The Death Eater [HARRY POTTER]

6

"Good evening, students!" Headmaster Dumbledore announced, although Calla paid little attention to him. Much to her surprise and amusement, Draco had decided to seat himself across from her at the dinner table, and was in the middle of filling her in on what happened on the train.

"-and Potter fainted!" Draco said gleefully. "I know that if a Dementor had wandered into my cabin, I wouldn't have even shuddered," Calla resisted the urge to inform Draco that he would likely wet himself, the powers of the Dementor being far worse than he would be able to imagine, "And then the new professor, a scrawny looking man with chocolate bars in his pockets, cast this weird charm and made the Dementos go away. Maybe this year out professor won't be an absolute mess."

Calla had been in the process of droning Draco out, until he happened to mention the new professor. Of course, her father had been unable to resist telling her about the new professors affliction, something that Minerva had been livid about, so now Calla couldn't help but imagine what this professor would look like. She was horribly curious, but she had been so focused on Draco's story up until that point that she hadn't had the chance to look up at the Professors' table.

But with the new professor on her mind, she finally got the chance to look up at the table, and she was actually surprised to see the haggard looking man sitting beside her father. The way Severus had described him, although she knew her father was prone to prejudice, the man would look completely unkempt, and covered in hair. The man sitting at the high table however looked very clean, if not a little raggedy. But Calla imagined that it was rather difficult for a werewolf to find a job, especially in the wizarding community.

Calla looked at the man for a long moment, but diverted her gaze when the man looked in her direction and the two of them locked eyes.

Calla only half listened to the rest of Dumbledore's speech, clapping when the new Professor and Hagrid's new teaching positions were announced, and then she ate her dinner, already ready to go to bed. She was honestly exhausted.

*******

Early Monday morning and Calla was awake and dressed, standing outside Professor Lupin's classroom, waiting for him to open the door. She wasn't exceptionally surprised to know that the professor was not in the habit of getting to the classroom early and opening the door. In Calla's experience, professors very rarely had everything ready for the first day, and it was very much expected that Professor Lupin would take the last few minutes to finish his preparations, free of the distraction that rowdy students presented. Besides, it was her first class of the day so she also wouldn't be surprised if Professor Lupin lingered in the Great Hall, talking to Minerva. Calla had noticed the way the two of them behaved toward one another while they shared dinner over the weekend. Calla would even wager a guess that Professor Lupin had been a Gryffindor when he was at Hogwarts. Or a Hufflepuff. He seemed the type.

Calla had been joined by Oliver Wood, who had offered her a polite nod when he came to stand beside her in the hallway, and the rest of the seventh year Gryffindor and Slytherin students fell into line behind him. Including but not limited to Marcus Flint, a particularly repulsive quidditch player that Calla loathed.

And then, finally, after Calla had been forced t survive the presence of Marcus Flint for far too long, a pair of footsteps sounded behind them in the hall, and as one the group turned to face the footsteps, only to see their professor making his way toward them with a boyish grin on his face.

"Sorry for running a bit late," Professor Lupin apologized as he came into hearing distance. "I was planning on beginning where your last professor left off, with Dementors, but by happy coincidence, our caretaker, Miter Filch found a boggart in an upstairs cabinet this morning, and Headmaster Dumbledore has allowed me to commandeer the the cabinet so that my classes can practice their Redikulous spell."