Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling. The only characters I own from this story are Katia Lockston, Kyle Greenshaw, Jenkins, and Ophelia Adams, and only the first is really actually mentioned.
Note: I know this first chapter doesn't feature too many of the original characters, this is just an introductory chapter, most of the second chapter has been written and so I can guarantee you that it DOES, and of course, the main character in this is an original. I'd rather you send feedback through email at forest_of_death@hotmail.com, but you can add any reviews on this site instead if that's what you want. I guess from this first chapter you can't tell what the plot is going to be, as it's not revealed at all in this, but you can let me know your thoughts so far all the same, as well as what you think of Katia. I worked hard to not make her a Mary-Sue, so hopefully you won't think of her as one
I suppose that before I start this, I might as well introduce myself. I'm Katia Lockston, and I'm almost 21. I'm a pure blood, but with the amount of magic that my parents are able to do, they might as well be muggles. Still, not that that matters of course. I'm not anti-mud blood or anything like that, though I've always felt a sort of...well...attraction to the pure-bloods that I just don't get anywhere else. But really, it doesn't matter to me.
I'm a teacher at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I think I'm the youngest teacher they've ever had, and so sometimes other teachers come in to keep an eye on me and make sure I'm not just making a load of stuff up. Which I admit, I've done a few times, but that's no reason to have teachers watching me at work! I teach Defence Against The Dark Arts (which apparently is a bad omen, but I've never had anything really bad happen to me so I'm sure it's just a bunch of rubbish), and I help out in Care Of Magical Creatures whenever I get the time. That would be my first choice of job, to be honest, but Defence Against The Dark Arts was without a teacher, and for some reason they didn't think I was quite ready for the Magical Creatures job. Well, I make up for that in my lessons. I prefer to study the Dark Creatures, and though I do spells sometimes, I'm much happier just doing the creatures. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, it's my first year working here as well, so if anything bad happens, I can just blame it on that.
I'm fond of the horse-like creatures here. The Forest has a bigger selection of them than I've ever seen! And, well, I haven't been to many places, but I'd still guess it's what of the biggest collections in the world at least! I just enjoy riding them. I've ridden the Thestrals a few times, some of the Hippogriffs, though most of the time they don't like me and Hagrid has to hold them back to stop them killing me, and a unicorn, though I had to ride it without a bridle which wasn't too easy for a first-timer like me. I'd love to ride a Centaur, but, well, last time I tried, Hagrid had to pick me up and run with me as fast as he could, shooting arrows at the centaurs as he ran.
"In your own time, Miss. Lockston," a voice from behind me declared.
"What?" I asked, spinning around. Snape was sitting there, looking incredibly impatient. Well, not incredible for him, but for anyone else it would be...eurgh, bad joke I know, sorry...
"Well, Miss. Lockston, Mr. Greenshaw has been trying to get your attention for the last few minutes." He said, coldly.
"Oh...right...sorry, um, Sir." I muttered, feeling myself flush slightly. I turned to face the front. Most of the class were working hard, scribbling furiously on their pieces of parchment, occasionally looking up to check something in their books. Well, you couldn't blame me for drifting off into my thoughts! It's terribly boring, just sitting there, watching people aimlessly write. But apparently I've been changing the animal of choice just too often, so this time we're having to do further research on it. And there's really only so much you can do when you're studying Kingles - I mean, really, they're just little black caterpillars that kill insects when they look them directly in the eye. Pathetic. They're hardly Dark creatures, and about the most interesting thing they've done since we began studying them 3 weeks ago is bristle their fur slightly. Pathetic! So for todays lesson I decided to hand out books for the students to copy the more "interesting" facts out of. And when I say, "Interesting," I mean facts such as, "Kingles eyes are always black." Do they really think we couldn't just look at them and see that?
"What's the problem then, Kyle?" I asked. Kyle Greenshaw, a first year Ravenclaw. It's not hard to forget him. The first lesson we did Kingles he burst into hysterical tears when his Kingle neglected to shoot down the fly buzzing around the room. Yeah, his Kingle and everyone elses too.
"I've been having trouble drawing my Kingle, miss." He told me, poking his piece of parchment across the desk at me. I looked at it.
