Chapter 2 – Britomartis Vox
Dinner was over, and the houses were going back to their respective dorms. Some students went into the library to do some exploration, while others wandered outside for after-dinner walks.
Britomartis grinned as the large hairy man approached her in the Great Hall. "Little Martis!" he cried, picking her up. "Where've ya been, love?"
Britomartis laughed, hugging the man around his large neck. "Rubeus Hagrid - you haven't aged a day! Watch out for Snookie-poo, she doesn't like being hugged like this."
Hagrid placed her back on the ground, his large hand patting the snake's head. "Ah, it's good to see students coming back. Jus' the other day, Madame Hooch and me were talkin' about Quidditch matches from the past - "
Britomartis rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses. "And Madame Hooch had to mention my infamous arse-over-teakettle maneuver involving the tangled mess of myself, the Keeper, and the Beaters from the other team."
Hagrid blushed. "Well, it was a miracle nobody broke anythin'." He smiled again. "C'mon, tell me of what you've been up to since you left us."
Professor Snape appeared between them, his pasty pale face looking up at the large man's face. "Perhaps Professor Vox would discuss such things later ... after she has settled in."
"Oh, of course," Hagrid agreed. He chuckled. "I remember you two running around the place and being teenagers - "
"Mister ... Hagrid," Snape intimated.
"Oh, right." He patted Britomartis' cheek. "See you later, Martis."
"We'll talk more later, Hagrid," she added. Hagrid wandered off and she turned to find Severus Snape already gone. She sighed. "You always were good at vanishing into thin air, weren't you, Snips?"
Britomartis followed her students into the dorm halls and into the House of Slytherin.
Slytherin dorms were the same as she remembered them. Elegantly decorated, but still dark. Several new tapestries lined the walls, very likely a gift from a student's rich parent.
Her new charges gathered around her, the nearly fifty girls that made up the female half of Slytherin House, all of them looking up at her expectantly.
A prefect commander approached her and curtsied politely. "Welcome to Slytherin House girls' dorms, Professor Vox. I am Glynis Ryper."
"Thank you, Glynis. I remember Evan Ryper when I attended here."
"My uncle," Glynis confirmed, a small smile threatening the corners of her mouth.
"Then I expect you'll have a fondness for glass bottles filled with colored liquid as well."
The girl blinked while her classmates snickered. Britomartis smiled. "All right, ladies. I know many of you miss Rowena Price - she was my House Mother when I attended here during the Cretaceous Period and I loved her dearly. I will not alter any of her dorm rules: mainly, be in your rooms by curfew, behave yourselves, no spell-casting except for homework, no broom-flying indoors, and no boys in your rooms. My door is open at all hours - including my office between classes - and you will find me in chapel almost every morning before classes and every evening after classes. If you need help in anything, if you need a sounding board, or simply someone to talk to, I will listen and help. Very likely you are not the first to have problems, and you will certainly not be the last, and please know that I had most of them as well - including being turned into a harpy and a mongoose on two separate occasions."
The girls tittered with giggles.
She held up her snake's head. "This is Snookie-poo, she will be the house 'pet'. If any of you mistreat her, she will attempt to eat you. She does appreciate sacrifices of small white mice with blobs of brown mustard."
Snookie-poo flickered her tongue out at the students. The girls cooed and complimented her beautiful skin and pretty eyes. Snookie-poo half-closed her eyes and accepted the praise of her beauty with much dignity.
"Anything else, Professor Vox?" another student asked.
Britomartis thought about it, then smiled. "Yes. It's all right to smile in my presence, I encourage it. In fact, I recommend laughing. It helps the digestion."
"Yes, ma'am!" several of the girls answered.
"Good. All right, that's all for tonight. I trust the prefects will help the First-Years in their orientation. I must settle in as well. Good night, girls."
"Good night, Professor Vox," all of them chorused.
Britomartis turned from the girls' dorm hallway and entered the common room. Across the hall, she could hear the prefects orientating the First- Year boys in their area.
"Well, well, well," a hollow-sounding voice sneered. "If it isn't Spirals."
Britomartis looked up to see the elegantly dressed Bloody Baron descend from the ceiling. "Baron, it's been ages. How have you been?"
"Same old," the ghost replied in a bored manner. "Children, children, all over the place. I've seen you've grown into a fine woman. Never really get to see any of you gits after you leave here, except Snape and now you, and frankly that boy was boring me to death." He leered. "I expect you to shake things up around here, Britomartis. Perhaps start a scandal involving him and his illicit affairs with dead people."
She giggled, sitting down on one of the couches. "Baron, you are a monster!"
"Thank you. The boy lacks a sense of humor, or at the very least the ability to laugh at accidents. I'm relying on you to make things interesting."
"I'll do my best, sir."
The Bloody Baron vanished through a particularly gory-scened tapestry.
