Preparing for a New Year
Severus Snape could say for the first time, well, probably ever, he had enjoyed his summer. As much as one could enjoy spending any amount of time in Spinner’s End.
Between brewing potions, starting up a small owl order business to fund further research, he had started to work on the house among other things. At least if he had to live there, it didn’t have to look as decrepit as it did before when he could hardly be bothered to care about anything. He was moving forward and that meant getting rid of old habits.
Even on the occasions a certain blonde wizard, by the name of Lucius Malfoy, had dropped by, it was no excuse Severus decided.
“So, grew tired of the headmaster, did you, Severus?” Lucius asked in a drawl during his first visit.
Severus narrowed his eyes minutely as he watched Lucius, “I suppose, you could say that he didn’t make it the most pleasant stay. I saw my chance to quit, so I did,” he said matter of factly without elaborating.
“Draco is unhappy with that development, you know?” Lucius continued, his tone turning slightly amused, “come tutor him over the summer, Severus, I can’t imagine it will be,” he glanced around gesturing vaguely, “fun, staying here all the time and Draco misses you, even if he refuses to admit it.”
Severus didn’t comment on the last part but considered the first, “tutoring, very well, Draco isn’t entirely hopeless.” And he was his Godson, so Severus should be spending time with him and if they so happened to bond over potions, well, that wasn’t a loss to the man.
“You seem happier, Severus,” Lucius pointed out, a slight smirk curling his lips.
“Of course I’m happier,” Severus snapped without heat, “I’m no longer forced to look after those dunderheads with their proclivity for turning even the most simple potion into a hazard. They are no longer my problem. You should have seen what some of those Gryffindor brats were capable of.”
“I’m sure,” Lucius drawled as he stood up, “Cissy will be expecting me home, she asked me to invite you over for dinner.”
Severus agreed and joined the Malfoy’s for dinner at their manor where they hashed out a schedule for Draco’s potion tutoring for the remainder of the summer.
Severus spent the rest of the summer between visits to Malfoy manor and living at Spinner’s End, which by the end of the summer looked like it at least wasn’t going to fall in on itself. Severus doubted it would ever feel like a true home but this was as close as he could get.
___
At the Tonkses, Tonks was vibrating with excitement, her mum was going to teach at Hogwarts, how exciting! She was almost sad that she wasn’t going to be there to witness it, but she was going to be asking Hadrian for all of the details, only she had promised not to write to him about this until after he was back at Hogwarts.
She could deal with that, she promised, but it didn’t mean she had to like it.
Ted was of course excited for his wife as well, even if he would be seeing a lot less of her during the school year. As long as it made her happy, he was happy too. This way they had another good reason to stay in touch with Sirius. Of course they had been busy with preparations over the summer and didn’t get many opportunities to visit them, but a lot of letters were exchanged.
It had been some time since Andromeda had last set foot in Hogwarts and even longer since she had been walking through the halls of the castle. She didn’t find it hard at all to admit that she had missed the place. During the last month of summer she had been spending a lot of time at Hogwarts, reacquainting herself with everything as well as getting used to the idea of being the head of Slytherin House. She wouldn’t be Severus Snape, so some changes to how things had been before were inevitable. She just hoped the snakes wouldn’t turn it into a complete mutiny. What a mess that could turn out to be.
She had taken over the potions classroom as well as Severus’ old office and the decorations were brighter and less creepy, at least if Andromeda had to say anything about it.
One of the main things Andromeda had vowed to change was the unfair treatment of the other houses in potions. She wanted to treat everyone equally and teach everyone in equal amounts. She would not let a potion genius slip through the cracks just because they happened to not be a snake. From what she had heard from the other professors, the Weasley twins were rather brilliant in many areas, even if many would consider their talents wasted on their pranks. She had even been told that Severus, albeit reluctantly, had had to admit to a few potions from some of the pranks being brewed decently enough. By Severus’ standards that was high praise.
___
Gilderoy Lockhart had taken residence in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, or well, at least a dozen pictures of him had. Grinning identally from almost identical frames. Gilderoy Lockhart with perfectly managed blonde hair, brilliantly white teeth and confidence that shone even brighter had moved into the quarters that included his new office with a few other portraits of himself. Happy with the decorations he left to mingle with the other teachers, much to their chagrin.
Gilderoy had been there less than a week and the other teachers were all ready to hex him to hell and back. But Gilderoy was completely oblivious to this, he was loved by everyone and the best professor these poor children would ever have, he was sure of that. Oh all of his books were sure to teach the children many valuable lessons, not just on how to deal with werewolves, yetis or hags, but also lessons they could use in their day to day lives. Invaluable life lessons.
Sybil Trelawney was muttering as usual, or maybe a bit more than she usually was, but no one was really paying her any mind. She’s been muttering about death and Grims for a year and a half at least, the others had gotten used to it. Gilderoy was not used to it and he would strike up a conversation with her telling her all about how one best dealt with a Grim, though the divination professor didn’t give much of an outward reaction that she was actually listening to him, that didn’t stop him from droning on anyway.
