Emma Moore, professor in Healing at Hogwarts, has to suppress her feelings for her old best friend and now colleague Severus Snape, who she hasn't seen in ten years, while figuring out who killed her aunt.
...
"We were all supposed to be in the same House!" Severus' eyes glistened as he hung his shoulders.
Emma pulled up her legs, sitting in an alcove near the Great Hall. She wanted to cry. They'd been in school for less than a day and her friends were already fighting.
"Oh, come on, Severus, it's not that bad," said Lily, shrugging. "We can still sit together in the Great Hall, and in some of our lessons. We can even study together in the library. It'll be fine, trust me."
Emma had never been very good at making friends; having two on the first day of school was a small miracle. But they were already falling out. She wanted to go back home, to her aunt, and forget any of this ever happened.
"No! It's not fine! You're in the worst House of them all, those kids are awful. You saw them trip me up yesterday, didn't you? I know!" His eyes suddenly widened. "Why don't you request a transfer? Ask McGonagall if you can transfer to Slytherin!"
Lily scoffed. "Are you joking? No! The Sorting Hat put me in Gryffindor and that's where I'm staying. I'm sorry, Sev. But it'll turn out fine, just trust me."
With that, she walked away, leaving Severus behind with Emma, his lower lip trembling.
He turned to face her and for a second her heart stopped. I'll do it, she thought. Ask me and I swear I'll do it. Hufflepuff was right for her, she belonged there. But Severus was her friend. If he asked her to transfer, she would.
Emma watched as he sat down in the alcove next to her, shoulders sagged in defeat. "We were supposed to all be in the same House," he muttered, voice thick.
"I know," said Emma. "I hate this too."
"Why does she not understand? Why doesn't she care?"
"I don't know. She's right about one thing, though." He looked up as she lay a hand on his arm. "We'll always be friends. No matter what."
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Emma spent hours pacing up and down through her new quarters, her knees so weak with the overflow of emotions that she had to sit down every couple of minutes.
The bedroom was spacious, with thick stone walls and heavy wooden planks covering the ceiling. There was a huge oaken desk, a queen-sized bed and a walk-in wardrobe, but the room was otherwise empty and bare.
Emma had spent ten minutes transferring her clothes from her trunk to the wardrobe and setting the cage with her toad on the desk, before realising she didn't actually have anything to cheer up the room with. She'd left most of her things at her old flat, when she'd rushed out on her ex.
The bedroom had two doors, one of which led out to a second-floor hallway and another connected with her new office. But with all her belongings in the bedroom, there was nothing left to fill the office with.
