1995. 9. 5
Severus wasn't lying. After Emma's tutoring session, he walked her back to Grimmauld Place and spoke with Sirius and Remus in private- well, they thought it was private, even though Emma was listening in from the next room. Her professor had thought of all of the minor details, telling Sirius and Remus that Emma would be staying with him for a week to work on a potion's project he had assigned her.
"Don't you have classes to teach, Severus? At Hogwarts?"
"I think I can manage to do two things at once, Lupin."
"Wait a minute! Are you saying that you're taking Emma to Hogwarts?"
"I will remain at Hogwarts during class time, and then I will apparate home for her lessons. In my absence, she will be working on her potion's project."
"Why can't she work on it here?"
"You don't exactly have a lab available, do you, Black?"
"Alright, you said one week, Severus?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Sirius, go tell Emma to pack some clothes."
Sirius glared at Severus for a moment before leaving the room to find Emma only a few steps away from the door. The two of them went up the stairs in silence, only speaking after Sirius had shut Emma's bedroom door behind him. "I don't like this Emma." "I know you don't exactly trust him, dad, but I do. I've known him since I was five. He's been teaching me that long. If he had any ill-intent towards me, don't you think he would have done something by now?" "I'm still not entirely convinced that he wasn't a part of your kidnapping." Emma did not reply. If her father found out that Severus Snape was at that meeting when she came face to face with Voldemort, he would be absolutely furious, and Emma could kiss her education good-bye. That and this was her one and only chance to go to Hogwarts. She was not going to give it up.
"You heard him, dad. He'll be at Hogwarts for most of the day, while I'm at his house in the lab."
Sirius did not have any further valid points to insert into this argument, so he remained quiet while they packed Emma's belongings into a suitcase.
After a round of good-bye hugs, Emma and Severus departed from Grimmauld Place. The first stop was Severus' house, at which they would use floo powder to enter the fireplace of Snape's office in Hogwarts. Emma felt a horde of butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She didn't like lying to her family, but she wanted this so badly. Hogwarts was the place her mother and father met. The place where her father and his friends had all of their famous adventures. Filled with curiosity, Emma just had to see this magnificent place for herself.
Once at Snape's house, he demonstrated to her how to use floo powder. Right before Emma stepped into the fireplace for the real thing, the same silver-haired woman from before entered the room, holding another tea tray. "Oh, are you leaving already?" "Yes, Therese, we will be back within a week." The woman smiled at Emma, "Good luck, deary. Remember, enunciate!" She was talking about using the floo powder. If you even said the word wrong, you could end up in a stray fireplace. With a gulp, Emma stepped into the ashes, threw the floor powder at her feet, and shouted, "Severus Snape's office."
With that, she was gone.