Obviously, I own nothing you recognize from the books. Enjoy!

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth…

CH. 1

"Look- I'm sorry- I just really can't give you a better- explanation than the one- I've already given you." I panted through the phone as I sprinted through the train station, weaving between slower travelers, even jumping over a few suitcases, Richard padding faithfully behind me. My eyes darted up to the clock, the minute hand was creeping dangerously close to striking 11:00, I wracked my brain for a memory of that clock every being fast, or that train ever not leaving exactly on time.

"Explanation? Oh, you mean the sticky note I found on the fridge this morning saying 'Had to leave for a while, see you at Christmas'? That IS NOT an explanation!" my boyfriend exploded through the phone, his exceptionally calm demeanor beginning to break down.

I sighed, coming to a stop now in front of the barrier to platform 9 ¾, looking up at the clock again I saw that I only had two minutes to make my train, I began to pace anxiously waiting for the crowd to clear long enough for me to pass through the wall unnoticed.

"Jake," I started, I couldn't blame him of course, it was by no means an explanation, and, in retrospect, a sticky note was probably not the most sensitive medium through which to alert him of my four-month absence. But what was I supposed to tell him? "Sorry Jake, my grandmother runs a boarding school for wizards and as of 36 hours ago they are in desperate need of a History of Magic professor because the ghost who used to teach the subject finally decided to 'move on'"? Not likely.

"Trust me, I would love nothing more than to give you a real explanation but..." I felt Richard tug gently at my sleeve, he whined anxiously, looking around I saw the coast was clear. "Oh, can I call you right back? I promise, right back, just 30 seconds, I have to go through a-" I fumbled, " a tunnel." I hung up before he could protest.

"Ready, Rich?" I asked, looking down at my companion, a Deerhound I'd met in Scotland, or so I'd thought then, in time he proved to be far more unique than I could have ever imagined. His dark brown eyes returned my gaze affectionately, he inclined his head towards the barrier in an "after you," gesture. I took a deep breath and began walking confidently towards the wall, but as the wall got closer it seemed to become more solid, and doubt began to bubble up inside of me. It's been such a long time, I thought to myself, and quickly decided it best to take the last few steps at a jog. My eyes closed instinctively, part of me still bracing for impact, but then, just as I remembered, my skin tingled for a few moments and I was through, just as the final call was being made. Richard, obviously a bit unsure himself, had taken the barrier at a run and landed abruptly at my side, then shook himself as if trying to shake water from his coat.

"You goof," I laughed, ruffling the hair between his ears, "come on, we'll just barely make it."

Having arrived so late, of course, there were no empty compartments. The prospect of sharing a compartment with a handful of my soon-to-be students didn't bother me so much, I had reading to do anyway, but at that age I'm sure my friends and I would have resented having to censor ourselves for hours, or worse, feel obligated to engage our professor in small talk. I cringed at the thought.

Just ahead of me Richard gave a soft, dignified sort of "woof" (the closest he ever came to a bark), I looked up to see him standing on his hind legs to peer through a window into a compartment. I came up next to him and peered in, just one occupant, a man too old to be a student, and, by the look of his worn briefcase, tweed jacket, and unwavering focus on today's Prophet, probably a professor.

"That'll do." I said to Rich, before knocking and sliding the compartment door open enough to peak my head in, the man looked up from his newspaper a bit startled.

"Hi there, mind if I join you?" But even before I could finish the question Richard had wiggled himself between me and the door and had begun sniffing the stranger's shoes excitedly.

"Richard! I'm so sorry, he's very friendly, too friendly even." I apologized and made to pull Richard away, but the man put up a hand and chuckled good-naturedly.

"No, no, it's fine, I love d- Oh!" Richard had suddenly put his front paws on the man's knees and had begun sniffing his face exuberantly, knocking his glasses off in the process.

"Richard! Manners!" I all but shrieked, mortified, I lunged forward and put both my arms around the massive dog's middle and pulled him off the man. "I am so sorry, he's not usually like this, I think he's just excited from traveling and being around a lot of people, he's sort of a country mouse." I sat down across from the man and Richard came to rest his head on my knee apologetically, I scratched behind his ears. I looked up to find the man staring at me curiously, with smiling green eyes. He looked down quickly and began rubbing his glasses clean with a red cloth he'd extracted from a pocket in his jacket. It was then I noticed his charmingly messy black hair, just beginning to grey at his temples, his strong jaw and well defined, characteristically masculine facial features. I smiled to myself, he was quite handsome.

