Fate Set Right

Chapter 48

—————A—————

September 1, 1996

"It's too bad for you, Rory," Ron said, piling his plate with food. "Both your parents teaching."

"You do realize this means Hermione is our professor," Harry hissed, leaning toward Ron, trying to keep his voice low.

It was amusing to watch the color drain from Weasley's face, the reality of the person he used to copy off of not two years before suddenly the one doing the marking.

"Bloody hell," he said, looking at his plate. Aurora imagined it would take a lot to ruin Ron's appetite, but she figured that this was as close as he would ever get.

"It can't be that bad," Ginny said.

"She used to write extra for essays for fun," Harry recalled. "She is where she is because she used a thing to take more classes," he said this much more quietly, lest they draw attention from those around them not in the know. "It's gonna be bad."

"At least we'll learn something," Neville said, trying to sound optimistic. "We know she's really experienced, and she encouraged you to continue the DA last year, so there's that."

"You're all just worried she's going to be like my dad," Aurora noted with a chuckle. "You're afraid she's going to be the Dungeon Bat II."

"Well," Ron said, looking up at the head table. "Might be so. Just have to wait it out, I guess."

Aurora glanced over at her parents, seeing a spark of joy in her father's eye for the first time since she had become a student. She noted his gaze darting to the Ravenclaw table, and she followed it to see Leo sitting with Luna, looking shyer than she'd ever seen him as two other firsties were making conversation with him.

She smiled, hoping beyond anything that Leo would have a far better first year than she had.

—————H—————

September 2, 1996

She was nervous. No doubt about it, Hermione Jean Snape was terrified of walking into her first afternoon class. The first of the day, first years, was relatively easy. Even with Leo there, she didn't think anything of it. Nor did she think much of her second year Gryffindor/Slytherin class. But this, this was something she was not prepared for. Because two or twenty years ago, they were her peers. This should have been her year, her class, and she was shaking.

She took a deep breath and walked into the room. It fell silent. Her teaching robes, which were a pair of Severus' transfigured to fit her, fluttered instead of billowed as she walked down the steps to the front of the room. Her hair, changed by age and pregnancy, was pulled back into a sensible knot. Her face, older, wiser, was stoic. Some may be able to see Hermione Granger beneath it all, but there would always be the shadow of doubt for those who didn't know the truth.

She ignored her once-friends where they sat together in the front row. She could nearly smell the fear coming from Ronald, terrified as he was about the prospect of her in charge of setting essays. That part, admittedly, was kind of funny.

Hermione stood in front of the blackboard and turned to the class. Immediately, she noticed a couple Slytherins not bothering to pay attention. Crabbe and Goyle, Nott (though that may be because of the task he had before him), Bulstrode. The others looked at her curiously.

"Who can tell me who the Darkest wizard of all time was before Tom Riddle?" she asked. At the frowns and confusion, she amended, "You-Know-Who."

"Er, Grindleward?" Lavender Brown said.