A/N: Well I hope everyone has seen the new Harry Potter movie. I saw it last night at midnight... If not, hopefully you get to see it soon. It was a lot of fun. Funnier then I thought it would be, and an enjoyable 2 and 1/2 hours. :)

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. Really. There was a point where I considered stopping this story due to the review/chapter ratio... but everyone is right. The number of reviews doesn't necessarily mean anything. BUT that doesn't mean you shouldn't review. Cause if you're reading this it's the nice thing to do. :)

Chapter 31

"Sirius you don't look too good."

I was walking with him up the stairs to the first floor and our classrooms. It was true what I had said though, the man hadn't looked at all good when I had walked into the Great Hall. Indeed his appetite seemed to have been missing, barely even touching any of the food on his plate. His pallor had been ashen as well, bags under his eyes.

"I'm fine, just pining away for you." He smiled at me, stopping to reach playfully toward me.

I smacked his hands away, huffing softly at the idiotic behaviour, but I couldn't avoid the inevitable smile the slipped on to my face. Apparently I wasn't allowed to flirt with him, but that didn't mean he couldn't do it to me. As if I would ever expect him to stop.

"Now Sirius, just remember today, don't let the students get the best of you. It's your classroom."

The two of us stopped at the top of the stairs, students streaming past us to get to their classes, some of them pausing to say hello to the two of us before hurrying on. Sirius's robes were a bit askew so I reached out to fix it. I suppose it was a habit that all women have, probably a genetic impulse to help when we have children...

A few students who were walking by at that time sniggered, shouting out that we looked like a married couple. That rumour was going to fly now...

"Children are so endearing aren't they?"

My eyebrow rose at Sirius, finding that comment rather silly from him. Just the day before he had been spouting the evil nature of all children. They certainly got on his good side when helping his own agenda though. And at this point the agenda involved me.

"Go teach your class now." I muttered, pushing him in the direction of his classroom, waiting a moment to watch him saunter off feeling rather proud of himself. Hopefully Sirius's second day of classes would be a vast improvement over the first.

As far as my hopes for the day went though... Well everyday I managed not to get cursed I considered a triumph. And if some of the students learnt a little bit about muggles and practical uses of some muggle artifacts, well then it was just a stellar day.

Unlike Sirius and a good number of the other teachers though, I had a limited number of classes. Muggle studies really wasn't the most popular of classes, there were certainly no students queuing to get into it. This lack of classes was mainly due to the fact that the class was an elective starting the student's third year. Sirius and Severus each had mandatory classes so their days were full, something I'm sure that Sirius at least would love to trade me for.

My class for the day was going to be a combined one of fifth year students, but it wasn't until after lunch so I had the morning to bum around.

I could go sit in on Sirius's classes again. That was an amusement in itself, watching as Sirius grappled with his own students for control. But spending more time with Sirius was tending to give him the wrong ideas. Though technically I suppose the ideas themselves were correct, I just didn't want him to have them.

Going to sit in on Severus's class was also thrown right out by my logical brain. Not that I was necessarily sure that it would be too amusing. I didn't doubt that Severus would run a tight ship when it came to his classes, and there would be no room for much enjoyment. Though I was curious how he actually did teach, not just the wholly unflattering descriptions I had gotten from the book. Somehow in that respect I didn't doubt that the book had been rather close to the mark...

There were no other teachers I felt especially comfortable with to sit in on their classes, though I'm sure most of them would have welcomed me happily enough. Perhaps once I had gotten more used to the school, and with more time.

The other option to spend the morning was the most suitable; to study in the library. The very thought though exhausted me. Studying was something that was normally an enjoyment, but since resurrecting Sirius and discovering my strange need to stay too damned close to him, I had spent too many hours reading books. Not that the books were even helping me as it was. Excepting some exciting new opportunities in hair colours, I hadn't learnt anything to help me. What I wouldn't give for a computer connected to the internet. Magic was amazing enough, but the internet was something else entirely.