"Well, it looks like a Kingle to me." I told him. It really did. It's not exactly hard to draw a Kingle. It's just a small black cylinder with a lot of hairs coming out of it, and it's face is so dark there's no point even attempting to draw that. "And besides, it's the writing that I'm really paying attention to, not the drawing." Kyle nodded at me, and went back to his seat, though I could see him still attempting to perfect his drawing anyway.
"Is it really a wise idea to tell them that, Miss. Lockston?" Snape asked. "Now you will be dealing with drawings even more pathetic than that, I can guarentee it."
"Well, that would bother me, if we were in an art class." I told him, not turning around. He didn't say anything in response, but I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head.
"Well, I'd better be going now then. You'll be having the Slytherin's next, and it's not exactly like them to behave." He told me, before prompty leaving. Yeah, right. I seem to remember sitting in the background of Hagrid's Care Of Magical Creatures class, and seeing a bunch of Slytherins holding Blast-Ended Skrewts and throwing them at the Gryffindors, most of who ended up in the medical room before too long. And back then, Snape had told me that they were just playing, and hadn't meant to hurt anyone. Right. Like anyone really believed that.
The end of lesson bell rang, and my class charged out of the room, hastily taking their pieces of parchment with them. I looked up at the clock briefly, wondering how long I'd dozed off for this time. Well, only a few minutes, nothing too bad. As my class charged out, the next class charged in, led by Draco Malfoy, a 6th year Slytherin. He seems to be very popular amongst his class, which is surprising really. The 6th year Gryffindor's followed, sitting at the opposite side to the Slytherins. Though they were generally the nicer class, I didn't prefer them. For some reason, I preferred the Slytherins, though God knows why.
Apparently, these two classes hadn't shared Defence Against The Dark Arts lessons before this year, though they seem to have shared other subjects. They all knew and hated each other, which I have to say, makes the whole thing a lot more amusing. I've noticed Malfoy seems to be calmer in my class than in others, which is a bit odd, but I guess I'm happy with it. He sits right at the front with 2 other boys that I don't know, and he always stays behind after lessons to question me about my views of the Ministry. I don't know why, but I've just learnt not to question it.
"Well class, today we're going to be moving on to a different creature." I told them. I was supposed to be studying last weeks creature for another lesson, but seeing as I knew Snape was watching me today, I guessed he would leave and I would be free to do what I wanted, and I was right. "We're going to be doing Jinkons." Normally at this point, I would ask for someone to tell me what a Jinkon was, but I was so used to just the one person, Hermione Granger from Gryffindor, actually knowing the answer, I didn't see the point in bothering any more.
I walked to the back of the room, and opened a cupboard, where I had a lone Jinkon. It refused to get into a cage, and gave a hard peck to anyone who tried to put it in one, so I had given up and put it in the cupboard. It was hard work making it into a habitat for it, and involved a complicated design of a lot of lamps, a huge bowl of water, some fish, and a painted design that looked like towering hills. The Jinkon itself, looked something like a flamingo, though it was green with bright blue legs and beak. I picked it up easily, checked the door was shut, then carried it and put it on my desk, where it spent a while struggling before giving up.
"Right, this is a Jinkon." I told the class, who were looking at it in amusement. I could see Draco trying very hard to cover up his laughter, which surprised me greatly. In other classes I'd seen him in, he was the first to try and cause trouble. "Well, you've already seen the effects of it." I told them. The class all looked up at me, confused.
"Excuse me, but we haven't, we've never seen these be-" Someone from the Gryffindor side began, but I shook my hand at him and he silenced.
"No, but you've now begun to experience the effects this creature has. See, the Jinkon causes all who are near it to become strangely cheerful." I told them. "This one has drank some potion, so it's effects aren't quite as defined as they normally would be, but the effect is still rubbing off on all of you. The Jinkon, despite how weak it looks, is a good partner to have in battle, as it runs to the opponent and jumps on them. When the Jinkon touches you, you get more cheerful than you were before, so cheerful that you cannot concentrate on anything. Kindof like the effects of being high." I said, thoughtfully. "BUt anyway, the Jinkon is not affecting me as I am wearing this ring." I said, holding my hand up. "As the Jinkon is already weaker, this ring cancels out the cheerfulness even more. If any of you are touched by it, you will feel more cheerful, but as I have mentioned already, it's effects are weakened by the potion." I was distracted for a few seconds by one of the boys next to Draco, who had begun to giggle hysterically. Draco gave him an embarrassed look, before punching him hard in the stomach. He stoped giggling immediatley. I knew I really SHOULD have given Draco a detention for doing that, but I was just pleased he'd shut the other boy up. Besides, he didn't seem to mind, clearly being attacked by Draco was a very common thing.
