*Short Authors note: The only change I made upon second upload of this chapter is changing the chapter name.
Chapter 1: Welcome Back to Hogwarts
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Maddy screamed in Alexia's ears as she ripped off the blankets, pulled the pillow out from under Alexia's head and hitting her the face with it.
"Aren't you getting a little old for this?" Alexia groaned, attempting to swatting away the pillow.
"Never!" Maddy cackled, tossing the pillow back at Alexia and making a quick escape; knowing full well Alexia would hex her the minute she found her wand if Maddy was being too obnoxious.
Maddy was already in the kitchen eating breakfast by the time Alexia stumbled down fully dressed, brunette curls tamed and pulled back into a ponytail.
"Pancakes?" she offered, gesturing to the stack on the table.
"You make them?" Alexia asked suspiciously.
"I take offense to that comment," Maddy complained before conceding, "Your mum made them before heading to work. Speaking of leaving the house, how are we getting to school?"
"I was thinking we should just apparate into Hogsmeade," Alexia replied, "Dumbledore wanted to talk to us before the feast anyway."
"Awwww," Maddy groaned, "I was hoping we could take the train. Oh well."
About two hours later Maddy and Alexia were dragging our luggage through the doors to the Great Hall, Professor Dumbledore waiting for them just inside.
"I am glad to see you girls made it safely," Professor Dumbledore smiled, deftly acting as though he had not heard Maddy's overdramatic complaints of the long walk nearly killing her.
"Thank you, Professor. We truly appreciate all that you are doing for us," Alexia replied.
"It is no trouble at all," he replied, "Now if you would follow me the staff meeting is about to start. You may leave your things here, I will have the house-elves take them to your dorm room once we have everything sorted out for the two of you."
When the three of them reached the staff room the sound of chatter already filtered into the hallway, all of which died the moment Professor Dumbledore entered the room.
"Is everyone present?" Professor Dumbledore addressed the room at large.
"All except for Sybill and Remus," Professor McGonagall replied.
"Ah, no matter, I will speak to the pair before the day is out," Professor Dumbledore acknowledged, "Now before we begin our usual start of term meeting, there is one piece of business I would like to address first. As you no doubt have noticed we have a pair of guests with us today. As some of you may remember they are both former students of ours. Now they are older than our typical seventh year, but upon request of both MACUSA and the Ministry of Magic they will be finishing their education at Hogwarts."
"What could MACUSA possibly be interested in having two students at Hogwarts?" drawled a black-haired, hooked nosed professor Alexia had never seen before.
Taking Professor Dumbledore's pause as permission to speak Alexia answered, "Maddy and I had gotten ourselves into a spot of trouble with both MACUSA and the Ministry. Seeing as we are dual citizens, rather than attempting to dealing with the politics of charging the two of us criminally in both countries, they offered us positions as liaison Aurors for both countries pending the completion of our NEWTS."
The look of disdain Alexia received from the dark-haired Professor told her it would likely be advantages to avoid him outside of class.
Professor Dumbledore diverted all attention back to himself as he continued, "Now, seeing as you all have full schedules as it is, I believe having Miss Blackwater and Miss Scholl attend lectures with the other seventh years as well as having them retire to one of the house dormitories at night would be the best course of action."
In the end, it was decided that Maddy and Alexia would have their own private dorm room in the Hufflepuff dormitory and join the other seventh years at classes.
Once everything was sorted out Alexia and Maddy were dismissed until the welcome feast started.
After grabbing a quick lunch in The Three Broomsticks Alexia and Maddy wandered up the street. Their first stop was Honeydukes to pick up plenty of sweets for the year, both of the girls had a bit of a sweet tooth while studying for stressful tests.
Once restocked on quills and ink from Scrivenshaft's Quill shop the two girls split up. Maddy had wanted to stop at Zonko's Joke shop to stock up on pranks and Alexia headed to Dervish and Banges to pick up her repaired cauldron before heading back to Hogwarts in time for the feast.
Once settled up with Dervish and Banges, Alexia walked back to the stagecoaches where she and Maddy had agreed to meet back up. After waiting until nearly all the stagecoaches were gone, Alexia finally gave up on Maddy and caught one of the last ones before it left for the school. It was empty with the exception of a man who looked to be about thirty.
