The library

Chapter 4

"'Mione!" A voice violently woke Hermione from her dream.
"What?!" She replied harshly.
"It's 8:30 you're going to be late for your first lesson with Professor Black if you don't get up soon!" Hermione's eyes snapped open and looked, terrified at her little redhead friend who had already thrown back the duvet and was dragging her out of bed.

"Ginny calm down I only have to go next door, the lesson was moved to the fifth floor corridor." Ginny slowed down then tilted her head in confusion.
"Who told you that? I didn't think you spoke to anyone in that class."
"I...uhhh.." Hermione wasn't about to tell Ginny what had happened in the library yesterday afternoon. In all honesty nothing had actually happened, but she still didn't want Ginny finding out about how Professor Black had approached her.

"Well?" The younger girl had started to get impatient; she wanted her friend to do well in this class, and being late definitely wasn't going to earn her any respect from Professor Black.

"Umm..Pansy came and found me in the library yesterday." Hermione regretted using this girl's name but she couldn't think of anyone else. Ginny arched her brow in utter disbelief.
"You've never had a pleasant conversation with that girl in your life." Ginny said, she now had her arms crossed and was watching Hermione carefully as she gathered her books. Hermione didn't know what to say, she just knew she couldn't tell Ginny the truth about what had happened in the library yesterday.

"Well she came to find me, she said she was too scared of Professor Black to cause me any trouble." Hermione sounded just confident enough for Ginny to let it go. I mean after all the woman was terrifying so it wasn't hard for the young girl to believe.

Ginny stopped had worrying about Hermione by this point and slowly started to panic about her first exam she had this morning. She turned frantic and started pacing around the dorm, going over spells and terms in her head. Hermione got changed as the girl continued to scuttle back and forth around the room. They spent five minutes or so talking each other down, Ginny for her exam and Hermione for Professor Black's lesson. Once they had both regained themselves and were breathing at a normal rate, they gave each other a hug and parted ways.

***

The door to Hermione's classroom creaked open and she saw there was already a few students sat down; Pansy, Draco and Blaise, amongst one or two others.

She took her seat a few rows in front of Draco and got her books out. The room was silent. Although Professor Black hadn't arrived yet they were all too scared to talk. None of the shutters were open so the room was lit by an elegant black chandelier hovering in the centre. The room quickly filled with the rest of the students, none of whom spoke a word, nothing but the quiet shuffling of feet and the placing of books on tables could be heard.

"Turn to page 165" a low yet authoritative voice came from the entrance.
Hermione recognised the voice instantly and turned round to see a dark figure leaning against the door frame. She soon noticed that no one else had dared to turn around and as she looked up to see her Professor, she saw the woman was staring directly back at her. They held each other's gaze for a second before Hermione quickly spun her head back around and opened her book.

Footsteps echoed all over the classroom as they approached the teachers desk. They paused briefly, just behind Hermione's desk. The girl could feel a presence looming over her, she stopped breathing, and dared not take her eyes off of the textbook. She couldn't hold her breath any longer, she inhaled slowly. There it was again. That same perfume that she had smelt yesterday, powerful and hypnotic, like a drug.

Professor Black took her seat at the front of the classroom and gave the students their instructions for the lesson. She was incredibly blunt in the way she spoke, it wouldn't surprise Hermione if she was incapable of showing or feeling emotion. She often wondered if her professor had always been like this but there was a look about her that suggested otherwise. She had an incredibly dark yet vibrant demeanour and her haunting black eyes told a thousand stories that she so desperately wanted to forget.

She put her feet up on the desk and charmed a scroll so she could read it without any effort, the woman hated reading students work. They were all so incompetent and just couldn't understand how dim witted some of them were; admittedly there were a few who had something of a natural talent for the dark arts and therefore did well in DADA. However so many students had been bubble wrapped as children and didn't know what they were up against. Bellatrix tried her hardest to teach them but some of them just didn't understand the sheer magnitude of how dangerous the world could be.

Every so often Hermione would glance up from her work to see that her Professor hadn't moved and still had her eyes fixated on the charmed scroll. She rather enjoyed lessons like this, everyone was incredibly focused on their work and it was dead silent- no messing around like she had grown accustomed to in her classes with Harry, Ron and various other childish students. The silence was a little unsettling at times as you could almost hear the heartbeat of the person sat beside you, however, the girl found it so much easier to complete her work.

The bell rang signalling the end of the hour and the students sat and looked at their teacher, waiting for an indication that it was ok to leave. She flicked her wrist and they all gathered their books together.
"Leave your work on my desk before you go and I'll be expecting that essay on unforgivable curses first thing on Thursday".

Hermione placed her work on Professor Black's desk last as everyone had pushed her out of the way, desperate to leave. She looked up at her teacher who had removed her feet from the table and was sat bolt upright, stalking each of her students with her eyes as they left, like a fox eyeing up its dinner.

Hermione met the woman's eyes for a second and that same feeling shivered all over her body, like she was trying penetrate her mind. Hermione could feel her cheeks begin to heat up, she looked to the floor, spun around and left the room. First at a swift walk, before breaking into a run, heading straight for the library.