I do not own Harry Potter.

Another year was about to start at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Although this year was going to be much different. A new course had been added to the curriculum, Recreational Magic. The teacher wasn't like the rest of the staff that we're currently working at the school, she didn't go to Hogwarts, she had attended Ilvermorney.

"Welcome back everyone." Dumbledore spoke as he sat down at the head of the table in the staff meeting room. "I would like to welcome our newest staff member, Emily Grimm." A woman with long, wavy, pure white hair got up from her seat and waved as an introduction. "She will be teaching our Recreational Magic course."

"Thank you for this opportunity, Professor Dumbledore." Emily was excited to be teaching. "I look forward to teaching, I want to help students. I myself struggled through school, I didn't understand how they taught and they didn't understand how I learned. I want to give the students a chance to find out how they learn best."

"Well, you have a year to make a difference." Emily looked over at the dark haired man sitting across from her. "And if you have no students you can be a substitute, your marks are high enough in all of the teaching fields."

Emily narrowed her eyes at the man. "I have two classes a day with my first years and at least two classes a week for all of the other years."

"We have made it a mandatory class for first years this year." Dumbledore interrupted before his new teacher could get into a fight with his potions teacher. "And as the year progresses, we will see if this is a class we want to continue with." He saw that everyone was satisfied with his decision. "Very well, I will leave you all to settle in and set up your classrooms for the year."

Emily got up from her seat and made her way to the door. It surprised her when another professor /stopped her. "I am looking forward to teaching with you as well, Professor Grimm. Professor Flitwick, Charms teacher." The shorter gentleman gave her a bow instead of trying to shake her hand. "If I may ask, what house where you a part of at Ilvermorney? I'm afraid we don't hear much about our counterpart in America."

"We don't hear much about Hogwarts either." Emily replied as she looked around at a few other teachers that had joined their conversation. "I'm from the Horned Serpent house."

"I wonder what house you would be in if you had gone to Hogwarts?" A tall man with a head wrapping asked thoughtfully. "If I am not mistaken, Horned Serpent has been related to Ravenclaw."

"And how would you know that Quirrell?" Severus asked as he joined the group. "Did you spend time in America as well?"

"Does it matter what house I would have been in if I had gone here?" Emily asked as she looked around at the teachers. "Maybe having a teacher with no attachments to the school will be a good thing for the students." She noticed a few teachers contemplate her words. "So, could someone show me where my classroom is? I'm afraid that wasn't in the letters sent to me."

"It is near the back of the castle." Minerva said, wondering why Albus hadn't mentioned that to her. "Severus can show you."

Emily looked from Professor McGonagall to Professor Snape. "Very well." He said before turning and walking off.

Emily silently followed after the man. They remained quiet for a few minutes as Emily memorized the path they were taking. "So, how long have you been teaching?"

"A few years now." Emily expected a bit of a more elaborated response, but after a few more moments of silent she gave up on the idea. They continued walking until Severus stopped at a door and pushed it open. "This is your classroom. Your office is through the back door and your chambers through the door beyond."

"Thank you for the help." Emily gave Snape a smile as he began walking away without another word. She frowned as she walked into the classroom, upset at his abrupt manners. He got on her nerves a bit. "No point in starting feuds with other teachers."

The classroom she had been given was an auditorium style room. Desks lined the rows and gave the room a large and distant feeling. "This won't do." Emily pulled her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the desks and chairs. A smile spread across her face as the desks and chairs molded together then split themselves into separate balls. She lowered her wand and walked up to one of the balls and placed her hand on it, turning it a brilliant green. She had learned to turn desks and chairs into beanbag chairs during a transfiguration conference she had attended before applying to Hogwarts.

With her student's seats now arranged, she waved her wand at the wooden structure they were sitting on. A lush black carpet sprouted on top of the wood as a deep brown carpet covered the rest of the floor. Another wave of her wand changed the sides of the walkway into the classroom into cubby holes for the student's shoes. One final look at her classroom brought her eyes to the large mahogany desk at the front of the room. "You have got to go." She flicked her wand and smiled as the desk changed into a large swinging chair, the ropes shooting up to attach to the ceiling. "Perfect."

