Hey Guys! So. Harry Potter/Once crossover time. I started this piece as a part of a 30 day AU challenge. It was supposed to be a one shot. Didn't exactly work out that way, but come on Harry Potter and Once. It's just too good a combination to stop. So, as far as time frame, I imagined this took place in the same universe as the actual story of Harry Potter did, just about 100 years or so down the line, which I figured was enough time for everyone in the HP era to have retired and been replaced by our lovely Once characters. So their are mentions to Harry Potter characters, but only in passing really. That being said, I'm sure I've made mistakes on Harry Potter canon even after spending hours looking everything up and double checking facts, so go easy on me please and don't shout at me, helpfully pointing out fuck ups is always appreciated, though. So, that being said, read, review if you want, and enjoy.
ALSO: Thanks to strangesmallbard for the use of her headcanon about wifi in the Shrieking Shack, because awesome. And RoseyRueWritesSometimes22 for writing Pokey's lines. Because I just can't House Elf no matter how hard I try.
Emma's robes flowed behind her as she walked through the halls. She felt as nervous as she had all those years ago on her first day here. She supposed it was her first day all over again in another way, her first day as a professor. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Honestly, she had never pictured herself here over seventeen years ago when she had roamed these halls as a first year student. She hadn't pictured herself anywhere really, especially not with a decent paying job, let alone something so prestigious as a professorship at Hogwarts. She wasn't quite sure how she had managed, really. She'd always had a flare for Defense Against the Dark Arts and somehow it had resulted in her being here.
The man she was replacing was the first one to take the post after the curse on the position had managed to be lifted. Professor Graham had been her favorite professor, so much so that even though she was getting his job, she was sad to see him go. He had been a friend during some of her more lonely years at Hogwarts and an advisor and mentor when she'd finally found her niche. The memory of him clapping her on the back a few days prior and joking that she was his deputy back in the day and that she would be a fine teacher still brought butterflies to her stomach.
But tonight was the start of term feast and she wasn't quite sure Professor Graham was right anymore. Sure, she had a reputation for being quite the badass and good at what she did, but what did that matter to a group of kids? It hadn't to her at the beginning of her Hogwarts career, fresh out of the foster care system. And what did she know about teaching? Her reputation might hold her out for a little while, but if she didn't back it up she was doomed.
Worries ran through her mind continuously as she made her way up from her quarters near the Hufflepuff dormitory. The area brought her a slight amount of comfort, it was her home for seven years, she had a lot of good memories there. But still her insecurities plagued her mind.
"I can feel the nervousness wafting off you," Mary Margret said, popping up beside her randomly as she seemed to love to do. "Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen, I'd have had a vision about it."
Emma tried not to roll her eyes. Divination seemed like a load of shit to her, but Mary Margret herself seemed nice enough. She and her husband David had taken her under their wings after Professor Graham had left, showing her the ropes and giving her tips right and left. She appreciated the help, she really did, but every time Mary Margret told David he would be fine because she would have had a vision about it if he wasn't, he always seemed to come back with an injury of some sort from the animals he was taking care of until the beginning of term. Emma was desperately glad she wasn't the Care of Magical Creatures professor. It seemed a bit too dangerous for her liking.
"Yeah, I guess," Emma finally replied, sensing Mary Margret was waiting for an answer.
They walked up to the Great Hall together in silence for the rest of the way. Even if Mary Margret's predictions sucked, she did have a way of reading people and giving them what they needed and Emma needed space enough to think, but a friendly presence did truly help.
Just as they were about to go in Mary Margret grabbed her arm and stopped her. She looked at her seriously, eyes a little cloudy. "She's a raven, but she's really a snake."
Emma's brow scrunched. "What the hell are you talking about, Mary Margret?"
Mary Margret blinked a few times and shook her head. "Huh?"
"You just said she's a raven but she's really a snake or something like that. What does that even mean?"
Mary Margret shrugged. "Don't know. Sometimes that happens though, I'll say things and not remember it. I don't know what that's about, but some books say it's a side effect of being in tune."
