There she was, typical Potter hanging off the arms of...Finch-Fletchley?
"Apparently they know each other," Pomona announced to the rest of the staff table cheerfully and Severus realised he'd said it out loud, "I was going to tell young Susan to look out for her but she seems to be fitting in well."
That was an understatement. She held him in a tight headlock under her arm while talking to Macmillan and Bones, occasionally twisting her arm around his head further. Finally she let him go and he flung his arm around her without a thought, of course he did.
Made perfect sense, course Potter wasn't interested in an old Potions Master, no, she was young and enjoying her youth with her similarly age-inclined peers. Severus was perfectly fine with that, he was not affected by it at all. That would be ridiculous.
On an entirely different note he would need to step by the hospital wing and have Poppy look over him. There seemed to be something wrong with his bowels. He hadn't felt this sick since his own student days, when Narcissa's honeysuckle perfume would make him feel off.
Minerva was still flitting about, having to do a million chores for Dumbledore, running from one end to the other. The first years would be arriving soon, Peeves was terrorising everyone and some of her Gryffindors had gotten into fights on the train as usual. But she looked odder than usual, shaken somehow and Severus almost felt sorry for her.
"What's gotten into Minerva?" He asked Filius who had just uncharmed an enchanted set of armour for her. "Seems worse than usual."
"You remember Ms Granger from six years ago?"
Not in the least. Remembering the names of his own students was enough of a chore without adding others to that list.
Pomona huffed at him. "You know, the first year who was injured by that troll all those years ago, her parents pulled her out of school just two months in."
Ah, the annoying know-it-all. Yes, he remembered her. He graded all her essays an A because she exceeded the assigned length by at least an entire foot every time. Annoying chit.
"Yes, I remember now."
"Well apparently Minnie found out she transferred to Salem, not just a Muggle school as we thought." No doubt as to whom she found that out from. Potter was at the Hufflepuff table, now gesticulating wildly while Finch-Fletchley used the...Merlin's beard he was using the pewter rods they used for stirring to pretend to play a drum, such blatant disrespect to equipment!
Why on Earth was he carrying them in his school robes in the first place? Severus would never understand Hufflepuffs.
"What's so disturbing about that?" He asked, making a mental note to call the boy out in class. It wouldn't do to let him get away with this.
"Ms Pott- ah, Ms Evans mentioned that Salem's no tolerance policy for bullying was one of the main reasons Ms Granger transferred there and under their tutelage she graduated two years ago. Apparently she's currently studying for a Masters in Kinetic Thaumaturgy at Caltech, whatever that is."
Ah, that explained it. The Americans did it differently but Transfiguration was just another branch of Kinetic Thaumaturgy and Minerva had lost a brilliant student, all due to the student being bullied badly in the House she ran. That must have stung hard.
"So did anyone find out why Potter moved to America in the first place?" Maybe if he found that out Dumbeldore wouldn't assign him to be her stalker. Severus wasn't looking forward to that or the 'light legilimency' Albus recommended. The way she talked was frank enough, what would thoughts be?
"Evans," Pomona emphasised and glared at him. Severus rolled his eyes, he had to call her Potter because if he began thinking of her as Evans he would slip up and call her Etsy, thinking of cinnamon scented breath and then students would ask why he was calling her by her pet name and then the board of governors would get involved and that would not be good. Bad enough that the Dark Lord would Avada him if he lost his position in Hogwarts, Dumbledore might be even worse.
"Yes alright, why did Evans move to America?"
Pomona scrunched up her face. "It's so stupid and simple. Her uncle had a heart attack and died and his sister was making a nuisance of herself over custody. Apparently there was some family they had in America and her aunt decided to try her luck there instead of staying in the country."
That made sense. Good, now maybe Severus wouldn't be so interested in her and Dumbledore wouldn't tell him to be her new tail.
"That still doesn't explain one thing," Flitwick said and Severus could feel his heart sink. "Why did she come back then?"
...Why did she come back?
Etsy watched as streams of itty-bitty kiddies waited to be sorted by the hat. Her mind weighed on whether it was weirder for the hat to sing or for the hat to probe minds. Then again, it must have all year to do nothing; the only person it saw regularly was probably Dumbledore. He'd been headmaster for very long though. She shuddered at the thought of having only Dumbledore's mind to read for 12 months getting a brief reprieve to talk to a bunch of 11 year olds.
That couldn't be fun. No wonder it was so disappointed she was so easy to sort. She must have been the most interesting-no, not interesting, sane- person to talk to it in ages.
Severus had been surprised to see her get sorted so quickly though. And a bit disappointed as well. She turned her eyes form the kiddies to the luscious Professor Snape who was clapping reservedly as yet another shithead got sorted into his house. For a moment she'd actually contemplated actually listening to the hat when it said she'd do well in Slytherin. It might have been fun to be closer to him but that would make the chase entirely too easy. Besides, she'd heard he was very partial to his house students. She wanted him to be partial to her for very different reasons.
"Not a lot of Slytherins this year." Justin noted as the sorting ended and the feast began. The Macmillan guy who'd spluttered when he'd heard her name and looked at Justin all weirdly betrayed, nodded.
"There wouldn't be, not now that You-Know-Who is back. No one but the Death Eaters kids would be safe there now."
"Voldemort is back?" Etsy asked and ducked as pumpkin juice (they took the Halloween theme way too far, really, freshly squeezed squash? How ridiculous) spewed out of Macmillan's mouth.
"You said his name!" He spluttered and she couldn't help but shrugged.
"Our Battle Magic teacher never let us call him anything but that. She said fear of a name is stupid especially when it's a stupid name. Course she also went on about him being a stupid English pig butchering the French language for his moronic crusade." When they looked at her with a mixture of shock and confusion, she explained. "She was also the French teacher. We have to take two language electives, one human, one creature based."
