Chapter 2- Classes and Curses
The next morning, Remus awoke to the bleeping alarm of the waking charm he had set the previous night. He silenced the spell with a wave of his hand, but upon checking the clock decided that he could afford to stay in bed a little longer. Propping himself up against the pillows, he reached over to the bedside table in order to retrieve his timetable for the day. His first class of the day, and indeed the year, was first year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. He was in two minds about this. Of course, the curriculum for first years was very basic, and thus an easy introduction for him to the world of DADA teaching. However, he remembered from his own first year just how awkward first years could be in classroom situations. After all, the magical world was very new to many of them, and Hogwarts itself was new to them all. A combination of nerves and a desire to make their mark often led to much more misbehaviour and attitude than other year groups.
Another glance at the clock told Remus that he ought to head down to breakfast if he wanted to be finished in time to set up for the first years. Reluctantly, he dragged himself out of bed and got dressed, grabbing his briefcase from the bottom of his suitcase in the process. Fortunately, he had had the presence of mind to pack the briefcase with all the materials he would need for his first day's classes before he had even packed his suitcase, which meant that he could head down to breakfast straight away.
Sunlight streamed through the castle windows as Remus made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. He passed several groups of students on the way, smiling pleasantly at them all. Even the snide looks he got from a group of older Slytherins couldn't spoil his good mood. He was back in the place he belonged, about to start his dream job and, as the scent of bacon filled the air around him, he couldn't imagine how this day could get any better.
Remus's good mood continued all the way through breakfast, and there was a veritable spring in his step as he walked through the castle to the DADA classroom. As it was their first lesson of the school year, he was planning to take things slowly with the first years. More likely than not, he would spend the whole lesson answering questions, something he was very happy to do. It would give him an excellent opportunity to get to know his students and, with any luck, make a good impression.
Ten minutes after Remus sat down to take a last look at his teaching notes, the first students began to arrive outside. The noise level slowly grew as nine o' clock approached and, when the time came, he stood up and strode over to the door. Opening it carefully, so as not to hit any of his students, he stuck his head out into the corridor.
"You can all come in now," he said, a friendly smile on his face. "Sit wherever you want, and you can leave your books in your bags. Since this is your first lesson, I thought we might have a bit of a discussion rather than jump straight into the textbooks."
The first years filed into the classroom, chattering happily, and began to fill the desks in groups. Remus was pleasantly surprised to notice that Martin and his two friends from the thestral carriage were there, all three in Ravenclaw blue. He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts during the Sorting that he hadn't actually noticed them getting sorted. Martin actually winked at Remus as he sat down in the front row, his friends on either side of him. Remus almost snorted. He was definitely his mother's son, that one. It looked like this was going to be an interesting lesson.
"Well, good morning everyone, and welcome to your first Defence Against the Dark Arts class. As Professor Dumbledore said at the feast, my name is Professor Lupin and I'm going to be your teacher for the year." Remus decided against sitting behind his desk, instead walking around to the front of it and sitting on the edge. Picking up the list of names from his desk, he took the register. "Now, I'm afraid it's going to take me a little while to learn all your names, so please forgive me if I get anyone mixed up.
"I thought we might start today with a bit of a questions and answers session. I'm sure you've all got questions you'd like to ask and I'll be happy to answer any of them, as long as they've got something to do with this class. So, would anyone like to go first?" Remus looked around the room. He was hoping that Martin might get the ball rolling, and he wasn't disappointed.
"Professor?" he asked, half-heartedly putting his hand in the air.
"Yes, Martin?"
"That stuff you said yesterday about chocolate working as a cure for Dementors, was that really true?" Remus smiled and nodded.
"Yes, it was. You see," he said, addressing the whole class, "Dementors feed off of happiness. Their mere presence is enough to suck the joy out of you. Fortunately, chocolate is a very effective and readily available way to counteract this effect. In fact, I'd whole-heartedly recommend taking some if you ever need to pass the Dementors that guard the school gates."
