Hermione's jaw dropped, then she grinned. First at the Headmaster using her friend's maiden name, then because she would be seeing her friend on a daily basis. Perhaps, just perhaps, she could get through this. Maybe she could handle the students who had her today – the students who knew her as the Head Girl of a few years back. Just maybe she could work Draco, Severus, and her out. Maybe everything would be alright.
Classes didn't end up being as difficult as Hermione had feared. Sure, the students remembered her, but only distantly. The only ones that asked any questions at all were the Gryffindors. And when they asked, she simply put them down with a quick but polite rebuttal.
"I must insist that you remember that I am no longer you Head Girl, rather I am a Professor – and as such have no obligations to satisfy your curiosities." With that, lessons continued. Really all she was doing that week was finding out where each class level actually was. She was also curious to learn what – if any – bias the previous teacher had bestowed upon her students.
Muggle Studies was not a required course in the past. Rather, it became one in her 7th year, after she and her friends defeated Voldemort, and realized that it would take a few years before it was all truly over. There were still Deatheaters out there – after all. Albus and the Administrator's board decided that it would be a good measure, and could possibly instill an appreciation of muggles into the wizards and witches at an early age. Hermione thought it was a brilliant idea actually. She even planned on making sure that the students understood the many parallels between the two societies. Including the fact that both worlds contained both fundamentally "good" people, as well as "evil" people. She was planning the philosophical part of the class for the seventh years actually.
Hermione was not unsurprised to learn that the previous professor had in fact taught the students about muggles with barely disguised contempt. She knew she'd have plenty of time to reverse those effects in the fifth years and below – and she dearly hoped she'd be able to have the same affect on those students with which she had only one or two years.
That was an issue for another time, tonight she had dinner with her boys, and Ginny was supposed to join them. She was thankful that Ron and Harry hadn't spoken to Ginny before she'd had the chance. Of course, knowing Ron, the redheaded gorilla would have forgotten about Hermione and Severus and Draco in face of Ginny's cheating husband.
She was glad that she had two hours between her last class and dinner – she could take a shower and relax for a little while. She would make her obligatory appearance in the Great hall with the rest of them before disappearing to her quarters. Mostly tonight, she'd be drawing up her class plans. She would also be discussing strategies with repairing the damage done by the previous professor with her boys. She figured that both men would have some valuable ideas, or at the very least useful suggestions, that would help her in her new goal.
She was also somewhat surprised that she just honestly hadn't thought about that day during her classes at all. She was also finding that she did rather like teaching. Perhaps it was just because she had found herself a new goal to focus on – well, besides getting her two boys back together. She rather fancied the idea of a triumvirate with the two men she found herself in lo– well damn.
She slipped into her private bathroom and drew herself a bubble bath in the over-sized claw-footed bathtub. She puttered around her room, gathering robes to wear to dinner while the tub filled with the hot and fragrant water. When it was full she gratefully sank down in the water, closing her eyes. Here, where she knew she was safe (even Dumbledore couldn't break through the wards she had up around her room – though Severus and Draco could get into her common room) maybe she could admit something she may have been avoiding for a while. Actually, there was no may about it. She had long ago admitted that she had indeed fallen in love with Draco during their last year as students – but she had simply hidden it, well aware that Draco and she had agreed that is was just for fun.
No, she had admitted that she was in love with the Potions Master. What she was avoiding, due to her rearing in the muggle world, was that she was in love with two men. Triumvirates were actually quite common in Wizarding history – various famous witches and wizards were only prominent enough to accomplish what made them famous because of the support of their two lovers. Not so uncommon. Perhaps not an everyday thing, but certainly not frowned upon in the wizarding community.
However, her first reaction to that day had proven that she could not escape her non-magical rearing. It would take some getting used to in her own mind and heart. Though she could no longer deny the feelings she held for both Slytherin men. Now she just had to come up with a way to play them both into her hands without pissing them off. This could take some thinking… perhaps she'd enlist Ginny. Oh, better yet – Dumbledore. Wouldn't that just incite Severus? She remember the talks Draco and she had about Dumbledore and his manipulative ways – and Severus' reactions to them. Albus would most likely be more than happy to help, as the old man has been trying to get Severus happily involved for years. This would defiantly take some thinking. Meanwhile – she had a dinner to get to.
