The Changing

Grumbling Severus Snape made his way to the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast. He had already had to take points of a couple of Slytherins for snogging in the corridors. He arrived at the doors and swept down the aisle and took his seat next to Minerva.

"Aren't you supposed to be guiding the first years in?" He asked her, clearly confused as to why she was there.

"No I'm not doing it this year, a new member of staff is." That was all she said, and her eyes returned to the door she was staring at before. Severus shook his head and waited for the first years.

The door suddenly opened and Minerva brightened considerably. There was a woman leading the first years in. She couldn't have been any older than 18, and definitely hadn't attended Hogwarts, Severus thought that she might have attended Beauxbaxons, but as soon as she opened her mouth to call the first student to try on the sorting hat he knew he was wrong. She had a Manchester accent, just like him, and he knew that if she had been to Beauxbaxons, she would have a twang of French to her accent. It was then he noticed what she was wearing. She had muggle clothing on. This was peculiar. She had black leggings and a flowered top that came to just below her bum and on her feet she had flat bronze ballet pumps. His eyes moved up her body and noticed she had a nicely shaped body and an ample breast. Her hair was tied in two French plaits and was a burgundy colour which was obviously dyed, and she had square glasses on. He looked around the hall and noticed a few of the students starring at her, and some had become very excited and others looked sad. He noticed that the ones who looked excited and the ones that were sad were all muggleborns, so she was obviously somebody famous in the muggle world.

Before he knew it the sorting was over and the mystery woman was coming straight towards him and then he realised he was sitting next to the only empty seat on the table. Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat and the noise of the hall died down.

"Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts, and a special new welcome to all the first years. Now I have some start of term announcements I would like to introduce Charlotte Smith to you. Some of the muggleborns may recognise her from the muggle newspapers and some of you may have bought her records. You may have also noticed that she is quite young, which is true, she is actually 17, and the same age as you seventh years although she will not be in any lessons, as she is an elemental witch" at this point Severus knew that he was sat next to a very powerful witch indeed, she was much more powerful than he was, Dumbledore continued, "she is here as a guest of myself and Professor McGonagall, in fact she is our Granddaughter and will be helping in the school as a councillor." Severus blocked out the rest of Dumbledore's speech and recalled Albus and Minerva's daughter Annabella and looking at the person next to him he could see some of Annabella in her. He remembered hearing about Annabella's death whilst he was staying in Spinners End and was saddened for the girl next to him, and he made a vow to himself to be as nice to her as he possibly could. He suddenly felt a tap on his right arm, and he turned to face Charlotte, trying to keep his face a neutral barrier.

"Could you pass the Pumpkin Juice please?" was the question that she placed towards him. He nodded at her a passed it across. "Thanks" She replied, "I'm Charley, what's your name?" Severus was bewildered; she wanted to have a conversation with him. Nobody apart from Albus, Minerva and Filius actually talked to him. He cleared his throat and gave her a clear answer.

"I'm Severus Snape, it's nice to meet you", he gave her a small smile, and drained his goblet.

"Oh you're the potion master right? I've read your book on the Wolfsbane Potion, I found it most interesting, where did you get the original theory from?" After that Severus was lost in conversation with her, and when he went to bed that night he felt that he could become friends with Charlotte quite easily.