Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Harry Potter including Harry Potter
A/N: It's getting a little deeper. I hope you enjoy it!
The Voice of ReasonChapter Three: Puppy Love
Christine's Point of View"Christine Walken," I heard Professor McGonnigal say.
I walked up to the front to pick up my belongings that managed to survive the fire and some things my parents had sent over. I pulled a suitcase back to my seat and Professor McGonnigal and Professor Scythe sorted out our things to each student. I sat back down beside Romana who had already gotten her things. She sighed and ran her hand against her dark cheek. "Shit, I lost almost everything," she said.
"I don't dare to look," I said, setting down the suitcase that my parents sent me.
"Did she mention anything about our familiars?" she asked. "I noticed that none of the students have dogs."
"I heard that they only have cats, owls or rats," I said.
"Really?" Romana's eyes widened. "What about Scythe and her lizard?"
As if on cue, or as if it was written in a story, Professor Scythe spoke to us. "For those of you who haven't gotten your familiar, much like me, I've been informed that they're in an extra part of the school for things like that. They are NOT allowed in the school since it hasn't been puppy-proofed or whatever else the creature may be," Professor Scythe said.
Romana's hand shot up rather quickly. "Hannah's missing!" she didn't wait to be acknowledged by either Professor.
"Hannah?" McGonnigal questioned.
"Her cat," Scythe said, knowing us all to well. "She may just be with the rest of the animals."
Romana nodded half-heartedly and lowered her eyes. "Want to go check out the animals?" she asked, smiling at me.
"Yes, yes I do," I said picking up my small amount of things.
Neither professor seemed to care as we stood up and walked to the exit. Professor Snape opened the door, scaring the crap out of me... not literally. Romana mauled him, wrapping her arms around one of his long legs. "Hannah!" she shouted.
I watched Snape continue to try to walk, not noticing Romana latched to his leg, but he was unsuccessful. Romana's voice made both of the female professor's turn to watch Snape and Romana fall to the ground. Both laid limp for a second. Professor Severus Snape took a deep breath. "I found a cat wandering the halls," he said and turned to Romana on the ground. "I suspect that it is yours."
Romana seemed to grow younger mentally. "Thank you mister man!" she said, and took her feline from his arms. "My hero!"
The obese cat that she spoiled rotten purred loudly since she was back in her owner's loving arms. I listened to Romana baby talked to the cat as Snape walked from the room swiftly, as if he hadn't fallen at all. Scythe and McGonnigal started to laugh after he left. "Steve Stevenson," McGonnigal said, between laughs.
They continued to hand out things. I nudged Romana. "Are you still going to go see Beegee with me?" I asked.
"No," she cradled her cat in her arms. "I'll take all of your things up to your room for you... if you want."
"That'd be awesome," I responded. "Thanks."
I left the room, without my things, to see my wonderful dog – if she was okay. I rushed down the stairs and quickly realized I didn't know where I was going. My arm was grabbed, startling me for the second time in less than an hour. "Hey," the ever-so-cocky Draco Malfoy was growing off of my arm.
"Hi," I said, trying to wriggle free. It was no use. "May I have my arm back?"
He flashed a smile and let go. "I thought you were lost, that's all. These stairways can get confusing," he said. I watched the continually moving stairway. "Are you going to the petairium?"
"Petairium? Is that even a word?" I asked.
"It is now," he pulled me onto one of the stairs. "It's just where they keep the so-called exotic pets that the school can't handle."
"My dog would be there?" I asked, following him closely.
"Of course," he said. "I'm going there. Would you like me to walk you there?"
I looked down nervously. Our school didn't have weird stairs. "Yes, if you don't mind," I smiled at the boy beside me.
His arm slid around me. I opened my mouth to protest, but I quickly realized that it was for protection, not for affection. "Of course I don't," he said as we switched stairs. "We'll be there in a second."
His grip released as we entered a doorway. It was empty except for Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore talking quietly. They both grew silent as we entered. "Am I allowed to see my pet?" I asked.
