Hermione walked through the dungeons at a steady pace, her footwork never betraying her fury. She knocked on her master's door lightly before opening it and letting herself in.
"Mia, what a surprise, I wasn't expecting you," Severus said, lifting his head up from paperwork.
"I wish it were a visit just for pleasure," she hinted.
"What happened?" he asked seriously.
"Miss Smithins had detention with that scum," she said heatedly.
"What happened?" he pressed.
"He made her strip," she snarled at no one in particular, "That foul, loathsome, pitiful excuse for a person, took advantage of his authority."
Severus stood stiffly and walked towards her, "What would you have us do?" he inquired.
"Get rid of him," she said with bass in her voice.
The dark wizard looked his witch in the eye and noticed how cold her eyes were, the gold in her eyes ringed the pupils.
"We will plan," he replied.
Hermione stared Severus Snape in the eyes looking for any hesitation in them, "Severus, this monster will pay."
"Yes, he will."
While she stared him in the eye Severus had an instinct feeling she was not to be touched right now and continued to stand.
"Will we be making us of the room Lucius provided tonight?" he asked instead.
"I think after he leaves, I will make the move permanent," she agreed, "For tonight I will stay in my room, thank you."
"Good night, Apprentice."
"Good night, Master."
The next day Hermione would find out that Cora had taken refuge in the Hospital Wing all day. A cold fury gripped her heart whenever she thought of it.
The petite witch took it upon herself to write a letter to The Board of Governs.
To Whom It May Concern,
High Inquisitor Ogden has been found guilty of abusing his power over underaged witches. Under the guise of detention he has been looking up their skirts and has gone as far as performing the most inappropriate "uniform check" I have ever heard of. He had a student strip because he couldn't look up her skirt. I have personally informed many witches to start wearing shorts under their skirts to prevent him from looking up their skirts in the first place. If anyone is to blame for any sort of prohibited uniform choices, it would be me. However, I was unaware that what we wore under our uniforms was up to The Board of Governs as it is not stated anywhere in the school charter.
Sincerely,
Apprentice Hermione Granger
"Elara, be swift," she said softly, doing her best to keep her anger from lashing out.
"Apprentice Granger, how strange that we meet here," came a jovial voice that sent shivers down her spine.
"High Inquisitor Ogden," she nodded at him passively before trying to walk by him.
"If I could have a moment of your time, Apprentice?" he asked, blocking her from leaving the owlery.
"How may I be of assistance?" she asked quietly.
"Who did you sent a letter to just now?" he asked with another smile.
"My parents," she replied, lying to his face. As she was employing both her mental wards and occlumency her face was blank, almost bored with a touch of resting bitch face.
"I see."
She felt a subtle tingle of his magic try to enter her mind, "Is that truly so?" he asked again.
"Yes, High Inquisitor. Was that all?" she parried.
"Your tutor is arriving today, is she not? Who is she, I was never made privy beyond she's your tutor? What do you study with her?" he pressed.
"She is. Madame Elise is a retired auror. I study Defense Against the Dark Arts, as she has been hired to."
Hermione refused to allow him control or entry of her mind. It was subtle, but she studied with some of the best and could throw off the imperious, a compulsion was nothing in comparison. She was disgusted with him, furious even, but decided to play along to keep him from being more suspicious.
"I would very much like for you to skiv off her lesson and instead come attend my class," he ordered, "You may go now."
If anyone overheard it would sound like he was asking and they were having a simple conversation instead of him having what would be an interrogation. She felt the tingle of his magic leave her.
Hermione blinked, while still looking at him, then turned to leave.
"Oh, one more thing; obliviate." He hissed at her, his wand now visibly in his hand.
Hermione quickly stepped to the side, avoiding his forgetfulness charm.
"Shit!" he cursed.
The petite witch took it upon herself to flee down the stairs as quickly as possible. She ran into Cedric on her way down.
"Apprentice Granger, where's the fire?" the young wizard asked her.
Instead of responding the witch grabbed him harshly and turned him around, "Move," she hissed under her voice.
"Apprentice?" she heard Ogden call, "Are you still there?"
The Goblet hadn't picked Cedric as a Champion because he was slow on the uptake. The wizard's eyes widened as he let himself be turned around and rushed back out of the Owlery. She continued to quickly rush him, going so far as to steer him into an empty classroom further down the hallway.
"Are you okay, Hermione?" Cedric asked, partially shocking her back to the matter at hand.
