Call Me Professor

Alice took the hand that was outstretched towards her. There was something kind in the storm coloured eyes that were looking down at you. “Professor Malfoy.” you nodded slightly, allowing your arm to be linked with his.

Shadow barred his teeth, but made no noise as he followed behind the two Professors.

Malfoy smirked slightly, “Professor Smat.” he replied quietly, returning your nod with one of his own. He lead you towards the doors and out into the court yard, remaining silent for close to the whole time.

“It’s amazing how they rebuilt this place…” you murmured, taking in the scene around you. It looked as if no battle had happened at all.

Draco looked at you from the corner of his eye, of course being here would bring back the memories of the battle, how could it not? He, in fact had dreamt about it multiple times the first few months after becoming a Professor, the year previous.

‘It seems our feelings haven’t died away after all.’

‘Why are you back?’

‘To annoy and frustrate you like last time!’

‘So we’re going to have this argument again? We don’t like Draco Malfoy.’

‘Keep telling yourself that.’

‘Oh, I intend to.’

ou could feel Draco’s body heat radiating off him as the two of you continued to walk through the courtyard slowly. Neither of you talked, but it wasn’t awkward, in fact, it was quite peaceful and pleasant.

“Alex Mayar has told me about the assignment you have set that class. In fact, many students have been trying to interrogate me about you.” Draco piped up, an amused smirk on his face.

You rose an eyebrow, “got to teach the snivelling little brat some how, don’t I?” you questioned, clearly not amused with Mayar’s attitude towards you.

Draco’s amused smirk did not leave his face, “I happen to be one of his favourite teachers.” he said almost as if it was an after thought.

“Well good for you. I plan on being his most hated teacher.” you retorted smoothly.

Draco’s smirk only grew, “he is a Slytherin, you know.”

“I’m not head of house, and thus I have no need to favourite the Slytherin’s.” It seemed you had a come back for everything.

To any onlooker, the conversation at hand would seem like an argument, but to those that knew both Alice and Draco, they were just teasing each other.

You and Draco were now at the edge of The Forbidden Forest. Just walking along the edge, but not going in. There were many things in the forest, although you would be careless to go into it during the day, it would be considered suicidal to go into it during the night.

“Have you ever been in there?” Draco asked, jerking his head lightly to his left, indicating the forest.

You shook your head, “can’t say I have. Never really appealed to me anyway.” you shrugged. Something flickered out of the corner of your eye causing you to come to a halt and turn towards the forest, peering into it.

“What is it?” Draco asked, looking curiously into the forest, but seeing nothing.

“I swear I just saw something in there…” you mumbled, taking a step towards the edge of the trees. You drew your wand from the leg holster, and held it steady. “Lumos…” you muttered under your breath, causing a narrow beam of light to appear from the tip of your wand.

There was a rustling in the trees a few feet away, both Draco and yourself edged closer, wands held high in hopes to cast the light as far as you could.

There was another rustle, and the two of you stopped moving. Both of you were a few feet into the forest now, and were feeling tense.

“What do you think it is?” Draco asked, keeping his eyes trained on the spot they heard the noise come from.

“Dunno…” you replied, taking another step forward, letting your curiosity take control of you.

Out of nowhere a silvery shadow seemed to appear from behind a massive tree. It trotted forward and stopped restlessly in front of Alice.

You gazed at the amazing creature. It was well known that Unicorns were more welcoming to females over males.

Draco took a step forward, clearly mesmerized by the creature, but stopped when he saw your hand held up, signalling he was not to come any closer.

You took another step forward, and reached your hand out cautiously. The Unicorn just stared at you as you placed your hand on it’s nose.

You took another step forward, bringing you extremely close to the Unicorn. You couldn’t help but feel nervous about it, but you slid your wand back into your leg holster. The moment you put your wand away, the Unicorn nuzzled into you. It seemingly just wanted some attention, and saw the opportunity when two teachers were taking a stroll along the forest.

“We should go.” Draco whispered, but staying where he was. He still held his wand aloft to cast light around the area.

