Transitions - Prologue

Year 7 at Hogwarts, April something or other.

Something was nudging her arm...leave me alone, thought Hermione. Sleep was a blessed relief these days. The contact became more insistent. Hermione opened her eyes to see Crookshanks, her faithful feline, swatting at her with one paw.

"All right, already! I'm getting up!" Hermione gently shoved the cat off the bed and sat up. It was Saturday. No classes to distract her mind from dwelling on the emptiness in her heart. Just meals at the Great Hall, which seems much less Great with so many empty seats. Studying in the library, where her mind had infinite opportunity to wander and ponder what might have been but now could never be.

Hermione walked over to the desk where her robe was tossed haphazardly over her chair. She pulled it on right over her pajamas and kicked her feet halfheartedly into her slippers, then headed for the bathroom.

"You look dreadful, dear!" the mirror announced when Hermione stood before it. "When I said yesterday your face needed some color, I wasn't referring to black circles under your eyes!"

"Tell me something I *don't* know..." muttered Hermione as she splashed water on her face and then patted it down with her sleeve. She glanced at the shelf holding her hairbrush and tonics. She ignored both and reached instead for a hairworm, which bound itself around her hair to leave a ragged pony tail. Strands popped out from the top and sides of her head, but she paid them no mind.

"You forgot to brush your teeth!" the mirror called after her as she left the room...

Harry was already waiting for her down at breakfast. He nodded to her with an awkward smile as she sat down across from him. He was pushing berries around the rim of his oatmeal as if it were on a track.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade today?" Harry asked. "I can't decide what would be worse, going there or staying here."

Hermione shook her head, "No. I can't bear to see the place anymore..."

"...without Ron." Harry finished simply. There was an awkward pause, then words flowed from Harry as if a dam had burst. 

"I'm sorrier than I can ever say, you know. He was my best friend and I miss him more than anything, but I know he was even more to you."

Hermione's eyes filled with tears. She fought to hold them back and just nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"If only Ron hadn't been there when we finally surrounded Voldemort... Voldemort knew how important he was to me, that's why he killed him... out of spite. He couldn't escape and he couldn't kill me but he *could* kill my best friend." Harry had said this all before, but it still ate him up inside.

"And my boyfriend." Hermione whispered. "And a lot of others too." She looked around the Great Hall, thinking the names of the others now gone as her eyes passed over their chairs. Dean... Parvati... Colin ... Cho ... Justin ... Joel ... Kelly ... Ruth ... Martin ... and so many younger students whose names she hadn't known. Her gaze continued onto the faculty table, where the empty seats of Professor Flitwick, Professor Dumbledore, and Hagrid stared back at her. Madame Pince's chair was also unoccupied, but thankfully not for the same reason.

Her thoughts began to wander... Professor McGonagall was now the headmistress of Hogwarts, but she took no pleasure in the job. She appeared to have aged ten years since last week, when Voldemort and his lot of Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts. They'd thought Hogwarts was an inviolable sanctuary, but they hadn't counted on the betrayal of a student. Draco Malfoy had brought back something with him from his Easter holiday, a special portkey disguised as a Nimbus 3000. With this portkey the Death Eaters snuck into Hogwarts one by one, and when they were all here, Voldemort himself came and the battle began.

The Death Eaters and their Slytherin followers killed any non-Slytherin they encountered in the halls, and had dispatched several before the faculty and the loyal students could confront them. Harry felt his scar burning as soon as Voldemort appeared, so he and Ron were of the first to arrive. Hermione was in the library studying for her exams and was unaware of the turmoil outside, having cast a silence spell aruond herself.

Voldemort had not considered the students would be a viable threat when he calculated his chances of taking on Hogwarts. This proved to be his fatal mistake. Thanks to three years of extra DADA training from Harry in addition to their regular curriculum, the side of good slowly but surely eliminated the majority of the Death Eaters, and seeing that they were losing, those remaining fled, leaving Voldemort to face the wrath of the faculty and students still alive.

Voldemort was surrounded and a ward placed on the room to prevent anyone from coming or going. All wands were trained on him. He knew he was caught. But he could kill one more before he went, so he considered those surrounding him. Dumbledore? He would die anyway, having been hit with several burrowing flame spells. McGonagall? Sprout? Snape? Now that would be satisfying, to smite the traitorous bastard. But no, there was little Ron Weasley, next to Harry Potter, panting for breath and pointing his wand like the rest of them. Ron's death would hurt Harry Potter more than his own. So as a last hurrah, Voldemort shot an "Avada Kadavra" right at poor unsuspecting Ron, and was then pelted with several of his own. The great Lord Voldemort was at last dead.

