Chapter Five
Making an Entrance
Aurelius was more than a bit disappointed when he discovered that Eigil Hauk hadn't been on the train that year. But Jocelyn, Head Girl and the other Slytherin prefect, had already been there to spread the word and it brightened him up considerably, for a number of the older students that had barely acknowledged him before nodded to him in respect. Alex, however, found herself in a rather awkward position now that Rose was gone and Mandria were sitting with the prefects. Halbert had talked Andrew into sitting with Ginger and her best friend, so Alex decided her best option was to sit with Alicia, Phoebe, and Morfinn, who now believed that he had contracted some sort of incurable African disease after his distressing episode in Solomon's Mines.
Everyone, it seemed, was glad when the train finally pulled into the station, grinning at the first years as they headed to the coaches, and even Alicia marveled how young they looked now.
In the Great Hall, everyone began taking his or her places. The prefects were one of the first groups to arrive, so it came to be that Eigil, sitting practically alone at the Slytherin table, looked up to see Jocelyn and Aurelius walk in, his eyes immediately flicking to the pin signifying Aurelius as a prefect.
"So, all dat boot licking paid off after all, I see, little friend," Eigil murmured when they walked past him. But Jocelyn stopped in her tracks and gave Eigil a cold look.
"You'll address him as Aurelius or Snape from now on, whether you approve of his appointment or not," Jocelyn said coolly. "Bad things happen to fellow Slytherin that turn against one of their prefects."
"Really? Like vut?" Eigil asked daringly.
"Bad things," Jocelyn said again with a gaze of pure steel, enunciating both words. She turned back to Aurelius. "Sit where you like, Rel. They will move accordingly if you want one of their seats, no matter what year they are," she instructed.
"Fine," Aurelius said, then suddenly decided to stand behind Eigil Hauk. "I think I'll sit here."
"Da whole table is still empty," Eigil complained. "Surely you can find somevere else!"
"You heard him, Eigil. Move," Jocelyn said. Eigil was suddenly aware of another wave of students coming in, the Slytherin beginning to gather around the table looking curiously on the situation.
"I vill not. I like vhere I am," Eigil said. A disapproving whisper started in the crowd, and Jocelyn turned and pointed to two of the larger seventh years in the group. Without a word they moved in, only taking a moment to excuse themselves to Aurelius who quickly moved out of the way as the two boys took either side. Eigil looked over each shoulder rolling his eyes. Even they wouldn't be able to move someone of his strength. But in the blink of an eye Jocelyn suddenly drew her wand.
"Immobulous!" she said and he froze in position, the two boys immediately acted then to move him like a cumbersome statue down the table, leaving plenty of room for whoever Aurelius chose to sit beside him. Jocelyn nodded to her two classmates and then to Aurelius and took the seat across from him. "Some of them never learn, I'm afraid. It's something you'll just have to deal with," Jocelyn said with almost bored exasperation. "I usually like to keep the Quidditch team close the first night so we can discuss replacements, but you can invite whom you like, of course," she said calmly, waving to her sister who immediate sat on one side of her.
"Stock?" Aurelius said and immediately he worked his way out of the crowd, trying not to grin too widely as he took one of the seats between Eigil and Rel. "Meyers," he said, and several whispers went up, for the fourth year had been favored to replace the third Chaser that year. Jocelyn nodded approvingly.
"What about me?" Heph snapped, a bit angry and hurt that his friend didn't ask him. But Aurelius hadn't forgotten the rough time his 'friend' had given him last year when he decided that Eigil was a little more generous with his coin.
"Oh, you can sit over there, somewhere," Aurelius said unconcernedly, waving towards where Eigil sat, and Heph blushed slightly. But Stock got his attention, and Heph took a seat on the other side of him. As the rest of the students began to get settled, Eigil suddenly twitched and shook himself out of the spell, but as he moved to get up, sputtering with rage, the two seventh years who had taken places to either side of him calmly pushed him back down again.
