Daughter of Loss

Just as Simone closed her window and sat down, a small girl with mousy brunette hair came in. She looked like she spent her summer on the beach or something because she was tanned but not in a way so that it looked fake. You could even see her tan line from what looked like a halter top around her neck. She was wearing a pair of faded jeans that dragged to the floor and a slim fitting t-shirt on that looked very vintage. She also had on two necklaces on that looked as though they were the type of necklaces that never came off. One was a black choker that seemed to be make of nothing but black fabric and the other had a woven chain made of red, black, and natural colored fabric and a little charm on it that looked like a skull and cross bones. She had a smile on her face, if it was a shy one, and hunter green eyes. She didn’t have on much make-up like some of the girls did either. All she had on was a little black eyeliner and what appeared to be lip gloss. She was most definitely a first year also but not the type of person you would just go mess with and yet she seemed very friendly and nice, once you got to know her.

“May I sit with you? Everywhere else is full.” the girl said all while looking at her feet. She looked embarrassed that she had to ask.

“Sure, I was looking for someone to talk to” replied Simone, trying to cheer this girl up. She had looked like the type of girl that did not make friends easily and she would be grateful if anyone talked to her. But the words “someone to talk to” were probably not the best thing to say to this girl and Simone wouldn’t have if she had known the girl’s personality at the time.

“Thanks! Oh, and my name is Sara. Sara Tyler.” she said, now smiling. She then moved her trunk (with the help of a nearby prefect) to right above the compartment then flounced to her seat and flopped down, still smiling.

“Oh,” said Simone, looking as if she had completely forgotten that this girl didn’t know her name, “My name is Simone. Just Simone, I was adopted and I don’t like the name Barber much.” she explained looking a little embarrassed herself.

“Okay then, JUST Simone,” retorted Sara, giggling at her own joke and not at all surprised or sympathetic when she found out that Simone was adopted. This was new to Simone, she was used to people getting nervous and being very careful with words around her when they found out. Simone definitely liked this treatment better even if it was a little cold hearted. “What house do you think you’ll be in? I hope I’m not in Hufflepuff, no offence, but my brother is in Hufflepuff and he is just a creampuff.” Now the girl giggled even harder.

“Well, the Barber’s were all in Ravenclaw so I guess there is a pretty good chance that I could end up there. But my mum was in Gryffindor and I think I would like to go there more than Ravenclaw. I don’t even really know why.” Simone had muttered the last sentence, just inaudible enough so that Sara couldn’t hear.

“Well, my parents were in Slytherin and so you can imagine their disappointment when they found out that Brian got in Hufflepuff and Cai, my sister, got into Gryffindor. So most of my family thinks I’ll be in Ravenclaw, you know, to complete the circle.” then the girl seemed to completely change her tone and glared at Simone and quickly added, “Oh, and if you’re wondering, my parents aren’t evil, they hate the whole You-Know-Who thing and never were and never will be Death Eaters. Just telling you now because I could see the way you looked at me when I said they were in Slytherin. Don’t worry, I get that all the time. I just dismiss it and go on with my life, I’m not one to stop my life for someone else.” Simone looked up at this girl who had suddenly changed from insecure and quiet to letting everyone know exactly how she felt. Simone could tell that this girl was probably a very good actor. And that there was little chance of her getting into Ravenclaw with such a Slytherin personality.

“Oh,” was all Simone could say to this long and breathless run on sentence. This girl could talk a mile and minute! No wonder the other compartments didn’t want to sit with her. That of course made Simone feel sorry for the girl and felt better about letting her sit with her. Even if she could talk faster than anyone Simone had ever seen or heard before and she giggled at almost everything she said.

