Chapter 4
The sorting feast passed uneventfully, she was briefly introduced by Headmistress McGonagall and the older students broke out in whispers at the return of the missing Golden Girl but soon got absorbed back into their usual back at school conversations with their friends. While the story of her disappearance had been quite the splash at the time, with Minister Shacklebot removing the missing person declaration and Rita Skeeter being unavailable, people had eventually stopped talking about it beyond wondering where she might be.
Hermione Granger had taken the only open seat, to the right of Draco Malfoy and to the left of Neville Longbottom, Marcus Flint flanking Draco's other side and George Weasley sitting on the other side of the Headmistress, as far away from them as he could.
In the few weeks back at Hogwarts, George hadn't said anything to her, not directly at least. He would glare at her when he thought she couldn't see but never made eye contact and would avoid her as best he could. While she had never been close to him, he had been a friend, and the cold shoulder was disappointing, but not surprising. Even her closest friend, her best friend, her brother, had refused to listen to her and had chosen to believe Ron. Of course, his own brother would believe him too, especially so early on in his grief.
The sorting feast happened on a Friday night, so Hermione used the weekend to rest, and prepare for the incoming classes. She had all the notes from previous professors, the ones who had made plans at least. Remus also had left his lesson plans in the study, she mostly used those ones and what she had been preparing before coming.
Her first class on Monday morning was Hufflepuff and Gryffindors fourth year. It seemed someone along the line had understood the disaster it made to mix Slytherin and Gryffindor as none of her classes had that particular structure, and no classes at all did as far as she knew. Although advanced classes rarely separated by houses, since so few people took some electives. She knew her Warding elective for NEWT students had less than 10 people this year, most of them Slytherin and Ravenclaw.
She waited for the students to come in, they startled and studied the new classroom with wide eyes before coming in and sitting at their new chairs.
Once everyone was seated, she cleared her throat, "My name is Professor Granger and I am your new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Any questions before we start?"
Many hands were raised and she gestured towards a blonde Hufflepuff, "Yes, Mr?"
"Jonas Hartford, Professor. Could you tell us where you were since the war?" He asked rather timidly.
Hermione smiled kindly in return, having expected that question, "I moved abroad, and completed a dual mastery in both Defence Against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes."
Another hand shot up and she nodded towards the small girl, "Olivia Mariano, can you explain the new desks and the mat there?" she asked, while nodding towards the light grey mat between the student desks and the dais where the professor's desk was.
Hermione smiled widely, "Of course. I chose those desks for the practicality as most of my classes will have defence practice, and movement. This is a foam mat where I will demonstrate the spells and anything else we'll discuss. But also where you might practice as well."
Hermione nodded towards another hand waver, "Dean Hollow, what are we going to learn this year? With the changes in set-up and the posters, I just wonder how different it will be." the boy finished lamely, realising too late how rudely he had phrased his question and looking towards the ground in mortification.
"Well, this year will be about the Unforgivable Curses, we'll go over the classics you might have already learned, such as the stunner, the shield charm, the disarming spell, of course if you already master those, you will then start learning to do them non-verbally and hopefully without a wand as well. While battle tactics and war duelling won't be fully taught until 6th year if you choose to continue Defence, we will start going over those basics as well." Hermione replied with a smile and was quite relieved and happy to see how eager some of the students now appeared.
The first week passed quickly, Hermione found her footing when it came to teaching and was relieved by how much she enjoyed it. Most of her classes have been light, with a lot of questions from the students and a review of what they have learned so far, leaving the practical demonstrations for the upcoming weeks. Her first warding class for 6th year NEWT students went very well, they were eager to learn and fascinated by all the possible applications of the topic.
Friday night, she was out and walking throughout the castle with Draco for their patrol, they had just reprimanded students out after curfew and were laughing quietly about their own experiences as students when they heard footsteps coming near them.
"A Death Eater, Granger? I knew you were a traitor but even I didn't expect you to fall that far." George Weasley sneered as he rounded a corner and saw them.
"What is your problem with me, George?" Hermione grounded out, frustrated by his attitude.
"My problem is that you betrayed my family!" He yelled back, even Draco recoiled at the venom in his voice and put himself next to Hermione but refrained from cutting in, this was her fight.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" She replied.
"Are you going to deny it again, then? Or run away like you did last time?" He sneered.
"I don't know what you're talking about, George." Hermione said, trying to remain calm and tempering down her anger at the baseless accusation, even though she perfectly knew who had fed him the lie.
"You cheated on Ron!" George yelled again.
Hermione took a step back at his tone, "Gods, I can't believe you, of all people, believed him."
"You're going to lie again then?" He accused.
"I never lied." Hermione stated.
"Bullshit! Ron and Harry told me everything!" George yelled.
"Really? I wonder what they told you exactly then, because from my perspective, I came to the Burrow one afternoon to surprise Ron and found him balls deep in Lavender Brown." Hermione stated.
"What?" George finally croaked after a long silence, he had been angry and wanting to lash out at her since he saw her a few weeks ago in the Staff room, she was a traitor and a coward, but he wasn't expecting her to say that, he honestly expected her to apologise or run away like she did when she was caught all those years ago.
"Ronald cheated on me with Lavender, and from his little speech afterwards when I found them together, countless others. He really enjoyed the attention he got as a war hero and didn't shy away from the offers, nor telling me how it was because I was a frigid bitch." Hermione said with a shrug.
"I don't understand." George murmured, thinking back on the rants his brother had went on for weeks before and after Hermione's disappearance, the silence from Harry, the heartbreak Ron kept playing up even when he started bringing Lavender to the Burrow as his girlfriend a couple of months after Hermione had vanished.
