TEACHER'S PET ━ 𝓡. Lupin

14. Promise

— "I COULD HAVE never imagined a worst way to end my seventh year at Hogwarts"
Muttered Delilah, resting her pale forehead onto the Three Broomsticks' old wooden table.

Natalia faintly smiled, gently caressing the Slytherin girl's silky blonde hair.
"Oh come on Lilah, don't be so dramatic, everybody knows you're Snape's absolute favorite student... These private lessons aren't gonna be that bad, you'll see!"

When it came to Potions it was undeniably true that Delilah was the top of their class, as far as Natalia could remember, her best friend had never, not even once, failed to perfectly complete one of Snape's assignments. She was surely carrying the Torrez's family name, her mother had in fact been an extremely skilled potion maker, she had actually met her soon to be husband, Delilah's dad, at work.

"Besides" Said Thea, seated on the bench across the table as she warmed up her bony fingers with a hot mug of butterbeer "You've still got plenty of time to prepare yourself! Your classes are due to begin in no less than two months, am I wrong?" Delilah had raised her head slightly, as to meet Thea's gaze, she had than slowly nodded "There you go! Nat and I have to deal with them right away, imagine that!"
Natalia had cracked a smile, even though her chest had got immediately weighty. Her private classes with Lupin were due to start the following day and she was anything but ready to find herself alone, eye to eye with him, once again.
During those fleeting days separating her from the lessons' beginning, she had frequently wondered what were Lupin's thoughts on tutoring her, out of all people, the student he had had the most unimaginable history with. She had wondered whether he had gotten any choice in the matter, if he had tried to avoid it, or if he had perhaps just accepted with resignation. Either way, speculating any further would have been pointless, nonetheless she wouldn't have had any answers.

"Anyways, I'm gonna go" Thea was now standing as she fixed her coat and scarf, so that her ears were carefully covered. "I have to see Jonah, we're revising together" The remaining two had nodded.
Once they had watched the Hufflepuff girl exiting the place, Natalia had promptly turned to Delilah, quirking an eyebrow.
"May I know since when Jj and Thea are spending this much time together? Am I really the first one to notice? He's been standing me up for months just because he's busy being with her!"

Delilah had straightened herself on her chair "Mhh..." She was carefully avoiding Natalia's gaze "I don't know, I haven't really noticed" She had muttered evasively, without really concealing the discomfort in her voice "Either way, I'm a little busy too, Lia, sorry" She had then said, shoving her right arm into her jacket's sleeve "I'm on prefect duty tonight, patrolling corridors and such, you know how it is... Those bloody first year kids are wild, they're giving us Slytherin prefects quite a few headaches. Three of them have unleashed a fanged frisbee into the girl's dorm last week..." She added, shaking her head as she gave Natalia a quick peck on the cheek. "See you at dinner!"

Delilah had left the Three Broomsticks as well, leaving Natalia alone with her butterbeer. "There's definitely something sketchy going on here..." She had whispered to herself as she took a sip from the warm drink.

[...]

The following morning Natalia had woken up at the crack of dawn, she had barely slept. The thought of the upcoming first lesson with Lupin she would have attended that same afternoon had badgered her all day long. Every class she had on schedule that Monday felt endless and she had almost been grateful for that, she wished for the three o'clock in the afternoon never to arrive. Yet, the hour eventually came.

After spending a good ten minutes obsessively fixing her hair, Natalia had headed towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The subtle noise caused by her shoes against the marble floor echoed among the castle's high walls, accompanied only by the girl's frantic heartbeat.