Three.
For the first time in years, Remus slept peacefully, dreams floating through his head calmly. When he woke up, he couldn't work out what was different about the day before. Then he saw the girl, and he remembered. A sleepy smile crossed his face, until he remembered that she was most likely going to be one of his students. The pleasant bubble of blissful happiness that had surrounded him suddenly burst and he felt slightly irritated with himself, but more confused than he had been before he'd gone to bed the previous evening. He sighed to himself, sat down and attempted to clear his mind before heading down to breakfast. After brushing his teeth, getting dressed and quickly checking his reflection in the mirror, he walked out of his bedroom, through his office and out into the corridor. Tired but excited looking students were walking in groups with their friends both in front and behind him.
Remus yawned sleepily just as he reached the entrance to the Great Hall and two girls turned around, smiling at him. He smiled awkwardly back at them, then suddenly realised that it was the blonde girl and her red haired friend. A wave of embarrassment washed over him and he felt his heart speed up slightly. 'M-Morning,' he stammered, pushing the doors open to allow them through first. The blonde's face turned bright red and her friend elbowed her in the ribs, grinning. 'Good morning, sir!' The redhead replied cheerfully, slipping through the door and dragging her friend along with her. Remus shook his head and walked inside, closing the door behind him. He followed the two girls down the aisle in the hall until the brunette that they were sat with at dinner the previous evening called out 'Kate! Rels!' The pair of them then went and sat down beside her, and Remus made his way up to the staff table. He muttered 'morning' to his colleagues as he sat down, avoiding their eyes. A plate containing bacon, eggs, baked beans and sausages appeared in front of him almost immediately and he tucked in. He made sure that he didn't look anywhere near Hufflepuff table, as he knew that he'd just end up looking at her, plus he didn't exactly want to feel any more confused about what this feeling was than he already was at that moment.
Just as he'd finished eating, Minerva McGonagall walked down the staff table, giving out everyone's timetables for the year ahead. She smiled sleepily at Remus as she placed his down on the table in front of him, his empty plate vanishing. 'Thanks,' he said, then examined his timetable.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Timetable: Professor Remus John Lupin – Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Mon: FREE|Seventh Years|Fourth Years|Third Years|Lunch|FREE|Third Years
Tues: Sixth Years|First Years|FREE|Second Years|Lunch|Seventh Years|Seventh Years
Wed: FREE|FREE|Fourth Years|First Years|Lunch|Third Years|Fifth Years
Thurs: Seventh Years|Fifth Years|Second Years|FREE|Lunch|Sixth Years|Sixth Years
Fri: First Years|Third Years|Fourth Years|Second Years|Lunch|Seventh Years|FREE
Remus was quite relieved to the fact that they'd given him a free period first thing several days during the week, given that Dumbledore knew about his condition. He also noticed that he had at least one free period every day, which was even better. He scanned down Tuesday's column to see which classes he'd be teaching that day. Not too bad, he thought to himself, smiling. He'd already known what he was going to do in his first Sixth Year lesson, so he asked Professor Binns for permission to use his classroom then. Luckily, Binns had a free period anyway, so he said yes. Remus said his thanks and got up, heading down to his classroom. Once he reached the door, he pulled out his wand and unlocked it, stepping inside. Sure enough, the box that was about the size of a wardrobe was placed behind the door in the same place he'd left it when he'd unpacked yesterday, and Remus smiled to himself. Fortunately for him, Binns' classroom was pretty much directly opposite his, so he levitated the box and carefully placed it down beside Binns' desk.