Handsome.

Boyfriend.

"Shit," I hissed, pulling out my phone, which, to my great frustration was totally unresponsive, "No! I just charged you!" I muttered angrily, and then it dawned on me. "Right, I'd forgotten how annoying..." I began rummaging through my purse, which I had magically extended to function as a suitcase so as not to arouse the suspicions of my boyfriend while packing. "Accio wand" I whispered, within moments I felt it in my hand. Now what was that spell? Oh yes...

"Magio sympatico," I said while tapping my wand to my phone twice, immediately it turned back on and buzzed angrily, alerting me to five missed calls and eight new text messages. I groaned.

"That's one they don't teach us in school." said our companion, sounding thoroughly impressed.

"Yeah, well, it's hard enough to teach a class full of kids who can do magic, imagine if they all had iPhones too."

He laughed and opened his mouth to say something but I'd already put the phone to my ear, seeing the grim look on my face he quickly shut his mouth and pretended to look out the window.

"Hello." Jake picked up on the first ring, to compensate, his tone of voice was the hollow, forced- nonchalant timbre of a bruised male ego.

"I am so sorry, Jake, I got distracted, I almost missed my train and then there were no seats-" I rambled.

"Where are you?" He cut me off. I opened my mouth, and closed it. I wracked my brain for a lie I hadn't already used on him before. I looked around the compartment as if for a clue.

"Where am I?" I clarified, stalling for time to make something up. "I'm... on a train." I answered lamely. The man across from me snorted, I raised my eyebrows at him, he instantly became fascinated with the fabric of his jacket.

"Yeah, I gathered that," Jake said flatly, I heard him sigh, it broke my heart. But my hands were tied, the law prevented me from telling him anything until we're married. We'd been together for two years, it's not that I didn't see that for us in the future, in fact I would have married him right then over the phone if he'd asked, he just wasn't ready yet. I'd realized this wasn't for a lack of love or commitment towards me, he was just one of those rare men who thought through all of his actions meticulously and was never impulsive. Something I had come to admire and cherish about him.

"Remember... remember the last time I had to go away for a while and couldn't tell you much about it?" I tried hopefully.

"You mean that trip you took to Chicago to present a paper at that conference?" I cringed, he remembered the lie perfectly, it had actually been a trip to Scotland on an errand from the Ministry of Magic to translate a set of ancient inscriptions thought to have been written by an extinct race of proto-centaurs (previously thought to have not been capable of written language).

"Yeah, that one, it's just like that but I have to be gone longer..." I bit my lip, he deserved to know the whole truth, I couldn't tell him another lie, maybe just this once I could give him at least a little bit of the truth. "It's a teaching position, they needed someone last-minute, I owed the... Dean... a favor... sorry, that's really all I can say." Probably more than I should say, I thought bitterly. He sighed again, and the silence stretched on uncomfortably. I could almost hear him arranging and re arranging the words in his head, as if at a mental black board, writing, erasing, writing it another way.

"I trust you, and I knew what I was getting my self into, you warned me you'd have to be... cryptic sometimes. It's just... if something happened to you, and I didn't know where you were, how to get to you, who to ask... I just want to know that you're safe." He said finally, his words clenched painfully around my heart, he is so patient, I thought. "Just answer me one thing, and I promise I'll let it go." He said softly. I hesitated.

"I'll try my best." I said honestly. I suddenly became aware of how quiet the compartment was, I was sure Jake's voice must have been audible through the phone, I noticed Rich and the stranger were totally frozen in anticipation.

"Will you tell me someday?" His voice wasn't pleading, it wasn't an ultimatum, just a request. A knot of emotion constricted my throat, I had to swallow several times before I could answer.

"Someday, you'll know everything." I promised, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth I sensed I'd made a promise I might have to break. "Until then, I promise I'm safe... and if anything were to happen to me, I promise you'd be the first to know."

He was silent.

"Ok?" I prompted.

"Ok, I guess that'll do for now." He conceded. "Call me when you get.. wherever you're going?"

"Sure, but it'll be late, I'm in.. another time zone..." I hated myself.

"Fine, if I'm asleep just leave a message, let me know you're safe." He was silent for a few seconds. "Melinda, I love you." he said quietly.

