What Strange Love

Chapter 2-Class

The next morning Alma got ready quickly hand headed straight to the room of requirement. She made sure no one was around before entering. She sighed when she found Bellatrix was still in bed. Alma walked over to the bed and glared down at the death eater. But her gave softened the longer she looked at the other woman. Alma had never seen Bellatrix so at ease before. She snapped herself out of her thoughts. She ripped the pillow out from under Bellatrix's head and used it to hit the shorter woman in the face. "Wake up."

"What the fu-" Bellatrix cut herself off when she saw the glare sent her way. "Fun. What fun." She fixed her mistake as she sat up. "Never wake me up like that again."

"I suppose I'll have to get more creative then. Now get dressed while I start to prepare breakfast."

"You got it boss." Bellatrix mocked as she stood up and went over to her dresser to pull an outfit from it. Alma looked through the kitchen and found exactly what she needed to make blueberry pancakes. She got everything she needed out as she waited for Bellatrix to finish getting ready. "So." The woman said when she left the bathroom. "What are we making?"

"Blueberry pancakes. You pour the pancake mix into that bowl, while I wash the blueberries." Alma told the other woman what she needed to do before turning her back to her to wash the berries in the sink. She turned around just in time to witness disaster. "No! You can't pour it in from that high." She rushed over in an attempt to stop the shorter woman.

But it was much too late, pancake mix was everywhere. "Oops." Bellatrix said, looking down at her black dress that was now covered in a white powder. Then looked over at Alma and started laughing, no, cackling. "Boop." She said as she grinned and whipped some of the mix from the taller woman's nose.

"Not funny." Alma said, then cast a wandless spell to clean them up and replace all the spilled powder back into the bowl.

"Well I thought it was pretty funny."

"Of course you did. Move over." Alma bumped her hip against the other woman's, making her move to the side. "I'll take this from here. Why don't you wash the blueberries instead?"

After one more spill, which was of course once again Bellatrix's fault, the pancakes were finally done. "I admit, you know what you're doing." Alma gave a curt nod in agreement, not wanting to waste time by talking. Her mental clock told her she'd need to leave shortly. This was confirmed when she took out her pocket watch with a flick of her wrist.

"I need to go, I'll see you at lunch." Alma stood up, clearing and washing her plate with a flick of her wand. Bellatrix groaned.

"Can't you come any sooner?"

"No. Stay here."

Alma entered the classroom, but stayed in the back of the room near the doors, greeting the few students that dared show up no more then thirty seconds before the bell. It was also easy to overhear often interesting conversations from the back of the room, when students often didn't know she was there.

"Look here." A redhead, Ron spoke to his two friends as he pointed to something in the Daily Prophet. "It says that bloody witch has gone missing. Bellatrix Lestrange. Says she's run off."

"I never could stand that woman. She's absolutely horrible. And unnecessarily cruel." Hermione chimed in.

"Look, both the Ministry and death eaters are after her. She has no allys." Harry spoke up.

"Actually, read further. It says both sides are investigating her sister, Narcissa Malfoy. She was the person Bellatrix was closest to upon her disappearance." Ron pointed back at the paper. "Was she even a death eater?" He asked while closely examining a picture of the two sisters that had been published.

"No, I don't believe so." Hermione thought about it.

Alma walked over to the group. "Reading the paper in class are we? I'm afraid this is no time for that." She snatched the newspaper. "This is defense against the dark arts. We don't do much reading in here. Feel free to do so in your own time." They didn't protest when she didn't give the paper back. Alma went through the lesson quickly, then had students pair up to practice their stunning spells. Though they were in year seven and already knew how to do so. But the first few weeks of school was always a review for what they'd learned the past couple of years. They had gone an entire summer unable to practice magic after all.

As they worked Alma read through the Daily Prophet, only looking up when she heard loud noises. "Good job, Mr Portman." She congratulated Abe, who'd just landed one of the most effective stunning spells of the day on Olive.

As she read through the paper she found the points the golden trio had mentioned. The Ministry was indeed after Narcissa, who'd gone into hiding when some aurors showed up at Malfoy Manor. The death eaters seemed to be protecting her as of right now.

Soon class ended and everyone left. Alma only had three more class periods to teach before lunch, hopefully they'd go quickly. "Actually Mr Apiston, you're not moving your wand correctly. Miss Fraunfield, would you mind showing him how to do the spell properly?" Alma had to settle a debate on who was moving their wand wrong while teaching fourth year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.

The next class period she had fifth year Ravenclaws and Slytherins. "Professor?" Millard walked over to ask a question. "Is it true we'll be getting a new student soon?"

"I believe so. Why do you ask?"

"I heard a rumor they'd be peculiar. Is that true too?"

"I'm afraid we'll just have to wait and see. Now get back to work Mr Nullings." The boy sighed and went back to his desk to resume his assignment.

Though soon classes ended and it was time for lunch.

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I'm sorry it took me forever to update. But isn't that picture of Helena amazing?