"May I sit here?" Alexia asked the man.
"Of course," he replied, clearing the seat so that she could sit down.
"I'm Alexia Scholl by the way," Alexia introduced herself, extending her hand to the man.
"Re-" he started to say before cutting himself short, no doubt spotting the Hufflepuff robes Alexia had changed into earlier, "Professor Lupin."
"So what year are you Miss Scholl?" he asked after a couple of moments of awkward silence.
"I am a seventh year," Alexia said, "What about you, Professor? What subject are you teaching?"
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Professor Lupin replied, looking about as awkward as Alexia felt.
"I hope you know what you are getting yourself into Professor. Teachers in that position tread in dangerous waters, especially now that Harry Potter is around judging by the stories I have heard," Alexia exclaimed.
"I appreciate the concern, but you do not need to worry," Professor Lupin smiled, "Now have you decided what career you are going to pursue once you leave Hogwarts, Miss Scholl?"
Alexia let out an almost involuntary snort in response to the question, earning a raised eyebrow from her new Professor.
"Sorry, no disrespect meant Professor but I don't really have a choice in the matter," Alexia explained, "Either I become an Auror or face time in Azkaban."
The look Alexia received from the young Professor was priceless as he cautiously asked her why she only saw those two possibilities post Hogwarts.
"That is a long and complicated story for another time," Alexia said, as the carriage pulled up to the castle gates.
Much to Alexia's irritation, Maddy was already waiting for her just inside the front doors.
"What took you so long?" she demanded.
"Me? What about you? We were supposed to meet at the carriages. I nearly missed the last carriage waiting for your sorry arse," Alexia grumbled.
"Sorry, thought we were meeting here," Maddy replied. spotting Professor Lupin cutting through the crowd not far away, "So who was the suit you were sitting with?"
"Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Lupin," Alexia explained.
"Think he'll be any good?"
"Not sure. He seems nice enough, but nice doesn't always translate to teaching ability," Alexia shrugged her shoulders, following the other students into the Great Hall.
"I bet he'll be a complete flop of a professor," Maddy exclaimed, "Did you hear what happened last year with Gilderoy Lockheart?"
"For the sake of the entire student body, I hope you are wrong," Alexia said, as she and Maddy slid onto the bench at the Hufflepuff table.
All conversation stopped when the first years were sorted and Professor Dumbledore rose and recited his usual welcoming speech. introducing Professor Lupin and Hagrid as the new staff members.
While Hagrid had received a much heartier applause from the students, mainly the Gryffindor house, Professor Lupin seemed happy enough for the welcome he did get from the students.
When dinner finished the two girls headed to the dorm room just barely making it out in one piece.
On their way out spotting Fred and George Weasley.
The twins and their siblings had lived down the road from Maddy and Alexia prior to their families moving.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Maddy asked Alexia.
"Depends on what you're thinking," Alexia returned Maddy's smirk.
The boys were so engrossed in their work they didn't notice the girls until they were right on top of them.
"What was that for?" Fred exclaimed.
"Gave us a heart attack you did," George chimed in.
"Just saying hello," Alexia smirked.
"And reminding that even though we are old and decrepit we still can sneak up on you," Maddy laughed.
They just shrugged and continued on with their prank.
"Who are you guys pranking?" Alexia asked.
"Snape," Fred and George said in unison.
"Is he the new potions master? Long black hair?" Alexia ask.
"Permanent sneer," George added, "Yes."
"Is that a delayed start trigger one of mine?" Maddy asked affronted and completely off-topic.
"Yes, but better," George started.
"As soon as it detects motion it'll go off," Fred continued.
"After giving us ample chance to get away," George finished, "The prank gets set off without our need to be there to set it off."
"Oh, it's on!" Maddy exclaimed.
"Really Maddy? You're starting a prank war with some teenagers?" Alexia exclaimed.
"You betcha I am," she replied.
Alexia rolled her eyes, "Well I'm going to unpack then go to bed. And if any of you involve me in a prank war, well Snape might just find out who pranked him tonight, regardless of if it was them or not."