However, one more look brought a smile to her face, the walls weren't right. She huffed as she thought of what to do with them. There was no one color that came to mind. "Let's make it magical." She smiled as she shot a ball of light at the wall. A bright green color spread across the walls like ink in water. The spell was another she had learned at a conference, it would change to match the seasons.

With one final look she passed off her room with a nod, it was ready for students. She walked to her office and pulled the door open. Inside was a modest looking room, much like how the classroom had looked before she had remodeled it. "I'll leave it for now. There is still a week before students arrive." She didn't really have an idea what to do with the office, so she would leave it for now.

Walking past the fireplace and to the back door, she entered her private chambers. She smiled at the four-poster bed she had, it felt luxurious to her. And her black and green bedding had been put on the bed already. She couldn't help herself as she jumped onto the bed with a laugh. She let her head hang off the bed, seeing her luggage sitting in front of a wardrobe. "Alright, let's get settled in."

Today was the day, first day of school. Emily was sitting at the head table with the rest of the teachers. And while the rest of the female staff was in dresses or skirts, Emily was dressed much differently. She had pants on, for one, her jacket was tight fitting in the waist with a long skirt at the back and a slit openI got her sleeves, and she had knee high boots to finish off her look. And she was already getting looks from both her fellow faculty members and students currently sitting at their house tables.

She tucked a stray hair out of her face as she watched the other students, they were waiting for the newest students to arrive and be sorted into their houses. By the looks of it, they were not ready yet. She nervously tucked another hair that had fallen out of her braided bun out of her face. Her hair had always been troublesome, one of the reasons she rarely let it grow so long.

The hall became silent as the large doors slowly opened, allowing McGonagall to enter the hall with the newest students of Hogwarts. Emily smiled as some of the students stared up at the ceiling, it was probably their first time seeing an enchanted ceiling. All of the students gathered around the foot of the head table where the sorting hat sat on a stool, waiting to sort them.

"As I call out your name, I will place the sorting hat onto your head and you will be sorted into your houses." Minerva stated as she unrolled a scroll with a list of names on it.

Emily didn't pay much attention to the names, more so the reaction from the house tables. Every time a Gryffindor was named, the Slytherins sneered while everyone else clapped. Whenever someone was sorted into Slytherin, the Gryffindors were the ones to sneer and abstained from clapping with everyone else. With Ravenclaws, everyone politely clapped, even the Ravenclaws. And when a Hufflepuff was named, everyone but the Hufflepuffs seemed uninterested.

It confused Emily to no end. How could a school be so broken? They all went to the same school. How could their rivalry between each other have broken their school spirit? Although she guessed the distinct house colors and division had something to do with it. There had been nothing like this at Ilvermorney.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as Dumbledore stood from his seat. The hall grew quiet as they all waited to see what the Headmaster would declare. "Let the feast begin." With a wave of his hand, the tables were covered in a delicious cooked meal. Emily was very impressed by the layout of food that was before her.

"Do you know about Harry Potter?" Emily looked over to her left as Quirinus Quirrell started placing food onto his plate. "I'm shocked to have such a well known student among our students."

"The name made it across the ocean. But he isn't a very well known celebrity, You-Know-Who never really focused on us." Emily lightly loaded her plate, she wasn't all that hungry.

Quirinus was shocked by Emily's reaction. "Not that well know? How? He's the first recorded survival of the killing curse."

Emily nodded as she tried a bite of the ham, it was very flavorful. "There are many things people do for the first time but are never recognized for it. And he is a child, too much fame can only have ill effects."

"I must agree with Professor Grimm." Emily looked beside her as Snape spoke up from her right.

"When did you join this conversation?" Emily asked, still a little miffed from their previous conversation.

Quirinus could sense the tension between the two. "Now, now, classes haven't even begun yet. There's no need for arguments already."

"It's never too early." Emily stated as she took another bite of her food. But she could sense the two men weren't as done with the conversation as she was.

