Professor Hermione Granger
24th July 2013
By the time she was thirty four, she'd had three different careers. The first one after leaving school was in the Ministry of Magic defending the rights of magical creatures. The second, after becoming disillusioned with politics despite her irrefutable results, was to co-open a bookshop in Diagon Alley, that bookshop still provided her with a steady income each month and was doing very well. The third was to teach young magical children about the muggle world. It was a job that she'd enjoyed immensely and eventually, she found that it lead her back to Hogwarts.
Now, as Severus read through applications at his desk, he sighed deeply.
"I think we all must have done something terribly wrong," he announced.
"Oh, really? And what is that?" Minerva asked. She was sitting opposite him, sipping from a delicate china tea cup.
"Read it," he replied, handing her the letter.
"Only you would read it and react like that, Severus," she sighed after reading it. "This is a brilliant opportunity," she said. "Hermione Granger was and still probably is the brightest witch of her generation, the fact that she wants to teach here..."
"I already allowed the wolf to bring back Potter and Pomona was falling over her own feet to have Longbottom as her assistant last year although lord only knows why. If I bring back another student..."
"Former student," she corrected. "And both Harry and Neville came here as assistants, Miss Granger clearly states here that she's been a teacher before. She's more than capable..."
"No."
"But, Severus..."
"No."
"She's more than qualified to teach here and you know as well as I do that she could teach anything she chose. Besides, I know you write to one another, frequently."
"Hmm," he scoffed.
If asked, Severus would have a difficult task pinpointing the exact moment when receiving a letter from Hermione Granger became an expected norm of his life, let alone replying to one. It seemed that at some stage, she'd been told that he was an avid reader and played the piano, so whenever she found an interesting book or sheet music she thought he'd appreciate, she sent them to him. What followed were usually long discussions of the merits of the book or music which at some point, he found that he enjoyed.
"It's not a crime to have friends, Severus," Minerva grinned at him. "Now, you know as well as I do, that's it's either Miss. Granger or a ministry appointed official. It's your own fault, you know. You rejected all the other applicants."
"One of them swore that a television only worked because scores of witches and wizards were trapped inside of it and another said that a ball point pen was a weapon of mass destruction," Severus said, dryly. "They were idiots, they didn't know anything about muggles."
"Well, Miss. Granger does," Minerva said, smugly.
Sighing in reluctant agreement, Severus turned back to the parchment and heard Fawkes trill softly from his perch.
As she was reminded every time she saw Molly Weasley, Hermione was unmarried and childless, unlike Harry and Ginny and Neville and Luna. Her own relationship with Ron had lasted for about two years after the war before they'd agreed to mutually break it off. It had taken a while, but now, they considered themselves good friends again and eventually, Ron had married Lavender Brown and they had four children together. Hermione was a godmother to two of them and she saw them regularly. She'd be seeing the children very regularly, now, daily in fact as she was now to be working at their school for the foreseeable future. There hadn't really been an interview, just a letter informing her to arrive at the castle to discuss her employment. The headmaster's letter to her, delivered by Fawkes was as usual, dripping with sarcasm and made her smile.
'Miss Granger, why on earth you'd want to return to Hogwarts is beyond me. Unless you wish to once more plunder the library in search of books you've yet to devour. If indeed any remain. However, I am outvoted. The job is yours. My office, tomorrow, nine am. Do not be late. SS.'
Over the years she liked to think that she'd gotten to know the headmaster quite well, or at least as well as he'd allow. She wrote to him often, his replies, if there was one, were often curt and to the point. She'd started arguably at the end of her student years with a polite thank you note, then a year later she'd sent a Christmas card when he'd woken from having had the Dark Mark removed after months of debilitating torture. From then, intending to be polite only, she'd made sure to always send him a birthday and Christmas card at least. She did the same for Minerva as well but she, like the others knew that the headmaster had very few people in his life to show his such courtesies. Arguably in the years since the war that number had risen but he never made it easy.
Both she and Harry had long since taken his attitude in their stride and chosen not to allow it to push them away. Harry was on quite good terms with him now, he was working at Hogwarts and and they spent every Monday evening after classes were done, in Severus' quarters, simply talking. Much to their amusement it had taken years for the dark wizard to call Harry by his first name and he still called Hermione 'Miss Granger' despite their long years of correspondence.
She had nothing but the utmost respect for him and they discussed all sorts of subjects in their letters and indeed when they saw each other at the annual Weasley Christmas party. She admired his intelligence, had come to find his dry sense of humour astounding and even more astoundingly she found that she enjoying verbally giving as good as she got and so did Harry. That wasn't to say that Severus Snape was a friend to all; he wasn't nor did he attempt to be. But it was clear enough to those select few, that he viewed them as friends, even if they had to ignore the back handed insults or retort with their own. That was half the fun after all.
The following morning, she arrived in the headmasters' office in Hogwarts at exactly nine am and was met with a smiling Minerva and a stoic Severus Snape.
"Good morning professors," Hermione greeted them, smiling happily.
"Minerva, please," she replied, "We're colleagues after all," she added and Hermione nodded.
"It's good to be back," the younger witch said.
"Then like everyone else here, you're mad, clearly," Severus stated, dryly.
"All the best people are," she replied with a shrug, quoting one of her favourite childhood books, Alice in Wonderland.
"Well then, Alice, welcome back to Wonderland," the headmaster said and she could only stare, stunned that he'd understood her reference. "Trying to catch flies, are you?" he asked, amused.
"No," Hermione replied, finding her voice again. "Just trying to figure out...if I'm Alice, are you the Mad Hatter or the Cheshire Cat?" she asked.
"Hopefully, neither," he snorted.
