The Beginning

A/N: I am so sorry that this has taken so long. Real life bites and came and bit me in the ass. Anyway, normal disclaimer: don't own anything familiar, all OC's are mine though, so don't sue. would like to own, but think JKR would not be too happy:)

anyway please tell me if this story is worth continuing. I would really appreciate feedback. so R&R please:) thanks and enjoy.



~ Chapter four: Return to Hogwarts ~

Isis met up with Remus and Sirius at when everyone was trying to get off the train. “I’m sorry if I hurt you Sirius.” She said. “I just wish you would respect the fact that I like Severus. I want to see him. If it doesn’t work fine, but this is what I want.”
Sirius smiled despite himself. “Don’t think on it Isis. Want to ride with us?” He said gesturing toward Remus, Peter, and James.
“I can’t.” Isis said. She looked truly sorry. “I already told the other girls I would ride with them.” Isis blushed. “I really like them. Especially Lily.”
“You’re not alone in that one.” Sirius said raising his eyebrows at James.
“So I heard.” Isis said.
“May I walk you to your carriage?”
Isis nodded. He was halfway to the self-drawn carriages when Isis stopped.
“You have thestrals pulling your carriages?” Isis asked.
“Oh you mean the invisible horses. Yeah.”
“You’re lucky you can’t see them.” Isis muttered.
“They ugly?’ Sirius asked jokingly.
Isis stayed silent. “I hope you never see them.” She said climbing into the carriage where the other girls were waiting.
“What house are you in?” Sirius called after her.
“Gryffindor!” Isis shouted. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
Sirius felt his heart swell. “I hope you change your mind about Severus.” He mumbled. He walked to the carriage that he would ride in and joined the others for the bumpy ride into Hogwarts.
* * *
The Great Hall was, well great. The evening sky was reflected in the enchanted ceiling. Long candles floated in midair and Isis was struck with awe she’d never seen something so old still in use. She smiled fondly at Sirius when he sat down next to her. Isis felt a strange attraction to him. She had the most insane urge to lean across him and kiss him. She liked the way his long hair brushed his shoulders and kept falling into his eyes. She found his voice irresistible. It was deep and smooth like a heavy cream.
Isis’s eyes flicked across the room and met Severus’s eyes. He smiled at her and tried to brush his hair out of his face in the same debonair way that Sirius did. Unfortunately he was not as smooth and wound up getting more hair in his face. Isis smiled kindly and pretended to brush a few strands from her temple. Severus carefully pushed his hair behind his ear. He really wasn’t that bad looking either. Isis wasn’t sure if she felt the same attraction to Severus that she did to Sirius, but she wasn’t sure that Sirius wasn’t just something she lusted after.
Dumbledore sat behind the staff table looking rather pleased and exuberant as ever. Isis felt suddenly grateful. This was the only man in the world who could understand the impossible weight on her, not to mention the only person that didn’t have a least one fear about Voldemort. As Dumbledore lifted his goblet he too caught her eye and nodded. Isis stared down at her golden plate and wondered where the food was. She felt very hungry.
The hall went quiet as a tomb when the sorting hat was placed on a stool in front of the school and about fifty scared looking first-years lined up to try it on.
As Isis gazed at the hat, she seriously wondered what kind of spell had been placed on the old wizards cap to make it able to select the right house for a student. Suddenly two flaps in the hat formed lips and the hat began to sing
The road has brought you here to Hogwarts School
But for you to remain you must use your mind as a tool
For your mind is what I see and place you with your kin
Ignoring me would be a sin
I am a thinking hat so entrust yourselves to me
I will show you where you ought to be
In Hufflepuff were only the loyal lie
In Gryffindor were the brave are willing to die
In Ravenclaw where the minds are stunning
Or perhaps in Slytherin who value cunning
Where ever you go you will belong
This much I know for this is the sorting hat’s song.
Everyone clapped at the end of the song as the sorting hat bowed to each respective table. Isis watched as the first years were sorted and felt a sense of awe rise up in her. Everything about the castle already intrigued her. Maybe England wouldn’t be to bad, she thought steeling a glance at Sirius and another at Severus.
