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Hermione picked at the edge of her fingernail, repeatedly running her thumb over the bump where it had been raggedly torn that morning. The grandfather clock across the hall ticked steadily forward toward twelve minutes past eleven.
“Ruddy clock is mocking me,” she muttered. She triple checked the square of parchment in her lap:
Miss Granger,
I was pleased to see your application to continue your studies in pursuit of a mastery in Experimental Charmwork. As it happens, there is a vacancy in my department this year. The selection process requires a personal interview where we can discuss your academic abilities, interests, and goals. Are you available to meet in my office at Oxford this Thursday at eleven o’clock?
Sincerely,
Professor Eilonwy Baines
Eleven o’clock. Hermione glared at the clock and shifted on the low stone bench. Willing herself to ignore the ticking second hand, she glanced up. Above, vaulted arches crisscrossed like the ribbed boning of a corset to hold the ceiling up. Her shoulders relaxed. The arches reminded her of the first floor corridor just outside Hogwart’s library where she used to wait in the early morning for Madam Pince to unlock the doors, down to the shade of limestone. She wondered if the stones came from the same place, a small smile tugging at her lips as she imagined the possibilities of linking the stones with a modified version of the enchantment used on the Great Hall’s ceiling at Hogwarts. Oxford was so much like home already.
Sharp footsteps at the end of the hall pulled her attention back to reality. Striding toward her, a tall woman in functional blue witches’ robes waved.
“I am so sorry for the delay Miss Granger. My last meeting went longer than expected.” A wan smile spread across Professor Baines’ face, tightening the wrinkles in the corner of her eyes. “I already have one student, you know, and he asks a great deal of questions.”
Hermione blushed, reigning in the barrage of questions sitting on the tip of her tongue. “Of course, I understand. He must be a very diligent student.”
“Indeed he is. Quite gifted in a variety of interdisciplinary subjects. Though I understand you have an impressive repertoire yourself.” Gesturing toward the blank stone wall behind her, she said, “Shall we?”
Hermione stood, straightening her spine to stretch the ache that set into her lower back after so long on the hard bench. As Professor Baines took a step toward the wall, a meter wide square of it dissolved into two neat pools on either side of an arched mahogany door.
Impressive. Though no less than Hermione expected from the author of five of her most cherished books on charmwork. The door swung open into a rectangular office, littered with shuffling parchment and floating books reorganizing themselves across a dozen large bookcases. The professor held the wooden door in one hand, allowing Hermione to enter first, then followed closely behind. The door shut itself softly behind them.
“Oh dear. Is it July already? Do excuse the mess. These scheduled monthly cleaning charms do like to interrupt my schedule whenever possible.” Professor Baines glared at the shelves until all the floating objects found a home. She settled into the plush armchair behind her desk. “Now, before we chat about goals, I’d like you to tell me how you think I constructed the entry charm for this room.”
Hermione perched on the edge of the wooden chair opposite her and smiled. “Since this is a personal office, I presume the door operates with an access control charm. Despite your use of what appeared to be wandless magic, I suspect the control to be tied to your specific wand and magical signature. That would ensure someone couldn't merely steal the wand or attempt to imitate your magical signature. They would need both. Not unlike the dual system used by the goblins at Gringotts whereby a key and a goblin are required to enter any vault.” Her brow wrinkled. “Or some of the more sophisticated family vaults purebloods sometimes use to prevent unrelated or too distantly related wizards from entering.”
Behind a blank face, Professor Baines said, “Similar, yes. Do go on.”
“The dissolution of the stone and its subsequent solidification after entry are a basic transfiguration of state, imbued with a motion delay charm that activates only when the correct conditions are met. That’s why I entered the room first. Otherwise, the wall may have solidified while I was mid step through. And of course the entire thing has a muggle repellant charm giving the impression of an out of order lavatory with a sewage block up.”
Professor Baines chuckled. “Excellent. Most people miss the sewage, you know. How did you figure it out?”
