Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I'd actually have money. Since I don't have any money...you see where I'm going with this. This, of course, applies to future chapters as well.

A/N: I just want to point out that the first few chapters will be short and possibly seem slow. I'm doing this so I can get to where Hermione is at an age where it's less creepy for her to have a romance with a man who is almost twenty years older than her. However, since the first few chapters are so short, it shouldn't take very long to get to the good stuff! :p

Please Read & Review!

Severus Snape sat scowling at the head table. It was time for yet another year of teaching these annoying dunderheads. He was particularly annoyed, as this was the year that Harry Potter would be arriving at Hogwarts. His scowl deepened as he thought of his childhood nemesis and the love that was stolen from him. He scoffed inwardly at himself. He couldn't steal what was never yours!

Severus sighed. It was true, she never loved him. They had been good friends once, but that all changed one day. She was always quick with her temper, just as much as, if not more than he was. Which often led to arguments between the two former best friends. Until one day, Severus went too far, and called her the worst thing possible. He had since come to detest the word, mudblood. He had been sorry the moment the foul word left his lips, but it was too late. Lily refused to forgive him and never spoke to him again.

Thinking back on that day always darkened the potions professor's already dour mood. What did she expect, he thought angrily. I was being bullied by Potter and his idiot friends. Completely humiliated in front of the entire school! Severus knew he had gone too far and let his pride get the best of him. But after the embarrassment he endured at the hands of the marauder's, he inwardly rolled his eyes at the name, it was worsened by being defended by a girl. When Lily started yelling at them to leave Severus alone, he could hear the rest of the student body snickering and whispering how he was too much of a coward to fight his own battles and needed a girl to step in.

He knew she was just being a friend, but his pride was hurt. So, he ended the only meaningful relationship he'd ever had with one word. One foolish word, uttered in a moment of anger. He knew he was wrong, but as years went by, he realised Lily couldn't have thought as highly of their friendship as he had. She was very quick to sever ties with him, despite the fact that he apologized profusely, for a month. Severus still loved Lily and was heartbroken upon her death. So much so, that he became a double agent, as an act of pennance for inadvertantly causing her death. But he eventually came to realize that she was never his and he refused to spend his life pining after a memory.

Severus shook himself from his musings and scanned the faces of the nervous first years. He spotted Harry Potter, there was no denying it was him. He was a spitting image of James Potter and Severus sneered. He no longer thought this boy represented what he lost, but his uncanny resemblance to his father did make him start, thinking of the emotional termoil James and his friends caused him on a daily basis when he was a student. He had to remind himself that this boy was not James and quickly schooled his features back to their usual blank stare.

He noticed Potter whispering to a boy with red hair. Another Weasley, no doubt, he thought with irritation. That was when he noticed there was another student included in their little clique. A girl, with bushy hair. She had a small nose and whiskey colored eyes. He noticed, with amusement, how she was shushing them, and when they ignored her, she rolled her eyes and tried to pay attention to Professor McGonagall. As Severus continued to study the girl, he felt a strange pull in his chest. Shaking it off, he diverted his attention to his colleague, as she called the students one by one, to be sorted.

The sorting was now over and everyone was enjoying the feast. Potter had been sorted into Gryffindor, not that he was surprised, along with his two companions. Which he had learned were Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. He shuddered at the thought of teaching another Weasley. Then his thoughts turned to Miss Granger. He had been quite amused when she walked up to the dais to be sorted, and heard her muttering to herself nervously. Severus was too busy watching the girl, with the slightest hint of a smile, that he missed the twinkling eyes of the headmaster looking between him and Miss Granger, with a knowing smile of his own.

After the feast, the potions master returned to his quarters. He poured himself a tumbler of firewhiskey and settled in front of the fireplace. His mind wandered back to Potter and his friends. With any luck, he'll be nothing like his father and his friends, hopefully, nowhere near as infuriating as Sirius Black. He growled audibly at the thought of the animagus. Here's to another year, he thought with a sigh. He downed the rest of his drink in one gulp and headed to bed.