Alina went downstairs to the Great Hall for lunch where she met up with Dylan, Samantha and Maxine.
"So what happened to Professor Snape?" Sam asks.
"Nothing, a slap on the wrist."
"You're kidding, after what he pulled!"
"Oh, he didn't get away unscathed," Alina says with a smirk.
"What happened?" All three say at the same time.
"Logan grabbed him by the throat and threatened him, using his claws."
Dylan bursts out laughing. "I bet you he pissed himself just by the glare Logan gave him!" Dylan says between guffaws.
"Speaking from experience?" Samanatha asks.
Dylan stops laughing "Yes," then he starts laughing again.
"When did that happen?" Alina asks him
"When Logan thought we were dating."
Dylan and Alina looked at each other, "Eew gross!" They say then laugh and high five. Dylan and Alina could never be more than best friends.
They go into the Great Hall and take a seat at the Gryffindor table, they are suddenly surrounded by all the seventh year Gryffindors.
"What happened, Alina why did Snape try to hex you?" Oliver Wood asks.
"He lost his temper when I told him he sucked at Legilimency."
"Why would you tell him that?" Asked another seventh that saw the whole thing.
"Because he was using it on Dylan, Sam, and Max then he tried with me and failed."
"He did?!" The other three say in unison.
"Yep."
"Why did he do that?" Angela asks
"I have no idea what information he wanted."
"Well, obviously you didn't get expelled, that's good."
As they're talking, Snape walks by glancing at the Gryffindor table he makes eye contact with Alina and he shutters, remembering the burly man with the claws who is immune to magic. She smirks, raises a glass to him, he sneers at her. Alina chuckles and shakes her head, ah if he only knew who her grandfathers is. She goes back to eating and talking with the other Gryffindors.
Remus chuckled at the silent exchanged that he had just witnessed between Alina and Severus. He had heard what had happened in potions class today, like everyone else in the castle had. He too wondered why Severus would resort to using the Legilimency Spell on a student and why that would lead to him wanting Alina to be expelled. Remus was glad though, that nothing came of Snape's attempts.
The rest of the afternoon went by smoothly, and the the rest of the classes went off without a hitch. That is until the quartet got to their last class of the day, Defense Against the Dark Art. They walk into class 3C, looking around they noticed that an iron chandelier hung from the ceiling, as well as a dragon's skeleton. On one end of the classroom stands a projector that is activated by magic. Several desks and tables can be found in the classroom as well as some sets of large windows.
"Nice." Dylan and Alina say at the same time.
They go and sit on the far side of the room where they had the best view of the class Alina and Dylan at on table, with Max and Sam sitting behind them. Slowly but surely the classroom began to fill up, Gyffindor on their side of the room and Hufflepuff on the other. Once everyone arrives the door to the class opens one last time and in walks Professor Lupin, with an amused smirk on his face.
Remus was about to walk into the classroom when he too felt the eyes upon him, he turned and saw them in a dark corner of the hallway. Remus took out his wand and began walking toward the familar set of eyes. He cautiously continues forward, expecting the eyes to disappear as they had with the other teachers who had seen them. Instead there is a low growl coming from the shadows and Remus realizes what it is, The Dire Wolf. The wolf stands up and comes out of the shadows, staring Remus down growling very softly, only loud enough for Remus to hear.
"Oh so you're the one who has been haunting the halls today." The wolf continues to stare at Remus.
"Been protecting Miss. Xavier all day, have you?"
The wolf stands to its full height and nods, this surprises Remus a little, he was not expecting a response. Remus tries to move closer to the wolf, but he drops back down in a defensive position, growling once again at Remus.
"I'm not going to hurt her if that's what you're worried about, I promise. If you want, go in and be with her if you don't trust me." Remus says to the wolf in his calmest voice.
The wolf looks like he's considering it, he snarls one last time at Remus, slinks back into the shadows and vanishes. This left Remus feeling satisfied, although a little weirded out because it could do that. With an amused smirk he walks into his classroom.
Once he enters, however, he notices in the corner closest to Alina the amber eyes reappear.
'I guess he doesn't trust me after all.' Remus thinks.
"Good afternoon class I am your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Remus Lupin. For the beginning of this term, we will be reviewing what you have learned over the past six years, so I can measure your strengths and your weaknesses. After which we will work on your weaknesses to prepare you for your N.E.W.T.s. But today we shall start out with something fun."
Remus takes out his wand and summons a cabinet, he places it in the middle of the room, the cabinet begins to rattle.
"Can anyone tell me what's in this cabinet?"
"A boggart, sir." A girl from Hufflepuff answers.
"Correct, 10 points to Hufflepuff, does anyone remember what a boggart is?"
Maxine raises her hand and is called upon.
"A boggart is a shapeshifter that usually lurks in dark spaces. It has no definite form, taking the shape of that which is most feared by the person who encounters it. When not in the sight of a person, it is believed to look like a dark blob."
"Correct 10 points to Gryffindor, and how do you fight off a boggart, Miss. Xavier?"
"To repel or destroy a boggart, it must be laughed at. The spell Riddikulus can be cast to force the boggart to assume a generally amusing shape of what the caster mentally conceives."
"Correct another 10 points. Today we shall have a little fun and make fun of our darkest fears, everyone line up please."
Everyone rushes to get in line, Professor Lupin let's the boggart out and the fun begins. After the student would confront the boggart he would go and sit down to let the next person go. That's how it went all class period, people facing their fears and overcominng them. Until it came to Alina's turn.
