Rain, finally, I was getting worried," Violet said as she rose from her seat by the fire. There was enough commotion with everyone moving in that Rain felt safe going to a private corner to tell her the news. No one would see her red, puffy eyes or hear her voice shaking there.

"Do you remember the man I told you about, at the pub?"

"The traveler, the one you kissed?"

"Yes."

"What about him? Did he finally come back?"

"Yes."

"Well, where is he?"

"In the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, probably preparing for our lesson tomorrow."

Violet's mouth fell open. "Oh, no."

"He was angry. He was so angry. As he should have been."

"I can imagine!"

"I never would have guessed he would be our teacher!"

"What did he say?"

"Enough, and it was more of a shout. There is no possibility of him ever wanting me again."

Violet's hands opened on her lap. "...Obviously. What did you expect?"

"I know," Rain sighed as she stood up and paced. "It's just...despite everything, I am still fiercely attracted to him. Being our teacher doesn't erase the past several nights of me falling asleep hoping to see him the next day. And what's worse...what's worse is knowing he's been at Hogwarts this whole time without having come back to see me. He couldn't have found out I was a student before tonight. Above everything, even his position, that hurts the most. It shouldn't but it does."

"I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry, Rain. I know how much you liked him."

"I don't think I can watch him for hours every week and stay focused. We got on. He was so...intense. How could I forget?"

"You have to. It doesn't matter if he was the prince of England, it's over now, and can't go on. If nothing else, getting him fired should be an effective motivator."

"You're right," Rain replied. "I would hate that. I'd never forgive myself."

"Then it's settled," her friend rose, putting an arm around Rain to lead her to the staircase. "It's a bad hand, I won't deny it, but you must cut your losses and put him out of your head...and thank your lucky stars nothing happened beyond a kiss."

"I think he wanted to, he just didn't let himself," said Rain.

"He, who?"

Lupin reviewed the syllabus from the previous year to get an idea of his students' skill levels. He must have read it a hundred times, always beginning at the top of the list and by half way through, losing his place because his mind wandered to Rain.

The previous weeks he had stayed in the castle after accepting the DADA job. Plenty of times he wanted to pop into the pub just to have a glimpse of her, but he told himself to forget it. No attachments, no relationships, no putting anyone in danger of being hurt, both physically and emotionally, not even when he knew he would reside at Hogwarts for the next several months. Not even when the kiss she'd given him replayed in his mind as the most stirring he'd ever received.

Then he noticed a late student the night of the welcoming feast. Rain was young, but certainly this girl in the back of the room was a sister or a cousin. Anyone. But the more his eyes focused, the harder the truth hit him: the Gryffindor in the school uniform was the same girl whose memory kept him staring at the ceiling in bed each night. He remained in a heavy daze until he heard his name and stood up as instructed. If he had any uncertainties before, the look on Rain's face told him she felt just as horrified by his identity as he was of hers. A fire lit under his skin and a voice in the back of his mind panicked that everyone would somehow find out what they had done. It was bad enough hoping no one would discover his lycanthropy, and now this.

He prayed that Rain would understand just how important it was to keep it a secret, but even after knowing her a short while, he felt she did. One of her most attractive qualities, at least, weeks ago when he found her attractive, which he most certainly didn't any longer, was her sincerity. He believed her when she took the blame and doubted she would want to cause any more trouble. Then he chided himself. The blame didn't rest exclusively on her shoulders, and he should have been more insistent about that. Just as Eve offered Adam the apple, he never pushed her away or told her to stop. In fact, once he had a taste, he hungrily demanded more before finally coming to his senses. Now all he had to do was keep their sin from spreading to the ends of the earth and he might survive the school year.

"Rain, get up."

"Mmmm."

"This is already the third time I've had to wake you."

"I predict a fourth coming soon."

Violet sat on her friend's bed and looked at her with some annoyance, but mostly pity. "How long did it take you to fall asleep last night?"

"If I had to guess," Rain said, rubbing her forehead, "Eight hours."

"Then you're going to need all the time you can get to make yourself look presentable."

"I guess no one has time for subtleties on the first day of school."

Violet looked at the clock. "I'm afraid you're barely going to have time for toast."

The pair walked into the Great Hall, where they must have been among the last to arrive. All of the students and faculty waited anxiously for the clock to strike the end of breakfast. Rain yawned and tried to straighten the Gryffindor tie she knew was crooked. She walked lazily down the table, looking towards the platters in the middle for one that still had a decent amount of food. The owls entered above them to deliver the post and Colin Creevey was showing his little brother the sights of the Hall. The boy snapped a photo with a camera that probably outweighed him, but as he did so, the brilliant flash blinded the poor bird that flew past, for instead of dropping the post with perfect accuracy, like usual, it flew straight into a cup of orange juice in an outstretched hand. Rain watched, as if in slow motion, the bright orange drink fly up and spill all over her clothes.

