A/N:
Sorry for the delay, I had serious writer's block starting this chapter and rewrote Lupin and Alexia's conversation several times before I got a flow I liked.
I promise more juicy chapters are coming I just needed to set up a certain amount of familiarity beyond student/teacher first.
Thank you to all who are following this story, it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
Before we get started anything written in italics and single quotes are thoughts.
"So, are you going to Professor Lupin's tonight?" Maddy asked.
"It's Tuesday isn't it?" Alexia replied in an irritated voice.
The two girls were in their dorm room getting a start on their homework; or at least Alexia was, Maddy, in true Maddy fashion, kept finding ways to procrastinate.
"What are you going to tell him?" Maddy questioned.
"The truth, if he asks," Alexia said, "It's not like I'm contagious or anything."
"But you do bite," Maddy snarked.
"I told you before not to piss off Puma, she's the problem child," Alexia replied nonchalantly, flipping through her Potions book for an answer to her homework, "Now get back to work, unless you don't want to go out this weekend."
When Alexia arrived at Professor Lupin's office his door was open and the man himself was leaning over his work.
"Knock, knock," Alexia said, raping lightly on the door frame.
"Ah, Miss Scholl, right on time. Come on in," he acknowledged her.
He seemed to analyze her curiously as she entered, dropping her bag next to her chair before sitting down.
"So, what are we doing today, boss?" Alexia asked, after a moment of awkward silence.
"Grading," Professor Lupin replied, sitting up in his chair as if her comment broke his train of thought and brought him harshly back down to Earth.
"How did your third years do with the boggarts?" Alexia questioned, as she pulled the papers towards her.
"Very well," he answered, "They seemed to enjoy the challenge."
"I take it there was nothing major stirred up by it, other than what I hear about a certain Professor," Alexia smirked.
"All I did was give my students the push they needed to succeed," Professor Lupin replied, failing to hide the mischief in his eyes, "Speaking of which, may I inquire as to why the aversion to bogarts?"
"Have you ever heard of therianthropy?" Alexia asked.
"Yes, I have," Professor Lupin replied, his confused expression telling her he was not sure where she was going with it, "Werewolf and animagi are both therianthropes."
Alexia nodded slowly as she thought about it, "You aren't wrong; though I am what most would probably consider being a true therianthrope."
"Being an animagus is something most people learn and lycanthropy is more like a disease with how you become one. I never had to learn to transform into an animal form," Alexia elaborated, when Professor Lupin looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Ever since I was born I could change into a snowshoe hare, but I seem to have a certain proclivity for collecting hides."
"When you say collect hides..." Professor Lupin trailed off, seemingly unsure how to phrases his question.
"Some cultures could magically bind the spirit of animals to their hides; which a tendency to choose people like myself as their 'champions' for lack of a better word," Alexia explained.
"You speak as though they are alive," Professor Lupin replied, hand stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"In a way they are," Alexia said, "With the hide comes their personality and opinions; it's a bit like having schizophrenia at times. That's actually why I avoid bogarts, I never really know what's going to happen."
"How many hides, as you say, do you have?"
Alexia paused a moment before saying, "Four, no...five, and I honestly don't think I can handle more than those five."
"Out of curiosity, what does happen when you try to take on a boggart?" Professor Lupin sat back in his chair, grading temporary forgotten.
"It could be a range from my fear, to one of the hides fears, to a mix of any of the above. Once or twice I did confuse the boggart," Alexia laughed, "But lately it's been Puma's fears and being one of my newer hides I still haven't quite been able to keep the almost 200-pound black panther from overreacting at times."
Professor Lupin spent much of the rest of the detention asking the odd question or two about Alexia's abilities, before cutting her lose just before curfew.
"So how did it go?" Maddy asked when Alexia entered their dorm room.
"I feel like I just played an intense game of 20 questions," Alexia replied, flopping on to her bed.
"Well to be fair, how many people like you have you really met?" Maddy snarked, "On an unrelated note, help me!"
Maddy gave Alexia the most pathetic look, waving her transfiguration homework in front of her.
"You'd think with a friend like me you'd be better at transfiguration than you are," Alexi rolled her eyes, getting up and crossing the room.
"Why bother learning it when I can just ask you?" Maddy snarked.
"You do know I'm not going to straight-up give you the answers to your homework. I will point you in the right direction, but you're going to have to find them yourself," Alexia said pulling Maddy's textbook towards her.
"Fine!" Maddy whined seeming to take whatever help she could get.
After the sharp shock of the first few weeks of term, Alexia and Maddy quickly adjusted to their busy schedules, doing their best not to drown in all their work. It was a welcome relief when the pair of them were finally released from weekly detentions late October.
Despite knowing Hogsmead would be packed due to the Halloween Hogsmead weekend for most of the student body, Alexia and Maddy decide to head to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate their new-found freedom anyway. The visit quickly escalated into a drinking game as they watched the teenage drama unfold in front of them. It didn't take very long before both girls were sloshed and gotten hungry.
Being just sober enough to decide they had spent enough money already the girls settled their tab with Madam Rosemerta, before weaving their way back up to the castle, making a beeline right to the kitchen.
The girls quickly lost track of time as they ate and drank their way to full stomachs before being shooed out of the kitchen by apologetic house-elves trying to prepare for that evening's feast. In way of apologizing for being ejected from the chaotic kitchen, the house-elves put together a care basket for the girls to pick at, which included a large bottle of gigglewater.
"Want to go to the feast?" Alexia asked, not to enthralled with the idea of staying in the dorm room for the rest of the night.
"No, I'm not hungry. Besides I have something else in mind," Maddy smiled evilly, as they climbed through the portrait protecting the Hufflepuff common room.