Emma just nodded reluctantly. "Alright." She'd just file it under weird things her friend did. There was already quite a list anyway. Like talking to squirrels. And blue birds. Yeah, this seemed like par for the course.
Mary Margret shrugged again and walked into the Great Hall, walking over to her chair beside David and sitting down, smiling like a goof at the man. Emma sighed and walked to her own chair, the same one that Professor Graham had sat in for years. She hesitated a second before sitting down.
Other professors slowly filed in. The kids were just getting off of the train at the moment, so they still had a little while to get settled. Ruby, the Transfiguration professor, flopped down beside Emma dramatically.
"So, you'll be my new seat mate, huh?" The dark haired woman smiled brightly. "Don't get me wrong, Graham was an interesting person to talk to sometimes, but it's nice to actually sit by another woman for once. Archie isn't much of a talker." She nodded over at a mousy man with carrot orange hair.
"Uh, yeah, I guess I am."
"How are you getting along so far? I know it can be a little overwhelming. When I finally took over after Professor McGonagall I about stroked out worrying about everything and living up to her reputation."
Emma snorted. "I know the feeling."
Ruby smiled kindly. "You'll be fine. Everything I heard about you sounds like you'll do just fine here."
Emma returned the smile, warming just a little to this new woman beside her. "Thanks."
The students finally started to file in, but the seat on the other side of Emma remained empty. Emma looked over at the seat questioningly. If she remembered right it was where the potions master sat and it wasn't like Hogwarts could be without a potions master, so they had to be there. Where exactly were they? She couldn't imagine Headmaster Gold would be pleased at their absence when he made his dramatic entrance like always. He'd been Headmaster long before Emma came to school and she had a feeling he might be Headmaster long after she was gone, too, and he had never been a man to cross.
"Where's the potions master?" Emma turned to ask Ruby who was exchanging pleasantries with Archie. Emma though he might be the Muggle Studies professor, but she wasn't quite sure. He didn't exactly leave much of an impression.
"Oh, Regina's son, Henry, is a first year this year. She basically bullied her way into leading the first years here just to make sure he was safe."
Emma nodded, satisfied with the answer. Regina, it seemed her name was, hadn't really been around much at any of their meetings. She didn't really know much of her beyond the fact that she was rumored to be even better at potions than the legendary Severus Snape. The day that she had announced that she had made and successfully tested a potion that provided a great deal of protection from most hexes and curses to the drinker for a few hours at a time was maybe the second greatest moment of her life. She'd gotten hexed a shit ton tracking down criminals. Bat bogey hexes were annoying but easily dealt with. Sectumsempra? Yeah, that one not so much. To make a potion that defended against such a wide range of spells, well, Emma was pretty damn sure the rumors were true. And that was on top of the other ten potions the woman had invented since becoming a potions master.
The kids started to get louder and louder as more filed in, talking animatedly about their summers with their friends. Emma smiled slightly, remembering that feeling. After second year, when she had finally managed to make a few friends in the middle of the year, the beginning of the year was all she wished for over the summer spending it with yet another foster family. In the beginning she had hoped that wizarding foster families would be better, and to an extent, they were, but not enough.
She smiled at the kids sitting down at the Hufflepuff table. Her house looked as lively and inviting as ever. It was weird staring down at the table instead of sitting at it. She supposed she would get used to it. She saw Ruby give a fond smile to the Hufflepuffs as well. Emma glanced down at the crest on the woman's robes. She hadn't been cataloguing houses of professors when she still was trying to remember names and job titles. The familiar gold and black shown proudly on Ruby's chest. Huh, the woman had struck her as a Gryffindor at first, but she supposed it made sense.
"I miss the common room," Emma said to the other woman.
"I know, so many good times around that fireplace." Ruby smiled and shook her head. "I had my first kiss in front of the door to the girl's dormitory." She laughed. "At the time it was the most exciting thing ever, looking back he was a horrible kisser. I should have just grabbed one of the donuts on the treat table and ran off."
