Chapter 3
Lucy wiped the sweat from her forehead. It was another hot summer and she had only just managed to get Sirius's face back on the Black family tree. His had been the last face she had tried to restore and it had also been the hardest. She attributed it to how much his mother had hated him. "What do you think?"
Sirius stepped back and nodded, "You did a wonderful job, but it looks nothing like me."
With her hands on her hips, Lucy looked more like Mrs. Weasley than normal, "It most certainly does!" She tilted her head and considered the tiny face on the wall, "Or it would if you gained some weight. They didn't feed you much in Azkaban did they?"
"No, but then I was also dead for two years."
"Don't remind me."
A clanging, followed by a woman's screaming alerted the pair to someone at the front door. Sirius rolled his eyes, "We need to find a way to keep her quiet."
"You go find out who it is. Last time I went past her she informed me she'd rather have a Muggle-born living here than a couple of blood-traitors, even if one of them is her son."
Sirius grabbed her around the waist, "Mother never did know much of anything. I'll get rid of whoever's at the door and we can go upstairs and take a break from all this work."
Lucy shook her head, smiling, "I don't think so. For one thing I'm in a groove now and I'm going to keep working. For another whoever came to the door probably actually wants to see one of us."
"Alright, alright. I'll bring them in here if they insist on seeing us," Sirius departed, shouting at his mother to shut up.
Lucy hugged herself. It was so easy, being with him. Not that they didn't have their disagreements now and then. They did. He preferred to laze about most days; she would rather get some work done. She had always thought relationships were hard work. It was what her father had always told her and judging from her experience with her relatively few, make that two, boyfriends, he had been right. Now, she knew he was wrong. It might not always be this easy, she knew, but they didn't have to work in order to fit together. That had happened without any work at all.
"Lu?" Sirius called after a few moments, "You presentable in there?"
"And why wouldn't I be? Honestly, sometimes it's incredibly hard to believe that you're thirteen years older then me."
"Just wanted to make sure before I brought our guest in," Sirius said, showing Dumbledore into the room.
"Professor Dumbledore! Please have a seat," Lucy gestured to the only sofa free of knick-knacks and other things. "I'm sorry it's such a mess. We've been repairing and redecorating."
"No matter," Dumbledore said, waving away her apologies. "I've come with a proposal for you Miss Ketteridge."
"A proposal?"
"Yes. Ever since our conversation in Hogwarts' library I've been thinking about what you said. Hogwarts doesn't supply those students with a passion for reading with a way to explore that venue in more depth. I know it's rather close to the end of break but I believe that someone with your enthusiasm for the subject is exactly what would be needed to teach the class."
"I'm afraid I don't know anyone like that."
Dumbledore smiled, "I happen to know someone precisely like that. Though I'm not sure I'll be able to lure her away from renovating her boyfriend's home."
Lucy's brow scrunched in puzzlement. "You mean me?" she questioned.
"I mean you," he nodded.
"But-but what about…" Lucy looked over to where Sirius stood.
Dumbledore's gaze followed hers, "Well, Sirius wouldn't be able to come to Hogwarts with you, but there's no reason why he couldn't take a place in Hogsmeade."
"And Elladora?" Lucy worried, watching her grey cat pick its way through the mess on the floor towards Sirius.
"Of course she could come. Students are allowed companions, why not the professors too?"
"All right, I'll do it," she was happier about this turn of events than she might have thought.
"Excellent. I look forward to introducing you to our faculty."
"I don't think that will be necessary. I was taught by most of them."
"Just the same."
Lucy leaned back against the pillar next to the gates leading into Hogwarts' grounds. She pulled her lips from Sirius's, groaning. "I really need to be going."
"Are you sure?" he asked, moving on to her neck.
"Mmmm, yes."
"So soon? What do you have to do? All of your things are here and put away already, your class room is all set up…"
"I have to attend the Welcome Feast and the sorting of the first years," Lucy said, pulling his face back up to eye-level with hers. "If I don't go soon, the students will be arriving."
"So?" he said, reclaiming her lips.
"They don't need to see their new professor snogging."
Sirius was able to distract her for a few more moments. Until she heard a familiar sounding voice that was. "Is that Sirius?"
Lucy pulled back and looked over his shoulder, seeing her cousin's head poking out the window along with Hermione's.
"It is! And that's Lucy hiding behind him! I think we just caught one of our new professors snogging."
"It's not surprising. They were doing that when we left them in London this morning." Hermione said.
Lucy hid her blushing face in his neck as the carriage carrying Ginny and Hermione went past and entered the grounds. "Now, I have to go. I'm cutting it close as it is," Lucy pulled away and mounted her broom. "I might be able to make it to Hogsmeade this weekend. Probably at least for a couple hours. I'll let you know," she said before taking off.
She had just enough time to stash her broom and slip into her seat at the faculty's table before all the students, except first years, entered the great hall.
Not being an extremely social person, she was a bit annoyed to find herself sitting next to Professor Slughorn. She'd never met him before; having come to Hogwarts after Snape had been hired as Potions Master. Even so he talked to her as if she were his long lost best friend. His jabbering almost made her miss Ginny entering the hall as head girl this year. Lucy rolled her eyes when she caught Ginny smirking at her predicament.
The room quieted as Professor McGonagall led the first years into the Great Hall. Had she ever been that small? Surely not. For so long now there had been arguments about pure-bloods versus Muggle-borns. Here, entering Hogwarts for the first time, there was no difference. All the students looked up at the enchanted ceiling, altered to look a bit friendlier than the cloudy one outside the building. She remembered that moment well. She had been so worried that she would end up in a house other than Gryffindor, both her parents had been sorted there and it had been assumed she would be as well. She had ended up in Ravenclaw, but couldn't imagine being in any other house. It had been where she belonged.
