AN: I'm back baby! Sorry for such a long delay but I had a fantastic fricken summer. My husband and I set foot in every state in New England, and also upstate New York and if I told you about all the fun stuff we did, this AN would be longer than this chapter. In between all the fun though, I managed to sort out a lot of what I want to see happening with Brie and Sev in book 3. I feel like I am far enough ahead of the first few chapters that it is a pretty safe bet I haven't screwed anything up. You never know though, let me know if you notice any inconsistencies. I start to take the biggest liberty that I have taken so far in this first chapter. I'll let you guys see if you start to catch it. As always, thanks to the new favs and follows and especially to my new and loyal reviewers. Honestly, one of the things that kept me writing in between my own adventures was that I knew that there are people out there waiting to see what happens with our two favourite Hogwarts professors.
escape5- Great to see a new reviewer. :) I don't think either Severus or Brie are the type of person to quit exploring any sort of unknown like that, unless they are forced to. irezei- I suspect Severus went right to a potion that needed a wand because that would be the truest test of being about to 100% brew potions and that's the biggest curiosity to Brie. Besides, if she'd been able to make a potion without a wand, she'd just want to make another one that needed a wand anyway. She's Brie. notwolf- Let's see if you're right. After all, Brie is off to another one of her adventures. OCfan- I think that the last chapter was my favourite from all of 2nd year. Poor Brie and Severus needed some time together.
And now I'll get on with it. Looking forward to reading what you guys think!
From One World to Another and Another and Back Again
"Don't you pick it up with your hands, Gabrielle!" Jill Aru said sharply from behind her camera.
"Don't tell me what to do, Jillian." Brie replied, not taking her eyes off the Russell's viper that was crammed inside the cubby hole of a rough wooden bedside table in the hut where she was currently filming. She and the crew had been making their way through Tripura when they'd come across a small village on the outskirts of Agartala. Once the villagers understood what Brie and the crew were there for, there had been a rush of people pulling her toward this hut and that hut, wanting her to fish snakes out from just about everywhere. So far she'd pulled six Russell's vipers out of four houses. The most interesting one had been wound around the rafters of one hut. The one that had been in the clay pot had also had it's... charms. This one in the cubby would make number seven.
"I can't get the tongs in there, I've got to grab it myself." She said as she passed the tongs to one of the sound guys and took her snake hook from another crew member and very slowly, very carefully inched it into the hole, hoping to pin the snakes head down. She succeeded in getting the hook to the back of the cubby hole without disturbing the viper. She'd have to move quickly once she pinned it's head down. "Someone get a bag ready." She said. "It's coming out in three, two, one." On one she placed the hook firmly behind the vipers head and reached for it's tail with lightning speed. As soon as the hook touched it, the snake began to squirm and twist. "Turning around!" She hollered as she pulled it out by the tail and used the hook to control the head by draping the upper half of the body over it. She turned and put the snake, head first, into the cloth snake bag that one of the crew was holding open for her.
"And THAT'S how you catch a Russell's viper!" She said to the camera with a grin. She had said the same thing with the same grin to the same camera each time she'd caught the six other snakes as well. It insured that Jill would be able to use footage from whichever capture she liked best when it came time to edit the film and TV show. She already knew that the TV show would most likely feature a montage of the end of every single take and Jill would write something into the voice over scripts about film making being very repetitive.
"The Russell's viper, or Daboia is responsible for a large number of bites across India." She continued as she poked around in a few other places that snakes might hide. "This is mainly due to it's widespread distribution and tendency to be found in populated areas." She nodded to the owners of the hut, who smiled at her and thanked her through the interpreter travelling with them. As she and the crew left, a group of villagers took her by the arm and pulled her over to their hut so she could check it next.
"Russell's vipers have hemotoxic venom." She continued to talk to the camera as she searched the new hut. "Meaning that it has a large effect on the blood. The venom from this snake is used in many laboratory studies." She briefly thought back to her days before Hogwarts when she'd happily spend hours in her lab, studying this exact venom. All her colleagues from back then were miles ahead of her in research by now. She felt a little sad about that until she thought about what she'd been doing these last five years instead. 'Totally worth it.' She thought to herself as she finished up checking the current hut without finding any snakes.
When she exited the new hut, another group of villagers were there to try to pull her to the next one. Word was spreading through the village fast and she couldn't stay here all day and hunt down viper after viper. She told the interpreter this and he relayed the message to the people. She smiled apologetically at them as she and the crew made their way out of the village and back into the wilderness that they'd mainly come to film in. They carried the seven vipers, still in the tightly tied snake bags, so that they would be able to release them when they got far from the populated areas.
