The Good Teachers

Chapter 1: Rescue.

Professor Granger sighed, and looked at her class notes. She had been asked to sub in for Care of Magical Creatures tomorrow and the day after, as Hagrid was off doing something or other for Dumbledore. Before he had gone, he had asked Firenze to come and talk to the class. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to finalise the arrangements, which meant that she would have to go and talk to Firenze, which meant that she would have to go and meet him, which meant that she would have to go into the Acromantula-ridden forbidden forest, where he lived once more, though separate from the herd.

She decided that before she went, she would go and talk with Parvati, who had taken over from Professor Trelawney as Professor of Divination (Firenze's return to the forest, under untalked-of circumstances, having occurred of a short while beforehand, much to the dismay of some of the female students, with whom divination had started to become a suspiciously popular subject), after the highly excitable woman had a heart attack because one of her students had foretold her death in her teacup.

Parvati was a much better teacher, Hermione told herself; she was smart, down to earth, talked to everyone reasonably normally, and genuinely seemed to have 'The Sight'. Unlike Hermione, who had coined the phrase 'espless' for her state of normality. Not that she particularly wanted extra-sensory perception.

After Harry had disappeared off to pursue his double career as both a world class Quidditch player, and a professional undercover Auror (Hermione had told him that the combination would never last, but he had, for old time's sake, ignored her), Ron had mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth (though it was rumoured that he had become an unspeakable, Hermione didn't believe it. His ears went red every time he lied; surely that was too much of a giveaway), and Dumbledore had offered her a job as Arithmancy and part time Charms and part time Transfiguration teacher, as Flitwick and McGonagall were getting a bit tired, and welcomed the relief (he was, in fact, looking for at least two different people, but Hermione enjoyed a challenge), Parvati had taken over the roll of best friend. It was good to have someone to moan to about girly things, and to be expected without having to send a message, even if it was a bit irritating that Parvati almost quite often what she was going to say before she even arrived.

Hermione decided to ask Parvati what part of the forest Firenze was likely to be in, get there, then use a locator spell to find exactly where he was, as she had never quite trusted in divination; she wasn't questioning that it was true, it was just that it was often hard to tell the exact who, when or where, even with Arithmancy. She finished looking over her notes for tomorrow, double-checked her marking, and then set off towards Parvati's classroom in the North Tower.

As she walked off along the cold, darkening corridors (it was only about 3 o'clock, but it was almost Christmas), greeting various ghosts, and once running into a pair of Hufflepuff students skipping lessons and kissing, she thought of the days when she'd been a student, and Harry and Ron had been with her. She remembered the numerous times they had got her into trouble for no good reason, and how worried she used to be about her grades, and her future, because, as she was muggle born, unless she got top marks in everything, she might as well kiss the magical world goodbye.

She thought sadly of how naïve she'd been, how innocent. She thought, laughingly, of Harry's infatuation with Cho Chang, now full time magic-model for witch weekly, and Ron's several crushes on various girls, none of which had paid him the slight bit of notice until they had found out he was best friends with Harry. Then her thoughts moved back to herself, and she cringed.

Her own relationships were just as bad, if not worse (though that was probably because she'd had no girls around to tell her that she was crazy, and to advise her. When she'd told Parvati some of the things that she'd done, Parvati had totally understood, laughed at what Harry and Ron had said, and told her that it wasn't her fault, if the advice she'd got was that bad). She'd gone out with Viktor for a while, but the fame eventually went to his head (inevitably), and he left her for a Bulgarian bimbo who wore fur bikinis. Then there had been a couple of other brief relationships, and (Hermione went red as she remembered this) the incident a few years back, where Neville had turned up out of the blue, saying that he'd finally got a job that would make her proud, and would she marry him?

She banished that image of Neville, with the thought of how happy he was, now that he had Susan Bones. Susan was really nice, Hermione thought, and pretty, in a sort of asymmetrical way...

She arrived at Parvati's trapdoor, and was just about to knock, when Parvati's voice floated out to her saying "Come in, Professor Granger". Hermione grinned, and then fixed her facial expression to solemn, as Parvati clearly still had a class in. She climbed in, and met the amazed stares of the Ravenclaw third years. They were clearly impressed by the fact that Parvati knew who it was.

Hermione walked over to Parvati, and said, "Can I have a word?"

Parvati didn't answer; she seemed transfixed by her crystal ball. Hermione glanced at it, but she saw nothing but swirling white mist. She'd given the matter a lot of thought over the years, and had come to the conclusion that crystal balls simply did not like her. At all.