"Professor?" asked a Hufflepuff girl from near the back of the room. "Why are the Dementors here? Is it because of Sirius Black?" Remus looked down at his hands, thinking. Children were remarkably perceptive; it was no wonder that some of them had put two and two together and realised the real reason that the Dementors were at Hogwarts. However, Dumbledore had warned the teachers about revealing too much; especially the fact the Sirius was likely to come to Hogwarts. How much should he tell them? "Professor?" the girl asked again, and Remus looked up, realising that he had been momentarily lost in his own thoughts.
"I'm sorry, Celina. The simple answer to your question is yes, the Dementors are here because of Sirius Black." Whispers spread throughout the room. "However, they are merely here as a precaution. Black would never come anywhere near Hogwarts with Professor Dumbledore as headmaster, and the Dementors are simply another form of deterrent." It wasn't a lie, not entirely, but neither was it completely truthful. No supporter of Voldemort would ever be foolhardy enough to challenge Albus Dumbledore, but it was an established fact that Sirius was after Harry Potter. Still, there was a fine line between withholding information in order to prevent panic and outright lying to the children that were his responsibility to protect.
Their curiosity about the Dementors seemingly satisfied for now, the class turned their questions to the subject of Defence Against the Dark Arts itself.
"Professor Lupin," asked one of the Hufflepuff boys, "why do we have to learn how to defend ourselves from the dark arts? The man who came to tell my parents and me about magic said that all the dark wizards were defeated years ago."
"Well, Andy, I'm afraid that's not entirely true." Andy who, it seemed, was a Muggle-born, looked taken aback. "While it's true that the war did end when Voldemort was destroyed-" A large percentage of the class gasped when he said the name. "- many of his followers survived. Not all of them were locked away in Azkaban. Some switched back to our side, and there were several others who were never caught.
"Also, even if all of Voldemort's followers had been defeated, there are always those who seek to use magic for their own gain. Some people do not understand that magic is a power that comes with a burden of responsibility. Instead of using their abilities to help others, they use them for their own gain and don't care who they hurt in the process. We call them dark wizards, and it's for this reason that all witches and wizards are taught to defend themselves."
"Have you ever fought any dark wizards, sir?" asked one of the boys sitting with Martin, looking up at Remus expectantly.
"Yes, Joe, I have," Remus replied, closing the barriers in his mind that held back his worst memories of the Great Wizarding War. "However, it's not something I like to talk about. As you might imagine, it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences." Joe looked apologetic. "It's alright, I expected that someone might ask. Maybe later in the year, if it's ever relevant to the course, I'll tell you some of my stories, but not at the moment." Seemingly satisfied, Joe nodded and no one brought up the subject for the rest of the lesson. Instead, Remus invited the class to ask him questions about what they wold be studying, and he spent an enjoyable half hour describing the various spells he would be teaching them over the year.
When the end of the lesson came, Remus was surprised when the class let out a collective groan. It seemed that they had really enjoyed themselves, and many of them dragged their feet as they left. As the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws filed out of the classroom, Remus smiled and waved them off.
"Bye, professor!"
"See you later, sir."
"Goodbye, Professor Lupin."
"Goodbye, everyone," he replied, and closed the door behind them. Well, that had gone much better than he had expected. The only experience he had of teaching were the rare occasions when he had found employment tutoring magical children too young to go to Hogwarts. As such, this was the first time that he had had to deal with more than one or two children at any one time. Wandering back over to his desk, he wondered if he should have given the first years any homework. Perhaps he should have asked them to read the introductory chapter in their textbooks, but it was too late now. Remus shook his head. Of course he had wanted to give a good impression, but he didn't want the first years to think that they could get away without any homework. Ah, well. Next lesson he would start the course proper, along with all the homework that entailed.
