And Then There Were Three

Disclaimer: All of Hogwarts and the magical universe, first and foremost, belongs to J.K. Rowling and not me. The only things that do belong to me are various non-canon characters who may or may not impact this story directly, and of course Laura Corrigan, my original character and protagonist of this story.

A/N: DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILERS! This is my first attempt at writing on FanFiction in a long, long time so I am very modest and unenthusiastic about everything that I write. I hope you all like it and don't grow to hate my OC, Laura. She isn't the nicest person ever, she's certainly got her flaws, but I've tried to flesh her out into a deep person. Almost every canon character from the books will show up at one point or another, especially Harry, George Weasley, Oliver Wood, Cho Chang, Teddy Lupin, and Minerva McGonagall. I also am lazy and do not like to proofread. I've run a spell check through the document, so I apologize for any odd grammatical errors. My spell check also kept changing my typo of "disappeared" into "spearfished", and it took me about an hour to set it straight... so sorry if it's reversed without my knowing. Enjoy!

In and Out of the Fire

"Incendio," I said.

The lamp sitting on my desk burst into flames and the room was immediately illuminated. The first year students, who were chattering happily until my arrival, had dropped their voices to whispers and most watched the lamp with most intense curiosity. The class was the largest I had ever seen, the Gryffindor students sat to the right of my desk and the Slytherins were to my left.

As I walked up the gap between where Gryffindor and Slytherin separated themselves, my oversized black cloak trailed along the floor behind me for a few inches. My jet black hair was tied up into a ponytail, causing most of the Muggle-born students to become perplexed: rather than using a scrunchie or hair band, I had magically fixed the hair into its position.

Once I had reached my desk, I turned around to face the dozens of first years. My pearly blue eyes surveyed them carefully. They looked almost frightened, though I wasn't sure if it was because of me or of Hogwarts in general. I turned back around so that my back was to all of them, and walked to the blackboard.

"My name," I started, picking up chalk and beginning to write it on the board. I tried my best to conceal my normal tone and accent. "Is Professor... Corrigan." I began writing below my name. "You are studying Defense... Against... the Dark... Arts." I laid the piece of chalk down and clapped my hands together so that they were cleansed. I was now facing the students once more. "You will learn to protect yourself from dark magic: these include various spells, curses, hexes, jinxes, and charms, as well as protection against dark creatures such as Dementors. But that won't be until later in your Hogwarts career. Much later. Copy the definitions." My wand was pointed at the blackboard. "Depulso!"

I heard groans from amongst the first years as the board laid out definitions and examples of such terms as, "Dark Arts", and "Counter spell". I couldn't help but feel a grin emerging. Most students were at it for ten minutes, though some were quick or had simply shortened the definitions (I had made them quite lengthy). I took the idle fumbling of quills to mean they were finished.

"Well, now that that's done, I think you all can take your wands out," I said. There was a sudden uproar of excited whispering. Chances were that this was the first class in which they'd be practicing anything in yet. I had immediate flashbacks to when I had dreaded listening to Professor Flitwick talk about the importance and use of charms in life. "Don't get too excited, it's only one spell. You all go on and stand up, stand across from the person next to you. Oh girls, there's nothing wrong with the bloke sitting next to you." Many of the girls had looked mortified at the boy they had sat with. "This is something I actually didn't learn until my second year."

It took almost half of the class period to ensure that everyone had gotten the hand motions right before they were allowed to practice. Being a rather patient person, I didn't mind going to each individual student and, for a few, actually guiding their hand.

"Alright, I think we've got it," I said once I was satisfied with their progress. "Now honestly, it might not work. I didn't really get the hang of it until my fourth or fifth try, you'd be surprised. Are we ready? On the count of three now, then. One-"

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Someone's wand flew up into the air, and the caster shrieked with laughter. My eyes locked onto him, he was of an average height, with interestingly colored hair. It was a light shade of blue and he wore it so that his eyes were barely exposed. Those around him suddenly chanted, "EXPELLIARMUS!" and a few kids either lost their wands into the air or had their arm knocked backwards with a tight force.

There was a murmur of satisfaction and the Gryffindors flocked to interrogate the blue haired boy on his advanced techniques, while the Slytherins laid back and grunted to themselves. I squeezed through the pack of lions and found myself facing the boy's back.

