Here's the next chapter. We're meeting everyone in the present. YAY! I don't own HP stuff. Hope you enjoy! Sorry for errors!
Every year that Alice Longbottom, Hugo and Rose Weasley and James, Albus and Lily Potter had been on the Hogwart's Express they had only seen students. So when they walked into an almost empty compartment they were surprised to see a never before seen teacher. She was quite small with long blond hair in a braid and oval glasses hanging off of her face. Her skin was very fair but she had freckles that dusted her nose and cheeks. The six teens didn't really know what to do. But there were no more compartments that could fit all of them, so they sat; Alice and Albus next to the teacher, Hugo in front of the door on the ground and the other three in other seat.
"Hey Albus." Hugo whispered.
"What?" he whispered back.
"How many sickles would you give me to put a quill up the teacher's nose?" Hugo snorted. Albus let out a yelp of laughter. Alice swiftly put her hand over Albus's mouth and slapped the back of his head. His laughter stopped and was replaced with grumbles.
"Please be quiet. The teacher is trying to sleep…. Oh please stop grumbling." Alice said. Albus reached up and took Alice's hand away from his mouth but kept it in his.
"Only if you tell me why you're in such a mood." Albus said quietly.
"I'm not in a mood." She said trying to break free of Albus's grasp. But he kept his hand tight in hers.
James, Hugo, Lily and Rose sat watching with excitement forgetting about the unknown teacher. These little fights between the Albus and Alice had been going on since the middle of the summer. They did not really know why but it was quiet fun to watch Alice try and fight Albus only to end inches from him, then turning a bright red and telling him he was immature. They would then make fun of the pair by asking if they wanted them to leave the room and give them time to 'talk' with each other. But today James thought it might be fun to see what would happen if he cut in before the end of the fight.
"Lily, Rose, Hugo how about we be go fined Scott and give these two lovebirds some space?" James said coolly. Instantly Alice and Albus stopped their tug of war letting go of each other's hands.
"Shut up JAMES!" Alice and Albus yelled in unison. The mystery teacher jolted from her deep slumber.
"Are we here already?" she asked fixing her glasses, looking around the compartment and out the window. "Lord we're still hours away. What's all the fuse about?" the teens were so shocked that they started to ramble and point at each other until Alice cut in.
"I'm really sorry, this is my fault. I lost my temper and yelled at my friend. My name's Alice Longbottom and I'm really sorry I woke you." she said. But the teacher just stared at Alice in aw. Alice felt very awkward. "Umm... Miss are you okay?" Alice asked tentatively. The teacher shook her head and mumbled something.
"Oh yes. It's alright Alice. I should have been awake anyway. It's just been a while since I've been here. It's still hitting me that I'm coming home." the teacher said only looking at Alice.
"Home?" Alice asked.
"Oh well Hogwarts isn't really my home... but where I lived during the summer as a kid wasn't the best...Oh God! I'm sorry again, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Christine Lewis. I'll be taking Professor Flitwick's position and I'll be head of Hufflepuff House."
"Molly will be happy about that!" James said. Christine looked over at him. She then looked around at the other and stopped at Albus.
"Albus?... Wait! Then that means you most be James and Rose and Hugo! Oh my you've all grown up." Christine said smiling them excitedly. The four of them backed as close to the seat as they could. "Oh I'm sorry." Christine said knowing she had scared them. "I met the four of you and Alice thirteen years ago at a party and I met all of your parents too."
"Really?" Rose asked.
"Yes."
"But how did you know it was us?" Albus asked suspiciously.
"Well Alice said her name. And when I looked around I saw you. You're the spitting image of your father with freckle and without glasses. And then I just had to fell in the rest... With leads me to a question. Who are you?" Christine asked pointing at Lily.
"I'm Lily Potter." Lily said proudly.
"Well it's very nice to meet you Lily. Now can you tell me–"But the compartment door swung up to reveal Neville Longbottom. He looked quite bewildered and annoyed. He looked into the compartment and saw Alice. He gave her a stern look while shegave him a big grin.
"Hi Dad. How are you? You know I've been looking for you everywhere and couldn't find you. But luckily you found me and the others!" Alice said still smiling. Neville looked up from Alice to Christine and stopped. It can't be. He thought. She was still the same after thirteen years of seeing her in person and five of just seeing her in the newspaper.
"Chr– Chris?" he asked bewildered. But she didn't answer. She just sat there in shock with her mouth slightly open. Neville smiled slightly at her face. He took the chance to study her closely. She still had her freckles, though there were more and the old ones were darker. Her hair had gotten larger. Some much longer that he wondered if she had cut it since they had met. She was still a little pixie thing. But now she had glasses. And under those glasses were her eyes, still speckled with green and gray.
The six teens felt terribly awkward. Alice felt the most awkward because she had never seen her father stare at someone like that ever. She decided that it was too silent and awkward and cleared her throat. The Christine and Neville both snapped out of the other's gaze turning away trying to hide their tomato red faces. The teens sat where they were shaking with laughter. Soon it burst into an uproar of squeals and wheezing from them. Neville waited for it to die to speak.
"Well ummm it's nice seeing you again Chris. I'll she you at the professor's meeting." he said trying to sound calm. He turned around and walked out of the compartment leaving Christine still in shock.
Rose, Hugo, James, Albus, Lily and Alice sat looking at each other mouthing questions about what to do with Christine. Rose was about to say something when Christine got up and gathered her things still tomato faced.
"I'm sorry to leave but I just realized that I have to go to the first car." Christine said pointing in the wrong direction of front. Then she swiftly left the compartment still going in the wrong direction of the front, leaving the door open. A moment later she walked back past the compartment with an annoyed look on her face mumbling.
When the six were positive that Christine was out of earshot, conversation started up again in the compartment.
"Well that was very odd." Rose said
"Yeah who knew the two of them know each other." Hugo said. The five looked at Hugo with their typical 'Why don't you ever listen when an adult opens their mouth?'
"Anyway." Rose continued. "Did you see the way they were staring at each other? It was like in all those muggle movies where to people meet for the first time and it's like love at first sight or something."
"No, I don't think it's love." Alice said folding her arms across her chest looking worried.
"Alice your not angry are you?" Rose asked.
"Yeah are you?" Lily asked "You looking kind of red in the cheeks."
"No, no I'm angry. I'm just... a little nervous about Dad." She said looking at the two girls. "My Dad never really went on a date after she dropped me with Dad."
"You know you can't keep calling her that. She is your mother." Albus said looking at her.
"Well, I wouldn't have to her she if she hadn't left me!" Alice said defensively.
"Okay, okay don't get your wand in a knot." he replied putting his hands up in front of his chest. Then Alice sunk back into the seat.
"I'm just worried he'll get his heart broken again." Alice said honestly. Lily being like her grandmother went over to the other side of Alice and put an arm around her shoulder.
"Don't worry." Lily said warmly. "From what I can tell... Christine seems very nice. And she seems to like all of us– particularly your father. So if what we think is true, everything will be fine." Alice let her head fall onto Lily's shoulder.
"I hope you're right." Alice said hopelessly.
And for a while after that the six stayed quiet until James and Albus got on about Quidditch and then the teens went on with their normal pre-school talk about what they would do this year and OWLs and such.
But it was too bad not of them had bothered to be nosey about Christine's whereabouts, because they would have found it quite interesting.
Thanks for reading! Please review! I'll have the next chapter up as soon as possible.
~Amanda