Rose Dursley: The Girl Who Lived

8. A New Professor

Rose had a restless night in bed. She had a dream that confused her.

In the dream, Rose was sat alone on one of the sofas in the Gryffindor common room. It was all cozy with a big fire burning in the fireplace and she was snuggled under a warm blanket.

The door opened, and in walked the girl from Beauxbatons that she saw the day before. She was in her pale blue uniform, with her silvery blonde hair spilling out from under her hat.

The girl looked straight at Rose, then smiled and began to dance slowly across the room. As she span and twirled, her hair swished through the air. She smiled seductively at Rose, and fluttered her eyelashes.

As the girl kept dancing closer, the fireplace started to burn even hotter. Rose could feel the heat coming from the fire. The warmth from it spread through her body. The closer the girl danced towards her, the hotter Rose felt.

~~~~~

Rose woke up in the morning feeling hot and damp with sweat. She pushed the covers off her and sat up. Her pajamas were damp too, and were stuck to her skin.

Rose looked across at her clock, and saw it was just after 5am. The rest of the girls in the dormitory were still asleep, so Rose climbed out of bed as quietly as possible.

Rose walked through to the bathroom and turned on the shower. While she waited for the water to get warm, she pulled off her pajamas and dropped them on the floor.

Once the water was the right temperature, Rose stepped into the shower. She washed away the sweaty feeling, then she tried to wash away the memory of her dream. She let the shower blast into her face in the hope she could clear her mind.

Rose did not understand what it was about that girl. From the moment she saw her in the Great Hall, it was like she had some kind of power over her. The way she swished and swayed along had hypnotized Rose, and it had made her feel things she hadn't felt before.

Rose shook her head, and stuck her face back under the shower head.

Eventually, Rose got out of the shower and walked back to her bed wrapped in just a big fluffy towel. She sat down on her bed just as Hermione woke up.

Hermione yawned and rolled over. "Good morning," she said. "Did you have a good night's sleep?"

Rose turned away to hide the fact that she was blushing. "Yeah, fine," she said.

Rose started using the towel to dry her hair, as Hermione took off her nightie and started putting on her uniform.

Once they were both dressed, they walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast. The hall was mostly empty as they went to sit at the Gryffindor table. There was just a few on the Ravenclaw table, and all of the girls from Beauxbatons were having their breakfast.

Rose blushed slightly as she looked over towards them. The silvery haired girl was there, laughing and drinking coffee. It made her look so mature and sophisticated.

"I can't believe the way the boys acted around them," said Hermione.

Rose jumped slightly at the sudden noise. "Eh, what?" she said.

"Those girls from Beauxbatons. It's like the boys had never seen a pretty girl before," said Hermione. "Cheering and clapping like that. It was so embarrassing. I don't understand why they acted like that."

Rose looked down awkwardly. "Err, yeah. I don't know, it was weird," she said.

"It was almost like they had cast some kind of charm of attraction over them," said Hermione.

"Yeah, that could be it..." said Rose. "A spell of some kind..."

"Or it's just normal behaviour for boys," said Hermione. " They are all just pigs."

"Mmmm. No, it feels more like a charm," said Rose.

"Maybe I will ask Professor Flitwick if there is a charm like that which just affects boys," said Hermione. "I have got a charms lesson tomorrow."

"Yeah, could be..." said Rose.

As they continued talking, Ron came into the hall and sat down beside Hermione. He grabbed a big plate of food and started eating quickly.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You know, if you got up earlier, then you would have more time to eat slowly."

Ron swallowed the mouthful of food he had, then turned to Hermione. "Or, if you ate faster, you wouldn't have to get up so early," he said.

"Urgh," Hermione groaned, as Rose giggled.

"Anyway, hurry up. It's nearly time for DADA" said Hermione.

Ron gulped down a glass of pumpkin juice to wash down his food. "Okay, okay. I'm coming," he said.

The three of them left the hall together, and walked through the castle to their next lesson. When they got to the classroom, Hermione sat at a table near the front. Rose and Ron sat together on a table nearer the back.

After a few minutes, the rest of the children had all arrived. They were just getting settled, when Professor Moody entered the room. He walked with a limp, slowly through to the front of the class. When he reached the front, he spun around and stared at all the children.

"I'm Professor Moody," he said. "I'm an ex-auror, and an old friend of Dumbledore's. He asked me to come here and share some of my experience with you."

"Now, for this year, I want to be focused on less of the boring theory, and more on practical defensive spells," said Moody. "Less reading, and more dueling."

There were hushed murmurs throughout the class when he said this.

"So to prepare for this, we are going to spend the first few lessons learning about counter-jinxes and defensive spells," said Moody.

For the rest of the lesson, Moody taught the children some useful counter spells to defend against the disarming spell and the stunning spell. When the lesson ended, everyone packed up their books and started to leave.

"Okay, for the next lesson, I want you practicing those counter spells," said Moody. "Then hopefully you will all be ready to duel."

Hermione rushed to catch up with Ron and Rose as they left the class. "Well that was fun," she said.

"Yeah," said Ron. "With his reputation, I thought he was going to be a lot more crazy."

"I guess as he's a teacher now, he was trying to be normal," said Rose.

"Well in that case, we'll have to see how long he stays acting normal," said Ron.

And with that, they carried on down the corridor. Their next lesson was care of magical creatures with Hagrid, so they headed outside towards Hagrid's hut.