Emma laughed. "Don't worry, my first kiss was worse. We were in the owlery. I got pooped on."
Ruby doubled over laughing. "Oh my god. Yeah, you win."
"I literally never heard the end of it from my friends."
"I'm not sure you'll ever hear the end of it from me." Ruby smirked.
"I will get something blackmail worthy from you eventually to counteract it."
"You'll never get anything out of me."
"A galleon says I can by Christmas."
"You're on."
They shook on it. Emma smiled brightly. She felt right at home yet again. The nervousness was still there, but Ruby had eased it some. She didn't know what it was about the other woman, but she was completely at ease with her. At least this time it hadn't taken her over a year and a half to make friends. Only a week or so. It was an improvement.
A side door opened and the first years filed in. Emma scanned their faces quickly. It was obvious which ones were muggleborns and which weren't. Their looks ranged from completely clueless to a little terrified, but they all had the same quality to them. She'd had the same look on her face once upon a time, she was sure. She'd known nothing about the wizarding world before the age of eleven nor had her foster parents at the time. They'd seen the fact that she'd gotten into some fancy private boarding school, not even reading where, told her good riddance and hadn't help a smidge after that. A woman from the wizarding equivalent of child protective services had shown up and taken her to Diagon Alley and bought her everything she needed for school while telling her some about the wizarding world. She'd been the nicest social worker Emma had ever met, but she hadn't told Emma nearly enough to make her feel like anything other than a lost sheep when she had been herded into a boat first year and subsequently herded into the Great Hall.
Gold chose that moment to sweep in from the other side of the hall just as the last of the first years entered. He took his place at the podium and went through the standard welcome speech. Emma tuned him out after a minute or two. It wasn't anything she hadn't heard before.
A presence slipped into the chair beside her. Emma glanced over to see Regina sitting in her chair, looking over at a little boy with brown hair and a cowlick that looked like it would never settle down no matter what was done to it. Emma's lips turned up at the corners. He was a cute kid, that was for sure. She glanced back at Regina. And the other professor was totally still in mommy bear mode over said cute kid, but that was to be expected she thought.
"Nervous?" Emma whispered to her.
She glanced over at Emma quickly, not even bothering to turn her head. "No, Professor Swan. Even if I was, it would not be your business. That's beside the fact that it is extremely rude to talk during another's speech."
Emma fought the urge to roll her eyes. Ok. So it seemed the other woman wasn't only a potions master. She was a stone cold bitch, too. Maybe it was just stress, though, with her son about to get sorted. She could understand that.
"It isn't anything that we haven't heard a thousand times." Emma smiled tightly.
"That is beside the point." She turned so just a tiny sliver of her back was faced to Emma, making it clear that she wasn't going to be interacting with Emma any further but still being subtle enough that the kids in the audience wouldn't pick up on it.
Alright. Yup. Stone cold bitch. Emma had decided.
Gold finally finished speaking. Granny stood up, holding the sorting hat reverently and dragging a stool along with her. The woman had been the school's mediwitch since way before her granddaughter Ruby had ever been born. The witch was no nonsense but caring and she knew what she was doing. She motioned up the frightened first years with a warm smile on her face.
The first girl, Paige, sat on the stool, facing her peers and away from the professors. The sorting hat stayed quiet for a long minute before shouting GRYFFINDOR! The girl grinned widely and flounced over to the cheering crimson and gold table. The sorting went quickly. Emma applauded as every student walked to their new house. If she clapped a little louder for the Hufflepuff students, well that was beside the point.
Granny finally called the little boy's name. "Henry Mills."
The boy rushed forward, clearly excited. Emma felt Regina tense beside her. She could practically feel the vibrations coming off of the other woman. The woman was so nervous she was starting to make Emma nervous too. She had to keep from rolling her eyes. Yeah, the woman had totally lied to her. No, she couldn't just be a normal human being and say yes smile sheepishly and go back to listening to Gold's speech. Of course not, she had to be snippy and berate Emma's manners.
