Chapter 4

Sonora felt like she was coming home as she made her way into the Great Hall for dinner, comfortably dressed in her own robes at last. It was just as she remembered as a student. She followed Professor Snape as he strode toward the teacher's table. Where would she sit, she wondered with sudden amusement. She didn't think Snape was likely to point a spare chair out to her.

"Ah, Professor Stone," Dumbledore's voice in her ear made her jump a little. "I trust you and Severus have settled things between you?"

She turned and smiled at the Headmaster. "For the most part, sir," she said.

"Excellent. Then allow me to help you to your seat," he said, taking her free arm courteously. "We've placed you between the good Potions master and our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Hagrid."

"Hagrid is teaching now?" Sonora said, pleased. "I remember him, he was very kind to all the young students. I think we reminded him of lost puppies."

Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively. "An apt description," he said as he helped her up the steps to the front table. "Ah, here we are. Hagrid, I should like you to meet Professor Sonora Stone. She will be a guest professor this year, assisting Professor Snape."

Sonora looked up at the big man, already smiling at her from ear to ear, just like she recalled. "Why, I 'member you," Hagrid boomed. "Lil' Sonora, who liked to feed the owls. Welcome back, Perfessor."

Sonora beamed up at him. "Thank you, Hagrid. It's good to be back here."

Another figure she recalled appeared beside Hagrid. "Professor McGonagall!" she exclaimed, holding out her hand. "How wonderful to see you again."

The stern face of the Transfiguration Professor relaxed into a smile. "Sonora Stone," she said. "It is good to see one of our best students returning to Hogwarts. I presume you are teaching with Professor Snape?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sonora said. "He is graciously sharing his classes with me while I recuperate." She gestured ruefully to the crutch. "An unfortunate accident," she said.

McGonagall gave her a stern look. "I trust you will not be over-extending yourself?"

Sonora chuckled. "No, ma'am, I can assure you that I am well able to handle a classroom."

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "That remains to be seen," she said, but her expression was softer. "I have heard of some of your research since you left Hogwarts. What have you been working on lately?"

Sonora smiled lightly. "Something too complicated to easily explain," she said, trying to give a rueful smile and not offend.

McGonagall eyed her. "Hmm. As you say." The students were beginning to enter the main hall, a wave of chatter and energy coming with them. "Should you need assistance at any time, Professor Stone, please do not hesitate to ask." She lowered her voice. "Severus can be… difficult."

Sonora chuckled at the politely apt description. "Thank you, ma'am. I hope that will not be necessary."

Professor McGonagall gave her a nod and turned away to take her seat. Sonora took the opportunity to slowly ease herself down into her chair. Hagrid was talking with another woman on his other side… about feeding some carnivorous hybrid plant, it sounded like. She resisted the urge to grimace. Ick.

She had just settled herself into her seat when the chair next to her was pulled out with an abrupt motion, bumping into her own. Sonora gritted her teeth as her leg was jarred. She hoped this injury would not take too long to heal.

Turning her head, she looked at Professor Snape who had taken his seat beside her. He looked at her coldly. "I trust you had no difficulties making your way here?" he asked, his tone of voice clearly stating he couldn't care less if she had.

Sonora silently reminded herself of the Golden Rule, and smiled as best she could at him. "I seem to have remembered the way, thank you, Professor Snape," she said, deliberately misinterpreting his words.

He glared at her a moment before opening his mouth to say something else cutting, she had no doubt, but just then was interrupted by the sound of Professor Dumbledore's voice, amplified as it echoed through the Great Hall.

"If I might have your attention for a moment…" he said, and then waited as the students crowding the tables fell into silence. Sonora looked away from Professor Snape and like everyone else in the room, directed her attention to the headmaster.

"Thank you. I will not keep you from your dinner long," he said, beatific smile on his face. "I would like to introduce you to a new member of the staff." Sonora realized with a jerk that he meant herself. Oh dear, she thought, embarrassed as students eyes swiveled toward her.

"Professor Stone is joining us this year while she recuperates from an accident. She will be sharing Potions classes with Professor Snape." A murmur broke out among the students, that silenced when Dumbledore continued. "We are most fortunate to have her, as she is a brilliant researcher and has spent many years creating potions many of you have most likely studied."