Then mounds of food sprang onto the table. Hams, turkeys, and some food Isis didn’t recognize. Flagons of pumpkin juice seemed perpetually full. Isis saw a seventh year boy try to change the pumpkin juice into butter beer and sighed. Then again some things are the same wherever you go, Isis thought.
Sirius reached across Isis to get some ham and winked at her.
Isis smiled back and leaned in to whisper to him. “I think you’re cute.” She said.
“Really?” Sirius asked. “You like me?”
“Kind of.” Isis said stubbornly holding on to her anger from the train. “You’re a nice guy when you want to be.”
“Why would I want to be?” Sirius asked impishly before returning his attention to his meal.
Isis looked up at the Slytherin table Severus and a boy who looked hauntingly like Sirius were looking at her with interest. She smiled and saw that Severus broke into a wide grin. Isis felt her heartbeat increase. She fidgeted through the rest of dinner and afterward was not all surprised when Severus walked up to her at the Gryffindor table.
“Hello.” He said silkily leaning in to whisper to her. “Would you like to take a walk with me?” Severus blushed slightly and pushed his hair behind his ear again.
“Yes I’d like to.” Isis said holding out her hand.
Severus took her hand and Isis felt as if it had been lost in a mass of bony flesh. Upon closer inspection his hands and feet seemed too large for him. He really was awkward close up, but Isis could see the handsome man he could be. They walked across the grounds and Isis began to shiver, her cloak was in her trunk.
Severus stopped and took of his cloak. “Here.” He said letting his hands clasp the silver fastenings. Isis covered his hands with her own and looked into his dark brown eyes.
“Thank you.” Isis breathed. Something about the way Severus offered his cloak and tenderly put in on her made her feel as if she was melting. Isis and Severus stood there for a long time just staring fixedly at each other. Taking each other in.
Finally he put his arms around her back and pulled her into a loose hug. “You’re very beautiful.” Severus mumbled.
Isis blushed again, “Are all British men so flattering?”
“Only to pretty ladies.”
Isis felt even more blood rush into her face. She pushed her hair back from her face in a flirtatious way and saw Severus’s jaw drop.
He opened and closed his mouth several times finally he uttered one word. “Elf?”
Isis sighed deeply, of course he didn’t know. “Yes. I’m an elf.” She answered.
“Well.” Severus said, “That explains a lot.”
“What does it explain?”
“How a woman like you could take interest in a man like me.”
“Do you not like me just because of my race?”
“Isis I do like you.” He cupped her face gently. “I just know that I can always count on you to be as innocent and honest as you were today.” Severus looked into Isis’s face held her eyes with his. “Shall we continue to walk?”
Isis nodded as Severus dropped his gaze and his hand. “So tell me about yourself.”
Severus smirked, “There’s not much to tell. I live with my mother and father in Liverpool… I… uh… I’ve never dated before. I’m interested in potions making and the dark arts.” Severus stopped and looked at Isis, “That is I like to study the dark arts. Not use them.”
Isis smiled in what she hoped was an encouraging way. “I like a man who uses his mind.”
“Then… uh… maybe I can be your man.”
“Maybe.” Isis answered coyly.
“We should probably get back.” Severus said casting a disdainful look at the highest window of the north tower.
Isis nodded. “Okay.”
Severus took her hand and led her to the entrance hall. At the stairs he took his cloak back and said goodnight.
Isis watched him walk away. It was really more of a stomping prowl, but she found it strangely arousing. Isis could feel the hairs on her arm stand up as if she had been struck by lightning. She walked up the stairs to Gryffindor tower, or what she thought was the way to Gryffindor tower. After half an hour she finial found the painting of a very stern plump woman in a pink silk dress staring at her.
“You’re late.” The painting said to her.
“Sorry I had a date.”
The woman in the painting rolled her eyes. “Password?” she asked agitatedly.
“Orion.”
