Chapter 7

Tessa awoke the next morning contented, happy and confused. Half asleep she had rolled over still feeling Remus' arms about her. When she reached out to touch him all that was under her hand were blankets. She opened her eyes to a bright morning, alone in her bed.

She sat up and hugged her knees looking around the room half expecting to see him there. "I liked sleeping better," she said to no one.

She threw off her covers and crawled out of bed and set herself to getting ready for her first day of classes. In less than half an hour she was out her chamber door and heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Many of the students were already in the midst of their breakfasts when she arrived and it appeared that a few of the teachers had already finished their meals and went on their way. Professors MacGonagall and Flitwick were just beginning as she sat to join them. Albus was also still at the table although he seemed to have finished as well.

"Good Morning, Tessa," he greeted brightly as she took her seat. "I trust you slept well."

"Yes, surprisingly well, thank you," she answered and took her seat. She surveyed the meal before her eagerly. Porridge, breakfast meats of all sorts, eggs, toast, juice, coffee and tea were set before her. Looking out over the students happily chattering and eating their breakfasts, Tessa's stomach gave an unpleasant lurch. She had held her nervousness in check but now, minutes away from facing her first class, it overtook her. Her appetite fled. She poured herself a cup of tea and buttered a single piece of toast and left the rest alone.

Professor Flitwick noticed her empty plate. "Now, Professor Phalen, you must fortify yourself for the day, my dear. It is a long time until lunch."

Tessa looked and the heaping plate that was before him and couldn't suppress a smile. "Nerves," she confided in him. "I don't think my stomach could handle more this morning."

"Nonsense," he proclaimed. "Nothing better for a nervous stomach than a hearty breakfast."

She laughed but still didn't take anything more.

"Really, my dear," he continued. "There is nothing to be concerned about." He indicated the students with his fork, "They are eager to learn. All you need do is be enthusiastic about your subject and they will follow suit."

"Give them a strict structure, Tessa," advised Professor MacGonagall. "Children crave rules, though they wouldn't admit it if you threatened them with a mountain troll." MacGongall looked at Tessa out of the corner of her eye and the hint of a smile shown on her face as she speared a sausage and added it to her plate.

Tessa raised her eyebrows, chuckled at the joke and shook her head. "Right then, have fun but be strict. Ok, that shouldn't be too hard," she said sarcastically. "Professor," she said to Flitwick, "I think you are right. I will need a bit more fortification to handle this." He handed her a dish of scrambled eggs and she began filling her plate feeling much less apprehensive.

Dumbledore said, "Excellent. Always start the day with a smile and a good meal. It is a rule by which I have always tried to live."

Overhead there was a whooshing sound. Tessa looked up to see flocks of owls descend into the Great Hall dropping packages or landing in front of students and teachers alike with morning mail. Most of the Professors at the table received mail of some sort. She saw several them unfold copies of the Daily Prophet. She was about to continue her meal when a barn owl landed in front of her and proffered its leg. She untied the scroll and offered it a piece of bacon which it took happily in its beak. She stroked its feathers for a moment before it took off and flew back out threw the high windows in the hall.

She opened the scroll which was, she discovered, actually two scrolls. The outer one appeared blank and she set it in her lap. The other one had a brief note from Remus.

Good morning, love. Have a successful first day, my dear professor. I wish I could be there to cheer you on. When you have returned to the privacy of your office, take out the blank parchment and say my name, and not to be too melodramatic, all will be revealed. All my love, R.

She smiled and rolled the parchments together and left them on her lap.

Having finished briefly looking through his newspaper, Dumbledore rose from his seat and quietly addressed the teachers at the head table, "Ladies and gentlemen, have a good day teaching. Do your best to impart some bit of wisdom on your charges and by all means mold them into fine young witches and wizards; If that proves not to be possible, at least try not to trip on your robes."

Tessa covered her mouth and tried not to spit her food as she laughed. MacGonagall look to the ceiling and shook her head but Tessa was sure she heard her chuckle a bit. Professor Flitwick, raised his glass of orange juice to Dumbledore as he passed behind them. Tessa excused herself for a moment and followed Dumbledore.

