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Thanks to the people who reviewed: Merusa - thank you! Rebecca - yeah, I think regular updates are nice…Danny - thanks! Gwen - I dunno how to make draco mean! Lol! I'm stupid! Moi - thanks, you're a great editor! Escritora - thank you! Nessa - yeah, I totally understand you. I absolutely hate it when my computer goes all slow. And thanks! Jessica - ok, well, here's the update! No name person again - thanks for your compliments! Korinna - thanks! yeah, hermione and snape both needs friends, Melissa Potter - ok, alright! Lulu - thanks, and here's more!

Connie - thanks for your email/review!

And thanks to my wonderful beta - Moi

~

Forever Never Ends

Chapter 15

Hermione entered the classroom slowly, slumping into her chair as she reached her desk. She was a nervous wreck. In just ten minutes, she would formally become the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher. In ten minutes, she would meet her first class of first years, and actually teach. In ten minutes…she didn't even want to think about it. Just the thought of it made her queasy. Part of her was nervous, and the other part was excited. She truly hoped that her pupils would like her. She didn't want to be hated like…well…Severus.

Although he was a good friend now, she had to admit that he was her least favorite teacher back when she was at Hogwarts. She and her friends had been hoping all through the seven years that he would be sacked or die of a horrible and incurable disease.

She took a deep breath and looked over on her desk to see all the course books sitting neatly there. But that wasn't all, she realized. There was also a parcel wrapped in brown paper resting silently on the old wooden desk. Curious, she reached out to pick it up and put it in her lap. There was no letter or note on it, but she was certain it was for her.

She slowly untied the strings on it and they fell onto the ground. Then she began to very carefully take off the wrapping. After all the wrapping was off, she held the contents of the package up to look at it. It was a book; a very familiar looking book:

Hogwarts, A History

Hermione laughed when she realized that it was her favorite book. She hadn't seen it for years, and now, tears of joy slid down her face as she ran a hand over the book, feeling the hard cover made of dragonhide. She flipped open the book and saw a note written on the cover.

Dear Hermione,

This is a gift from all of us. We hope you enjoy it. We wish you luck on your first day of teaching.

Sincerely,

The Hogwarts Staff

Underneath, there were signatures of all the teachers at Hogwarts, even Mr. Filch, the caretaker.

Hermione sighed happily. She hadn't been planning on a surprise like this and she was very thankful for their gift. She sat there, leaving through the pages, remembering everything on each page until a few minutes later, when the first child entered the room. Hermione closed the book and smiled at the young girl, and she smiled back meekly. The girl took a seat in the second row.

In the next few minutes, the room started filling up as more and more students poured in. It was almost time for class to start, but, however, there were still three empty seats in the classroom. Hermione decided to call roll, and had barely begun when she was interrupted by loud voices outside the classroom.

"Are you sure it's here?" asked a boy's voice.

"Yes, I'm sure, and we're going to be late if you don't hurry up!" This was a girl's voice.

"I think we already are," said another boy's voice.

"Oh, wonderful!" said the girl, a note of panic in her voice as loud and hurried footsteps neared the door.

Suddenly, the door swung open, and a girl with long silvery blond hair peeked in. Hermione immediately recognized her. It was his daughter. Two more faces peeked in and she recognized them as Alex Weasley and Chris Potter.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. We got lost. Are we late?" asked Becca, who truly looked sorry.

Hermione was so dumbfounded that she didn't answer, until a few seconds later when she finally realized she had been asked a question. She snapped out of her daze and shook her head. "Oh, no, no, no! Have a seat."

The three of them filed into the room and took a seat next to each other at the front of the classroom.

Hermione started to call roll again, but didn't see the necessity in it. After all, all the seats were already filled up, which meant everyone was present. But she realized calling roll would give her a good chance to learn everyone's names. The whole process went along pretty smoothly, except that Hermione's voice had quivered a bit when she called out, "Rebecca Malfoy?"

After the roll call, Hermione looked into the flood of faces and felt faint. How was she supposed to teach them? She had memorized a whole speech that she had written just for this occasion, and now, she had forgotten everything. She tried to find something to say. They probably all hated her, she thought miserably.

"Hi…everyone." There were a few snickers from the Slytherin side of the room. Her first class was Gryffindor and Slytherin. "I'm Hermione Granger…and I will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year. You may call me Professor Granger."

A girl on the Slytherin side of the room rolled her eyes and whispered loudly to the girl beside her. "Honestly, and she calls herself a teacher!"

Hermione pretended that she didn't hear, but those words played over and over in her mind. Her eyes watered up.

I can't do this…

She wanted to melt into the ground. She wanted to run out the door and never come back. But then she realized that she couldn't give up. After all, Albus and the rest of the staff were counting on her. She couldn't let them down. So, she gathered up all her courage and began to talk.

"Please take out your textbooks and turn to page three," she said, gaining some of her confidence back. She began to write on the blackboard behind her. "Read the first paragraph on that page and then copy these notes after me."

The rest of the class went along smoothly, with hardly any trouble. Today, the students were just basically told what they were going to learn throughout the year, and what was expected of them. The hour and a half went by quickly and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as class ended. The students all left the classroom hurriedly.