They'd come to Tripura because it offered several different ecosystems in a relatively small area. They'd be able to film in the mountains, forest and freshwater areas here all without much travel time in between. This was the kind of planning Brie did during the year at Hogwarts. She employed every single trick she could think of to cram as much into the schedule as possible. They were about to set out and make their way through the plains and swamps, into the hilly forest and then up into the mountains. If they got lucky they'd run into things like elephants and leopards.
There were wildlife sanctuaries here and there that they could film in if they really needed to. Even if they found everything they wanted in the wild, they would probably stop in at the sanctuaries if they had time and get some closer footage with some of the tamer rehabilitated animals there, but she always preferred wild footage first so she hoped they'd find what they needed out there.
She also hoped to be able to finish up this trip a lot faster than the last one as she really wanted at least two weeks at home with Evan at the facility before having to return to Hogwarts. She felt like she hadn't seen him in forever, because she really hadn't. The four days she had had between coming home and heading out again had been dominated with work and packing and they'd barely had time to even say hello to each other before she was gone again.
They'd only been in India for two weeks and she was already feeling like she was beat down to the ground after so many months of inactivity at Hogwarts this past year. She was really going to have to do something about the level of exercise she got there. The lack of it was starting to overly effect her ability to do the job that actually paid all the bills. No one wanted to see a red faced puffing slug of a host chasing after things and gasping at the camera. She was probably being too hard on herself, considering that the first two weeks of filming had been very draining. Never mind the time shifts she'd just gone through between Hogwarts, home, and India.
They'd started out in West Bengal which was a hot steamy tropical area that received a lot of heavy rainfall in the summertime. Filming and trekking in the rain, in mangrove forest, was very tiring work, but it had been worth it. They'd managed to film some great footage of Bengal tigers in the wild, which was getting increasingly hard to do as they got pushed closer and closer to extinction. In addition to the tigers they'd been able to film some red pandas and an Indian rhinoceros along with a bunch of different bird species and some crocodiles.
Brie had stopped in at a wildlife sanctuary and had donated a pretty hefty sum of money to their tiger protection efforts. She'd been able to film with some of the tamer tigers that couldn't be released back into the wild for various reason and had been thrilled to be able to get close and stroke them and scratch their ears and listen to them purr. One had even liked her so much that it had let her lay her head on it's chest so she could listen to the combination of purr and heartbeat. It had touched her deeply and they'd filmed all the work that the sanctuary did so that they could put it in the documentary and hopefully draw more attention and funds for them. They'd let her name the newest tiger that would be housed there. She couldn't resist calling him Tony. It wasn't original, but how often do you get a chance to name a tiger?
It also never hurt to have some familiar contacts in various sanctuaries around the world, seeing as her own facility could be considered one as well. Over the past few years Brie had been working on developing personal contact with people she trusted in these kinds of sanctuaries since, eventually, she was going to be done with her filming contract and would have less reason to go out and collect and release on her own. She hoped to be able to start sending snakes to these places so that she was sure they'd be released back into the wild, eliminating the need for her to do it by herself. She wasn't going to start doing that, though, until she had reliable contacts that she had personally met and trusted not to simply keep the snakes in captivity for personal gain and profit.
Truth be told, she would be glad to be done with this filming contract. She had the sneaking suspicion that she was getting to old for this type of thing. Everything bothered her more now than it had when she'd been younger. The first two weeks in the rain had nearly driven her mad and she had spent most of the time being cross and snippy with the crew. Jill had yelled at her for it and Brie had spent that night sulking in her tent like a baby to avoid both the crew and the rain.
Brie really wasn't sure what was wrong with her this trip, but had the nagging suspicion it had something to do with Jill. For some reason she felt like Jill was hiding something from her. For the first time in years, Jill had her own tent. She said it was because editing both the film and the TV show was so time consuming that she needed to work on the documentaries as they filmed to meet the deadlines. She started using her own tent so she could edit at night and not keep Brie awake with the portable editing equipment, but Brie was suspicious. She wasn't really sure why though. Jill seemed fine, she was acting fine, and Brie could see the glow of the viewing equipment through the fabric of her tent late at night, but she still couldn't shake the feeling.