"Hmmm," she mused. "For all we know, Wonderland could be some kind of warped version of Hogwarts. Lewis Carroll was rumoured to be a squib, or so I've read, he could've known about it," she said, more to herself but if course he heard it.
"Yes, I know," he replied and she was practically beaming at this point.
"Really? And you read the..."
"Yes, I read it. Now, please, save your enthusiasm for muggle literature for the students."
"I'll do my best, headmaster," she said, attempting to hide a smile.
"I can't help rather feeling as though I'm missing something here," Minerva remarked.
"It's a muggle book," Hermione answered.
"Ah, I see," she nodded. "Well, perhaps you could explain it to me over a cup of tea," Minerva suggested.
"You might need something stronger than tea," Severus said.
"It's nine in the morning, Severus," Minerva sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Tell me that after Professor Granger has finished explaining the story to you," he replied and Hermione snorted. "You can be the mad Queen of Hearts," he added, much to the confusion of his deputy and the amusement of the new Muggle Studies Professor.
Hermione spent the remainder of the day with the other professors who'd remained at the castle in the staff room but eventually, as it grew late, she and the headmaster were the only ones left. At some point in the evening someone had opened a bottle of firewhiskey and they'd managed for work their way through a considerable amount of it.
"I guess we're the last ones standing," Hermione remarked as Severus poured himself a generous glass of whiskey.
"And to the victors go the spoils," he remarked, raising his glass to her slightly. "Now, you can tell me what on Earth you're really doing here," he said, looking over at her.
"Excuse me?" she asked, confused.
"You could be doing any number of things with your life. You're not a stupid witch."
"Well, thank you for that," Hermione scoffed, "I suppose it's a compliment coming from you."
"The only one you'll get this side of Christmas, I assure you," he retorted. "Now, the truth. You honestly want to spend your days teaching ignorant magical children the norms and values of the muggle world?"
"Yes, I do," she answered, simply.
"Why?" he asked. He clearly didn't intend it to be insulting though many would have taken it that way. She knew better. He was genuinely curious, or at least she believed he was. Then again, he was a master Occlumens, so who could ever really tell what went on inside his head?
"Are you going to laugh at me?" Hermione asked him sardonically.
"I suppose that depends on your answer," he replied and she glared at him, unamused. "If you're about to tell me you've turned into Sybil Trelawney and a vision from beyond told you do it, then yes I probably will."
"No visions, no."
"Although I suppose, whatever you might say, I can't laugh at it. My reputation would never survive. Vampire bats don't laugh, you see."
"Well, there's no witnesses here," she said, gesturing to the otherwise empty room.
"What are you then? Scotch mist?" *1
Hermione scoffed, "Now there's a phrase you don't hear very often. It's easy to forget you're from the north sometimes."
"Don't you start on that as well, I get enough of that from Lucius. Bloody Southerns the lot of you," he grumbled into his goblet, "And don't change the subject, Granger."
"I thought I was doing quite a good job of it actually," she said, sheepishly. "Alright. I wanted something as far away from the Ministry as possible, that's why I opened the bookshop and went into teaching in the first place. And it's why I came back here. Aside from the fact that I love this castle and I missed it of course. After the war I thought that working in the Ministry was what I should be doing. Everyone said so and it was...good, at first I think. Then it just...started turning sour, bit by bit. There was miles of paperwork for everything for no reason at all. I was trying to fight for people who have no one else to fight for them only for them to tell me I shouldn't have bothered in the first place. Whatever laws I managed to pass were overruled pretty soon afterwards or just outright ignored. The people I was reporting to didn't even seem to care about the work."
"That's politics for you," he shrugged. "So that's it then? The joys of British Politics wore you down so you left and went the opposite way?"
"That's about it, yeah. I thought at least if I could teach magical children who don't know anything about muggles that there's really nothing to be afraid of, maybe I could still do something useful. I suppose it's like changing the History of Magic syllabus from the Goblin Rebellions and the Giant Wars to...Vol...erm...to how the Dark Lord came to power," she said, just about managing to stop herself from saying his name.
Harry had told that even now, the older man still didn't say the name, not simply out of fear or of anything the old burn scar left by the long removed Dark Mark could possibly do. But he'd been acclimatised to it, all Death Eaters had and learned behaviour wasn't easily broken.
"Point taken," Severus said after a moment. He'd long since changed the History of Magic syllabus to try and educate the students about how and why the recent wizarding wars had happened in an attempt to prevent any future wars. Professor Binns had been a little slow on the uptake, but ghosts were usually quite set in their ways. Luckily, he'd complied, eventually. "Hardly a laughable offence, anyway," he shrugged.
"Thank you," she muttered, quietly.
"Just be aware that most of the students will ignore you as much as the Ministry did."
"Possibly," she said.
"And paperwork will not be a distant memory."
"I know," Hermione nodded.
"You're not running for the hills yet?"
"Not yet."
"Mad as a March hare," Severus grumbled.
*1 Scotch mist - idiom. Something that is hard to find or doesn't exist. A saying from Yorkshire or Lancashire, according to Wikipedia anyway.
A.N. Some people probably won't like the fact that I ended Ron and Hermione's relationship but I gave them two years that's better than nothing surely. Honestly, I don't think I've changed my mind about them. Just seems like they don't have much in common other than the craziness of Harry's life and surviving the war together. That's not to say I'm going to go down the path of a Snape and Hermione relationship yet, I'm still undecided but if I do, at least she'll be older rather than being a student because I agree that that's just completely and utterly bizarre. For now though, they're two intelligent friends who banter.
I honestly quite like how this chapter turned out despite the liberties I took. Let me know what you think :)