Probably want to get away from me…

Hermione sat down in her chair and rested her head on her desk. She had a half-hour of rest before her next class would start.

"Er…Professor Granger?"

Hermione lifted her head up in surprise, and realized that one student had not left the classroom and was now standing in front of her desk. It was Rebecca. Oh, great.

"Can I help you?"

Rebecca smiled nervously. "Well, you might think I'm nuts but, could I, uh…"

"What?" asked Hermione. She certainly wasn't trying to be nice. Although she didn't want to treat this child badly just because of a grudge against the child's father, she couldn't help it. Looking at Rebecca reminded her of him, and that brought on so many feelings - anger, hate, sadness, loss, and maybe even jealousy of the woman who was Rebecca's mother. It was all his fault.

I hate you, Draco Malfoy…

"Could I see your owl?" Rebecca blurted out, shattering Hermione's thoughts. She looked at the professor pleadingly.

Hermione and Rebecca's eyes locked for a brief moment in which Hermione realized that the girl's eyes were a deep blue, and not the icy gray that she had been expecting. Hermione found warmth in those eyes, and smiled. There was something so familiar about them…but she couldn't put her finger on it. She became annoyed with herself when she realized that no matter how much she wanted to hate this girl she just couldn't. But that didn't stop her from trying. "She's in my room right now and this really isn't a convenient time."

"Actually, she's right there," said Rebecca, pointing to the far corner of the room.

Hermione smiled meekly. "Oh, then I guess she is."

"Can I go look at her?"

"Go ahead," said Hermione, very exasperated, giving up on her plan to try to be mean.

Becca ran over to the owl, who was perched in her cage. Hermione followed her and the two of them stood there admiring the beauty of the owl.

"She's beautiful!"

And here, Hermione relaxed and smiled a very big smile. "Yes, she is, isn't she?"

"What'd you name her?"

"Coffee."

"That's a cute name! Would you mind if I visited her at another time?"

"If you would like."

"Well, thanks for letting me see her! I better be hurrying along to my next class or else I'll be late."

"You're welcome, see you later!"

Hermione watched as Rebecca rushed out and scurried down the corridor, leaving her alone in the classroom.

~

"Where were you after Defense Against the Dark Arts?" asked a very curious Chris Potter.

"I was just talking to Professor Granger about something, that's all," Becca replied.

"Oh, let's go sit over there by my cousin!" Alex said as the three of them walked into the Great Hall for lunch. Becca and Chris sat on one side of the long table and Alex sat in the opposite seat.

Earlier that morning, Becca had decided to tell her friends about what the sorting hat had said to her. Now was the perfect chance.

"I have something very important that I have to tell you two."

Chris and Alex, upon hearing her serious tone of voice, nodded. "What is it?"

"You remember that sorting hat, right?"

"Of course!" the two boys chorused.

"Did it say anything to you while it was on your head?"

"Oh, yeah, it did. It said that I had lots of courage so it put me in Gryffindor," Alex said.

"And it told me that even though I had brains, I was more like my dad than my mum," Chris said.

Rebecca took a deep breath. "Ok, it said something very unbelievable to me. You know how I was expecting to get into Slytherin, and how everyone was surprised when I ended up in Gryffindor?"

"Yes."

"Well, the sorting hat told me that it was because of my mother's influence that I was put into Gryffindor."

"Was your mum in Gryffindor?"

"See, that's the strange part. My mother was in Slytherin!"

The two boys were speechless. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. And it's been driving me crazy! I want to know why the sorting hat said what it did! I can't find any logic in its words!"

"Yeah, your mum was definitely in Slytherin. After all, everyone knows that the Malfoys want to keep all the Slytherin blood in the family, so they marry only Slytherins. There's no way that your mum could have been in any other house but that."

Alex thought for a moment. "Are you sure you're not adopted?"

Becca looked at him like he was crazy. "Of course I'm sure I'm not adopted. I've got all the Malfoy family traits, as in outer appearance, like my hair. And I have my mother's blue eyes. Well, sort of, anyway."

"What do you mean by 'sort of'?" asked a curious Chris.

Becca shrugged lightly. "It's no big deal. It's just that even though my mother's eyes are blue, and mine are too, they don't look alike at all, aside from the color."

Alex's eyes opened wide. "I know! I know! Maybe she's your stepmum! Does she beat you? Does it hurt? I heard stepmums are awful!"

Becca rolled her eyes at the preposterous idea that Alex had suggested. "Honestly, Alex! My mother loves me. At home, there are pictures of her holding me right after I was born! So you see, she is my real mother!"

"I really don't know what to say, Becca," said Chris, shaking his head slowly. "But we'll find out, alright?"

Becca nodded. "I say, we need to do some serious snooping around."

"And I agree," said Alex.

The three excited friends leaned in and began to discuss in quiet whispers about what sort of dangerous research they were going to do. Becca smirked slyly as she and her friends finalized their plans.

Oh, this is going to be so much fun…

TBC

~

A/N: Ok, um…the end of another chapter! (I always say that, don't I?)(I think I'm a very repetitive person)

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~meg~