Chapter 2 of Between Good and Evil by tOon - The Professor
"Bzzzzzzzzzzz," Talia woke up, still half asleep, she hit the alarm clock with a practiced swing, making it shut off. She got off the bed, and with her bare feet, pushed away a few papers that were lying on the ground. Her room was quite small, too small for all her possessions. She climbed over a pile of clothes that was laying on the floor, and finally reached her bureau. She yanked the handle, pulling a drawer open. She put a hand in searching around for a new pair of socks, she always ran out of socks. Her hand was running along the bottom of the drawer and hit something with a different texture from the drawer. Talia pushed away some old socks, and picked up the object. Her heart lifted, she had been looking for this for over a year. It was a picture, the only picture of her father that she had. Her mother was in the picture too. They were standing on the dock of a large lake surrounded by trees. Talia had been there before, many times, it was where their vacation house was up in Maine. Talia ran a finger down the cold surface of the glass bearing the photo, along her fathers face. He was a handsome man, actually, he reminded her of Tom Cruise, or the man in her daydream. He was tall, but built, with dark brown hair, and a great smile. His arm was around her mother, she wasn't as tall as he was, she was actually quite short, but that didn't matter because she was thin and had quite a shape. She was a beautiful woman in anyone's eyes, she had flowing black hair, very long, and her eyes were almond, and she had a very dark complexion. Talia always wondered how her parents met, the seemed like such a perfect match. She put the picture on her bureau so she could see it, then put the clothes she had organized the next day on. She left to brush her teeth and wash her face.
"Happy Birthday Tal!" exclaimed her mother who was washing the dishes. Her mother looked strangely different from the photo on Talia's bureau, she didn't look as happy, as though she would never be as happy as she was at that moment again.
"What?" said Talia, she had completely forgotten.
"Today's your birthday, Talia, your 13, you are now officially a teenager" said her mother softly.
"Oh, yeah. I'm a teenager, but I don't feel any different" said Talia, sitting down for a piece of toast in the tiny kitchen.
"Here" said her Mom, handing her a card.
Talia looked at the cover of the card, it read:
So Your Finally a Teenager....
She Opened it.
...Just make sure to take the trash out when your done reading this card.
Happy Birthday from all of us!
Talia forced a laugh. She didn't feel much like celebrating today. She took the 25$ check, then handed it to her mother.
"Thanks a lot, put this in my account." And she pecked her mother on the cheek.
"What's wrong?," asked her mother looking at her quizzically.
"Nothin', why do you ask?"
"You don't seem very enthusiastic that you just turned 13"
"I just woke up."
"Then eat something and wake up, you should be happy."
"I know..." I shouldn't be happy, she thought, mom should be happy. She never knew why her mother never seemed....well ..happy...she would only assume, because of the death of her father. No one knew how or why he died...not even his own wife. He died before Talia was born, she never got to know him, yet, she loved him as though she knew him all her life. She would always ask her mother, to tell the story of how they met, it was very romantic, she thought.
"I was going to College at Harvard, for writing, I was about 23 years old." Her mother would tell her to start her story. "I was young, and I was ambitious, I always wanted to be a famous author. During vacations, when I wasn't busy studying for school, I would always go out at night, to parties and clubs with my friends. That's where I found your father... he was at a club, I think it was called 'The Crow', its in Boston. The moment our eyes met, it was as though something clicked, and we knew, we knew were meant for each other. It was beautiful, we walked up to one another, and he took my hand, I didn't need to speak, and we danced." She paused for a moment, as though it was painful to remember. "We have always danced together, we knew that we were soul mates, we promised to stay together forever." She paused again, Talia thought she might see tears swelling in her mothers eyes.
"We got married, of course, after I finished school, and we had a baby, not you, but ... he died shortly after birth, I had named him David, after your father. It was heartbreaking to your father.
"He had a job, a job meaning he had to travel the world, he never told me what he did, he said it was for the good of me not to know, something about being protected if I didn't.. I'm not sure, I think he was afraid to tell me that I might get upset and leave him, but I would never leave him, I loved him too much.
"Then he came home one day and said we would have to move to Britain, where he was born you know. He said he needed to stay there for a long time, and that he sold our house in Massachusetts, and we used the money to buy one in England. I was pregnant at the time, with you, and I really didn't want a miscarriage this time, I wanted to have a child with a perfect life, with parents.
"I really did love in England, it's a beautiful country, the only problem was that he was gone almost every night, and would worry me too much.
