"Afterlight"

'Chapter Two'

I coughed as I stepped out of the fireplace and into Minerva's office. I hated using the Floo-network, but there was no other way to quickly get into Hogwarts. I had lost track of time while catching up with Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione and was running late to the feast. I knew the returning students would already be filing into the Great Hall.

I brushed some black powder off my clothes and raced out of the room, taking the moving staircase two steps at a time. I almost groaned in frustration at how slow the statue at the foot of the stairs was moving. When the statue finally moved out of the way, I almost ran straight for Gryffindor Tower to change into my robes, but instead walked towards the Great Hall knowing that I would never have enough time to get there and back in time. I would just have to attend the feast in my muggle clothes.

"Carson!" I turned around when I heard a voice call my name. I broke into a grin when I saw Albus Prince.

"You're late." He scolded, when he finally reached talking distance. "Minvera sent me looking for you twenty minutes ago. If I had known you hadn't been here yet, I would have gone to get you hours ago. You'll already have to go to the feast as is and if we don't hurry we'll miss the sorting ceremony." I rolled my eyes when he made it sound like this was all a great inconvenience for him.

He motioned for me to follow him and all the way to the Great Hall, I felt like I was back in school and being led to detention for doing something wrong. I sighed and knew that I would probably have to wait until the first week of classes was over until I had any real time to talk to him.

The Great Hall got deathly quiet as we walked in. I almost scoffed when they all started whispering about why I was there. It probably was quite a sight though: some girl who looked like a teenager and was wearing soot covered muggle clothing, walking in with Professor Prince. If it wasn't for the fact that no one recognized me, they probably would have thought I was a student.

I easily ignored them all and followed Albus to the High Table. I gave a short nod and a smile to Minerva as we passed her, but didn't respond to the other teachers. I remembered some from my days at Hogwarts, but others were new.

"Carson! What are you doing here?" I looked up when I heard a familiar voice. Neveille stood up from his seat and gave me a hug. There were two empty seats next to him and I ended up sitting between the two. "So what are you doing here?" he asked again after we took our seats.

"I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." I shrugged. I looked over to him with a smile when he didn't respond. "Shocked?"

"Well, of course." He nodded. "You never seemed that into that class or at all interested in becoming a teacher."

"That's true, but Minerva owled me over the summer and asked me to come teach as a favor. It shouldn't be that hard and I always have help."

"Like who?" he muttered quietly when Albus got up and left through a side door.

"Albus said he'd help me if I needed it and I was told that Harry comes in from time to time to give lectures."

It looked like Neveille was going to say something else when the doors to the Great Hall opened up. Albus walked in leading the first years.

He brought out a stool and the Sorting Hat. Once it was set down, it started its speech just like all the years before. It took about ten minutes before Albus was able to call the students up to be sorted.

I wasn't surprised when Albus and Rose were sorted into Gryffindor, but I think everyone was when Scorpius wasn't immediately placed into Slytherin.

"No." I heard Scorpuis quietly mutter, shaking his head. You could almost see everyone straining to hear what the Sorting Hat was saying to him.

"That is Malfoy's son, isn't it? Why isn't he sorted into Slytherin already?" I heard someone ask.

"Slytherin." The Sorting Hat called, but not as confidently as it should have. The Slytherin house cheered and Scorpuis nervously made his way over to the table. I watched as three of the Slytherin prefects introduced themselves as he sat down.

I tried to pay attention to the rest of the sorting, but it soon became impossible to not have my thoughts wonder back to Scorpius. He should have been sorted into Slytherin immediately, but he wasn't and it seemed that the Sorting Hat had been trying to convince him to go to another hat.

When the final student was sorted, Minerva stood up while Albus took his seat. Everyone was quiet as she walked to the podium.

"Welcome, everyone, to another year here at Hogwarts. I would like to remind everyone to keep out of the Forbidden Forest unless supervised by Hagrid." She paused, as if thinking about something, before continuing. "We also have two new professors this year. Alistair Bane will be teaching Astronomy and as a favor to me, Carson Mason will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. She will also be the new Head of House for Gryffindor." A teacher on the other end of the table stood up when his name was called and gave a small nod before sitting back down. I slowly stood up when my name was called. I smiled and nodded while the Gryffindors cheered, and then quickly sat back down.

Minerva gave a rather short speech before the feast began. I moved my food around my plate for a bit before I finally decided that I should just go get things ready for tomorrow. Albus and Nevielle looked up when I stood up, but neither said anything and let me go. I slipped out a side down and made my way towards the Gryffindor tower. I was almost at my room when I heard a voice call my name.

"Scorpius." I hissed, casting a quick silencing charm. "What are you doing here?" I frowned when he gave me a tight hug and wouldn't let go. "What's wrong?"

"Dad would be mad if I were in Gryffindor, wouldn't he?" he asked, leaning back a bit to look up at me. He loosened his grip a bit and I knelt down to look up at him.

"Is that where the Sorting Hat wanted to put you?" I asked, with a faint smile on my face. "Is that why your sorting took so long?" he nodded. I knew he was only worried what his father would think.

"Dad wouldn't be mad." I promised. "He would be happy. He would want you to be happy." I sat down on the ground and dragged him down into my lap. I cast a shielding charm so that anyone who passed by would just see an empty hallway.