In the end I chose to just wander around the castle. In the week or so that I had been here, other then my tour with Sirius, I hadn't really had much time to actually look around the enormous castle. My experience with the tricks and deceptions of the castle were strictly speaking, non existent, so it was with great care that I started to make my way around the castle.

It was on the extremely annoying trick stair that I had my first run in with the castle's resident poltergeist. Taking advantage of my foot being stuck in the middle of a stone stair, I was the perfect target for the bucket of water that rained down on me.

"Peeves!" I growled out, water dripping from my hair, nose and every other place on my body. The cackling spirit floating above me hadn't introduced himself, but there was no need for him to have. With the possible exception of some of the students, no one was stupid enough to throw water on a teacher.

"The widdle muggle is all wet."

He flew in circles over my head, his horrible voice cackling. Poltergeists were not pleasant creatures at all. At that moment I thought even a banshee would be better company. Even Matt Caulder at the school's christmas party after quite a number of drinks was more pleasant than this thing. And that was saying a lot since Matt got... touchy when drunk

"This widdle muggle is plum tired of you after only a few minutes." Choosing to ignore one of the most excruciatingly annoying creatures on the planet I instead concentrated on getting my foot out of the stair.

It was as I was doing this that I noticed a flash of black out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly enough to see someone dart round the corner into a hallway, a flash of blonde accompanying the black of their robes.

Those robes had been student ones, and it was now the middle of class time so whoever it was in all likelihood was skipping class. So occasionally students might have free periods, but that didn't register in my brain as a probable situation here. Whoever it had been had made sure to avoid me. After all they couldn't have missed me, not with Peeves cackling around me and my foot part of the stairs. The teacher instinct kicked in at full blast. Aside from the need to impart knowledge of the younger generations, there is also the desire to make their lives miserable for doing all the things we ourselves likely did as children. Of course we say it's for their own good, but usually it's just because we got caught for it ourselves.

I started to quickly follow after the elusive student. Only when my face met the stone floor did I remember where my foot was.

"The muggle can't even walk!"

"Peeves, did you know that this muggle knows some cleansing ceremonies that can rid places of ghosts and poltergeists?" I managed to pull my foot free, likely the adrenaline from my anger toward the damned spirit. I let the mild threat hang in the air, somehow I doubted that it would be taken with much gravity.

But Peeves wasn't my main consideration at the moment. I jumped up and peeled round the corner, running in the direction that the boy had gone. I skidded round a corner, only to back track quickly as I came upon the student.

Cain Montgomery was standing in front of a door on the third floor. In the chasing I hadn't noticed that we had ended up in the forbidden area of the floor. I stayed close to the corner, daring to just peek around at the boy. I wasn't exactly sure why I was hiding from him. After all he was in the wrong here, there was no doubt in my mind that he was skipping a class and on his second day as well.

But the other reason I was at this school trumped my feelings as a teacher. Keeping an eye on him and seeing what he was up to were more important that schooling.

Something suspicious was going on. There was no doubt about that, not judging by the way Cain was looking around him making sure no one else was nearby. It was lucky for me that the Marauder's Map was not something that had been replicated and sold to all the students here. I considered for a moment asking Harry if I could borrow it if he still had it, it could be useful keeping any eye on some people. Teachers as well as students...

I was musing to myself the joys of being able to tell where Sirius was so I could make sure he was doing his job, when I noticed that Cain wasn't there anymore.

Well my future career as a glamourous spy had just fallen through...

I sprang forward from my, if I was really honest, absolutely terrible hiding place and threw open the door in front of which the young boy had just been standing in front of. All that greeted me as I opened the wood door was an empty disused classroom. Old furniture like wardrobes and desks covered by sheets lined the walls, chairs stood piled upon each other in the center of the room, dust clung over everything even seeming to cling to the very air. The boy was no where in sight, in fact it looked like no one had stepped foot in this room for a very long time.

While I had been distracted Cain had mysteriously disappeared. Though perhaps it wasn't that mysterious. My mind had distracted me long enough that he might simply have walked away from the door and disappeared around the corner. There was no point in looking now, there would be no sight of the boy anymore.

