Lexie's POV: After Marcus finally returned and quickly changed, he, Malfoy and I made our way to the lake. We passed the hallway where some students were still dining and flitted through the door. It was a clear autumn night and the stars sparkled.
"So, how was Astronomy?" I asked as we walked down the path leading away from the castle.
"Fine, I guess," Marcus said. He had been rather silent since his return.
"You know, when you're ready to talk about it, I'm here for you." I tried my best to sound casual.
Marcus stopped for a moment, opened his mouth and seconds later closed it again. I laughed.
"Whenever you're ready."
We reached a rather hidden bay of the lake and after ensuring no one was around stripped down and ran into the cold water. I was still trying to catch my breath as I could hear the sound of breaking branches. I pressed my hand against Marcus' mouth.
"Did you hear that?" I whispered.
He listened for a moment before slowly shaking his head. I waited another few moments until Malfoy splashed water onto my face.
"Oh, you're going to pay for this," I shouted and like that one of the greatest water battles that Hogwarts ever witnessed began. When we came back on land completely out of breath, it was already far after our curfew. We quickly dried ourselves and headed back to the castle, still laughing and messing around. Quitely, we tiptoed through the Entrance Hall. I almost ran into Marcus, when he suddenly stopped. At the other end of the hall was Shelley, who seemed as surprised as we were. We just stared at each other for a moment, when Marcus spoke up: "We won't say anything if you don't say anything."
She narrowed him for a moment before nodding. I twitched my eyebrows while looking from Marcus to Shelley and back to Marcus.
"Since when do we partner up with Gryffindors?" I asked Marcus infuriated.
"Would you rather have me tell on you?" Shelley asked challenging.
We exchanged a long grim look when suddenly we could hear footsteps coming from the dungeons. Simultaneously we all looked around in panic, before deciding to flee up the big staircases. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, always running after Marcus around corners and corridors. We finally came to a stop and took a moment to allow oxygen to flow back into our lungs. Still exhausted I looked at the others and then once my breath normalised at the corridor we were in.
"Oh no." I gasped, realising which corridor we escaped to.
"What is it, Hatchet?" Shelley asked.
"Shhhh!" I threw her an angry look. "Lupin's office is right here!" I pointed at a door to our left. Her eyes grew big as we heard a chair scratching over the floor.
"Split up and run!" Malfoy was the first to turn around and escape through the corridor to his right. Marcus and Shelley ran back the way we came. For one moment I stood there looking from Marcus back to Draco, trying to decide which one I should follow. That one moment was fatal. I just started running in the direction of Draco, when I heard the door open. With a flick of my wand, I cast an Invisibility spell and hoped for the best. Lupin came out of his office, enlightening the corridor with his wand. He eyed the passageway until his gaze remained fixed on one spot. Shit, he was looking directly at me.
"I must say, for a student, this is a very impressive performance of an invisibility spell. Just not impressive enough."
I looked down to see my shoes flickering. Shit.
Nicki's POV: Without thinking, I ran after Flint. We rounded a corner and I smacked into him at full speed, so we both toppled to the ground. Flint, apparently thinking faster than me, put a hand on my mouth and gave me a long look. His eyes were specks of white in the darkness, the only source of light the moonlight coming through one of the windows. I nodded and he removed his hand and I realized where I was. On the floor, laying on top of Flint. As fast as I could quietly manage, I pushed myself up and got to my feet. Flint did the same, rubbing the back of his head.
"Are you hurt?", I whispered. He shook his head, then listened into the darkness. We couldn't hear anything except for the soft murmur of voices coming from the corridor we had just come from. We shared a look, and then carefully glimpsed around the corner. There, Lupin stood, his wand illuminated and saying something to Hatchet.
"Shit", Flint whispered.
