Call Me Professor

Draco watched you walk toward him, he was stunned to see you standing there, “So, it was you….” he whispered more to himself, than to anyone. “I did see you in Diagon Alley…”

You smirked, “how observant of you.” you were stopped a few feet from Draco, you were both eyeing each other. “I have to ask, what are you doing in my classroom?” your eyebrow was raised, and you folded your arms across your chest.

“I had come to see if I was imagining whether or not it was you…. It appears I wasn’t.” Draco continued to hold your gaze. “Did you find what you were looking for, on your trip?” he couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“No need to sound so bitter, and yes. I did.” you replied calmly. The day you told Draco that you would be leaving was difficult, and you knew that your friendship would suffer.

Draco scoffed, how could he not help but sound bitter, “you left me the moment we were alright again, you expect me to be alright with that?”

Shadow was snarling at your side, ready to pounce on Draco the moment he pulled his wand.

You smiled, “We both know I would not have been alright if I just stayed.” your voice continued to be calm. You let your hand drop down by your side, and rested it on Shadow’s head, in order to calm him.

Draco was at a loss for words, of course, you were right. After the battle at Hogwarts and Fred Weasley’s death, he couldn’t have expected you to be okay with just living at home, and eventually getting over it. But that didn’t stop him from hoping it would work that way.

“So, Potions Master, eh?” you asked, giving him a sheepish grin, and nudging him in the ribs slightly.

Draco was taken a by surprise, just a little bit, but the sudden change in your tone, you seemed playful and carefree. Maybe going away had done some good after all. “Yeah…” he shrugged, “I’m also Head of House for Slytherin.”

You chuckled, “busy boy.” a grin had broken out on your face, nearly mirroring Draco’s. The two of you were only twenty, but as it appeared, you acted like you were sixteen again. You glanced down at your watch, it was nearly eleven. “Ah, best be going to bed. Don’t want to be late for start of term classes…” you sighed, drawing Draco’s attention to the time.

He nodded, a well practiced smirk on his face, he nodded to you as he passed, “Goodnight… Professor.” he closed the door behind him.

***

The first class of the day filed into your classroom. They were murmuring amongst themselves quietly, and looking around anxiously for you to appear.

You burst through the door leading to your office, and closed it roughly behind you. A quick jab with your wand, and the curtains had drawn themselves close, leaving only a pale purple tinge to be cast around the room.

As soon as you appeared, the class had silenced themselves. They watched you draw the curtains, and then step towards the black board. A dog sat obediently beside the desk at the front of the room, staring at all the students, which seemed to unnerve a few of them.

You wrote your name on the black board, and then turned to the class. “I will be teaching you how to defend yourselves against the dark arts.” your dark eyes glided over every face in the room. “I do not expect perfection, but I do expect obedience, discipline, and a desire to learn.” You walked slowly amongst the rows of students, looking each one in the eyes as you passed.

“Like you could teach us anything.” a boy from the back of the class shouted, to which the other boy beside him snickered.

You fought down the urge to smash the boys face in. Instead you stopped in front of him, and glared down at him. “I am more than capable of teaching you more than just defensive spells.” your words were dipped in venom. The boy beside him seemed to squirm uncomfortably, while the boy you were glaring at, snorted.

“I bet you haven’t even been in a real duel.” he scoffed at you.

You rose your eyebrow, and rolled up your sleeves to reveal the long scars and burn marks around your arms. You pulled at the collar of your robes, and revealed a long barbed wire looking scar that wrapped around your neck. “I have fought here three years ago, at the Battle of Hogwarts, after that, I became a bounty hunter, to which I have been tortured on numerous occasions. Now tell me, Mr. Mayar, if I don’t know anything, how could I have survived?” you spat out. You noticed the Slytherin crest on his robes. “You will do well not to underestimate your teachers. Especially one who was a very well known Slytherin.” you added in a hiss, turning your back on him, and striding back to the class.

The rest of the class stared in shock, none had expected to see such scars on a woman so young looking. A few of the Hufflepuff’s at the front of the class gulped.

“Shh Shadow…” you whispered, your fingers brushing against the snarling dog’s head. You turned back to the class. “I am not only hear to teach you defensive and offensive spells, but also muggle fighting.” You glanced towards the clock above the door, class was nearly over. “I expect an essay by next class, on my history. Due to the fact that it appears, we have doubters in our midst’s. You will not be able to use any book in the library to research my blood lines, unless you can read German. You can ask your teachers about me on your own time. Or some of the older students.” you took another look around the class, a few seconds before the bell rang, you called, “class dismissed.”

The class grumbled, and got up, most looking annoyed about getting homework on the first day.

You turned your back to the now empty classroom, and walked into your office to get your silver knife. Ever since the Battle at Hogwarts, you never went anywhere without your knife, or wand, however, you felt it was inappropriate to wear it around such young students. Your next class should know who you were, they were in their third year when you were in your seventh. Stepping back into your classroom, you noticed students filing in, some where eyeing you with apprehension, while, mainly Slytherin’s smirked. They expected favouritism because you were a Slytherin yourself.

“Many of you know who I am already. So you know I will not be taking any of your cr*p.” your eyes glanced over the students, some with cocky smirks, some with looks of terror. Luckily, no one in this class seemed to doubt your abilities on what you could teach them. “We’re going to start with muggle fighting today.”

“Professor, why muggle fight when we have wands?” a girl in the back asked, her hand slightly raised.

“How do you plan on defending yourself against attack if you loose your wand, or it breaks?” you asked in a short hiss. The girl fell quiet instantly. “Right, pair up. We’ll be going outside.”

The class followed you out into the courtyard where there was more space available.

***

You sat in your chair at the head of the hall, next to Professor Flitwick. The day had gone by rather slowly, to which you had assigned an essay on yourself to your first class of the day, due to an annoying prat, you had started training a sixth year class in muggle fighting, and after lunch, you had introduced the concepts of defensive spells to first years.

It was now dinner time, students were filing into the great hall and taking their seats at their retrospective house tables when food had suddenly appeared.

You could feel eyes on you as you slowly at your dinner. You had no desire to be in the corridors while students rushed back to their houses after dinner.

Dinner had passed uneventfully, most of the students had left for their houses or for the library to do some last minute research for the night.

You had gotten up from the table silently, and left the great hall through the side door. You had found yourself wandering the corridors that were nearly empty, except for a few students that would run by, hoping to make it back to their dorms before curfew. Your mind wandered, it was strange being back in Hogwarts again, although the castle was close to completely destroyed, it looked the same as ever.

Your feet had stopped moving, and you were pulled from your thoughts. Blinking, you looked around and realized where you were. Just a few steps away was the place Fred died. Kneeling down, you pressed your back to the wall and sat, absentmindedly staring at the spot where Fred had taken his last breath. Your finger twirled a piece of your hair unknowingly around itself, as you had lost yourself in thought.

There she was, it seemed that her feet had brought her there on their own accord, why else would she be there? Certainly not to cause herself more grief. She sat, lost in thoughts while a piece of her hair twirled around her slender fingers. Alice looked close to the same as she did back during the Battle, of course, there was less grime on her face, and her hair was more tame, and she didn’t have that wild look in her eye, but she had the appearance of being lost, unsure of what to do, how to make things better. “Care to go for a walk?” the onlookers voice called quietly.