August 1999
This was an odd direction for her life to take, although perhaps not completely unexpected, Hermione mused as she packed. Surely most people who knew her would not be completely surprised to learn that she would be returning to Hogwarts as a professor. After all, she had always been an excellent student, and her NEWT marks were record breaking.
She had returned to Hogwarts the previous year before classes to take her NEWTS along with Ginny. Professor McGonagall had decided to hold OWLS and NEWTS before school started so that students could be properly placed after a year of horrendous classes. Hermione had urged for Harry and Ron to go as well, but they had refused. Ron wasn't much of a surprise. He was a nervous test taker, and as a result never really did very well anyways. She was disappointed anyway. He really was quite bright, and she had hope that he had gained more confidence in himself. It appeared that he had, even if it was not strictly in academics. In addition to beginning Auror training soon, he had been helping George out at the shop.
Harry had been more of a surprise, if only because she did not expect him to pass up an opportunity to visit the school again. So it had just been her and Ginny and a handful of their other classmates. Hermione had been studying for weeks and still was reading three textbooks at once when they were on the Hogwarts Express, much to the amusement of the other students. They could laugh all they want; her studying paid off.
While she did not spend quite as much time revising, Ginny also did very well. Shortly after receiving the results of her NEWTs in the post, she was recruited for the Hollyhead Harpies and became the team's newest Chaser.
Reminded of this, Hermione took down her poster of Ginny flying through the air in her uniform. Her signature was scrawled in the bottom corner with a heart. Hermione placed a charm on the poster to prevent it from permanently creasing before carefully folding it and putting in one of the books stacked on her bed.
Most of her packing was done at this point. Her truck was neatly organized, and her clothes neatly folded inside, including the new teaching robes Harry had bought her. Her next project would be to repack her beaded bag that she had taken with her when they had gone searching for Horcruxes two years ago. It seemed a shame not to use it. It was a nifty bit of magic, after all.
She was half way through stacking her books into the purple bag when there was a knock on her door.
"Come in," she called, sticking one arm down the bag to prevent a teetering stack of books from falling over while she balanced another stack in her hand. Harry entered the room.
"Getting some packing done I see," Harry said, grabbing the tomes out of her hand and balancing her so that she could dig deeper into the bag. He peered over her shoulder into the bag. "How far does it go down again?"
"Farther than you would want to know," Hermione said, grabbing the stack of books from Harry again and dropping them into the bag with a dull thump.
"I would have thought you would have been asleep already, Harry. You were up first thing this morning." She turned around to reach for the next stack of books, only to see that Harry was holding something out to her.
"I forgot to include this earlier," he said, rubbing his neck.
Hermione eyed the cloak. "I can't take that, Harry, you're going to need it."
"Take it. I'm sure you'll get plenty of use out of it. Sneaking up on students, sneaking out of school. . ." He said, shaking it at her.
She laughed. "I'm going to be a professor. I don't need to sneak anywhere."
He grinned sheepishly. "Old habits die hard I suppose. Seriously, Hermione, I have a feeling that you will find a use for it."
"What about you? Surely this would be useful to have as an Auror."
Harry shrugged, "No one else has an Invisibility Cloak to keep them safe. They rely on their own skills. It's about time that I do the same."
He held up his hand in a wait a second gesture. "And that's not all." He pulled the Map out of his back pocket.
"Harry!"
"Now this is something that I know you would find useful."
"Especially with Weasley products selling the way that they are," Hermione agreed, examining it.
Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes had a record sale after its reopening. Ron had already warned Hermione about some of the products to look out for, most of which included explosions and projectile vomiting to various degrees. In fact, his own gifts was meant to circumvent the effects of the very products he helped his brother sell. He gave them to her when she visited the shop earlier that day.
"Now don't tell George I gave these to you," Ron whispered. "I think these would drive business through the roof, you know, playing both sides of the market, but George says it's not in the spirit of WWW. It's not what he and Fred believed in when they started the company. Anyways, these are potions that counteract the effects of the line we just started. And this," he heaved a giant box up from the table and handed it to her, "will trap any other trinkets or whatnot. Fireworks? Put 'em in here. Porcupine peels? Toss 'em in, they won't go anywhere."
She gave Harry a hug. "Thank you."
He looked down at the map fondly. "I can't believe that all of our adventures are over," he said.
"Harry, as long as you and Ron are close by, I don't think our adventures will be over anytime soon."
They stood there for a moment longer, leaning against each other. Hermione felt her eyes pricking with tears. She had barely gone a day without Harry or Ron in years, and she didn't want to think of what it was going to be like not seeing them everyday. She blinked a few times, and when she could trust her voice she said, "Now go and get some sleep. I've got to finish packing."
She gentle pushed him out of her room. Now that the door was open, she could hear Ron snoring down the hall, and as Harry walked down the hall, she could hear the familiar sound of his steps as he headed towards his room. His yawn was muffled half way through as he shut his door. Hermione glanced to towards the seat in the corner of her room where Crookshanks was curled up contentedly. Suddenly her own sleepiness caught up with her, and she quickly finished packing before crawling into bed.
Tomorrow she would be back at Hogwarts.
She would have been lying if she said that she was not nervous as she passed through the gates past the Hogwarts Apparition point. It was already starting feel slightly cooler, but she felt flushed by the time she walked up to the school.
McGonagall had requested that professors return to the school early this year, which apparently she had thought prudent due to the influx of new instructors. Hermione was unaware of who the new professors would be, with the obvious exceptions of herself and Lavender Brown. McGonagall had not mentioned it, and Hermione had been too preoccupied with other aspects of the job to ask. Now though, she wished that she had had the foresight to ask. It would have been nice to know who all of her colleagues would be.