"Headmaster," she said catching up to him.

He stopped and turned to her, "Yes, professor?"

"I wanted to thank you for your thoughtful gift. I had forgotten that we had a photograph taken that day."

Dumbledore regarded her for a moment with his sparkling blue eyes. "You are quite welcome, my dear. Just a small token for your desk. It is good to have pictures to remind us of times past as memory sometimes fades." He patted her hand and left the Hall.

She stood there for a few moments pondering his words. She decided she would have to take time to understand them later because her breakfast was getting cold on her plate and she needed to finish it and get to her first class. She resumed her place at the table as MacGonagall was leaving the table. She wished Tessa a good first day and left. Professor Flitwick lingered for a minute more, took a few buns and put them into his pockets and bid her a good day as well.

"Don't hesitate to call on me if you find yourself in need of help or advice, Professor," he said. "I am always in the Charms corridor."

Tessa hurried through the rest of her meal, took her parchment and left the hall. She made her way up to her office and checked the time. She had fifteen minutes until the start of her first class. She sat at her desk and smoothed out the blank parchment on her desk. "Remus Lupin," she said. Words began to appear on the surface of the paper.

How formal. 'Remus' would have been just fine.

Tessa smiled, "A paper with a sense of humor," she thought. These words faded and more took their place.

A helpful tool is hidden

Until it has been bidden.

If you wish to find your way

'I am lost' is what you say.

For this map to where you live,

Thanks to Remus you must give.

Tessa chuckled at the rhyme and watched it, too, fade away. She held the parchment up and said, "I am lost," and waited. Nothing happened for a moment. Then more writing appeared on the page.

I'm waiting...

"Oh, sorry," she said and cleared her voice. "Thank you, Remus." Suddenly a map appeared on the page. She was astounded. It was a detailed map of Hogwarts. She had no idea of how it was possible but the map showed three dimensions. She watched as one of the staircases depicted on the paper moved into a new position.

"Ok," she said, "I'm lost." On the map there was a red dot now in her office. In the corner of the map words appeared.

Where do you want to go?

"Oh," she thought for a moment, "Charms corridor." Now there was a red dotted line forming from the red dot in her office tracing the path to the destination she had indicated. "Wow," she said. She was very impressed by the skill it took to create such an item. Clearly, Remus had a few hidden talents of his own. New words formed on the corner of the parchment.

Is there anywhere else you need to go?

"No, there isn't. Thanks very much." New words formed in their place.

To close the map, simply say

'Thank you' once more and

'I've found my way'.

"Thank you," she said, "I've found my way," and the map disappeared. Words formed once more on the surface of the paper.

You're welcome.

"Great present," she said mostly to herself. Words once more appeared on it.

Thanks. Thought you might like it.

"Well, you were right," she said.

I usually am.

"My, you are certainly full of yourself for a piece of paper."

No, I just am sure of myself.

"Are you trying to start an argument?"

No, but I'd give up if I were you; you won't get the last word.

Exasperated, she threw up her hands and said, "Honestly." She grabbed her materials for her first class and went to the door so she missed the map's next words.

See, told you.

She composed herself for a moment, opened the door and looked down into the classroom. Twenty pair of eyes looked up at her from their desks. She felt totally exposed as she walked down the stairs into the room. She placed her papers on the desk in front of the students and then turned to face them leaning against the desk holding a paper in her hand. She looked at the paper for a moment; the names of the third year students from Slytherin and Hufflepuff were listed on it. She set the paper aside and looked slowly around the room. All eyes were on her; faces held curiosity and uncertainty.

"Welcome to your third year of Defense Against the Dark Arts. My name is Professor Phalen." she began. "I've seen your exam scores from the previous two years." She paused to see their reactions and held back a smile as she saw some people squirm and look sideways at their neighbors. "I have decided to ignore them and start fresh. I feel that much of what you learned last year to be useless so, we are going to have a bit of a review to see where you all are."

She stood up and took out her wand. A few students sat back in their chairs. She turned her back to them smiling to herself and pointed her wand to the blackboard moving it forward. She faced them once more.

