As soon as they returned to Hogwarts, Hazel knew the holiday had been too good to be true. Snape left the cottage a couple of days before they had to be back. He had business to attend to, either at Spinner's End or with the Death Eaters. She didn't know. But he was back in the dungeons by the time she returned, cauldrons of a few mysterious liquids bubbling around the Potions classroom. She didn't find him there, but was sure to leave a note to let him know she'd stirred the Draught of Living Death he had been brewing after she saw its timer run out.
There wasn't much of an opportunity to talk until the start-of-term feast. He'd missed the opening faculty meeting for a meeting with Dumbledore, something both she and Umbridge found suspicious, though for different reasons. Umbridge found time to corner her afterwards, innocently asking her about her holiday. Or so she thought. "It was nice to be away, but I did miss seeing all of our wonderful students. I'm hopeful that we have a relatively calm term," Hazel smiled at her a little too pleasantly. "Perhaps with your help, we can avoid the chaos that has seemed to plague the spring terms at this school for the last four years or so. You certainly have reinvented Hogwarts as we knew it. Dare I say revolutionized it." Ingratiating, she knew, but it seemed to work.
"Someone is needed to maintain order here," Umbridge nodded enthusiastically. "I'm quite thankful that you agree. Now my dear, where is your friend?"
"Friend?" Hazel pretended she had no idea what the High Inquisitor was asking. "You'll have to be more specific. I get along with all of our coworkers, Dolores."
"Professor Snape. It seems that he's yet to make it back." Hoping Hazel would take the bait, she waited, blinking as if she had no clue where one of her fellow professors had gone. The concern would have been touching if it wasn't so clearly fake.
Hazel shrugged, telling her that she wasn't sure. "Perhaps he's feeling unwell. I was nearly poisoned by some spoiled treacle tart over the holiday. Perhaps he ate something that disagreed with him. I spent most of my day cleaning up my classroom and preparing lesson plans for the week, so I haven't had the chance to catch him in the corridors. By the way, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Muggle Relations Regulations of 1787. We're going to begin discussing them in the first class of the term."
Unsatisfied, Umbridge told her to expect an owl with an outline of the Ministry's newest opinion on the Regulations and the name of an excellent book on the topic. Umbridge took off to intercept Professor Sprout, going to complain about the shipment of some sort of new magical plant that had been dropped off that morning. Unfortunately for Umbridge, the large box appearing in the Great Hall had been a problem with the shipping company, nothing Professor Sprout could control.
The chaos of the next few weeks kept Hazel and Snape apart. A corner of the Slytherin common room had begun to cave in under the Black Lake, springing a leak that took almost no time to fix. The cleanup effort, however, had Snape and Filch working at all hours to prevent anything from molding, dry up the bookshelves that had been drenched, and get all of the water out of the crevasses in the brickwork. Luckily it hadn't seeped into the dormitories.
Suddenly finding herself buried in work, Hazel hardly left her office. She had finally gotten a shipment of books that she'd ordered for a research project, and there was a lot more to take in than she had expected. She had been working on compiling recent magical history, detailing the rise of Voldemort and the First Wizarding War. Now it was getting more and more dangerous to order books that were critical of Voldemort, so she had to order them from out of the country. The books she had ordered that spoke well of Voldemort arrived from Borgin & Burkes at the same time, leaving her with crates of books stacked around her office.
Though she would sit up at night and read, Snape rarely joined her. He'd assigned essays to every class right before the Great Slytherin Flood, as the students were calling it, so when he wasn't stuck trying to fix up the common room, he was in his office, combing through essays that spelled "Polyjuice" incorrectly. They would see each other at meals, but never found time to talk on their own. Even when they managed to catch each other in the Ravenclaw Common room, it was always bustling with students.
Their opportunity finally came after a dramatic confrontation in Dumbledore's office that sent a bunch of professors running. Hazel had a feeling that Dumbledore was going to be forced out of the school soon, but she had no idea that it would be at the hands of people she thought were on their side. Or perhaps they had orchestrated it all together. No one could be sure. Either way, she found herself running towards Dumbledore's office at the signs of commotion. She'd been in the hallway nearby, and made it up there just in time to see Dumbledore and Fawkes vanish.
