Title: Atonement, Chapter 3 - Supper
By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: You recognize it? It's J.K. Rowling's. All I own is Alex Farrell.

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After he and Alex parted ways, Snape went immediately to his apartments. Severus Snape's apartments weren't at all dark, or dank, or depressing.

He'd been putting on a forbidding front for his students and the other faculty for so long that no-one except Dumbledore ever bothered to find out what Snape's apartments were like, and Snape liked it that way. His apartments were his retreat, a place he could go to hide from the problems of the outside world.

A large red-and-blue Persian rug covered the floor of his living area, and one large, comfortable chair, upholstered in the same shade of blue as the rug, complete with matching ottoman, sat beneath a hanging lantern. A stack of books lay on the floor next to the chair. Most of them were spellbooks and potion books, but lying on top of the stack was the novel that Snape was currently reading.

He glanced at the clock. The hand that gave his location was pointing to "home" and the hand that indicated where he should be was moving from "office" to "eating," indicating that he had about five minutes before he had to get to the Great Hall. Casting a regretful glance at the still-unfinished novel, he moved on to his bedroom.

There were two pieces of furniture in Snape's bedroom. On one side of the room was a one-person bed with black sheets. A green-and-silver bedspread spilled off the bed and pooled on the floor beside it. On this bed was one of Snape's darkest secrets - a Muggle pillow-top mattress, complete with box-spring. Several years earlier, his back started bothering him, and Madam Pomfrey recommended a Muggle mattress set to replace the feather mattress he had been using. That mattress set had been one of the best purchases Snape had ever made.

Against the wall on the other side of the room was a large wardrobe. Snape took off his damaged robe and left it in a pile on the floor. Then he took another black wool robe from his wardrobe, completely indistinguishable from the one he'd just taken off, except for the lack of acid damage to the hem, and put it on.

He sniffed. Surely that's not . . . He sniffed again, wrinkling his nose. Yes, it is. I still smell like burnt wool. Swearing, he took the robe back off and headed to the shower.

Meanwhile, Alex was visiting her own apartments for the first time. She'd been told that Alastor Moody had kept spartan living quarters, but she hadn't really absorbed what that meant until after she'd seen what he'd left behind.

Her first thought upon opening the door was, simply, Beige. She'd expected the greenish-beige of the stone walls, of course. What she hadn't expected was the beige armchair, or the beige sofa beneath the only window in the room, both of which were covered in a rough fabric that looked like burlap.

She moved her trunk into the bedroom, and saw that Moody had left a tiny bed, hardly more than an Army cot, behind. She sighed and opened the trunk, moving her robes from it to her wardrobe. Several of the robes were the black robes recommended in her welcome letter, but the rest were for everyday wear, and were in the colors she favored. Mossy green, sky blue, and misty gray predominated as she moved to the next section of her wardrobe - her Muggle clothes. She kept an assortment of jeans, T-shirts and sweaters on hand for visits home.

Speaking of visits home, she sighed, I'm going to have to get some of my personal things to brighten this place up a bit. Maybe I can Apparate home from Hogsmeade while I'm shopping tomorrow.

She then walked into the nicely-appointed bathroom, thinking apparently, Moody never got around to eviscerating this room before the end of the year, and hastily washed up before changing into her favorite blue robe, which she cinched shut with a wide blue belt, and heading down to supper.

There were no doubts about finding her way around the castle this time, since all she had to do was follow the sounds of the other faculty members' voices to locate the Great Hall.

She stood in the doorway for a minute, looking around for a familiar face, but she didn't see Snape anywhere. However, Dumbledore saw her.

"Professor Farrell!" He called out as he crossed the room. "Come in and I'll introduce you around."

The room became silent, then, and Dumbledore spoke, his voice echoing from the rafters. "This is Professor Alexandra Farrell. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She has *just* graduated from Cabot Academy, in the States, and worked in law enforcement for five years before attending wizarding school."

Murmurs of approval and curiosity moved across the room as Dumbledore took Alex to one side to introduce her to McGonagall.

"Minerva McGonagall, this is Alexandra Farrell. Minerva is Assistant Headmistress and Transfiguration teacher. She's also head of Gryffindor House."