After depositing the food basket on one of the empty beds in their dorm room, Maddy grabbed the gigglewater and her prank kit before leading the way back out of the dorm room, popping the cork off of the gigglewater in the process.
It did not take long for the girls to finish the bottle as they made their way through the empty corridors, only to refill the contents with a quick spell.
"Where are we even going?" Alexia giggled at one point.
"No idea," Maddy replied in an equally giggly tone.
"You were the one with the plan, Ms. I-have-big-plans," Alexia replied, intending to just elbow Maddy playfully only to trip over her own feet and walk into her a bit.
"Oh, when am I ever the one to plan ahead," Maddy hiccuped, "Where are we anyway?"
"Um," Alexia said, spinning around dramatically as she reoriented herself, "Somewhere on the seventh floor, I think."
"Let's head back down," Maddy started to say before the sound of someone shouting filtered down the hall.
The girls looked at each other curiously before heading down the hall cautiously, quickly finding the source of the shouting. Sirius Black was verbaling assaulting a portrait threatening it with a knife, before slashing it to shreds when the woman depicted in it did not give him the response he wanted.
"Oi, wanker, what do you think you are doing?" Maddy shouted, both she and Alexia had drawn their wands, gigglewater completely forgotten.
Sirius immediately transformed into a huge black dog, letting loose a loud growl, ready to pounce.
"Oh, two can play at that," Alexia replied, tossing her wand to Maddy.
'Don't touch the students or teachers, just him. And no killing!' Alexia told Puma.
With a resounding 'Fine!' from Puma, Alexia cut the black pather loose, transforming mid-leap as she chased Black down the corridor.
Despite being much smaller than her in animal form, Black put up a surprising fight as the pair rolled down the corridor, bouncing off of the walls. Alexia followed him through the school, she managed to tag him going into some short cuts that she did not know about but he managed to lose her around the fourth floor. Alexia managed to track his sent down to the third floor but somehow he had managed to completely disappear without a trace.
Having lost Black's trail hurt Puma's pride much more then Alexia's and despite Alexia having given the order to let it go, Puma insisted on circled the corridor a few more times. Alexia had just convinced Puma to leave it and find Maddy again when the sound of cautious footsteps reached her ears.
Alexia circled around to surprise them from behind, only to realize mid tackle it was, in fact, Professor Snape and not Sirius Black, who was sneaking around the third floor.
Professor Snape took none too kindly to being attacked by her, dragging her by the ear to Professor Dumbledor.
"What happened to you?" Maddy exclaimed when Alexia finally ambled into their dorm room in the early hours of the night.
"Professor Snape just happened to be scoping out the third floor, right where I lost Black and didn't take kindly to being attacked from behind," Alexia explained.
"Oh, ouch," Maddy interjected, "What did he do?"
"Dragged me right to Professor Dumbledor," Alexia sighed, "I have detention for drinking on school grounds."
"With who this time?"
"Professor Lupin again."
"Am I serving time as well?"
"No, you're in the clear, you didn't get caught."
"Well, then you have my condolences and assurances that Snape will be feeling it later," Maddy smirked as she handed Alexia the basket of food that she had obviously been picking at in Alexia's absence.
"Do I even want to know what's going on in that brain of yours?"
"Oh, it's only that I think it's about time for some collaboration between me and a certain set of twins."
Sure enough the following day Maddy, Fred, and George let lose probably one of the best pranks either team had pulled yet, though news of Professor Snape being forced into a look that approximated the green dress his boggart counterpart had worn paled in comparison to the news of Sirius Black's attempt on Griffindor Tower, followed closely by the dementors interrupting the quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Griffindor.
The following week everyone was given a double dose of Professor Snape's foul mood as he covered teaching Professor Lupin's class for the week. Despite the news of the prank on him taking a back seat to more interesting scuttlebutt, Professor Snape seemed to know who was behind the prank and why, being unusually vindictive towards Maddy and Alexia.
When Professor Lupin did finally return to teaching the week after, students bombarded him with complaints about Professor Snape's unfair treatment the previous week and concerns of Sirius Black returning. Professor Lupin reassured his seventh years that he did have dueling in his lesson plans but not for a few weeks, before returning to his lessons on Patronuses.
"That's all for today, good work today everyone. Just a reminder, your essay is due next class, class dismissed," Professor Lupin announced to the class at large, before saying in a quieter tone, "Miss Scholl, would you mind speaking with me before heading to your next class."
Alexia packed slowly allowing students to filter out of the classroom before approaching Professor Lupin's desk, Maddy hovered at the door with a concerned look on her face.
"Go on ahead, I'll meet you at Herbology. Tell Professor Sprout I might be a minute or two late," Alexia said.
"Close the door behind you, would you Miss Blackwater?" Professor Lupin asked.
He waited for the door to click shut behind her before going on, "Professor Dumbledore owled me saying I would be overseeing yet another detention with you. Are we looking at possibly a common occurrence with you?"
"Oh no, this time was just a whole lot of rotten luck. Whether it was on my part, Black's part or both of ours, I don't know."
"I heard it was quite the scuffle, are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Madam Pomfrey had me patched up in no time flat," Alexia replied something in the way he was looking at her in concern making a blush creep up the back of her neck and into her cheeks, "My pride is the only thing still hurting from losing Black's trail that night."
"He used to be a student here so don't feel so bad," Professor Lupin said.
How he said it illuded to knowing much more about Sirius Black than just simply having gone to Hogwarts, but something in his tone kept Alexia from asking more.
"How does Thursday sound?" Professor Lupin asked after a moment or two.
"Thursday sounds just fine."
Professor Lupin wrote her a quick note for Professor Sprout before sending her on her way.