I sighed, and the displacement of air caused dust to stir up in front of me. It made me remember 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius might find the room rather similar, though whether it would be in a good way was unlikely.

Dust made me leave the room quickly enough.

The question was what Cain had been doing, or really if he had been doing anything. On the one hand he had been skipping class, acting strange and in an odd part of the castle. But on the other hand it was his second day in a very large castle, he might have just been understandably lost. Sirius would have taken his placement in Slytherin as a point against him, for Severus it would have been a mark in his favour. I though was trying to be as neutral as possible in the matter. That first night he had undoubtedly been staring at me rather strangely, but even that wasn't anything to suggest there was something sinister about the boy. It could have been curiousity about a muggle, or even a school boy crush, or just malice directed toward a muggle.

As for the issue with Cain's father... well that hadn't even really been confirmed. And even if it was true, that meant really nothing. A boy can not be held responsible for his father's actions. Draco was a perfect example of this.

"I'm starting to think too hard about this."

I frowned, rubbing at a sudden ache in my head, my eyes closing against the throbbing feeling.

Voldemort, horcruxes, Regulus, Severus, Sirius... perhaps the weight of things was starting to get to me. Despite my love for the occult and experience with certain rituals I was really beginning to realize I was in over my head. But damned if I could get out. Did I even want to? My curiousity was far too great to just back away from everything with a 'Sorry, did my best'.

The throbbing had subsided, making me realize that I was still standing in the hallway in front of the empty room. I glanced down at my watch seeing it was nearing lunch time. Deciding that my desire to roam the castle anymore had faded away, I made my way back to my own room to change from my still damp clothing. I was careful around the trick stair, and looked around for Peeves, not wanting to get a second dousing from the annoying spectre. The few students I saw on my way down to my rooms gave me curious glances, though they apparently thought that it was normal for a muggle teacher to be roaming the castle wearing soaked clothing.

I was really going to have to work on my lesson plans just in case they really did think muggles liked to wear wet clothing.

A change of clothes certainly helped improve one's mood. At least it helped calm me down before I went down for lunch.

At the teacher's table Sirius looked even worse then when I had left him this morning, even though I would have thought it impossible. His colour hadn't gotten any better and now he was rubbing his temples, his eyes closed, his food laying untouched on his plate.

"Hard classes?" I slipped into the seat next to him, speaking softly.

"Eh?" He looked up at me surprised, a small smile on his lips. "It's nothing. Just had a problem with one of the students in my class enchanting one of his fellow classmates into a rather large pink bird. It made such a racket that I got a headache, part of it is still lingering." His smile widened further. "Rather neat trick actually that... Something Prongs and I would have done at school."

I was really just glad that his eyes didn't deaden at the memory of his old friend, in fact it seemed to perk him up a bit and he finally noticed the food in front of him. The way he was digging into it made it hard to believe he had looked rather sick only moments before.

So some kid had enchanted a classmate into a pink bird (likely a flamingo). It seemed that Sirius might have located the troublemaker of the school. I wondered briefly if I wanted the student to be in my class, or if it perhaps would be safer without them. Dealing with a large bird gone amok might be rather difficult without magical means. I rather doubted that I was capable of wrangling any large feathered or furred animals.

After a few minutes Severus came up to the table and took a seat at the other end of the table, as far from Sirius as possible. I moved out of my chair, and moved instead down to the table to sit next to Severus.

I was quite sure I didn't imagine the heated glare I felt coming from Sirius as I did this. Some things had to be discussed with the Potions master though.

"Severus, can I talk to you about some thing?" I kept my voice low so none of the other teachers could hear us, though at the moment the table was only half filled.

"Speaking to me again are we?"

Pure ice dripped from his voice making me back up slightly to look at him strangely.

"I wasn't aware that I had stopped speaking to you, or in fact that you ever wanted me to." The frown on my face was mirrored by Severus's own frown.

"Of course I don't." He muttered, his voice harsh. "What do you want?"

