Chapter Six

"These three classrooms are at your disposal," Dumbledore explained, gesturing to the doors that lined the hallway, "Most teachers choose one classroom they prefer to teach in and then allow the students to use the others for any personal work or practice. Your office is just round the corner, and in your case the entrance to your personal quarters is actually in the office."

"Really?" Lily was intrigued. She'd always been curious about where the staff living quarters were hidden away. She didn't think she'd ever seen an entranceway to any of them, and that was saying something considering she'd been friends with the Marauders.

"I'll show you," Dumbledore said, smiling gently, "Follow me."

He led the way into the office, which was rather bare but a nice size. Lily was sure she could liven it up a bit once she moved in. She looked around curiously for any sign of an entrance, but couldn't see one. Dumbledore smiled again and placed his hand on the wall behind the desk. A panel of the wall slid away silently, revealing a flight of stairs.

Lily was impressed. She'd seen a lot of different hidden entranceways in her time, but this one was rather different to any of the others at Hogwarts. It was almost like something a muggle would design, though theirs would probably be fingerprint-operated.

"It will open only to your touch, and to mine," Dumbledore explained, "Any other member of staff who wishes to contact you can place their hand on the wall, and if you are in then you will be given the option to let them in or not."

They walked up the stairs and into what looked like a large flat. The wallpaper was a horrible, flowery pink, and the furniture matched in equally awful shades of pink and red. Dumbledore chuckled.

"Ah yes," he said, "I'd forgotten the current furnishings were so … unfortunate. The previous inhabitant was a little older than you. Of course, you may change everything as you wish. Feel free to redecorate." Lily laughed.

"It's got a lot of potential," she said, "But I reckon I should change the colour scheme before I bring Harry up here." She walked through the rooms, flicking her wand and altering things, until it was all to her satisfaction. There was a lovely little room that would do Harry very nicely. For just now she just made it an unimaginative blue, but she could change that later. Her own room was also lovely, though she avoided looking at the large, four-poster bed. It would feel horribly big, sleeping there alone.

She returned to the hallway, where Dumbledore was waiting for her, and they made their way back down the stairs to the office.

"Why did the last Muggle Studies Professor leave?" she asked as they walked, "If you can tell me, I mean. I was just curious, because you seem to be hiring a lot of new professors right now. You know, with Severus becoming Potions Master, and all those interviews you were holding to find a Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher."

"Yes, I do seem to have a lot of vacancies," Dumbledore mused, "In your case, I haven't actually had a Muggle Studies teacher for the last three years. Your predecessor began to receive rather a lot of threatening letters, warning her to resign her post or risk serious repercussions. She held in there as long as possible, but after narrowly escaping an attempt on her life during the summer holidays we decided it would be wiser for her to step down. Sadly, she was killed by Death Eaters three months later while doing work for the Order."

He paused for a moment, and Lily laid a comforting hand on his arm. She knew he tended to hold himself personally responsible for any death that had taken place in the War.

"As you know, Severus' predecessor was Horace Slughorn." Lily nodded, smiling as she thought of Professor Slughorn. He was a little ridiculous with all his connections and favourite students, but she was fond of him.

"Well, Horace has been planning to retire for several years now. However, I succeeded in persuading him that Hogwarts was by far the safest place for him during the War, but now that the danger is gone he intends to go ahead with his retirement plans. And in the case of Defence Against The Dark Arts – I simply seem to have trouble holding onto them. However, I hope that with the end of the War, people will begin to make longer-term plans and things will become a little less unpredictable."

Lily nodded again, and together they made their way down to the Great Hall. Dumbledore had transformed it into temporary living quarters for the last couple of weeks, but the pupils would be arriving back soon, which meant teachers had to move into their proper quarters and other visitors had to leave. Lily would miss having Remus and Sirius around all the time, as well as some of her other friends from the Order, but she was looking forward to being busy again. It had been hard just moping around for days on end, with nothing to distract her from all that had happened, and from the rather terrifying future that lay ahead of her son. James' funeral had taken place, and he'd been buried in the graveyard at Godric's Hollow. Remus had suggested the inscription on the gravestone: the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Having no other suggestions, Lily had agreed. She liked the idea that James didn't have any more enemies to face. It felt like he'd been fighting for most of his short life, and she didn't want him to have to fight anymore.

She couldn't help but feel relieved that Severus was going to be staying on as a professor. All the other teaching staff had been teachers when she was a student, and it was a little intimidating to suddenly be working alongside them. Besides which, she needed him right now. It felt like they'd fallen back into their old friendship exactly as it always had been, and that was exactly what she needed right now. She'd had a lot of friends, but never anyone she could define as her "best friend" the way she had with Sev. She didn't know how she'd have got through the first few weeks after losing James without him.

She knew it was only temporary. They couldn't continue indefinitely like this, friends again as though nothing had happened. Because something had happened, and the problems that had caused their division wouldn't go away just because she needed him. On top of which, if they did decide to stay friends, something would have to be done about Sirius and Remus. Well, mainly Sirius. He put up with Severus at the moment, so long as they didn't have to interact much, because he didn't want to argue with Lily while she was upset. But she knew that wouldn't last, and she wouldn't put up with them arguing like ridiculous adolescents forever.

That was only one of many problems that loomed ahead of her. Sometimes she felt like she was being crushed, like she couldn't possible be expected to deal with so much. How could one person be expected to do all that?

But right now she was safe, and Harry was happy, and for the moment that was all that mattered.