An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I managed to catch Kenneth on the way to DADA. Once I'd explained the prank to him, he was laughing his head off right along with me.

"Oh my God, that's brilliant!" he cried. "Did you see Pucey's face when your friend said 'five hundred points from Slytherin'? He almost fainted!"

After we had a good laugh, I ran ahead to find Lupin before the final bell rang. I was banking on him already being in his classroom, and fortunately for me, he was.

"Hey Professor!" I called brightly, giving him a wave and walking over. He was standing at his desk, going over some papers before class began.

"Alexa! I wasn't expecting anyone for another few minutes... did the bell ring already and I missed it?" he asked, looking slightly frazzled.

"No, no, I came early. I have a couple... guests with me today and I was hoping you wouldn't mind if they sat in on the lesson?"

Lupin's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Guests? How on earth did you get guests into the castle?"

I smiled to myself, thinking of Strange and all his crazy. "It's a long story. Basically though, they're friends from New York. And one of them, at least, I kinda need to keep an eye on."

Lupin paused and I could see him trying to process everything I just said. Eventually he gave up, shaking his head and looking back to me.

"As long as they're not too much of a disruption, they're perfectly welcome," he decided.

"Thanks Professor! You're the best!" I smiled and waved, then went to go find Loki and the rest of my friends. It was making me a little nervous letting him out of my sight for even a few minutes.

Fortunately, when I met back up with my group just outside the potions room, I found everything as normal and calm as the way I left it. I guess Loki had pulled a big enough prank recently that his craving for mischief was satisfied.

"What did Lupin say?" asked Fred.

"We're all set. As long as nobody like, sets something on fire, they're welcome in the class." Loki got a glint in his eye like I'd given him an idea, and I decided to shift so I was walking right next to him. "Have you told Angelina and Alicia about the whole thing yet?"

"No, we haven't seen them since the end of potions class," said George. He grinned. "I can't wait to tell them though. They'll be so bloody proud."

We got to Lupin's class just after the girls, and George was right. They were proud, and absolutely laughing their heads off.

"I do wish he actually had taken five hundred points off Slytherin, though," Angelina noted. "That would sure make our lives a whole lot easier going for the House Cup for the third year in a row."

"Pft, we don't need help for that. We're gonna blow all the other houses out of the water no matter what," I said confidently. My friends looked skeptical at my confidence, but nobody wanted to diss Gryffindor by saying anything.

"Alright everyone! It's time to start the day's lesson," called Lupin, getting everybody's attention. All the desks were pushed to the edges of the room, so I knew today was going to be interesting. "Today we're going to start practicing dueling."

The whole class started buzzing with excitement. We were finally learning dueling! I couldn't wait to get super good at this. Maybe I could use my magic to become a super hero like my dad!

"Settle down, settle down," said Lupin, trying to be heard over the chatter. "We still have to go over all the safety requirements and rules."

Everyone groaned, which made Lupin chuckle.