"Bye, Sev! See you later, Em!" Lily waved in her direction and disappeared into the castle for her Potions lesson, while she and Severus both had the hour off.
"Hey."
She scooted aside to let Severus sit down next to her against the tree trunk.
"Hey, Sev."
He gave her a teasing push. "Shut up."
"I'm sorry." Emma laughed. "But it sounds dumb."
"I know it does. But it's not so bad when she says it."
Emma rolled her eyes. "How did it go?"
Severus hesitated. "I haven't told her yet."
With a smile, she shot him a pointed glance.
"It's hard, alright? Stop pushing me."
"Yeah," said Emma, averting her gaze. "I know it's hard."
"What is that?" Severus followed her gaze to the ground beside her, where a creature the size of her hand sat on the moist grass.
Her face lit up as she picked it up and held it out for him to see. "I found myself a new best friend, for when you and Lily end up together. Severus, meet Croak."
The toad let out a loud croak at the mention of his name, which made them both chuckle.
"You bought a toad?"
"No. A fourth-year got him for her birthday but she didn't want him. I offered to take him off her hands. Isn't he cute?" She stroked the top of Croak's head, feeling the leathery skin against her finger.
"He's a toad," he grinned. "Besides, you don't need a new best friend."
Emma glanced up at him, stroking her pet to try and get rid of the growing unease in her belly. "I'll be a third wheel, won't I?"
"No!" Severus said. "You'll still be our best friend. We won't just push you aside."
A smile pulled at the corners of her lips, as she muttered, "Thanks, Severus."
Emma woke up late with a headache the next morning. After a refreshing shower and a hot cup of strong cranberry tea, she spent the day helping Filius, the part-goblin Charms teacher, with preparing the paintings for the students' arrival – quite a few of them hadn't realised it was already September – and getting the Great Hall ready.
Severus seemed to have decided to spend the day in his dungeons. Even lunch couldn't lure him to the Great Hall. A part of Emma felt relieved for not having to face him today. Repressing her feelings was hard enough without seeing him so much. But her inner teenager, having grown up with Severus beside her, couldn't help but worry. He'd acted so strange the night before, and now he was nowhere to be found.
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.
Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson both got placed in Slytherin. Following them was a set of twins, Padma and Parvati Patil, who surprisingly did not end up in the same House. Padma went to Ravenclaw, while her sister Parvati was sorted into Gryffindor.
And then, with the next name, a shockwave whirled through the Hall.
"Potter, Harry."
Emma froze in her seat. A few seconds of stunned silence saw Harry stumble over to the stool. As he pulled the rim of the hat over his eyes, the students broke into excited chattering.
"Did she say Harry Potter?"
"The Harry Potter?"
With her heart in her throat, Emma leaned forward to look, past a frowning Quirinus, at Severus. He stared at the boy, lips pressed into a thin line. A dozen emotions flashed across his face. Shock was not one of them.
Lily's son...
She should've known, really. She'd been there when Lily had her first and only child. But somehow, she'd failed to realise that eleven years had passed since then. That the baby she'd held so many years ago, was already old enough to learn magic.
"Gryffindor!"
A strange, chuckle-like noise escaped her as the Sorting Hat shouted its decision. Gryffindor. House of the bold and the brave. Of course Lily and James' son would be a Gryffindor.
She glanced to her left again and for the first time since she arrived, she found herself wishing she could just talk to her best friend. Severus was one of very few people who didn't clap or cheer for Harry, as the boy made his way to the Gryffindor table on trembling legs. His face seemed settled on an annoyed glare, with all other emotions hidden carefully beneath the surface.
"Harry P-P-Potter, right here at Hogwarts, can you believe it?" Quirinus smiled at her. His face had turned paler than she'd seen yet, as if the nerves were about to overwhelm him.
Emma managed a smile back. "I'm still processing it."
"Such a l-l-legend. And it's our j-job to shape and mould him for the next s-seven years."
"Huh." Emma frowned, letting her eyes glide across the faces of hundreds of students watching the rest of the Sorting. "I hadn't thought about it like that."
"Oh, yes! Do you know the b-boy?"
Emma hesitated. Quirinus' eyes were wide, shining with something like awe or reverence. "No," she admitted. "Not personally."
"I m-m-met him once, at the L-Leaky C-C-Cauldron." He grinned, but his face turned ever paler, as if he still couldn't get over the shock of having met the Boy Who Lived.
It was a title not given lightly. Harry Potter was the only known wizard to have survived the killing curse, cast at him by the most powerful dark wizard who ever lived – and he was only a baby when it happened. The curse had bounced back and hit the dark wizard instead; he hadn't been seen since. The incident had made Harry Potter famous before he'd even learned to walk.
That same dark wizard had killed both the poor boy's parents before getting to him. Not a day went by when Emma didn't miss Lily Potter.
Fortunately, she was saved from having to respond to Quirinus when Dumbledore stood up. The Hall fell silent.
"Now that everyone has found their place within Hogwarts, I would like to extend, once again, a heartfelt welcome to you all. Before we tuck in to another marvellous feast, let me introduce to you the latest addition to our teaching staff."
He gestured towards Emma, urging her to stand up with his twinkling smile. Flustered, she got to her feet, almost knocking over her empty glass as she did so.
"Professor Moore will be teaching Healing to all seven years, so you'll all get to meet her properly over the course of this week. Welcome, Professor Moore."
He clapped and the rest of the Hall followed suit. Emma nodded and waved uncomfortably in thanks, unsure where to look, with all those hundreds of eyes on her. Her eyes flicked over her colleagues beside her, most of them smiling up at her.
