CHAPTER ONE: The games begin!
"RUN!" yelled James, tearing down the staircase leading towards the Great Hall.
He grabbed a surprised Remus by the arm and pulled him through the open doors. Quickly, letting Sirius run in, he slammed the heavy doors shut with the help from Remus.
They collapsed to the floor breathing deeply with huge grins spread across their faces.
After a split second a faint scream could be heard on the other side of the doors. Sirius and James nearly split their sides with laughter. Remus, although feeling that he should scold his friends for what they did, was rather enjoying himself as well. Wiping tears from his eyes, Sirius sat up and looked around. Suddenly horror streaked across his face.
"Peter, where's Peter!" he said in a frantic tone. James turned to face his friend, then cast a quick glance around the Great Hall.
"He, he was just with us…" James gasped.
"Oh shit!" said Sirius, leaping to his feat. "We've got to find him! He could have been…" he let his sentence trail off, leaving its heavy impact to settle on his friends faces as they too stood up.
"He's sleeping in the bathroom tonight" said Remus, crossing his arms, "no way is he going to stink up our dorm"
Suddenly a young woman forced the doors open and slid into the safety of the Great Hall with the boys. A stench of something horribly disgusting followed her through the door.
She scrunched up her nose and waved her hand in front of her face, trying to get rid of the smell.
The boys looked her up and down. Who was she? She wasn't in uniform and she was way too young to be a teacher, so what was she doing here?
She looked at the boys in return, then smiled.
"You must be Sirius and James" she said, looking at the two taller boys, one with straight, long black hair and the other also with black hair, but his looked like he'd just come out of a washing machine. "I am honoured to meet the two most infamous students of school!" she smiled again and looked at Remus "Ah, and you must be Remus, the brains of the four" she looked at the doors and turned back to face the boys. "I suppose that was you, wasn't it?"
Instead of answering her question, Sirius spoke up "Who are you? What house are you in?" he asked, rather bluntly. She smiled again.
"My name, to you, Mr. Black, is professor Rosenthal"
"Professor?" said James and Sirius together with stunned faces "but you can't be more than eighteen years old!" finished James. Professor Rosenthal shook her head.
"But I still have the power to put you into detention and I am afraid that stinking up the first three floors of Hogwarts with a… a… well, it looked like a giant skunk, but how on earth you got it to run that fast I have no idea…anyways, it requires a rather reasonably labouring punishment, am I right?" she looked Sirius dead in the eyes.
My lord, she thought, he had definitely gotten more attractive since second year! He looked appalled that someone this young could boss him around like that, but before he could say anything, Remus nodded in response to her question and dragged James and Sirius out of the Great Hall. The smell had somewhat died down enough to breathe again.
"Who the bloody hell does she think she is!" yelled Sirius once they were out of earshot of the professor. James looked at him and shrugged his shoulders. "Does it matter? Just another teacher, I suppose… Hey Sirius, any luck with your girlfriend lately?"
Sirius was surprised by the sudden change of subject but answered anyways. "Why yes, James, in fact I'm probably having more fun than Lily and you ever will!" he grinned.
"Oh ya? I bet you couldn't convince her to sleep with you even if she had found you lying on her bed in a loin cloth!"
"Oh, come on, James, you know I could get any girl I wanted under my covers, in fact, I've already succeeded countless times!" retorted Sirius, offended by what James had said.
"Really" said James, unconvinced "You want a bet?" he challenged.
"Fine!"
"Okay then, you have to manage to seduce and successfully sleep with any girl I choose by March Break"
"No problem, how much do you want to bet?"
"80 galleons" said James. Sirius snorted at this, knowing that his friend barely had a knut to spare.
"You're on! Now which girl did you have in mind?" he asked, thinking it would be someone from Slytherin. At that moment, professor Rosenthal walked by, James looked at her then smiled evilly at Sirius.
"No, no! You wouldn't, James! Not a teacher! Have mercy! Remus, tell him this isn't right, tell him it ain't bloody fair!" he pleaded. Professor Rosenthal stopped and looked at the boys. Remus shook his head, reassuring her that it had nothing to do with her in particular and she kept walking.
"You agreed, Sirius" said James, smiling from ear to ear. "You're lucky I chose that teacher, if anything she could be younger than you, McGonagall, on the other hand…" he watched pleasantly as the remaining colour drained from Sirius' face and he shuddered in disgust.