Sonora felt her face heat. He was certainly laying it on thick, she thought. Next to her, she could feel the coldness radiating from Professor Snape. Did he have to be so negative, she thought with a hint of irritation.

"I expect that all students will join me in welcoming Professor Stone, " Dumbledore said. There was a vigorous round of applause, that seemed rather more enthusiastic from the Gryffindor table and rather skimpy from the Slytherins. "And now, eat."

Food began to appear on the table and Sonora relaxed with a small sigh as the student body turned their attention to it. Of course, she had no doubt that her unexpected appearance was the topic of some conversation, she thought wryly as she reached for a plate of pork chops. But she would handle that in her classes.

Hagrid leaned over and nudged her very gently with his massive elbow. "There now, Perfessor, that warent so bad, now was it?" he asked.

She gave him a smile as she took the bread he passed her way. "I have a feeling I have just gotten in over my head," she told him dryly, as she glanced back out at the students to see any number of heads swiveling toward the head table and back to their friends again.

Hagrid chuckled. "Now, now, a good Gryffindor like yerself, you'll be alright. You just stand up and tell 'em whatfore, and you'll see."

She chuckled. "At the very least, I know some interesting detentions," she said with a smile.

"Oh really?" the dour man at her other elbow said, finally showing some interest. "And what might those be, pray tell?"

Sonora turned her head and gave Snape a smile. "You'll see, Professor," she said.

~~~~~~~

Severus knew he was eavesdropping, but he was curious. How would Professor Stone handle a classroom of bored, dull and dim-witted students, whose only interest in her would be she was not their normally evil Potions Master?

He gave a smirk in the dark of his office, door open just enough for him to see the front of the classroom and Professor Stone's desk. They would see in a moment if she had what it took to control children, or if her talents were just in her hands.

~~~~~~~

Sonora stood quietly at one end of the classroom, watching as her first class came in. Second year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, she thought, as the students entered the room warily, as if waiting to be pounced on. When they saw her, their faces seemed to lighten and a great deal of whispering broke out as they took their seats.

She waited only until all the students had entered and taken their places. "Good morning," she said, making her way to the front of the room. A classroom of fascinated eyes followed her slow progress on her crutch as she did so. She stopped and turned to face the students. "Good morning," she repeated again.

This time the students caught on. "Good morning," they said in a ragged chorus.

She gave them a neutral smile. "I am Professor Stone," she said. "Professor Snape has kindly turned a number of his classes over to me to teach this year, including yours." A number of faces seemed to light up at that and an excited murmur broke out. Heavens, it seemed Professor Snape was about as approachable a teacher as she remembered, she thought.

Sonora cleared her throat and waited. The students looked at her again. "Thank you. I'll tell you a few things before we begin class, to get them out of the way. One, I am recovering from an accident. I have a weak leg," she indicated her crutch, "and must ask you to be cautious about leaving anything in the aisles. Two, we will be studying the same potions as the other students in your year." There were disappointed faces at that. Had they expected some sort of new show, she wondered in amusement.

"Finally, I have one very strict rule in this classroom," she said, looking around and making sure she had all the students' attention. "Every person in this room will be treated with respect." Pairs of eyes stared at her. "I understand that rivalries between the houses can be intense. I also understand that there are certain people, perhaps not in this class, that do not like each other and don't get along." Her face was stern and voice unyielding. "All of that will be left outside my classroom. Anyone caught disrespecting another student, another teacher will be disciplined as I see fit."

There was dead silence as she took in the fascinated faces. "There can be no learning when one does not respect," she said into the quiet classroom. "And we are here to learn." Lecture finished, she pulled her wand from her pocket and gave it a flick.

