The House of Rimmon

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"Our very eyes are sometimes, like our judgments, blind."

-Cymbeline, Act IV scene 2.

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Chapter 1:  Alea Iacta Est

"Severus!"

A flash of blinding white light exploded suddenly beneath my nose.  I gave a loud curse and reared back, throwing my hands up before my face.  After a moment, the light solidified into a small parlus globe and hovered slightly above the parchment upon which I had been working.

"Severus, I know you´re there," called Minerva McGonagall from the bubble of light.

Maddening, interfering woman!  I threw my quill pen down, noticing with fury that my inkwell had upset and was leaking across the top of my parchment.  I hastily grabbed a blotter and attempted to smear away the ink, but the damage was already done.  Half of my equations had congealed into one big black splotch. 

"Damn her," I hissed, drawing my wand from my belt and tapping it against the blotch.  There was a flash of light and the mess disappeared - along with the most recent calculation upon which I had been working.

"Severus, answer me!"

"What?" I snarled, slamming my palms flat against the top of my desk and leaning menacingly over the little orb.  "Do you realize, deputy headmistress, that you´ve just destroyed a half-hour of my work?"

"You´re supposed to be up here in Dumbledore´s office," she exclaimed in a clipped voice, apparently unconcerned about ruining my potions measurements.  Inside the glowing globe, her small image furrowed its brow in displeasure.

I glowered, a tactic that worked excellently on my students.  "And why, pray tell?"

Minerva merely glowered right back at me.  "Because the new student will be here shortly, and you´re the Head of a House, that´s why."  She straightened her glasses and gave a little sniff.  "And Albus says you´d best be on your way."

The muscles in my back tightened painfully.  "My calculations -"

"They can wait," she said tersely, and the light suddenly extinguished, leaving me leaning open-mouthed above my ruined sheet of parchment.

Blood pounded in my ears as I swallowed, trying to keep from grabbing up my wand and hailing the deputy headmistress.  How dearly I would love to tell her, while using several extremely non-professorial words, exactly what I thought about this `new student´ nonsense. 

Had the order come only from her, I would not have hesitated.  But the order was not from her, it was from the headmaster.  Which was a totally different situation altogether.

Muttering under my breath, I jerked my chair back and stood up.  With one last glance at my calculations - an entire calculation completely erased, and I had almost completed it - I headed out through my chambers.

The new student.  Yesterday, after a closed-door hush-hush discussion with McGonagall, Dumbledore had announced something very surprising indeed.  We would be accepting a twenty-year-old student into the second year class.  As if that wasn´t enough, this student - this American - would be arriving the next day to take accelerated courses to catch up on her missed classwork.

I stalked from the Slytherin common room into the hallway, gritting my teeth so tightly that my jaw began to ache.  All I or the other Heads knew about her was her name, Aeryn Blake, and that she had been discovered by none other than the famous, celebrated Harry Potter.

I didn´t need to know this Blake to already begin to dislike her.  The fact that she was Potter´s friend was enough to curdle my blood, but even beyond that, I could easily imagine her from head to foot.

Talented she might be - Dumbledore had said something to that effect, and for him to say it must be so - but talent was rampant in the wizarding world, while discipline was scarce.  At twenty she would already have developed her own style for the magical gift and, if she was even a smidgeon like the other twenty-year-olds I had come across, would more than likely be unwilling to accept even the least suggestion that might, oh horrors of horrors, be taken as a slight against her talent.

Girls.  They were the same at any age.

To top it off, she was American.  Her father may have been English, but she was most definitely not, which meant by my logic that she had no right to attend an English school.  And she would come waltzing in here with some incomprehensible accent, expecting us to snap to attention and wait upon her hand and foot.

My patience would soon be worn very, very thin indeed.

"Cauldron cakes," I snapped, halting in front of a huge stone gargoyle, and the statue shuddered and slid away to reveal the hidden staircase that led to Dumbledore´s office. 

I could think of so many other things to accomplish over this summer break rather than tutoring a little chit who would more than likely give me an ulcer and an ever-present headache.  If I were especially lucky, she would also be one of those devastating beauties that didn´t have a cell of common sense in her brain and would expect to receive anything she wanted when she either fluttered a slender hand or batted her long, silken eyelashes.  Wonderful.  I could feel the beginnings of the aforementioned ulcer already.

However, I thought as I climbed the stairs to the headmaster´s office, if she is a brainless beauty, she´ll either be sorted into Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, where she will be completely out of my hair.  The thought was enough to make me smile grimly as I reached the top of the stairwell.

I flung the door open with more force than I had intended, sending it slamming back against the stone wall.  Fawkes jumped in his cage at the sound, and then, after a menacing glare at me, settled back and became a mangy puffball on his perch. 

