A/N; Enjoy, please review and I'll update soon. Short chapter, busy weekend. Longer one next.

Thank you to all my gorgeous, lovely, inspirational reviewers. I'll try and have another little HP oneshot for you by the end of the week.

Where the Blue of the Night

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."

- Terry Pratchett

Chapter Thirty Seven

November 9th

"I don't think you should be here," the substitute teacher said. Molly watched her face; she looked scared. She wondered if she should be scared too. But it was only Mrs Moore who had come in, who was their real teacher anyway. There was no reason to be scared of her.

"Where else should I be?" Mrs Moore said. "This is my classroom. These are my pupils. They need me..."

"Robert," the substitute said, looking at the boy who was monitor for the day. His name was the first on the register, so he was always chosen whenever Mrs Moore wasn't their teacher. It made Molly mad, because she was second on the register, which meant it was never her. "Can you go fetch the principal? I think he will want to speak to Mrs Moore."

"No, Robbie, he won't. Sit back down." Mrs Moore walked up behind him and suddenly Molly felt scared. Mrs Moore looked funny. Her hair didn't look neat like it usually did.

She heard Jemima make a low noise, a bit like she was about to cry. Jemima wasn't tough; she cried when you pulled her pigtails even very gently, which Marissa and Jude did loads, and sometimes not too gently either.

Robert had sat back down, and was looking from one adult to the other, unsure who he was meant to listen to. For the first time ever, Molly was glad she was second on the roll call.

"Mrs Moore. I'm Sally O'Hare. I don't think we've met before, but the children have told me what a wonderful teacher you are. Why don't we let them play outside for ten minutes or so, and you can fill me in with some details about the class?" Ms O'Hare's voice sounded wobbly, and she was standing a little too straight. Molly watched what Mrs Moore was doing; she was tapping on the back of Robert's chair, her fingernails hitting it hard. Usually, Molly knew, there would have been a great deal of excitement from everyone at the idea of playing outside, but no one moved. It seemed everyone was a little scared.

"Ms O'Hare, you don't need to be here. I will teach the children their lesson, which will be much better than them playing out. I have things I need to do with them, and it would be better if you weren't here," Mrs Moore said.

Robert started to cry, and Molly saw that Mrs Moore's nails were now tapping the back of his neck. She didn't know if it was enough to hurt him, but she could see he was scared. She looked at Ross who usually picked on Robert and saw that he looked worried too. It made her feel a bit better; Ross might not tease Robert for crying if he was frightened too.

"Don't be such a baby," Mrs Moore said, moving her hand away.

The door into the room opened slightly, and Molly saw the principal through the glass. Quicker than she had ever seen her move before, Mrs Moore was there, and the principal went away. There was a glint of something in Mrs Moore's hand before it disappeared and Molly stared at it. It reminded her of her daddy's gun. He'd taken it out to polish it a couple of times when he thought she wasn't around. Her daddy was a police officer. She wondered if he knew that Mrs Moore was here.

"Ms O'Hare, I think you should go."

All of a sudden Molly felt like jelly. She didn't want the substitute teacher to go. She didn't know her, and didn't like the way she kept pushing her glasses up her nose, which was a bit long like a witch's, but she didn't want her to leave them. Mrs Moore seemed weird today, and the chair tapping had made Molly worried.

Ms O'Hare shook her head. "No, Mrs Moore, I think I'll stay. I don't mind if you do the teaching and I'll be your assistant for the day. I lose out on pay if I go, you see." The smile that Ms O'Hare made seemed odd too. Molly pressed her lips together then looked at her friend Erin who sat next to her. Erin looked white, a bit like she had put her brother's make up on again.

Molly pulled her long hair out of her ribbon and let it drop across her face. "Are you okay?" she whispered very quietly to Erin. It had been Erin's birthday party at the weekend, so now they were both eight, which Molly figured would make them even better friends.

Erin shook her head. "This is weird," she said. Then Erin put her hand up.

"Yes, Erin?" Mrs Moore said, ignoring Ms O'Hare.

"Please may I go to the bathroom?" Erin said.

Molly noticed that Mrs Moore looked twitchy. It was a word she'd heard her daddy use when they'd had workmen doing improvements on the house, and he hadn't liked one of the men. She knew what he meant now. Mrs Moore's eyes kept flicking up to the door and the windows.

"I'm sorry, Erin, but you'll have to wait until recess. You should have gone before school started," Mrs Moore said. She'd picked up a pen now, and was starting to write on the board.

Erin put her hand up again. "Mrs Moore, I know it's not polite to say, but I think I have a poorly tummy."

Molly say Erin bite her lips together. She was scared, Molly could tell; scared that she might not make it to the bathroom in time and scared that Mrs Moore would shout. She sent her friend a sympathetic look.

"Erin James," Mrs Moore shook her head. "Then why have you come into school today? You'll be passing a bug around to everyone in this room. Do your parents have no shame?"

Molly saw Erin's eyes begin to fill up with tears.

