Lesson Seventeen: Unaware

Remus sat in the back of the classroom away from his friends as he copied the homework he had missed during his week of absence. His friends had helped him greatly by letting him copy their notes when he was still in the hospital wing, but he'd only gotten through Defense, Transfiguration, and Astronomy in between the potion-induced naps in the infirmary.

He stared up at the back of the room, ten minutes since the bell had rung, and still no Lamia. He smiled to himself; there was still hope. He looked back down at his copying, ignoring the fact that he knew nothing of the drawings and names on the five pages he and managed to scrawl out, he heard the door opened and the brisk, yet graceful, footsteps of Professor Lamia sounded throughout the room. Remus groaned inwardly at the parchment roll of unfinished work. One foot left. And even though Lamia knew of his illness, he also knew that having access to the homework and notes meant that they should be done by the time he had gotten out of the hospital ward- according to her.

He glared unconsciously at his professor hating and dreading whatever snide comment she would throw at him when she finally noticed he had not finished the work she'd assigned. When she reached the front of the room she slammed a newspaper on her desk, unnecessarily, making the students around the area jump uneasily at the unexpected sound. Remus smiled to himself when he saw James turn around in confusion at their teacher's opening of the class.

Remus just shrugged at his friend, not knowing the answers to the unasked question, while Lamia began to shout out instructions to the class, which instantly went into the usual scene of note-taking. He took the notes down for his new and more complicated potion ("Which we will make on Wednesday") while the professor's voice shook unsteadily while she spoke. Remus watched intently as she paced at the front of the room as she went on with the notes. There was most definitely something different about her demeanor; yet try as he did, he couldn't really place what it was.

When they had finished with the notes Lamia set them to working on their assignment, which was unfortunately three times longer than usual. Yet, rather than start on the extremely long assignment, Remus casually flipped to the remaining homework he had and started working on finishing that instead. As he worked he occasionally looked up to see where at his Professor was lurking, not wanting to get caught in his illicit actions. She passed twice along his side within the Double period but she didn't seem to notice him flip the page to the blank sheet of paper… something that would never have gone unnoticed on any normal day.

Remus finished the older assignment shortly before the bell rang. Then took a little time to try and comprehend any of the things he had written only to realize immediately that it was worthless. But he kept at it because it made it appear that he was working on his assignment rather than actually trying to catch up to his classmates in the curriculum.

When the bell finally did ring he gathered his books up, taking one last look at his mysterious teacher, and noticed that she was looking at the same paper that she had brought in with her. Her face was set in worry and Remus felt his brow furrow as he gazed distractedly at her.

When he finally realized that the classroom was empty he felt his face flush with embarrassment. He then quickly turned around and left the room leaving his make up assignment on his workbench. He smiled weakly at his mates once he had gotten out into the hallway only to receive a small smile from James in return. Then in silence they wandered up to the great hall for lunch.

Once inside and seated Remus began to eat his small meal all the while thinking of the worried expression on his typically stone-faced teacher. If she was worried, whatever was in that paper could not have been good. He sighed deeply, as he stared at his friends, he could not place the source of the feeling in his stomach. Remus felt cold and lonely by Professor Lamia's reaction to whatever the news might have been.

"How far did you get on the assignment?" Remus blinked a bit at Sirius' question.

"I finished it." Peter stated bluntly.

Remus didn't really have to look up at Sirius to know that there was shock being vividly displayed upon his face. He himself let a groan out at Peter's comment.

"Well then Pete, you don't have to rub if in." James replied with his mouth half full of bread, "We can't all be geniuses."

Remus laughed slightly at the irony in the comment. But rather than joining in on their ramblings he continued to eat his meal.

Without any real notice to his other mates that he wasn't speaking Remus fell into his own thoughts. Racking his brain for some idea of any slight late breaking news that could have been in the paper. Because no matter how many other excuses he could come up with for his professor's lax in her usual teaching it always went back to the paper. What on earth was in that paper? Was a relative dead? He highly doubted a death of a family member could cause Lamia much grief. A new law that said she must treat all her students equally? A smile began to play at Remus' lips. However great such a law would be it would either be broken by the Potions Mistress or at the very least would kill her.

So what was it? As Remus' mind wondered further down this path, hi s ideas grew more ridiculous than the last. Maybe his friends had neglected to tell him some life changing news that had happened that week. But then that would hardly explain James' apparent confusion.

He groaned as Sirius snapped his fingers in front of his face, "You take a quick trip to the moon?"

"Hardly, I quite prefer the Bahamas."

James and Sirius both laughed a bit at that while Peter just stared stupidly at the three of them not completely hearing or understanding Remus' comment. Remus just laughed at Peter and shoveled the last bit of his food into his mouth.

"So what do you think about Lamia." James asked either assuming that was what was on his mind or continuing the conversation they had obviously wanted him to join.

Remus just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. Maybe she earned a soul and doesn't know what to do with it."

James just shook his head, "Doesn't explain the newspaper."

They fell into silence once more. Remus poked at the middle of his empty bowl as the others ate. Each in so far in their own thoughts that they didn't even notice the young Ravenclaw in their presence until she kindly started to clear her throat to gain their attention.

Remus was the first to look up and actually send a greeting her way. She just nodded to him slightly uncomfortably at the gesture. In return Remus merely grinned at her. He knew her well enough from some of the assorted classes they had together. He smiled awkwardly at her until James spoke up.

"Do you have something you wish to say to us Gryffindors, Miss Mune?"

Alexial smiled widely not offended by his tone knowing full well that it was more apart of James' outward ego than him being sincerely ruffled by her being there. So she casually turned her attention to Remus, rather than James, and spoke strongly yet still, underneath her firm tone, she seemed uneasy. "Kara wanted to give this to you this morning but she, er, didn't feel very good after breakfast was through."

Remus raised an eyebrow at his partner in Astronomy and watched intently as she held out a folded clipping from the Daily Prophet. He took it from her, while she smiled uneasily at him and muttered, "I guess I'll see you in Astronomy then."

Remus only nodded at her as she walked away.

"What was that about?" Sirius asked quickly, while, Peter voiced an unneeded chuckle.

Remus shrugged his shoulders slightly at the comment. And with the dumb smile still on his face he unfolded the clipping with three sets of eyes on him. He felt his smile fade immediately and every ounce of blood in his body rush to his feet as the headline registered fully in his head.

He watched concern register in his friend's faces but the words they uttered didn't seem to reach his ears. Then he glanced back down at the headline, the words blurred together. James had been right about what'd he'd overheard.

Remus looked back up at his friends as his mind wandered hopelessly over memories of the past. The world began to blend together and then suddenly everything went black.