I raised an eyebrow at this but didn't say anything. I needed to discuss what had happened without causing more problems. Of course Sirius would likely have been hurt that I didn't want to tell him first, but the fact was that Severus was his head of house and would be better suited to keep an eye on Cain.

"I found Cain Montgomery skipping class. He was on the third floor near the forbidden area."

I had expected Severus to join me in my adamant acknowledgment that this was suspicious behaviour, instead though he just huffed softly.

"Then take points away from his house. What are you bothering me with this for?"

"Don't you think it's odd? He was acting all suspicious..."

"Your company is putting blinders on your sight..." His eyes looked past me to stare maliciously at Sirius who I'm sure was doing the same right back. "Just because a student is in Slytherin and skipping class, doesn't mean he is a death eater."

Now I huffed angrily.

"I am well aware of that you stupid git." My hand had reached out to pull on Severus's robes making him look at me. "You know as well as I do that what is going on has to be taken seriously."

I released my grip on his robes, a pale blush on my cheeks as I realized that the students were gaping at Professor Snape and myself. For his part though Severus looked a little shell shocked at the close contact.

"I don't mean to insinuate that Cain is a death eater." My voice stayed pitched low. This was really a conversation I should be having elsewhere but I was too anxious to wait. "There really isn't anything else for me to do here you know. All I can do to help is encourage Sirius, and keep my eyes open."

My voice sounded hurt even to my own ears. Really when you got right down to it I was absolutely useless. As Harry and Draco had both pointed out, they didn't want me here. Without that side effect, I would be home, possibly dead though... but that was something best left not to think about.

"I'll keep an eye on him." Severus muttered softly, keeping his eyes on the plate in front of him. He actually looked a little embarassed.

"Thank you." I beamed a smile at him. He glanced up but quickly dropped his eyes again. I got up again to go back to my original seat. It was time for Sirius management...

"You're not supposed to flirt with him anymore..." The man hadn't even tried to lower his voice when he said this.

"I was discussing work with him." Stressing work, and eyeing him dangerously seemed to keep his mouth shut. Whether he understood what I had meant by work, or if he was just worried I was angry with him, I wasn't sure.

"You've dazzled a good number of the boys with that smile..." He wore a lopsided grin. The man was simply mercurial, his mood changed faster then young girl's crushes.

Curious, I looked up at the students and noticed more then a few of the boys staring at me curiously. After my years at NYU, I had come to recognize the signs of young men's crushes, and apparently I had gained a few admirers. Who knew the smile would work that well? I wondered if it had the same effect on Sirius and Severus...

"Well maybe that will mean they'll do their homework." I shrugged carelessly, eating the sandwich that had appeared on my plate. "Severus is going to keep an eye on some things for me."

He looked ready to ask the question of what he was keeping an eye on, but his mouth closed before the words came out. A few seconds passed before he tried again, looking a bit more careful and cautious. Good thing for him too, I would have been rather angry if anything malicious had come out of his mouth just then.

"What is Professor Snape keeping an eye on?"

He gained points for saying Severus's name with almost decent civility.

Yes there was a point system going on... The two were rather neck and neck.

"Just some things only he can watch out for."

I was loathe to tell the dark haired man looking at me so closely exactly what those things were. There was no doubting Sirius's thoughts on the matter. Cain's house would have damned him in Sirius's eyes already. So I hadn't told Sirius at all about my thoughts on the boy, certainly not about his father. There would be no surprise when Sirius would jump up ready to detain the boy and question him, knowing he had to be up to something. The animagus was a good man, brave and loyal certainly... but he had certain predispositions... and one was the unflinching belief that all Slytherins were bad. A slight exception might be Draco, but I doubted that even. It was highly more likely that he ignored his presence out of love for Harry.

Grey eyes looked rather annoyed at me. A slight amount of hurt could be seen in them as well, thinking that I had something I could tell Severus but not him. He didn't say anything further on the matter though, and this actually seemed to worry me a bit more then if he had.

"I've got class now..." I stood up, brushing myself off of any crumbs that might have fallen on me. "Good luck with the rest of your classes Sirius. I'll see you at dinner."

