‹ Prequel: Colour Me Slytherin
Status: Updating every other day (preferably daily)

Call Me Professor

She's Awake

During the rest of the day, you couldn’t take your mind off the student. Hopefully you had mixed that potion right, hopefully you didn’t kill the poor girl. You couldn’t help but let your mind wander to who might have done such a thing. There was obviously a student who knew dark Russian magic hiding somewhere in the castle.

“Professor?” a girl asked, cowering slightly when your eyes darted over her.

You had realized you zoned out during the middle of a class. That was definitely not professional on your part, but you had a lot on your mind. “Yes?” you asked back, holding the girl’s gaze with your own.

“We were all um…” her voice trailed off, as she looked to her friends for support.

Another more outspoken girl piped up, “We were all wondering what happened to Payton Taylor. We heard she was attacked, and that you’ve been going up to the hospital wing to cast enchantments over her.”

The girl that just asked you about that Payton girl, laying up in the hospital wing, reminded you of the Weasley’s, with her flaming red hair, pale complexion, and slight freckles. “That is nothing any of you need to worry about.” you uttered, taking in the disappointed looks from most of the people in the room.

“She deserved what she got. Filthy Mudbloods.” Alex Mayar smirked, as the Slytherin’s close to him either rolled their eyes, or smirked at his comment.

You’re eyes found his, and narrowed. “I will not have that talk in my classroom, Mayar.” you hissed, wanting nothing more than to put the child under the Cruciatus Curse.

“Or what, you’ll take house points away? Give me detention?” Mayar asked, making it sound like it was no big deal.

Your eyes narrowed even more, and you drew your wand. “No, I go for the lasting impressions.” your voice was dangerously low. The second you pointed your wand at the boy, he was hoisted up into the air by his ankle and dangled there helplessly. You could hear a few Gryffindor’s snicker at this, but fought down your own smirk as the Mayar begged to be let down.

“What are you doing?” A familiar voice asked sounding rather harassed from the doorway of the classroom. Professor McGonagall had stepped into the classroom completely, watching as you continued to dangle Alex Mayar by his ankle.

“Teaching.” you shrugged, dropping the boy mercilessly on his head, releasing him from your wrath. You turned your full attention to the Headmistress standing in your classroom, “Is there something I can assist you with, Headmistress?” you asked, your wand still in your hand.

Professor McGonagall motioned for you to follow her out into the empty corridor. She shut the door behind the two of you so your students would not be able to hear.

Silently, you pointed your wand at the door and casted Muffliato, just to make sure there were no nosey students with their ears pressed against the door. You let the thought of students using Fred and George’s Extendable Ears enter your mind for a brief moment, before pushing it to the back of your thoughts.

“Payton Taylor has woken.” McGonagall said, there was relief evident on her features as she gazed at you warmly. Her hand rested on your shoulder lightly, “Good work, Professor.” she added before sweeping back down the corridor, towards her own office.

You could feel the relief course through your body with every beat of your heart. A small smile graced your lips. Just as suddenly as the smile appeared, it faded away as you entered back into your classroom. You had a free period next, and definitely planned on going to see this Payton girl.

“Class dismissed.” you said, waving your hand at the students who stared at you from their seats.

Hushed chatter filled the room as the students packed up their things and left the classroom.

You spotted a few students helping Alex Mayar leave the classroom, and couldn’t help but smirk to yourself slightly. That ought to teach the little worm not to try and undermine you.

***

“Alex Mayar tells me you used Levicorpus on him.” Professor Malfoy asked, as he guided you towards the Great Hall for dinner.

You shrugged, “I was teaching….” you shrugged dismissively, not really wanting to talk about it. “She woke up, by the way…” you added, unsure if he knew or not.

Draco nearly stopped in the middle of the hall, “Did she? When?” he could feel relief flood through his body.

“McGonagall came to tell me pretty much right after I took the practical approach to teaching….” you replied, shrugging once more. “Nice to know you had confidence in what I was doing, though.” you huffed, noticing the relieved expression on his face.

“That’s not it…” Draco staggered, surprised that you caught his relieved expression, “I’ve just never seen anybody mix those potions together to get that kind of result, is all.” he answered honestly.

You left Draco, who took his seat at the head table in the front of the Great Hall, and headed towards your own. You took your seat, and glanced around the Great Hall at all the students. Some of the Slytherin’s were glaring at you. While pretty well any Slytherin student that knew you while you were there, were smirking up at you, along with the rest of the school. It never ceased to amaze you how fast stories traveled the corridors of this great castle.

The chatter in the Great Hall died down a bit as the food appeared on the tables, and students started digging into their meals.

***

You spent your spare period up in the hospital wing talking to Payton, seeing if she could remember anything about the night she was attacked.

“Do you know who attacked you?” you asked, sitting at the side of her hospital bed. You had given her a few days to recover before asking her anything. Interrogating her was not something that should be done right after and ordeal like the one she had.

She shook her head, “No, I was just going down to the kitchen’s to get a snack while studying…. All I remember was seeing a bright flash of blue light…” her voice was hoarse from lack of use, but she answered your questions the best she could.

“Do you remember what time it was, when you left to go to the kitchens?” you asked, handing her a glass of water.

