Summary: School preparations

A/N: Thanks for reading and commenting!

Chapter 3

Severus stood in front of the Hogwarts gates. His hand reached out, caressing the bars of the main gate. Despite being bullied while a student here, he'd always felt Hogwarts was his home. Even though teaching hadn't been his favorite occupation, he'd felt at home while teaching. All of that had ended the year before, of course. He hoped he would once again find the comfort of the home he'd previously loved in the school.

Realizing he was wasting time, he opened the gates and headed for the entrance to the castle. His long strides took him briskly up the path. His younger body was fit, and he enjoyed the walk. He examined the school as he approached.

Hogwarts looked as it always did. Any traces of war had been swept clean. That was good. He knew there would be some challenges, especially with the older students. They'd been through a lot. The last thing they needed was any reminder of the final battle.

He entered the building and headed down to his quarters. Entering, he looked around. They had sat empty the year before. Severus had used the Headmaster's quarters, and Slughorn had taken rooms up on the third floor because he liked the light brought in from the third floor windows.

In looking around, there really wasn't much he needed to do to update the rooms. He tapped his wand on his lips as he looked around. The walls were grey stone, so they really didn't need any updating. However, the sofas… he wanted to change those. With a wave of his wand, the green velour turned into black leather. They were elegant and didn't scream Slytherin like they used to.

Heading into his bedroom, he changed the bedding to a deep purple from black. Perfect for a fresh start. Keeping everything else the same, he took stock of his rooms. Nothing overtly Slytherin, and some very comfortable and familiar items to make him feel at home.

Sitting down in the living area, he Accio'd a Potions tome and spent a while reading.

Severus entered the staff room. He was the first to arrive on purpose. This way he wouldn't need to endure all the professors glowering at him at once. They could do it one at a time as they entered the room.

He settled in the corner, hoping to be unseen, but he knew better.

The first person in was Flitwick.

"Severus!" Filius cried as he quickly moved up to the other wizard. "Min said you'd be back."

He extended his hand, and Severus tentatively grasped it.

"Forgive me for hexing you repeatedly in the halls last year."

"That was you?" Severus said with surprise.

"Yes. I thought you knew."

Severus shook his head. "You are the stealthiest wizard I've ever known," he remarked.

"Well, I think you can probably outshine me in that regard, but that's neither here nor there. We all thought horrid things about you, Severus. I wish we'd known, but we shouldn't have treated you like we did."

"Oy, that's fer sure," came a voice from the door.

Hagrid sauntered over and placed his large hand on Severus' shoulder. "Sorry I was so mean."

"Hagrid, you hardly said two words to me."

"Aye, that's what I'm talkin' abou… I ignored yeh all year."

Severus couldn't help himself. He chuckled.

"Thank you for apologizing, Hagrid, but really, there's no need."

"Well, I just wanted yeh to know."

The half-giant took his seat near the front of the room. Severus just stared after him. Flitwick began speaking again, which brought him out of his stupor of thought.

"You look remarkable, Severus. I'm glad they figured out how to save you."

"Thanks, I think."

"We all feel the same," Hooch said as she meandered in and sat next to him. "No hard feelings, right?"

Severus didn't know what to say. He simply shook his head. He looked at the other three professors. They accepted him, and it was as if the past year hadn't happened. Could this next year possibly be a decent one amongst his colleagues?

At that moment Sprout walked in and stopped dead. Her hand came up to her chest before she rushed over and enveloped Severus in a great hug.

"Minerva said you'd be here, but just seeing you, and you looking so young and handsome! Oh, Severus! I'm so glad you survived!"

He tentatively put his arms around her. Looking up, he saw Hermione Granger standing there, arching a brow at him. She didn't say anything, but sat down on the other side of him, settling in as she watched Professor Sprout stand up.

"Oh! Hermione! Welcome to the faculty!" Sprout shouted, and she was enveloped in a similar hug.

Her eyes strayed over to Severus, and he arched a brow at her, similar to her reaction to him.

Pomona prattled on about her being a part of the faculty, then finally took a seat. During that time several other faculty members had greeted Severus… happily.

Merlin, the world had turned upside down.

He could feel Granger's eyes on him. He turned to her.

"Glad you're healed and back, Professor Snape," she said.

