The first week of classes went by quickly for Hermione. She found that Hogwarts hadn't done much to update its curriculum in the twenty years from when she attended school the first time around. Many of her professors remained the same as when she was a student, though their Defense professor was obviously a new addition to this year's staff.
"I honestly don't care what this bloke is like," Lily said, as they made their way towards the Defense classroom. "Last year we had an absolute numpty of a man. He could barely tell his wand from his toe, much less teach us how to fight dark wizards. It was our O.W.L. year too! I don't think I've ever spent more time studying for a single class than I did for Defense last year."
There was a general consensus amongst the rest of the sixth year Gryffindors as they filed into the classroom and started shuffling into their seats. James and Sirius took a desk two from the last of the row. Hermione rolled her eyes, thinking of how Harry and Ron often did the same. Not so far back that it was obvious that they wanted to skive off and make trouble, but not close enough to the front that the professor would notice them quickly.
The rest of them took their seats, Hermione taking a spot next to Lily as the Slytherins started to file into the classroom. Hermione found that Hogwarts still clung to its age-old house rivalries and insisted on putting together the two houses in the most volatile of classes.
Entering from the office attached to the classroom, a man of about thirty entered the room. He seemed to be walking with a slight limp, but his aura still commanded power. He stood at the front of the classroom, leaning heavily on a walking stick while the students finished filing in.
"My name is Auror Robards," he said gruffly, "you will address me as such. Do not call me Professor Robards. I will not respond. I am first and foremost, and auror, and this is merely a solution to a short-term problem."
Auror Robards started walking down the length of the classroom, observing each of the students in his class. Hermione recognized his name from her time. She was certain she had heard mentions of him by order members. If she remembered correctly, he was rather high up in the department by the 90s.
"I was injured on duty six months ago. Severed my leg almost completely clean off my body, hanging on by just a tendon." He explained, "It's easy enough to regrow bones and skin, but muscle and connective tissues are a different matter. I won't be cleared for active duty for another ten months. Now I am aware of the curse on this position, and I have no desire to stay here longer than my allotted year, so I figured while I was out of commission, I may as well impart some wisdom on you lot.
"There's darkness brewing out there. The papers won't write about it, besides to mention a missing person here or there if they're high profile enough, and I doubt many of your parents will sit you down and tell you the truth, but there's unrest coming, and you best be ready for it when it does. I'm not going to sugar coat anything in this class. You're here to learn how to defend yourselves and protect those around you, and maybe, if you're lucky, pass your exams. Understood?"
Hermione nodded along with the rest of the Gryffindors. She noted only about half of the Slytherins looked to be as enthralled as her classmates did, but those who didn't wore masks of indifference, or outright glares at the idea of an auror teaching them and calling attention to the current state of affairs.
"Now, let's see what we're working with here." Auror Robards said, gesturing for the class to stand. Once everyone was out of the way, he banished the desks to the corners of the room. "We're going to be dueling today. I want to get a good idea of where each of you is at. We've got twenty of you in this class. We'll two ten duels, five minutes each."
Auror Robards pulled a class roster off of his desk and began called the first pair. Sirius was to duel Burke first. Robards cast a containment bubble around the dueling area and sequestered the rest of the class off to the side. He stated the rules were to disarm your opponent and that anything went as long as it was easily healed and left no lasting damage. Hermione worried about the types of liberties that could be taken with those rules but decided to see how things played out.
She was impressed as she watched Sirius work his way around a wand. She had heard stories of his glory days while they were sequestered away in Grimmauld Place, but to actually see him be put to the test was another thing. He seemed to have an elegance around him that had to be rooted back to his breeding. His mother berating him to be a proper pureblood as he grew up and to move with the grace and agility as one was expected to. She found that he lost that grace in daily life, but when it came to fighting, it was back, and watching him seemed like watching something out of a painting.
She noticed Remus pointedly eyeing him as Sirius deftly claimed Burke's wand in his hand after not letting the Slytherin land even a single hex on him. Burke didn't seem to be particularly talented, but backed up against Sirius, he was no match. Sirius had him defeated in less than a minute and a half.