"I trust," a man's husky but bored voice intoned. "That you are adjusting once again?"
She looked up, seeing Snape framed in the doorway, his robes filling up the space around him while his arms crossed over his chest. "Severus Snape. Great Mother, I never thought I would see you again."
He entered the Slytherin common room, his black robe fluttering behind him as he approached her. Britomartis admired his fashion sense - a simple long black coat and trousers, buttoned all the way up the front, plus his robes and still long hair ... he did cut a fine figure as a man. "How so?" he asked.
Her voice became flat. "I expected to be with my family the rest of my life." She patted her snake's head. "You are head of Slytherin House as well as Potions Master ... you've done well, Snips."
He gave her a pained look. "I had no choice, Professor Vox."
"I'm still 'Spirals'," she added softly. "That hasn't changed."
He turned back to the door. "You are a member of faculty and now part of my House; as such, we observe the courtesies pertaining to our positions." He stopped in the doorway, snapping his head around, making his hair fly across his face. "Thank you."
"For what?" she asked.
His hair whipped back around as he left the doorway. "For my Fourth-Year."
It took Britomartis nearly three hours to figure out he had been referring to the incident involving the Marauders, a creek, a gallon jar of lye soap, one robe ruined by said soap, and near-blindness.
Twenty years to thank her over something any truly decent human would have done.
Then it was probably a good thing she never made him buy her a new robe.
* * *
The student chapel was small but lovely.
Stained glass windows, all in geometric and floral patterns, lined three walls, the fourth being the entrance into the chapel. An altar stood before the round glass window at the other end of the building; on this altar were offers of local wildflowers and Scottish thistle, along with a few pebbles and honey cakes for good measure. Benches lined each side of the chapel, ornately carved but simple in design.
"Do you approve?" Albus Dumbledore asked.
Britomartis nodded, allowing Snookie-poo to slip to the floor. "It's beautiful, Headmaster."
He smiled, sitting down on one of the benches. "I'm glad you came back to us, Martis."
She sat next to him. "I am glad I came back." She looked down at her hands. "I had forgotten how much I missed this place, the teachers, the ghosts, Hagrid, even Filch. This place has ... "
"Always been home," he finished for her. "And it always will be, for any student no matter how long ago they attended." He patted the back of her hand with his frail fingers. "There were only two students I ever called my children - you and Severus. It fills me with warmness knowing you two are back here where you belong."
"Why?" she asked.
He smiled sadly. "Children should never be lost. Lost by busy parents or lost by horrendous parents, you two became my own children." He pulled his hand away and gazed at the stained glass window over the altar. "Severus spiraled downward into darkness, though. He finally came back on his own ... much the way you have, having exhausted himself with hiding."
"What happened to him?"
"I'm not at liberty to say. It is his own business to tell you or not." He turned to face her. "I remember you both when you were students here. I remember how you were able to bring light into Slytherin House, helping the others find themselves. That's why I wanted you as Slytherin House Mother when Rowena retired. I want you to help those children - love them, teach them, and don't allow them to fall over into darkness when there's a thread of hope to cling to. Offer them that thread, Britomartis. And if you can help Severus again, it will make it all the better."
She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I think he hates me for leaving."
"No, he never hated you," Dumbledore assured her. "He locked his heart away, never to be seen by mortal eyes ever again." He smiled. "Believe me, he's pleased you're back." The Headmaster got up. "Well, I shall leave you to conduct your morning rituals."
"Thank you for having me here," she stood, hugging him around his thin shoulders.
He hugged her in return. "Welcome home, Martis. Welcome home."
Dumbledore left the chapel, and Britomartis wandered around to each window to admire the art and light.
"Oh, hello," a woman's voice purred. "Britomartis Vox, so good to see you again!"
Britomartis turned to see a stout, dark elderly woman with wild black, gray, and brown hair and wearing a simple brown dress. "Mrs. Norris!" She looked around. "Does Mr. Filch know you're in human form?"
The woman skittered into the room. "Of course not!" She pulled Britomartis into a hug. "I've wanted to hug you since last night, my dear! Good to see old students again." She hugged the tall woman once more.
Britomartis remembered how she had accidentally seen Mrs. Norris transform into her human form one evening when she was going to the larder to get some milk for a sour stomach. She did not expect to see Mrs. Norris the cat transform into a little dark lady and help herself to the milk before Britomartis flicked on the kitchen lights.
So far, no one else knew Mrs. Norris was an animagus.
"Good to see you, too," Britomartis added. "But I must do my morning rituals. We'll talk again some other time, though."
"Absolutely," the woman agreed. "Ta-ta for now!"
She spun around and shifted back into a Maine Coon just as she left the door.
Britomartis smiled, shaking her head. "I always wondered how such a sunny lady could end up with someone like Filch."
She turned to the altar and raised her hands, invoking the Great Mother.