Parvati's eyes grew wide, then she turned to Hermione and said, "In the back room." Then she got up, her floating, gothic robes billowing out behind her, and shut the door with a smart snap behind her. Hermione looked at the dark robes, which looked so gorgeous on Parvati, in jealousy. If she wore robes like that she would look absolutely ridiculous, she much more suited pastels, and blues, and the shape of it was wrong for her too. Ah, well, c'est la vie.

As soon as Parvati had pulled her dangling sleeve out of the door, she turned to Hermione and said, "You're going to meet someone from your past. Tonight, in the forest. Someone you haven't seen in years."

"Male or female?" Hermione inquired, wonderingly. There were scores of people she hadn't seen in years, and she wanted to narrow it down.

"Male," said Parvati, "and before you ask, it isn't Firenze, though you'll find him near the centre of the forest - keep following the path to the left, and you'll find him in a clearing. No, it's a wizard, from school. I kinda recognised him as someone who was in our year, but I couldn't tell you who - it has been four years after all."

"So I'm going to meet a guy my age, that I haven't seen in years, in the forest tonight?" Hermione asked clearly, trying to clarify. There was a loud "Oooooooooh professor!" from inside the classroom, but she ignored it.

"Yeah," said Parvati, "if I haven't got my whens mixed up." She smiled slyly, lowered her voice and whispered, "It was pretty clear that you were going to bring him back here afterwards."

There was another loud "Oooooooooooh!" from inside the classroom, and Parvati yelled through the door "if you're not careful I'll take another five points off Ravenclaw, Miss Stebbins!"

That shut them all up.

"Best of luck," Parvati said to Hermione, whose mind was wandering to whom the mysterious guy could be, "and watch out for the werewolves!" They both laughed quietly, because there wasn't another full moon until the weekend, they were just teasing the undoubtedly-still-listening-students, and then Hermione went back to her study, to prepare for her trip into the forest.

To her surprise, Crookshanks had returned from his prowling around the grounds, and had collected some things on the bed for her; some chocolate digestives (she wasn't supposed to have them, strictly, but she still ordered them off the internet anyway, using her muggle credit card. They were so irresistible!), a flask of nettle cordial, some charmed rings that had several different properties (most of which were probably technically illegal, taken that she'd been asked to test them by Fred and George, saying that they couldn't find any other girl willing to try them out. She'd been a teensy bit drunk on Ogden's Old Firewhisky at the time, and now regretted agreeing to it, though the hangover ring had proved useful), and an empty bottle with a memo note of her own attached saying that she was running low on Dittany. She thanked him by scratching him behind the ears, put the things in a bag, then had a shower (a freezing cold shower, given the lack of hot water, but at least she was clean), got dressed, brushed her hair (which she'd thankfully managed to cure of its bushy qualities since her school years), then left a note on her desk, saying where she'd gone, and warning anyone prying that she'd left various hexes all over the room.

She checked that her theory penseive was properly hidden (she had two penseives; one that contained her private thoughts, and one which contained useful information), placed a quick Furnunculus curse on the cabinet it was hidden in, then walked down through the grounds, past Hagrid's hut, and into the forest.

It was becoming pitch black now, with a few stray clouds covering the moon, so she had to light her wand. She checked the path for any signs of Acromantula (the colony had grown so large, it was all too easy to stumble into one or five) then set off along the path. At every fork she encountered, she turned left, as Parvati had indicated, and concentrated on listening for any signs of movement.

She met nothing on her way to Firenze. He was standing by himself, staring up at the stars. Astronomical divination was on of the only types that Hermione had any patience with, for it was the only one that used any logic whatsoever, apart from Arithmancy of course.

Firenze must have heard her approach, because he whipped around as quickly as his four legs would allow. Hermione didn't blame him; the wood was extremely dangerous, even for its natural inhabitants. She put up her hands in a gesture of peace, lowered her hood, and stepped out into the now brilliantly moonlit clearing.

When he saw who it was, he calmed down immediately. He and Hermione were good friends, and had been ever since he'd been kicked out of his herd. He was, however, still allowed in the more dangerous areas of the forest, since some incident he would not comment on. Hermione thought this was probably the other centaurs wishing he would be injured, but again, they never spoke about him living on the wild side.

"Hiya," Hermione said, walking towards him, arms now out stretched in a sign of friendship.

"Hermione," Firenze replied, walking over to her, and allowing her to hug him, "what are you doing here?"

