Queen of Disaster | 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑢𝑠 𝐿𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑛

Chapter 08

Diana felt her mouth go dry as she glared at the back of his head. She couldn't believe her eyes. In her third and fourth year, Remus hadn't been in this class. Diana cursed her luck that he would show up out-of-the-blue and take the Ancient Runes' subject in his fifth year.

Tearing her gaze away from him, Diana made her way toward her usual seat at the back of the classroom. She tried not to look at his direction, but every once in a while, her eyes automatically fell upon him.

     As though feeling someone's eyes on him, Remus suddenly turned his head back to glance behind his shoulder. His eyes caught Diana's for a quick second before she abruptly looked away.

She let out an inaudible sigh of relief when Remus looked away again, now taking out his quill and ink bottle from his inside backpack, placing them right next to his books tidily. He the  opened one of his Ancient Runes book, reading through it in advance before the start of the lesson.

"Morning, class!" Diana's head turned as Professor Kumar walked into the classroom a few moments later.

     Professor Anaya Kumar was an Indian witch with clear brown skin, long dark hair, and big black eyes. She was without doubt Diana's favorite teacher among all others, and she had helped her into becoming the top student in the Ancient Runes class. She was also the main reason that Ancient Runes was now Diana's favorite subject of all.

Once Professor Kumar had placed her wand and thick books on her desk, her eyes curiously fell on Remus, who was sitting at the front of the class, eagerly waiting for the lesson to begin.

"And who are you?" she asked with a bright smile on her lips.

"I'm Remus Lupin, Professor," he said politely. "I just took the class this year."

"Welcome to my class, Mr. Lupin," said the Professor kindly. "But you are aware that you'll be two years behind from everyone else in this room, right? There are two other books that you'll have to read, additional to the one I'll be teaching this year."

"Actually," Remus started, a little smile tucking at the edge of his lips, "I've already read them."

"Oh?" Professor Kumar raised her brows at him. Her smile then widened. "Would you mind if I tested your knowledge, then?"

Remus gave her a small nod. Now all the other students were watching him in amusement, including Diana, who wasn't aware that she was now sitting at the edge of her chair, waiting eagerly to see him screw up. Ancient Runes was a hard subject. It was impossible to have read two whole books over the summer and to have memorized it all in such a short time.

"Hmm... let's see... can you tell me the difference between these two words?" said Professor Kumar, writing them on the board.

     Easy. Partnership and defense, Diana thought to herself once she saw the words.

"Er... ehwaz means partnership. eihwaz mean defense," Remus answered after a moment of thinking.

"Correct!" Professor Kumar said brightly.

     She then took her wand in hand, and then drew a symbol in mid-air with a smoke which came out of the tip of her wand. It looked like a triangle with its tip pointing downward.

     "And can you tell me the meaning behind this symbol?" she asked him.

     Again, easy. That's air, Diana thought.

"That's the symbol of earth," Remus answered, this time with no hesitation.

"That symbol actually means air," Diana suddenly said confidently before she could stop herself, catching everyone's attention from where she sat at the back of the class.

Remus turned back to look at her along with the rest of the class.

"I'm pretty certain it's earth," Remus said again, but from his tone Diana could tell that he wasn't trying to sound arrogant or bitter. He was genuinely saying his opinion, with no intention of making her look bad.

"Actually, Miss Greengrass, the correct answer is earth," said the Professor, smiling with amusement.

Diana's jaw clenched at those words and her face fell. A few people in class sniggered.

"What are you smirking at?" Diana raised a brow at a Ravenclaw girl sitting in the row beside her, and so the girl quickly looked away fearfully.

As the class turned their focus back on Remus, Diana took out her book briskly and opened it up under her desk, flipping through the pages angrily to find the symbol. She was almost certain that it meant air.

But she gritted her teeth together as she finally found the symbol in the book, realizing that the Gryffindor boy had been right after all; the triangle with its tip pointing downward meant earth, meanwhile the triangle pointing upward meant air.

"I see you've done a great job catching up, Mr. Lupin," said the Professor. "If you had any questions, I'll be glad to help. If I wasn't around, you can ask Miss Greengrass. She's one of the best in class, despite that small mistake."

At the mention of her name, Diana accidentally shut the book in her hand so hard that it made a loud noise. Everyone turned at the sudden sound, staring at Diana's direction again, including Remus. But he then turned to face the Professor again.

"I think I'll be fine, Professor. But thank you," said Remus, giving Professor Kumar a polite nod of his head.

"Very well, then! Now, everyone, please open your books to page four. Today we'll be studying the runes belonging to Ancient Egypt, and the old curses and spells that have been used inside the Egyptian pyramids to protect their heritage from Muggles..." and so the Professor started on with the lesson.

Diana fell into a foul mood for the rest of the class, hating the feeling of being wrong. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against her chest, throwing one last glance at Remus.

     She might've just imagined it, but for a second, she could've sworn that she'd seen a triumphant grin playing at the edge of his lips.