* * *
Dinner was over, and the houses were going back to their respective dorms. Some students went into the library to do some exploration, while others wandered outside for after-dinner walks.
Britomartis grinned as the large hairy man approached her in the Great Hall. "Little Martis!" he cried, picking her up. "Where've ya been, love?"
Britomartis laughed, hugging the man around his large neck. "Rubeus Hagrid - you haven't aged a day! Watch out for Snookie-poo, she doesn't like being hugged like this."
Hagrid placed her back on the ground, his large hand patting the snake's head. "Ah, it's good to see students coming back. Jus' the other day, Madame Hooch and me were talkin' about Quidditch matches from the past - "
Britomartis rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses. "And Madame Hooch had to mention my infamous arse-over-teakettle maneuver involving the tangled mess of myself, the Keeper, and the Beaters from the other team."
Hagrid blushed. "Well, it was a miracle nobody broke anythin'." He smiled again. "C'mon, tell me of what you've been up to since you left us."
Professor Snape appeared between them, his pasty pale face looking up at the large man's face. "Perhaps Professor Vox would discuss such things later ... after she has settled in."
"Oh, of course," Hagrid agreed. He chuckled. "I remember you two running around the place and being teenagers - "
"Mister ... Hagrid," Snape intimated.
"Oh, right." He patted Britomartis' cheek. "See you later, Martis."
"We'll talk more later, Hagrid," she added. Hagrid wandered off and she turned to find Severus Snape already gone. She sighed. "You always were good at vanishing into thin air, weren't you, Snips?"
Britomartis followed her students into the dorm halls and into the House of Slytherin.
Slytherin dorms were the same as she remembered them. Elegantly decorated, but still dark. Several new tapestries lined the walls, very likely a gift from a student's rich parent.
Her new charges gathered around her, the nearly fifty girls that made up the female half of Slytherin House, all of them looking up at her expectantly.
A prefect commander approached her and curtsied politely. "Welcome to Slytherin House girls' dorms, Professor Vox. I am Glynis Ryper."
"Thank you, Glynis. I remember Evan Ryper when I attended here."
"My uncle," Glynis confirmed, a small smile threatening the corners of her mouth.
"Then I expect you'll have a fondness for glass bottles filled with colored liquid as well."
The girl blinked while her classmates snickered. Britomartis smiled. "All right, ladies. I know many of you miss Rowena Price - she was my House Mother when I attended here during the Cretaceous Period and I loved her dearly. I will not alter any of her dorm rules: mainly, be in your rooms by curfew, behave yourselves, no spell-casting except for homework, no broom-flying indoors, and no boys in your rooms. My door is open at all hours - including my office between classes - and you will find me in chapel almost every morning before classes and every evening after classes. If you need help in anything, if you need a sounding board, or simply someone to talk to, I will listen and help. Very likely you are not the first to have problems, and you will certainly not be the last, and please know that I had most of them as well - including being turned into a harpy and a mongoose on two separate occasions."
The girls tittered with giggles.
She held up her snake's head. "This is Snookie-poo, she will be the house 'pet'. If any of you mistreat her, she will attempt to eat you. She does appreciate sacrifices of small white mice with blobs of brown mustard."
Snookie-poo flickered her tongue out at the students. The girls cooed and complimented her beautiful skin and pretty eyes. Snookie-poo half-closed her eyes and accepted the praise of her beauty with much dignity.
"Anything else, Professor Vox?" another student asked.
Britomartis thought about it, then smiled. "Yes. It's all right to smile in my presence, I encourage it. In fact, I recommend laughing. It helps the digestion."
"Yes, ma'am!" several of the girls answered.
"Good. All right, that's all for tonight. I trust the prefects will help the First-Years in their orientation. I must settle in as well. Good night, girls."
"Good night, Professor Vox," all of them chorused.
Britomartis turned from the girls' dorm hallway and entered the common room. Across the hall, she could hear the prefects orientating the First- Year boys in their area.
"Well, well, well," a hollow-sounding voice sneered. "If it isn't Spirals."
Britomartis looked up to see the elegantly dressed Bloody Baron descend from the ceiling. "Baron, it's been ages. How have you been?"
"Same old," the ghost replied in a bored manner. "Children, children, all over the place. I've seen you've grown into a fine woman. Never really get to see any of you gits after you leave here, except Snape and now you, and frankly that boy was boring me to death." He leered. "I expect you to shake things up around here, Britomartis. Perhaps start a scandal involving him and his illicit affairs with dead people."
She giggled, sitting down on one of the couches. "Baron, you are a monster!"
"Thank you. The boy lacks a sense of humor, or at the very least the ability to laugh at accidents. I'm relying on you to make things interesting."
"I'll do my best, sir."
The Bloody Baron vanished through a particularly gory-scened tapestry.
