Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Forty Three

Kefira couldn't figure out the words to describe the new professor Gilderoy Lockhart. As soon as she walked into the classroom for Defense Against the Dark Arts, she saw that the classroom was decorated in pictures of the professor and instantly she felt uncomfortable. It was bad enough all their books for the class were actually written by the professor, but being surrounded by the pictures...it just came across as extremely excessive.

"This guy is a total lunatic!" Kefira said to Faye.

"But he's totally dreamy, isn't he?" Faye sighed with a smile. 

Kefira turned to her. "I'm sorry did you smack your head this morning, Faye? Have you seen the classroom? This is ridiculous!"

"No, it's great. He's great."

Unable to put up with the rest of the girls drooling over their professor, Kefira sat down with Neville who seemed to share the same hesitation about the professor.

"I've never wanted to punch someone so hard in the face before." Kefira growled under her breath as Professor Lockhart opened the lecture with talking about himself.

Suddenly, she felt Neville's hand rest over hers. 

"Let's not punch the professor, Kefi. I don't see how you'll be able to get out of that one without getting expelled."

"It would be worth it." she grumbled.

To make matters worse, to start off their first class, Professor Lockhart assigned their first quiz. But it had absolutely nothing to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, instead the students were asked questions such as what was Professor Lockhart's favorite color.

It was three pages long with fifty four questions.

"What the-" Kefira lost her temper when the next question pertained to Lockhart's ideal birthday present. "No way...I'm not taking this quiz!" she pushed the quiz away from her.

"Kefi.." Neville said nervously, he really didn't want Kefira to get into trouble of the first day of that class.

"This is stupid. He's stupid. This whole class is a joke!"

"You're going to get in trouble if you keep talking like that." Neville watched as Kefira stood up with her quiz in hand. He tried to make a grab for the back of her robes, but she was a lot faster. She walked up to the Professor and handed him the quiz before just strolling out of the classroom.

"Class is not finished!" Lockhart looked down to the blank quiz. "And she didn't answer any of the questions. Oh that girl is going to be trouble!"

Kefira continued to mock Lockhart's stupid voice and antics as she walked down the empty halls, as most students were in class, where they should be.

It was only Kefira's luck that she ran into the one professor who wasn't holding class.

"Miss Walsh, if my memory serves me correctly you are supposed to be in Defense Against the Dark Arts right now."

"Yeah I know, but I skipped it." Kefira said as she looked up from the floor to see Professor Snape looking directly at her.

"Are you openly admitting to skipping class, Miss Walsh?"

"I would hardly call it class, Professor. He gave a pop quiz about his autobiography. He asked us what his favorite color is, how is that going to help me learn to defend myself against the dark arts?"

"Students are not permitted to skip class, even if they disagree with the materials being taught." He clenched his jaw and Kefira rolled her eyes with a groan.

"Please don't make me go back in there. It was horrible. I rather get my fingernails ripped off individually."

Severus just stared at Kefira after she made that statement. He honestly didn't have a response. The majority of the Hogwarts staff didn't care for Lockhart either, and Severus couldn't believe that the dimwit had been chosen over him for the position.

"Can I go with you?" The question caught him off guard completely, however, he kept his face composed. 

"Excuse me?"

"Can I go with you? I'll do work I swear, I just really don't want to go back to that classroom."

"No." He answered her.

"Please!"

"No!"

"Pretty please!"

"Miss Walsh!"

"Please! Please! Please!"

"I said no and that's final! You are to take yourself back to your class right now!"

Kefira sat in the Potions classroom at one of the tables with her potions book open. Her legs swung back and forth under the table as she read one of the potions over.

Severus sat behind his desk, completely puzzled as to how he had actually allowed her to win. However, he had to admit, it the most quiet he had seen the child. She continued to read over the book, not once bothering to get out of her seat.

He didn't understand the girl, no matter how mean he was to her, she greeted him everyday as if they had just had tea the day prior.

As irritating and hyper as she was, there was no denying that she was smart as well. He didn't mark the package sent to her family containing her school supplies so he was unaware of how she figured out that it was he who had in fact sent her the items.

He knew that due to her parents having little knowledge of Kefira's new world, that it would be quite hard for her to get her supplies, and the last thing he wanted was her causing interruptions because she didn't have the proper supplies. She caused enough distractions as it was.

"Hey Professor Snape?"

He looked up from his desk but said nothing.

"I was just wondering...is there really such things as Flying Seahorses?" 

"It's written in your text, of course there is such things." he replied.

"Wow." she said under her breath as she looked back to her book.

"Why do you ask?" he questioned rising and walking over.

"Because it's in this potion..the Gi..."

"Girding Potion."

"Yeah that's the one!"

"You do not need to concern yourself with that potion, it's advance-"

"You made me brew a fifth year's potion." she countered. 

"As a punishment."

"I'm sorry, but is it bothering you that I'm trying to learn?" 

"You should be learning in your Defense Against the Dark Arts class-"

"He's not teaching us anything! I could care less about what shampoo the man uses unless that shampoo is going to magically save my life one day. You're a teacher, shouldn't you enjoy the fact that I want to learn!"

Severus turned away from the girl, keeping his back to her hoping she would just keep quiet for however long she would remain the classroom. After several moments of silence, he glanced over his shoulder to see that she had left.