LUNAR (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

Forty. The Mentor.

The end of the year was positively flying by. Now that it was spring, now that Caiti was finally enjoying herself just a little bit, it seemed like each day at Hogwarts was gone faster than the one before it and she was starting to feel sorry that she had wished this year away.

The final Hogsmeade weekend had come up already and she was waiting outside the Three Broomsticks for Alora Serpen, the potential mentor she had been writing to since the end of March. It was a perfect day out: cool, but sunny. Little birds fluttered around, landing on the cobblestone stone street in little huddles, hopped and chirped a few times before taking off again. Caiti wished Marlowe had been able to come today, but he had a match every weekend this time of year. He hadn't played again since that first one, but there had been buzz about him — and her — in the papers and magazines again afterward.

Not surprisingly, a photographer had taken a picture of them kissing after the match and it had been widely printed. She had been teased about this mercilessly all over school, but she couldn't bring herself to care, because even the gossip magazines only had positive things to say about him now.

A breeze blew her hair in her face, and as she was untangling it from her eyelashes, she saw a woman approaching. She was young — in her early thirties, Caiti guessed — and had sleek black hair pulled into a loose, low bun. She wore purple robes and dark lipstick and Caiti suddenly felt very little-girlish.

"You must be Caiti," she said, holding out her hand.

For some reason, at the sound of her name — at the sound of Caiti and not Caitlin, not Miss O'Connell — that nervous flutter she had felt at first vanished. Caiti shook her hand.

"Yes. It's so nice to finally meet you," she said.

"Let's go grab a drink," she said. "I'm so glad we could chat in person. I've got so many things I'd love to talk to you about."

So they went inside and sat at a little table near a window where it was bright and sunny. With drinks in front of them, Alora asked, "So are you looking forward to being done with school? Or are you completely dreading it like I was?"

Caiti smiled. "Both?"

Alora laughed.

"This year has kind of sucked to be honest. All my close friends left last year. But it's still weird to think about not coming back."

"It'll take some time to sink in. I don't think I realized I was done until the train was leaving the next year and I wasn't on it. Luckily, you've got things in the works to keep you occupied, because I didn't have a clue what I was doing those first few years."

"I mean I don't really have a clue what I'm doing either," Caiti admitted.

But Alora just smiled. "The best potion makers never do."

They chatted about her presentation for a while and about what she'd been up to since then. Alora asked her questions, not like she was interviewing her, but like she was really actually interested in the content of her research, like she thought what Caiti was doing was fascinating and meaningful.

She was supportive and helpful when Caiti said she felt like all she had was these disconnected ideas she didn't really know what to do with, and she gave her practical advice for what to do immediately moving forward.

She reminded Caiti a lot of Professor Pym. They weren't exactly alike. Alora was much more talkative, much brighter, but already, Caiti could tell she had the same quiet way of pushing. Caiti could tell that Alora would help and guide but not try to take over. She would, like Professor Pym always had, let Caiti do the work. She would let this stay her project.