"How dare you cast a spell on me! In front of all these people, no less!" Eigil said angrily, glaring at Jocelyn. Sighing, Jocelyn turned to look at him, apparently not in the least bit threatened by his actions.
"Are you trying to accuse me of something?" she asked evenly, and then glanced down the aisle. "Well, it seems you're in luck. Here comes someone you can complain to now."
Aurelius looked up to see Snape himself heading up the row, getting kicked under the table by Jocelyn. As Aurelius turned to look at her she suddenly held up her chin. Quickly he took her example, nodding to his father with the same solemn expression that she had.
"Good evening, Miss Farr, nice to have another Head Student in the house again this year," Snape said in a low voice, nodding to her. "Having trouble this evening?"
"Nothing I couldn't handle, Professor," Jocelyn said.
"She pulled a vand on me!" Eigil growled, Snape raising a brow at him. "She cast a spell to get me to move!"
"Oh really. Miss Farr, did you cast a spell on Mr. Hauk?"
"Why no, sir, of course not!" Jocelyn said her eyes wide with surprise.
"Did anyone see her pull a wand, or even a vand as the case may be?" Snape asked, and immediately everyone began to shake their heads. "Did you see anything Mr. Snape?" Aurelius gritted his teeth a bit, for as willing as he was to lie to a teacher, the idea of lying to his father, especially when his father most likely would know it was a lie, was a bit too unnerving. Aurelius shrugged. Jocelyn glared at him.
"I didn't see anything, Professor, and Aurelius and I have been sitting next to each other the whole time," Stock said quickly.
"I see," Snape said, then took a few steps back towards Hauk. "As it so happens, Mr. Hauk, I myself have been watching this table quite closely since I finished speaking with your Mother before the rest of the students came in. I saw nothing out of the ordinary myself. What ever reason would she have had for doing such a thing to a fellow Slytherin?"
"Merely because someone else wanted my seat," Eigil said angrily.
"Oh? Who?" he asked evenly, but for some reason, Eigil didn't feel inclined to answer. "Jocelyn?"
"He was sitting in a Prefect's seat, sir. We asked him politely to move, of course. As you can see, he did move," Jocelyn said carefully.
"Well then, that's very fortunate," Snape said lazily, starting to walk away. "Bad things happen to Slytherin who go against their prefects. Very bad things. Farr, Snape, shall we meet in my office after your meeting? I'm very interested to hear of your plans this year."
"Of course, sir," Jocelyn said, Aurelius repeating the same. Eigil fell into silence, those around him going to great pains to ignore him, and Aurelius decided without a shadow of a doubt that he very much liked where this was going.
Over at the Gryffindor table, Halbert and Andrew came in still trying to catch up, but broke in the middle of the conversation to congratulate Ted Gaffney and Shelly Meadows for making Prefect.
"Following in your brother's footsteps?" Andrew grinned at Ted.
"No, I think I'll be better at it," Ted decided with a grin. "And so will Shelly!"
"As long as nobody puts fairy dust in the brooms again," she chuckled, everyone at the table chuckling with him.
"Who made the other prefects?" Andrew asked curiously.
"Garret's sister Mary Meyers is Hufflepuff's new girl prefect, Fischer is the boy, and Ravenclaw's Arch Morris got Head boy," Ted said, rolling his eyes.
"Don't know him," Andrew shrugged.
"Not surprising. Most of the Ravenclaws call him the house vampire, he doesn't go outside for anything, even on Hogsmeade weekends he stays in the library," Ted said. "Got top marks though. Anyhow, I suppose you know who the new Slytherin prefect is," he grinned, "and Jocelyn made Head Girl. We'll never here the end of it."
"The coldest girl in school and the most unsociable boy in school," Shelly agreed, "I'm not sure I'm too fond of the choices. So where's your cousin, Andrew?"
"Cousins, rather," Andrew said, peering around. "I don't see them yet."
"Oh, no, don't tell me they're both here this year?" Ted said with a frown.