"Well, I'm about to release the Jinkon. I can't guarentee what it will do, but I expect it's going to run around the classroom manically. It shouldn't try and climb on anyone yet, we'll be doing that a bit later, but if it does, I'll come and get it off you. I'm not going to tell you how to resist it just yet, as I want to see how you cope with the Jinkon's antics without using any form of magic. And then later on we'll try it in a battle, to see how you cope when you know how to resist it. Ready?" And without waiting for an answer, I released the Jinkon, which began prancing around the room as fast as it could, seeming to laugh at the children who were staring at it with gleeful expressions. Draco was having a harder time resisting than the others, staring at it with a slightly drunk expression on his face, punching himself furiously in an attempt to remove it, and randomly shooting glances at me.
I watched the class for a while, far from falling asleep this time. I was randomly shouting out instructions at them, such as to write down in detail how they feel when the Jinkon is near them, and how they think they are going to resist it. No one seemed to be having any luck with it, even Hermione kept randomly bursting into fits of laughter, and I could that after 25 minutes had passed, people's cheeks were aching and they were getting very annoyed with it.
"Fradreena, here!" I called, and everyone in the class turned to stare at me. It didn't take them too long to understand that I was calling the Jinkon, as it trotted happily towards me, and jumped easily up onto my desk. "This is a specially trained Jinkon." I told them. "It belongs to a friend of mine, who breeds them. This one knew me already and has been trained to obey me, and so I thought it was a good idea to use this one. We're going to start learning to fight the Jinkon now. When it comes towards you, I want you to think of the saddest thing you can. Your thought must be VERY sad for it to work. When your sad thought is fixed firmly in your mind, yell "Yougansola Veitron!" at the Jinkon, with your wand pointing firmly at the Jinkon's eyes. This should repel it, and it will come back to me. Everyone got that? Good. Now, think of your memories, and practice the chant, though do not actually point it at the Jinkon yet." I said, watching carefully as the students practiced the words. Most of them seemed to be having a very hard time remembering the words each time.
"OK, ready everyone?" I asked, after a few minutes had passed. The majority of them nodded in agreement, still muttering the words under their breath. "Right, if everyone would please come and stand in front of the desk?" They obeyed, and I quickly moved the tables out to the sides. "OK, now please make a large semi-circle, facing the desk." They obeyed again, some of them looking very worried. "I will call you up one at a time, and will set the bird on you. Using the skills you have just learnt, you must resist the Jinkon's spells. I will give you as long as possible, but if i can see it isn't getting anywhere, I will have to remove her. Ready, everyone? Right, Jenkins, you're first!" I yelled. Jenkins, a mousy Gryffindor boy stepped forward nervously, and took his place in the middle of the circle. I cried out the command, and Fradreena threw herself at Jenkins, who was down on the floor laughing hysterically within seconds. "Right...we'll try that again later..." I told him, retrieving the bird, and calling the next person forward.
The majority of the class managed to fight slightly with the Jinkon, though only 3 people managed to resist it. The first was Hermione Granger, who caused the Jinkon to fly back into my arms the second she stepped forward. The next was Ophelia Adams, a gothic girl from the Slytherin house, who seemed to cause a lot of amusement from everyone, including the other Slytherins. At first, I thought the Jinkon was going to win, but she pulled through in the end. And finally, Draco Malfoy managed to resist Fradreena, though he was screaming at the top of his voice whilst trying to resist the happiness, that caused all of the Gryffindors to burst into hysterical laughter, and even the Slytherins were finding it hard to cover up the smiles that had spread across their faces.
The class began leaving for lunch, Draco Malfoy again trying to get my attention and talk to me, but I made a big deal about trying to put the Jinkon into the cupboard, so by the time that I'd turned around he'd given up and left. I was free for the rest of the day now, unless I decided to help out with Care Of Magical Creatures again, but I'd seen the creatures Hagrid was showing the class a few times before, and it just wasn't as exciting after a few times. With a loud sigh, I remembered that tonight was 5th and 6th years Parent Evening. I'd never attended one before; as a new teacher, Snape insisted that he took my appointments instead, but today his timetable was too busy dealing with his own classes, and it was my turn to take over. I wasn't looking forward to this at all, from what I'd heard it was one of the worst nights of the year. Still, no choice now.