They nodded. "Of course," Dumbledore said. "I don't see why not."
I looked around quickly, trying to figure out where Beegee had hidden. I walked around, listening to the straw crack underneath my borrowed shoes. I turned a corner and saw Draco sitting down on the ground, with a Husky puppy on his lap. His head was leaned over, to give maximum affection to the pup. His long platinum blonde hair hid his grey eyes, but brought out the large smile he had on while he played with the dog. He seemed to have an aura around him. I blushed, realizing I was staring and continued the search for my puppy. Dumbledore and Snape started to talk again quietly, so that we couldn't hear their conversation. The door opened as another professor walked in. A short male, I suspected him to be a different species. I turned back to see my dogs bold eyes looking at me. "Beegee!" I exclaimed loudly and hugged the poor dog.
The now three professors stopped talking for a moment. I probably had thrown them off a bit. Beegee looked rather upset with me and made a funny grumbling noise. She must have been disappointed that I didn't get a chance to grab her. "I'm sorry," I said quietly and leaned over to pet my dog. "I missed you."
The dog's wet nose pushed against my face; I hoped it was a sign of affection. As I petted my pooch I glanced over at Draco. I couldn't decide what made his heart melt. What happened to the mean Draco I had met before the school year? Draco noticed me staring. I felt myself blush once more and look away from him. "My dad sent him to me," Draco said.
"It's cute," I said.
"Husky," he nodded and looked back down at the puppy gnawing on his hand.
"Mine's a Lab-Doberman," I said, petting Beegee once more.
"What's its name?" Draco asked, picking up his husky pup.
I watched him walk over and sit down beside me. "Beegee," I said.
"Cute," he flashed his attractive smile once more at me.
"What's your dog's name?" I asked.
"Mattie," he said.
I smiled back at him. His two, rather large, friends walked into the room. He set down Chico and walked towards them, without saying anything to him. Obviously he was ashamed to be talking to me. Pfft, who needs him? I watched them leave. I continued to cover Beegee with attention, watched the three male teachers talk secretly. I quickly wished that I could read lips. Eventually, Professor Dumbledore and the short teacher left the room. I stood up and decided to try to sneak Beegee up to my room. "Hi Professor Snape!" I said, with mass amounts of glee.
"Hi Miss..." he tried to remember my name.
"Walken," I said.
He forced a smile. "Miss. Walken."
I noticed Hannah's cat hair all over his shirt. "I apologize for my friends behaviour," I said. "She's quite mad really."
He chuckled lightly. I smiled victoriously – On his good side. "It's fine," he said.
"I'm afraid there was a mistake with my dog," I said. "It's rather ill, and I need to be with it at all times."
He crossed his arms. "I can see the lies spilling out of your mouth. Miss. Walken the dog stays here," he said.
I thought about kicking him and then running, but ruled it out rather quickly. "Ask Professor Scythe!" I said, knowing he wouldn't go out of his way to talk to her.
"I'd prefer the dog stayed here," he responded.
I quickly decided to make him very mad, so that he wouldn't notice the dog following behind me. "You know, I heard her talking to Professor McGonnigal. She thinks you're quite a fool," I said.
"Because you're friend mauled me?" he said. "That's rather rude of her."
"It is! She thinks you're a crap teacher too," I said.
I bit my lip as I watched his anger rise in his eyes. "She said that?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yuh-huh," I lied.
Luckily, he didn't catch this lie. "It's not like I usually spill chemicals, it was just because she got in my way. It's not like it was an accident or something," he said.
He spilt it on her on purpose? The thought quickly sent chills up my spine. Maybe I shouldn't have upset him. "It... wasn't an accident, sir?" I asked.
He looked at me, realizing what he said. "You're making me tired, just go," he rubbed his forehead and then pointed to the doorway.
