TEACHER'S PET ━ 𝓡. Lupin

7. Books

—THE MORNING AFTER, Natalia had woken up with a bad headache.
She quickly recalled the events that had occured the night before, thinking she might die of embarrassment as she remembered how bold she had acted while being in Professor Lupin's company.

She quickly tried to whisk away everything she had even just dared to think the night before, realizing she absolutely couldn't allow herself to develop a dumb schoolgirl crush on her own Professor.
Hence she decided she was going to write to Charlie that same morning.

It had been quite sometime since she had last reached out to him, her stomach was in knots at the mere thought of it.
She and Charlie weren't exactly together, that was a fact, and Natalia didn't know if, while they were apart, he went around drooling over Romanian girls, just like she had been doing -unintentionally!- with a certain professor.

Well, it wasn't like she was drooling over someone within her reach, he was a professor, an adult man, someone she would have never had a chance with, she knew it and she was perfectly fine with it!

Perhaps it was a platonic feeling? Yeah -she thought- it probably is. Maybe it's really not that bad. Besides, I can't help being attracted by every man that seems to be even a little bit wise, clever, kind and good at his job. What does this say about you, Natalia Zabini?

It was true indeed, it had been like that with Charlie. Above all, she had been intrigued by his mind, his way of speaking, how passionate he was about his work. But still, Charlie had never been able to make her shiver like Professor Lupin had managed to do even just with a glance.

Natalia cringed at the thought, it's weird.

It didn't matter anyways, whatever she had thought the night before, it didn't matter, it was just nonsense.
It was just a stupid, platonic, schoolgirl crush.

The night before, after her brief encounter with Lupin, she had gone back to the Hufflepuff dormitories.
Seated on the corridor's floor, dark and quiet, with their backs against the wall and their faces lightened up only by the faint light coming from their wands, Thea and Kenneth were comfortably chatting.

Thea had eventually found Kenneth upstairs, as he was entertaining himself with another Hufflepuff girl, a certain Amelia.

"Where've you been?"
They had asked her, "I had to hide from a professor while looking for Ken", she had absentmindedly answered.

Then, Natalia's Sunday had proceeded peacefully and without a hitch. Lupin hadn't shown up all day long, and she had been extremely grateful for it, still needing a couple of hours to fully recover from the tremendous embarrassment.

She had filled her belly with roasted chicken at lunch -she was always starving when she was hung over- then she had gone up to the Owlery so she could send her letter to Charlie (Dear Charlie, how are you? I'm sorry for not writing you back [bla bla bla] this school year is killing me [bla bla bla] I miss you, when are you coming to see me? [bla bla bla] I really hope to see you during Christmas holidays. Let's keep in touch. N, xx").

Next, she had played chess with Jonah in the Great Hall. Even if no one would have ever imagined it, Jj was a very passionate and skilled chess player, he regularly took part in tournaments and for the past year or so, he had been trying to teach Natalia all his secrets. She was a good learner, a slow one, but she was still good.
Then, they had enjoyed dinner in peace, it had been the best part of the day. Natalia loved the Halloween dinner and the fact that she could only enjoy roasted pumpkin once a year didn't sit right with her.