"But you were both Slytherin's. His whole family was in Slytherin." I hugged Scorpuis tight. I couldn't stand seeing him so miserable.

"Yes, that's true. Even my whole family was in Slytherin, but that doesn't mean anything." I insisted. "Did I ever tell you I was supposed to be in Gryffindor, but the Sorting Hat just saw my blood and put me into Slytherin instead?" Scorpuis looked at me with wide eyes and shook his head no. "My father died because of the decision, and every time I've seen the Sorting Hat since, it tells me that it should have seen past blood and put me in Gryffindor. It didn't want to make the same mistake twice, but you choose Slytherin. There was nothing it could have done this time except to put you into a house you didn't want to be in. I've changed Draco since the war. He isn't truly a Slytherin anymore. You probably should have been sorted into Ravenclaw, or even Gryffindor for that matter."

"You promise?" Scorpius whimpered, pulling me into another hug.

"I promise." I smiled. We sat there for a few minutes before I could hear students coming. We must have been there longer than I had thought. "Come on, you should go find your house. The Gryffindor students will wonder why you're here."

He nodded and we stood up. I dropped the charms I had up and cast a disillusionment charm on the two of us. I put my hand on his shoulder and led him past the students and towards the dungeons. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at some of the comments I heard the Gryffindor students made when they thought no one was listening.

"Did you see how Professor Mason left the Great Hall so quickly?" "Did you see what she was dressed in? It looked like she had just rolled in a pile of soot." "Or what about that Malfoy kid? He couldn't get out of there fast enough. He looked like he was about to cry!"

I had to hold back a growl at the last comment I heard before we left the corridor. I would have to have a talk to my house about insulting professors, especially their Head of House, and students in other houses. They never knew who could be listening.

XXX

"Albus!" I hissed when we reached the dungeons. He paused for a moment, waiting for his house to turn the corner, before turning around.

"I'm hoping you have Scorpuis with you Carson. I haven't seen him since he left the Great Hall." Albus tried not to smile knowing perfectly well that my son would be with me.

"Of course." I sighed as I dropped the charm. "Where else would he go when he could get lost on the staircase?" I knew Scorpuis would have protested expect for the fact that it was true. He didn't know his way around Hogwarts yet and got confused just coming from the Gryffindor tower to the dungeons.

"I'll take him from here. You should go talk to your house. You haven't made the best impression on them yet." Albus said, turning around when Scorpuis reached his side. I watched them until they turned the corner before I raced back to the Gryffindor tower. I knew he was right about my first impression and I would have to changed first before I faced my house again.

XXX

"Pig Snout" I whispered the password to the Fat Lady, hugging my robes around me. I hated talking to crowds. It was never my expertise.

"Professor!" I heard one of the older students gasp as I entered the room. Apparently after my hasty exit at dinner, they didn't expect to see me until class tomorrow.

"Good evening students." I nodded. I guessed that about half of every year was in the common room. I didn't particularly care that not everyone was there. It actually made things easier on me. "I just wanted to formally introduce myself before classes started."

"Do you mind if I ask you some, Professor?" a third year asked timidly. I nodded and she continued. "Why were you covered in soot during the feast?"

"Oh that?" I laughed, knowing perfectly well that it would come up. "I had been running later and had to come using the Floo-network. I've always hated doing that. I somehow manage to get the powder all over myself."

Quite a few of the students laughed at that and I knew their first impression of me was gone. I looked up when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs from the boy's dormitories.

"Professor Mason!" Albus grinned when he saw me. He had already taken a liking to me while we were at the platform when he overheard that I had been in Slytherin but acted nothing like it. James, however, took an immediate dislike when he saw his father's arm around my waist, and he showed it by glaring at me as the two made their way to sit on one of the half-full couches.

"Hi Al. Did you get everything settled?" I asked, leaning back against the wall closest to the entrance. He nodded happily before falling into a conversation with his brother.

"Do you know all our names?" someone asked from across the room. I had surprised them when I knew Albus' name.

"Oh no." I shook my head. "I'll have to learn them all as I go. I met Albus and James at the platform when I was catching up with their family."

"Harry Potter! You went to school with Harry Potter?!" I winced at how excited the common room got then. I could see Albus and James do the same. It looked as if they had already gotten lots of questions about their famous father, but it was one thing to be a child of Harry Potter and another to know him while he was growing up and actually fighting the war.

"Yes. I was a year behind Harry." I told them. "But I've heard that he has come in to give lectures for Defense from time to time." A few students slowly nodded, not seeing where I was going with that. "Then you can ask him any questions you have about him. It was his life and he deserves to be the one to tell about it. We all have our secrets from that time and I don't know what he would want shared."

"Were you in the war?" another student asked. I tried not to glare, but I was really getting tired of all the questions.

"Do you treat all your professors like this?" I demanded, not wanting to talk about the war. Most of the students either jumped or looked away at my tone.

"They'd give us detention." James piped up, having ended his conversation with Albus. "They think that because you're our Head of House, that you won't." I looked around the common room, ignoring James' attitude, and everyone I looked at nodded guiltily.

"Well you thought wrong." I told them. "I will not tolerate rude behavior especially from my own house."

"Sorry Professor Mason." The room chorused in apology.

I nodded and turned to leave. "Oh, and just remember to keep some comments to yourself. You never know who could be listening. Thirty points from Gryffindor." I smirked as I left the room. That should keep them on edge.