As she turned to look out her window, all she saw was a flash of green and blue dash by. She spotted little houses with a Dutch, or perhaps, French air to their styling perched on large lots of land with a plethora of fields around. “So this is what the country-side of Britain looks like. Everyone says how pretty it is but I would have never have imagined…” Simone thought as her mind left the little compartment she was in. The orange, afternoon sun shone down at just the right angle so that everything had a long, beautiful shadow that made the whole scene as if it was from a child’s picture book. Or as if the angels had painted the setting themselves with the colours of the heavens. Simone just couldn’t soak it all in! She had grown up in Suburbia and just 15 minutes from London so she definitely didn’t not grow up in the country to any extent but she had always wanted to go. This was where she would want to live when she graduated from Hogwarts. But why was she thinking about that now? She hadn’t even seen Hogwarts yet, let alone knew if she could survive it. Now the butterflies started coming. She had trouble sitting up straight and she felt tingly all over. It was this feeling she just couldn’t shake. And she still didn’t know what house she would be in! This was turning out to be more frustrating than she had thought before. If only she could just go into the future after the sorting so that she didn’t have to go through that. But now that she thought about it, she didn’t even know how they were sorted into different houses! Alicia had never mentioned it before! Oh no! What was she going to do! Maybe it was a test, she had gone over her books enough to know that she wouldn’t be made a complete fool but it still didn’t set very good in her stomach. Why hadn’t Alicia ever mentioned it before? Was it too hard and was too horrible to ever talk about! THAT certainly didn’t set well either. But Simone’s thoughts were interrupted by a smug, but not harsh, looking Slytherin prefect.

“You need to change into your school robes now. We’ll be there soon. Oh, and is there anyone in this compartment who is going to be a first year named Simone?” the prefect asked in a voice that told that he was a little annoyed at having to carry around notes for other people.

“I guess that would be me,” Simone responded in a somewhat confused voice. Who would be sending her notes before they even got to Hogwarts?

“Well, here is your note. It’s from Professor McGonagall. Have you done something bad already?” the boy said as he gave Simone the note. After he saw Simone shrug, he rolled his eyes, turned on his heel, and left. You could hear a girl’s voice in the background saying “I told you she would be in the last compartment! And you wanted to start with the front of the train. Ha-ha!” then she coughed something that sounded a lot like “loser.”

The note read: “Dear Miss. Simone, It has come to my attention that the name on your Hogwarts letter read “Miss. Simone Barber.” This is because we do not know which last name you go by. On the list I have for sorting, you are listed as Simone Snape-Potter. Please pardon any confusion this may have caused. I just wanted to make sure that you knew who you were listed as before sorting came. Have a good rest of trip to Hogwarts as we await your arrival. Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall.”

At hearing the name, Sara choked on some Bertie-Bott’s Every Flavoured beans. “Snape?! What the… Isn’t he some teacher at Hogwarts? Well, the look on her face just reads ‘confusion’ so I don’t think she knows about that. She never did mention her father, maybe she doesn’t know. Oo, I just have to know, this is so juicy it could make the cover of the Quibbler!” Sara thought to herself, while watching every move Simone made.

“Well, that’s odd. What’s your name anyways?” asked Sara who was now trying her best to uncover the mysteries of Simone Barber/Snape/Potter had.

“I… I… I don’t know. I mean, I was adopted so my name is ‘Barber’ and I don’t even know what my mum’s last name or my dad’s so I really don’t know.” Simone answered, almost whispering.

“Well, we had better change then,” said Sara, seeing the need for a change of topic. “Don’t want to be still changing when they stop, we’ll be stuck on!” she added to light a fire so that Simone would hurry.

After retrieving her school robes from their perfect place in her trunk and started to change as Sara had. She did feel strange changing in a train car with another girl, but not that she had anything to fear. Yet. She groaned and finished changing as quickly as humanly possible while still looking as if she had dignity and an idea of cleanliness. After sitting back down, she started to finger her wand in the inside pocket of her robes. “Blood wood with essence of Phoenix ash,” she thought inwardly, “Fifteen and a quarter inch long,” she repeated as she had ever since she had gotten it. Better to know it quickly. How was she to know that the sorting didn’t involve knowing about their wand. What if it was the wand that decided on the house? She didn’t have much time to ponder the question, as she heard the conductor speak to the group as a whole.

“First years, leave your things in the train, they will be taken to your room before you get there tonight. Now, everyone please exit the train in an orderly fashion.” the voice seemed to emphasize the last two words and then Simone realized why. The last request was not heard by the majority of the students, as they were already getting off the train and talking with friends they hadn’t seen already to catch up as much as they could on how their summers had gone.

