(SS/OC) (AU)

Full Summery: Twenty-nine year old Dustella Ellardrick (Dusty) works for the American Ministry of Magic, going from school to school enrolling as a student to evaluate the school system. Her job takes her to Hogwarts just as things with Voldemort start heating up. With the enevitable War upon them, Dusty must alert the United Wizard Nations before Hogwarts is distroyed. She's also aware that she is falling for a certain dark haired professor. Complicated emotions, war, death, and possibly romance await her as the Last Battle and Final War race towards her.

TigerChickTigriss owns only OC's and story plot. Harry Potter is not her's.

...Destroyed Studios Presents:

It's Called Unorthodox For A Reason
Chapter One:

The Job

It wasn't that she hated her job; in fact she quite enjoyed it. It was this part of her job she hated. Sure, it was fun traveling to all the type of wizarding schools and learning their diverse ways of performing magic — for the first couple of years. Going to four schools in one school year got tiring after five years of constant traveling. She had already been to all the main American schools, all which did things very similar. Even Salem, the school she thought would have been the most unique, was almost exactly like the school she had gone to during her learning-years. It had been an extreme disappointment for her, being from a small wizarding school in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin.

After visiting the four largest American schools — Salem, Devore, Lincoln W.S (Wizarding School) and Washington W.S— she had been on her way to the Asian schools; even though America had at least three more years worth of schools on the visiting list. China had taken at least a year and a half to visit their six prevalent schools and Japan had taken the rest of her third year at her job and another quarter a year to visit their three prestigious schools. Both North and South Korea had two schools each on the list and she had spent her fourth year and the beginning of the fifth year dodging North Korea's dangerous Anti-Peace Wizards and getting plotting professors evicted from South Korea's school board.

Africa had taken about a year and three fourths to complete. Their rather unique schools had interesting magic traditions, sprouting from their Medicine Man ways of old, and absolutely no diversity between bloodlines. The students and staff could have cared less if you were half blood, quarter blood or pure blood. They were just delighted they had as many African Wizards and Witches as they did.

The only school on the French list was Beauxbatons — an extremely stuck up school with a giant Headmistress. And yes, Madame Maxine really was a giant — or half anyway. Madame Maxine was about five feet taller then her and had nearly crushed her when it was time to head to the other school. The…delightful experience was not one she wanted to repeat anytime soon. Russia had been a Dark Arts learning experience. For a very strange reason, they only had two schools on their list. Durmstrang, a school she had been looking forward to visiting ever since she took the job, had not one of them. The schools she visited did dabble in the dark arts, though not as much as Durmstrang was rumored to.

She had visited other schools over the nine years she had been at the job. Too say the least, she knew a whole lot about how all Wizarding Worlds from over the globe worked. She was also very educated on exactly who Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were and exactly how much power they had in the world. It seemed that not the entire world was as affected by him as he would have liked. America had a large portion of extremely skilled wizards, having been in school for eight months every year for nine years, so they had been able to deal with any Death Eaters fairly quickly.

China and Japan had also dealt with Voldemort before he could take root in Asia, protecting the whole continent from his power. Russia hadn't been as lucky and they were still dealing with ex-Death Eaters that caused trouble form time to time. Africa was perfectly happy to help destroy the Dark Lord because they felt that he was a hindrance to all beings of Magic. They hated when other Wizards discriminated against Wizards and Witches and well as non-magic humans. So they took extra precautions, training their students for war and stocking up on healing and regeneration potions. After all their effort though, there hadn't been need for a war because Voldemort had been killed before his influence even reached Africa.

On the other hand, the whole of Europe had been greatly affected by Voldemort and it was still dealing with the Death Eaters and side affects cause by his terror. She had found out from Madame Maxine that Voldemort was once again rising to power in Europe and had told her to warn the other nations of the world. That had been two years ago and now a large portion of the countries that were conected to the Muggle United Nations including Canada, Australia were preparing for the war that was sure to come within the next few years. The countries Ministries had been hard at work training their Wizards to fight and brewing so many potions that the store houses where overflowing with them.

