Author's Note: Hey guys here's the fourth chapter. I've noticed that this chapter is shorter than the last. Anyway, once things get rolling, I'll be willing to write more than four pages. Anyway, enjoy.

Years of the Marauders

Chapter Four: Charming Valentine

Wendy had awoken to the voice of Lucius Malfoy. 'Wendy… you should probably get up now. Everyone else is already down at breakfast.' Wendy's eyes opened a crack. The bay standing over her had platinum blonde hair, which was very well kept. He smiled politely. Wendy sat up, and realized she was sitting on a chair. 'I can't believe you'd slept there all night.'

Wendy stood up from the chair and stretched, 'Thanks, I'll meet you down in the Great Hall. I should probably change first,' she said. Lucius nodded and left the common room. Wendy headed toward the girl's dormitory. She arrived at her room and looked around. There were a few beds with trunks at the bottom.

She was looking around for her trunk, when she heard, 'Wendy? Wendy? Is that you? I know It'sss you I can sssmell you. How long are you going to leave me in thisss trunk! It'sss too warm in here. Not to mention, it's dark and crowded,' The voice was smooth and was definitely male.

Wendy rushed to the trunk where the voice was coming from. She opened it up and picked up a cage and held it to her face. Inside was a king snake about two feet long. It was mainly grey, but had white stripes along its body at regular intervals. Its eyes were like rubies and its fangs were like needles. Wendy had had this snake for a couple of years now. She had gotten it at a pet store with her aunt, Selda. When Wendy said that she wanted a snake for a pet, Selda almost fainted. She had showed Wendy a bunch of cute furry rabbits, but Wendy wanted the snake. In the end, Selda caved in, mainly because she wanted Wendy to be happy.

Wendy was set on having the snake. Every since she was little, she'd had this thing for them. Her mother was almost always at work, at Hogwarts, and Wendy stayed with her aunt. One day, she got tired of her aunt fussing over her, so she went outside of their manor and started to play in the garden. She was sitting in the grass, when a snake came up to her and said, 'Hey little girl. How's it going?' Wendy was shocked at first, because she didn't know snakes could talk.

She replied, 'Very good, thank you.' Wendy wasn't speaking English. She could hear hissing and spitting coming out of her mouth. This was when she first found out that she could talk to snakes, and she hadn't ever told any one.

Wendy, who was holding up the snake's cage said, 'Hey Evra. Sorry about leaving you in the trunk. I fell asleep on the chair downstairs.'

'How could you forget about me?' Evra asked jokingly.

Wendy unlocked Evra's cage and set it down on her bed. The grey snake slithered out to lie in his full extent. Wendy ignored him and went to get changed. She put on some fresh robes and said, 'It's fine if you go hunting for mice. Just don't get seen okay? A lot of people are afraid of snake. I don't see why though, they're so cute.' She reached down and put her hand in front of Evra's head. He nudged it to show his affection, the slithered off of the bed and out of sight, and Wendy headed down for breakfast.

It was very crowded in the Great Hall this morning. Hannah, Lupin, Sirius, James and Peter were sitting at the Gryffindor table. They were talking about their time tables, which were handed out this morning. James was the first to complain, 'Oh great! I have double Potions with the Slytherins!'

Peter corrected him, 'We always have potions with them.'

Hannah looked offended, 'You know, not all Slytherins are bad,' she said, thinking about her friend Wendy.

Sirius said, 'Well at least Professor Arnold is nice. You know who's nicer though?'

James and Sirius said it at the same time, 'Professor Valentine.'

Hannah asked, 'Who's that?' She picked up a couple pieces of bacon off the table and put them on her plate.

Lupin looked disapproving, 'She's the Transfiguration teacher. It's true that she's nice but she's also…'

'Freaking gorgeous?' Sirius asked.

'Positively stunning?' Peter chimed.

'The most beautiful person I've laid eyes on other than Lily Evans?' James said as if it were a big deal.

