Crossing Paths

Disclaimer:
*Hazel stalks out* I can't believe I have to do the disclaimer. *grumbles* Oh well. Tauren, Suki, Loki and Hazel belong to Pandie and I in some form or fashion. James Lupin belongs to Pandie, although the Sir-name (does that have a hypen? Did I even spell it right for that matter?) belongs to J.K. Rowling. Oh, and that reminds me. Harry Potter and his world belong to J.K. Rowling. The Night World along with Circle Daybreak (in case we mention it) belongs to L.J. Smith. Now, on with the show. *walks away*

Pandie's A/N:
Okay guys, I've finally come up with a good DADA teacher *grin* For the record, he's not named after James Potter :) He named after someone I know very well, and I decided to name the DADA teacher after him, because he's become such a big fan of Harry Potter, and I know he deserves to have a character based on him *grin* Hazel will of course know who I'm talking about *grin*

Hazel's A/N:
That's right, I know who James is! *grins and raises (looks at glass) orange juice* Here's to James, thanks for letting us use you like that... this... whatever. Oh, and Pandz, I added in Loki and Hazel's first COMC class. *grin* I got this brilliant idea and I couldn't go without. Plus, I'm Queen of COMC. (HELLO. You're talking to the girl who copied down Fantastic Beasts and where to find them practically word for word.) *grin* That and Fred and George.

Quotes:
"Sometimes the most important things in a man's life are the ones he talks about least." (The Daybreakers.)
"Warning Men Approaching." (Sirius, ?, ?) (This is my all time favorite HP fanfiction quote, unfortunatly I lost the story *sigh* and I can't finr it anywhere. So I don't know who wrote it or the title. But I love the line.)

Chapter 5: Questions


The next day the student teachers started teaching the classes they'd been assigned to. Thankfully the first class Sukida had to help was Defence Against the Dark Arts, and not Divination. It wasn't that she didn't like Professor Trelawney, it was just that after the strange episode the day before, Sukida felt a bit weirded out by the strange spooky looking woman.

"Alright class! Can I have all your attention now, please!" the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's voice rang clear around the classroom, effectively making all the students go quiet, sitting up straight and facing the front of the room. Sukida hid a smile as some of the female students in the room seemed to stare wistfully at the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. She, Tauren, Hazel and Loki had all met him at breakfast earlier that day, and Sukida's first impression of him had been that he was quite handsome, but not as handsome as Tauren. Then again, that was Sukida's own opinion. To her, no one was as handsome as her soulmate and fiance, and nothing would ever make her change her mind.

The Defence Against Dark Arts teacher's name was Professor James Lupin, a distant relative of Remus Lupin's, or Jez as he preferred to be called by them when he was off duty, and he was of average height, about 5'8" or 5'9", and had a slim slightly muscular body, with a young boyish looking face. He had short slightly messy light brown hair and sparkling light blue eyes flecked with pale amber, framed with long thick dark eyelashes. Despite all this, the professor didn't seem to realise that most of the female student body had a massive crush on him, paying more attention to his teaching duties when he was teaching a class.

"Okay," Professor Lupin said with a serene looking smile on his face, as soon as he had all the students' attentions, "now that I have all your attention, can anyone here tell me what the Mortis Aeris curse is, and what spells can be used to counter or even dispell it?" Immediately a Ravenclaw student, a small girl with short shoulder length wavy chestnut hair and taupe coloured eyes, shot her hand up in the air, causing some of the male students to roll their eyes, and a few of the other female students to glare at her jealously, each one obviously wanting to be the first one to put their hand up when the teacher had asked the question.

"Yes, Miss Charlton" the professor said, smiling kindly at the small brown haired witch, motioning to her to stand up, "Remember to speak clearly so we can all hear you." The small brunette stood up with an almost proud look on her face and began explaining in a clear voice what the Mortis Aeris curse was, and what spells could be used to counter or dispell it. "The Mortis Aeris curse," she explained to everyone in the room, "or the Death Air curse as it sometimes known as, is a powerful curse that fills a room (or confined area of space) with deadly poisonous air. Unlike the Killing Curse, there are actually several spells that will either counter it or even dispell it. The Luna Nebula (Moon Mist) and Aingeal Sciathán (Angel Wing) spells are both spells that will either counter the Mortis Aeris curse, or dispell it." "Very good, Miss Charlton" Professor Lupin said with a small smile on his face, "10 points to Ravenclaw. "You may sit down now." The small brown haired witch sat down.

