If Muggle romance novels are to be believed, a relationship based on friendship, comfort, and commonality is never successful; the young lady always leaves the steady young man for a wild man of dubious character and smoldering charms.  Our heroine, luckily, never read any Muggle romance novels.  With only the most mundane of stumbling blocks, and those encountered easily resolved, Mariah and Silas' relationship grew throughout their remaining years at Hogwarts.  When Silas graduated the next year, he gifted Mariah with a ring to symbolize the promise that when she too finished school, they would be wed.  Silas joined the family business and let a small flat in Brighton with one of his former classmates, saving up as much money as he could for his wedding and to buy a house for his bride-to-be.

Mariah tried not to be lonely her last two years of school, she had her friends and her frequent letters from Silas to keep her company.  Her skill in herbology continued to grow, and she spent the majority of her final year working on a special honors project with Professor Samling.  She wasn't a prefect, or Head Girl, that would have been too extraordinary for our ordinary Hufflepuff.  She was content with her calm and peaceful life and imagined the day that she and Silas would finally be wed.

Sirius Black eventually forgot about the Hufflepuff he was once obsessed with.  He spent his final years at Hogwarts chasing the prettiest girls he could find.  Silas was very amused to read in one of Mariah's letters that Sirius had asked Erin to the Yule Ball – he and Mariah made a bet with each other over which one of them would tire of the other first, but ironically enough they dated for the remainder of their time at Hogwarts.  When Sirius was arrested for murder and sent to Azkaban, Erin moved on, but never found anyone quite like him again.

As to what became of Severus Snape during his remaining time in school, no one really knows.  He was often seen in the potions dungeon, or by himself in the library, but almost never in the company of others.  No one was close enough to notice when the Dark Mark appeared on his left forearm, and none noticed him watching from afar as Mariah stepped on to the Hogwarts Express for the last time.  None heard the vow he spoke as he left her view.  "That little Hufflepuff whore will pay."

End Part One – Stay tuned for Part Two – "The Joys of Revenge"  Coming Soon.

Author's Note:

Thank you all for reading this - this was my first fanfiction to be started, though the second to be completed. I hope you aren't too disappointed by the ending, from comments it seemed that the majority of people wanted to see her forgive Severus. Well, the story isn't over yet! I don't think Severus deserved to be forgiven at this point in the story - and the deep-seated anger that he has is essential for his development into a first-class baddie before his redemption. I enjoy delving into what made Severus the dysfunctional person we see in canon, several of my other stories have this same theme though they attack the problem in different ways. I think it is too easy to say that it was all MWPP and their treatment of him, there would have to be something a little more personal I think. And that's where this came from.

The Joys of Revenge takes place twenty years after the events of the original story; all the characters are very much adults and thus there will be many adult themes in the story, and probably some lemons as well. As a result, the sequel will not be posted in at fanfiction.net, but at . My apologies to any younger folks reading, but it's necessary for the development of the story.

Again, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!