Until We're Grey and Old

Three: Not Just Hair

By the end of August, Hogwarts was ready to welcome students once again for another term, with a few adjustments.

"That's a long letter," Bill had commented one morning while he and Isabelle went through the morning's mail.

"It's from Hogwarts," she said as she read. "Professor McGonagall has been made the new headmistress. She's offering me the Transfiguration position."

"That's wonderful, Iz," he smiled.

"And terrifying," she mumbled and continued reading. "They are looking for a few other positions to fill. How do you feel about Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Bill immediately shook his head. "Absolutely not. Voldemort dead or not, if the position is still cursed, I don't want to be the one to find out."

"Maybe I'll let Remus know. He seems to have been the only one who wasn't actually cursed by the position itself, and he was a pretty good teacher," Isabelle shrugged. "What about Arithmancy?"

Bill seemed to think about it for a moment. "I'll just be one of the most hated professors, next to Professor Binns," he said, earning an eye roll from his wife. "I'll think it over."

"I'm sure it would still be better than working at the bank," she pointed out. "Unless you wanted to go back to curse breaking."

Bill shook his head again. "I don't think I want to go back to that, either."

Isabelle didn't bother to contain her look of surprise on her face. "You loved that job."

"Not as much as I love my family," he said. "It's dangerous and I would hate to leave you both for so long. And Lyra would hate Egypt."

"She still won't let us set her down in the sand," Isabelle agreed.

September approached them quickly, and with Hogwarts's desperation to find teachers for the students who chose to return that fall, it didn't take long for Bill's application to be the new Arithmancy professor to be approved. Though he didn't have long to prepare, he was assured that the lessons and materials from before the war remained available for his use until he got the hang of things.

The evening of August 30th, 1998 was a little more chaotic than the rest of the summer had been, with Isabelle stressing about every single detail she could think of to finish preparing for her first real class, and Bill adding to her frustration by seeming completely unbothered. The only one in the room who did not seem to annoy her at that moment was Lyra, who sat happily in Bill's lap playing with a toy she got from Charlie. They had already spent the last two weeks gathering materials that they needed for teaching and setting up classrooms with whatever remained undamaged by the battle in May, but Isabelle wanted every lesson of the term perfectly planned out.

"You're too worried, my love," Bill said from where he watched her arrange papers from a living room chair. "I doubt you will even have a full class. Many students are taking the year off."

It was true that not many planned to return to Hogwarts, whether it be that they were still grieving, were still hesitant about the safety of the school, or found work to support their families during the war and felt no need to return. A small portion of returning students were those who were seventh years during the previous school year and either did not finish the term for various reasons or did not find the Death Eater education to be sufficient.

"Eleanor still wants to go back?" Bill asked.

Isabelle nodded. "She's pretty insistent. I'm glad she's taking that step, though. I think it will be good for her."

"And she can always come home with us if she needs to," Bill added.

After a few long moments of silence, Isabelle set down the papers on the table and stood from her spot on the sofa. "I'm going to go see if she needs any help packing."