The other occupants of the room looked up at the sound as well, but I pointedly ignored them as I marched across the room, my robes swirling around my feet.  I barely nodded to Dumbledore as I passed, and pointedly ignored the haughty glance Minerva sent my way.

"Don´t," I muttered as Flitwick opened his mouth to speak to me.  I was in no mood to bandy words.  He took the hint and turned away.

I had no sooner settled comfortably against the window frame than the blank wall at one side of the room shuddered, wavered, and then swirled away to become a beautiful fireplace, complete with gilt-edged mantelpiece and flickering flames.

An instant later, the dancing flames roared into a column of green, sheeting fire.  From the flames emerged a muffled, squeaking sound, and an instant later a small figure stumbled from the fireplace, her eyes tightly shut and her knuckles white from gripping the trunk she carried.  After a moment, one eye cracked open, and then the other.

This was the reason I had been so forcibly pulled from my desk?  This shrimp of a girl, dressed in an ill-fitting robe, dragging a battered trunk and gaping about her like a stunned idiot, this was Aeryn Blake?  I scowled as she stepped forward and the ensorcelled fireplace swirled into nonexistence behind her.  Well, at least I didn´t have to worry about her being a brainless beauty.  Oh, she was pretty enough in a common sort of way, with her heavy curves and asininely sweet features, but she was by no means a Helen of Troy.  `Brainless´ remained to be seen, but the cards appeared to be stacked against her.

"Good afternoon, Miss Blake," Dumbledore exclaimed from his large claw-footed desk in the centre of the room.  He gave a gentle smile and peered at her over his half-moon glasses.  "I trust your travel went well?"

A sickly look crossed her features, but she attempted to right a smile on her face and nodded to the Headmaster.  "Ah...yes.  I´ve never travelled...." She turned as if to motion behind her, but stopped dead as she saw the blank wall behind her.  "Er...."

Little twit.  I snorted softly as she nervously tucked a handful of reddish-brown hair behind one ear.  If that expression on her face was any indication of her mental capabilities, I now had a twenty-year old Neville Longbottom on my hands.

Dumbledore rose from his chair and walked around his desk, his purple robes trailing out behind him.  "For the purposes of transportation, I thought it would be easiest to have a temporary fireplace installed until you arrived here."  He clasped his hands behind his back and smiled kindly down at her.  "It is a pleasure to finally have you here, Miss Blake.  Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Welcome indeed.  My shoulders hunched as the headmaster presented the girl to Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall.  I could see the little American strive valiantly not to flinch beneath Minerva´s stern gaze, and my opinion of Miss Aeryn Blake plummeted even further.  If she found Minerva intimidating this early in the game, she would probably withdraw from Hogwarts by the Christmas holidays.

Which, all things considered, was not a disheartening thought.

"As it said in your letter," the deputy headmistress explained, "you have been accepted into the school, but you will need to be tested by the faculty to determine what classes are suitable for you. After observing you, Albus feels you have the aptitude to be taking second-level classes.  We wouldn´t want to put you with the first-years and have you relearning everything you know."

"Of course not," the girl agreed weakly. 

I crossed my arms tightly across my chest.  I have never been fond of the American accent.  While her accent was not the worst I have heard, she sat on the rrrs until they blatted like a trumpet, and her vowels were filled with a nasal twang that made my skin crawl.

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow.  "Come now, Miss Blake, it´s not quite as bad as all that."

I could have sworn the girl´s face drained of colour, but she quickly gave a little giggle and held her hands up before her.  "It´s just that...well, I don´t really know a lot.  About magic.  I mean, I know some things, but...."

I resisted the urge to groan and instead turned my face towards the window.  Through the mullioned glass, I could see the long grasses swaying in a stiff breeze.  The lake was shattered by ripples, splintering the sunlight into a myriad of dancing sparkles.

What a little imbecile.  Why, why, why did this have to happen now?  After the exhausting work of playing Potter´s guard-dog last year - I had earned countless sleepless nights and one very prominently-scarred leg for my pains, all without receiving one word of thanks from Hogwarts´ poster child -the prospect of playing nursery-maid to this girl made me want to throw something heavy, preferably in the direction of her head.

"We know, Miss Blake.  That´s why you´re here at Hogwarts, to learn about your magical powers."  Minerva, to her credit, was quiet and patient.  Which would be expected of her, as the Head of a House full of Gryffindors.  Godric Gryffindor was never acclaimed for his brains, after all.

 "So..." Miss Aeryn Blake seemed to be having a difficult time wrapping her mind around the concept of the accelerated courses.  "If I don´t pass these faculty tests, I won´t get kicked out of Hogwarts?"

Would that you could, Miss Blake.  I sighed and tried to visualize the calculations I had left unfinished on my desk.  Perhaps if I concentrated, I could solve them in my head while Miss Blake worked on the oh-so-difficult task of learning the professors´ names.  From what I had seen of her intellectual capabilities so far, it would take her a fair amount of time.