Note: I know this first chapter doesn't feature too many of the original characters, this is just an introductory chapter, most of the second chapter has been written and so I can guarantee you that it DOES, and of course, the main character in this is an original. I'd rather you send feedback through email at forest_of_death@hotmail.com, but you can add any reviews on this site instead if that's what you want. I guess from this first chapter you can't tell what the plot is going to be, as it's not revealed at all in this, but you can let me know your thoughts so far all the same, as well as what you think of Katia. I worked hard to not make her a Mary-Sue, so hopefully you won't think of her as one
I suppose that before I start this, I might as well introduce myself. I'm Katia Lockston, and I'm almost 21. I'm a pure blood, but with the amount of magic that my parents are able to do, they might as well be muggles. Still, not that that matters of course. I'm not anti-mud blood or anything like that, though I've always felt a sort of...well...attraction to the pure-bloods that I just don't get anywhere else. But really, it doesn't matter to me.
I'm a teacher at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I think I'm the youngest teacher they've ever had, and so sometimes other teachers come in to keep an eye on me and make sure I'm not just making a load of stuff up. Which I admit, I've done a few times, but that's no reason to have teachers watching me at work! I teach Defence Against The Dark Arts (which apparently is a bad omen, but I've never had anything really bad happen to me so I'm sure it's just a bunch of rubbish), and I help out in Care Of Magical Creatures whenever I get the time. That would be my first choice of job, to be honest, but Defence Against The Dark Arts was without a teacher, and for some reason they didn't think I was quite ready for the Magical Creatures job. Well, I make up for that in my lessons. I prefer to study the Dark Creatures, and though I do spells sometimes, I'm much happier just doing the creatures. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, it's my first year working here as well, so if anything bad happens, I can just blame it on that.
I'm fond of the horse-like creatures here. The Forest has a bigger selection of them than I've ever seen! And, well, I haven't been to many places, but I'd still guess it's what of the biggest collections in the world at least! I just enjoy riding them. I've ridden the Thestrals a few times, some of the Hippogriffs, though most of the time they don't like me and Hagrid has to hold them back to stop them killing me, and a unicorn, though I had to ride it without a bridle which wasn't too easy for a first-timer like me. I'd love to ride a Centaur, but, well, last time I tried, Hagrid had to pick me up and run with me as fast as he could, shooting arrows at the centaurs as he ran.
"In your own time, Miss. Lockston," a voice from behind me declared.
"What?" I asked, spinning around. Snape was sitting there, looking incredibly impatient. Well, not incredible for him, but for anyone else it would be...eurgh, bad joke I know, sorry...
"Well, Miss. Lockston, Mr. Greenshaw has been trying to get your attention for the last few minutes." He said, coldly.
"Oh...right...sorry, um, Sir." I muttered, feeling myself flush slightly. I turned to face the front. Most of the class were working hard, scribbling furiously on their pieces of parchment, occasionally looking up to check something in their books. Well, you couldn't blame me for drifting off into my thoughts! It's terribly boring, just sitting there, watching people aimlessly write. But apparently I've been changing the animal of choice just too often, so this time we're having to do further research on it. And there's really only so much you can do when you're studying Kingles - I mean, really, they're just little black caterpillars that kill insects when they look them directly in the eye. Pathetic. They're hardly Dark creatures, and about the most interesting thing they've done since we began studying them 3 weeks ago is bristle their fur slightly. Pathetic! So for todays lesson I decided to hand out books for the students to copy the more "interesting" facts out of. And when I say, "Interesting," I mean facts such as, "Kingles eyes are always black." Do they really think we couldn't just look at them and see that?
"What's the problem then, Kyle?" I asked. Kyle Greenshaw, a first year Ravenclaw. It's not hard to forget him. The first lesson we did Kingles he burst into hysterical tears when his Kingle neglected to shoot down the fly buzzing around the room. Yeah, his Kingle and everyone elses too.
"I've been having trouble drawing my Kingle, miss." He told me, poking his piece of parchment across the desk at me. I looked at it.
"Well, it looks like a Kingle to me." I told him. It really did. It's not exactly hard to draw a Kingle. It's just a small black cylinder with a lot of hairs coming out of it, and it's face is so dark there's no point even attempting to draw that. "And besides, it's the writing that I'm really paying attention to, not the drawing." Kyle nodded at me, and went back to his seat, though I could see him still attempting to perfect his drawing anyway.