She really was trying to be a good sport and enjoy this time with Jill, as it was the largest amount of time she usually got to spend with her. Especially since she had to cram twice as much voice over work and a whole new slew of annoying TV promotional stuff into her Easter break visits now. The TV show seemed to be limping along at a rate satisfactory enough to have been renewed for another season. It wasn't a smash success, but people didn't seem to hate it either. Jill had managed to make an entire season out of the old footage from all the previous trips up to last year, including the ones with Rogan and Evan. The second season, which was airing now, would cover last years Madagascar trip in more depth than the first season trips, since they had had the extra crew specifically filming the filming of the documentary. This years trip in India would hopefully make up season three. She knew the production company was banking on the more detailed seasons being more popular.
Market research by the production company showed that, at worst, there was a general lack of awareness about the show. Not many people knew it was on TV, so the company decided that they needed to bring Brie into the public spotlight a bit more. In addition to scheduling more commercial spots for the show, the publicity department had also managed to wrangle her an interview with someone from National Geographic magazine. She'd squeezed the interview into the time she hoped she'd be home between filming and leaving for Hogwarts.
While this was all extremely cool, and the show was bringing in a lot of donations to the scholarship fund that she and Evan had set up in Rogan's name, and she really was thrilled about the magazine part, the increased popularity the production company planned was starting to worry her a little bit. She disappeared into Hogwarts for months at a time. If she became a more well known personality, someone was going to start asking questions about where she went.
She couldn't really worry about it now though. Now she could only hope Tripura would prove to be less of a burden than West Bengal to film in as they still had to make it through to Bihar and then down to Tamil Nadu, and then somewhere in the northern mountains. She still didn't know exactly where though. She was relying on information from the locals as to the best region to film in when it was time to head there. These regions should hopefully give them plenty of footage and show off the more rural and remote parts of India.
She knew they'd most likely end up in Mumbai, even though she hadn't planned any filming time there, because Jill had always wanted to experience the crowded urban city life of India. If that's what you really wanted, Mumbai would be the place to do it. Brie didn't really understand people who liked living in city situations, but she could still spend a day or two there. If she didn't really enjoy the experience, she could still try to learn and take something away from it nonetheless, especially if it meant Jill would be happy. She sighed and pushed ahead, keeping an eye out for anything that would be worth filming. She had at least another month to push through before she could even hope to think about going home.
Jill came into her tent that night as she was struggling to get a brush through her curls. She had this arm wrestle with her hair anytime she was someplace humid and had broken several brushes in the disorderly tangles over the years. Jill laughed when she walked in and saw Brie at it. Brie knew she must look like a wild lion or a dandelion when it dried out and turned white and you could blow on it to scatter the seeds.
"The eternal struggle, eh?" Jill snickered at Brie's gusty sigh.
"It's so humid here." Brie whined, holding the brush out to Jill with a hopeful look. "Braid?" She asked.
"OK." Jill agreed, taking the brush from her and pulling an elastic out of her pocket.
"Yay!" Brie said, turning her back to Jill so she could work her magic and whip her rats nest into shape. After she was done Brie turned to thank her with a smile and saw that she looked sad. "Are you OK, Jilly Bean?" She asked instead.
"I'm fine, just tired." Jill answered. "I should go work on cutting down that footage from last week." She said as she rose to leave.
"OK." Brie said skeptically. "Do you want help?"
"No, get some sleep or you'll look puffy in the morning." Jill answered and Brie watched her go with a funny feeling in her gut.
Almost exactly a month later she and Jill were walking through the streets of Mumbai just as she suspected they would and she wondered what exactly she'd been worried about as Jill giddily pulled her along with her. Jill had her smallest portable camera and was filming everything and grinning the whole time she did. "Jilly Bean, do you ever look at the world through your own eyes?" She asked with a laugh as she pulled Jill from the path of yet another pedestrian that was about to run her over because she wasn't paying attention.
"You know I do." Jill said as she swung the camera around to film Brie. "But come on, look at that!" She gestured to the monument known as The Gateway of India, which they were currently standing a few hundred yards away from. Brie grinned and continued to keep Jill from walking into people as she wound her way here and there, looking for the perfect angle. "Tell me about this." Jill said as they went. "I know you know about it."
Brie grinned. "You're just looking for free voice over work for your home videos." She teased as she tried to remember what she'd read about the Gateway while she was cooped up in her room at Hogwarts, avoiding a magical Basilisk. "Let's see. If I remember correctly..."
"Which you always do." Jill interrupted.
"Hush." Brie said. "This was erected by the British, I think." She thought a second more. "Yeah, yeah that's right. It would have have to have been. Anyway. They built this to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 19...something. 1911 maybe, but they didn't start to build it until 1915 or so. In 1948, when the British rule ended, the last of the troops marched out beneath it."
