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Ginny yawned, crossing her thin, freckled arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair as she listened to Professor Binns' latest lecture about the Goblin War of whatever-year-they-felt-like-warring-in. She shot a glance at Luna, who was bent over a piece of paper, doodling like her life depended on it. Ginny grinned. You could always trust Luna to be listening, even if it didn't look like she was.
"And who can tell me the name of these two goblin generals?," called Binns, and Luna's hand shot into the air as she continued to doodle absent-mindedly, turning her lamp-like blue eyes on the phantom teacher as if bored. He pointed to her. "Lovegood?"
Lovegood. He'd gotten her name right. Everyone woke up and stared at Binns in awe, but Luna just took it into stride.
"Sir, the two goblin generals were named...," Ginny zoned out again, only to feel a tap on her shoulder. She turned to look, and Colin Creevey sat there, looking amazed.
"Is it just me or did the Professor actually get Lovegood's name right?," he asked in hushed tones, and Ginny nodded. "He did? Wow. By the way, mind getting me Harry's auto-"
Ginny glared at him, and he fell silent. Soon, the class was right back in it's usual stupor.
"Harry!," called Ron as he entered the Defense classroom, shooting a wary look at Sirius, who was actually in his human form, sitting on Remus' desk and wearing a red-and-gold sweater and blue denim jeans. His long hair had been brushed and chopped shorter, no doubt by Mrs. Weasley, who'd visited Hogwarts the day before because Fred and George had gotten into trouble, so that it was now shoulder-length, and he had a grin on his face, which didn't look at all like he'd ever even seen Azkaban.
Harry turned around at his desk and grinned. "Hey Ron," he said, smiling.
"Don't you 'Hey Ron' me! You weren't at Quidditch last night! Wood was furious! He kept tormenting me about where you were! ...Where were you?," Ron asked, turning slightly red.
"I was helping fix that," said Harry, pointing at Sirius, who was laughing at something Remus had said.
"You do realize that he's still on the run and he could get arrested, right?," Ron told him, raising an eyebrow.
"Actually, Remus went to the Ministry after we'd finished fixing Sirius' outlook, and got him a fair trial. 'Course, he didn't get back until around three this morning," replied Harry. Ron looked at their teacher silently. He did look very tired...But then again, he always did! There were bags under his amber eyes, and his grey-flecked hair simply hung around his face like a blanket. He looked up at his students, who were all staring at Sirius, who was studying his nails with quite a bit of disinterest.
"Good afternoon, class. In case some of you haven't noticed, we have a visitor here today. May I introduce my dear friend Sirius Black?," he told them, and a few people gasped. Remus chuckled. "Don't worry. He won't kill or bite any of you. He's under strict orders from the Ministry not to so much as poke any of you, which I know he's tempted to do."
Sirius grinned, kicking Remus lightly in the back. "Git," he said. "I wouldn't poke yer students. Maybe I'd dangle 'em from the ceiling by their ankle like was done while we were in school...by me...But nothing more." Everyone laughed, but a few laughs were nervous.
"Anyway," continued Remus. "Today we will be learning about..."
"WEREWOLVES! OOOOH!," shouted Sirius, causing Harry and Ron to laugh and Hermione to frown disapprovingly.
"...Yes...Anyway, if you will all turn to page 394, Miss Granger will the read the first paragraph?," Remus finished, copying Hermione's disapproving frown at Sirius, who had a stupid grin on his handsome face as he raked his hair with his hand and took a deep breath, steadying himself.
"Of course, Professor," said Hermione, smiling. She opened her book, flipping to the appropriate page and starting to read,
"The werewolf is a creature in that exists only for a brief period of time around the full moon. At any other time, a werewolf is a normal human. However, the term werewolf is used for both the wolf-like creature and the normal human. A werewolf can be distinguished from a true wolf physically by several small distinguishing characteristics, including the pupils, snout, and tufted tail. Most werewolves live outside of normal society and steal food to survive. A person becomes a werewolf when bitten by a werewolf in wolf-form."
"Very good. Five points to Gryffindor. Now, any volunteers to read the next part?," Remus called once she was finished, and about half a dozen hands shot into the air. Remus chuckled and Sirius looked impressed as Remus pointed to a pale boy with a pointed chin and short white-blond hair. No doubt a Malfoy."Ah! Go ahead, Draco!"
