Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own it — I wish! Unfortunately, Harry Potter belongs to JKR and not to me; I'm just playing in her sandbox.
Author's Notes:
» Hermione changes her name during the story. However, to make it easier to understand, I'll continue to refer to Hermione by the name we all know. The only times her new name will be used is when she introduces herself to new people, or when someone is speaking to her and addresses her by name.
» This story is has been written in full and will be posted at the rate of approximately one chapter a week.
» Thank you to atokkota for her support and feedback.
.o.O.o.
CHAPTER 8
While the students were eating, a hushed conversation was taking place at the staff table.
"I swear that Miss Gale is the spitting image of an eleven year old Hermione Granger," said Pomona Sprout, who had taken her seat at the staff table, in surprise.
"Yes, I think we all noticed that," replied Minerva McGonagall, exchanging a look with Severus Snape. The Headmistress could tell that, like her, Severus thought there was every chance that this girl could finally give them a lead regarding the whereabouts of Hermione.
"Gale — I don't recognise that name," observed Filius Flitwick. "Was she one of the Muggleborns you visited, Severus? Pomona?" The visiting of Muggleborn witches and wizards to inform them of magic was now undertaken jointly by Professors Snape and Sprout. Technically, it was the job of the Deputy Head but with Severus being quite intimidating, there was something the parents found very reassuring about the Hufflepuff Head of House. Between them, they made a very good team, not that Severus would ever admit it.
"She's the Canadian student, Penelope Clearwater's niece," replied Minerva, with a puzzled expression, which was echoed by the rest of the staff. How could a girl who looked so like Hermione Granger be Penelope Clearwater's niece? "And I believe her mother's name is Nonie Gale. Of course, that could easily be an alias," she continued.
"I don't remember Miss Clearwater having any siblings," Filius commented thoughtfully.
"Nor does Miss Granger, as far as I recall," confirmed Severus.
"Why are you talking about Hermione?" demanded Harry Potter, who had dropped out of Auror training not long after Hermione's disappearance to become the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor.
"Did you even look at that child, Harry?" asked his wife, Ginny, incredulously.
"Yes, but Hermione's daughter would never be a Slytherin," he replied confidently.
There was an astounded silence. Then Severus spoke. "I actually thought you'd finally grown up, Potter, but it seems I was wrong," he said sourly. "You haven't learned anything from the past. You still think that Slytherin automatically means evil. Have you forgotten Peter Pettigrew already, Potter? For your information — and I'm certainly in a position to know — despite people's fondness for saying that there isn't a witch or wizard who went Dark that didn't come from Slytherin, not all Death Eaters were Slytherins. Believe it or not, not all Dark witches and wizards over the course of history were Slytherins. Do you spout this nonsense to the students, Potter?"
"That's not what I meant!" Harry exclaimed, flushing with embarrassment. "I just meant that Hermione was in Gryffindor, and could easily also have been in Ravenclaw, but I never heard that the Hat ever considered sorting her into Slytherin like it did with me."
"If a Muggleborn had been sorted into Slytherin in those days, she would have met a fatal accident within the first month — possibly less. The Hat did not sort Muggleborns into Slytherin back then precisely because of the danger it would have placed any such student in," Severus explained wearily.
"Not all students are sorted into the same House as their parents, Harry," Pomona observed, trying to make peace. "Otherwise, where would you sort a student who had parents who had been in different Houses? No, the Hat sorts students according to the House that best suits the student, not according to which House their parents were in, otherwise Sirius Black would never have been in Gryffindor."
"In truth, Miss Granger when we knew her, had some very Slytherin traits," Filius commented. "I haven't forgotten about Marietta Edgecombe, or the way she lured Dolores Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest and left her at the mercy of the centaurs. And wasn't the idea for the secret Defence Club that year hers? I even seem to recall hearing that she had blackmailed Rita Skeeter. Quite Slytherin indeed."
"Enough," Minerva sighed, seeing Harry bristling and deciding it would be politic to change the subject. "The students are beginning to take notice of our conversation and I would really rather we not start rumours flying about Miss Gale the moment she steps foot in the castle. Please continue your conversation —if continue you must — somewhere that the students can't hear you."
