The rest of the holidays flew by, Minerva giving the teens their teaching assignments the second week of August. They would attend the Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and COMC doubles with the 6th years, Alexander had chosen not to go further with Divination but would sit the NEWTs at some stage; he couldn't stand Trelawney. There was a huge rush for the headmistress that same week when Hermione had asked who the replacement Transfiguration professor would be, Minerva had forgotten with the Dementor situation.
With the assistant professor positions, the demigods would take over for Remus during his monthly issues, take over 1st-3rd years in Potions, and then take a class whenever it was requested, a week-to-week situation. They were given their choice of an office and classroom, for if they wished to continue their tutoring sessions again, so chose the classroom that Quirrell had been forced to use during their first year, due to the one on the third floor being inaccessible; it also had a connecting office for them.
They had spent a week getting it ready, clearing out all of the dirt and old items that weren't needed, and making it both homey and professional. There were desks but they weren't the hard ones of the other classrooms, these were more comfortable and easier to sit at. The lights were bright, everywhere was lit up, but the largest difference was that there were no seats or desks on the bottom portion of the room; it was cleared for if they were to duel or demonstrate anything. Their office was where they were more personal, hanging a portrait that held nothing but a lounge area, for if they were to have visitors in that respect, and adding in a foldout lounge for if they wished to sleep after a long day. To them, it was perfect.
On the weekends they would go visit Sirius, spending time with him helped both sides, but being on a Dobby eating regime was slowly assisting the fugitive to look more human. When he heard that the teens were going to try and become Animagi, he was overjoyed, and begged them to let him give them their Marauder names. When Lex had asked if he wanted them to tell Amelia where he was, the joking man suddenly went serious and said he would think about it. Later that night, the teens had decided that they would give until the start of term to decide the right decision before making it for him.
Since their trip into Gringotts, and their instructions to Bogrod, the Daily Prophet hadn't sent out an issue, nearly all of the staff had been fired and fined heavily. The goblins had slowly been restaffing but when Xeno came in to purchase a new location for the Quibbler, the subscriptions had forced him to happily do so, there had been a sit-down formed. In that meeting, the Daily Prophet was merged with the Quibbler, who retained its name, and Lex was given 50% of the shares, Luna the other 50%. From there, workers were hired and the Quibbler became the only magical printed news source, and they were 100% unbiased, but did run a column on the fantastical news it used to. Luna had been overjoyed and treated her friends with a personal tour of the headquarters, the smile never leaving her face and the skip never leaving her step.
The goblins had also been busy with Fudge. They had written up the slander complaint and delivered it to Fudge, who quickly paid the asked for sum so that it wouldn't be disclosed. Unfortunately trouble was only just starting, as Amelia had requested the documents and Bogrod was going one further; he had set a team on finding where every Knut to Fudge's name came from. At last update, they had needed to move to a second room to store all of the information they had acquired. Chances were that the Wizengamot would be called together by the end of September.
It was finally September 1st and Alexander and Hermione walked into the Great Hall for their final free breakfast until the next summer. Sitting at the table was another person, a man about mid-20 in age, red hair that was pulled into a pony tail, startling blue eyes, an earring in his ear with a fang hanging from it. His clothes were a jean jacket, t-shirt underneath, black jeans and leather boots; he looked more suited at a rock concert than Hogwarts.
"Morning," the demigods said pleasantly.
"Good morning," Minerva responded brightly, "Let me introduce you both to the new Transfiguration professor, William Weasley."
The tall man reached over and shook their hands, "Don't tell me, you're Harry Potter and Hermione Granger? I hear you're both the ones who saved my baby sister."
"We simply turned the correct people's attention to her situation. Pleasure to meet you. Are you the last of the Weasley brood?"
"Yeah, oldest one too. Call me Bill," the redhead settled back into his seat, "My employers speak only great things about the two of you; the reason I'm here actually."
"Bogrod," the pair chuckled.
Bill nodded, "That's one of them but you've both made large impressions on many of the goblins in at the local branch. Not many humans about that consistently bow to them and treat them with respect. Had I not been moving up here anyway, they probably would have dragged me from the tombs in Egypt to fill this position."
Wanting to get off the subject, Hermione asked, "Is Ginny going to be returning to school?"
