Chapter 7: Back to Hogwarts
*****
A couple days later, after an enjoyable stay with Molly and Arthur Weasley, Alinora, Katie and Ginny were once again happily ensconced in their comfortable flat in Hogsmeade. Things were unpacked and they were finally feeling settled in again. Not quite enough to make them think they should be getting back to work, but enough to know they were home.
Today, they were to visit Hogwarts and speak with Professor Dumbledore. It had been years since they'd had the time to visit the school they'd all attended. Their last views of it had been after the final battle with Voldemort four years ago when a combined effort of the students and staff had finally succeeded in destroying him. Unfortunately, the effort lost them a couple of the professors, as well as some of the school grounds.
Walking through the gates to the school, they looked around in pleasure. They'd expected that over the previous years the damages they remembered would've been corrected, but seeing was believing and it was nice to see things back to the way they remembered them. They slowly made their way up the drive to the entrance of the school and entered the entry hall.
It was mid morning and in the middle of one of the class periods, so the halls were empty. Their footsteps echoed as they began the trek up through the school towards Dumbledore's office, stopping every once and a while to point out something they remembered or to speak to one of the passing ghosts.
Finally, they came to the entrance to the spiral staircase that would deliver them to the Headmaster's office. Ginny stepped forward to give the password Siren's Song. A while back, Dumbledore had set up a more permanent password for them that would only work for one of the three in the group, so that they could always get to him in case of an emergency. Luckily, they hadn't had much call to use it over the years.
Ascending the staircase, they quickly approached his door, knocked twice, then entered.
"Ah, Ladies! How wonderful to see you! Please, have a seat." For an instant, as they first caught a glimpse of him seated behind his massive desk, Dumbledore had looked tired and, for the first time they could remember, old. But then he smiled and the familiar twinkle returned to his eyes and the moment passed. Grinning in return, Alinora quickly rounded the desk to give him a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek before rejoining the others and taking a seat.
"Thank you for agreeing to come see me so soon after your return. I know you were all hoping for some peace and quiet now that you're home. Hopefully we can clear this up quickly. So far, we've been unable to decide if there was a leak concerning your association with the Order, or if the event itself, a charity fund raiser to help the hospital, was the real target and it's simply coincidence that the three of you were involved." He paused for a moment, his fingers steepled together with his chin resting on top, and stared at them intently.
"Is there anything we can do to help figure this out?" Ginny tentatively questioned when he hadn't spoken for a while.
"Let us look into it a while longer on our own. If your involvement is not known, I'd prefer to keep it that way. Which means you should stay out of the investigation as well. Once we hear something though, we will let you know immediately." His solemn expression lightened then, and he smiled around at them all. "Now, what's this I've been hearing about Katie and Ginny getting engaged?"
The three laughed, and began to fill him in on the more mundane happenings in their lives. Time passed quickly until it was time for lunch to be served in the Great Hall. Dumbledore invited them to join him and the other Professors for lunch. They happily agreed and the four soon left his office.
Entering the Great Hall, and passing all the students sitting at the long, house tables brought back many memories, some pleasant and some not as pleasant. The students gawked at them as they walked past and they could hear the whispers as they tried to decide who they were and what they were doing at the school. A couple students seemed to recognize them, as their eyes went wide and they quickly turned to whisper furiously to their seatmates. Alinora was trying very hard not to laugh, but she could hear Ginny giggling and even Katie, generally the more reserved one of the group, was stifling a huge grin.
Finally they arrived at the table where the teachers sat. There were a number of familiar faces, but the ones that weren't there stood out even more. They'd lost McGonagall, the former head of Gryffindor house, and Hagrid during the final battle with Voldemort and their absences were glaring holes in the familiar table line up.
Dumbledore made seats for them at the table and Alinora found herself seated beside Professor Snape, who was still the Potions Master at Hogwarts, as well as the head of Slytherin House. She had a feeling that it had been deliberate. While neither of the other two actively disliked the man anymore, he'd been too helpful over the years for that, Alinora was the only one he really seemed to like… which she found amusing considering that she was also the only one to have ever yelled at the man during one of his classes and gotten away with it. Or maybe that was why they did get along.
"So, Professor, should I pretend I don't know you, or talk to you openly and completely confuse your students who probably don't expect you to associate with rock stars?" Ali asked him unobtrusively as she began filling her plate.
"Do you honestly think I care what my students think of me or who I associate with?" he snarled back at her before taking a sip of his drink.
Fine, Ali thought, have it your way and she laughed. Quite loudly in fact. "Ah Professor, how I've missed your kind consideration for your fellow man. Brings a tear to my eye." Leaning over, before he realized what she was doing, Alinora placed a kiss on his left cheek. Beyond him, she could see some of the newer professors staring at them, eyes goggling, waiting to see how Snape responded to this affront.
He calmly put his glass down and turned slightly to face her. She thought she could see a tinge of pink on his cheeks, but in general his face was still and his expression blank. "I see your control is just as lacking as it was when you were a student here Ms. Roane. What a pity." He turned back to continue eating.
Grinning evilly, Ali leaned over again and sniffed gently before whispering in his ear, "Nice cologne Professor. Is that the one Sara got you for Christmas last year?" This time she could definitely see a tinge of pink on his neck, but he made no response to her comment. "Okay, I'll leave you be, but it really is good to see you again. Do feel free to come by the flat if you feel the need to escape your dungeons and the 'brainless idiots' you teach here. I promise, if you do, to at least try not to be too irritating."