McGonagall had been right there, and she remained fuming at the Aurors and Umbridge. Madam Pomfrey arrived soon after, Professor Sprout trailing in her wake. Snape and Flitwick rounded out the group, all of them silently agreeing to discuss everything later. For now, though, Umbridge called an emergency meeting of the heads of house.
Being forced to leave them, Hazel went back to Ravenclaw Tower, calling all of her students down to the common room. Since it was after hours, nearly everyone was there, save for a few in the Hospital Wing. "You will hear the news in the morning, but I think you should hear it from me. Professor Dumbledore has been driven from the castle." The whispering started up fiercely, but she continued, talking over them to assure her students that all would be well. "Professor Umbridge is going to announce it in the morning. I'm sure the Ministry will place her in charge." More muttering ran through the room. "I do not know everything going on behind this, but I have faith that Professor Dumbledore saw this coming, and I have faith that this is part of a bigger plan of his. Whatever Professor Umbridge announces in the morning, we will stand together as Ravenclaws and as a school."
Flitwick returned soon after, taking his turn to address the students who were still milling about the common room. Pulling Hazel aside, he told her that there would be a staff meeting the next evening, where Umbridge was going to outline her new plan for the school. Both of them agreed that their priority would be continuing their students' education and protecting the school now that Dumbledore was gone. The only wizard Voldemort truly feared had left them defenseless. Not totally. They had collected some of the best and most capable wizarding minds, but the fear of Dumbledore being there to protect the school was now gone.
The staff meeting was nothing surprising. Umbridge had taken over, and she was going about instituting even more rules, which would be announced to the students as soon as their meeting was over. All "non-educational" products were now banned, as was the Quibbler. Flitwick's choir practice hours were cut in half, and all songs had to be approved. Hogsmeade trips were reserved to one Saturday a month, and to be supervised by as many professors as possible. They were likely to be phased out completely. All disciplinary measures were to be reported directly to Umbridge, not just the offending student's head of house. Even the sweets and candies in the school were regulated and had to come from approved suppliers - Honeyduke's - only, or students might face expulsion. Any books by non-wizards, and especially those by non-humans, were to be burned in the Great Hall fireplace. Some could be kept in the library for "historic and educational value" but could not be removed.
Professors were now banned from giving students any information on subjects other than the ones they taught. Even mentorship advice was banned, except for that given in career planning meetings with the head of house. That meant Hazel wasn't allowed to talk about her time as an Auror and encourage students to apply to the Ministry. A little counterintuitive, especially with Umbridge's emphasis on pro-Ministry propaganda.
It took an hour for her to read all of the new regulations and explain them all, the professors doing their best to keep their faces neutral as their freedoms were being chipped away. Hazel's head was spinning by the time they left, but she headed up to the Owlery to send a note off to Molly. She had to check up on Arthur, who was recovering at the Burrow after an attack by a mysterious snake at work. She'd dropped in to visit the Burrow on her way back to Hogwarts, but hadn't heard much since. Arthur was probably back at work by now.
The whole thing was unsettling, her mind churning as she made her way back towards her office. Lost in thought, she was taken by surprise when a hand reached out of nowhere and pulled her into the Potions storeroom. "Severus, what -"
"It has been far too long since we last talked," he explained, closing the door behind them. They stood in the tiny room, surrounded by glittering glass bottles and carefully-indexed herbs. There was a sense of urgency in his voice, Snape hastily rolling up his sleeve to show her the jet-black Dark Mark burned into his arm. "We all have roles to play in this, and mine is getting more complicated every day." He rolled his sleeve down, still embarrassed by the scar, even in front of her. It was a constant reminder of his failures. "I wanted you to know, in case I need to disappear for a while. Dumbledore is in hiding, per se. Things are getting more dangerous, and -"
"Sev, I know." She stopped him, saying, "It's going to be fine. We'll sort this all out. We take it one step at a time. First we need to make sure the students still get the best education they can, and we need to make sure the castle is still protected. But I do have to ask - the winter holiday. Are we going to leave that all in Cornwall, or…?" Some of the stress faded from his face as he smiled tenderly and leaned in to give her a kiss. "Careful, boys and girls aren't allowed within eight inches of each other," Hazel laughed, pulling him close.
"Then we best not let Umbridge see us."