Note: I do not own any of the characters and such, those are entirely JK Rowlings.
18. Prove yourself
The next few weeks flew by. Stephanie had fallen into a rhythm of normalcy and noticed she started to miss some things. Things from home, her old home. Things like skinny jeans, sneakers, some of her friends, her music and late night Netflix.
Christmas had come and she was surprised to see she had received some presents. Most of them were books for her to study magic, which were highly appreciated. She also had gotten a scarf, a fancy quill and some records for the record player she had taken from the storage at the start of the year, but they were all magical bands or classical music so she didn't recognize any of it.
In return she had gifted her colleagues something small as well. Socks, of course for Dumbledore, and a variation of wine and chocolates for the others.
As great as the gifts were, she still felt a little homesick. She tried her phone every once in a while, to see if it was somehow working again, but everytime, the screen flickered, the buttons were barely replying and more often than not, the phone would shut itself off.
She had already searched many books for a spell to make electricity working in a magical place, but after many books she came to the conclusion there simply wasn't one. She just couldn't understand why no wizard, not even half-bloods or muggleborns, had come up with a solution for it. Surely there were more people like her who wanted to use both magic and electricity?
Finally fed up, she went to visit Filius on the last day of the Christmas holidays. She discussed her problem with him and he explained to her, a bit too technical, why magic and electricity couldn't work together.
'But surely I'm not the only one bothered by this problem?' she questioned. 'And what about stuff that both muggles and wizards use, such as lamps, stoves and record players?' she asked.
Filius was enjoying the conversation all too much. He loved it when someone took an interest in charms, especially when they came to him for advice.
'Well you see, muggles use electricity to power their devices, and we use magic. But in essence, they work the same way.' he answered her. 'But most wizards have no need for a lot of electrical devices, because we have so many spells to replace them.' he added.
Suddenly Stephanie had an idea. 'So let's say I have a muggle device that normally works on electricity, and I let all the electricity out, after which I try to make it work with magic… would it work?' she wondered.
Filius thought over the question. 'I don't see why not!' he replied happily. Stephanie immediately shot up from her seat. 'You're brilliant, thank you!' she said as she raced out the door to her chambers and left behind a slightly confused Flitwick.
Once inside her chambers, she grabbed her phone and turned it on. She tried to see how much battery the phone had left. 28%. Now all she had to do is keep the thing on and drain the battery.
She had to restart the damn thing multiple times as it shut itself off every few minutes. Because it wasn't working properly it took her hours before the battery was finally empty. She placed it down on the table and took out her wand. Just as she made the stove work she tried to make her phone work.
She felt her magic flowing, imagined her magic powering up her phone and tapped it with her wand. She had closed her eyes because she was too nervous to see if it had worked. She slowly peeked through one eye but immediately felt disappointed as the screen was still dead black.
She tried again, and again. And finally she tried one more time, but this time she held her wand out longer, pointing it at her phone, guiding her magic through it. After about thirty seconds she was about to give up, when she jumped up in surprise. The screen lit up.
The phone went on, no flickering screen, no disobedient buttons. It worked! She picked it up and tried multiple things. Most apps were useless as there was no internet, but she could still use it for a lot of things. The camera worked, some games, she could make notes and use the planner.
She opened the Netflix app to check if she maybe still had something downloaded, but unfortunately she hadn't. Spotify however gave her a pleasant surprise. She had actually downloaded a lot of playlists as she used to listen to music a lot while on the road where she didn't have any wifi. There was a list for sports, for road trips, for dancing, golden oldies, there was even a playlist with all the music from the Harry Potter movies.
She quickly grabbed her ear pods, plugged them in and put the first playlist on shuffle. Daft Punk was blasting into her ears which made her so happy she could cry. Only now she realized how much she had missed her music.
She was laughing, crying and dancing through her rooms. If anyone would have peeked inside and watched her, they surely would have thought she had lost her mind.
It took an hour for her to finally calm down a bit. Now if she could only find a way to play her music through some speakers, she would be able to work and listen to music. Of course she could use her ear pods, but she would love it if she could fill the room with music as well. She made sure to ask her colleagues later on.
Classes would start again tomorrow and she still had to prepare a bit. For now she used the speakers of her phone to listen to one of her playlists, and set to work. Luckily she was fairly organized, so after only two hours everything was ready for classes.
During the evenings Stephanie often worked on her own magic. She had come so far already. She had noticed that as long as she pushed her magic through her wand, she could do almost everything, even when she didn't use a spell. With a flick of her wand and a good amount of determination, she was able to turn on lights, close and lock doors, make the dishes do themselves, fold her clothes and light a fire. Where she had been scared of magic when she first got here, she couldn't imagine living without magic anymore now.
She had also started practicing occlumency. She had found a book on it in the restricted section. She tried meditating everyday and followed the instructions from the book to empty her mind, but she had absolutely no idea if she was doing it right.