All I got was a grunt from him as I left. As I left the hall I felt hard eyes watching me. Likely Sirius though still angry that I hadn't confided something in him.

My second class ever at Hogwarts was a class made up of fifth year students. Once again it was comprised of all the houses except Slytherin. I rather doubted that I was going to find a single student from that house in any of my classes. There was going to have to be a discussion with Snape about his house's refusal to learn more about the muggle world. It was for their own benefit after all.

I should have been more nervous for my first class, but instead it was this one that I was dreading. This was the first class I was going to have where the students would have had previous experience in Muggle Studies classes. Here was where I was going to have to battle to change their already skewed perspectives on my kind. After reading the lesson plans left to me by the rather flighty Professor who proceeded me in the job, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Apparently the class seemed to have centered largely around how to pronounce the names of muggle artefacts (incorrectly I might add) and why wizards did things so much better. Really the class hadn't really been too good at actually fostering the idea that wizards and muggles were basically equals.

As the students entered the classroom I could see that I wasn't the only one who was a bit nervous. They looked rather apprehensive to have a new teacher, especially one who was what they were studying in the class. If they had even a fraction of intelligence they would have realized that the curriculum was going to change. The smart ones must have known that what they had learned before wasn't going to cut it with an actual muggle. Undoubtedly the students who had chosen this class as an easy elective, were seeing their nights free of homework flying out the window.

"Hello." I was perched on the front of my desk, my feet swaying in the air. My muggle clothes always seemed to stand out most when I was teaching the class filled with 20 students who all wore black robes. I really was actually dressing down for this teaching job. When I had been at NYU, I had always wore suitably respectable teaching clothes. Here though I wore normal everyday clothes, jeans and a t-shirt. Matt would not have been pleased, but McGonagall didn't seem to notice much difference between muggle clothing, or she chose not to care that I wore jeans.

"This will be your third year taking this class, and I'm sure you're all very bright indeed. Now what is a bicycle?"

My question was met with absolute silence.

"Television?"

"Pencil?"

I thought that crickets might have effectively demonstrated the dead quiet I was receiving with each question. Not to mention the nervous blank looks I was getting.

"Fan?"

"Telephone?"

Finally someone slowly raised their hand.

"Professor, I think you mean a tellyfun? That's what they use to talk to each other over long distances. Can't speak through fires." The young man was a brunette from hufflepuff who looked rather amazed that people didn't all see faces in their fires.

"Thank you." I smiled slightly. "It is in fact telephone. Not tellyfun. That is a completely separate idea involving joy of TV." I slipped off the edge of the desk, stretching slightly. "Your education has been abysmal to say the least." I sighed, and they all shifted in their seats. "Hopefully everyone was able to obtain the book I required for all fourth year students and up."

They all immediately pulled rather large looking books out of the bags.

The only book I had required the students to purchase had been a normal, everyday dictionary. It was the most practical thing I could think of for them understand certain muggle only words. Half the words they would know, everyday language like cat or desk, but things like telephone or pencil were perhaps unknown territory. There was no need to try and use wizarding textbooks on muggles. I had seen a few, left over by my predecessor. All they had done was go over the theories of how certain machines worked. An idea that proved useless because these students had no history of learning the theories for the machines. It didn't help to know why a telephone worked. They were never going to have to make one from scratch. They just needed to know how to use one, what it looked like, that they weren't supposed to expect to see the person's face on the surface.

"Your homework..." Immediately groans rose up from the class. First class with me and already I gave them homework. I'm just a great person..."Your homework will be to go through the listings for A through H. I want you to write down all the words you don't know. You will be going through the entire book, but I didn't want to kill you the first week. And don't try and cheat on this... I will be testing you on any words I don't see circled. So just randomly circling things won't help you too much."

There were measuring glances of the book sitting in front of them. I don't think they thought I was too kind to just give them A through H. After all one third of the book was still almost 300 pages. But a good part of that would be things they would know, I didn't spare a single moment for guilt. I was determined to leave Hogwarts after giving the students a bit more hope of surviving around muggles.