With her heart beating in her throat, she got up to exit the train.

“Sorry,” she muttered as she ran into a red-headed second year boy.

“That quite alright,” he said brightly. “My name’s Percy, what’s your’s?”

“Simone,” she said, quite surprised that the boy didn’t say something more along the lines of “Watch it first-year!” or “Get out of my way, stupid girl.” This boy seemed to be really nice, or at least somewhat considerate.

“Come on Perce!” yelled another red-headed boy, who Simone had figured was his brother, as he got off the train.

“Okay Charlie. Got to go, see you later!” the boy shouted as he made his way over to his brother. “Hope you’re in Gryffindor!” he added just before he blended in with the crowd.

“Okay!” shouted Simone to no one in particular. “Well, now I have another reason to be in Gryffindor. He seemed nice enough. For a boy.” She added as she got out of the train as well.

“Firs’ Years! Firs’ Years over by me!” shouted a monster of a man. He looked as though he had to have at least a little giant in him.

Simone started to make her was over to the man, pushing he way through the crowd.

“Alright, now we’re gonna make our way ove’ to the boats. 4 ter a boat and don’t lean ove’ the ledge ‘here too much. Don’ wan none of yer to fall in. Tha’ wouldn’t be purtty.” said the giant man with a thick accent from who knows where. “Now faller’ me and watch yer step, we got a steep hike ahead ‘fore we get to ther boats. If ya’ fall, don’ bring anyone wit’ ya! We don’ wan’ ther whole group to go down wit ya’!” the man shouted as they started to make their way to a giant lake. “Oh, and my name’s Hagrid.” he added before they got too much farther.

Now Simone could see what he meant when he said “steep hike ahead”. They were now faced with a cliff with a very steep edge that she supposed they had to go down. Oh no, she never did very well when it came to heights or balance. This would be interesting.

Trying not to make a complete fool of herself before they even got to the school, she made her way down the hill. After a lot of stumbling and trying not to make everyone fall, she looked up and saw that she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t very good on her feet. In fact, most everyone was falling a little bit and, to Simone’s surprise, she was hiding the best out of all of them. “Good, I don’t want them to find a weakness in me before we get there!” she thought inwardly as she got to the bottom of the hill.

Simone was now very glad that she didn’t look up too much while making her way down the hill, she probably would have fallen flat of her face. She glanced up when she got to the bottom and was now having trouble looking away. She was now face to face with Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry.

Simone had to remember to breathe as she took the whole scene in. There was a giant stone, grey castle with thousands of tiny windows on all of it’s towers and wall. They were all illuminated brightly and gave the castle a warm glow to it. She could just see enough in the darkness to gaze through an outdoor passage way into a courtyard with a brilliant statue of 4 people. Two wizards and two witches to be exact. She heard Sara whisper in her ear, “that’s the statue of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.” Simone was taken aback.

“You mean those were real people!” she asked nervously at her obliviousness.

“Of course they were! They were the founding fathers, and I guess, mothers, of Hogwarts! Merlin’s pants, how did you not know about that!” Sara exclaimed only loud enough for her and Simone to hear.

Simone felt her cheeks redden at an alarming rate. She knew that Sara had meant it only jokingly but she still felt like the Barbers were leaving her in the dark about too much concerning Hogwarts.

“If only my mum were here…” Simone started to think before the giant man started to give more instructions.

“Now, buddy up! 4 ter a boat. Remember what I said earlier. NO leanin’ over!! Now, buddy up and get in a line.”

He had said this rather forcefully but Simone just expected that he didn’t want to be fired just because some stupid first year decided that looking over the edge of the boat would be cool. Simone could definitely relate, she usually got blamed when the younger kids decided to do something stupid. Now she got to spend an entire year away from them! Yesss!!! Even if she did end up in Hufflepuff, this was going to be the best year of her life!

Simone and Sara got paired up with a blonde girl and a boy with dark auburn hair, the boy looking more nervous than the girl did. He squealed whenever he was getting in the boat and it started to tip. The girl just started giggling along with Sara.