"Alright," Professor Lupin went on, as soon as the small Ravenclaw girl was back in her seat, "now that we all know what the Mortis Aeris curse is, and what spells can be used to counter or dispell, I'm going to teach you all a powerful spell that will entirely banish the Mortis Aeris, without having to use your wand." A Slytherin boy with dark blonde hair and grey eyes let out a harsh laugh. "There's no such thing as a wandless spell that can entirely banish the Mortis Aeris curse" he said with a cold voice, "Everyone knows that." "Aah, but that's were you're wrong, Mr Sidney" the professor answered him, with a wry smile on his face, "You're thinking of Grade 1 Wandless Magic. The spell you're going to be learning today is called the Crystallum Purus Vapor spell, and is a Grade 2 and 3 Wandless Magic spell. Since Miss Hashteher is somewhat an expert in wandless magic, she shall be demonstrating how this spell is performed. Miss Hashteher, if you may?"

Sukida smiled and nodded, then walked up to the front of the class room. In front of her, Professor Lupin placed a glass box containing what looked like greenish black smoke. Then he stepped back carefully, and watched along with the students, as Sukida performed the Crystallum Purus Vapor spell. Slowly closing her eyes and cupping her hands together, Sukida pictured a ball of swirling snowy crystal white light appearing between the palms of her hands. Then before anyone in the room could do so much as blink, she called out the spell.

"Crystallum Purum Vaporis!!"

Wide eyed, the students watched as the ball of crystal white light flew from Sukida's palms, and surrounding the glass box, causing the greenish black smoke inside to slowly disperse then disappear. Then Sukida opened her eyes, bowed slightly and calmly stepped back. "Now class" Professor Lupin said as stepped back to the front of the classroom, "It's your turn to practise the spell." With that he waved his wand, and glass boxes filled with black smoke, appeared on each of the students' desks in front of them.

~~*~~

"WHY did we get COMC classes?" Loki moaned, looking over Hazel's shoulder, reading the days lesson plans and then reading about the animal in "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them". "Because we drew classes out of a hat. And this is what we got stuck with. Just be thankful that we didn't get Divination or Potions. We'd both die." Hazel scanned the page. "Why is it that this book doesn't have a picture of every animal?" "Because apparently everyone is supposed to know what these creatures look like." "Well we didn't even know these creatures exsisted until the other day. It's hardly fair." "Life isn't fair Kitten." Loki kissed her cheek and she elbowed him lightly. "Oh shut up."

"Loki, 'Azel, A'ight there?" The young couple looked up at the giant and nodded. "Any chance we could see this Aethonan of yours Hagrid? We want to know what it looks like, maybe get a handle of it, since one of us will be bringing it out." "Ah, sure. He's really a gen'le one. Nice and tame. Only a level two. I didn't want to get too out of 'and." Loki snikkered as Hazel smiled up at him.

//Isn't it adorable the way he says my name?// //He completely takes of the H.// //I know! It's so cute!// //I knew you liked Hagrid, but this is getting rediculus.//

~~*~~

Later that day, the student teachers met at lunch and discussed how their first classes had been like. "I swear if I hear one more complaint from Malfoy," Loki muttered under his breath, "I'm going to seriously consider putting a curse on him." "Like what?" Sukida asked, scanning the Great Hall for signs of any black wings lurking among the students. "Er," Loki said, scratching his head slightly, "The Curse of the Thousand Furbies?" "The Curse of the Thousand Furbies?" Hazel asked him, with a bemused look on her face. "Okay, Two Thousand Furbies, then?" Loki answered her with a grin. "Wha's a furby?" Hagrid asked with a puzzled look on his big face, clearly interested by these strange creatures the strange-eyed student teacher was talking about. Tauren rolled his eyes at Loki antics. "They're a toy pet quite popular with Muggles," he explained to Hagrid. "But they're more like torture devices, after you've had to listen to one for a while." Then he noticed Sukida had stopped scanning the room, and was now looking puzzled at the Gryffindor table.

"Are you okay, my love?" he asked, a concerned look on his face as he looked at Sukida. Sukida turned and looked at him. "Oh it's nothing, my love" she said, sighing and shaking her head, "It's just that, young Harry Potter and his friends seem to be looking at us strangely." The other three student teachers turned their heads slightly, and noticed the young dark haired, green eyed wizard and his friends Ron, Hermione and Ginny, all staring at them intently, before going back to the conversation they'd been clearly having beforehand. "Okay," Loki said, looking at Hazel, Tauren and Sukida, with a bewildered look on his face, "hands up. Who was totally weirded out by that?"