Hermione watched as her friends continued to duel, taking a particular interest in the way James held his own against Rowle. Hermione recognized him as one of the Death Eaters who had been at the castle the night Dumbledore died. Tonks had been dueling him and it looked brutal. There was something about the man that unsettled her greatly. His pale skin and hair, so similar in color to the Malfoys, looked gaunt and sickly in comparison, but his eyes were sharp and cunning. Hermione knew that even as a sixteen-year-old, he was not one to be taken lightly.
Rowle started the duel quickly with a slashing curse that James immediately blocked. He seemed startled that Rowle would go for something so harsh so early on, but quickly steeled himself and sent back a stunner. The two volleyed back and forth hexing, cursing, and blocking, neither landing on their opponent, and the spells continued to get increasingly darker, especially on Rowle's side as they circled each other in the makeshift battleground.
"I said spells that are easily healed!" Barked Auror Robards after Rowle cast a particularly nasty curse that James easily flung into the barrier, shattering it into thousands of tiny sparks onto the two boys.
Hermione could see sweat starting to pepper James's brow and she knew their time was almost up. If he was anything like Harry, there was no chance he would take to losing easily, and James started casting in such a quick-fire succession that Hermione could barely keep up with the curses he was spewing.
"Let's go, Prongs!" Cried Sirius as James finally landed a particularly harsh stinging hex on Rowle's side. The other boy yelped in surprise which gave James an opening.
"Stupefy!" Cried James, putting all his power behind the one curse. Before Rowle could even raise his wand to block the spell, it collided with his chest and sent him hurtling back towards the stone wall on the other side of the classroom where he landed in a slump.
"Well done, Mr. Potter." Auror Robards said appreciatively, before casting a quick rennervate at Rowle who groggily stood up and sulked on the edge of the classroom as the duels continued, glaring harshly at James.
The pickings on who Hermione would be paired with started to slim out and she had a feeling she would get her wish on being able to hex a certain greasy haired Slytherin sooner than she had realized as they became the last two left to duel.
Hermione's name was called, but a hand on her arm halted her before she could go any further.
"Careful there, Dumbledore." James whispered, "Snivellus is a vicious bastard."
Hermione nodded in understanding before meeting Snape in the middle of the classroom. This was the first time she really had a chance to look at his younger self. He looked washed out, sad, and in desperate need of shampoo. She wondered if it was perhaps the potions fumes that did that to his hair, or if it was just genetics. Either way, it fell in a curtain shrouding his sullen face.
Auror Robards hadn't even made it to three before Hermione was throwing up a protego, having anticipated Snape would fight dirty and cast early. She met his stunner with a blasting curse he easily blocked. Hermione found herself wishing she had tied her own hair up, as it was flopping into her eyes as she ducked out of the way from his slicing hex.
"Alarte Ascendare!" Hermione cried, feeling a vindictive rush of pride course through her as her spell landed and Snape spun through the air, landing unceremoniously on the ground with a thump.
Her joy was short lived as he quickly cast a conjunctivitis curse at her that she narrowly dodged. Hermione found herself having fun as she lost herself in the duel. Her training sessions she had started up in the Room of Requirement were helping her dexterity in casting but being able to fight against a real-life person was immensely different and really pushed her.
She and Snape continued their duel, each landing a couple of hexes here and there. Hermione got hit with a pretty nasty slicing hex across her arm and she could feel the blood dripping off of her. She vaguely heard Lily crying for Auror Robards to put a stop to their duel after blood was drawn, but he waved her off for which Hermione was grateful. There was no way she was going to miss her consequence free chance to hex and curse Snape just because of a little cut.
"Just give up, Dumbledore." Hissed Snape, goading her as he hit her with another slicing hex. This one only grazed her cheek, barely a scratch in the grand scheme of things.
"You wish, Snape." She laughed, "Avis!"
"Birds? Really?" Snape asked, distracted by her new tactic. "How useless. Just like you."
"Really, Snape," Hermione tutted, "Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners? Oppugno."
Hermione watched in satisfaction as her conjured birds started attacking Snape's head, pecking particularly at his face. The Gryffindors roared in laughter as Snape seemed to be bested by some birds, but he quickly banished them and had a ruthless look in his eyes.