"And what's that over there?" Jill asked as she swung the camera around and pointed to the ornate building down the street.
"That, I believe, is The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel." Brie answered.
"I love this architecture! Hotels look like palaces!" Jill exclaimed as she approached the Gateway again so that she could film while they walked through it. As Jill filmed inside, Brie walked out and studied the water of Mumbai Harbor. She was hoping to be able to convince Jill that they should take the ferry boat over to Elephanta Island, where there were a whole network of ancient carved caves to explore. Once she told her how pretty everything was supposed to be, getting her there shouldn't be a problem even if it was technically out of the city. She hoped it might be less crowded as well.
Brie spent the next few days elbowing her way through one of the most populated cities in the world,watching Jill delight in everything, making wrinkly nosed faces at her camera every time she swung it toward her and occasionally stealing the camera altogether and filming Jill instead. The crazy closeness of everyone was offset slightly by the delicious food. Food will only take you so far though and she was very glad when it was time to fly home. Cities just weren't her thing. She parted with Jill at one airport and met up with Evan at another.
"Brea, baby!" He said to her with a big rib collapsing hug.
"Hey stranger!" She hugged him back. She'd been really missing him lately and got a silly lump in her throat when he held her at arms length and studied her for a minute.
"You're not nearly as beat up as usual." He finally said.
She laughed and told him about the trip while they waited for her bag to show up in baggage claim. "So, besides a lot of rain, it pretty much went as smooth as these things can go." She summed up as she grabbed her backpack from the carousel.
"And Jill is OK?" He asked as they walked out to the car.
"Seems to be." Brie replied.
"Good. I get the strange feeling that she's been hiding something from me lately when we talk on the phone." He said with a frown.
"Yeah, me too." She replied, "But she was fine. Better than she looked last year even."
"You all looked horrible at the end of last year." He laughed as they drove home.
"Yeah, but she looked pretty bad at the beginning." Brie said. "I really think she had to have another round of treatment and managed to hide it from us."
"Wouldn't surprise me." Evan replied. "She hates people knowing that she's sick."
"I hate that I'm away and out of touch so long that it could happen." She frowned.
"Hey, I'm in touch and I still didn't know." Evan tried to make her feel better.
"Yeah, but that's probably because you're so busy, because I'm not here." Brie countered.
"Brie, if she had needed us, she would have asked."
"I know, I know. Can't fix the world." She sighed and they drove in silence for awhile.
"We've got two weeks before you disappear into the magic world again. I managed to finagle it so that we only have to do three extraction days. I gave everyone else the time off and closed the education center. So besides extractions and the interview, and some cage cleaning, you've got a pretty clear schedule."
"I'm so nervous about this magazine thing, Evan." She confessed, extremely grateful that Evan had taken the time to manipulate the schedule. She really needed some down time at home. By the end of the two weeks she'd be reminding herself how much down time she had at Hogwarts and calling herself an idiot, but she didn't really care. Down time at home with Evan was different than at the school by herself.
"Why?" He scoffed
"I dunno." She shrugged. "I've managed to get out of them for so long, I'm going to be rusty. Also, I just don't like them in general."
"Because they ask about Rogan?" He asked.
She nodded. "I don't mind telling stories, but someone eventually always asks how I feel about it now. I mean, how do they think I feel about it? Do they think I'm going to tell them that it was like losing a piece of me? That I still hug a pillow at night because I miss him in the bed with me? That the thing I miss the most is who we were together? "
"That last one, I understand." He said as he turned into the driveway of his own house and they went in together. "He was like a part that you didn't even know you were missing until he got there. I thought about that a lot when we first met." They entered his kitchen and he tossed the keys on the counter. "How, suddenly, there was this guy who I had only known for about a week, but I felt like he'd been around my whole life already. Like a brother. Not going to lie, it was a little weird in a disturbing kind of way. For months after he was gone I felt like I was missing something."
"Like you'd forgotten it." She added, knowing the exact feeling.
He nodded and went to the fridge for two beers. "Yeah, like you might have your shoes on the wrong feet, or had forgotten to put on underwear, or you couldn't remember if you needed to pick up milk on the way home, or something stupid like that. Like this nagging thing that you want to put your finger on but never can. I kept checking my pockets for my wallet and keys almost constantly."
She laughed and twisted the cap off her bottle. "Remember when he would get extremely passionate about whatever-it-happened-to-be-this-time?"