He eyed her for a moment before clearing his throat.

"Miss Granger… Professor Granger… I understand that it was because of you that I survived."

Hermione stiffened, as if she didn't know if he was going to yell at her or not. He extended his hand. She stared down at it incredulously before grasping it.

"Thank you," he offered.

Her mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut and nodded.

"You're welcome."

Withdrawing from her grasp, he nodded.

"How are you feeling about teaching?" he asked.

Her shoulders sagged. "I'm nervous."

"I would imagine Minerva prepared you properly."

She nodded. "Yes, I just am worried that the students will not take me seriously. I mean, I didn't finish my seventh year, and the upperclassmen are only a year or two younger than I."

He regarded her carefully. He'd thought she'd be pretentious and filled with what a wonderful job she would be able to do because she was a know-it-all. Well, he knew she'd never label herself as such, but he had done so repeatedly in the years she'd been a student. She was different, however. Not stuck up, and not thinking she would be perfect.

"I understand how you feel," he said finally. "I dealt with that when I first started, and now given my current situation, I am going to have to deal with it again."

Her eyes grew big. "Oh, but everyone respects you, Professor."

"You may call me Severus. Everyone else in this room does."

"Oh." She stuttered. "Se.. Severus. Yes. And you should call me Hermione."

He nodded. "Hermione."

She grinned at him, despite being nervous. "I doubt you'll have any issues."

"Don't be so sure. The students will try to get away with what they can when it comes to respect."

She turned more toward him and leaned in.

"But once they realize you're the same as you always were… don't you think that will keep them in line?"

"I am hoping so, but one can never be too certain. I am going to need to be strict those first few weeks. I suggest you do the same. Once the students see that you are not going to allow them to walk all over you, they will respect you."

She thought about that. "That's really good advice. Thank you, Severus. I will do that."

"Also, make sure that you set your standards from day one," Aurora broke in. "Then they know what to expect. Stick by those standards. If they see they can bend you, you better believe that they will!"

Hermione nodded. "Good point."

Minerva entered the room then, and the meeting began.

"Welcome back, everyone!" Minerva exclaimed.

Everyone muttered a hello to her.

"With the war finally over, we can breathe a sigh of relief. School should be more what it used to be instead of being fraught with danger. As you can see, we have a couple of new faculty members. First, congratulations to Hermione Granger for taking on my old position."

Hermione lifted her hand as a hello to everyone.

"Also, I'd like to introduce Jonathan Cornelius as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor."

Severus' eyes moved to a young man in the opposite corner of the room. He'd not noticed him come in nor seat himself there as he'd been surrounded from before the meeting began. The man was young. Perhaps twenty-one. He had dark short hair that was combed back from his face. His blue eyes met Severus' and he nodded at him.

"Lastly," Minerva continued. "I know you've all welcomed Severus back. As you can see, to survive his war wounds, the Healers had to de-age him. He retains all his memories, so he's the same person we have known; he just looks like a whelp."

Everyone chuckled. Severus glowered. His youthful face wasn't as nasty as his older one had become so that just caused everyone to laugh heartier. Severus shook his head at all of them.

"You are all incorrigible," he ground out.

"Severus, I know we've all expressed our sorrow at our actions towards you, especially last year," Minerva offered. "I want to apologize once again for all of us. We were unconscionable to you. And prior to that, some of us just treated you unfairly. We were all wrong to do so. Albus had always said he trusted you. We should have taken that into account."

Severus held his hand up to still her.

"Minerva… you all were supposed to think me a murderer. You were supposed to hate me. Had the Dark Lord suspected that I was untrue or that you all knew something he didn't… I would have been killed instantly. My ability to spy was contingent on you all thinking me evil."

"Well, that may be so, but we can still feel badly for treating you as we did."

"I'm not going to say that how all of you acted last year didn't hurt. It hurt immensely, and I'm not sure exactly how our friendships will go from here on out. I am pleased that you have all greeted me so openly, though. Your apologies are accepted," Severus said. "Let's not dwell on this anymore. I don't need multiple apologies. We all did what was expected of us."

