Disclaimer: Don't own. 'Nuff said.
Prologue:
This fan fiction is based on a new RPG and most text is taken directly from that. We thought it might be fun for people to be able to influence the fic. I dunno, I was bored. Anyway, the site is listed as my homepage in my profile, so check it out, and if not, enjoy the fic!
Chapter One: The Beginning of the Year Feast
Dumbledore looked wearier than ever as the feast started, and so few people had returned to Hogwarts that he found it hard to recognize anyone. Though that could have been the senility setting in. He glanced around at all the new people.
At his right sat Severus Snape, one of his few remaining members of the staff. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher sat beside him, which seemed to annoy him to no end. Down the row was Silva Harpstring, an assistant that Dumbledore hired to help him with the school while he was working. Astronomy master Seraphima Sinistra chatted away animatedly to Algernon Token, the new Muggle Studies teacher. Ava Adore sat poised down the way next to Circe C. Aria. They were both new teachers, and Snape found them all deplorable. Angelic McGonagall ended the staff table. She had come in to replace her mother, and she was the spitting image.
"Hello, everyone," Dumbledore said, quieting the hall as he stood up dramatically, "As you all know, this year we have some new teachers."
He motioned to the new Headmistress.
"This
is Silva Harpstring," he said, "she will be taking over
some of my work during this school year. To her right," he
continued, motioning between Harpstring and Snape, "is our new
DADA professor, Andromeda Stone."
He waited for the polite
pause to end.
"I am sure you will make them feel welcome."
Stone tried to smile when the Headmaster's speech was suddenly directed towards her. She felt very uncomfortable. She was not exactly a socialable person, and she was worried that either the Headmistress or (who was that other person next to her? Snapp?) the potions master would try to strike up a conversation.
Silva Harpstring dove into some rum as soon as the feast began, and anyone who's been around Harpy when she drinks, knows she gets very chatty, and sometimes isn't always very discreet...
Silva
Harpstring had been at Hogwarts long enough to have embedded her
habits in all the professors, and as Seraphima Sinistra saw her she
grew a little worried.
"Oh, she's got rum..." she
whispered to the nervous looking Token seated next to her.
Snape
scoffed. Why did the Headmaster always have to seat him next to the
DADA teacher? He made it seem like an innocent act, but Snape knew
better. Dumbledore knew perfectly well what he was doing. He turned
his eyes away to glance out over tables lined with students, both new
and old. He narrowed his eyes menacingly at some of the newer ones,
impressed to see them pull back. This could be an interesting year.
He turned his eyes back to the table and his surroundings. The new
Dark Arts teacher (Harpstring, was it?) seemed to be on the jittery
side. He didn't mind in the least. Less chance for chat. He slowly
cast his gaze back over to the expanse of hall before them. Another
year... Joy.
"So...Severus, how was your Summer Vacation? Go anywhere warm?" Harpy said turning to face the pale Snape.
Andromeda stared at her food. She didn't feel too hungry right now. She just wanted to go back to her room, she had no desire to talk to people. It seemed the Headmistress was getting a little tipsy.
Apparently
Harpstring wasn't the DADA teacher, Snape thought, regarding Stone
for the first time. It didn't really make much difference to him,
though. It wasn't him and that's all that mattered. At the
Harpstring's words, an irritated look crossed his face. What a stupid
question.
"What do you think?" he asked in his usual
deep, English drawl as he raised a goblet of firewhiskey to his lips.
There was no way she could be serious and he wasn't exactly the
humorous type.
Harpy shook her head at this and sighed. "Oh Severus, lighten up. It was a joke." Harpy said quietly. Suddenly Dumbledore stood up and walked over to speak to another professor, putting Sera Sinistra in clear view of Harpy. "Well Hello, Sera! How have you been?"
Andromeda felt slightly embarrassed for Silva, who was, by this point, a little drunk. But at least she was having fun, and was keeping Prof. Sinistra at bay.
Sinistra
heard someone call her name.
Ah, it was a very drunk
headmistress.
"Hi!" she said cheerfully. Then she
broke into a whisper, "Silva, don't you think maybe you should
have some water instead of more rum? Tomorrow's the first day of
classes. You don't want everything all pear shaped, now, do you?"
