Trapped In Time: Love's Secrets (Adult)

Chapter Twelve

Just as before, time started to pass rapidly as everyone continued their daily routines. With less than a week to the new school year, the professors were starting to show up and Dobby was taking Shannon on castle tours to help her remember where everyone was. This was accompanied by sad news though, as Shannon learned that Dobby’s time in this job would be up with the start of the year and he’d be off to find more work.

When the school schedule started, Shannon would have to go have her meals in the Great Hall with everyone else and the numerous school elves would take over cleaning duties. Though she knew Dobby would be back at the school by the next year, she would still very much miss him and did not look forward to that goodbye.

With more professors came more owls and Shannon enjoyed getting to know the new personalities and species that turned up. As for the professors, some introductions were made in passing, sometimes by Dobby sometimes by a professor themselves but for the most part Shannon kept to herself and figured that anyone who wanted information on who she was and why she was there, were going straight to Dumbledore instead of asking her and satisfied with his answers, they felt no more need to befriend the new assistant grounds keeper.

The weather started to change rapidly and Shannon woke on the first morning of school to the singing of Moss –if you could call it singing. The rain was pouring down outside and Moss’s song sounded sort of like the lonely howling of a dog left outside overnight mixed with the high pitched eerie song of a killer whale and maybe even a touch of a wailing woman who’d lost a lover. It was actually hauntingly beautiful in its own way but maybe not the most cheerful thing to wake up to.

Beside her bed was a tray of breakfast and on it a note from Dobby. Apparently he hadn’t wanted a sad goodbye either because all the note said was that Dobby had enjoyed his summer with her and hoped to see her again adding he would pop in if he ever got to come visit Harry Potter. Shannon grinned to herself knowing how much that elf loved Harry and was okay with being somewhere down his list of favourite people.

It was still very early and the rain was making everything dark and dreary but Shannon had a busy day if she wanted to get everything done before the train brought hundreds of students to the school especially if she wanted to be able to shower before the opening banquet.

With Hagrid now having to work hard on course plans, she had been abandoned on and off, to do the greenhouses and owls herself. Today however, would be her last day in the greenhouses for the year as it would now be up to the students and Professor Sprout to look after everything. For the school year, Shannon’s main job would be keeping up with the hundreds of owls and the occasional escaped pet. With that happy thought, she finished breakfast and put on some scrubby clothes, pulled out her birthday cloak to wear through the rain, and was off to work.

It was always more fun to work when in a rush, that’s when you found out how good you really were at multi-tasking! Shannon rushed around the greenhouses like a maniac, narrowly avoiding a sting from her arch enemy, the Scorpius Vine. It always looked so innocent with its long green stalks laying in artfully draped bunches but as soon as you touched one of the black spade shaped flowers hanging off the stalks, they would rear up just as a scorpion does. The flowers would curl in on themselves forming long sharp stingers and start aiming for whatever happened to be moving in the vicinity. Shannon still hadn’t looked up what happened if you got stung and when she asked Hagrid he said just “don’t get stung.” That kind of advice probably didn’t need verification.

Once out of the greenhouse, Shannon was running through the eastern courtyard, across the front entry and to the base of the owl tower. Her black cloak was warm and kept her dry but had the frustrating side effect of making her think of Severus every time she stopped to be grateful she had it on.