Chapter 2

"Sirius wants you Sam." Alexis stated as they started to unpack and change into their pajamas and night gowns. The Gryffindor girl's dormitory hadn't changed since last term. The walls where stone the four-poster beds red and gold.

Samantha closed her eyes, "No, he doesn't."

"Actually, I think he does as well Sam. He's liked you since our Fourth Year." Annabel added.

"No, he doesn't. He asked me out in Fourth Year but I turned him down and since then he has been busy with about a hundred other girlfriends." Which was true, Sirius Black was one of the most sought after boys in the school, not even the Slytherin girls could deny the fact that he was gorgeous, though they all refer to him as a blood traitor because he was the only person from his pureblood family to be disgraced into Gryffindor and not Slytherin.

"But he obviously wants to go out with you now. Don't you want to give him a chance I mean he's the most sought after boy in the school, not even the Slytherin girls can deny the fact that he was gorgeous." Alexis wrung her hands in the air between them.

Samantha chuckled. "If you like him, then you go out with him."

Her face fell, "I would but he has never asked me out."

Samantha felt a bit guilty for saying it. "I'm sorry Alexis. I know you have liked him for quite a while. Among other reasons, I don't want to go out with him because that would be a horrible thing for me to do to you."

Alexis straightened and looked nonchalant, "That was a while ago, and I have gotten over it."

But this wasn't true, Samantha knew this and she and Annabel shared a hurt glace for their best friend.

Just then a group of Gryffindor girls came talking noisily into the dormitory. They all seemed to be huddled around someone and chattering all at once at her.

Parts of their conversation drifted over towards them.

"No." Some girls said in disbelief. "But last year…"

"Is it true Lily?"

"It's about time, Lily!"

"How long?"

"You're so lucky."

Alexis, Annabel and Samantha rolled their eyes and continued unpacking as the chattering continued and grew even more irritating as all the girls followed Lilly Evans to their side of the room since her four-poster bed was right next to theirs.

Lily finally spoke and everyone quieted, "Ladies please! It is none of your business what is happening between James and me. And no it is not at all true!"

The cloud of girls started to disperse after that – some looking sad, others disappointed and some looking smug and hopeful.

"Potter." Samantha stated as Lilly fell onto her own bed which was to the right of Sam's.

Lily's green eyes burned at her through her veil of red hair. "That imbecile!" She threw her wand onto her bedside table and it fell to the floor. "He showed up at my home for a day during summer. I couldn't have just turned him away – oh but I should have. He spent the first part of the journey to Hogwarts today telling people that we spent the entire summer together!"

Alexis laughed but stopped suddenly at the murderous look Lily gave her. Annabel cleared her throat, "What a stalker. How did he know where you live? Lily you didn't, you never told him where you lived did you?" A scary thought that.

Lily snorted, "No, I hadn't." she shook her head, "You would never…you would…he wrote to my mum. And she invited him over." She finally said, horrified.

Samantha smirked but said nothing.

Alexis said, "What an awful thing for her to do."

"I know, and she likes him! She said that he was a handsome, nice, mature wizard and would be happy for him to come back." She looked sick. "She is obviously blind, deaf and has poor judgment."

"Petunia must have had the time of her life saying awful things about you to him." Samantha added into the conversation.

A smug smile spread over Lily's face, "I had never thought that I would be grateful to her for anything. But that way she irritated him, I think I'll love her forever."

That was an even scarier thought. Lily's sister Petunia hated Lily and everything to do with the Wizardry world. Her family knew that it was because she was jealous that she hadn't gotten an offer from Hogwarts and she hated the way her muggle family gloated about having a witch in the family.

"Sam, I didn't see you on the train. Did Toby give you a ride again?" Lily finally smiled.

The girls giggled and Samantha rolled her eyes, "Yes, Lily. I had to run along side the train and jump onto it, you should have seen it, I am sure I made quite an impression on the people at the station."

"You didn't tell us that, Samantha." Annabel said in horror, "You could have fallen into the train tracks and been severely injured."

"Thanks, Annabel, perhaps severely injured by another train. I hadn't been thinking the same thoughts." She said sarcastically. "You will never guess with whom I had to share a compartment with." She said after a moment.

Lily and Alexis looked up at her and Annabel stroked her chin. "It wouldn't happen to be Sirius Black."

Alexis shook her head, "I think she would have sounded more distressed if it were he." She smiled.

Lily picked her wand off of the floor where it had fallen when she had thrown it at her bedside table and laid it by the lamp. "Besides he was in the compartment that James, Remus and Peter were in." She looked as though the idea irritated her, "James told me…" She grumbled, "When they cornered me and forced me to sit by them during the feast."

"They do help him to get you near him, don't they?" Sam said in pity and finally told them, "It was Severus Snape."

Alexis looked taken aback, "You were stuck in a compartment with that boy for that long? How did you manage to not have died of boredom?"

While they all got into their beds Lily said quietly, "That's awful." And turned to face her desk.

