Chapter three: house traits

It was Remus Lupin his second week as a teacher at Hogwarts, and he started to feel more confident about his teaching methods. Most students seemed to like him. He took a practical approach to the lessons, letting the students try out their spells the moment he taught them. He also had a growing collection of creatures hidden away in his classroom, useful during his lessons. The boggart for the third-years was a great hit, apart from the class with Harry Potter. Remus didn't know what to do with the situation. A part of him ached to tell the young boy everything about James and Lily, but he knew that wasn't going to be easy. And of course he couldn't leave out the part where Sirius was involved. He knew that for now that was too much to handle for him. But he made a mental note to make some progress over the year. And hopefully before either him or I run into Sirius. He shook his head at the thought.

The second class of the seventh-year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs was starting. Once the older students walked in he found himself more nervous than he was for his other classes. He tried to push the knot in his stomach down, convincing himself that he was just nervous for the next class. He absentmindedly touched the cover of the book he had finished late last night.

'Good afternoon class,' he said loud and clear. 'Good morning Professor Lupin,' he got back from all of them. After a short explanation about the changes he had made because of their lack in classes last year, he started off with his new curriculum. It was very quiet it the classroom apart from the sound of scratching quills on parchment and ruffling through books. He found that Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were overall much easier to teach, because they lacked the rivalry that was always there between the other two houses. In these classes it was more about helping each other than competing against each other. It wasn't the first time he wondered what his time at Hogwarts would have been like if he had been in Ravenclaw, where a lot of people thought he belonged. He definitely would have had more time for studying, without all the distractions.

But you wouldn't have been friends with James, Peter and…and Sirius. He tried to clear his mind and continued his class.

After another successful class of hard work Remus was pleased to see his students smiling at him when they left the room. He was always happy to see people look past his scars, and it didn't take these students long at all. His eyes roamed the room until he singled out the Ravenclaw girl with the long blonde hair that was, this time, not on fire.

'Miss Doreen? You have a moment?' he asked quietly. Alicia looked up from packing her stuff. Her friends seemed to give her suspicious glances but went away anyway.

The girl in question shuffled a bit awkward before speaking. 'Actually professor, I am in a bit of a hurry. Is this important or could it wait?'

Remus hadn't expected that. He stumbled over his words as he spoke. 'Oh…uhm no. Nothing important I-I just…' he looked up to see that the classroom was once more empty except for Alicia and him. She tilted her head to the side and gave him a friendly smile that encouraged him to go on. 'I just wanted to say I finished that book you talked about. It was very thrilling indeed at the end. But you can go it's no problem.'

Alicia got excited. 'Oh right the book! So what did you think of the part where the wife goes away to Spain to be a potions master? Because I couldn't believe she would leave her husband behind. That was such a spin on the theme for me!'

Remus chuckled at her newfound interest. He took a couple of steps closer to her and leaned against the desk one row away from her. 'Well, it was her lifelong dream all along. One could say she deserved it. But I agree that it was unexpected. As well as the uncle with the Dragon pox.'

She giggled at the memory of the book character. Remus decided he really liked her laugh. It wasn't forced, it wasn't too delicate, it was just real and melodious to him. He dared to look at her a bit more closely. She had protruding green-grey eyes, lightly tanned skin that made a couple of freckles stand out on her cheeks. Her thick, long blonde hair turned around her face and down her back, reaching just past her waist. His eyes travelled down her matured, rounded body. She wore her Ravenclaw uniform, but had donned the sweater and stood now just in the white blouse and skirt. If he concentrated, he could see the red colour of her bra through the shirt.

That was the moment he realised he had been staring for too long. He looked back in her eyes and could see her reddened face and uncomfortable expression. He stood straight up. 'I am so sorry! That was…very inappropriate of me. I…can you forgive me?'

She seemed uncertain at first, but smiled again after that. 'Okay.'