Checking his timetable again, Remus noted that he had one more class before lunch, and that was the sixth year NEWT class. That would be an interesting change of pace. The NEWT class was much smaller, and composed entirely of teenagers. In Remus's experience, teenagers were much harder to handle than eleven-year-olds, largely because of just how much they knew already and the egos they developed because of it. The sixth years would likely be much more confrontational, and nowhere near as easy to impress.
Remus pulled out his copy of the sixth year textbook. The NEWT syllabus covered much more advanced material, including curses the likes of which Remus had not seen since the war. Even the three Unforgivable Curses were part of the course, and it was unlikely that he would be able to prevent uncomfortable questions from the sixth years as easily that he had stopped the first years. Putting the textbook back on his desk, Remus instead sat back in his chair, casting his mind back to the training sessions with Alastor Moody that all young Order members had been put through.
Mad-Eye had been an intimidating teacher, unafraid to curse his pupils, and Remus and his friends had very quickly become very good at defensive spells. They had also been taught how to use many curses that he sincerely hoped he would never have to use again. Nowadays, however, students were only taught about curses, rather than being taught to use them. Remus chuckled to imagine what Mad-Eye would think of a more theoretical approach to learning about the dark arts. The world was no longer at war, though, and the students of today were unlikely to ever need to curse a Death Eater, a fact for which Remus was profoundly grateful.
Checking the clock on the classroom wall, Remus saw that it was about fifteen minutes until the sixth years were due to arrive. He briefly contemplated making his way to the staff room for a quick cup of tea, but decided against it. He was looking forward to working alongside his former teachers and fellow Order members, but right now he didn't really feel like braving their company. From what Filius and Minerva had told him last night, the staff room was a far livelier place than any of the students suspected.
Instead, Remus decided that his time would be better spent coming up with a suitably entertaining first lesson for the third years. The textbook for third year focussed almost exclusively on dark creatures, a subject that Remus was uniquely qualified to teach. In addition to being, technically speaking, a dark creature himself, he had had a lot of experience over the years when it came to dealing with the many monsters that lived under wizard beds. As a supplemental source of income, he had often found himself dealing with infestations of all manner of dangerous creatures.
Flicking through the third year textbook, Remus glanced at each chapter in turn, looking for a creature that he could easily find somewhere in the castle. Maybe it was all those long ago lessons with Mad-Eye Moody, but Remus preferred a more hands-on method of teaching than could be provided by merely reading the textbooks. He firmly believed that his students would learn better if they were given the chance to see the creatures they were studying, first hand. However, many, such as Red Caps, Hinkypunks and Grindylows could only be found living in very particular habitats and he would have to order them in if he wanted to show them to his class. Eventually, Remus came across the chapter on Boggarts, and smiled. Yes, they would do nicely. A place with as many nooks and crannies as Hogwarts would likely be home to a great many of the shapeshifters, and he should be able to find one before Thursday.
A few minutes later, Remus's thoughts were interrupted by the build-up of noise that indicated that his class was waiting outside. Closing the third year textbook, he walked over to the door and let them in. The NEWT class was much smaller than most of his other classes; there were only eleven students in total.
"Good morning, everyone," Remus said, once the class was seated. "Welcome to your first NEWT level Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. I can see that you're all here, but I'll take the register anyway so I can get started on learning all your names." Once he had matched all the names on his class list to the corresponding faces, he walked around to the front of his desk and perched on the edge again. After his first class, he had realised that he preferred to teach without a desk between himself and his class. To his mind, it led to a friendlier atmosphere, although time would tell if his students felt the same way.
"Now, does anyone know the main area that we will be covering this year?" Remus asked, wanting to gauge how much they knew already.
"Curses," said a voice from the back of the room. It was a Gryffindor boy named Neil who had spoken up, although he hadn't raised his hand. This was normal with older classes, and just one of the many things Remus would have to get used to over the course of the year.
