Chapter One

Severus Snape was in a foul mood, it was time for his fifth year potions class and it was the Slytherins and the Gryffindors. He told Dumbledore every year that that was a bad set up and he should change it, the old coot would ignore him and just pop a lemon sherbert. He sighed and stalked over to the door of his classroom; slamming it open, he stood there watching his students. "Well, get in," he snapped and went over to his desk. The fifth years filed in and took their seats. He watched as they sat down and got their books out. He pulled out his wand and tapped the chalkboard; small, neat writing appeared. "Today we will be brewing a potion that you should have no problem doing; as you have now made it to your fifth year potions, you should know how to read and follow instructions. It is, as you can see, a Heritage potion. If brewed correctly, you will be able to see back six generations. Normally, you would need your blood, I have decided that you will use the blood of the second year potions classes. You have two hours to complete this potion. Well what are you waiting for? Begin!" he snapped and went and sat in his seat, he figured since this was the fifth years, he would be able to do his grading without having to hover over them the entire class. He had originally planned to have his fifth year's do the heritage potion later in the year but Dumbledore for some reason did not want him to teach them the potion this year; so to annoy the old coot he was having it done earlier than usual. He did however neglect to mention that he was having the second years test the potion.

He kept an eye on his class as the lesson progressed. He jerked his head up in time to see one of the students cauldron start to smoke. He stood up and bore down on the dunderheaded child, "Foolish brat, can you not read?" he said as he pointed towards the directions on the board. "It explicitly calls for a dash of newt oil, no more. From the looks of this slop you used three. Clean up this mess, you will receive a fail for today. You will be making this up in detention and 100 points from Gryffindor!" he snarled and stalked back to his desk, leaving the girl in tears behind him. Not a sound could be heard as he stormed over to his desk and sat down. The rest of class passed by with no further incidents and soon the students were filing out the door. After capping his red ink, he waved his hand and closed and locked his classroom door. Since it was now lunch time he would eat in his rooms instead. His head had been bothering him for days and he felt like he had forgotten something important and it was setting him on edge. He could feel some sort of change was coming but he knew not what. He sighed heavily as he stood up and headed through his hidden door to his rooms, he sat down and summoned a house elf and ordered his meal. He would need his strength as he had again a Gryffindor and Slytherin mixed class today. He rubbed his temple trying to relieve the pain, some days it didn't pay to get up.