“Hi, my name’s Elizabeth Darcy. That’s Harold. Poor Harold, he’s not going to be a Gryffindor anytime soon. Well, when it comes to sailing that is. He‘s fine every time else, but he just can‘t go sailing without freaking out.” she blonde girl giggled some more at this and didn’t even hear Harold shout at her from the boat that “IT’S NOT MY FAULT! Oh come on Beth!“ as they started to make their way across the lake to the castle.

“Elizabeth Darcy? Isn’t that….” Sara began but was cut off.

“No Pride and Prejudice jokes, okay? My mum was reading the book before I was born, thought it was a perfect name, and now I get stuck with people always making jokes at me.” Elizabeth snapped back in a smug voice that said that she wasn’t putting up with any crap.

“Oh, okay. Just wondering.” replied Sara, now a little cautious looking.

“So, what house do you think you’ll be in? I hope I’m in Slytherin, like my dad. My mum was a Ravenclaw and always seems to be thinking deeply and takes everything to seriously. Don’t want to go there. But there’s nothing wrong with it.” Elizabeth added after Harold shot her a glance that could ice a hot cauldron.

“You’re right, there is nothing wrong with Ravenclaw.” he said decisively.

“His parents were in Ravenclaw, so he’s a gets a little touchy when I started dissing it.” whispered Elizabeth so that Harold couldn’t hear.

“Have you known each other long?” asked Simone, hoping to break the awkward silence that was now hanging over them.

“Oh, we’ve known each other for basically forever. Our mum’s are sisters, twins in fact, and so we grew up together.” Elizabeth answered with shake of her hair to move it out of her eyes.

“Yep, forever.” added the boy rolling his eyes as to say that they had known each other too long.

“Well, it looks like we’re here.” said Sara optimistically as she started to get out of the small boat and on to dry land.

“Thank God! I hate sailing!” exclaimed Elizabeth, which Simone thought was pretty ironic considering what she had been saying about Harold earlier, as she made her way on to land also while holding onto Harold’s shoulder as if he was a rail set in place to make sure she didn’t fall. He looked at Simone and just rolled his eyes and whispered “She’s always like this.”

Simone giggled a little at this. She was starting to like Harold. Which only meant more trouble for her. It seemed like he was going to be in Ravenclaw or possibly Slytherin and she was going to be all by herself in Gryffindor.

After Harold helped Simone get out and he got out himself, the boat sank into the water, waiting to be used again and the quartet made their way to where everyone else was standing. Then, the giant, Hagrid, got out of his own boat and led them to the castle.

Now, standing right next to it, Simone felt like an ant next to a giant! The castle was huge! It looked almost menacing! Simone started to calm herself down and stared straight ahead and strode along with the group until they were led up a set of stairs to be in front of a large, wooden door.

Hagrid knocked on the door and a stern, but kind, elderly lady opened it. But you could tell by the way that she stood and talked that she did not feel elderly and did not act elderly to any extent what-so-ever and that anyone that thought differently could hang by their ears in the dungeons. But other than that, she looked fine.

“Here are the firs’ years Professor McGonagall.” Hagrid said to the lady at the door. So this was the one and only Professor McGonagall, thought Simone. She look kind of scary, don’t want to get on the wrong side of her, she added mentally.

“Thank you Hagrid,” she said before turning to the first years in front of her and saying, “Will you please follow me.”

The first years started to crowd through the door and made their way up another flight of stairs before stopping in front of another two very large wooden doors.

“Now, you are about to join your classmates in the Great Hall for the welcoming feast but before you do that, you will be sorted into your houses.” A lump came to Simone’s throat as she said this. Oh no, the sorting! “The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.” Her voice went from proudly exclaiming the names to, at the end, saying the names with disgust. “I am Head of Gryffindor House,” well that answered that question, “and the other heads are in the hall right now with the rest of the students and staff. Now, your houses will be like your family while you stay at Hogwarts. You will share a dorm and common room with students in your house, you will attend classes with them, and your friends will most likely be from your house as well. I will be right back to bring you into the hall for sorting, stay here and be quiet.” With that, she turned on her heel and sauntered through the two large doors.

As soon as she left, the room started to buzz with excitement.

“What house do you think you’ll be in?!”

