Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Enjoy!

Boarding the train that Monday morning was beyond nostalgic. It had been fifteen years since Phoenix had road the Hogwarts express. This time she sat in the teachers compartment with the other staff that rode the train to school. This year there was only one other professor.

"Hello," She said taking a seat next to Neville Longbottom.

"Hi Phoenix, I haven't seen you since the battle of Hogwarts. Weird seeing you all grown up. How are you?" He asked mildly surprised to see her.

"I'm well, teaching potions this year. How are you?" She asked barely remembering who he was.

"I've been quite well. I teach Herbology. Hope to be seeing you around."

The rest of the ride was spent in silence with Phoenix watching the countryside go by and Neville reading the newest book on plants. As the sun was setting the train started slowing down. Phoenix couldn't help the excitement that bubbled inside her as the castle came into view. Memories of the station and first year flashed before her eyes as she exited the train. She was lucky to be in the last first year class Dumbledore welcomed into those halls. Thinking about him nearly brought tears to her eyes. Walking up to the carriages she fed the threstrals a treat before climbing in and getting settled for the ride to school.

The great hall was just as she remembered, above her the evening stars seemed to twinkle as if welcoming her home. Candles floated above the four house tables as she walked to the teachers table at the back of the room. She sat down at her seat and watched all the returning students fill up the four tables. As soon as they were settled the first year students were brought in and sorted into their respective houses. Headmistress McGonagall stood and gave the opening announcements:

"Welcome to a new year of learning students. I would like to firmly remind each of you that the forest is strictly forbidden. There has been strange activity in there recently and anyone caught within its boarders will not be allowed outside the building for the remainder of the year. I would also like to introduce your new Potions professor and head of Slytherin house, Phoenix Cavannah." she said gesturing to Phoenix. "With that said I hope you have a productive school year. Study hard."

Food appeared and everyone hungrily dove in; for the first 10 minutes there was almost no chatter in the Great Hall. As Phoenix ate thoughts whipped though her mind like lightening. 'Head of Slytherin house? I never singed up for that! What if I have to leave? Who's going to fill in? I'm barely capable of teaching let alone being head of an entire house!' All of these thoughts had her spiraling towards a panic attack. Taking a few breathes to calm herself she made eye contact with McGonagall and a short note was sent over.

"Meet me in my office after the feast," it read.

After making sure the prefects had control of getting the children to the common room Phoenix made her way to the headmaster's office. As she walked down the corridors portraits said hello and remarked about how pleased they were to see her. Making it to the gargoyle she said the password and it jumped out of her way. She climbed the spiral stair case and entered McGonagall's office.

"Hello professor," she said taking a seat in one of the chairs. "Please explain to me what's going on, why am I head of Slytherin house?"

"Please dear, call me Minerva, you're not a student anymore after all," she said before launching into her spiel. "We got stuck in a bit of a spot after the departure of the last professor and head of house. Since you were coming on as his replacement we decided that it would be best if you were in charge of both. I understand your obligations to the Ministry and have informed Harry of your unique situation. He has responded with a proposal for you to have an assistant/substitute so he doesn't have to give up his best auror. I agree, which is why you will have the opportunity to choose one of the candidates I have selected in the morning. Your first class will be Thursday morning; we felt it necessary to allow time for you to adjust and plan with your assistant. Harry will also be in close contact. As for your duties as head of house it is rather simple. You make sure your students are where they're suppose to be, provide counsel when they need it and discipline them when they break the rules."

As she spoke Phoenix took in all this information and began processing it. When Professor McGonagall finished talking Phoenix sat there for what felt like a while before saying anything.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in Minerva. I will do my best to live up the expectations set by the previous head of house."

She then left with Minerva giving her back a concerned look. Phoenix made her way down to the dungeons and started unpacking her trunk. It was a decent office with a door on one side that led into her sleeping chambers. A desk sat near the back of the room with a comfortable looking chair and a large green rug lay on the floor; other than that the space was empty. After taking a look around Phoenix began pulling things out of her trunk. She set a lamp next to the desk and a few plants that could survive without sunlight along a wall. Pictures of her family were set on her desk and she pulled in two chairs that were delivered by a couple lovely house elves. She set the chairs in front of the desk and set up book shelves along another wall. Slowly she set up all her reading material in alphabetical order by author and title.

