Note: I do not own any of the characters and such, those are entirely JK Rowling's.
15. Stephanie: a mystery
With each passing day teaching had become easier for her. She had found herself a pleasant rhythm of preparing, teaching and grading. Before she knew it, she sat down for dinner on Friday evening.
The other first year social studies class had been interesting as well. Hermione Granger had wanted to answer every question and Stephanie could see why some people would find her annoying.
She had managed to come in early for dinner and found herself a spot next to Albus. Minerva wasn't there yet and she probably wouldn't mind that Stephanie had taken her usual seat for this evening.
She was happy to see that most teachers, especially Quirrell, weren't present yet as it was still early. She wanted to ask the headmaster something and prefered no one to hear her.
'Good evening Albus.' she said. 'Stephanie my dear!' he replied, 'How was your first week teaching?' he asked jiovally. 'It was good, great,'she replied quickly. She had to ask her question now before more people would join them for dinner. She took one more look around to see if no one could hear them.
'I was wondering Albus if you had reconsidered my idea of preventing certain..' She had wanted to say deaths but that was maybe a bit gruesome. '...unfortunate events?' she finished asking in almost a whisper.
Dumbledore's smile immediately disappeared and the twinkle in his eye was nowhere to be seen. He sighed and looked at her with a sad expression. 'We cannot Stephanie. It is simply too dangerous, there are too many risks.'
Stephanie knew this could happen. She knew Dumbledore liked to be in control and blindly trusted only himself, never anyone else. Yet she had hoped that she could have convinced him, maybe make him see how they could change so many things for the better. But no, of course this man, obsessed with control, wouldn't budge.
She exhaled quickly through her nose in frustration. 'So you just expect me to sit around and watch how lives get ruined, how lifes get ended?' she hissed at him. The headmaster took a long glance over the great hall, 'We must. If that means we can be sure that Voldemort will be defeated for once and for all, we must. There is no other way,' he said.
Stephanie wanted to refute, but the headmaster lifted his hand, as a sign for her to stop talking. She hated how he did that, as if he decided when people were allowed to speak. 'It is my final answer Stephanie. Now, let's look forward to the weekend, shall we.' he said as he turned a smile on his face once again and started talking to Snape, who had just taken his seat on the other side.
Snape had just entered the great hall and as he walked up to the head table, he noticed professor Saxton talking to the headmaster. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but with one remark, she had managed to make the headmaster's grandfatherly happy look disappear, only for a sad and serious one to take its place. It seemed they had a quick but heated discussion. The new muggle studies professor was obviously displeased, and within a few words from Dumbledore, she was defeated.
He had taken his seat on the other side of the headmaster and was immediately forced into conversation with the older man. He couldn't hide his curiosity: 'Interesting conversation with our new professor, headmaster?' he asked. Dumblere gave him a grin, 'Nothing for you to worry about, my boy.' he answered, as he continued eating his dinner. 'So how is she doing then?' Snape asked, hoping to get something from the headmaster about this woman. Dumbledore gave him an amused look: 'My boy, if you're so interested in the woman, why don't you ask her yourself?' he asked with a cheeky smile.
Snape just grunted at this remark, feeling somewhat insulted. What a ridiculous idea! She was only a muggle studies professor. And he was certainly not interested in this woman. She had been a wreck when she got here, there was nothing interesting about that. He had been curious, yes, but surely that was something completely different.
Snape didn't know why, but there was something off with the new professor. Of course, he knew she knew certain things about their future. But he felt like there was something else as well. He dared a quick glance over to her and saw that she was enjoying her dinner. With a small smile, she ate her pasta and chatted away with Filius. There was no longer any sign of her displeasure, as if the discussion with the headmaster hadn't happened at all.
'I wonder which house she would have been in if she had gone to Hogwarts as a child.' he suddenly heard from his other side. Hooch had taken the spot and had followed Snape's line of sight, now looking at Stephanie as well.
The headmaster couldn't resist joining the conversation: 'You know, she has asked the hat to sort her in my office when she had just gotten here. Why don't you ask her?' he suggested. Dumbledore couldn't deny that he wasn't curious as well. He had asked the hat himself of course, shortly after Stephanie had left his office that day. But the hat was still refusing to tell him anything.