'Exactly,' Lupin said. 'All the guys are crazy about her. I'll admit she is pretty, but I don't think they realize that she's about ten years older than them.' He finished sipping his pumpkin juice.

Hannah said calmly, 'If she was that beautiful, why didn't I notice her at the Feast?'

Lupin answered, 'She wasn't there. Not sure why though.'

They ate happily, Sirius, Peter, and James still thinking about Professor Valentine, and Hannah concentrating on her timetable. She had Transfiguration first, and then double potions with the Slytherins, Herbology, then double Care of Magical Creatures with the Hufflepuffs. It was probably going to be a good day, Hannah thought.

She looked up from her food and spotted Wade at the Hufflepuff table. He saw her and Hannah looked up and pretended that she wasn't looking at him. She chuckled to herself then waved at Wade. He waved back. She saw Katherine at the Ravenclaw table, and waved, however Katherine was in a conversation with another first year named Rebecca Colmer. Hannah looked for Wendy at the Slytherin table, but couldn't find her. She looked around the room and saw her walking briskly into the hall. Hannah waved, and Wendy saw her.

Wendy walked over to Hannah and said, 'Hey Hannah. How's it going?' Wendy then looked down and straightened her tie and fixed her hair.

'It's good. Guess what? We have potions together today. I'm excited.' Hannah said making conversation.

Wendy smiled back, 'Good, then you'll get to meet my mom. I'll talk to you later,

I have to go and get something to eat, before class. I overslept.' Wendy nodded to Hannah's friends.

They didn't really look that enthusiastic about being with the Slytherin. They watched her as she went past the other tables and sat down with her house.

Hannah turned back to her friends, wondering if maybe Professor Arnold was Wendy's mom. It would make sense because their last names were the same.

Lupin put his hand on Hannah's shoulder, 'We should probably get going, and have fun at your first class.'

Sirius added, 'Say hi to Professor Valentine for me.' He winked and then the four boys headed out of the Great Hall.

Hannah packed up her stuff and followed suit, heading to Transfiguration, where she wondered who Professor Valentine could be.

Katherine had finished up her eggs and packed up her things. Her first class was double Charms with the Hufflepuffs. She stood up and walked over to the Hufflepuff table and waved to Wade, who was now talking to Oliver Benson, and another boy named Gregory Daniels.

Wade looked up at Katherine and asked, 'What's up?'

Katherine waved to his friends as they were obviously staring at her. She pushed her hair behind her ear and asked, 'Hey Wade, do you want to walk with me to Charms?'

Wade shrugged and said, 'Sure, why not? We're both going anyway.' He picked up his things and said, 'See you later guys.'

They walked down the halls until they reached the Charms classroom. They walked inside. A few people were already there. The Ravenclaws sat on one side of the room and the Hufflepuffs sat on the other. Wade and Katherine chose seats across the aisle so that they could still talk. A few minutes went by and the class was full of students now. Katherine was wondering where the teacher was. She could hear a voice, 'Alright students! Time to settle down! Class is starting.'

Katherine was wondering where the voice was coming from. It wasn't until the people in front of her settled down that she saw a little wizard who was climbing up onto his chair so that everyone could see him, 'Okay class, I'm Professor Flitwick. It's nice to have another young bunch of first years. Let's get right to it shall we? Why don't you open your books to page 7?'

Pages being flipped were heard for a while and then he continued with the lesson. They were learning the basics of charm work, and looking at an overview for the course. Katherine was reading along when Wade whispered, 'Katherine…' She looked over and saw that Wade was pretending to snore. Katherine chuckled and turned back to her book.

The rest of the class was as equally as exciting. Nothing much happened, however these two Hufflepuff girls were passing notes and Professor Flitwick swished his wand and the note went whizzing into his hand, 'Thank you ladies.' He said and returned to his lesson.

