Here you go, Chapter 1. Enjoy it people who may or may not read my work. I Love Luna Lovegood! She's just so much like the real me. I'm weird, spacey and I wear weird things in my ears too!
This is the new beta'd version of this chapter, updated 22/04/12. I'd like to thank my beta, How-to-Smile101. Look her up, she's awesome!
(-)(-)(-)
On the day before I was supposed to leave for the Russian compound, I received an owl. This isn't an unusual occurrence for me as I often receive owls asking for my help in exterminating pests in high risk areas or asking how to deal with problems.
No the unusual thing was inside the letter, the thing that changed the course of history. Well, my future at least.
I had just sat down for breakfast when the tapping on the window came. I stood up and walked to the window, and let the tawny owl land on my wrist.
On the front of the letter was my name in brilliant purple ink. I opened the letter and read it, my eyes getting larger with each sentence I read.
Dear Miss Evans, it read.
We, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, would be delighted if you would consider joining our staff as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the following school year. If you could please come to a decision in the next few days and owl us your response as soon as possible. This is a full time teaching job and may continue longer than this year.
Kind regards,
Prf. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore,
Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
Order of Merlin, First Class; Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Grand Sorcerer.
I was stunned. He wanted me to be a teacher? But I didn't even know anything about teaching. Granted I did know quite a lot about the dark arts.
I made a snap decision and ran upstairs to my study and grabbed a piece of my personalized light green parchment and my black ink.
I sat down and twiddled my eagle feather quill in my fingertips. Was this the right choice? I shook my head to get rid of the creeping doubt that I was making a mistake and placed the nib of the parchment and began to write a reply.
(-)(-)(-)
I arrived at King's Cross a full 40 minutes before the Hogwarts Express was supposed to leave. I had learnt the hard way years ago that it was better to be turn up early and be on time than to turn up late and miss all the action.
I pulled my worn trunks onto a trolley and began to weave my way through the crowded station. As I came to the barrier between worlds I cast a surreptitious glance around me to make sure I hadn't been followed.
I leant gracefully against the barrier and fell through, falling onto my then ground in my attempt to remain blasé. I brushed imaginary dirt and lint off my blue and white ensemble before making my way to the train.
I bordered the train slowly, reminiscing on the years that had passed since I had last seen it. I walked slowly through the train, taking my time. When I was in the the second last carriage I stopped, stunned at the sight I saw before me.
"Hello Remmy" I whispered, eyeing the old and shabby man in front of me.
"Daffy?" He whispered, turning around, his large brown eyes wide with astonishment. "Is that really you?" I nodded, not trusting my voice not to crack if I spoke aloud.
We stared at each for a moment before I launched myself over the 15 foot gap that separated us. I crashed into his arms, making us both tumble to the floor in a massive heap. I laughed, happy to be reunited with my friend.
"It's so good to see you, Liz" he said through a mouthful, of my short black hair. I laughed and hauled myself to my feet, dragging him with my. He grunted with pain and rubbed his shoulder where a bruise was slowly forming.
"Sorry," I said. "It's been 20 years and I still can't get used to the strength. You've grown old, Remus" I took in the bags under his eyes and the scars that littered his skin that were thrown into relief by the sun shining through the window.
"And you haven't aged a day." he said, looking up and down my 17 year old body. His eyes zoomed in on the double crescent bite mark on my cheek. "What happened?" He asked.
"I had a run in with an angry vampire." I said, turning my face away so the scar was hidden from his view. "It'll heal in a couple of days" He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. I suddenly realized how old he looked.
"How are you, Remus?" I asked, pulling him into a compartment. They were all empty seeing as there was still half an hour till the Hogwarts Express left platform 9 ¾ but they still had to be careful of any order members on the train.
"Not good Liz. Not between all the new order work and watching over Harry -" I cut him off by placing a hand on his arm and squeezed it tightly.
"How is he?" I asked, worry evident in my voice. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
"He is fine, Liz. Just still shaken from last year." I nodded, tears coming to my eyes as I remembered hearing about how Sirius had died in the department of Mysteries.
"Who wouldn't be, having seen one of his Dad's best friends die in front of his eyes?" I nodded, still grieving over my friend.
"He shouldn't have died, Remus. He was supposed to find a nice girl and settle down and have kids and grandkids, not die in a bloody war that's been going on for too long!" I wailed, throwing my arms around him and cry earnestly into his shoulder, effectively drenching his shirt with my salty tears. 20 minutes passed until I had calmed down enough to let go of Remus.
"Thank you Remus, for everything." I sniffed, wiping my nose. I noticed his shirt. "Oh Remus, I've ruined your shirt." He looked down, as if just noticing his shirt.
"Don't worry about it, Liz" He muttered a quick evanescoand the mess on his shirt disappeared. He looked through the window at the crowds on the platform.
"I best be off, Harry and his friends will be arriving soon." I nodded, brushing down my blue dress of invisible lint. I reached up on my toes and placed a soft kiss on his cheek.
"Be careful, Remus." I said, staring him in the eyes. He smiled and gave me one last hug before stepping out of the door.
"I'm always careful." He said, walking down the corridor.
I sat back down and took my shrunken luggage out of my pocket and returned it to its normal size. I placed my trunk in the rack above my head and grabbed the book I was currently reading,Lord of the Rings.
I settled down to read while the train slowly filled up. I was half way through the third last chapter when there was a knock on the door and a pretty young red head walked in.
"Do you mind if we sit with you?" She asked. I looked behind her and saw a boy who looked to be around 16.
