Time Travel? Really!

Lies and lies and lies

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Realising that nearly every single thing you thought you knew about a person was more than likely a lie was a harrowing experience for anyone, but for the staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry it was even worse. They were teachers, and each and every one of them lived under the assumption that their job was to guide their students and help them so they could eventually make their own way in the world when it was time to do so.

That was until the school year of nineteen ninety-one, of course.

The staff at Hogwarts had noticed the Headmaster's distracted demeanour and Snape's even more biting attitude in the weeks running up to the school year, and nobody had been able to figure out what the issue had been until Professor Burbage had timidly suggested it was because Rose Potter was going to be attending this coming year.

The girl would be emotionally trying for a few of them, but they'd resolved to treat her as her own person. Minerva was still reeling over Sirius' innocence and felt awful that she'd ever suspected one of her favourite students of such a betrayal. She still felt guilty to this day about leaving Rose with her relatives, as did Hagrid, and the two were determined to be there for the girl if she needed them.

Filius had been equally excited and nervous to see the daughter of one of his best students, and he hoped that she'd be at least a little like Lily. She might have been a Potter, but he would like the girl to remember her mother had been Lily Evans first. He'd just wanted Snape and Dumbledore to treat her normally as did the others.

The girl was the daughter of Snape's childhood best friend, and she was also a celebrity who could be in danger when she came into the public eye. The professors were relieved that they'd solved the puzzle of their strange behaviour, until they'd realised their two mysterious colleagues had still been acting off weeks after the girl had arrived. The resident Potions Master had been spewing vitriol and taking points more often than ever, and the Headmaster had been constantly distracted or fervently making unknown plans.

They'd been shocked and hadn't been able to bring themselves to cite young Rose Potter as an excuse anymore. After a couple of weeks the excitement of having Rose Potter in the school had dimmed, thanks in large part to the girl's ability to seamlessly fade into the background. She was a genius but very modest, and preferred to stick her nose in a book rather than socialise with so many people. In other words, she was a typical Ravenclaw.

The other students couldn't find it in themselves to gawk anymore, and even with her unique looks – which weren't all that strange to those who'd known Dorea Potter nee Black – she hadn't incited that much interest.

Except for hate from Snape and calculating interest from Dumbledore. The other staff had been bristling at the looks the two directed towards Rose, but they'd known that Dumbledore was not an enemy they wanted. They may have respected the man but they were unwilling to allow a girl to be used as a pawn in some convoluted plan.

Their respect had taken a major hit with the revelations surrounding Snape and his classroom horror stories. The feeling of guilt descended upon the staff room after Snape's shocking arrest. They'd all had plenty of students complaining to them about how Snape was unfair, and their concerns had been brushed off as misunderstandings from children who were too young to see things clearly.

Except there was proof now, physical proof that their colleague had verbally and mentally abused the children in his care, and the other teachers had basically allowed it to happen because they hadn't believed their students had been mature enough to know when they were being mistreated.