Severus Snape x Student

Chapter 1

My name is Raven Heather Arrowood. I am in my fifth year at Hogwarts and am a proud Ravenclaw.
My parents are muggles, but my grandmother on my father's side was a witch.
I am sixteen years old, which should have put me in my sixth year, however, when I was ten years old, I began to have blood in my urine, lost a lot of weight and was always very tired.
We went to the hospital where they did X-rays, finding cancer in one of my kidneys. In the time span of two years, we were able to cut out my kidney and replace it with my mum's kidney, that she so graciously donated. Usually it would take a month to a month and a half to recover from kidney removal, but I was still showing signs of illness. They searched my body for any cancer that could have spread, but nothing came back positive and nothing was seen on the X-rays.
During this time, when I hit my eleventh birthday, February fifth, 2009, I got a letter.
A letter that changed everything for me. A letter from Hogwarts.
It took a while for my parents to agree to it, and another year of searching for anything in my body, but I finally got to go. I was a year late, but I didn't mind. I was pretty short and fit in nicely without sticking out like a sore thumb. I was sorted into Ravenclaw, which I was really happy about. I didn't like any of the other houses.
Since getting into Hogwarts, my parents kind of changed as well. They seemed to distance themselves from me. I didn't think much of it. I just thought that they felt I was grown up enough to let me decide on things myself. It kind of hurt though too, I only got to see them in the summer and on the holidays.

Now, I am a healthy, teenage girl. It is 2016, and I am ready.
Ready for life.
Ready to work hard.
I am ready.

A lot of my teachers had survived the war of 98, which I think is really great. If there was a war now, I wouldn't have survived it. I'd be one of the first to die.
My Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Snape, had survived. He played a large part in it, actually. I've only heard stories from others, never from him, himself.

It's the second week since school had started. My friends, and only friends, Tylar and Rin, were sitting with me at dinner. We have reserved ourselves spots at the very end of our tables. Rin and Tylar, both Hufflepuff, have their table next to the Ravenclaw table, so we can sit together.

We sat in our spots at our tables and made small talk while we ate. Luckily, we are in the same year. Tylar was held back a year due to sickness, and Rin was just coming into Hogwarts with us.

"Feathers are just bird leaves and I love it," Tylar stated in the middle of the meal. I couldn't help but stifle a laugh.
"Bird leaves?" I questioned. "I haven't heard that one before." I said.
"I know, that's why I said it." He replied.
"That makes leaves tree feathers," Rin added before she took a bite of her dinner. I took a sip of my water.

----

I walked up to the Ravenclaw painting.
"It's shorter than the rest, but when you're happy, you raise it up like it's the best, what is it?" The door asked with ease. I stood there for a moment to think.

"A thumb." I replied after only a few seconds. It gave me a smile and opened. I walked in and went straight to my room. I was given a room with three loft beds that they would save for cases like myself. It's only me, though.

I changed into my night clothes and crawled into bed, grabbing my book from underneath beforehand. I opened my book and began to read, listening to the light tapping on the window from the pouring rain outside.