Hogwarts AU! Just a little snippet! The result of too many late night discussions as to what Hogwarts house most of the g.o.t characters would be in. Just for this one I've made pretty much everyone ever the same age:-)

30.

He remembered the first time he saw her- really saw her, that was. He supposed she must have been there all the time, they must have come close every time Hufflepuff shared a lesson with Ravenclaw, but he did not truly register her until the Care of Magical Creatures class in the summer of their fifth year.

They had been studying thestrals. It was relevant because more than half of the class had been too afraid or otherwise unwilling to head out into the forest for the practical aspect of the class. Due to the categorisation of the creatures as highly dangerous, anything other than theoretical study was not forced upon them, and then half of the students would not have been able to see them anyway. In the end there were only some dozen of them who ventured out and he felt, more than usual, that he stood out like a sore thumb among the largely Ravenclaw based group.

As it was, when they saw the creature emerge darkly out of the mists, most of the class fell back in fear, even the Targaryen girl, who was normally the first to run and hug a dangerous creature. It was only her, he noticed, the Stark girl, who went forward, touching it on the nose as though it were a friendly horse and smiling to it as though they were old friends. Hagrid sang her praises of course, and when he called for another volunteer Sandor was the first to offer. He smiled at the girl awkwardly over the Thestral's nose, and for the first time in his life, he experienced a girl smiling back at him.

"My family keep dire wolves," she said with a little shrug.

Then the moment was gone, Daenerys overcoming her fear and demanding to be allowed her turn.

It was still two weeks before he plucked up the courage to talk to her. But he could have sworn he had caught her look his way once or twice in that time. But maybe it was fear, or disgust. It usually was.

In the end she found him. He was down by the lake in the shade reading up for his OWLS. He knew they weren't going to go well, but he figured he stood a chance of a decent grade in Care of Magical Creatures if nothing else. He had shut himself off from the rest of the day and almost jumped when he heard a shy, curious "Hello" above him. He looked up, trying not to squint in the sunlight; god knows his face was bad enough without that. And it was her, the Ravenclaw girl with the beautiful eyes.

"…hi," he managed.

"Can I join you?"

He forced himself not to ask why; why a pretty girl like her could possibly have nobody better to be with. He had seen her going around with those Tyrell girls; they had to be better company for her than he was. In the end he shrugged;

"If you want," It came off more abrasive than he meant it. She didn't seem to hear it. She just sat down. He didn't know where to look and the only thing it occurred to him to talk about were the Thestrals. He almost opened his mouth to say "So who died?" before shutting it again quickly.

"I saw you," she said, eventually into the awkwardness – "In care of magical creatures. The animals like you."

"Yeah," he said, almost exhaling audibly in relief – "Animals like me better than people, I reckon."

"Why?"

"Have you seen me?" She had, he knew she had. He had seen her look and then wonder where and if to look.

"My brother did it," he blurted out, surprising himself even more than her. He had never told anyone this before and had no idea why he was starting now –

"It wasn't an accident in potions, or with a dragon like they say. I know what they say. It was Gregor. I'd borrowed something of his, he thought I'd taken it – I hadn't – I was only playing." He could not quite help, even ten years later, how defensively it came out. He saw sympathy sparkle in her eyes and told her the rest not looking at her.

"Your brother –" she frowned – "Gregor Clegane in Slytherin?"

"Yeah," he grunted – "Everyone was so proud of him. Then of course he got made Beater on the Quidditch team and was bloody good at it. Probably going professional when he fails his NEWTS."

"You play for the Hufflepuff team," she pointed out gently – "I've seen you. You play much more fairly than anyone in Slytherin."

"It's not hard."

"My sister's seeker for Gryffindor," she added, stretching her legs out in front of her – "All my family went to Gryffindor. I think they must be quite disappointed in me." She sighed and looked at her hands. He looked at her sideways and it took great daring to say –

"I don't see how anyone could be disappointed in you."

She smiled then, and he was suddenly dizzyingly afraid, a drop opening up in front of him that was going to swallow him. He wanted to make her smile like that forever.

"You're – too kind."

He frowned;

"I'm not. You're too polite. The littlest singing bird in Ravenclaw tower, aren't you?"

She somehow failed to take this as an insult and faced him with another smile, holding out her hand –

"I'm Sansa Stark." He did not shake it.

"I know who you are, Little bird. Everyone knows, the Starks are one of the oldest wizarding families in the country – with the Lannisters."

"My brother Robb takes classes with Jaime and Cersei Lannister," she supplied. He nodded. He remembered the day Cersei Lannister had been sorted into Gryffindor. Nobody had ever seen a first year student so furious. She had thrown the Sorting Hat half way across the hall screaming at it to take it back. For a moment there they had all thought she would set the hat on fire but her brother Jaime had taken it off her and only when he too had been sorted into Gryffindor did she begin to calm down. Lannisters had been going into Slytherin for as long as anyone could remember; everyone could only imagine the mortification Tywin had felt when his oldest children defied this convention, leaving only Tyrion to carry on the Slytherin torch a year later. Sandor reminded her of this now. She laughed. He was not sure he had ever heard anything so pretty.

"But –" she went serious – "I sort of know how she felt. I felt like I'd betrayed my family when the hat said Ravenclaw. We've not had a Ravenclaw since my aunt Lysa."

He shrugged again –

"Guess there's advantages to muggle parents after all."

She smiled. A bell rang up the hill. Sandor swore, following it up with a gruff sound that was almost an apology and standing up quickly.

"Class?"

"Defence against the dark arts," the groan was clear in his voice – "With Professor Baelish".

"Ugh -" She even wrinkled her nose prettily "Baelish is the worst. Doesn't he sound like he's trying to speak in Parseltongue?"

Their hissed impressions of the professor took them most of the way back up to the school. For one brief moment before they said their awkward goodbyes Sandor almost but not quite took hold of her hand.

_x_

Uff, I feel like I've been gone a hundred years – family holiday keeping me from my writing I'm so sorry! Still I'm back now, just wrote this for a warm up before I get back the more serious AUs!

If anyone cares I'm a total Hufflepuff. Baelish is such a Slytherin and I could probably tell you where I think everyone in the books or series would go! I'm also open and available for lovely arguments with anyone who has different ideas on the matter! (as long as it's not Sandor, he's the Huffly-est puff that ever Hufflepuffed! Just look at his house colors!)