“Alright…” you murmured, taking a step back from the Unicorn. With one last pat on its strong neck, you turned and started walking back towards Draco.

“It’s following you…” Draco whispered, indicating the Unicorn had followed you to the edge of the forest.

You turned to look at the Unicorn behind you. “It must be hungry..” you murmured quietly. “Will you go get Hagrid?” you asked Professor Malfoy kindly, patting the Unicorn once more.

Draco was wary of leaving you alone so close to the Forbidden Forest, but it seemed like he didn’t have much of a choice. He disappeared from your view as he reached Hagrid’s hut. Knocking roughly against the old wood, he waited impatiently. “Hagrid, there’s a Unicorn out here.” He called, there was an almost immediate response.

The half-giant man practically jumped out of his hut, Fang at his heels. “Where is ‘e then?” He asked, his voice boomed softly.

Draco led Hagrid towards the Unicorn, who was nuzzling into Alice again.

“Beautiful creatures, Unicorns…” Hagrid mumbled, taking a cautious step towards Alice and the horned horse.

You looked up to see Draco had returned with Hagrid and Fang. You could sense Shadow bristling beside you at the appearance of another dog, but he did nothing more than that. “It seems it’s hungry.” you said offhandedly, continuing to stroke the long mane and getting an almost whispered ‘neigh’ in response from the Unicorn.

“Is ‘e now?” Hagrid asked, looking around for something he could grab to feed to the Unicorn. He rustled around at the back of his hut for a moment, before reappearing with an arm full of apples and carrots, and some weird bug that looked particularly juicy. He held his hand out, but the Unicorn didn’t do anything. “Maybe if we put it down for ‘im.” Hagrid said to himself, putting the arm load of food down on the ground.

Yet, the Unicorn didn’t do anything. It just looked down at the food, and then continued to nuzzle into Alice.

“Maybe I should try feeding it?” you asked, grabbing an apple from the ground and holding it in front of the magnificent creature’s eyes.

Cautiously the Unicorn took a step towards your hand, and placed it’s lips around the apple. Deciding it was okay, it ate it out of your hand quickly, but gently. The Unicorn pawed at the ground, wanting to be fed more goodies.

“I think I’ll call you Verve.” (pronounced Veer-vuh. It’s German for Spirit.) You smiled at the Unicorn, gently patting its sides.

***

You lay in your bed, thinking of the nights events. After you had named the Unicorn, and it had it's fill of food, it had trotted back into the forest.

Hagrid had said it was odd behaviour for an Unicorn to be so trusting towards people, and that they were incredibly hard to catch. Although Unicorns were more trusting to females, the behaviour of this particular Unicorn was odd.

After that encounter, Draco had walked you back up to the castle and to your sleeping quarters.

You brushed your fingers across your cheek lightly. When Draco said goodnight, he leaned in and kissed your check lightly. You could feel yourself smiling slightly at the memory.

***

You awoke to Shadow snarling viciously at the door. “Shhh.” You grumbled trying to cover your head with your pillows in the hopes of drowning out the dog’s snarls. When this didn’t work, you sat up in bed, and brought your attention to the door that Shadow was snarling at. “What is it?” you asked, more to yourself than anything.

“Professor Smat, we need your expertise.” Professor McGonagall’s voice called from the other side of the door.

Your eye twitched slightly in complete shock and annoyance from being woken up so early. “Alright.” you called, pulling some clothes on, and then opening the door.

“It appears a student has been cursed.” McGonagall explained.

“I’m sure it’s just a childish prank…. Something similar to The Weasley Twins…” Your voice trailed off at the mention of Fred and George.

McGonagall looked at you from the corner of her eye as she pushed a door aside, and let you enter the Great Hall.

There, in the middle of the hall lay a female student’s body.

You could feel the blood in your veins freeze, and the breath in your lungs disappear. You had seen something like this before. Only once before. "She needs to go to the hospital wing...Now," your voice was urgent, but there was no time to waste if this is what you thought it was.