"Hmm, Mr. Lupin I presume," I said.

The rowdy boy's hair moved about a bit, by itself, and slowly grew darker until it was as black as my own. When he turned around, the arrogance and joy he had been showing seemed to be replaced by a subtle coolness towards me.

"I quite miss your godfather. We've lost touch. Why don't we go... drop in?" I grabbed his hand and tugged him towards my desk. He didn't speak, though showed no signs of being nervous or intimidated. "I think that it will be at least another month before this class is mature enough to practice magic. Don't you, Mr. Lupin?"

He glanced down at his feet and shifted them around.

"Don't you?" I asked again.

"No," he replied quietly. His classmates eagerly looked on. I dropped to my knees, and they made a loud noise when they collided with the cold floor. I paid no attention to any pain. I was at his level, and I violently grabbed him and made sure that he was looking me straight in the eye.

"Well," I whispered. "I guess it's a good thing that we're going to listen to me then, and not you." Still on my knees, I looked at the other students. "This is not how I operate. I'm hear to be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, first and foremost. But that doesn't mean we can't be friends." I pushed myself off the ground and wiped dirt off of my cloak. "But my friends will listen and respect me. If you make sure to heed my commands, we shouldn't have to bar magic from class for a month. Don't you want to be my friend, Mr. Lupin?"

This was surely not the class anyone had expected. They were foolish children, only eleven years old, but I was a strict woman ever since I lost Harry Potter and almost all of my friends, with the lone exception of Cho Chang, but it wasn't like she talked to any of the old crew at all anyway so I always felt so uninformed.

"Now maybe you all can take our class today as a guideline for your expectations at Hogwarts," I suggested. "I'm possibly the nicest teacher you'll have today. You see, you haven't met Professor McGonagall yet I presume, nor Madame Hooch or Professor Firenze- oh, not that you can take his class yet. Now if Theodore-"

"Don't call me that," I heard him mutter under his breath. His hair was turning red.

"If Theodore Remus Lupin wishes to apologize for disobeying me, and apparently wishing to overrule my authority during the very first lesson, then I may be willing to go on being a 'cool' professor. Well, Mr. Lupin?"

He didn't answer.

"I guess it's no defensive magic for a long, long time then," I said. Almost all faces were disappointed, and Teddy's hair stayed fiery red. "You really must have taken much from the Black side of your family. Class is dismissed early- I advise you all make haste in finding out where to go within the castle. Except for my friend, of course."

The students scurried out quickly.

"Let's get some floo powder then, shall we?"

I led Teddy to my office. He was in silence the entire trip.

"At least you're not taking me to my grams," Teddy said. "She's the one who would punish me."

"I want to be your friend," I reminded him. "I don't want you to get in trouble. Harry just needs to reassure you of some things." I paused. "You don't need to break rules to be 'cool', you know. Harry can probably break that to you."

Truthfully, I had just been looking for a reason to drop by.

"You should be proud," I told him. "A floo trip on your first day of classes. I do believe this must be a first." My fireplace was already lit, and I threw the floo powder into it. "Godric's Hollow, the Potter residence. Come, now!" I grabbed his arm and threw him into the fire alongside me. Then, it all came to me.

"I've honestly tried to make you as happy as possible, Laura."

Harry and I were standing outside the Burrow. He and Ron had just finally become Aurors, and what had been a celebration was quickly turned to disaster upon my arrival.

"No you haven't," I snapped at him. "I'm happy with you Harry. I'm not... I can't just go out with George, and it's not because of the ear like Ron suspects, it's because I dated him my fifth year when I was trying to make you jealous, Harry. What are you not understanding? I love you."

Thankfully, Ginny was not with us that night. She had been busy with a game.

"That's too bad," Harry told me. "I'm not in love with you. You've tried to come between me and an engagement with my fiancée-"

"You all haven't helped one BIT!" I yelled, whining a bit. I knew I was wrong deep down inside but I couldn't leave myself vulnerable and awkward. "Harry, I can't stop loving you and you're trying to make me. You haven't even tried Harry, you haven't tried to reconsider your feelings and all of your little blind dates have hated me because they think I'm some spoiled little shit!"

