Disclaimer: Nothing is mine...
Previously:
"Yes," Skye grumbled, pulling the ends of his hair impatiently.
"Fine, fine," Draco smirked. "Just making sure."
And his lips once again covered Skye's own.
Skye rushed into the Great Hall and slid down into one of the spare seats next to Hermione. "Cutting it a bit close don't you think?" Hermione muttered.
"Yeah," Skye paused, and then smirked. "We got a bit distracted."
"A bit?" Hermione asked, disbelieving.
"Fine then," Skye relented. "Maybe a little more than a bit."
"A little more than a bit of what?"
Skye looked up to see her twin standing behind her. He reached down and took a piece of Skye's auburn hair and casually twirled it around his finger.
"You gonna answer or what?" Harry asked after a pregnant pause, giving Skye's hair a little tug.
"A little bit rushed," Skye finally lied flawlessly. "I got held up in the carriages."
"Aw, too bad," Harry grinned, slipping into the seat next to his twin.
"Mmmm," Skye agreed, leaning back against Harry. "I'm hungry too."
"Don't stress," Hermione cut in. "The sorting will be over soon."
"That's what you say every year!" Skye groaned. "It never is."
Hermione laughed. "It's not that bad. At least Dumbledore saves his speech until after the feast."
"Yeah, thank god for that," Harry nodded his head. "I don't think anybody could survive if we had to listen to a speech and watch the boring old sorting."
"Hey!" An indignant voice came from across the table. "That's my sister's sorting your bagging."
Skye laughed. "Oh, Dan," she sighed. "We didn't forget about Tara! Just the rest of the kids we don't really care about."
"You really should you know," Hermione lectured. "It's important to become familiar with the new faces in the school."
"Yeah, but only when you're a prefect," Skye scoffed.
"No, not only when you're a prefect," Hermione said. "It's just as important for you to recognise the first years as it is for me."
"Sure, sure," Skye said. "I don't really care."
Hermione sniffed and turned her back on Skye; starting up a conversation with Lavender Brown, another Gryffindor sixth year, about her summer.
Sighing, Skye turned back to Daniel. "Was she nervous?" she asked.
"Are you kidding me?" Dan smirked at Skye. "She was shitting herself."
"Language, little brother," Teddy said grinning, taking a seat with Orion. "What would Dad say?"
"Do you want me to wash your mouth out?" Dan mimicked, in a perfect imitation of Remus. "Besides, who made you boss of me?"
"Mum," Teddy shot back.
"Oh, shattered," Jason snickered.
"Shut it," Dan muttered, punching Jase in the shoulder.
"Sides," Ri butted in. "Have you seen who is sitting at the teacher's table?"
"New Defence Professor?" Skye guessed.
Each year, something happened within the school with ultimately resulted in the Defence Professor retiring, being sacked or being unable to continue teaching. Skye's first teacher was Professor Quirrell. e He
He didn't last long. Between his constant stuttering and the cruelty of teenage nature, Quirrell resigned after a single horrific year. No student in the entire school, apart from Hermione of course, did any Defence work. Fred and George Weasley, Ron's older brothers, would practise their new pranks on their poor, unsuspecting teacher until Quirrell was absolutely terrified of the red-headed twins. Needless to say, he wasn't going to be coming back any time soon.
Second year, Professor Lockhart hit the scene. Gilderoy had won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award seven times, as he constantly reminded his class. He had written several award winning books and, at first, appeared to be a competent teacher with adequate defence achievements. However, after his first lesson (he released Cornish Pixies in the classroom and was unable to round them up again) it was obvious that Lockhart too was a complete flop. Between his questionnaires (about himself, of course) and his inability to perform the simplest defence spells, Skye thought herself lucky to survive her Defence lessons. He was sacked in disgrace at the end of the year after it came out that he had not done what he said he had, instead he was only taking credit for the hard work of others.
Third year was perhaps the most interesting of years. Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster, was unable to successfully find a teacher that was willing to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. There were many rumours circulating the school during that year, the most believable being that Quirrell had spread stories about his terrifying ordeal. So, instead of a regular teacher, the Ministry of Magic provided a different auror (dark wizard catcher) each week. Some were, of course, better than others and one week, much to Skye's horror, her own father taught at the school.
Fourth year an ex-auror and a friend of Dumbledore's took the post for a year, only to help out Dumbledore. Alastor Moody, more commonly know as Mad-Eye Moody due to his magical eye, was quite a different sort of character. He taught about the three Unforgivable curses and demonstrated them all on a jar of spiders. Moody took to wandering the corridors, shooting random hexes and barking "Constant Vigilance" at the unsuspecting, and newly hexed, students. Needless to say, Skye became exceptionally good a shield charms that year, her quick reflexes helping her out immensely.
Skye's sixth year Defence teacher was another completely idiotic teacher. Professor Dolores Umbridge worked for Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, and was placed at Hogwarts in order to 'keep an eye' on Dumbledore. Fudge had some strange idea that Dumbledore was training the students and forming an army, all to overthrow the Minister. Once again, Skye learnt little from Umbridge, or Umbitch as the students took to calling her. Some, Skye and Harry included, to her face. She gave out the worst detentions, and even more regularly then the hated Potions Master, Snape. Each of Umbridge's defence classes consisted of reading the textbook. Not once did the students practise any actual spells. The Weasley twins took great pleasure in creating chaos in both their own Defence classes and the Defence classes of the rest of the school. By the end of the year, Umbridge retired, unable to take any more.
