Chapter 2
The following morning Maddy and Alexia walked down to breakfast together gossiping about the coming year. Professor McGonagall came around with our class schedules half way through breakfast.
Alexia took a look at her schedule; it was not as harsh as she was expecting. She was only taking Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, Herbology, and Potions; the bare minimum to get accepted 'officially' as an Auror. Her week started off with Potions, Transfiguration and Charms. Her other classes started the following day.
"What does your schedule look like?" Maddy asked.
Alexia was in the middle of taking a bite of toast when she asked, so Alexia just handed Maddy her schedule.
"I'm jealous of you now, you have so much free time," Maddy complained, handing Alexia her schedule.
Maddy's week was pretty packed; in addition to taking Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions and Herbology Maddy had elected to take Arithmancy, Astronomy, and Divination.
"What are you taking Arithmancy, Divination, and Astronomy for?" Alexia questioned.
"I told you, I wanted to open my own fortunetelling store and if I don't take all my NEWTS in these subjects not only will I not be able to open a shop but my costumers won't think I'm credible," Maddy explained.
"You do know we have a deal with MACUSA and the Ministry right?" Alexia asked.
"Yeah, but a girl can dream, right? Maybe I can do it as a side business," Maddy exclaimed.
After breakfast, Maddy and Alexia headed to Transfiguration together. By the time they arrived a few students had already sat down and were taking out their books. The two girls choose a table a row or two back. For the first half of Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall talked about the importance of passing the NEWTS. Maddy and Alexia only half-listened as they hangman on a scrap piece of parchment the entire time. The second half of class Professor McGonagall went over the synopsis for the year. Everyone in the class was relieved when the bell finally rang to letting out class.
The rest of the week crawled by in a similar fashion as Transfiguration as every professor talked about buckling down and studying for the NEWTS. Alexia was relieved when Friday finally rolled around.
After dinner, in an attempt to soak up the last few warm days of the year, Alexia sat outside at the edge of the Great Lake. Maddy had ran off to ask one of her Professors something and said that she would meet Alexia by the lake afterwards.
Alexia found a particularly shady tree and sat under it throwing the occasional stone into the water, attempting to get as many skips as possible before it sank below the surface.
She was out there for a while before she felt the pleasance of another person standing close by. To her surprise it was Professor Dumbledore walking over, not Maddy as she was expecting.
"Oh, hello Professor," Alexia greeted him.
"Good evening Miss Scholl," he smiled at me.
"So, Professor what brings you out to my nick of the woods," Alexia asked.
"Good weather," he replied
"So how's your first week?"
Alexia gave a non committal answer making him chuckle. The two of them made small talk until Maddy found Alexia by the lake.
"There you are," Maddy said, to Alexia before turning to Professor Dumbledor. "Good evening Professor."
"Good evening, Miss Blackwater" Professor Dumbledor replied with a smile, "Well I should be on my way. Good day ladies and thank you for the company Miss Scholl."
"What did Professor Dumbledore want?" Maddy asked, curiously.
"He was just visiting," Alexia replied.
The two started a card game under the shade of a nearby tree; it did not take long before most of the student body was outside enjoying what was likely one of the last nice weekends free of work.
It wasn't long before a fight broke out between a couple of students, Alexia quickly recognizing fellow seventh years Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint arguing heatedly.
The argument quickly devolved into an out right fist fight between the two, causing Alexia and Maddy to jump up and attempt to forcibly separated the two only to get caught in the middle as Slytherins jumped to Marcus' defense and Griffindors jumped to Oliver's defense.
Despite the chaos, the two girls had disarmed or immobilized most of the fight before Professor McGonagall made it onto the grounds with Professor Sprout and Madam Hooch on her tail.
Much to Maddy's indignation, once the fight was broken up completely everyone involved including she and Alexia had received detentions.
"Be glad I am not deducting points from Hufflepuff as well," Professor McGonagall exclaimed, when Maddy complained, "I will send you owls once your detentions have been sorted out."
When the following Monday morning rolled around Alexia reluctantly rolled out of bed when her alarm went off; heading down to breakfast on her own when Maddy made no sign of moving faster than a snail's pace.
"Hey! Alex! Slow down! Are you ignoring me or have you finally lost your hearing in your old age?" Maddy grumbled, when she finally caught up to Alexia most of the way to the Great Hall.
