"Jade! I'm so glad you're here," Odessa said, running into the greenhouse. "I need some night fern. The first-years are going to arrive any minute and I can't find it. I thought I stocked it last week and it's not there." Odessa stopped and buried her face in hands. "Why did I ever agree to become a teacher?"

Professor Greene patted her on the shoulder, "Because you're amazing at Potions. Minerva was so excited when you agreed to work here. And so was I. I no longer had to put up with O'Reilly."

Odessa laughed, "Can't blame you there. I, unfortunately, have to."

"Ah yes, so I heard. Minerva always liked O'Reilly. He's very particular about things and I think that appeals to her. Anyway, enough chitter chatter. Here's some night fern. And make sure you don't let them first years learn that mixing that with lacewing flies and putting it into pumpkin juice makes you just sick enough to get out of class."

"I was thinking of telling them that it'd kill them instead. What do you think?"

The kindly witch smiled, "It'd probably impress them. Or scare them. Or both."

"Yeah, but with my luck one of them would try it out to see if I was telling the truth. Speaking of, some of my veritaserum has gone missing. Has anyone said anything to you about needing it?"

Professor Greene shook her head, "No, I'm afraid not. But don't you worry about it. Those things usually show up in time, in the last place you expect it. You better get to class."

"Oh yes, the first years. Thanks Jade!" Odessa ran out of the greenhouse and back to the dungeons. She stopped outside the doors, straightened her robes and smoothed her hair. "Here goes nothing," she muttered to herself, clutching the night fern tightly and walking into her first class.

"Hello everyone," she said, walking towards her desk. "I'm Miss-" Odessa stopped. Sitting on her desk was a small, tawny owl. The owl held out it's leg which had a white rose attached along with a message. Forgetting that she was in class, Odessa unrolled the piece of parchment,

Ode-

Here's something to make your first day a little brighter. Truce?

-Sirius

Odessa stared at the note for a few seconds before a rustling behind her reminded her that she was in class. She quickly set the rose down and stuffed the note into her pocket before turning around.

"Excuse me class. As I was saying, my name is Miss Grace and I'm your potions teacher." Odessa tried to keep her mind on her class, but the rose on her desk kept her distracted. She wrote the directions for Love Potion #9 on the board and the students were halfway through trying to concoct the potion, having melted five cauldrons and causing several explosions in the process, before Odessa realized what she had done. She quickly stopped the students and made up a lame excuse about giving them a more difficult, although harmless, potion to start with to show them that brewing potions could be dangerous if one was not careful. She then wrote the correct instructions down and walked up and down the aisle helping the students with their potions, trying to ignore the rose on her desk. At the end of class, she directed the students attention to her once more.

"All right everyone. Now for some fun." She held up a bottle. "This is the potion you brewed today, and I have to confess that I'm rather impressed that most of your potions look a lot like mine. However, to avoid any mishaps, I'm going to have you try my potion rather than your own. Come on, line up."

A small girl with red hair in pigtails raised her hand, "Miss Grace?"

"Yes Jenny?"

"What does it do?"

Odessa smiled, "That's the surprise. It takes about a minute to take effect. Has everyone had some? Good."

The class stood around her, looking nervously at each other, and then someone started to giggle,

"Josiah! Your hair's purple!"

"Well your's is green Harry!" Before long the whole class was laughing and pointing at each other. Odessa handed out mirrors for them to study their reflections.

"Okay everyone, time to clean up!" She called a few minutes later. "The bell's going to ring soon. And your hair will be back to normal by lunch time." The class gathered up their things and Odessa could hear them talking to each other about how cool the class had been. Smiling with relief that the class had turned out okay, Odessa sat down at her desk and waited for the next class. She pulled out the note from Sirius and studied it. There was no reason why they couldn't be friends, she decided. And it was rather sweet. Odessa smiled to herself and glanced at her watch. Only a few more hours until lunch. She could thank Sirius then.

"Hastings," Odessa called out while she followed the students into the Great Hall for lunch.

"Hey! How'd class go? I saw the hair, it seemed to be a big hit with the first years."

"Yeah, they were a lot of fun. But never mind that, you'll never believe what Sirius did!"

"What?" Hastings looked suspicious.

"He sent me a rose and note calling for a truce. It was sitting on my desk this morning. I think I'm going to take him up on the offer."

"What if you end up with another beard?"

Odessa laughed, "Come on Hastings, be on my side. You're the one who keeps saying that I needed to be friends with him."

"I know, I know. But if he hurts you again…well, he better know some good defensive skills."

"Thanks Haste," Odessa said, sitting down. "How was class?"

"Great!" Hastings said. "I saw some of my old students." Hastings paused for a moment. "I got an owl to."

"From Falcon?"

"Yeah, with a note saying how much he cared for me and that he hopes my day goes well."

"You need to break it off with him," Odessa said.

"I know I do. I just don't want to hurt him. Especially when he does stuff like this." Hastings looked around to make sure Falcon hadn't arrived yet. "You know, sometimes I wish life was like a book and I could just kill him…"

"Haste!"

"Or write him out." Hastings said, holding up her hands in a sign of surrender.

"You just need to tell him the truth." Odessa said.