Hooch seemed to be openly interested in Stephanie and followed the headmaster's advice right away. She walked over to Stephanie and tapped her shoulder. Stephanie looked up with a smile and questioning eyes, wondering what Rolanda had wanted to ask her.
'The headmaster mentioned you have asked the hat to sort you, and we,' she said as she pointed to herself and Snape, 'were wondering what your house is?' she asked. Stephanie looked over to Snape and saw that he looked furious, as he probably didn't want to be involved. She noticed the headmaster looking at her with interest.
'Did he now?' she said as she looked at the headmaster with a smile, albeit a fake one. She was certain he had mentioned this to her colleagues because he wanted to know it himself. But why? What did her house matter? It was not like she had ever really been a part of it.
Hooch nodded and looked at her expectantly. Stephanie looked around and noticed that most teachers were now watching her, curious to what she would answer. Snape was focussed on his meal but she could bet he was actually listening as well.
'Does it matter?' she asked everyone who was listening. She honestly was a bit surprised how big of a deal it seemed to be. Some just shrugged but no one really answered her and they all still seemed to want an answer.
Stephanie didn't want to share actually. She liked no one knowing. She noticed some of the students were looking up to the head table now as well. It must have been an odd sight: all teachers looking expectantly at the new muggle studies professor, even the headmaster. The students couldn't hear what it was about, but they were still curious about what was going on.
'All of them.' she just said, curious to see how they would react to this answer. 'That's not possible.' she heard someone snarl at her. So Snape had indeed been listening. Stephanie hid her amusement at his behaviour. 'Indeed.' she replied.
Everyone looked confused at her, not sure what she was playing at. 'You do not wish us to know.' she heard a moment later. It was Minerva who came to the right conclusion first. Stephanie waved her hand at Minerva, with a way of saying 'there you go'. Some had a disappointed look on their face but all quickly got back to their meal and previous conversations.
Snape wondered why she would keep it a secret. He was sure he wasn't the only one and he couldn't deny this made him only more curious to which house she had been sorted into. Probably Hufflepuff, as she had come here as a scared, fearful, crying and nervous woman. Then again, that woman had changed. He thought long and hard but he just didn't know enough about her to make a good guess.
Stephanie took a quick glance around to see if anyone was still paying attention to her, but noticed all had gone back to their own meal. She decided to leave dinner early as she was pretty tired from her first week and still wanted to do some reading for her own magical education in her chambers. As soon as she left the table and started walking towards the exit she heard whispers behind her. She grinned in amusement, she had apparently created a mystery for them, they couldn't resist to solve. This could be fun, if she played her cards right.
To be honest, Stephanie didn't know what to do. Dumbledore wasn't going to help her change the future but she still wanted to, so she had to do it on her own. Unfortunately, she had been a witch for only a few weeks now and could only perform a handful of spells. She wasn't nearly skilled or powerful enough to actually do something.
Could things wait until she had learned more magic? The first event would be at Halloween with the troll. Was it really necessary to change it, to prevent it?
After some thinking she decided she would let it happen. Not only would it cause the golden trio to become true friends, but it also raised the suspicion of Quirrell amongst the staff, and that couldn't hurt. No one would be hurt or die, so there was no panic yet.
She still needed to focus on learning magic though. She wanted to learn so much that she often didn't know what to study next. She had learned a few basic spells by herself and Minerva had helped. She was struggling however to find a good way to learn defense against the dark arts, and maybe later, even some dark arts as well.
Through her life before she had come here, she had learned the world wasn't just black and white, or good and bad. There was a lot in between, a lot of gray, so she wasn't really opposed to some gray or even dark magic. She would never hurt someone on purpose, unless they truly deserved it. But she had learned through the books and movies that some dark spells could come in handy. Even just knowing how the dark arts worked was an advantage.
Slightly overwhelmed with all the magic she wanted to learn, she had decided that she would first focus on charms, transfiguration and (defense against) the dark arts. Herbology, potions, astronomy and history of magic would have to wait.
She had been able to practice charms and transfiguration in her own chambers, but defense was a bit difficult to practice there. Not alone would it need more space, but she also needed a target she could aim at and, if possible, could let her know if the spell had worked.
She remembered that Flitwick had been a dueling champion so she decided to ask him if he had any ideas how and where she could practice. When dinner was definitely over she firecalled him. He recommended her to take another look in the storage room where probably was still a defense dummy laying around. He said she could take it and use it in an empty classroom.