"Is it really a wise idea to tell them that, Miss. Lockston?" Snape asked. "Now you will be dealing with drawings even more pathetic than that, I can guarentee it."
"Well, that would bother me, if we were in an art class." I told him, not turning around. He didn't say anything in response, but I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head.
"Well, I'd better be going now then. You'll be having the Slytherin's next, and it's not exactly like them to behave." He told me, before prompty leaving. Yeah, right. I seem to remember sitting in the background of Hagrid's Care Of Magical Creatures class, and seeing a bunch of Slytherins holding Blast-Ended Skrewts and throwing them at the Gryffindors, most of who ended up in the medical room before too long. And back then, Snape had told me that they were just playing, and hadn't meant to hurt anyone. Right. Like anyone really believed that.
The end of lesson bell rang, and my class charged out of the room, hastily taking their pieces of parchment with them. I looked up at the clock briefly, wondering how long I'd dozed off for this time. Well, only a few minutes, nothing too bad. As my class charged out, the next class charged in, led by Draco Malfoy, a 6th year Slytherin. He seems to be very popular amongst his class, which is surprising really. The 6th year Gryffindor's followed, sitting at the opposite side to the Slytherins. Though they were generally the nicer class, I didn't prefer them. For some reason, I preferred the Slytherins, though God knows why.
Apparently, these two classes hadn't shared Defence Against The Dark Arts lessons before this year, though they seem to have shared other subjects. They all knew and hated each other, which I have to say, makes the whole thing a lot more amusing. I've noticed Malfoy seems to be calmer in my class than in others, which is a bit odd, but I guess I'm happy with it. He sits right at the front with 2 other boys that I don't know, and he always stays behind after lessons to question me about my views of the Ministry. I don't know why, but I've just learnt not to question it.
"Well class, today we're going to be moving on to a different creature." I told them. I was supposed to be studying last weeks creature for another lesson, but seeing as I knew Snape was watching me today, I guessed he would leave and I would be free to do what I wanted, and I was right. "We're going to be doing Jinkons." Normally at this point, I would ask for someone to tell me what a Jinkon was, but I was so used to just the one person, Hermione Granger from Gryffindor, actually knowing the answer, I didn't see the point in bothering any more.
I walked to the back of the room, and opened a cupboard, where I had a lone Jinkon. It refused to get into a cage, and gave a hard peck to anyone who tried to put it in one, so I had given up and put it in the cupboard. It was hard work making it into a habitat for it, and involved a complicated design of a lot of lamps, a huge bowl of water, some fish, and a painted design that looked like towering hills. The Jinkon itself, looked something like a flamingo, though it was green with bright blue legs and beak. I picked it up easily, checked the door was shut, then carried it and put it on my desk, where it spent a while struggling before giving up.
"Right, this is a Jinkon." I told the class, who were looking at it in amusement. I could see Draco trying very hard to cover up his laughter, which surprised me greatly. In other classes I'd seen him in, he was the first to try and cause trouble. "Well, you've already seen the effects of it." I told them. The class all looked up at me, confused.
"Excuse me, but we haven't, we've never seen these be-" Someone from the Gryffindor side began, but I shook my hand at him and he silenced.
"No, but you've now begun to experience the effects this creature has. See, the Jinkon causes all who are near it to become strangely cheerful." I told them. "This one has drank some potion, so it's effects aren't quite as defined as they normally would be, but the effect is still rubbing off on all of you. The Jinkon, despite how weak it looks, is a good partner to have in battle, as it runs to the opponent and jumps on them. When the Jinkon touches you, you get more cheerful than you were before, so cheerful that you cannot concentrate on anything. Kindof like the effects of being high." I said, thoughtfully. "BUt anyway, the Jinkon is not affecting me as I am wearing this ring." I said, holding my hand up. "As the Jinkon is already weaker, this ring cancels out the cheerfulness even more. If any of you are touched by it, you will feel more cheerful, but as I have mentioned already, it's effects are weakened by the potion." I was distracted for a few seconds by one of the boys next to Draco, who had begun to giggle hysterically. Draco gave him an embarrassed look, before punching him hard in the stomach. He stoped giggling immediatley. I knew I really SHOULD have given Draco a detention for doing that, but I was just pleased he'd shut the other boy up. Besides, he didn't seem to mind, clearly being attacked by Draco was a very common thing.
