Chapter Five
As Jen met the famed Severus Snape two things were evident to her, the man was seriously depressed and he was evidently her mate. She had thought that she might never meet a mate; father had told her few of the forest people were so lucky anymore. Jen did not feel lucky right now, granted she would love to work with him but he definitely did NOT look like he would appreciate being told he was somebody's mate. Luckily she wasn`t dependant on her mate in any way, maybe she should just keep quiet about that part.
The conversation between professor Snape and the Headmaster was kept in a deathly quiet tone, but judging by the look on Snape`s face he was not a happy camper. Not being inclined to pry Jen instead surveyed the magnificent potions lab that they were currently in. It was by far the best set up lab she had ever seen, not that she expected anything else considering whose lab it must be. After a while Jen grew tired of waiting and was busy looking at the potions stocks, when she was interrupted by the Headmaster. "Professor Snape has kindly agreed to instruct you in his lesson plans, if you will take your cues from him from now on? If there is anything you need you may call for the head house elf, his name is Gib. I will leave you in SeverusĖcapable hands, and I hope to see you both for dinner in approximately four hours" with this the older man bowed slightly to Jen and walked rapidly out.
"Professor Snape, I must say this is an unexpected honour. I have dreamed of meeting you, but I had never thought I actually would." Scowling darkly Snape grimaced and proceeded to give her a detached guide to how he set up his lessons, his lesson plan for this semester and a list of potions needed for the infirmary. Jen thanked him politely at the end of his lecture saying "I hope you might be gracious enough to let me use this wonderful lab of yours for brewing. And it would be a great honour for me to brew with you at times if you would allow this." Snape just sneered at her, whirled round and vanished into his office without another word.
Jen stayed where she was surveying the stocks of ingredients, and reading over the notes she had made while talking with professor Snape. She wasn`t too bothered with the other professor`s behaviour, but she did wonder whether she would need to find somerwhere else to brew. As she later joined the Headmaster at the dinner table she asked him politely "Professor Snape didn`t say whether I could use his lab so I thought I`d better ask whether there is another space I could use as a lab." Headmaster Dumbledore just twinkled at her and told her to go ahead and use the lab before saying "I copletely forgot to adress the issue of your office, Severus can be given a new office somewhere else if you insist, but I`d hoped you might prefer another office?"
"Oh I wouldn`t dream of taking his office, the students would be mightily confused by this. Another office would do nicely for me. I`m not picky, place me wherever there`s room" answered Jen.
After dinner was over she was formally introduced to most of the other teachers, except the divination teacher whom she was informed was not inclined to join the rest for dinner too often. By now Jem had realized that professor Snape was not the friendly type, but still she was a bit surprised at the pitying looks she got when it was announced she would be working closely with the man until semester started. It did seem like the only one that respected and cared for the professor was his superior, which seemed a bit sad to Jen. One would thing that working together for more than a decade would have made any group of colleagues friendly towards each other. For once in her life she consciously flexed her powers, feeling towards the other teachers. Despite not having used these powers for the longest time, she easily read the others emotions. All seemed very negative towards professor Snape. Jen wowed silently to herself that though she might not like the fact that Snape was her mate, she would at least be one of the few people who tried to stand by him in the next months.