Did he mean with my dog? His eyes were closed, so I escaped with Beegee anyway. As I expected, I didn't get very far. Professor Scythe grabbed my shoulder. "And where are you going?" she questioned with a raised of the eyebrow.
"Back to my room," I said, keeping my eyes low.
"And where is your dear Beegee going?" she asked.
I decided acting dumb would be the best way to play it out. "Beegee?" I turned around and placed a dumb look on my face. "What're you doing there? She must have followed me out."
Scythe grabbed my arm lightly, careful not to hurt me. "Well we're going to put her back, both of us," she said.
I followed her, and regretted it quickly as I realized that Snape was still on watch. "Miss. Scythe," I watched hate fill his eyes once more.
"Mr. Snape," she said. "Why did you let this girl leave with her dog?"
He looked down at Beegee and began to stutter, "I-I didn't see her leave," he said.
God forbid that Snape makes a mistake. "You should know, this IS your school," she glared at him.
She was probably still angry that he kicked her out of the potions class. He glared at her and I could tell he was about to say something horrid. "What on earth possessed both of you to act this way," Dumbledore appeared in the doorway.
He motioned for me to leave. I sighed and walked off. I shoved my hands in my pockets. I had to leave just as soon as things got interesting. I rushed to the Slytherin room to talk to Romana about what I had seen. "Pookie!" I exclaimed, looking at my friend with her pet in her lap.
"Hey," she smiled at me. "What happened with Beegee?"
"She's doing rather well," I said. "I tried to sneak her out, but Scythe caught me."
"Ah," she nodded up at me. "So she'll be sleeping downstairs?"
"Downstairs," I repeated and sighed lightly.
I opened my suitcase and started to unpack the things my parents had sent. "So, I was talking to Hagrid," Romana started.
"Because I know who that is," I rolled my eyes. "What did you talk to this mystery man about?"
"You remember the tall guy with the massive beard?" she said.
I nodded. He was the animal guy. "Yes, actually I do," I smiled.
"Well, I was talking to him about our potions class," she smiled softly and continued. "You know, where Snape and Scythe fought. Anyway, he said that Scythe was making people nervous because of how she is."
"How she is?" I questioned.
She winked. "You know, they sense something wrong with her," she said.
"So, are we going to get our Professor switched with another?" I asked.
"I don't know," she shrugged and leaned back in her sleeping bag. "All of the teachers are requesting different things."
I noticed something purple and fluffy in the bottom of my suitcase. "What do you think will happen?" I asked.
"They'll probably just give her a side job so she's out of everyone's way," she said, now curious about what was in my bag. "What do you have there?"
I pulled out a purple, fluffy rug that I had requested a while back. I squealed with glee and moved my sleeping bag immediately to lay down the lovely rug. "They bought it for me!" I said.
Romana's contagious laughter filled the room. "At least something good has come out of this," she said.
"Yeah," I ran my hands against the soft rug. "I loooove it."
I laid back against the rug, ready to sleep on it. "Did you talk to anyone when you went to get Beegee?" she asked, knowing quite well I saw Draco.
"Snape, Scythe and Malfoy," I said.
She curled up back in her sleeping bag. "What happened between you two anyway?" she asked.
I shrugged, placed a pillow behind my head. "Exactly?" I asked. "All the little tiny details?"
She nodded. "Not the short version that you always say," she said.
"My parents and I went to diagon alley, to get my school supplies. When they saw the Malfoy's, they talked to them. My father introduced me to Draco. I'm not sure if they were playing matchmaker or if they just wanted me to meet him. Anyway, I smiled and shook his hand. I thought he was rather attractive. He let go of my hand almost instantly and looked up at his dear daddy. 'Is she going to Hogwarts?' His father responded with a no, so his grey eyes looked deep into mine. He said, 'There isn't any value in talking to someone like you then,' and walked off."
"Do you think he's changed his mind?" Romana asked me.
"I think so," I said. "He helped me get to the petairium."
"Is that even a word?"
I repeated Draco's words with a smile. "It is now."