Violet's face was red trying to hold in a laugh, even if everyone else in the Great Hall failed. "See? If you had gotten up on time, this probably wouldn't have happened."

"It wouldn't have happened if I'd just stayed in bed, either," Rain said, shaking the juice off of her hands. Despite everyone else's enjoyment, the Creevey brothers looked horrified, the younger on the verge of tears from the fright of all of the eyes and ears and an impending death hex from a seventh year coming his way. Rain chuckled and approached him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right. That's what magic is for." She waved her wand over herself and the scattered orange droplets disappeared. "As you'll learn soon enough from Professor Flitwick." She pointed to the tiny professor at the head table, who nodded at the visibly relieved boy. Satisfied, or perhaps disappointed, that nothing more exciting would happen, everyone returned to their breakfast.

"Rain, there you are!" She turned and saw her Aunt Rosmerta. "Bloody hell, look at you."

Rain kissed her cheek. "You just missed the show, actually, this is an improvement. What are you doing here?"

"You left this," Rosmerta handed her a book, "And I wanted to wish you luck on your last, first day."

"It's sad, isn't it?" Violet sighed.

The clock chimed and Rain tucked the book under her arm. "That's our cue."

Bodies rose from their seats and filed out. Professors stood at the door to advise any confused first years which direction to go for their morning classes. Rosmerta slipped away and Rain picked up an orange to eat as she walked, then took another look at the book. On the Road. She stared at the cover for the quickest of moments, then tossed it in the garbage as she followed after Violet.

"Before we open any textbooks, I would like to know a bit about you all," Lupin said in front of the classroom. "You may already know each other well, being that you're in your seventh year, but I want an idea of the minds in my audience."

The students sat quietly, still deciding whether they liked this new teacher or hoped he would only last one year as his predecessors. Rain just looked at her hands folded on the desk.

"I'll start. I'm here because Professor Dumbledore wanted a hands-on approach for your defensive skills. As you can imagine, you cannot survive with only a theoretical knowledge of these things. You have to practice in order for them to be effective, like playing a sport. A surprising amount of people disagree, particularly in the Ministry."

"Have you really been out there and done this stuff then?" a boy asked.

"Yes, unfortunately. I fought in the first war, and it wasn't just wizard against wizard. The dark side recruited all manner of creatures to fight for them, including those that could not be defeated without specific knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. Stupify and expelliarmus aren't always enough. And with your, shall we say, modified quality of education under Professor Lockhart, we have a busy year ahead of us."

The group of Gryffindors and Slytherins was clearly intrigued.

"Let's start with you," Lupin pointed at a girl in the front row. "Stand and tell me your name and where you want to be one year from now."

The girl answered him. "Alicia Pond. The Ministry of Magic, Improper Use of Magic like my mum."

Lupin smiled and nodded, then pointed to the next desk, a boy. "Now you."

He rose. "Alexander Ross, Department of Magical Games and Sports." A few boys behind him hollered and agreed.

"Wonderful. Let's keep going around the room," Lupin said.

Aspiring quiddich players, aurors and a few undecided students introduced themselves. Then it was Rain's turn. She stood up and couldn't bury the nerves. By the looks of it, Lupin wasn't comfortable either. His jaw tightened and his shoulders squared off even though he tried to force them to relax.

"Marayna Marquis, The Forbidden Forest," she mumbled.

His eyes narrowed. He wanted to ask why. If she had been any other student, he would have. Rain flew down and Violet took her turn, glad to have their first meeting inside class over and done with. Her answer couldn't have surprised any of her friends. They all knew her, but Lupin didn't. Not in the least. She wanted him to; from their first conversation she wanted to tell this worldly man her life and goals and hear his thoughts about every one of them. Now she sat in a seat no closer than any other student, only none of them had to replay his voice in their heads, looking down at her with slightly swollen lips saying, "Do you know what you're doing?"

No, she thought, Not at all.

Violet and Rain walked to lunch after DADA.

"Not too bad, huh?" Violet said trying to cheer her up.

"Are you kidding?" Rain said. "He hates me. I've ruined the entire school year for the both of us. And because I won't be able to focus on learning anything, it looks like my only defense mechanism in the future is throwing one of Lockhart's books at the back of my enemies' heads."

