Hello, I'm back again. So we are off with Jenny's first lesson at Hogwarts. Wonder how she gets on?!
Chapter 10
Jenny's first class began on the Monday of the new school term. Luckily it wasn't until second period so she had the whole of the first hour to make sure she had everything in order for her class. Minerva had volunteered to sit in on her classes for the first couple of weeks, and when Minerva couldn't sit in with her both Albus and Filius Flitwick had volunteered. She had the third year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs for her first class, and then the third year Slytherins and Ravenclaws on Tuesday period 4, her fourth year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs Wednesday period 1 and the Gryffindors and Slytherins fourth years period 4 on Wednesday also, finally her fifth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws on Thursday period 3 and the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs on Friday period 5. All in all her timetable was set out quite nicely, and Jenny was looking forward to her classes. So on Monday just before her class was due to begin Jenny heard a knock at the door to her classroom, it was Minerva.
"You ready for your class?" She asked, Jenny shakily smiled and nodded. Minerva took her seat at the back of the classroom, as Jenny headed to the door and opened it to see a sea of smiling third year students.
"In you come guys." She called.
Jenny stood at the front of the classroom looking out at the students. The Gryffindors sat one side and the Hufflepuffs the other, Jenny frowned. She had been warned that the students would probably be sitting with the others from their houses, and that this was a normal occurrence in the school.
"Ok, so my name is Miss Matthews, please don't call me Professor, it makes me sound like in an old woman, no offense Professor McGonagall." She added quickly. Minerva simply smiled. Some of the students chuckled quietly to themselves.
"So my lessons are going to be slightly different to what you are used to." She said noticing the students were getting out their quills and ink.
"First of all I want you to put away all your quills, ink and parchment, you won't be needing any of them." The students looked confused.
"In my class if you want to learn how Muggles live, you will learn like a muggle." Jenny smiled to the students as she walked to her desk and picked up a huge pile of notebooks, before passing them out to the students along with a pen each.
"These are what Muggles use in our schools, for my lessons you are going to be using them."
One student shyly raised her hand. Jenny smiled.
"Yes Miss…?"
"Walker." Minerva supplied.
"Miss Walker?" Jenny asked.
"Were you a muggle Miss Matthews?" She asked. The room looked at their professor. None of them had ever heard of a Jennifer Matthews attending Hogwarts, so they automatically assumed she had come from another magical school. Jenny smiled. She had had a feeling that these sort of questions would be asked in her first class.
"In answer to your question, yes I was a muggle, but I was introduced to magic at a later age." She smiled with a wink to Minerva. The children looked even more confused.
"I will explain in a moment, but I would like to try something else out first. In my muggle school classes I used the first lesson of the year to get to know my students and for them to get to know me. So that is what we will try. You are all allowed to ask me one question each and it can be about anything, within reason." She added on the end, the kids started to smile. One boy in the second row raised his hand.
"Yes Mr…"
"Carter Miss, Adam Carter."
"Mr Carter." Jenny greeted him.
"What did you mean by being introduced to magic at a later age?" Jenny laughed.
"Were you a muggle Mr Carter?" Jenny asked.
"Yes miss."
"How old were you?"
"11 Miss." Jenny smiled with a glint in her eyes.
"Until just under a month ago, I didn't know magic even existed."
The students began to chatter to each other in hushed tones. Another boy raised his hand a few seats down from Adam.
"Does that mean you can't do magic?" He called out.
"Please don't call out in my class," Jenny said quickly, "But yes, I can't do any form of magic. Unless you count pulling a coin out of my nephew's ear at Christmas." She smiled with a laugh. A few of the muggle students got Jenny's joke, but most students looked blank.
"Miss?" Came a shy voice close to Miss Walker. Jenny looked over.
"If you can't do magic, why are you teaching at a magic school?" Jenny looked thoughtful.
"That is a good question. Professor Dumbledore saw something in me that he thought would be useful for the school, who am I to argue with the man?"
