As soon as we arrived at Hogwarts I went straight to my father's office hoping to find him there. Hopefully, he was just about to leave when I saw him.
"Dad!" I whispered-shouted as I was trying to catch up to him.
"Christine?!" His voice was just a bit louder than it should be. "What are you doing here? You should have been in the Great Hall by now!"
"I know!" I pulled him by his robe so the size difference would have been smaller. "But look I can see!" A smile covered my whole face.
As if something had snapped in him he quickly grabbed my face squishing my cheeks in the process. His cold demeanor disappeared as he inspected my face and eyes. "How?" The word left his mouth without even realizing what he had said. His hands were slightly trembling I could tell that he was feeling a mixture of confusion and happiness, it was all written on his face. When he let his guard down he is like an open book.
"I don't know" I mumbled despite my cheeks and mouth being squished together. "At one point dementor touched my face and seconds later I was able to see!" I admitted.
"What?" He suddenly tensed up releasing me from his grip.
"He said it was a gift from them. Which is quite unusual since I had never before seen a dementor in person." I started telling him what happened but when I saw his face I stopped myself from telling him more. A dark shadow was covering his face, his eyes were cold and emotionless like he had just seen a ghost.
"Dad?" I called him after what felt like an eternity of silence. And I couldn't stand it anymore. "Is everything okay?"
Like he was in some kind of trance he suddenly snapped from his thoughts. "Yes darling it is, I was just surprised. It is an unusual talent to be able to understand those creatures." He finally started talking and his face was no longer emotionless.
"I'm glad that it is not a bad thing, I was scared that I had done something I shouldn't have," I said hugging him and he returned the gesture with a pat on the head. He had never been an overly touchy person.
"Now it's time to go to the Great Hall, Dumbledore is about to start his overly dramatic speech!" He looked at me with his eyebrows raised. Was my father just trying to make a joke?
I laughed the situation was funnier than what he had said. "Okay! Let's go together for a bit!" I suggested and he agreed with just a nod.
When we arrived everyone had already taken their places along the abnormally long tables. I left my father's side and went to join Draco and Blase who had thankfully kept a spot for me.
"Where were you?" Blaise asked when I sat down.
'Oh, I just went to have a chat with my dad, who just happened to be the most hated professor at Hogwarts.' Of course, I couldn't say that, I don't know why I didn't think of an excuse.
"Um, I just needed to grab something from my room." Dump but it will work out.
"Okaaay. You missed the singing." He said jokingly.
"Oh, what a shame. I missed the singing frogs." I responded with sarcasm dipping every word.
Dumbledore interrupted our stupid jokes with his, as my father had said, overly dramatic speech. He introduced Professor Lupin as our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and I was certain that this year we will finally have a proper teacher.
As we were all clapping to welcome our new professor Draco and Blaise were whispering something among themselves, and a few seconds later I found out about what.
"Potter!" Draco whisper-shouted, " Hey Potter!" When Potter looked at him Draco continued, "Is it true that you fainted? I mean, you actually fainted." At the same time, Blaise was acting as if he fainted to make the scene more dramatic.
"Shove off Malfoy!" Weasly said loudly pushing Potter to turn around. It was kind of amusing seeing them angry but somehow I felt as if they were indirectly making fun of me since I too have fainted.
After they were done with their laughing section I whispered so only two of them could hear. "You do know that I fainted too?"
"Yes we know but it is not the same thing!" Draco said defending himself.
"How come?!" I said crossing my arms. I wasn't actually angry, I wasn't at all but it was kind of fun seeing the two of them flustrated for once.
"That's Potter, and he is a weak ass baby and you were face to face with that thing and on top of that you were blind. So of course it is not the same thing!" He finished with a small puff of air leaving his mouth as if he was pouting.
"Yes, the same thing he said!" Blaise shouted from his left side leaning on the table so I could see him.
I laughed out loud at their foolishness, they were just too cute to not make fun of them.
"Don't tell me that you fainted!" A voice that I had hoped not to hear appeared from across the table.
"What if I did?" I turned towards the sound not liking the sight before me.
"I mean how stupid can you be to get scared by a dementor?" Pansy sneered at me, but I just laugh it off.
