Author's Notes: Wow, so many great reviews! So far, I'm finding that I am not suffering from any form of FFDDD at all. That's good news. I hope I cleared up some issues in my last edition of Author's Notes (sounds like I publish a paper or something) but if anyone still has questions, feel free to voice them – in a REVIEW! And maybe this chapter will explain history between a couple characters a little further. I do believe a bit of the plot is revealed as well.
One of my reviewers said I write very well for my age of twelve. Just to let you know, I'll actually be fourteen in two months. :)
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CHAPTER THREE – AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR
The next morning, Hermione awoke in her bed to find sunlight spilling in through the open window. Outside the sounds of horns honking and birds chirping could be heard as the busy Muggle world returned to its regular morning routine. Hermione, however, would not be venturing out of the apartment and down the streets of London today. After being reassigned the day before, she was told that her presence in the WIA headquarters was no longer needed until her career at Hogwarts began.
Still in her pajamas, Hermione slid her feet into her slippers and dragged herself into the kitchen. For once, there were no letters sitting on her kitchen table. It was so perfectly clear that Hermione could see her own reflection in it; an exhausted and befuddled young witch with an awful case of bed head.
She searched for the clicker and turned the television on but really paid no attention to the morning's headlines. Her mind was elsewhere, dwelling on the events and revelations of yesterday's visit to the Ministry.
I'm going back to Hogwarts were the words Hermione kept replaying in her mind. They sent odd chills up her spine… I'm going back, back to Hogwarts, Hogwarts again… in all honesty, Hermione didn't want to return to her old school that she hadn't seen for six years. Her life had changed so much for the worse in the last few weeks she had spent there. Loosing both her parents and her friends were memories Hermione had tired to block out and going back would only cause the memories to haunt her again.
I'll be teaching, she reminded herself, unsure of what to think about the subject. She would be able to see the school from an entirely different perspective and would relive her childhood days through the eyes of a teacher instead of a student.
Hermione sighed and poured a glass of milk, taking it back to the table. She sat down but didn't touch the glass; instead, she stared at it, thinking deeply about what she would be facing in less than a week's time.
Hogwarts held so many of her memories, both loving and painful. She could vividly recall the night of her arrival at the grand castle for the first time and, even more dramatically, could remember befriending Harry and Ron the day of the troll incident. Those days seemed like ages away, now… eleven years, to be exact.
Other important moments stood out in Hermione's memory – the night Hermione and Harry freed Sirius and Buckbeak, the Yule Ball dance and the ferocious fight with Ron that followed, the Tri-Wizard tournament, Sirius's death, Charlie's death, her parents' death, Voldemort's defeat, her final argument with Ron, and the day she was recruited into the Order of the Phoenix. Everything seemed like a long, giant blur to her now. She found it hard to sort out the memories that did happen from the ones she only dreamt about.
Suck it up, Granger, she mentally told herself. Those days are behind you now. You're expected to arrive at that school ready to teach the students while observing their behaviors at the same time. Too many people are counting on you – don't let them down.
Still, Hermione couldn't shake off the foreboding feeling that had possessed her body when she was told she would be going back to Hogwarts. She had so many worries on her mind and wasn't sure how to go about organizing them. It was times like these when she really needed a Pensieve, she concluded.
While still pondering Lawson's words about the Death Eaters and wondering about the fire, Hermione's largest worry was concerning Harry and Ron. She knew they had gone off to Africa together after they were both recruited into the Ministry. With Harry as an Auror and Ron as a Department of Mysteries head, they were destined to be one of the world's most infamous crime-fighting duos.
Hermione had casually acted indifferent when Harry and Ron left not long after graduation. Uprisings between different wizarding civilizations were causing dangerous disputes in Africa and the two were asked to try to solve the quarrels breaking out all over the country. Really, though, Hermione was alarmed that she would never see her two ex-best friends again. Don't know why I care so much, Hermione had thought angrily. I'm not speaking to them. They're not speaking to me. As far as I'm concerned, they have no influence on my life. I shouldn't care this much. The same ominous thoughts troubled Hermione for many oncoming years. She found that on very mornings like this one, Harry and Ron were the very center of her thoughts.