"Would this anger be from Snape's opinion on your class?" Quirrell asked as he looked between the two. It had been rather obvious that Snape hadn't cared much for the idea of a Recreational Magic class. It was just another class to distract students form his class.

"Perhaps she wished she had your position Quirrell." Snape retaliated with a hidden smirk on his face.

Emily chuckled at Snape's remark, it had shut Quirrell up instantly. "The Dark Arts are certainly interesting, but potions are more to my liking." She gave Snape a smirk of her own as Severus' fell off of his face. The two of them stared at each other, watching to see who would look away first.

Quirrell watched the two with interest. "I feel as though I am in the middle of a battle of wits."

"Sadly someone has none." Emily replied with a smile as she continued to watch Snape's reactions. The man had yet to reveal anything critical.

Snape let out a single chuckle. "Speak for yourself."

"I certainly don't let others speak for me." Emily snapped back.

Quirrell sighed as he rubbed his forehead. "It's the first day, can we try and be civil?" The two showed no sign of stopping, and they were attracting attention. "Oh look, the students are watching."

Emily broke eyes contact and looked around, there were a few students from each table watching her and Snape's argument. She let out a sigh as she looked over at her colleague. "For tonight, I will try and ignore you."

"And I shall endeavor to do the same." Snape replied as he returned to his meal.

Emily set her fork down, she had lost her appetite. The rest of the evening she watched the students interact with each other. The tables were very much engaged with the people at their tables, but none of the tables spoke with each other. The only time they did was to exchange rude gestures or comments.

Once the tables seemed to finish eating and were mostly talking, Dumbledore waved his hands again and the food vanished. Everyone turned their attention to the head table as Dumbledore walked around the table and stood behind a large podium. "Welcome students, to another year at Hogwarts." He looked around at all of the students. "I know you would all like to get settled into your dorms, so I will make this brief. A reminder that the Forbidden Forest is Forbidden to all students. And Mr. Filtch would like me to remind you, that the third floor corridor on the left side is out of bounds. And this year we have added a new course to the curriculum."

Emily stood as Dumbledore held up his hand to direct the student's attention to her. "Professor Emily Grimm will be teaching a Recreational Magic course this year. It is a required course for all first years, and for those of you who chose an elective, but there was no room for you, you will be taking her class as your elective." Emily could see that most of the students were curious about what her class would entailed. But there were a few that seemed annoyed or even disappointed. "Now, Perfects, you may lead your houses to bed." Emily took her seat again once Dumbledore had finished, the year had officially begun.

"Well, we better get going ourselves." Quirinus got up form his seat along with most of the staff members. "Classes start bright and early tomorrow."

"For some of you." Emily smiled as she got up herself. "My first class isn't until 10, and it's first years."

"I hope you have Gryffindors and Slytherins together." Snape commented with a sneer. "That is where most of your problems will arise from." Without another word, or waiting for a reply, he left to return to his chambers.

Emily let out a huff of air as she watched the potions professor walk away. "Well isn't he just a bag of daisies." She commented while crossing her arms. "Has he always been like that?" She asked Quirrell as the man tried not to burst into laughter.

Quirinus took a deep breath before replying. "Usually he walks away without saying a word. The fact that he comments at all means that you affect him more than any of us. And some of us have known him since he started teaching. And a select few even knew him when he was a student at Hogwarts."

Emily was surprised, did she really affect him that much. But on the same note, she hadn't felt the need to respond to comments for a long time now. "I guess it works both ways then, he drives me insane. I swear I am going to have an aneurism before the term is done." She messaged a headache that was starting to build behind her ears. "I'm heading to bed. The last thing I need is to snap at students when I should be snapping at Snape."

Her walk through the castle was quiet, none of the dorms were obviously this way, or the students had already passed through. As she passed by a window, she stopped and looked up at the bright full moon. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she relaxed a bit, the moon had always helped her relax. "Alright, let's see how this goes."

Alright, chapter 1 done. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments what you think about the story/character.