Really, it was Hannah's class that was interesting. She sat down at an empty desk and waited for the fabled Professor Valentine to arrive. She was later joined at her two person desk by a nervous looking boy named Declan Farce. He looked at Hannah and asked, 'Is it okay if I sit here? If it's not then that's fine, I can just sit somewhere else, if you don't want me sitting here. That's fine too because I don't know a lot of people who would want me to sit with them…'

Hannah couldn't help but laugh. The kid was so nervous that it was funny.

'Oh, I see,' he said, 'its fine, I'll just sit over there…'

'No, no! You can sit here. It's just, why are you so nervous?' She asked curiously.

He took his seat and sighed, 'Well, it's because I don't know much about magic. Neither of my parents was magic, and everything scares me.'

Hannah smiled sympathetically, 'That's okay, there's nothing really to be afraid of.'

All of a sudden a boy shouted, 'Professor Valentine's here!' Everyone sat down and waited for the Professor to enter the room. The door knob turned and the door opened. In walked a woman, who was probably in her mid-twenties. She had long, curly blonde hair. She wore pink robes that didn't even cover her knees. She wore matching pink heels. Her eyes were a dazzling blue. She wore red on her lips and below them, was a beauty mark. 'Alright my cute students, it's time for class.'

Inside, Hannah was horror-struck. She knew exactly who this person was; she was actually a big part of her life. Not wanting the teacher to see her, Hannah slouched a little in her seat. It was too late, 'Hi Hannah! I was wondering when I'd see you here.' Her voice was very feminine and it made Hannah want to throw up.

Hannah forced a smile on her face and said, 'H-Hello Professor Valentine.' Professor Valentine smiled and said, 'Well it's nice to have you. How is your mother?'

The last thing Hannah wanted to do was to discuss her personal life with this woman. 'She's doing well.' Hannah said resisting the urge to add, 'Without you being there.'

Professor Valentine nodded and addressed the class. 'Okay everyone. Welcome to Transfiguration. I'm Professor May Valentine and I'm the Transfiguration teacher. If you didn't already know, I'm also the head of Gryffindor House. Let's get started shall we. Let's have fun today. Why don't we put our books away, and pull out our wands?'

The class cheered, except Hannah. She wasn't thrilled about being in this class. Actually, it wasn't that. Hannah loved Transfiguration. Her mother would show it to her all the time, and Hannah thought it was fantastic. Hannah however did no think that Professor Valentine was fantastic. She didn't say anything though; she kept it to herself and wore a straight face, as she had done so many times before. That was one thing about Hannah. Even if she said she was fine, you could never tell.

The lesson started and they were turning needles into matches. They had each grabbed a few needles and set them on the desks. Poor Declan was trying as hard as he could. Sometimes, he would produce a match, but it would be silver, or even still be pointy at one end. Hannah, who was feeling kind, said, 'Here, let me show you.' She waved her wand and the needle turned into a match.

Professor Valentine, who was watching them said, 'Oh well done Hannah. See class? Hannah has perfectly turned her needle into a match. Can you do it again Hannah so that the class can see?'

Hannah really didn't want to, but she decided to just do it, anything to get Professor Valentine out of her hair. Hannah was rather angry now that everyone was staring at her, especially Professor Valentine. She waved her wand, a little violently and the needle had turned into a match. However, the match then burst into flames. 'Woops,' Hannah said.

Professor Valentine said, 'Well, Hannah good job, however, it was a little much,' She pointed her wand at the flame and said, 'Aguamenti.' A thin stream of water poured onto the fire, dousing it. 'All right class. We'll end it today. I'm looking forward to seeing you all over the course of the year. Have fun.'

The class got up to leave, and all Hannah could think about was, 'Why didn't she catch on fire instead?'

End Note: I thought that Valentine would be a good name for the teacher. Anyway next chapter will probably be more back story and character development. I hope it won't get too boring. Can't wait to write the exciting stuff. :)