She looked at the boyishly handsome wizard before making a decision.
"Currently, no. I am furious. Juno Ogden is a pedophile and I just sent a letter to the Board of Governs about him. I told him I was sending an owl to my parents when he cast a light compulsion spell on me to try to get me to give him more information. After that he tried to obliviate me."
"Woah, those are serious allegations," Cedric said.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at the wizard.
"Not that I don't believe you," he held his hands up, "You saved my life from You-Know-Who and his Death Eater, I owe you a life debt."
In the few seconds she stared at him Cedric felt as though she was looking into his soul.
"I acknowledge the debt. He had a Third Year in detention last night and had her strip. If the Board doesn't do anything by tomorrow I'm afraid I'll have to do something drastic to protect the students."
"I won't tell anyone, I agree with you. If you need an alibi, I'll cover for you," he said solemnly.
"Thanks, but my Master will probably be a better alibi than you," she replied.
He nodded in understanding.
"Until he's gone, try to keep the younger years away from him and out of detention," she insisted instead.
"I would do that anyways, now that I know. I just thought he was leering at the older girls."
The curly haired witch shook her head in negative, "No. He's a disgusting pig… do you think he's gone now?"
"I'll check," he offered.
Cedric slowly stuck his head out of the classroom and didn't see the wizard.
"I don't see him," he said slowly, "I didn't hear him either."
Hermione looked at him before casting a disillusionment charm on herself, using her wand for show before poking her head out from under him.
'Homenum revelio. Silencio.' She cast silently, the second towards her own feet.
"Clear," she agreed quietly before slipping from out of the classroom silently. The witch then ran all the way to the room she met Madame Elise in. She slammed the door shut behind her, startling the retired auror. She dropped her spells once she noticed the other witch had her wand pointed at her.
"Sorry for startling you, Madame Elise," Hermione apologize.
"Considering you have more manners than half of America put together, I'm going to ask if there's a problem."
Hermione decided to bite the proverbial bullet and told Tauri Elise all of what had been happening with Juno Ogden and even how she asked her Master to find out anything he could about the paltry excuse for a wizard.
Madame Elise put a hand over her mouth and took a calming breath.
"I already owled the Board of Governs," the younger witch added.
"Well I'm glad your master already agreed to you testing early so it won't be an issue for you any longer. I decided to arrive early to stand with Madame Marchbanks, she will be arriving when class would start."
"He tried to have me skiv. He didn't know."
"How were you able to throw off his compulsion?" the transwitch asked instead.
"Occlumency."
"Ah. It's a great skill to have and will help you with your exams. Good luck, Apprentice," Madame Elise said as Madame Marchbanks walked in, "Nice to meet you, Madame Marchbanks, would you like me to wait here with you or outside?"
"Likewise, Madame Elise. I would recommend that you wait in the staff room but as you're not an official professor here I don't see the harm in letting you stand by me as long as you don't distract the student," was her answer.
"Madame Marchbanks, it's lovely to see you. Thank you for coming."
"Pish posh, Apprentice Granger. Your master has other obligations and it's our job to test you. He approved of your early testing and so I am here. Please be seated, we will proceed with the written first. First written will be for your O.W.L. then we will take a 10 minute break before you take the written for your N.E.W.T. You have will have 90 minutes and I've brought a quill for you," giving the apprentice the question packet and special quill the elder witch stood at the front of the classroom, "You may begin."
Ogden was angry Apprentice Granger threw off the compulsion and wasn't in his room when class started. That was until he overheard Miss Parkinson.
"I'm sorry, Miss Parkinson, but who did you see enter the building?" he asked with a smile.
"Madame Marchbanks, sir," Pansy answered with a smile, hiding how disgusted she was with him.
"I was unaware that she would be arriving so soon. Everyone take out your books and read the next chapter. I will want a summary from each of you," he decided quickly, "If you have any questions of course feel free to raise your hand and I will come to you."
Ogden knew he didn't have the attention span to actually teach today, not with Marchbanks in the building. He would have to wait until class ended though before he went to see where she was. Perhaps it was simply a social call with McGonagall… he hoped.
Class felt as though it dragged on longer than usual, but Ogden didn't give anything away to the class before him. No one seemed surprised that Apprentice Granger wasn't there, per normal, so he decided he wouldn't find anything out by asking his students. If he pretended nothing happened in the owlery, perhaps nothing would happen at all… he hoped.