"That Quidditch player from Australia I introduced you to fancied you just fine..." Hermione butted in. She, Ron, George, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were sitting in chairs, watching Harry and me fight on our feet.

"I'm not talking to you, bitch!" I said.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Ron fumed, jumping up. Hermione stuck her nose in the air and turned away from me.

"I'll talk to her any way I see fit, Ronald."

"Not if I have anything to do with it, you..."

I never knew what Ron called me that night, because the next thing I knew I fell to the ground (on my knees, like I would eventually do in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom) and was weeping. Through teary eyes and incomprehensible speech, I said, "I fucking want to be loved, that's all, and I know that I sound like a little shit, I know it, but George or some Quidditch player doesn't cut it. No one will listen to me!"

"It's you who won't listen to us!" Harry cut in. "Stop your crying. It's all fake, we know it."

"It's not fake!"

"That's a bunch of rubbish," Ron laughed.

"Shut the fuck up!" I screeched. I drew my wand. "Sectumsempra!" Ron's arm busted open with blood pouring out every which way.

"What the FUCK!" Ron howled.

"Get out of here!" Mr. Weasley said, jumping to his feet.

"What's wrong with you?" Harry spat, while Hermione and Mrs. Weasley rushed to Ron's side. All I did was sob. George walked over to me and wrapped me in a hug.

"Stop this Laura," he whispered into my ear. "I've been willing to give you my love for ages now, I thought that's what you wanted."

"You're not Harry," I cried softly.

"But Harry-"

"Harry doesn't understand," I said.

"I understand just fine, Laura!"

"I don't find it a surprise Laura, that of everyone here the person who has amounted to the least in their life is you!" Hermione shouted at me, ripping George off of me. "We can't help you pull your life together if you don't want us to. You haven't got a job, you can't get over Harry, and you're attacking your friends now? It's no use anymore. You're beyond help!"

There was a long silence.

I sat on the ground in that silence.

Everyone had their eyes on me.

And eventually, I imagine it was anywhere between 20 minutes and 60 minutes of sitting there, I had taken everything in. So I stood up, and I walked away from Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, George, the Burrow, and everything else my life had once contained.

I never saw any of them again.

He wasn't home. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ginny in the next room, and beside her was a young boy peering over a basket. In the basket lay another child, though considerably younger. Ginny was pregnant (quite far along, too). Immediately I felt a surge of puke rushing up. My eyes were tearing in disgust. Teddy looked at me as though I might have been mentally ill.

Ginny looked rather good for a fat woman. It probably didn't hurt that the clothes she wore fit her nicely, rather than dressing like Hermione had when she'd been pregnant (I had seen pictures of her and they were not very satisfying on the eyes). My eyes were of course drawn to her hand, where an obnoxiously large and shiny diamond ring was placed on her finger.

Age hadn't disagreed with me much, but Ginny seemed to have no problems with it. Her face was clear and smooth, and I wondered to myself whether or not Ginny had used a spell to vanish any deformities from her face. She also seemed to have strong legs, they were muscled all the way down. It was very unlike my own. I had always been a scrawny, skinny person and I had chicken legs. If I had been unattractive, I may have been jealous, but I was quite content with the way I looked, no matter how vain that may sound.

"Let's get out of here," I hissed. It was too late, though. The older boy looked curiously in my direction.

"TEDDY!" he screamed, running over to him. Ginny, looking alarmed, stood up and waddled behind him. "Mum, Teddy is here!"

Ginny came in through the doorway and was frozen solid. Her eyes met mine, and they locked into place. It was a staring match to end all staring matches, and Teddy watched us in silence while the other boy looked like he was dying to speak.

"Go in the other room, James," Ginny said quietly. James quickly obeyed her. She muttered an incantation over the door and shut it behind him. "Teddy, floo back to school."

"But we-"

"No, do what she says," I interrupted.

Once he disappeared into the fireplace, Ginny exploded.

"What in the bloody hell do you think you're doing here?" she demanded to know. I opened my mouth, but she refused to let me answer. "No, don't answer that. You're to leave, immediately!"

"I came to talk to Harry," I said.

"Well isn't that just perfect?" Ginny laughed. "Harry doesn't want to see you, and he's not here anyway. He is an auror though, and if you don't leave I can only imagine what will happen to you."