"When he did come home, he was always there for me. I would beg him to tell me where he worked that kept him busy for so long, but he would shake his head, and gently put his finger to my lips.
"Then there was a time, he said he would be gone for a short time, and he would be back in a couple of days. Well he left, and he was gone. The first day, I waited, knowing he would come, the second day, I waited knowing he would come. The third day, I got worried..., the fourth day I was even more worried, the fifth day....he hadn't come home. It was than a week, he didn't come back, something was wrong and I knew it. My fears were revealed when I got a letter, a letter with no stamp or return address, saying that he had died. When he died, I couldn't pay for the house anymore, and I moved back to America and moved in with my parents, and I had to get a job to raise money so I could buy a house of my own."
"You didn't need to tell me that, you know, I just wanted to know how you met," Talia would always reply, when this happened.
"But it makes the story better, dear, remember there must always be a climax, with a beginning, middle and end." Her mother would say, she was a professional author now, she wrote books, but she wasn't very famous.
~~~*~~~
"Hey! Talia! Come here!" called Steph, Talia could see her head over the crowd of students, because Steph was so tall. Talia walked toward Steph's voice, and wasn't that surprised to see that she was holding a small package.
"Happy B-day!" said Steph, handing her the package. It was rectangular shaped, but not very flat. "Open it now, don't wanna be late for 2nd period."
Talia opened the package was surprised to see that Steph got her a book on how to draw comics and publish them. "Oh, thanks, a lot, always wanted one of these you know!"
"No problem, come on, lets go, Ms. Sterril won't be pleased if we're late." Said Steph, pushing Talia a bit.
They walked into a classroom that was at the end of the hall. Talia took her seat by the window, and Steph was a seat behind her. Talia took out her homework from last night, and placed it on top of her desk. Ms. Sterril came in, and she was smiling, but she always smiles. Ms. Sterril was a very, almost over enthusiastic about everything. She even owned a motorcycle, which was pretty cool for a teacher. She walked to her desk and stood. "Good Morning Class!"
"Good Morning Ms. Sterril" said the class back, though it was very slow and very dull.
"Come on, I know you can wake up! We have a guest today, show him your stuff" said Ms. Sterril as she glanced at the back of the room.
A guest? Talia thought, but she hadn't seen anyone when she came in, maybe she wasn't looking. She turned around while the class was shouting "GOOD MORNING MS. STERRIL!" and her stomach gave a nervous jerk. It was the man she had bumped into yesterday, the man with the stick. She looked at him, and he was wearing something similar from yesterday, and his tie was still messed up slightly. She continued to stare, he glanced at her. She quickly looked away.
"Now we need to make a grand welcome to him, he's come all the way from England! He has come to do a study on the American way of teaching..." Her voice got soft "...so you better strut your stuff..." and she winked at the class. "So please greet Professor Snape!"
"Good morning Professor Snape" droned the class.
Professor Snape didn't seem as enthusiastic as Ms. Sterril was, he just nodded back, and took out a briefcase. Ms. Sterril got to the front of the class, and started to write on the chalkboard. Talia seized the moment and turned around.
"Steph," she whispered "That's the guy I saw yesterday."
Steph looked up. "Yeah, I recognize him, he needs a good shower, don't you think?"
"I don't know why, I have a feeling that doing a study on the American way of teaching is all he's here for" whispered Talia.
"Who cares, as long as he doesn't take over the class, he has the kind of look that tells you he would give us loads of homework, don't want that."
Talia turned around, and looked at the chalkboard. Out of the corner of her eye, she was looking at Professor Snape. He kept looking at her, she wished he would stop, she didn't like being looked at by total strangers, unless they're boys.
"Now Class, can you tell me what noun would go here? It or He?"
Talia raised her hand, but she often did, not like it was new to anyone.
"Yes, Talia?"
"It."
"Yes, can anyone tell me where 'he' goes?"
Talia glanced back at the man, and saw he was scribbling something down on a piece of paper with a quill. He looked up again, and again, his eyes were on her. Talia looked away, she felt very uncomfortable, what did he write? Was it something about her?
Talia shook the professor from her mind, and continued to take notes, which she would need to study for a large exam. She always had anxiety over these exams. She strained her head to try to memorize all the notes she could. She always succeeded in class, not like she failed anything before, even when she didn't study, she would surprise herself with full marks.
