Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and events from J.K. Rowling's wonderful Harry Potter books. I am writing this for my own enjoyment and hopefully for the enjoyment of readers. Anything you recognize belongs to JKR. The rest belongs to me.
Chapter 9: The New D.A.D.A. Professor
Lily woke up early the next morning to a shuffling noise across the floor. She peered around the curtains and noticed Marlene trying to tiptoe across the floor to her bed.
"Marlene!" cried Lily, which caused Alice to stir in the next bed. "Are you alright? What happened after you left last night?"
Marlene turned to Lily who could then see that all of Marlene's normal features had been restored.
Marlene smiled at Lily, happy to finally be in the dormitory. It had been a long night. "I'm fine. Madame Pomfrey, that's the nurse, gave me some potions and I quickly turned back to my normal self. She insisted on keeping me overnight. I tried to argue with her but she was quite insistent. She practically stood over me the entire night to make sure I didn't leave. I was finally able to sneak out a little earlier when she went to help a boy who walked in looking pale, bruised and scratched.
"Leaving wasn't such a great idea because shortly thereafter I realized I had no idea where I was headed. After I wandered around for a bit I came across Molly, the Head Girl. She was doing her morning rounds and found me near tears somewhere on the third floor. Not so surprisingly she remembered me from last night and took pity on me. She showed me the way up here and that's when I tried to sneak in without waking you."
Lily thought back to the evening's events and felt quite annoyed about the trick Sirius and Potter had played on her new friend. Even if Marlene had teased them a little that didn't mean she deserved to be humiliated in front of the entire school. And then Sirius had tried lying to her about not hexing Marlene. She began to rethink her opinion of her rescuer from days earlier.
And then there was Potter, or rather James. It seemed so strange to think of him as James, Lily thought. She was rather used to thinking of him as Potter. He still hadn't said more than one full sentence in front of her which she found very strange. She had almost thought he could be normal when he smiled at her during the sorting the previous evening. She had caught herself smiling back. After all, he was rather cute when he tried to act normal. Then he had to join Sirius in the prank on Marlene, or was Potter the instigator?
Marlene noticed Lily deep in thought. "What are you thinking?"
Lily hesitated for a moment before answering. She wasn't sure if she should tell Marlene about who had hexed her however Lily felt she deserved to know the truth. "I was thinking about you and last night. I know who hexed you."
Marlene's eyebrows shot up as she demanded, "Who?!"
"Well, I was sitting at the Gryffindor table and as you were transforming I noticed the expression on Sirius' face. He was amused however he didn't seem surprised at all," said Lily.
"That doesn't prove that he hexed me," Marlene replied.
"Lily called him on it," Alice said, surprising Lily and Marlene. They had thought Alice was still asleep. "You should have seen how Lily dragged the truth out of Sirius. It was amazing, I have never seen anything like it!"
"I'm pretty sure Potter was in on it as well. Sirius said they wanted to teach you a lesson for teasing them about what you saw on the train," Lily added.
Marlene's jaw clenched so tight that Lily and Alice thought that a steel bar would have snapped in half had it been in her mouth. "Those arrogant jerks! They think they can humiliate me in front of the entire school like that? Teach ME a lesson? Ha! I will teach THEM a lesson! They had better watch out because I will get them back. They won't know when and they won't know where. I will take my time about it and they will wish they had never messed with me!"
Lily and Alice glanced nervously at each other. Sure, the boys could be put in their place but neither of the girls wanted to be in the middle of a war on their first day of school. Alice piped up and said, "Oh, look at the time! We had better get dressed or we won't have time for breakfast before our first class."
Marlene, who had been deep in thought, snapped out of it and went to unpack her trunk as the other two girls cleaned up and got dressed.
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Back in the boys' dormitory there were two boys who were taking their time getting out of bed. Frank had already gone down to the Great Hall and breakfast would soon be finished. Peter stood nervously by James' bed and poked him on the shoulder. "Uh, James, sorry to wake you, but you see, you're going to be late if you don't get up soon."
James just turned over and buried his head under the pillow. Peter looked around nervously. He didn't want to make them angry however he also didn't want his new friends to be late for class on their first day. After poking at James and Sirius for another five minutes he paused to think again. His mind led him to the prank from the previous evening. He realized that he would, like them, have to take drastic measures to get the needed outcome. He marched into the bathroom for a moment and shortly thereafter marched out and between the beds of Sirius and James. He tossed some cold water out of a cup onto James and Sirius, who sat up yelling out incoherently about rude awakenings.
Sirius finally cleared his thoughts and turned toward the door, where Peter was backing up. "Peter! What the hell do you think you were doing?" growled Sirius.
Peter looked toward James in the hope that James would come to his aid if Sirius decided to hex him. James, however, had as similar expression to the murderous one on Sirius' face. "I, uh, noticed you were, uh, late and thought I would save you the trouble of, erm…showering," Peter said shakily.