"Darling the real question is how can you not get scared by a dementor? If you had a little brain under all that hair you would have known what they are capable of." My smile grow wider with every word I spoke. "They are creatures that are capable of sucking your soul out and then you are left with nothing just an empty shell. And do you know what is the funniest thing?" I stood up from my seat slightly leaning towards her. "As of today the school will be full of them, so be careful!" I finished, and now satisfied I sat down. I wasn't gonna let some stupid girl make fun of me even though it was kind of a stupid thing to faint just from that.
"How do you know that the school will be full of them? You are talking nonsense!" Pansy squealed in her seat. I definitely railed her up.
"Just listen!" I said and turned my head towards Dumbledore.
After finishing introducing Hagrid as a new teacher he passed on to a thing I needed for winning over this quarrel.
"At the request of the Ministry of Magic Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban until Sirius Black is captured! The dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds." I slowly turned my head towards Pansy loving the look of horror on her face.
"Now I assure you that their presence will not disturb our day-to-day activities. A word of caution! The dementors are vicious creatures, they don't distinguish between the one they hunt and the one that stands in their way. Therefore I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. It is not in dementors nature to be forgiving. But you know happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the lights!"
I will be lying if I said that I wasn't equally terrified by this speech but I wasn't gonna show that to anyone. So I waited for Pansy to look at me when Dumbledore finished. And it was amazing.
"How did you know?" Asked Pansy who was now whiter than the tablecloth.
I shrugged not giving her the satisfaction of answering but I could feel two pairs of eyes dining a hole into my head. Blaise and Draco wanted answers too, but that will have to wait since I can't just causally reveal the benefits of having a father who just happened to be the headmaster's right hand.
After that, the mood at the table wasn't so good, I think that everyone felt uneasy about the whole thing with dementors and Sirius Black. We sat quietly trying to finish our meal and soon after we headed toward our common rooms.
After my biggest fight with Pansy last year, the school has given me my own room and since not many kids go to Slytherin they had some spare rooms, so I didn't have to bother with roommates. I went inside as soon as we arrived I needed some time alone to think about the whole thing.
I was plotting the plan of how I will find a dementor to talk and resolve all the questions that were boiling in my mind but I was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door.
"Yes?" I shouted across the room.
The door squealed upon opening and revealed Draco standing behind them.
"I had a feeling you will do something stupid so I decided to visit you." He said closing the door and making his way to one of my chairs.
"Where did you get that idea?" I said trying to sound offended.
"I just happened to know you!" A smirk grew on his face.
"Oh, so you decided to finally say goodbye to the abnormal amount of gel on your hair!" I pointed out finally taking a good look at him after everything that happened. He really looked good with his hair down, not like I was gonna say that to him.
He put his hand in his hair playing with a loose strand of hair that was just barely touching his eyebrow. "Well, you once told me that I would look better with my hair down." He said in half a whisper while slight blush formed on his cheeks.
After regaining my sight I started paying much more attention to sudden changes feeling the need to see everything as if I will once again become blind. It never really crossed my mind how much would I miss seeing things like this, on top of all was the awkward shyness that he so desperately tried to hide, like he shouldn't feel those emotions at all.
"And don't change the topic!" He cut himself off, "And why are you staring at me like that?" He said making me snap from my thoughts. I haven't even realized that I had been staring all the time.
"Nothing, I was just thinking!"
"So what were you plotting all alone?" He still hadn't let go of that. "Don't tell me you were planning to find a dementor and talk to it? You surely aren't that stupid?" I just avoided his gaze. 'How in the name of Merlin did he know?'
"Are you nuts?!" He leaped from his chair upon realizing that he was right, "Do you even know the spell to repel them if anything goes wrong?" His voice bounced at stone walls from how loud he was.
"Don't do anything stupid before you prepare yourself!" He didn't even leave me a second to answer. "And when you prepare thoroughly then call me and we will go together!" After that, he sat back on his chair crossing his arms.
"Okay," I said lowering my head. The heat was rising in my body and I could feel my cheeks burning. This was humiliating. Since when have I started not making hundreds of plans before doing something? I should really calm my horses I'm not as powerful as I think I am.
We sat there in silence before I asked him what does he think of this whole situation with the new professor and Sirius Black being mentioned in the Great Hall. And after that, the mood eased up and we talked normally like we usually do.