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.
...
Emma pressed her forehead against the freezing window, watching the snow flutter about. The castle had never been so quiet before. Almost everyone had gone home for Christmas, and those who hadn't spent much of their Christmas break in the cosy warmth of their common rooms. She and Severus had the rest of the castle to themselves.
And it was wonderful. No one jeered at them as they walked through the halls. No one tripped Severus up or made fun of him in the Great Hall. It was a break. A real break. A well-deserved one.
"You're never going to win if you don't pay attention." Emma looked up to see her best friend grinning at her over the chessboard. "Come on. Your turn."
"Sorry." She hung her leg over the edge of the windowsill they sat in and focused her attention on the board. "Er... Knight to... E5."
She saw the twitch in Severus' lips and knew she'd made a mistake. Two minutes later, she'd lost the game and he was telling her all about the stupid mistake she'd made.
She didn't mind losing to him. The way he smiled when he won made up for it.
He jumped up from the windowsill. "You put the pieces back in place. I'll be right back."
Emma sat up. "Where are you going?"
Already on his way, he smiled mischievously over his shoulder. "It's Christmas Eve and we're out of sweets. I'm going to the kitchen to get some more of those chocolatey things you like."
Her heart swelled – she couldn't help it. "But you'll get in trouble!"
"Not if nobody finds out I was there!"
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"... and then swish your wand down like this. Again, up in a circle, then swish down. Don't hold your wand too tight, that curbs the power of your spell. Everyone got that?"
Emma looked around the classroom, waiting for a hand to shoot up. Not one did. In fact, the first-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had been unusually quiet all lesson.
"No questions? Alright, then let's practice. Books away!"
Still no peep from any of them, despite them all obeying her immediately. What is up with these kids? Back when she was in school, first-years would all but burst into cheering the first time they got a chance to practice actual magic.
"Okay. As we've seen, the spell lights up the tip of your wand if cast successfully, so you'll know if you've done it right. Wands at the ready. Begin."
Emma walked up and down the classroom, zigzagging between the desks to watch her students practice. The muttering of spells rumbled through the room. Miss Granger, a Gryffindor and by far the brightest student she had, managed to light up her wand – albeit vaguely – within just a few tries. A few Ravenclaws had some degree of success as well. The Gryffindor boys in the back, however, not so much.