"I've got to take over Hagrid's class day after tomorrow, and I heard you were going to do a talk. I came to finalise arrangements, and for a chat."

Firenze smiled, then said "Oh yes, I remember now. After lunch, was it not? Enough about that; how is Hermione?

"Yes to the first question, and I'm not sure to the second." She sighed. She had a habit of sighing when she was upset, or confused, or sad. She carried on without embarrassment. Firenze was so easy to talk to. "It's just that Parvati told me that I would meet someone from my school years tonight, and I don't know if I really want to meet them. I mean, I haven't spoken to Harry for ages because we're both so busy, and Ron's disappeared." She sighed again. "I just don't know if I want the hassle of a reunion on top of everything else."

Firenze smiled, understanding, "if Parvati told you, then it doesn't sound like you've got much choice in the matter." He said, almost jokingly, "You'll just have to hope for the best."

Hermione sniffed, and said "I know that, really, but it doesn't mean that I can't complain, does it? Anyway," she carried on, as Firenze laughed, "how've you been? It's been ages since I managed to find a good reason to sneak down here."

Firenze stopped laughing, now serious again, "There are more Acromantula than ever. I can normally outrun them, but a couple of days ago one got lucky and bit me." Hermione suddenly noticed his left foreleg, which was wrapped in a dressing of magical leaves and herbs.

"Oh, you should have said earlier. I can heal it. If you want me to, that is?" She asked this tentatively, knowing how proud the centaur could be.

"Please." Firenze asked, embarrassedly, "It's getting hard to outrun them with only three good legs."

He stood completely still while Hermione knelt down, and gently slid the dressing off his leg. It was a nasty bite all right. The spider's pincers had cut deep into the flesh, and it wouldn't heal completely if left by itself. She took out her wand, muttered the right charm under her breath, and rebuilt the injured tissue. When she was finished, Firenze only had a patch of slightly shorter fur to tell him that it had ever been there. He stretched his leg, and then pronounced it was in perfect working order. Hermione smiled happily, then got up and said, "Do you know if there are any patches of Dittany near here, only I'm running low?"

Firenze nodded, then said, "back the way you came, turn left then right. Do you mind if I don't come with you?"

"Not at all." Said Hermione, as she gave the centaur a hug goodbye. "See you tomorrow."

"Goodbye my friend" said Firenze, as he watched her out of sight. He sighed, then turned back to the stars, and gazed sadly at what he saw written there.

Hermione hurried along the path, all too aware that it was getting very late. She turned, and came into another small, moonlit clearing, full of Dittany. She walked around it, found the best patch, and began to fill her bottle. She was so absorbed in her work that she didn't see the black shapes silently moving towards her.

The Acromantula were very pleased with themselves. A fresh, young adult witch, whose wand was too far away for her to be a threat. The leader of the small party closed in behind her, blocking her escape. All too late, Hermione whirled around; saw what was there, and desperately groped for her wand, knowing that there was no hope of reaching it in time...

"Arania Exhume!" a voice behind her shouted. The Acromantula in front of her was blasted off its legs, and bowled backwards into a tree. Hermione, who had now found her wand, proceeded to knock out the three Acromantula in front of her, then yells from behind told her that her rescuer was in trouble. She turned and found herself staring at none other than Mosag, mother of multitudes, who was holding the young man that had just saved her very close to her mouth, and shaking him until he dropped his wand. "Expelliarmus!" cried Hermione, knowing that this was the only spell that Mosag hadn't developed immunity to by now. At least, she hadn't done the last time they had met...

It worked. Mosag dropped the now unconscious man, and Hermione caught him on a floating conjured stretcher. Then, before Mosag could recover, she had Accio'd the dropped wand, grabbed the stretcher, and slipped a dark green ring onto her finger. She yelled "Professor Granger's study, Hogwarts", there was a jerk, and a flash of green flame, and she was standing in her study again, still holding the stretcher, wands and bottle of Dittany, surrounded by a haze of green smoke and a smell of scorched mushroom. Wafting it away, she took off the ring and stared at it.

Fred had told her that it was a new kind of portkey that they'd been developing. The green stone contained Floo powder, which meant that you could choose your destination by simply saying it aloud. It only worked properly within roughly a ten-mile radius though, she remembered George adding, otherwise there's a really big risk of getting splinched.

She was still thinking about the ring, when she heard a retching cough from the stretcher. She looked over at her blonde-haired rescuer, seeing who it was for the first time. It was Draco Malfoy.