“I sat across the hall for half an hour. Every student who passed looked as though they smelled a rotten pumpkin. It was very clever.”
“No need to flatter me, my dear. Although, you are right. I was quite proud of myself for that touch.” Picking up a roll of parchment from her desk, she read through the first few lines. “I see here that you took a year off after finishing your N.E.W.T.S. Why is it that you want to come back to education to obtain a mastery after that?”
“I’ve always wanted a mastery. When I was younger, there were so many options that I wasn’t sure which one, but I always come back to the sheer wonder of a charm. My very first lesson at Hogwarts, coaxing a feather to float above my head, seemed so wonderfully fantastical at eleven and it still brings me the same joy at nineteen.”
“And if you were so sure, why did you not apply straight after Hogwarts?”
Hermione dreaded this question. It was the obvious thing to ask, but nearly impossible to answer. “I’m afraid that I have to ask you not to reveal my answer to anyone.”
Professor Baines folded her hands together, elbows firmly planted on the desk. “That is most unusual, Miss Granger. If I am to accept you as a student, I will have to justify your time off to the governors.”
The room’s utter stillness suffocated Hermione like a thick fog moving in to swallow her whole. “I understand. I wouldn’t ask if it were any less important.” Hermione delayed the inevitable as long as possible, running her thumb over the rough edge of her torn nail. “I did something unconscionable during the war and I spent the past year trying to undo it. My parents are muggles and I was known to be Harry Potter’s best friend. Voldemort would have killed them the moment he took the ministry if I hadn’t sent them away.”
“That’s perfectly understandable. Mending a relationship like that can take time.”
Hermione desperately wished she could leave it at that. Better to lay all her cards on the table though.
“No, that’s not it. They weren’t safe, no matter how far they ran.” Hermione’s eyes unfocused and she stood once more in her parent’s sitting room, listening to them bicker about how to spend the first day of her last summer holiday. “I had to make sure they were useless to the Death Eaters. As long as they remembered me, in any way, they were in danger.”
A sharp intake of breath drew her out of her reminiscence. “Were you able to reverse it?”
“No. As far as Wendel and Monica Wilkins are concerned, I don’t exist.”
“And that’s another reason you chose to apply here, isn’t it? Experimental charms are the only theoretical means of undoing a memory removal.”
“I really have always wanted a mastery, but yes. It did factor in.”
“I suppose you won’t dither about your concentration or final project,” she muttered. Professor Baines pulled her wand from an inner robe pocket, then flicked it absently at a tea kettle on the other side of the room. They sat in silence as the tea brewed and poured itself. Cup in both hands, she sipped the tea. “Skills, you certainly have. Goals as well. Ones I think I can help you with. Normally, this would be the point in the interview where I make a formal offer of apprenticeship, however in this case I think we must discuss one other thing first.”
A jolt of hope shot through Hermione’s spine. “Of course I understand you can’t make any promises until you’ve discussed the gap in my education with—”
“Not that, Miss Granger. No, I’m sure we can come up with a version of events acceptable to the board. What we must discuss is your feelings on the war. Particularly on former Death Eaters.”
Hermione took a sip of her tea. It left an acrid trail down her throat. “I don’t understand.”
“You, perhaps more than most, have ample reason to hate those on the opposite side of the war. I need to understand whether or not that feeling may affect your ability to work with my other student.”
“Your other student is a Death Eater.”
“Was. He was acquitted by the Wizengamot.”
Hermione only knew of one wizard close to her age who was acquitted. She had testified at his trial, arguing that despite his wrong doings they were all children thrust into a war they never asked for and couldn’t escape.
“Your other student is Draco Malfoy.”
“It is. Are you able to put your shared history behind you in the interest of learning?”
She cast her eyes around the room. Could she put years of bullying and his participation, willing or otherwise, in the deaths of hundreds in the past? “I would certainly try. I haven’t seen Draco Malfoy since his trial. Our last real interaction was at Hogwarts before the war.”