He was about to apologize more, but got distracted by a sound coming out of her bag. She quickly drew the bag closer to herself and seemed to be in a whole new level of awkward now. 'Ha ha. Let's pretend that didn't happen. You were saying something…earlier…' But Remus was already way too interested. 'Is there something living in your bag?' he asked, pointing at it. She bit her lip, trying to decide what to tell him. The sight of her teeth biting down on her full lips did funny things to him internally. Get it together Moony. He blamed his inner wolf for this behaviour.

'I might as well tell you. This is why I was in a hurry before. I need to feed Sarah,' she said while putting the bag in front of her and opening the flap. Remus looked inside to find a creature nestled between the books and in the sweater she wasn't wearing. Alicia conjured a worm and gave it to the creature, who ate it happily. 'What is that?' He asked flabbergasted as he stared at the foreign beasts. It looked like a purple and blue snake, but its head was more like a bird and it had small wings halfway down its body.

'That,' Alicia said proudly, 'is an Occamy. A very young one. Hatched this morning! I haven't had time yet to bring it anywhere safe so I kept her in my bag. Occamy's are choranaptyxic you know. They grow or shrink to fit the available space. A shoulder bag-sized Occamy I can handle, but not a classroom-sized one. I figured I best bring her to Hagrid. Even if he isn't going to like it.' The last sentence she mumbled so quietly a normal person wouldn't hear it, but Remus did. He wondered what she meant by that comment, when he looked up and saw something disturbing.

'What is that, Miss Doreen?' he asked seriously.

She turned her big eyes on him, hoping he wouldn't pursue the subject. 'What, professor?'

His hand slowly went to her neck. He touched her skin and heard her inhale sharply. Gently, he pulled her collar down a bit more to reveal what he had feared. Her neck was covered in bruises.

'That,' Remus whispered sharply.

Alicia pulled back out of his grasp. Apart from his shock and anger at his discovery, he was a bit sad to lose the skin-on-skin contact with her. She tried to hide the marks more and couldn't face him when she explained. 'I…might have gotten into a fight yesterday.'

'A fight? It looks like someone tried to strangle you!' he yelled. She didn't respond to this aggressive tone, so he calmed himself down. 'Alicia, if someone is hurting you…A classmate or a friend-,'

'No! No it's nothing like that. Please professor, believe me,' she said quickly. She looked him in the eye now. The embarrassment was gone. There was a spark in her gaze now. Defiant and angry. 'I did it for Sarah. I was in the Three Broomsticks and overheard some wizards gloating about their rare objects for trade. I noticed the Occamy egg, a very valuable object indeed, but still with a living creature inside. So I did what had to be done. I gambled, and lost. So I stole the egg. But he noticed and tried to strangle me. Luckily Madam Rosmerta didn't like a fight in her bar so she threw him out and I escaped. So you see, it's fine now! Sarah is saved, I'm fine and those creeps will be gone shortly! Nothing to worry about.'

Remus didn't know how to respond. He rolled right back into his teacher role as he said: 'You took an uncalculated risk. It could have ended way worse with a bit of bad luck. You should think more deeply before you do such reckless things. Do you understand?'

She stared at him. It wasn't an angry stare. It was hard to say what was on her mind. Maybe she was perplexed? 'Yes professor,' she said eventually.

A silence fell between the two. Sarah the Occamy was screeching from the bag, hoping to get in some more comfortable environment. Remus took a deep breath. 'Well I guess I better escort you to Hagrid then. Make sure little…Sarah doesn't get out and grow to a dragon-size. Would that be agreeable with you, Miss Doreen?'

Now it was her turn to stare him down for a moment. He noticed how her eyes roamed from his face to his chest, all the way down and up again. Then she had a cheeky smirk on her face. 'When we are alone, you can call me Alicia if you like. And yes, I would love to be escorted to the grounds. Most kind of you Professor Lupin.'

Remus couldn't help the mischievous thoughts in his mind. 'Alright then, Alicia. Let's go.'