Hermione hoped she was well prepared. She had read several books on the subject, including "Lose a Toe? Try a Tomato: Advanced Transfiguration in the Medical Field". She personally thought that "Teaching From Tomes, Teaching from Rome" was a little antiquated, but supposed that the book would have done in a pinch. "From Pillar to Pyre: Magikal Teachings Across the Ages"and its sequel "From Broom to Tomb: How Wizarding Education Has Changed in Britain had certainly been interesting reads, although perhaps more historical than strictly practical. Grimmauld Place had a library, but as she had learned on a previous occasion, the books had been jinxed to shoot out pages-turned-spitballs at anyone outside of the Black family, so she just worked with the books that she already had in her possession.
Reaching the entrance of Hogwarts felt oddly anticlimactic. It was so massive, the ceilings as large and sweeping as ever. The stones still dwarfed her in comparison. But as the doors swung open, the majestic feeling that had been present the first time she had ever stepped inside the castle was gone.
As she stepped further into the entryway, she realized that she was not the first one there. Lavender Brown was standing under a flood of light in the entryway. The windows were new, Hermione noted.
Just then Lavender must have heard Hermione's footsteps, and she turned around.
Hermione tried to school her reaction. She had heard of the attack, of course. Everyone had. But this was the first time she had seen her since the Battle of Hogwarts.
One side of Lavender's face was scarred, claw marks dragging from just beside her eye all the way down her cheek and neck, dipping below her conservative robes. She must have gone to some of the best healers around because the scars looked several years old with only the slightest bit of redness remaining.
More jarring than this was Lavender herself. She seemed hardened, her mouth firm and unsmiling, a far cry from the giggling teenager whose greatest concern was whether her outfit matched. She watched Hermione steadily, as if daring her to look away.
To Hermione's shame, she did.
"Hello, Hermione."
"Lavender. How have you been? I haven't seen you in quite some time."
Lavender grimaced. "How do you think, Granger?" She looked up at the ceilings again. "I told myself that I would never come back here."
"What convinced you to?" Hermione asked, trying to hide her discomfort with the situation.
"Lupin, actually. He and his wife are supposed to be coming as well."
She hadn't known that. Harry had certainly not said anything. And she had been unaware that Lavender and Remus were acquainted outside of when he had taught during their third year. Before Hermione could reply another person entered the room.
The newcomer walked over to them. He was a young man with a nervous disposition that was reminiscent of Quirrell, although the similarity seemed to end there as he had much darker skin and a slightly lopsided Handlebar mustache.
"H-hello," he said, sticking his hand out. "I'm Elias Biswas, the new History of Magic professor."
A new History professor? What had happened to Binns? Hermione could see Lavender roll her eyes, but she stuck her hand out. "Lavender Brown, Divination."
Hermione nodded, "And I'm Hermione Granger, Transfiguration."
The man gave a jerky nod of his head, but said nothing else, and a silence descended upon the group.
Hermione found silences to be very uncomfortable, unless, of course, they were due to reading.
Professor Biswas also seemed uncomfortable, more so because of Lavender, who he eyed warily.
Lavender seemed off in her own world, but after his gaze shifted back to her for the tenth time, she snapped, "I'm not a werewolf."
He jumped.
She gave a dry laugh.
The doors thumped open, and Remus and Tonks entered as well.
"Well, hello," Remus called. He looked happier and better rested than Hermione had seen in a long time.
"I hope that we're are not late to the party. We had to drop Teddy off with his grandmother," Tonks added as they walked over. "Wotcher, Hermione," she said, giving her a hug.
"I had no idea that both of you would be here!" Hermione said, giving another quick hug to Remus. "No one said anything to me."
"Well we wanted to keep it quiet. The less people know, the better for now," Remus said, extending his hand to Lavender who grasped it briefly.
Hermione saw that her right hand was also covered in scars, including what looked like bite marks.
"I'm sure," she agreed quickly. "It's wonderful you are back at Hogwarts again. I'm sure you missed it."
"I did. Hopefully my stay this time will not be as short," Remus said.
"It's not fair that you had to leave in the first place," she said.
"Times are changing I'm happy to say," he said. "As do some people I suppose." His comment seemed to be more of a specific reference than a general statement, but Tonks scowl made Hermione rethink asking him what he meant. She turned to Tonks.
"I must admit that I'm a little more surprised to see you here, Tonks. After all, you always seemed to enjoy being an Auror."
"Oh I do, but it was time that I made a change, at least while Teddy is so young. I can always go back."
"A certain friend of yours had a very serious conversation with us about the importance of Teddy being raised by his parents. He visited us in St. Mungo's a few days after the battle at Hogwarts, although I'm sure this part is not news to you."
She agreed that it was not. "So what are you teaching?"
Tonks' features became more sinister. "Defense against the dark arts," she said in a deep voice.
"Oh, I assumed-"
"No, Hermione. Nora is a much better fit for such a position, although I greatly enjoyed teaching your class. I'll be teaching Muggle Studies."
Just then, Filch shuffled up to them, trailed as always by Mrs. Norris. "The headmistress," he grumped "has asked that you meet her in the faculty lounge." He eyed each one of them closely, Tonks in particularly. "I've spent the whole summer cleaning, so don't go tracking mud down the hallways before the students have even gotten here yet."
"Good to see you again, Mr. Filch," Tonk said. He gave her a nasty look.
"Get moving," he replied. "It's rude to keep people waiting."
Remus led the way.
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