Tale of a Smart Witch: Rebrewed
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes. Warnings: completely AU. Time travel.
"I've heard and seen a lot about the battle at Hogsmeade," Dumbledore finally continued, once the three heads of the houses had taken their seats, "and everyone was talking about the girl who chased away the Dementors and vanquished the Death Eaters."
Hermione felt herself blushing, however, finding herself at a loss of words, for once remained quiet.
"We have the impression as if you were specially trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts," Dumbledore added, giving her a questioning look.
"Not really, no, sir. During our fourth year, Barty Crouch Junior impersonated Alastor Moody as our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he taught us a lot. At the same time, my friend unwillingly became a champion for the Triwizard tournament, and I practised with him almost all year. We might have picked up some useful spells," Hermione admitted, smirking, while the headmaster's eyes widened in apparent surprise at the mentioning of the Triwizard Tournament.
"Miss Granger, I promised to think of a task for you and Mr. Snape," Dumbledore then said, nodding contentedly. "In the same way as I'd like to keep Mr. Snape at Hogwarts after his graduation, possibly as Professor Slughorn's successor, however, this has to remain a secret, because I haven't spoken to Professor Slughorn about the matter yet, let alone Severus," he continued, "I wish to keep you as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. However, as you probably know from the future, the position is cursed."
"Yes, I know that. Voldemort cursed it, because you refused to employ him as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor," Hermione replied, smiling.
"Indeed. Therefore, I need you and Severus to find a way around that curse. I wish to employ you for the position in two years' time, and I'd like you to remain on it for a very long time," the headmaster informed her, "provided that you wish to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts."
"I'd love it," Hermione replied, feeling absolutely delighted at the prospect of becoming a teacher at Hogwarts.
"Very good." Dumbledore nodded, seemingly contented. "There's one more point that I wish to discuss with you." Apparently realising that Hermione looked at him with interest, he continued to speak. "I've founded the Order of the Phoenix and invited the first members to meet in my office. However, as the group grows, which it hopefully will, this office is going to be too small. Therefore, I intend to use one apartment adjacent to the corridor leading to the teachers' quarters as meeting room."
Hermione nodded, wondering what the headmaster intended to tell her. "Unfortunately, I can neither invite you nor Severus to the Order, because if I did so, good friends like, for example, the Potters, would wonder why their children have not been invited. Therefore, I have decided to only add members who are of age in the magical world."
Hermione smirked. "Professor, I'm going to be of age in five days' time," she said in a soft voice, "and I'd love to become a member of the Order."
"Have you been a member in the future?" McGonagall spoke up, giving her a sharp look.
"No, because Professor Dumbledore only told me that he was going to revive the old Order of the Phoenix after Voldemort's rebirth, which was about a week, before I came here," Hermione replied.
"Very well, then you may join after your birthday," the headmaster relented. "What I was going to say, however, was that you and Severus may feel free to use our headquarters for your research. We still have to decide what to tell the Order members about you. I've asked Professor Flitwick to develop a charm which should prevent the members to speak about the fact that you're a time traveller and that Severus is our spy on Voldemort."
"I hope to have a charm until next Sunday," Flitwick spoke up with apparent enthusiasm.
"I'm looking forward to the meeting," Hermione added, smiling.
HP
When Hermione returned to the common room, Remus pulled her aside.
"May I speak with you in private?" he enquired, and Hermione had the impression as if he were strangely hesitant.
"Of course," she replied, matter-of-factly, and led him out of the common room and into one of the empty classrooms, which she had already used with Severus a couple of times.
"What happened?" she asked, smiling at her friend.
"I'm sorry to bother you," Remus slowly began to speak, causing Hermione to frown. "It's about the girlfriend matter. You know, you all said that I'm not a werewolf anymore and that it doesn't matter that I was one, but you know, I was one. I don't really want to talk about that, but if I had a girlfriend, not telling her everything would be unfair. I mean…." He gave Hermione a helpless look, tears welling in his eyes.
"You're not a werewolf anymore, so you can simply tell her about it. She won't mind," Hermione protested immediately. "Shall we ask Lily to change the prefect duties in a way, so that you can do your rounds together with Amelia?"
"Thanks Hermione," Remus said, gratefully. "You're an amazing friend."
Hermione smiled, as she said, "I'm sure that you would do the same for me. Good luck with Amelia.
"Hermione, I know that you're not supposed to speak about it, but did I marry Amelia in your future?"
