Severed Ties || Severus Snape

7. I Used To Know Your Mother

By the time Minerva herded everyone to the High Table, ready to receive the students, Emma had made a decision. She made her way to the double doors, ignoring the curious glances of her colleagues.

"Miss Moore." Minerva placed a hand on her arm and tugged a loose strand of hair back into the tight knot on her head. "Apologies. Professor Moore. Please find your seat, the students will be here any minute."

"I know, I just thought I'd look for –"

Her words faltered when she finally heard those heavy strides she'd been waiting for all day.

"Ah, there you are, Severus. Chop chop, you two."

Before Emma could respond, Minerva had already walked away, no doubt getting into place to let the students in. Severus marched up to the High Table without waiting for her, taking his place between Quirinus and Pomona Sprout. He never so much as glanced at her.

"Hey, Emma!" Charity waved her over from further down the table.

Emma smiled and joined her, taking her seat between Charity and Quirinus.

"Don't mind Minerva, she always gets a little stressed at the start of the year. Everything needs to be perfect. As if the kids would notice." She chuckled. "Oh look, there they are."

Emma sat up straight as a sea of children washed into the Great Hall, splitting into four rivers as they found their respective tables. The room, that had been so quiet and echoing before, now filled with the happy chatter and laughter of hundreds of voices.

"Much better." Charity sighed. "That's what this hall is supposed to sound like. The quiet was just depressing."

Once the students had found their seats and settled down, Dumbledore stood up. "Welcome back, everyone. I am delighted to see you all here at Hogwarts again, ready for another year filled with wisdom and new knowledge. However, now is not the time to bore you with my blathering. Let's welcome our new first-year students!"

There was some polite clapping, mostly from the High Table, as the double doors opened once more to reveal Minerva at the head of a long line of frightened students. Their jaws dropped as they entered the hall, gawking up at the ceiling.

With a smile, Emma remembered the first time she'd come here, right behind Severus and Lily, her very first friends. The enchanted ceiling showed a mirror image of the sky above it, almost as if there was no ceiling at all, as if the hall simply opened up to the heavens. Emma had eagerly listened to Severus explaining it all to Lily, while Lily simply stared in awe.

At Minerva's direction, the children formed a line by the side of the High Table. Minerva placed a stool with an old hat in front of the table, then took a scroll from her robes, and took her place on the other side, near Emma. She unrolled the scroll and cleared her throat, ready for the Sorting; the ceremony designed to place the first-year students into one of the four Houses – Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw – based on their personality traits. The old, frayed Sorting Hat was the one to make this difficult decision, and had done so without fault for hundreds of years.

"When I call your name, you will come forward, sit down and place the hat on your head to be Sorted." She raised the scroll and called out the first name, a blonde girl by the name Hannah who was placed in Hufflepuff. One of the middle tables burst into cheering.

Emma paid close attention to the Sorting. She'd never been great with names and she'd have to learn dozens of them within the next few weeks. This was a good opportunity to match the names with the faces, at least those of the first-years.