Snape smiled faintly, still without looking at her, but softly replied, "I find it hard to believe that it would be possible for you to not be purposefully irritating. I think you've spent too much time around George Weasley by now for that. Though that may be doing him a disservice as I have a feeling that you had that trait long before you arrived here and met up with him and his siblings."
Ali laughed softly at his response. "Be that as it may, the invitation stands. You can act on it as you like." Turning, she addressed Professor Flitwick who was seated nearby and proceeded to discuss charm work for the remainder of the meal.
Afterwards, Dumbledore escorted them to the doors of the school. As they were about to leave, he mentioned, "We will be having a Yule ball before Christmas. I was wondering if you three would be interested in being our entertainment for the evening. I think the students would enjoy it, and it would be nice to bring some former students back in this capacity."
"That sounds like fun." Katie replied. "How soon before Christmas will the ball be held?"
"The Saturday before, so the students can still make it home for the holidays if they wish."
"I'm willing to come." Ginny said, glancing at Katie and Alinora. "What do you think?"
"I think we've got ourselves our next job." Alinora grinned. She stuck out her hand to shake Dumbledore's to seal the deal. "We can finalize the details later, a bit closer to the date, but it does sound like fun. And, unlike last time, we can do more than just sing one song…" she teased, referring to the ball held her last year at Hogwarts, which had been the first time the three had performed together in public.
They said their good byes, and then headed out to walk back to Hogsmeade. From there, they would be flooing to meet Colin and Anna to finish the arrangements that would officially make Alinora the twins' godmother in the eyes of the Ministry.
"So, Ali, what were you saying to Snape at lunch? And kissing him?!? Did you see the expressions on… well, everybody's face when you did that? Priceless." Ginny grinned evilly. "You realize that he would've hexed any of the rest of us into next week if we'd tried anything like that."
"I think Sara's having a good influence on him. The poor man's been hounded by her for years now, since he made the mistake of coming to her attention my last day here. She's wearing him down, I think. I'm not sure what exactly she sees in him- he's really not her type at all that I can tell, but it's her decision. She just has to get him to go along with it!" Alinora shrugged and they continued their walk into town.
*****
Hours later, after their group excursion to the Ministry, they were finally relaxing at home again.
"So, what're the plans for the evening? You guys going out?" Alinora asked lazily from her stretched out position on the rug.
"Yes, Brad has a function to go to tonight with some visiting representatives and I said I'd attend with him. I'm hoping it isn't quite as boring as it sounds like it might be, but I'm not holding my breath." They laughed.
"I'm having dinner with Harry, Ron and Hermione tonight. It's been such a long time since the four of us have been able to get together and just talk. We're going to go to Ron and Hermione's place and I said I'd show up a bit early. I think Hermione wants to talk to me about the situation with Mum. Don't know what I can do to help, but at least I can listen."
"That sounds like fun… okay, maybe not the talk with Hermione, but the rest sounds good." Alinora said, smiling at Ginny, who was absent mindedly twirling her long, red hair around a finger.
"What about you Ali? Do you and George have plans for the evening?"
"Not officially. He has some obligations early this evening and he said he'd try to stop by if he got done in time. Either way, I plan to have a relaxing evening at home. With or without his company." She laughed at the expressions on their faces. "I happen to like having some time alone, and I have an urge to crank the music up and have some 'me' time tonight. Though, if he does show up, I'm certainly not going to turn him away at the door…" she said, smirking, "I'm sure I can find some use for him here."
"I don't wanna know!" Ginny cringed, eyes sparkling, "He is my brother you know. I certainly don't want to know any details."
"Good, cause you weren't getting any." Ali stuck her tongue out at Ginny, who responded in kind.
"You two aren't ever going to grow up, are you?"
"I certainly hope not. How boring would that be?" Ali replied, climbing to her feet before extending a hand to her friends to pull them up as well. "Time to be moving. You guys have dates to get to and I have some peace and quiet calling my name. Don't let me hold you back." she said, pushing them, laughing, towards their respective bedrooms.
When they'd finally left for the evening, and the house was silent, Alinora stood quietly in the middle of the living room, arms outstretched. Her head was back and her eyes were closed. Around her hands, there started a slight glow. As it brightened, it expanded until the whole room was lit up by it. With a sudden movement, Alinora's head snapped up and her hands flew forward to clasp in front of her. Gone were the room's normal furnishings. Replacing them was the room set up they used to practice for performances. The far wall was dominated by a large mirror that spanned the entire width of the room. In one corner was an elaborate sound system.
"Humm, now, what do I feel like listening to tonight…?" Ali wondered out loud as she flipped through the musical assortment she'd collected over the years. Finally giving up on making a decision, she set it on random and pressed play. As the music started, she began to smile. Letting the music flow through her, she began to dance and hum along with the song until finally she began to sing.
She had no idea how long the music had been playing when a slower song finally cued up. Swaying slightly along with the music, smiling in memory, she remembered back to her first real dance with George. It had been to this song. She'd been giving him dancing lessons for a couple months at that point and this had been the public unveiling of his new skill. It had been wonderful to dance with him, gliding together across the dance floor. It had been so long since they'd had the time to that. Just dance together.
Lost in her memories, she almost didn't hear the knock at the door. Pausing the music, she ran quickly out of the room. Glancing through the door's peephole, she smiled. Speak of the devil… she thought, before throwing open the door and embracing a somewhat startled George.
"I was just thinking about you," she grinned, taking his arm to pull him inside. "Come dance with me."