"I trust," a man's husky but bored voice intoned. "That you are adjusting once again?"
She looked up, seeing Snape framed in the doorway, his robes filling up the space around him while his arms crossed over his chest. "Severus Snape. Great Mother, I never thought I would see you again."
He entered the Slytherin common room, his black robe fluttering behind him as he approached her. Britomartis admired his fashion sense - a simple long black coat and trousers, buttoned all the way up the front, plus his robes and still long hair ... he did cut a fine figure as a man. "How so?" he asked.
Her voice became flat. "I expected to be with my family the rest of my life." She patted her snake's head. "You are head of Slytherin House as well as Potions Master ... you've done well, Snips."
He gave her a pained look. "I had no choice, Professor Vox."
"I'm still 'Spirals'," she added softly. "That hasn't changed."
He turned back to the door. "You are a member of faculty and now part of my House; as such, we observe the courtesies pertaining to our positions." He stopped in the doorway, snapping his head around, making his hair fly across his face. "Thank you."
"For what?" she asked.
His hair whipped back around as he left the doorway. "For my Fourth-Year."
It took Britomartis nearly three hours to figure out he had been referring to the incident involving the Marauders, a creek, a gallon jar of lye soap, one robe ruined by said soap, and near-blindness.
Twenty years to thank her over something any truly decent human would have done.
Then it was probably a good thing she never made him buy her a new robe.
* * *
The student chapel was small but lovely.
Stained glass windows, all in geometric and floral patterns, lined three walls, the fourth being the entrance into the chapel. An altar stood before the round glass window at the other end of the building; on this altar were offers of local wildflowers and Scottish thistle, along with a few pebbles and honey cakes for good measure. Benches lined each side of the chapel, ornately carved but simple in design.
"Do you approve?" Albus Dumbledore asked.
Britomartis nodded, allowing Snookie-poo to slip to the floor. "It's beautiful, Headmaster."
He smiled, sitting down on one of the benches. "I'm glad you came back to us, Martis."
She sat next to him. "I am glad I came back." She looked down at her hands. "I had forgotten how much I missed this place, the teachers, the ghosts, Hagrid, even Filch. This place has ... "
"Always been home," he finished for her. "And it always will be, for any student no matter how long ago they attended." He patted the back of her hand with his frail fingers. "There were only two students I ever called my children - you and Severus. It fills me with warmness knowing you two are back here where you belong."
"Why?" she asked.
He smiled sadly. "Children should never be lost. Lost by busy parents or lost by horrendous parents, you two became my own children." He pulled his hand away and gazed at the stained glass window over the altar. "Severus spiraled downward into darkness, though. He finally came back on his own ... much the way you have, having exhausted himself with hiding."
"What happened to him?"
"I'm not at liberty to say. It is his own business to tell you or not." He turned to face her. "I remember you both when you were students here. I remember how you were able to bring light into Slytherin House, helping the others find themselves. That's why I wanted you as Slytherin House Mother when Rowena retired. I want you to help those children - love them, teach them, and don't allow them to fall over into darkness when there's a thread of hope to cling to. Offer them that thread, Britomartis. And if you can help Severus again, it will make it all the better."
She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I think he hates me for leaving."
"No, he never hated you," Dumbledore assured her. "He locked his heart away, never to be seen by mortal eyes ever again." He smiled. "Believe me, he's pleased you're back." The Headmaster got up. "Well, I shall leave you to conduct your morning rituals."
"Thank you for having me here," she stood, hugging him around his thin shoulders.
He hugged her in return. "Welcome home, Martis. Welcome home."
Dumbledore left the chapel, and Britomartis wandered around to each window to admire the art and light.
"Oh, hello," a woman's voice purred. "Britomartis Vox, so good to see you again!"
Britomartis turned to see a stout, dark elderly woman with wild black, gray, and brown hair and wearing a simple brown dress. "Mrs. Norris!" She looked around. "Does Mr. Filch know you're in human form?"
The woman skittered into the room. "Of course not!" She pulled Britomartis into a hug. "I've wanted to hug you since last night, my dear! Good to see old students again." She hugged the tall woman once more.
Britomartis remembered how she had accidentally seen Mrs. Norris transform into her human form one evening when she was going to the larder to get some milk for a sour stomach. She did not expect to see Mrs. Norris the cat transform into a little dark lady and help herself to the milk before Britomartis flicked on the kitchen lights.
So far, no one else knew Mrs. Norris was an animagus.
"Good to see you, too," Britomartis added. "But I must do my morning rituals. We'll talk again some other time, though."
"Absolutely," the woman agreed. "Ta-ta for now!"
She spun around and shifted back into a Maine Coon just as she left the door.
Britomartis smiled, shaking her head. "I always wondered how such a sunny lady could end up with someone like Filch."
She turned to the altar and raised her hands, invoking the Great Mother.
* * *