"All right," Minerva gave in. "We know it may take some time to go back to the way things were. I assure you, we all want that, but we will give you the time you need." She looked around the room. "Now then, those of you who are seasoned teachers, please help out Professors Granger and Cornelius as much as you can. As for returning students… Poppy is bringing in a Counseling Healer at least once a week for a bit to cover any issues students may have from the battle. All students including Muggle-borns will be returning. I expect there will be some issues with dealing with parental injury or death and whatever they may have experienced if they fought. Please be aware and compassionate to all students and if you see someone struggling, please send them to the infirmary and Poppy will set up an appointment with the Healer. They will be as accessible as needed for the foreseeable future."

Poppy nodded, and everyone murmured in agreement.

"I will meet with each of you during the next week to go over curriculum and any needs you may have for your classes or classrooms. One thing to note, I have decided to combine all houses within classes this year. Hopefully, that will help to fight against rivalries."

There were a few questions about placements which took a few minutes to address.

"Oh, Severus, if you need more than the stock you have in the Potions storeroom, please get me a list as soon as possible," Minerva advised.

He nodded. Taking stock of the store room was his first agenda item. He listened to the rest of the meeting, and was happy that it didn't go on too long. Soon, everyone had stood and was filing out. Hermione nodded to him before leaving. He was surprised to see Cornelius coming over to him. He extended his hand and Severus took it tentatively.

"Hi. I just wanted to officially introduce myself," Cornelius offered.

"Pleasure."

"I was wondering if maybe we could collaborate a bit on my curriculum. I know you've taught this before, and of course, you're well known to be an expert."

Severus' eyes narrowed at him. Cornelius put up his hands in surrender.

"I mean no offense. I have great respect for you."

Severus relaxed slightly. "What's your background?" he asked.

"I was born in Hogsmeade. My parents left the country when I was ten, and I was educated at Durmstrang."

Severus studied the man in front of him.

"I remember you now. You were here during the Triwizard Tournament."

"I was."

"You were friends with Viktor Krum."

He nodded.

"You were quite adept at Potions, and I remember that it was said you were the best in class in Defense."

"Thank you, sir!"

Severus glared at him. "We are colleagues, and by appearance, you are now older than I am. It's Severus."

The man in front of him grinned. "Severus, then. And I'm Jonathan."

"I would be pleased to collaborate with you. Perhaps we can meet together after dinner tonight?"

Jonathan nodded. "That would be satisfactory."

Severus smirked. "I'll see you then."

They met in the dungeons because Severus wasn't quite finished with his inventory.

"I can help you with that if you'd like," Jonathan offered.

"Thanks, but I'll get it done myself. This is something I'm very particular about."

"Sure, sure."

"So, what is it you want to discuss?" Severus asked as he pulled a jar from the shelf, scribbled a note, and replaced it.

"Well, as you can imagine, Amycus Carrow's curriculum is unusable. I don't have any other resources, so I'm left to my own devices to create it. I don't want to give too advanced spells to the younger ones."

Severus turned from the shelves and walked out of his storeroom, meandering over to his desk. Jonathan followed him, looking at him curiously. Severus opened the bottom drawer and rifled through some manuscripts. He pulled out a thick one and handed it to the other wizard.

"Here's my curriculum notes."

"Really? You'll let me use these?"

"They're not top secret documents, Jonathan. I'm fine with you using them. If they can help students, I'm all for it."

"Thanks!"

"Prior to last year, there were certain spells that were taught each year. My curriculum outlines them and anything that may be added if the students are savvy enough."

"What's your opinion on those who fought in the war? Are they going to feel like there's nothing more they can learn?"

"Probably, but you'll need to nip that opinion quickly or you'll get nowhere with the sixth and seventh years."

"That's what I was thinking. Who do you think may be overly affected by the war? Like what Minerva was saying about being careful with the students."

"Many of those who fought have either graduated or will not return. Potter and Weasley are among them, as is Granger. Longbottom will be coming back. I understand he'll be apprenticing with Pomona. He has matured exponentially, and I don't know if he will have any issues, but he played a major part in the Dark's defeat, so keep an eye out on him. Lovegood as well. Oh, and Ginny Weasley. Slytherins in general are going to need extra care. Many of their parents are either dead or in Azkaban. The other Houses may not treat them kindly."

Jonathan nodded. "I'll be sure to help them in any way I can."

Severus gave him a grateful look. "As Head of Slytherin, I appreciate that. Get with me if anyone needs help that you can see."