The forgotten sister; Holly Potter

Chapter 1

"Potter, that's another ten points from Gryffindor," Snape sighed lazily; much to the delight of the Slytherins who started sniggering.
Of all the noise being generated, Draco Malfoy was the loudest. Hermione and Ron shot them all angry looks.

"Right, as I was saying, before my interruption from Potter here,"

He began glancing incredibly indiscreetly at the shattered potion that Malfoy had lobbed at Harry, the contents of which was burning through the floor. He could quite easily have repaired the bottle and got rid of the contents but he was enjoying this. A roar of laughter came from the Slytherins and Harry felt his ears going red. He adjusted his glasses as Hermione nudged him gently telling him to pay them no notice.

"...Your potion should now be to a thick consistency coating the sides of your cauldron and should be a puce color with scarlet rippling. If this is the case then take it off the heat and stir continuously until it turns fire-red." Snape started walking down the classroom, his cloak flapping; making him seem even more bat-like. He looked dismissively at Neville's burgundy potion, and flapped on.

Harry glanced anxiously at his potion. It was moss green and smelt indescribably foul. Ron wasn't having much better luck either. His was black, with cranberry mottling and smelt strangely like a mixture cornflakes and burnt hair. Hermione's as usual was perfect. She smiled delightedly and hurriedly consulted her potion book in case she messed it up.

"Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed as he saw Hermione already decanting her's into a bottle. "Why are her's always perfect?"

He prodded his 'potion' with his measuring spoon. Beige smoke began billowing out of it. "Brilliant!" He murmured sarcastically as the smoke thickened. The fragrance of cornflakes and burnt hair was joined by something distinctly metallic. Some more acrid steamy fumes blossomed from the cauldron. The two smoke clouds reacted violently, producing dark purple plumes, that filled the classroom with the smell of hairspray and rotting flesh.

"Mr Weasely, could you explain why the classroom is filling up with smoke?" He asked sarcastically,with a nasty grin forming on his face. He over dramatically wafted the smoke away. "I'm sure you can't and yet the source appears to be your cauldron." He sneered as several students began to cough.

Two students keeled over.

"Scrogify!" He yelled with a lazy flick of his wand. Pink soap bubbles appeared in the cauldron and cleared away the mess "You are to start again and try to read the correct page." Snape sneered flapping away.

Ron looked in horror at his potion book as he saw that he was on the wrong page. There was a resultant chorus of laughter from the Slytherins. Harry's potion went puceish after Hermione gave him a hand but he forgot to take it off the heat. It burst into flames. Hermione doused them, forgetting the potion should under no circumstances go anywhere near water. The fluids reacted, spraying a magenta slime all over Harry and Ron. Both Lavender Brown and Parvathi Patil shrieked and ducked under their benches as the potion spray came towards them. The Slytherins behind Laughed even harder. Draco was slapping the bench, and started to get a nosebleed. Snape flapped over to Harry's cauldron with a sneer forming in his mouth.

"Potter, What in Merlin's name is...?" He was cut short by a loud knock on the door to the dungeon. "Enter!" Snape barked.

The door swung open. A very pretty girl with bright green eyes, and waist length red hair slowly made her way in.

"Um.. I was told to come here. I'm Holly. Holly Potter." She said nervously, hiding behind her curtain of hair. Snape went even paler than normal and looked as if he'd see a ghost.

"Lily...? How....?" He whispered, his voice trailing off.

Holly had been there the night her and Harry's parents had been murdered. She'd gone into a state of shock, after taking some of Harry's hit, and had been in St Mungo's ever since. She'd woken up from her coma a few months ago. Despite missing a year, Dumbledore had agreed to enroll her. The Dursleys on the other hand were not at all pleased about the news of her moving in with them. They particularly loathed her likeness to her mother. Snape was having similar sentiments...

He had lost Lily in his fifth year. After being suspended by his ankles with his own curse, he called her a Mudblood out of humiliation. He had felt nothing but guilt since then. Upon hearing the news of death he was devastated. Of course no one but Dumbledore knew this and he was not willing for everyone to find out about his past. But it was so difficult. Holly was the spitting image of a young Lily Evans, and his head was crowded with flashbacks. She was so beautiful but he couldn't bear to look at her. It was just too painful. His eyes began to fill with tears and he turned his back so no one would see. "Professor Snape?" She asked with her pure, earnest voice; Lily's voice. He cried out and tried to cover it up with a cough but more and more tears streamed down his face. He'd loved her and she was gone. Seeing her Doppelgänger was too much.

"Miss Potter, may I suggest you sit with Miss Granger." Snape inhaled sharply, his hand pointing in the general direction of Hermione. He was still facing the wall. Hermione moved over and cleared space for her. She smiled in a friendly manner to Holly, as she sat down. After all, she was Hermione-the-grade-O-student-always-delighted-and-happy-to-help-a-newbie-Granger. As Snape began copying out more instructions on the blackboard, Holly sat down. All of the boys sitting behind her seemed to be staring at the back of her head in a trance-like state. Even Draco Malfoy, who began drooling as well. Pansy Parkinson noticed this and kicked him sharply in the leg. He howled with pain and banged his head on the bench as he leant forwards to rub it. Holly turned around to see what all of the commotion was about. As she did so, Pansy caught her eye and hissed menacingly at her "He's mine!!!"

"Once you've all decanted the red potion, clean your cauldrons." Snape said clearly, hastily wiping the remainder of the tears. He turned to face the front.

"Now, pour in the potion you made last week. It should be nicely matured by now." He held up a bottle containing a translucent emerald green liquid. Everyone, including Harry and Ron, had a bottle of this.

"Heat it up gently until it goes opaque. Once it has turned opaque, slowly pour out the now cooled down fire-red potion slowly so that it falls in hair-like strands...." He trailed off as he met Holly in the eye. All of the pain and upset that had been building up in him for the past two decades realised itself causing him to double over. He broke into silent sobs and as he tried to suppress them, they just got more violent. He ran out of the classroom his cloak flapping after him. Everyone in the classroom looked perplexed. Snape actually has a heart? He actually feels emotions?

He slumped up against the wall and put his head in his hands. He broke into loud and true sobs. His cries and screams echoed around the dungeon walls. He still loved her and still cared. He was prepared to do whatever it takes to save Lily's son and daughter. He had never stopped loving her. After all this time? Always.