Chapter 1

Hermione shivered. But, while it was a rather cold spring day, the main reason for her discomfort did not lie in the terrible weather, it was caused by the building in front of her. The young witch took a deep breath and let her gaze wander over the place she used to call her home. Hogwarts still held a very special place in her heart – so many happy memories were connected to this castle – but it also brought back memories of great loss. Memories she would rather keep down hidden deep in a place in her mind. Memories she would need to keep hidden – or else she would not be able to do this.

It has been almost a year since the battle of Hogwarts was won. Unlike most of her friends Hermione did not return to the school to finish her last year. Instead she spent her time travelling, researching and processing everything that had happened. She had known the war would claim many victims. She had thought she would be prepared for watching her friends die. She had thought she would be able to deal with the loss.

The first time she realized that she was wrong was when she saw Fenrir Greyback pulling his claws deep inside Lavender Brown's neck, a huge grin on his face – She still woke up from the sounds of Lavender's screams in her head.

The second time she realized that she was wrong was when she found George sobbing on the ground – his dead twin brother in is arms, the smile from the joke he just told still on his lips.

The third time she realized she was wrong was when she entered the great hall only moments later. The hall was filled with battle screams and cries. She got distracted for a split second, shooting a spell in the direction of a Death Eater dueling Tonks in a corner. She saw the burst of green lighting aimed at her way too late. She had no time to react. But the spell never hit its intended target.

After this, everything was a blur. She remembered another blast of green hitting the Death Eater who targeted her, Harry screaming, her turning around, then Remus Lupin running her way, trying to block her view from the scene in front of her. But it was too late – the image of her dead best friend already carved into her head forever.

She was supposed to die that night. The spell was meant for her. Instead, Molly Weasley had to burry not one but two sons after the battle. Ron had thrown himself right between her and the killing curse.

His death broke something deep inside Hermione. She just couldn't get herself to return to Hogwarts after the battle. The loss of her best friend was just too fresh, her mind too fragile, her spirit too broken. She spent the last months trying to deal with the guilt. She kept in touch with Harry and Ginny, their letters helping her to slowly start healing. It was them who encouraged her to accept McGonagall's offer. She had spent a couple of days in the Romanian forest, collecting some rare potions ingredients when the letter of the headmistress had reached her.

Dearest Miss Granger,

I hope you are well and your travels manage to offer you some peace and quiet. I know the past few months have been especially tough for you, which is why I did not take the decision to reach out to you lightly. However, time is not on my side and I am in urgent need of your assistance. As you may know, I have taken over the position as headmistress of Hogwarts after the death of Severus Snape, which is why I will not be able to keep teaching Transfiguration for the upcoming school year. Finding a replacement has turned out to be trickier than expected. Miss Granger, you have always been one of my brightest and frankly, one of the most talented students I ever had the honor of teaching. I feel like, despite your young age, you would be more than capable of sharing your knowledge with the students of Hogwarts. I would be honored to offer you the position as Hogwarts' new transformation teacher. Please consider my offer thoroughly and meet me in two weeks in the castle to discuss the details.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Hermione knew deep down that coming back to Hogwarts was the right decision. She needed to get her life back in order. After all, this is what Ron would have wanted – otherwise, he would have died for nothing. She just wasn't sure if she could actually do that.

The sound of footsteps pulled Hermione out of her thoughts. She raised her head and saw Hagrid making his way from the castle towards the gate.

"'Mione!" He grumbled while turning his keys to open the gate. "Glad that you decided to come. C'mon McGonagall is in her office. Password's Epoximise."

After Hagrid pulled Hermione in a big bear hug, he walked her up to the entrance to McGonagall's office in the West Towers, purposefully avoiding any of the areas that could trigger flashbacks from the war for the young witch. The half-giant gave Hermione one last encouraging shoulder pet and then left her in front of the gargoyles guarding McGonagall's office. She murmured "Epoximise.", took another deep breath and walked up the stairs that had just been revealed in front of her.

Hermione looked around the room. The Headmistress' office looked almost exactly like Hermione remembered. McGonagall added only a few personal touches, a picture of her favorite Quidditch Team on the desk, a couple of very thick transformation books in the corner. She was sitting on a chair, opposite the older witch and tried her best to contain the nervous feeling in her stomach.

McGonagall gave her a warm smile. "Miss Granger. I am so glad you decided to consider my proposal."

"To be honest, it took quite some convincing from everyone." Hermione admitted. "But I guess, it's the right thing to do and the more I've been thinking about, the more I feel like I will actually enjoy teaching."