Elara had flown through the window that was meant for correspondence at the Board of Governs Hall. An elf popped in and tried to take the letter, but found that he could not.
"Muggy will be backs with witch or wizard to takes letter quickly."
Two minutes later the floo burned green and Augusta Longbottom walked through. She spotted Elara and with a few waves of her wand to make sure the letter wasn't spelled she took the letter from the greater sooty owl and opened it. Augusta had to read it twice to make sure she wasn't misreading things in her old age and called for an emergency Board meeting.
One classes were dismissed Ogden wandered around before making his way to McGonagall's office and knocked.
"Enter."
Ogden let himself in.
"Good evening, Professor McGonagall," Juno Ogden started.
"Good evening, High Inquisitor," Minerva replied flatly, "Is there something you need?"
Ogden fidgeted in place wondering if the student was able to tell what happened in detention but remembered that none of his Heads of House did so while he was a student so wasn't worried about that.
"Ah, I heard from a student that Madame Marchbanks arrived earlier. I was wondering if she came for a social call," he wheedled.
"Madame Marchbanks has never made a social call to Hogwarts in all my years here." was her response.
"I see, then do you perhaps know why she'd be here? I wasn't made aware that she was here and I find it almost rude that I had to find out that a member of the Ministry had arrived through a student." Ogden said.
"Madame Marchbanks always comes when anything O.W.L and N.E.W.T. exams are involved."
"Isn't it a bit early though?" he asked, honestly confused.
"High Inquisitor Ogden, we do have an apprentice here at this school. If her master has decided she could do with testing out of a few classes now for more independent study with him, that is up to him. If that is the case, as the school is in session, Madame Marchbanks would come here," she answered a slight growl in her tone.
'Maybe the compulsion did keep if she had to meet with Madame Marchbanks instead of her tutor that wouldn't be against my order.'
"Thank you, I'm terribly sorry for bothering you," he replied with a smile back on his face and quickly let himself out.
The pedophile decided it was time to talk to scary Snape again and made his way to the dungeons.
A quick knock on the potions master's door saw the man face to face with Severus bat of the dungeons Snape. The dark wizard had a scowl on his face and a dangerous glint in his eyes.
"G-good evening, Professor Snape," Ogden started.
"What is it that you require, High Inquisitor Ogden?" Severus sneered.
"I found out from Miss Parkinson that Madame Marchbanks was seen in the building. I just came from chatting with Professor McGonagall that Madame Marchbanks only comes to Hogwarts for O. and N.E. . She pointed out that while it may be early, we do have an apprentice in the building," Ogden plowed ahead.
"And?" Severus sneered.
"A-and I wanted to know why I wasn't told," he squeaked.
"That is between myself and my apprentice. I am having her test early," Severus sniped.
"W-well I – that is – ahem – I –" he babbled.
"Whatever pace I set my apprentice on is my personal business," Severus drawled silkily, "So I would appreciate it if you left my apprentice and her friends alone."
"Or what?" a slimy glint appeared in the lesser wizard's eye.
"Why nothing of course. I am merely a professor here. I am here to teach and protect the students," Snape quipped.
"Protect them? From what?" Ogden pressed.
"The students are dunderheads, they need protection from themselves, High Inquisitor."
"Maybe what you're teaching them is too dangerous," Ogden supplied.
"While there are the typical accidents, I've never had a student death," Severus sneered his eyes seemed to get darker.
"O-of c-course, m-m-my apologizes," Ogden replied, hastily backstepping, "I will see you at dinner."
With that he left the dungeons. However upon reaching the Great Hall he was shocked to see the Board of Governs.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board, how may I help you?" he asked, breaking out in a slight sweat.
"I think it would be best to take this to the staff room, Mr. Ogden," Lucius replied instead.
Augusta looked fit to have his guts for garters, the rage in her eyes was both murderous and terrifying.
"Is it serious?" he asked.
"Yes," snapped Augusta.
Ogden flinched and smoothed his robes, "Yes, ma'am," as he turned to head towards the staff room he saw Apprentice Hermione Granger along with Madame Marchbanks and Luna Lovegood.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Apprentice Hermione Granger and her friend Luna Lovegood, and of course Madame's Marchbanks and Elise," he pointed them out to buy himself some time to think of why they could be there.
"Enough stalling, Ogden," Augusta spat even though she nodded evenly towards the girls.
