A/N – I have rewritten some areas, added some details, etc.

Introduction

Anna Jacobs sat in the cozy living room of her small apartment, sipping a cup of tea and reading a book. She was a perfectly ordinary woman. A little on the plump size (to her own eyes at least), she had a clear pink complexion. Her best feature was her hair. It was long, flowing past her shoulders and a beautiful chestnut color with auburn highlights. The pretty, young school teacher lived a quiet life, and she liked it that way. She relished being on her own, away from her family, truth be told. The Jacobs family tree had more than its fair share of strange branches, and she was happy finally living a normal life in London, teaching history at an exclusive private school. The weird "Crack" she heard outside her apartment was about to change all of that.

After the cracking noise, there was a knock at her door. She cautiously looked out the peephole and saw an older woman, dressed in a strange kind of flowing dress, standing in the hallway. When she recognized who it was, she sighed to herself. An odd leaf from one of those strange branches had landed in front of her door. She opened the door.

"Aunt Minerva, what a surprise," she said, as her aunt came into the apartment. This was her mother's aunt, on her grandmother's side. The visitor gave the young woman a kiss on the cheek as she passed her in the doorway. "Come in," Anna said, as her aunt had done just that.

"Good Evening, Anna dear," Minerva McGonagall said to her niece as she sat in an armchair.

"What brings you to London?" Anna asked her guest. "Would you like some tea?"

"This isn't a social call, dear," her aunt told her. "I don't know if your mother told you, but I have been the headmistress at my school for ten years now."

"Oh, congratulations," Anna offered halfheartedly. She had not heard this news and frankly didn't really care. Aunt Minerva's school, she knew, was some kind of school for special students, students who were like Minerva. "What was it again? Hogblisters?"

"Hogwarts" her aunt corrected.

"Hogwarts, right," Anna said and sat on the couch.

"As I was saying, I have been headmistress for ten years now, and I have been given permission to try something new. We teach a class at Hogwarts called 'Muggle Studies'" Aunt Minerva continued.

"What is a Muggle?" Anna asked, hoping she wouldn't be sorry she did. She remembered some of Aunt Minerva's 'fairy tales' and most of the creatures she described were either terrifying or disgusting.

"Muggles are non-magic folk, like yourself" she explained. Oh, jeez, through Anna. Here we go with the 'magic' talk again. She wasn't really sure what to believe about her aunt and her stories about magical beings and creatures.

"Ok," said Anna, "So I am a 'Muggle'?"

"Yes, Anna, you are. That is why I am here. I have been given permission to hire a Muggle to teach Muggle Studies at Hogwarts. I want you to be that teacher."

"What?" Anna asked, shocked. "I thought no one who wasn't, uh, special could even see your school, let alone go inside?"

"That is why I told you I have been given special permission. If you accept this position, you will be trusted to act with the utmost discretion in regards to your new employment. Since you are family, I believe that you can be trusted with the secrets of Hogwarts."

"Aunt Minerva, this is too much! I can't just leave my job! School will be starting back in a month, they will need to hire a new teacher, get her up to speed, I don't think I can!" Anna protested. She wasn't really sure she wanted to teach special students anyway. She never had that kind of patience.

"Anna, you will be the first Muggle to have access to Hogwarts School since it's founding over eleven hundred years ago. This is a great honor. Please reconsider!" Aunt Minerva perched on the edge of her chair, and even though Anna was sitting directly across from her, her aunt managed to look down at Anna through the glasses perched on the very end of her nose. Her students would be very familiar with that look. Minerva McGonagall wasn't asking her niece to take the job, she was telling her.

"Aunt Minerva, I don't even know how to teach your students, I have no curriculum for 'Muggle Studies', I…." she trailed off her hands waving in the air as if she could go on and on.

"Hogwarts students are no different than the students you currently teach. As for curriculum, we have a fully developed curriculum in place. All we need is a teacher."

Anna sighed and looked around her apartment. She had dealt with people like Aunt Minerva before and she knew taking NO for an answer just wasn't in their blood. What the hell, she thought. She was getting a little tired of the snotty little twerps at the private school where she was teaching. She had a vague idea where the castle was and country-side living sounded nice.

"Alright, I accept" she told her aunt.

"Splendid! I shall return in one week to take you to the school. Thank you dear, you will not regret this, not for one second!" Both women stood, and as Anna approached her aunt to see her to the door, the "Crack" sounded again, louder now that it was in her apartment, and Aunt Minerva disappeared before her eyes.

Anna spoke to her now empty apartment, "I hope not."