She had considered asking Snape for help but she still wasn't sure if he would be open to help her. She also wondered if she asked Dumbledore for a tutor he would provide her one. She could convince him by saying she wanted to protect her knowledge of the future, which was true. Only she actually wanted to protect her mind from the headmaster as well. He hadn't tried to use legilimency on her yet, as far as she could tell, but that could still change.
For now she kept her studying to herself and learned from books. She wondered if maybe at the end of the year she would be able to take her OWLs in some subjects. Not that it was necessary as she already had a job here, but you never know what could happen.
After a few hours of studying she got tired and went to bed. Tomorrow classes would start again and she needed to be ready. That night she dreamed of a big dance in the great hall, where Snape was swinging on the tunes of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
'Are you still watching her, my boy?' the headmaster asked him. Severus groaned inwardly, he truly hated it when the man called him a boy. He just nodded in reply.
'So nothing concerning then?' Albus inquired further with his eyebrows rissen as if he couldn't really believe the woman wasn't doing anything in secret.
Severus just shook his head. Were they done already? He had potions to brew. 'Well what has she been doing then?' the older man asked. 'She eats, sleeps, teaches class, grades essays, studies on her own, flies and plays quidditch with Hooch and pets the thestrals…' Severus said with a bored tone.
'She can see them?' the headmaster asked after which Snape just nodded again. 'Interesting... well it seems she truly has changed her mind after all. We can just leave her be, and whenever something happens, I will talk to her.' He said.
'Are we finished?' Snape asked. 'Yes of course, my boy, of course. Go to your potions' the headmaster answered with a smile as he waved his hands towards the door for Snape to leave.
As he was walking back to the dungeons he was wondering if he had done the right thing. The headmaster often knew best but in this case he doubted him a little. The man could be so controlling, always wanting to know what is going on with everybody, always making the decisions.
He hadn't been completely truthful with Albus, but he didn't think it could do a lot of harm. She had only warned him twice, just to be sure. And everything had still happened in the same way… or at least, that's what she had said.
He still wondered what she knew of the future and if it was truly so terrible as she had described. She knew of his mark and what it meant that it was still so visible. It would never go away, but if the Dark Lord was actually dead, it would have faded to a dull grey. But it hadn't, which could only mean one thing: he was not dead.
He wondered what her plans were, had she truly changed her mind or was she actually still planning to change the future? She said she was working on laying low, that meant something, right? Maybe if he could become a bit closer with her, she would share some more. Or maybe he could just ask? After all, she said she already trusted him… foolish woman. No one should trust so easily without knowing the other very well.
Then again, maybe she knew him better than he thought. But what could possibly be written about him in those damned books of hers? They were all about Harry Potter, the arrogant Gryffindor. Surely he wouldn't be mentioned a lot?
In the meanwhile he had arrived in his private chambers, but he couldn't stop thinking about Saxton. He hated it when he didn't know what someone's intentions were. He would keep an eye on her for now, even though Albus had said he didn't have to do it anymore. This time he was doing it for his own curiosity, not for the headmaster's.
With the start of the new year came new events. Sixth year students and up were able to take part in apparition classes and Stephanie had decided to join them. She probably would get a lot of stares from the students, and she was certain they would gossip about it, but she didn't care: she needed to learn this.
Sure enough after the first lesson she started to hear the students whisper around her. Her learning to apparate, her being a muggle studies teacher, and the students never seeing her use magic, made them all wonder if she was even a witch.
Nobody had asked her anything yet until a certain day when of course it was Malfoy who needed to know, or actually: insult. She had just handed out the assignment and walked back to the front of the room when she heard squib! behind her back.
'Mr. Malfoy, any questions?' she asked him so the whole class could hear. He just shook his head. 'Really? Then what were you saying?' she asked. She wanted to give him the opportunity to be honest and open.
He said nothing and shrugged, but she could see the sneer still slightly present on his face. Clearly, being open and honest were not his thing. Malfoys thought they were better than others and only responded to power. So she would show him power.
'You think I'm a squib? Hmm?' she challenged him. He shrugged again. 'Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. I assume you have a brain, even though I can't see it.'
She now looked at the whole class again. 'Who can explain to Malfoy why I can't be a squib?' she asked them all. Clearly nobody wanted to be a part of this conflict as nobody raised their hands.
'Squibs can't use magic, at all. So if I were one, would I be able to learn to apparate?' she asked them all. Some students slowly shook their heads. 'So there you go, there is your answer.' she said.
'But mr. Malfoy please, if you need proof that I am a witch, step forward so we can have a duel, after which you can conclude if I am a witch or not…' she said to the blond boy while she stepped aside to invite him to the front of the room. He shook his head, slightly shocked by her reaction.
'No?' she asked. 'That's what I thought. Not only have you forgotten the rules of this class and broken them, you have tried to insult a teacher. 30 points from Slytherin and detention every night for a week.' she concluded.
The rest of the Slytherins shot nasty glances at the boy, and he himself also looked a little disappointed but also angry. Stephanie had no doubt he would write to his father as soon as he could. She had wanted to stay friendly with Malfoy senior, but maybe it was inevitable. She continued with the class, and started explaining what the similarities and differences were between muggle and magical holidays and traditions.