"Children. You all know that we should come to school every day; but if we are unwell it is not fair on our friends to share our germs. Erin: you must go and sit in the cloakroom. I will come see you in five minutes and set you some work. You are not to mix with everyone else," Mrs Moore said. Molly noticed that she sounded more angry than ever before.

Erin nodded and stood up, looking like she was shaking. Molly wondered if she should ask to follow her, check she was okay, but she didn't dare ask. Mrs Moore was still glaring at the chair where Erin had been sitting.

"Mrs Moore," Ms O'Hare said. "Don't you think we should maybe call Erin's mom and have her come pick Erin up?"

"I think, Ms O'Hare, that you should remember who is the teacher here, and then mind your own business. These are my children, and I shall look after them as best fit," Mrs Moore said, her voice scary. Molly looked around the room. Not one of her classmates was messing about. They were all sat perfectly still, looking straight ahead at the board.

"Shall I go check on Erin then, Mrs Moore?" Ms O'Hare said. "And let you get started with the work?"

"No," Mrs Moore said. "Erin will be fine."

"I think I should go see..."

"I said no."

Ms O'Hare stood anyway.

"Sit back down!"

Molly saw two of the girls in her class begin to cry.

Then she saw the gun for real this time, as Mrs Moore pulled it out of her pocket and pointed it at Ms O'Hare. "Look what you've made me do. It's upsetting the children."

Ms O'Hare turned the colour of snow. "I'm sorry, Mrs Moore. I'll sit down." Molly realised that she was crying.

She put her hand up, sitting up straight like her teacher had told her many times.

"Yes, Molly?" The gun was still out.

"Would you like me to give out the reading books, Mrs Moore?" Molly said. Her heart was thudding so hard in her chest she felt like she was going to fall over.

Mrs Moore smiled, but it didn't really look like Mrs Moore. "Yes please, Molly. That would be a big help." Molly stood, finding her legs surprisingly still. She walked over to where the reading books were kept, next to the large window, and looked out, wondering if her daddy was out there somewhere. She knew Mrs Moore was doing something bad. Grown-ups didn't cry for no reason.

But no one was out there. No one that she could see.

Molly began to hand out the books, trying to smile at each of her classmates. She could tell that Mrs Moore was smiling at her; a strange sort of smile, one that made Molly feel uncomfortable. "Mrs Moore," she said, looking at the teacher and trying to seem unafraid. "Shall I give Erin her book?" She just wanted to check her friend was okay. Then maybe see if they could sneak out of the window in the small room.

"Yes, Molly. But I shall only give you a few seconds before you come back in here. I don't want you wasting time," she said, then smiled broadly. Molly could see her teeth. "I know you're a good girl. You hurry now."

She shot out of the door that led to the small room used for a few kids who found reading or math hard, and found Erin with her head on the desk. The room did not smell good. "Erin, here's your reader. You need to get out of here." Molly looked up at the window that was slightly open. "Climb out once I've gone and find my dad."

"You think she's going to do something bad?" Erin said.

Molly nodded and backed out, making sure to smile at Mrs Moore as soon as she saw her. She seemed to be picking on the kids who were upset, that seemed scared.

Molly looked at Jamie Hull, who looked almost like he normally did. He looked back, and she felt a little less alone.

"You have ten minutes reading time, like usual. After that, you will get out your reading logs and write down five things that happened in what you have read, like usual. Do we all understand?" Mrs Moore said, looking round the room.

Molly opened her book and began to read. It was a story she'd read before, What Katy Did, and she knew what was going to happen next, so instead of reading she watched the window that was next to the room where Erin was and waited to see some sign of her climb out.

She heard a slight bang and felt the breath that she had been holding slip out. Mrs Moore hadn't noticed anything.

Molly was half way through the fourth thing that had happened when she started to hear cars pull onto the playground. Mrs Moore had noticed too; she began to pull down the blinds so the children couldn't see out. She hadn't gone to check on Erin yet, and Molly figured that she hadn't considered the possibility that Erin could escape.

"It's dark in here," Ms O'Hare said, her voice sounding slightly braver. "Will the children be able to do their work?"

"The good ones will be," Mrs Moore said. "The ones who can't, I'm not interested in anyhow."

The phone in the corner of the room began to ring. Molly knew that every classroom had one, in case of emergencies, such as someone was having a bad asthma attack, or a teacher needed to be contacted. The school was big; it could take ages to walk to the principal's office, and after there had been a flood in a classroom last year, every classroom had had a phone put there. Once, Jane Smythe's mom had been called because Jane was being naughty. The teacher had done it in front of everyone, and no one had been naughty for ages after that.

Mrs Moore picked up the phone, then put it down again very quickly.

It rang again.

This time she said something. "No."

It rang again.

"Mr Hotchner," she said. "Everyone is fine. I don't need to speak to you, nor do the children. Nor does Ms O'Hare."

Molly crushed her lips together hard. She guessed what was happening. She just hoped her daddy was out there, because she knew that he would save her.