𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀 | No way out, nothingness, or the impenetrable. A puzzle or something puzzling.
Esmerelda spent the school year dog-hunting after discovering the truth about the mortal side of her family during a 'visit' to the Underworld. Her summer v...
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▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER FIVE ▬▬▬▬▬
IT WAS OCTOBER NOW AND Esmerelda's suspicions have only grown worse. After a whole month of him staring at her during class time and giving her small, uneasy smiles whenever she caught him, she was certain of it now. The new DADA professor was a creepy stalker.
As much as she wanted to just ditch his class, he was an unfortunately excellent teacher, better than all the other DADA professors she had so far. Which meant Esmerelda didn't really have much of a choice but to stay. Besides, he was also teaching them about dark creatures that—with her luck—she might encounter. So that was an even bigger reason why she couldn't skip.
She briefly wondered if he was a monster in disguise, wanting to eat her. But she had her doubts about that theory, because there were several moments—like that moment in the hallway outside of the Great Hall—where he was alone with her and he never once tried to attack her. In fact, he was oddly... nice to her. Monsters never bothered with niceties, especially towards demigods. He wasn't covered by the Mist either, so there was no true form he was trying to hide.
Which meant he was a regular human... who just so happened to be stalking her. Which also meant she couldn't kill him (well, unless he attacked her first, but that had yet to happen).
The only problem about all this... was that she was the only one who noticed how weird he was behaving towards her.
"Hey, Ernie, do you think Professor Lupin's a little... weird?" She asked the blonde quietly during the middle of their DADA lesson. Remus was all the way on the other side of the room, helping Neville understand how grindylows worked.
Ernie furrowed his brows. "Weird? No, not really. He seems perfectly fine to me. Why?"
"I think there might be something off about him..." She trailed off.
He gave her a funny look. "Really? I'm not seeing it."
Class ended before she could say anything else. As she started to file out of the classroom with the rest of the class, Remus called out to her.
"Ah, Esmerelda?" He said nervously.
She stopped and gave him a careful smile. "Yeah?"
"Good work today," he praised, smiling awkwardly. He even gave her a hesitant thumbs up. He reminded her of an awkward teenager who didn't know how to socialize with other people.
"Thanks, professor!" She said with a forcefully bright smile, then left.
Ernie glanced over at the door that was falling shut before muttering to her, "Okay yeah, that was a little weird."
Finally. Someone who agreed with her!
Relieved that the day was almost over, Esmerelda trudged over to the common room for the last obstacle of the day: tutoring session. The previous month had been a hard one with her additional lessons, but she miraculously survived it without too many issues. Cedric was pretty cool and chill despite how nerdy he seemed, and he was really good at dumbing things down for her.