Evan grinned. "Yeah, he'd pace and talk and pace and talk and eventually get you excited and convince you that whatever it was was just the most important thing in the world right now."
"You'd get all hyped up with him and follow him anywhere." She finished.
He shook his head. "Rogan." He said fondly.
"Rogan." She agreed. They tapped their bottles together and each had a swig for Rogan.
For two glorious weeks Brie did what she wanted when she wanted. After she stumbled her way through the magazine interview and photo shoot that went with it, she fell straight into her old childhood habit of staying up all night and sleeping the mornings away. As a consequence, she was fast asleep at one of the lab tables, with her head on her hands and her flowered backpack at her feet when Severus came to pick her up for the school year.
He smirked when he found her and gently shook her shoulder. "Brie." He said and she turned her head to the side and gave him a sleepy smile.
"Hey Severus." She said softly as she sat up and stretched her arms above her head. "I was hoping it would be you."
"I have had to wake you up more than any other person I know." He commented dryly.
"It's part of my charm." She said as she rose and grabbed her pack.
"We need to get back straight away." He said. "Albus was called to the Ministry and had to move up the staff meeting. He's collecting everyone right now."
"I'm ready." Brie held out her hand and Severus was just about to take it.
"Brie?" They suddenly heard Evan call out. "Are you still here?" He appeared in the doorway holding a piece of paper. "Hey! Magic Man!" He exclaimed when he saw Severus. "I didn't know it was you coming to pick her up this time." He crossed the room with his hand extended and Severus shook it, unprepared for when Evan pulled him into the standard one armed guy hug, keeping their joined hands between them. Brie snickered at the look of surprise on Severus' face when Evan gave him two hard pats on the back before he let go. "Brie, sign this please." He said, laying the paper down on the table in front of her.
"Didn't I just sign a hundred and twenty four things yesterday?" She asked as she scrawled her signature on it.
"This one was stuck to one of the other ones." He explained. "So, Magic Man, do you have time for a brew? I haven't seen you in forever. We should catch up."
Severus was confused. "I don't think so." He said. "We have to get back straight away, Albus needed to bump up the staff meeting and asked me to come pick up Brie so he could inform everyone at the school. They'll all be waiting by now. What did you want brewed? Perhaps I could send it to you later on."
"Brew...ed?" It was Evan's turn to be confused. "They are all already brewed and bottled. I just got them from the store yesterday..."
Both men furrowed their brows at each other and looked at Brie, who was obviously suppressing chuckles. "Severus, Evan means beer. Evan, Severus means potions."
"Oh!" Evan exclaimed as he understood. "That's right! You're the potions guy at the school. Brie used to tell me that you were the chemistry professor, before she told me about the magic parts."
Severus raised an eyebrow at Brie, who shrugged and said, "Potions and chemistry aren't that far off really. Your elements are just different."
"We really should get back." Severus said to Brie.
Brie hugged Evan and Evan shook Severus' hand again. "Come back again when you have some extra time." He said. "Maybe Christmas break."
"Awww Evan, stop badgering him." Brie cuffed his shoulder. "But, you know Severus, you are welcome if you want to come. Can Evan watch us Apparate out? He's never seen it before."
"Is that the thing you guys can do where you just," He made a popping sound with his mouth, "and you're gone?"
"It is, and he can." Severus said as he held his hand out toward Brie, grateful that she'd saved him from having to make up some reason why he couldn't spend Christmas with them, as nice as he was sure it would be if he could.
"I just really wish I could see your face after." Brie grinned as she took Severus' hand. "Draw me a picture." She waved and felt Severus turn on the spot into the now familiar but not at all enjoyed pressing darkness. The first time she'd done this with Albus she'd thought that her eardrums were going to burst and her chest was going to cave in. Now she knew they wouldn't, but that didn't stop them from feeling like they would.
Once she regained her balance and her stomach, she and Severus set off up to the school. Once inside they hurried straight to the staff room where the meeting was seemingly already taking place. It struck her as odd that they didn't wait for everyone to get there. Albus had never before rushed a staff meeting this badly. "Ahh, here are the rest of our late comers." Albus said as she and Severus entered. "My apologies for starting the meeting before everyone had a chance to get to the school. I'll fill you in later on the subjects we've covered so far. As I already explained to the rest of the staff, we're a bit pressed for time as the Minister has asked me to come by to discuss a few last minute things before the school year starts."
