Mr. Malfoy, Are You Sure?

My mission right now was to be extra nice to Rafe. We were walking to Transfiguration with our arms linked. I was attempting to flirt with him, though I'm not sure how good I am with that kind of thing. He seemed to be responding.

I was surprised to see Professor McGonnogal at the front of the classroom when I entered. She was the Headmaster, so she shouldn't be teaching, right? Regardless of my befuddlement I found a seat next to Rafe. I looked around for Lily, too remembering that she was supposed to be in this class with me. She was just walking in when I spotted her. She took the seat in front of me.

"If you would all take your seats and get quiet, please," McGonnogal asked. "I would like to introduce to you all your new Transfiguration professor. She could not be here until now because we hired her late in the season. Anyways, here she is. Please welcome Professor Horwitz."

To my utmost surprise, a tall, skinny brunette woman, whose face rather resembled that of a pug, walked into the room wearing . . . robes? If you could call them that. The outer cloak that went down to the floor was mostly transparent and sparkling. The robes she wore under that showed a lot of cleavage and stopped a good five inches above the knee. She looked like someone off the cover of Witch Weekly's most eligible bachelorette.

She smiled at everyone with bleached teeth and thanked McGonnogal. I looked around to see most all of the guys in the room practically drooling over the woman. However, to my astonishment, when I glanced at Rafe, I saw that he was frowning at our new professor with what appeared to be disgust? I didn't know he had it in him.

"Hello, everyone. Since this is my first year here at Hogwarts, I'll go over a few ground rules about how I'll be teaching this class. It's a little out of the ordinary. See, I believe in breaking down the wall between professor and student so that we all feel a little more comfortable together, and nobody is intimidated that way. We'll start this out by letting you know that my name is Pansy. I'm a former Slytherin student here at Hogwarts, and I've recently been divorced from Arnold Horwitz, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry. Shall we go around the class, and have everyone share their names?" she suggested.

My jaw almost dropped open. This woman was practically asking for the blokes in this class to undress her with their eyes! She wanted to break down the law between student and professor, so she could what? Have sex with them? She wanted to let everyone know she was divorced, why? This was soon becoming my least favorite class.

Everyone went around the room, some of the guys even asking questions such as "How old are you?" or "Are you a model?" I even heard one of the more daring guys in the class ask her "Did it hurt? You know, when you fell down from heaven?"

When it came my turn to introduce myself, I just said "Sid," while staring down at my desk. A scrap piece of parchment flew around my head once before landing in front of me. I unfolded it from it's butterfly shape so that it lied flat. Rafe had written me a note that scrolled back and forth across the parchment like a marquee.

It said Lady gives me the creeps. What kind of professor goes after her students like that? And what kind of students would believe that rubbish and go after her?

I was frozen in my seat. What kind of student did do that. A slut, is what he was implying. Is that what I would be if I pursued Mr. Malfoy? And if Mr. Malfoy was actually showing any interest in me (which I was pretty certain he was not . . . romantically, at least), then would that make him some sort of pedophile?

Either way it seemed like a lose-lose situation. And I was repulsed by the idea of this Ms. Horwitz corrupting any of my classmates.

I dipped my quill in some ink and scribbled a hasty reply back to Rafe as subtly as I could. All I said was ditto. I felt like a hypocrite.

We remained quiet for the rest of class, afraid of what she would do if we were caught. Actually, I was pretty sure she would just flirt and wink at Rafe if he misbehaved, but she didn't' seem to like the girls in our class much. She either ignored them or sent them "secretive" dirty looks, that actually everybody noticed.

Most of the guys didn't care though. They were too busy staring at her assets to notice that she had the face of a dog. It was infuriating, actually.

Just then, we all heard voices outside the door. One of them was Professor McGonnogal's, and the other was distinctly male . . . and unnervingly familiar. They were yelling at one another, but they were too muffled to make out.

Next thing we knew, the door burst open, and there stood an infuriated-looking Mr. Malfoy. Behind him was a red-faced indignantly apologetic McGonnogal. She strode off in a huff. Mr. Malfoy stood there fuming, but he was glaring at . . . Ms. Horwitz?

"Parkinson," he spat in a tone that scared me more than I would have thought. I wondered why he called her that and why he looked so angry.