The class was finally over, and Talia left with the rest of the class. She looked back, and saw that the professor had also come out after the crowd. Feeling a bit timid, Talia quickened her pace. She turned to her locker, which was right by the classroom, and opened it. This time it worked, and opened correctly. Staring at her locker, she saw out of the corner of her eye, the man walk down the dim hallway, toward a classroom, and he went inside. Talia recognized this room, it was of a new substitute teacher, whom she never had a class with. Talia felt very curious, and was almost dieing to know what he was going in there for, A quick little peek, she thought, just to see what he is here for really.
She knew she might be late for Ms. Orkeson's class, but she needed to know. She followed in the professor's footsteps and stayed just outside the door, so she could hear him speak.
"I think I may have found a witch, I am definite, but why is she at a muggle school? Shouldn't she be at Hogwarts?" said the voice of Professor Snape to someone inside.
"I'm not sure Severus, but you were here to find me, weren't you?, so shouldn't we be going back to Dumbledore, he sent you hear after all just to notify me," said another voice Talia didn't recognize, but it had an accent also. "but maybe you should keep an eye on the girl, if she is supposed to be going to Hogwarts.... But the quill has never malfunctioned before..."
Talia registered it all in her mind, who were they talking about? Witches? Muggles? Hogwarts? Why did they call this school a 'Muggle School'. She leaned in a bit closer...
"But Mundungus, she picked up my wand, and it emitted sparks, she seems like a worthy candidate for Hogwarts, I just don't see why the quill never got her name, it must be a malfunction."
A strange thought struck Talia, and she slightly gasped, Wands? She had picked up that stick from him, and it made sparks, what did that mean, were they... were they talking about her?
"There are more important things than looking for students for Hogwarts, we need to get back, because if you-know-who is around, anything can happen... Now if you are positive she is a witch, than maybe we can get her into Hogwarts, but that's not important at the moment."
"I should talk to that girl, just to see, I think I'll tell Dumbledore also... well lets hold it off for a day, I'll see you tomorrow, Mundungus."
"All right, Severus, watch out for yourself," said Mundungus, who turned to a desk and was going through papers. Snape turned toward the door, but Talia didn't know, she wasn't looking inside. She was still standing there, leaning against the wall, thinking about what she just heard, and the bell rang, she was late for class. She was about to run toward Ms. Orkeson's classroom, when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She turned around, looked up, and her stomach lurched. It was Professor Snape, he had seen her.
"Bzzzzzzzzzzz," Talia woke up, still half asleep, she hit the alarm clock with a practiced swing, making it shut off. She got off the bed, and with her bare feet, pushed away a few papers that were lying on the ground. Her room was quite small, too small for all her possessions. She climbed over a pile of clothes that was laying on the floor, and finally reached her bureau. She yanked the handle, pulling a drawer open. She put a hand in searching around for a new pair of socks, she always ran out of socks. Her hand was running along the bottom of the drawer and hit something with a different texture from the drawer. Talia pushed away some old socks, and picked up the object. Her heart lifted, she had been looking for this for over a year. It was a picture, the only picture of her father that she had. Her mother was in the picture too. They were standing on the dock of a large lake surrounded by trees. Talia had been there before, many times, it was where their vacation house was up in Maine. Talia ran a finger down the cold surface of the glass bearing the photo, along her fathers face. He was a handsome man, actually, he reminded her of Tom Cruise, or the man in her daydream. He was tall, but built, with dark brown hair, and a great smile. His arm was around her mother, she wasn't as tall as he was, she was actually quite short, but that didn't matter because she was thin and had quite a shape. She was a beautiful woman in anyone's eyes, she had flowing black hair, very long, and her eyes were almond, and she had a very dark complexion. Talia always wondered how her parents met, the seemed like such a perfect match. She put the picture on her bureau so she could see it, then put the clothes she had organized the next day on. She left to brush her teeth and wash her face.
"Happy Birthday Tal!" exclaimed her mother who was washing the dishes. Her mother looked strangely different from the photo on Talia's bureau, she didn't look as happy, as though she would never be as happy as she was at that moment again.
"What?" said Talia, she had completely forgotten.
"Today's your birthday, Talia, your 13, you are now officially a teenager" said her mother softly.
"Oh, yeah. I'm a teenager, but I don't feel any different" said Talia, sitting down for a piece of toast in the tiny kitchen.
"Here" said her Mom, handing her a card.
Talia looked at the cover of the card, it read:
So Your Finally a Teenager....
She Opened it.
...Just make sure to take the trash out when your done reading this card.
Happy Birthday from all of us!
