Graduation has come and gone. I spent my summer relaxing in the garden outside my flat, visiting Harry and Ron at Grimmauld Place and, of course, preparing for the start of the school year. As the day I was to leave for Hogwarts approached, I grew more and more anxious. Would I be truly be able to teach and control my classes? Would I feel completely inexperienced and inept next to my fellow teachers? And most of all, did I have the courage to approach Snape? I knew Harry and Ron did their best to try and cheer me up and relieve some of my stress, but it is simply part of who I am. I have to worry and plan and over-prepare. Otherwise, the stress consumes me; this is my way of moving beyond that and remaining functional.

Finally, it was time to return to Hogwarts. I was so nervous that I could not eat a bite at breakfast. I spent the morning going over all my notes and my packing one final time (or, more accurately, five final times). At last it was time for me to meet Headmistress McGonagall at Hogwarts. I gathered up my small trunk and Apparated to Platform 9 3/ 4. The professors took a much smaller train before the students since it was impossible to Apparate to Hogwarts. Once at the station, I noticed Professor Snape standing a little waysdown the platform. I was sufficiently distracted by the striking picture he made, standing stoically on the platform, steam from the train swirling about him, that I got onto the train in a daze and sat in the first compartment I saw. The train was mostly full already, the most of the rest of the professors having arrived earlier to catch up with their fellow professors and friends after the summer. My compartment was empty, saving me from explaining my distraction to my new coworkers. Suddenly the door to the compartment slid open and one Professor Severus Snape stuck his head in.

"Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else seems to be full."

I nodded mutely, now struck dumb by the surprise of his closeness and politeness. He sat down and as the train left the platform, we both began reading. I noticed he was reading the latest Potions journal and couldn't help tentatively asking him about an article I had seen in it. After that, we spent the rest of the train ride talking. When we arrived, he carried my trunk for me as we boarded a carriage, still talking. Once in the entrance, he handed my trunk back to me and I smiled at him as we parted ways, me towards the Headmistress' office and he towards his own chambers. His own lips quirked warmly in response.

"I will see you at dinner then, Miss- Professor Granger," he said, smirking warmly at me. My own smile grew a bit in excitement at hearing the new title. His smile and the warmth in his eyes, in such close quarters heated me from the inside and suddenly I was very excited for dinner.