"That's right," Remus nodded, "although I think I ought to stress now that we will only be learning about curses in the context of how to defend against them. Curses are the worst form of dark magic, used only when one intends to seriously harm an opponent, or indeed target. There are far more effective, non-lethal spells that can be used instead, many of which you know already. There are several such spells that are part of the NEWT curriculum, and I shall be demonstrating those to you this year as well. Before we start, does anyone have any questions?"
"Professor," asked Persephone, one of the Slytherins, "when do we get to see the Unforgivable Curses? I've heard that they're supposed to be demonstrated to us this year." Remus sighed, having expected the question. Professor Dumbledore had informed him about this particular misconception, something that he had the DADA teacher of five years previously to thank for. Apparently more than a little traumatised by her experiences during the war, she had seen it as her job to prepare her students for the absolute worst that they could possibly face, with little or no regard for their age. This had included the Unforgivable Curses and, ever since, the urban myth that a demonstration of the curses was part of the curriculum had spread throughout the school.
"I'm afraid that, despite what you may have heard, it is not mandatory for teachers to demonstrate the Unforgivable Curses. It's entirely down to their discretion."
"So, will you show us?" Persephone asked, with a power hungry look in her eyes that worried Remus more than a little. Well, so much for trying to stay on the good side of all of his students.
"No, I will not." Several of the class groaned, and Remus held up a hand. "Let me finish. I do have a good reason for refusing to perform them." Despite their somewhat morbid disappointment, the class all looked at Remus with interest. He couldn't blame them for being curious about the dark arts. After all, none of them were old enough to remember the horrors of the war. This reasoning didn't make in any easier to see the purely intellectual interest on their faces, but he still forced himself to look each and every one of them in the eye as he spoke.
"During the war against Voldemort-" One or two people gasped, but Remus did not stop. "-I was heavily involved in the fight against his forces. I was on the frontlines, so to speak, and I encountered a great many curses in combat, including the Unforgiveables. I can tell you now- having personally experienced two of the three and lost dear friends to the third- that those curses are among the most horrific things a witch or wizard can do to another being. So I hope that you can understand my refusal to ever use them myself, even if it's only for demonstration purposes."
"S-sorry, Professor," stammered Persephone, her face flushed with surprise and embarrassment. "I- I didn't think..."
"That's quite alright, Persephone," Remus said, giving the girl a small, reassuring smile. "I expected that someone would ask, and I'm quite grateful that you did. Getting it out of the way now was for the best, to prevent any disappointment later. Now, what say you open your books, and I'll give you a more detailed overview of everything that you're expected to learn this year?" The class scrambled to comply, and it was clear from the looks on their faces that they were seriously re-evaluating their opinions of the shabby, ill-looking fellow who stood before them. Remus absently rubbed at a scar on his hand and smiled to himself. This was definitely going to be an interesting year.
When the end of the lesson came, Remus sent the sixth years on their way and retrieved his timetable from his briefcase. His third and last lesson of the day was half of second year, in this case Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. However, that wasn't until after lunch. Not bothering to gather his things together, Remus set out for the Great Hall with a spring in his step. He was about halfway there when he encountered Peeves.
"Hey, look! It's Loopy!" cackled the poltergeist, floating upside-down alongside Remus. "What's Loopy doing back here? Come to see Peevesie?"
"Hello, Peeves," Remus said, bemused. "And it's Professor Lupin to you now."
"Oo-ooh," said Peeves, mockingly. "Professor Loopy." Remus rolled his eyes, although he was more amused than annoyed. Considering the number of pranks him and his friends had pulled on Peeves during their time at Hogwarts, it was a wonder the poltergeist hadn't pulled something on him the moment he arrived. Nicknames were incredibly mild compared to what Remus had expected.