"I love you, too, Jake. We'll talk soon." He ended the call, I let out a long breath and put my face in my hands. Richard pressed himself closer to me and licked my ear. I straightened up and began pulling my hair out of its bun and braiding it, just to have something to do. I glanced over at our companion who seemed to have become very interested in the tops of his shoes. I was so embarrassed, he must think I'm such a spaz, I quickly tried to think of something neutral to talk about.

"So are you a pr-"

"That must be r-"

The result was us both breaking the awkward silence, awkwardly, at exactly the same time. Then proceeded to awkwardly apologize and implore the other to go ahead, at exactly the same time.

"Really I insist, what were you saying?" I asked, laughing.

"Oh, well, I um.." he ran a hand through his hair nervously, and then hastily tried to make it lay flat, "I couldn't help but overhear... that must be rough, having a Muggle boyfriend, having to lie about everything." He tensed suddenly, "I mean, I- well, I assumed that was the situation- and not that you're a liar- I don't even know you- I mean..." he ran a hand back through his hair, consequently making him look even more hysterical.

"Calm down!" I laughed, he looked relieved that he hadn't caused the terrible offense he had imagined. "It was a bold assumption," I chided him playfully, he chanced a sheepish grin, "but an accurate one. I'm a terrible liar, so lucky for me he usually accepts the honest answer 'I can't tell you', he trusts me that I'm not having an affair so really he just worries that I'm off doing some kind of dangerous government work." I looked out the window wistfully, noticing the scenery for the first time, the rolling green expanse of the English country side. I could feel my companion watching me, I shifted uncomfortably and he could tell I was done with this subject.

"What were you going to say before?" He asked, I was puzzled at first before understanding what he was referring to.

"Oh! Yes. I was going to ask, are you a professor at Hogwarts?" I asked brightly, happy for a new subject.

"Yes, this will be my second year," he said proudly, "Defense against the Dark Arts." he added, "And you?"

"This is my first year, History of Magic." He smiled knowingly.

"That's right, I heard that Porfessor Binns finally, what did they call it?, 'moved on'" he chuckled, "about damn time."

"Did you have him as a teacher?" I asked, wanting to know more about my predecessor.

"Oh yeah, I think he'd been teaching there, as a ghost mind you, long before I was a student there, and he must have put in at least forty years while he was alive."

"He must have been quite an institution" I was feeling increasingly nervous about the shoes I was supposed to fill.

"Not exactly, as far as I know he only had one student ever who didn't sleep through every one of his classes." he laughed.

"Oh! Thank goodness, I'm not nearly as intimidated as I was before. But if he was so bad why didn't they just fire him?" I mused. He thought a moment and grinned.

"Can you fire a ghost?" we both thought a moment and laughed as the scene played out in our heads. We were still laughing when an elderly witch came by our compartment pushing a trolley of refreshments, we both purchased tea (and a pumpkin pastille for Richard) and resumed our conversation.

"Where did you go to school?" He asked, stirring sugar into his tea.

"Hemlock Academy, it's in Boston, Massachusetts. It's much smaller than Hogwarts, and it'd have to be," I smiled and stage whispered, "it's in the city's main public library."

"In the library?" he asked incredulously

"Yep, in the library. One floor of class rooms is the top floor of the library, which just looks like a museum to Muggles, and then there are five more floors above the library with dormitories and more class rooms, and one floor below the library. The Muggles have no idea." I laughed in earnest, it had never dawned on me just how funny this actually was. "Miranda Goshawk teaches there, that's our claim to fame." I added.

"Have you ever been to Hogwarts before?" he asked. I nodded,

"My grandmother used to teach there, I would visit on most Christmas holidays, now she's the headmistress." I answered casually, which caused him to choke on his tea.

"McGonagall is your grandmother?" he sputtered, coughing, he studied my face as if trying to see a resemblance he'd missed before.

"Why is that so shocking?" I asked, amused.

"You know, she's just so," he searched for an adjective, "I mean it's just hard to imagine her like, like, a grandmother." The expression on his face begged for me to agree with him, I smiled knowingly.

"I can see that. She wouldn't want this to get out, but I assure you, she has a soft side."

"I won't tell a soul." He promised. Our eyes met for a moment and lingered another

moment. "I just realized, I never got your name," he said softly without breaking my gaze.

"Oh, my goodness!" I laughed, looking down, "I'm Melinda, Melinda McGonagall." I extended my hand. He laughed a bit at the gesture but took it firmly in his.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Harry. Harry Potter."