"Not just any Defence teacher," Ri said quietly, drawing Skye out of her memories. "Take a look."
Curiously, Skye turned to the teacher's table. "No way," she breathed.
"Fuck," Teddy muttered. "We're screwed."
Dan was unable to speak as his jaw had dropped. In any other circumstance, Skye would have found this hilarious, but not today. Right there, in the middle of the teacher's table, Remus Lupin was sitting proudly wearing a beaming face.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Teddy continued to mutter continuously, despite his earlier protests about his brother's language.
Ri looked eyes with Skye. "You know how much work we're going to have to do?" He asked.
Numbly, Skye nodded.
"It's not like we can't pay attention in class either," Harry realised. "Our mother's have probably asked him to keep an eye on us all."
"Shit," Ri muttered.
"How could he do this to us?" Daniel groaned. "It's so unfair."
"We're all completely and totally screwed. We're actually going to have to work," Jason said in disgust. "No more rule breaking…"
"Or class pranks," Dan continued.
"Or fun," Jono interrupted, taking a seat with his family. "This sucks majorly."
"Tell me about it," Skye complained. "Don't our parents have any sense of personal space? I mean, we escape from them here at school so they follow us!"
The group let their heads fall to the table in horror.
"Hey," Iris said quietly, coming up behind Skye. "You seen who's at the table?"
Mutely, Skye nodded. "He's actually teaching then?" Teddy asked.
Iris sighed and nodded. "This is going to blow," she said. "Later guys."
"Later Iris," Harry acknowledged his sister.
Watching Iris walk off with her friends, Skye was filled with a sense of dread. "How come I get the feeling I'm going to be spending a lot more time in detention?" she asked rhetorically.
"Fuck-en hell," Rhia said, collapsing next to Skye before anyone could reply. "What the hell is Remus doing at the teacher's table?"
"Pretty obvious ain't it?" Ri grinned at his sister. "Gonna be teaching us."
"You're kidding!" Rhia exclaimed. "That sucks."
"Tell me about it," Dan grumbled. "At least he's not your father."
"He's as good as," Rhia shot back. "You think our parents didn't leave him with instructions to watch us closely? They know how much trouble we get in." She sighed heavily. "Guess we're just going to have to be more careful."
"Yeah," Skye agreed. "We've got the cloak and map though."
"Awesome," Rhia said grinning. "We're going to get a lot of use out of that!"
The Marauder's Map was created by Sirius, James and Remus while they were in school. It depicted an extremely detailed map of the school with moving dots, labelling each person. That, and James' invisibility cloak, had been passed onto the teens when they started at Hogwarts.
At that moment, Catherine, Michaela and Michael, Rhia's twelve year old brother, came up to the group. "Guys!" Mickey exclaimed. "Guess who's teaching?!?"
"Remus," Harry answered dully. "We know."
"Aren't you excited?" Cath asked, frowning a little.
"Of course we are!" Skye faked the enthusiasm in her voice. "We're just a little depressed about something else."
"Oh," Mickey inspected her sister closely. "Like what?"
"Oh, you know," Teddy said, smiling fakely. "NEWTS and all that."
"Only you and Orion are in seventh though?" Michael looked confused.
"Oh, for goodness Mike," Ri snapped. "Go find you friends and leave us alone."
Hurt, Michael, Michaela and Catherine left the group. "That was pretty harsh," Skye said, looking over at her friend.
"Yeah, well, I'm pissed off," Ri defended weakly. "I'm not going to get away with anything! And he'll expect more from all of us, you know that."
Before Skye could answer, the Great Hall doors flew open and McGonagall walked in, followed by the large number of scared looking first years. Tara was one of the firsties looking around nervously. When she spotted her large family group she smiled timidly. Skye sent Tara what she hoped was a reassuring smile of her own.
McGonagall made her normal speech to the first-years, reminding them that when their name was called they were to put on the Sorting Hat. After the Hat had sung its new song, the long list of names began.
Skye waited anxiously for McGonagall to reach the L's. It seemed like an eternity to Skye, so she could only imagine what already-nervous Tara was feeling.
Finally, McGonagall called, "Lupin, Tara."
Tara made her way up to the stool on which the Sorting Hat sat. She stumbled up the stairs and was saved from falling flat on her face by McGonagall.
Harry snorted. "Typically Tara," he whispered in Skye's ear.
Tara took after her mother in more ways than just being a Metamorphmagus. Out of the five Lupin children only Tara had inherited her mother's clumsiness and her inability to walk over a flat surface without tripping. Blushing, Tara took the hat and placed it on her head.
There was a silence as the Hat debated which house to place Tara into. The pause was quite long, and the Potter, Lupin and Black teens were starting to get nervous as well. Harry tightened his grip around Skye's waist, as Skye held her breath.
Eventually, the tip of the hat ripped open and announced, "Gryffindor!"
A tremendous applause came from the Gryffindor table, the cheering led by older brother Teddy. Beaming, Tara made her way across to the Gryffindor table, managing to not trip on the way.
Laughing, Teddy swung his little sister around and hugged her tightly, ignoring the fact that the whole hall was watching them.
"Congrats," he whispered to Tara, as they finally sat down.
Tara just grinned happily and settled back to watch the rest of the sorting.
A/N And there's Chapter 5! Just a friendly reminder to please drop me a review to tell me what you think! Merci...