Severus Snape & The Fawn (Snape Love Story)

Chapter XVII

- PART ONE -

The sound of heels clicking against the stone floor echoed in the empty hallway of the castle. A young woman, with bushy brown hair pulled back into a half up - half down hairstyle walked briskly towards the entrance of Dumbledore's office carrying an armful of books. The golden light of the sunrise leaked through the windows, highlighting the gold in her hair and the soft freckles on her face. She was finding it hard not to smile to herself like a dork, but she was incredibly excited to be walking down these hallways again. It had been two years since she graduated and she had honestly never thought she would ever be back at the castle. Since graduating from Hogwarts she had been working at the Ministry in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and she had been enjoying it, but there was also apart of her that was relieved when she received a letter a couple of weeks ago from Albus Dumbledore offering her a private teaching job at Hogwarts. A similar kind of excitement to the one had when receiving her first letter from Hogwarts. She hoped this job would be the challenge she had been looking for in her career and she wanted to do whatever she could to be of help to the Order.

To be honest she was curious about her new student, Dumbledore had not told her a great amount about who she would be teaching other than her name and that she was only a couple of years younger than herself. Dumbledore had also mentioned that she was related to a member of the Order, and taken in because but her parents had forced her to repress her powers and kept her away from the magical world. Hermione felt bad for the girl, she couldn't imagine what it would have been like if her parents made her suppress her powers like that, it us unbelievably inhumane. "It is a wonder she didn't become an Obscurial," she thought to herself. It can be dangerous for witches and wizards to repress their magic, they can develop a dark and destructive parasitic force from distress and results are fatal. She had read about them in a book about the Salem Witch trials.

"Liquorice Allsort" she pronounced clearly after approaching the gargoyle at the entrance of Dumbledore's office. It moved aside and she made her way up the spiral staircase. This was her first time going to the Headmasters office, she considered herself to be a model student and had never had a reason to be sent to the Headmasters office before, unlike her friend Harry who had been countless times throughout his Hogwarts career.

When she finally made it to the top of the stair case she was mesmerized by the amount of books Dumbledore kept, as well as the interesting magical knick knacks she had only seen or read about in books.

"Good Morning Miss Granger, pleasure to be seeing you again," Dumbledore said with a warm smile sitting behind his desk. She was startled slightly when he began to speak.

"Please take a seat," he gestured her towards a chair across from his.

" Good morning Professor, it 's great to see you again and it's nice to be back," Hermione replied while taking a seat.

"I'm glad you think so Miss Granger, I can't thank you enough for taking this position with such short notice," he said graciously.

"It is really no problem at all Professor, I appreciate the opportunity," she responded.

"Well we are very happy to have you joining us again, has Harry told you anything about the girl?"he asked bringing the subject to what they were there to discuss.

"Yes he did mention that she is related to Lupin, and that he had went to Olivander's with her for a wand, so she doesn't have any experience with magic?" Hermione asked.

"Not since she got her wand I'm afraid. Since she has been our care Professor Snape has observed and worked with her and has told me that along with what he thinks to be a potential talent for Occlumency that she has been successful in learning some basic charm work."