"Good enough," he chuckled. "Now, if you'll excuse me Peeves, I'd like a chance to eat my lunch in peace." Peeves pulled a mock-offended face, blew a loud raspberry in Remus's face, and zoomed off. Remus was just thinking to himself that he had managed to dodge a hex, when several ink pellets hit him in the back of the head. He felt a mischievous grin form unbidden on his face, and wondered if Peeves realised that he had just declared war.
Remus reached the Great Hall without further incident, and spent an enjoyable half-hour chatting to Septima Vector, the arithmancy professor. Remus had taken arithmancy himself, and found it to be an enjoyable subject, despite not being a popular choice amongst the student population. He was pleased to see that the subject was still going strong.
After he finished his lunch, Remus headed back up to his office in order to retrieve some books. In addition to the textbooks he would require that afternoon, he also picked up one of the Muggle novels he had brought for reading in his spare time. After his second year class, Remus was free for the rest of the afternoon, and he planned to take full advantage of one of the few days when he wouldn't be marking homework.
By the time he had wandered back to his classroom, the second years were already starting to arrive outside. This particular class consisted entirely of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, and Remus was pleased to see students from the two houses talking to each other. They all stopped talking, however, when they noticed Remus. He smiled at them reassuringly, and gestured towards the classroom door.
"You can all go in," he said, holding back as he tried to stabilise the stack of books in his arms that the gesture had dislodged. It was a losing battle, however, and he just barely managed to avoid the whole lot falling on his feet by jumping backwards. As he retrieved the fallen books, two girls from his class stopped to help. He recognised the red-haired girl from the train, but her blonde-haired Ravenclaw friend was unfamiliar to him.
"Thank you, girls," he said, when they handed him the last of the books. "Sorry for nearly dropping them on you."
"That's okay," said the Ravenclaw girl dreamily. "You were probably attacked by wrackspurts. They cause all sorts of accidents, you know. They make your brain all fuzzy." Bemused, Remus followed the two girls into his classroom and dumped the books on his desk, making a mental note to look up what "wrackspurts" were the next time he was in the library.
"Good afternoon, everyone," he said, as the class rumbled and jostled their way into their seats.
"Good afternoon, Professor Lupin," mumbled a few less-than-enthusiastic voices. Remus refused to be discouraged by that lack of enthusiasm, however, as this particular year group had had a less than stellar experience of Defence Against the Dark Arts the previous year. In fact, it was both remarkable and a testament to the class's abilities that they had passed their exams at all, given that they had received next to no education from Gilderoy Lockhart.
As he was taking the register, Remus noticed that the red-haired girl from the train was called Ginny Weasley, and smiled at the memories that surname brought back. He had fought alongside Arthur Weasley during the war, and at the time he and his wife Molly had only had sons. Remus had lost touch with the Weasleys not long after they had had their first daughter, but he knew how much Molly had wanted to raise a girl amongst her family of boys. He really ought to make contact with Arthur and Molly again. Dumbledore seemed determined to bring him back into the world, so he might as well get proactive about it himself, and the Weasleys were some of the best people Remus had ever known.
Turning his attention back to the class, Remus sat down on the edge of his desk and looked around the room, gauging the mood and attitude of his pupils. They seemed wary, almost worried that this new professor would turn out to be as feckless as their last. Well, he would have to do something about that.
"Now, let's get started, shall we? I understand that your Professor last year had some rather strange ideas about what you should be taught in this class." This caused a few smiles and the odd laugh. "Am I right in assuming that he made you read all of his books and then answer questions on them?" Most of the class nodded, a few with looks of disgust on their faces. Remus smiled. "Then you may have learned more than you think you have."
"What are you on about, Professor?" asked one Gryffindor boy incredulously. "Those books were a lot of rubbish!"
"True, although I would prefer if you didn't shout out, Billy. A large percentage of Professor Lockhart's books were made up, but there was the odd bit of factual information about some of the dark creatures, and even an occasional correct spell. They're actually rather amusing books to read when you know a bit about defensive magic already, and it can be quite entertaining spotting the accurate parts amidst the nonsense. However, they are definitely not textbook material.
