She's Building A Stairway
Helen pored over her guitar, oblivious to everything. Oblivious to the owls flitting about her head, to the notion of living in a "magic" world, to the recent events regarding the meteoric rise and fall of Voldemort, (still called every variant of You-Know-Who in most circles) and to the intoxicating surge of magic rushing through her. It seemed she would remain engrossed in her music even if somebody rose from the dead right in front of her.
Which is, in a way, what happened.
Severus Snape was highly disturbed to have landed back in the Hogwarts Owlery after being very much dead. He assumed there would be more time to rest than this.
Helen looked up in utter shock when he asked her where she got the guitar. She gibbered a bit.
Severus sighed, looking very impatient and fading from view. "Play something!" he snapped. She twanged a string and the apparition became more opaque.
"What is this?" she asked incredulously.
"Do you know what a horcrux is?" he replied.
"Of course, it's been all over the news."
"Well, I made one, and that's it."
"You're a killer then," she said with finality, silencing the strings, making him fade a bit.
"Wait—it was not because I wanted to, but because I had to."
"Had to, eh?" Helen pulled her rough fingers down the strings to make an intrigued C7.
"Yes. The Dark Lord uses it as a test, a test of one's loyalty to the dark arts. Failure wasn't exactly an option."
"So you were a Death Eater?" She let the chord fade, and him along with it.
"I don't appreciate this. I gave my life so that this school still stands, that its professors might still teach in good conscience the youth that attend, those of any parentage, without fear. I was a spy, Miss, and I'll thank you not to forget my sacrifice!"
Helen moved to a B minor. "Oh….so you're…"
"Severus Snape?"
"Yeah…..I'm Helen Amrigarde. I teach Defense. I guess…you did at one point, too."
"Indeed…thank you for stating the obvious. Where did you find my guitar?"
"Shrunk down and hidden behind the couch cushions is scarcely a good hiding place."
"Quite so. I was hoping somebody would find it, and report it to the proper authorities, who would destroy it."
"Would you like me to?"
"No, but you're pleasant company, Miss Amrigarde and you play well, so consider the guitar my gift and my presence but a small curse, but should you see the need to play it, do so alone. Now, if I'm not mistaken, you have a class coming up…..." He faded into the ether as Helen took the guitar up and down the labyrinthine stairs to her classroom, almost flying from the strange meeting with an even stranger apparition.
She nearly ploughed Professor McGonagall over. The headmistress sighed. There was no end to the strangeness coming from one of her newest professors. Next chance she got to retire, she'd take it. But this year, she thought, she'd have to stick it out.