Back at the back of the classroom Minerva smiled to herself. 'So much for Jenny needing help with her classes.' She thought. 'The woman has the kids eating out of the palm of her hands.' She decided to herself to show Albus her memory when they were alone later, to show him just how capable Jenny was, and how much like Rachel she reminded her. Minerva suddenly remembered something, Rachel's soul mark. Jenny should have one if she was Rachel. She strained her eyes to the woman's wrist, but saw nothing on the exposed creamy skin. She felt her heart sank, this would put no doubt in the minds of the Marauder's that she wasn't Rachel and they would send her straight back to Cornwall as soon as they could. Minerva suddenly remembered reading something about soul marks when Rachel and Severus had first shown them to the teachers, they were a very powerful source of old magic, and old magic was always hard to understand. She couldn't see any indication of the mark on Jennifer, but since Rachel's disappearance Severus's mark had gotten lighter and more transparent. They had guessed that it was because he wasn't near to the one he loved, but now Minerva's mind began to wonder. What if because of Jenny living for so long as a muggle, and the fact that she couldn't remember her past, and that had been hiding her mark for so many years before that, it may have contributed to its disappearance. Minerva knew that Jenny had her doubts about who she was, and if she could have been Rachel, the fact that she didn't fully believe it, may also have contributed to the marks disappearance. Minerva made a note to herself to keep an eye on Jenny's wrist to see if her being around magic and those who were dear to Rachel, made the soul mark reappear and confirming who Jennifer really was.
"Who's next?" Jenny's questioning interrupted Minerva's train of thought. Hands shot up in the air. Jenny pointed to a taller boy in the back row.
"Samuel James Miss, what's your favourite thing about magic so far?" Jenny smiled.
"An excellent question Mr James, I don't really know at the moment, it's all so…" She trailed off.
"Magical?" One of the girls put in. The classroom laughed.
"Yes I suppose it is." Jenny laughed. Another girl raised her hand. Jenny nodded to her.
"What was your life like as a muggle?" Jenny looked at the girl.
"You're not a muggle are you?" She asked.
"No Miss, I'm a pure-blood."
"Well, life as a muggle isn't really much different to yours I suppose. Whereas you have magic, we have science, you have wands to do everything for you, we have technology and electricity. You use owls to keep in contact with family and friends, we have phones and email, and skype." Jenny pulled her phone from her pocket. "Let's try an experiment shall we?" The students who weren't muggle born looked confused as Jenny pressed a few buttons on the phone and screen lit up. Suddenly the students heard a voice from the phone.
"Hi this is April, can't to the phone right now leave a message and I'll call you back, bye." Jenny smiled at the looks on her students faces.
"How did you do that Miss?" One asked.
"That is how muggles communicated. We can call people and talk to them over the phone. That woman you heard, that's my sister April, she is currently in Cornwall, miles and miles away from here, but I can talk to her with just the press of a button."
Albus and Minerva were sitting in the elder man's office that evening discussing Jenny's first day as a teacher.
"You should have seen the students Albus, they were hanging on her every word. They didn't even care she wasn't witch." The woman summarised.
"Well I'll certainly be looking forward to sitting in on her lesson tomorrow, sounds like she is something else."
"That she is, have you spoken to Severus about her?" Albus looked down, the young man he considered as a son was taking Jenny's return very hard.
"He's torn between his feelings. He still cares deeply for Rachel, and he won't move on until he knows where she is and what happened to her."
"I was afraid you would say that. I do believe he feels partly responsible for what happened. He was the one who knew something was wrong, but he was powerless to stop it."
"He does indeed. Maybe bringing Jennifer here, is what he needs."
"Do you think she is Rachel? I mean I know that the timing and everything else fits and she has Rachel's personality and everything else, but do you think we are placing all our hopes on one woman? What if she isn't Rachel?" Albus moved to hug his old friend.
"We cannot think like that Minnie. Jennifer is a mystery. She is exactly how I imagined Rachel would be, the woman she would become, we must hold onto that, and never forget it." Minerva looked at Albus square in the face, she saw the twists and torment of the older man's life in his eyes.
"I know. I just hope we're doing the right thing Albus."
"So do I Minnie, so do I."
Ta-da. A shorter chapter today, but I believe I got my point across. And to crown it all off a shorter notice from me too. :)
Please read and review as normal, and I'll look forward to reading all your comments. I hope I answered the question of the Soul Marks which have been mentioned in a few reviews. My idea for them is that if a person truly believes in the love and compassion they represent then they will burn bright, but if a person is doubtful of the love and compassion they will dwindle, and since Jenny still has doubts that she is Rachel, that's why she doesn't have the mark, only time will tell if she finds it. And as for the review asking about Ron and Hermione, since I have changed the timing of the children's births, I won't be including them in my story, not sure about the final story though, still working on that.
Beth xx