By Chance to Intention

Chapter 20: Back to Hogwarts

"New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new."

― Samuel Johnson

July 16th, 2011

The next few weeks passed by quicker than she had anticipated. Between the release of her book and the publicity surrounding Severus Snape's appearance at her publishing event, she was glad when things finally began to calm down nearly a month later. Minerva said she would keep her new staff appointments quiet as long as possible, Hermione knew. That is, until she had to notify her board of governors.

After telling Ginny, who was more than thrilled, she had done the tough job of telling Harry and Ron. They had been excited for her, and though she had thought Ron would be irritated with her for taking Henry all the way to Hogwarts, that hadn't been the case at all, at least at first.

"Just like old times, but it'll be the next generation this time around," Ron had told Harry, "Right?"

Harry had laughed, "I don't think Henry is the type to get up to the mischief we did, no offense, Hermione."

She had told them no offense was taken but thought about the comment for some time afterward. If Henry got up to even half the things they had while they were in school, well... they were in trouble, to say the least.

"He'll love living in the castle, especially a year before all his friends do. It gives him a headstart on all the secrets there," Ron had added.

She had hesitated in this part of the conversation, but they would find out sooner or later, and she would rather it be from her than the press.

"Yes, I expect so. He'll have one friend with him at least," they looked at her quizzically, so she went on, "Katherine and her father are also moving into the castle. He's taken up the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor again."

Ron had said nothing but was visibly processing the information with various expressions. Harry, on the other hand, looked thrilled.

"Excellent! That will give him time to adjust back into the wizarding world, and then maybe he'll talk to me."

Hermione was doubtful following this conversation, though she knew Harry still held hope. She continued to ponder his hope of communicating with Severus even after she had left.

Severus would find it challenging to discuss any topic with Harry in the near future, she felt. Though she had seen him casually bring up Lily in conversation with his daughter on two occasions, the time they had taken the kids to an empty field near Cokeworth one evening to label constellations and the time he took them all to an old muggle theatre for a movie. He would casually mention Lily as an old friend he used to spend time with in these places, and Katherine enjoyed the connection it gave her to her father in his youth.

Despite the good memories Severus held for the town of Cokeworth, she had the peculiar sensation that he could not wait to leave. Following his shocking acceptance of Minerva's offer, he spent days packing up his potion's storage in a particularly calculated manner, "These are too volatile to package by magic. It will take too much time to do before we move in August, and by then, it will be chaos; I'd prefer just to complete the task now."

But that hadn't been the only case of him packing early. Many of his books were now gone as well. He hadn't explained this to her as she had with the volatile potion's ingredients, but in the end, she thought better of herself than to ask.

Packing was going to be its own endeavor for her, the question of whether she would pack all of her books was a daunting one. Severus had already advised her that it was a pointless question, as she would take them all regardless of the space she thought she might be lacking.