Holy crap, I woke up late this morning to find so many reviews and favs and story alerts. I hope the rest of my story earns the same response as this chapter! Thank you Burnedx2, risi, Amusant, notwritten, Padme.G, worrywart, poscdm, and Fantasme Onamarinus for the reviews!

And thank you for agreeing with me on the whole Lily is a bitch thing! Though honestly I should have guessed other Snape fans would also hate or at least strongly dislike the woman who broke his heart

Disclaimer: the story line is mine and nothing else

When potions ended, Snape slammed his book shut and stuffed into his bag before leaving the dungeons in a hurry. "What the Hell did I ever do to him?" Hermione mumbled in annoyance. She gathered her things like he had but much slower when she felt the presence of a few bodies approach her.

"Hey there was a seat right next to me, you didn't have to sit next to Snivellus," she heard Sirius say rudely.

Hermione straightened up and pulled her bag over her shoulder, smiling at her new friends and ignoring Lily. "Snivellus?" she asked confused.

Remus spoke before anyone else could, "Severus Snape, the Slytherin you sat next to."

"Oh is that his name? Fitting, his name sounds like the word severe, probably latin."

"Who cares what his name means? Why did you choose to sit with him?" Sirius asked.

Hermione narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "Well I am new here and I want to make new friends though he doesn't seem interested. Besides I think I recognize him from somewhere, I just can't put my finger on where."

"I thought you couldn't remember anything?" Lily sneered.

"I can't, not anything specific but remember vague things. I know my age but not my birthday for example."

"Bullshit," the redhead responded, surprising the boys with her language.

"Believe what you want Lily. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to Ancient Runes."

"Wait," as Hermione turned around a hand grabbed her elbow and turned her back. She found herself looking into James' hazel eyes who then let go of her arm and began to speak, "I don't know why you are angry with us but at least let us warn you about Snivellus."

"Warn me? About what? Sure he isn't the nicest of people but I'm sure there's nothing to warn me about," Hermione stated.

"That's what I used to think," Lily said in a falsely sympathetic and very superior I-know-better-than-you tone. "I met him when I was eight and first showed my magic. He was really quiet and sweet but after he started hanging out with those Death Eater friends he changed. I tried to stay by him but a little over a year ago the guys were playing a joke on him and when I came to help he started yelling and then… and then he called me a…"

"A what?"

"A mudblood." Hermione's body naturally tensed at the word. It was the same word that was carved into the flesh of her arm, the one that caused Madam Pomfrey to flinch and Headmaster Dumbledore took pity on her. She did not know the exact meaning of the word but she knew the gist of it. It was a derogative insult that someone saw fit to brand her with, a brand that naturally caused her great shame. Another thing jumped out at Hermione as bad: Death Eaters. Sure the name made it obvious but the words caused a shiver of fear down her spine.

"What is a Death Eater?" The group looked at her surprised.

"They are You-Know-Who's followers," Remus answered.

'Who on Earth is You-Know-Who?' "Who is this person you guys are talking about? I've only been here a few days I have no idea who are talking about, is he like a gang leader or something?"

"How do you not know who he is?" James exclaimed. "He's only the darkest wizard of all time and he strives to eradicate all muggleborns."

"Oh…" Hermione took all these information in with as much discretion as she could. She felt that she needed more facts but knew that at this rate she would not make it to her next class on time. "Guys I have to go but tell me this Lily, has Snape ever called you that before or since?"

The redhead hesitated before answering, "No."

"Has he asked for forgiveness?"

"He did."

"And what exactly was the prank? It is my understanding that when people are distressed or embarrassed they lash out at people around them, particularly friends because their subconscious says 'they'll forgive me.' Did you ever stop to think about that?" James and Sirius looked a little angry that she was placing the blame on Lily, Lily looked ashamed and guilty, and Remus looked contemplative. Before any could respond to her, Hermione ran off for her Ancient Runes class.