Alex looked up into the eyes of the tall assistant principal. "Pleased to meet you."

"And you. So, you went to wizarding school as a returning adult?"

"Yes, ma'am. I," she blushed, "threw away my acceptance letter to Hogwarts. I thought it was all some kind of bizarre practical joke."

McGonagall nodded. "That happens more than you'd think. One of the hazards of keeping our existence hidden."

Dumbledore didn't allow much time for discussion, for soon he was on to the next faculty member. "Sybill Trelawney, Alex Farrell."

Alex had been nervous about wearing a colored robe to dinner, but the sight of Professor Trelawney banished those misgivings. Compared to the swirling, iridescent fabric of Trelawney's robe, her own blue robe looked positively inconspicuous.

"Sybill's our divination teacher," Dumbledore informed Alex.

"Oh." Trelawney moaned. "I don't like the look of your aura at all." She clucked her tongue and sighed. "I'm afraid you're not going to live much longer . . . ."

"Right. Thank you, Sybill." Dumbledore didn't allow any argument, he simply guided Alex along to the next faculty member.

He glanced at Alex, seeing her pallor and wide-eyed expression. "Don't let her worry you. She's always predicting someone's death."

"And is she ever right?"

"Once, she was. But that's a long story. Let's just say that she's only made three correct predictions in her life and leave it at that. Her talent lies in recognizing students with the gift. She's remarkably accurate in that regard."

By then, Dumbledore had moved on to the next introduction. "Alexandra Farrell, this is Rubeus Hagrid, Gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures instructor," He indicated a very, very tall man who wasn't dressed in wizards' robes at all, but instead who wore black pants and a brown shirt which laced up the front.

Alex's eyes widened. "Perhaps you're the person I need to speak to about something that happened earlier today."

Dumbledore's attention was caught by something on the other side of the room and he walked away from Alex and Hagrid.

"Oh?"

"Those ewer-plants in the rose garden seem a little . . . dangerous."

"Dangerous? They're not dangerous at all!" He assured her.

"Well, one of them ruptured, and someone was almost injured."

Hagrid's eyes widened. "Ruptured, you say? That's not supposed to happen."

"Well, it did."

"Flora!" Hagrid called out across the room, and a short witch in the standard black robes waddled up to him.

"Flora Sprout, Alex Farrell. Professor Sprout's our Herbology teacher." Hagrid introduced them briefly. "Professor Farrell here says that one of the ewer-plants ruptured this afternoon."

Sprout's eyes widened. "Oh, my! Did the acid hit anyone?"

"No." Alex answered. "Well, his robe, not his skin."

Sprout breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. I wouldn't like to have seen what would've happened if it had touched his skin."

Hagrid was deep in thought. "But what would have made it break? Some of those plants have been there for near to fifty years by now, and we've never had a problem like that."

Sprout shrugged. "Looks like something we'll have to investigate in the morning."

After Snape had completed his shower, he ran his wand over his hair to straighten it, but immediately was overcome by the same doubts he always had. His hair had been unmanageable during his youth, so he had started slicking it down with a potion that made it behave. It was greasy, admittedly, but he had always felt that it was far better that than having it stick up all over the place. He poured a dollop of the liquid onto his hair, which promptly straightened out and lay perfectly flat, as if he'd run over it with an iron.

Much better. He sighed at his reflection as he pulled a clean pair of braies from his wardrobe and put on a clean black robe. He looked back in the mirror, running a hand over his chin, wondering if he should shave before he headed down.

"Severus," the mirror told him, "you're ten minutes late for dinner already. You look fine."

I guess it'll have to do. Snape ran his hand through his hair one more time, wiping the potion off his palm onto his robe, and then headed off to the Great Hall.

When he arrived at the Great Hall, he stood in the doorway for a moment. No-one was sitting, and Snape realized that Dumbledore must have introduced Alex to the rest of the staff. She was happily talking to Hagrid and Sprout, and Snape was certain that she'd never notice him, so he stepped into the room and began to skirt around the crowd, heading for the table. After all, he reasoned, the rest of them've got to stop socializing to eat sometime.

