The Lion's Lair

A young girl of eleven stepped forward and moved towards the stool. McGonagall put the Sorting Hat on the child. The hat seemed to swallow up the girl's head leaving only her mouth visible.

"Hey, James," whispered Sirius Black to the bespectacled boy next to him. "Won't your sister suffocate under that thing? I mean, look at it!" James Potter was worried, but not for the reason Sirius put forward. His sister was a precocious girl. The mischief caused by the two boys was nothing compared to what she could do by herself. She would definitely be in Gryffindor. He knew that. He also knew she would irritate him to no end. Little did he know that it would be the least of his worries.

"I can not sort this child!" shouted the Hat. The whole hall broke out in surprised mumbling. "What do you mean?" asked the headmaster. "A word in private if you may, Albus?" replied the Hat. Dumbledore motioned to McGonagall to bring him the hat. As soon as the headmaster wore it, it began to pour out its thoughts. Their conversation was audible only to the both of them.

"Albus, you have a Guardian!" said the Hat.

"Are you sure?" asked Dumbledore.

"I'm fairly positive," replied the Hat.

"That is a bit of a dilemma. I can sense all six of them there."

Dumbledore thought for a moment before giving his decision. "Very well then. You know the procedure." The old wizard took off the hat and returned it to McGonagall.

During the conversation between the hat and the headmaster, the little girl scanned the Great Hall. Her eyes soon rested upon a boy on the Slytherin table. She was intrigued, though she didn't know why. He just looked interesting. The boy soon met her gaze and sneered at her. She furrowed her brow at him. Mariannah made up her mind at that very moment on where she wanted to be.

"All right," said McGonagall. "Let's try this again, shall we?" The hat was placed on Mariannah's head. The hat was supposed to make his decision then and there, but something was wrong. Everyone in the room thought that there seemed to be a struggle between the girl and the hat. A minute later the hat gave a rather strangled announcement of her new house. The whole Gryffindor house was in a ruckus, particularly James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Dumbledore was quite shocked by the announcement. The Slytherins were half cheering, half jeering. The little girl was calmly looking straight at the boy at the Slytherin table.

"Hey, Severus!" nudged a student next to the said boy. "What's with you? You've been staring at that girl forever!"

It took some time before the headmaster was able to get the students to quiet down. What happened? he thought. He was having trouble accepting the fact that a Gryffindor Guardian had just been sorted into the Slytherin house.

"She can't be Slytherin material!" cried James. "I know her! She's my sister! She should be in Gryffindor!"

The Potter siblings were in the headmaster's office. Dumbledore was still talking to the hat. "Please, Mr. Potter! Calm down or I shall have Madam Pomfrey over to sedate you." James shut up immediately. "I am just as concerned as you are to know why our dear Ms. Potter here is in Slytherin instead of her intended house."

"I requested it to put me in that house," said Mariannah.

"Requested? That's putting it mildly, my dear. You demanded, threatened, and cajoled me into putting you into Slytherin!" reacted the Hat.

"You forced that hat to put you there?" James said in disbelief. "Can she do that, professor?"

"I'm afraid she just did, Mr. Potter," replied the old wizard. He turned his attention to Mariannah. "Now, child. Would you care to explain why you wanted to be in Slytherin instead of the house I intended you to be in?"

"Intended? Wait a minute. - Intended? -- I don't understand," said James confusedly. "You mean to say with or without the sorting hat, she's supposed to be in Gryffindor? Why? What's going on?"

"Please, Mr. Potter!" The Headmaster's voice was soft but stern. "I beg you to allow me time to find out what happened first."

"I wanted to be in Slytherin," answered Mariannah with uncanny confidence. "I wanted to meet the boy I saw at the table. He looked lonely."

"All this about a boy? What did he look like?" pestered James. Dumbledore looked at the boy with exasperation.

"Well, he had black hair, a hooked nose, deep set eyes. He seems to sneer a lot."

James was horrified. "You - you - you just described Snape!"

"Oh, is that Severus? The one you kept talking about at home during summer?"

"Are you telling me you feel sorry for that bloody bastard?"

"Mr. Potter, please!" boomed Dumbledore.

"But - but - professor -"

"Enough!" Professor Dumbledore had said it with such finality that James suddenly fell silent. "I will hear no more of this. Now my dear, I am very impressed with your abilities. It's not everyday that a child your age can overrule the sorting hat's decision. Since you want to be in Slytherin, then let it be so."

"However," continued Dumbledore. "It has come to my attention that your abilities are also far too advanced to be in the first year. In fact, you will need a very different method of learning for the most part of your stay in Hogwarts in order to address your special talents. Nevertheless, I will need to put you in a particular year just so you can interact with the other students. Since you have taken upon yourself to choose a house, I shall allow you to choose the year of study as well."

"What year is Severus?" asked the girl.

"Wait a minute!" retorted James. "You can't study with the fifth years! The students will tear you to pieces!"

"Will you allow that to happen, Mr. Potter?" asked Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye. James nervously shook his head from side to side.

"Being the big brother that you are, I am sure you can protect your sister from the dangers of being with fifth year students." The old wizard smiled benevolently.

"But I can't protect her while she's in the Slytherin house, professor!"

"Then I shall call on Mister Snape and ask him to guard your sister while she is at their house." That was the end of the discussion.

After everyone had gone, Dumbledore was left looking out the window of his office. "Why didn't you say that she's a guardian?" asked the hat.

"Not yet," answered Dumbledore. "For now she only needs to know she has a very special gift. We do not need to complicate her life any further."

"Argh!" Severus jumped at the sudden greeting. He turned around to find dark brown eyes staring at his with great interest. "Oh, it's you," he said tetchily as he returned to his work.
"My name's Mariannah -"

"Yes, I know! James' sister," he snapped.

A few hours ago, he had been called by the Headmaster and was told to take care of his nemesis' sister while she was in the Slytherin rooms. Returning from the meeting, James and Sirius confronted him threatening to tear him limb from limb should anything happen to Mariannah while in his care. Just when Severus thought that it couldn't get any worse, it did.

"What do you want?" Severus asked without looking at the girl.

"I just wanted to ask if I could sit here and watch you."

"Whatever you want to do," Severus replied callously. "Just be quiet and don't disturb me. I'm trying to mix a very delicate potion." Mariannah took her seat and quietly observed the boy as he added more ingredients to the cauldron.

Severus dropped the wormwood on the floor. He faced his distraction with eyes ablaze from anger. "I told you not to disturb me!" he yelled. Mariannah did not even cringe from the boy.

"I'm sorry," she said defiantly. "But you should read up on the Wolfsbane potion. You'll thank me later that I stopped you from adding that ingredient." Mariannah got off her stool and walked away from him.

Severus eyes followed the girl as she left. The boy mumbled something as he searched his pockets for a piece of paper. He finally found it and began reviewing the recipe. She was right! Had he added the wormwood, he could have been in the hospital ward for weeks. He put down the paper and stared at his cauldron. How had she known the name of the potion? The Wolfsbane potion was not to be known publicly for another eighteen years.