Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, lucky gal
Author's Note: Remember, a little AU...


Chapter 9: New Guests at Hogwarts



"Willow, honey, we know you're excited, but stop walking like a snail!" Willow jumped at the exasperated voice and she turned to see Hermione standing five feet in front of her. The girl's hands were sitting on her hips and her left foot was tapping impatiently. Willow laughed and ran to the girl.

"I'm sorry, 'Moine. This place is just so exciting! I can't believe I'm going to live here for a whole school year!" Hermione's eyes softened and the former annoyance washed off her face. She nodded and wrapped her arm through the older girl's.

"I know! It is simply amazing here! Hogwarts is truly a blessing." Willow nodded and went back to gazing at the wonderful landscape around the castle. The two girls were standing in the middle of the dirt walkway that led up to the castle's front steps.

"Will you two hurry it along?" Ron's voice broke through their thoughts. Harry and Ron were standing on the front steps that led to the enormous front doors of the castle. They were looking at the girls expectantly. Hermione and Willow smiled and hurried along to catch up with the boys.

They ran up the stairs meeting Harry and Ron. Willow's excitement was seeping throughout every part of Willow. Her eyes were wide in wonder and her smile was starting to hurt her cheeks.

"This place is absolutely amazing! You three are so lucky to have been here for so long." Harry and Ron shrugged whereas Hermione nodded. The excitement from Willow had started to travel to Hermione who was rocking back and forth on her heels. They all jumped as the front door opened and Hagrid peered down at them.

"Well, are ya lot comin'?" They nodded and followed Hagrid into the castle.

If the outside of the castle had been impressive, then nothing could have further excited Willow than the interior of Hogwarts. Throughout the walk to Dumbledore's office, Harry and Ron had to stop several times to grab Willow and pull her along. By then, the rest of the group had started to get giddy along with Willow and Hermione. They had started to tell jokes and stories of funny things that had occurred in the very halls they walked through.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Willow's face scrunched up in disgust as she stared at the filthy man standing in front of the group. His greasy hair was flattened to his head and his calloused, dirt filled fingers stroked a black cat. The black cat's eyes seemed to glow and it stared at the group with similar loathing that it's master had.

"Hello Filch!" Hagrid smiled at the man and Filch seemed to growl. Willow had taken immediate notice to the trio's dislike of the man. Harry and Ron were glaring at him while Hermione's face held the same look of disgust that Willow had.

"What are you three doing here?" The question was obviously directed to Harry, though his nasty tone reached all three of them. Harry stepped forward and lifted his head defiantly.

"Hello Filch. We're here with the new professor. She's Ron's cousin." Smiling, the trio looked over at Willow who had instinctively walked behind the three. She had a daring glare on her face.

Filch turned to the redhead, who even though older, she was still shorter than Ron.

"Well, hello Professor..."

"Rosenburg." She filled in for him. He nodded, his face not changing from his look of hatred. 'I wonder if he always looks like this.' Willow thought. She jumped as she heard a crash from the distance. In an instant, Filch was running down the hall. She could distinctly hear him muttering, "Peeves".

"Who's Peeves?" She turned and questioned the four.

"Oh, he's just one of the ghosts here at the school." Hermione stated.

"Annoying git," muttered Ron. Willow's eyes widened.

"Wow. You have ghosts? Cool." Harry and the others laughed. She still had much to learn and discover about Hogwarts.

"Well, let's get going you four. Dumbledore was expecting ya ten minutes ago." Once again, they were following Hagrid. Harry moved up to walk leisurely beside Hagrid as Willow followed behind Hermione and Ron. The two bickering friends in front of Willow never seemed to stop making her laugh. Now, it seemed, they were fighting over which was better, Quidditch or Arithmacy.

"Quidditch is way better Hermione and you know it! It is way more bloody exciting than that stupid Arithmacy." Hermione huffed and folded her arms.

"You can go far into the future using Arithmacy whereas all you can do in Quidditch is playing for a little while before a: you get too old to play and they drop you or b: you get hurt and you can't play anymore! Where does that leave you? No where."

"Oh do shut up. This is getting tiring." Hermione smirked.

"You're just upset because I am RIGHT!" Ron opened his mouth to protest but Hermione had already left to go walk on the opposite side of Hagrid. Ron's eyes narrowed and he sighed. Willow smiled and walked up to him.

"She's getting to you, eh?" Ron laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah ri-oof!" Willow caught Ron as he bounced off of Hagrid. Hagrid turned and smiled at the two.