"What did you talk about?" Annabel asked.

Alexis scoffed, "Can he even talk?"

Sam laughed, "Well, we argued." She made a show of scrunching up her face in confusion. "I don't know if that can be considered an actual conversation. He is quite rude." She told them.

"He's awfully strange that one." Annabel said through a yarn.

"Strange, more like unhinged." supplied Alexis.

Closing her eyes, Samantha whispered in agreement.

The next morning Severus sat in the back of the Potions classroom polishing his cauldron. It was the final year and last term students were allowed to narrow down their subjects to subjects that actually interested them and corresponded with their career interests. Potions was one his, best classes, he had always gotten the best marks a lot of which had to do with his pure talent and reading books that weren't on the booklist.

Earlier that day he had been bitterly reminded by other Slytherins that in the seventh year all four houses were combined for classes – he hadn't remembered this. What a pleasant surprise, he scowled.

Of course he was the only student on time and ignored the rest as they came into the classroom filling it with noise and laughter.

Sam was going to be late to her first class. She halted in the doorway just in time not to be too late. Professor Slughorn was just about to close the door when she walked past him into the room. He greeted her with a reprimand and a smile and allowed her ahead of him. She looked around the room, spotted Annabel and Lily towards the front of the classroom but didn't see a vacant seat near them. The only vacant seat she found was at the far back of the room, right next to…great…Severus Snape…of course.

Sam dropped her bag at the foot of the table and slid into the chair next to Snape. He looked up from his textbook and his already bored face fell.

"You." he accused.

"Don't worry next class I promise to come early so that this never has to happen again." she said and pulled out her Potions textbook, parchment and quills. She heard him give a sniff and she started to glower.

Professor Slughorn cleared his throat and once the room was quiet said in a cheery voice. "I hope you are all sitting by someone that you can tolerate because the person next to you will be your partner for the duration of this year, when not preparing individual coursework of course."

Samantha's eyes widened and she heard Snape curse next to her.

Partners with Severus Snape? For an entire school year? Everyone else was paired with people in their own houses except for a few Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw duos, but she knew for a fact that they were friends.

Her hand shot into the air and it wasn't just Professor Slughorn's attention she got, the entire class was watching to see how a Gryffindor would get out of being partnered with a Slytherin. Well not in a dignifying way. She was prepared to grovel.

The Professor glanced her way, "Ah yes, what can I do for you Miss Cromwell?" When she didn't respond but waved for him to come over he gave a sigh and walked towards the unfit pair.

Once the Professor was next to her she cleared her throat and asked, "Sir is it really for the entire year? Is there no chance of switching partners at all?" She felt Snape inch away from her and she turned to see if he actually had the audacity to look embarrassed by the situation but he only looked as outraged as she felt.

"I could be partners with Sam." She heard Annabel from the front of class. Had everyone heard her? Sam wondered.

Everyone turned to Annabel, including Lily who gave her a horrified look and Annabel's cheeks pinkened as she realized what that meant for Lily. She looked like she wanted to take it back but she was torn because both Sam and Lily were her good friends.

"Well if no one objects to the partner change then Miss Evans, gather your things and switch places with Miss Cromwell." Professor Slughorn said.

Samantha gathered all her Gryffindor courage and took in a breath – she wouldn't do that to Lily. "Actually, never mind." Students stared at her, the Professor raised a curious brow, Lily looked relieved and Annabel looked utterly out of her element. "Unless Snape still has a problem with this."

She felt rather than saw him straighten in his chair as he said, "I could complain about it, however why should I waste my time in doing so? I for one can excel in class no matter how lowly educated the person I have to work alongside."

Samantha's fingers formed a fist under the table but she ignored him as did Professor Slughorn who quickly said, "It's great to see our houses finally working together, Miss Cromwell." Students grimaced and a few laughed nervously as the Professor, Head of Slytherin called their attention again to talk about the different topics they would be learning over the next few months.

When everyone was facing the front of the class Samantha turned to Snape with fiery eyes, "Lowly educated? At least I have friends that tried to save me from being partnered with the likes of you for an entire year."

"Yes, and that seemed to have changed your position greatly." He retorted, giving her a smug look.

"I didn't want to expose Lily to your vile existence for more than she already has to face it, I wouldn't want to curse anyone to such a feat."

She watched his eyes smoldered, and realized she had finally struck something deep. Point for Gryffindor. "How very noble of you, Cromwell. I have to say I am curious as to how someone with your past grades in Potions could be allowed to continue with this course into N.E.W.T. level. What was it you got last year again?" Point for Slytherin.

Samantha gets quite decent grades, however last year she didn't do very well in Potions at all. Leave it to her luck to be partnered with him in the one subject he could mock her about. She guessed that the only bright side to this situation was that her partner was the brightest Potions student. This didn't lighten her mood in the least.