“What is the sorting like? Does it hurt?”

“My brother said it was really hard, which probably means that it’s pretty easy.”

Everyone seemed to be talking about one thing, the sorting. Almost no one knew how it was done and whoever did, didn’t seem to be talking. And as usual, all the Muggle-borns were in the dark about it as well as everything else going on.

“The ceremony is ready to begin.” Professor McGonagall said after doing what appeared to be Apparating next to the group.

She whipped around and led them into the Great Hall.

“Did anyone see the door open, because I didn’t and that really freaked me out!” Elizabeth whispered to the group around her and everyone shook their heads. The first years scrambled to get into what could somewhat pass as a line and followed McGonagall through the large wooden doors.

Simone was at awe. The ceiling! It was so beautiful! She knew that it was bewitched to look like the night sky but she didn’t think it would be a carbon copy of it! The stars were perfect and the night was lovely. More of a night to be spent outside rather than in. Then the candles were great! They all floated in mid-air, suspended above the students. The Great Hall’s lights suddenly dimmed as the first years started to make their way down the aisle. It now held a soft glow from only the candles above and the candles on the tables. It was so beautiful but no one other than the first years seemed to even notice. This made Simone remember a quip that Alicia always pulled on her and other teenagers (other than “Stupid teenagers scare the living…” “ALICIA!” that is), “Teenagers would take the Taj Mahal for granted!” Now she knew what Alicia was talking about, they would.

The first years made their way to the front and were told to stand in an orderly line. After a few minutes of struggling, Professor McGonagall brought out a scroll. “Now, when I call your name, please come up to the stool and place the sorting hat on your heads. After you are sorted, please take the hat off and go to your respective table. Abbott, Isabella.”

Isabella made her way to the front. After a few moments of waiting, Simone and the others heard the hat cry “HUFFLEPUFF!” and Isabella made her way to that table, he robes magically turning yellow and black on her way there. The table on the far right exploded into applause as she sat down, relieved.

“Anderson, Preston” was made a Ravenclaw as “Bay, Alice” was made also made a Hufflepuff.

“Black, Adrienne,” said McGonagall with a look of disgust on her face and a roll of her eyes.

“That’s A-dri-en! Get it right, grandma!” whispered Adrienne fiercely as she glared at McGonagall before making her way up to the stand. She sat down and before the hat even touched her head, it screamed “SLYTHERIN!!” as if it didn’t want to touch her. Adrienne made a smirk and flounced off to the table on the far left while her robes turned green and silver. This made Sara and Elizabeth groan because, since they were pretty sure they would be in Slytherin, they knew that now, they had to spend 7 years in a dorm with her.

“Carter, Harold,” McGonagall exclaimed, now more pleasant looking since Adrienne was over with.

Harold made his way over to the stand, not looking scared at all which surprised Simone, since he was whimpering at the thought of sailing earlier. He plopped down onto the stool and waited. The hat was placed on his head and the rest of the world was shut out.

“Well, well, well. Who do we have here? Harold Carter, son of two prominent Ravenclaws. I suppose that means you want to be a Ravenclaw also but don’t get your hopes up just yet.”

“Actually, I want to be in MY house, not my parents. Everyone remembers them, two wonderfully smart Aurors from Ravenclaw. I’m never mentioned as anyone but ‘their son’. I want to be in a house that is meant for me! I want to be in the limelight every now and then! I want to be famous in my own right!”

“Really? Well then, I know exactly what to do with you… SLYTHERIN!!” the hat shouted. Harold was taken aback. Slytherin? How did that happen? Well, no going back now, he thought as he looked down and saw his robes turning dark green and silver.

He sauntered over to the table on the far left and sat down. Some of the kids were giving him awful glares and Harold didn’t really care, he knew who they were, kids and relatives people his mum and dad put into Azkaban. He merely waved and turned to see his cousin winked and give him a thumbs up.“Darcy, Elizabeth,” said McGonagall confused. She looked at the paper again and raised her eyebrows. Anyone that knew McGonagall personally knew that she was an avid Jane Austen reader and so she recognized the girl’s name immediately.

