a no nonsense tone that stated she wasn't to do that.

Ruby immediately turned on her back to reveal her stomach, and Phantom leaned down to rub it.

"We need to get back to the castle." It was simply put, nothing mean put behind the tone.

She nodded her head and got back up, before taking her cauldron back and walking up the small hill towards the castle. Something was going to happen this year, she could feel it.