Audrey was still beaming when she Apparated at the edge of Hogsmeade. The sun was just as bright on this end of the country, in the Scottish Highlands, as it was in London, though there was a bit more chill in the air. She pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, levitated her trunk, and began the trek to Hogwarts, turning away from the cozy village. The castle loomed impressively before her, its many towers reflected onto the Great Lake, which lay shimmering and dark to the west. On the other side she could make out the massive trees of the Forbidden Forest which seemed shadowy and foreboding even in the light of day. The walk wasn't terribly long, but as Audrey nearly tripped on one of many loose rocks on the path, she lamented that it was impossible to Apparate directly to the school. But she had to admit, the view upon her approach was admirable.
The Hogwarts gate opened as she drew near, as if it sensed she was permitted to enter the campus. She barely mounted the entrance steps to the castle when the door flung open to reveal a small witch with round cheeks, curly gray hair, and a huge smile. Her robes were coated with dirt.
"Professor Callahan!" she said with delight. "Welcome to Hogwarts! I'm Professor Sprout, Herbology professor, but please call me Pomona. I'm your welcoming colleague."
"Lovely to meet you," Audrey said, warming to the woman immediately. "You can call me Audrey."
"Audrey," Pomona repeated with a smile. "Well, right this way, I'll lead you to your chambers."
The halls were eerily empty – the students hadn't yet arrived on the Hogwarts Express – but the castle still held a homey warmth. She was surprised how at ease she felt as she followed Pomona up the staircases to the third floor. It almost felt like a homecoming rather than the beginning of a new career. Almost.
"Here you are," Pomona said brightly outside of a door in the middle of a corridor. "Your office is through there and your chambers will be just beyond that. My office is on the ground floor, but I'm rarely there, in fairness. You can usually find me in the greenhouses outside. If you need me for an emergency of any kind, use this."
Pomona pressed a small yellow token into her hand. "Give it a tap with your wand, and it'll make mine vibrate." She pulled out a sister token from her pocket. "Then I can come find you. Is that alright?"
"Sounds perfect," Audrey said, tucking her token into her own pocket.
"They're yellow for Hufflepuff," Pomona added wryly. "I heard you were one of us while in school. I'm head of house now. Anyway, I'll let you get settled. The Sorting starts at 6, and don't forget to sit at the staff table!"
With a chuckle to herself, Pomona left, and Audrey opened the door to her new office. The room was industrial, holding only a large desk, a fireplace on the right side, and a nearly empty bookcase on the far wall. What she didn't see, however, was a passage to the chambers that Pomona promised. She approached the shelves, bare except for one book: "Levers, Not Levitation: An Introduction to Muggle Innovation." Curiously, she pulled it down for a closer look, and the bookcase swung inward to reveal a large room. Audrey laughed out loud – it was very Muggle-murder-mystery to have a hidden room behind a bookcase. She suspected the inconspicuousness was for privacy, should she meet with students in her office. Her horrible habit of never making her bed could remain a secret from the rest of the school.
As Audrey began unpacking and decorating her new quarters, she was surprised to hear a knock at her door. In the hall, she saw another squat witch, though this woman was eerily menacing despite the smile plastered on her face and her bright pink robes.
"Audrey Callahan, isn't it?" the woman said in a pinched, high-pitched voice. When Audrey nodded, the woman thrust a soft hand with pink fingernails forward to shake. "Dolores Umbridge. I'm the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I thought I'd introduce myself to my fellow newbie."
Dolores let out a gratingly girlish giggle, and Audrey stifled a grimace. She returned the niceties, not wanting to let on that the woman's reputation preceded her. "So nice to meet you. Glad I'm not the only fresh meat this term."
"We're neighbors as well," Dolores added, nearly interrupting Audrey. "I'm just next door to you there. How fortunate!"
Audrey groaned inwardly but put on her best winning-bedside-manner face from her nursing days. "That's wonderful. It should be an exciting school year."
Dolores smiled broadly, and Audrey thought she looked like a wicked toad, with large eyes and a wide mouth. "I'm sure we're going to be fast friends," she said.
With that final word, Dolores marched down the hall, and Audrey saw her enter her office directly to the right of her own room. Audrey clicked her door closed and shuddered. There was something off about that woman, something predatorial, and it made her ill to think she would be on the other side of her wall the entire year. But she thought perhaps Dumbledore did this on purpose. She could keep an eye on Dolores Umbridge and see what sort of threat she posed to the Order if she was only down the hall. Audrey couldn't shake the accompanying fact that she herself would be just as easy to watch.
Audrey arrived in the Great Hall just before students began filing into the massive room. Candles levitated underneath the vast ceiling, which was bewitched to look like the sky beyond the castle. At that moment, the sky was burnt orange, with purple dusk at its edge, spreading like a bruise.
Her seat at the staff table, to her relief, was between Pomona and a tall, dark-skinned witch she recognized as the Astronomy professor, Aurora Sinistra. Audrey remembered Professor Sinistra from when she was a student and stammered slightly when using her first name, unfamiliar with the informality.
"You'll get used to it," Aurora said kindly. "It's good to see one of my hardest working students again. Please tell me everything you've been up to these past few years!"