Talia forced a laugh. She didn't feel much like celebrating today. She took the 25$ check, then handed it to her mother.
"Thanks a lot, put this in my account." And she pecked her mother on the cheek.
"What's wrong?," asked her mother looking at her quizzically.
"Nothin', why do you ask?"
"You don't seem very enthusiastic that you just turned 13"
"I just woke up."
"Then eat something and wake up, you should be happy."
"I know..." I shouldn't be happy, she thought, mom should be happy. She never knew why her mother never seemed....well ..happy...she would only assume, because of the death of her father. No one knew how or why he died...not even his own wife. He died before Talia was born, she never got to know him, yet, she loved him as though she knew him all her life. She would always ask her mother, to tell the story of how they met, it was very romantic, she thought.
"I was going to College at Harvard, for writing, I was about 23 years old." Her mother would tell her to start her story. "I was young, and I was ambitious, I always wanted to be a famous author. During vacations, when I wasn't busy studying for school, I would always go out at night, to parties and clubs with my friends. That's where I found your father... he was at a club, I think it was called 'The Crow', its in Boston. The moment our eyes met, it was as though something clicked, and we knew, we knew were meant for each other. It was beautiful, we walked up to one another, and he took my hand, I didn't need to speak, and we danced." She paused for a moment, as though it was painful to remember. "We have always danced together, we knew that we were soul mates, we promised to stay together forever." She paused again, Talia thought she might see tears swelling in her mothers eyes.
"We got married, of course, after I finished school, and we had a baby, not you, but ... he died shortly after birth, I had named him David, after your father. It was heartbreaking to your father.
"He had a job, a job meaning he had to travel the world, he never told me what he did, he said it was for the good of me not to know, something about being protected if I didn't.. I'm not sure, I think he was afraid to tell me that I might get upset and leave him, but I would never leave him, I loved him too much.
"Then he came home one day and said we would have to move to Britain, where he was born you know. He said he needed to stay there for a long time, and that he sold our house in Massachusetts, and we used the money to buy one in England. I was pregnant at the time, with you, and I really didn't want a miscarriage this time, I wanted to have a child with a perfect life, with parents.
"I really did love in England, it's a beautiful country, the only problem was that he was gone almost every night, and would worry me too much.
"When he did come home, he was always there for me. I would beg him to tell me where he worked that kept him busy for so long, but he would shake his head, and gently put his finger to my lips.
"Then there was a time, he said he would be gone for a short time, and he would be back in a couple of days. Well he left, and he was gone. The first day, I waited, knowing he would come, the second day, I waited knowing he would come. The third day, I got worried..., the fourth day I was even more worried, the fifth day....he hadn't come home. It was than a week, he didn't come back, something was wrong and I knew it. My fears were revealed when I got a letter, a letter with no stamp or return address, saying that he had died. When he died, I couldn't pay for the house anymore, and I moved back to America and moved in with my parents, and I had to get a job to raise money so I could buy a house of my own."
"You didn't need to tell me that, you know, I just wanted to know how you met," Talia would always reply, when this happened.
"But it makes the story better, dear, remember there must always be a climax, with a beginning, middle and end." Her mother would say, she was a professional author now, she wrote books, but she wasn't very famous.
~~~*~~~
"Hey! Talia! Come here!" called Steph, Talia could see her head over the crowd of students, because Steph was so tall. Talia walked toward Steph's voice, and wasn't that surprised to see that she was holding a small package.
"Happy B-day!" said Steph, handing her the package. It was rectangular shaped, but not very flat. "Open it now, don't wanna be late for 2nd period."
Talia opened the package was surprised to see that Steph got her a book on how to draw comics and publish them. "Oh, thanks, a lot, always wanted one of these you know!"
"No problem, come on, lets go, Ms. Sterril won't be pleased if we're late." Said Steph, pushing Talia a bit.
They walked into a classroom that was at the end of the hall. Talia took her seat by the window, and Steph was a seat behind her. Talia took out her homework from last night, and placed it on top of her desk. Ms. Sterril came in, and she was smiling, but she always smiles. Ms. Sterril was a very, almost over enthusiastic about everything. She even owned a motorcycle, which was pretty cool for a teacher. She walked to her desk and stood. "Good Morning Class!"
"Good Morning Ms. Sterril" said the class back, though it was very slow and very dull.
"Come on, I know you can wake up! We have a guest today, show him your stuff" said Ms. Sterril as she glanced at the back of the room.
