Dark Moon {Remus Lupin}

Chapter 3

Adjusting my skirt so it wasn't so high up, I looked at myself in the mirror studying every single detail of my uniform. My knee high socks had a slight difference in height, which I immediately fixed. Why was I so nervous? He's just a professor - that's it - and I'm not going to let this crush go on for any longer. I ran my hand over my face and through my hair in frustration.

"Screw it." I turned around and slung my book bag over my shoulder. My feet skipped over multiple steps as I made my way up the stairs and out of the common room.

"Hey, there you are!" Weslie exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration. "We need to get going, class is about to start and we aren't even near it."

"Sorry, I kept forgetting things." She seemed to buy my lie as she shrugged her shoulders and headed towards the staircase. We made our way up the vast number of stairs practically sprinting towards our first class of the day - Defense Against the Dark Arts. Needless to say, we were late. Barging through the door, everyone's heads turned towards the both of us now breathlessly standing in the doorway.

"Ah, Miss Wright and Miss Selke. How kind of you to join us today." Professor Lupin said as he turned around from the chalkboard. This earned a laugh from the rest of the class, much to our expense. Weslie rolled her eyes and made her way to our usual seats. I followed suit, blushing as his eyes followed our every move. This was not how I was wanting to start my day. Reaching into my bag I pulled my books out along with my quill and some parchment paper.

"As I was saying, today we will be discussing Inferi - reanimated corpses that have been bewitched by a Dark Wizard." Professor Lupin wrote the information on the chalkboard and turned around clamping his hands together. "Can anyone tell me what kind of Dark Art this is?"

I opened my book to the correct page and jumped slightly at the image in front of me. This thing was ghastly. It used to be a human, but any possible life was completely drained out of it. Practically a skeleton, the Inferius had skin tightly wrapped around its body indicating that it was still decaying. Professor Lupin's question finally registered in my head and I quickly raised my hand in the air. You'd have to be extremely daft to not know this one.

"Miss Wright." He pointed towards me and sent a kind smile my way, clearly happy to see that I was willing to participate in class despite being late.

"Necromancy, sir. A very dark form of necromancy." I crossed my legs as an impressed expression spread over his face. I saw a flicker of something dance across his eyes at the added on sir, but emotion passed as quickly as it had appeared, the gentle smile returning to his scarred lips as he began to speak again.

"Correct, Miss Wright. Five points to Slytherin." Lupin nodded his head in satisfaction at his student's response. Weslie looked at me with a grin and wiggled her eyebrows causing me to roll my eyes and peer back down at the terrifying picture. I couldn't imagine a creature like this existing in the world. "This being is like a puppet, willing to do the wizards' every bidding no matter the cost."

Professor Lupin continued to talk about the Inferi, but I couldn't catch a single word he was saying. All I could think about was how passionate he was about what he was teaching. Whenever he moved, there was a slight bounce to his step as if his shoes were made of springs. Every time he had an interesting fact about a creature or event he would point his finger at the captivated class and hold his hand to his stomach. No matter how depressing the subject was, there was a delicate grin stretched across his scarred face. He just looked so content as he taught. It was endearing, to say the least.

"Alright, I'll leave you all to finish up your notes. After you're done with those you can start working on the worksheet I provided at the beginning of class." The professor turned on his heel and made his way to the chair behind his desk, completely covered in papers yet somehow remaining organized. My eyes never left his presence. I was completely drawn to this man and it was becoming quite a problem. Before he could catch my fixed eyes, I glanced down to the paper in front of me and started jotting down notes from the textbook.