Madame Marchbanks nodded back, although she was confused as to why they were meeting so soon.
"What brings the Board here so early?" she asked.
"We're here to speak with Mr. Ogden about his disgusting impropriety," Mrs. Fawley said.
"What are you talking about Madame?" he asked innocently, "What impropriety?"
"I suggest you stop while you're ahead, Mr. Ogden," Lucius said with a sneer.
"Mr. Malfoy you'll have to excuse me but if I'm being accused of impropriety I deserve to know? I also deserve to know who would make such an astounding claim," he replied with shock coloring his voice.
"That is not to be spoken of out here," Lucius said, although he very much would have let the rest of the members say something.
"Yes, of course," Ogden replied before resuming his walk to the staff room. He saw three other wizards walking down behind the young witches. Hermione had of course once again tried to subtly stand in front of Luna to protect her, but as they were crossing paths Luna's skirt would be lifted up by a magical wind, showing her shorts, which Ogden had noticed.
"10 points from Hufflepuff," he called, blaming the wizards.
"What?" one of them asked, "What for?" another inquired indignantly.
"For flipping a witch's skirt," he said imperiously.
"50 points from Ravenclaw for being out of uniform," he continued.
"Absolutely not!" Augusta barked.
"I agree! How dare you!?" Mrs. Fawley yelled.
"Ladies I am merely trying to keep standards by enforcing Hogwarts' uniform," he tried.
"You're on thin ice, Mr. Ogden," Lucius drawled silkily, "Students are allowed to wear what they want after classes are over for the day, astronomy not included as it is a night class. It is in the charter. Never mind that students are allowed to wear whatever they want under their uniform. If they wanted to attend class with their sleepwear under they could do so."
"What makes you think it was me? Boys will be boys, so I took 10 points from them."
The Hufflepuff boys made a ruckus denying that it was them.
"I believe you, 10 points to Hufflepuff," Hermione said, "50 points to Ravenclaw – "
"Now see here, Apprentice!" Ogden yelled, his face red.
"I suggest you stop," warned Lucius, "Apprentice Lady Granger is well within her rights to those restore points."
"Thank you, Lord Malfoy," Hermione curtsied and lowered her head.
He nodded towards her.
"As you were," he dismissed them.
"I believe I will follow you and see what's going on, if you don't mind," Madame Marchbanks said, inviting herself.
As she had overseen all of their exams no one said anything against her. Madame Marchbanks took the lead and directed everyone towards the staff room by the Great Hall. Ogden let all of them pass him, the Hufflepuffs scurried as fast as they were able, and Luna grabbed Hermione's cloak. Ogden knew he was in trouble with the Board of Governors, but not how much trouble. It was enough that they came to him though and he wasn't sure what that meant.
He looked back at the witches going to the Great Hall and Madame Elise leaving the castle. Without warning he took a quick step forward and lightly grabbed Luna Lovegood's butt, eliciting a small scream from the girl.
Apparently that was more than enough for Hermione Granger. The witch turned around with a furious snarl and transformed before her best friend into a black jaguar, slashing at the pedophile who dared touch what was hers!
"AHHHHHH!" he screamed, grabbing his left eye while pissing himself.
There was a loud and deep roar that came from the black jaguar. It was upon closer inspection that you could see more of a glowing ombre of browns with black spots. The only one who was comfortable touching the beautiful scary big cat at the moment was Luna.
"I'LL HAVE YOU ARRESTED FOR THIS!"
Another loud threatening roar came from the jungle animal.
The commotion drew out the board of governs and students from the staff room and Great Hall respectively. Witches and some wizards on the board gasped. Lucius was stunned by the beauty that was Severus's wife to-be.
"What is going on here?" called Minerva.
"THAT BITCH CLAWED MY FACE!" Ogden hollered.
"Mr. Ogden grabbed my butt then Hermione changed defending me," Luna said eerily clearly, still touching Hermione.
"Is that true?" Minerva glared at Ogden.
The pedophile flushed that the witch would be so blunt about it and refused to look at the Scottish witch.
"What does it matter!? I'll probably have scars for the rest of my life for this!"
"Your victims will also have scars for the rest of their lives, Mr. Ogden. Unseen scars are still scars, often worse," Mrs. Plumly said, "You're fired. You were attacked in self-defense, see yourself out and Go to St. Mungos. We don't need Poppy dealing with the likes of you."