I wonder if they miss me, she found herself thinking. Then she mentally slapped herself for sounding so selfish. They were probably busy, fighting wars in Africa while signing peace treaties at the same time. How could they even spend a minute thinking about her? She hadn't had any contact with them since they left… not that she wanted to, or anything.
Hermione's mind flickered back to the night when she and Ron broke up for the final time. Sighing, she found herself recollecting the memories of their blissful times together.
[FLASHBACK]
The hour was late. Hermione and Ron were the only two left in the Gryffindor common room. Harry had gone to bed hours ago, saying he didn't feel well. The following day would bring three exams for the exhausted sixth years. Last minute studying was better than not studying at all, Hermione reminded Ron countless times.
Tension had been growing between the two in the last few months. Since Harry was usually somewhere off with his newly found girlfriend (a fellow sixth year in Ravenclaw; Harry had been persuaded by Hermione to try and let some love in his life to ease his grief), Ron and Hermione found themselves spending more time together. Most recently they could be found walking to class with one another, and quite often too. Of course, people as arrogant as Malfoy always took these moments and morphed them into awful, embarrassing scenes in the middle of the Hogwarts hallways. One Friday afternoon even ended with Ron and Malfoy both in the Hospital Wing with bloody noses and a week's worth of detentions.
Ron was sitting with his feet up on a paper-strewn desk, lazily waving his wand while trying to attempt a complicated spell for Charms class. He'd been working on it for months and still couldn't perfect the proper hand movements. Hermione sat at the other end, glancing up every few seconds with a tiny, almost inconspicuous smirk on her face.
"Damn it all to hell!" he yelled loudly, slamming his hands on the desk and throwing his wand across the room. Hermione's quill stopped moving back and forth and her eyes shifted from her notes to Ron's distressed face.
"I'm going to fail those bloody exams tomorrow," Ron muttered more to himself than to his companion. "Waste of time if you ask me. Can't get anything right…"
He seized the closest piece of paper and began ripping it into tiny shreds.
Hermione sighed and took out her own wand. Muttering a short spell brought Ron's wand sailing back across the room, landing in front of his mounting pile of torn paper. While Hermione was stressing on the inside about exams and collected on the outside, it appeared as if Ron was having a breakdown all at once.
"Here," Hermione said calmly, forcing Ron's wand back into his hand. "Let me help."
"I don't need your help," Ron muttered, trying to push her away. But Hermione held onto his hand strongly, meaningfully looking into his eyes and letting him know she was there for him. The two gazed at each other several more seconds than actually necessary; their gaze was broken when Hermione cleared her throat and raised Ron's hand.
"Like this," she muttered into his ear. She made a perfect arch in the air, poked the wand forward and brought it back through smoothly. Ron grimaced, telling himself Hermione was only making it look easy.
"Now you try."
Hermione's hand left Ron's as he awkwardly gripped the wand alone, trying to imitate the hand movements Hermione had made in the air. They were rather sloppy and not quite accurate, but he seemed satisfied enough.
"There, see?" Hermione said, beaming. "You can do it, and you'll do fine on tomorrow's exam. Trust me."
Ron stared at her long and hard before murmuring, "I trust you." There was silence between the two for an uncomfortably extended time. Then, without warning, the wand slipped from Ron's hand and fell to the table, letting off a boisterous BANG in Hermione's face. Ron flipped backwards off his chair and toppled to the ground.
"Are you all right?" Hermione exclaimed, coughing from the smoke that had emitted out of the wand's end. "Ron? Are you okay?" She rounded the table and kneeled next to Ron, who was lying on the floor, looking quite taken aback.
"Yeah, yeah, I-I'm fine," he said rapidly, waving the smoke away from his face. "What about you? I let that thing off in your face. I'm sorry, I didn't mean –"
"No," Hermione said, pushing her hair behind her ears and studying Ron's face. "No, it's… I'm… I'm okay. I just hope no one heard that, since it's…" She trailed off to look at her watch and could hardly believe the numbers she was seeing on the tiny screen. "Two in the morning? Ron, we should get rest if we want to do well on tomorrow's tests."
"No!" Ron said hurriedly, rising. "I mean – well, I'm not very tired. I have more work to do."
Another discomfited silence followed his statement in which Ron studied the legs of the table and Hermione became rather interested in a loose string on the carpet.