"Right you are," Andrew said. Ted and Shelly gazed at each other thoughtfully.
"Do you suppose it's too late to back out of prefect?" Ted said, and Shelly nodded that she was pretty sure it was.
"Look, Andrew. I think they're with Professor Weasley," Halbert said.
"Really? I'd have thought she'd have been busy, first day and all," Andrew said, leaning back and then waving at them. "Zack! Zoë!" Quite a few of the other students greeted Zack as they passed, for after his stunt at the talent show, many of them saw him in a bit more friendly light than before, although a bit skeptical about his promise that things would be better this year. Some of them looked curiously at Zoë, smiling unsurely at her strange half-up half-down hairstyle, and the long, tiny braid of black hair that broke up her bleach-blonde color. Her stormy eyes gazed at them as if they were offended to even look upon them, nor did she seem very comfortable in the starched trim look of her new-cuffed robes.
"Here we are! It really is wonderful to have you back, Zoë, and I'm sure you'll be caught up with the others in no time," Hermione reassured her as she allowed them to take seats near Andrew and Halbert. "And now, I must see to the other new comers!" She smiled, excusing herself from them. The moment Weasley had her back to them, Zoë rolled her eyes and made a gagging motion, unbuttoning the cuffs and pulling up the sleeves, showing several rows of bracelets on her arms that made some of the other girls crowded over to admire them.
"Isn't it against the dress code to wear so much jewelry?" Selda Muir, one of the second years asked.
"Who cares, they're neat," said Dana, sitting beside her.
"They're from California. My boyfriend there got me most of them. He's eighteen. He got me this too…" she added, pulling her sleeve up to show them a tattoo of a well-built man with the bottom half of a snake. "It's a Cecrops. Chunk likes mythology."
"Chunk?" Halbert said confusedly.
"My boyfriend's nickname. His real name is Chester Douglas Cutler, but he hates it, so we all call him Chunk, like Chester the hunk," she grinned. Zack rolled his eyes.
"Wow, a tattoo. My mum would kill me," Dana said.
"My mum would kill me too," Andrew agreed.
"Mine wasn't too happy either, although father didn't seem to care as much. It doesn't matter anyhow, it's my body not theirs, and I'll do with it what I like. Bad enough they sent me back to this hole," she said, pulling her sleeve part way down again. The students around her gazed at one another unsurely, while Zack looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock.
"Maybe things will go better for you this year, Zoë," Andrew said gently, but she stared at him as if questioning his intelligence.
"Ya think?" she said sarcastically. "Try again, Cuz. I'm not here because I want to be here. I might as well be in military school. I can't believe what they're doing to us!" she went on angrily, glancing at Zack. Andrew looked at Zack questioningly.
"It's a long story," Zack said, "but the short version of it is that our father signed a statement declaring Snape as our legal guardian while we're at Hogwarts in case either one of us get out of hand, and we're not allowed to go on any more weekend trips unless both Snape and my parents agree… whether that means going home or going to Hogsmeade or anywhere else."
"What? They can't just sign over guardianship to a teacher like that," Dana said, suddenly frightened how much trouble she would have to get into for her own parents to do something like that.
"They can if he's an Uncle," Zack said.
"I don't know why they don't just put us up for adoption or something considering how far they've gone this time," Zoë said, picking at one of her bracelets. "Or turn us both into the state for being juvenile delinquents."
"No, because I'm not one," Zack said, and Zoë glared at him.
"Well! I can tell this is going to be a fun year," Ted said, forcing a smile at Shelly. But Shelly couldn't make herself smile back. Andrew remained quiet, frowning with such intensity that even Halbert decided to leave him alone. Sirius had always hated the way Severus had treated his children, especially during school. What possibly could have happened that forced him to make such a radical decision?