"The Salem institute mainly teaches mundane subjects, the magical ones are practical and not theoretical except in some cases like Arithmancy which is combined with the usual Mathematics classes." Justin explained.
"How do you know?" the redhead, something Bones Etsy remembered, asked.
"After seeing all the prejudice in school not to mention Granger getting attacked by a troll, my parents and I went over my other options. They weren't exactly happy about sending me off to a boarding school to learn things for a job I might not get just because I'm a Mudblood." Justin said calmly but his hand was gripping his fork very tight and his friends looked abashed, probably Purebloods themselves.
Blood status wasn't something that came up often back home, simply because most of the Magical Founding families were originated from squibs that had gone off to the New World to live in a society where they wouldn't be demeaned all the time. That and the fact that the Magical and Mundane worlds were integrated in America meant that the transition for the new generation witches and wizards was easier too, which just wasn't the case here.
"The Salem institute is considered to be one of the most balanced schools in that way, the Mahoutokoro school's Tokyo branch has the same mixture but in the last few years it changed its policy a bit so there are more tech classes. It's pretty cool though, they've been working on integrating Nintendo consoles with magic, fascinating rune stuff but the anchor stones need a lot of recharging."
Blank faces stared back at her. "Nidenno? What's that?" Bones asked and beside her Justin was sniggering while she spluttered. It was only just coming to her how very isolationist Wizarding UK was.
"So back to Voldemort," They all flinched and Justin was turning red as he tried to contain his laughter. But really, it was much easier to talk about old Voldie trying to take over the world than explain to Pureboods what a Nintendo was. "He's back? I mean I thought as much, the Prophet doesn't do cover-ups very well but everyone really believes it?"
The people she'd felt out in Diagon Alley hadn't believed it, after all. Fortescue was the only one who did but even he was maintaining a tight lip on it all. Well, him and Ollivander but that was after she'd decoded all his cryptic talk.
"Of course. Dumbledore said it himself." Macmillan answered, looking at her like she was crazy.
"But you believe him?" Which was surprising. Macmillan reminded her very much of a paranoid sheep, always watching out for wolves but forgetting to watch for eagles.
"It's Dumbledore." He said as if it explained everything. It was when she continued staring at him that he relented. "And I saw the Dark Mark on Malfoy's arm on the train."
"Pasty blond student in Slytherin. His dad has his fingers in all of the ministry's pies. Too young to have gotten it in the last war" Justin explained.
Etsy finished eating first and turned her attention to the staff table while the rest gorged on desserts. Severus was done as well and looking worriedly over to where McGonagall and Dumbledore were having what appeared to be a rather furious conversation. The severe woman had been very pensive ever since they'd chatted about Hermione, though Etsy wasn't sure why.
The buzz in the room died down as the plates cleared themselves. Dumbledore got to his feet and was just clearing his throat to start a speech when the doors rattled. A few of the itty bitty ones gasped and looked scared, it did sound ominous when combined with the sound of the storm outside and when the doors opened a man with a shitload of scars, a magical eye and a peg leg walked in, leaning on a cane.
Etsy couldn't help the snort. It was every pirate stereotype in one. The only things missing were a tricorn and a parrot. Etsy decided that she had a new aim in life. She was to get him to say 'Arr'.
Shouldn't be too hard.
"That's Mad-Eye Moody." Bones whispered in awe.
"Which part of his name is most relevant? Is his eye madder or is he moodier?"
"Shhh!" One of the other students glared at them and they quieted down. Apparently, Dumbledore was talking.
"-dditch cup will not take place this year."
Shouts and gasps of outrage burst out everywhere. Etsy, who hadn't played much Quidditch due to the Salem Witches' Institute's ongoing boycott of the American Quidditch federation, was amused.
"We have been chosen to be the honoured hosts of the Triwizard tournament."
And excited flurry of voices went up as he explained the Triwizard tournament and how it was established to improve relations between different schools. The delegations from the other schools would be arriving in October so she had at least one month to settle down as a Hogwarts student so there was that at least.
"I would also like to announce that Professor McGonagall s stepping down as head of Gryffindor house this year." The Gryffindor table burst into chatter once again and one of them actually began crying. "Our new History of Magic teacher, Professor Sirius Black will be taking over as the new head of house for Gryffindor."
And Etsy's eyes immediately turned to Severus who had managed to actually bend the goblet's stem in his anger. Good strong hands, those. She looked forward to feeling them all over her. His eye caught hers and she winked at him. He swallowed and turned to glare at Sirius again.
"Isn't that your godfather?" Justin asked.
"Yeah, he's weird. He told me his official title was Dogfather not Godfather. Methinks Azkaban loosened a few screws up there."
"Smart though, to make him head of house this year. No Quidditch cup, it'll be easier for him to get used to the responsibilities."
"I can't believe we're hosting the Triwizard tournament!" Bones exclaimed. "Maybe we'll have a Hufflepuff champion."
"Although, is it just me or is it really stupid to host a tournament that allows all sorts of unknowns onto Hogwarts grounds when Voldemort has returned?" Etsy said absently and all around her faces turned white.
"Not just Voldemort, the bane of his existence, the reason why he was vanquished, the Girl-Who-Lived is in the school as well." Justin proclaimed and it was her turn to glare at him, "Sounds to me like ole Dumbles is laying a trap."
"Oh gee, I wonder who the bait is?" Etsy drawled sarcastically.
A/N: Hello everyone and thanks again to everyone who's faved, followed, reviewed or just plain read the story, I shall endeavour not to disappoint you all.
Until next time!