Disclaimer - I don't own any rights to the use of the characters, but I do it any way!
Author's Note - Hermione has some fun... The poor students...
Chapter eleven.
They arrived at Hogwarts just after dark and Hermione sighed in relief. The new prefects and Heads had done a great job at controlling the students, but there were also occasional bouts of untrained magic from the First Years that Hermione had to deal with.
Hermione reached over to the window and opened it, shivering as the cold September air hit her skin. Having gained her animagus licence as soon as she had gotten out of school, she found she had a rather…unusal ability, because of her transfiguration prowess, she was now able to transform into any animal she chose, but was happiest in her true animagus form, so she now turned into a beautiful hawk, soaring out, over the train and keeping a sharp eye on the students as they made their way to the carriages and Hagrid started to herd the First Years over to the boats.
Satisfied, she flew swiftly out over the lake and in-between Hogwarts' towers, before gliding into the Great Hall using the owl's entrance. She floated down towards the teacher's table, where they were already seated, chatting and awaiting the arrival of the students, and transformed just as she was about to hit the ground. A couple of the Professors started at this, but quickly dismissed it and Hermione turned to McGonagall. "Everyone's here, safe and sound, they should all be arriving here in about ten minutes and the First Years in fifteen."
McGonagall nodded and said, "Thank you, m'dear. Now, here's the list of First Years, that you're going to have to call out and just wait outside the entrance here for them to arrive. All the students will obviously arrive before them, so just be patient."
Hermione smiled and took the parchment before swiftly exiting the Great Hall.
Once outside the giant double doors, Hermione decided to settle in, transforming, this time, into a small, white wolf, almost mistaken for as a dog and laid just behind the banisters of the staircase, her nose peeking through. This way, she'd be able to keep an eye on the students without any trouble. The most she'd probably get would be students trying to pat her.
The list carefully tucked between her paws and her nose peaking through the bars, Hermione's ears pricked as she heard the first of the students arriving from the carriages. They all roared up the stairs, making her ears twitch in annoyance at the huge amount of sound, but she still managed caught a couple of the conversations, mostly revolving around the change of staff.
"I hear that the new Professors are all war heroes!"
"You mean, Harry Potter's going to teach us?"
"No, but Hermione Granger is!"
"No! - You mean the Draco Malfoy is going to be our Potions Master?"
"I know, the sexiest and wealthiest man in England! Beats ol' Snape any time!"
"I heard he was absolutely brill at collecting all these rare and unobtainable plants! Are you sure Neville Longbottom is going to be our Herbology teacher? We would be so lucky!"
"My older brother told me about Remus Lupin! He's a werewolf, but bloody brilliant at D.A.D.A! Taught Harry Potter a lot of what he knows!"
Damn it, that's right, I forgot to give poor Nev and Remus the counter-curse…
"I hear there's going to be a new nurse this year too!"
"Really? I hadn't heard about any of that."
Hermione's ears perked up further, she hadn't heard of that either.
"Yep, apparently she's from the South, was one of the A.N.Z.A.C s that came to help us fight You-Know-Who!"
"Wow!"
Hermione placed that piece of information away into her head so she could bring it up with McGonagall later. By then the first of the students had spotted her and a couple came forward, looking at her curiously.
"Is-is that a dog?"
"No- I think that's a wolf…"
"-You mean Filch now has a wolf to look out for any curfew breakers now too?"
"-Probably so he can hunt them down-"
"-Watch out, Filch is using a wolf to find stray students."
Hermione wagged her tail half lazily, grinning as she listened to the rumours becoming more diverse. By the time the last student had passed through the Great Hall's doors, she had become Filch's lackey for tracking and hunting down misbehaving students, a rare guardian in the form of a wolf imported from Romania, as well as a spy for the Ministry.
She stood up and stretched, scratched a particularly itchy spot behind her left ear and shaken herself, before calmly picking up the list in her mouth and sitting on the top step, in clear view of anyone that would round the last turn of the stairs. Her tail slowly swung back and forth as it hung over the step and she patiently waited for the First Years to arrive.
The First Years arrived with the general hubbub expected of excited eleven year olds and as the rounded the corner they came face to face with a white wolf that had huge whiskey coloured eyes and sat regally and patiently on the top step.
Most of them baulked, scared stiff with the encounter, until people from behind began pushing and the wolf lazily got up seemingly to indicate with its head that they should come up the stairs, also the fact that it carried something white in its mouth made a few tremble, thinking it to be a bone, but as they drew closer it became clear that it as just paper.
Hermione watched with amusement as the First Years looked at her, terrified, before being prompted by their peers to move. As they all quietly came towards her, demurred for once and shaken, she waited till they had all arrived and were staring at her silently, before she decided to talk. Not as a wolf, of course and Hermione didn't want to transform back into human form just yet, so she projected her voice into the air surrounding the students.
"Stay. Here."
They all looked around, absolutely terrified and none moved, so Hermione nodded happily, turned around and slipped into the Great Hall, the doors opening just enough for her to slip through then they closed behind her.