"Here we are. I'll just go in and see if he's ready for ya. Wait here, will ya?" They all nodded and Hagrid disappeared into Dumbledore's office saying, "Sugar Plums". Willow watched, fascinated as a painting opened and closed as Hagrid entered.

"Wow." Hermione giggled and Ron and Harry laughed. Willow sheepishly smiled.

"Harry Potter and Co. Well, well." Harry, Ron, and Hermione flinched. They turned around to stare at who they thought it was.

Severus Snape.

"Hello Professor." The three simultaneously stated. He sneered at them and turned to their companion. He regarded her with a blank expression. Willow held a mix of emotions. She didn't know whether to despise or be kind to this man. She could usually read people's emotions through their eyes, but his eyes were dead.

"Who are you?" His rough tone of voice made her glare.

"I'm Willow Rosenburg. Professor Willow Rosenburg." If he was shocked, he sure as hell didn't show it. With a curt nod he continued on his way.

"Wow! You sure told him Wills! That was great!" Ron jumped up and down with glee.

"Who the hell was that?"

"That is the horrid Professor Snape we are ALWAYS telling you about. He lives to make us suffer Wills."

"Are you sure about that Mr. Potter?" Willow spun around to see an old man standing their with a gentle smile on his face. Harry was blushing half in embarrassment and half in shame.

"I'm sorry Professor." He said guiltily. Willow assumed this was Professor Dumbledore. He waved his hand as if to dismiss Harry's apology.

"It's alright Mr. Potter. Just be careful with what you say about things you don't quite understand." Harry nodded and went to stand by Ron and Hermione.

Professor Dumbledore turned to Willow and smiled at her. The nervous tension in the pit of Willow's stomach seemed to loosen a bit at his soft smile.

"Hello Miss Rosenburg. Very pleased to finally meet you! Rupert has told me a great deal about you! I am Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster here at Hogwarts." Willow smiled at the kind man and took his hand.

"Hello Professor Dumbledore! It is so nice to meet you! I just can't tell you how grateful I am that you are allowing me to come here. Especially after...well after everything that has happened." She looked over at the trio nervously who were looking suspiciously at the comment.

Dumbledore nodded and smiled at her comfortingly. He knew she was still not ready to come clean with what she had done to the trio. Insecurities were high running with the powerful witch.

"Miss Rosenburg, I am so very happy to have you here with us. I know you will be an excellent professor. I've heard a lot about your past education and teaching experiences."

Harry turned to look confused at Hermione and Ron, who held similar expressions. They had never really talked to Willow about her past. In fact, Willow had never told them about it. They sort of figured that something bad had happened and she didn't want to talk about it. Still, the three had always questioned each other about what their friend's past.

"Well, Miss Rosenburg, I guess you want to see your quarters before meeting the other professors, then?" Willow turned to the trio and they nodded at her excitedly.

"Alright!" Dumbledore ushered them past and they followed him.

"Professor, what happened to Hagrid?"

"Hagrid had to go see about some new creatures that he wanted to have for one of the first lessons of the term. He should be back by the time we hold the staff meeting."

The group walked up and down halls. The reached the staircase with moving stairs. Willow gasped as they jumped onto a moving staircase. Dumbledore laughed.

"I will never get tired of this place, will I?" Willow questioned.

"I'm afraid not, Wills!" Hermione stated laughing.

About five minutes later, twelve stair cases, and 25 halls, they arrived in front of a classroom door. Dumbledore turned and smiled.

"Here we are Miss Rosenburg."

"Please professor, call me Willow." Dumbledore smiled and nodded.

"Alright, well here is your classroom. I do believe you will like it. Your quarters are found right next to the classroom on the left. I'll leave you four here to explore. I'll send someone up later to fetch you for the staff meeting." Hermione, who had been quite silent during the walk, took her turn to speak.

"Um, professor. What would you like us to do during the staff meeting?" Dumbledore turned and smiled at the girl.

"Ah, yes Miss Granger. Well, I believe you three can find something to do around here right? I believe if you head down to the kitchens, the house elves will fix something right up for you." Hermione huffed and turned away as Ron and Harry rolled their eyes. Dumbledore laughed.

"Well, I'm sure you can find something else to do then, Miss Granger." Hermione blushed and nodded. Before Dumbledore could leave, Hermione stopped him once more.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir, would it be possible for me to have a talk with the professors before we leave?" Willow, Harry, Ron, and Dumbledore all laughed which further caused Hermione's cheeks to burn.

"Yes, Miss Granger. I think that would be possible after the meeting. Now, I must go, but I will see you all later." With that, he walked off down the hallway.