"That said, we shall begin working…" she said as the list of ingredients and the instructions began to write themselves on the board. As Sonora started her lecture, she had to stop the smile when she realized just how comfortable she was in front of the classroom. Perhaps this job wouldn't be as difficult as she'd feared, she thought.

~~~~~~~

Severus sat back in his dark office and contemplated the small woman leaning on her crutch. Interesting. She was that, he had to admit. She had moved quickly over the fact that she was now teaching the class and he wasn't, had given the students just enough information to shut them up for the time being, and then had laid down that very interesting rule.

He frowned. Some corner of his brain had stirred when Professor Stone had been speaking. She had reminded him of something… something he must have read long ago. He struggled with the memory for a moment, unsure why various philosophies immediately sprang to mind.

He shook his head. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that Professor Stone did not appear about to ruin his classroom or his students.

Severus jerked to a pause in his musings as a hot pain suddenly pulsed in his left arm. He gritted his teeth against the familiar sickening ache, allowing himself the freedom of expression here in the dark. Then he took a breath, letting his face settle into its normally implacable lines, before standing quietly and making his way into his chambers.

The Dark Lord was summoning him, and thanks to Professor Stone, he was able to answer promptly. Severus allowed himself one more deep breath before easing open the secret passage from his bedroom and beginning to make his way off Hogwarts grounds.

~~~~~~~

She had the first nightmare that night. A whirl of images, men with angry faces, fists and feet, fury and pain, waves and waves of pain ran through her dreams. Sonora awoke to the sound of her own cries.

She sat in her bed, gasping for breath and drenched in a cold sweat. The room was filled with an aura of menace and hatred and it made her shudder in fear. She buried her face in her hands. Some brave Gryffindor she was, she thought in dread, terrified of her dreams. She thanked Merlin she'd had a premonition of uneasy sleep, and had cast a Silencing Charm on her room before she'd retired for the night.

She reached for her wand and flicked the candles to life. All her night would have needed, she thought as she slowly and painfully eased herself out of bed, would be the good Professor Snape bursting in, demanding to know what she was screeching about.

~~~~~~~

It was two days later, when she first met with the fifth-year Gryffindor and Slytherin students that she began to doubt her early optimism. The tension in her classroom was thick, incredibly so. As she gave another version of her introductory speech, she found herself watching the students carefully, trying to read faces and see which were the ones most likely to cause trouble.

Seated to the back of the room on the far right were some of the students Professor Snape had warned her about. Neville Longbottom and Hermoine Granger. She studied them as the class began to gather ingredients for dreamless sleep potions. Neither student had that aura about them of impending trouble. Miss Granger, indeed, was very carefully monitoring Mr. Longbottom's work, she noted with approval.

Her eyes traveled to another pair of Gryffindors. Mr. Ron Weasley and Mr. Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. She studied them in turn as they muttered to each other while they worked. Again, they did not seem like the type to start trouble.

She revised her opinion as she caught the looks the two of them threw to the other side of the room. Clearly, these two would bear watching in regards to her rule about respect. The two fifth-years did not like someone on the Slytherin side.

Her eyes followed their looks and came to land on a Mr. Draco Malfoy and his partner, a Mr. Goyle. Mr. Malfoy, she had noticed, seemed to wear a perennial smirk. He would bear watching, she thought as her eyes dwelt on him as he deftly powdered dung beetles heads. He seemed to have a good touch with potion-making, but still…

Sonora frowned as she watched Mr. Malfoy make a cutting remark to his partner, who admittedly seemed to be a bit slow. Yes, she'd have to watch him.

She began to make her way slowly around the room, checking progress, quietly giving tips and reminders as several students added the bat blood too soon and ended up with singed hair from the resulting minor explosion. Each time a student made a mistake, she heard a snicker coming from one side of the room or the other.

Sonora gave a covert flick of her wand as she bent over the cauldron of Mr. Thomas. "Stir clockwise, Mr. Thomas," she said quietly, hearing another snicker.

"Yes, Professor," he said, ducking his head and staring down into his cauldron. Sonora frowned. She was going to have to lecture the class on the importance of making mistakes and correcting them, she was afraid.

She eventually made her way to the Slytherin side of the room, and noted that several pairs of students seemed able to follow the complex instructions correctly. She might have been a Gryffindor, but it had always seemed to her that Slytherins tended to have a natural knack for the subject.

As Sonora moved away from Miss Parkinson's desk she was stopped by a bookbag sitting in the middle of the aisle. "Mr. Malfoy," she said calmly. "I have instructed this class already that the aisles are to be kept clear."

The blonde boy looked up at her, his expression barely acceptable toward a teacher. "Sorry," he said, his voice patently insincere. "I forgot."

She fixed her eyes on him and waited, until those sneering eyes fell a little. "Don't forget again," she said quietly. "Five points from Slytherin." They shot back up to hers, looking murderous. There was a snicker from the other side of the room and some whispered comments that had the young man glaring across the aisles. She'd have to deal with this before class was over, she thought.

The potions were brewed with only minor mishaps and the cauldrons were cleaned with a few minutes to spare as Sonora limped her way to the front of the classroom. "Class," she said, standing in front of them.

The students obediently turned toward her, some still muttering under their breath. Sonora fixed them with cool looks until they were quiet.

She gave a flick of her wand and the names of the two houses appeared in the air. "Apparently some of you didn't take my words at the beginning of class seriously," she said as tally marks began to show beneath the two names. "These are the number of disrespectful remarks that were made in this classroom by each house." She cast a cool gaze at Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and then at Mr. Malfoy. They would be the problems, she had a feeling.

"Each of these tally marks will cost your houses ten points," she said. There was a gasp of horror from the entire room and she gave a stern glare. "Let this be a lesson! I will not tolerate childish behavior in my classroom. Next time, it won't be merely house points."

Horrified faces stared at her. "That said, most of you did an excellent job today. I hope to see all of you do as well next time," she said. Then she gave a nod. "Dismissed."

The students began to file out, snatches of whispered conversations coming back to her. "Can you believe… a hundred points… don't know how… bloody unfair… better than that old git… stupid bitch…"

Sonora paused in her way around her desk at the last two snippets but the speakers were already gone. She sighed as she eased herself into her chair and propped her foot up. She'd have to keep an eye on this class, she thought as she erased the tallies with another flick of her wand.

