Tale of a Smart Witch: Rebrewed
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes. Warning: Completely AU.
"I've heard and seen a lot about the battle at Hogsmeade," Dumbledore finally continued, once the three heads of the houses had taken their seats, "and everyone was talking about the girl who chased away the Dementors and vanquished the Death Eaters."
Hermione felt herself blushing, however, finding herself at a loss of words, for once remained quiet.
"We have the impression as if you were specially trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts," Dumbledore added, giving her a questioning look.
"Not really, no, sir. During our fourth year, Barty Crouch Junior impersonated Alastor Moody as our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he taught us a lot. At the same time, my friend unwillingly became a champion for the Triwizard tournament, and I practised with him almost all year. We might have picked up some useful spells," Hermione admitted, smirking, while the headmaster's eyes widened in apparent surprise at the mentioning of the Triwizard Tournament.
"Ms. Granger, I promised to think of a task for you and Mr. Snape," Dumbledore then said, nodding contentedly. "In the same way as I'd like to keep Mr. Snape at Hogwarts after his graduation, possibly as Professor Slughorn's successor, however, this has to remain a secret, because I haven't spoken to Professor Slughorn about the matter yet, let alone Severus," he continued, "I wish to keep you as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. However, as you probably know from the future, the position is cursed."
"Yes, I know that. Voldemort cursed it, because you refused to employ him as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor," Hermione replied, smiling.
"Indeed. Therefore, I need you and Severus to find a way around that curse. I wish to employ you for the position in two years' time, and I'd like you to remain on it for a very long time," the headmaster informed her, "provided that you wish to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts."
"I'd love it," Hermione replied, feeling absolutely delighted at the prospect of becoming a teacher at Hogwarts.
"Very good." Dumbledore nodded, seemingly contented. "There's one more point that I wish to discuss with you." Apparently realising that Hermione looked at him with interest, he continued to speak. "I've founded the Order of the Phoenix and invited the first members to meet in my office. However, as the group grows, which it hopefully will, this office is going to be too small. Therefore, I intend to use one apartment adjacent to the corridor leading to the teachers' quarters as meeting room."
Hermione nodded, wondering what the headmaster intended to tell her. "Unfortunately, I can neither invite you nor Severus to the Order, because if I did so, good friends like, for example, the Potters, would wonder why their children have not been invited. Therefore, I have decided to only add members who are of age in the magical world."
Hermione smirked. "Professor, I'm going to be of age in five days' time," she said in a soft voice, "and I'd love to become a member of the Order."
"Have you been a member in the future?" McGonagall spoke up, giving her a sharp look.
"No, because Professor Dumbledore only told me that he was going to revive the old Order of the Phoenix after Voldemort's rebirth, which was about a week, before I came here," Hermione replied.
"Very well, then you may join after your birthday," the headmaster relented. "What I was going to say, however, was that you and Severus may feel free to use our headquarters for your research. We still have to decide what to tell the Order members about you. I've asked Professor Flitwick to develop a charm which should prevent the members to speak about the fact that you're a time traveller and that Severus is our spy on Voldemort."
"I hope to have a charm until next Sunday," Flitwick spoke up with apparent enthusiasm.
"I'm looking forward to the meeting," Hermione added, smiling.
HP
When Hermione returned to the common room, Remus pulled her aside.
"May I speak with you in private?" he enquired, and Hermione had the impression as if he were strangely hesitant.
"Of course," she replied, matter-of-factly, and led him out of the common room and into one of the empty classrooms, which she had already used with Severus a couple of times.
"What happened?" she asked, smiling at her friend.
"I'm sorry to bother you," Remus slowly began to speak, causing Hermione to frown. "It's about the girlfriend matter. You know, you all said that I'm not a werewolf anymore and that it doesn't matter that I was one, but you know, I was one. I don't really want to talk about that, but if I had a girlfriend, not telling her everything would be unfair. I mean…." He gave Hermione a helpless look, tears welling in his eyes.
"You're not a werewolf anymore, so you can simply tell her about it. She won't mind," Hermione protested immediately. "Shall we ask Lily to change the prefect duties in a way, so that you can do your rounds together with Amelia?"