I didn't answer, but I secretly wasn't too sad about Hatchet getting caught. Maybe not so secretly. Hatchet replied something we couldn't hear, but what I heard well was the sigh Lupin gave in response. He motioned for her to get into his office and she did. Before he followed her, he looked left and right, holding his wand up to see better and Flint and I hopped back behind the corner, hoping he hadn't seen us. I heard a door click shut and when I dared to look again, the door to Lupin's office was closed. I made a move to come out of our hiding place, but Flint took my arm. I stopped and turned, looking at his hand on my arm and then slowly lifting my gaze to his face.
"Do not touch me", I hissed and realizing what he was doing, he snatched his hand away.
I wanted to move towards the office again but Flint said quietly, but decidedly: "Stop."
I turned around. "Why? Don't you want to know what's happening?"
"I think that it is none of your business", he replied. "Lexie will tell me later what happened. And if you go there now, the chance is high that Lupin catches you as well."
"Wouldn't that be a good thing for you? Me getting caught being outside after curfew?"
Flint sighed. "You're so annoying, I hope you know that, Shelley."
I grinned. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what I'm known for in Slytherin circles."
Flint huffed in amusement and I couldn't help but snort. Which immediately froze us. This had been too loud. We listened but everything remained quiet. Maybe the corner of two corridors wasn't the right place for whatever this was what we were doing. Slowly and as quietly as we could, we traced back the way we had come until we reached the staircase. Flint stopped and I continued on, somehow dreading this moment. Something had changed and I did not like it one bit.
"Hey, Shelley", he whispered and I stopped and turned. "Why are you up? Did you spy on us again?"
"I do not spy", I said, ignoring the fact that I had very much wanted to spy on Hatchet and Lupin just now. Then I slid a hand into my cloak's pocket and pulled out a bag full of what had once been cookies. Most of them were nothing more than crumbs, thanks to me falling onto Flint. I dangled them from my fingers and then, following an impulse, I threw them to him. He caught them with ease, looking at the first, then at me.
"Wha...?" he started, but I just said "I hope you have nightmares" and made my way up to the Gryffindor tower. The Fat Lady was already asleep and not happy when I woke her.
"Mimbulus Mimbletonia", I whispered several times until she swung aside, mumbling something under her breath.
"Where were you so long?", Angelina asked when she spotted me. She, Alicia and Katie were sitting at the fireplace and all looked at me. "And where are the biscuits?", Alicia wanted to know, seeing me empty-handed.
"Um", I said, trying not to think about how I had given Flint our food. Merlin, what had possessed me to do that?
"There were... complications." That was the dumbest explanation. It would make the girls only more curious about what had occurred. Angelina already opened her mouth to inquire, but I shook my head. "Let's discuss this tomorrow, I'm really tired." I faked a yawn and without waiting for a reply, walked up the stairs to our dormitory and went to bed. I lay awake, thinking about the last few hours. Flint in Astronomy, Flint just now. What the hell was I even thinking? Was I thinking at all? It seemed as if I had just switched my brain off. What was wrong with me? I couldn't stop my thoughts from churning around in my brain and when the others came into the dormitory, I faked sleep as well and when I could hear their even breathing, I was still awake. Thinking, thinking, thinking.
Lexie's POV: "Revelio!" I looked down to, unfortunately, see my whole body again.
"Oh, well good evening Professor Lupin. I don't want to interrupt you. I'm just going to go to my dorm room, okay?"
"Where are the others?" Lupin responded grimly.
"The others? I was here by myself, sir."
"I heard you talking."
"Talking? Oh, that must have been just me. I was having a lovely conversation with my alter ego, Bob."
Lupin sighed in response and pointed at his office. I was about to follow his order when I saw a movement at the end of the corridor. Was that Marcus? Lupin was about to turn around as I blurted out: "Why do you hate me so much?"
What?
Lupin froze and looked back at me.
"What?" he asked as well.
Blankly I stared at him for a second. I could have said anything to get his attention long enough for Marcus to move away. Literally anything. Why on earth would I say something like that?
"I'm just going to quietly sit in your office now," I said with an excusing smile on my face. Lupin took one last look around but thankfully nothing appeared to catch his attention, before he closed the door behind us. He sat down behind his desk and eyed me up and down.
