Note: I do not own any of the characters and such, those are entirely JK Rowling's.
10. Professor Saxton
Stephanie only had half an hour before dinner would start in the great hall. And she wanted to attend as the new her. She took a quick shower and washed her hair with the magical shampoo. She could immediately see the effects. This was amazing, never again would she need a blow dryer. Her big curls were tamed and her hair hung in beautiful waves over her shoulders.
She chose one of the new outfits she had bought earlier that day. It was a stylish three piece suit. Dark blue trousers, a waistcoat and jacket, with a white blouse underneath. The outfit came with a slightly darker blue cloak to wear overneath, but she left it. She noticed that her jacket had a wand holster attached on the inside. She also put on her new black boots.
She grabbed the box from Ollivander's and took her brand new wand out. She hadn't taken a close look at her new wand yet. It was made of very dark mahogany wood. She also noticed that her wand was not round, as she assumed most wands were. The grip was square and the rest of the length of the wand was triangulaire. It was odd, but she liked it, it was unique.
She put on some of her new make-up, also magical (48 hour wear, non smudging). She looked in the mirror and was very pleased with what she saw. She finally felt a bit more like herself. The new outfit wasn't very feminine one could say, but that's exactly what she liked. She felt handsome and confident.
She was a little nervous to walk in like this, but ever since her confrontation with Snape last night, she had made a promise to herself that she would be brave, and make the most of the situation. So she took a deep breath and left her chambers. She walked downstairs and to the doors of the great hall, she was ready to commit to her new life.
The great hall was full with students and teachers, dinner had just started a few minutes ago and the sounds of conversation and laughter filled the air. Snape sat right of Dumbledore and was thankful nobody had dared to sit on his other side. He hated to be forced into conversation and he just wanted to eat. He prefered to eat alone in his chambers, but Dumbledore wanted the staff to be present at all meals as much as possible.
The doors to the great halls opened and the conversation and laughter quieted down. Snape had just taken a sip of his wine as he looked at the person who came walking in. He almost choked in his drink and had to cough a few times. Was that Miss Saxton who just walked up to the head table? He blinked a few times, as he could not believe his eyes. She looked so different. Where was the anxious pale girl who he found crying in the middle of the night, and who was this?
Gone was the nervous muggle, and before him he saw a confident, dare he say beautiful, witch. He felt confused by his own thoughts. This wasn't like him. Severus Snape did not admire people, especially not nervous muggle women. But she no longer looked the way when she had arrived at Hogwarts. This woman looked like a completely different person. And he was intrigued by the change.
Unfortunately she sat next to him, as it was the only empty spot left. As soon as she sat down, Albus tried to get her attention. 'You look great Stephanie, is it alright if I announce you to the rest of the great hall?' he asked. Stephanie met his gaze with a smile. 'Thank you Albus. Yes, that is fine.' she replied. Snape didn't look up, but he listened to their short conversation. Why would she need to be announced?
Dumbledore got up from his seat and addressed the hall: 'Can I have your attention please?' he said, his voice loud enough for everybody to hear. 'You all have probably already seen her around, but I would like to officially introduce you to our new Muggle Studies professor, Professor Saxton!' he said as he started applauding. Stephanie got up and nodded to the headmaster in thanks. Minerva shot her a proud glance. The students started politely applauding as well, except for most of the Slytherin students, who just gave her nasty looks. Stephanie hadn't expected anything different from them.
Snape was almost too shocked to react, but reminded just in time to applaud along with a few claps. She was going to stay then? He hoped, for her sake, she had actually found some courage. She could change her outfit, but that didn't necessarily change who she was, and her fear. He would have to wait and see. For now he just wanted to stay away from her, he still didn't trust her. But then again, he barely trusted any people at all so that was nothing new.
Stephanie's heart was racing. She just hoped nobody had noticed how nervous she had actually been. When she realized the only spot left at the table had been next to Snape, her heart sank a little bit, but it gave her an opportunity as well.
As soon as the hall quieted down again she also started to put some food onto her own plate. Without looking up from what she was doing, she quietly said: 'Thank you.' in Snape's direction. 'I beg your pardon?' he replied. 'Thank you,' she repeated while she looked up at him. Their eyes met, Stephanie had never seen such deep dark eyes, that said so much, but were empty at the same time. 'For last night,' she said, 'I needed a wake-up call, to pull myself together. And you gave it to me.'
Snape didn't know what to say, so he said nothing and focussed on his food again. She shouldn't have thanked him, he just reacted to her silly behaviour. He had just told her the truth. Confused and thinking about what had just happened he continued eating.
Stephanie began eating as well. She noticed he hadn't said anything back to her, but that probably just meant he was thinking about what she said. Or maybe not. She knew this man was difficult and bitter, she shouldn't expect too much from him.
She started a conversation with Rolanda Hooch who sat on her other side. They made some small talk and eventually they started talking about flying. Stephanie reminded herself to not let the woman know she already knew about quidditch, because that would reveal she somehow knew more than an ex-muggle could know.
'So you have never flown before?' Hooch asked. Stephanie shook her head. 'But I want to learn. I imagine it to be amazing and scary at the same time.' she said. Hooch being Hooch, and absolutely obsessed with flying and quidditch, right away offered Stephanie to teach her how to fly. They agreed to start Wednesday, when Rolanda had a free afternoon.