"As such, we're going to cover the usual second year curriculum this year, but I'm also going to use one lesson a week to teach you the things you should have learned last year. If you're lucky, I may even tell you some stories about what it's actually like to fight dark creatures." At this, the class shifted in their seats and looked at Remus with curiosity.
"Have you really fought monsters, Professor?" asked Ginny Weasley with some scepticism. The doubt was no surprise, considering that their previous teacher had made the exact same claim and turned out to be a fraud.
"I have, Ginny," Remus confirmed in as convincing a tone of voice as he could manage. "Before I became a teacher here, I used to get occasional side-jobs dealing with all manner of dark creatures that had found their way into people's houses. My stories might not be as entertaining as Professor Lockhart's, but I can assure you that they will be much more helpful in real life." The class seemed satisfied by this answer, and their looks of suspicion faded. "Now, I thought I'd use today to ask you a few questions about what you should have learned last year, just so I can figure out what I should be teaching you. It doesn't matter if you don't know the answers, and feel free to speak up with anything you can think of, no matter how silly it sounds."
The rest of the lesson passed by relatively slowly, as Remus was repeatedly faced with silence in answer to his questions. He was careful to reassure the class that this was through no fault of their own, because he knew from his own experience how demoralising it could be to discover that one doesn't know a lot of things that others think one should. He had spent his first year or two at Hogwarts largely ignorant of a lot of things his friends had taken for granted due to his isolated upbringing, and it had been less than enjoyable to be constantly reminded of this.
However, he was occasionally pleasantly surprised by what the students had picked up on, or indeed looked up for themselves. Several of the Ravenclaw students had clearly done their own research on what they should have been learning, as had the odd Gryffindor. There were some truly wacky answers, however. Lockhart's teaching has left them with a lot of glaring misconceptions that Remus would have to do his best to rectify over the coming months.
And then, there were the wacky answers from one Luna Lovegood, the blond friend of Ginny's who had made the comment about wrackspurts in the corridor. The sorts of comments she made couldn't be attributed simply to Lockhart's useless curriculum, and a quick bit of mental detective work on Remus's part ascertained the true reason. He recognised the girl's surname as also belonging to Xenophilius Lovegood, editor of The Quibbler, a notoriously, well... 'unique' magazine. Racking his brains, he remembered hearing that he and his wife had had a baby girl during the final year of the war. The family connection would certainly explain the unusual views and opinions that Luna held.
When the end of the period came, he was able to dismiss the class secure in the knowledge that they would learn quickly in the coming year. They were a bright bunch and, now that he knew what else he had to teach them, they would be able to catch up quickly with where they ought to be.
Satisfied at a first day successfully survived, Remus began to pack up his briefcase, planning to drop past the staff room for the hour or two before dinner. He had promised Hagrid that they would swap stories about their first days as teachers, after all, and he was sure that the gamekeeper would have a lot to say. Hagrid was fond of telling stories, and his first day was bound to be worthy of a great many such tales.
Remus had just turned the corner into the staff room corridor when he heard a great commotion coming from inside. He hurried towards the door, but was briefly held up by the two gargoyles that guarded it.
"Say, weren't you a student here yourself only a few years back?" asked one.
"I left here fifteen years ago. I'm surprised you remember me," Remus replied as, although he had made a great many trips to the staff room during his years as a student, the somewhat senile gargoyles had mostly been inanimate at the time. They obviously paid a lot more attention than they let on. He wondered if they had ever figured out the reasons for his repeated visits. "Could you let me in please? I'd like to know what's going on." The gargoyles nodded, and the door swung open. Whatever Remus had expected to find inside, it was not the scene that greeted him as he entered the staff room as a teacher for the first time.