"Gosh Hermione, can't wait for school to start eh?" Hermione blushed and punched Ron's arm playfully.

"So?" She cried. He laughed and Willow pushed open the door. All four walked into the classroom and Willow's eyes widened in pleasure. She skipped to the front of the room and ran her hands along the desk. Clapping her hands in excitement, she ran around looking at various odds and ends.

"Oh my goodness! I'm going to be a teacher! Can you believe it? I'm teaching at Hogwarts! This is amazing." Hermione giggled and nodded excitedly.

"Yep! You'll be our favorite teacher, too Wills!" Willow squealed in glee and grabbed Hermione's arm.

"Come on! Let's go see my room." Willow pulled Hermione out of the room while Harry and Ron followed along, laughing.

Willow stared at the painting in confusion. She looked at her three friends and shrugged.

"What do I do?"

"Miss! You must be Professor Rosenburg! You must come up with a password!" A soft, yet excited voice called out to Willow. Willow jumped and turned to the painting. A young girl, sitting under a tree stared back at her giggling. She was wearing a white sun-dress with pink laces running throughout her skirt. Her long blonde hair flowed down her sides. Willow instinctively smiled.

"Hello, what is your name?" The girl giggled again.

"I'm Clara. I'm very pleased to meet you! I think I'll like you. The other person who used me for a doorway wasn't very nice to me. They didn't talk to me at all, except to give me a password. I don't like this hallway either. It's so lonely! No one to talk to...but you're here now!" Clara spotted Harry and Ron and her cheeks darkened and she giggled. She waved to them and the boys blushed.

"Hello, I haven't seen any boys this whole summer!" Hermione and Willow stifled a laugh as the girl kept on talking.

"Professor Dumbledore told me I would have a really nice girl! You're a nice girl, I can tell." Willow smiled bright at the girl in the painting.

"Well, what would you like your password to be?" Willow shrugged and looked at the other three. Getting no help from them, Willow turned back to look at Clara.

"I guess, yellow crayon will be alright." Hermione, Ron, and Harry looked at her as if she were crazy, but Willow smiled thinking back about her best friend. A pang in her heart made her close her eyes and she sighed. She opened her eyes once more and Clara was smiling back at her.

"Alright, yellow crayon is the password! Say it and you may enter!" She said smiling. Willow nodded and stepped forward.

"Yellow crayon." Clara smiled and the painting opened.

All four entered through the painting and into the room.

Entering her new quarters, the four split up. Willow and Hermione ran to the small workspace that stood beside the miniature living room. A large bookcase stood along the walls. Hermione's mouth watered and her eyes shined as she gazed across the many books. Willow ran her hand across an old book and she turned to Hermione with question in her eyes.

"Who's books are these?" Hermione shrugged and excitedly turned back to examine the book case. Willow walked over to the desk that stood beside the large bay window. She pulled open the drawers to find supplies and more books stuffed in the desk.

"This is amazing. I barely need to buy anything. Look at all of this stuff!" Hermione, however, didn't respond because she was too engrossed in the book she was scanning through. Rolling her eyes, Willow left the small study and walked back to the bedroom where Harry and Ron had disappeared.

She walked into the room to see Harry looking out the window in her room. Sensing her arrival, he turned and smiled at her.

"You have a nice place here. Plan on having visits from us, alright?" She laughed and nodded.

"Alright." Willow sat on the double bed that stood in the middle of the room against the back wall. She let her gaze fall upon the room around her. An oak nightstand stood beside the bed with a lamp standing on it. On the opposite wall, an oak Chester drawers and a tall oak book case stood. Willow smiled, Hermione would soon be in the room inspecting this bookcase. To the left, there were two doors on the wall. She stood up and opened one. An empty closet stood before her. She closed the door and opened the next door. Inside was a bathroom. Ron stood in there looking through the cabinets. Ron looked up and smiled.

"What? Just looking through your cabinets. You mind?" She giggled and walked out. Ron followed.

"Willow!" At Hermione's yell, Ron dashed through the door with Willow and Harry on his heels. Ron ran to Hermione and slid to a stop in front of her.

"What's wrong?" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Nothing's wrong. Willow, look at these books! They're your lesson books! How cool is that? I guess the previous professor left you these." Placing a hand on her heart, Willow sighed.

"Hermione, please, next time refrain from scaring the wits out of us. We thought you were being attacked or something." Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Oh please. You three. Anyway, I have other books to look at." Hermione walked to the bookcase leaving an amused Willow and Harry and an exasperated Ron.

"She'll be the death of me." Ron muttered, walking over to the couch and sitting down.

