The Necromancer Amulet

Chapter Three - The Dinner

As the coach closed in on the great mass that was Hogwarts Castle, its turrets stretching high up towards the evening sky, Secessa peered out of the window and tried to get a grasp of her surroundings. The grounds seemed rather large and were certainly more appealing to the eye than the wind-swept tundra around Durmstrang. A thick carpet of soft, green grass covered the castle surroundings, and far off, she could glimpse a lake, small boats gliding across its placid surface towards the school. Then the coach travelled down a slope, and her view was lost.

Inland, in the other direction, an old pine forest stretched out, not barren like the ones in northern Russia, but thick, dark and inviting, its trees tall and wide. She looked at it with great curiosity as the coach pulled up at the castle front doors, and stepping out, she inhaled deeply. The air smelled rich with wet grass and pine.

The oak doors were open and at the stone steps inside, covered in mellow torchlight, stood Professor McGonagall. The witch raised an eyebrow when she saw her luggage and owl, and gave her a scrutinizing look.

"Ah, Professor Laburova, I trust the train journey was not too uncomfortable."

"It was quite satisfactory, thank you."

"Good, I shall see to that your luggage is taken care of. Mr Filch!"

A small, bent man with dusty brown robes was walking down one of the stone staircases, holding a lamp. "Yes, Ma'am?"

"This is our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Laburova. Would you please take care of her luggage and see to that her owl is taken to the owlery."

Filch nodded and Secessa rewarded him with the smallest of smiles. As he moved away, muttering, Secessa turned towards Professor McGonagall again.

"On the train I apprehended some students, duelling."

Professor McGonagall's mouth thinned. "Indeed! Did you happen to get their names?"

"Yes, of course. Potter and Malfoy. I seized their wands."

"Well, that is not the usual way of punishment here, but I suppose it was effective. You may give the wands to me."

Secessa handed over the wands, a bit reluctantly, and McGonagall continued,

"I shall deal with Mr Potter's detention, but you will need to talk Professor Snape concerning Draco Malfoy. This may have to be dealt with later, however, as the students will arrive any minute now. Please follow me."

Professor McGonagall led Secessa through the torch-lit hall to the right and through a huge set of ornate double doors, which led to what Secessa presumed to be the Great Hall of Hogwarts. The imperious room was lit up by thousands of shimmering, floating candles and as she looked up, she was impressed to see that the ceiling was charmed to look like the outside sky.

Long tables with plates and goblets, now empty, glimmered in the yellow light, and ghosts fleeted to and fro, as if waiting for the dinner to begin. Secessa was led to the top of the hall, where some teachers were getting seated, conversing softly, and she recognised Dumbledore's prominent beard at once. Professor McGonagall approached him as he strode towards the ornate Headmaster chair. He was wearing a set of purple robes with silvery stars on, and a matching hat; it was a very gaudy outfit and Secessa tried hard not to stare at the hat, which was particularly silly.

"Here is Professor Laburova, Headmaster," McGonagall said briskly. "If you now excuse me, I must see to the first-years."

Dumbledore turned around and eyed Secessa with interest, his blue eyes twinkling as he turned to Professor McGonagall.

"Yes, of course. Thank you Minerva."

There was a small silence, as several of the other teachers seemed to notice her. Dumbledore smiled as he stepped up to her and extended a hand; she shook it.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Professor Laburova. I am sure you will enjoy your stay here. Let me introduce you to the teachers".

He cheerfully led Secessa around the table. "Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher, Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, ah, and you have already met Professor Snape, the Potions master."

Secessa shook hands with Professor Sprout, a dumpy little witch, and Professor Flitwick, a tiny wizard with an energetic handshake and a nervous smile. She also gave Professor Snape a curt nod. He gazed at her coldly with his black eyes as she was swept along past him towards another group of teachers who were moving towards their seats.

Dumbledore introduced her to the other staff members as well; then the students started to pour in, and he led her to a seat a few chairs to the right of his own as. Soon the hall was filled with animated chattering.

Secessa looked around the table as the teachers got seated, and felt a bit tense as she began to realise that from now on her life would be different from what it always had been. Her position at Durmstrang was gone forever, and so were all of her friends, and having been used to carrying herself with the utmost dignity, she now seemed ignored and powerless.

To add to her discomposure, Professor Snape was seated to her right, and feeling his brooding presence strongly, she could not think of anything to say to him for the moment. Luckily, she had Professor Flitwick to her left, who seemed to compensate for his small size by talking too much, and although he seemed a bit over-excited he was clearly entertaining in his own way. They were discussing the ceiling charms when the double doors opened, and the hall went silent as the first-years entered in a line, looking very nervous.

"This is the sorting ceremony," Professor Flitwick whispered. "The students have four houses that they need to be divided into, and therefore they will be inspected by the Sorting Hat, who will decide where they belong."

The dirty, tattered Sorting Hat carried by Professor McGonagall was not the grandest hat Secessa had ever seen. She looked at it with a dubious eye and was about to ask Professor Flitwick how it worked but he smiled and put a finger to his lips. Professor McGonagall put the hat down on a four-legged stool and the ceremony began.