It was weird to walk around the castle with a teacher. Of course she had been escorted short distances by teachers, or followed one to ask a question, but to walk from the top of a tower all the way to the grounds were Hagrid lived was quite the venture. Suddenly Alicia was unsure about everything she did. Did she walk too close to him? Was her shirt all buttoned up? Could she look at him or should she look ahead? Could she even ask him questions? Soon enough the silence became awkward to her so she decided to at least start a conversation.

'Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?' she tried. The professor looked up at her with a raised eyebrow and a little smile. Alicia suddenly realised that it sounded like she asked him out on a date.

'No, wait. I didn't mean it to sound like…' She said, trailing off.

'To sound like what?' he asked. For a moment Alicia thought she had misread his smile but then she noticed his smirk only growing wider. He wanted her to say it. Merlin's beard he is driving me to insanity. 'To sound like…I was asking you to go with me. I was just trying to start a conversation.'

He chuckled and Alicia decided she really liked to hear him laugh. 'Glad that is clarified then Miss…Alicia. I was thinking about going to Hogsmeade yes. It has been a while since I visited Honeydukes or Zonko's. I used to buy so much at those stores when I was a student.'

Alicia huffed. 'Zonko's. Such a waste of money. No, I'll leave that to the tricksters and clowns of the school.' The professor looked up at her again. 'Not a prankster then, are you? Never hexed a student or released a creature in a classroom?'

Alicia laughed. 'Sounds like you have some experience there, professor! Did you do a lot of pranks back then?' He turned his face away and she could hear him chuckle again. 'I guess you could say that. I wasn't the worst though. My friends, they loved to be nuisances. But I wasn't completely innocent.' Alicia could see that, a younger, even more handsome version of this man strutting around the castle, getting other people into trouble. She already felt like he was getting her into trouble now. Wait, back up. Did you just confess you think he is handsome? Alicia rolled her eyes at her inner dialogue. 'Tell me. What did you do?'

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked up as they waited for the staircase to reach its destination. 'I enchanted suits of armour to follow first-years around for a day, I changed the robe colours of others more times than I can count and once I convinced Professor Slughorn that someone was stuck in his mirror and he stared at it for a week.' Alicia gave him an incredulous look before bursting out in laughter. He joined in and together they looked a little insane. Some students passed them by with questionable looks.

The laughter subsided and they continued on their way. They had already run into three people who greeted Alicia automatically, before realising she was with a teacher. When a Slytherin boy blocked their way on the last staircase down he did notice she wasn't alone, but continued as if she was.

'Alicia! Good to see you. Me and some others wanted to thank you for your help with the fire crab last week.' While he rummaged around in his robes Alicia looked over at the professor, as if saying told you so. The Slytherin was very nervous, his hand shook as he held out an envelope. 'It's a gift card you can use at Honeydukes and Zonko's. We all chipped in.' Alicia was touched by the gift. 'Thank you Damian! That is so nice of you guys! It was really nothing though.' Damian hesitated a moment but then stepped forward to hug the girl. She was taken by surprise but returned the hug. She could feel Professor Lupin's eyes burning in her back.

When he let go he hurried off quickly. 'Alicia straightened her clothes a bit and cleared her throat. 'Well, I guess the common stereotype of the Slytherins is not so true after all. And I'll be spending all of this at Honeydukes. They have the best chocolate.'

The professor chuckled again as they continued to walk. They reached the end of the castle by this point and walked outside. It was a nice autumn day, with some lingering heat from the summer past. 'You seem quite popular by all houses. On our trip down here I have seen Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins greeting you. No Gryffindors though. Anything personal?'

Alicia wondered when he had completely given up on being professional, but she didn't mind. 'Well to be completely honest, I don't particularly like the Gryffindor types. I clash with their personality traits.'

The professor raised an eyebrow. 'How so?'

