Azalea was sitting under a tree in the grounds of the castle enjoying the late summer sunshine. She looked upwards and watched the sunlight play through the maze of branches and leaves. It was a weekend and five weeks had gone by since she had arrived at Hogwarts. As she sat her thoughts turned to the classes she had attended and what she had learned so far.
She'd given up with History of Magic after only one lesson. The teacher, who interestingly was a ghost, had just droned on and seemed to put the class to sleep. Azalea decided that when she wanted to know about magical history she would just get a book and read about it.
The Divination class wasn't usually started until students reached their third year so Azalea had decided to defer that for a while and concentrate on other subjects which were more grounded in rationality, inasmuch as magic subjects could be rational. She was highly sceptical of fortune telling and predictions, although she did admit to herself that coming from a muggle background did leave you with a healthy dose of scepticism.
She had been interested in the subject of Care of Magical Creatures and had noted that the teacher was Hagrid – the large man she'd seen on the day she had arrived. Unfortunately, his lesson revolved around one species which he called blast ended skrewts and he seemed to have no real idea on how to look after them. She had spent some time in the library trying to find out more about the creatures but could find no reference to them. She had concluded that they were either an, as yet, undiscovered species or some sort of cross-breed that Hagrid had been experimenting with. Given the blast ended skrewts' tendency to kill each other, which was not a good evolutionary trait, she suspected the latter. Azalea liked Hagrid and often spoke to him, his enthusiasm for animals was undoubted, but she decided that this was another class she'd go back to at a later date.
She'd had a few lessons in broomstick flying and was now able to stay on and make a few circuits of the Hogwart's grounds. She found that the robes she wore were an encumbrance, so at the second lesson she had worn her jeans and sweatshirt under her robes and had removed the robes to fly. At the next lesson she noted that several of the students did likewise. She wasn't entirely comfortable about flying just on a stick of wood which made her feel vulnerable and exposed. The students seem to be more confident than she was and she put that down to the fearlessness of youth. On the plus side, a broomstick was quicker than walking but she'd drive a car over flying on a broomstick for most journeys.
The other optional lessons were Astronomy and Herbology. To Azalea astronomy seemed like a close cousin to the muggle astrology which she had no time for in the muggle world, so rightly or wrongly, she decided not to pursue that subject either. The Herbology class was interesting and the uses to which the plants were put in potions and healing medicines were fascinating. Unfortunately, Azalea discovered she did not have green fingers with magical plants any more than she had with non-magical plants, so she caught up with the theory of plant care and uses in the library. To supplement her theoretical knowledge she would ask Professor Sprout to show her the plants in the greenhouses so she could recognise them as they grew. The Professor was always happy to do this and would provide Azalea with snippets of gardener's tips that were not available in text books but had been learned through years' of experience or handed down from gardener to gardener. Azalea enjoyed those times in the warmth of the greenhouses with the smell of the earth and aromas from the growing plants, sometimes she would slip in alone just to feel the closeness to the plants and to observe their unique beauty.
Azalea shifted her position under the tree and pulled out some of the books she had brought with her. She spent a lot of time in the library and had become one of the regulars as she had suspected she would. Another regular was a girl in the fourth year called Hermione Granger. Azalea soon learnt that Hermione was incredibly knowledgeable about most subjects and was familiar with the layout of the library. Hermione had pointed Azalea to many useful books which she otherwise wouldn't have discovered. Azalea had been introduced to the plight of the house elf by Hermione and she remembered Charity explaining on her first day that the house elves were like domestic servants. Azalea bought one of Hermione's campaign badges as a mark of solidarity, although she had yet to meet a house elf. Picking up the books she had just pulled towards herself, one for each of the main subjects – Charms, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions – her thoughts turned to her progress in each of these.
The first Charms lesson had been a good indication of the subject and teacher. As Professor Flitwick had suggested Azalea had done a lot of background reading and practising of the charms and was now attending classes with the third years.
