Neville, seated on her left, doesn't notice the tear. He watches the students intently, clapping loudly when a girl or boy is sorted into his house. Luna didn't need her power to feel his house pride. He told her almost from the moment she arrived at the Order headquarters that he'd taken Minerva's place as head of Gryffindor house. Luna allows herself to bask in his happiness for a moment as she wipes the tear from her eye.
Severus, unlike his colleague, does notice the tear, however. She can feel him, seated on her right, staring at her. He recoils when she leans closer to whisper, "Are you really that surprised, Severus?"
He sneers at her and turns back to the sorting. "I thought Ravenclaws were intelligent, not sniveling."
Luna is taken aback by his words. She doesn't know what she expected, but Neville had assured her that Severus was much less irreverent to his fellow professors than his students. She searches him for a moment before replying, something she hesitates to do usually but, well, any preparation for Severus Snape is wise. She feels his satisfaction at her reaction, his feeling of superiority, and something else... a quick flash of fear, floating just beneath his facade of confidence.
"Are you afraid of me, Severus?"
He sits stiffly for a moment, staring straight ahead, and just as he opens his mouth, the hat sorts the last student. A roar of approval erupts from the students and most of the staff table, no one noticing the tense exchange between the Potions and Defense professors. Luna feels a tinge of relief as Neville turns to speak to her and the food appears--not her own, but Severus's.
The rest of the meal passes quickly for Luna, who can only barely pay attention to what Neville is rapidly telling her about all of the changes to the school since she has been away. She knows most of it already, but he seems quite excited to tell her all of the details. He is also excited to hear about her lesson plans for the year. Unfortunately, as she has informed him numerous times over the past week, she is woefully underprepared for the term. The time since her appointment was spent traveling with Moody and catching up with the Order members.
Minerva seems to have complete confidence in her abilities to improvise, which worries Luna. Should she fail, she would disappoint the Order and Hogwarts. Worse than that, she would leave her students a full year behind, which would put them in more danger than usual, considering the current political situation. She had tried each night to remember and write down things that she learned as a student, but her list was quite pathetic. She had a difficult time especially separating spells acceptable for Hogwarts teaching and spells she'd learned as an Auror. Although they would certainly keep her students safe from attack, they would almost as certainly put a few of them in Azkaban at best, kill them at worst.
She worries about this as she feigns attention to Neville and during Minerva's last speech. She only barely hears her own introduction, awakened from her thoughts mostly by the especially boisterous cheers of her three carriage mates. As the Great Hall clears, she alternates between considering her lesson problem and her Snape problem (as she is already beginning to refer to it). Then, as she watches him billow out of the Hall and away from her at a near-run, the solution to at least one of her problems, and hopefully both, dawns on her.
A/N:
Thank you so much for your reviews!
I'm sorry this story moves along so slowly and the chapters are so short. Fanfic is an exercise to help me get back into writing, so please bear with me (it's been a while). I promise I have some good parts coming up, especially for those of you who, like me, adore Luna and Snape and wish they'd gotten a bit more attention. :) (On that note, this story is rated M for a reason, so please be aware of that as we move into the coming chapters.) Thank you!