Episode Sixty Five

            She lugged her bags up to the castle, a lightness in her step. She was so sad to go, but she was so happy to return. Hogwarts was home now and she couldn't help the silly grin plastered on her face.

            When she had unpacked in her new room and tidied up she tried to find her godmother. She couldn't wait to tell her all about the fantastic vacation she'd had. However she was nowhere to be found. Gwen frowned. It wasn't like Aunt Minerva to be far from her office with school this close to beginning.

            It would have to wait. She sighed, disappointed.

            Instead of going back to her room she decided now would be a good time to prepare her office some. As she was only an assistant teacher she had a small office next to the full fledged Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She had been introduced to him earlier during her training, but didn't truly have the opportunity to work with him as yet.

            She was going to have her hands full. Professor Smith had been on staff during Gwen's seventh year. He was an American, a strange twist (all of the Brits knew better than to apply for the DADA position). Dumbledore seemed to have confidence in him, but Smith was even odder than the headmaster himself.

            He was a husky Sicilian bred man with dark hair and eyes. His skin was a yellow tan. He constantly complained that the kitchens didn't serve enough ethnic foods (namely spaghetti) and was more than happy to play the Italian stereotype.

            He was easy going if not lackadaisical. The current trend towards fear didn't seem to phase him the least. He taught his students with patience, understanding full well that they needed patience when dealing with him. His lessons could be a bit confusing from time to time as he had a slight stutter, particularly on words beginning with 'C' or 'G.' He tended to go off topic a lot, sliding off onto some tangent completely unrelated to the Dark Arts, but then turning it around and getting back to the original point.

            His round about style of teaching proved challenging for Gwen to follow, she couldn't imagine how the first years learned anything worthwhile. She had been around for awhile and knew that if you wanted to learn something of defense then you had to open a book and read and practice on your friends. The professors in this field rarely taught what they were supposed to (except for Professor Lupin and even the imposter Moody, who had both been a breath of fresh air to the students).

            Her function in the classroom would be to keep him on topic as much as possible. When they worked in groups, she would walk around and help supervise. During the term she would teach each grade level the unit of her choice (she had chosen to work with the fourth years on the Imperio curse as Moody once did and wanted to teach the first years about disarming wands, it was a useful trick for the young ones). Mostly she would serve to grade papers, something she dreaded.

            Professor Smith's door was open and when she peeked in he was face down, sound asleep on a pile of books. She had to work extra hard to stifle her giggles and moved to her own office. It was small, but very tidy (she half suspected that Minerva had come in to clean it during her vacation). There was an oak desk and matching chair with grey silk cushions (they may have been blue at one point, but faded badly from age). There was a pristine bookshelf, empty and waiting for her vast collection of books.

            She had collected a lot during her studies with Dumbledore and while closing her mother's estate had found many useful books on the subject. They were sitting neatly in a large box on her desk, just waiting to be placed upon the shelf. She cut open the box, inhaling the bittersweet scent of aged parchment. She loved the smell of old books. Even in the dream world she spent inordinate amounts of time in bookstores. She stood in awe of the perfectly lined up rows, ordered and labeled. Sometimes when she was feeling down she would just walk down to the bookstore on campus and wander through the stacks. It calmed her, like gazing out of windows. She had such appreciation for the written word.

            She placed her books carefully, insuring that she would remember exactly where they were located if she needed to consult one quickly. When she had covered the shelf she turned to her desk and opened a drawer, trying to decide what to put inside of it. She was surprised to see that it was already full of supplies, parchment, quills, bottles of multi-colored ink for grading. Aunt Minerva was at it again.

            She liked the feeling of sitting behind a teacher's desk. She thought however that the place needed some more cheer. She dashed up to her new room, located just left of the Gryffindor portrait hole. She assumed that there were many such rooms for professors and visitors alike, seemingly like classrooms, but so much nicer.

            She had a maroon curtained four poster, just as she'd had as a Gryffindor student. There was an antique cherry dresser instead of her foot locker for her clothing and a maroon velvet curtained closet at her disposal. There was another desk in this room, cherry to match the dresser and a chair upholstered in the same deep red velvet.