Audrey wasn't sure where to begin and was relieved when it was time for the Sorting. She scanned the four House tables as the Hat was brought forward. She found the Weasleys easily at the Gryffindor table on the left side of the room. Among the redheads, she spotted Harry's messy black mop and Hermione's bushy hair. She failed to see a familiar face at the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables and had a sinking feeling when she saw the pale pointed visage of Draco Malfoy at the far-right Slytherin table. She was even more dismayed to see a shining Prefect badge on his robes and she tried to discreetly search his face for any trace of Sirius's features. It was strange to think this sneering boy was related to the Sirius she loved. Loved. Before she could dwell more on that thought, the Sorting Hat began to sing, as it did every year.
Audrey remembered the tattered Sorting Hat performed a different song at the beginning of each term, but she had never heard one as foreboding as this. It was strangely meta, contemplating the justness of separating students by House and preaching the importance of school unity as danger loomed ever nearer. A quick glance at the sober faces of the students told her this tune was new to them as well. She could only imagine the horror of the last time the school was gathered in the Great Hall, when the year ended with mourning Cedric Diggory.
When the Sorting Hat fell silent at its song's conclusion, there was a pregnant pause of reflection before McGonagall called the first quaking first year forward to be sorted into their House. All 30 students were sat with their new Houses in no time, and McGonagall soon took her place beside Dumbledore at the staff table. Then Dumbledore stood, and all conversations ceased.
His welcome speech was brief, and Audrey felt just as abashed as she did when she was a teenager when the headmaster warned them that the Forbidden Forest and other dangerous places were out of bounds. She willed her cheeks not to redden when he introduced her as the new Muggle Studies professor. He similarly pointed out Dolores Umbridge and an older witch with cropped gray hair named Professor Grubbly-Plank who was substituting for Hagrid as Care of Magical Creatures professor.
As Dumbledore prepared to end his address and begin the feast, something strange happened. He was interrupted by a high-pitched clearing of a throat.
"Hem-hem," Dolores coughed. The entire room stared at her. "Might I say a few words, Professor Dumbledore?"
Pomona's eyes were wide, and Audrey felt Aurora stiffen beside her. Dumbledore, however, kept a neutral face and nodded. He took his seat and watched Dolores expectantly as she rose.
The woman spread her lips wide into a horrid grin as she blinked around the room. Then she launched into a jargon-heavy spiel that seemed to come from an official Ministry memo. Audrey watched the eyes of the students glaze over with boredom, but to her, Dolores's message was crystal clear: Umbridge was a Ministry representative first and foremost and she would be watching them all. While the kids may have tuned out their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's speech, Audrey could tell from Aurora's tightened grip on the edge of the table that the rest of the staff understood perfectly.
Finally, Dolores finished, and the feast began. Every plate in the hall was filled with delicious foods of all kinds, and Audrey tucked in, listening with interest as Pomona and Aurora spoke with her about professorial responsibilities she could expect. Dolores's eerie speech was in the forefront of their minds, Audrey could tell, but none of them dared to speak their thoughts about it aloud.
She noticed another odd behavior among the students that she hoped she was imagining. With horror, she realized that Harry was the object of many terror-struck and angry stares. Students at every House table whispered together and craned their necks for a glimpse of the Chosen One. She wondered if this was normal – you'd think by his fifth year that the students would be used to a celebrity in their midst. Harry was sunk low in his seat at the Gryffindor bench, which made Audrey think this was a new phenomenon, likely related to the fact that the Daily Prophet was spinning wild rumors about him and his sanity all summer. When she saw students beginning to file toward their dormitories, Audrey scanned the Gryffindor table, but Harry was already gone. She told herself Harry was surrounded by friends and the gossip would die down soon enough, but she hoped she would see him often enough around the school to keep a proper eye on him. Sirius would want her to.
Alone in her chambers that evening, Audrey eyed her new bed warily. She was used to sleeping alone – even when she was seeing Paul, her work schedule was so bizarre that she would nap when she could between shifts, never giving the empty space beside her a second thought. Barely more than a week had passed since she began sharing a bed with Sirius, yet here she was contemplating how empty her bed would feel when she climbed into it.
Audrey gave herself a shake. How quickly she became codependent! She was perfectly capable of being on her own. She slipped off her robes and caught a glimpse of herself in her new full-length mirror. Without her professional garb, she felt as vulnerable as she looked. Naked, her small, weak frame was exposed. How could this little person shape the minds of the future, spy on a notorious Ministry official, fight the Dark Lord?
The mark Sirius left on her neck only that afternoon stood out prominently purple against the paleness of her skin. It was silly – she hadn't had a hickey since she was 18 – but it made her smile in spite of herself. This body… with its dumb love bite… was hers. It was capable of great things. She could drive Sirius wild with a swing of her hips. And her hands – she saved lives with those hands, with and without magic. She breathed, her heart beat, without her even thinking about it. She was little but she was a miracle. She laughed out loud at how Sirius's "something" to remember him by had grounded her so completely. Audrey could still see it as she pulled on her nightdress.
For good measure, she pressed her ear to the wall she shared with Dolores Umbridge. The stone was cool against her cheek. Audrey heard nothing, but she imagined the walls were too thick for small sounds to pass through. With a sigh of resolution, she resigned herself to her new bed and successfully found sleep on her own.