Sorcière à sorcière

Summary:

How Hermione's favourite teachers ended up at a magical council of war centring on her.

It was an irritation to Amandine and Pamela that their school, l'Académie Supérieure de Sorcellerie, which had located itself in the 16th Arrondissement, had taken over an ancient girls' school in Wales atop Mt Snowdon, and forced students who wished to be magical educators to go there to practice. It was particularly irritating as Mlle Jollidodue's sister, Salmonella, was the headmistress there, and pretending to be her twin, to boot. Apparently, it was a diplomatic solution to their constant sibling rivalry, and Académie Supérieure students were forbidden to enlighten the locals. Over the course of her education, Amandine had largely lost her French accent for a Welsh accent when speaking English, unlike Pamela. People in Magical Britain assumed she'd brought her French girlfriend over, and considered it daring of her.

Since when the wine is drawn, it must be drunk, they stayed in Britain and quickly became accredited in non-magical education. They planned to teach a few years and when they were veterans, move back and teach at either the main school created by Hermione Jollidodue or the other women's academy in France, Beauxbatons. The latter was planning to admit boys in the near future, so they deliberately chose to teach at a co-educational non-magical school. To their surprise, they both richly enjoyed teaching there, and one of the students, in addition to being a prodigy in all her subjects, was obviously a powerful witch!

When Amandine found out that little Hermione Granger had been listening to her first-year conversation with the Headmistress, she was chagrinée. Later, she and Pamela observed the girl's radical self-transformation in her sixth year. The ten-year-old had stopped letting life pummel her, which was all to the good.

But that wasn't all, not by miles. Right there in her classes, she was blatantly using a BST (boule souviens-toi-de-tout ) as some sort of alarm. Whoever had given her a "Rememberall," as they were called here in England, had clearly not informed her that even for a child, it was expressly forbidden by le SDS to display an obvious magical object in front of non-magical.

Then again, in her innocence, the girl, who probably knew nothing about the Statute, to begin with, wasn't actually drawing attention to herself. Her classmates and teachers were used to her being precocious and eccentric, and knew her parents could afford to buy her exotic toys.

Nonetheless, when Hermione turned eleven, and presumably had been warned about such things by the teachers of the allegedly prestigious boarding school in Scotland, Amandine told her not to bring the ball to class, as "it seems to be distracting you, unfortunately." Luckily, the girl looked disappointed instead of suspicious. If she hadn't been distracted, she would have probably been suspicious that Amandine never asked her about the smoky red ball, ironically.

They decided the time to confront her about the magical world would be when the British public's hero, little Harry Potter, got his letter, in about a year. They would give her moral support for what would probably be a turbulent year, with a young celebrity being in her age group and perhaps even in one of their Houses together.

That plan flew out the window when their bell rang. At the door was an old man wearing a nice suit who resembled the headmaster of Hogwarts Academy. Behind him was a woman who looked like some sort of magical official, with a black dog on a leash that, to their trained eye, seemed both magical and intelligent.

"There's really no time to waste, ladies," the man began, abruptly. "We'd like you to come along with us, as quickly as you can. We're planning how to help Hermione Granger against some rather deadly enemies."

Chapter Notes:

As to why this is not a Crossover:

I just borrowed two characters, and other than their backstory, which is included, no knowledge of the Worst Witch is required. Ms Rowling grew up in the West Country and Wales, so integrating a couple of teachers who were schooled in Wales seems appropriate. Also, I am playing fast and loose with their histories - I have them starting under Adelaide Jollidodue, as in the books, then finishing school under her evil twin, Salmonella, because they've both chosen a Magical Education track.


The 16th is the Wimbledon of Paris. Ms Murphy based Miss Cackle's/Mlle Jollidodue's Academy on her experiences at the Ursuline convent school in Wimbledon. The location of the Worst Witch's academy, atop Mt Snowdon in Wales, is in the books. As such, being atop the highest point outside the Highlands, it's undoubtedly at a higher elevation (1000 ft/0.305 km) than Hogwarts.

Miss Cackle's Academy really was founded by Hermione Cackle. And the academy's headmistress is very fond of lemon drops - nausea reported in the HP series from disapparating or port keying might be fixable with lemon drops, as Miss Cackle claims they prevent nausea from magically teleporting. Hermione Cackle (Great-Grandmother Cackle) didn't appear until 2000 and The Philosopher's Stone came out in 1997, so JKR still has Hermione precedence, and lemon drop-sucking school head precedence, too.