Chapter 1: A New School Year
Harry continued, “Professor, it’s Miranda’s birthday today, and that’s why we’re all skipping: to celebrate her birthday. Professor Dumbledore gave us all permission beforehand. You can ask him yourself if you’re so concerned.” “That may not be necessary, Mr. Potter. May I ask where all of you are headed?” I decided to respond back with a snotty attitude, “Like that’s any of your concern...Professor.” “I have every right to, Ms. Parker.” I let go of Harry’s hand and took a step forward towards him with my arms crossed in front of my chest. “Oh yeah? Such as?” “I am a teacher and an adult, you know. I have a right to ask where you’re headed, especially on a school day when you should be in class instead.” I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to engage it even further. Then, Snape did something I wasn’t expecting at all.
He walked right up and kissed me on the lips, and Harry’s right behind me. I stood there not knowing what to do or if I should kiss him back...of course I didn’t, though. What the bloody hell is wrong with Snape today? Has he gone crazy or something? Knowing that I wasn’t saying or doing anything, he started kissing me harder and rougher. Right in front of my friends, for that matter! I felt his teeth biting on my lower lip as his tongue was begging in. I pushed him off in a rush, forcefully exclaiming, “What the bloody hell, Snape?! What’s wrong with you?!” He stood there frozen stiff like a deer in headlights, standing in the middle of the road. I bet you’re probably wondering what’s happening and how or why Snape is forcefully kissing me during a weird point in the school year, my birthday, and not by choice.
Well, let me start at the very beginning of it all...at the beginning of the school year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Wake up, Miranda; you don’t want to be late for your first day, honey!”
That’s what I faintly heard as my early morning wake-up call. I opened my eyes and yawned as I saw Hermione was already out of bed and gathering her clothes to get dressed. It was barely dawn when I noticed Molly Weasley standing in the doorway. It’s been two days since what happened at the World Cup, and now it’s time to go back to Hogwarts. As to what happened at the World Cup, I’ll get into that later. Anyway, Hermione and I share a room, whether at home or here with the Weasleys. We don’t mind as we’re always together and can barely be without unless we want personal space. You’re probably wondering how and why I live with the Grangers and share a room with Hermione. Well, I’ve been living with the Granger family since I was six years old. They’ve come to adopt me after my parents had suddenly passed away, and my parents were best friends with the Grangers. Mum and Dad said that at the time, it only felt right to take care of me and my birth parents as to what they would’ve wanted for me.
I don’t know of any family relatives who would’ve taken me in anyway; it saved me from anything worse.
Mum and Dad are dentists in the Muggle world; dentists are those who care for people’s teeth. My birth father was a patient of Hermione’s parents, so that’s how they met and became close friends. Both fathers were friends, so later, naturally, the wives met. In any case, I hope you know the story of Lord Voldemort killing Harry Potter’s parents many years ago. It turns out that Lord Voldemort ordered my parents to be killed. I don’t know how he was alive then and why he had my parents killed, but it somehow happened. My birth father was a Muggle like Mum and Dad, while my birth mom was a wizard; I’m a half-blood, and Hermione’s a Muggle-born. Although I wish my parents were still around so they could see me now and learn that I’m a wizard like my mom. I try to avoid what happened to my parents’ dying, but I remember a lot of that day. Since Hermione and I grew up together, we’re close and feel like sisters. That’s why we can barely separate from each other nowadays.
Honestly, I don’t know much about my family history because I never got a chance to learn it from my parents. Mum and Dad always treat me like I’m one of their own, even though they adopted me. They were there for me when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named killed my parents and haven’t left since. My birth parents did the same thing that Harry’s did, honestly. They both tried to protect and save me from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named powers, yet he won. One of my parents may’ve been a Muggle, but one or both must’ve known enough to end up dying at the hands of the most powerful evil wizard. Maybe they thought I would turn out to be a mud-blood because of genetics instead of a half-blood; I don’t know for sure. Unless my birth mom did things I don’t know about in her life. I wonder if my birth dad even knew anything. My life feels like it hasn’t been the same since that fateful day; now I’m thirteen going on fourteen. I’m about to start my fourth year at Hogwarts.
I’m just a teenager trying to find my way like everyone else.
Just as Hermione and I were about to run into Platform 9 ¾, I flashed back into reality. Yes, this entire time I was telling a short-ish version of my story so far. However, I suddenly remembered the last time I saw Mum and Dad was before we left to go to the Weasleys. Mum and Dad had been standing nearby as they wanted to meet us here to see us off for the year. I hugged them goodbye and said I loved them since I knew I wouldn’t see them for a long time. For some reason, though, I had held Dad in for a hug much longer and tighter, having a horrible feeling. It felt like I would never see him again, but I tried to ignore it. Anyway, Hermione and I went through the platform to the train. After walking towards the train to get on, we met up again with the Weasleys as we hugged them quickly and talked for a minute to say goodbye. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I got on, taking our seats as the train began to move to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
~~~~~~~~~
I was ecstatic that me and all my friends would all be together again for another year.