“Please, no Pride and Prejudice jokes.” Elizabeth said sadly before going under the hat as her cousin just had.

“Hello, now who do we have here? Why it’s Elizabeth Darcy, should I be expecting a Mr. Darcy next?”

“For a hat, you seem to know a lot about the works of Jane Austen!”

“Alright, alright, let me see here… loyal to friends but definitely not Hufflepuff material. And, no offence, you’re not going to be the brightest one in your class either so no Ravenclaw there. Let me see, either the Home of the Cunning or the Home of the Brave…”

“Well, seeing as we’re not in America, I would say Home of the Cunning but it is your choice.”

“Well, we know that this one is sarcastic enough but you have a very fiery personality.”

“If you don’t put me in the same house as Harold, you’ll get a chance to know about my ‘fiery’ personality. Literally.”

“Well now, I know just where to put you… SLYTHERIN!!

“Well thank God for that” thought Elizabeth as she made her way down to the Slytherin table where the they were clapping like thunder.

“Downs, Kayla” was the first new Gryffindor and was soon followed by “Dunn, Hailey.”

“Estes, George” was made a Slytherin also and he and Harold hit it off right away.

“Frank, Jameson,” was made a Hufflepuff and “George, Colton,” was made automatically Gryffindor.

Simone was getting sort of bored now that she and Sara had a while to go before their names were called and she knew no one else so she started to look around. She glanced over at the staff table and caught the eye of a pale man wearing all black with a long hooked nose and greasy black hair (although, Simone had no room to talk). He made eye-contact with Simone and a look swept across his face that could best be described as pain and utter disbelief. After a brief second of looking at each other, he turned away and started talking to another teacher on the other side of him so that the back of his head was facing Simone.

“Psst, Sara, who is that teacher over there wearing all black?” Simone whispered to Sara.

Sara’s face lost most of it’s colour then and she said cautiously, “Don’t you already know him? That’s Professor… Snape.” she said and then braced herself for an explosion.

“Snape? Wait, isn’t that…. Oh my God! Could we be related? This is too weird!” Simone breathed so that only Sara could hear.

“Your tellin’ me!” The smug looking girl Simone saw on the train with Adrienne, “Havenforth, Trisha,” was now walking up to the stand.

“Ahh, another Havenforth. I suppose you belong in Slytherin but lets see… Well, you’re smart enough to be in Ravenclaw, that’s for sure, but you don’t seem to be one that would always be working her best for the top of class. Hmm, not Gryffindor, don’t even get your hopes up for that. But very well could be put into Hufflepuff.

“Please Mr. Sorting Hat sir, just put me in Slytherin. You said yourself that you think I belong there and my family would disown me in a flash if I got put into Hufflepuff, although, I don’t mind but Adrienne would KILL me if I wasn’t in Slytherin, even if I don’t want to be for those reasons, I guess I kind of have to be in Slytherin.”

“Well, I guess.. But you would have made a great Hufflepuff… SLYTHERIN!!"

“God, now it’s final… I have to spend the next 7 years of my life being Adrienne’s personal body-guard and slave.” Trisha groaned as she made her way to where Adrienne was sitting smug as a pug, awaiting the arrival of her “friend.”

“Highland, Kelcee,” sat on the stool for almost two minutes before she was made a Gryffindor as well.

“Ivy, Brittany,” was a Ravenclaw as well as “Kemp, Heather.”

“Mildred, do tell me, do you have any idea who that girl over there,” he pointed over to where Simone was standing while she wasn’t looking, “is? She looks just like… Lily Evans.” Even after all these years, the name was still hard to say.

“Well, no I don’t know who she is Severus but she does look an awful lot like Lily. I guess she’ll be in Gryffindor then with two parents from there,” replied Madam Hooch as she took a sip of pumpkin juice.

“I guess so,” replied Severus, trying not to break his own glass with frustration.

“So, this is the little girl that ruined my life! Lily and James’s love-child. Now I have to teach her! HA! This will be one interesting year, if I don’t poison her first…” thought Severus with a smirk of disgust plastered on his face and took a sip of his own pumpkin juice

“McDaniel, Paul” was also made a Slytherin and was greeted with a high-five from Harold and George.