My gaze drifted to her as I toyed with measurements for beetle wings in my latest version of the Lucid Dream Elixir.  She was so painfully eager it was pathetic.  She smiled brightly at each professor as they were introduced, obviously trying to impress them.

Four cups of beetle wings to three-and-a-half ounces of unicorn oil...no...or perhaps it should be three and three-quarters cups of beetle wings to four ounces of unicorn oil....

"Our newest Defence Against the Dark Arts professor will not be arriving for a few weeks, so our Potions master, Professor Snape, will be coaching you in those lessons as well as teaching you Beginning Potions."

The sound of my name snapped my attention from the beetle wing measurements and straight into a pair of slate-blue eyes. 

Furious at this interruption, I glared down my nose at this short, intrusive, raucous-voiced, American nuisance.  She blinked, and I had the satisfaction of watching that pasted-on smile falter and finally disappear.  But instead of dropping her gaze, those placid blue eyes suddenly glittered, and then hardened.  It was but for an instant, and then she turned quickly back to Minerva, breaking eye contact.

Interesting.  Could I have just glimpsed a hint of backbone from this little pest?  Perhaps I wouldn´t flay her so easily after all. 

That thought did nothing to improve my mood.

"I will be teaching you Transfiguration and some beginning Magical Theory and History," said Minerva, after a brief nod towards me.

Dumbledore raised a bushy white eyebrow.  "Is Professor Binns indisposed?" he asked dryly.

Minerva shook her head, and the faintest of smiles twitched her lips.  "I thought it would be more beneficial for Miss Blake to stay awake for her pre-class training."

I heard Hagrid chuckle quietly, and my fingers dug into the flesh of my upper arms.  Wonderful.  We had now stooped to exchanging stale and witty pleasantries for the sake of breaking the tension.  If I now had to listen to a lecture about the moving staircases or, God forbid, our resident poltergeist, I would Transfigure Miss Blake´s trunk into a frog and step on it.

"For the rest of the day, we´ll let you wander around Hogwarts to get yourself acquainted with the surroundings." Minerva straightened her glasses.  "Tomorrow morning at breakfast I will give you a complete schedule for your next few weeks."  She strode over to the door of the chamber, her green robes trailing gracefully behind her.  "If you´ll just follow me, Miss Blake, I´ll show you to your temporary chambers."

God be praised, she was leaving.  The girl wordlessly picked up her trunk and tottered after the deputy headmistress.  I glared at the back of her head until the door swung silently shut behind her.

"Well, now," Hagrid boomed cheerily, sticking his thumbs in his belt.  "What a right sweet li´l thing, and clever, too!  Won´t be long `fore she´s swingin´ `er wand wi´ the best of `em!"

Hagrid exclaiming someone is clever is like a cave troll praising a house-elf´s brain. 

I ignored his guffaws and looked pointedly towards Dumbledore, who had eased himself into his chair and was rubbing the bridge of his nose between two fingers.

"Albus." I attempted to remain polite.  "If I may...I was in the middle of preparing measurements for my seventh years.  Will you please excuse me?"

"Severus," called Flitwick from behind me.  I turned slowly, feeling the muscles of my face freeze as I looked down at him.  The Charms professor merely smiled.

"What did you think of her?" he asked cheerily.

I could think of several fitting words to describe her, but I wasn´t about to voice them.  "Headmaster."  I turned back to Dumbledore.  The obligatory politeness was starting to grate in my throat, and I swallowed, trying to keep my voice even.  "If I may...I have work to finish."

"You may go, Severus," Dumbledore said wearily.

Before the phrase was even out of his lips, I whirled on my heel and stalked for the door.  Damn it, if it wasn´t one thing, it was another.  I ignored Fawkes´ peeved squawk as I swept by him and closed the door behind me.  By God, if there were one more interruption before I finished my calculations today, heads would roll.

Preferably Aeryn Blake´s.

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A/N:  The Latin phrase alea iacta est is attributed to Caius Julius Caesar upon his crossing of the Rubicon in 49 B.C.  The translation?  The die is cast.

So, dear readers, what would you care to read next?  At the moment, I´m planning for a chapter encompassing chapters 8 and 10 of TFYT...but if there´s something specific that you´d like to see (I´ll give you a cookie: you´ll get to see that first lesson that Snape teaches Aeryn), like a scene between Lockhart and Snape, or...hey, just let me know.  You decide!

Well, I should be moving back to school by the end of this week.  I´ll be spending my 22^nd birthday packing up a U-Haul!  Woo hoo!  How exciting.  But I´ll be moving into a new house (house, not apartment), so I´m quite excited.  And then school shall start.  Yippee.

I hope you enjoyed this beginning, dear readers!  Until the next chapter!  -AKB