~~~~~~~

Severus had heard the complaints floating from the students exiting the dungeons. He had stood, off to the side and concealed to avoid having to speak to any of the little dunderheads. His eyes had fallen on Potter and his cronies and he had not been able to stop the scowl. The boy and his friends never failed to irritate him on sight.

But this time it had not been merely the Gryffindors complaining about Potions. It had been the Slytherins as well. Draco Malfoy had swept past with a furious look on his face, and any number of the Slytherin girls clustered around Pansy Parkinson had been babbling like the bubble-headed idiots they were.

"She took a hundred points from Slytherin!" one girl was saying as she went by Severus's concealed spot. "Can you imagine?"

"Professor Snape never took points from Slytherin," another girl said resentfully as the students made their way up the stairs to the hallway above.

"At least the Gryffindors lost more," came floating back.

Severus waited until the students had all passed before stepping into the hallway and making a beeline for the classroom. What the devil had the woman done, he thought furiously. A hundred points from Slytherin?

He strode in the classroom with a thunderous face. "What just happened here?" he demanded. Professor Stone was sitting in her desk chair, looking over a stack of student essays and she looked up at the sound of his voice.

"Professor Snape," she said with a slight smile. Severus stared at her. She was smiling at him, while he was clearly angry? His anger was legendary in this school. Was the woman completely mad? "What seems to be the problem?" she asked, eyes calm.

Severus stared at her. "What seems… Why did you take a hundred points from Slytherin?" he demanded harshly, resisting the urge to set his hands on his hips in a manner far too reminiscent of his own teachers.

Professor Stone smiled a little, still. "The students chose to ignore my rule about respect. Truthfully, I wasn't completely surprised, given your warning about this class," she said, a touch of humor lighting her eyes. Severus wondered what the hell he was doing noticing her eyes. "I set a simple Tally Charm, and at the end of class informed the students that each of their remarks had cost their house ten points."

She suddenly grinned at him. "Rest assured, Professor, Gryffindor lost even more than Slytherin."

Severus resisted the urge to blink at the unexpectedness of that smile, and instead kept his face in its normally disdainful lines. "See that you do not ruin my house with your rules," he growled before striding to his office with great annoyance. He could feel her gaze following him as he went. Damn the woman and her reasonable explanations, he thought in aggravation. He still didn't like sharing his classroom.