Finishing what she could in the office for the time being, she moved into the bedroom and started hanging her robes in the closet. She put all her dress robes in first followed by her black everyday robes. She set her shoes on the floor and carefully folded her scarves and other small items and set them on the shelves. After putting a few more decorations in place in her room and setting the rest of her important papers on her desk she climbed into bed.

Phoenix woke up early and went into the washroom to get prepared for the day. She took a shower and got dressed in her robes. After tying her Slytherin tie around her neck she went to the mirror to do her hair and makeup. She was pretty, that was undeniable, with big brown eyes and dark auburn hair that reached down to her waist. She was quite short standing at only 5'2 and had a fair complexion. She braided the top half of her hair in two braids on each side that joined in the back and added a bit of makeup to make her eyes pop.

Walking into her office she was surprised to she professor McGonagall and five young witches and wizards waiting for her.

"Well you all must be very eager to get this over with. It's only 8:00am after all," she said, an amused smile adorning her face.

"These are the five options for you to choose from for your assistant. I have headmistress business to attend to so I will leave you to pick the one that suits you," Minerva said before she departed.

Phoenix walked across the room, sat down at her desk and faced her possible assistants sizing each one up.

"Well? Impress me," she declared and each person took a seat one at a time and competed to be her assistant.

She put each of the through multiple tests starting with a verbal discussion of what they knew followed by a display of their ability to handle stress and decision making and finally a test consisting of each candidate receiving a potion on a slip of paper that they had to flawlessly complete in one hour. When they had finally finished each activity she took a moment to carefully consider each candidate and called them in for her final decision.

"All of you performed flawlessly, Minerva was not messing about when she said you lot were the best of the best. However I require someone I will be able to work well with, for these reasons I have decided that Carina will be my assistant. Congratulation my dear. The rest of you may go back up to the headmaster's office," she announced.

Once the rest of the candidates left Phoenix brought Carina over to her desk and showed her all her lesson plans.

"I will make copies of all my materials for you to look over and be able to teach. I have seven stacks- one for each year- of lessons that are prepared through Christmas. I would appreciate your help planning out the remainder of the year. I will also contact the necessary people to acquire a desk for you which you may put anywhere in this room as long as you don't move anything already set up. Please look over the materials and later we will discuss your roll in helping me balance my two jobs," she said hoping she had included all necessary information into her little speech. For a thirty-two year old women she really had a hard time getting her life together sometimes.

"Thank you Miz Cavannaw! I will look over zees immediately," Carina said with vigor clearly excited about her new job.

"Please, call me Nix, we are friends now and my friends call me Nix," Phoenix said with a warm smile as she turned to leave for the classroom she would be teaching in. As she walked down the long corridor she complimented herself of making a wise choice in her assistant.

Carina was a sweet girl in her mid twenties with pretty blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was tall and beautiful and Phoenix suspected she may be part Veela. She had come to England from France upon graduating from Beauxbatons and was further studying to become a teacher at Hogwarts. Phoenix thought she would be a perfect replacement in a year or two when she had the money to feel comfortable again.

Entering the room she went over to the closet containing the herbs and other ingredients needed for potion making. As it appeared the staff had saw to it that everything her students could possibly need was readably available for them. Satisfied with this, she decided that a walk around the grounds followed by lunch was appropriate. After she had finished her lunch she went back to her office to check on Carina's progress.

"How is the reviewing coming?" she asked as she entered the room.

"Oh, very well! I ave almost completed looking zrough all zee materials you left," Carina said looking up from the parchment she was scanning.

"Wonderful! Let's talk about your responsibilities for when I'm away, then I'll start showing you how I plan for lessons. After that we shall go to dinner." Phoenix said brightly.

They quickly went through all the necessary things for classes when Phoenix was gone on raids and started planning for the second semester. With so many classes each learning something different it took the remaining two days for them to prepare the needed materials for their first classes on Thursday. Both girls were so tired Wednesday night that they fell asleep quickly anticipating their first class the following morning.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Please leave comments telling me what you think. Was it too long? Too short?

This was delivered so soon because I already had it written when I posted the Prolog. I spent the last few days revising this and I hope I've got it good enough for you guys.

Unless otherwise stated there should be updates every Monday.

Cheers!

-Kikira