Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be :)
To make up for the long gap between posts here's a second chapter :)
Eventually they made it back to Hogwarts, several of the students, namely Puck, Santana and Brittany had managed to slip away from Will and Emma at Fortescue's, they had been found trying to rent a room in a seedy hotel in Knockturn Alley. The entire group was thankful that they had had most of their purchases sent to Hogwarts. By dinner time everyone was exhausted, the Great Hall was filled with chatter and laughter from the students as old friends continued to catch up while moaning about getting homework on the first day and new friends got to know each other a little better. Dinner at the head table, on the other hand, was a tense affair, Emma and Will were still very much in the honeymoon phase of their relationship and Shelby was doing everything that she reasonably could to avoid the couple and since everyone else at the table knew the three of them, or at least of them, whether they had gone to school with the three or had taught them, consequently everyone had an opinion on the current situation.
Unfortunately for the three teachers their evening was only going to get worse.
New Directions, and Jesse, had anticipated that their teachers might try and get out of having to tell them what was going on and had planned accordingly. As soon as dinner ended they put their plan into action, each teacher found themselves being bombarded with questions from several members of the group, Shelby was cornered by Rachel, Jesse, Santana, Brittany and Kurt (the group had decided that as the 'unknown' in the situation they should send the most people to slow her down), Will was ambushed by Finn, Mike, Mercedes and Tina and Emma was waylaid by Quinn, Puck, Artie and Matt. They managed to keep the teachers behind long enough for the rest of the staff and students to have left.
"Guys what's going on?" asked Will exasperatedly
"Mr Schue you said that you'd tell us what's going on" said Finn
Will glanced over first at Emma who smiled encouragingly; he turned to glance at Shelby who refused to look him in the eye and instead kept her eyes on the floor. He sank heavily onto the steps in front of the head table and, once she had cast Scourgify on the area, Emma sat next to him and he took her hand in his. Meanwhile Shelby also chose to sit on the steps but picked a place mid-way between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables rather than between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables with Will and Emma, the members of New Directions sat near the base of the steps, some on the floor between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, some at tables themselves, so that all three teachers were in view.
"What do you want to know?" asked Will tiredly
"How about what the heck is going on" replied Puck
"Ok, a bit more general than I was hoping for…" Will paused "Ms Corcoran, Miss Pillsbury and I all went to school here, Ms Corcoran and I were in the same year group and Miss Pillsbury was 3 years below us. Miss Pillsbury and I were here as part of a programme to improve relationships between the British Ministry of Magic and the American ministry, I was here for all seven years of schooling but unfortunately my last year was also the last year that the program was run and so the other American students had to finish their schooling back in the US. I was sorted into Gryffindor, Miss Pillsbury was in Hufflepuff"
"And I was in Ravenclaw" said Shelby as she took over from Will "When we were in school the War was just beginning, everyone was scared for their families and when they were home for their own lives but none of us realised just how sheltered we were until we left. Here though it mattered what your blood status was or what side your family was on it didn't matter as much as it did in the real world, outside these grounds was a completely different world. Everyone was in danger and everyone was scared, the only difference was whether you were in danger from Death Eaters or Aurors, people were terrified to leave their homes, you couldn't trust anyone, even those closest to you" While speaking Shelby had unknowingly wrapped her arms around herself and her eyes were filled with unshed tears.
"Did you lose family in the war Ms Corcoran?" asked Kurt gently
"No, I didn't, at least not like that. My family was neutral in the War, but it turned out that my father hadn't believed in neutrality and had secretly supported Voldemort and blood purity, my older brother discovered some of his old journals and joined the Death Eaters as soon as he left school, he was disowned for doing it. We were brought up better than that; we were taught that everyone was equal, no matter who their parents were. Most of the other Death Eaters weren't so lucky; blood purity was all they'd ever known. He went to Azkaban for his crimes and while I can't and won't defend his actions or beliefs in any way he was still my brother and I loved him."
