Snape Gets One More Chance (Chapter One)
I was jolted awake by the train lurching forward and continuing on its way. I vaguely remembered the train stopping, and guessed we'd just resumed our travel. It was freezing in my car. I wondered if it was always this cold in September in England. Shame on me for falling asleep and missing the view, but I was all the way jet-lagged and completely alone. I looked out the window into a grey, soupy mess. Apparently it'd been raining like crazy so I couldn't have seen anything anyway. All I could see from the window were shadows of towns and hills that was about it. I rifled through my bag and pulled out my copy of Advanced Potion Making. I absolutely could not believe what I'd gotten myself into. I'd been fairly successful in my potions making class at my American university. I inquired to the head master of the school about someday teaching a potions class to younger wizards, at some point, far, far down the road, and two months later, I was on a train, a train that was picking up speed and barrelling through what I guess was Manchester. I'd inadvertently shipped myself off to boarding school for a year. The plan was for me to work under Professor Severus Snape, one of the world's foremost Potion Masters, to learn what I can from him, and bring what I can back to the States.
I thought they'd made a mistake.
I had no grandiose ideas about myself. I was a Muggle-born witch. Strike one. I was American. Strike two. And I had a scorching case of attention deficit disorder. Strikes three, four, five, and six. The only reason this helped me at all, is I used the obsessive part of the disorder to completely immerse myself in potions making (immerse? Potions? See…I told you…). My one potion that I was particularly adept at tackling was Wolfsbane. I was also hoping that never figured into their decision to let me come and study at Hogwarts because, seriously, nobody wants to need Wolfsbane. I shivered at the thought, the werewolves in America were particularly nasty, and my professors had me working some serious overtime last March when the moon was exceedingly close to the Earth. But that, I guess is my own personal bane. Sorry, I'll stop…
The rain continued to pour down as the train began to slow again. I could see the topography had changed, becoming craggy and hard, but very beautiful. We'd finally made it. The train stopped and I hopped off with all the students at the station, It felt like there were thousands of little teeny students scrambling to get into their transports. I took a deep breath and began looking for a red-haired Professor named Sinistra who was to be my guide into the castle. As I was searching through the freezing rain, I saw a man get off the train with the students. I'd heard that Hogwarts had a higher staff turnover as of late, so I figured he was a new professor of some sort. Suddenly I heard a squeal come from a carriage. "Oh, thank God, it looks like they found someone normal this time!" A witch with an amazing amount of orange curly hair lept out of her transport and was by my side in no time.
"Hi, my name's Aurora Sinistra. I'm the professor of Astronomy here. I gather we'll be workin' together a lot this year, eh?" and she totally poked me in the ribs with her elbow.
"Yeah, I…suppose so…" I stammer away. I had no idea what was going on at this point. I just wanted to get to my room, put my things down, and get settled in. "Right," Aurora piped, "let's get you to your room. I'm sure you're exhausted! Ah, I'm so excited to have someone that's remotely close to my age to work alongside! Well, Professors Lupin and Snape are not far off, I suppose, but still! They don't count." She was a peculiar witch, and I started to wonder if they ever let her out of her astronomy tower. We rode through the weather to the rain-shielded shadow of the scariest castle I'd ever seen. Crap. I also was terrible with directions. How was I supposed to find my way around this massive place? I knew that I'd probably be trying to get to the potions room, and years later some student would find my lost corpse in some hidden coat closet. And no one would know I was missing. Because no one knew I even existed here.
"So, Katie, "Aurora began, "I heard you'll be workin' with Professor Snape," and then, she snickered. Great, I thought. "Okay, what's so funny?" I ask. "Well, I should warn you that Snape's not a huge fan of the Muggle-born variety of wizard or witch. He actually doesn't seem to be a huge fan of much of anything other than sneering and being generally grumpy. He does like to torment the kids in Gryffindor, it's like a hobby for him! Oh, Gryffindor is a house, the students are divided up into houses."she explained. So basically, I've traveled thousands of miles to spend my time with a grumpy Muggle-hater. This was not encouraging to me. "But, on the upside, Professor Remus Lupin's gonna be our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," she chirped. "Really? What's the upside of that?" I asked. "Ah, I've heard he's a stand up man, quite a wizard, and he's not hard to look at if you know what I mean." I assumed she meant the rough-looking wizard who'd gotten off the train with us. "Slim pickins' here in that department I suppose." I said jokingly. Auroura gave an exasperated sigh. "You have no idea how right you are. You're totally, completely, ridiculously right. I go home on holidays just to be reminded that all wizards aren't a. ancient, b. nihilistic, c. narcissistic , or d.just not my type." "So, who's Professor Snape in this scenario?" I asked. "Well, he's not that old, but b., c., and d. fit pretty well", she giggled.
I actually enjoyed talking with Aurora during the trip to and through the castle. She gave me a brief tour of the castle, showing me the main places I needed to know: the Great Hall, the staffroom, the potions classroom, and then, finally, my room. My perfect little room with a four poster bed, a fire place, and heavy drapes for me to hide from the world and adjust to the time change. "All right then, that's the highlights," Aurora said. "They're having the big "Welcome to Hogwarts" ceremony downstairs, but I'm sure no one's gonna be offended if your sleepin' in. Breakfast is tomorrow, and I think you're supposed to meet with Professor McGonagall after breakfast for your schedule. You'll be pretty much assisting wherever you're needed. Here's my advice" ,she leaned in with an air of mischief, "If you get to choose which of Snape's classes you observe, pick the third years. You won't be disappointed," and she winked. "Third years, right, I'll keep that in mind," I said. "Thank you so much for your help." "Oh, no problem, I'm honestly really glad you're here. Besides, I know we have a meeting scheduled 'round about the 26th anyway." She said. "What's the deal with the 26th?" I asked. "Uh, oh…well, nothin'…really, right…I've got loads of work to do, and you need to catch up on your sleepin', so…goodnight!" and she was gone. My bags were already in my room. I stuck my hand in my bag and pulled out a cassette tape. I'd heard that the only Muggle created technology that would work at Hogwarts would be a radio. Music was like a blankie to me, and during times of stress, I needed certain songs. Which were all on this tape. It could have been named "Katie Green's Blankie Tape" and it would have worked. I put the cassette into my radio, hit play, and waited. "Love, I get so lost….sometimes…" and I breathed a sigh of relief as Peter Gabriel's voice floated out of the speakers.
I fell on my bed and floated out of consciousness.