Severus nodded graciously in acknowledgement and began to converse with Pomona about some potion ingredients he needed from her greenhouses. Towards the end of the meal, Minerva spoke to Severus again. "Perhaps you could have a word with Miss Gale, Severus?"
"Why him?" Harry demanded. "Hermione was my best friend."
"A best friend who you ignored when she was in trouble," Severus sneered. "And just what reason would you give to speak to the girl, Potter? I at least have reason to speak to her in my capacity as her Head of House."
"Her mother was my best friend!" Harry repeated.
"That's debatable, but you continually repeating that Hermione Granger was your best friend still doesn't give you sufficient reason to speak to Miss Gale about her parentage, especially when we don't actually know that she is Miss Granger's daughter. Nor do we know — if Miss Granger's daughter she is — just what she has been told about you and Mr Weasley. What exactly would you say to her, Potter? If you go blundering in recklessly, you could cause more problems than you solve."
"Will you two stop squabbling?" Minerva snapped. "Harry, I agree with Severus. He should speak to the girl as her Head of House. No one else is to approach her on the matter. That's my final word on the subject."
"Fine!" Harry grumbled childishly, annoyed that he had been forbidden to talk to the girl about her mother.
After the Feast, Severus went to the Slytherin common room and welcomed all the students, as he did every year. After his usual speech about expected behaviour and looking out for each other, he finished off by saying that he and his prefects were also available for any of the students and then sent them off to bed.
Aimée was thrilled that Severus Snape was her Head of House. She had been brewing Potions with her mother for a year already and she found the book on brewing family potions, which he had written, to be a work of art. She had compared his instructions and recipes to the recipes in other books for the same potions and had shown an instinctive understanding for how he had adapted the potions to make them more efficacious. This had inspired her to start experimenting with potions recipes on her own, under strict supervision. Hermione trusted Aimée not to blow up the kitchen or melt her cauldron when following a potions recipe exactly but for safety's sake, would not allow her to experiment without Hermione or Penny present. Aimée understood and accepted the safety measures imposed by her mother but was looking forward to being taught by Professor Snape and she hoped that he would be an encouraging teacher.
The following morning, Severus handed out timetables to his House. After the war, Minerva McGonagall, now Headmistress, had proposed that they mix up the Houses more, instead of the continual Slytherin/Gryffindor and Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw division.
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"Classes very rarely, if ever, have a different mix of Houses, which means that students barely get to know half of the school, half of their year-mates even, in their entire seven years of schooling. It's time to break down the barriers between the Houses and that begins with mixing the classes up a bit more," she said firmly.
The staff had agreed with her. It was something they had all proposed many times but Albus Dumbledore had refused to consider it. For some reason, he had been determined to keep Slytherin and Gryffindor together, despite the animosity between the two Houses. Of course, some classes would still end up in the traditional split under Minerva's new system but Severus, upon hearing Minerva's proposal, immediately pled to have his Gryffindor/Slytherin classes split before anyone else could get a chance to make their own case.
"Potions is the most volatile of all the classes and it only gets worse when you have Gryffindors or Slytherins sabotaging each other's potions. That there have been no fatal accidents to date is purely down to luck — even I can't watch every cauldron at the same time. I would prefer not to have Slytherins and Gryffindors together before fifth year at the earliest. By that time, they're hopefully more concerned about their OWLs than causing mayhem." Seeing the nods of agreement, Severus decided to push his luck a bit further and continued. "The other class where a Gryffindor/Slytherin split is best avoided is Defence. Do we really want to invite those particular students to throw hexes at each other? They manage to do that quite enough on their own accord without our encouraging it!" he said drolly and his colleagues chuckled in amusement.
"All right, so we avoid pairing Gryffindor and Slytherin in Potions and Defence. Does anyone else have any particular requests to make?" Minerva asked. No one did and so that became the norm. Of the seven subjects that the first and second years took, Slytherin now had two classes each with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff and three with Ravenclaw. The two classes with Gryffindor were deliberately the least volatile of all — Astronomy and History of Magic. Minerva had taken on board what Severus had said. She knew it would take time for past rivalries to die down completely and she saw no point in courting trouble in the meantime.