“Look at that Paul McDaniel! He is sooo cute!!” squealed Sara in Simone’s ear just as Paul sat down and shook his thick, brown hair back. “He could sooo be a model!!” Sara added, as though saying, “See! Told you so!”

Simone just smiled but really had her eyes on Harold. He was really nice to her and seemed like a really nice (and cute) guy. Let’s just see how this year goes, she thought.

“Nelson, Tyler,” was made a Hufflepuff to the relief of Jameson Frank who thought he was going to be the only guy in Hufflepuff that year.

“Snape-Potter, Simone,” said McGonagall carefully as she looked back at the staff table to where Severus was sitting. Apparently, he had started choking at the sound of her name and now Madam Hooch was slapping him on the back. At that moment, everyone was looking back and forth between the two Snapes and thinking the same thing, “WHAT!?!”

Simone made her way up to the podium and sat down, wanting more than anything for everyone to stop staring at her. She started to finger her locket. What was their problem anyways? What was wrong with possibly being related with a professor? She only just found out a mere 5 minutes ago and now everyone was going to be on her case for the rest of the school year. Ugh, just as she thought she had gotten away from everyone being on her case 24/7. Then suddenly, the room went away and she only saw the inside of the hat.

“WHAT!? Snape-Potter!?! What gives? This is insanity….” Severus’s voice trailed off as he saw what was between her fingers. An oval, silver locket with small emeralds placed around the edge. How did she get that?!? He thought, his face losing the little colour it had left. His skin was now the colour of freshly fallen snow.

“Oh no, now he’s going to have a heart-attack. This should be interesting.” thought Mildred inwardly as the rest of the hall held their breaths waiting for the illusive answer to all of their questions.

“What!? Simone Snape! Well this is an interesting surprise. Oh, but your adopted so you know just as much as I know about the whole situation. Well, actually, I think I may know a little more. You’re in for some interesting surprises this year.”

“Great, just what I need. But unless you’re going to explain any of this to me, just please get on with the sorting, I’m getting a little queasy from being so anxious.”

“Very well, let me see. Nope, not a Hufflepuff by a long shot. Possibly Ravenclaw but I don’t really think it should be your house. Um, interesting… I would say either Gryffindor or Slytherin for you. Yes… lots of hidden Slytherin qualities just waiting to be found in you. But, you could easily go into Gryffindor. Very brave and independent…”

“Look, I just want the best house for me to shine in. I’m tired of being just ‘the orphan girl’ or ‘the girl with no mum’ or whatever else people call me! I want to be Simone whatever my last name may so happen to be! I’m going to step out of the shadow and be my own person!”

“Well, I think I’ve made a choice, you should be….

“Let’s see who ‘Simone Snape-Potter’ really is” thought Severus, anxiously waiting for the final call, his hands having a death grip on the side of the table and his knuckles were completely white. His face was one of confusion, fury, and heartbreak

“Let’s just hope I don’t have to give Sev CPR this time…” thought Madam Hooch, shuddering at the thought.

“Oh dear” sighed Dumbledore looking back and forth between Severus and Simone.

“Holy Crap! Who is this girl!?!?” Elizabeth whispered to the people surrounding her with a look of horror and confusion on her face.

And most of Slytherin House was thinking the same thing. Quickly, they started discussing to try and figure out who she was. “Well, she could always be a niece or something…” “But wait, wasn’t he an only child?” “Great that means that it’s his daughter or something and for him to have a daughter, that means he would have had to…” at this, all of their faced turned green and one girl seriously looked like she was going to toss her cookies. “Oh God NO! That’s disgusting! Besides, what would ANYONE see in him!?!?” they all started to say just to comfort themselves.

“For the love of tuna fish!” thought Harold, “Simone Snape-Potter?! What the crap does that mean? Oh Gods, the whole Slytherin house is probably coming up with some elaborate scheme to find out everything about her right now even though I seriously doubt that she even knows herself.” he groaned looking around at the confused, smug, and repulsed faces surrounding him. “This is going to go down in the history books as one of the most interesting sortings in the history of Hogwarts.”

And he was right.

“SLYTHERIN!!!” screamed the hat.