'Gryffindors pretend to have a hero-complex. They feel like being placed in Gryffindor is an achievement alone and now they don't have to do anything to prove themselves. The idea of the house is obviously the opposite, but the problem with most of them is that they are just…' Alicia struggled to say what she wanted to say in a nice way. He gave her a funny expression. 'Spit it out.'

'They are pretentious jerks,' Alicia said in all honesty.

Apparently, this made him laugh. 'Well, I can't say I don't know a Gryffindor or two that live up to that description. But what about Ravenclaws then? Are you all studious introverts that care only about grades?'

Alicia actually jumped in front of the DADA professor, blocking his path. He was surprised by her quick movement and her heated expression. 'Now that is a misconception mostly created by Gryffindors! They don't have any idea what truly Ravenclaw behaviour is! Because they don't care, because they think they are number one in everything. I can name you a Ravenclaw that is so lost in his idea to create an de-aging potion that he is failing half his classes. I can name you a couple of Ravenclaw girls that have revolutionary ideas about the Ministry of Magic but can't even cast Expelliarmus in their sixth year! I can name a Ravenclaw that is so intent on becoming the next History of Magic professor he gives lectures that are better than the classes from Professor Binns. Ravenclaws are curious, creative and interested in a wide variety of subjects and stories. Now name me a Gryffindor that is actually as they are supposed to be. Humble, courageous but not stupid and an over-achiever in school. And possibly a bit mischievous.'

Her stance was rigid. She stared the professor down that was at least five inches taller than her. Despite the fire coming from the girl, Professor Lupin didn't waver. 'I can name one,' he replied, with that same sexy smirk on his face.

Suddenly, Alicia realised what she had been missing. What he was smirking about. She shrunk a bit in her spot, the deviant fire returning to a low rumble. 'You were a Gryffindor, weren't you?'

'Yep,' he replied with a plopping P.

For a long minute, neither knew what to say or do next. Alicia felt stupid, but at the same time it was so silly. Then she started laughing. What started as a little giggle turned quickly into a full-on laughing fit. Professor Lupin seemed to have the same idea. There they stood in the middle of the wooden bridge between the castle and the grounds, laughing into the open air like two maniacs.

'I'm such an idiot. You were dropping hints from the start!' Alicia managed to say between bursts of laugher. 'I was trying to push you,' he took in a ragged breath, 'to say something very insulting. I'm sorry I couldn't help myself.' After a couple more minutes the laugher died down. Alicia was leaning against the side of the bridge, holding a wooden pole in one hand and her stomach in the other. Professor Lupin stood quite close to her, wiping away a tear. Once the laughing had gone back to soft giggles, they looked at each other again. Alicia just didn't seem able to keep her eyes from lingering over this extraordinary man. He seemed to notice and dropped his gaze shyly.

'I guess you are a true Gryffindor then. My apologies for my prejudice,' she said in a low voice. He looked back up at her, with a new expression on his face. His eyes looked dark, there was a flicker of gold in them. His pupils looked dilated. Overall, he looked hungry. Alicia realised that the tone she had used was somewhat seductive. Oh dear, this is starting to get serious. The look in his eyes was gone a moment later. 'You are forgiven. I guess there is just a lot more to you and me than we know.'

Alicia shrugged. 'Well obviously. This is our second meeting. An extraordinary one, but still the second time I see you.' He smiled at that and mumbled something she didn't quite catch. She only made out hope and more. Then he set off to continue their journey and Alicia followed.

After a walk that felt like ages they arrived at Hagrid's house. Outside were tables set up and students were studying Bowtruckles. Hagrid looked up from the table to see the two newcomers. He waved at first, but had a questioning look on his face on seeing two unlikely people together.

'Professor Lupin! Good to see you. And Alicia, you here too?' Hagrid greeted. Some students looked up at her and Alicia felt uncomfortable. Nevertheless she tried to hide it. 'Hey Hagrid. I have something for you. I hope you are going to like it. Please don't yell at me.'