"Sectums-"
Hermione's eyes went wide as soon as she heard the first syllable of the spell he was about to cast, remembering the look of absolute terror in Harry's eyes after he had almost killed Malfoy with that very same spell. She knew Snape invented it, but it had been in his sixth-year potions textbook. She didn't know he already created the blasted thing.
"Expelliarmus!" She sighed in relief when her spell landed before his, clutching his wand in her hand. Hermione wanted nothing more than to ream into him, screaming at him that he was a foul idiot who she couldn't believe would even think about using that curse in a classroom, but then she would have to explain how she knew the origins of the curse, and that was a whole can of worms she didn't need opened.
Hermione threw Snape's wand at his feet, ignoring the shower of sparks it let out at the clatter on the floor and tried to catch her breath. She was pleased to note that he looked as rough as she felt, blood dripping from his lip, probably from a nasty bird bite, and his trouser leg ripped to show a skinned knee.
"Well…" Auror Robards said, tapping his walking stick on the floor for good measure. "I believe I have a good idea of where you all stand and can train you accordingly. It seems we've gone a bit over schedule, please inform your next professors that it was my fault and not to penalize you.
"Ms. Dumbledore, Mr. Snape, the two of you may wish to go see Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing to heal those scrapes. Perhaps Ms. Evans could assist you there to ensure the two of you do not decide to pick up where you left off on your duel, yes?"
"Yes, Sir." Hermione nodded, grabbing her bag, and walking with Lily quickly out of the classroom, leaving Snape behind them.
"Merlin, Hermione!" Lily whispered frantically once they were out of ear shot, "What the hell was that? That looked like there was pent up rage in there."
Hermione let out a breathy chuckle, knowing that it was, in fact, pent up rage that she let out. It had felt so good to curse the man who had so rudely sent her back in time. Had the Snape of her time given her ample time to prepare, say goodbye to her friends and family, and get situated before sending her two whole decades into the past, maybe she wouldn't have as much rage for the man, but as it was, he dumped her into unknown territory without a care in the world of how it would impact her.
She also thought that perhaps it was a bit of poetic justice to hand Snape his arse on a silver platter after his years of tormenting her and her friends as their professor. As someone who was supposed to teach and protect them. Rather Snape belittled, bullied, and tortured them mentally for years without a care for the consequences. She thought back to poor Neville who lived with the knowledge that his own parents were tortured into insanity by a deranged mad woman, and yet his boggart, the thing he feared most, was his potions professor.
The more she thought of the man she used to try and find respect for, the more it was fleeting. While logically she knew that the Snape in this time period was not the one who tortured her and her friends, he was the one who called Lily a mudblood and condoned the attack of another muggleborn student. He was hanging out with Death Eaters and was about to make the decision to become one if he hadn't already.
No, there was no respect for Professor Snape left in Hermione's being anymore. Instead, she just found disgust at the cowardly man she knew him to be.
"Perhaps I just don't like bigots." Hermione said simply, referencing the tale her newfound friends had told her the other night.
"Well, I can't say he didn't deserve it." Lily said, pausing to wipe away a drop of blood off of Hermione's cheek that was threatening to spill onto her jumper. "Though I can't believe professor—I mean Auror—Robards didn't put a stop to that. You two were insane! Your duel was twice as long as everyone else's."
"Honestly, it was kind of fun." Hermione said, "Maybe we should start a dueling club. It would be good practice for when we graduate. You heard what Auror Robards said, darkness is coming."
Hermione found herself several minutes late to potions, whispering a quick apology to Professor Slughorn. She missed the beginning of the lesson, one in which she knew they were to identify a slew of potions and be presented with a vial of Liquid Luck at the end. She quickly gathered ingredients from the storage closet and began brewing her Draught of Liquid Death, knowing that Snape, though he was still to arrive, would probably brew a better potion than her.
She recalled how Harry had crushed the beans instead of sliced them and added a clockwise turn after every seven anti-clockwise rotations. Frowning and considering that she had a leg up on Snape since he would have even less time to brew than her, she decided to abandon the textbook that was outdated even now, much less when she had used it in the 90s, and decided to try the modified instructions.