The first small boy to be sorted was placed in Ravenclaw and Lucy clapped just a little harder than she normally would have. After the first few students were sorted, Slughorn once again began making conversation with her. Lucy sighed, not wanting to be impolite but he was being impolite to others who wanted to watch and to the students being sorted.
Being completely rude, Lucy ignored Slughorn and looked down the table of professors. Many were ones she recognized and had been taught by. All the way at the other end of the table though, was the witch who had accepted the position Lucy had turned down. She wasn't upset about it. Lucy knew she hadn't been at all qualified for the job and Dumbledore had told her that Professor Samson was more then able to properly teach the students Muggle Studies. They hadn't met yet as Lucy had been in Hogsmeade spending some time with Sirius when the other witch had been settling in. The blonde professor looked to be in deep conversation with Hagrid, the groundskeeper and professor of Care of Magical Creatures, and so Lucy turned her attention back to the room at large.
Lucy stopped eating when Dumbledore stood and silenced the hall before walking up to the headmaster's podium for his traditional welcome speech. "Well, at first I would like to say: It is wonderful to be back with all of you again."
She had to resist the urge to cover her ears, so loud was the applause and cheering. She was glad everyone who had come back was there but thinking too hard about that day brought back her doubts of her own sanity. What had happened still didn't quite make sense to her.
Once the hall had quieted down again he continued, "We have had a difficult past year, and a long, difficult battle with Voldemort even throughout the years before then. But we have come back stronger than before, and I believe that this will be a bright new year for us all. That said, I would like to introduce everyone to a few new professors we have starting this year. Unfortunately, our previous professor of Muggle Studies, Professor Charity Burbage, was truly destroyed by the Death Eaters and escaped the revival that many of us were granted. But we believe that we have hired one of the most qualified witches of our time to teach the subject. Please welcome Professor Dinah Samson!"
Lucy clapped as Dinah stood, smiling at the crowd. She looked a bit nervous, but then they were both teaching for the first time and Lucy was feeling the same way. Maybe she would try to meet up with Dinah later and they could try to sooth each other. At some point they could even compare notes on their teaching experiences, perhaps even become friends after awhile.
Once again the applause died down and Professor Samson sat back in her more desirable seat.
"I'm sure you will all make Professor Samson feel welcome," Dumbledore continued, and then his smile widened, "And on an even more positive note, our other professor is not here to replace anyone. We are all lucky to have not lost any more faculty in the battles of the past few years. No, this year we have taken it upon ourselves to add an entirely new class to the Hogwarts repertoire! For those of you that enjoy recreational reading, we have set up a new elective course on wizard literature for your pleasure. Therefore, I would like to introduce you all to our other new faculty member, Professor Lucy Ketteridge."
Lucy stood and smiled at the students, much like Dinah had done before her. She noticed Ginny smiling brightly and clapping as hard as she could at the Gryffindor table. Lucy winked back at the girl; perhaps she could call Ginny to her office later to have a chat. She had gotten used to talking to Sirius before bed and was already dreading not partaking in the ritual.
When the applause died down Lucy sat, grimacing when Slughorn once again began talking to her. She was relieved when Dumbledore dismissed everyone and she could escape the talkative professor.
Rushing to her room and closing the door before Slughorn could follow her, Lucy flopped on her bed. It probably wouldn't be the wisest option to send for Ginny now that Lucy thought about it and besides it was her first night here too, she probably wanted to get settled and hang out with her friends.
After a minute or two Elladora leapt on to the bed and curled up on Lucy's chest. Her fingers absently stroked the cat's fur as she talked to her. Some might think talking to a cat odd but it was better than talking to yourself. "Well, Dora, have you settled in? Met any new friends?" The cat just purred in response. "You probably don't care where we are, just as long as I'm nearby and you can get fed. Though I don't know why I continue to feed you, you cuddle up to Sirius more then you've ever done with me," Lucy murmured, joking.
Dora got up and leapt to the floor, retreating to her favorite hiding place. Under the bed. "Disloyal cat," Lucy said. After a minute or two she heard a scratching at the door. "You get visitors and I don't?" she asked Dora, getting up to open the door.
A large, black dog sat on the other side. When the door was open far enough he walked in as if he had the right to be there. "What are you doing here?" Lucy exclaimed. The dog sat in the middle of the room and she had a sinking feeling about what he was going to do. "Don't you dare! If anyone comes by here I'd rather they find Snuffles in my room and not Sirius Black," she closed her door again and took a seat on the chair. Her head shook in disbelief as Dora came out from under the bed and rubbed against Snuffles.
"Fine! You can stay, but just for tonight. If Dumbledore knew what you were doing…" The dog came over to where she sat and licked her face, "Oh, gross. Dog breath," she said pushing his face away from hers. "I don't even let my boyfriend lick my face."
Snuffles cocked his head and looked at her. He almost seemed to be disagreeing with her.
"Well, I don't!"
After a few minutes Snuffles walked to Lucy's unlocked trunk and lifted the lid with his snout. He stuck his nose on everything before pulling out a nightgown with his teeth.
"Oh, time for bed is it? Alright, I do have a busy day tomorrow," she twirled her hand, "Turn around."
The dog whined his disappointment.
"Yeah, I know it's terrible, just do it." After she changed the pair curled up together to sleep, Dora once again hiding. Lucy was hot and the bed wasn't exactly made for a person and a dog to share, but she fell asleep quickly and with a smile on her face.