"Do you want me to stay?" Hermione asked, breaking the stillness of the room.
"Only if you want to."
"I want to."
Suddenly, the two found themselves curiously close together. Ron's face was but a mere three inches from Hermione's. While usually either one of them would brush the situation off by dubbing it "disturbing" and an "accident that would never happen again", they actually did not seem to mind their proximity.
"Hermione?" Ron asked timidly without breaking visual contact with her.
"Yes?"
"You have the two most beautiful eyes I've ever seen."
And after that, Ron and Hermione let nature take its course. Needless to say, within the next ten hours, the entire school knew of the couple's pairing. It was a legendary moment in the history of Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, it would only last a year.
Just moments after Hermione's flashback ended, the doorbell to her apartment rang. Hermione glanced down at her pale bathrobe and wondered what in the world her hair looked like. She really was in to state to answer the door, but the unexpected visitor on the other side persisted in ringing the doorbell.
"I'm coming!" Hermione yelled, grabbing a hair tie and pulling her hair back quickly. When she reached the door, she caught a glimpse of her not-so-appealing reflection in a nearby mirror and scowled.
She pulled open the door to find none other than Ginny Weasley standing in the hall, bearing a large grin. As shocked as she was to find that her old friend had shown up for an unforeseen visit, Hermione embraced Ginny like her own sister.
"Ginny – what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, still standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry, come in, come in… I'll put on some coffee."
"Oh, no," Ginny said. "Tea, please."
The two entered Hermione's tidy apartment (thank God I cleaned last weekend, Hermione thought) as the hostess rushed to put on a pot of tea. Ginny hadn't yet seen the interior of Hermione's newly bought residence and was quite impressed with what she saw.
"Your apartment is beautiful, Hermione," Ginny commented while examining the velour drapes in the living room. "I suppose your income from being an agent for the Ministry is quite satisfying."
"Please, you didn't come to talk about finance," Hermione said, rushing around the kitchen looking for eggs and bread. "Have you had breakfast? No matter, I'll make you some anyway."
Ginny chuckled at watching her friend zoom around the kitchen. She took a seat in one of the chairs at the table and continued to gaze at the designs on the walls.
"I heard you're coming back to Hogwarts."
Hermione accidentally cracked an egg on the floor instead of into the frying pan. "How did you find out?"
Ginny giggled like a small child. "You don't have to be so secretive about it. We're all really excited you'll be on the staff. I heard it from Bella Levrero… you know, that new Italian who's teaching Divination. She does something at the Ministry, but I'm not quite sure."
"Is she a member of the Wizengamot?" Hermione asked. "Her name sounds oddly familiar."
Shrugging, Ginny picked up the Muggle telephone sitting next to her and began fiddling with the buttons. "We'll be working side by side, Hermione. Don't you think that's exciting? Me teaching Muggle Studies, you teaching Transfiguration. You'll love it, honestly. I've been there ever since I got out as a student and it's really amazing going back as a teacher."
Hermione made an odd choking noise that she quickly disguised into a cough.
"What?" Ginny quickly asked defensively. "You don't want to teach?"
"No," Hermione said forcefully while placing two pieces of bread into the toaster. Ginny watched in fascination; even though she was a Muggle Studies teacher, the Muggle ways of life still mesmerized her. "I would really rather not, if it was up to me. But, apparently, it isn't. I think Duke Lawson will fire me if I refuse.
"Dunno why you're dreading it," Ginny said airily. "It'll give you a break from the office. You'll constantly be on the scene, working as a lone detective, discovering clues with every step y –"
"Ginny," Hermione warned. "I'll knock you out with this frying pan if you don't shut up."
An angry stranger was yelling through the telephone Ginny had been pressing random buttons on, ranting about prank calling so early in the morning. Ginny slammed the receiver down and stared at it, clearly horrified. Hermione, luckily, still had her back turned.
"Come on, Hermione, what's wrong? Why don't you want to come to Hogwarts?"
Contemplating her answer, Hermione didn't speak automatically. She sighed, bringing over a plate of fried eggs and toast to Ginny, before opening her mouth.
