After the War.

Lessons.

My eyes scoured the table as I searched for my little man. Well, he was taller but I enjoyed winding him up about being the shortest of all his siblings. Despite being the eldest. Then I found him and sat beside him and we spent time together. Discussing the food and he even tried to coerce me into eating food that he had on his plate but I picked up an apple and was careful to only eat the apple. It was juicy and also crisp as the skin put up some defence.

"So, what had you so upset yesterday?" I turned to him and began to think over how best to put it but I gave up and blandly spoke to him.

"Don't tell him I told you, don't look and don't tell another soul but Mr Andrews told me that I wouldn't be able to understand him and his troubles because I don't have a family that is willing to stick around for long enough to apply pressure like his does." It was no secret that Tim was furious as the vein in his little neck began to tick and I smiled, pretending that I wasn't hurt anymore, but I was.

Fortunately, the pair of us were distracted by the handing out of timetables. Slughorn handed Tim his and his face remained blank. His dark skin shining in the light and his hair adding to the beauty of his face. It was well known that he was attractive and I wasn't blind, nor was I stupid though, he had other girls with better prospects out there so I kept him at a distance. I waited for my timetable but it didn't happen and so I looked forward. Hoping to just get back into my bed and cry it out until the sting of my friend's words would fade.

A hand fell to my shoulder and I sighed after I jumped. Why her? It was always her. I couldn't do anything as she had put her hand there to make a point. Most were leaving the hall and so clearly breakfast was over so she just stood and waited. Tim didn't move but I sent him a look and he did so. Hesitantly, but he left eventually and then she sat beside me at the table. Food being cleared as soon as we were alone in the room. It was as if no food had been served even as it disappeared from view.

"Miss Flint. I wouldn't call it a secret that when I ask a question I expect an answer. Now, you may have your timetable but you should also know that for your rude behaviour in ignoring me and also taking into consideration the fact that you can't have house points added or taken you shall serve one detention tonight with me. I have some tasks that need doing and you will be perfect for them. But for now, I wish for you to answer my question from yesterday." I looked at her and realised that I hadn't really listened and so had forgotten. My mind drawing a blank and so she was growing impatient with me. "How do you know his name Miss Flint?" I sighed and realised that I had heard her the night before and even remember her asking.

"Oh, it is just an old wives tale. My step mum used to tell me it every night." She looked at me still and I wasn't sure what else she could have wanted from me.

"Well, the story?" I was so confused why she had put so much thought into it but she then stood and we walked together. Not sure where I was headed at all.

"Well, Dougal McGregor was a farmer boy. He was the pride and joy of his father and his siblings loved him. One day he meets a girl, she is the prettiest girl he has ever met and they both fell head over heels for one another. Spending so much time with one another that they were thought to already be married. Then, one day the pair are out walking in his field. The one the pair had playfully been working in the day before and he proposes. She is so in love with him that she agreed to it. After this the girl goes back home and has to tell her parents but the next time he sees her she tells him that they cannot marry. He asks and begs but she leaves with nothing told. Her mind and beauty had bewitched him and for a while he is led to believe that she never even loved him. After a few years the man meets another woman and she starts to put him together. She was a farmer as well and they fall madly in love and have five children who all live on the farm. Nothing was ever heard of from the woman since though it is actually believed that when told of the marriage it upset her but eventually she married another man and even settled, she never got over her love for the man she could have called her husband. Silly really and he has a funny name so it can't be true. I don't think. Just some Romeo and Juliet thing." I finished and realised that we had reached the lake. Water hitting the ground as the giant squid moved.

"How did you hear of this? Or your step mother." I thought for a second and looked up, her eyes looking beady and cold. Her back being a little more rigid than before.

"She said that she was one of the people that told him to never marry the second woman but to wait for the first. There had to be a reason and rumour had it that the woman was scared of something. Silly now that I say it but I used to love it." Her body was barely even moving and there was a chance that she had given up on breathing completely but eventually her body moved properly and so I figured the story or name was familiar. "Why? Professor, why do you care?" I was only trying to be inquisitive and the gleam in her eyes told me that she would never tell me so I dropped the matter.

"Imogen." She breathed out and I looked up at her with wide eyes. Not sure if she realised that she had said it but when I realised what she had said my mind started to believe what my second mother had said. I had a feeling that the woman before me was a part of it. Professor McGonagall was not married so she couldn't have been involved with Dougal. Perhaps McGongall had told him to marry the second woman.

"Miss Flint, if you were to ask me about any of the students in this school I would be able to tell you all of their past. You are less obvious. I know things that I have picked up through speaking to you but I don't know much. That is something I have tried to solve since you started here but I never could." That was when it hit. She hadn't lovingly stepped into my life to help me like she had said, to be my support and head of house but to find out what she wanted to know and to see what she wanted to see. At that point I pulled back. Both physically and mentally as I closed off just as I always should have. No one ever cared that much for me. Not even my sister. Who was too nervous to let me see her baby and wouldn't let me near her or her perfect life.

"That woman, she didn't marry Dougal, she was scared because she wanted a perfect life. She couldn't accept that the uphill race is the one most worth doing." I finished and walked off as she began to walk off to other students already up to no good. My mind was blanking as I realised that Tim, Emily and Apollo were the only three to not have secret thoughts or intentions when getting to know me. They were the only ones to never shove a pie in my face as I opened up to them a little more.

The wizarding world was just like the muggle one only this one had more glitter and glam so it looked to be a better place and with that I decided to walk and start reading ahead to do my best in the year to come.