"Please take out a sheet of parchment, quill and ink. We are going to have a bit of a quiz." The students groaned as they reached into their bags at her request. "Don't worry this is not going to be graded. I just want to see what you already know." They seemed slightly appeased by this announcement. "As a matter of fact, we will be going over the answers in class and you can use these for studying later. You might also walk out of the room today with a better idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are."

She let them get settled before she pointed her wand at the board and the first question appeared on the board. After they had finished the quiz, Tessa asked the questions again and had the students give their answers. She found several of the students very willing to contribute to the discussion but most stayed silent. She stood behind some of those students and encouraged them to share their answer. By the end of class she had learned the names of most of them as she wandered around the room and felt as if she had gained a little respect and trust from them as well.

"Very good everyone. Let's see a point for each student who contributed to class today. That will be 7 points to Slytherin and 8 to Hufflepuff. I hope that we can make it 10 and 10 next class." Everyone in the class brightened and started talking amongst themselves excitedly. "Don't expect points every class but you never know when it will happen so let's keep everyone participating.

For next class we will be discussing Hinkypunks, so please read the chapter concerning them and expect some practicum in the second half of class." Again, excited chatter broke out in the room. The bell rang and she dismissed the class and they grabbed their belongings and filed out of the room.

She busied herself with the papers on her desk and erasing the questions from the board as they left. As the last student went through the door, Tessa collapsed in her chair and sighed out with a "Whew." She smiled to herself. "I did it," she thought. "Ok," she said to herself, "Next class."

Her day sped by. She hurried through her lunch so that she could take advantage of the beautiful day and wandered around the grounds. She saw Hagrid outside of his hut setting up a table and stopped to say "hello". She helped him bring out boxes with Puffskeins and took a minute to pet one or two before heading back to the castle.

By the time her afternoon classes were over, she was famished. She took her seat between Professor Flitwick and Professor MacGonagal and proceeded to fill her plate.

"I see that your appetite is better this evening, Tessa. Does this mean your day went well?" Flitwick inquired watching her heap potatoes onto her plate.

"Yes, thank you. Better than I anticipated. The students were well behaved and most were even paying attention so I feel it went very well," she answered smiling.

He laughed, "Well done, then. You have passed a large hurdle if they are paying attention."

"Yes, well, it could also be that they are giving me their attention because I am new; an unknown quantity."

"I have confidence that it was more than that."

Tessa smiled at him and raised her glass and he did the same. Together they drank a silent toast to her first successful day. They moved their attention to the food and it stayed there for a considerable time. During the dessert course, Professor MacGonagal joined their conversation.

"Professor, I noticed you did not join us in the Faculty lounge today."

Tessa furrowed her brows a moment, "Faculty Lounge? I suppose I didn't think about it. I was quite distracted with first day jitters." She didn't say it, but she really didn't know where it was, either.

"Well, feel free to join us there. It is quite nice to have a place to gather as adults, without the distraction of students demanding your attention." She leaned in conspiratorially, "Also, the house elves keep it well stocked with treats and such."

Tessa smiled glanced sideways at the students and nodded at MacGonagall. Then they both laughed quietly.

Tessa finished her dessert, bread pudding, and lingered talking at the faculty table for several more minutes. She didn't want to go back to her room yet, it was still early and she had nothing to occupy her this evening until she could realistically go to bed. She looked down at the Gryffindor table and saw several students she had taught today.

She caught sight of two heads of shocking red hair. Ron and Ginny were sitting with Harry and Hermione. Ginny had been in her 5th year class after lunch and she was very impressed with her level of knowledge compared to the rest of the class. Tessa knew this was due to the tutoring that Harry had provided last year. She found out the identity of the blond-haired girl that was on the train with them as well during that class. Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw, was nearly as advanced as Ginny. She assumed that she had been in the 'illegal' group as well.

Tessa watched them talking animatedly to each other for a moment, wishing she could join them as she had done this summer, but knew that this was impossible. She returned her attention to the faculty table as MacGonagall and Flitwick were saying their goodnights. She left the table a minute later, after saying goodnight to Dumbledore and then left the Hall.

