Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Series.

And so it begins

Dragon Scales

Chapter Three: Into The Woods

I yawned as I walked into my classroom. Katherine Conners was sitting at my desk going through my drawers. None of the students seemed to notice and continued to chat amongst themselves. "Are you looking for something?" I asked her.
"Yes," she said opening another drawer.
I sat down in my chair and crossed my arms. "Can I help you? Because you're kind of disrupting my class," I said, as most of the students noticed us at this time.
She looked up and blushed slightly. "No, no. I'll see ya," she said and strode out of the room.
The class grew louder and continued talking after she left. "Silence," I shouted.
What I requested easily filled the classroom. Miss. Granger raised her hand as if on cue. "Did she lose a book again?" she asked.
"I'm not sure why you're so interested in Professor Conners, but I can assure you that I do not know what she was looking for," I said.


I walked to my chamber after my last class. I was curious about what Katherine was doing in my desk, but I knew she was an odd character. Carrie Silvertongue was already there. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," I said.
She smiled sweetly. I was looking forward to it for most of the day. "It's fine," she said.
I quickly unlocked the door to see two cats sitting in my chair. Lenette and a pure white cat with blank gray eyes. "I'll have to make the tea, do you mind waiting?" I asked, pushing the cats off the chair.
"No," she said and followed me into the kitchen. I started to boil the water. "Can I ask you something?"
I watched the cats sit down by my feet. "Sure," I said, realizing she's probably heard the rumors by now.
I kept my back towards her, opening cupboards trying to find teacups. "Did you..." she stopped for a moment. I turned around. Damn, she was looking at me. "Did you have a relationship with a student?" she asked.
"No!" I said, maybe too loud. I turned my back on her to take the cups off the shelf. "I did NOT. I almost lost my job through that rumor."
I felt myself grow cross. "Could you tell the story please? Minerva refused," she said, and touched my arm.
Damn her charm! I felt the white cat brush up against me. "Yeah, sure," I said. "It was my first year teaching, so I wasn't much older than the seventh year students. Anyways, there was this one student... I wasn't interested in her, nor any of the other students. She was... well... different. She had been held back a grade because her father thought it would be better for her. Anyways, her last year of school, my first year of teaching. There was three years between us, so I befriended her around the middle of the year, because her friends had kind of abandoned her. She wasn't a happy person, so I did what I could do to cheer her up. You can understand what kind of rumors went around," I said, looking at her. "One day, she was really upset. I wasn't sure what to do, so I hugged her. I realize it was wrong, but I had this girl pouring her heart out to me. Minerva, well, she walked in on me. She told on us, and a lot of things got blown out of proportion. The girl had a lot of shit on her as well. Supposedly she slept with me to get good marks, even though her marks were low in my class and high in others. It made it hard for her to decide what to do after school. I had eyes on me all the time. Our friendship kind of died, since we could only see each other in class, and even then it was hard to talk. I was there for her graduation, shook her hand, and watched her leave. I'm still being watched, but not as bad. All of the teachers knew the story, and would tell every new staff member, just in case it happened again."
"You poor thing," she said, her eyes full of sympathy. "Did you ever see her again?" she asked.
"Nope," I said. My eyes looked down as I spoke, "And that's probably better for my career."
She walked closer to me. I hadn't finished getting out the cups. "But you do miss her then?"
I was feeling uncomfortable. I did like Carrie, but I didn't want to talk to her about this situation. "I don't know," I said, stepping back.
I tripped over the white cat and fell to the ground. Damn. I'm sure my fall made me much more attractive to Carrie. She laughed lightly and held out her hand. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"Fine," I said, making sure the cat was okay.
I stood up on my own. Now I was frustrated as well. "Do you think you could help me with something?" she asked.
"Depends on what it is," I said, brushing the cat hair off my pants.
She moved too close to me. "Would you come with me into the forbidden forest?"
"I don't know... why?" I asked.
A disappointed frown appeared on her face. "My familiar wandered into there last night... and I'm too nervous to go in alone."
She was the defense against the dark arts teacher. Why was she scared? "Why do you need my help?" I asked.
"I said I was too nervous to go alone," she said, getting frustrated.
"You'd be fine. You know enough to protect yourself," I said.
Why does she want me there so badly? She ran her hand against my leg. "Maybe I just want you in a more private place..." she raised an eyebrow suggestively.
"W-What?" I stepped back against the wall.
She let go of my leg. "Okay, I really did lose my familiar, and I don't want to go alone because, to be honest, I'm not great at casting a spell in an emergency. Plus, I haven't been in the forest before," she said.
"So you don't want to fuck me?" I asked, half joking.
She laughed. "Well, I was hoping to seduce you," she said. "But it didn't work."
It would have if she continued. "Well, at least you were honest," I said. "I'll go with you."
"Right now? Cause I'm getting nervous without him," she said.
"Yeah, sure," I said.
I followed her out of my chamber and locked the door behind me. Did I leave the water on? It should be fine. "Oh, and I never said that I didn't want to sleep with you," she winked and pulled on my arm.
I felt my face turn red and we walked out of the school. I quickly made sure my wand was in my pocket. She followed me into the forest. "Do you have any idea where it went?" I asked.
"Over there I think," she said, pointing off in a dark part.
I walked to where it was and looked to the ground. Something hard crashed down against my head and I fell to the ground, loosing consciousness.