DISCLAIMER: Not mine, Never will be.

Minerva McGonagall's head hit her desk in frustration. There was only four applicants for the empty staffing positions at Hogwarts for 1998, and she needed a new teacher for Defence Against the Dark Arts, Muggle Studies, Divination, Arithmancy, Transfiguration (seeing as she was now Headmistress) and Herbology – Professor Sprout, her best friend and colleague, had been killed by none other then Bellatrix Lestrange in the battle in May.

She looked over the list of applicants and the notes she had taken during their interviews. And to think; Slughorn wanted to retire for good, on top of everything else.

Ok, Minerva, she thought to herself, DADA, we need someone competent for once, but not someone you want to stay for too long – but then, the curse on the job might have died with its caster, like so many other spells do.

No-one on the list was even half-decent at DADA, let alone capable of teaching. There was one person she was willing to put in the Herbology post, Neville Longbottom, and for all purposes he had the job. She was fully prepared to let Divination be disposed of, but Sybil Trelawney, however disagreeable and unpleasant she was to Minerva, had asked her to continue teaching the subject at school, even if Firenze was the teacher for everyone. Which seemed rather likely to happen.

She took a deep, calming breath, and let it out in a heavy sigh. Arithmancy. Not many people were very good at it, indeed, the only two people to ever receive an O in their OWLs in Arithmancy were Percy Weasley and Hermione Granger; Percy had taken his job at the Ministry back, and Hermione had never taken NEWTs – indeed, she was planning to take them this year, as was Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley had said he would think about it, he just didn't want to be in his sister's classes.

She sighed again. Transfiguration. She might have to take the job herself, in addition to her duties as Headmistress. Of course, she could just appoint two Deputies, then the three would share out the workload and all teach classes. But who to choose?

A tear sparked in her eyes before she angrily wiped it away as she thought about her best friend, and would-be Deputy, Pomona Sprout. She eventually decided on Filius Flitwick, the very capable Charms teacher.

Well, for Muggle Studies, she'd just have to ask Arthur Weasley. That was solved, at least.

Now she groaned. She had to appoint a Head of House for not only Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, but Slytherin as well because Slughorn didn't want the duty. But there weren't any other Slytherin teachers at the school.

She sullenly walked over to her fireplace, where she grabbed a pinch of Floo Powder -before throwing it on the flames and placing her head in amongst the now-green tongues of fire, saying clearly her destination.

"Poppy!?" she shouted to the plump witch standing over a bed beyond the door to the hospital wing, "may I speak to Tonks?" she asked when Poppy entered her little room in the back of the Hospital Wing.

"Yes, she is awake, but she can't get out of bed for at least a week, and don't tell her that her husband is in a worse condition than she is, she'll probably insist on going to St. Mungo's right now."

"I'm coming straight in then, just let me Floo through," she replied before pulling her head out of the fire, standing up and pinching more, saying to the green fire "Hospital Wing, Hogwarts," as she stepped into the dizzying flames.

A minute later Tonks looked at Minerva as if she were insane.

"There are still Death Eaters out there, I am one of the few totally loyal Aurors left alive, and you want me to teach?" she said incredulously.

"Yes," Minerva answered simply. "the students were being taught by an animagus, now they can be taught by a metamorphmagus, who better could they want for Transfiguration?"

"Look, I might teach it when there are no Death Eaters left, but right now my place is on the field, destroying those remaining loyal to Voldemort, and getting rid of Aurors like Dawlish."

Minerva knew when she was going to lose an argument, so she didn't press the matter, but she still asked Tonks her opinion of a second Deputy.

"Flitwick is a good choice, and I would say choose someone you trust, and who has been teaching for years."

"Thanks Tonks. Would you recommend anyone specific for Defence Against the Dark Arts, Divination, Arithmancy or Transfiguration?"

"DADA . . . What about Remus? He taught in '93/4, and if he was teaching, I would bring Teddy and teach Transfiguration, but I still think my place is destroying the remaining Death Eaters."

"I'll ask him, alright?"

Tonks nodded, then continued. "Divination, give the Centaur, what's his name? Fires?"

"Firenze."

"Yes, him, give him all the classes, and for Arithmancy I'd say Percy Weasley, but he's on the Ministry's side."

"Actually, he came to his senses. Just before Fred died."

"Fred died!" she echoed, shocked, before tears sprang into her eyes. "What about George? Is he OK?" she asked, and the caring she had for the Weasley twins was quite obvious in her expression.

