Chapter Thirty-two

A New Life

Everyone get on the train fine Hagrid?" Professor McGonagall asked. She was sat in an armchair, reading the Daily Prophet.

"Yes Minerva, we were bang on time." I glanced around the staff room. It seemed much bigger now than when the meeting had been held. Slowly teachers were appearing through several doors around the walls. The door behind me opened noisily, and several of us looked round. Severus was standing in the door, an angry look on his face.

"I will kill Fred and George Weasley when I meet them again!" He snarled. "They've flooded the potions lab again, this time fully submersing the place." I covered my mouth, meaning my face to look shocked but actually hiding a grin. I glanced to Professor McGonagall who was having the same trouble.

"Well you couldn't see them leave Hogwarts without one last trick." She said.

"I understand it wasn't just one." I said. The two teachers looked at me with interest. "But I didn't get to know what they were… I didn't know about the potion lab, so you can't blame me. I do know that they were the ones to put the spicy sauce on the chicken legs last night."
"We'd established that pretty quickly." Severus said and turned back towards the door.

"I better go and clean myself up. I wouldn't go down there for a while, I did my best to get rid of the water, but everything is damp."

"Real water?" Minerva asked.

"I think they tried to bewitch it and failed." Snape shut the door behind him and both McGonagall and I burst into laughter, unable to suppress it any longer.

"We've never particularly been able to teach Severus humour, as you know. Fred and George have tried many times to see if they could get even a slight smile out of him, but he's never done it." I settled in the chair opposite the deputy headmistress.

"Occasionally I see his eyes smiling, but they're very difficult to read." Minerva nodded, and poured me a cup of tea.

"I wonder if looking after you will change him in any way." She mused. I looked doubtful, added milk and sugar to my tea with a flick of my wand.

"I'll show you how to do it properly next time." Minerva said, sitting back and giving a smile. I gave her a suspicious look. She held out a hand and four sugar cubes raised from their bowl, piled one on top of the other, and then proceeded to create other shapes in mid-air. Following by example, I pointed to the now empty sugar bowl, and concentrated hard. It began to rise, and then I had it below the cubes. Minerva dropped the sugar cubes into the bowl, and then promptly caught the bowl with her left hand.

"Not bad Elixa. The wand is just to channel the magic you see. Very useful to be able to perform even the most simplest tricks without one."

Lunch was taken out in the courtyard, the sun was out and there was a gently breeze to cool us as we sat down. I found myself seated between Minerva and Severus.

"I'll take this opportunity to say a few words I think." Dumbledore said quietly. He was sat at the head of the table, near to Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore stood up and the courtyard became quiet.

"Welcome valiant members of staff, house ghost and remaining student, to the first week of the summer holidays as the students call it. Let us relax after a hardworking year but be ready to face all that work before we embark on our own summer holiday." Dumbledore sat down and the food appeared as normal.

"Has anyone come across any more of the Weasley's traps?" McGonagall asked the people around her. I glanced at Severus, trying hard not to smile too much. He didn't look so wet anymore, and his hair, wasn't quite so greasy… I looked back down at my plate. That was one thing I'd mention to Kerry, Fred and George had succeeded in making Snape a bit cleaner!