Hermione found herself brewing in peace next to Lily and found her a much more apt potions partner than poor Neville. She stood by her assessment that Neville probably would have stood a chance in potions had Snape not been their professor, but unfortunately, he was doomed the moment he stepped into the classroom.
Adding the juice of the sopophorous bean, Hermione watched as her potion shifted to the perfect pale purple color. She wasn't sure if she should be pleased or annoyed that Snape's instructions continued to yield better results than the actual textbook, but she decided to take her win and run with it.
Snape had entered the classroom and was rather frantically starting on his brewing. Hermione had never seen him look so disheveled, but when he pulled a clean copy of Advanced Potion Making out of his bag, she wondered if he had even begun experimenting on that particular potion yet, or if he would be sticking to the instructions the rest of the class was provided with.
With a smile, Hermione added her clockwise turn and continued brewing a perfect draught.
"Ah ha!" Slughorn said, jolting awake from his slumber at his desk when his timer went off. "Time is up! Let us see who shall be taking home Mr. Felicis today."
Snape hadn't had time to finish his potion, having arrived significantly later than Hermione. She watched as he frustratedly removed his stirring stick and let it clatter onto the desk. Observing the rest of those around her, she found decent results from her classmates. Lily's potion was a touch cloudy instead of the crystal-clear water like substance Hermione's own yielded, but she was extremely close to having a perfect potion.
James and Sirius both had cauldrons full of a slightly lilac hued, though relatively clear potion, standing a little below Lily's in quality. Remus wasn't in N.E.W.T. level potions, as Hermione knew his over heightened senses were bombarded by the brewing stations and it gave him headaches beyond belief, especially around the moon. He had told her that he dropped potions as soon as he got his Acceptable on his O.W.L. when she had asked if he had ever tried learning to brew the Wolfsbane potion himself.
Gleefully, Hermione left the dungeons with a small vial of Felix Felicis tucked in her bag. Lily congratulated her on a potion well brewed, while Sirius jokingly tried to swipe it from her.
"It seems to be you day, huh Baby Dumbledore?" Sirius said as they made their way up the stairs towards their common room. "First you demolish Snivellus in a duel, and then you manage to brew a perfect potion. What do they teach you in home school?"
"First of all, don't call me that. Second of all, I didn't demolish Snape. We we're fairly even. I just got a lucky shot in." Hermione defended, "And lastly, my mother was a potioneer. She taught me a couple of tricks through the years on how to yield better results."
Hermione internally winced at the lie, knowing that if she brought up her fake dead mum that no one would push further onto her skills in potions. She couldn't very well tell them that she got her modified instructions from Snape's textbook that he hadn't even annotated yet.
"Either way, watching you send Snape across the classroom like that…" James chimed in, "I think I fell in love. Marry me, Hermione?"
Hermione laughed and swatted at James who flashed her a cheeky grin. "In your dreams, Potter."
"I, for one, think it's about time someone knocked Snape on his arse besides these two." Marlene said, gesturing to James and Sirius. "Especially a girl being the one to do it. The bigot is probably seething that he got bested by a girl, especially a Gryffindor girl. I only wish I could've been the one to do it."
"Well, I'm glad I fulfilled all of your fantasies." Hermione laughed as they entered the portrait hole, quickly claiming the spot by the fireplace.
"You haven't fulfilled them all yet, Baby Dumbles." Sirius leered.
Hermione didn't see him enter, but Remus was making his way towards the group and quickly shot a stinging hex towards Sirius's backside.
"I don't know what you're talking about, nor do I want to know, but I do know you're being a lech."
"You love me anyways, Moony." Sirius pouted up at him, rubbing the ache in his backside before settling on the ground and leaning against Remus's legs who had taken up residency on the sofa. Hermione smiled as Remus unconsciously started to run his fingers through Sirius's hair.
Hermione's first meeting of the term with Professor Dumbledore took place on the first Monday of the second week of classes. She received a missive during dinner that she was to meet him after the meal in his office. She excused herself from her newfound friends as they made their way back to the common room and started on the familiar trek towards the headmaster's office.