The sorting hat settled on the little boy's head for barely a second before the hat again screamed GRYFFINDOR. The boy turned around to shoot his mother a huge smile before he shot off to his new house's table. Regina shot back a megawatt smile, face softening. As soon as Henry's back was turned though she scowled just a little for a second before wiping her face of all emotion. Huh, seemed like she wasn't quite happy with her son's sorting. She glanced down and saw blue and gold. Probably wanted him to follow in her footsteps.
She scrunched up her nose. Ravenclaw had never been her favorite. Most of them were just fine, but there were some who thought Hufflepuff was the stupidest house alive and treated them as such. She'd never appreciated that. She figured Regina Mills had probably been one of those people once upon a time. She did seem the type.
The rest of the welcome back feast went quickly. Emma steadfastly ignored Regina. Regina spent the whole entire meal watching Henry like a hawk. Emma rolled her eyes and turned back to Ruby to chat amiably. The woman was obviously way too overprotective and had some sort of stick up her ass. The fact that she was a brilliant witch and one of the most beautiful women that Emma had ever seen didn't make up for that. So Emma watched as Ruby pointed out students here and there and informed Emma which were trouble, which were the ones that could be counted on, which ones needed a little extra help, along with any funny stories she had about them. Emma found her stomach muscles hurting by the end of the meal from laughing so much. It was feeling she'd missed for a long time. Being a freelance auror hadn't exactly been a smiley business. But now she was happy and free again, she was home and she was making friends. She was content.
But the presence of Regina still lingered behind her long after she'd retreated to her quarters.
The next morning Emma couldn't force herself to go to breakfast. She was too nervous for that. Instead she stood in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Her classroom. It didn't seem like it would ever not be weird to think of it like that. It was always going to be Professor Graham's classroom to her. But for now she had to push that aside. It would be like it had in her seventh year. She was his teaching assistant again and she was in charge. That was how she would think of it. She could do that. She had already done that for a year of her life and she had been good at it.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as the bell tolled to signal the end of breakfast. Soon her room would be full of first years eagerly awaiting their first lesson. Or maybe not eagerly. It was still school after all. But Emma thought that today she'd take it easy on them and give a bunch of demonstrations after explaining just exactly what Defense Against the Dark Arts was and why it was important. The kids had enough going on that a day to adjust would probably be appreciated. She knew she'd appreciated it. She'd also loved watching the demonstrations. They were just so cool.
So as the first of the first years filed in, this one a class of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, she sent them a smile and motioned for them to take whatever seat they wanted. Henry was one of the first ones in the room, sitting down firmly in the front row right in front of Emma. He bounced up and down slightly in his seat. Emma smiled a little bit wider at his excitement. He really was a cute kid. She wondered how he turned out so with a mother like Regina. She seemed the type of mother that would raise a stuck up brat.
Emma took a breath. She needed to stop thinking about Regina. She was her coworker. So she was a bitch. It didn't matter. She'd just have to deal with her. And first thing was first she had to stop thinking such catty comments. She shouldn't even give her more brain space than needed. Yeah, that sounded nice.
The bell rang to signal the end of class change and Emma took another deep breath. "Alright guys, settle down." She raised her voice to carry above the din.
The first years shut up immediately and stared at her. She always had loved that about the first years, so compliant. She'd be lucky to get her fifth years to calm down later today without injecting a little badass into her demeanor.
"Ok, so we're going to get started. So, anyone want to give a shot at what Defense Against the Dark Arts is?"
Henry's little hand shot up immediately. The wiggling increased just slightly, not enough to be embarrassing, but enough to be noticeable. Emma scanned the room making sure no one else wanted to answer before pointing to Henry.
"Yes…?" she trailed off.
"Henry Mills."
"Alright, Henry why don't you give it a shot?"
"It's the branch of magic that teaches witches and wizards to defend themselves from other evil wizards."