Hermione sighed. "No Remus. Amelia didn't marry anyone, and the woman, a very nice woman, whom you married in spite of still being a werewolf, was much younger than you. I believe that she isn't even born yet. So, good luck with Amelia," she said in a soft voice, smiling at Remus, before she gave the password to the Fat Lady and entered the common room.
HP
The first meeting of the Order of the Phoenix took place in the evening of Hermione's seventeenth birthday. While she would have liked to spend the evening just with Severus, she was very excited to be able to participate in the first meeting ever, and upon hearing that Severus was allowed to attend as Dumbledore's spy, she was delighted.
The headmaster had diverted his incoming Floo to the meeting room, and the guests slowly began to arrive. Most of the people stepping out of the fireplace Hermione knew from the future, except the Potters and a few other couples such as, for example, the McKinnons, who had already been killed by Voldemort, before she had even been born. She had to force herself to not outright stare at the people whom she knew from her time, who all seemed so young in this time. Molly and Arthur Weasley, for example, attended the meeting with their toddlers, Bill and Charlie. 'Oh Merlin, how cute are they?' she thought in amazement, remembering their adult counterparts with mixed feelings. 'Oh no, I'm not going to be sentimental,' she lightly scolded herself, when the meeting finally began.
First of all, Fawkes performed a ceremony, in which he approved each member by sitting on their shoulder for a moment and included them into the Order of the Phoenix. Afterwards, each of the members had to take a wizard's oath and swear by their magic to be loyal to the Order and to Professor Dumbledore and to not reveal Hermione's and Severus' secrets to anyone outside the Order of the Phoenix.
After finishing the ceremonies, a house-elf brought refreshments, and Dumbledore let the meeting begin. He explained about Hermione coming from the future and, to Hermione's shock, informed everyone that she was going to be his assistant and organiser of the Order of the Phoenix. Finally, he revealed that Severus was their spy and was meeting with Voldemort and his Death Eaters on a weekly basis making them believe that he was Voldemort's spy.
"Has he taken the Dark Mark?" an older wizard, whom Hermione recognised as Alastor Moody, even if he still had two normal eyes, gruffly interrupted the headmaster.
"No, he hasn't," Dumbledore assured the Auror.
"Voldemort might still force him to take it," Hermione spoke up, "but if so, then it's neither by Severus' free will nor his fault."
Moody nodded. "Accepted," he said in a much less grumpy voice than Hermione knew it from the future.
HP
When the Order meeting ended, Hermione noticed that it was far beyond curfew and set to hurriedly return to Gryffindor, when Severus kept her back.
"Come with me," he purred and led her to the room, which he had occupied during the summer.
"Are you still using the room?" she asked in surprise, causing Severus to smirk.
"Well, not really, but no one else is using it either, so I took the liberty of occupying it for your birthday party," he admitted in a whisper.
"But…" she vaguely protested, however, shut up upon noticing how beautifully decorated the room was. A table was set in the centre of the room, equipped with seventeen candles and several small bouquets of colourful flowers, while the surroundings were mostly kept in the dark. However, one could get the impression as if the table was placed in the spotlight and surrounded by invisible curtains, which were also decorated with flowers.
Just when Severus motioned her to take a seat at the table, which was set for two persons, a house-elf appeared next to them.
"Ah Hermione, this is Cicero, my personal house-elf," Severus introduced the elf and explained that Cicero had been his mother's elf, but that Severus had sent him to Hogwarts when his mother died, knowing that his father greatly disliked the elf. "Now I have Cicero back, and I believe that we're both very glad about it," he ended his tale.
"Hello Cicero," Hermione said, smiling. "I'm very happy to meet you."
Cicero bowed deeply and replied, "Cicero feels honoured to serve Master Severus and Mistress Hermione."
Cicero served all kind of delicacies along with a bottle of semi-sweet champagne, and even if they already had dinner in the Great Hall as well as refreshments during the Order meeting, Hermione thoroughly enjoyed what Cicero had prepared and managed to eat a little of everything.
Only when they both realised that they could not possibly stomach any more food, Cicero cleared the table, only leaving the bottle and two glasses.
Severus rose from his seat and stepped around to her side of the small table. Kneeling in front of her, he asked her, "In spite of knowing that we have to keep this a secret to the world, will you become my girlfriend?"
"Yes," Hermione replied, happily, smiling, when he stood from his position on the floor next to her and gently pulled her into a kiss.
tbc...?
Sorry that it took me so long to post this, but due to the lack of resonance for this story, my muse is not too motivated. I will try to post the next chapter sooner.