Chapter Twenty-Nine
When I got to the Great hall that morning I noticed that the tables were still assembled in their house lengths, I wondered if it was to give the new professors a better sense of where the students belonged; though I would have thought that our colored ties could have done that job. Neville and Luna were seated near the back of our table, and so I joined them.
"So where did you go off to last evening Harry?" Luna's singsong voice never seemed to change, no matter what the situation.
"Just out for a walk, I ended up having a nice talk with Professor Sinistra."
"You missed seeing Professor LaSeigne." Luna announced, which startled me, not because the conversation had turned to the new arrivals; I was prepared for that, but because the professor had actually come to our tower.
"She came up to the dorms?"
"Yes, she wanted to say hello to everyone."
"Am I going to be in trouble for not being there?"
"I can't see why?" Luna didn't always see the ramifications of certain actions; she was a very blissful person, emphasized by the tilt of her head as she spoke, and her wide, innocent looking eyes. "Besides, you were with another Professor, how could she object to that?" That statement had a bit more logic to it.
"What happened?"
"She just introduced herself to those of us who were there, and told us how pleased she was to be given the position of our Head of House. She tried to learn all of our names, but I don't know that she managed it all that well." Sing-songy again.
"You don't have to worry Harry, really. Lots of folk were already gone to bed when she came in." Neville tried to add some substance to the conversation. "She asked about how many of us were going to be in her class, and she spoke to Hermione for awhile about how she had enjoyed teaching it."
"She asked us what we were hoping to do when we left school." Luna's far away voice rang again. "I told her that I'm going to be going to work for my Dad." Luna's father published The Quibbler, a magazine that dealt mostly in strange creature sightings, and conspiracy theories. I subscribed, and I continue to subscribe, because Xenophilius Lovegood stood by me, for as long as he could, during the war. And he published the truth back then. Now a days it's back to things more on the sensational side, but that's all right. Luna runs it, and she's always been a friend.
"Dad wants me to start adventuring as soon as I get out of school to find more wonderful creatures to write about. And I've asked Neville to start writing stories about his fabulous plants; if he finds the time." Neville leaned back and shook his head, just beyond her glance. I knew that Neville had set his hopes on going to work for the Ministry in the future, as an Auror, like Ron and myself, and I knew his reluctance to write anything for The Quibbler came from a reticence to have that as part of his reputation.
"And what are you up to today Harry?" Neville asked, trying to steer the conversation away from himself.
"Just thought I'd do some studying. Perhaps I should go and find Professor LaSeigne and introduce myself?"
"Oh, I don't think you'll have to worry about that." Luna sang. A hush had fallen over the room and I didn't even have to guess why, Genevieve LaSeigne had just walked into the Great Hall, and was heading straight towards us. I tried to sit up a little taller as she neared.
"Good morning." Her voice wasn't as heavy with the French accent as I had expected it to be; I was judging her by Fleur of course, the only other French part Veela I knew.
"Good morning Professor." The three of us parroted back in an almost synchronous voice.
"Would you mind terribly if I joined you for a few moments?"
Of course there really wasn't an answer for that besides 'yes'.
"Unless you are speaking about something which I should not be a party to of course."
"Please Professor, have a seat." Neville stood up for her, and I realized I should have done the same. There was no chair to pull out or he'd have certainly done that as well. She gracefully stepped over the bench and sat down beside Neville, and directly across from me. Before she'd even straightened her skirts an elf had appeared to present her with a small pot of tea and a croissant. A male elf I note.
"And you must be Harry Potter?" She poured without looking at what she was doing, and just smiled at me.
"Yes Ma'am." I answered, trying to sound confident with myself, pushing back the natural urge to become a drooling idiot in front of the Veela. I surprised myself with how easy it was, even though she was only a few feet from me, and I could smell her perfume, and see her beautiful green eyes.
"I've heard a great many wonderful things about you Harry."
"I hope that at least some of them were true Ma'am."
She laughed, and it sounded like bells chiming.
"And so modest." She turned to Neville, who did have a bit of a goofy smile plastered to his face. "You were quite right in your descriptions of him Neville." Apparently she remembered Neville's name, and apparently that pleased him.