Now back to the part of her job she hated. The traveling was bad; the paper work she had to do wasn't as bad since she didn't really have much to do. That was her friends job back in the UWN (United Wizard Nations) office. What was bad was that she never went as a Professor OR a guest. Instead she always went to the school as a student. Complete with the homework she had to do and under the watchful eye of the Professors that where close to her age! If they gave her a detention, she had to serve the detention. The reason behind this madness was that she was supposed to find out if the curriculum was too complex for the year they were teaching, if the punishments were too harsh, and if the Professors were doing a good job of teaching.

In recent years, she had managed to fire at least three Professors. Two had been doing an extremely poor job of teaching their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the class that got students ready to begin their War program. The Ministries where on the school's case a day after she had sent in the report and new Professors were hired immediately. The other one was handing out punishment that were not exactly humane. Chasing down insane werewolves and trying to capture them had been too much for the Ministry and the Russian Professor, who was found out to be an active supporter of Voldemort, was arrested and sent to prison. She had put the Russian Professor away almost a year after Voldemort was reported to have regained some power.

So the gist of her job was to travel to schools all around the world, make sure the teachers were sane and good at teaching, and to find out (from the students themselves) if they would be capable of fighting in a war or just surviving in the Wizard world. Since polyjuice potion was prohibited in America, an explanation of why a twenty-nine year old woman was going to school was in order. So the schools were told that she was a Witch who had been unable to complete her training and was coming back to the school to finish. None of the Professors, even the Headmasters, knew what her real job was. At least not until she had filed a final report on the school and was out of the country.

During the summer, her vacation time after many, many months of dealing with kids and work, she had been contacted with startling news: the person who had defeated Voldemort the first time was a student at Hogwarts. Coincidently, Hogwarts had been the next on her list to visit. After the American Ministry had pulled a few strings in the UWN, they had been able to squeeze her in the second quarter of the year instead of at the end of school. And as a bonus, she got to take the first quarter of the school year off!

So now she was on a flight to London, England to floo to Hogwarts. The American Ministry insisted that all their employees traveled the Muggle way and avoid using any magical transportation. At first it had been a drag getting in and out of the airlines but once she got used to it, it wasn't so bad. The plane landed with little interruption or turbulence and soon the Ministry Auror of International School Observation (or just MAISO for short) was on her way to the checkout desk. She weaved in and out of the crowed, grabbed her bag and staggered over to the passport-check-lady-person.

"Welcome to England. Have a great stay Dusty Ellard," the woman said with a smile.

"Sure," Dusty answered bitterly, knowing she had another school quarter of being looked down on by similar aged Professors and laughed at by students at lest ten years younger then her. She always begged her boss to allow her to switch the alibi but he refused. "Sadistic annoying boss with an evil streak," she grumbled, stomping into the Family bathroom.

Dusty took a quick look around her then hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and puffed in annoyance. Why did she always have to pack so much stuff? She laughed at herself. She did jump from school to school without being able to go back to her house so everything she needed was in her single large suitcase. She even had her entire Muggle book collection, having been raised around them her whole life (hey! She did live in America!) as well as her complete wardrobe. With another glance at the door, she blinked and with a CRACK, disappeared from the large bathroom.

She re-appeared not far from Hogwarts. If two miles from your destination wasn't far… After trekking for thirty minutes, she ended up in a complete Magic village called Hogsmeade in front of a place called The Three Broomsticks. She let her case drop to the ground and she stretched before levitating her bag and walking into the building. She snagged a quick Butterbeer, a drink she had become found of, and then asked the tender which way Hogwarts was.

Directions now in her possession, Dusty trudged up the hill towards the large castle, bag floating beside her. She could have taken floo to Dumbledore's office but she needed a quiet walk to mentally prepare. The first day on the job was never easy. You met the Professors, the students and the Headmaster all at once. A person without experience would probably pass out from anxiety. In fact, she had passed out on her first trip and the students never let her forget it. Even after eight years they still called her up and joked about it.

To her annoyance, a bell rang and students pored out of the school and into the courtyard just as she reached the school. They whispered to each other as she passed them by, ignoring their immature antics. She passed a large oak tree and noticed something odd. The tree had a face in it. Squinting, she realized it was a boy about sixteen with bleached blonde hair. Dusty waved her wand that she pulled from the back pocket of her jeans and strutted through the open doors.

She went up a flight of insanely long stairs, around fifty bends, up yet more flights of stairs (these ones, she found out, moved and had trick steps) until she stood in front of a gargoyle statue. Not sure what to do, she looked at the statue and glared. After a staring contest that the gargoyle won, she pulled out a bag of lemon drops. She popped one into her mouth and sucked. Her face twisted in horror and she spat out the candy.

