The plot bunnies really need to stop visiting me so often...
Wednesday: September 1, 1971
"Ah! Professor Black," Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts greeted a distinguished looking woman, about thirty. She had curly, chestnut colored hair, piercing brown eyes, and her posture seemed to demand respect as she entered the Head's office.
"This is the new Defense Professor?" Minerva McGonagall, Transfiguration professor of nearly fifteen years inquired sharply. "Seems hardly old enough to…"
"I am not much younger than yourself, Professor McGonagall," the woman said in a calm, but stern tone. "And I would thank you to take time to get to know me before you cast judgement on my abilities."
The Deputy Head of Hogwarts raised her eyebrows, not angry at being interrupted, but rather curious about who this woman was. It was not every day Minerva met someone who dared challenge her. Her reputation for sharp rebuttals was second only for her reputation as a Transfiguration expert. Surely, this woman knew who she was. She had called her by name, after all.
"And a fine opportunity, Minerva," Albus said cheerfully, "to do so would be whilst showing Professor Black to her quarters."
"Everything is in order then, Albus?" the young Defense Professor inquired.
"Of course, Hermione," the elderly man replied kindly. "You'll find your belongings have already arrived, and you should have several hours available to you to get settled, before the staff meeting and the arrival of the students this evening."
Professor Black - Hermione - nodded to Albus and then looked expectantly towards Minerva. "Shall we?" she asked.
"Right this way," Minerva replied, frowning slightly. She carefully observed the younger witch as they walked down the flight of stairs. She cocked her head to a door on the third floor, informing her companion that it was the location of the Defense Professor's office. They reached the bottom of the stairs and made their way along a corridor, Minerva pointed out her own classroom, before they turned a corner and just a bit further down, the Transfiguration Mistress pointed out the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. At the end of the second hall, which lent view of the courtyard, they stopped at the base of another, but smaller tower. While the tower which housed the Headmaster's office was circular, this tower was squared. "This tower is six floors. Floors five and six are yours, two and three are mine, and the first two floors belong to our Herbology Professor, Pomona Sprout."
Professor Black nodded in understanding, and then Minerva continued, pointing her hand to the right, down a wider hall. "Down that way is another six floor tower. Floor one and two of that tower belong to the Charms Professor, Filius Flitwick. Floors five and six belong to Bathsheda Babbling - she teaches Ancient Runes. The other Professors, Albus included, are housed in various other towers around the castle, but I thought you'd want to know who your neighbors, as it were, would be."
"What is on the second and third floors of the other tower?" Hermione inquired, noticing a gap in information."
"The Library," Minerva answered with a bit a smile. "With my tenure, Albus has offered to move me to larger quarters more often than I can count, but I continue to refuse, as I quite enjoy being a short walk from the Library."
For the first time since Minerva had met the woman, Hermione finally offered a smile in return. "I can certainly understand that. When I was a student, my friends often joked about kicking our Librarian out of her office, which was adjacent to the Library, so I could make it into my own flat and never have to leave my precious books."
Green eyes sparked with mirth, and Minerva suddenly decided that despite her reservations, she may turn out to really like this newest Defense Professor. Oh course, Hermione Black would need to survive the year before Minerva got too attached. After all, the post was cursed…
Professor Hermione Black looked at a Defense Against the Dark Arts Certificate of Mastery with amusement. It wasn't as if she'd never seen a Mastery Certificate before, it was just that last time she'd looked at one, it had listed Hermione Granger as the recipient, and the Mastery itself had been in Potions, rather than Defense. Before she'd come here, to Hogwarts of 1971, four months prior, she'd also been working on a Mastery in Transfiguration.
That had all changed though. Working closely with Minerva McGonagall on her mastery had given Hermione a chance to get to know her former Professor on a more personal level. She didn't think she would have been out of line to call them friends, even. Then one night, the two of them had gotten rather drunk, and Minerva had confessed the reason she'd never married; that she'd met the love of her life the year Harry's parents, along with the other Marauders, had come to Hogwarts, and that the woman, Hermione, had vanished the last night of term with no word, and no clue on where she might have gone. As it has been the beginning of Voldemort's rise, Minerva had always assumed that her Hermione had been an early victim of his wrath.
Of course, Hermione being an uncommon name, not to mention Hermione Granger's inquisitive nature, the then nineteen year had went searching for answers. What she found had startled her, and led to the argument of the century. Digging through school records had led the young Gryffindor to a picture of Professor Hermione Black - a woman who looked identical to herself. The only logical conclusion to come to was that Hermione Black and Hermione Granger were one in the same.
Minerva had not been too surprised when her student came bursting into her quarters, demanding an explanation. Hermione sighed as she remembered the fight, in which Minerva had admitted to realizing the year before that her student was the woman she'd loved all those years ago, and that she'd hoped that the Hermione of this timeline might be interested in rekindling the flame. However, Hermione having only just begun dating Ron, refused the older witch, and discontinued her Transfiguration studies at once. She'd gotten a job in the Department of Mysteries, and then one day, four months ago, she'd had an accident and been thrown back to 1971. She'd spent the first month trying to get back, and in the process, adopted the name of Hermione Black, just in case it came to...this.
She was determined not to allow Minerva to fall in love with her this time. After all, even if she could somehow grow to love the older woman...well, hardly much older now... she knew that at the end of term, someone would happen to her. Hermione couldn't begin to guess what that something might be; it could be that she would find a way home, or that she did indeed, as Minerva speculated, fall to Voldemort. She believed the latter was more likely, as Dumbledore's condition for assisting her, and giving her the Defense position, was that she become a spy for him. The life of a spy was usually short lived, after all.
"Professor Black?" a familiar voice called from her doorway.