"I've learned over the years not to believe everything you hear Ma'am."
"As have I Harry."
"I hope you'll let me prove myself to you in person."
"I look forward to it. You are taking my NEWT level Potions course aren't you?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"And what are you working towards?"
"I'm hoping to become an Auror Ma'am."
"A noble pursuit indeed. I hope you will feel free to come to me, as I hope all of you will, if you have any questions or would like any extra help."
"Yes Ma'am, thank you, I will. I really do want to do well."
"The Ministry would be fools to turn you away Harry." Luna, who had been left out of the conversation, but who seemed not the least fazed by it, announced. "My father says you'll make the best Auror in decades."
"Then your father is a smart man Luna." She remembered Luna's name as well, I was beginning to really like Genevieve, and not just because she complemented me. "I hope I will have the chance to meet him one day."
I could just imagine that one; poor Xenophilius, he wouldn't stand a chance.
Genevieve sipped at her tea and pulled little bites off her croissant with long white fingers before popping the pastry into her mouth.
"Would you mind terribly if I asked you a question Professor?" I don't know quite where I got the nerve to ask the question, but out it came. Perhaps it was the way I was channeling the anxiety of her proximity?
"Of course not, I'll try to answer you, if I can."
"Why did you decide to come to teach at Hogwarts?"
A smile and another sip of tea, "Your Headmistress is a very persuasive person."
The answer wasn't coy, or cagey. Or at least I didn't perceive it that way back then, but of course; I could have just been under her spell.
"It was time for me to do something different, and your Headmistress made a compelling argument to me." She didn't seem to want to get into the details of that argument, and I didn't want to seem impertinent to her, so I simply told her that I was glad she had accepted and with a smile, she finished her tea and pastry and with a gentile nod moved on.
I looked at Neville, he looked at me; Luna stared into her juice, as if trying to divine something from it.
"This is going to be interesting." Neville proclaimed. I couldn't help but agree as I watched Genevieve move over past the Ravenclaw table, to the Slytherin table, and sit down beside Draco and Pansy. I couldn't hear their conversation, and I wished just then that I had one of George's extendible ears because I have to admit a sincere curiosity as to what she was saying.
At first she spoke to Pansy, I kept stealing glances over Luna's shoulder, she didn't seem to notice my wandering concentration, but after a while I could see that she was asking Draco some questions as well. He was doing his best to hide behind the long fringes of his hair, as he had done at the start of term. I felt for him, because he seemed uncomfortable, I had not had the opportunity to speak with him about how he felt in the presence of a Veela, and I can admit to some worry about that as well. My quick glances showed his shoulders to have stayed hunched forward a bit, and his own gaze stayed mostly on his coffee cup, rather than meeting Genevieve's eyes. I hoped she didn't think him rude, though I suppose she might be used to men averting their eyes from her. She moved off from them after a few more minutes and I didn't watch where she went after that. Mostly I tried to watch Draco, without looking desperately obvious, which was more of a challenge with Neville than with Luna, bless her. And when he stood I did as well, to speak with him about going away.
To have said that Draco was excited about my idea wouldn't have been accurate, his response, while encouraging, was subdued. I followed him after breakfast to talk, and pulled him into a little corner; one of the many we'd found recently. The look in his eyes when I asked him probably matched the nervousness in my own. I wanted to be confident with my invitation, but again I was stuttering. He looked at his shoes a lot, I felt sick to my stomach, but then, a brush of his fingertips across the back on my wrist, hidden behind our cloaks as we conspired in the corner of the entranceway made my heart leap.
"I can't wait." He whispered to me, just to make certain that no one else heard him.
"I wish it could be sooner." I added.
"Me too." His voice actually sounded as though it was wavering, though to guess at the reason would have been speculation on my part, and I was truly beyond speculation anymore.
"Are you sure this is what you want Draco?" No speculation in my heart, but uncertainty that morning.
"More than anything Harry. I really wish we could just run away now."
That line bothered me, and there was no way I was letting him go with that.
"Meet me down by Hagrid's later, let's go for a fly?"
"Yeah. I need to do a couple of things, maybe an hour?" And he slipped away from me like a shadow before I could ask him what it was that was distressing him.