Episode Forty Three
Sitting at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, everyone was surprised to see that Hermione wasn't face down in a book. This morning she was being read to and she could hardly suppress the giggles as Gwen read aloud from a brochure Professor McGonagall had passed out to all of the seventh years.
"The Ministry of Magic and you. Do you think you might have a real future in magic? It all begins here in our state of the art facilities located in a secret underground, miles below London. You could be speaking eighteen different languages as an ambassador to other ministry installations around the world. You could be arranging sporting events like the Quidditch World Cup with the department of Magical Games. You could be seeking to better the relations of witches, wizards and muggles all across the globe with our Department for Muggle Relations."
"You could be writing boring, eighty foot long parchments on the thickness of cauldron bottoms." Chimed in Ron. Everyone sitting within ear-shot broke into gales of laughter. Many of them had heard of Percy's anal retentive attention to detail in his reports for the Ministry of Magic.
Gwen laughed as well. She didn't think the MoM was quite what she was looking for. She was certain Harry would go on to play Quidditch professionally if he didn't become an Auror. She felt that Ron might go into business with Fred and George, whose Weasley's Wizard Wheezes joke shop was a great success. She was certain Hermione would follow proudly in Percy's anal footsteps.
Gwen however, had no clearly defined goals.
She thought about going back to the "real world," which was very much like her dream world and trying to get into the theatre again. She could act, or do tech work backstage. She hadn't forgotten any of the things she had learned during the dream and she knew that they were close to the real thing. Then she thought, maybe she could just run away to the mound and live out the rest of her life with Gemma and the other fey.
But Harry. She wanted to be close to Harry. If she went back out into the "real world" she might never see Harry again. And if she returned to the mound to live that might never would turn into a definitely never.
"What do you think I should do?" She asked him quietly in between bites of sausage.
"Do what?" Harry asked.
"Do for a career after Hogwarts."
"I think you should stay here and hang out with me, help me study."
She smiled. It was a nice thought, but she didn't think it possible. Unless… Of course, she could become a teacher of magic. Maybe she could take an assistant teaching position at Hogwarts and then take on a full position when some older staff member retired. Hell, maybe she could teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. Snape was the only one who was keen to take the position as it was always being vacated, but Dumbledore never allowed him to step up to the plate. Maybe he would let Gwen.
Harry gazed at her, watching her eyes glass over with that day dreamy look they sometimes did. Her head tilted ever so slightly to the right and a little smile was playing on her lips. If Harry didn't know her better he might have thought she was having a petite seizure, the kind where you zone out. But he'd spent enough time with her to know that the gears were cranking in her head and that something he'd said had set them to work.