"Once this happens, the person must learn to manage the condition. Potion-maker Damocles Belby developed a draught called Wolfsbane which controls some of the effects of the condition; by allowing the sufferer to maintain his human mind in wolf form, it prevents him from harming others. Wolfsbane Potion is quite difficult to make, even for fully qualified wizards and is said to have a rather disgusting taste," read 'Draco', then smirked when Remus rewarded him with five points to Slytherin, which the teacher seemed reluctant to do.
"Next--Parvati!," said Remus quickly, and the girl giggled and began to read.
"The medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury associated the transformation with the appearance of the full moon; however, there is evidence that the association existed among the Ancient Greeks, appearing in the writings of Petronius. This concept was rarely associated with the werewolf until the idea was picked up by fiction writers. In popular culture, a werewolf can be killed only if shot by a silver bullet, although this was not a feature of the folk legends," she read, giggling again as Remus rewarded her with five points to Gryffindor again.
"And finally-Harry!"
Harry blinked. He hadn't raised his hand, but now all eyes were on him. He scowled, looking down at the text, and quickly found where they were before continuing the page.
"The name most likely derives from Old English "wer" and "wulf." The first part, "wer", translates as "man." It has cognates in several Germanic languages including Gothic "wair", Old High German "wer", and Old Norse "verr", as well as in other Indo-Europian languages, such as Latin "vir", Irish "fear", Lithuanian "vyras", and Welsh "gŵr", which have the same meaning. The second half, "wulf", is the ancestor of modern English "wolf"; in some cases it also had the general meaning "beast," he read, and Remus smiled.
"Another five points to Gryffindor. Oh, Sirius-Did you have something to add?," Remus asked, looking annoyed as Sirius grinned evilly. Something that was never good.
"Why, yes I did, Moony! I'd like to add that I have met a werewolf, and inform your students that he does not support Voldemort-," people cringed, "-nor is he a bad person. In fact, he's the kindest person I've ever met, and is a Gryffindor. He would never even think of joining the "Dark Side" of magic," he said, and Remus chuckled before turning to the class.
"Alright everyone, homework tonight!," he said, and everyone groaned, even Hermione. "Now, now, don't complain. I may let Sirius loose on you," he joked, and everyone laughed while Sirius scowled. "Homework tonight! I want a foot-long essay on how to recognize a werewolf. Due on my desk by end of class tomorrow! All right, go on, you lot!"
The class filed out of the classroom until only Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Pansy, two boys and two girls were left.
The first unknown girl, who Remus recognized as the girl who'd responded to 'Caitlin Ford', and she had chin-length brown hair and pale skin, a pair of chocolate brown eyes gazing steadily out of thin, metal-framed glasses. Beside her was a shorter, more plump girl with very messy black hair and large hazel eyes, who Remus recognized as 'Jarah Hostelle'.
The unknown boys were both rather short for their age, and reminded Remus a bit of James and Sirius as teenagers. Both had dirty blond hair, but the first one had a bit of an overbite and bright blue eyes that any girl could get lost in, and the other had glasses and brown eyes that seemed to smile at you. 'Wesley Hall' and 'Colin Warrix.'
Caitlin laughed at something Wesley said, and Wesley did a little dance, throwing his arms into the air and dropping all his books. Jarah pointed at him and laughed, only to have him scowl and chase her from the room, yelling. Colin and Caitlin laughed, Colin hurrying to pick up Wesley's dropped books to avoid being chased himself, and Caitlin gazing at him almost lovingly as she offered him her bag to drop them in. They both smiled, hurrying from the room as the other five students in the room warily approached Remus' desk.
Remus looked at them. "Er, hello. Did you need something, students?," he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"They know," said the trio, pointing at the two Slytherins.
"We know," said the Slytherin couple simultaneously.
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And so y'all know, YES, the two girls and two boys are me and my friends Jarah, Wesley and Colin, but those aren't our real names:)
Syl: Lol, I usually do SBRL stories, and I think people expect it of me. Thanks for saying you'll continue reading! -tosses a few more cookie points-