I SPY || 𝕝𝕦𝕔𝕚𝕦𝕤 𝕞𝕒𝕝𝕗𝕠𝕪

Chapter 11. Selective Hearing

When Hermione asked the young professor to a secret meeting regarding better teaching, this wasn't exactly what Astrid had imagined. Gathered in a decrepit pub on a freezing snowy day with a cohort of students. Astrid had never been to the Hogshead when she had done her weekend visits to Hogsmead, and she didn't ever want too again. The smell was ghastly, and the locals were... strange. The only interesting thing about it was the fact it was possibly the human headquarters for the Goblin Rebellion of 1612, this place would make me want to rebel too Astrid thought to herself.

            Astrid was seated near a window, she watched the small town covered in a blanket of white whilst the students arrived, some of them whispered about the professor, others were more brazen.

            "Why did you invite a teacher, Harry?" Dean Thomas asked the boy who lived, who was sat at the front with Hermione and Ron.

            "Teacher? Don't you know who she is?" Fred Weasley asked the boy.

            "She's Mad-Eye Moody's daughter, duh," George Weasley shot Dean a quizzical look.

            "She's still a teacher," Dean shot back. Astrid stood from her seat abruptly, holding her hands up in surrender.

            "Don't want me here? Fine, I'll leave, and I won't tell anyone about this gathering," Astrid shrugged.

            "No, Astrid, Professor Moody, please stay," Harry asked, his eyes pleaded with her, and so she sat down, retaking her place in the window.

            "Professor Moody is to be trusted," Hermione spoke up. "Now is everyone here, should we get started?" Hermione asked Harry, the boy just shrugged his shoulders and motioned for Hermione to do her thing. The girl stood and addressed the group nervously.

            "Erm... hi," Hermione started awkwardly, "So you all know why we're here, we need a teacher, a proper teacher. One who's had real experience defending themselves against the dark arts," She announced. Astrid sighed awkwardly and rested her fingertips on her forehead, her elbow leaning against the worn sofa back. What was she being roped into now?

            "Why?" A boy wrapped up in a black scarf and beanie asked, attitude rife in his voice. Astrid recognised him as Zacharias Smith, a boy who sat at the back of her class and didn't really take much interest in her lessons.

            "Why? Because you-know-who is back, you tosspot!" Ron exclaimed, rolling his eyes.

            "So he says," Zacharias shot back, narrowing his eyes on Harry.

"So Dumbledore says," Hermione defended.

"So Dumbledore says because he says! The point is, where's the proof?" Zacharias countered.

"Enough Mr Smith," Astrid intervened, engaging the teacher within her.

"If Potter could tell us more about how Diggory got killed..." Michael Corner spoke up.

"Harry will do no such thing," Astrid shifted, leaning forward as she firmly addressed Corner boy.

"I'm not gonna talk about Cedric, so if that's why you're here, clear out now," Harry told his peers, Astrid nodded proudly at the boy as he stood his ground, but Harry faltered, he turned to Hermione and whispered to her frantically  "Come on, Hermione, they're here because they think I'm some sort of freak."

"Wait!" Hermione whispered back.

"Is it true you can produce a Patronus charm?" chirped up Luna Lovegood. Astrid smiled at the girl's question, she knew Luna wasn't popular at the school, often being picked on and bullied, but Astrid was fond of the girl, she was far more intelligent and interesting than the most of the students in the room.