Harry Potter. Hermione X Male Reader Story

Observation and A New Administration

(Y/N)'s POV

August wore on, the square of unkempt grass in the middle of Grimmauld Place shrivelled in the sun until it was brittle and brown. We dumped Mundungus back on Diagon Alley after getting some information, after that, our time spent in number twelve had been uneventful.

On the first day of September there were more people lurking in the square than ever before. Half a dozen men in long cloaks stood silent and watchful, gazing as ever at houses eleven and thirteen.

We had spent the previous four weeks taking it in turns to don the Invisibility Cloak and spy on the official entrance to the Ministry, which Ron, thanks to Mr. Weasley, had known since childhood.

We had tailed Ministry workers on their way in, eavesdropped on their conversations, and learned by careful observation which of them could be relied upon to appear, alone, at the same time every day.

Occasionally there had been a chance to sneak a Daily Prophet out of somebody's briefcase. Slowly we had built up the sketchy maps and notes now stacked in front of Hermione. Today was Harry's turn and he was off getting the paper while I guarded the entrance.

Shutting the front door carefully behind him, he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, draped it over his arm, and hurried along the gloomy hallway toward the door that led to the basement, a stolen copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in his hand.

I clutched my wand at the noise of the door opening, and the usual low whisper of "Severus Snape?" only to hear his voice in a bored tone reply "I didn't kill you," he said, then as he walked through to the kitchen he called "I've got news, and you won't like it."

The kitchen was almost unrecognisable. Every surface now shone: Copper pots and pans had been burnished to a rosy glow, though one was still dented; the wooden tabletop gleamed; the goblets and plates already laid for dinner glinted in the light from a merrily blazing fire, on which a cauldron was simmering.

Nothing in the room, however, was more dramatically different than the house-elf who now came hurrying toward Harry, dressed in a snowy-white towel, his ear hair as clean and fluffy as cotton wool, Regulus's locket bouncing on his thin chest.

"Shoes off, if you please, Master Harry, and hands washed before dinner," croaked Kreacher, seizing the Invisibility Cloak and slouching off to hang it on a hook on the wall, beside a number of old-fashioned robes that had been freshly laundered.

"What's happened?" Ron asked apprehensively. He and Hermione had been poring over a sheaf of scribbled notes and hand-drawn maps that littered the end of the long kitchen table while I was on guard duty, Harry strode toward us and threw down the newspaper on top of their scattered parchment.

A large picture of a familiar, hook-nosed, black-haired man stared up at us, beneath a headline that read: 'SEVERUS SNAPE CONFIRMED AS HOGWARTS HEADMASTER' "No!" said Ron and Hermione loudly.

I couldn't help but laugh, of course he was, and I thought the world couldn't get any worse. Hermione was quickest; she snatched up the newspaper and began to read the accompanying story out loud.

"Severus Snape, long-standing Potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was today appointed headmaster in the most important of several staffing changes at the ancient school."

"Following the resignation of the previous Muggle Studies teacher, Alecto Carrow will take over the post while her brother, Amycus, fills the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor."

"I welcome the opportunity to uphold our finest Wizarding traditions and values" she read a quote, "Like committing murder and cutting off people's ears, I suppose! Snape, headmaster! Snape in Dumbledore's study — Merlin's pants!" she shrieked,