"Licorice wands," Hermione told the gargoyle and began her ascent towards the ornate door that guarded Albus's office. Knocking thrice, she heard a quiet "enter," being called from the other side and made her way in.
Hermione was growing more familiar with the office now, having not had much of a reason to go there in her initial timeline. The whirring trinkets, hundreds of books, and masses of sleeping portraits on the walls felt less imposing each time she entered, though the unsettled feeling of being in a room of such grandeur still rattled her slightly.
Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, combing over some parchments when she approached him. She couldn't make sense of the messy scrawl on the pages while it was upside down but supposed that perhaps she shouldn't snoop.
"Hermione," Dumbledore said, "thank you for joining me. How have you been settling in with the new school year?"
Hermione took a seat in one of the plush armchairs on the opposite side of his desk and settled in, "Fairly well, I'd say. I've made friends with my year mates, though it is weird considering I knew some of them as adults, even more so when I knew their children."
Dumbledore nodded, "I heard of your duel with Mr. Snape. Perhaps not everyone you've met has been a friend so far?"
Hermione felt her cheeks heat, "Yes, well, I can't say there wasn't some pent-up frustrations there that may have slipped out."
"Well, I have to say, your trainings in the Room of Requirement have been paying off if what Auror Robards told me is true. And while I wish for you to continue your private dueling practice, I also believe it will be beneficial if I also help to train your combative skills in these meetings."
Hermione's eyes widened. While she knew Harry met regularly with the headmaster, he never mentioned anything about personal tutelage, rather just learning more about Voldemort's past. Hermione also had never mentioned her dueling practice in the RoR, but she wasn't surprised Dumbledore was aware of it. He had eyes all over the castle, especially with the portraits. It was nearly impossible to keep anything from him.
"I would be honored, sir."
"We shall start next week. Though, while I hate to press more secrets upon your shoulders, I must express the importance of keeping the skills we develop secret. You will be trained far beyond what is expected to be known by a student of your age. You have already displayed great talent in dueling during your display with Mr. Snape, but you cannot go beyond what is already expected of you.
"There is a target on your back by being related to me, Hermione." Dumbledore said apologetically, "While our relationship provides you some level of protection, it also brings attention to you. You will be a bigger target than your peers once they graduate, even if they choose to join the Order. Tom will think he can use you to get to me and keeping as low of a profile as possible will help keep eyes off of you. At least until the war has fully begun and you are out of school."
"I understand, sir." Hermione nodded. She knew on some level that being a Dumbledore in this timeline would make her a target, but hearing the headmaster confirm it made it all the more real. In addition to that target on her back, she was going to be working to take Voldemort down on a far larger scale than anyone realized, which would blow up in her face if word got out. She needed to be careful.
The abundance of secrets continued to weigh on her. She hated keeping secrets. She had no confidants in this time. It was easier when she knew she could turn to Harry or Ron, but here, she was alone. She had the headmaster, but he wasn't the same as a friend who could support her. She knew deep down that to him, she was expendable, as long as it was for The Greater Good. She knew that. She understood that. And honestly, she respected it, for the most part. She respected the need for Voldemort to be defeated, but she also valued the people who were fighting against him.
Hermione was aware that Albus Dumbledore could get single minded when a task was on hand. She knew she needed to be a voice of reason and protect those around her. Bringing up her occlumency library to keep him out of her head, she steeled herself to protect those that he would deem as a means to an end. She needed to protect her friends, the Order, and the innocents who have been roped into this war that they want nothing to do with.
The weight of the world was sitting on her shoulders. Hermione started to realize how Harry must've felt. Everyone was counting on him all of the time, and yet they still ridiculed him and ostracized him. Dumbledore still sent him back to the Dursley's every summer no matter how poorly they treated him, as it was necessary to defeat Voldemort. Hermione knew how the headmaster's head worked. She got that. But she didn't agree with letting innocents suffer. Not in the slightest.
"Have you made any progress with locating the Gaunt shack, sir?" Hermione asked, filing her thought process in one of the deepest tomes in her library, tucked away safely. "Snape had said one of the horcruxes had cursed you, that it was killing you. I believe it was that one."
"Yes, I have found the shack. It seems that Tom's uncle, Morfin, is the owner, but he has been in Azkaban for many years. I have yet to test the protections on the home. I had rather hoped you would accompany me once I have trained you more."
