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"If you ever feel the need to levitate a meal, I'd like to be on hand to see it."
xXNineXx
Harry's Time (March/April 1992)
"So I hear you've got a dragon."
"How'd you—"
"I have my ways...What type is it?"
"A Norwegian Ridgeback. I named 'im Norbert."
She smiled up at the giant gamekeeper. "Can I see him?"
"Sure." Hagrid opened the door to his hut just enough for both of them to enter.
"He's so...words fail, Rubeus, words fail."
Hagrid gave her a strange look. "No one's called me Rubeus in years, Professor Deer."
"Sylvia. The name is Sylvia. I can call you Hagrid if you'd rather."
Hagrid shrugged.
"Yeh remind me of someone," he said reaching down to pet Norbert. "She got along wi' fascinating creatures...like yeh seem to."
She laughed, a little nervously. "I'm sure it's a coincidence, Hagrid." She patted Norbert, dodged a stream of fire, and stood up. "I'd better go, essays to grade..."
She wasn't sure Hagrid even heard her as she left, so focused was he on Norbert and old memories.
Once she was back inside the castle, she started to laugh, almost hysterically.
"Professor?" asked someone. "Are you all right?"
She glanced down at one of the Weasley twins, though she wasn't sure which one.
"I'm fine," she returned, managing to stop laughing. "Just a nervous breakdown is all. Dragons can do that to you..."
"Dragons?" That was the other twin, who had come up on her other side.
"Never mind. So what are you two up to?"
"Um..."
"Er..."
She laughed. "Pranking someone? As long as it's not me, I'm fine with it."
They gaped at her.
"Oh come on, you should have expected that. I let you off detention, didn't I? And anyway, it's the same policy I used with the Marauders. You know who they are, right? I mean, you found their map, didn't you?"
They just stared. "Wha—how—how'd you know about that?"
She shrugged. "I had a very small part in making it. I tend to keep tabs on stuff I've made."
Not that that was the only reason she knew, but she wasn't about to tell them that...
"You knew the Marauders?" Both twins had awed looks on their faces.
"Fairly well, yes. I met them here, actually. Well, not this particular hallway, but you know what I mean."
"What were they like? I mean, what are they like? I mean, if you met them at school, they can't be much older than you, right?"
She laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment. And I can tell you right now..." her smile turned to a frown. "At least one of them is dead. Another may or may not be. The other two are very much alive, although one of them might disagree with you slightly on that, he'd probably say something about it not being much of a life." She sighed. This was one of her touchiest subjects, not that the twins knew it.
Both twins' eyes had widened. "Which ones? I mean...which one is in which condition?"
She had to smile at the hasty and jumbled question, although the smile quickly faded. "Prongs is dead. Wormtail may or may not be. Padfoot would say that his life currently isn't much of one. Moony is probably fairly sad, but definitely alive, as far as I know."
"Pity," said one of them. "I thought Prongs was brilliant."
She started to laugh again. "So did he, as well as a good deal of the rest of the school. Except for the Slytherins."
"Oh! Which house were they in? Or which houses?"
"Gryffindor," she grinned.
"What are or were they like?"
She grinned slightly. "Hm, let's see. Padfoot was playful, and...a bit of a ladies' man, I guess you could call it, charming and everything. Moony was studious, but still good fun. Prongs was...rather like Padfoot, only he was chasing this one girl who I tend to call his 'Flower'. She hated him, of course, so it was rather a shock when they finally started to get along in seventh year...they got married, actually, and so now we also have Prongs Jr. And Wormtail just...followed them around, really, I'm not even sure why he was there. He must have had a few good ideas from time to time, though. Funny how he turned into a rat...and Padfoot turned into a dog..."
"How so, Professor?"
"Dogs are loyal. Rats are..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Merlin! How could they have trusted him?" She actually slammed her fist against the wall before she caught herself. She looked around to find that the twins were staring at her.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "It's just...everyone thinks that Padfoot betrayed Prongs, Prongs' Flower, and Prongs Jr., and killed Wormtail, but I keep thinking it's the other way around. But I can't go to Azkaban to ask Padfoot about it!"
"Why not?"
"Because I—oh no, I'm not telling you that! No way!"
They both sighed. "Worth a shot..."
"Someday you two will get me arrested," she muttered in annoyance. "Questions and prying and trying to get me to tell you my secrets...!"
"You could get arrestemmph?"
He was cut off by her hand over his mouth.
"I am not a criminal," she said softly. "Accept that, will you? I was an Auror once, I've never been on the Dark side. I just don't feel like losing my sanity in Azkaban for the Ministry's idiocy."
She stepped back.
The twins looked from her, to each other, and then back to her. "We won't tell anyone," they said together.
Her face brightened. "Thanks. You don't know what this means to me."
They shrugged. "Say," said one of them, "d'you think we'll ever get to meet one of the Marauders?"
Their teacher looked blankly at the wall for about a minute, then grinned. "Yes." She looked blank again for another minute, then started to laugh. They looked at her.
"What's so funny?"
She smirked. "If you ever feel the need to levitate a meal, I'd like to be on hand to see it."
They exchanged puzzled glances, then shrugged. "Er...ok..."
There was something strange about Professor Deer, but they didn't mind. She had to be the most interesting teacher in Hogwarts, at least in their opinion.
Now to see if they could figure out any way to get Padfoot out of Azkaban without knowing his real name...
They turned to ask Professor Deer what Padfoot's real name was, but she had gone.
A/N:
Coming up next chapter: the exploits of a young Gryffindor!
Thank you so much to everyone who's been reviewing! And to those who reviewed Cause and Effect, or Loss: a Oneshot - I can't answer the anonymous reviewer, but thank you very much for the review, even though you're probably not reading this...But still, thanks.
~DawnFire~
March 8, 2010: Previously chapter 11. ~DF~
