Beauty and the Beast

Hogwarts

Published: 18. January, 2023

The Christmas trees smelled divine and twinkled in the golden candlelight. White snowflakes fell from the ceiling, vanishing before they could reach the table. Forte had managed to get into the Great Hall and was now playing Silent Night, swaying happily to the music.

Hermione was just about to finish her dinner, when a thought occurred to her. She turned to the beast.

"How do you know Molly?" she inquired.

"Hm?" grumbled the Beast, busy with his meat.

"In the woods- on the Abraxan, I said I would go full Molly Weasley on you if I fell," said Hermione slowly, "and you said you could handle it. You didn't ask who Molly Weasley was. So...how do you know her?"

The Beast slowly put down his knife and glanced at the witch before him.
"Do you always over-analyze everything people say?"

Hermione scowled. "No- maybe. But that doesn't answer my question."

The others at the table continued eating, chatting vividly and oblivious to Hermione's and the Beast's conversation.

The Beast furrowed his eyebrows in thought, wondering how much he could say without the curse stopping him.
"She went to a school," he said slowly, "and later on, so did her children. I met here there as a student."

Hermione continued to look at him expectantly. Then her eyes lit up.
"You mean this place, right? So you were a student here too before you became a professor?"

The Beast nodded slowly.

"Ah." Hermione tapped her lip in thought. "What's your last name?"

"Sn-," the Beast started coughing and shook his head, signaling he couldn't answer that question.

Hermione's face fell slightly. Then she turned to Mr. Biscuit and gave him a tap on his porcelain shoulder.
"Excuse me, sir?" she said politely and the cookie jar looked up from his pancakes. That was his favorite meal, it seemed.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" said Mr. Biscuit serenely.

"What's your name? Your real name, I mean."

The cookie jar's eyes flitted to the Beast, who nodded slightly. "She knows about the curse," he grumbled.

"Oh my!" exclaimed Mr. Biscuit. "That's wonderful!" He enthusiastically grabbed Hermione's hand and began to shake it. "My name is Albus, dear. Albus Pe-," a raspy cough shook his lungs and he let go of Hermione's hand to steady himself on the table.

"Albus," repeated Hermione with a smile. Her eyes fell on the cookie jar's white porcelain beard. "You wouldn't happen to have been an old man with a long, white beard before being cursed, would you?"

When Albus' eyes went wide, the witch said hastily, "Not old, I just mean-"

"You remember!" said Albus in surprise. More eyes turned to watch their conversation and the hall began to fall silent. Forte stopped playing.

"I- well, no," said Hermione flustered, "I just had a crazy dream of this hall, and I remember three people in it. I think one was you."

"Who was the other?" said Lumière excitedly, leaning forward. "A good-looking man with wavy, raven locks?" He flexed his delicate, golden arms, trying to show off his currently non-existent large biceps.

Hermione had to grin. "Well, there was one man, but he looked more like Severus."

Gasps echoed in the hall. Large eyes flitted back and forth between the Beast and Hermione.

"She saw you?" cried Madam Sweep, the broom, her twigs rustling in shock.

"How?" blurted Cogsworth out. "I- how?"

"How the fuck should I know?" snapped the Beast and dug his knife into his meat. Merlin, he would have preferred to eat it raw, with his hands, but he would not embarrass himself in front of the others. "It was only for a minute, last night."

"This is perfect!" boomed Keeper, who'd squeezed himself in between the mop and the telescope at the table. The bench was creaking dangerously beneath him. Fang hopped around happily, barking as he slobbered all over the floor, while the mop looked like he was about to have a fit.
"Who was the third person in your dream?"

Everyone looked expectantly at Hermione. Even the Beast found his interest roused and lowered his silverware.

The witch blushed from the attention. "A black-haired woman," she said, "in green robes. Very... strict-looking."

All heads swerved to face Mrs. Potts, who seemed to be quite excited. "Minerva, dear," she said, looking pleased, "a former professor of Hogwarts."

"YOU SAID IT!" blurted Lumière out loud. He jumped onto the table and began to wave his arms around in excitement. "She said HOGWARTS! And I can say it too!"
His eyes went wide, holding a mixture of disbelief and happiness.
"Hogwarts!" he repeated and burst out laughing, performing a dance across everyone's plates. "This feels great! HOGWARTS HOGWARTS!-"

"Oh, jolly!" said Madam Sweep, while Cogsworth was busy extinguishing the flames Lumière had accidentally thrown at him.

"HOGWARTS HOGGIE WARTY WARTSIES-"

"SIRIUS, you blithering idiot!" roared the clock, "stop waving your arms like that!"

"HOGGEDY WARTEDY WARTES HOGS-"

And the hall seemed to explode with roars and laughter.

"You said his name!" exclaimed the protractor.

"I can say my name!" grumbled the coat rack happily, "Wilhelmina!"

"Filius!" exclaimed Forte, playing a short boogie.

"RUBEUS!" thundered the palanquin.

"Rolanda!" said the broom.

"Nearly Headless Nick!" said a curtain that had fluttered into the hall, followed by more translucent curtains.

Hermione looked around perplexed, trying to keep up with all of the names. The Beast leaned over to her and said quietly, "What else do you remember?"

The witch turned her head to face him and found herself lost in his dark eyes.
"Was I a student here?" she asked softly.

The Beast nodded.

"One of the-," Hermione suddenly remembered the red and golden common room in one of the towers. It had seemed to familiar.What had Lum-Sirius said about the students' name being?
"-Gryf-fin...dors?"

Another nod.

"Were you one too?"

This time, the Beast's lips twitched. "Merlin, no," he said, "I'd have gone insane. I was a Slytherin."

"Slytherin," repeated Hermione, feeling as if she should have remembered something, but wasn't. She could sense the memory, it was just out of her reach...

"Sybil!" said Sirius with a grin, "bet you didn't see this coming, did you?"

Miss See-through, alias Sybil, blinked around. Then she said in a dark tone, "I see a great change approaching. Do not touch the dessert."