Emma nodded. "Good. It also teaches how to deal with dark creatures and how to defend yourselves from those as well. This year we'll do a mix of both defensive spells and work with dark creatures. By the end you guys will know all about gargoyles and ghosts and fire crabs and a slew of other things. But honestly, it's not just important to know defense for those illusive 'bad guys.'" Emma put air quotes around the words. "Some of your fellow wizards and witches who aren't exactly the next Dark Lord will try to hurt you and you must learn to defend yourselves. Plus, knowing defense well helps with all other aspects of magical practice. Magic, you see, is very intertwined. I'm not saying that understanding this class will make you a potions master, you guys should have seen my potions grades, but there are definitely common themes shared between the two that will help guide you in the right direction."
Emma launched into a half an hour talk on all the implications and talking points of their curriculum for the year, delved more into the importance, gave a few real life examples for each point. She was really thankful for her experiences outside Hogwarts. Explaining was a lot easier now that she had plenty of stories to demonstrate what she was explaining. After ten minutes of questions when the kids just stared at her expectantly once more Emma pulled out her wand smiling.
"Alright guys, now comes the fun part, real life examples of defensive magic."
All the kids gasped and sat forward a little more. Ah, to be young again and wowed at even the simplest of spells.
"I'll start with the spells that you'll be learning this year and at the end I'll show you some of the more advanced and interesting stuff you'll learn in the years to come, ok?"
They all nodded and called out their agreement.
"Alright, so, here's your basic lumos." The tip of Emma's wand lit up. "First spell you guys will learn from me. Nifty little thing, though I think flashlights are a little more practical sometimes. You know, if it was easy to get batteries around here." She shrugged. "But you'll always have your wand on you from now on, so it's convenient."
A few kids gave her odd looks but there were a few more that nodded along understanding perfectly. She catalogued their faces. Muggleborns didn't get as much flack as they did once upon a time, but it was a good idea to keep track of them and make sure they were getting along well, Emma knew first hand.
Emma turned and conjured a life like dummy. "This is one of the first spells we'll learn the countercurse to. If you guys don't like snot I'd look away." She cast the curse of the bogies on the dummy and immediately a stream of snot started to ooze from its nose.
The kids let out a collective ew. Emma waved her wand again and everything went back to normal. "That gets cast on you you'll have about the worst cold ever until you can cast the counter curse."
She waved her wand and the dummy went shooting back into the wall. "That's the knock back jinx. Good for knocking opponents off their feet, but we'll be learning how to block it as well as cast it so you guys don't have it used against you."
Another wave and green sparks started to flow from her wand. The class let out a collective ooooh this time. Emma smiled.
"Looks harmless enough right? Just a bunch of pretty sparks."
Everyone nodded. Another flick and the sparks went from trailing down to the floor harmlessly to shooting towards the dummy, lighting it aflame. The class gasped.
"But also, it can do this." Emma cast the spell again, raising her hand above her head this time. A ball of light exploded above her head and lit the classroom, bathing it in a green glow. Everywhere the light struck hidden objects were revealed. Emma reached in the secret compartment in her desk and took out an apple, taking a bite.
"It reveals hidden dark objects as well as being an offense spell. It's a handy little spell really. But that about covers most of the spells we'll be working on. Everything else we'll learn spell wise requires a dark magical creature, and I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to deal with a fire crab right off on the first day." She smiled as a few students who were in the know laughed.
"But however, now I can show you a few more advanced spells you'll learn later."
Emma took a deep breath and cleared her mind. She always had to be calm to perform this spell, it wasn't natural to her. She pulled up her happiest memory, that day at the beginning of third year when the friends she had made in second year and all pulled her into a hug and started asking her how her summer had been and talking about how good it was to see her and how much they had missed her. It had been the first time Emma had felt truly wanted. She smiled and raised her wand.
"Expecto Patronum." Emma felt the spell take immediately. She opened her eyes to see a black swan swimming through the air around her hand. The bird settled onto her shoulder and waited for her instruction.