"You can't fire me, I'm High Inquisitor!"
"You're fired and we've hired Mr. Crouch as your replacement," spat Augusta, "Get out."
"I'll be letting the Minister know personally," Lucius said with a sneer.
Hermione growled lowly at the wizard, threatening him in the only way she could at the moment. The meaning was clear, 'Get. Out.'
"B- but my things," Ogden tried, still holding his face.
"They will be mailed to you," Minerva answered coldly, "We shouldn't have to repeat ourselves Mr. Ogden."
"We protect our students, Mr. Ogden, I told you that," Severus said darkly showing up from the throngs of students, "Especially from predators such as yourself. Now. Leave."
Juno Ogden would turn to leave the Castle, never to set foot in it again. It would be later that day however that he would find himself without a job and no one to hire him. Thankfully for Tiberious Ogden they weren't close so nothing affected him. Juno Ogden however would find himself blasted from the tree for "being an individual sicker than a Death Eater".
After the disturbed wizard left all the witches nearby cheered. Hermione would find that she had no control over her tail that flicked happily and produced a growling sound that mimicked purring (as jaguars can't actually purr).
"Apprentice Granger I'm going to have to ask you to change back," Minerva said only to be met with a small feline whine.
"Don't tell me…"
"It's her first time changing, Professor," Luna explained, defending her friend.
"I see. Apprentice… Professor McGonagall if you could?" Severus asked.
The cat animagus transformed and made her way to the young witch.
'Witch, remember what it is to be human, remember what it's like to stand on two legs, feel your two legs,' Minerva instructed.
With a chuff Hermione Granger was able to transform back to a human.
"Excellent form, Apprentice Granger!" Minerva praised.
"Thank you, Professor, I wish I was able to transform under less dire circumstances." Hermione replied.
"Be that as it may, we will register you as soon as dinner is over," Severus said.
"Yes, Master," she responded with a grin.
"Back to the Hall, this isn't a circus," Severus snapped at the students who quickly dispersed.
"I see we'll need to move those lessons up so you know how to transform back easier," Minerva said, standing next to her favorite student.
"Yes, ma'am."
"I will see you and the others tomorrow, congratulations, Apprentice Granger," Minerva said before making her way to the Great Hall.
"Your animagus form is exquisite, Apprentice Lady Granger," Lucius praised with some of his colleagues agreeing with him.
"Thank you, Lord Malfoy, Ladies and Gentlemen," Hermione answered. She had a feeling she would be thanking many people about her form as she turned and made her way to Gryffindor table.
Apparently it would be the talk of the evening. Hermione's new form and Ogden getting sacked. The Apprentice had no problem with the latter being the talk of the evening, but a bunch of Gryffindors thought her form was the coolest thing ever. Ron of course huffed, "She's not even a lion, she's not even a real Gryffindor" of which people chose to ignore. Lavender brought up that their Head of House was a house cat, and everyone agreed she was a Gryffindor.
Thankfully dinner was over sooner than later and Severus brought Hermione to the Ministry to be registered properly, as so many people had seen her transform, all members of the board of governs being some of them.
Severus would be pleased that his apprentice scared the Ministry lackey with her form to the point he struggled looking for a mark that made her stand out from the rest of the jaguars.
"The hair at the tip of her tail is rather curly, wouldn't you agree?" Severus spoke.
"Ah yes!" the Ministry lackey agreed, "That's unlike wild jaguars. I'll just add that to your form, fur on tail tip curly. It's subtle though, but it's something."
Hermione blinked her golden eyes at the man, scaring him more.
"You can change back, Apprentice," the man squeaked.
Hermione did as she was bid and transformed back to her bipedal form.
"I just need your signature here, here, and here," the lackey pointed out.
Even as she read the forms the curly haired witch signed in the designated spots. 10 minutes later Hermione Granger was registered as a proper animagus.
"We'll celebrate later this week," Severus affirmed earning a himself a happy grin from his witch. Once they were in his private rooms, Hermione launched herself at him and kissed him silly. Severus was only too happy to return the kiss.
The next day Hermione was happy to see Barty Crouch Jr. instead of his father sitting at the Head Table. She didn't wave to him as they weren't supposed to know each other, but she was glad that someone else she trusted was in the building. It was then she realized she may have shot herself in the foot though as she had taken her O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. for Defense Against the Dark Arts and had no official reason to meet with him. Oh well, she'd think of something.