A guest? Talia thought, but she hadn't seen anyone when she came in, maybe she wasn't looking. She turned around while the class was shouting "GOOD MORNING MS. STERRIL!" and her stomach gave a nervous jerk. It was the man she had bumped into yesterday, the man with the stick. She looked at him, and he was wearing something similar from yesterday, and his tie was still messed up slightly. She continued to stare, he glanced at her. She quickly looked away.
"Now we need to make a grand welcome to him, he's come all the way from England! He has come to do a study on the American way of teaching..." Her voice got soft "...so you better strut your stuff..." and she winked at the class. "So please greet Professor Snape!"
"Good morning Professor Snape" droned the class.
Professor Snape didn't seem as enthusiastic as Ms. Sterril was, he just nodded back, and took out a briefcase. Ms. Sterril got to the front of the class, and started to write on the chalkboard. Talia seized the moment and turned around.
"Steph," she whispered "That's the guy I saw yesterday."
Steph looked up. "Yeah, I recognize him, he needs a good shower, don't you think?"
"I don't know why, I have a feeling that doing a study on the American way of teaching is all he's here for" whispered Talia.
"Who cares, as long as he doesn't take over the class, he has the kind of look that tells you he would give us loads of homework, don't want that."
Talia turned around, and looked at the chalkboard. Out of the corner of her eye, she was looking at Professor Snape. He kept looking at her, she wished he would stop, she didn't like being looked at by total strangers, unless they're boys.
"Now Class, can you tell me what noun would go here? It or He?"
Talia raised her hand, but she often did, not like it was new to anyone.
"Yes, Talia?"
"It."
"Yes, can anyone tell me where 'he' goes?"
Talia glanced back at the man, and saw he was scribbling something down on a piece of paper with a quill. He looked up again, and again, his eyes were on her. Talia looked away, she felt very uncomfortable, what did he write? Was it something about her?
Talia shook the professor from her mind, and continued to take notes, which she would need to study for a large exam. She always had anxiety over these exams. She strained her head to try to memorize all the notes she could. She always succeeded in class, not like she failed anything before, even when she didn't study, she would surprise herself with full marks.
The class was finally over, and Talia left with the rest of the class. She looked back, and saw that the professor had also come out after the crowd. Feeling a bit timid, Talia quickened her pace. She turned to her locker, which was right by the classroom, and opened it. This time it worked, and opened correctly. Staring at her locker, she saw out of the corner of her eye, the man walk down the dim hallway, toward a classroom, and he went inside. Talia recognized this room, it was of a new substitute teacher, whom she never had a class with. Talia felt very curious, and was almost dieing to know what he was going in there for, A quick little peek, she thought, just to see what he is here for really.
She knew she might be late for Ms. Orkeson's class, but she needed to know. She followed in the professor's footsteps and stayed just outside the door, so she could hear him speak.
"I think I may have found a witch, I am definite, but why is she at a muggle school? Shouldn't she be at Hogwarts?" said the voice of Professor Snape to someone inside.
"I'm not sure Severus, but you were here to find me, weren't you?, so shouldn't we be going back to Dumbledore, he sent you hear after all just to notify me," said another voice Talia didn't recognize, but it had an accent also. "but maybe you should keep an eye on the girl, if she is supposed to be going to Hogwarts.... But the quill has never malfunctioned before..."
Talia registered it all in her mind, who were they talking about? Witches? Muggles? Hogwarts? Why did they call this school a 'Muggle School'. She leaned in a bit closer...
"But Mundungus, she picked up my wand, and it emitted sparks, she seems like a worthy candidate for Hogwarts, I just don't see why the quill never got her name, it must be a malfunction."
A strange thought struck Talia, and she slightly gasped, Wands? She had picked up that stick from him, and it made sparks, what did that mean, were they... were they talking about her?
"There are more important things than looking for students for Hogwarts, we need to get back, because if you-know-who is around, anything can happen... Now if you are positive she is a witch, than maybe we can get her into Hogwarts, but that's not important at the moment."
"I should talk to that girl, just to see, I think I'll tell Dumbledore also... well lets hold it off for a day, I'll see you tomorrow, Mundungus."
"All right, Severus, watch out for yourself," said Mundungus, who turned to a desk and was going through papers. Snape turned toward the door, but Talia didn't know, she wasn't looking inside. She was still standing there, leaning against the wall, thinking about what she just heard, and the bell rang, she was late for class. She was about to run toward Ms. Orkeson's classroom, when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She turned around, looked up, and her stomach lurched. It was Professor Snape, he had seen her.