For a long moment, Professor Baines stared at her over her teacup, swirling the dregs as though searching for the right glimpse of what the future might hold. “I can’t take that chance on your word alone, Miss Granger.” She set her teacup aside, letting it float back to the serving tray and wash the dregs away into the bin, then stood. “What I can do is give you the opportunity to learn if it’s possible for yourself. Come along. I hope you’ve nothing planned for the afternoon.”
Stunned, Hermione followed her back out of the enchanted door.
They wound through a half dozen empty corridors, passing by several muggle lectures in progress. They stopped outside an office with a brass nameplate labelled “Assistant Lecturer Barry”, whom Hermione surmised did not exist. With the tip of her wand, Professor Baines tapped several letters to spell a word: library.
“Not very sophisticated compared to my office. The password is too easy to guess, in my opinion. But I was overruled and it does keep the muggles out.”
The door swung open into a long room rimmed with bookcases. In the center, a table lit with floating candles dissected the room. Surrounded by a large pile of tomes, Draco Malfoy bent over his parchment furiously scribbling notes. His pale blonde hair fell over silver spectacles that reflected the warmth of the candlelight. Hermione couldn’t remember ever seeing Malfoy in glasses. She hoped that the exterior difference reflected an internal change in him, that both of them may be capable of changing for the better.
“Mr Malfoy, I do hope you’ve finished that essay on the mitigating effects of sleeping charms on pepper up potion overdosing.”
Without looking up from the page, he said, “Not quite professor. I’m glad you’re here though. I did have just one more question about the—”
“That will have to wait. I’ve brought the latest mastery applicant to see how well you two get on. You’ll have to work closely together until your studies are finished, so the three of us will need to be in sync.”
Malfoy’s spine stiffened and he glanced up, eyes widening as he recognized her.
“Granger! Er - Hermione. I didn’t realize you were applying to Professor Baines’ mastery program.” Malfoy pushed the frame of his wire rimmed glasses back absently with his ring finger. “Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised. Smartest witch in our year at school. It’s only - I would have thought you were already in a program. I heard a rumor that the transmutation program in Paris accepted you months ago.”
“They did. I turned them down.”
“Ah.”
Fiddling with the corner of his notes, Malfoy opened his mouth before his eyes darted to Professor Baines and he closed it again.
“I’d like the two of you to spend the afternoon designing a modification of the levitation charm. Its application will be up to the two of you, but I expect a thorough explanation of the theory behind your changes and why they should produce the desired effect. Miss Granger, if this works out, consider this your first graded assignment.”
As the door closed behind the professor, Hermione found herself suddenly and unexpectedly alone with Draco Malfoy.
“Where shall we start?”
Malfoy stared at her. “Hermione, I — I owe you an apology. Many apologies, in fact. I was a complete git to you in school and afterwards I was worse. A coward who -”
“Malfoy-”
“-let his family pressure him into horrific things and—”
“Draco!”
Malfoy abruptly closed his mouth. “I am so sorry Hermione.”
Hermione studied him. At the trial, his face had been dominated by sunken shadows. Now, the only visible remnant of the war came in the form of a tiny scar at the edge of one eyebrow. The earnest look he fixed on her melted some of the tension she hadn’t noticed carrying. Perhaps he was just as eager to move forward as she was.
“Thank you, Draco.” She tentatively reached out to the chair back opposite him. “Shall we start?”
“Of course!” He shuffled his notes, clearing a space between them on the table. “Perhaps a restricted charm that only works inside to avoid the possibility of levitated objects floating into the atmosphere?”
“Perfect. We can start with changing the inflection and a slight left twist of the wand movement.”
As they researched, Hermione found herself distracted. Draco's comments, more insightful than anyone Hermione worked with at Hogwarts, drew her gaze up to him. His icy blue eyes sparked with joy at every discovery they made. Candlelight glinted off the lenses of his glasses, as he pushed them back up the bridge of his nose. Who knew glasses could be so appealing.
As they presented their spell to Professor Baines three hours later, Hermione smiled. Yes, she could find a new home in Oxford. A fresh start.