Thank heavens that they were only taking notes for today's class. Snape couldn't imagine trying to prepare an actual potion with her, he could already imagine her doing something completely wrong and jeopardizing his prefect grades in the class. Later he was going to ask Professor Slughorn if her mistakes will affect him. He was probably going to end up doing all the work himself. She would love that – a Slytherin slaving at a Gryffindor's feet.

He looked over at her parchment; of course she had neat handwriting - because she had barely written anything. Gryffindors – all about the appearance not the brain. He looked at his own scruffy spidery handwriting. He already had almost a foot of parchment with notes and thoughts.

When he was finished and everyone else was still scribbling away he stared at nothing in particular, until his eyes shifted to the girl next to him. She had her head lain upon her folded arms and her parchment was left to dry to her right. Since he was also to her right he had full view of her work and he began to read over it.

No wonder she didn't perform well in this class. She didn't take adequate notes – they were vague and to the point. There was no detail or seen understanding. He frowned and began to reread his notes, expanding on some areas.

Samantha was glad when the class had finally ended. She had Care of Magical Creatures next out in the grounds. Everyone was already out of the classroom by the time she reached the door and she reached it at the same time Snape did. They bumped sides, stared at each other and pushed to go out first. Point for Gryffindor. She headed down the corridor and was met by and apologetic Annabel and a thankful Lily.

"Thank you." Lily said shyly with guilt all over her face.

"I should have never caused the situation." Annabel said quickly.

"It's okay, I would never do that to Lily, and no one else would have been willing to switch anyway so you proved your loyalty Annabel. I appreciate that." Samantha said as they started towards the stairs that led up to the first floor.

Lily sighed, "Although now I know that you're more loyal to Sam than you are to me."

"Oh no I -" Annabel sounded horrorstruck.

"I'm just joking Annabel." Lily added with a laugh and linked her arm in Annabel's, who looked grateful but still slightly unsure. "That list of potions we have to make looks completely complex this year."

They all agreed.

At the castles front doors students were hanging around busy chatting. They joined Alexis who had just arrived from Study of Ancient Runes.

"Was that class always so boring?" she asked as they headed out into the grounds towards the Gamekeepers hut. Hargid, the school's young half-Giant Groundskeeper was an assistant to Professor Fauna, their Care of Magical Creatures Professor because with his love of all beasts he had access and knowledge to all sorts of species.

Samantha laughed, "Yes it was."

"Why did I choose to continue it?" she grumbled.

Annabel filled her in of what transpired in Potions class as they drew nearer to the hut.

Alexis showed her empathy by saying, "Wow, bad luck is surly doing a number on you, Sam."

Samantha gave her a feigned smile.

"You think that he is somehow forcing these sick events to happen so that you spend time with him?" Alexis speculated. "He is also very adept at the Dark Arts, you know."

Samantha rolled her eyes and Alexis and Lily giggled.

Annabel frowned, "He's only adept at Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Alexis stared at Annabel, "You do know that I was only joking."

Annabel looked at her plate, "Of course I knew that." But Alexis wasn't so sure.

Lily cleared her throat, "Well he is also practically a Potions master. Sam you keep saying that there is no way you can ever pass that class with an exceptional grade, perhaps you can learn from him." Lily - always trying to see the best side of things.

"I did think about that as I tried not to stick my quill in his neck. But we would never be able to be civil enough to each other for me to actually learn something from him, that much is clear. He even had the gall to push my past marks into my face. Dirty little serpent."

"Samantha! I have never heard you say anything that negative about anyone." Annabel disapproved.

Samantha looked up at her friends, "Well now I have reason to." It was true she wasn't one to judge or be malicious but Severus Snape had her harsh aspects assured.

After lunch Samantha, Lily and Alexis walked together to Transfiguration which was on the second floor. On entering the class they saw only one other person. Severus Snape sat at the back of the class alone and busily bent over a book.

Samantha stiffened and her hand on Alexis' arm tightened a bit. "A second class we share, in one day? This is awful."

The trio sat at the front of class and chatted as more students filed into the room. Sirius Black, James Potter and Remus Lupin came in after a while and sat behind the girls.

Lily sniffed and Sirius laid a hand on Samantha's shoulder.

"Hey Sam, how was your summer, you never did answer me." he reminded her.

She sighed but turned to talk to him for a while. He did what he usually did, flashed his perfect handsome smile, told her about random amazing things he had done over summer and listened to everything she had to say.

Samantha turned around just in time to see Bellatrix Black walk into the room on the arm of Rodolphus Lestrange. Bellatrix Black was Sirius's cousin however she would never acknowledge him as such, as he would never acknowledge her as her a pleasant female. He didn't qualify to her superior idea of what a true pureblood would be and the fact that he was put into Gryffindor just added reason for her despising him.

Bellatrix could have been beautiful, and perhaps many people thought that she was. But she wore her hair wild and it made her look crazed. Also her attitude showed in her exterior, giving her harsh and unforgivingly mean expressions.

The chatter in the room died when Professor McGonagall swept into the room and gave out chapters to read in their newly subscribed textbooks.

AN:- So, that's the second chapter - what'd you think?