Owls and Musings

Chapter 16

The next several weeks were taken up with tweaking McGonagall's old syllabus, settling into her office and quarters and reacquainting herself with the Hogwarts environs. She managed to convince her aunt to seal Severus' rooms in case he decided to come back when it was all over. She decided to continue her pessimistic-optimism, it kept her sane.

"I'm of two minds over this, Esme," the headmistress had said.

"I know you are. Do it as a favour to me please?" she pleaded.

"Like I could ever deny you, cheeky." Minerva acquiesced, colloportus-ing the doors.

The governors decided to keep the school open. Without telling them how or why, the Headmistress just stated to them that she had means of getting information from some of Dumbledore's old informants and that they promised her advanced warnings. With the news that the school would reopen, owls with letters from parents re-enrolling their children came trickling in over the rest of the summer. The staff and the Ministry Aurors spent much of their time strengthening the protective spells that Dumbledore had placed on the school the year before and that had weakened with his death.

Minerva did take time off to attend Bill and Fleur's wedding, but Esme stayed behind. As happy as she was for the couple, she preferred to stay away. Let her aunt represent the family - she wasn't sure she could celebrate wholeheartedly for them.

+++

Esme eventually managed to set up a meeting with Lupin in Hogsmeade so that she could tell him the truth about Severus.

She crumpled the note in her hand as she walked along the dirt tunnel that led from the willow to the Shrieking Shack. His reply had been curt, but at least he was willing to meet with her. She reached the trap door and slowly raised it up, stopping momentarily when she saw Lupin's wand aimed at her head. She sighed and finished the manoeuvre, climbing out of the hole and setting the hatch back down.

"Remus, you can put the wand away."

"Can I, Esmerelda?" he said bitterly. "Or is this a meeting to kill me too?"

"Why, in Merlin's name, would I want to kill you, Remus? You are one of the few friends I have."

"Then why are we meeting?" He lowered his wand, but his stance had not yet relaxed.

"Because Severus needs an ally," she said quietly. Remus scoffed.

"Why would I help that traitor? Are you blinded by love, Esme? He. Killed. Dumbledore. End of story. He doesn't need an ally, he needs the Dementor's Kiss."

"No, Remus, I am not blinded by love. I know what Harry said and what he saw. But he did not hear everything, and he was totally unaware of what was going on between the headmaster and Severus. Will you at least hear me out?"

He nodded once but still stood at the ready. She quickly outlined what Severus had told her, much as she had for Minerva. As she did, she could see him slowly relax and the anger he held toward Severus start to dissipate. There was still resentment there, but no longer any outright killing anger.

As she finished, he sighed and ran his hand through his hair and over his face. He studied her for a moment, calmly standing there having placed her cards on the table and waiting for his reaction, the Shack quietly creaking in the background as it shifted in the winds.

"What do you want me to do?" he finally asked.

"Thank you, Remus." She smiled, and he felt as if the room lit up. No wonder Snape loved this woman. "I need you to be his contact. I have no clue as to how he will contact you or what he will pass on to you by way of information. But he is probably very high and very close to Voldemort by now and also very trusted. His information will be highly valuable. Let him approach you. My job was just to let you know what had really happened so that it would be safe for him to contact you without getting turned in to the Aurors. The only reason we are including you is because you were the only other person who knew of our involvement with each other. Minerva knows as well, I told her after Albus' funeral."

"All right, fine. I'll accept his information. Will there be any way of telling that the intelligence will be coming from him?" he asked, resigned to his new role.

"I have no clue. I doubt it though."

"That will be safer. Right, you better get out of here - the moon is approaching, and I need to cast the wards. Without Severus, I no longer have access to my potion."

She nodded and before he could say anything came over to give him a hug and kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Remus."

"You better be right about this, Esme. I am doing this for you - not for Snape. He better not let us down again." The wolf was starting to shine in his eyes as he stared down at her.

"I am and he won't." She gave him one last kiss as he snorted at her reply and quickly raising the trap door, disappeared down the hole hearing the telltale squelch of the sealing spell behind her.

+++

Too soon, it was the start of the new term. Esme sat at the Head Table in her brand new teaching robes, awaiting the arrival of the first years; the older students already in place. Professor Sprout was busily pointing out certain students to her.

"Ah, and there at the Gryffindor table you see the two redheads? The boy is Ron Weasley and the other is his sister, Ginny. He made Head Boy this year and his team's Quidditch Captain. The girl sitting next to him is Hermione Granger, and she's Head Girl this term. Ah, and there is Neville - my prize student! I don't see Potter though..." she grumbled.