Brie smiled at the room at large and noticed that Hagrid was present, which was something else odd. She was glad that he looked so much better than he had last year after he'd come back from his wrongful stint in Azkaban. He hadn't wanted to talk about why he'd had to go or what it had been like and she'd been worried for him because he seemed so different on his return. She made her way through the cluster of professors and sat next to him, noticing that Severus was eyeing Albus suspiciously as he found a seat on the other side of the room.
Hagrid grinned at her and showed her the book he was holding. The gold lettering stamped across the green leather cover read, The Monster Book of Monsters. Interested, she took it from him and tried to open it. Without warning the book suddenly came to life in her hands and lunged toward her face, snapping viciously. She squealed in surprise and tipped over backward in her chain with her hands over her face, trying to save her nose. The book landed on her chest, flipped itself onto it's side and scuttled away under some chairs. She slowly took her hands away from her face to find the whole room staring down at her. Blushing madly she rolled over to her side and quickly got to her feet. "Sorry." She muttered as she righted her chair and sat back down, wishing she could just sink into the floor and disappear.
Albus chuckled and said, "Well, thats as good a segway as any. Our next item, as I'm sure you've noticed, Professor Kettleburn has retired, leaving the position of Care of Magical Creatures professor open this year. I could think of no more perfect person to fill it than our own Rubeus Hagrid. Good luck Professor Hagrid and I am very anxious to see how the students handle the required textbooks, which Professor Waters just gave us a preview of."
Brie clapped with the rest of the professors as Hagrid swelled with pride. She was happy for him, but a little worried that he truly might not understand the boundaries that should be kept around genuinely dangerous creatures. Especially with kids around. All she could do was hope for the best, like the rest of the slightly worried faces she saw.
There were a few more announcements, the most notable one being that there would be Dementors guarding the school this year because of an escaped prisoner roaming the country side. She'd read about Dementors and had hoped never to run into one. The rest of the staff didn't seem to be at all shocked by this announcement, which made sense when Hagrid whispered to her that they'd been trying to catch this escaped prisoner all summer so his picture was in the Prophet everyday and plastered all over the wizarding towns. She did wonder why they thought he might try to break into a school though. She assumed someone on the run would want to keep a much lower profile than that.
After some general chit chat, the meeting ended and everyone rose to leave. Brie congratulated an ecstatic Hagrid, who picked her up and gave her a bone crushing hug. While she was up over his shoulder she noticed Severus trying to get a word with Albus, who was beating a very hasty retreat from the room. 'I guess he'll fill us in on what we missed when he gets back.' she thought to herself as Severus frowned and walked off in a flurry of agitated robes. "You'll have ter help with me less'n plans, Brie." Hagrid was bubbling to her as he set her back on her feet. "I coul' use the opinion of a celebrity like yah!"
She quickly corrected him about her standing as a celebrity. Hagrid and a few other professors gave her way too much notoriety in their minds. Minerva came up then and greeted Brie and asked about her summer. Soon, half the staff was clustered around her, waiting to hear what crazy Muggle things she'd gotten up to this year. She was only a little sorry to disappoint them, considering that crazy adventure stories had to have real life crazy adventure type experiences. Every now and then it was nice to have a trip go off exactly as planned, with no surprises or injuries. Some of them did seem impressed that she'd gotten close enough to a tiger to hear it's heartbeat, but she suspected they were hoping for part of the story to involve her being mauled by it in some way.
She left the staffroom a short time later and went to her rooms to unpack. She knew she really ought to try and get back on a more regular sleeping schedule, but ignored herself and took her guitar up to the Astronomy tower for most of the night, staying up there until the sun rose and turned the sky a brilliant pink and orange. She'd been hoping that Severus might wander up to join her, but he didn't. Icarus came to visit, sitting on the headstock of her guitar as she watched the sun rise.
She didn't bother to go to bed after the sun rose. Being back at Hogwarts with all it's protective spells and magical staff was already effecting her, filling her with a wave of energy that she would have to ride out till it evened out. Later on, when all the kids got here, she'd be even more energized. She went down to Hagrid's hut where he was preparing for his first lesson. On her way out of the school she went past Albus' office and asked the gargoyle, "Is he in?", intending to go up and get filled in about what she'd missed yesterday. The gargoyle shook it's head and she shrugged and continued outside and down to Hagrid's.
"Oh, my, bird horses. Are those Hippogriffs?" She breathed when she finally found him in the paddock behind his hut. She'd read about these years ago.
"Yah bet they are!" Hagrid boomed happily as he groomed a chestnut one.