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This policy was bearing fruit, as they could now see many more inter-House friendships occurring. However, as long as there was still a visible wariness between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Minerva felt that these two Houses were better off sharing classes that did not involve wand-work, and the members of staff who had taught under Albus Dumbledore's leadership had all reported an improvement in their classes involving Gryffindor or Slytherin. Even Harry had reported how different the atmosphere in his Gryffindor/Hufflepuff and Slytherin/Ravenclaw classes was to that of the Gryffindor/Slytherin classes of his youth. Robert Hilliard, the Transfiguration Professor, could not comment. He was a few years older than Harry and, as a Ravenclaw, had never experienced a Slytherin/Gryffindor class and so had no frame of reference for comparison.
Aimée perused her timetable eagerly. She had begun to make cautious friendships with her year-mates. Fortunately, they had been more interested in her Canadian background than in her heritage. She did mention that her aunt had been in Ravenclaw and her mother in Gryffindor but did not mention her father. Nor did she correct the girls in her dorm, when they all assumed that the reason they did not know any Gales was because her father was Canadian. She had been warned that the British wizarding world was far less liberal than Canada's and she had a feeling that her schoolmates might look down on her because her mother was unmarried and she did not even know her father's name. It had only been one night but, so far, she was getting on well with the other Slytherin first year girls: Zephyr Sykes, Hyacinth Higgs and Anthea Pucey.
"Great!" she exclaimed happily. "We have Potions first."
"Potions? No, I want to learn magic!" exclaimed Zephyr Sykes, with a wink. She and Aimée had met on the Hogwarts Express and were pleased to have been sorted into the same House. They had enjoyed discussing books and what they hoped to learn at Hogwarts, with Aimée most looking forward to Potions and Zephyr most looking forward to Charms. They had been joking ever since about whether or not Potions, which did not require a wand, was magical.
"But Potions is magic. It's just subtle and not flashy," teased Aimée. "And Professor Snape is brilliant. I can't wait to learn from him."
"How do you know Professor Snape is brilliant?" asked Anthea curiously. "You're Canadian. How do you know anything about the Hogwarts professors?"
Aimée rolled her eyes. She did not notice Severus hovering nearby. He was still handing out timetables during this conversation and was curious to hear the answer to that question himself.
"I researched them!" she said with exaggerated patience. "Besides, I've been brewing Potions from Professor Snape's book on family potions for the last year. He modified all the potions to make them simpler to brew and yet more efficacious. I looked up some of the potions recipes from before he modified them and his methodology is simply brilliant. He's a genius!" she said enthusiastically.
Severus did not know whether to be amused by this first year's endorsement of his abilities or indignant over her presumption. 'Cheeky minx!' he thought, deciding to be amused. He was looking forward to his first class with these students and would be watching Miss Gale with great interest. He decided not to approach her about her background just yet. He wanted to get a feel for the impudent little imp first.
Severus stalked into the room of apprehensive first year Slytherins and Ravenclaws, his robes billowing behind him. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." ⁹
At this, Aimée gave a shiver. She could feel that entire speech resonating deep within her. Well, apart from the bit about dunderheads, of course. She did not like to blow her own trumpet but she knew that she was anything but a dunderhead.
Professor Snape the proceeded to barrage the room with questions. Aimée's brown eyes opened widely at these questions, since they were not in the first year textbook. She looked around the classroom and when she saw no one else volunteering to answer, she cautiously raised her hand.
"Miss Gale," the Professor's silky voice purred. "Do enlighten us, please."
She answered all the questions correctly and, just to test her, he added one more question. It was very advanced and something that no first year should be able to answer, no matter how far ahead they had read. Aimée took a moment to think about it. She did not know the answer but did her best to work it out. Thinking of what she knew about the properties of various ingredients and how they interacted with each other, coupled with her knowledge of ingredient preparation, she made an educated guess.
"Very good, Miss Gale. Ten points to Slytherin."