I missed us being together; they’re all I really have besides Mum and Dad as my step-parents. Suddenly, I heard the Trolley Lady nearby, “Anything from the trolley? Anything from the trolley?” Then she appears in our doorway, looking at us four, “Anything from the trolley, dears?” Ron walks up and says, “A packet of drewballs and a liquorice wand.” But then suddenly, he mutters, “On second thought, just the drewballs.” Harry offers, but Ron says no, and Harry looks at me, “Want anything, Miranda?” “If you wouldn’t mind, I would like a cauldron cake.” He nods his head as the lady finds one and gives it to Harry, and Harry gives her the money. Ron sits down as Harry hands me my cauldron cake and sits down. “Thank you, Harry,” I said to him, smiling. “No problem.” Then suddenly, I softly heard a woman’s voice, “Two pumpkin pasties, please.” I looked over as Harry did, too, and noticed that it was only Cho.
After a glance between the two, she thanks the lady, and the lady asks Harry, but he doesn’t want anything as he’s not hungry. After the lady walked away, I happened to notice Hermione still had the newspaper in her grasp, but wasn’t looking at it, and looked up at us. Hermione stated, “This is horrible; how can the ministry not know who conjured it? Isn’t there any security or?” I shrugged my shoulders in response, “I have no idea.” I mentioned this was going to come up a little later on, from what I said earlier. See, what happened recently at the World Cup was that after it was over, Death Eaters unexpectedly attacked the area. Everyone was panicking, and Harry got knocked out cold for a while. It took me, Ron, and Hermione ages to find him, and Harry’s scar was hurting. Harry and I saw something huge in the sky, but we couldn’t exactly see what it was. Mr. Weasley saved us, and Harry didn’t realize it was Voldemort’s mark, but Hermione and I did.
Barty Crouch thought it was one of us who committed the crime, but Harry realized that the Death Eaters in the masks were Voldemort’s followers. Not to mention that Harry thought he saw a man from afar, but never saw his face. Deep down, Harry and I had a feeling that things would start changing eventually if Voldemort’s followers were on the prowl. Anyway, Ron chipped in, “There’re loads, according to Dad, that worried them. It happened right under their noses.” Hermione and I noticed that Harry was rubbing his head again. “It’s hurting again, isn’t it, Harry,” Hermione stated, “your scar.” “I’m fine,” he simply responds. She continues as she looks directly at him. “You know Sirius will want to hear about this, Harry. What you saw at the World Cup and the dream.” We were silent as I watched Harry write a letter to Sirius, seal it up, mark his name on the front of it, and give it to an owl to deliver.
It suddenly got silent, and after a while, I asked Harry, “So Harry, tell me, do you fancy anyone yet?” He gave me a weird look and shook his head, “No, not really, besides Cho, which you already know.”Hermione chimed in, “I know you fancy someone quite a lot, Miranda.” She winked as I blushed lightly and looked down. “Hermione,” I exclaimed while laughing, and she giggled. Ron asked curiously, “Who is it, Miranda?” She bluntly responded, “Professor Snape.” “Hermione,” I quietly shouted playfully in response. Ron and Harry looked at each other and then at me like I was completely and mentally crazy! I mean, it’s not my fault he’s so mysterious and yet somehow very dashingly handsome in a weird way, besides the fact that he’s my Potion’s teacher. Yes, that doesn’t include the obvious age gap, but something about him is attractive. See, I started to have a crush on him in year three, and Hermione only knew because I told her.
I kept it just between her and me until now, since it would be obvious one day.
Now Harry and Ron know, my other best friends. They said it was obvious to them that I had a crush on our Potions teacher and never bothered to ask me about it. In other words, it was easy for them to tell, but they were too afraid to ask. Probably because it felt weird to try and bring the conversation up to me, it started to make me wonder just how obvious it could be to everyone else that I knew of, or anyone else, for that matter. I mean, if it’s kind of becoming obvious to my three best friends, then who else is it obvious to? Better yet, does Professor Dumbledore somehow know or sense it from me? After all, I don’t know exactly what about him has made me crush on dear Severus Snape over time. Maybe it’s because I’m going through puberty as a hormonal teenager. Or is it because I’m attracted to older males? I don’t bloody know; all I know is something about him just attracts me to him, and I can’t explain it. But what no one really knows is that I used to have a crush on my best friend, Harry...but most of those feelings went away after becoming close friends.
Notice that I said most; some of those feelings beyond friendship linger, but I never say anything cause I don’t want to ruin our friendship. After all that, I couldn’t say anything back for fear of pure embarrassment. Since Harry was sitting right next to me, he rubbed my back lightly, “Don’t worry, Miranda, we’ll support you about this no matter what we think. You’re our best friend; we’ll always be here.” Ron and Hermione nodded their heads in agreement as I smiled softly, “Thanks, you guys. It made me feel better, hearing that.” They smiled back as we leaned into the middle, and the group hugged. For the rest of the way to Hogwarts, we all laughed and talked with one another. As any small group of friends would do on a typical school day, it was nice because it felt like it had been so long since we’d all gotten to do that together. I also thought of the school year because I was interested in seeing how things would go down and thinking about a certain teacher.