"So you're telling me you went to the lake all by yourself."
My eyebrows twitched and I looked down at myself trying to catch the hint that gave it away. My cloak had shifted from all the running and my left shoulder and the bikini were visible. Quickly, I rearranged my clothes.
"You see I'm an excellent company," I answered his question.
"Miss Hatchet, here's how it's going to go down. I know that four people were standing outside my office. I will give everyone two weeks of detentions and for every name that remains unknown, you're going to get their two weeks on top." Lupin folded his arms on his desk while giving me a stern look.
"I was by myself, sir." I tried to reassure him.
"8 more weeks of detention. Is that what you want, Miss Hatchet?"
The thought of spending 3 months straight in detention with Professor Lupin nearly killed me but I wasn't going to rat anyone out. Not even Shelley. Solely because she would probably reveal the other two then.
"I guess you, me and Bob are going to really get to know each other," I smirked at him, even though I felt miserable about the detention.
Lupin shook his head. "That's exactly it. You think you're so smart and witty." He stood up and tugged his hair. "You're not, okay? You're arrogant, vain and just so full of yourself. You think you can rule this school just because you have good grades? Not with me. You're just a big-headed know-it-all, just like your father." He froze, while I stared at him in disbelief. Slowly I got up and faced him.
"Oh my god, you don't hate me, you hate my father."
Lupin did not answer.
"What kind of a professor are you to let your personal disputes interfere with your teaching?" I was still in shock.
"Well, you proved very quickly to me that you're not an ounce better than your father."
Lupin gave me a contemptuous look.
"I can't believe this. I've been tossing and turning trying to figure out what I did wrong while all this time you just mistreated me because you don't like my father?"
Lupin smirked and came closer to me. I wanted to swerve back, but after three steps my back hit the wall.
"Tossing and turning, hm? Why is it so important to you what I think about you, Lexie?"
My breath stopped. It was the first time he used my first name and shivers ran down my spine. I tried to avoid the look of his warm green eyes, while trying to think of a good response. Somehow my mind stayed empty. He chuckled.
"You should see yourself." He tilted his head a little. "like a frightened little fawn."
With that comment, a wall of anger hit me again.
"Well, why is it so important to you to punish me to the fullest extent? 3 months detention for two minor slip-ups? Seems almost like you want to see me more." I spit back. He chuckled again.
"I can happily do without your overbearing posturing, thank you very much."
"Then do it." I said giving him a challenging look.
"I'm not playing your games, Miss Hatchet." Lupin turned around to sit back behind his desk.
"I will inform you when your next detention is due. You may leave now."
I stood there for a moment trying to collect my thoughts. Slowly I made my way to the door, still unsure about what just happened.
"Oh and Miss Hatchet?" I was already at the door when I turned around.
"50 points from Slytherin." My eyes grew big, but I knew better than to object. I closed the door behind me and made my way to the Slytherin common room. I had him. I had the upper hand over the conversation. He was in the wrong and we both knew it and still, he somehow managed to win this conversation. Or you let him, a voice whispered in my head. I quickly shoved that thought in a hidden corner, when suddenly another, even more, uncomfortable thought hit. How did he know my father? I looked back at his office when Snape's invitation to assist him with a wolfsbane potion came to mind. Who were we brewing this potion for? A shiver went down my spine again, but this time a cold one which left me feeling uneasy. I shoved the thoughts to the other uncomfortable ones. You're being ridiculous, I thought to myself, they would never let him teach here otherwise. Yeah, it couldn't be. I had reached the Slytherin common room and silently crawled into bed. One last time, I pushed my thoughts away and slowly drifted into a dream.
I stood in the forbidden forest when a wolf emerged from the dark. I eyed the wolf just like he did with me. For some reason, I was not afraid. The wolf looked exactly like my Patronus and I carefully held my hand out for him to sniff. Slowly the wolf turned around and started running through the woods, but it wasn't the wolf anymore. Or was it? Had I become the wolf? It didn't matter I strolled through the forest, wind blowing through my fur and I felt free like I never felt before.