"Okay, okay" he breathed "I'll, I'll have her clinging to me like a little kid to his lollypop by the end of Christmas break" he finished with a nervous smile.
"We'll see about that!" said James. Remus sighed at this new challenge but decided not to pay it much attention, it didn't really involve him anyways.
"I wonder what she's teaching" asked Peter "rather odd to be arriving a month late, don't you think?" Remus nodded in agreement before turning back to his book. It was early Monday morning after the Friday skunk incident and people were filtering in and out of the Great Hall, eating breakfast and doing homework.
Dumbledore came in and walked up to the podium to make an announcement to the few students that were there, perhaps he hoped they would tell their friends and classmates.
"Good morning, Hogwarts. I have a quick announcement to make about our new professor, Miss Rosenthal. She will be teaching you defence against the dark arts seeing as Professor Konner seems to have lost his sense of what's good and what isn't" he flashed a glance over at the Marauders who pretended not to notice, though they remembered perfectly well the little "misunderstanding" they had had with Mr. Konner over the past month. "Anyways, like any teacher, I will expect you all to treat her with respect; I have little doubt that she will be just as strict with trouble makers as the rest of us"
Dumbledore stepped down from the podium and walked into the teachers' lounge on the side.
Sirius turned and looked at James "So, day one begins!" he said with a smile. James smiled back and looked at his time table.
"We have her first thing on Mondays, perfect! This is something I really don't want to miss!"
"With who?" asked Peter.
"Um… Hufflepuff, I think" said Remus as he continued to read. After breakfast, they gathered their things and went to class with high hopes for an interesting day.
When they arrived, they all sat in their usual seats and waited for the professor who turned up five minutes late.
"Good morning, class" she said cheerfully as she dumped a pile of books and pieces of parchment onto the desk. She was wearing a long, flowing skirt of red, green and blue, with a rumpled white blouse that had sleeves down to the elbows. Her long wavy brown hair was tied back in a loose ponytail with a few bangs hanging out.
Looking around the class room, she took in everybody's face and checked off their names on a list, making sure they were all there.
Remus turned to James and whispered "how does she know who we are? She's never seen us before…" James shrugged and bent down to write a note to Sirius, the usual pass time during class for the two.
"Alright!" said Rosenthal, clapping her hands together after she had finished taking attendance. "Our first lesson is going to be about Vampires, which is where professor Konner had just left off, am I right? Unfortunately, I believe he only told you what they are, not how to defend against them. Now-" she was interrupted by James's hand which was waving around in the air, narrowly missing Remus' head a few times.
She had been warned by the other teachers that James nearly never needed to ask a question seeing as he was so smart. When he did, you had to look out, it never meant anything good.
"Yes?" said Miss Rosenthal carefully, subconsciously walking behind the teacher's desk for extra protection, just in case. James realized this and smiled, this was good, he was already intimidating her! This teacher would be easy to disobey. As if she had read his mind, the professor quickly snapped up a book on the desk and returned to the front of the blackboard, acting casual. She was, after all, the teacher and the boss of these students.
"Oh, I was just thinking, you, you look somewhat familiar" he said, furrowing his brow as if thinking about something. The rest of the class nodded slowly in agreement, but Rosenthal didn't notice this, the question had simply surprised her too much.
Finally she closed her mouth and smiled, looking at James.
"Well frankly, James, I'm offended that you didn't recognise me sooner!" James was taken aback by this answer, he hadn't expected that! He didn't even think that she looked familiar; he had just said that to pester her. Man, this teacher was good! Hardly any teacher had ever confused him.
A Hufflepuff answered for him. "Wait a minute…. You were that weird kid with the pigtails!"
Miss Rosenthal raised an eyebrow and glared at the unsuspecting Hufflepuff "10 points from Hufflepuff" she said. But it was too late, her secret was out!
Peter stood up "It's Nikki!" he said.
The class gaped at her in shock, Sirius broke the silence "But you're no older than we are! You have no power over us! ANARCHY!" he yelled as he crossed the room and started to snog his girl-friend.
The class erupted in chaos, as students went their own way. Putting her hand to her forehead, Miss Rosenthal groaned and sat down. She had been hoping the class wouldn't recognise her; it would've been so much easier to control them.
Suddenly the door slammed open, making a resounding smack against the wall. The class fell silent as they all stared at the spiky blue-haired person standing in the doorway, holding a suitcase that looked like it was about to fall apart.