"Oh, I will if you take the broomstick out of your arse," I retorted quickly, rolling my eyes.

"You cannot say that to me in my-"

I drew my wand and pointed it at her throat. "I can say whatever I please, wherever I please, Ginerva." There was a long pause as my hand trembled in front of her. I probably couldn't hurt her.

"Laura," she sighed. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing," I told her. "I've been like this since my third year. I've been in love since my third year and no one's given a fucking shit about it! No, don't speak, don't mention your brother or that Quidditch player or some man you thought would get me out of a slump, don't bother, Ginny! I have to actually care for someone."

"You had no problem dating Seamus or George in your fifth year-"

"Oh, I was fifteen," I said. "Fifteen, and if I'm not mistaken, that same year you were pouncing upon any boy that would walk past you."

She couldn't seem to disagree with that.

"Ginny, for the past six years I haven't had anyone," I said.

"And for good reason."

"I can't control my emotions, I've always been hotheaded. No one... no one gave me a chance to apologize."

Ginny sighed, and explained, "You used the dark arts on Ron and basically told Hermione to go fuck herself."

"Yeah, well she's always been a prat," I muttered.

"Laura, why are you here?"

I was sure that she knew the answer.

"Teddy was acting up in class," was my response. "I... he was just being..." I sighed. "I thought that Harry might be able to send him down the right path." Ginny looked at me, disbelievingly.

"Hermione told me you'd gotten the Defense Against the Dark Arts post..."

"Yes, well McGonagall hadn't taken a well liking to Headmistress and once Nigel had settled on early retirement, she did a bit of a switcharoo."

Nigel Williams was a middle aged fraud who had only been more qualified than Gilderoy Lockheart. He would likely have been dismissed had he not gone out with some dignity left. Minerva McGonagall immediately decided to rush back to her Transfiguration post, which I had taken over: and rather affectively, too. I was the best Transfiguration student in the entire school by my 5th year in Hogwarts, and I had been planning on taking a test to become an Animagus. In the process, she had given me the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, which I had never particularly excelled in but was qualified enough to teach.

"I guess I'll come back later then," I said after a long silence.

"Don't bother," Ginny said. Rather brutally. "I'm going to floo-proof the fireplace."

I sighed. "Like that'll stop me. Bye, Ginny."

"Wait," Ginny urged. "I'm serious, don't come back Laura. Harry really doesn't want to see you ever again. All of the Weasleys have sort of decided that they miss you, but... Harry just doesn't. Here." She handed me a letter, but not before scribbling a part of it out.

Ginny,

Minerva wrote to me earlier and she said that if I don't care to see Laura Corrigan, I should probably leave home for a couple of days starting when Teddy begins school. It is likely that she will scapegoat any sort of misbehavior he displays into visiting me. I'll be at CROSSOUT for about a week. I think it's best you don't mention to James why I've gone or he'll beg to come with me. Or worse: I'll have to explain to him who Laura is.

I felt a pile of vomit rocketing up my throat and I clutched onto the nearby desk to keep my balance. The letter dropped onto the ground, under the kitchen table. Ginny began to speak, but none of it registered with me. Had McGonagall really...

Warned Harry that I may be visiting? Had she been protecting everyone from "me", as if I were some sort of deadly virus? The worst of it all, though, was the fact that Harry had been so ashamed by me... something I had apparently done, to upset or embarrass him. He was hiding me from his children. And yet my feelings for him were still so strong...

"Laura-"

"No," I told her. My voice was high-pitched and my Welsh accent was now blazing out, I couldn't control it. I had worked on getting rid of it, but it was no use once I was flustered. "If Harry doesn't want me here then I... I won't be returning. If he doesn't want me here then fine, I won't come, it doesn't matter, honestly. I was honestly fucking doing it for Teddy Lupin's good, and I know you don't fucking believe me but I really was, Ginny! I don't want him down the wrong path and god fucking forbid I wanted to knock some sense into him with someone who he really likes." Ginny was staring at me, neither moving nor speaking.

I looked around the room frantically. I was panicking.