For the rest of the dinner Rolanda enthusiastically explained quidditch to Stephanie and told her all about her own experiences, teams and memorable events. And Stephanie pretended to hear it all for the first time.
It was so nice to see how enthusiastic Hooch was about it. This was never really mentioned in the books or movies. It gave Rolanda so much more character, and by the end of dinner she found that she really liked her. She was passionate and fiery but also kind and helpful. Stephanie felt excited, to finally get to know someone who she actually didn't really know. It was new, fresh and full of wonder.
Stephanie was back in her chambers after dinner and sat on the sofa, watching the flames in the fireplace, enjoying a cup of tea. She had now been here a full week, and so much had happened. It took her almost a week as well to get herself together. But she felt ready now and confident. Ready to make most of her new life, ready to learn magic, ready to teach. She was still scared of some things, but she wasn't going to give into her fear anymore. She refused to live in fear and she could not do that if she wanted to change the future.
But there wasn't even time to think about changing the future. She had classes to prepare, lesson plans to make. Tomorrow was Saturday, and she would join the staff meeting for the first time as a professor. She felt nervous thinking about it, but was excited as well. She was going to pay attention to what her colleagues had to say about their classes and the students; she wanted to be completely prepared to start teaching next week.
Her wand lay in front of her on the coffee table, she hadn't used it yet. She felt like the first spell she would cast with it had some sort of special meaning. She didn't expect to be able to cast her first spell successfully in one go, but she wanted to try anyway. Which spell was a good one to start with?
She wasn't superstitious or anything, she just wanted her first spell to have some meaning. After looking through her library books for a while, she decided on Lumos. Creating light felt like a good place to start.
She picked up her wand, took a few breaths and imagined a light at the tip of her wand. In one of the books she had read that most magic depended on intent. She had to imagine the effect of the spell, and see it happening in her mind.
She focused on the tip of her wand, took another deep breath and clearly said 'Lumos." A bright light immediately came from her wand and she had to close her eyes a little, to not be blinded by the light. She tried to keep her wand a bit farther away and after a few seconds her eyes had adjusted to the light. She couldn't believe it! She had just actually performed her first spell, in one go!
She jumped up and down and squealed from happiness. Her wand kept emitting light from it's tip. 'Nox,' she said, and the light was gone. She put her wand down on the coffee table again. Filled with adrenaline from her success she ran through her rooms, she danced, she screamed, that's how excited it made her.
Dared she try another spell? Yes, yes she did. She tried the levitation charm, first on a piece of paper. It was light so it should be easy. Soon enough the piece of paper was floating through the air. This gave her an idea. She took the piece of paper and folded it into a paper plane.
She casted the charm again and the paper plane took off. She felt silly but she was having so much fun with it, flying the plane through her chambers.
She couldn't remember when the last time was when she had felt so happy, so carefree. She actually wanted to share this moment with someone, show them her success. But she didn't dare to disturb the headmaster for something so silly. Besides Snape, she didn't know where any of the other professor's chambers were. And she was definitely not going to share with Snape.
The thought alone made her giggle as she imagined the look on Snape's face when she would knock on his door just to show him a flying paper plane. Suddenly she had an idea. 'Mipsy!' she said, and with a soft pop the small house elf appeared in front of her. 'How can Mipsy help Professor Saxton?' the elf asked. Stephanie still had to get used to the title of professor, it sounded so strange.
'Mipsy! I hope you weren't busy or anything, but I just did something amazing and I just wanted to share with someone but I don't know where most of the professor's chambers are, so I just thought I would show you, if you don;t mind?' It had seemed like a fine enough idea at first, but now Stephanie felt a bit silly to have called Mipsy just to show her her first successful spells. But Mipsy was here now anyways, so Stephanie decided to just go with it.
'Look!' she said, while she performed Lumos, Nox, and the levitation charm. Mipsy applauded her. 'That is so good of you madam, well done!' she squealed. 'But you know, you can be using the floo to talk or visit with the other professors? Even if you is not knowing where their chambers are.' she added.
'Ehr,' Stephanie said, 'yeah I know, but I.. eh… am not sure how to use it and if it was allowed.' she admitted. Mipsy started explaining how to use the floo, for both just talking, and visiting. 'So if I understood correctly, for just talking, I throw in some floo powder, say their name and then just… stick my head in the flames?' she asked Mipsy. She looked at her fireplace, and thought she had to be sitting on her knees for her to be able to do that comfortably if she wanted to talk longer than a few minutes.
Mipsy nodded at her. Stephanie tanked her for her help and with a pop the elf disappeared again. Stephanie levitated the paper plane again for a few minutes, and tried to levitate some heavier object as well. Books flew through her chambers, after which a chair followed.
She was amazed at how she had managed to be able to cast the charms in one go. From the books she always got the impression that learning magic was hard, and that most spells required at least a few tries before they would work.
She started to feel pretty tired so she started to get ready to go to bed. After the staff meeting she would start preparing lesson plans. She already had some ideas that she wanted to use. She was excited to see if they would work. She also needed to go to the library to see if they had any suitable books that she would have her students buy for class.
Exhausted from the shopping today, her entrance with her new look in the great hall, and her first successful spells, she went to bed, excited for what was to come.