___
Albus Dumbledore felt old. How did it come to this exactly, he wondered. He had lost his spy. Or perhaps lost was too harsh a word, no, he had merely lost the leash that had kept his spy close. He was sure when Voldemort one day returned, his spy would find his way back to him, yes, he had to believe in that. If Harry wasn’t here, who other than him could possibly deal with him? Yes, it would have to be him, wouldn’t it?
This train of thought had made him frown a bit as he stroked Fawke’s bright red feathers in his contemplation. He had to figure out where Tom was and what he was up to, he would need to know to deal with him but he hadn’t heard any recent rumours. Had he had anything to do with the break-in at Gringotts the following summer, anything at all to do with the late professor Quirrell? No one seemed to know and no one he knew had been able to confirm anything.
His frown deepened, it had irritated him since Christmas that they had found no evidence other than a confirmed and continued use of unicorn blood. It wasn’t like Quirinus, he knew the dangers as well as anyone and he had been a bright man. But he had changed after returning from his travels.
What had happened to him? He regretted not asking the man before it was too late but there was nothing he could do about it now. He couldn’t talk to the dead. Wait… that gave him an idea. He shook his head and filed the thought away for later.
Another bane of his existence was Gilderoy Lockhart, he had been important to the original plan of teaching Harry how to deal with his fame, but he had known for a year now that Harry wouldn’t come to Hogwarts, and yet he couldn’t in good faith wriggle his way out of the contract Gilderoy had signed prior to the last school year and even if he had managed, who would be teaching then?
The headmaster sighed. Why did everything have to turn out to be so complicated when it had once been so simple? They would just have to make the best of it and he had already had candidates for the post next year. But that was next year, no need to dwell on that now. He had to focus on the challenges of this year. With Harry gone, would Tom bide his time or make a move thinking he had already won? He would have to prepare for both, wouldn’t he?
Fawkes let out a sorrowful trill at the headmaster’s swirling mood, but the headmaster didn’t really seem to notice as he began pacing around his office. It would soon be time for all of the teachers to meet before the start of the year, that was what he needed to focus on right now. Tom, regrettably, would have to wait.
___
Gathering together all of the teachers Albus addressed them and started the meeting. Introducing the new members of staff to the old staff members they had yet to meet or who were yet aware of the details of the changes in the professors.
Albus ignored the galleons that had been passed under the table between some of the staff, aware of their betting pools but doing nothing to dissuade them from the practice, he wasn’t about to ruin their fun.
As Albus didn’t keep any Cerberus in locked rooms this year, they didn’t go over any notices or announcements that were out of the ordinary but Filch did hand over an updated list of banned items while angrily muttering about the newest idiotic ideas of wizarding pranking items he would wish to hex if he just could.
“Thank you, Argus,” Albus said pleasantly at the man’s retreating back. “Andromeda, how are you settling in?”
“Quite well, headmaster,” she said. “I am ready to welcome all of my snakes new and old.”
Albus smiled and nodded, “good, good.” His eyes passed over the other professors and heads of houses when Gilderoy coughed to get their attention.
“I am settling in marvellously, headmaster,” he added with a big toothy grin, as if attempting to blind everyone in the room. “I can’t wait to meet everyone. Teaching them will be easy compared to what I have done after all,” he stated proudly and began listing off all of his achievements even if no one in the room were paying attention to him anymore.
Some of the professors even rolled their eyes at their fellow professor.
Sybil’s eyes widened at something Gilderoy said and she stared at him through her thick glasses with such an intensity that several of the other teachers sitting near Gilderoy leaned further away.
“You cannot!” She insisted.
Blinking away the confusion Gilderoy just sent her a blinding smile, “and why is that, Sybil, darling?” He asked, trying his most charming smile on her but the divination professor did not falter.
“Do not hunt the Grims, you will pay the price!” She insisted before she turned her eyes back to her crystal ball, continuing to mutter, this time her topic had turned away from the grim and were leaning towards phoenixes.
“Of course, of course!” Gilderoy nodded as if he had any idea what she was talking about. The remaining professors had just ignored the entire exchange but as Albus spoke up again, their attention turned back to him.
“With that enlightening statement, I think we will call an end to this meeting,” he said jovially. “I am starving, I wonder if the house elves have any mint humbugs,” he said as he left the room.
The other professors got up to leave, none of them interested in sticking around for long enough for Gilderoy to start another round of his bragging. They had better things to do.
Sybil stopped muttering for a moment before she pushed her nose even closer to the crystal ball and practically fled the room as if the room was going to explode from a failed potion experiment.
Before Gilderoy knew, the room was empty aside from himself, “well then,” he said indignantly, “I’ll just answer my fanmail then.” Of course he had brought it with him and he happily began writing replies to any and all of his letters. It wouldn’t do to not reply. His fellow professors just didn’t know what they were missing out on!