That young October morning, whem the fog was still up and the soft dawn of winter chill was already underway, seventeen students could be seen going out of the castle doors marching towards the forest in a straight line.
They couldn't believe their luck when earlier that day when Professor Lupin had told the entire class they were going to have a practical, everyone was already zipping their bags and cleaning their desks before he finished his sentence.
It was such a sight. With their wands on duel position and their chins high up, they marched out to the grounds In two perfectly dotted lines; proud young faces dreaming of battles to come. And why should not hold their chins up? For they had already mastered the different duel stances. And today, their teacher was going to show off their hard-earned skill. Any adversary in front of them and they would know what to do. They will not be caught off guard.
More than one student gazed excitedly and sadly from their classroom window, wondering when it would be their turn to march off to the grounds and smell the green fern, that could only be afforded in Professor Lupin's class, only to be called back by their teacher to go back to smelling the dusty crimpy air of the classroom, where they miserably try to fight off sleep.
"Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" whispered Peggy.
"For heaven's sake Peggy! You've said that seven times." said Alice, putting a protective spell on her robes to keep them off the mud, while Peggy's own robes just went sloshing. She lazily sloshed it even more because of boredom.
"My feet is already tired," she kicked a stone from the ground with her feet.
"Peggy, Professor Lupin is not going to massage your ankles let alone carry you to the hospital wing just because you sprained it in his class," said Alice.
Peggy huffed sulkily and said no more.
At first, Peggy thought they were finally arriving at their destination point because they already reached a considerable distance from the castle. But the profressor led them further until they were on the parts where the students had not dared venture yet in their own wanderings during free hours. So they plodded on a bit further.
To make up for her sulking, she was now eating the chocolate which Violet gave her. The purple-haired witch offered it first to Professor Lupin, but he said "No" not quite rudely (but her own feelings were hurt, she was a bit sensitive) then stalked away, as if he was trying to avoid Violet at all cost.
"Professor, professor, is it still very far?"
"Not much now Miss Price," he said cordially. There see? He isn't rude. So she stalked forward with the kinnd image of professor Lupin in her head unbleamished.
At first Peggy thought the whole lake was just a body of water, but as they went nearer, she noticed a patch of land in the middle of the lake, not nearly an island but it was round. When they turned the corner, she discovered that you could actually reach that land by the patch of scattered ones that made it into a line and extended towards it.
Then Professor Lupin went forward and dissappeared from view because of a big tree. They followed through the gap and saw for themselves the beginning of the land patches, that went quite up to the middle of the lake.
Here, they continued to march. Their neat two lines scattered about here and there as the patch of soil where they walked changed shapes. Professor Lupin looked like he was leading a pack of soldier crabs across the shoreline. It now apparent that they were intending to reach the big patch of land in the middle.
Violet Sharp finally thought that she was going to have her long-awaited redemption.
Professor Lupin stopped. Everyone stopped also (except for Peggy, she bumped into Violet's back).
"Listen everyone. This part of the lake is full of dark creatures. Your goal is to reach the other side using a small boat," he pointed at the shady part of the bank on the other side, a bit far and looking small from where they were. "without falling out of your boat. Now group yourselves into three."
Tonks looked over the competing teams.
The Professor had one boat for himself along with some boys scared-looking boys.
Miss Serenity was on one of the other boats too. Serenity Gertude Blythe is a tightly-laced girl who is generally adored by everyone. High in her school work and also stunningly beautiful. She knows her position as the queen of the social castle that is called Hogwarts. She is kind as kind can be but a slip here and there would let you know that she knows her position as the alpha and would use it to her full advantage, unbenowest to herself.
She held her chin as she was looking over to Miss Sharp and entourage and thought they were tactless undignified pack of giggling school girls and she was way above those shallow things in life. And she was a prefect who had to check and keep everything like a goody two shoes it girl, with blond hair, cheeky formal wardrobe and kindness.
Crossing over the dark murky waters, the ripple disturbance trails that they left kept getting bigger, they looked like a bunch of looming reserve student war-force in case of a war break-out. Nothing has happened yet. Everyone held their breaths.
Then all of a sudden, a huge tentacle broke out of the water, almost upsetting and tipping over the nearby boats whose contents thereoff, held on for their dear life.
Peggy screamed. Alice stooped and put a slight hover charm on the back to keep it from tipping, ao that their boat for a moment flew by a foot, then land back unscathed on the water. Violet? Violet was standing in the front, her eyes shone bright as the wift of water splashed in front of it, unpertubed and unmoved by the fact that the boat lurched to and fro almost above her head.
The race was on, and Tonks was ready for action. Yes, see me in action, professor, and you'd be totally smitten off your feet. That's right, come to me giant squid. But before she could show her prowess, she had stepped into an old net lying innocently on the boat and was thrown overboard. But that's alright. It's not as if she could not heave herself in in a jiffy.
But Lupin was quicker and heaved her out of the water without so much as flicking his wand or moving from his seat. He didn't even need to stand to look over.
"Alright there Miss Sharp?" said Lupin, sitting smugly after waiving his wand to heave her back to the boat, not even needing to move a muscle than those in his wrist. Tonks nodded. She was dripping wet having just been slumped unceremoniously to their boat like a wet rat. After that, Lupin turned away to drive the students with more instructions and took no more notice of her.
Alice noticed her disappointment at his lack of attention. "Well, what did you expect? For you to be dragged down by a giant squid, for him to jump over the water, carry you like a princess to the lake edge and fuss over you, so you could pretend to be unconscious and he can give you a CPR?" she told her.
"Giant Squid Alert!" Violet shouted, cutting her off mid-lecture. The squid slumped one of its tentacles In the same line as their boat. It lurched sideways almost vertical.
