The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

“Hey, Professor Creevey!” Al cried in greeting as we entered. “What’re we doing today?”

“That, Albus, will wait until everyone is present and the bell has rung.” the Professor, and acquaintance from Mum, Dad, Uncle Harry, and Aunt Ginny’s school days, grinned. He’d lost his brother (Colin, who was Dennis’ elder by 2 years) during the Battle of Hogwarts. Sometimes, he’d mention how his brother had snuck out, even though he was underage, and had died fighting - and also how those were signs of not only a good and true Gryffindor, but of a good man. I agreed.

“Aw!” Al groaned playfully. Professor Creevey was Al’s favourite teacher, and he just grinned at Al’s fake distress.

“Professor,” I said, before Al could think of something else to say, “this is Andrea DuPré, from Beauxbatons. She’ll be observing today, if that’s perfectly all right with you?”

“Welcome to my class, Miss DuPré,” he smiled and did a little bow, “I am Professor Dennis Creevey. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” he held out his hand and they shook.

“Eet is a pleasure to meet you, as well,” Andy smiled, and then asked about the curriculum. That’s when I detoured to my seat and conjured a chair next to me, for Andy. then, just in case, I conjured of a few extras. Since we’d left the boys with Scorpius, I didn’t know whether they were coming with him or not, so I figured that being prepared was the best bet. After that, I took my seat and patiently waited for Andy to finish her discussion with Professor Creevey.

A bit later, just after Andy had gotten done talking to the professor and had come to sit by me, Scorpius walked in. As I had guessed, he had Demitri and Joe in tow.

“Ah! More visitors!” Professor Creevey beamed. “Come in, come in! I hope you don’t mind all sitting around Rose, Scorpius, and Albus, as they’re the ones you seem to already know and I don’t have much space. For a N.E.W.T. class, it’s awfully crowed in here.”

He ushered them to the chairs I’d conjured, and they obeyed, and I heard Demitri asking the same questions as Andy had. I grinned to myself.

“It’s probably from that dark wizard three years ago,” I said, pausing my browsing through one of the texts. “They’re all still slightly shaken. He wasn’t nearly the caliber as Voldemort was, but he still killed the muggleborns. My dad was on edge for weeks, making sure there was an auror at our house whenever he couldn’t be.”

“Yes, yes,” Professor Creevey nodded agreeably as he wrote a few notes on the board, after he’d flinched slightly when I’d said ‘Voldemort’. “Yes, I had thought as much, too.”

“Everyone wants to learn more,” a new voice said, and a Ravenclaw girl sat her books on her front row desk. “Everyone wants to be prepared in case the next one is like Voldemort was.”

We all nodded, Professor Creevey flinching slightly at her use of the name, and then our bell rang to signal that we had five minutes left to get to class.

“Mr. Potter,” Professor Creevey turned around to look at us grinning, “you’ll get to know what we’re doing soon enough, now.”

“Oh, hardy har har,” Al grumbled, provoking a giggle from Andy, an eye-roll from the Ravenclaw, and amused grins from the rest of us. Andy flushed for being the only one to laugh.

“Professor?” a voice chirped from the doorway.

“Yes, Miss Potter?”

“If it’s possible, I’m supposed to get Rose out of class for a few minutes,” Lily grinned, not at all abashed to be pulling me out of my class.

“Go, go. Class hasn’t even begun yet. It’s perfectly fine.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can be, Professor,” I said like the dutiful student I am, following my cousin from the classroom. Outside, I turned Lily around to face me. “Now, why am I being dragged out of my Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. level class?”

“Sorry,” she grinned sheepishly. “Professor Malin wanted an older student to do a demonstration for my class, and I kind of volunteered you for it.”

“Of course,” I sighed, but I was grinning inwardly. I followed the chattering Lily to Professor Malin’s classroom, occasionally chipping in an, “uh-huh”, “sure” or “yeah” to appease her.

“--and then, Tommy Jones told her--”

“Lily, hush,” I chuckled, indicating the nearest door. “Your classroom is right here, and we don’t have enough time for another one of your stories. It’ll just have to wait for later.”

“Yeah,” she looked down sheepishly, “sorry.”

I laughed slightly, then said, “Don’t worry about it, Lils. Al and Scorpius can tell me what I’ve missed if class has already started. Everything works out in the end, y’know.”

Lily grinned and opened the classroom door, chirping, “We’re here, Professor!” and she was bright and bubbly once more.

The demonstration was easy, and I was back to my class just as everyone was settling into their seats. Professor Creevey liked to start his N.E.W.T. class about ten minutes later, claiming that although there was still much about Defense to learn, he wasn’t even hoping to get through it all and that what we didn’t learn in his class we’d learn from our friends and our families.

“What was that about?” Scorpius muttered under his breath as Professor Creevey began.

“Charms demonstration,” I muttered back.

He nodded understandingly, and we turned to where Professor Creevey was beginning a detailed lecture on Inferi, used a lot by Voldemort while he was in power. I’d heard stories about them before and, being the daughter of my workaholic mother, I knew quite a bit about them. Even with my prior knowledge, on any subject, I always found Professor Creevey’s lectures quite informative. I knew Uncle Harry’s story about the Horcrux at the lake in the cave, the night Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore died, and the mere notion of the Inferius creeped me out. I listened anyway.