"That was not a Lemon Drop!" She glared at the yellow jellybean. "UGH! What is a urine Jelly Bean doing in my Lemon Drops?!" The sound of stone scraping against stone filled the hall. She looked at the gargoyle that was now standing to the side reveling a spiral staircase. "O-o-o-okay…" She left the Jelly Bean to the dirty floor and climbed the stairs.

She emerged into a large room decorated with pictures and bazaar things that she didn't have a clue what they were. A person with long hair and a matching silver beard looked up from the gigantic desk. His blue eyes twinkled behind his half-moon spectacles and he smiled. He stood and crossed the room in two strides.

"Welcome to Hogwarts Ms. Ellard!" He clasped her hand and kissed it gently then ushered her into a chair. "I am delighted you chose Hogwarts to help you finish your education."

Dusty put on a fake smile. "I'm honored to be here Professor. I'm sorry that I couldn't start at the beginning of the year." The lies came easy to her. It was the one she used every year when she switched schools in the middle of the quarters. "You see, we recently had a death in the family and—" Dumbledore held up a hand to silence her.

"Don't worry. I understand the pain of losing a loved one. I'm sorry for your loss and I hope that the time you had off help you." He smiled genially and her stomach gave a slight flutter of guilt. She hated lying when the people where so damned nice!

"Thank you," she said with a bow of her head. "If I may ask Headmaster—"

"Dumbledore, if you please."

"If I may ask Dumbledore, I know that Hogwarts has four houses for its students. How does that work exactly?"

He smiled again and explained about the hat and the sorting. Her stomach did another flip but it was now because that hat would be reading her mind. It would find out about her job and ruin the whole thing! Dumbledore seemed to notice her unease for he smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. It's not so bad and the Hat is never wrong."

He summoned the hat over and it landed upon her head. Even on her head the hat fell down to her eyebrows. She couldn't imagine what it looked like on a little eleven year old. The hat puffed up and came to life, it's deep, raspy voice filled her head.

"So, you're a twenty-nine year old finishing Wizard school are you? I see another reason for you being here."

"Please don't tell them! It's my job and I need the edge of them not knowing what I'm really doing!" She felt kind of stupid pleading to a hat.

The hat gave a chuckle. "Don't worry. I won't give you away. My job is to sort students, not tattle."

She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now the question is where to put you? Neither Hufflepuff nor Ravenclaw. You are not smart enough and other qualities outweigh your loyalty. Since your job is lying, how 'bout Slytherin? You are surly cunning enough. But, you have to be extreemly brave to be willing to lie to so many people. Gryffindor it shall be."

"Gryffindor." The hat said, giving a nod of approval. Dumbledore smiled and thanked the hat before it whisked away, back to its lonely shelf.

He turned to her. "Professor McGonagall is the head of the house. I'll call her and she'll see to your room."

He waved a hand and about two minutes later, a woman in black robes and a tall black pointed hat poofed into the room. She glanced at Dusty then turned to Dumbledore. "She is the one then?" She asked in a tone that held annoyance.

Dusty ignored the tone with the ease that came from years of practice. She was used to this attitude from older Professors. They believed she had been lazy in her schooling and were always angry that she hadn't finished her degree. Dusty found this somewhat amusing because she had the most Wizarding schooling of anyone she knew. Not only did she finish nine years of school but she also had nine more years of different types of magic on her résumé. She could land a job anywhere on the planet! Quite humorous in her eyes.

"Yes and she's in Gryffindor! You're very lucky to have her!" Dusty thought she heard McGonagall mutter, "Yes, lucky…"

He looked back and forth between the two women, one who was glaring the other ignoring. "I'll leave her to you then."

Dusty stood to follow McGonagall out the large doors. Dumbledore held out a shallow bowl filled with yellow candies. "Lemon Drop?" He offered one to Dusty.

Dusty eyed the candy then shrugged and popped one into her mouth. The lemon flavor filled her sense of taste. She felt all her worries melt away and she smiled. "Thank you." Then she followed McGonagall out the door, her bag once again floating beside her.

THANKS TO INVADERK FOR HELPING ME OUT WITH SNAPE'S CHARACTER! GO READ HER STORY!