~~*~~

Ginny shook her head. "I just don't get it Harry. Why do you think it has something to do with the new teachers?" "Because nothing strange started happening until they arrived." Ron rolled his eyes at his younger sister. "Nothing strange? Where have you been the past four years Ron?" Hermione arched an eyebrow at him. "Okay," he attempted to correct himself, "nothing quite this strange." "Second year." Hermione said firmly. "Why do you always have to fight?" Ron's ears were turning red. "I was just saying that something bizarre is going on. Then you go and pull this! I'm tired of fighting!" Ron stood up quickly and left the Great Hall, face red.

"Urge." Hermione put her head in her hands. "Why did I do that?" She shook her head as Ginny patted her back. "It will be alright. Ron is simply a hot head. You know that. Right Harry?" "Oh no, I'm staying out of this. I've been in the middle of enough of their fights." "You're not being very supportive." Ginny's eyes narrowed and Harry swallowed, remembering her temper. "But she's right. You know how Ron can act when given the chance. He might be overly stressed. Me forcing my problems off on you three probably isn't helping."

"Harry, you aren't forcing anything off on us." Hermione now looked angry with him. "You are so thick sometimes. Thicker than Ron! We are your FRIENDS. We want you to come to us with problems like these. You never would have been able to figure it out on your own."

Suddenly the Great Hall's double doors swung open again. A tall, slightly less gangly than last year, red-head, stormed in over to the Gryffindor table. He stood right next to Hermione. "And one other thing!" He grabbed her face and kissed her quickly, before releasing her and storming out once more.

"Well I never!"

~~*~~

"That has to have been the most entertaining thing I've seen all year." ginny giggled in Harry's ear later during a break. "And it's only just started." Harry bit his lip as Ron and Hermione glanced at one another again, looking back down at their books when they saw the other looking. "It's just.. hilarious!" Ginny's giggle was muffled by her book, 'Soulmate'. "I know. I never would have guessed though."

"Seriously?" Ginny looked at Harry. "I've known since my second year. Ron is so in love with her it isn't funny. And the pathetic thing is that he didn't even realize it until now." "I guess I kind of figured it out last year. What with the Viktor Krum incident and all." "Breaking his figurine to pieces. Priceless. What I wouldn't have given to be there when it happened." "That makes two of us. And what I wouldn't give to be in their heads right now."

Ginny shook her head and smiled at him. "Oh, and I have an idea." "Enlighten me." Harry turned, sitting cross-legged on the couch, facing her. Ginny rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. "I was thinking, we need to set the two of them up." "You're insane." "I am not!" Ginny said indignatly. "Fine then, simply nutters." "Why are you so intent on making me mad?" "Because it's fun." Harry gave her a grin and shook his head.

"Come on. We need to at least break up their "I'm-not-looking-at-you" episode. We have to get to class. What do you have next?" "Oh, so evil potions. But I think Tauren is going to be there. So it won't be so bad." "You're getting far too attatched to this teacher." "What can I say? He's Lancelot." "Lancelot betrayed King Arthur and stole Guinevere." "Oh, do shut up."

~~*~~

"They're looking at us again." Sukida whispered to the others. The other three glanced at the Gryffindor table. "I think you're getting a bit parinoid Suki." Loki sighed and patted her hand. "I'm not paranoid Loki Kelan Sunil Hashteher!" Sukida glared at her brother. Right as she looked ready to pounce, Hazel reached across the table and patted her hand. "Ignore him Suk. You know he loves baiting you." Sukida stopped bristeling in time to see Hazel slap the back of Loki's head. "What are you doing? Baiting her like that? One of these days I'm going to let her kill you!" She whispered harshly in his ear, making him cringe slightly. "Sorry." He muttered.

Hazel shook her head, patting his hand lightly and turnign back to Sukida. "Suki, I'm sure you're fretting over nothing. Maybe they just want to know more about us. We really should make an effort to talk with them. I mean we are supposed to be protecting him. It couldn't hurt." Tauren nodded. "Good idea Tiger." Hazel grinned, pleased with herself and leaned back in her chair now patting Loki's thigh. "I know, all my ideas are good." "Don't push it." Tauren rolled his eyes.

~~*~~
End Note: Alright. So ends another chapter. Thanks to those who reviewed last time. I hope you liked this chapter. Please review again.
~Hazel~