"This is a patronus. Their main function is to ward off dementors. It's a high level spell that most don't learn until N.E.W.T. level classes, but it's handy to know. They can also carry messages between two people if there's no other way of communicating. And whatever shape your patronus takes is completely up to your personality. It's kind of cool really. I haven't seen any two truly alike ever."
She waved her wand and her swan disappeared. Emma glanced down at Henry. She thought for a second before speaking.
"Henry why don't you take out your wand and just hold it loosely in your hand for me."
The kid scrambled to comply with Emma's request. When he was ready Emma held out her own wand.
"Expelliarmus." The boy's wand flew to her free hand.
Henry stared at her with wide awed eyes. Emma smiled and handed his wand back to him.
"Best form of defense? Taking their wand as soon as possible. They can't do anything to you if they can't cast a spell. Or well, they can't do as much to you. But a simple petrifying spell will take care of anything physical they could do to you. Of course it doesn't work a hundred percent of the time. There are easy ways to prevent someone taking your wand, but we'll be going over those next year."
Emma glanced down at the clock. She only had a few minutes left, just enough time for one last demonstration. Might as well go out with a bang. Emma smiled and turned towards the dummy again. This had to be her favorite spell.
"One last one for you guys. Confringo." The dummy in front of her exploded in a ball of fire. Emma cast another quick spell right afterwards to contain the blast. When the smoke cleared there were only bits of fluff scattered around the place where the dummy had just been.
She turned back to the class who were staring at the area where the dummy was still with open mouths. "Needless to say you really don't want to get hit with that spell, but that's what strong shielding charms are for. That's for fourth year, though, so stay tuned for that. Any questions?"
All of the hands in the room shot up immediately. Emma laughed and tucked her wand back in her robes. She answered as many questions as she could in the time left but she ran out of time as the bell rung. Emma wished her students a good rest of the first day. They all filed out quickly talking loudly and excitedly.
Henry walked up to her. "That was so cool!" He exclaimed, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet.
Emma smiled widely at him. "The explosion?"
"All of it! But yeah, I think the explosion might have been the most awesome part. Do we get to learn that spell?"
"I don't teach it to you, kid, but I'm sure someone does along the way. Just don't go blowing up too many dummies. I hear they don't really like that."
Henry smiled back at her. "Maybe not. I'll see you later Professor." He darted out the door.
Emma sighed and leaned back against her desk. For a first class on the first day that hadn't been bad at all. Maybe Professor Graham was right, maybe she was meant for teaching.
Then again….
She glanced down at her schedule. The fifth year Slytherins and Ravenclaws were next. Maybe she should hold off judgment on her calling as a professor until after she had made it through her next class. They were going to be her most difficult class by far. Fifteen year old clever teenagers had their heads so far up their asses that they thought they knew everything. It was going to be a fun class.
But still, even with that, Emma couldn't quite stop smiling as her next class started to straggle in as she was setting up for their class.
Emma sighed. First day of classes were over. She had survived the fifth year class with relatively little bruising of her ego and only one detention assigned. Slytherins could be great friends or little shits. Her class was full of little shits, but they'd settled down after she followed through on her threat of detention. They'd settled even further as she systematically ripped apart every single one of the Ravenclaw's "perfect" techniques that they'd learned from their summer work. She knew what she was doing and she wasn't a pushover and the kids had begrudgingly respected that.
Now came the set up for the next day. First off she had her seventh year N.E.W.T.S. class. She was excited to demonstrate some of the more complicated stuff and actually get to spar with some students. But that required a lot of prior set up. She flicked her wand this way and that scooting tables out of the way. She conjured a few dummies for the first part of the class where everyone would be practicing their new spells.
Emma was almost happy with the set up when she felt a presence behind her. She whipped around, wand drawn to face whoever had walked into the room. She let out a breath and slipped her wand back into her robe sleeve when she realized who it was.
"Professor Mills, what brings you up here?" Emma asked. Her brain drifted to the one or two more things she needed to conjure to complete the set up behind her.