Hermione agreed, nervous but excited about the prospect of being more involved in the efforts, "And R.A.B. sir?" She asked, referring to the note she had given him from the fake horcrux over the summer.
"Mm yes, I believe I have surmised who our mystery Death Eater is. Regulus Arcturus Black."
"Sirius's brother?" Hermione asked, stunned at the revelation.
As far as she knew, Regulus Black was the epitome of everything Sirius wasn't. Sirius didn't like to talk about him much, but he revealed one night that Regulus joined the Death Eaters before he graduated, disappeared in the fall of '79, and was presumed dead. Sirius always assumed he was killed on a raid or did something to upset his master and was murdered. Sirius died believing his brother subscribed to the Death Eater's doctrine, but the note on Dumbledore's desk proved otherwise.
"He is the only student within the last fifty years with those initials, and it tracks, given his family."
"We have to save him." Hermione declared, "If he went to get the horcrux, then that means he doesn't believe in Voldemort's mission. That means that Sirius can get his brother back. We have to get him out and protect him."
Dumbledore looked at her for a long moment, blue eyes pensive over his half-moon glasses. Hermione could practically see the gears turning in his head and the bulb clicked before he could even say anything.
"No." She said sternly, "He will not be a spy. He is just a boy. He is fifteen!"
"It would be useful to have someone on the inside." Dumbledore placated, trying to convince her, "Someone trusted who could garner intel for us."
"Find someone else!" Hermione said, "He already died for this war once, I'm not letting him do it again. Sirius is getting his brother back."
"And how do you propose you do that?"
"How do you propose you make him spy?" Hermione countered, feeling her gut churning at the way she was speaking to the headmaster, but she had just promised herself to protect the innocents in this war, and she wasn't going to back out now.
"Perhaps you are right." Dumbledore conceded, though Hermione didn't trust him as far as she could throw him on this issue. She knew how he valued his spies. Snape being a near triple agent and Remus with the wolves. She wouldn't have been surprised if he had recruited Draco had he not died on the Astronomy Tower that night. Harry did say he lowered his wand. "The other horcruxes, then. We know where the ring is, I am searching for the cave where the real locket is. You believe the diary is in possession of Lucius Malfoy. That leaves us with the cup and the diadem if we are correct. Did you have any leads on where those could be?"
"No, we didn't even know what they were. Though he left the diary to Malfoy, so it could be possible he left one to another member of his inner circle."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement, "I would suspect it would have to be one of his most trusted followers. Either Ms. Lestrange or perhaps Mr. Nott. Were there any others in your time he was closest to?"
Hermione paused, knowing his right hand was Pettigrew. She had yet to inform Dumbledore about the rat. She wasn't quite sure why. Perhaps if she did, it would set things into motion? Or would it prevent them? She didn't know.
Right now, Peter Pettigrew was a boy who was always runner up to his friends and was a bit of a perv. Hermione didn't like him. But was he a murderer? Hermione could practically hear Harry yelling at her to tell Dumbledore about him. She thought of Mary who was made uncomfortable by him stalking her around the castle and knew she needed to out him for the man he would become.
"Peter Pettigrew." Hermione stated, "Though I don't think he would have a horcrux here."
Dumbledore genuinely looked surprised at this information. Hermione wasn't sure if he didn't think Peter had it in him, or if he didn't think one of his Gryffindors could become a Death Eater.
"Peter betrayed Lily and James when they were targeted and was the one who sold them out to Voldemort." Hermione didn't clarify why Lily and James were targeted. She didn't think Dumbledore needed to know about a prophecy that had yet to be given, lest he put any stock into it. "He was a spy for the Death Eaters and gave them Order intel. He isn't to be trusted. I don't think he has turned yet, but he will, probably within the next year. I think it started while he was at school."
Dumbledore sat back in his chair, "I see."
"I have a list," Hermione pulled the list she had curated back in her bedroom at Aberforth's from her bag and removed the charms on it so Dumbledore could read it. "These are all of the Death Eater's I am aware of."
Dumbledore read over the list, "I believe we have much work to do."