At the first Transfiguration lesson the teacher, Professor McGonagall had said to the class "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." Despite that warning the Professor did not consider asking awkward questions to be "messing about" and would try to respond to Azalea's questions; the first one of which was "what is transfiguration?" Professor McGonagall had explained that it was the art of changing things from one thing to another and demonstrated by changing her desk into a pig and back into a desk again. Azalea had asked if it was a real pig and should wizards create life only to destroy it as easily by changing a pig into a desk? It seemed that, like Professor Snape with her question about using animal parts as potion ingredients, Professor McGonagall had never given any thought to that question but agreed that it was worthy of consideration. Azalea harboured concerns about this form of magic where it involved living things but nevertheless she demonstrated a skill at transfiguration that soon saw her moving up to the classes with the older students.
The Defence Against the Dark Arts Classes with Mad-Eye Moody had been educational to say the least. Azalea still saw him as being fuzzy round the edges but had got used to it by now and never thought to mention it to anyone, assuming it must be something to do with his injuries. Azalea had been told that Professor Moody was only on a one year contract and was specifically brought in to teach defence against curses so she attended class for older children in this subject. Most adult wizards would think twice before cursing a child and given that she was an adult Dumbledore thought she should learn how to defend herself, Moody was one of the best people at defensive strategies that Dumbledore knew. Professor Moody had started off the class by demonstrating the Unforgivable Curses – these were the three curses that were punishable by wizard law. The first, the Imperius Curse would take away the will of the subject and force them to act as the curse maker would have them act. The second was the Cruciatus curse which was the torture curse and inflicted any pain the curse maker could think of. Finally there was the Killing curse for which there was no known counter curse. Up until then Azalea had somehow that thought that wizards would use their power for good but this had been real eye-opener and she knew she would have to re-evaluate her assumptions.
Once thing was clear, there was more to magic than waving a wand and saying Abracadabra, in fact she was beginning to think that a wand wasn't really necessary. She had noticed that she could "see" the magic as it worked. It appeared out of the wands like a colourful rainbow or aura. The colours and intensity varied depending upon the spell being performed; she supposed that there must be an almost infinite combination of colours and intensities, each one being unique to a particular spell. The Killing curse had been a matt black that seemed to suck out the light. She had theorised to herself that the speaking, or indeed the thinking, of the incantation that went with the spells generated the correct combination of colour and intensity of magic to do the spell. Now she knew that there really was a colour of magic. The wand appeared to act as a conduit for the magic and in the privacy of her own room she had practised each spell she learnt without the use of a wand and it became easier the more she did it.
Azalea moved position again, this time to lie on her front. Autumn was imminent but for now the leaves were stubbornly clinging to the trees and the ground was still quite dry and free of decaying leaf litter. She reached out and pulled the pile of books closer and leafing through them, she took out the text book for muggle studies. During her first meeting with Charity Burbage to discuss the curriculum for the subject, Charity had given her the standard textbook on how muggles lived. Azalea had laughed at how dated the book was. "Muggles haven't lived like this for years!" she'd exclaimed. "Where are the microwave ovens, dishwashers, colour televisions, videos, CD players? This looks like a house from the 1950s and the clothes - what a mishmash of styles. Look at the transport - we've got Concorde, hatchback cars, Intercity 125 trains - we don't get around in charabancs and horse drawn carts. Charity - seriously - when was the last time you visited the muggle world?"
Charity blushed, "Well it has been a while I'll admit. I know the books are dated but it's hard to find modern textbooks on muggle studies. Most wizards still patronise muggles on the one hand and fear them on the other. That's why I was delighted when Dumbledore suggested you'd help out because you can give them an up to date account of what muggle life is like."
"What about the muggle students?" Azalea questioned, "Don't they help keep you up to date?"
"Most of them don't attend my class," Charity replied. "Why would they need to? To be honest neither do most of the purebloods - they see muggles as an inferior species worthy only of contempt. There are still a lot of wizards out there who have sympathy with You Know Who's views."
Since that conversation Azalea had found out a lot more about Voldemort and the Death Eater cult and thought it ironic that the greatest opponent of muggles was himself born of a wizard and a muggle. She could see many parallels between his views and some aspects of human history - such as the holocaust. She had made the Second World War the subject of one of the muggle studies lesson in the hope that the message would get through to a few students. Other subjects she had covered were modes of transport, labour saving devices, sports and entertainment. She had even given an exercise class which had proved so popular she had another one lined up soon. She grinned to herself as she recalled the reaction of a certain potions teacher when he'd seen her dressed in her exercise clothes of a tight fitting leotard and lycra shorts.