"Professor Swan. I came to talk to you about Henry."
"Oh? The kid seems rather good in the subject and really excited to learn. It already seems like he's going to be one of the best students in his class. What could you want to talk about?"
"You endangered my son today in class." Regina's voice was like ice as she stepped forward.
Emma scowled. "What do you mean? All I did was do a few demonstrations of spells we're going to learn this year and had a talk with them about what we'd be learning this year. Standard first day stuff, you know?"
Regina's nostrils flared. "You preformed one of those demonstrations on my son."
"What? I just cast expelliarmus on him. It's not exactly a harmful spell. Hell, he seemed thrilled to be involved."
"That does not change the fact that you cast a spell on a student who was under prepared for such a thing."
"Casting spells on students is sort of in my job description. How else am I supposed to teach them the practical aspect of the class? I can't exactly demonstrate the weak points in a student's shield charm if I'm not throwing a jelly leg jinx or two at them. I asked your son to help with a demonstration and he in no way seemed nervous or against what I was asking him to do. Besides, it was a simple spell that poses not even the slightest risk to him. He stands more risk standing in potions class than he did in my class today."
Emma could tell that that was the exact wrong thing to say. Regina stepped in closer into Emma's personal space. Emma held her ground and looked down at the slightly shorter woman and stared down unimpressed. She chased evil wizards for a living. This was nothing.
"Professor Swan, I take great care to make sure my students are in no danger while they are learning basic potions. I wish you would do the same. You not only cast a spell at my son, but an explosion, really, Professor Swan, was that necessary? In what way did that not endanger the students in your room?"
Emma felt her eyes narrow. "Lady, have you ever been in a real duel, a knockdown, drag out, no holds barred duel? Because let me tell you, if you have you'll understand exactly why I demonstrated that spell today. Do you know how many times I've had that spell flung at me in the heat of a fight? How many kids do you think in that room today will become aurors? They need to know what spell looks like. They need to know how to defend against it. And before you go off on your little endangering students lecture, I knew exactly what I was doing. I cast a shield charm so the blast was contained in that little corner over there." Emma pointed over to the corner that she hadn't gotten around to cleaning quite yet. "There was no danger. I use protective spells just like you do. So I would appreciate it if you would step off me and let me do my job and teach your kid to defend himself so he doesn't end up a bloody mess in St. Mungo's or worse."
Emma leaned forward progressively until their faces were inches from each other. She saw the fury in the other woman's eyes. It looked like she was contemplating murdering Emma right there on the spot. Emma wanted her to just try it. She'd get her ass handed to her on a platter. Emma wouldn't even feel sorry about doing it.
"I do not think you are doing enough. You will shape up your teaching practices or I will report you to the Headmaster. You will not endanger my son!"
"Lady, you went through Hogwarts the exact same way that I did. Did it sound like I was doing anything different than the professors we had? No. Because I literally learned how to teach from Professor Graham. So kindly walk out of this room and I will continue to teach your son and I won't dictate how you should teach potions, got it?"
"No, I don't have it. Professor Swan, I don't think you realize how far I will go to protect my son. He is my only family and I will go to the ends of the earth to protect him, and if that means getting you fired then so be it. I will destroy you, or anyone who harms him, so thoroughly that you'll wish you would have never been born." A cruel smile curled onto her face. "But I bet you've wished that already. You can't understand what a mother would do for her child because you never even had a mother. Quite frankly I think your mother got off lucky, getting rid of you."
Emma saw red and started to shake. She wanted nothing more than to strike the woman in front of her. Not curse her. Beat her to a pulp the old fashioned way. It would be so much more satisfying. But by the time she made a move to swing at the other woman she was no longer in front of her. The woman was already walking out the door like she owned the place.
Emma started to curse and hex everything around her to pieces. Damn that fucking woman. Damn her to hell and back a thousand times. By the time she stopped the classroom was in shambles. Emma sighed, cursed Regina one more time and spent the rest of the evening repairing everything.