Hagrid was sitting on a perilously bowed sofa, blowing his nose into his enormous handkerchief and wiping his red, puffy eyes on his sleeves. Minerva McGonagall was perched next to him, gingerly patting him on one massive forearm, which was clearly all she could reach. All around them, the various other teachers were talking over each other, various expressions of shock or displeasure on their faces. Remus crouched down in front of Hagrid and Minerva.
"Minerva, what's happened?" he asked, concerned.
"It's the Malfoy boy," she said, her expression tight and unhappy. "He was injured by one of Hagrid's Hippogriffs."
"'S all my fault!" Hagrid howled suddenly. "I shoulda never let the kids near 'em!" Remus shook his head emphatically, although he did partially agree with Hagrid's assessment of the situation. Hippogriffs were notoriously proud creatures. It took very little to provoke one into violence, and he was unsurprised that the third year bully had set one off. However, Hagrid really didn't need his friends second guessing his decisions at this point, not when he was clearly so upset about the whole thing.
"You couldn't have known that one of the students would antagonise one of the Hippogriffs. I'm sure you told them to watch what they said. It's not your fault if they choose to disobey your instructions," Remus reassured Hagrid, imitating Minerva and patting him on the arm.
"Malfoy's dad won't see it tha' way!" Hagrid sniffed loudly. "An' Professor Dumbledore'll prob'ly have to gie me the sack. It was me firs' day!" With this last, Hagrid dissolved into sobs, and Minerva pulled Remus away to give him some space.
"The headmaster won't really sack him?" Remus asked, concerned. "Surely he'll see that it was an accident and that Hagrid is hardly to blame?"
"The headmaster may not have a choice," Minerva said, tight-lipped. "Lucius Malfoy is one of the school's governors, and he already has it out for Hagrid after the Chamber of Secrets incident last year." Remus understood. It had put a severe dent in Malfoy senior's credibility when Hagrid had been proved entirely innocent of any wrongdoing in the present or indeed the past, especially after all the effort the school governor had put into getting him locked away in Azkaban. Many things had changed since the war, but clearly Lucius Malfoy's prejudices against half-bloods had remained. "Would you mind remaining here and looking after Hagrid, Remus?" asked Minerva after a few moments had passed. "I need to return to the Headmaster."
"Of course," Remus replied, turning his attention to his old friend as Minerva strode purposefully from the room. Taking a long look at the sagging sofa and judging it safe for the moment, he sat down next to Hagrid. The giant groundskeeper had stopped crying for the moment, and was blowing his noise with a remarkably loud trumpeting sound.
"Sorry, Remus. I was goin' ter ask ye about yer firs' day an all. It's jus'... wi' all this..."
"There's no need to apologise, Hagrid," Remus reassured him. "Why don't I tell you all about it, take your mind off of all this for a while?" Hagrid nodded, managing a slight smile the crinkled the edges of his red, puffy eyes. Glad that his friend had perked up slightly at the possibility of a good story, Remus launched into a detailed description of his first day as a Hogwarts teacher.
He related the tales of his various successful classes, getting amused reactions from Hagrid at his descriptions of the behaviour of certain pupils. Hagrid too had realised the potential for mischief held by Martin Richards and his friends, and commiserated with Remus about the ill-advised timetabling that put Gryffindors and Slytherins into the same classes. He told Remus a few stories of his own about Ginny Weasley and her friend Luna, and burst out laughing when Remus told him that he had declared war on Peeves without the poltergeist's knowledge.
"If yer still fond of practical jokes, yer gonna love the staff room," Hagrid said, in something akin to a conspiratorial whisper. "Don' tell 'em I told ye, but certain teachers like messin' wi' the new staff."
"I'll bear that in mind," Remus chuckled, unsurprised by this revelation. There had been a great many urban legends in his day about what certain teachers had gotten up to during their own student years, and he knew from experience that people seldom fully grew out of a love for practical jokes.
After a period of companionable silence during which Hagrid showed mercifully few signs of an impending lapse back into misery, Remus excused himself with a promise to return later and headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.