Our Transfiguration teacher fluffed her hair and got the most obnoxious look on her face. "Surprise, Drakie-poo!"

The class burst into laughter, and I was disgusted. What the bloody hell kind of nickname was that. Mr. Malfoy was livid. "See me in the hall immediately," he demanded. There was no room for argument. The door slammed behind them, and immediately a student went up to the door. He pull out an extendable ear and threaded it under the door. Another student came up to peek through the keyhole. Soon everyone was gathered around trying to listen.

The guy who had the opposite end of the extendable ear plugged into his real ear was repeating everything that was being said in a whisper. Something about Mr. Malfoy wondering why the hell Pansy had gotten a teaching job here and what she hoped to accomplish by it. I nearly leaped for joy. He despised her. He said he wanted her gone and that nothing she said would alter his feelings for her.

I had a revelation. This girl must have known him before. Well, I mean, that was obviously the case. It seemed as though they used to date or something, though. Maybe it ended badly, and she was . . . stalking him? Ew. All I could know for sure was that our new Transfiguration teacher was in love with Mr. Malfoy and he didn't return the attraction.

We heard them exchange goodbyes and scurried back to our seats. Soon after, Ms. Horwitz walked in looking flushed, but pleased nonetheless. I almost laughed at her. Did she not understand rejection?

She misinterpreted the blank looks on our faces. "Oh, Professor Malfoy and I go way back. We went to school together here, and we've been getting together since then. Oops," she pretended to look abashed.

"I guess I don't need to get you guys up-to-date on the relationships of your faculty, but oh well. Moving on. I think we were learning about transfiguring . . . "

"Well, that is the class you're supposed to be teaching," Rafe interrupted sly, with a snicker. I covered my mouth to keep from laughing.

She smiled sweetly at Rafe. "Well aren't you the jokester."

Then she looked at me. "And what are you laughing at Miss . . ." she checked her seating chart. "Grayce, is it?"

I cocked my head at her. "I thought you wanted to break down the last-name barrier between teacher and student, Pansy," I reminded her oh-so thoughtfully.

"I can call you whatever the bloody hell I want," she snapped. My eyes popped out of my head and my jaw dropped to the floor. Did the teacher really just say that to me?

I stood up quickly, my whole body tense, and anger overwhelming my common sense. I was not myself right now.

"Who do you think you are?" I shouted at her. "What makes you think you can come in here and act like you own the place. You're about five years older than the rest of us and you look like you've just walked in after standing at the corner all night! Do you not understand that professors are supposed to try and earn respect from their students? What do you think you're going to accomplish acting like that?"

My rant was condescending and patronizing. I'd had enough of her, and I just blew it. The words that kept repeating themselves in my head weren't helping either. Ms. Horwitz had just told us she'd gone to school with Mr. Malfoy, and that triggered a memory from last night. It was when Mr. Malfoy was taking me on a tour of the grounds. He'd said something about his love life from the time he was at Hogwarts.

"The guys here are used to the type of girls that throw themselves at men. You're not like that, and the males - well, they will like that. Trust me, I would know. When I was in school, I probably got around more than I should have."

He probably got around more than he should've. I wondered if Pansy had been one of those girls he'd gotten around with. It sure seemed like it from the way she acted, at least.

She didn't' say anything to me, surprisingly. She ripped out a piece of parchment and began scribbling furiously on it with a quill. She sealed it with a spell then dropped it on the floor.

"Give that note to the headmaster and get out of my classroom. Don't come back unless you have permission from either her of the Head of your House. And don't speak to me like that again, or I can assure you that you will be expelled, brat," she was doing so well, until that last childish insult. I was almost impressed by how she handled it. Then I rolled my eyes, used the summoning spell (Accio) to grab the note, and I was on my way with a wiggle of my fingers. Rafe was just shaking his head at me with a smile.

Pansy really was dumber than she looked. She basically just gave me an extra reason to see Mr. Malfoy. After I gave the note to McGonnogal, and explained everything - she seemed like a fair lady, after all - I would have to go see him to ask for a note to get me back into Pansy's class. It's not like I necessarily wanted to get back in, but oh well. Maybe I could at least ask Mr. Malfoy what ever happened between those two.

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