"Wow, Hagrid." She started to climb into the paddock, but Hagrid stopped her.
"Wait now, Brie. You can't just be walkin' straight up to a Hippogriff!" He exclaimed and she froze where she was. "Yah gotta bow to 'em, and wait and see wha they do."
"Alright." She said nervously as she bowed to the group. Slowly, one by one they each bowed back and Brie fought the urge to grin. She wasn't sure if Hippogriffs would react to grinning like wolves and apes and some other animals did and consider it a sign of aggression because you were essentially baring your teeth at them.
"Alight there Brie!" Hagrid roared. "I've never seen the whole group bow before. I reckon you can come pat them now."
She slowly came up to the jet black one and stroked its downy neck while she studied its feathers. "These guys are amazing Hagrid." She said as the chestnut one leaned down to inspect her bracelet. It nibbled it for a second, then lost interest.
"This one here is Buckbeak." He said, indicating the gray one. "An' this one here is Willowwind. An' those there are Dappleback, Blackbreeze, and Finefeathers."
"Hi guys," She said softly to them. "I'm Brie." She stroked each one as she listened to Hagrid happily chat away about all the interesting things about Hippogriffs.
"I jus' hope I'll do alright at the teachin' parts." Hagrid said, wringing his hands.
"You'll be great Hagrid." She assured him. "You just taught me a ton without even trying."
He smiled shyly at her and she saw his confidence in himself grow a little bit. Hagrid suggested that she try to ride the black Hippogriff and without thought she giddily climbed up onto his back and he'd readily taken off around the castle. She came to her senses pretty much immediately and called herself an idiot over and over again while she lay flat against the Hippogriffs neck, holding on with both arms. It was a beautifully terrifying experience and the first time she'd really seen the entire outside of the castle on all sides, but it spiked her adrenaline.
Once it wore off it was no match for the magical energy that she could still feel building inside her and Brie found herself losing steam so she went back to her rooms to lay down for a bit before the kids got to the school and she had to sit through the Sorting stifling yawns. She passed Albus' office again on the way back and the gargoyle shook it's head without her even having to ask. She supposed that she would have to talk to him at the feast later on.
Laying down turned out to be a bad idea, as she fell fast asleep and missed the entire Welcome Feast. She awoke later as the students all filed to their common rooms, with a groan and a grumble and an empty belly, so she pushed herself up and decided to kill two birds with one stone. Grabbing her backpack, she rooted around inside until she found what she was looking for and pulled out her Slinky. She had plans to use it during class the next day and thought that it would probably be a good idea to test it out before she did so. You could never be sure of what was going to happen in Hogwarts.
She made her way to the Grand Staircase and perched the Slinky on the edge of the top stair, hoping that nothing screwy would happen to muck up her lesson plan as she pushed it down and watched with relief as it did exactly what it was supposed to do. Absently humming the Slinky song, she started down to retrieve it.
"Well, now, that's quite the contraption." A voice said from the bottom of the stairs. She jumped because she thought she had been alone and quickly took in the tall thin man who was bending down to pick up the Slinky. He straightened up and examined it as she came down the steps toward him. As they spoke, he did what everyone holding a Slinky did and held one end in each hand so that he could tip them back and forth to make it cascade from one to the other.
"Oh, hello" She said. "That's a Slinky. You must be the new Defense professor." Albus had mentioned him at the meeting yesterday, but only how he'd be coming in on the Hogwarts Express with the students in order to insure their safety from the Dementors, who were most likely going to check the train before it pulled into the Hogsmeade station. Brie realized now that Albus had forgotten to mention this man's name. It hadn't occurred to her at the time, with all the whispers that had erupted after the information about the Dementors.
"I'm Professor Lupin, and you shouldn't be out in the halls after curfew." He smiled at her in an oddly indulgent kind of way.
Her eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?" She scoffed. "Last time I checked there was no curfew for professors."
He blushed. "I'm sorry." He said. "I assumed you were about a fifth or sixth year student, you're so small."
She snorted out a laugh. "Next time, check for age lines first." She indicated her face.
"I'll keep that in mind." He smiled as he studied her face. "It wouldn't have done much good from what I can see. I suppose you can call me Remus then. Nice to meet you." He let the Slinky gather in one hand and extended the other toward her. "I don't remember seeing you at the feast, but I do remember an empty chair."