"Sure, I don't mind." I said. The girl and boy nodded and came in and sat on the seat opposite me.
"I'm Ginny," She said "and this is Neville." The boy smiled.
"Nice to meet you." I said. "I'm Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz." They sat in silence for a second before Neville started talking.
"So are you new this year or a transfer student?" I shook my head.
"Neither." I replied. "I'm older than I look; I'm the new Defense teacher." They both stared at me before they started laughing. I glared at them, and pulled up the sleeves on my white jacket, revealing the years of scars and bite marks, some still fresh and bandaged.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" I asked, making sure they got a good look at them. They shook their heads. Just then there was another knock at the door.
A brunette girl and a red headed boy came in and sat next to Ginny. The boy's eyes zoomed in on my arms before I pulled down my sleeves.
"Whoa, why do you have so many scars?" I snorted at his eloquence.
"Fights" I answered simply. The girl looked at me.
"Who are you?" She asked. I sighed. This was going to be a very long day.
"I'm Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz. I'm the new Defense teacher." Again I got incredulous and I sighed again. Ginny must have noticed this because she stepped in before they could start.
"How was your holiday Hermione?" She asked the brunette. The brunette smiled.
"Fantastic, I went skiing with my parents." The girls got into an animated conversation about what had happened over the holidays.
I tuned out and sat down to read my book. Less than five minutes later I was done. I closed the book and placed it back in my bag and brought out a book full of my lesson plans and a red fountain pen. The red headed boy stared at me still and I slammed my pen down.
"Can I help you?" I asked through gritted teeth. He shook his head as if clearing it from thinking and looked at me.
"I'm sorry, I spaced out." he apologized. I could understand this and gave a curt nod before going back to my work. I noticed that the boy had stopped staring and had now resorted to sending me glances ever so often when he thought I wasn't looking. This was going to be a problem if it continued all year.
A little while later there was a knock on the door and a pretty blonde girl asked if she could come in and sit with us. I had a feeling that I knew her from somewhere but I couldn't quite place her. Then it clicked.
"You're Luna Lovegood." I said out of the blue. She nodded.
"How did you know?" She asked. I smiled a sad smile.
"I knew your mom. I went and saw her a few days before she passed. She was helping me with and experiment." She nodded her head and sat down next to pulled out a copy of the quibbler preceded to ignore me. I could see the tears that leaked out of her eyes when she hid behind the quibbler.
"Well," Hermione said as she stood up, "Ron and I have to patrol so we'll see you later." Ginny stood up as well.
"I'll go with you; I want to go talk to Dean." I nodded and Neville half smiled and Luna continued, turning her quibbler upside down. The three left, leaving Neville, Luna and I alone.
"So Neville, what year are you in?" I asked, hoping to strike up a conversation.
"Why do you ask?" he replied.
"Well I have my timetable here so I can tell you the first time I have you." I said looking down my list of classes. I found the sixth year class. It was first thing tomorrow morning.
"You're lucky, Your my first class tomorrow. If I called you back tomorrow would you be able to tell me how I did, because I'm not quite certain on how to teach, see I've never really done it before." He laughed.
"Sure thing. But do I have to call you Professor or can I just call you Liz?" He said. This time I laughed.
"Please don't call me Ma'am, just Professor or Miss. Ma'am makes me feel old." We both laughed for a bit until we calmed down a bit.
"If you don't mind me asking, just how old are you?" He asked.
"Neville," I replied, faking shock, "You never ask a lady her age!" I must have been a convincing actor because he recoiled in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry I didn't know." he stuttered but it was drown out by the sound of my laughing. I was startled because Luna joined in and I had completely forgotten about her. He just looked at us in confusion until Luna said through her giggles:
"It's only a joke, Neville." We all burst out laughing again and it was several minutes until we had calmed enough to talk. I rummaged through my bag for a small book of photos I always kept with me.
I found it and brought it out and flipped it to my favourite page which was easy because all the years of used had made its binding weak so it fell open to my regular page. I passed it to Neville.
"Top left. It's your mother's wedding." He looked closely, stroking my book as if it were a priceless artifact, which it probably was to him.
I rummaged around in my bag again, looking for the small yellowing envelope. He looked up at me when I placed it on top of the picture, blocking it from his view.
"What's this?" He asked, going to open it. I stilled his hands.
"It was given to me by your mother. If anything were to happen to you I was supposed to give it to you on your 17th birthday but I think now is the right time. Open it tonight when you're alone in you common room. It's got all the pictures in my book as well as a letter and a key. You'll know what to do with them when the time is right."
For a moment I thought he was going to burst out crying. I was wondered if I had said something wrong when he threw his arms around me. I hugged him back awkwardly.
"Thank you." He breathed into my ear. He pulled away slightly. "Thank you so much, you could never know how much this means to me." I laughed, tears starting to make an appearance.
"That's exactly what your mother said." I told him pulling him closer to me. I pulled away again.
"Listen Neville, If you ever need help this year with anything, you can always talk to me, okay." He nodded, his eyes still locked on the envelope.
"It's not going to disappear, I promise." I said. I pulled him in for one more hug before I let go, knowing that I had just given one of my best friend's son's a reason to fight.
(-)(-)(-)
Voila! What do you think? Is it going well so far? Stay tuned because next chapter we get a visit from our favourite Slytherin. You know the one I'm talking about! I'll make you guys a deal, If I get at least 10 review by this time next week, or 15 reveiws by the week after, I'll post the next chapter. Does that sound fair? Well, you know what to do! Click that little button!
