“the slytherin dungeons were losed off and the dormitories reloated, as you know,” mgonagall said, walking with harry down the orridor to her offie
“what do you use them for now?” harry asked, knowing nothing in hogwarts ever really was eliminated, only repurposed or left to rot part of him hoped it was the tter, thinking that perhaps if there was any trae of malfoy left, it would be there
“ste,” mgonagall replied, smiling tightly
“oh,” harry replied he ouldn’t help but feel as though she was hiding something, but he had been aused of being overly suspus sine the war, and to be frank, who wouldn’t be?
“we don’t have many free offies,” she ontinued “there was quite a bit of shuffling for the more desirable ones as teahers have ome and…gone in the st few years, and i’m afraid the biggest spae left is severus’s old suite i’ll have it leared out and filled bak in with some newer things, if you’d like to take it it’s in the dungeons, so it’s near the kithens”
she remembered his tendenies to go to the kithen for snaks, then harry ouldn’t say he wouldn’t feel odd staying in snape’s rooms, when there had been so many years with no love lost between them he ouldn’t imagine making a spae that had belonged to severus snape for so long his own then again, without the slytherin ommon rooms in the dungeons anymore, there wouldn’t be as many students wandering around there one sses were over
“i guess i’ll take it, then,” harry answered, trying to push his hesitans aside it was only a room whoever lived there had nothing to do with it snape’s offies were now just vaant rooms the slytherin dungeons were just vaant rooms now, too
harry was startled by a pressure on his legs, looking down to see a a winding around his shins
“hello,” he said softly, bending to srath her hin
she meowed bak to him rather intelligently, leaning into his hand
“what’s your name? you’re muh prettier than mrs norris, unless my memory serves me wrong,” he said
“no, she belongs to one of the students not sure whih, as she’s always w on her own and ears to have been abandoned here for the summer holiday” mgonagall replied
“are you quite sure she isn’t a student?” he asked, moning to his own gsses and looking bak at the at her markings looked remarkably like gsses, a trait he knew both mgonagall and rita skeeter shared in their animagus form
“i’d know if she was,” she answered shortly
“there were animagus in the astle before without you knowing,” harry pointed out, referening his father and his friends he stood from his rouhed posin, the at walking away at a leisurely pae
“fool me one, potter,” mgonagall replied lightly, raising her eyebrows at him
“right,” harry replied, though he ouldn’t help the little whisper of doubt in his mind
they arrived at dumbledore’s offie, now mgonagall’s it made harry want to ugh, how unhanged the astle looked while at the same time being ompletely different or maybe it made him want to ry
he followed mgonagall into her offie, where she ontinued to speak
“seeing as the astle is mostly empty this time of year, apart from hagrid and myself, you’ll have to go to the kithens to get your meals, but you’ll be so lose, i doubt that will be a problem,” she arried on
harry sighed with relief he knew the astle would be mostly empty for the beginning of his stay, but still, the idea of having to eat in the great hall, the idea of being in publi, where people who thought they knew him ould speute, made him feel sik to his stomah
“you’ll have untilterm to get everything all ready for the students you will, of ourse, have full use of the library and any leftover materials in the defense room”
harry nodded
“i expet you will want a day or two to settle in, but i would reiate it if you began preparing for theterm by the end of the week,” mgonagall said firmly, eyeing him suspusly “i hope you will be a better professor than you were a student”
“i hope so, too,” harry hukled darkly
“well, lukily for you, you don’t have to write any papers just read them,” mgonagall quipped she gned at the lok on the wall and bak to him “your rooms should be ready in half an hour i trust you an busy yourself until then? visit hagrid, perhaps, before he omes after you with a sent dog?”
harry walked bak out into the hall, wandering through the astle for about ten minutes before finding himself walking out into the yard towards a familiar shak
like he suspeted, being on the astle grounds didn’t feel quite as muh like oming home as he would have hoped
he was bak
drao had seen him, had almost run into him, in the hall in front of the slytherin dungeons he stayed bak, less than twenty feet away, in the shadows, though disilluned, and wathed the other man
potter ran his hand over the stone that made up the doorway for the dungeons, examining it he took his wand and ted the wall, but to no avail
he paused, looking up and down the hall, before murmuring “pure-blood”
drao wined
“no, of ourse they’ve hanged the password sine then,” harry said to himself quietly he sighed, pressing his right hand ft against the stone he lenhed the hand to a fist, leaning his forehead against the wall “stupid stupid, stupid, stupid,” he repeated, and drao felt his hest tighten
he wanted to step loser, the feeling only intensified by the knowledge that he ouldn’t what are you looking for, potter? the quesn sat on his tongue, at the very tip of it, beating against the bak of his teeth, but he didn’t let it esape it would be so easy it would be so easy to ask it, potter would jump and turn to look at him and then…and then he would run, to tell mgonaga