When Ron hit the ground, a sudden feeling of dread struck Hermione through her studying. She cancelled the silence spell and ran outside. Dead students and death eaters littered the halls and she ran throughout the school, looking for somebody, anybody, alive.

When she reached the classroom where the final battle had taken place, she was startled to find she couldn't get in. She saw a dozen students and the Professors circled around the center of the room, looking down at two bodies. She screamed to be let in... Professor Sprout heard her and with tears in her eyes removed the ward on the room. Hermione rushed in, pushing her way through to the center. Dumbledore was lying there, his body ripped apart by several flaming wounds. And next to him was Harry, seated on the floor, holding Ron's lifeless body in his arms. He was sobbing uncontrollably as he looked up at her "He's gone, Hermione..."

She fell to her knees, throwing her arms around Ron and screaming "NOOOOOO! Roooon!" as she wept as if the world had ended.

...Hermione snapped back into today and looked back to Harry, who was looking guilty. "It's not your fault, Harry. You were there at least, I was in the damned library, completely oblivious to everything."

Harry threw the berry he'd been playing with into the bowl. "Right, if you'd been there he might have killed you instead. Frankly, Hermione, that wouldn't have made me feel any better. I'm glad you weren't there, because if you'd been killed to I don't know what I'd have done. You're the only one close to me he *didn't* manage to kill. Except for Lupin, but I don't even know where he is anymore."

Suddenly feeling guilty for her feelings of self-pity, Hermione reached across the table to take his hand. "You know I'll always be there for you, don't you?"

She heard a sneer from behind her that could only come from one person. "How ... touching. Brings tears to my eyes. Now where did I leave my hankerchief?"

Hermione stood and whirled to face him, "So glad you're enjoying it, I'll be sure to charge admission next time. You make me sick." She turned back to Harry. "I'm going to the library, I'll see you later."

As Hermione left the room she heard a voice call after her "Miss Granger, a word please." Professor McGonagall. Hermione approached her and replied, "Of course, Professor."

McGonagall motioned for Hermione to follow her to her office. As they walked McGonagall began speaking. "Try not to mind Professor Snape. He too is suffering in his own way. Professor Dumbledore was very dear to him."

Hermione snorted. "That's all well and good but it doesn't excuse his behavior. I'd swear he's GLAD Ron is ... gone."

McGonagall sighed, "I'm sure that's not the case, though it may seem that way. Effusive Merengue!" Her office door opened and they passed through. McGonagall took her seat behind the desk and motioned for Hermione to take the seat opposite.

"That's actually not why I wanted to talk with you." She sighed again. "We have another problem. You're aware that Madame Pince has been on sabbatical caring for her sick mother?" Hermione nodded. "Well, apparently although her mother is much better, Madame Pince will not be returning. She's marrying the healer on her mother's case and staying to live with him in London."

Hermione's jaw dropped. It was hard to imagine the no-nonsense Madame Pince head-over-heels in love, but who was she to begrudge the woman some happiness. "Wow... good for her." remarked Hermione.

"Yes, good for her but not so good for Hogwarts. I don't think I need to say that we're sadly understaffed right now..." Hermione hung her head. Three Professors were killed during the battle with Voldemort, and she missed them all greatly. "Professor Grubbly-Plank has agreed to take over Care of Magical Creatures, but it will take awhile to find suitable candidates for the Charms and Transfiguration positions. I don't want to have to worry about the librarian post as well. So I am offering it to you, Miss Granger. On a part-time basis for the remainder of the school year and full time after that."

Whatever Hermione was expecting, it wasn't this. "Me, Professor McGonagall?"

"You know that library better than anyone else, what with all the time you spend in it. And it will help the remaining students to have a familiar face, although they've taken it well they are distraught at having lost so many friends and teachers. So from my perspective you're the perfect candidate. However, " she paused, "I do realize you probably have other ambitions for your life beyond that of Hogwarts librarian. I also realize that because of ... recent events ... now might not be the best time to embark upon them. So I propose you remain at Hogwarts for one year as librarian, and help us search for a replacement for the next year, at which time you can move on if you wish."

Hermione thought about this a little, "I've got an offer from the Wizarding University of London for a research fellowship. I don't know if they will let me defer."

"They will," assured the Professor, "I have friends in high places, after all."

"Let me think about it this weekend and I'll give you my decision on Monday." Hermione did not feel capable of making such a decision impulsively.

"Of course, take all the time you need. In the meantime, if you could please help out in the library I would really appreciate it." Hermione nodded and left the room.