She had been laughing along with everyone else as they faced the boggart. She wasn't sure what her's would turn into, last time they did this in Ilvermorny it was a snake, but she had long since gotten over that fear. So what was it now?
It was Alina's turn to face the boggart, it whirled around and suddenly there stood a giant of a man dressed completely in black with a black trench coat on, He smiles at Alina showing off his tiger like canines he takes a step forward and she takes on back.
"Sabertooth." Alina whispers.
Dylan, Maxine and Samantha gasp at the sight him.
**That's it, kid, nowhere left to run, you're all alone, there's no one left.** His smile grows wider as he pulls out a bloody head from inside his coat and tosses it at her, Logan's head lands right at her feet, the class gasps some cry out in horror at the sight of the bloody mess. **The runt's not gonna save you this time. I'm gonna have fun skinning you alive** He extends his claws, let's out a roar and lunges for her.
Professor lupin's eyes widen at the sight of all the blood and at the man with the claws, and right when Sabertooth lunges he slides in front of Alina and the boggart changes to the full moon.
"Riddikulus!"
And the boggart turns into a deflating balloon, Remus directs the boggart back into the cabinet and slams it shut.
"Thank you all, class dismissed, Miss. Xavier please stay a moment."
Dylan, Samantha and Maxine hesitate to leave Alina, but Remus gives them a nod.
"It's alright, she'll be along shortly."
Alina goes back to her desk and begins to angrily pack up her things. Remus comes over and lays a hand on her shoulder, she jumps at the contact.
"Here have some chocolate, it helps." She takes the piece of chocolate and pops it in her mouth.
"Thanks, Professor, sorry for that pathetic display. I knew exactly what to do, but I couldn't do it."
"You have nothing to feel sorry for, it's sometimes difficult to face our fears, that wasn't pathetic at all."
"The funny thing is, I didn't even know I was afraid of him."
"May I ask, who he is?"
" His real name is Victor Creed, but he goes by Sabertooth."
"And would he really act the way the boggart portrayed him?"
Alina took a deep breath, thinking about how to answer Professor Lupin's question. Alek steps out of the shadows and walks towards Alina, never once taking his eyes off of Remus. When he reaches her, he places himself be her and him. Alek nuzzles her hand to let her know he's there, she automatically starts petting him. Remus unconcsciously takes a step towards Alina. Alek immedietely becomes aggressive and snarls at Remus, Alina lays a hand on the wolf and he calms down.
"It's alright Alek, he's one of the good guys, and to answer your question, Professor, yes Victor would love nothing more than to skin me alive." Considering her healing factor would have it grow back, Victor would loads of fun.
"Why?"
"For sport, for the fun of it, Victor enjoys killing, he's good at it, and he doesn't really need a reason why."
"But why you?"
"Because his brother cares for me, watches over me. And what better way to torment your brother than to kill the things he loves."
"He sounds like an evil and sadistic person."
"Victor is much worse than you think, Professor, he's tried several time to kill Logan, but he's never been able to. I guess my fear is that one day he'll succeed, and that it'll be because he was protecting me."
Tears once again began to flow, Remus was so heartbroken at the sight of her crying that couldn't help himself. He reached for the girl and pulled her into an embrace, she wrapped her arms around him and sobbed. His arms tightened around her as she snuggled into him, after a while her tears finally stopped. They stood there for a little while until Alina pulled away from him, she smiled up at him.
"Thanks, Professor, for putting up with my blubbering."
Remus smiled at her, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket, he wiped her eyes.
"No problem what so ever."
Remus reluctantly lets her go as she did the same. "Well, I guess I better go find my friends, thanks again Professor. Come on Alek let's get you something to eat or are you going hunting…"
Remus heard her saying to the Dire Wolf as she walked out of his classroom, he sighs, gathers his things and walks into his office.
Alina found her friends, they had been sitting on the bottom of the stone steps waiting for you. When they saw her and Alek they immedietely jumped up and walked towards her.
"Who was that?" Maxine asks
"You guys have heard me talk about Sabertooth? Well that was him."
Dylan's eyes widen "That was him, no wonder your afraid of him. But you really don't think he could kill Logan, do you?"
"No I don't think so, but I may need to go home to reassure myself that he's okay. For now let's go back to the common room and relax until dinner."
"So what happened with Professor Lupin?" Samantha asks.
"Nothing, he was just checking up on me to see if I was alright. He gave me a piece of chocolate and a hug, we talked a bit about Victor."
Sam and Max look at each other and smile.
"What?"
"Well, on the up side at least you got a hug from your crush."
"You have a crush on Lupin?!" Dylan whisper shouts.
"Shut up no I don't, you guys are imagining things."
"Sure, we are, Alina, keep telling yourself that." Dylan tells her while grabbing her in a hug, Alina laughs and tries to get away. She gets away from him and he chases around, they end up running into the court yard. Dylan catches her and she screams. She laughs as he spins her around.
"Cut it out you two and let's get back to the common room." Maxine says
Dylan laughs and drops Alina on her butt, he wraps his arm around Maxine and gives her a kiss.
"Jerk," Alina says as she sit there on the ground huffing with her arms crossed, Samantha helps her up
"Come on you nuts, to the common room"
TO THE COMMON ROOM!" They shout.
Unbeknownst to them, Remus had been watching them the whole time through the window. He was fixing himself some tea and just happened to glance out the window, when he saw them playing. He was happy to see Alina laughing, but he felt a twinge of jealousy, when Dylan wrapped his arms around her. He cleared his throat and looked away.
"What am I thinking, she's a student." He says to himself. Remus finishes his tea and heads down to the Great Hall for dinner.