Alexia and Maddy had been the indirect cause of more than one catastrophic explosion, causing major hearing loss more than once. Each time both of their hearing was easily fixed by the healers at the local wizarding hospital, but the jokes about going deaf early in life because of it, never died.
"No! You just need to relearn how to get around Hogwarts kids," Alexia quipped with a big smile.
"It was a lot easier when half the school was afraid of us," Maddy replied.
"Correction; they were afraid of you, not me. I was just along for the ride and as such inspired fear by association," Alexia retaliated.
"Oh, right! They weren't afraid of you until they heard about the Horntail incident," Maddy said thoughtfully.
"I'm still mad at you for that one; it was your fault I was in that situation in the first place," Alexia scowled at her, "How did you know everyone was talking about it, anyway? That was two or three years after we moved for the first time."
"I came home for Christmas and was in Hogsmead during a Hogsmead weekend not long after that; the story even made headlines here. And that was definitely not my fault, I didn't know at the time that the galleon on the floor was a trap trigger," she defended.
"Oh come on Maddy, who leaves a galleon lying in the middle of an ancient pyramid hallway?" Alexia rolled my eyes at her.
"Lay off it, I was 15 years old and careless," Maddy grumbled.
"Anyway what—Oaf!" mid-sentence Alexia walked into someone and would have fallen over if a large, warm hand hadn't reached out to catch her at the last minute.
"You should be more careful and watch where you're going," Professor Lupin said, kindly.
"Sorry about nearly knocking you over," Alexia blushed.
"It's quite alright, actually I was looking for you," he replied, "Professor McGonogall asked that I over see your detentions. Tuesday night's alright with you?"
"I don't really have a choice in the matter do I?" Alexia half groaned half smirked.
"I'll see you at 7 o'clock tomorrow," he replied with a smile, turning and heading back to the staff table.
"Oh, I really hate you right now," Maddy grumbled, "I've got detention with Madam Pompfrey."
"Helping in the hospital wing doesn't sound too bad," Alexia replied.
"Yeah until Madam Pompfrey has you cleaning up puke and bed pans," Maddy groaned.
"Oh quit being a baby, it's not like you'll be cleaning it by hand," Alexia rolled her eyes, "Besides it's not like you haven't cleaned up puke before."
"Yeah but it's always been my own," Maddy shuttered.
Alexia ducked out of the common room at a quarter to seven the following day and headed to detention, knocking on the door when she arrives a few minutes later, thankful she remembered how to get to his office without taking a wrong turn.
"Ah, Miss School," Professor Lupin said when he opened the door, "Please do come in."
"Ugh, do I have to," Alexia groaned, a broad grin giving away her jesting intention.
"I know you probably have better things to do," Professor Lupin replied, leading the way back into his office.
He scuffled a few papers before finding what he was looking for, "Ah, here we go. I had a few of my classes take pop quizzes that I want corrected, to get an idea of what they know. Then if there's time we'll be looking for some bogarts for my third year class."
"Sounds good," Alexia exclaimed grabbing a stack of quizzes and an answer key.
It didn't take the two of them very long to finish grading and organizing it all.
"Ready to go?" Professor Lupin asked once all the papers were filed away.
"I suppose so," Alexia replied, stretching as she stood up, "Where to first?"
"Well, I imagine being a student you might have a few ideas," Professor Lupin said.
"Hardly," Alexia replied with a joyless smile, "It's been years since the last time I was here. I'm still getting a bit lost heading to classes."
"Not to worry, there are a couple of places I believe we will be able to find a boggart or two," he replied kindly, locking his office behind us before leading the search.
"Now I'm curious about you and your friend, Miss Blackwater," he stated after a moment or two, seeming to trail off as if there was more question then he voiced.
"How much did Professor Dumbledor explain?" Alexia asked.
"Just that you both were much older than our typical students, directing me to you and Miss Blackwater if I had further questions," he replied.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Alexia snorted, "Well I suppose it's better than having him answer questions with more details than I'd like. What do you want to know?"
Professor Lupin was quiet for a moment seeming to consider it carefully before asking, "Why are you finishing your NEWTS only now?"
"You certainly know how to cut straight to the hard questions," Alexia replied, "My father worked for the Ministry as an ambassador to other countries, taking him all over the world. With my siblings and I being so young my mother, brothers and I stayed in England while Dad traveled around; but essentially being a single parent took its toll on Mum. So around my second or third year I was pulled from Hogwarts. Depending on where we were, I was either homeschooled or enrolled into the local school. Maddy's father was the auror that was assigned as my Dad's bodyguard so her family came nearly everywhere we did."