She walked into the Great Hall from the teacher's entrance behind the Head Table. The moment she walked in she got this sense of dread. Something was going to happen. She quietly cast a notice-me-not charm and slipped into her customary seat between Severus and Draco. The very properties of the charm she had just used would allow her to announce herself to her boys, while remaining unnoticed by most everyone else. The charm differed from invisibility charms in the fact that even noise wouldn't alert a watcher. It had to be something that expressly brought their attention to them. It wasn't something used by Aurors, because someone who was actively paying attention, would see right through the charm. She leaned over and whispered in Draco's ear.
"Why am I getting a bad feeling?" She couldn't help but smirk slightly when he jumped. Of course no one else noticed, except Severus, who spared a wry glance for the man. Hermione announced her presence to him by laying a hand on his arm. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and gave her what she called a Sev-smile. That is, it was a smile you had to know the man to ever see.
"Mr. I-know-what's-best-for-her Potter and Mr. I'm-an-idiot Weasley are here, and determined to get you away from 'the harmful influence' of myself and Severus." Draco smirked and nodded at the other end of the table. Hermione suppressed a groan and prayed that they would get out of the great hall without a confrontation. Harry and Ron didn't know where her quarters were (boy wouldn't they be furious if they knew that, while her quarters and common room were simply separate from both Severus and Draco's quarters, there was a door in each of their common rooms that connected the three.) so perhaps she'd be able to escape. The three of them really had grown apart, and she just didn't want to deal with Harry's sad, pity filled looks or Ron's anger. She really had too much to do. But alas, it was not to be. She noticed that Albus stood, conveniently hiding her from view for just a few more moments.
"Please welcome our guests, Mr. Harry Potter and Mr. Ronald Weasley. They will be staying at the school for a few days. Thank you. Now eat!" Albus waved his hands and the food appeared. Hermione fixated her gaze straight forward as she sipped on her coffee. She knew that Harry could see straight through a notice-me-not charm, and Ron was actively watching for her, so really she had no hope of it holding out long enough to get out of there. She resigned herself to just hoping for no confrontation in the Great Hall. She quietly snorted to herself as Ron stood and headed towards her. She should have known. What incited her fury further, was that Harry hadn't made any sort of effort to stop it. Ron wanted to make a scene? So be it.
As Ron approached her, both her men stiffened in their seats, though they continued to glance around the room and sip on their chosen drinks. She herself made no move to acknowledge his movement, glancing around at the students who had stopped eating and outright stared at the encroaching scene. Time to show her so-called best friend just how her men had influenced her. He stopped in front of her and she turned her gaze to his face, keeping an impassive expression.
"Hermione, what are you doing sitting between these two?" He didn't even bother to lower his voice, and the contempt in his voice when he referred to her men echoed through out the hall. She simply sneered at him. Though she giggled internally when he reacted. There was such a shocked look on his face. "See 'Mione? They've corrupted you. Harry and I are your best friends, you should have come to us." She felt the fire flashed through her eyes as she set aside her goblet and slowly stood, her palms planted flat on the table as she leaned toward him. She made sure her voice was low enough so that the students couldn't hear, but still see the anger in her face and body.
She leaned closer to him over the table and snarled out her words. "I should have come to you? You're my best friends? Tell me, Ron, where the hell have the two of you been in the past four years? Riding a broom and jumping from girl to girl? Where were my best friends when I graduated early from the university and started my research for my graduate thesis? I came here, best friend, because I'd knew I'd be safe at Hogwarts, because I knew my friend Severus would be here. I'm thrilled that Draco came because he has kept in touch, because he is never to busy to talk to me over floo, or meet me for lunch, or just come rescue me from myself when I'm working to hard. Where were you and Harry?" With that, she turned and left the room through the teacher's exit. Her fists were clenched and her shoulders were shaking as she quickly walked down to her rooms, where her men and Ginny would be shortly. She had no doubt that both Severus and Draco would have a few choice words with Ron before they followed. She also knew that Ginny would take a different path than she or her men would – Ginny'd be loud about it. She would make sure ever student in the Great Hall knew what she said to her brother, and Hermione knew Ron would be embarrassed. Hermione just hoped her friends would tell her, because she just didn't want to ask.
She busied herself with straightening an already straight common room and summoning the house elves to set up the meal she'd asked them to make that morning. It was just a simple pasta and thick cream sauce, and a shrimp salad. Just as she decided to sit down and wait, a stoic Severus, a grinning Draco, and a giggling Ginny entered the room. She smiled at her friends as they all sat, and Ginny immediately launched in recounting Ron's public humiliation.