And that was a bone of contention with the headmistress. Harry had decided not to return for his final year. He had spent the summer with his friends, hightailing all over Britain. When his friends had returned, he was not there with them. Instead he was hunting down the rest of the Horcruxes, Voldemort and Severus. Esme wished him luck on two of those goals. He had made it back to the castle over the summer to speak with Albus' portrait, and Esme had been in on that conversation as it had concerned her research work on Horcruxes. She had been impressed with the young man. He seemed much older than his seventeen years, and she could not see a bit of the arrogant brat that Severus always spoke about. But this was James' son, and Snape was always a bit blind where James was concerned. She had been startled when she saw her friend's eyes staring out at her from behind the round glasses though. She thought that was probably what kept Severus from outright hatred of the young man; Lily's eyes.

After the sorting and dinner, Minerva stood up to address the room.

"Welcome to our new students and those who have returned. I would like to introduce you to two new teachers. Professor Torch is the new Defence teacher. Professor Scott will be our new Transfiguration teacher as well as the new Head of Gryffindor House." She waited for the polite applause to die down. "We will also be implementing new procedures this year. There will be drills conducted periodically during the year to prepare you in case of an attempt on the school. These drills will consist of learning where to go and doing it in a timely manner. A claxon will sound throughout the school to let you know when a drill is commencing." She gazed down her nose, giving the entire student body one of her infamous stares. " I expect each and everyone of you to follow the drills precisely whenever they occur, at whatever time of the day they occur. Now, if the Prefects will lead the students to their dormitories, I need to see the Head Boy and Girl up here."

Ron and Hermione made their way against the flow of students up to the Head Table.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley - I would like to introduce you to Miss Scott," McGonagall started. "As Head Boy and Girl are from Gryffindor this year and Miss Scott is your new Head of House, you will be working very closely together."

They all murmured greetings to each other and made arrangements to meet later in the week with the rest of the Prefects.

The next morning Esme handed out schedules to her house at breakfast, learning to affix names to faces. The longest time was spent with the sixth years getting their schedules to reconcile with their O.W.L. scores.

Before she knew it though, Esme was heading towards her classroom and her first lesson, Gryffindor first years.

They started filing in and finding seats as a charmed a piece of chalk began to write her name on the blackboard. She was perched on the desk in her owl form. After all the students were seated, she waited a beat and then transformed back into her human form. The look of incredulousness on their faces showed how good of a hook this bit was to get their attention. Her aunt was truly brilliant.

"Greetings, class. My name is Esmerelda McGonagall Scott, or Professor Scott to you." She gave them a quick grin, and they seemed to relax a bit. "As you have guessed by the similarity in name, I am related to the headmistress; she is my maternal aunt. Now that the introductions are done, let's get to the study of transfiguration. Please open your books to chapter one and study the first page detailing how to change a matchstick into a needle while I pass out the matchsticks."

And she was off and running.

+++

The Christmas holidays were upon her almost before she knew it. What with all her new responsibilities as well as the teaching and drills to conduct, the weeks seemed to fly by. She ended up helping Hagrid and Filius decorate the Great Hall and she had a bit of fun bringing out her decorations and placing them around her rooms, until she came upon the box of gifts from Severus. Her mood for the rest of the week was quite melancholy. She had not heard anything from him. Not that she truly expected to, but a girl can always dream. She managed to hide it quite well, but after the students left for holiday, she retreated to her rooms. Minerva finally had to pry her out of there for Christmas Eve dinner.

"Esmerelda Scott, you are going to come downstairs, now!" the older witch declared as she stormed into her niece's rooms.

"Auntie please, I really don't want..." Esme began to weakly protest.

"For Merlin's sake, Esme, it's Christmas." She walked over to Esme's wardrobe and searched through it for an appropriate Christmas frock. "And," she continued, "I insist that you attend. I am not going to have you all depressed up here during the holidays. Your parents would haunt me forever!" She brought a dress and matching robes over to lay across the back of the divan. "Now, what set this off?"

"I've been so busy, I haven't really had time to brood over Severus and the danger he and everyone else is in and then... I came across this," she said, indicating the box lying partially opened on the table. She sat further back in her chair stroking Casey, as Minerva walked over and poked around a bit.

"These are beautiful pieces. They aren't your family's, are they?"

"No. These came from Severus, one for each year. They are very precious to me, but seeing them brought everything back and I've been in a funk ever since."

