As they neared the Great Hall, Arielle grew more and more nervous. Finally, she went nearer to the professor, took his hand and tried to make herself as small as possible, while not hiding behind him. Professor Snape looked down at her with a raised eyebrow, but didn’t retract his hand. Instead, he squeezed it a little and opened the doors to the Great Hall. Arielle’s eyes swished left and right, trying to take in as many details as possible. When they stopped at the ceiling, her mouth opened in surprise. There were so many stars on it! How did they do that?

“The ceiling is charmed, so that it shows the sky up there,” the professor helped her with an explanation. Nodding a little, she kept the eyes on the stars and stepped even closer to the professor.

They approached the Head Table like this, Arielle being unaware of the stares that they got from the other professors and the twinkling the Headmaster’s eyes did as he watched them. All she was aware of were the stars in the sky. When she finally lowered her head, she saw that there were a few people at the table already. There was the Headmaster and Hagrid, a tiny man with white hair, a strict looking woman with her hair up in a bun and a slightly plump looking woman with a friendly smile on her face. She wondered who they were, when the Potions Master walked forwards and introduced her to them, “These are the heads of the Houses I told you about. Professor Flitwick is the Charms professor and Head of Ravenclaw. Professor McGonagall is the Transfiguration professor and Head of Gryffindor alongside of being a Deputy Headmistress. And this here is professor Sprout, Herbology professor and Head of Hufflepuff.” Arielle nodded shyly to everyone and followed professor Snape up to the Head Table where she sat down in a chair next to him and to the right of professor Dumbledore.

The dinner was a lively affair. The professors were nice and Arielle relaxed slowly and even begun to ask questions about the subjects the professors taught. She decided that Charms and Transfiguration were the most fascinating of them. She also heard about the other subjects and the electives which she would be able to take in her third year.

As the dinner drew to an end, Arielle was almost asleep and was leaning on professor Snape's side with her eyes slowly drifting to a close. After a small nudge from professor Dumbledore, professor Snape turned to see what Arielle was doing and was surprised to see her sleeping. He did understand it, though. It had to be a big day for Arielle and to learn everything new in one day was energy-consuming for everyone, especially if they were only eleven and abused at the previous home. Previous meaning that she would never have to return to the Dursley's household. Severus Snape had made sure of that, by yelling at Dumbledore who told him about the blood wards.

Sighing deeply, he quietly excused himself from the others and after picking Arielle up, made his way to his... no, their quarters. There, he carried her to her bedroom and put her on the bed. She moved a little, only to put her head in a better position and continued to sleep.

Severus was feeling confused a little, but he wouldn't tell you that even if you threatened him with a Balding Hex. After searching through her clothes that they bought today, he found the sleeping gown Albus gave her last night and with a small blush made to change her clothes. He had never changed clothes of someone before; therefore the work was slow and difficult, because he was giving his best not to wake the 'sleeping beauty' up. Where that word came from, Severus didn't want to know...

ooOoo

When Arielle opened her eyes, she was confused for a second, but then remembered that she must have fallen asleep in the Great Hall and smiled at the thought of professor Snape carrying her to her bed and changing her clothes. Stretching lazily she grinned up at the ceiling. She wasn't at the Dursleys any more. They couldn't hurt her. With a yawn, she shoved the covers off of her and sat up in the soft bed. She looked around herself and grinned at the sight of Caeryn sleeping on the left of where she had her head, and Coco sleeping, on the porch that must have been brought here sometime when she was asleep, with her head under her wings.

Sliding down from her bed, she put on the pink slippers that professor Dumbledore gave her, and padded across the room to the dresser where she picked her clothes. This time it was an amber shirt, dark brown trousers and after combing her hair with the comb she found on a night stand, put her hair in two pigtails with two amber hair-clips. All in all, she looked lovely, Severus Snape decided, when she came out of her room to the living room and greeted him with a smile on her face.