"I'll make sure you don't fall behind," Violet said. "Speaking of which, I should tell you what you missed from the opening feast last night. Have you heard about Sirius Black escaping from Azkaban?"

"Yes, there's a sign outside of the pub. Why?"

"Well, they think he may come here. He was heard saying something about 'It's at Hogwarts' while in prison."

Rain looked towards the end of the table at Harry Potter. "Three guesses what. Or should I say, whom?"

"Exactly," said Violet. "But to make sure he doesn't enter Hogwarts or Hogsmeade, the Ministry is going to allow dementors to patrol the grounds."

Rain dropped her fork with a loud clatter. She cleared her throat. "Will they...will they come inside?"

"I don't know," answered Violet. "But you should be prepared in case they do."

Violet was one of the few people who knew exactly what sort of memories an encounter with the dementors would conjure for Rain. While most of their schoolmates would see trivial things like breakups or broken bones, she had images in her head that must stay buried. Living through them once almost cost her life, but a second may cost her sanity.

"How? What can I do?"

"There is...someone you could ask," Violet answered, looking towards the teachers' table where Lupin sat talking with Hagrid.

"No," Rain answered automatically.

"I know I told you to forget him, but this may be more important. Wouldn't it be worth it to master a patronus?"

"Of course I want to learn, but it's not as simple as me putting my embarrassment behind me and asking for a favor. Professor Lupin told me not to come to him after classroom hours."

"Oh."

"There was no mistaking his instructions, either. He wants nothing to do with me outside of the standard, obligatory teaching."

"Wow. You were right; he must have been very angry."

"He was, Violet, enough not to give a second thought to what might appear in my nightmares."

"But he seems so kind. I'm sure if he knew-"

"He is kind, but he doesn't want to spare any of it for me. Not now."

The first two days of term passed without further incident, as Lupin was the only new professor at Hogwarts. Otherwise, with the more familiar instructors, they picked up with their studies the moment they walked into the classroom as though summer holiday never happened. Snape seemed to want to make up for any lost time by assigning homework on the first night. The students readjusted to life in the castle, especially the seventh years trying to add any required courses for their career ambitions at the last minute.

The second DADA class dove straight into what Lupin referred to as a "hands-on approach." In order to evaluate their skill levels he had them divide into pairs and perform basic dueling spells.

"Lockhart started a dueling club last year," one student remarked.

"And Snape whipped him!" another chimed, followed by laughter among the group.

"What did you practice?" Lupin asked.

"Nothing much," Violet said. "On the first night he paired Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter and we ended up with a snake."

"A snake?"

"Yes. Rain had to-"

Rain elbowed her friend. Violet pursed her lips.

"And I had to...ask Professor Snape to get rid of it," Rain stammered.

Violet nodded to back her up.

"Meanwhile Lockhart could only make it do a somersault midair," a boy said, calling back Lupin's attention.

Rain pulled Violet away. "Don't tell him about my extracurriculars."

"He's going to find out sooner or later."

"He'll think I'm trying to get his attention."

"So you're just going to hide the rest of the year instead of doing what you love?"

"No. I'm doing as I promised. I'm not going to share anything personal or start any conversations that don't revolve around Defense. If he wanted to know why I'll be in the Forbidden Forest next year he would have asked. If he cared that I want to work with animals he would have said so."

"He talks to others about personal matters. It wouldn't seem out of sorts."

"Because he doesn't hate the others."

Violet rolled her eyes.

That afternoon Rain went to the library to fish in the Defense section for any books that might help to conjure a patronus. Her textbook provided some tips but she wanted all of the advice she could get. When she asked the librarian for a recommendation she said curtly, "The new professor, Lupin, would be an invaluable source. He carries several volumes on the patronus" and went back to cataloging the books trying to crawl off of her desk.

On her way out, Rain had almost managed to convince herself to ask Lupin during the next class period when she saw him at the end of the corridor. He turned and took another route. Then she asked Violet to peruse his shelf before dinner but she said Lupin was busy talking to Snape in his office and she didn't have the stomach to interrupt them. Rain couldn't blame her.

On the third class, the room held a wardrobe that teetered from side to side, as if something within it bounced off of the walls.

"Can anyone venture a guess as to what is inside?" Lupin asked the class.

Rain didn't know, and if she did, she still wouldn't have raised her hand.

"That's a boggart!" said a girl behind her.

Lupin smiled. "Correct! And can anyone tell me what a boggart looks like?"

"No one knows," said the same girl. "Boggarts are shape-shifters. They take whatever form its viewer fears the most."