            It had one wall with windows which stretched from one side to the other, peeking out on the grounds below. This too was curtained with deep velvet and had gold tiebacks in between each window. There was a little loveseat-like bench resting just below here. It was almost as if Dumbledore knew she stared out of windows at night and wanted to provide her with something comfortable to sit on while she did so.

            She even had her own bathroom. It was tiled in dark and light blue from the floor to the middle of the wall. The upper part of the wall was pale blue paint, which at night blended into the deep navy of the ceiling which was dotted with tiny silver stars perfectly matching the constellations above. During the day the ceiling was sky blue and sometimes covered with hazy clouds, other times with only the sun sparkling down. It was amazing interior decorating to say the least, much like the enchanted ceiling of the great hall.

            There was a luxurious bathtub with many faucets, much like the prefect bathroom described in Rowling's books from her dream. There were blue tinted glass windows, distorted so that anyone aiming to get a peek couldn't see anything (even as far up from the ground as she was, students with brooms could pose a peeping Tom threat). Hanging over several silver bars on the wall was a never ending supply of fresh towels, soft pink and huge like rugs that she could wrap around herself three times and still have extra cloth.

            She couldn't believe how lucky she was and that these gorgeous surroundings were now her home.

            She decided to pull the curtains from her bed to use in her office decor, as she didn't think she'd need them anymore. She didn't have to worry about sharing the room with anyone, so she didn't need the privacy the curtain provided. She snatched the Mona Lisa from Jerome and the photo album from Philippe.

            She picked up a gold, oval picture frame of her mother and father as they were much younger, smiling and laughing with George and Ann. This had been her parting gift from Aunt Ann. The older woman had said: "Consider it a belated birthday present."

            With all of her trappings wrapped up in her arms as best as she could hold them she ventured back to her office. She set the picture frame on the desk where it would remain for the duration of the school year. She placed the photo album on the shelf along with her myriad of books. She would spend those frustrating moments where she needed a break flipping idly through the pages.

            The Mona Lisa she carefully mounted on the wall, next to the door so that she could look at it while she sat at her desk. The curtains she altered. With a simple charm she changed the color to a bright, cheery purple and spent the rest of the night gathering the fabric with golden ties to hang above her office windows. She even fashioned a smaller curtain for the glass pane on her door.

            When she was just about finished there was a light tapping on her door.

            "Come in." She called from the window, standing on her desk, a nail hanging out of her mouth, a hammer in one hand, the fabric in the other. She was pleased to find that these tools were at her disposal in what she assumed was an old storage closet that Filch had used just across the hall.

            "What a lovely improvement." Her godmother said.

            She turned and smiled, forgetting for a moment that the nail was hanging from her lips. She nearly laughed and almost fell before she finally turned back again and nailed the curtain in place. "Sorry, almost done."

            "Oh no dear, take your time."

            She finished quickly, set down her borrowed hammer and offered Minerva the seat at her desk.

            "Oh, no. That's all right." The older woman smiled.

            "I'll have to get another chair in here, in case a student would like a conference, that sort of thing." She felt a rush just thinking about it. A student in her office, her office as a teacher.

            "I was just going to ask if you wanted to take dinner in the great hall tomorrow night? I will be away in the afternoon, so I won't be able to take lunch with you."

            "Oh, I was so hoping we'd be able to catch up." Gwen sighed and really looked at her godmother for the first time since she'd been back. Something had definitely changed; there was a glow about the woman that couldn't be denied.

            "We will, it will just be later in the day."

            "Sure, the great hall sounds fine." She said, barely able to conceal her curiosity.

            "And you'll finally be able to sit at the head table."

            Gwen laughed. "I know, it feels weird. I don't know if I'm going to get used to this."

            "You will. And you have the opportunity to warm up to it, you don't have to dive right in just yet."

            "I almost think that would be better." Gwen said, leaning against her desk. "Professor Smith is going to be erm, fun to work with."

            It was Minerva's turn to laugh. "Yes well, he's certainly been an interesting addition to the staff. Well, I'll let you get back to your decorating and I'll see you for dinner tomorrow night."