As the new-coming students were divided into their student houses by the enchanted hat (which, curiously enough, started the ceremony by reading out the properties of the student Houses in rhyming verse) Secessa noticed that Professor Snape to her right was watching the process with keen interest, and clapping a bit louder when students were sorted into Slytherin. Suddenly, she remembered that Professor McGonagall had told her to speak with him about Draco Malfoy, and when all students had been sorted, she turned to him, breaking the silence between them.

"I see that you favour the Slytherin students."

He turned his head slowly, and reluctantly, towards her. When he spoke, his voice was soft and barely louder than a whisper, but it still managed to penetrate the chatter in the Hall.

"Yes, I am the Head of the Slytherin house."

His eyes were piercing, and she felt a bit intimidated for a moment. Some of the teachers glanced at them, and then quickly looked away. After hesitating, she decided not to be such a wally, and continued just as he made a movement as to turn away.

"So the boy Malfoy belongs to the Slythering house then?"

Professor Snape returned his attention to her, this time with a raised eyebrow. "As he is a Slytherin, that would be the logical conclusion."

"He is to receive detention for duelling on the Hogwarts train," she said matter-of-factly, bringing up a glare to match his own.

To her surprise, the Potion teacher's eyes blackened slightly when he turned back and when he spoke his teeth were half-bared in a rather non-becoming way.

"Potter's doing, of course."

She was a bit taken aback at his sudden display of emotion, and frowned.

"Well, the name of the other boy was indeed Potter, though he was hardly the attacking party."

With one arm on the table, Professor Snape leaned forward towards menacingly, and surprised, she backed away from him ever so slightly. "There is one thing you should know about Potter," he said waspishly, "and that is that he is a troublemaker. Strutting around school as if rules do not apply to him, towering in his own fame. I assure you that when it comes to trouble he is undoubtedly the cause."

The disagreeableness of the man was simply stunning, and Secessa straightened her neck and awarded him with one of her best icy stares, not accepting to be ignored, nor being spoken to in such a rude manner.

"Nevertheless, detention will be given to both parties, and I will deal out further detention if I apprehend any other students cursing each other in this school unsupervised by me."

To her relief (for she certainly did not appreciate having his greasy hair near her dinner), he leaned back, composing himself.

"I shall deal with Malfoy, of course, in the way I see proper," he said casually, gazing over the student tables. "However, detentions, or indeed any other punishments that are due to an offence committed outside the school, are decided by the Heads of Houses, not by the subject teachers. You may of course inform me of any further mishaps involving students of my house."

And with that, Professor Snape gave her a nod, a nasty little smile, and turned away.

Secessa was fuming with cold rage. He had no right to speak to her in this manner; she was not used to being treated so condescendingly, especially not by colleagues, and his favouritism towards his own students was hardly something that she approved of.

Still bristling when the Headmaster introduced her to the students, she involuntarily gave the hall a cold glare that made some of students shrink in their seats and little applause was given. Picking at her meal in silence, listening to Professor Flitwick's jabbering with half an ear, she spent the rest of her dinner pondering darkly on the effects steak and kidney pie with brown sauce would have on her stomach.

When Dumbledore declared the dinner to be ended she rose thankfully, wanting to find her quarters as soon as possible, and thereby get some well-deserved peace. However, she did not get the chance to go very far from the table, as the Headmaster approached her, followed by Professor McGonagall.

"I wish to discuss some matters of importance with you, Professor Laburova. Will you please join me in my office for some tea?" he said, smiling kindly.

As she did not seem to have much of a choice in the matter, Secessa tried to look willing and smiled back. "Yes, of course, Headmaster."

"Excellent! Severus, you may join us as well."

Secessa looked to her right and saw the dark, sullen figure standing nearby, watching them with crossed arms. He nodded, and did not look surprised.

She realised that this so-called meeting had been planned well in advance and followed Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall as they went through one of the sturdy oak doors at the back of the Hall. Professor Snape walked closely behind them, looking very serious. So much for the pleasant welcome, she thought dryly.

"Now, this hallway joins the teacher's offices and the classrooms," Dumbledore said amicably, "and if you walk up the third staircase on the left, you will reach your office and nearby quarters. Further down the other way is the staircase to the Dungeons where Professor Snape conducts his classes and has his office, and up to the right, after your own staircase you will find the Charms classroom. Professor McGonagall's office, however, is on the opposite side of the Main Hall, where you can also find Muggle Studies..."

Secessa tried to listen attentively as the layout of the castle was explained to her, but lost track of where they were going due to her inwardly ponderings, and when they reached the top of another staircase after having walked through a set of corridors, she had no idea where she was. They walked round a corner, and suddenly they stood face-to-face with a large stone gargoyle.

"Skiving Snackbox," said Dumbledore, and the gargoyle sprung to life and moved to reveal a turning staircase behind a wall that had now slid aside. They all entered the revolving stairs and were carried upwards towards the Headmaster's office.