Chapter 6: The Students Return
Chapter 6: The Students Return
The 1st of September arrived far too soon and the Great Hall was once again filled with the cheerful babbling of all the students after the summer holidays, all recounting various events full of excitement to their friends.
The enchanted ceiling of the Hall reflected the clear night sky outside and painted the Milky Way in all it's glory, while the thousands of candles drifted over their heads.
As Athena took in the nostalgically beautiful scene in front of her, she was struck with the weight of how much she missed this. The simpleness and protection of life inside these walls while she was still a child. The Great Hall always took her breath away, every single day she went to eat and study here for her seven glorious years here at Hogwarts.
The teachers were filled around the High Table looking joyfully at the four tables of students they cherished and nurtured so much. Hagrid, sitting between Professors Flitwick and Sinistra, drank deeply from his goblet, sporting already flushed cheeks barely visible from underneath his wild beard with a lopsided grin. The amusing sight of the tallest teacher and the shortest one next to each other made Athena snort.
Professor McGonagall was having a conversation, clearly an annoying one, with Dumbledore, who was playing with his beard, appearing to not hear her at all.
Professor Snape sat between Professor McGonagall and an unfamiliar short and squat woman who appeared somewhat toadlike, dressed entirely in a painful pink. The expression on Severus' face was even more bitter than usual. Again, the contrast.
Athena was seated between Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey, all of them awaiting the Headmaster's speech before digging into the mouth-watering food in front of them.
The Sorting of the first years had already passed and after Dumbledore finished his conversation with McGonagall about whether dessert should be before the main course, he stood up and the Hall fell silent instantaneously. Athena loved that audible silence that fell from the weight that Dumbledore's authority carried and the effect of it. She still felt it in her bones and sort of naturally expected it.
"Good evening, children. Now we have new changes in staff this year. Please welcome Professor Athena Herrmann, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
Athena felt her face going scarlet rapidly and stood up to receive the students' applause. Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey smiled warmly at her and she glided her eyes in a subtle manner over to Snape, seeing him looking quite displeased, to say it mildly. Athena sat back down after straightening her emerald knee-length dress.
"Also, I'm pleased to welcome Dolores Umbridge from the Ministry of Magic here to ensure the wellbeing of Hogwarts and its students as High Inquisitor," scattered applause emerged from the students.
Athena had a bad intuition and sensed bad months in the future with Umbridge around. The Ministry was interfering at Hogwarts now specifically after last year with You-Know-Who's return. That was the last thing they needed now.
When she glanced at Severus again, he looked like he just drank bile with Umbridge next to him and Athena shared his sentiments.
"As always, Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you-"
"Hem hem," a sickening sound invaded the Hall, a girlish, almost screeching sound of an attempt to clear the throat, but rather to demand attention. Dumbledore fell silent and looked slightly offended at Umbridge's interruption, but allowed her to resume.
The woman resembling an upturned rose approached Dumbledore with make-believe modesty. "Thank you, Headmaster for those kind words of welcome," Athena wanted to retch.
"And how lovely to see all your bright happy faces smiling up at me," Athena saw no smiles from the students, especially from the Gryffindor table. She took a sip of her wine to brace herself for the rest of the woman's speech.
"I'm sure we're all going to be very friends," Athena nearly choked on her wine and rolled her eyes, watching the Slytherins noticing her doing so.
Athena's thoughts drifted back to what happened in June during the Triwizard Tournament. She wasn't in England at that time, she was in Italy, but she read about it in the news that You-Know-Who is back. She recounted the fear invading like a fog among the wizarding communities, leading people to paranoia and doing strange things. It was just a matter of time before people began to disappear again and then the war would begin.
Umbridge's screeching voice came back into focus and Athena reluctantly attempted to listen. Maybe she would say something that they could use against her in the future to get her out of the school.
Athena had to admit that even her own thoughts about You-Know-Who was more pleasant than to listen to that woman. Luckily for the whole school, she ended her speech and Dumbledore gave forced applause, more than the rest of the school.
She took in her place on Severus' left again and to her delight, she saw both Severus and McGonagall looking sour.
"Now, let us tend to our magnificent feast everyone!"
The students filled their plates greedily, so did the teachers. The dishes were that of steak and kidney pie, the way only Hogwarts could make it, cottage pie, roast beef, roast potatoes and countless more.
Her stomach rumbled loud enough, as if to tell her to get on with it, for Professor Sprout to nudge her with the elbow. Out of her stupor, she filled her plate with some cottage pie, roast beef, peas and potatoes and dug in.
They were all so hungry that Athena didn't even realize how fast she ate her food. She ate as much as she could until she almost began to drift off in her chair.
"When was the last time you ate this well, dear?", Madam Pomfrey asked while serving herself some treacle tart.
"Quite long since I returned from abroad, but I must admit that my mother's cooking rivals this," she chuckled along with those beside her and served herself some ice cream, if she still had a small space in her stomach.
"At least you'll get more than enough well prepared food here to build up your lean frame, dear. Abroad in this case didn't do you too well. We can't have you undernourished," Athena didn't reply to those words from the mediwitch, but silently agreed and took a mouthful of vanilla ice cream.
Dumbledore soon announced that they all can depart to bed, clearly after the first years almost fell asleep. The teachers began to leave through the doors behind them and so did Athena. She was so tired, her legs could barely carry her.
She shivered when the cold air of the corridor hit her bare arms and she hastily made her way to her quarters while occasionally bumping into a few students. She knew it was a bad idea to wear her green dress, but it was fitting for the occasion. September weather in Scotland may look nice, but can feel entirely different. The skies may be clear, but the wind was devilish.
Upon reaching her quarters, she rushed to her room to get her warm pajamas. She turned on the shower and in her process to get rid of her dress, she nearly fell on her face on the concrete floor when she tripped over the material. Once under the warm water, she washed her hair and rid her face of the makeup. Her muscles relaxed and she sighed.
Luckily for her, tomorrow was Saturday, but her only dilemma was that she was to go to Severus' office to assist him with some potions for the NEWT students in the morning. Her stomach tied itself into knots upon the thought of how bad it may most likely turn out.
For the past week, Athena had to, on Dumbledore's request, assist each Head of House and some of the other teachers in their preparations for the future term. Tomorrow was Severus' turn. Frankly, Athena didn't see why they needed any assistance, because they were all extremely competent, but she did as she was asked.
Athena wondered if Snape knew about the arrangement or if she would just turn up and be humiliated by him. He would argue that he didn't need her help, him not giving a damn about what the Headmaster wanted. Sighing, she stopped the shower and chose to worry about him tomorrow.
After the shower, she got dressed in her fluffy grey pajamas and got into bed. She couldn't help herself and thought about what a disaster tomorrow would be. She barely spoke to him or saw him this past week, only at meal times and tomorrow might be their first real conversation ever. Even if she found him attractive to her own displeasure, she would certainly not be easily intimidated.