"NIKKI!" the newcomer shouted, "miss me?"
"And I thought it couldn't get any worse" Miss Rosenthal muttered, looking at the form of her old friend in dismay.
The figure walked over to Miss Rosenthal's desk and slammed the suitcase down.
"Hello Forrest" the professor sighed, "what are you doing here?"
"Oh, I was in the area and thought you'd be lonely and since I didn't… exactly… uh… have anywhere to sleep… well, you know…."
"I'm in the middle of a class, Forrest" Nikki said.
Forrest stopped and turned around, taking in Sirius still sitting on his girlfriend and James frozen in the midst of jumping off a desk, she turned back to the professor. "You don't seem to be doing so well." she said.
Nikki sighed "They just recognized me from my earlier years at Hogwarts." She replied.
"Oooooo! That's right! You came here before Durmstrang, didn't you?" her eyes widened with excitement. "Oh this is so cool! I've always wanted to meet this Sirius Black that you kept talking about!"
"Forrest, NO!" the professor said desperately, grabbing her friend by the arm and pulling her behind the desk to have a little chat. "Forrest, please, just go and put your stuff in my office and - what is it, Peter?" Peter had come up to the desk whimpering in pain, holding his nose.
"Nikki, James just hit me!" he whined. Nikki looked up at James who grinned back 'innocently', if it was possible for him.
"Yes, professor?" he asked, looking sweetly at her. Nikki sighed and led Forrest to the door.
"My office is the third door to the right on the second floor, don't get lost!" she said pushing Forrest towards the door. As she slammed the door behind the blue haired menace she heard an excited "Ooh! I get to go exploring, I wonder what happens if I tap this mirror twice… WHAT THE FU-AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Nikki sighed and shook her head as she turned back to her class "Okay, class, we need to have a talk" she said as she sat down on one of the Hufflepuff's desks and looked at them all. "Please return to your seats" she added before they all took a seat except for Sirius. She looked at him, or rather glared at him, daring him to provoke her. Sirius merely smiled.
"Nikki!" he said in a mock-offended tone "I thought we had agreed to keep our relationship a secret! You've betrayed me!" he sniffed loudly and looked away.
The professor groaned as the class rang out in laughter. What a lovely first class this had been. Her first year back at Hogwarts after four years of Durmstrang, (she had dropped out after sixth year, not being able to bear it anymore) and she had successfully made herself the laughing stock of the school, or at least of the seventh years. She looked up at them and sighed dramatically. "Shall I continue with the lesson or have I completely lost control over this class?"
The class smiled at her and Remus spoke up "Please, professor" he said "I was rather interested in knowing what I am to do if some strange psychopath came up to me and tried to suck my blood!" he smiled at her.
Nikki walked back up to the front of the class and was about to restart the lesson when Sirius' hand flew into the air. He was still standing in-between his girlfriend and a red-haired Hufflepuff. She looked at him but didn't say anything. Taking this as permission to talk, he put down his hand.
"Professor, why are you teaching us when you're supposed to be in school yourself?" he asked, 'innocently', just like James.
"Because I couldn't handle Durmstrang, dropped out of school, my parents didn't want me anymore, I went to Dumbledore for help and he hired me." She said bluntly, taking Sirius by surprise. Without anything to reply to that he took his seat next to Peter and opened his book to the page on Vampires.
Nikki was quite pleased with this reaction and continued the lesson smoothly. Nobody asked anymore questions about her life, though she knew they were dying to, and the class ended rather well. She even had enough courage to talk to James, Remus and Sirius about their detentions.
"Boys, come here please" she said after the bell rang. They walked up to her and she realised with a bit of uneasiness that they were all taller than her by at least half a head, even Remus who was rather short. She stood back a bit so that she wouldn't have to tip her head back as far to see their faces.
"Your detentions for the previous Friday are going to take place tomorrow night after supper. Remus, you'll be with Professor Sprout, James, you'll be with Professor McGonagall and Sirius, you'll be with Mr. Filch." She waited as the three let out long groans, looking at her like tortured animals, before she continued "they will be waiting for you in their offices, I've already arranged it. Unfortunately, I cannot watch over you myself seeing as I will be busy all night setting up my office. You could help, I suppose, but I would prefer you not going through my possessions" she gave them a quick smile and started putting away her things. Remus smiled weakly at her last comment, but the other two looked thoroughly depressed.