"Not this term, Mum and Dad are going to home-school her, let her catch up for the lost time and get reacquainted with life without being possessed. She's gradually becoming the bright girl I remember," the blue eyes dulled slightly in sadness.
Severus interrupted then, "Are you both going to take the train or simply wait here?"
"Train"
"Of course," the man rolled his eyes lightly.
"We saw that," the entire table laughed, though Bill looked at the trio oddly, this definitely wasn't the Snape he had been taught by.
When the meal was done, Severus walked with them out to the beech tree, sitting beneath it, "What do you plan to do about the rat?"
"Well, we were going to steal it from Weasley as soon as we saw him, but now we're going to steal it and hand him straight over to Amelia," Hermione said, a large grin on her face.
The wizard ruffled her hair, "Cheeky bugger. So Amelia will be waiting on the platform?"
"Yeah, and she already has a trial set in place for an immediate, on the record, version of what happened and what Sirius' role in everything was. Hopefully Sirius will be a free man in a month or so," Lex said happily.
"And out of my home," Severus added, even though his heart wasn't in it, he knew that the mutt was growing on Lex and that meant he would need to get used to his old tormentor being around.
Both teen rolled their eyes, "Whatever you say."
The trio relaxed, acting like a father and his kids, for a few hours, until it was 10am and the younger pair was to head off to the station. Walking to the edge of the grounds, outside of the wards, Severus apparated them one at a time, as he had done the last two times, "Be safe and responsible, you are acting as Hogwarts' representatives now so no fighting with redhead idiots; that's my job."
"Not this term," Hermione said, both of them poking their tongues out at the man, who groaned before apparating off.
Situating themselves just off from the barrier, the teens said hello to the students who walked through, promising to sit with Neville and Faye when they stopped to chat. When Luna also came through they told her to find the two Gryffindors, who already knew to let her sit with them. 30 minutes after arriving, Amelia showed up, dropping off Susan before wandering over to the couple, "No Weasleys yet?"
"Nope, they're always late though," Hermione replied, "How was Susan's summer?"
"Wonderful, she had a few friends over and they both worried and bored me to death over their talk about boys," Amelia shuddered, "I'm too young to hear about my niece's ideal husband."
The demigods snickered at that as they waited. With 10 minutes to spare, the first head full of red hair came through, it was Percy, his chest flung out to show the Head Boy badge pinned there, causing the teens to groan softly. Next came the twins, who threw them large smiles before racing off to find their friends. Finally it was Ron and his mother together, and the trio head to them, Amelia walking slower.
Unfortunately she was still spotted, and Ron screeched in pain as Wormtail bit his hand, "OW!"
"CAPTURE THAT RAT!" Alexander yelled out, racing through the crowds, shooting stunners from both his hand and wand.
Of course, everyone looked on as though he was insane, which gave Wormtail ample opportunity to escape through the barrier, and into relative freedom as the trio chasing him were unable to use magic in front of Muggles, "Son of a bitch!"
"Madam Bones, there are children present," Molly admonished.
"I honestly don't give a damn Molly, that rat was the only way to prove the innocence of a wizard. You were, I would hope unknowingly, harbouring Peter Pettigrew, the betrayer of the Potters and mass murderer," the witch told the redhead, pissed off.
"Peter Pettigrew was killed," the other woman said, as though talking to a child.
It was only thanks to the two demigods holding her back that Amelia didn't attack the mother, "Get your child on the train Molly. You two, thank you for trying but we will need to find another way. I will talk to you later."
"Bye Amelia"
The couple were about to head to the train when they heard Molly speak, "Oh, my dear, you look just like James. Thank you so much for saving Ginny, she can't stop talking about you, though I'm surprised you didn't come around to visit."
"Mrs Weasley, with all due respect, we barely know Ginny, we were simply helping her because she needed it. If you'll excuse us, we are needed on the train," Hermione made a point to lace her fingers with her boyfriend as they got onto the scarlet locomotive.
Moving down the corridor, they found their three friends in a compartment with a sleeping man in the corner. Neville softly explained, "It was the only free one."
"Not a problem, that's the new DADA professor, Remus Lupin," Lex stated, sitting with Hermione in his lap, "How were your summers?"
