Skuld: making your mind up

I don’t own any of the Harry Potter characters; they all belong to JKR, boo.
Yep it is my fist fan fic so please review , constructive criticism welcome


Chapter 3


A little later the teachers were gathered in the staff common room.
“So Albus, what’s wrong with her then?” Snape asked with a scowl.
“Really Severus” Minerva McGonagall tutted “is that really necessary?”
“Well considering that we seem to be developing a reputation for solely employing social misfits and sob stories…..”
“Are you including yourself in that definition?”
“I will ignore that Minerva, it seems to me too much to expect someone so, well someone like Miss Skuld to arrive here without any kind of Achilles heel”
“Someone so what Severus? Young, I believe she is no younger than you were when you first began teaching here, I assume you’re talking about her appearance, has our new nurse broken through your icy exterior already? I didn’t think she’d be your type”
Snape simply snorted in response, “nonsense. Now come on Albus what is the ‘fatal flaw’?”
Dumbledore shrugged, “Well, there is nothing wrong with Mia, she may not have a conventional education, but...”
“Ha, I knew it! She’s not qualified is she, I can’t believe you would employ a healer with no qualifications, you could be putting us all at risk!”
“Please calm down, I haven’t finished yet. Mia has not attended magical school and no, she doesn’t have the paper qualifications, but Poppy and I have tested her knowledge and skills extensively, and her natural abilities and home education are more than adequate, in fact her healing potions are the best I’ve seen.”
The end of his sentence was accompanied by a wink from Dumbledore to Professor McGonagall, and the sound of Severus Snape chocking on his drink with indignation.

On queue, Mia arrived at her welcome drinks in the staff room to enjoy her first evening with her new colleagues. She’d chosen a black wool sweater which set off her tanned skin well; she always had a deep tanned colour even in mid winter, and covered with dark freckles in summer. Her hair was still tied back, and tidy.
She’d reapplied make up again, so her heavily kohled eyes looked even larger than normal, and a subtle lip gloss accentuated pouty lips.
All in all she was certainly not what people might call conventionally beautiful, but she knew how to do sexy.

“Would you like a drink my dear?”
Mia looked around for the source of the question and, on looking down discovered Professor Flitwick offering a glass of wine,
“Thank you that’s so kind,” she smiled “everyone seems so friendly already” she took the glass and headed off quickly to chat to the rest of the group.

After some time spent making acquaintances Mia decided she’d done enough to make friends with pretty much everyone, and made to leave for bed. Waving and wishing all a good night she stepped backwards towards the door and straight into the immovable object that was Professor Snape who had been staying out of the way by the door, waiting for an opportune moment to slip away.
“oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t see you there!” she said, giggling.
“Well obviously, unless you have eyes in the back of your head and still choose to stand on my feet.” Was the sarcastic response.
“Oops, sorry again” she said quickly stepping off his boots. “Actually I was hoping to speak to you Professor, Poppy tells me you normally make all the potions for the infirmary, and well we thought that it would save you a lot of time if I were to make some of them now.”
“It would, if they were prepared correctly, Albus has informed me you have no formal potions training, and I do not wish to spend my time correcting mistakes.” He scowled at her with as much distaste as he could muster.
“I thought you might say that” Mia smiled closed lipped, that was one harsh look she thought. “Why don’t you meet me before the first lot need to be prepared and you can observe to make sure you like what you see?”
“Very well I will see you, shall we say Wednesday evening after diner?”
“That sounds perfect, I’ll see you then.”
With this settled, Snape gave a small bow, which Mia found very amusing and stalked off towards the dungeons. She hurried off to her rooms by the infirmary.


Once in her rooms, she locked the door and sat down with parchment to pen a quick note,
“Love,
Not a great start but not too bad, really. A challenge I think, but not the worst thing I have done for you.
I am thinking of you constantly as always, when will I see you?”
She rolled up the note tightly and gave it to Sorrow the magpie who was dozing on the back of a chair by the fire,
“Take this; you know where you’re going don’t you? Be careful.” She rubbed the bird’s neck feathers affectionately and sent him off out of the window.
“time for bed then” she smiled to no one in particular, “ to sleep, per chance to dream”
Kicking off her shoes she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes.