Harry still remembered the Halloween at Hogwarts that had changed everything. The day had started out well enough, thankfully he hadn't had to deal with Snape. Then they had gone to Charms, and everything went downhill from there. On that day, the class was learning the levitation charm, and Ron was struggling to cast the spell.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron had shouted, pointing his wand at the feather. Unfortunately, the feather hadn't had budged an inch. Hermione had seen Ron's failure, and in a condescending tone she had said,

"You're saying it wrong. It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

Naturally, Ron had been rather angry once class had ended.

"She's such a nightmare!" Ron had shouted as he and Harry left the classroom, "No wonder she doesn't have any friends."

Hermione brushed past them and rushed down the stairs.

"I think she heard you." He had said.

They had later learned from Lavender that Hermione was in the bathroom crying. Ron had felt bad about it, but he didn't go to apologize. Then Quirrell had rushed into the Great Hall screaming,

"Troll! Troll in the dungeons!"

Before he collapsed on the spot. Everyone had started to panic, and the professors had ordered the perfects to bring the students to their dorms. That was when Harry and Ron realized that Hermione was missing. They figured she was in the bathroom, and they had snuck away from Percy to go warn her about the troll. They'd ended up accidentally locking her in the bathroom with the troll, but they immediately rushed back in...

...to find her lying on the ground. Her limbs were twisted in an unnatural position, and blood pooled around her body, soaking her long frizzy hair.

"Is she dead?" Ron had whimpered as he stared at her body, he was moments away from breaking out into a scream when the professors had arrived. The professors had dispatched the troll in a few minutes, before they turned their attention on Harry and Ron.

"What were you thinking?!" Professor McGonagall had shouted at Harry and Ron, "You could have been killed!"

"W-we were trying to warn Hermione about the troll," Harry had stuttered, "We didn't want her to get hurt."

"Well you failed in that regard," Snape had said, "Luckily she's still breathing."

"Why didn't you try to find one of us Mr. Potter?" Professor Flitwick had asked, "Or have a perfect help you rescue Ms. Granger?"

"We didn't think that we'd get to Hermione in time if we did that." Harry had said.

"So, you decided to fight a troll on your own?" Professor Snape frowned, "Did you think that you were experienced enough to handle a troll?"

"No we-"

"Did you even realize that a troll can kill even the most experienced wizard in minutes?" Snape continued, "You are first years, how did you expect to defeat a troll? If we had been even a minute late, the three of you would have been killed."

"I-"

"That's enough Severus." Dumbledore had calmly said. Snape scowled and fell silent, Dumbledore looked at Harry and lowered his voice, "Harry do you know why Ms. Granger was in the bathroom when she should have been in the Great Hall?"

"I-" Harry had looked at Ron, who was biting his lip. Ron subtly shook his head, and Harry internally debated with himself before he came to a decision. "N-no I don't know."

Dumbledore had sighed.

"Harry, look me in the eyes," Dumbledore had said. Harry had shuffled his feet before he did what Dumbledore said, "Did you or Mr. Weasley have anything to do with why Ms. Granger was in the bathroom?"

"No, we had nothing to do with it." Harry had lied. Dumbledore's face fell.

"Well we've had your side of the story Mr. Potter, we'll just have to hear Ms. Granger's once she recovers," Snape had said, "I imagine that it will differ from yours."

"Ms. McGonagall, if you would escort Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley to their dorm," Dumbledore had said, "We will have to contact Ms. Granger's family about her injuries."

"I understand," Professor McGonagall had said before she turned to Ron and Harry, "Come with me you two."

As he and Ron followed the professor back to their dorm, Harry felt like he was going to throw up.

Eventually, the three of them reached the Gryffindor dorms. Professor McGonagall said the password to the Fat Lady, unlocking the entrance to the dorms.

"I suppose this incident can serve as a lesson as well," Professor McGonagall had said, "Mr. Potter you need to learn to let the adults handle situations, you are not invincible and as you unfortunately learned today, you are not infallible."

"I don't want you to put yourself or anyone else in danger ever again, is that clear?"

"...Yes professor." Harry had said.

Harry sighed as he apparated to a specific neighborhood. After that Halloween everyone in the castle had known about Hermione's near-death experience, and they knew about Harry and Ron's involvement in the situation. Almost immediately the two of them had ended up being ostracized by about half of the students attending Hogwarts. Other students pointed out that Hermione wasn't entirely blameless in the situation, but they also weren't going to leap to Harry or Ron's defense. The professor's attitude towards Harry and Ron had changed drastically, from Professor McGonagall's frosty anger, to Professor Flitwick's silent disappointment, even Snape had changed. Instead of deliberately trying to make their lives miserable, he treated the two of them like they barely existed.

The only one who seemed to be on their side was Professor Quirrell, but soon after Harry's disastrous first quidditch match, which had ended up with Harry in the infirmary for about a week, Professor Quirrell had mysteriously disappeared. There had been some rumors that had floated around about that. One rumor was that the professor had been killed because he was secretly a Death Eater in disguise, the other was that he had simply succumbed to the 'curse' that affected anyone who taught Defense against the Dark Arts. He'd been replaced by Remus Lupin, who was an old friend of Harry's father, and he'd also been the one professor that Harry had liked the most.

The years at Hogwarts had passed by relatively quickly. Ron's pet rat had been killed by Filch's cat, which had put Ron in a bad mood for most of their second year. Sirius Black and a group of death eaters had been executed during their third year, the Triwizard tournament had been hosted at Hogwarts during their fourth year, and Harry had somehow gotten roped into competing. He had ended up failing all of the challenges, and Cedric had ended up winning a substituted trophy after Dumbledore had accidentally broken it somehow. The auror who had shown up to watch the tournament had been rather angry when that had happened.

Dumbledore and Snape had resigned during their fifth year, Barty Crouch Jr. had gotten captured after he attacked a group of muggleborns during their sixth year, and Harry and Ron had graduated during their seventh year. Ron had gone on to get a stable job at the ministry, while Harry had decided to become a teacher at Hogwarts.

...And now here he was. Harry sighed (he'd been doing that often since he had become a teacher) as he walked up to the door of the house he was looking for. He pressed down on the doorbell and stepped back. The door swung open to reveal the mother of the girl he was looking for.

"Hello Ms. Granger," He said, "Is your daughter home?"

"Who are you again?" Granger asked.

"I'm Harry Potter, we went to school toget-"

"Oh, now I remember you."

Granger immediately shut the door on him and locked it tight.

…. Well at least she hadn't hexed him like she had back when he had asked her to go to the yule ball with him. That was progress, right?