Two days had passed since the start of school, and on that Thursday morning, young Potter and Weasley were making their way to their Potions class. Harry seemed preoccupied by the absence of Hermione Granger that morning, but Ron was convinced she had simply fallen asleep on a book and missed breakfast—a rare occurrence, but it did happen, he added.
At that moment, young Granger appeared around the corner, looking very energetic, and hundreds of words were on the tip of her tongue. As she approached them, she finally let them spill out.
"I’ve done some research!"
"Big news! Hermione Granger indeed had her head buried in books doing re-search!" Ron said sarcastically.
"Ah-ah, if you’re done being silly and ready to open your ears, you might be interested to know I learned more about our new professors!"
"Is that the topic of your research—P Hogwarts' new professors?" Harry asked with a laugh.
"Well… Yes, in a way. Now, would you mind just listening instead of interrupting?"
They fell silent, allowing the young girl to explain everything.
"Let’s keep walking; I don’t want to be late for class either…" she said as she led the way to the dungeons. "I did some research on Umbridge and Professor Mc.Garden... Given our previous years, I thought it might be interesting to learn more about them…
"So as to avoid being surprised by a death eater, a crazy man , or a werewolf? Yeah, I see the point…" Harry added.
"Exactly…" she said, rolling her eyes. "Well, I started with Umbridge, and honestly… I didn’t learn anything we didn’t already guess…"
They descended a few stairs.
"She’s an envoy from the Ministry; she studied here… in Slytherin. She’s a bureaucrat who’s made quite a name for herself in the upper echelons of wizarding society… But she’s not particularly good at everything she undertakes..."
"How do you know that?"
"I looked at her school reports..."
"You went that far just to find out more about a teacher?" Ron exclaimed.
"Ronald! Are you trying to inform the whole school about my investigations?"
Ron pursed his lips and signaled her to continue.
"Anyway… I don’t have anything particularly new on this Umbridge; we shouldn’t trust her and must stay on our guard… Not that I think I need to tell you that, Harry..."
He shrugged; that was indeed what he planned to do in the presence of Dolores Umbridge, having already felt the effects of her authority and perversion.
"What’s most interesting in what I found concerns Professor Mc.Garden, or rather what I DIDN’T find."
Harry furrowed his brows, while Ron seemed to have missed the subtleties of what Hermione had just said—if there was any subtlety at all.
"I first searched for her school records, but there was no trace of her in the school's registers… I figured she might come from Beauxbatons or Durmstrang… or another school altogether. So I continued my research, and since Harry saw her at the Ministry with Umbridge, I thought I’d start there…"
They arrived in front of the Potions classroom and entered. The class began just like all their Potions classes had over the years, and when a moment presented itself, Hermione resumed her explanations as if there hadn’t been a nearly 30-minute interlude.
"Not that vial, Ron! The other one! So, Professor Mc.Garden had indeed worked at the Ministry before being here, or at least she had worked there starting in 1978."
"She was a bureaucrat too?" Ron asked, forgetting to whisper, which caught Professor Snape's attention, who promptly invited them to be silent.
Hermione let about ten minutes pass before she resumed in a lower voice.
"She was an Auror, and not just any Auror, apparently, as she quickly received a promotion to the position of bodyguard to the Minister of Magic at the time."
"Millicent Bagnold?" Harry ventured.
"Well done, Harry! I see you’re paying attention in class..." Hermione congratulated him.
"Not really; I read it in a newspaper lying around the toilet... I had to... pass the time..."
"Oh! I read it too! But I was captivated by the joke section!" Ron exclaimed.
The two boys burst out laughing, and they were once again reprimanded by Snape, who, to their great surprise, seemed more patient today. Normally, they would have already received a detention or punishment. They refocused on their potions, or at least pretended to resume their chatter at a lower volume. But their fascinating discussion seemed to have intrigued the professor, who discreetly moved closer.
"But here’s the thing," Hermione continued, pouring her already-finished potion into a vial. "A few years later… after the fall of You-Know-Who… she disappeared from the radar..."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I don’t know either… Up until then, she was mentioned quite often in articles about the Minister… But suddenly… nothing…"
"That could just mean she stopped working; maybe she retired."
"Retired? Really, Ron? Have you even looked at her?"
"Oh, I’ve looked! For once, we don’t have just a granny as a professor… Too bad she doesn’t teach a real subject, like Potions."
Hermione rolled her eyes and prepared to chastise him for his behavior when Harry finally voiced his opinion.
"I don’t think she retired like Ron said, but it’s possible she left due to health issues… I mean… she looks… sick..."
"It’s hard to miss her physical condition, indeed… With all due respect to Dumbledore… I don’t know if hiring her was the wisest choice… She certainly has plenty of knowledge to share, but it’s clear she can barely stand… She almost makes me feel sorry for her..."
The trio seemed to agree that the woman who was giving support lessons was not in a condition one would describe as "normal."
"But you saw her talking to Malfoy Sr. and the Minister, right, Harry? Don’t you think she could be suspicious like Umbridge?" Ron asked.
Harry shrugged, and Hermione also looked perplexed.
"It could mean everything and nothing at the same time…" Harry replied.
"Do you think she could be a Death Eater?" Ron suggested.
"We can’t rule out that possibility… Especially after everything that’s happened to us; it’s hard to know who to trust…" Hermione concluded.
Harry sighed heavily; if this new professor was also a problem waiting to happen, it would only add to his worries.
"Is my lesson boring you, Potter?" Severus Snape asked, standing right behind him.
"No, not at all! It’s just… there was an insect on my table..."
The Potions professor didn’t bother to hear the boy’s excuses; he knew what their topic of conversation had been, and given their theories, he had guessed at their apprehensions. The lesson went on in silence; Harry wasn’t going to risk getting an hour of detention from Snape on top of the ones from Umbridge.
The trio left the classroom and resumed their discussion once they were far enough away from trouble. Severus Snape, on the other hand, set about tidying the classroom, a task that was easy when it had become second nature. Once the cleaning was done and his room was perfectly in order, the man sat at his desk. He leafed through some documents but wasn’t really reading; his mind seemed filled with thick fog. He pinched the bridge of his nose and stood up with a sigh, annoyed. He exited his classroom with brisk steps.
Severus Snape had no more classes to teach for the morning, so he could use his free time wisely, perhaps to rest, as the professor often gave the impression that he hadn’t had a moment's peace in ages. Maybe he could go to the library to check out the new arrivals for the year. Or perhaps he could eat earlier than usual and thus avoid the Great Hall during peak hours, which he detested.
However, the Potions Master was heading neither toward his quarters, nor the library, nor the Great Hall... He was making his way to the highest part of the castle, where the office of the school’s headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was located. He pronounced the password and climbed a few more stairs.
The headmaster was sitting at his desk, immersed in the reading of parchments, and a pile of letters was accumulating beside him on the corner of the furniture. Severus approached the desk, and Dumbledore, without lifting his head from his parchment, greeted him.
“Severus... What brings you here?”
“You shouldn’t have hired her.”
Dumbledore looked up, intrigued by his subordinate's assertion. He wasted no time in questioning him about the reasons behind this sudden intervention. Whatever they discussed that morning would annoy the Potions Master for the rest of the day, much to the dismay of his students.
He spent a good part of his evening pacing the corridors; it was his duty to keep watch that night. Although he would have preferred to engage in other activities, he had to admit that walking helped him relax and focus on his task of surveillance, diverting his overly troubled mind.
But could he truly think about anything else?