Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters. In this story I've ignored Albus Dumbledore's , Sirius Black's, Severus Snape's deaths...everyone but Voldemort that died in the books I blocked them out while reading them and will do so here. Enjoy!
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She stood behind the stately mahogany chair, still as one of the suits of armour that graced the hallway leading to the Great Hall, and just as morose. When they had all entered the headmasters' office she had greeted them at once with a handshake, a slight, warm smile and sincere nod, then receded back into her stoicism. Considering her circumstances and theirs this was a most unfitting first meeting, which should have been filled with mirth and questions, many questions. It started like this...
~Six Days Ago~
"Well, Harry what does it say?" Arthur Weasley asked from across the Burrow's overcrowded dinner table. Harry Potter unfolded and flatted out the parchment with elegant, slanted writing on it.
"He says that along with Sirius and Remus, there's to be another professor. He says she's filling in for Binns!" , the eyes of his age mates and his own green ones lit up.
"About time!" Ron concluded, "I mean I've missed Hogwarts but another year of Binns? Please." he said, rolling his eyes.
"Here, here...he also says she's due to arrive at the grounds a week before term begins...and wants us all there to meet her?"
"Must be a big deal, another celebrity-professor perhaps? Oh Merlin knows we're all due for another Lockhart!" Sirius chuckled.
"All we can do is hope." Harry replied with mock longing.
"One thing I know about Albus is he doesn't make the same mistakes twice, if he wants all of us there, maybe its to do with The Order..." Remus seemed to be speaking more to himself than the rest of them.
Even though Voldemort was gone and all that was lost had returned, what with Sirius' escape from The Veil around a month before the war ended and Albus Dumbledore's even more mysterious resurrection, Remus Lupin was sinking further and further into a state of melancholy. Molly and Arthur attributed it to his unfortunate affliction of Lycanthropy, which weighed heavy on him in every way. These days he seemed more fit for the company of Severus Snape, who they had seen even less of since his recovery from Nagini's bite. To the younger members of The Order, who would have to endure the next eight months in his presence, this was a blessing. However the older members found themselves wondering how this man who had seemed to carry the weight of the world on this shoulders for years and who was now free, remained ever solitary and utterly miserable. Sirius snidely deigned it a force of habit.
"Or maybe it has something to do with Albus?" Tonks chimed in, formerly lost in thought, staring into her onion soup.
"Yeah, like I said, something to do with The Order.", Remus replied , a bit irked.
~Six Days Later~
Severus Snape absent-mindedly adjusted the flaps of this high collar as he looked at himself in his chamber mirror. He did not like secrets, after spending twenty odd years drowning in them he had dared to think that after Voldemort's defeat, he'd be rid of them. Then again he hadn't expected the post-Voldemort world would include Albus Dumbledore, and that man above all others revelled in secrets. His only fault, in Severus' mind. First of all, how did he come to be? Again that is. The frail old legend had sent everyone in The Order a dictated letter of his existence a few days after Harry Potter's triumph, pleading the reader's forgiveness for his absence and fabricated death, but noting that it was all very necessary.
' ... Albus is lucky his faith in that boy was not ill-invested...far too optimistic...Two faults. Well, he is only human I suppose.' He checked the cuffs of his sleeves for stains of Mulberry root he had been preparing for the semester in his lab, when he was satisfied he turned on his heel towards the door to the headmaster's office to meet his new colleague. Prehaps after revealing his mystery professor Albus might be at least temporarily sated with drama.
Upon opening the tall, heavy oak doors the only thing Severus' mind could muster was:
"Oh good God, it is a celebrity..."
From a first glance at her face and from fifteen feet away she certainly seemed like someone who be a celebrity, some of her was covered in dense shadow and the large chair she stood behind, but what did show in the light made him question. What kind of Witch Weekly model wears a beat up leather trench coat, and sombre-toned clothes? From looking around most of the males in the group looked sufficiently dumbstruck.
"Ah, Severus my boy!" the old man's voice though now a bit crackled, still contained just as much kindness as ever. Seeing as Albus' was one of the only voices he could remember being directed towards him with warmth, he kept it in the back of his mind. "Better late than never! I'd like to introduce you to my niece, Lady Elena Archer, the new History of Magic professor." After her introduction the lady, who looked to be in her mid-twenties, walked down past her uncle's sizable desk and down the few steps towards the group who were still huddled near the door. She walked like she had gone through this procedure earlier, had shaken all their hands and smiled and then returned to her perch at Dumbledore's side. The group parted so that Severus could make his way through to her, but he stayed where he was. She didn't seem at all fazed at this intentional impropriety and walked straight up to him, to which Severus responded with a repressed gasp.
She reached out her hand and said something, probably "Hello, nice to meet you." and smiled. Severus shook her hand, said what he hoped was "Hello." and nodded curtly. She then turned around and walked back toward her uncle, but then stopped short of the steps and faced them all.
" You may want to find a seat." She said, nodding slightly to the desk behind her and giving them all a gentle look, to what they all took to mean as an apology for what they all knew would be a long and shocking story.