Hagrid seemed even more surprised by this, but when Alicia showed the Occamy to Hagrid he seemed to understand. His first reaction was one of awe, for he had never seen an Occamy before. Then a storm crossed his features.

'You did it. You actually went ahead and did exactly what I told you not to do!' Hagrid shouted. A startled girl looked up from her Bowtruckle, and even the little green fellow seemed to be looking at Hagrid. Alicia glanced quickly at Professor Lupin, hoping he would help her. At the sight of her helpless gaze he stepped forward and placed a hand on Hagrid's back. 'Why don't we go inside and take care of this?' he suggested as he led Hagrid to his hut. He also assured the students that their Care of Magical Creatures professor would return shortly and beckoned Alicia to follow them.

Once inside, Hagrid sat down and dropped his face in his hands. He sighed deeply. Alicia felt guilty, looking at him worry about her. 'Did you get hurt?' was all he asked.

Alicia looked up at Professor Lupin, wondering whether she should tell the truth. After a moment he shook his head slightly. 'No Hagrid. I was very sneaky. They didn't notice the egg missing until I was outside. I will not go to Hogsmeade this weekend and ask some friends to look out for these men. Once they leave town, I can return. I know you told me not to, and I am sorry I didn't listen. But just look at little Sarah over here! She hatched a couple of hours ago, all happy and healthy.'

It was maybe a low thing to do, but she knew Hagrid was always distracted by magical beasts. So she dropped the bag on the table in front of him and let him look at the tiny creature. It squeaked at him for good measure. Hagrid went right into mommy-mode and started cooing the little beast. Alicia smiled at the sight. 'I figured, you might know a place for her. And maybe we can send out some letters to see if anyone wishes to take her back to India.'

Professor Lupin suddenly moved to a corner of the room where Hagrid had stacked some bamboo. 'Can I use this?' he asked. Hagrid nodded. He swept his wand around with a couple of complex spells, and the bamboo sticks started to shift and intertwine. Within a short while it formed an oval shape that resembled a nest. He waved his wand at some hay next and filled the nest with soft stuffing.

'Maybe this can work for now?' he asked politely, placing the nest in a less-cluttered corner of the house. Hagrid nodded and Alicia could see he was touched. Alicia scooped up the Occamy from her bag, careful not to get bitten, and brought it over to the nest. It slithered out of her hands into the nest and seemed comfortable there. Hagrid took a piece of meat and started feeding the creature. Alicia wondered who looked more happy, the Occamy or its mommy.

'That's a cutie, isn't she?' Hagrid said proudly. 'Alright, she will stay here. I will write some letters to good people who might make a trip to the East. I still don't approve of what you did, but I understand why you did it. Now, I best return to my class.'

Alicia looked up at him with a sorry expression. 'Thank you,' she whispered before giving him a big hug. 'Alright, alright,' he mumbled before leaving the house. When he closed the door Alicia realised she was once again alone with Professor Lupin. When she looked over at him, she noticed he had been looking at her too. Swiftly he pretended to look at the Occamy who was settling in her new home. She cleared her throat to get his attention back.

'Thank you for helping,' she told him.

'No problem Alicia. But I will not cover up for you again. Definitely not if you keep getting yourself hurt. You understand that?' He looked stern, not looking to be amused right now.

She cast her eyes down and nodded. 'Yes professor. It was really an "on the spur of the moment" kind of deal. If I had thought the consequences through I probably wouldn't have done it. I just have those moments when it involves magical creatures. I work on instinct.'

A soft chuckle made her look up. 'Guess you could say you had a Gryffindor moment.' She wanted to scold him for that, but knew she couldn't. If it had been a friend or classmate she would have hit him in the arm and told him to shut up. But you are still talking to a teacher, remember? So she just nodded and dropped it.

Professor Lupin looked up at the clock. 'I guess we should go back to the castle, before people start missing you.'

She took her bag from the table and absently said: 'And you.' In response, he smiled sadly and opened the door.