"Being at Hogwarts again will bring back so many reminiscences, Ginny," she said sensitively while taking a seat next to her friend. "I spent the most important years of my life there and it holds more memories than my old home –"
Hermione felt a wave of tears coming on but stopped herself before it was too late. Speaking of her house and parents often slipped out, and when it did, she could hardly control the feelings that slipped out, too.
Ginny watched in concerned apprehension as Hermione began to speak again, more softly than before. "I'm not sure I'm ready for this… not just the teaching thing, but facing my past. The last time I saw the school, my parents were recently dead and my best friends were pretending I didn't exist. Do you think it will be easy for me to cope with the emotions that will come along with this?"
"I'm sorry," Ginny apologized. "I didn't know – I had no idea. But you need to get over what's happened and move on. A lot of good can come out of teaching at Hogwarts, you know. And remember, your main priority is to solve the case of what's affecting our students."
Hermione's mind mechanically snapped from one problem to the next. Thoughts of Hogwarts were promptly replaced with thoughts of the more important dilemma at hand.
"Ginny," Hermione said sternly. "I want you to tell me exactly what's going on."
A shadow of uneasiness covered Ginny's face. "It's odd," she murmured. "The other teachers and I noticed changes in the behavior of the students shortly after term started. It's hard to explain, but…"
"Just try, please. I really need to know."
"I'll use the Halloween feast last week as an example. It had been an uneventful evening until Maggie Jones, one of my own fourth years, levitated a dozen knives over the poor Astronomy professor's head before letting them drop. Luckily, he ducked under the table before they hit his chair. Poor bloke fainted and was out cold in the Hospital Wing for the rest of the night."
"My God, you're kidding," Hermione said with an open mouth. "What possessed her to do something like that?"
Ginny shrugged. "No one knows. Maggie kept claiming afterwards that it wasn't her fault and she, whoever she was referring to, made her do it. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, and she appeared to be delirious, so she was shipped off to St. Mungo's straight away. We haven't seen her since."
"Sounds like she was rather a nut case."
"It's been worse," Ginny continued mysteriously. "Students have been caught roaming the halls hours after curfew, saying they didn't know the way back to their common rooms. Last month, a Hufflepuff first year snuck down to the kitchens, dragged a house elf back to his house and held it hostage in his dorm for a week."
"A week? How's that possible?"
"It was really eerie," Ginny said, shuddering. "The first year put charms and spells on his door that were clearly out of his field of knowledge. Even our most trained spell-breakers couldn't get into the dorm. We had almost given up hope until he walked out a week later, looking dazed and asking why a crowd of people were waiting for him behind the door."
By the end of Ginny's tales, Hermione too had chills running up her spine. She had never heard of such abnormal happenings to occur at Hogwarts. And it appeared that after each incident, the student awoke from a trance with no memory of their actions.
"Ginny, I had no idea it –"
Hermione was cut short by the arrival of another unanticipated guest. An owl fluttered in through the window Hermione had left open by habit. It deposited a letter near the sink, pecked around the counters for a few minutes, then abruptly became bored and departed.
Hermione glanced at Ginny before moving to snatch the envelope. She recognized it as a letter from Hogwarts and brought it back to the table to open. She pulled out a paper and read its contents aloud.
Dear Miss Hermione Granger,
We at Hogwarts are pleased to welcome you back as a member of our staff for the remainder of the term. As you know, you will be filling the position as Transfiguration professor while conducting important examinations concerning the performance of our students.
Your fellow associates in investigation will be arriving in oncoming weeks. You will be notified of their arrival and will be called to a conference when convenient.
Thank you for your time, and we will see you on Monday at noon sharp.
Sincerely,
MINERVA MCGONAGALL
HOGWARTS HEADMISTRESS
A silence followed Hermione's reading of McGonagall's letter. Both Ginny and Hermione stared at it, re-reading certain lines in hopes to decipher their meanings more clearly.
"What does she mean by 'your fellow associates'? Lawson never mentioned that I would be working with someone else."
"I don't know," Ginny said, raising her eyebrows. "We held a meeting in the staff room about this a few days ago and McGonagall didn't say anything about anyone except you."
"Well," Hermione said while taking a deep breath and rolling up the parchment, "I suppose I'll find out on Monday, won't I? Hogwarts, here I come."