"Yes, he'll be alright, he wasn't there when it happened. But Percy's awoken to what the Ministry's been doing, and he resigned when he ended up duelling the Minister – who was imperiused, it seems. Kingsley's been appointed Minister for Magic temporarily, but he wants to be a simple Auror. And Dawlish was killed in his duel with Kinsley, he seemed so shocked that he was duelling his colleague that he didn't avoid the Stunner, and was killed by one of the many curses shot by his allies."

She smirked before continuing. "Half the Death Eaters are dead, and half of those were killed by their own side, the rest were killed indirectly. What's more, not a single Order member or, indeed, any survivors on our side has ripped their own soul by murdering. Whereas not a single Death Eater has an intact soul."

"What happened to Bellatrix? She refused to kill me, she wanted to torture me instead, and when she dropped me I had enough energy to see her go inside the castle before I fainted. Why wouldn't she just kill me?"

"We won't ever know, seeing as how Molly finished her off."

Tonks gaped. "Molly as in Molly Weasley? How?"

"Bellatrix was attacking three people, one of them was Ginny. A mother's love became a mother's fury for Bellatrix, and she was on the wrong end."

"Wow, I have a new idol," Tonks whispered. "I imagine her fury was all the more, after what the demon has done to her family already," she continued in an utterly depressed tone.

"Yes," Minerva agreed sadly.

"So are you going to ask Flitwick about Deputyship?"

"Is that even a word?" Minerva asked, recognising the attempt to bring her mind somewhere else.

"Is now. Are you?"

"Yes, I will. No-one else springs to mind, except Pomona, but she was killed too."

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know!"

"Don't worry, I have to learn to live without her. She was my best friend, you know."

Tonks nodded, then spoke again. "So you will be asking Percy about Arithmancy, and Remus about DADA, and if he says no, then who?"

"Possibly Molly, seeing as I'm asking Arthur to teach Muggle Studies. Although she will probably prefer to teach something that doesn't remind her of Fred."

"Like Potions? She was always brilliant at Potions, although only the twins and Percy seem to have inherited that."

And get rid of Slughorn, Minerva though devilishly. "But then we'd have no Head for Slytherin. Severus was killed, apparently by the snake, Nagini."

"Appoint a seventh year, then."

"I like that. I'll talk to Percy, Arthur, Molly – we'll have to call two of them something other than Professor Weasley – Filius, and Remus."

"If he says no, which he has every right to, whom then?"

"I'll think about that if it happens. I can be rather argumentative, you know. And he was the only decent teacher in the last eleven years."

"Point taken."

"Good luck healing, and do everything Poppy tells you to."

"You're never going to let me forget that, are you? It was first year!"

"And yet the thought to escape has already crossed your mind, hasn't it?"

"That's not the point!"

"It's precisely the point. Goodbye, good luck, and listen to your healer, or she'll cart you off to St Mungo's again."

"That was two years ago, and all I did was fall asleep when she told me to wait for her to get back."

"It was hazardous to your health; you nearly didn't wake up, which is why you were carted off to St. Mungo's, Tonks. You didn't see how worried we all were about you – especially because Hermione, Ron and Luna were all fine before you showed any signs of improving. Mad Eye and Remus were worried sick, and Kingsley had so much trouble making excuses for you at the Ministry, especially because he was so worried that you wouldn't survive."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know, Minerva. And what's this about Hermione, Ron and Luna?"

"Don't worry, there was no lasting damage. Didn't you wonder why they weren't in the Death Room?"

"If you'll recall, I was only aware that Harry and Neville were there, my dear aunt took care of me before anything came to light."

"Did you know that Albus and Voldemort faced off?"

The shock on Tonks' face was more than answer enough. "Well, they did."

Silence reigned for a moment, so Minerva continued, bringing Tonks out of her shock.

"Well, I'm off to coerce three Weasleys into teaching as well as a Lupin and a Longbottom."

"Neville?"

"Herbology."

"Oh. Goodbye, then."

"Do whatever Poppy tells you to, darling."

"Now you sound like half yourself, half my mother. Good luck."

"You too." With that Minerva left the Hospital Wing, by way of Floo to The Burrow.

At least the Weasleys would be slightly easier to convince. And she conjured a bouquet of flowers in memory of Fred, to add to those already on the mantelpiece.

HP

Should I write a second chapter? or leave it as a oneshot? Should I avoid HP and stick to LOTR? ... Should I post my (next) crossover idea? Or is my writing atrocious? (I really hope not)

This was edited by myself, and has only been checked through twice, so there may be things I've missed. If so, sorry.