"What am I suppose tell him? 'Hi Falcon. Look, I know I've had a crush on you for years, but well, turns out you're rather boring actually. And I don't want to be with someone boring who has no passion. So I'm going to end it now.'"

Odessa laughed, "Well, maybe not quite that blunt. But…"

"I know. Stop reminding me. Here he comes." Hastings plastered a fake smile on her face and motioned for Falcon to sit next to her. Odessa watched as Sirius slowly approached and gave him a genuine smile. Sirius smiled back and came and sat next to her.

"Thanks for the rose," Odessa said. "It was really nice."

"I hope it didn't embarrass you," Sirius said.

"No, it didn't." Odessa smiled, "But I did write the wrong potion directions on the board. The poor first years were trying to brew a love potion. We had a few cauldron tragedies today."

Sirius laughed, "Poor cauldrons, so mistreated. Some of the first years came in with brightly colored hair. Said it was your doing."

"Yeah, I had them brew a simple hair potion. I didn't let them drink the ones they brewed though. For all I know they added some poison by mistake that didn't change the way the potion looked. I didn't think I should kill any students on the first day."

"Yeah, should probably wait until at least the second."

"Yeah," Odessa said. An awkward silence followed. Odessa wracked her brain for something to say. "Um, how was your day?"

Sirius shrugged, "Not too bad so far. All of the returning students seem to have forgotten everything they learned over the summer and the first years were rather impressed that you can turn a beetle into a button."

"I remember being impressed by that." Odessa said. "Especially since I couldn't do it. I was only really good at potions, and sometimes charms. But I still can't transfigure a beetle most of the times. It was sheer dumb luck that I passed my OWL on transfiguration. Dropped it after fifth year."

"Just like I dropped potions."

"Most people dropped potions," Odessa pointed out.

"True," Sirius said, "But you always had a knack for it."

"I guess I did." Odessa said.

"Well, I guess I better get back to class," Sirius said.

"Me too."

"I'll see you tonight?"

Odessa nodded.

"See you then," Sirius said. Odessa watched him walk out and felt a familiar hurt run through her body. She knew she would never be happy just being Sirius' friend. Sighing, Odessa turned to Hastings,

"So, did you say anything to Falcon?"

"I said thank you," Hastings said. "Other than that, no. And don't say anything."

"I wasn't going to."

"How'd things go with Sirius?"

"Okay, I guess," Hastings said. "It was weird. But better than not talking I suppose. I don't know. We'll see. But I need to get back to class and so do you."

"Have fun," Hastings said.

"You too." Odessa headed back to the dungeons.

Hastings walked into her NEWTs class after lunch, and watched the seventh years file in. She knew all of them and smiled as they took their seats. "If you're interested in teaching or becoming an Auror, you are in the right place," said Hastings. "Otherwise you're here because you're an over-achieving prat who has nothing better to do with your time." The class laughed.

"Welcome back, Professor," said a voice from the back of the room.

Hastings looked towards who said it, and smiled, "Thanks, Mr. Weasely." Cassius Weasely, the youngest of ten children, had been a baby when Hastings was at school. It was strange to think that his big brother Harry was one of her own classmates.

"For the first term, we're going to divide into partner groups. You will be practicing curses and curse repelling on each other, so try to find someone who's fairly well matched in size and magic. Today, however, we will review the last thing we did last term… Who can tell me… Ah, yes, Miss Wood?"

Olivia Wood, who had been raising her hand, stood. She was tall—even for a seventh year, and strongly built. She'd played beater for Gryffindor since her second year, living up to the name her father had made in the sport professionally. "We learned Patronus's, Professor."

"Correct," said Hastings. "Five points for Gryffindor. Raise your hand if you practiced over the summer." A few people raised their hands. "Raise your hand if you did so legally, as in not underage, Mr. Springly." The boy in question blushed, hunching down in his seat, and those around him laughed. The others who had been raising their hands kept them up. "You who have your hands raised, stand up and come to the front of the classroom." They all did so. "Now, I want you to demonstrate to the class the Patronus charm. The rest of the class will guess the form it takes. The more corporeal form your Patronus takes, the easier it will be to guess. The house that guesses the most correctly will be awarded twenty-five points."

The students were excited at the chance at some fun, and as they took turns conjuring their Patronus's, Hastings walked around the room, examining them and writing down points. One of the student's was especially amazing, taking the form of a Chinese Fireball dragon. It sent out a silvery jet of fire and impressed the entire class. At the end of the hour, Hastings was about to assign homework in conjuring a corporeal Patronus when Cassius Weasley piped up—as he was wont to do. "Let's see you conjure yours, then." The students around him agreed quite readily, begging Hastings to show them. She'd never conjured a Patronus for a class before—she'd always had a student demonstrate, or called on another teacher. She had a reason for this; her Patronus was a Thestral, and most of these young men and woman had never seen a real one—she hoped most would never have the chance.

"Not today," said Hastings.

The response was a whiney, "Oh, come on, please?" from all quarters.

"No!" said Hastings, firmly. "Now, two feet of Parchment on the use of a Patronus, and why it is such a good way to ward off Dementors."

Though the class complained about the homework, none of them asked to see her Patronus again.