The hall finally quieted, and Andrew and Halbert looked up to see the remainder of teachers coming in to sit and the head table. But that was also when Halbert and Zack and Ted and all the other boys in the room got their first look at Professor Delacour. Her platinum hair had been drawn up into a full French bun, her blue eyes positively glistening with excitement to be teaching at Hogwarts at last, chatting softly to Madame Brittle as she moved to take her place on the other side of her. Dumbledore seemed to be in a very good mood as well, smiling warmly to the students as he placed the Sorting Hat on a stool in front of his seat and moved to take his place. Most of the rest of the staff were chatting merrily to each other, while Snape calmly took his seat at Dumbledore's left. Beside him, Professor Craw didn't seem to be having much of a good time at all. In fact, Andrew couldn't remember her ever looking quite so annoyed at the table, her eyes scanning the reactions of the students to their newest addition, finally tearing herself away when beside her Snape asked her a question about something trivial.
"That is without a doubt the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen in my entire life," Ted muttered, followed by a round of agreement from his classmates. "I suppose she's teaching Transfiguration?"
"I hope we have a double in that," Zack said, propping his head on the table. Zoë stared at her brother in surprise, and then gave her a second look.
"She's not all that. I have better hair than she does," Zoë decided.
"As if," Zack said, getting a hard pinch for the comment.
"Look, look! She's looking over here!" Halbert said. In fact, the wandering blue eyes were even looking at their very section, although Halbert didn't dare at first to think she was looking at him as the new professor turned to ask Brittle something.
"No, Halbert, I really think she's looking at you," Andrew decided as both Brittle and Delacour looked over again, and she gave him a warm smile.
"Erk," Halbert replied.
"Maybe she's never seen a big oaf like you before," Zack said, but Halbert didn't seem to hear him. "If she's teaching Transfiguration, I am definitely improving my marks in it this year."
"Well they could hardly get much worse," Ted said dryly, but not taking his eyes off of her. "I never thought there would ever come a day I saw a woman prettier than your mother, Andrew."
"Maybe that's why she looks ticked off," Selda grinned. "Personally though, I still think she's prettier."
"And that just proves that women are no judge of the looks of their own sex," Zack said. The glares he received around the table from that comment were enough to make him decide to be quiet for the rest of the feast.
But fortunately it was not long in coming, for the doors opened to let the first years in, Hermione smiling enigmatically at them as the stepped up to the Hat and got out the list. But this little tradition ended up taking longer than usual, for many of the boys were too busy grinning at Fleur to notice when their names were called. Several of them even tripped on their way up to the stool, causing the rest of the students to laugh. Back behind them, Jennifer let out a long sigh, shaking her head. It was going to be a long year.
Jennifer got up early the next morning, and as she had expected, Hermione was already there, nibbling on one of her sugar-free muffins and black coffee as she went over her paperwork.
"You're up early. I didn't think you had the early class today," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"Yes, I've… well, I've been working on some experiments lately," Jennifer said.
"Really? Anything interesting?"
"Well, sort of," Jennifer said, thinking about it carefully. "I was curious about the theory of Perpetual Healing Potions. Have you heard of them?"
"Oh! Yes, of course," Hermione said, her face looking lost for a second as if looking up an index in a book. "Healing Potions as we know them work similar to Muggle medicines by helping our bodies heal themselves and our immune systems to fight back diseases. Perpetual Healing is the idea of a potion that can heal from its own merits alone, although none are known to exist and there are debates on if it's even possible, or even why would we bother. So you'd be able to heal a cadaver, what's the point? Well, I suppose some dark magic could use cadavers healed, but for practical purposes?" Hermione shrugged. "Our healing potions are so good these days that if the patient is in stasis even minutes from death we can save them and if we can't…they just weren't meant to be saved. Even the Elixir of Life had its limitations," she grew very thoughtful then but shrugged it off. "Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the time to research. Especially now that the theorist behind it is gone."
"Witolf?" Jennifer murmured.
"Yes, I'm afraid it was," Hermione said.
"And every scrap of research he had went to Lucius Malfoy," Jennifer said, shaking her head to herself as she leaned back in frustration. "How convenient."