"Well, I'm about to release the Jinkon. I can't guarentee what it will do, but I expect it's going to run around the classroom manically. It shouldn't try and climb on anyone yet, we'll be doing that a bit later, but if it does, I'll come and get it off you. I'm not going to tell you how to resist it just yet, as I want to see how you cope with the Jinkon's antics without using any form of magic. And then later on we'll try it in a battle, to see how you cope when you know how to resist it. Ready?" And without waiting for an answer, I released the Jinkon, which began prancing around the room as fast as it could, seeming to laugh at the children who were staring at it with gleeful expressions. Draco was having a harder time resisting than the others, staring at it with a slightly drunk expression on his face, punching himself furiously in an attempt to remove it, and randomly shooting glances at me.
I watched the class for a while, far from falling asleep this time. I was randomly shouting out instructions at them, such as to write down in detail how they feel when the Jinkon is near them, and how they think they are going to resist it. No one seemed to be having any luck with it, even Hermione kept randomly bursting into fits of laughter, and I could that after 25 minutes had passed, people's cheeks were aching and they were getting very annoyed with it.
"Fradreena, here!" I called, and everyone in the class turned to stare at me. It didn't take them too long to understand that I was calling the Jinkon, as it trotted happily towards me, and jumped easily up onto my desk. "This is a specially trained Jinkon." I told them. "It belongs to a friend of mine, who breeds them. This one knew me already and has been trained to obey me, and so I thought it was a good idea to use this one. We're going to start learning to fight the Jinkon now. When it comes towards you, I want you to think of the saddest thing you can. Your thought must be VERY sad for it to work. When your sad thought is fixed firmly in your mind, yell "Yougansola Veitron!" at the Jinkon, with your wand pointing firmly at the Jinkon's eyes. This should repel it, and it will come back to me. Everyone got that? Good. Now, think of your memories, and practice the chant, though do not actually point it at the Jinkon yet." I said, watching carefully as the students practiced the words. Most of them seemed to be having a very hard time remembering the words each time.
"OK, ready everyone?" I asked, after a few minutes had passed. The majority of them nodded in agreement, still muttering the words under their breath. "Right, if everyone would please come and stand in front of the desk?" They obeyed, and I quickly moved the tables out to the sides. "OK, now please make a large semi-circle, facing the desk." They obeyed again, some of them looking very worried. "I will call you up one at a time, and will set the bird on you. Using the skills you have just learnt, you must resist the Jinkon's spells. I will give you as long as possible, but if i can see it isn't getting anywhere, I will have to remove her. Ready, everyone? Right, Jenkins, you're first!" I yelled. Jenkins, a mousy Gryffindor boy stepped forward nervously, and took his place in the middle of the circle. I cried out the command, and Fradreena threw herself at Jenkins, who was down on the floor laughing hysterically within seconds. "Right...we'll try that again later..." I told him, retrieving the bird, and calling the next person forward.
The majority of the class managed to fight slightly with the Jinkon, though only 3 people managed to resist it. The first was Hermione Granger, who caused the Jinkon to fly back into my arms the second she stepped forward. The next was Ophelia Adams, a gothic girl from the Slytherin house, who seemed to cause a lot of amusement from everyone, including the other Slytherins. At first, I thought the Jinkon was going to win, but she pulled through in the end. And finally, Draco Malfoy managed to resist Fradreena, though he was screaming at the top of his voice whilst trying to resist the happiness, that caused all of the Gryffindors to burst into hysterical laughter, and even the Slytherins were finding it hard to cover up the smiles that had spread across their faces.
The class began leaving for lunch, Draco Malfoy again trying to get my attention and talk to me, but I made a big deal about trying to put the Jinkon into the cupboard, so by the time that I'd turned around he'd given up and left. I was free for the rest of the day now, unless I decided to help out with Care Of Magical Creatures again, but I'd seen the creatures Hagrid was showing the class a few times before, and it just wasn't as exciting after a few times. With a loud sigh, I remembered that tonight was 5th and 6th years Parent Evening. I'd never attended one before; as a new teacher, Snape insisted that he took my appointments instead, but today his timetable was too busy dealing with his own classes, and it was my turn to take over. I wasn't looking forward to this at all, from what I'd heard it was one of the worst nights of the year. Still, no choice now.