"Thanks Hermione," Remus said, gratefully. "You're an amazing friend."
Hermione smiled, as she said, "I'm sure that you would do the same for me. Good luck with Amelia.
"Hermione, I know that you're not supposed to speak about it, but did I marry Amelia in your future?"
Hermione sighed. "No Remus. Amelia didn't marry anyone, and the woman, a very nice woman, whom you married in spite of still being a werewolf, was much younger than you. I believe that she isn't even born yet. So, good luck with Amelia," she said in a soft voice, smiling at Remus, before she gave the password to the Fat Lady and entered the common room.
HP
The first meeting of the Order of the Phoenix took place in the evening of Hermione's seventeenth birthday. While she would have liked to spend the evening just with Severus, she was very excited to be able to participate in the first meeting ever, and upon hearing that Severus was allowed to attend as Dumbledore's spy, she was delighted.
The headmaster had diverted his incoming Floo to the meeting room, and the guests slowly began to arrive. Most of the people stepping out of the fireplace Hermione knew from the future, except the Potters and a few other couples such as, for example, the McKinnons, who had already been killed by Voldemort, before she had even been born. She had to force herself to not outright stare at the people whom she knew from her time, who all seemed so young in this time. Molly and Arthur Weasley, for example, attended the meeting with their toddlers, Bill and Charlie. 'Oh Merlin, how cute are they?' she thought in amazement, remembering their adult counterparts with mixed feelings. 'Oh no, I'm not going to be sentimental,' she lightly scolded herself, when the meeting finally began.
First of all, Fawkes performed a ceremony, in which he approved each member by sitting on their shoulder for a moment and included them into the Order of the Phoenix. Afterwards, each of the members had to take a wizard's oath and swear by their magic to be loyal to the Order and to Professor Dumbledore and to not reveal Hermione's and Severus' secrets to anyone outside the Order of the Phoenix.
After finishing the ceremonies, a house-elf brought refreshments, and Dumbledore let the meeting begin. He explained about Hermione coming from the future and, to Hermione's shock, informed everyone that she was going to be his assistant and organiser of the Order of the Phoenix. Finally, he revealed that Severus was their spy and was meeting with Voldemort and his Death Eaters on a weekly basis making them believe that he was Voldemort's spy.
"Has he taken the Dark Mark?" an older wizard, whom Hermione recognised as Alastor Moody, even if he still had two normal eyes, gruffly interrupted the headmaster.
"No, he hasn't," Dumbledore assured the Auror.
"Voldemort might still force him to take it," Hermione spoke up, "but if so, then it's neither by Severus' free will nor his fault."
Moody nodded. "Accepted," he said in a much less grumpy voice than Hermione knew it from the future.
HP
When the Order meeting ended, Hermione noticed that it was far beyond curfew and set to hurriedly return to Gryffindor, when Severus kept her back.
"Come with me," he purred and led her to the room, which he had occupied during the summer.
"Are you still using the room?" she asked in surprise, causing Severus to smirk.
"Well, not really, but no one else is using it either, so I took the liberty of occupying it for your birthday party," he admitted in a whisper.
"But…" she vaguely protested, however, shut up upon noticing how beautifully decorated the room was. A table was set in the centre of the room, equipped with seventeen candles and several small bouquets of colourful flowers, while the surroundings were mostly kept in the dark. However, one could get the impression as if the table was placed in the spotlight and surrounded by invisible curtains, which were also decorated with flowers.
Just when Severus motioned her to take a seat at the table, which was set for two persons, a house-elf appeared next to them.
"Ah Hermione, this is Cicero, my personal house-elf," Severus introduced the elf and explained that Cicero had been his mother's elf, but that Severus had sent him to Hogwarts when his mother died, knowing that his father greatly disliked the elf. "Now I have Cicero back, and I believe that we're both very glad about it," he ended his tale.
"Hello Cicero," Hermione said, smiling. "I'm very happy to meet you."
Cicero bowed deeply and replied, "Cicero feels honoured to serve Master Severus and Mistress Hermione."
Cicero served all kind of delicacies along with a bottle of semi-sweet champagne, and even if they already had dinner in the Great Hall as well as refreshments during the Order meeting, Hermione thoroughly enjoyed what Cicero had prepared and managed to eat a little of everything.