"What do you mean by that?" Hermione asked curiously, frowning at Jennifer's expression.
"Only that I'd pick something that Malfoy would have a hold of, that's all," Jennifer said.
"Oh, yeah. Well, if it's any consolation, I don't think Witolf was any closer to finding such a thing than anyone else was," Hermione said. "Look, if you're looking for something to do a paper on this year, I'll keep an eye on the Physical Magic magazines for you. I'll make you a list of the hot debates in Academic Alchemy right now and maybe there will be something in there you're interested in."
"Thanks, Hermione," Jennifer smiled, glancing at her coffee wondering if it was cold enough to drink yet.
"Good morning!"
Jennifer looked up with a frown as Fleur came in, looking as bright and cheerful as ever.
"Good morning," Hermione smiled. "Nervous about your first day?"
"No, very excited!" she said cheerfully, tweaking a hard roll and some coffee from the table, taking a sip thoughtful. "Not very strong, is it?"
"You'll get used to it," Jennifer said, then Hermione laughed softly.
"As I recall, Jennifer barely ate for weeks when she first got here. I remember watching her pick at everything from the Gryffindor table…well, except that night after the feast…or was it the second?"
"Second," Jennifer said. "Minerva wanted me to feel a bit more at home."
"Good for her!" Hermione said, then thoughtfully added, "And bad for me! Really, I should have thought of it myself. I think I'll have some words with our kitchen staff and find out if it's too late to do that tonight."
"Oh no! Please don't go to that trouble! I really ought to get used to it, since I am staying here…"
"To be perfectly honest, except for the coffee I'm still not sure I'm used to it," Jennifer chuckled. "I'd look forward to it myself."
"Consider it done, if not tonight than tomorrow night for sure," Hermione smiled.
"You are both much too kind!"
"Think nothing of it," Jennifer said dryly, pushing away her coffee without touching it and getting up. "I think I'm going to go get ready for my first class."
Fleur watched her leave with a frown, Hermione shaking her head slightly but stopping immediately when Fleur turned back around to her.
"Is she always like that now?" Fleur asked. Hermione cleared her throat.
"Like what?"
"So… what is the word? Reserved?" Fleur said thoughtfully. "I remember her to be very warm at Beauxbatons."
"She still is with the students," Hermione assured her. "Although she definitely has gotten stricter than she used to be, thanks to her husband's efforts. Of course she's been working on him to lighten up too, but he's had more success than she has on that issue," Hermione chuckled then got a little more serious. "Fleur, you do know she is married to the only married man on staff."
"Oh, but I would never think of coming between them like that, you should know that!" Fleur said, her eyes wide.
"No, of course not, at least not intentionally," Hermione said with a wry grin.
"I could not have gotten this far without knowing how to handle that sort of situation, Hermione, and I have had lots of practice steering men back on the right boat," Fleur assured her sitting down. "Even if I do admit to liking older men best. They have so much more sense than the young ones!" she laughed, and Hermione joined her.
"Raging hormones not quite so raging?"
"Not quite," Fleur smiled wickedly, and then shook her head. "One of my marriages was with someone my age… I always regretted that. Of course, the other one only lasted a little while longer… oh Hermione," she sighed, propping up her head in resignation. "I can never hope to get someone to understand what it is like. The two men I loved didn't return it… not in the way I wanted. All they see is what my grandmother left me, the rest they do not see at all." She gazed in her coffee then, pulling back a strand of her flowing hair before looking back at Hermione with a weak smile. "Gabrielle was so much luckier than I. She's been married all the time since she left school, and on top of that, they had all boys. I really envy her sometimes. And Jennifer…I truly envy her too. She's accomplished so much I still dream of having!"
"You know, I think she'd be pretty surprised to hear you say that," Hermione said with a smile.
"Yes, perhaps, but if what you say is true, I doubt she would listen if I did," Fleur said.
"No, probably not," Hermione agreed, then quickly finished her muffin and walked Fleur to her classroom.
