Professor Black: A Reader Insert

9. Samtsirhc rof Erised A

Due to circumstances outside of his control, Rifton couldn't pop across the pond to get Reggie until the Holidays had ended. So, the boy spent his days following his mother around and sending weighted looks to Severus every time he saw the overgrown bat. At this time the boy had roped Harry into playing fetch outside with him, Reggie in a more dog-sized form than usual as he happily ran around in the snow chasing after the ball his mother transfigured from a spare set of gloves. Harry's brow furrowed slightly at the morality of this, then again they are wizards, certainly, this wouldn't be the weirdest thing he'd ever see. 

"Ms. Black, do you know who Nicholas Flamel is?" Harry asked after he lobbed the ball a fair distance away.

"Not personally. Why do you ask?" She knew why, it tasted like cherry flavored sore throat spray, (y/n) just wanted to hear his excuse.

"An essay for - er, extra credit?" Harry looked away and chewed on his lip hoping to not get caught in this lie.

"Hermione is a better liar than you." (y/n) sighed before tilting the boy's gaze up to meet hers. "Whatever Fluffy is guarding isn't your concern, do you understand?"

"But-"

"No buts." She used her mom voice.

"Yes ma'am." He sagged in disappointment.

"We've been out here long enough, the two of you might catch a cold if we're not careful." Her eyes shot to the panting Reggie who had sat next to his mother's feet with a wag of his tail. "Let's go inside for some cocoa."

That earned an excited yip and an ecstatic nod from the two boys who sent a look to each other before racing into the castle to her office. At some point, the twins, Ron, and Hermione had followed the sprinting boys and were all made to sit by Reggie who had shifted and was looking at each of the people curiously as they waited for (y/n), who was stopped by the Care for Magical Creatures professor to ask a favor of her before the holiday break started. There was a cocoa party once she got there.

The Tuesday before the holiday break (y/n) and Reggie sat shifted into their lupine shapes while they waited in the Forbidden Forest for the first class of the day to visit them, Professor Kettleburn had asked them to help with his unit on endangered species that was ending that week. (y/n) was her natural size in this form as was Reggie who currently maxed out at the size of a regular wolf and was too young to get any bigger. The two play fought while they waited, with Reggie winning all of the rounds of course. They were playing tag once the professor and his class showed up. He told his students to be quiet and watch which worked until Reggie went and booped a Hufflepuff with his nose and ran away with a yip. Which got the other Hufflepuffs to put distance between themselves and him, pulling their Slytherin classmates along and positioning them as human shields. This earned a grumbled sigh from Professor Kettleburn who turned to his class.

"Who can tell me what these two are?" The wizard looked over all of the third years he had with him.

"Based on the size of that one alone, sir, are these dire wolves?" A Slytherin said, a weird glint in his eye as he watched the pair.

"Yes, and they are under the protection of the Headmaster. So if any of you get any ideas..." Professor Kettleburn trailed off as (y/n) now the size of a house loomed behind him staring at the students whose eyes were gleaming gold with narrowed eyes her hackled puffed up with the intent to intimidate. 

"Dires were driven to being extremely protective of their families because the Protections Proclamation of 1826 doesn't list them as a protected species despite the previous Proclamations including them, and there hasn't been a case of them getting stressed enough to become human since the first recorded instance in reference to the Zigglehaunt." Professor Kettleburn carried on with his lesson, ignoring the somewhat terrifying scene behind him as he spoke.