She took a gulp from the glass, swallowed, and then answered your question, “It was around 8:00.…”

“I see.” you glanced towards the small clock on the wall, “I’m going to let you rest now, if I have anything else to ask you, I’ll come find you.” You stood, heading towards the doors of the Hospital Wing. Opening and closing the doors silently, you left the Hospital Wing, and headed towards your own classroom where students would be, no doubt, waiting for you.

As you were writing the word Protego on the board for the first years to copy down, you saw Shadow perk up slightly and stare at the door, somebody was just about to knock.

Sure enough, there was a knock on the door.

With a flick of your wand, the door opened revealing the Headmistress once again.

“Ah, Professor Smat, I would like a word, if you would?” she asked, stepping back into the corridor.

“Talk amongst yourselves until I’m back.” you said, walking between the rows of desks and towards the door. You closed it behind you as you entered into the corridor. “Has another student been attacked?” you asked, watching Minerva McGonagall warily.

The Headmistress just shook her head, “no, I received an owl today.” she explained holding a letter out, “we have been invited to join in a friendly tournament with a few other schools. It’s a team of two teachers, one has to be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and the other the Potions Master, they have to set up a team, a student from each year, and they will compete.. Would you like to partake in this tournament?”

You stared for a moment, how many tournaments are you going to be involved in, let alone having Draco Malfoy as your partner. “Alright..” you shrugged, and agreed. “Where will I have to take these kids?” you asked, expecting having to travel somewhere for this competition.

“Oh, you won’t be taking them anywhere. The tournament will be held here, at Hogwarts.” Professor McGonagall said with a small smile. She felt it would be fitting, the last tournament held at Hogwarts was the Tri-wizard tournament, where Harry’s name was put into the cup even though he was underage.

“When does the tournament start?” you asked, leaning against the corridor’s walls.

“Not until November. I will have a sign up sheet for those students who would like to participate, but Mr. Malfoy and yourself will be the ones to select the students for your team.” McGonagall explained.

***

You took your familiar position at the head table in the Great Hall before dinner was going to be served.

McGonagall stepped towards the podium in front of the table, and spoke to the crowds of students. “This year, we will be holding a tournament against other schools.” She glanced around the large body of students as they murmured excitedly. “The requirements of this competition is that the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, and the Potions Master both compete. There will be a sign up sheet for students who would like to participate along side their professors, I encourage all students to sign up.” she explained, waiting for the sudden burst of excited voices to die down a little bit so she could continue. “Professor Smat, and Professor Malfoy will both be hand picking students from each year to compete with them, they will set the time and place for try outs for their team. The tournament will start in the beginning of November. I do ask that you will all be pleasant to our guests from the other schools.” McGonagall added the last bit, almost as an after thought, or more like it was expected for the students of Hogwarts to be pleasant.

As soon as the Headmistress took her seat, the feast began. The air was full of excitement about the new tournament, and the idea of competing with different schools.

***

It was finally time, November had arrived. The Potions Master and The Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor had their team flanking beside them, along with the rest of the school hovering around the walls of the grounds.

Every single person practically held their breath as they awaited the arrival of the other schools competitors.

It was almost like the other schools had forgotten, until the crowd in the grounds heard a loud crowing in the distance. The entire student body turned their faces upwards, to be greeted with the sight of four large Cockatrice pulling a large, elaborately decorated chariot.

The entire student body had backed away from the Cockatrice. No one had ever seen anything like them, similar to a Hippogriff, but different. The Cockatrice seemed to be a combination of a dragon, and a very large chicken.

The chariot landed over by Hagrid’s hut, and then there was silence.

You took a step forward, watching the chariot carefully. Nothing happened, so you approached it, expecting to be cursed at any given moment, you held your hand steadily over your holstered wand.

The doors to the chariot burst open, and out stepped a tiny woman with thick glasses, similar to Professor Trelawney. She stepped aside as students had followed her out of the chariot, then followed by a man.

You stared aw struck. “Seth….” you halted a few feet away from the group of new arrivals.

Seth grinned at you. He had changed so much, even though it had only been three years. He took a step forward, the deep scar that ran the length of his face, and was millimetres from his left eye, twitched slightly, as his grin turned into a great smile. “Alice Smat. Let me guess, Defence Against the Dark Arts?” he asked, knowing you only too well.

“Yeah…. I’d say the same for you, you were so bad at potions.” you smirked, covering your chest with your arms lightly. You were about to continue the conversation, but were interrupted by a loud screeching coming from the lake.

Two large Ogopogo’s heads broke the surface of the water, screeching loudly, announcing the next school’s arrival

You automatically knew that the next school was full of Canadian’s. The Ogopogo only live in Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, and Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog in Quebec.

The Ogopogo settled near the shore line, as a Bluenose sail ship appeared out of thin air. The crew of the Bluenose stepped off their boat, and turned to the students of Hogwarts.

You felt your eyes narrow, and your lip lift slightly in a silent snarl as you gazed at the woman who stepped off of the Bluenose. You barely felt the hand on your shoulder, as you saw red staring at the familiar blonde.

“Calm down Alice” Draco’s familiar voice whispered to you, “we’ll beat her in the tournament….”
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A/N: Uh-huh.. If you've noticed.. XD Inspiration came from the oh-so-awesome Tri-Wizard Tournament.
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