Hogwarts is my Home (A Remus Lupin fanfic)

Chapter Four- Let's Play Catch

Soon enough; the food was gone, the tea drunk and all that was left of either was some sugary residue on the table. A loud bell rung from an unidentifiable source. Minerva stood and dismissed the students who left their tables and started to amble slowly, clutching their timetables and scanning their friends' timetables with eager eyes to see which lessons they would share together.

From the higher teacher table, the professors stirred and, when all the student had left, started to appetite to their respective classrooms or offices.

"It was nice meeting you again dear!" Came Slughorn's booming voice from behind Mel.

"It was nice to see you again too Professor Slughorn's!" She chirped back, all the while dreading the inevitable inviting to come and see the students he had in his Slug Club.

Eventually the only two that were left were Remus and Mel.

"Aren't you coming?" He asked, "don't want to be late on your first day." Then she realised,

"I don't know where I'm teaching!" Mel let out an exasperated sigh.

"Don't worry Melisandre, you are just across the hall from me in room 3B when you are doing classwork and on the Quidditch pitch for the practical stuff you want to do. Not to sound stalkerish though!" He exclaimed, "Professor McGonagall just asked me to look out for you."
He held out a hand, "Come on, I'll apperate us there." Taking Remus' hand, Melisandre felt a surge of butterflies roaring through her stomach and felt immediate guilt. The only other time someone had made her feel like that was the man who had his ring on her finger.

They appeared in a dimly-lit corridor on the third floor with a few portrait lining the walls, but no one at present were occupying them. Mel's face heated up when she realised that she was still clutching Remus' hand and snatched her own away. She then took a step towards the wall, away from him, as if he had burned her. Remus looked Mel in mild surprise and Mel looked at the floor.

"Well, it was nice to meet you Mr Lupin. But I'm gonna set up my classroom now, bye." She said this rather quickly and then rushed inside the nearest door, assuming it to be her room. A chuckling sound come from Remus in the corridor. Mel was a little intrigued but chose to look at her surroundings instead. Now she knew what Remus was laughing about, she was surrounded by dark arts stuff, she was in his classroom.

By this time her face was fire engine red and when she slowly peered around the door at Remus, he was leaning against the wall in the corridor with a half-amused, half-awkward expression in his face.

"Sorry!" I laughed out and made a dash for the other door. Remus gave her an absent-minded half-smile in return and opened the door to 3C.

In my own room this time, I had a look around. The walls were bare as I had not decorated yet, so I transfigured the walls blue and made some old quidditch posters, showing the field and the positions, fly up and fix themselves securely to the wall at the front near the blackboard. In big, loopy handwriting Mel spelled out her name and what she would be teaching her class.

Professor Warbeck
Quidditch 101
Flying

And after quickly rearranging her file, ink pot and quills on her desk, she was ready for class. Sitting in her lovely, mahogany chair Mel cast a quick alohamora to open the door and the chittering third years ceased their chittering. They all filed in and Mel was mildly impressed at how neatly they did so, McGonagall must have been training them. When everyone had a seat and had their ink, quills, parchment and wands out. Mel stood up introduced herself.

"My name is Professor Warbeck, I will be teaching you Quidditch until 5th year instead of 'til 1st year because the Headmistress would like you to get some fresh air now and again." She could see some students groaning and one pudgy Hufflepuff had his head in his hands and Mel laughed internally.
"I am an ex-professional player myself and I am the niece of madam Hooch, whom I believe taught up to first year and arranged the yearly quidditch tournaments. I will be doing that now, so if you have any concerns, come and see me." A Ravenclaw at the front with long,brown hair had her hand stretched very high over her head and was obviously trying to get Mel's attention.

"Yes, miss.."

"Newby, Grace Newby. Will there be any exams like in other subjects?" Grace looked stressed out at the thought of more exams.

"Yes, miss Newby, you can now take theoretical quidditch as an OWL if you so choose and there will be, like apperation or driving, actually," Mel added thoughtfully, "it's more like a cycling test. You are allowed to use a broom if you fail, but you get a pretty certificate if you pass. And you can go out over muggle town and such like. So," Mel slammed an 'introduction to quidditch textbook' down on the table and said, "let's go outside."

Dutifully, the third years packed up their things and filed out. Chattering excitedly about the kind of broom they owned or what kind they were going to get or something that effect. Mel wasn't listening because she didn't really care what kind of brooms the little third years wanted, so she lead the way with long strides from the front of the school down the grassy banking to the pitch.

It was exactly how she remembered it. Tall, golden hoops and enough seats to accommodate every single student and teacher at Hogwarts. Mel turned sharply to face her class of thirty, and pointed her wand at the broom cupboard, casting an accio to collect the brooms and the quaffles.

"Right, class, let's play catch."