Remus checked his watch and found that he had just a couple of minutes before the bell would ring and his first class would be waiting outside the classroom door. So, in order to pass the time, he sat down at his desk, rummaging through each one of the drawers to check that all of his possessions were in the right places. Surely enough, this seemed to fill the time reasonably well, as the next thing he knew, the bell rang and the corridor outside the classroom seemed to suddenly spring to life. Remus stood up and walked towards the door, looking out to find his class stood outside, waiting for him. 'Ah! Come in!' He exclaimed, walking back in and standing by the board. He watched the class file in, noticing that there was around an equal amount of boys and girls. He glanced towards the door to see if there was any more of the Sixth Years in the class, when that same blonde and her red-headed friend casually strolled in through the doorway. Remus heard the blonde mutter something along the lines of 'I'm gonna hate you for this' to her friend, neither of them noticing that he was stood right in front of them. 'Sorry to interrupt your conversation, girls, but you two were very close to being latecomers.. Sit down, please.' As he expected, the blonde didn't say anything and the redhead piped up 'Sorry sir, won't happen again.' Once the two girls had sat down, the class began to whisper to one another. 'Okay, settle down please!' Remus called. The class promptly fell into silence and he looked around at the sea of faces sat in front of him. 'That's better.. Well, welcome to NEWT level Defence Against the Dark Arts! As you already know..' He turned around to face the whiteboard and picked up a pen, scrawling his name on the board – 'I'm Professor Lupin, and I'm going to be your teacher this year. Before we get started properly, I thought we'd do a little getting to know you exercise and then we'll go across the corridor to Professor Binns' classroom, where I've got something set up for us.'
The class slowly filed out again in crowds and Remus felt extremely relieved that his first lesson as a teacher had almost gone as planned. However, his reflections on the lesson were cut short by the bottles of ink and his quills that were laid down on the desk falling onto the floor with a thunk. 'Shit!' A female voice exclaimed. Remus fought back the urge to laugh and he bent down to pick up the ink and quills. 'It's alright, I've got it,' he grinned. He appeared to be too late though, as instead of his hand clasping onto a bottle, it was curled around a small, pale hand. Whoever this was, the skin of her hand felt cool and smooth beneath his and she had long, delicate looking fingers. 'Um..' Remus looked up to find Aurelia's brown eyes fixed on him, chewing on her bottom lip. Both of them felt the sparks flying in the air around them, and they just knelt there, both of them examining the other's face. Strangely, Remus felt the urge to keep his hand exactly where it was, and to reach out with the other, running his fingers over the skin of Aurelia's cheeks.
He looked at her more intently, his eyes drinking in every inch of her milky white skin. She had a small, turned up nose and high, sculpted cheekbones. Her chocolate brown eyes were framed with long, golden eyelashes and there was a smattering of light freckles spread across the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. He curled his other hand up into a fist and firmly pressed it onto the floor beneath him to prevent himself from reaching out and touching her face.
Aurelia's eyes skimmed over every detail of Professor Lupin's face, biting down even harder on her lip to stop her mouth from breaking into a huge smile. He still hadn't moved his hand away from hers and she liked it. His hands were big and warm, so much so that if he ever held her hands properly, they'd pretty much cover hers completely. He was the complete opposite of her looks-wise, as he was tired-looking with tanned skin and grey eyes. He had multiple scars scattered all over his face and hands. She couldn't help wondering what had caused them, as it must've been quite bad.
They both looked back into each other's eyes again and a powerful urge to kiss one another washed over the pair of them. Aurelia opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Remus moved his hand up slightly, so that the tips of his fingers were resting on her wrist. He looked down at his hand again for a moment, then back up at Aurelia. Just the way that she was looking at him made him nearly completely forget about the boundaries that completely ruled out things like this, and he leaned in, ignoring the nagging voice in the corners of his mind. He was past caring about how wrong it was, he just needed to have the feeling of her lips on his for the first time. His face inched closer and closer to hers, and they both closed their eyes. Just as their lips were about to finally meet, someone cleared their throat.
Panic spread through both of them, and they looked towards the door. Thankfully, it was Kate who was stood there, smirking at them. 'It's alright, I knew there was something there straightaway last night.. Something was bound to happen anyway,' she laughed. Remus and Aurelia exchanged a look, the pair of them blushing. Kate laughed again and Remus subconsciously tightened his hold on Aurelia's hand, looking into her eyes for a moment, before turning his head back to face Kate. 'How did you know?' He asked, trying not to smile. 'Because I'm clever like that,' Kate grinned, tapping her nose. 'Anyway, we might have a free now, but we really do need to unpack, Rels.'