McGonagall smiled at that. "Yes, I am sure you will. I believe during your time at Hogwarts you already spent more time teaching your fellow classmates than any other student." She chuckled, then her tone grew more serious again. "I believe you are more than capable to do this job. However, there will be some complications." Hermione nodded. "You mean the new ministry regulations, right?", she replied.

Hermione had spent a great amount of the last weeks catching up on the new educational decrees set by the Ministry. Apparently, the Ministry finally realized that having people that never actually learned proper teaching educating their children might not be the smartest idea and might even lead to one of them being a criminal in disguise or a man hiding one of the darkest wizards of all time on the backside of his head.

As a consequence, it was decided that from now on every new teacher of Hogwarts would need to go through a proper teaching training. One of Hogwarts established teachers would act as a supervisor, meaning they would regularly watch and evaluate classes and offer support and advice. The training would be concluded by a formal examination of one lesson by a delegation of Ministry officials. Only after successfully passing that examination, Hermione would be considered a proper teacher at Hogwarts.

McGonagall stood up from her chair and started pacing through the room. "Excatly. I should have known you'd spent your time informing yourself about all of this", she gave Hermione and approving nod and continued, "I am fairly confident that you will pass the examination with flying colors, but I will be completely honest with you here. Finding a supervisor for you has not been particularly easy. I would usually do it myself, but with all the changes happening, I am already in a bit of a struggle to fulfill my duties as headmistress." Hermione was confused at that; she had been certain that McGonagall would end up being her mentor.

The headmistress seemed to sense her confusion and continued. "To say Hogwarts is understaffed would be an understatement, the only teacher with enough capacity to mentor you is Professor Black."

Hermione couldn't suppress a shocked gasp. She was about to interrupt her former professor but the woman just put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and went on. "Before you freak out, let me assure you she would not have been my first choice. I know you two didn't get along exactly well during your time here as a student and I am also well aware of the fact that Miss Black can have quite a temper-"

"Understatement of the century…"

"However," McGonagall interrupted, now a bit sharper, "She is one of the most capable witches this school has ever seen and you will learn a lot from her. Don't forget that she also suffered very much during the war, give this a chance."

Hermione thought about McGonagall's words for a while. To say she and Bellatrix Black had a complicated relationship would be an extenuation. During her time at Hogwarts, Bellatrix Black had shared the position of Hogwarts Transfiguration teacher with McGonagall and had then taken over as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher after Professor Moody turned out to be a criminal in disguise.

Black's reputation proceeded her. Her classes were feared by the students. Black was very strict, her expectations exceptionally high and she had absolutely no tolerance for failure. She demanded respect from her students, but did not always show respect in return. Every student was completely intimidated by the woman, Hermione included. Still, she had gotten into countless arguments with her teacher. Hermione felt like the woman absolutely despised her and it really did not help that Black was raised by one of the most prestigious pureblood families of the Wizarding World – which made the muggleborn Hermione even more worthless in her eyes.

So now Black was supposed to give her helpful advice and support during her training?

Great.

What could possibly go wrong?

While she was never convicted, there had been many rumors of Black being a Death Eater during the first war. So, it had surprised nobody when Professor Black finally seemed to show her true colors and openly pledged her allegiance to Voldemort when he returned to power. She helped Snape to take over the school, and when she wasn't with him, she was always at Voldemort's side as one of his most trusted advisers. However, nobody expected what Harry saw in Dumbledore's pensive after he collected Snape's memories, the last gift of a dying man. The revelation of Voldemort having not only one but two spies within his rows came as a surprise to almost everyone. Both Black and Snape had secretly passed on information to the order all along.

Still, the Wizarding community remained skeptical towards the witch. Years and years of mistrust and hatred just did not vanish overnight.

Hermione herself also did not quite know what to make of the woman. She might not have been the villain everyone made her out to be, but she still made Hermione's time at Hogwarts far less enjoyable. She bullied the girl at every given occasion, gave her countless detentions for the smallest reasons and always pushed her to work a little harder than all of her classmates.

However, in the end Hermione had to admit that she never learned more than she did in Black's classes. The woman even fascinated her in a way. While she clearly had a temper, Black was a very skilled witch with deep knowledge of the most difficult spells and curses. Her practical presentations in class had always been flawless and rumor had it she was one of the strongest Legilimens the Wizarding World had ever seen.

This was probably why, despite her better judgement, Hermione came to a decision. She raised her head and looked McGonagall in the eyes. "Okay.", she agreed in a firm and steady voice, "Let's do this."

She was not quite sure what she had gotten herself into….