The painting swung open. Isis’s immediate impression was lots of red. Red tapestries and chairs were strewn about the room. A fire was crackling merrily in the grate and Isis went to warm up in front of it. A large hand grasped her shoulder from behind.
Isis gasped and turned to find Remus standing in front of her.
“How was your date?” He asked kindly inviting Isis to sit as he dropped down into a chair.
“Oh it was very nice.” Isis said evasively. She licked her lips. “Is he always so… awkward?”
“Severus?” Remus asked. “Erm… there is no nice way to put this. He’s as awkward as a fifty pound note in a collection plate on Sunday Mass.”
Isis sighed. “He seems really nice. He let me borrow his cloak. I forgot how cold it gets here at night. Anyway we walked for a while and I think I’ll see him again tomorrow after lessons.”
Remus nodded politely. “Is there a reason that you hit on Sirius and then went out with Severus?”
For a moment Isis thought Remus was joking, but even the fire in the grate sounded angry as is crackled away. “I like Sirius…” Isis said “…but he’s a little too spoiled for my taste.”
“He’s not spoiled.” Remus replied. “His life is a small piece of Hell at home and here he gets into a lot of trouble. I’ve already had to give him and James a detention for practicing that enfeeblement jinx on Peter.” Remus rubbed his eyes wearily. “If you’re going to give Snivillus a chance, give Sirius a chance too. He’s my best mate. Just please. Let him know that it is possible to have a meaningful relationship. He really likes you.”
“I like Severus.” Isis answered defiantly. “He’s very nice.”
“He’s nice because you’re cute, and you know you’re cute so that makes it even worse.”
“Since when am I cute. My own mom never calls me cute anymore.”
“Oh come off it Isis. You’re beautiful and you know it and God knows you’re too nice for Severus. He’ll do anything for power. I don’t want you getting hurt like you did with what’s his name that you dated last year.”
“You mean David?”
“Yeah him. All he wanted was sex. I admit that Sirius probably has that somewhere in the back of his mind, but I think that’s all that Severus will want from you.”
“What’s sex got to do with power?” Isis asked.
“Everything.” Remus said wide-eyed. “ Men will sleep with women to gain power over them and women will sleep with men to gain an edge. Be careful Isis. The world isn’t all pansies and butterflies.”
“You don’t have to tell me that the world isn’t always friendly.” Isis said grasping the stitch in her chest. “I saw my father die! I know that someday I’ll be called on as a natural paladin to lead people against evil; I see the horses that pull the school carriages. I spend my time with you when you’re a werewolf. I have to become a panther to do it, but I keep you from hurting yourself.”
“You only learned to be an Animus because my friends were doing it and you didn’t want for me to feel out of place when I came to visit you. I don’t even know that horses pull the damn carriages; I always thought they were enchanted, and your father died with honor, honor that flows through your veins. Isis you’re a damned princess. What else do you want, a badge that says tragic heroine?”
“I want respect!” Isis shouted angrily.
“That’s funny.” Remus, said, “That’s exactly what Sirius wants.”
“If he wants respect he should try harder to not get into fights. He and James Potter get into fights all the time. I heard about the one between him and his brother on the train.”
“Sirius was defending himself.” Remus said with a note of hostility. “He only fights to protect himself and the people he cares about.”
Isis turned back to the fire. “You’ve never seen what hate can do Remus. Hate stems from anger, and from what I hear Sirius is very angry.”
“Isis let me tell you about his family.” Remus said standing next to her. “His mother is an abusive bitch. She hits him with spells, illegal spells, to teach him how to act. His father threatened to kill him a few times and did beat him to a pulp using muggle fighting. Then there’s his brother, Regulus, he’s a piece of work that one. He regularly tries to pick a fight with anything that moves. Sirius might have turned out the exact same if it weren’t for James Potter. James saved his life Isis. Look past the gossip and use your own eyes.” Remus stood and walked toward the dormitory. “Your dorm is up this way.” He said pointing to the opposite stair. There’s a plaque that says fifth year. G’night.”