Only when they both realised that they could not possibly stomach any more food, Cicero cleared the table, only leaving the bottle and two glasses.
Severus rose from his seat and stepped around to her side of the small table. Kneeling in front of her, he asked her, "In spite of knowing that we have to keep this a secret to the world, will you become my girlfriend?"
"Yes," Hermione replied, happily, smiling, when he stood from his position on the floor next to her and gently pulled her into a kiss.
When he returned to his seat, he placed a small, dark green box onto the table and opened it, revealing two rings. "These are friendship rings," he explained. "While mine is charmed to be invisible to everyone but you and me, yours will look to others just like a normal ring." He took the smaller of the two rings out of the box, causing Hermione to instinctively hold out her left hand's ring finger. Severus gently slid the ring over her finger, watching how it adjusted itself to the correct size.
"Thank you so very much," Hermione replied, feeling incredibly happy. "What exactly is a friendship ring though?" she asked in a soft voice.
"A friendship ring is as much as a promising ring," Severus replied, smiling. "It's my promise to at one time exchange it with an engagement ring, plus it gives us the ability of communication. If we both wear the ring, we can communicate through telepathy."
"So, I can just think to you, even if you're not with me?" Hermione asked in excitement. "I'll always wear it."
'So will I,' Severus thought to her, 'and yes, it works.'
'Brilliant,' Hermione thought back, happily staring at the ring. It was very originally decorated with two cats. 'No. Horses?' she wondered in surprise, as the animals stretched and slowly moved in front of the silver background, before they curled up against each other to cuddle. 'They're our Animagi forms,' she thought to Severus, who nodded in apparent amusement.
"Thank you so much. This is totally amazing," Hermione said aloud.
"I'm glad that you like it," Severus replied. "However, seeing that it's already midnight, I believe that we should turn in for the night."
They exchanged another passionate kiss and bade each other good night, before Cicero popped Hermione right into her dormitory.
Before Hermione could do as much as thank him, the relatively tall elf was already gone.
'This was the best birthday ever,' Hermione thought, as she drifted off to sleep, fingering her new ring with her right hand in happiness.
HP
The Marauders greatly admired Hermione's ring, however, she refused to tell them who had given it to her. Only when Lily asked her in private if it had been Severus' birthday present, she admitted secretly being Severus' girlfriend.
"Please don't tell anyone though," she pleaded with her best friend.
"Of course not," Lily said, gently. "It would endanger both you and him if the wrong people knew about it."
"Yes, I think Dumbledore knows and you now of course, but other than that, we're going to keep it from everyone," Hermione replied, sighing. "Frankly speaking, I'd love to announce to the whole world that I'm together with him, but I'm not that unreasonable."
"I'm sorry," Lily said in a soft voice, "but on the other hand, I'm very happy for you that the two of you managed to get together, even if you have to keep it a secret."
"Yes, that's true," Hermione agreed, smiling. "I'm still very happy."
HP
The next big event was that Remus introduced Amelia Bones to the Marauders as his girlfriend during the Halloween party.
'Well, as happy as I'm for Remus, it's another thing which I changed by inventing the wolvescure together with Severus,' Hermione scolded herself. 'I really ought to be more careful. Who knows what bad effects this might have?'
Nevertheless, she was pleased for Remus and Amelia, and during the remaining months of Amelia's time at Hogwarts until her and the Marauders' graduation, she became a fixed part of the Marauders.
HP
During the next couple of months, Dumbledore accepted the rest of the Marauders into the Order of the Phoenix. Hermione was extremely tempted to warn Dumbledore about not adding Peter Pettigrew to the Order, however, knowing that she was supposed to not change things, she kept quiet. However, before Pettigrew was admitted to the Order, she informed the members that he had been a Death Eater in her time and asked everyone to not let him know about her coming from the future and about Severus being a spy.
"Thank you for sharing this invaluable information," Dumbledore replied and added, "Of course we won't tell him about you and Severus, as his position could be jeopardized."
"Not only that," Hermione replied, feeling extremely annoyed with the old headmaster for not pointing out why it really mattered. "Voldemort would kill him."