Apparently, Draco and Severus had both sneered in the face of the redhead's accusations, and accused him of negligence to their friendship before they both followed her. When Ron had turned to Ginny to enlist her support. Her boys were nearly ecstatic with glee, reporting to her Ginny's outburst. Ginny was too busy blushing. The redheaded Medi-witch was just so embarrassed at imitating her mother. Draco was taking great pleasure in imitating Ginny, and he was actually doing a pretty good job at it.
"RONALD WEASLEY! How dare you come into this school as a guest, and then DARE TO INSULT TWO PROFESSORS OF THIS SCHOOL, AND TRY TO TELL A THIRD WHAT SHE SHOULD BE DOING! How dare you abuse Headmaster Dumbledore's hospitality, and how dare you embarrass our family like that! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF RONALD WEASLEY! AND IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE DECENECY TO BE ASHAMED, WELL I'M ASHAMED ENOUGH FOR THE BOTH OF US!"
The four of them were clutching their sides in laughter. Though Hermione sobered more quickly than the others. She was hit with the sobering thought of friendships that had been. How close Harry, she, and Ron had been in their early school years. How they had drifted apart when it became very clear that academics remained her goal and they were only interesting in fun and games. Especially now, since Voldemort had been defeated. Harry especially was trying to have as much fun as possible. As if he were trying to live lifetimes in the shortest amount of time possible. She mourned that childhood friendship, but she mourned more that the boys had not, themselves, realized that the close knit group they had been was lost in the past.
Hermione finally noticed that the two men who were now closest to her were still involved in gut-wrenching laughs, leaning against each other for support. Severus' arm was slung around Draco's shoulders, and Draco held a fist-full of Severus' shirt in one hand. To an outsider, it was quite an intimate embrace. She had to find out more about their relationship.
"Alright guys. Come on, that's enough. I have dinner."
Time passed quickly, with Hermione heavily involved in classes, lunches with Ginny, and evenings spent with her boys. She used her time to observe everything she could about how Draco and Severus acted towards each other and towards her. The more she watched, the more she became convinced that a ménage-a-trios wasn't an impossible idea. It was obvious that Draco was still as in love with the Potions Master as she was, and the feelings that had developed between them in their seventh year had never really faded. The only thing that kept her confused was Severus. There were times she was convinced that he was loved them both. Then he would draw back and his attitude would return to the friendliness he reserved for the few privileged enough to call him friend.
No matter. The Halloween Ball was coming up, and she had something planned that would let her know exactly how her men felt. Luckily, a Hogsmeade weekend fell the weekend before the Friday the ball was planned. It would be easy for her to follow the students to the Wizarding town the next morning and get the costume she'd ordered two weeks before. If it came out the way she wanted, her men would be floored. Hopefully, it would be the catalyst to get her men off their sensibilities and do something about the emotions flying between the three of them. It was getting so obvious; she'd overheard Minerva talking about them to Albus.
She couldn't wait for the ball. There was no way for Severus or Draco to get out of it, as Albus had "requested" they both be there to act as chaperons. Hermione was near convinced that Albus knew exactly what she was planning. Which, when she thought about it, was disturbing. It was almost like her grandfather knowing and approving her wish to ravish two men at one time. Disturbing indeed. However, if the old meddling Headmaster was working in her favor, she wasn't about to fight it.
"Professor Granger!" She spotted a third year Ravenclaw running around the corner with a rather excited look on her face. Hermione stopped in her spot and waited patiently with a little smile on her face. It took her a moment but she remembered the student's name.
"What's got you in a rush Delihala?" Hermione's grin widened with the young girl stopped a few steps away and placed her hand's on her knees, panting a bit. Delihala was one of the more curious pure-bloods to come through her class that year.
"I'm sorry Professor, but I wanted to catch you before you got to the Great Hall for supper. I wanted to ask you about muggles and Halloween." Delihala stood, nearly bouncing from foot to foot, and Hermione couldn't help but smile and motion for the young girl to continue. Delihala took a deep breath. "I was wondering if any of the students with muggle background would be insulted if I dressed as a Muggle housewife from the eighty's. I thought of the idea when you had us do that parchment on sitcoms." Hermione smiled at the fidgeting young girl.
"I'm sure that the students that would recognize what you want to dress as would only think it funny, Delihala. If anyone doesn't, you only have to find one of the professors. Now get to dinner, I'm sure you're hungry." Hermione watched the young girl run ahead of her as she turned to take the hallway to the teacher's table. It was a nifty little shortcut to the area behind the head table, one which would accept no password to reach. Rather, it was spelled to only recognize certain people – specifically, the staff. Hermione went back to smug thoughts of Draco and Severus' reactions come ball time. It was going to be a long week.