Sirius grabbed his things quickly and stormed out of the classroom, James and Remus trying to keep up.
"Bloody hell!" he cursed out loud "why'd she put me with Filch!" he asked the other two.
"Come on, Sirius, it could be worse, she could have given us more nights" suggested Remus, trying to comfort his friend. Sirius grumbled something that the other two didn't hear, but Remus could've sworn it sounded an awful like "I hope a toilet troll eats her alive when she's taking a dump on the can", though he couldn't be entirely sure.
The three boys arrived at the common room where they found Peter waiting for them.
"What happened?" he asked looking worried.
"We were eaten alive by a giant man-eating lava slug, but thank Merlin it couldn't digest us properly so we managed to survive" said Sirius casually as he pushed past Peter and dumped his books on a table beside the fireplace. Peter's face went a shade of pale green as he looked at his friend fall into a squashy armchair and sigh deeply.
"Wh-what?" he managed to say. Remus shook his head and told Peter what had really happened and had to reassure him many times that no man-eating lava slug had ever appeared out of nowhere to try to digest them in its long acid filled intestine.
"Come on" said James "we've got transfiguration next, grab your books Sirius". The boys left for class and had pretty good rest of the day despite the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, professor Dunst, catching them sending spiders up a Ravenclaw's pant leg, what could they say, they were bored.
Meanwhile on top of the astronomy tower, Forrest stood indecisively.
"According to the directions that Nikki gave me, the office should be to the left… or was it the right… either way there don't seem to be any doors." She spent several minutes pondering her situation and suddenly thought up a 'brilliant' idea that only Forrest was capable of.
"It's invisible! It must be like that thing in the Indiana Jones movie, you know, the leap of faith thingy! Brilliant, now which direction do I step off? Meh, I'm sure I'll end up in the same place either way.". Forrest strode over to the low wall and hopped onto it. She glanced downwards at the minuscule people on the grounds and then up towards the sky.
"Alrighty, Forrest" she said to herself "one, two... three!". She stepped forward and pelted down towards the ground. "WEEEEEEEE!" she cried with excitement as the wind rushed through her hair.
Nikki, as she just so happened to be at the time, was leaning out of her window trying to figure out where Forrest had gone, seeing as her suitcase wasn't in the office, she figured Forrest was still wandering around the school grounds.
Forrest, who was still falling to her death began to feel a slight tinge of worry when the ground was starting to get closer than she felt comfortable at this speed. She was just about to start panicking when she felt a sharp tug on her robes pull her upwards into an open window.
A few seconds earlier, Nikki suddenly saw a flash of blue miss her window by mere inches. She reacted so fast after having rescued Forrest so many times that she hadn't even remembered pulling her wand out of her pocket. "ACCIO FORREST!" she yelled and quickly ducked as a second flash of blue flew past her head and into the office, landing squarely on the bed.
"I knew it!" said Forrest looking rather proud of herself. "Finding your office was tricky, Nikki, but I figured it out! Nothing can stump the brilliant Forrest, nothing!".
The professor rolled her eyes and after dinner that night showed Forrest an easier way back; she had to assure Forrest that by no means was it better, just easier.
An hour or two after dinner, Nikki looked around her new office critically. "No" she thought "that won't do". Everything was nice and organised except for one rather large corner of the room that Forrest had annexed from her. Something was missing, she thought. Forrest was at the moment taking her own little tour of Hogwarts, again, and Nikki wanted to finish organising her office before Dumbledore came pounding on her door telling her that there was a strange psychopath wandering around the school doing lord knows what.
"Oh!" she said "I know!" she raised her wand and muttered "encanto floastamera". Immediately everything in her office as well as herself began to drift around the room, taking heed of other objects and carefully avoiding each other, like a controlled atmosphere without gravity. "Perfect!" she said, swimming across the room then gracefully perching on the windowsill.
She looked out onto the quiet Quidditch pitch across from her, dreaming about flying around through the crisp night air, feeling the wind pass in-between every strand of hair and tickling every little hidden particle of skin. Ever since she had dropped out of school last year she hadn't had any time for flying, she missed the feeling greatly. Nikki was so engulfed in her daydreams that she didn't notice the door open quietly and someone float across the room to her side.
"Hello" said a seductive voice by her ear. Nikki jumped so bad that she nearly broke the glass window. Turning around she gulped at the handsome face framed by his long dark hair staring at her with dark blue eyes.