She laughed and shook his hand. "Oh, I feel asleep while waiting for dinner time. I just woke up about twenty minutes ago and was heading to the kitchens to bug the house elves for some kind of dinner." She paused. "Lupin, Lupin." Brie muttered as she shook his hand. "I feel like I've heard that name before somewhere."
"Most likely in the staff room." He sighed.
"No, I don't think so." Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember. "Albus actually forgot to mention your name yesterday when he told us you'd be on the train with the kids."
"Ah, well, I assumed that there must have been quite a bit of chat about me after Albus announced I'd be working here. It's not everyday the school hires a werewolf."
Brie's grip tightened for a minute, but she didn't immediately let go and recoil like Remus had come to expect from most introductions that started out with someone vaguely knowing his name. "You're a werewolf?" She asked with surprise as she turned his hand over and studied the back with interest. "For how long?" A hundred other questions flooded her mind as she started to turn back his sleeve so she could examine his arm, but abruptly released him and brought her hand to her mouth in mild horror. "I'm sorry, that was rude. Scientific curiosity sometimes isn't the most polite thing in the world."
"No, no, don't worry about it." He assured her, looking confused, but amused. "It's honestly a refreshing change from the recoils I usually get when people find out."
"Well, you're not a werewolf right now, so I thought I'd be safe." She smiled and noticed that he smelled vaguely of chocolate. Her stomach rumbled.
He looked surprised, but chuckled and said, "I was under the impression that Albus told the staff about me at the start of term meeting yesterday."
"Oh did he now? I came in late, that must have been the part I missed. He said he'd fill me in later, but I haven't seen him yet since the meeting. I'm Brie, by the way. Brie Waters."
Now it was Remus' turn to take a minute to think. "Waters. Well now this is odd, but I feel like I've heard your name too."
"Oh probably. I'm the crazy American Muggle of Hogwarts." She said with a grin. "In case you couldn't tell by the accent.
"You're a Muggle? For how long?" Lupin asked as he jokingly grabbed her hand back and started to examine her arm as she had done to him. "I suppose the Muggle accent does give that away though." Brie laughed as she watched him discover the long thin scar on the underside that ran from her elbow to her wrist. Now his gaze was no longer joking. "Oh dear. That's quite a big one isn't it?"
Brie looked at it and shrugged. "No bigger than most that I have, smaller than some." Lupin looked at her in a sweetly concerned way, considering that this was their first meeting and Brie quickly added, "I do crazy things in crazy places for my work. I'm always getting gashed or broken. Completely voluntarily. Look at these hands." She held her hands, palms down, out to him so he could see the dozens of tiny scratch scars there. "I can't even remember where I got that one anymore." She indicated her arm. "Maybe...Guatemala? You seem to have a few yourself." She gestured to the scars that cut across his face.
Remus nodded as he studied her hands. "I tend to get, gashed, as you put it, quite a bit myself. I think I remember reading something about you in the Daily Prophet when you were first brought in to teach at Hogwarts. They called you Gabrielle, not Brie. That was years ago now though."
Brie nodded. "This is my sixth year here, my notoriety in the school was significantly decreased when Harry Potter started attending three years ago. Thank goodness. If that horrible Rita Skeeter reporter woman had tried to corner me in Hogsmeade many more times, I'm not sure what I was going to do. Call me Brie, pretty much everyone else here does. Well, the professors I mean. Albus and Minerva, and Hagrid and the rest. Well, Remus, it was nice to meet you." Brie started to leave despite wanting to stay and find out more about what it was like being a werewolf. She was pretty sure he didn't want to answer a bunch of questions, and she would really really have a hard time holding them all back if she stuck around much longer. She'd be better around him after she'd read up on what actual, non Muggle fiction, werewolves were all about. "I'm sure we'll see each other around the castle. I suppose not on the full moon though."
"Yes it would be most wise to avoid me on those days." He replied. "Professor Waters, wait a minute if you don't mind."
"Brie. Call me Brie." She said again as she paused and turned to him.
"Brie, then." He corrected himself. "If you don't mind, please keep the werewolf information quiet amongst the students. The staff has been informed for obvious reasons, but I don't like to advertise. The students and their parents are largely unaware. Werewolves are not looked upon too kindly in the working wizard world. It was very very nice of Albus to give me a chance here."
Brie nodded and began to take in his patchy and tired attire and appearance. "Albus believes in fair chances for everyone doesn't he? I'm here." She grinned and he grinned back.
"He's a good man. A very good man." Remus said as he and Brie parted ways. Brie watched his retreating back as he went up the stairs before turning toward the kitchens to go visit with Lully and get some dinner.