At the end of the lesson, she walked out of the dungeon classroom floating on air at the praise she had received from her Head of House. Despite the fact that the lesson had only been introductory, she had enjoyed it immensely and was already looking forward to the next Potions lesson. From Potions, she made her way to History of Magic, which would be with the Gryffindors. Her mother had warned her that this subject was taught by a ghost who droned on in a monotone. It was very hard to stay awake in his classes, so Hermione recommended always reading the lesson's chapter in advance as it helped with concentration.
This class was held with the Gryffindors and Aimée looked at them curiously, her gaze falling on a red-headed boy who looked quite like her cousin, Phoebe.
"What are you looking at, Slytherin?" he asked pugnaciously.
Aimée looked at him in shock. "I was just looking round the room and happened to glance at you for a second. I apologise if I somehow offended you; it certainly wasn't intentional."
"What kind of weird accent is that?" he asked, ignoring her apology, which no one else in the room had thought necessary, not even the other Gryffindors.
"Canadian," she replied.
"If you're Canadian, what are you doing at Hogwarts?" he sneered.
"My parents and aunt all attended Hogwarts," she explained.
"My parents and aunt all attended Hogwarts," he mocked. "It still doesn't make you British. We don't want any filthy foreigners here, especially not rotten Slytherins!" he pronounced looking rather pleased with himself. Everyone else in the room looked horrified.
"Speak for yourself, Weasley!" protested one of the Gryffindors. "I have no problems with either incomers or Slytherins. The war's been over a long time."
"Well, you ought to! Slytherins are all evil!"
"Excuse me," asked another Gryffindor, trying to move the discussion away from the subject of Slytherins before it got out of control. "But isn't Victoire Weasley your cousin and isn't her mother French?"
"Well, yes, but she's not French. Besides, she's a Weasley. My family have been going to Hogwarts for hundreds of years."
"And the Delacours have been going to Beauxbatons for hundreds of years. They're an even older and more respected family than the Weasleys," observed Hyacinth Higgs drily.
"In France. That doesn't count," the obnoxious red-head said dismissively.
Fortunately, because it looked to an appalled Aimée that the class was about to erupt into an all-out brawl, so angry had the odious boy made everyone, the Professor entered the room. Or rather, he floated up through the floor.
At the end of the lesson, Aimée was rudely and roughly shouldered aside by the disagreeable red-head as he barged out of the classroom. Fortunately, Zephyr and Hyacinth caught her before she went slamming hard into one of the desks.
"Are you all right?" asked Zephyr.
Aimée just nodded, too shocked to speak. Physically, she was fine but she was very shaken up. She had never experienced such enmity before. Zephyr and the other Slytherins made sure Aimée was safely in the middle of them, as they all made their way to the Great Hall for lunch. Some of the first year Slytherins might have been inclined to look down on her because they did not recognise the name Gale but Reuben Weasley had just united them. He had attacked one of their own and they would support her, no matter her heritage. Slytherins stuck together!
At lunch, the staff heard the gossip about what had happened in the first year Gryffindor/Slytherin History of Magic class and looked at each other uneasily. Severus badly wanted to step in and give the detestable Weasley brat detention for the next month but unless Aimée made an official complaint, his hands were tied.
Suddenly, they became aware of an altercation at the Gryffindor table. Victoire Weasley was yelling at Reuben, and it looked like her good friend and Harry Potter's godson, Teddy Lupin, was holding her back from attacking her cousin. Listening to the Weasley girl, Severus considered it lucky that Reuben Weasley could not understand the insults she was spitting at him in French or he would probably have exploded by now. Instead, he was ignoring his cousin in favour of the enormous mound of food piled on his plate.
'Just like his father,' thought Severus, shaking his head in disgust.
Aimée, however, understood every word that Victoire was saying and was in awe of the wide range of the epithets that were flowing out of the older girl's mouth. Hermione always pulled Aimée up on bad language but this was not swearing. The invective was original and inventive but still fell within the bounds of acceptable language. Aimée decided that she had to get to know Victoire Weasley. She wanted to learn how to admonish someone with such fluency and aplomb. She was not sure she would ever do so — she knew that she was far too polite and mild-mannered for that — but she had a feeling that just having that ability would be empowering and would therefore do wonders for her self-confidence.
