Chapter 1: first impressions
Remus John Lupin was incredibly nervous for his first class as a teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Well technically this wasn't his first, because earlier that morning he had started with the second years of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but that seemed to go by so quickly and easily. He wondered whether the young students were so quiet because of his teaching skills or because of the scars that decorated his face. Hardly a day went by without someone staring at him.
No, but he counted the second period of the first day of the schoolyear as his first class, because he needed to teach the seventh years next. It was quite the switch in subject matter and level of expertise from the impressionable second years to the rebellious and clever seventh years.
He woke up from his trance when the door opened and the students entered the room. He stood to say a polite 'good morning' here and there, waiting for them all to settle down. He already heard the first whispers mentioning his scars and placing bets to how he got them. The students had the idea that they were discreet and quiet enough, but they didn't know that Remus Lupin had a heightened sense of hearing. However those words didn't bother him. Soon enough the initial shock of his physique would die down and they would have to listen to his teaching.
When the last student closed the door he took out a parchment and started scanning the names. 'Good afternoon class. My name is Professor Remus John Lupin. I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year and hopefully many to come. I would like to start by checking the attendance sheet first. William Boot?' After a 'here' from William and a couple of others he grew confident that his class was all present, until he heard a pause after asking for 'Alicia Doreen?'
'She isn't here yet professor,' a girl in the back replied. Remus looked up from the list, as if to hope that the missing girl would suddenly appear. 'Well do you know where Miss Doreen is?' The girl with the raven black hair was about to open her mouth, when the door slammed open. Remus looked up to see a seventeen-year-old girl standing in the opening, her hair tangled and wild, her chest heaving from running up the stairs. She leaned in the doorpost with her hands and her legs stood wide with her toes facing inward. The sight was so comical Remus nearly forgot he was supposed to be the adult in the room. He forced down his chuckles and cleared his throat.
'Sorry I'm late professor. There was an incident I had to deal with,' the girl replied. She started to walk towards the empty seat next to the raven haired Ravenclaw. Remus sniffed the air, and smelled something unpleasant. He looked the newest arrival over again and realised that her hair wasn't just tangled, but also scorched. He smelled burnt hair.
'An incident? Is that why your hair is smouldering?' He asked. The class seemed surprised by his reaction. Sure enough some teachers would call bullshit and straight up deduct house points. The girl was suddenly aware of her hair and started running her fingers through the scorched parts. 'Whoops. Thank you for telling me professor.' Once again, Remus had trouble containing his smile.
Alicia hoped she didn't miss any of her hair still smouldering away. Suddenly she noticed the smell and apologized to Michelle sitting next to her. Her friend looked half-amused half-annoyed at her silly friend and patted out a small burn mark in her robes.
'What did I miss?' Alicia asked. Michelle shrugged. 'Nothing. He literally just asked where you were and then you stormed in like a lunatic.' Alicia chuckled. 'You know I like dramatic entrances.'
Professor Lupin continued down the list and once he was done, he addressed the class once more.
'Well, now that we are all here,' Alicia noticed the professors green eyes looking at her for a second 'we can start the class. I understand that last year went quite different than usual. Your professor, Mister Lockhart was send to St Mungo's and your exams were cancelled due to the Chamber of Secrets being opened. So am I to understand that you are a bit behind?'
Half the class started talking at the mentions of last year. When professor Lupin had shushed them he chose a Ravenclaw to inform him. 'The exams being cancelled was a blessing. Professor Lockhart was a complete fraud. He taught us nothing all year.' There were noises of agreement from the class and the professor pressed him on. 'So we might need more than a little extra aid to catch up with the material from last year.'
The professor sighed. 'I was afraid the situation was regrettable, but to catch up on an entire year…well don't worry. I'll work on a new schedule. For now I want to catch up on the nonverbal spells. Have you practiced those last year at least?' Some people nodded. 'Alright then. I'll talk them over for half an hour and after that we will practice them. Sounds good?'
The excited noises from the students seemed to lift the professors spirit. Alicia watched the curious new professor. He wasn't like any of the other teachers. They were all so strict, so…inhuman and distant. But this man, he seemed a lot closer to the students. He felt for them, having a moron for a teacher the year before they graduated. He seemed to want to be liked, because he looked for confirmation of his lesson plans. And lastly, he hadn't said anything about house points or detention to Alicia. For that alone, she felt already in his dept.
'What do you think?' Alicia asked Michelle as everyone was getting out their books. Michelle looked up with a questionable look. 'What you mean the professor? I guess he is okay so far.'
In front of the two Ravenclaw girls sat two more Ravenclaw girls. Elena, the ever bubbly and naïve friend, turned around to join in. 'He looks weird though. Those scars. What do you think did that?'
Alicia sat back in her chair and started ticking off her fingers. 'Dragon, Wampus cat, pixies, werewolf, regular wolf, cat, bowtruckle-' she gained a giggle at that last one from Elena. 'All plausible options. More options possible depending on where he travelled. Or maybe the most dangerous one of all…a crazy ex-girlfriend.' She added a dramatic look for effect and successfully made all three girls laugh.
After the lecture the tables and benches were moved aside so they had place to stand around in pairs and practice their non-verbal spell work. Alicia didn't have too much trouble when performing them, but she did have trouble aiming at her friend. She tried to aim for her legs as she used the Jelly-Legs Curse, but they kept ending in her face. Elena looked more and more distraught at the wild flying curses and jinxes. 'Come on Alicia. Aim for the legs.' Alicia sighed in frustration. 'I am! Look.' She aimed once more at Elena's legs but at the last moment she was distracted by a moving figure. Her curse went wide again but instead of hitting Elena, she hit someone in the back of the head.