"Laura, I-"

"No, where the FUCK is the floo powder?" I said, breathing deep breaths. She pointed at the desk I was leaning on, and I poured the entire goblet into the fire. "Hogwarts, Laura Corrigan's office!"

"Oh really?" I said. "I'm from Gwynedd. Northwest Wales. I thought the car ride to London was just murder, personally."

It wasn't the first time we'd met, but the first time we'd had a real conversation. Normally we would talk about the house cup, or homework, or occasionally I would be partnered with Hermione in class, but I had never sat down and had a personal conversation with any of the three friends.

"And your mum's a witch?" Ron asked.

"Yes, she's told me my father is too but of course she could lying," I replied. "She didn't even tell me about a father until I had figured out where babies come from..."

I took a chocolate frog from Ron's lap and chewed off its head. Next to me lay the sleeping Remus Lupin, who I thought smelled of Chardonnay at the time, but it was more likely the potion that had given off the scent.

"Are you sure that Lavender and Parvati don't mind you sitting with us?" Hermione inquired.

"No, we're not really speaking right now," I said. "Something about how I was treating Sea-" I cut off quickly, but Hermione seemed very interested.

"Oh, what about Seamus?"

I hesitated before answering.

"She sort of fancies him, nothing surprising to be honest. She thought I was flirting with him on the platform."

"Were you?" Harry asked.

"No," I said immediately, so that they all laughed. My face was red. "I guess I don't have anything to do on the weekends now though..."

"You're always welcome to come hang out with us," Harry suggested. My eyes lit up. It was the invitation I had been hoping to receive.

"Oh really? I wouldn't want to intrude."

"No, it's fine," Hermione smiled. Ron didn't speak, he was focusing on devouring another chocolate frog.

"Oh gosh, now I don't have to sit with Neville all the time," I laughed. They gave a forced chuckle, and I sensed the awkwardness. "Not that I don't like Neville, but... I don't think we click." The three nodded.

That was when the trained stopped, and suddenly the compartment got very cold. And I think that what happened next is rather infamous.

I glanced at my watch, and muttered, "Shit!" I ran out of my office and into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where a combination of Gryffindors and Slytherins were once against sitting. They all looked positively bored. They had been waiting for three minutes. They were my fifth year O.W.L students.

"I'm sorry," I said, brushing past a Slytherin girl who snickered at my black cloak. I had failed to mask my accent once more.

"You're Welsh, Professor Corrigan?" a Gryffindor girl asked. Five years they'd had me, and I'd never slipped up.

"Yes, I am," I said. Not that it mattered, but I had always found my Welsh origin to be a distraction to people. Ever since my sixth year I had decided to cover it over with a more Northern English dialect. "Wands away, textbooks out." Groans, many of them. Most hadn't bothered to put the wands away, but left them lying down while they searched for their book. "I said wands away!"

They all looked frightened.

"Bad day, Professor Corrigan?"

"Honestly," I said. "You don't know the half of it. Page four, start reading."

I could hear the whispers of the students as though they were shouting.

"It looks like she's been sobbing."

"She's got those dark bags under her eyes."

"I fancied her my second year, but now she looks miserable."

I looked idly at my fingers, trying to ignore to nagging comments on my appearance. It wasn't long before a certain student had caught my attention, however.

"Yeah, my cousin said that Harry Potter talks about her all the time."

I concealed a large gasp with a fit of coughs.

"I'll be right back," I announced, and some of the girls in Gryffindor looked on in horror as I greatly exaggerated my coughs to be louder and louder, growing more serious with every step I took. I exited the classroom and stood still in the corridors, ceasing my coughing.

Yeah, my cousin said that Harry Potter talks about her all the time... rang through my mind. So, he talks about me all the time? What has he been saying? Perhaps he still loves me... or I suppose he never did. But perhaps he has realized his affection for me? Or maybe he just has a laugh at how insane he finds me.

My hands were trembling again, and I was breathing heavily.

Don't do it, Laura. Not here.

What would it be like, a tiger walking into class? Maybe the size can be adjusted... a cub may pass as a kitten...

Don't do it, Laura!

But it was too late, before my mind could protest any further I felt a thick coat of fur cover my face and body, and I was shrinking in size. I was on all fours, and I glanced around the corridor to find no one. I turned around and realized that the door was closed. Not knowing if I could pass off strolling into the classroom, I decided to take the risk.

