Larger Than Life {Remus Lupin}

2: Stag Beetles

Defense Against the Dark Arts was said to be cursed. They hadn't had a solid teacher since at least Ella's father's time at Hogwarts, and all the talk of curses made her hands fidgety and her anxiety spike again. So, when she walked into the classroom once again for another year with another teacher, she hoped in her heart there would be familiar faces. Then again, she always did when she walked into any place.

It didn't help at all that she was one of the first in the room. At least she got free reign over where to sit. She chose a seat in the middle of the third row to the left, on the inside edge of the aisle between the middle and left rows. She always tried to sit on the left. She was just more comfortable that way. As more students filled in, she noticed it wasn't all that big of a class. It was mostly shared between Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, which upped her chances of getting all of the Marauders in the class for a third year in a row.

Breaking out her sketch pad, she began to doodle a portrait of her brother Leonard from memory. He wore his hair long in dreadlocks like her father used to before he cut all of his hair off when he hit forty. Leonard looked most like their mother than the rest of them, having a more hooked nose and thinner lips. He had always said it was weird that he looked like Mum, Ella looked like Dad, and Terry resembled the two of them mixed together more than either of his older siblings.

She had begun to draw his hair when she registered the commotion in the room. As she had suspected, all four Gryffindor boys were among them, and Remus Lupin sat directly across from her on the outside of the middle row, with Peter beside him and James and Sirius sat behind them. The new professor still hadn't arrived yet, and they were all chatting away about something she was too late to catch on to, so she decided to let it go and continue drawing her brother. Of course, that didn't last too long.

"Who's that you're drawing?" A girl asked from the seat beside her, and Ella lifted her head to look. She recognized her quickly as Lily Evans, a Gryffindor in her year. Of course she would be, Ella chastised herself, or she wouldn't be in the class with you. Her hair was a nice red, easy on the eyes. She had her books and things on the desk in a small neat stack, and most likely intended to sit next to her.

"It's my older brother, Leonard." Ella told her quietly, leaning back so Lily could get a better view. The girl sat down and looked closer at the sketch. Ella found herself glancing around the room, wondering where on Earth the professor was so she could get on without having to speak to others too much. It wasn't that Lily wasn't nice, she barely knew her. It was just difficult to socialize when she sat in a cursed class. Cursed. The word sent shivers down her spine. She quickly pushed it out of her mind as best she could and came back to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"It's quite realistic." Lily commented, and Ella felt her face get hot.

"Thank you." She smiled thinly, and the door to the professor's office busted open loudly and unexpectedly, temporarily startling the class. One boy screamed, teetering on the edge of his chair before gripping the desk and putting all four legs back on the floor.

"That's one way to make an entrance." Lily murmured, arranging her quill and ink well on the table jerkily, face twisted with annoyance. Ella nodded, flipping to the front of her sketch pad to hide her work.

Juniper Geordan was her name, as she had been introduced to the school at the feast last night by the Headmaster. She was tall and long-limbed, black hair cut bluntly at the shoulder. Her lips were painted a dark purple that contrasted greatly with her ghostly pale skin, and her pupils were an unsettling bright green that was almost unnatural if not completely artificial. Her face was cool and collected as she stepped in long strides to the front desk. Hands at her sides, she looked completely blank until her face split into a wide grin, and she clapped her hands together excitedly.