Minerva pursed her lips a bit. "Come on, I'll help you put these about and you can tell me about them. Then you are going to freshen up, get into these nice robes and come downstairs tonight. You need company and diversion," she said as she offered a hand to her niece to help her up off the sofa.

Esme shrugged her shoulders in defeat and joined her aunt in placing the pieces around the room, relishing the chance to tell her about all the gifts and stories surrounding them.

Dinner was much better than she had imagined. She sat between Filius and Minerva and broke crackers with both of them getting a wonderful chess set from one and a wonderful warm tartan shawl in the other.

"Filius, I never have learned to play this well. I have a friend who tries to get me to play, but he soundly trounces me each and every time." She ignored the snort that came from the direction of her aunt. "You'll have to teach me over winter!"

"Oh, I can do that. I'll set up a game in the lounge," he agreed enthusiastically.

"Perfect, I..." But she was interrupted by the sound of many fluttering wings as owls flew in carrying gifts for the teachers. A small scopes owl landed in front of her plate. "For me?" she asked as she reached for the small parcel and letter tied to the bird's legs. The handwriting was very familiar to her and her heart gave a huge leap. She jostled Minerva's elbow. "Auntie, it's from him!" she whispered.

"What! Don't open it here. The party is breaking up, let's go to my office - you can open it privately there." The two women made their goodbyes and hurried through the halls and up to the Headmistress' office. Once there, Minerva woke up Albus' portrait while Esme opened the letter, setting the tiny parcel aside for later. The letter was long - this was good.

My dearest Esmerelda,

I no longer have a watcher on me constantly, and thus I was able to pen this missive to you.

First off, you can tell Minerva and that insufferable portrait that my mission is going as planned. I have been able to identify the rest of the Horcruxes and was able to get that information to Potter through another source - he does not know I am the one providing the information. Unfortunately, the last one is the snake, as you suspected, Albus, and will have to wait until the final confrontation to be taken out. I believe that will be my task while P concentrates on V.

Draco has now received the full bite from Fenrir. He was found recently, hiding with his mother - she was forced to watch; then the Dark Lord murdered her in front of Draco as a warning. Advise Minerva not to let him back in school as he refuses to take the potion. He may have a death wish.

"Merlin's beard!" Minerva exclaimed. Dumbledore only shook his head sadly.

I do not know if I'll be able to write to you again. I pray you are still wearing your ring. I intend to survive this and make my way back to your side. Until then, your gift this year is one I had commissioned for you several years ago. I balked at giving it to you then - I felt that to do so would put you in danger, and it would be making promises I didn't know if I would be able to keep. I am throwing caution to the wind and ask that you wear this gift as a promise of my return. I hope that when I do, I'll finally be able to ask you a certain question. Ask Dumbledore about it after you see it.

I love you, Esme, and with this small token I proclaim it to you and to anyone else who cares to notice. Wear it and know that you hold my heart in your hands.

Forever yours,

SS

"Oh, my..." Esme murmured, quickly dashing the tears from her eyes and forcing the lump back down her throat. She smiled as she picked up the parcel and, with shaking hands, tore off the paper. A small, blue velvet box lay in her hands. She heard a mumbled "Good for you, Severus" from the portrait behind the Head's desk. She slowly opened it up and gasped in surprise as she gazed at the ring inside, nestled in the white silk lining. As she lifted out the ruby and emerald ring, she noticed writing on the inside of the band. She tilted it towards the firelight to read 'Always entwined, never apart. ES & SS'. Her breath caught in her throat as she recognised the words he had said to her two years earlier. She detected the tingling of a protective charm emanating from the circlet, and she recognised the magical signature. She turned to the portrait.

"Right, Dumbledore, what do you know about this?" she demanded.

"He showed it to me three summers ago, after the tournament. The day you flew up here to ask me if you could join the Order. He had meant to ask you that summer but Voldemort's return stymied that. I placed the protective charm you feel as well as the engravings. The charm will keep others from seeing it for what it really is. You can remove it when Severus is safe. It was my blessing on you two. Wear it in good conscience, my dear. He really does love you deeply. I am glad he finally decided to let you have it."

Minerva wandered over to where her niece sat near the fire. "Esme, it's beautiful." She grinned down at her. "And do you know what answer you'll give him?"

Esme smiled at her aunt as she slipped the ring onto her left hand and felt the charm snap into place. "Of course I do, it has always been 'Yes'. He just needs to ask." She stood up and twirled in place, her smile lighting up her face. "Aye, Auntie, it is a happy Christmas indeed!" She gave Minerva a quick hug and kiss and swept out of the office never hearing the chuckling from behind the desk.