"Right, absolutely right," said Lupin. "Violet, would you come here, please?"

She stepped forward.

"Violet, what frightens you the most? Be honest, for we'll see the truth in a moment."

Violet stammered. "Thunderstorms."

"Okay, now here's what I want you to do," Lupin said, then approached and whispered into her ear. She nodded.

"Ready?" Lupin asked.

She nodded again and he waved his wand to open the door. A billowing cloud engulfed the room and the sound of thunder shook the walls and windows. Lightning flashed and made everyone jump. Violet just stood motionless.

"Remember what I told you!" said Lupin from behind.

She took a breath and raised her wand, "Riddikulus!"

Instead of another clap of thunder, fireworks filled the room and beautiful, glittering colors surrounded the students. Everyone smiled and cheered.

"Wonderful work!" shouted Lupin over the booming noise. "The key to finishing a boggart is laughter. After saying the incantation you must force it to take a shape you find truly amusing. Now everyone form a line."

As the people in front of her eagerly entered the crossfire, Rain stepped back. Spiders, clowns, none of them showed what the boggart would for her. She felt helpless. Dementors outside and boggarts inside, her worst nightmares, which she worked so hard to overcome, suddenly threatened to unearth themselves at every opportunity. Was any place safe anymore?

Student after student reached the front of the line. Lupin was thrilled at their progress, though he couldn't help but notice that Rain never took a turn, as she should. He looked to the back of the classroom where she stood against the wall. Their eyes met and he asked her with a look if she might come join the activity. She shook her head no, then rounded the corner and disappeared into the hallway. The rest continued as though they were having the time of their lives watching their mates' fears and the hilarious ways they overcame them.

"Boggarts can come out of any confined space, so always be prepared!" chimed Lupin.

Afterwards, when he was satisfied that all but one had a turn, he ended the lesson. "That's all for today everyone. Please collect your things and I will see you next class. Ms. Marquis, a word if you don't mind."

Violet gave her a look that matched Rain's own surprise. The students filed out until only they lingered. She couldn't help herself when she asked, "You know this isn't considered classroom hours, right?"

"I do," Lupin started, "But I must know why you didn't participate. This wasn't what I meant when I said we had to keep our distance. I want you to be prepared for what you might find in the world, along with your classmates."

"You think I refused the activity because I'm upset with you?"

"It's the only explanation that comes to mind."

"I'm not."

"I have a hard time believing that. Clearly you're upset with someone."

"I'm upset with me, that's who, for being so stupid and making you pay for it. Now may I go? I don't want to make anything worse."

He softened. Rain was terrified of him and no wonder, with how he shouted. He wanted to apologize for how he lost his temper and laid all of his disappointment in himself upon her. Perhaps he'd gone too far. "So that is why you refused?"

Rain blinked hard and shook her head. "No."

"Explain yourself then."

She turned to look out the window. "I already know what I fear. I don't need a boggart to tell me. I don't need the entire class to...see it."

"If you know your fear, then the next step is to know how to defeat it. Otherwise the boggart will win, every time."

"It isn't as easy as that."

"Why not?"

"Because there is no way."

"I'm sure there is."

Rain faced him. "I fear what I fear because it has already defeated me. The dark doesn't bother me and neither do spiders. No creature, nothing that hasn't given me a reason to scares me."

"And what does, exactly?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm not even supposed to be here, remember? I can handle this on my own."

"If that's true, you won't mind practicing now that the room is empty."

Lupin motioned to the wardrobe and took a step. Rain thought he was going to open it. She held her arms over her face as if defending an attack.

"Stop!"

The volume of her shriek and the stance of her person froze his limbs. Her voice seemed to echo off the ceiling. The image of such a happy soul cowering in fear disturbed him. Lupin couldn't help but stare at her, dumbfounded, before gently saying, "It will stay closed until you want it opened. Your classmates wouldn't have to see. Would that help?"

"That isn't the problem. I'm not embarrassed. I...I just don't want people asking questions once they know." Rain was teetering on the edge of hysterics. "I fear what I fear because it's already taken everything and left me behind, to suffer as I remember the life I used to have. Don't you understand? I have nothing to fight it with. There is no way I can even look at it, much less force it to take another shape!"

Her outburst made Lupin step back. Obviously this was something bigger than he imagined. "What do you mean?"

She was shaking then. He was getting close; too close. "I don't belong in Gryffindor. I'm not brave enough to face it. I'm not ready."

Professor McGonagall rushed into the room before he could get in another word.

"Ms. Marquis, come quick, Hagrid needs you."