You can hinder me, but you'll never stop me

Time For a Change

The aurors were stunned as they found piles upon piles of evidence pointing toward the severe neglect the Potters had bestowed their daughter. Reports from her previous schools, concerned neighbors, even the helper at the grocery store had expressed their concern since she was always alone. But there was always something that dismissed the reports that were made, such as 'she's always on time at school and looks well taken care of' or 'the parents must be busy working'. No one ever properly checked. Some of the aurors had even met the girl, and upon first sight there appeared to be nothing wrong.

Until one looked a bit closer.

The antisocial behavior, acting way past her age, the perfect grammar, it all pointed to being isolated from being separated from others her age. Now that they knew what they were looking for, there was an unending amount of proof of this girl's mistreating.

Graduated pre-school at age of 8, never went back. When her parents were asked how old she was when she graduated, they both answered 11. They couldn't name a single hobby the girl would supposedly have, save for playing the violin, which the girl claimed to have played for perhaps a few months when she was little.

It was public knowledge that the boy-who-lived has been receiving training since he was five years old. It became apparent that when interrogating the house elves that the girl had always remained home, and her care was placed in their hands.

It was a miracle that the girl had managed to survive for this long. Her rebellious act that put the aurors department upside-down was a lot easier to explain now. The girl had never had any boundaries. That was only for when her parents were home. The girl had repeatedly been spotted in an abandoned part of town over the years, there were people that had spotted her in the dead of the night outside, kilometers away from her home. The aurors didn't know what to make of the girl. A perfect average student, both at her pre-school and Hogwarts, without any parental supervision for nine months a year at minimum. Only to then be made out as a dark witch on the grounds of being intelligent. It was repulsive.
It was quickly decided that the custody of the girl would have to, at least temporarily, be given to someone else. Sadly enough, when the Potters were faced with the choice to either fight for custody, or keep the whole ordeal quiet, the demands for their daughter died down entirely to fast. They didn't even want to fight. When the girl was informed of this, she seemed saddened, but not surprised. Like she was hoping it to not be true but knowing that it was false hope.

Severus Snape was called in, much to the court's surprise, as the only suitable and available guardian for the young girl. The teachers of Hogwarts had warned that the man and the girl didn't mix in the slightest, yet they didn't have another option so soon. When Miss Potter was informed of the identity of her new temporary guardian, a deep sneer drowned on her face.

She looked at the aurors in front of her, "Why? Just... Just why?" she asked them.
"Why what?"

"..." Her face blanked, and she spoke in the most deadpan voice she could muster. "Why does life hate me this much?"

"Uh," Both aurors didn't know how to reply to that. They looked at each other, hoping the other had a response at the ready.

"I hate everything." She said, glaring a hole in the wall. "I mean, life seems to hate me, it's only fair."

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

A few day later Jay was sitting outside on the grass. The past few days hadn't been as horrible as she'd thought. Severus – as he allowed her to call him in private – hadn't been as horrible as she'd thought he'd be. It was actually pretty normal, and how weird that was to think about. Turns out he actually knew a bit about parenting and wasn't as strict as she expected him to be. The new rules had been a bit annoying, sure, but he wasn't a pain in the ass most of the time. Her parents were given the order to leave her alone for now, so she could settle in a little, even if she was still at school. Most evenings she spent doing homework and extra research in Severus' quarters. The new rules for her, namely no more studying after 9, did demand she changed her schedule up a bit, but the man still didn't know about her midnight reading or escapades in the RoR. If she had a say in it, it would stay that way too, there were just some things that she wasn't willing to share.

One thing that did change, was Draco Malfoy. Since the start of the year the boy hadn't been pestering her as much as last year, and it seemed more forced. Now that she was officially Severus' charge, he quit it all together. She didn't know why, but she caught the boy looking her way more than once.

Unfortunately, news of her 'arrest' had come out, on top of half the Slytherins suddenly being indifferent or even nice to her, well...

"Hey Potter! How long until they finally put you in the slammer?" She looked up to see a boy with messy brown hair look down at her with a sneer. A Gryffindor, several yeas older than her, stood with is chest puffed out ridiculously while his friends laughed.

She looked sideways to Neville, "I'm not even going to bother giving a response to such an absolute idiot." She said with a snort.

"Whachu say little brat!?" The boy took a few steps forward as his friends stopped laughing.

"I said you're an idiot, why dignify you with a response?"

"Shut up you baby Death Eater!" The conversations around them started to die down as more people started to notice the possibility of a fight breaking out.

"Daww, he's adorable! He honestly thinks that I'm scared of him!" She and Neville share a laugh, both knowing she could have the boy one his knees in under a second.

"Yeah, but he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, don't take it personally. How may O.W.L.S. did he get? Four or something?" Neville commented, looking the picture of unimpressed.
That was a bit to much payback. The boy came at them, obviously aiming to punch them.

He had no idea how to fight with his hands apparently, it was so bad the hardest part about the 'fight' was not bursting out laughing at how easy it was to dodge the punches the kid threw.
"Jay, what page did we need to read for Charms?" Neville casually asked, not even paying attention to the fight.

"Pages two till' fourteen and the first page of chapter two." She wasn't even out of breath while the boy looked ready to drop. He hadn't hit her a single time.

"And what is going on here exactly?!" The high voice of McGonagall rang out over the murmuring of the crowd that had formed around them.

Ah fuck.