"Any questions?"

In fact other then the one Hufflepuff answering my question, the entire class had been rather quiet.

A lanky red haired girl from Gryffindor, stretched rather comfortably in her chair in the first row stuck her hand into the air.

"Yes? Your name?"

"Chauncey Cooper." She smiled brightly at me, eyes twinkling. Of all the students she seemed the least concerned with how things were going. "I wondered do you think that the run of muggle murders that have been happening have any connection with the dark mark appearing?"

I leaned on the desk, my arms crossed in front of me, judging the girl sitting so nonchalantly in front of me. Her eyes weren't twinkling anymore, instead they were considering, and a bit serious. She appeared to believe there was a connection, and was waiting to see what I was going to say. Well I could either tell the truth, or do the appropriate teacher thing of sweeping it under the rug. Severus would have told her to shut up... Thankfully I'm not at his level just yet.

"Well I wasn't aware that there was a run of muggle murders." I rose an eyebrow at that. "Muggles have a tendency to kill each other quite often for silly things like love, money, power... I'm sure that wizards have done as much... certain ones in particular."

Quiet met that statement. All of them, even with their young age would have heard of Voldemort and what he and his followers had done, but like so many young people living in times of relative peace, that information did not concern them.

"Well there have been some curious deaths of muggles." Chauncey continued to speak, apparently not wanting me to wiggle out of the question with some of my own.

"Well Miss Cooper. You want my own personal opinion as a muggle involved in the wizarding world?" She shook her head eagerly. "Well my personal opinion is that yes, the events are connected. That the dark mark was obviously put up by wizard or wizards unknown, and that the same people killed muggles. Whether this was done with a purpose, or just to scare your community I don't know. The fact is that the muggles don't care, since as I said we have death all the time, and it's unlikely any muggles will consider magic a factor. So if the aim is to frighten you all, well then the best thing for you all to do is not be scared." I stood up straight. "And that means doing your homework on time, and with as much ability as you possess. Now anymore questions?"

No one raised their hand this time, and Chauncey in the front row seemed adequately appeased by my answer. I set them to starting their homework for the rest of the period, and I along with all of them seemed rather thrilled when the class was over. I stopped Miss Cooper from leaving though, calling her over to my desk.

"Is there a reason you were so interested in the muggle deaths?"

Her blue eyes shined at me, and she smiled brightly.

"I adore any and everything to do with muggles Professor. My parents think I'm odd, but I don't care. I just have always loved everything to do with their, I mean, your world. I've even taken out subscriptions to loads of muggle papers."

My eyes widened at this. So this girl at least hadn't taken this class as an easy elective. No wonder she hadn't look displeased with my presence or the homework. She was actually enthused that the teacher was a muggle.

"You're rather bright aren't you?" I smiled slightly. "Most of the adults here don't believe there is a connection at all."

She snorted at that. "Poppycock! Oh... sorry Ma'am."

This amused me so much that I laughed. I had students swear at me at my other job in the US. To hear a student say something as tame as poppycock, and act so contrite about that was the funniest thing ever.

"It's just that... They don't read the muggle papers like I do so they don't realize that these deaths are odd, even for muggles." Her face was bright red.

"Well you should head off to your next class Miss Cooper." I patted her on the back. "If you can do me a favour... while you're reading your muggle papers, can you continue to keep an eye out for anything odd. Let me know when you see anything."

The red hair bounced enthusiastically in acquiescence before she practically bounced out of the room.

I spared a moment to wonder if Harry would be unhappy with me telling a class that I thought muggle deaths were connected to wizards. Even more importantly would McGonagall become displeased with me. Death glares from that woman I'm afraid would actually kill me. In the end though I was okay with what I had said. There was no point in hiding the truth from students. I wasn't going to be stupid enough to say Voldemort was alive, that would get me kicked out of the school. Or that there was a horcrux here, that would get Harry so riled up I wouldn't want to be alive to see it. But there was no point trying to pretend the dark mark appearing was a joke. The kids weren't stupid after all.