He had been right, it turned out to be the same dummy she could remember that had been used by the DA in Harry's fifth year. She decided to take it to her own classroom. When she was practicing she would stack the chairs and desk to the side so she had enough space. She made sure to lock the door so no one could wander in and accidentally get hit with a stray spell.
She tried some basic spells first, such as disarming and some fairly harmless jinxes. She noticed Minerva's tip had been golden. As long as she remembered to push her magic out, she could do almost every spell. She even managed to use a pretty decent stupify!
After an hour or so Stephanie had enough as she was getting pretty tired. Using magic took a lot of energy from her, mainly because she was still learning and she had been pushing herself for the last hour. She put the chairs and desks back and stored the dummy in the adjacent office.
She hadn't used the office a lot yet. Mainly because it was so empty and cold. She barely had any stuff to put in her private chambers, so her office was very empty. She only kept everything she needed for her classes in there, everything else was in het own chambers, which wasn;t much to be honest.
Content with her progress this evening she went back to her private chambers. She had just put the kettle on when Minerva fire called her to ask if she was busy. She invited Minerva to come through and together they had a lovely evening just chatting about classes and Stephanie's own education. Stephanie really liked chatting with Minerva even though she was much older. It felt a bit like talking to a friend and a mother at the same time. Stephanie hoped her bond with Minerva would become stronger, as she at one point was going to ask her to not follow the headmaster anymore, but that needed trust first.
Meanwhile Albus was pacing in his office. He was a bit worried about Stephanie. He had noticed how displeased she had been when he told her he didn't want to know anything about the future to change anything.
He didn't feel threatened by the young woman, as she could barely cast any spells yet. So what could she even do? He wondered what she might know about him. When he checked her memories when she had just arrived here he had seen only flashes, mostly of Harry Potter, but nothing clear enough that would give him any insights. It was for the better, but he was still curious.
He was fairly sure she didn't know anything about him that could cause trouble. After all, the books were about Harry Potter, not about him. He might have played some role in the stories, maybe he had succeeded in steering young Harry in the right way, but surely that was all she could know.
Still he didn't feel reassured yet. Would she try to make some changes on her own? And how would he know if she had changed anything? After all, he didn't know anything about the future so how could he tell if things weren't going the right way? Her being here was a change already.
Still he wanted to be sure. He needed to keep his eye on her. He only needed to find a way how he could do this without her noticing. He would have to ask someone else to do it for him. 'Tilly!' he said and with a pop a house elf appeared in front of him. 'Could you please ask the potions master to come to my office?' he asked the elf friendly. The elf just nodded and popped away.
Albus just stood in his office, waiting, and only ten seconds later Tilly popped back in but this time with a grumpy looking Severus Snape. 'Severus, my boy!' the headmaster greeted him. `Glad you could spare some minutes to visit me.' He knew very well that the potions professor was often annoyed by his jovial tone, but he just liked to tease the man a little, he needed to lighten up.
'What is it, Albus? I was in the middle of brewing a potion and I need to add the next ingredient in exactly 12 minutes.' Snape said annoyed. He looked at the headmaster with sharp black eyes, arms crossed, impatiently waiting for an explanation.
'I'll keep it short then,' Dumbledore said,'I want you to keep an eye on Stephanie.' There, straight to the point. Snape raised his eyebrows, why would Dumbledore ask this of him? Was he also suspicious of her? The discussion he had witnessed this morning came to mind. Had it been that serious?
'Professor Saxton? Might I ask why?' he asked the headmaster. 'I do have enough to do, you know.' Dumbledore nodded, 'I know you're alway busy Severus, but I would highly appreciate it. I just want to make sure she's doing alright, and if she has found her way here. Just let me know if you see anything… concerning.' the headmaster answered.
The old man was as vague as ever. Severus had learned over the years that he had to read between the lines with the headmaster and sometimes even guess what the headmaster was actually thinking. He actually didn't really mind keeping an eye on Saxton, he was curious as well to see what he would find out.
'Fine.' he said. 'If that's all?' he asked as he was already walking towards the door. Albus nodded, 'Thank you, my boy. Let's talk again soon.' he said as he watched Snape leave his office. He was curious to see if Snape would actually find something, or if he was overly suspicious.