Author's Note: This idea came to me as a 25 word micro fiction, but once I had the idea, I had to write a bit more. I'm not sure if this is going to be a one-shot or if I might post a few more chapters. I had never thought of Draco as professor until I read a short story the other week where he was one, and while the story was cute, it just didn't quite feel right in the way Draco was a professor. This...this feels right to me. There may be more, but right now, I'm pretty focused on my Dramione story Law and Marriage.

Draco was glad the corridors were empty, that no one was there to see him take possession of his new office, watching history repeat itself.

Draco was glad that the corridors were empty, that there was no one to see him take possession of his new office. To watch history repeat itself.

His trunk levitated behind him, following him. The dungeon level corridors were cold compared to the mild heat of the English summer outside. He kept his hands in the pockets of his robe, feeling for once like his hair was too light, that it lit up the darkened halls as much as a torch might.

He was almost embarrassingly grateful for McGonagall's offer. Thirteen months in the world outside of Hogwarts after the last battle was enough to make him want to hide, and Malfoy Manor simply would not do. The bulk of the Malfoy fortune had gone towards restitution payments of various sorts, and the power and prestige they'd once had was gone. He'd almost considered adopting his mother's maiden name for some distance, but for Salazar's sake he'd gone to school with some of the very students he'd be teaching. They knew who he was. He couldn't really hide. Not even here.

Still, of all the places he could go right now, Hogwarts was the closest thing available as a refuge. He would find no love at the new Ministry of Magic. The risks associated with entering business were too high, especially when he now had neither power nor money to spend. Those that had been allied with Dumbledore would never forgive him for all the years of torment and pain caused by him and his family. Those who had once been his friends, his allies and cronies, would never forgive him for his family's last minute defection. He was in no man's land.

He found the office that had once belonged to his head of house. The office and rooms that would be his now. He wondered if Snape too had been torn between seeing them as a sanctuary and a prison.

Draco wondered what had possessed him to seek out Hogwarts. And what had possessed Minerva McGonagall to give him a chance. He knew that he hadn't been much help with the rebuilding of Hogwarts up to now. He'd made a few token attempts to help, but the dirty looks he'd received and the snide remarks about him being the reason it was in ruins in the first place had dissuaded him from continuing. It wouldn't have helped his family's reputation at that point anyway.

The walls of the office seemed to press in on him. He didn't know how long he stood there, his trunk still obediently behind him, but slowly, he began to feel that the walls were not trying to suffocate him, but to embrace him. This was home now.

He would throw himself into teaching himself everything he needed to know before September first. He had one last test to pass before he would be allowed to teach, but he had no doubt he would pass. For one thing, he had nowhere else to go. And no one else wanted this job anyway.