"Fine. If it'll make you all stop fretting about my alcoholic beverage intake. " She turned to her cup. "Butterbeer" Suddenly, the rum was gone, and Butterbeer had appeared. She sipped the drink. "I'm NOT drunk, Sera!" She said a little more quickly than intended. "Now," she said regaining her composure "how was your summer break?" Sera's need to mother-hen often got on her nerves...
Andromeda
folded her napkin and sighed.
She asked the potions master,
"Excuse me, but how much longer is this supposed to go on?"
He
was absentmindedly looking over the new first years, picking out who
would probably be in his house, when someone's voice seemed to turn
to him. He glanced to his left to see that the woman beside him was
the one speaking. The new Dark Arts teacher.
"Well, if he
gets started on another speech...," he nodded his head in the
direction of the Headmaster as he spoke, crossing his arms on the
edge of the table before him, "...we may very well be here all
night."
"Bloody brilliant," she said with a hint of sarcasm. She was tired and just wanted to go to her room. She still needed to finish unpacking.
"Summer break was excellent, Headmistress," Sinistra was saying, cutting up her roast beef, "'went to the Everglades. There are many alligators there. It was very nice."
"And you like alligators?" Silva replied, "They sort of scare me...but then again, so do rice cakes..."
"Oh,
alligators are so wonderful, ma'am," Sinistra said, becoming
enthusiastic, her eyes wide with excitement, "they sit in the
water until you think they're just a log, and then..."
She
jumped up and her pumpkin juice went flying everywhere,
"THEY
SNAP AND CHEW YOU INTO LITTLE BITS!"
Food went flying this way and that, pieces of entrée landed on all of the teachers, and pumpkin juiced flooded every plate.
"Pity you don't know from personal experience," she muttered under her breath, Sinistra's outburst causing her head to burst into an agonizing headache.
Harpstring leapt up with Pumpkin juice covering her robes. She sighed, trying to keep her temper and waved her wand, removing the mess. "Sinistra, please leave out the re-enactments in your stories, you KNOW they always get out of hand!"
Ava Adore sat at the table quite content in not saying a word. Surveying the large number of students in the hall, she thought to herself, they must not have very strict admission here. Glancing down the table she sat at, she knew she'd have a change to speak to each professor in due time. Upon seeing one woman jump up and practically scream, she made a mental note to talk to her as little as possible.
"Sorry, headmistress," Sinistra said, sitting, "I guess you'd have to be there."
Harpy hissed with a giggle "AND you just scared Ava, the new Charms professor. Shheessh!"
New Charms professor, thought Snape, Dear Merlin. Now that Filius was gone, he seemed to be the only male on the staff. Only living one unless they'd given Binns the boot, too. Hopefully these women weren't as hormone driven as they seemed at the moment. He turned his eyes over to them, chatting happily away. He realized he had been completely ignoring them, not that that was very unusual or anything. He brushed a hand back through his hair and lifted the goblet again, letting his eyes linger absently over them each in turn.
Andromeda
decided it was time to go.
"Goodnight, Headmistress,"
she said, rising to leave.
Dumbledore had found himself very amused. This year would hopefully turn out better than the last.
"Goodnight Andromeda, sleep well."
Circe
thought it was strange for her to be sitting on this side of the
professors table, the hall looked so much larger from here. The last
time she was in this hall she was a student and on the other side.
Though she was sitting at the end of the table she could hear the
professors talking about there summer vacations and was quite happy
not to be included in that topic. She would undoubtedly have to lie
about her most recent vacation if anyone asked.
Dumbledore
noticed Snape, once again, not participating in the fun.
"Liven
up, Severus!" he said with a laugh, patting his shoulder, "It's
the beginning of a new school year! New minds for moulding!"
A very unenthusiastic look crossed his features as the Headmaster reminded him of all the new students.
In a tone almost dripping with sarcasm, he replied under his breath, averting his eyes from the mass of students before him, "Joy..."
In the next chapter: The characters find out there is a mole at Hogwarts! Oh dear!
Also, flames don't work, because I didn't write most of this! HAHAHAHA!