Alexia couldn't help but study him as she talked. The top of her head came no an inch below the top of his shoulder, putting him at roughly six foot one or six foot two by her best guess. His greying hair seemed at odds with the youthful gleam in his bright blue eyes and facial features; something about the scars on his face nagged at the back of Alexia's mind.
"Did you like moving around?" he asked curiously.
Alexia shrugged indifferently, "I got to see and learn a lot from other countries and cultures. Seeing some of the history of places like Spain, Italy, Greece and Egypt was incredible and Maddy and I got into some crazy situations that made us better witches, but moving around as much as we did could get rather lonely. We were constantly leaving friends behind if we even stayed long enough to make any."
The conversation fell silent for a moment before Alexia asked, "What about you Professor? Have you done much traveling?"
"I'm afraid I have not seeing much beyond England and a bit of Scotland and Wales. I ha-" Professor Lupin started to reply before a scream came from one of the rooms down the hall.
Professor Lupin and Alexia shared a brief worried look before drawing their wands and hurrying into the room; Alexia immediately recognized it as the staff room. Professor Trelawney had her back to them as she held her drawn wand on a man Alexia did not recognize. She was trembling in fear but fiercely firing spells in the man's direction, all of which barely seemed to phase him.
"Sybill, he's a boggart," Professor Lupin exclaimed, though it hardly seemed to register to her that someone was speaking to her as she kept firing spells.
Finally Professor Lupin stepped between the boggart and Professor Trelawney as Alexia stepped in to calm the visibly shaken Divinations Professor. Out of the corner of her eye Alexia could just barely see a milky white orb take the presence of the man before the boggart was banished into the nearby wardrobe.
"What happened?" Professor Lupin asked Professor Trelawney once Alexia had her mostly calmed.
"I - I was crystal gazing, contemplating on a lost scarf when my inner eye told me to visit the staff room." she exclaimed, still visibly shaken.
"Are you alright?" Alexia asked.
"Come, let's get you back to your office and make you some tea," Professor Lupin said kindly, when she didn't reply.
Once she was settled Alexia and Professor Lupin made their way back down to the main body of the school.
It was a moment or two before Alexia cautiously asked, "Not trying to sound ignorant or anything, but how did you know that was a boggart so quickly?"
"You don't know who that boggart was?" Professor Lupin asked, surprise written all over his face.
"Should I?" Alexia questioned.
"That was Voldemort," he replied.
"He who must not be named, you know who," Professor Lupin elaborated when Alexia just gave him an odd look.
"Oh, do you mean that blood purist weirdo that was campaigning to enslave muggles years back?" Alexia asked.
"He did much more than just campaign for blood purity," Professor Lupin explained, "He had gathered many supporters across the country and began to kill all those who stood in his way, attempting to take over the Ministry of Magic at the same time."
"Oh, I never knew," Alexia replied quietly. "I was in eastern Europe at the time and traveling around with a band of Gypsies Maddy and I became close with at the time; we were never exactly up to date on current events at the time," Alexia elaborated when Professor Lupin gave her a curious look.
The conversation halted for a moment as the two dodged into another deserted classroom checking under desks, drawers and any other dark area in the dusty room.
Alexia let out a blood curdling yell as she sprang away from the closet she had just checked, nearly knocking over Professor Lupin, who had been right behind her, in the process.
"I think we found another bogart," Alexia said once her blood pressure returned to normal.
"Would you like to do the honors," he replied, gesturing to the closet.
"I'd rather not," Alexia explained, "Bogarts and I don't exactly get along."
"Trust me, if you don't want an explosive disastrous fight, please leave me out of it," she added when Professor Lupin gave her a sceptical look.
He stepped forward to take care of the boggart but Alexia had the distinct feeling that she had not heard the end of it.
Once they confirmed that it was a boggart and managed to corral it to a dark cupboard closer to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Professor Lupin dismissed her for the night.
Maddy was already sitting on her bed reading when Alexia returned to the dorm room.
"Your back late," she commented as Alexia flopped on her bed, "What did he have you do?"
"We graded a few papers before going bogart hunting."
Alexia could practically hear Maddy visibly cringe before asking, "And how did that go?"
"Oh it was a rather interesting night.