"What exactly was the war about?" asked Quinn
"Blood purity, the idea that those with 'pure' blood are better than those with any amount of muggle blood, as I said most pure bloods are raised to believe that because they have no muggles in their family trees they are therefore better than those who do, to the point that they believe that muggle-borns aren't worthy of their magic, that they're less than dirt and should be treated as such, some even believe that muggle-borns steal their magic and that that's why some children born into completely magical families possess no magical ability and that a wand owned by a muggle-born must have been stolen from a 'real' witch or wizard. There was a man who believed this and started to gather followers to aid him in trying to enforce it, his followers were known as Death Eaters, they were ruthless fanatics who idolised their leader and carried out his every whim. Luckily not all pure bloods believe this, but those who don't are often branded blood traitors, the only reason that my family wasn't was because they refused to pick sides"
Seeing that the current topic was getting to Shelby Will took over again "Their leader was known as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who, he was vanquished nearly two years after Ms Corcoran and I left Hogwarts by a one year old boy called Harry Potter, the only person to have ever survived the killing curse"
"The guy with the scar on his head in our year?" asked Mercedes
"Yes, no one's sure how he did it but he did. Some of You-Know-Who's followers were imprisoned in Azkaban; others said that they had been under the Imperius curse and were allowed to resume their lives as if nothing had happened. " Continued Will "Two years ago You-Know-Who was resurrected and then last year there was a mass break-out at Azkaban, the Death Eaters that had been imprisoned there escaped. Before any of you start panicking, Hogwarts is the safest place you could be in, not even You-Know-Who would dare cross Dumbledore"
"But the woman who was chasing us was one of them" stated Jesse
"Yes" answered Shelby with a slight tremor in her voice "That was Bellatrix Lestrange, You-Know-Who's best lieutenant"
"Why would they send her after you, I mean you're a pure-blood and from one of the oldest families in Britain" Kurt asked Shelby
"You've done your research I see, to be honest I was a little surprised the Sorting Hat didn't put you in Ravenclaw" Shelby smiled sadly "My family has been neutral for centuries and both sides knew it and in a way that kept us safe, both sides could try and recruit us as much as they wanted though we would never choose, but neither side could afford to potentially lose our support or the money and prestige that we would bring and so they couldn't use any violent methods to get their own way. That is until my brother joined the Death Eaters, with him on their side they began to think that maybe they could get other family members to join them, namely me, so I went into hiding in America. Somehow they found me again and I presume that Bellatrix was on a violent recruiting trip."
"Mr Schue, you said that they would've come after you sooner or later, why?" questioned Mike
"When I was at school I was very close to a pure blood girl whose family had all been in Slytherin, but being a half blood myself her father didn't approve, he used to claim that I had corrupted her and that I must have had her under some kind of spell or potion and Death Eaters don't tend to let that kind of thing go"
"Her father was a Death Eater?"
"No, but other members of her family were"
Suddenly Shelby stood up "You guys all need to get to bed, it's late and you have classes tomorrow, I'll write all of you notes in case you get stopped by a prefect but they will only work for the amount of time it should take each of you to get to your dorms so no dawdling or detours, ok"
They all lined up to get their notes. The last to collect a note was Rachel
"Mom, are you ok?"
"I'm fine Sweetie, I promise" Shelby smiled "Now go on, get to bed"
The only ones left in the Great Hall were Shelby and Will; Emma had left about five minutes ago with the first lot of students.
"Hey, you alright?" asked Will as he awkwardly stuffed his hands in his pockets
"I'm being hunted by Death Eaters and I'm stuck in a place that brings back too many bad memories surrounded by people that I don't know and don't trust so yes Will, I'm fine, " Shelby said sarcastically
Will walked over to her and gently cupped her cheek with a concerned look "They're not all bad memories are they?"
She looked down before unintentionally lowering her voice "Not all of them, but even the good ones bring back bad ones"
"You still trust me don't you?"
"No, I don't" She whispered as she walked away from him and left him standing there alone in the Great Hall dumbfounded and wondering what he'd done to lose her trust when he'd worked so hard to gain it in the first place.
A/N: Please review :)