For the next hour, the four stayed in Willow's quarters. Ron, Harry, and Willow sat talking on the couch while Hermione sat at Willow's desk reading. A knock to the painting brought them out of their own conversations and thoughts. Willow stood up and opened the painting. Snape stood there with a glare set in his eyes. Willow flinched, but stood up defiantly anyway.

"Hello, Professor Snape. How may I help you?" The trio's ears picked up when they heard his name.

"I'm here to escort you to the faculty meeting." Willow nodded and turned to the trio.

"I'll be back in a little while. Don't get bored." They waved and sent sympathetic smiles to her as she walked out with Snape.

As the painting door shut, Hermione jumped up with a mischievous smile on her face.

"What?" Ron questioned as she plopped herself down in the middle of Harry and Ron.

"Harry, where's the Marauder's Map?" Harry and Ron gazed at her with suspicious eyes as Harry pulled the map out of robes. Hermione grabbed it and jumped up. She walked over to the painting and turned back to the boys.

"Well, are you coming?" Ron and Harry jumped up and followed her out the door. Clara called out to them and Hermione turned back.

"We'll be back Clara." Clara giggled at the boys and waved as the trio left.

Harry and Ron tried to keep up with Hermione as she practically ran down the hall.

"Hermione, will you please tell us where we are going?" Ron pleaded with the girl. She shook her head.

"You'll see when we get there! I promise."

As the boys realized they were headed towards the dungeons, Harry stopped Hermione.

"Hermione, what's going on? Why are we going to the dungeons with the Marauder's Map?" Seeing that they weren't going any further, Hermione sighed.

"Alright, we're going to sneak into the Slytherin common room." Harry and Ron nodded before they realized what she had said. Harry's eyes widened and Ron sputtered.

"What? Are you crazy? Hermione, we can not go down to the Slytherin common room! Are you bloody crazy?" Hermione huffed and shook her head!

"No! I'm not crazy! Come on, Dumbledore said we could do anything we wanted to do! Willow said not to get bored! I want to do this! Come on. You two got to go down there, but I didn't."

"You were a bloody cat!" Hermione glared at Ron and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Please! Come on. Everyone will be at the faculty meeting, anyway. We'll be in and out before you know it." Seeing the pleading in her eyes, Ron relented and Harry went along.

"Alright, but only a few minutes!" Hermione nodded and smiled.

"Thanks! Now come on." They walked down through the dungeons and made their way to the entrance to the Slytherin common room. Looking at the Marauder's Map, the trio saw about fourteen dots in a room near the Great Hall. There were three dots outside the painting.

"Well, it says the password is..."Serpent Tongues"...ewww." Ron and Harry rolled their eyes.

"Serpent Tongues," Harry stated. The painting opened up and they stepped through the entry way. Harry and Ron looked around the common room with disgusted gazes. They had not wanted to return, but for Hermione, they would. Hermione looked around and shivered. Compared to the Gryffindor common room, this place was so cold and hateful. She wrapped her arms around herself. The Gryffindor common room was so warm and welcoming. This place, was a complete opposite.

"Um...Harry." Harry and Hermione walked over to Ron who was looking at the map. They peered over his shoulder and gasped. A dot was moving around the Slytherin dormitories. It was headed towards the common room! Hermione pushed Harry and Ron under the table, but before she could get down the door opened.

"What are you doing here?" She turned and with a weak look of confidence, she waved.

"Hello Malfoy."


**************

Willow walked down the hall with Snape and shivered. Hate seemed to pour off of this man in gallons. She weakly smiled at him, but he just glared at her harder and turned to them.

He stopped at a door and Willow nearly bumped into him. He sneered at her and opened the door. She followed him in and smiled at the various professors there. Dumbledore smiled at her arrival.

"Now we can begin. First of all, I think we should introduce everyone." Dumbledore's words blurred in Willow's mind as she stared at the man in the back of the room. As he stepped out of the shadows, she shuddered.

Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Oh god.

"And, lastly, this is our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. I believe you know him. Spike."


**************

Well, there it was! Finally!

Thank you so much to EACH and EVERY reviewer! I absolutely love them! I know I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger, but the next chapter will be up soon. I hope this chapter was a bit longer than the last. Thank you!

Thanks to Laura, my beta!

Thanks to these reviewers:
nicola, X-Lander, Danielle, angeleyes, tals, Mickey802, SpitefulHope, ashley, Love in Vein, Spuffy the Witch, Sammy, blackroseangel69, Fayth, Hey, alienbeing, and sissy

Thanks! Tell me what you all think!