As Hagrid and Sprout discussed how to handle the ewer-plant situation, Alex looked around the room at the rest of the faculty she hadn't met yet. Then she saw a friendly face, or at least, a familiar one. It was Snape, who was walking around the outside edge of the room, apparently headed for the table. She wished she felt comfortable shouting across the room to him, but instead she watched him as he continued walking, never meeting anyone else's eyes.

Then, almost as if she *had* shouted his name across the room, he looked directly at her. She smiled and waved a little in his direction, and if she wasn't mistaken, the corners of his mouth turned up - just a little - in response to her smile.

"Would you two excuse me for a moment?" She said to Hagrid and Sprout and walked across the room towards Snape.

Snape was bustling across the room as quickly as possible, not meeting anyone's eyes, when he felt someone watching him. He looked up to find Alex looking across the room at him. She raised her left hand in a hesitant wave and smiled at him. Smiled at him! He was at a complete loss. She must be smiling at someone else. He reasoned. There's a room full of other people. She must be smiling at one of the others. Nevertheless, he felt the corners of his mouth turn up slightly in response.

Her smile broadened and after speaking to Hagrid and Sprout again, she began walking across the room towards him. Towards *him*!

His eyes widened in astonishment as she came to a halt in front of him. "Hi," She said with another genuine smile.

"Good evening."

"Professor Hagrid, Professor Sprout and I were just talking about you."

Snape's heart plummeted into his abdomen. "Oh. You were?"

"Yes. I told them about your run-in with the ewer-plant. I've been worried about you."

His heart lifted slightly. "You have?"

But then it dropped again when she said, "I'd be worried about anyone who'd come that close to the kind of danger that Professor Sprout seemed to indicate you were in."

"Oh. Well, as you can see, I'm fine." He turned to continue walking towards his usual seat off to one side of the faculty table.

"All right, everyone." Dumbledore's voice projected above the babble.

The faculty immediately grew quiet.

"Now that we're all here, let's take our seats and get started on supper."

Snape sat down in his usual seat, and soon was joined by Alex. "Do you mind if I sit here?" She indicated the spot just to Snape's right.

Snape sat up slightly. "Not at all."

Alex sat down, looking around. "I don't see any food. I certainly hope that this 'supper' includes food somehow."

Snape couldn't help chuckling. "The house-elves down in the kitchen send it up using something akin to Apparation."

"House-elves? Shouldn't they more properly be called 'castle-elves,' or perhaps 'school-elves'?" Alex asked with a grin.

"You know, that's an excellent question. I suppose that a family that lives in a flat would have flat-elves, then?"

"Sounds painful for the elves." At Snape's confused expression, she elaborated. "Being flattened, I mean."

Snape groaned in amused pain at her joke. "Oh, one word of warning. The house-elves are experimenting."

"Experimenting?"

Snape nodded. "I think they've joined the Muggle-Cookbook-of-the-Month Club or something. Over Christmas break last year, we had Mexican, Italian and Chinese, with an even wider array of recipes this break. Who knows what they're going to try out on us tonight?"

The food popped into place on the table, then, and Alex could hear grumbling all up and down the faculty table.

"How can they complain?" She asked. "They haven't even seen what it is yet."

"You haven't seen some of the things they've tried this year."

Alex gingerly lifted the lid from one of the serving dishes and found it to be a kind of vegetable-and-pasta casserole. "Smells good." She said, spooning a little onto her plate.

The other dishes proved to be the same. Some had cheese, others pasta, still others both cheese and pasta, but they all had one thing in common. "No meat." She grinned at Snape. "Obviously, this has all come from a vegetarian cookbook."

They finished their meal in companionable silence. Then, bidding each other good-night, headed off to their respective apartments for the night.

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A/N: Some of you have asked if we'll see Harry and Draco in this story. Short Answer: Yes. Longer Answer: Yes, but not just yet. Longest Answer: Yes. They're going to make at least one appearance during the school year when they come for a visit, and in the final chapter or so, we'll be with Snape as he attends their wedding. But either one's a long way off yet.

Also, I know that Trelawney's only had two correct predictions. But since the time between GoF and SST was an eventful period, I figured that if she could very well have had *one* more correct prediction in that time.