She made her way up to her room. She opened the door and saw that the sun still shone over the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest. She looked around the room wondering what she was going to do for the next several hours. She went into her office and looked at the books lining her shelves. None of them looked like they would be a good choice for pre-bed reading. Dark Arts books tended to produce bad dreams, sometimes by design.

She decided that she would use this time to write a short letter to Remus. She sat at her desk and took parchment and quill. She was unused to quills but they were the writing tool of choice here so she thought she may as well start practicing with them now.

R,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your gift was unexpected and wonderful. I've never seen anything like it. I will be using it in a moment to find my way to the Owlery to send this letter.

My classes started off very well. You should have warned me about the heavy scheduling, I don't know how I will be able to keep up as the semester continues. Be ready when I start asking for advice, as I am sure I will.

This goes without saying, but I miss you. I'll see you in dreams. Sleep in the light.

All my love,

T

She reread the letter. It was short, true, but she couldn't put too much into it in case letters were being monitored from the school. And if that were the case, she didn't want her personal thoughts being read by strangers either. She sealed the letter and looked out the window at the fading light.

The parchment lay on the desk. She picked it up and said, "Thank you, Remus." The map of Hogwart's appeared before her. She studied it for a moment wondering if there were other ways to find places other than saying she was lost.

"Hello, map," she said. Nothing happened. "Ok, how about, where is the Owlery?" A green dot appeared in a tower to the west. She rolled up the map, grabbed her letter and set out to find her way.

It was still early in the evening, well before curfew but the halls were deserted. Dinner had finished at least an hour ago and all the students were in their common rooms either complaining about their new classes or enjoying themselves with other pursuits, so she had the castle to herself.

On her way up to the west tower, she stopped to chat with several paintings who were for the most part quite eager for the attention. She also ran across a most unpleasant cat that, she discovered, belonged to the equally unpleasant Mr. Filch, the custodian of the castle. He accused her of all manner of ill deeds before he realized that she was the new teacher and then skulked away apparently unhappy to have missed an opportunity to penalize someone.

The Owlery was a mass of beautiful owls, large and small. She noticed that Filch did not keep it very well. The student's owls had just arrived so the inches deep filth covering the floor could not be accounted for by their arrival. She did a quick Scourging Charm to take care of the mess, more so she would not have to breath the stench or walk through the muck when acquiring an owl than to help Filch in his duties.

"Who would like a job this evening?" she inquired of the owls in their perches. Several fluffed their wings obviously willing to comply, but since these were not the school owls they were not allowed to be used. She saw a familiar Snowy Owl flapping its wings at her and she went to it.

She stroked its feathers. "Hello, Hedwig. Why aren't you out hunting on this beautiful night?" Hedwig flapped her wings again in reply. "Oh, I see, you are going out later. I wish I could use you to send my letter, but I haven't asked Harry's permission, so I can't." Hedwig snapped her beak in a perturbed sort of fashion. "I am really sorry, Hedwig. Next time I'll think to ask." As an appeasement Tessa offered her a bit of food that she had brought along. At first Hedwig refused then took it and nipped Tessa on the finger in an affectionate manner.

She went over to a less impressive looking owl, but one with bright eyes and an eager attitude. "Hello, there." The owl stretched out its leg and Tessa attached the letter to it. She reached in her pocket and gave the owl a bit of food. The owl then leaped from its perch and soared into the sky. She watched its progress out of sight.

The sun had now set, so she made her way back down to her quarters. She prepared her lessons for the next day then prepared for bed. She borrowed a copy of the Daily Prophet from Professor Flitwick so she had some reading material tonight but when she climbed into bed, early as it was, she felt a great fatigue come over her. She gathered the covers around her shoulders and turned to face the fire in the fireplace. Again, the dancing of the flames lulled her to sleep.

She wasn't enveloped in white light as she was the previous night. In her dreams, though, she emanated the light. She walked through the light in her dreams, waiting, and soon Remus joined her there. She opened her arms for him and held him as he had done for her and together, miles apart they slept peacefully.