"He cheated, I broke up with him because of it. Then he told Harry I was the one who cheated and Harry believed him immediately. I left when Harry refused to hear me, or believe me, even when I showed him the bruises Ron left during our conversation."
"Why would I believe you?" George whispered brokenly, afraid he had made a grave mistake years ago, it had always struck him as off for Hermione to cheat on Ron, he never expected her do to something like that but she had disappeared and he assumed she was ashamed, he was too focused on his own issues to reach out at the time, and years passed without a word from her or her whereabouts so reaching out didn't seem like something he should do. He rarely thought about her now, her name was basically taboo at the Burrow but seeing her again had reawakened his feelings of betrayal and disbelief.
"I wouldn't sleep with him. The war had just ended and I was traumatised, and I wanted to find my parents. He cheated, instead of letting me go and Harry never took a second to wonder if what he was saying was true, and neither did you." Hermione said with a glare.
George staggered back until he hit a wall and fell down on the ground below, "Gods, I'm such a wanker."
Since George Weasley had yelled in the corridors, and was shown the errors of his way as it were, he spent the rest of the evening with her sitting on the ground in a random corridor. She expanded on what happened all those years ago and why she left without a word, and while he felt so guilty he wanted to drown in it, she maintained she didn't blame him or resent him, she understood the grief he was in at the time and the automatic loyalty his brother got. He swore to himself he would make things right anyway, at least between them, and allowed her to lecture him on how people are allowed to change regarding Malfoy and his friend Flint. He didn't want to admit it yet, but she did have a point. Fred wouldn't have wanted him to hold grudges against people who never even hurt him.
A couple of days later on Sunday, he left the castle to have lunch at the Burrow, the entire family was here including Harry as Ginny's husband and Lavender Brown as Ron's girlfriend.
He said his greetings to everyone and let the conversations wash over him, he didn't really plan on confronting Ron and Harry in the middle of the meal, but he wasn't sure what he planned on doing anyway, until he heard her name.
"Heard Granger is back." Charlie Weasley suddenly said.
Both Ron Weasley and Harry Potter immediately swivelled to him, "What?" they both yelled simultaneously.
Charlie shrugged, "Don't know the details, just a rumour I've heard."
"It's true." George cut in and the two boys stared at him.
"Where is she?" Harry asked, a pleading tone to his voice that made George's anger rise even more, he had been silent when she had disappeared and Ron accused her of being a cheater with much more colourful words.
"She's at Hogwarts." He said simply.
"Oh right, probably took Pince's job, the bookworm that she is." Ron sneered.
"Actually, she's the new DADA and Warding Professor." George corrected.
Harry's eyes grew wide at the statement and his mouth hung open like a fish, but Ron beat him to a response, "Why the fuck would she be the DADA teacher? She sucked at DADA in school, she's not good at duelling, if the job was open McGonagall should have contacted Harry." he sneered.
George's fury rose at that, as well as his own shame remembering what he had said during the first staff meeting, but Bill Weasley beat him to the punch, "She has a double mastery in Defence and Ancient Runes. She's more than qualified. She could be a curse-breaker or an Auror as well. Besides, she's always been a great duellist or do you not remember her blasting Greyback off your fucking girlfriend?"
Ron turned red at the reminder but couldn't find anything to say back and Lavender's pinched look since that conversation had started turned to shame as she looked at the ground, instead George looked at Bill with suspicion and asked, "How do you know that?"
Bill glared at him, "Not everyone turned their backs on her. I kept up with her work and read her research papers. Even saw her once at a conference in Cairo."
George looked down at his plate at the reminder of his own failure.
"Whatever, that traitor should stay away." Ron muttered.
"She's not a traitor." George yelled at his little brother.
Ron looked at him like he was crazy, "The bitch cheated on me!" he yelled back.
George stood up so fast, his chair clattered to the ground as he glared at Ron, "Did she? Or did she find you fucking Lavender Brown?"
Ron paled considerably at the accusation and muttered, "No, she cheated on me.", while Lavender got up and muttered an apology before fleeing the room.
"She did not. But you did. Lavender and countless other bimbos. You cheated and then turned the story around so she would lose all her friends, including her fucking best friend." He said and added a glare to Harry at the last part who had silently observed the conversation and was now looking quite green.
Mrs. Weasley cut in, her face set with righteous fury, "George! How dare you spread those lies, you know very well what she did!"
"Do I?" George countered immediately, "Or did Ron claim a bunch of lies and we just believed him? No one even asked her!"
"Why would we ask her when she betrayed your brother and ran away?" Mrs. Weasley retorted.
"She left because she went to Harry for support and he turned her down! Ron told her no one would believe her! She lost all her friends and family so she left! Ron left bruises on her when she confronted him and even those didn't deter Harry from believing his best friend!" George said, slapping the table.
"Did Hermione cheat on you, Ron?" Mr. Weasley calmy asked his son, cutting the conversation and everyone stopped and stared at Ron, waiting for his answer.
Ron's face matched the red of his hair as he spluttered, trying to remember what he had said at the time, until he sneered, "Who cares! She was a frigid bitch and kept turning me down! No one would want her, all bossy and annoying, we weren't married so it didn't matter if I found fun elsewhere!"
Recovering first from the shock of what he had said and the tone used, Harry stood up and glared at his best friend, "It does matter. You broke her trust and then you lied, for years!" he yelled before storming out of the room.
Ron muttered "Bitch better stay away." under his breath, knowing no one could hear.
However, Bill, with his enhanced senses did, "Hermione never did anything against you or this family. She didn't deserve what you did to her, you fucking pig." and left with Fleur who yelled, "Disgusting boy!" before leaving the room.
