Chapter One: Meeting Hermione

Severus was lying on his back, his eyes closed, slowly emerging into consciousness from what felt like a decade long sleep. Thoughts and sensations flooded his mind as he awoke. He saw a beautiful woman with shimmering silver hair raising her hand in front of his face; a run-down metal playground surrounded by fog; and a pair of startling bright green eyes peering out at him from a veil of mist.

Severus tried to dam the flood of mental images by opening his eyes, which only resulted in a blinding white glare burning his retinas. He quickly closed his eyes once more and began to take stock of the situation.

He was lying on something gritty and hard that he thought might be concrete. His body felt strange—he wasn't in pain, exactly, but he was uncomfortable, as though his skin was stretched too tightly over his frame. He could feel the heat of a newborn sun across his face, and guessed that it was early morning.

Slowly, Severus opened his eyes once more. This time he was prepared for the onslaught of light and allowed his eyes a few minutes to adjust.

Once he had gotten used to the light, Severus carefully raised himself up from his lying position until he was sitting with his legs splayed out in front of him, his arms propping him up from behind.

Looking around, Severus realized that he was sitting on someone's front doorstep. To his left was a quiet, peaceful looking street, lined on both sides by tall trees and small brick houses. To his immediate right was a pale blue door, which presumably led into a brick house similar to its neighbors.

Suddenly the blue door swung open, revealing a pair of bare feet with pink-polished toenails. There was a moment of intense silence, and then Severus felt two small hands grab him roughly by the collar and drag him inside.

He heard the door slam shut as he was thrown onto the floor. An instant later a sharp stick was jabbed against his neck and he heard a woman's voice hiss—

"Who are you? Tell me now!"

"Sev—I don't know," Severus said. Something buried deep inside his memory told him that his name was Severus Snape, but given the dubious circumstances, he decided not to say this. Anyway, he wasn't entirely sure whether that was his name.

"I know you're lying. Now tell me your name," the woman said, raising her voice slightly.

Severus slowly raised his head to meet the eyes of the woman who had hold of him. He saw soft brown irises, pale lips, and a mess of curly brown hair.

"I honestly don't know," he said curtly. "Now if you would please remove that infernal stick from my windpipe, I would be much obliged."

Severus saw the woman's eyes widen slightly, though the pressure on his neck didn't lessen.

"Tell me quickly how you came to be on my front doorstep, please," the woman said.

"All right, but only because you said 'please,'" Severus smirked. He opened his mouth to tell her why, exactly, he had been reposing on her doorstep moments before—only to realize that he himself had no idea how he had gotten there.

A/N: So this chapter is insanely short, and rather lacking in plot development. I apologize. Future chapters should be considerably longer; I just wanted to go ahead and get something posted tonight. Please review!