"Meow."

Fuck!

Wandless magic was never my strong point, let alone casting a spell without saying incantations. I went over the spell in my mind dozens of times, with my eyes tightly shut. Thirty or so seconds had passed, and when I opened my eyes, I had managed to creek the door open a small bit.

I wiggled my way through the door and into the classroom. I wasn't surprised to find just one student reading the chapter I had assigned, while the others had decided upon gossiping at high speed.

"Oh, what a peculiar cat!" a Slytherin girl shouted, and she and group of girls rushed over and picked me up. They dragged me over to their seat, but I needed to get over to the Scottish Gryffindor boy whose cousin knew Harry Potter. I violently hissed at the girls and swept my claws at them. They screamed and dropped me butt-first on the cold ground. I scurried away, and climbed onto the lap of the Gryffindor boy. He stroked me quite uncomfortably.

"Well he knows because his dad is Oliver Wood, from Puddlemere United. Sometimes Potter and Wood would meet up for lunch with Ron Weasley, the auror friend, and Potter's wife would come along too and they'd talk Quidditch and all that nonsense, and Professor Corrigan was a hot topic. He said it was weird though, because Harry Potter would go all quiet when she was mentioned, whereas Weasley and Potter's wife would have a laugh about her."

"Why?"

"Well she's psycho or something he told me. Potter's wife was livid when she'd heard that Corrigan was switched to Defense Against the Dark Arts, said that Corrigan's a dark witch if she ever saw one."

I dug my claws deeply into the boy's legs, and he yelped in pain.

"Feck!" he cried, and he too threw me onto the ground. I yowled and scurried out of the classroom with haste. To my horror, the corridor was now crowded with a few wandering students curiously watching Filch chase Peeves around in circles. Peeves was holding Mrs. Norris up by her tail. Mrs. Norris locked her eyes on me while hanging upside down and spinning in the air. She attempted to meow but her mouth was tightly shut by Peeves' free hand.

I trotted into an empty classroom an retransformed into my human self. I heaved a deep sigh and fixed my hair so that it now fell down rather than stayed up like it had before.

I returned to class to a deep silence. Everyone's eyes were on me.

"I know you all could not have read thirty pages already," I said breathlessly, and only just louder than a whisper. The students' heads were planted right back into their books.

The next class had only Ravenclaw seventh years. It was the largest N.E.W.T class I had ever seen. The entire year had to have been taking it.

"Oh my gosh Professor Corrigan, I'm so happy that Williams isn't back this year!" a bubbly, big-breasted girl exclaimed once class started. "He was a pervert, always looking at me and winking." I nodded my head, not listening. My thoughts were scattered across the events of the day.

"Do you take me as obsessive?" I asked the class. They seemed alarmed.

"Obsessive?" the big-breasted girl laughed. "You're strict but no where near as obsessive as Slughorn was during our O.W.L year."

"Yeah, I'd say that you're quite normal compared to the other professors come exam time," an Irish boy said.

They've obviously misunderstood me.

"Thank you for the reassurance, then," I said. Class ended an hour later on a monotonous note. Not knowing what I was even planning to teach the next lesson, I assigned them two rolls of parchment on their expectations of their Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T.S. It hadn't occurred to me yet, not since the first class of the day at least, that many students had been at least expecting to practice defensive spells rather than read up on the history of the Dark Arts.

I spent the rest of the day in the staff room having a cup of tea with Professor Carter, the Muggle Studies teacher who was the only instructor left who was roughly the same age as me. He was burly and good looking, I remembered him as a Hufflepuff who as either in my year or a year younger than I. I did not care, either way. He had always followed around Cedric Diggory, at least until Cedric's sixth year...

"Have you heard that Madam Hooch resigned?" he asked me.

"I vaguely remember hearing Hestia mention it," I replied dully. Hestia Jones was the new Headmistress, though not my first pick to lead the school with what little experience she had as an educator.

"Guess who they've replaced her with?"

His voice seemed as though what was about to come out would interest me, so I gave him my attention.

"Who?" I asked.

"George Weasley."

Out of all the things that had happened on my first day as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, that was probably the last thing I had been hoping to hear.