Azalea shifted position again and her eye caught a movement. She sat up and peered under the lowest branch. She saw a figure walking purposefully along a path in the Forbidden Forest and shading her eyes from the sun she saw it was Professor Snape. Azalea hadn't yet ventured into the forest, not because it was forbidden but because she hadn't really had the opportunity to do so. She reasoned that as she wasn't a student then she would be permitted to go into the forest. On impulse she decided to follow him. She picked up her books and set off. As she walked she considered the way the potions lessons had gone so far.
After the first lesson she decided she would try to keep her head down in the next one and not draw attention to herself. Instead she got on with the assigned task and observed how Snape interacted with the other students. His attitude to them was almost hostile. He was very strict and a disciplinarian. He had clear favourites and they were all from his house, Slytherin. He would deduct points from the other houses for slight incidents when Slytherin students would get away with doing the same thing. She couldn't deny that he was very knowledgeable about his subject and he did get results from the students. She would hear him make a sarcastic comment to a student about a mistake made but while criticising he was also supplying them with the way to do it correctly. "What do you call that mess? I suppose you put in the cockroach before the saltpetre, idiot boy – read the instructions. You can read can't you?" After a few lessons she noticed that whilst he was sweeping round the room offering his caustic advice he was also watching out for potions overflowing, cauldrons overheating and students being careless when slicing the ingredients. It had then occurred to her that the potions class was potentially dangerous, like a chemistry or cookery class in the muggle world, so he had to be aware of everything going on, no wonder he had no tolerance of people mucking about. It was after that realisation that she thought that she may have misjudged him.
She'd had some conversations with staff members who had filled her in about Snape's personal history. Following these conversations Azalea had noticed that Snape rarely engaged in a casual conversation. He would respond to specific questions and give his opinions on matters pertaining to work. Some people were reluctant to talk about themselves and she could understand his wanting to keep his personal life to himself. However, being a sociable person herself she found it harder to understand how he could have spent so much time without these casual exchanges of information and friendly banter. At dinner she would often find herself the centre of social activity with the other members of staff and the laughter and conversation would sometimes get so raucous that the students would look up to see what was so funny. She had a particular rapport with Filius, they shared the same sense of humour and would often be creased up over stories and jokes that they told each other. Try as she might, Azalea had never yet managed to get a seat next to Snape so she could include him in the conversation and see if she could draw out his sense of fun, she was sure he had one.
With that thought in mind she entered the forest and walked along the path going in the direction she had last seen him. Whilst walking she pondered upon her motivation for seeking him out. She attended far more potions classes than any other single subject and had justified it to herself that she needed access to the ingredients in order to learn about the subject. The other subjects she could read about and practice the techniques by herself, saving up the questions for the next lesson. But she knew that wasn't the full truth, for some reason she found herself attracted to the potions teacher in a way that she had experienced with only one other man. Snape wasn't the most handsome man she'd ever known, not by any stretch of the imagination, but somehow his features pleased her, she liked his deep dark eyes, how his pale skin contrasted with his jet black hair and even his slightly crooked teeth. She had noticed that his emotions were rarely reflected in his facial expressions so it was hard to tell what he was thinking and she no idea if he found her attractive. She instinctively felt that he was not a man whose feelings were to be trifled with and if she wanted to get to know him better she should be sure that her own reasons were sincere.
She was lost in her thoughts and walking along a well defined path, because she didn't want to get lost on the return journey, when she heard the swishing of large leather wings and looked up. She could see three of the thestral creatures she'd seen on the first day when they were pulling the carriages up to the castle. One of them appeared to be carrying a dead sheep and she saw them angle down swiftly towards the ground to land in a clearing a short way off the main path. She changed direction to follow them and as she approached the clearing she saw Professor Snape standing motionless watching the first thestral land with its load. He had his back to her, she paused and observed him, she admired the way he held himself, his slim body poised and always under control, a stray thought entered her mind on what he would look like in a pair of Speedos but she quickly banished that errant thought and concentrated on the thestrals. She made her way to the clearing treading quietly, so as not to disturb the creatures, and stood beside him.