HP
"I don't even know if Peter's a Death Eater yet," Hermione said to Severus, when they were sitting in Severus' room to enjoy a quiet rest of the evening and discuss the matters which had come up during the meeting.
Severus remained pensive for a moment, before he slowly said, "Although I've attended at least all the Death Eater meetings on Saturday nights, I can't tell you if he was there. If not explicitly told to remove their masks, many of the Death Eaters wear their masks during the whole evening. I'm sorry, Hermione. I don't have a clue. Without mask, I haven't seen him. That I'm sure about."
"Thank you, Sev," Hermione replied, smiling. "Well, if you get to know that he got the Dark Mark, please tell me."
"Of course, I will," Severus promised before leaning over to pull her into a light kiss, to which she replied, happily.
HP
"Sev," Hermione asked one day, "are you going to remain at Hogwarts after your NEWTs?"
Severus let out a deep sigh. "Just like you, ever since we received the Order of Merlin, I got a couple of offers for apprenticeships, and I'm thinking about accepting one. The point is though that I'd prefer to remain at Hogwarts for my Potions mastery, but…"
"Why don't you ask Professor Slughorn?" Hermione asked in excitement, not even realising that he had not finished his explanation yet. "If he could…"
"He doesn't want to," Severus interrupted her, sharply. "Don't you think I've asked him already?"
"Sorry," Hermione mumbled, thinking, 'If he gets like this, he really reminds me of the Professor Snape of the future.' "But Dumbledore said that he wants you to replace Professor Slughorn at some stage. Why don't we ask him if he could convince Slughorn?"
"Ahh, forget it," Severus replied in apparent annoyance. "Sorry, but I need to go and see Dumbledore, before I get ready for the Death Eater meeting tonight. I'll see you in the morning."
"Okay Sev," Hermione said, smiling, when he gently placed a kiss on her cheek before leaving the room.
Looking at her wrist watch, she decided that there was still half an hour before dinner, just enough to speak with Professor Slughorn about Severus' problem.
However, she was half-way down to the dungeons, when she decided otherwise. 'As much as I want Sev to remain here over the summer, I mustn't interfere with this,' she thought, letting out a deep sigh. Wondering where Severus had studied for his Potions mastery in her old time, she thought, 'I only know that he was the youngest Potions Master ever, but not where he studied for his mastery.'
HP
In the end, the headmaster forced Professor Slughorn to take Severus as his apprentice, so that he would be able to take his mastery right after Hermione's NEWTs or during the following year at the latest. At the same time, he arranged for Alastor Moody to come to Hogwarts every morning during the summer holidays to train Hermione in Defence Against the Dark Arts.
To Hermione's chagrin, they still had not found a way to cancel the curse from the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor's position. In fact, they did not even have a clue how to proceed. Of course, the idea of changing the classroom or even the name of the class had come to their minds, however, they did not believe that it would help against the curse.
"Maybe Hogwarts herself could help us," Severus said one day.
"Hogwarts?" Hermione asked, incredulously. "But how are we even going to ask her?"
"At least the headmaster should be able to communicate with the castle," Severus replied, matter-of-factly, only to add, "How else can he make additional rooms or such?"
"How can he talk to the castle?" Hermione asked, doubtfully, when a sudden idea crossed her mind. She rose from the spot, where the two of them were seated on the window sill in the small oriel of her room, turned around and laid both hands on the bare wall right next to the window.
"Hogwarts, can you hear me?" she enquired in a small voice.
"Yes, my dear, it's about time that you talk to me," a never-heard voice responded. It was the gentle voice of an older woman.
"Hogwarts?" Hermione breathed in disbelief, as Severus jumped from his seat in shock.
"Yes, that I am," the castle replied, letting out a small chuckle. "I was very excited when you first set foot in here," she continued. "I immediately felt that you had to be the heiress of two of my founders."
Hermione stared at Severus in shock, before she replied, "I'm sorry Hogwarts, but that's not possible. I am muggleborn."
"Rubbish," the castle corrected her. "If you were muggleborn, you wouldn't be able to communicate with me, and as I just said, I can feel that you're my heiress."
'Something is very wrong here,' Hermione thought, giving Severus a helpless look.