The next day she happened to see Victoire sitting in the library with a blue-haired boy and tentatively approached her. Despite Victoire lambasting her cousin the previous day, Aimée was not sure that Victoire would welcome a Slytherin approaching her. She had learned by now that friendships between Gryffindor and Slytherin were few and far between.
"Excuse me," she said hesitantly. Victoire and her companion looked at her. They did not look particularly welcoming but neither were they looking at her with distaste, the way Reuben Weasley had. Thinking it would be simpler, she slipped easily into French. "You're Victoire Weasley, aren't you? I'm sorry to bother you but the librarian doesn't seem to be here and I was wondering if there are any books in French in the library? I thought you would probably know."
Aimée then turned to the boy who was sitting at the table with Victoire. "I'm Aimée Gale," she said in English, holding out her hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't think to ask if you speak French. I apologise, I didn't mean to be rude or exclude you. I was merely asking Miss Weasley if there are any French volumes in the library."
The boy smiled at her and shook her hand. "I'm Teddy Lupin. And, yes, there are French books in the library. I'm sure Victoire will be happy to show you. She misses not being able to discuss them with someone who can understand them."
Aimée grinned back at him and then held her hand out to Victoire, who shook it eagerly. "Excuse us, Teddy!" Victoire cried, dragging Aimée over to one of the stacks. From then on, a friendship started up between the three students, even though Victoire was in her second year and Teddy in his fourth.
Reuben Weasley, however, disapproved of this friendship and never hesitated to express his dislike of Aimée. His attitude towards the girl was worsening and the vitriol he was spewing in her direction was becoming ever more vicious. He had also taken to pushing and shoving her whenever he caught her in the corridors alone, telling her that she was not wanted in Hogwarts and should just do everyone a favour and leave. Aimée did not know how to handle the boy, who was beginning to frighten her quite badly. She began to take great care not to traverse the corridors alone but there were times when she could not avoid it and, on these occasions, he always seemed to find her.
Aimée did not want to snitch on Reuben, knowing it would only make matters worse. While Professor Snape had been unable to act upon what had happened in the first History of Magic class without her making a complaint against Reuben, were he actually to be a witness to the boy's behaviour, he would then be able to take steps. When he had subsequently heard the boy animadverting further on the subject of Aimée Gale, he had been appalled by the malevolent attitude Reuben was demonstrating towards the Slytherin first year, and had gleefully given the boy a detention.
To make it worse, knowing how important flying was to Weasleys, Severus had decreed that the detention should take place during the Gryffindors' flying lesson. School rules stated that students could only fly while on Hogwarts grounds or join their House Quidditch team after they had been officially signed off by the school's Flying Instructor, for which they needed to undertake at least one official flying lesson. Despite the fact that the Flying Instructor, Ginny Weasley Potter, was in fact Reuben's aunt, it was not sufficient that she had often taken him up flying at home. He still had to take an official class at Hogwarts. This meant that Reuben had to go begging his aunt for a special lesson.
Reuben fed Ginny a story about why he had missed the scheduled Gryffindor class and she agreed to give him a catch-up lesson. Then Severus informed her of the real reason why Reuben had missed the class. Ginny was not only furious with Reuben over his behaviour, but she was breathing fire over the fact that he had lied to her. Even Severus Snape had to admit that Molly Weasley, Reuben's grandmother, was one formidable witch when she was in a temper and Ginny took after her mother. She gave Reuben a scolding, the like of which the spoiled boy had certainly never received from his own parents. Simmering with resentment over what he perceived as unfair treatment, he took it out on Aimée.
After the missed flying lesson, Aimée therefore hesitated to report Reuben's escalating violence towards her, as she did not want to be the victim of his increased temper should he receive another detention because of her. As they learned more magic, she was fully expecting him to start hexing her — probably in the back — and she had asked one of the older Slytherins to teach her how to cast a shield charm. It was not yet very strong but was probably strong enough to protect her against hexes cast by another first year and the more she used it, the stronger she could feel it becoming. Much as she loved her wand, she was beginning to wish for one strong in defence, like her mother's, as she needed every advantage she could get against this boy.
.o.O.o.
⁹ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 8, by JK Rowling.