Except Severus. While he applauded, his face was stuck in a frown and he turned away the moment their eyes met.
As she sat back down, the start-of-term feast started and Charity began chatting away to her about one of Dumbledore's previous speeches. But even her new friend's cheerful quips couldn't chase away the unsettling pressure on her chest that her old friend had left by turning away from her.
Taking a deep breath, Emma put the rollcall-scroll down on her desk and leaned against it.
"Right then. Now that I know who you guys are, I'd better introduce myself. My name is Emma Moore... Professor Moore." She aimed her wand at the blackboard and her name appeared in swirly white letters. The fourth years watched her expectantly.
Good thing I started with Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, not Gryffindors or Slytherins, she thought.
"I have worked in St Mungo's Hospital for seven years as a Healer on the Janus Thickey Ward. This is the ward that deals with spell damage." Her voice faded when a hand shot up in the front-left seat. "Yes... Ava, was it?"
"Yes, Professor, Ava Cygnet," said the black-haired girl with a soft but steady voice. "Why do we suddenly have to learn healing? It was never part of the curriculum before."
"Fantastic question." Emma smiled. "However, just because it wasn't part of the curriculum, doesn't mean it shouldn't have been. I have pleaded for making healing a subject in Hogwarts, because I believe it's one of the most important things you'll learn here."
A few students slumped in their seats and she chuckled. "I know. I bet all the teachers say their subject is the most important one. The thing is, during my time at the hospital I have seen scores of people come in with the tiniest injuries. Or even worse, wounds that have become life-threatening because they've been left untreated for too long.
"If people were able to heal small wounds themselves, it would save the hospital an abundance of time and resources – time and resources better spent on patients with much more serious injuries."
The Ravenclaw girl, Ava, sat up a little straighter, encouraging Emma to continue.
"And that starts here. By teaching your generation to heal yourselves and others, all generations will soon spend less time at the hospital. Which is great for both the patients and the hospital staff. On top of that, giving you some hands-on experience with healing might help you decide on a career path. Does that answer your question, Miss Cygnet?"
As Ava nodded, another hand shot up.
"Yes, Mr..."
"Button, Professor. Do we have to take exams in Healing?"
Emma smiled. "Don't worry, we didn't think that was fair either. While you need a passing grade on your standard, end-of-year exams to complete the year, there will be no O.W.L.'s in Healing for the next couple of years. However, for those interested in taking up a career in this subject, we do offer a N.E.W.T. exam."
Relieved mumbling buzzed through the classroom.
"Well then. If there are no more questions, let's start with a few case studies." She waved her wand and the blackboard cleared itself. "These are all cases I have seen at St Mungo's. By the end of the year, you will be able to tell me how they should be treated."
The morning passed by quickly. By lunchtime, Emma was exhausted but content. Both the year 4 class and the sixth years she had second period had seemed interested by the case studies she'd chosen. While there were always indifferent students, most seemed to see the benefit of learning a few healing spells.
Still, teaching was a tiring job and she wanted nothing more than to go to bed and sleep for twelve hours.
One more class today, she kept telling herself while having lunch alone in her office during her free period. One more class and then I can go take a nap.
The first-years, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, shuffled into the classroom at exactly three o'clock. She recognised Lily's son instantly. During the Sorting he'd sat with his back to her, but now that she saw him up close, she noticed how much he looked like his father.
Forcing her focus away from the boy, she called out, "Good afternoon, everyone. Come on in, find yourself a seat."
The students kept their heads down and sat quietly. One look at their faces told Emma they were just as exhausted as she was. There was only one kid who sat on the edge of her seat, eager for the lesson to start. She remembered her own first day of school all those years ago, with all the new impressions, information and people around her. No wonder they were tired at the last lesson of the day.
"Had a long day, did you?" She smiled kindly. "Don't worry, we'll make this an easy first lesson and then you can all go and have your dinner, how does that sound?"
There was some affirmative muttering. The eager girl, a Gryffindor, nodded vehemently.
"Alright, then. Let me do the rollcall first, and then we can get started." She picked up the first-year scroll from her desk and started reading off the names. She recognised most of them from the Sorting the previous day.
"Padma Patil."
"Here," said the girl in the front-left seat.
"Parvati Patil."
"Here, Professor," came her sister's voice from the other side of the classroom.
"Harry P-Potter." Emma stumbled over the name and failed to resist looking up. Harry pushed his head between his shoulders and muttered a quiet, "Here."
For a few seconds, Emma wondered why he refused to look at her, why he stared at his desk and fiddled with his quill. And then she noticed the silence.
Oops. "I'm sorry." She chuckled awkwardly. "That wasn't very professional of me, was it? It's just, I used to know your mother. She was such a wonderful woman." She shook her head. "My apologies. Let's continue. Dean Thomas."
"Here."
As she glanced at the dark-skinned Gryffindor boy, she noticed Harry look up with a surprised look on his face.
That night, after feeding Croak, she went to bed early for a long night's sleep. Even hours later, she still couldn't get the look on Harry's face out of her head when she'd told him she knew his mother. It hadn't been simple surprise, there was much more than that. Perhaps she ought to talk to the boy soon. His parents had died when he was just a baby; no doubt he had questions. Maybe she could answer some for him.
Her old best friend also forced his way into her slumbering thoughts. She'd expected Severus to come and ask her how her first day had been, but he never showed up. In fact, she hadn't seen him all day. Almost as if he'd been avoiding her.
But that didn't make any sense. Hadn't he been the one who kept trying to rekindle their friendship all week?
She turned and pulled the duvet over her shoulders. He'd probably just been busy. The start of the year was tough on everyone. She'd talk to him tomorrow.