This time, she jumped in time, and before landing on the water, she casted a cooling charm for it to freeze on the surface. She will not be caught going in it again like a simpleton of a fifth year. Alice simply levitated the other half of the boat again so it became horizontal again, then cast a cushioning charm for it to land like a feather on the water. The other boat near them weren't so lucky.
Serenity Gertrude Blythe landed in the water when her boat tumbled. Her ankle got gripped by the giant squid. She let out a scream for help before the squid dragged her down the deep waters.
This time, Lupin took off his coat and made a dive. After a few minutes he and Miss Blythe emerged into the surface, where the whole class by all means had already imagined the most amazing of rescues involving wrestling and magic and action. The class "oooeed" and "Aaaa"ed, because this was what Defense and fighting looked like, and they had seen for themselves the Lupin in-action version.
Tonks had her jaw dropped as she watched the whole scene. Serenity Gertrude Blythe made Professor Lupin dive off the boat and get wet.
"Guess I was wrong," Alice shrugged.
Lupin and Serenity were swimming to the edge of the lake with Lupin firmly supporting both their weights. He carried Miss Blythe to the edge beside some potato plants and was now bending over to the girl. Tonks could not help noticing that Lupin's shirt stuck a bit to his skin after a lake swim. This reminded Tonks of someone she quite forgot the name of. Something about grounds and countryside proposals and lake dives and vast properties with long promenades. Dorkshire... drakeshire...
The girl replied weakly about a swollen ankle and Lupin gave her first aid by massaging her feet.
"There, does it still hurt?" said Professor Lupin affably.
Tonks hissed. She shot forward to a run, freezing the water with her wand as she stepped into it. She shoved a water-demon out of the way that shot from below and went screeching to her face with her free hand when her other hand was still down, then swished her wand-hand sideways to freeze it quickly to move it down again to freezing her steps. The water-demon froze before it hit the water with a clunk.
Then she shot a couple more water-demons who were trying to get near, shouting stupefy and Impedimienta to the top of her lungs like she was some scary witch from Hansel and Gretel.
Then big globs of slimy round spheres disturbed the surface as if trying to eat up her ice. It was only after closer inspection that she discovered they were actually leeches.
One bit her arm to sink its circle-shaped razor-sharp teeth.
"Alright, that's it!"
She enclosed her whole body in a freezing charm, then set fire to the outside of it. So then she was free to kick them back to the water as she pleased. The leeches cowered and dared not approach the fire.
She looked, for all in the world as if the whole fire around her was her fuming anger. She emerged from the lake after killing a dozen more arm-sized leeches. (It must have been the school's way to save on funds to let the students tackle the leech infestation.) As a result, she was drenched in blood and water and mud, looking as far as possible from the word graceful and looking for all in the world as if she just slayed a dragon.
But she didn't know yet that Lupin's fettish for women involved exactly that: those who looked like they just slayed a dragon, and that the mud and the blood on her uniform just made her look more sexy. Needless to say it was exactly this kind of scene that Lupin had fallen for Tonks back in the Order days.
The Professor looked at his young student, and he was reminded for the moment when a Manticore had just attacked Tonks and was on top of her ready to devour. Lupin had rushed to her rescue, still thinking that she was an overrated fresh graduate rookie trying to impress her superiors with her non-existent skills. But Tonks had emerged from the onslaught unscathed, but with blood (of the Manticore, not hers) and grime all over her face like a warrior.
She had shoved the animal aside without dread or fancy girl reservations as if it was not a great big carcass and had given Lupin an unaffected "Is there a problem, Remus?" when she found him staring wide eyed on the scene.
Tonks had bit her lip thinking how violent she must have looked like while Lupin had cleared his throat trying hard and succeeding to hide his amazement and wonder.
"Is there a problem, sir?" said Violet.
Lupin snapped out from his reverie. He cleared his throat."Well done Miss Sharp. Ten points to Gryffindor."
And now, she, Tonks, was emerging from the lake, and moving in slow-motion, her hair flying wet and graceful, and her face filled with such fierceness from the last battle as she bathed in victory for defeating lake monsters, she moved towards Lupin and roughly pinned him to the a tree, then kissed him, and cared not that everybody had a full view.
"Earth to Violet! Earth to Violet! Wait, are you drooling?" Peggy pushed her out to the land.
Tonks shot him an angry glance which was all she could do to stop herself from saying, "shut up!". She was still feeling annoyed, especially when she looked over to the face of Miss Blythe, who had a shy weak smile in her graceful face.
"Argg! How I wish professor Lockhart were here!" said Tonks out loud.
"You really are obsessed with teachers are you?" said Alice just crawling carefully behind her from the boat.
"Speak for yourself, you!" Tonks pointed an accusing finger at her. "If I know, you hide behind a façade who's all responsible and dependable when you are secretly making plots to manipulate the whole school to your fancy!"
Alice covered her mouth. "Shhh, Don't speak a thing. A good image is very helpful in a lot of circumstances. You must make yourself appear right to the right people."
Tonks nodded to say that she understood, so Alice removed her hand.
"Cras Violet, very cras. Whatever you do, you will never be Professor Lupin's type," said Peggy.
It was already night-time when Violet stopped in her tracks. Someone was sobbing in the bathroom.
Tonks could recognize Peggy's voice if it was across the room.
"I know why you're crying," said another voice she was probably talking to. "Your money is up. You can't stay here at Hogwarts next year."
"Everyone's got gold problems you see. Not just me," said Peggy.
"Yes. So you must naturally also know the consequences of not having one. Next year, you can't enrol. You go back to the muggle world. Try being a first year all over again. You already know from the very start, Peggy. You'd end up in this glitch sooner or later."
"I… I'll think of something...do an odd job here or there. I'll get through."
"I have a better deal for you."
"Alright. What job is it?"