Of course it had to be the professor.
'I am soooo sorry about that!' Alicia exclaimed, her hands covering her face. Professor Lupin turned around slowly, rubbing the back of his head. 'Are you trying to get detention today, Miss Doreen?' he said. It was supposed to sound threatening, but she couldn't help but notice some amusement in his tone. Nevertheless she dropped her eyes to the floor. 'No professor. I am just bad at aiming.' She dared to look up to see him looking with a curious expression. 'Well I guess that would be your first task to master then.' The girl nodded quickly and the professor moved on to the next pair.
Elena shook her hand as if it had been burned. 'That was close Nessie. I think he really likes you to go so easy on you.' Alicia shook her head at the nickname. In her fourth year she saved a fellow student from being drowned by an overgrown kelpie and now she had a reputation and a nickname around the school. It wasn't the real Loch Ness monster though, mind you. 'Shut it. It's your turn.'
The class was about to end, the furniture back in place, when Alicia heard her name being spoken. She looked up at her new DADA professor. 'If you wouldn't mind staying for a moment,' he said shortly. Michelle, Elena and Sophia waved her goodbye as they left for lunch in the Great Hall. Soon everyone had gone except the new teacher and the student that was late to class on her first day.
She looked down at him sitting behind his desk. It suddenly felt weird being alone in the room with him. She did actually look at the scars on his face properly for the first time and decided that whatever did that, it were deep wounds when inflicted. His sandy-brown hair fell over his forehead in a feeble attempt to hide a part of his scar. There was light stubble on his face. His wizarding robes looked old but recently refreshed. A dull shine came from his buttons and the small tears in the fabric of his sleeves were darned with a secure hand.
He leaned forward on his desk and looked directly in Alicia's eyes. 'I would like to know why you were late today.' It was a simple request. It made sense. However, Alicia's mind had already found herself thinking he was going to ask something way more personal. Why would he do that you idiot? She reprimanded her own thoughts.
She exhaled with a shaky laugh. 'Well, you noticed the scorch marks, right?' He nodded and his eyes flickered to her long blonde hair before returning to meet her gaze. 'Uhm…there was an incident in the dungeons near the Slytherin common room. Somehow a fire crab had gotten inside the castle and it was wildly attacking students and sending fireballs from it's a-rear,' she confessed.
The professor's face froze in place. 'There was a fire crab in the dungeons.'
'Yep,' she said, plopping the P.
He stared at her for a moment, maybe expecting her to say more, but she was really distracted by this man. He shook his head and chuckled. The sound of his laughter made Alicia feel warm inside. Wow girl, get your act together will you? 'And obviously when a fire crab enters the dungeon, you have to deal with it. Is that right?' Alicia blinked out of her daydream and realised why he found this so peculiar. 'Ah, right! I forgot to mention a bit about me. You see, professor, I have a passion for magical creatures. I seem pretty good at taming and handling them. This is something the entire school knows because of the famous Leprechaun invasion,' she noticed his incredulous look but simply replied with, 'not important. So anyway, the answer is yes. When the Slytherins faced this problem they asked me to deal with it. So I did.'
'You did?' he asked, even more surprised than he already was.
'Yes. Brought it to Hagrid. He knows what to do with them. He might even be featured in his Care of Magical Creatures lessons. Hagrid is so excited to be a teacher this year. The fire crab had quite a temperament though, maybe not so safe after all.' That last sentence was added as an afterthought.
The professor stared her down for a moment longer before deflating a bit in his chair. Now he really couldn't stop the smile on his face as he recalled how ridiculous this school could be. 'Well I guess you were actually quite quick then. You were found by a Slytherin, brought to the dungeons, dealt with the beast and brought it to Hagrid, and in the end you were mere minutes late to class.'
'It happened during our previous free hour,' she replied simply.
'Of course it did,' the professor said just above a whisper.
Alicia raised an eyebrow. 'Are you calling me a liar professor? I have many witnesses that can tell you the truth.'
'No! No I wasn't implying that. I just think…you are incredible.'
Alicia started blushing at that remark. She cleared her throat and shuffled her shoes. 'Thank you, Professor Lupin.'
He didn't seem to realise what he had said. 'Okay, well thank you for telling me. I will remember it. Next time I face something interesting I will call for you.' Alicia chuckled at that and looked at the professor again. With that dashing smile on his face she suddenly realised that she found the professor attractive. Oh no. 'You should. I will be there!'
The professor chuckled once more and started collecting some papers on his desk. 'Alright, you are dismissed. You should get some lunch.' Alicia turned to leave. When she walked past his desk, she noticed a book on top. It attracted her attention because it was familiar. 'Oh this is a good one! I didn't think it was on the recommended reading list for this year,' Alicia said.
The professor looked up from his papers to see the girl hovering over his current read. 'It isn't. I'm reading it now. Did you read it?' Alicia turned to see the bookmark already halfway. 'Yes I did and there are some great plot twists yet to come for you. But chapter five was my favourite part, I see you already read that. When you finish it you should tell me and we can discuss it. There are some holes in the story that I would like to talk with someone about. I want to see how someone else interpreted it.'
The professor looked at her for a moment before replying. 'I will. That is the second time in our first meeting that you astonish and surprise me.' His gaze didn't leave the Ravenclaw girl. Despite her warm cheeks she tried to reply lightly with a joke. 'Always here to surprise you,' she said while making a theatrical bow. After another moment of eye contact that send warm shivers down Alicia's spine she turned to leave the classroom.