Hermione turned around to face Pomona Sprout, though a much younger, and decidedly slimmer version than the new Defense Professor remembered from her own years at Hogwarts. Of course, the Pomona of 1971 had never met Hermione, so she did not greet the woman by name, rather feigning innocence. "Yes?" she said.
"I'm Pomona Sprout, Herbology Professor and your neighbor," the woman introduced herself. She held out a plant towards Hermione. "I thought I'd come by and bring a housewarming gift."
"Well do come in, and I shall find a dark corner for that wonderful specimen," Hermione replied, waving Pomona in.
"You know your plants!" the other woman exclaimed, grinning.
"I had an encounter with Devil's Snare, a plant the size of a large classroom, when I was twelve," Hermione explained. "It made this particular variety of plant difficult to forget."
"You'd have to a seedling in total darkness for at least three months to make it grow that large," Pomona mused. "And that would be for an already mature plant. This one is only a seedling."
Hermione was not surprised when Pomona said that. She imagined that in her future, she would have used that very knowledge to plan how long she needed to grow the Devil's Snare which would be one of the protections for the Sorcerer's Stone. "I imagine so," was all she said, though.
"So, Professor…"
"Please, call me Hermione," the newest member of the Hogwarts staff insisted.
"And you, of course, should call me Pomona," came an easy reply. "So, Hermione, you and I seem to be close in age, yet I don't remember you from school - did you attend elsewhere?"
Hermione nodded. "I was educated at home," she began her cover story. "My father did not believe a woman should be educated, and my mother was only willing to defy him to the point of hiring tutors. Once I was of age, I pursued my mastery on my own galleon."
"Your family disowned you, then?" Pomona asked sadly.
"If you ever ask a Black about me, they will deny my very existence," Hermione said with a sigh. That part of the story was true, of course, as none of the Blacks in this timeline knew her, they would be telling the truth. Hermione had no problem with the Noble House of Black being perceived as liars.
By three that afternoon, Minerva was still more than a little suspicious of Hermione Black. Albus appeared to trust her, in fact he'd insisted that he did, but Minerva was not convinced that the new Defense Professor didn't have him fooled, somehow.
She'd spent the better part of the last two hours in the Library, refreshing her memory of the House of Black. She had not found any reference whatsoever to a Hermione ever being born into that family, even if the name did sound like something one of them would name their. The Blacks always had been keen on traditional Wizarding names, meaning that they were Latin in origin. In fact, if she remembered correctly, Minerva thought that Walburga's boy Sirius was starting Hogwarts today. Druella, another of the Black family, who had been a classmate of Minerva's, had two girls still in Hogwarts, and one, Bellatrix, who had already graduated. Bella's sisters, Andromeda and Narcissa, were in their were in their sixth year and fourth year respectively. Point being, Minerva thought, there were plenty of Blacks floating around, but none that she could link Hermione to. The only Black that could possibly have fathered the new Defense Professor would have been Pollux, Walburga's father. He was known for drinking copious amounts of wine at a time. Perhaps Hermione was his bastard.
Anyway, she'd have to do more research later. Minerva could sense Albus eyeing her, obviously aware that she wasn't listening to a word he was saying.
"My apologies, Albus," she muttered, giving him her full attention.
The Headmaster nodded. "As I was saying, we welcome you, Professor Black, to the staff."
"Thank you, Albus," Hermione replied. "It's an honor, I assure you."
Minerva's lips pursed together tightly. How dare this woman address Albus with such familiarity? She's known the man for what, a week? The Transfiguration Professor knew one of her less favorable character traits was her pride, but she just couldn't help it. Albus had been her Professor, mentor, Mastery instructor, and boss. They were friends; they had been for decades. She would know if he'd met Professor Hermione bloody Black prior to the last weeks. It irritated her further when Albus offered the new Defense Professor a broad smile.
"The honor is ours, my dear," he said. "Now, on to business. The students, as per usual, will arrive…"
It was surreal, Hermione thought, to be sitting up here on the dias, seated at the Head Table. She knew that she had every right and reason to be there, now, but still, it felt odd to be seated next to those she had been, or rather would be, taught by.
"Lily Evans!" Minerva McGonagall's voice rang.
At that, Hermione's attention focused on the girl who would become her best friend's mother. Red haired with startling green eyes, the lanky eleven year old walked nervously toward the stool on which she would sit to be sorted. She reminded Hermione of herself at that age; muggleborn and eager to prove herself, but still undeniably shy.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat declared. No surprise there.
Hermione watched with interest as Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and James Potter were all sorted to Gryffindor as well. Then of course, was Severus Snape, though he was sorted to Slytherin. Again, no surprise. There were other children sorted whose names Hermione recognized, Frank Longbottom to Gryffindor as well, for example, and a girl named Alice Carrow, who looked so much like Hermione's classmate and friend Neville that there was no mistaking who she would eventually mother. Alice was sorted to Slytherin, much to Hermione's surprise. She wondered why Neville had never mentioned ties to the two Death Eaters who had tortured he and many other students during the final year of the war. Granted, had she known she was related to those two, she never would have mentioned it either, and it did explain why no one from Neville's mother's family ever came forward to care for him, after his parents were placed in St. Mungo's. They had probably disowned Alice for marrying Frank Longbottom. The only other person Hermione noticed as familiar was Xeno Lovegood, sorted to Ravenclaw, of course. There was another girl, Pandora something-or-other, also to Ravenclaw, who had long blond hair, and Hermione wondered if this girl would become the mother her schoolmate Luna would lose before coming to Hogwarts herself.
After the sorting, Albus gave his expected announcements and then dinner was served. Tomorrow, classes would begin, and Hermione found herself looking forward to teaching. This whole trip back in time was turning out to be quite enjoyable overall, in fact. Now, if Minerva would only stop glaring at her...
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