Breakfast was over quickly and Severus brought his work to the living room to make class notes (face it; he just didn't want to leave Arielle alone in his... their chambers. Merlin, this will take long to get used to), while Arielle started reading her new textbooks. His heart felt a bit lighter when he saw her concentrated face as she read the Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling. It was obvious that she intended to learn as much as she could about the world she just entered before starting on her subjects. He couldn't fault her for that, so he concentrated on his own work after glancing at Arielle once more.

Meanwhile, Arielle was totally immersed in the book she had bought. It was a bit boring to read, but had so much new information about the Wizarding World, that she would have a hard time getting to remember it all. Luckily she had something people called a photographic memory, and thus hadn't had many problems with remembering things she had read about.

ooOoo

The summer flew by much in the same manner as that second day. Severus was working on his school work and Arielle was reading on her school books. In the afternoons they would walk around the school with Severus explaining things to Arielle or on Hogwarts grounds. She would have quite an advantage over the other first years when the school started. She had also grown close to most of the staff. She had been allowed to call professor Dumbledore Grandpa, professor McGonagall became Auntie Minerva, professor Flitwick was Uncle Filius and Hagrid was Hagrid. The only staff members that Arielle didn't feel comfortable with were professor Quirrell, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher. She would definitively not be taking Divination in her third year. She had enough of the Death predictions professor Trelawney made whenever she saw her for a life time.

ooOoo

The night before the 1st of September came quicker than she hoped. She and Severus as she got used to calling him, were sitting in front of the fireplace and drank Butterbeer, another of the great Wizarding things. Butterbeer was a Wizarding drink with a very small amount of alcohol made from caramel and honey. It was delicious and no words were needed when someone asked her if she would like to drink it. She would always say yes, no matter who invited her... well, not exactly like that. She would go if Auntie Minerva, Uncle Filius, Grandpa, Hagrid of Severus asked her.

But tonight she was a bit too nervous to be able to drink the Butterbeer in relaxation as before. Tomorrow would be her first school day and while she knew how to go around the school, was emotionally attached to some of the staff members, knew the books by heart, she was still scared about those 'what ifs' that could make your life bad. For example, she asked herself, what if she didn't get any friends, what if everyone wanted to be her friend because she was Arielle Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived and so on.

She was brought out of her musings when the glass of Butterbeer disappeared from her hands. She looked at them before raising her eyes to see Severus putting the Butterbeer on the table nearby, before turning back at her with a raised eyebrow.

Luckily she got to know the man a bit more and knew that this was a sign of worry if it was directed at her. She also started to count the number of different glares he gave people who annoyed him and wondered if she should write a book with a title Hundred and One Glares of Severus Snape but changed her mind. She would leave that idea for later, if ever.

“What's wrong?” asked Severus. Arielle blushed and looked at her fingers while mumbling something about being nervous about the next day. Severus sighed and sat down next to her. While he didn't touch her nor do anything of the emotional sort, it always made her feel better to know that he was just next to her. They didn't need words to communicate and that made Arielle feel special. They started to have a bond, for a lack of better word and Arielle started to look up to Severus, maybe even love, but she wasn't sure about that yet. She still didn't know the man for that long. She gave him a smile and leaned back on the sofa after grabbing the Butterbeer from the table and took a sip.

Soon after it was time for Arielle to go to bed. She had packed her school things earlier in the day and put the casual clothes and the school uniform in the trunk Severus had said to buy. It had three compartments so she could put school books and other stuff in one compartment, clothes in another and whatever she wanted in the last one.

After cleaning her teeth in the bathroom across the hall, she moved to the living room where Severus was still reading and sat down next to him. She wanted to snuggle to him but knew that they still weren't that close for her to do that, so she just peeked over the page of the book to see what he was reading. It was a Potions book of some sort.

Pulling her feet under her bottom, she looked at Severus, who was watching her for some time now, and said, in a quiet voice, “I just wanted to thank you for taking me away from the Dursleys and for taking care of me for all this time, before I go to bed. I just wanted you to know that it means a lot to me.”

She looked down to her fingers again and then jumped up from the sofa, before Severus could say something, and kissed him on the cheek, then ran for her room. She stopped at the door and turned to him and said with a smile on her face, “Good Night, Severus!”