Sirius and James glared at Peter for a few moments before breaking out into laughter. Sirius got up and walked across to a confused Peter. "Not bad, Peter," he said. "I didn't know you had it in you." Peter smiled eagerly at Sirius. "If," Sirius added, towering over the smaller boy, "That is - IF - I catch you doing something like that to me again I will throw you into the lake. I heard there's a Giant Squid who loves to eat little boys." Peter gave an agitated laugh as the two taller boys guffawed and got ready for breakfast.
On the way down Sirius congratulated himself for about the hundredth time about the prank they had pulled on Marlene. James and Peter exchanged a glance as they rolled their eyes. Just as Sirius was about to congratulate himself again he was struck in the head by a water balloon.
"Aaarrgh! Who did that?!!!" yelled Sirius as he tried to ring out his drenched head of hair. He then heard some cackling from above and looked up only to get another balloon bursting in his face. When he opened his eyes after the blast he saw a poltergeist floating above them. He was little with dark eyes and a wide mouth.
Peter leaned to Sirius and whispered, "That's gotta be Peeves the Poltergeist. Mark warned me about him last night on the way to the dormitory. We had better make a run for it."
Sirius, normally not one to run away from a fight, was desperate to get some order to his drenched hair. The three boys took off at a run for the Great Hall. James and Sirius managed to avoid most of the water balloons Peeves pelted at them. Peter, however, managed to slip on the wet floor making him a prime target for more balloons. Luckily for Peter, Peeves ran out of ammunition, forcing him to take off and find more while Peter made his escape.
The boys settled down at the Gryffindor table and started piling food onto their plates. A few minutes later they saw some girls running into the hall. It was Lily, Alice, and Marlene. They, too, had been pelted with water balloons. Unlike Sirius, the girls were laughing about their state. They noticed the boys and strutted over to join them. Sirius tried to give his best nonchalant look to Marlene while Marlene just gave him a sweet smile. This smile was nothing like the smile she gave the night before when they got off the boat. Her smile was there however her eyes told Sirius that he'd better watch his back.
"So, are you girls ready for classes?" asked Peter.
"I can't wait, however I didn't really imagine I would start off the year looking like a drowned rat," Lily laughed.
James thought to himself that Lily looked quite fetching with wet hair. Her laughter made her emerald eyes sparkle. 'Say something to her!' he thought. 'Be charming, like Sirius told you last night.' As he was about to say he thought she looked like an angel, Lily looked at him, causing his stomach to flip-flop and paralyzing his brain. Therefore, the only thing that came out of his mouth was, "Y-You don't look like you drowned."
Lily gave James a confused glance while Sirius shook his head. She then turned to Alice and they spent the rest of breakfast chatting while James' thoughts turned into self-loathing. 'WHAT was that?!' he thought angrily. 'Don't look drowned? That was the best I could come up with?!'
Marlene kept giving her 'I'm going to get you' smile to Sirius who did his best to ignore her.
After they got their schedules the guys were on the way to their first class, History of Magic. The girls had left earlier and were ahead of them. Sirius had noticed James kicking himself at breakfast and decided to give him some advice. "Mate, you have to pull it together. You aren't going to get Lily's attention like that. You need to learn how to talk to girls. Show off your talents so she'll notice you. Flirt with other girls. Then she'll see how popular you are and she'll want to be with you."
James thought about his advice as they entered their first class. History of Magic was taught by an old ghost, Professor Binns. He droned on and on and on for the whole hour while students tried to scribble down all the names and dates he was rambling on about. The monotone of his voice had lulled several students into a coma-like state. Sirius had his head on his desk with a small pool of drool pooling on his parchment. The only one who managed to make it through the entire hour was Lily.
Charms was their next class. The students were looking forward to trying some magic, however Professor Flitwick decided to use the first class to go over the theory of charms. He assigned them to write a foot long essay on wand movement.
Transfiguration was not much better. The students still didn't get to practice any magic. The highlight of the class came when Professor McGonagall transformed her desk into a pig. They were assigned yet more homework on the principles of transfiguration.
After lunch they were scheduled for the first Defense Against Dark Arts (DADA) class. The students wondered if the school had appointed a teacher yet. Sirius and James hoped they hadn't. They wanted to have a free period to wander around outside and explore the grounds. There had still been an empty seat at the staff table during breakfast and lunch so the boys were ready to enjoy the late summer weather.
Their hopes were diminished when they sat down in the DADA classroom and saw a gentleman walk in with a briefcase. He was in his forties though he looked younger. He had dark brown hair with grey peppered throughout. He had dark intense eyes that probed around the room at the students. The girls imagined that he had been quite handsome in his youth.
Once the time came for class to begin he turned to the students and said, "I know you were told there was no DADA professor assigned as of yesterday. Since the headmaster was unable to locate a suitable teacher on his own, the school's Board of Governors has appointed me to teach you. Let me introduce myself. I am Professor Tom Riddle."
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Soooooo, what do you all think about the DADA professor? With him around, anything could happen…
Next chapter: We see a little more of Professor Riddle, and the last Marauder will make his entrance. The sooner you review, the sooner the chapter will be posted!