As she speed through the hallways that held only a trickle of lingering students still, Hermione thought about what she was told of Severus Snape. She only met him a little over an hour ago and he spoke a maximum of seven words to her and yet he had already indirectly caused all this trouble. Maybe it was lingering feelings of angry annoyance towards Lily but Hermione felt compelled to defend the Slytherin boy. And from what few answers she had gleaned from Lily that seemed like the correct stance but then again she was an outsider who knew next to nothing about any of these people.

'I'll worry about this later, it's not like I have to make a decision right now."

Finally she reached the door of the Ancient Runes classroom at least ten minutes late. She slowly opened the door in a vain attempt at sneaking in. "Ah Miss Jean, you have decided to join us," a feminine voice greeted from the front of the room. The woman, who the schedule called Professor Rowan, turned around to look at Hermione along with the class. She was a short pretty woman with brown eyes and hair and wore dark blue robes.

"Yes ma'am, I'm sorry. I got lost…"

"No need for excuses, please sit down." Professor Rowan gestured her hand at the only empty seat in the small classroom. The seat right next to Severus Snape.

Of course the students who had also been in potions immediately began whispering things to their ignorant neighbors. Snape stubbornly continued to stare at the front of the classroom as Hermione walked up and sat down next to him.

"Good, now that that's all settled let's return to our previous conversation. Today I merely want you to review what you already know as well as using context clues to decipher the meanings of some new symbols you have yet to encounter." Professor Rowan pulled out her wand and gave it a quick flick, distributing scrolls to each student. "It should not be too difficult but I do want you to work with the person sitting next to you in order to translate the entire scroll. Once you are done with that, you will see that at the end there is a list of questions that I do want you to answer together."

Hermione heard Snape make a noise that suggested he really rather not. 'Well fine,' Hermione thought, 'I don't want to work with you either.'

The two silently began deciphering the scroll of Ancient Runes while the rest of the class buzzed with conversation. Even though they both heard the Professor say very clearly that they needed to work together neither one thought that she would actually enforce it. "Mr. Snape and Ms. Jean, why are you two not working together?"

"We did not believe it was necessary," the young man answered.

"Well I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for you two to get to know each other," Professor Rowan remarked with a smile. She then patted the desk as she continued, "I want to start hearing some conversation from back here, okay?" Her tone of voice was cheery but made it clear that they had no options right then.

"Yes Professor," the two pupils answered simultaneously.

"Good, now excuse me I need to go monitor the rest of the class." As the blue robed woman walked off to settle down a couple of rowdy teens the two she just left stared at one another. After a moment they turned back to their work and continued working, only now they spoke their thoughts out loud to fake conversation. It did not take them very long to finish their scrolls but then they realized that they had to ask each other the questions.

"Well, let's get this over with," Snape mumbled.

"Did I do something to offend you?" Hermione snapped.

"No," Snape answered. "I'm just not interested in speaking to people who associate with hypocrites," he sneered.

"Hypocrites? I have only been here a few days, the only people I've been associating with are the teachers."

Snape raised an eyebrow, "Oh? So you weren't with the so called Marauders?"

Hermione scoffed, "They came to me, I was grateful for some company. Unfortunately in the last few the majority of them have begun to irritate me."

"Oh really? May I ask who hasn't?"

"Remus Lupin. The rest of them can't keep their noses in their own business, especially Lily," she said forgetting that the young man next to her used to be friends with Lily. Hermione wasn't sure why she was giving all this information away since it was none of his business but the answers just seemed to roll off her tongue.

Hermione did not notice the tensing of Snape's muscles when he heard Lupin and Lily's names, instead pondering questions of her own. "So is this tension between you guys something personal or just inter-house rivalry? If Slytherin's are going to start treating me like you guys treat each other I would like a heads up."

"And why do you expect me, a Slytherin, to answer that?" he responded, slyly avoiding the question.

"You know, I really don't know. I suppose we should get started on these questions," the brunette said holding up the scroll.

Sorry this is later than expected, my profile was a little screwy for the past two days and today it has been windy and stormy but this is my longest chapter for this story so far. Not the two-thousand words I hoped for at first but still

Oh and awesome piece of news, sherry-lin has offered to translate my Tomione one-shot Love Gone Wrong into Chinese, how awesome is that

As always please review