Beauty and the Beast

Encountering

You could only imagine the type of trouble a young girl like myself could get herself into. But, you see, I never meant for any of this to happen. I swear it was only a crush. An eensy weensie schoolgirl crush.

I, Hermione Granger, fell for my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He was just so tall and nice, and dear goodness, I learned so much from his hands-on approach to teaching. I love learning, and he made it so easy. It also helped that it was the year I had received my time-turner.

Okay, okay, you caught me. The man was Remus Lupin. Famous marauder, shy man, chocolate lover. Werewolf. However, I had better start the story off from the beginning; otherwise it may not make any sense.

It was September 1 and I was walking onto the Hogwarts Express with my two best friends, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. Unfortunately, we did not get on early enough this year, so we found a mostly empty compartment. Only one man was sitting inside, and he appeared to be sleeping pretty soundly; we weren't going to disturb him, I was sure of it.

The three of us started talking quietly about the mass murderer that has just escaped from the magical world's maximum security prison. Sirius Black was imprisoned the week after Harry's parents were killed. Officially, he betrayed them. He was their secret keeper, and You-Know-Who still found out where they were. Then he killed one of his best friends, Peter Pettigrew, and all that was left of the shy man was a little pinkie finger.

It was at that point that the train came to a slow halt. I looked out the window to see if there were any signs to where we could be, or why we were stopped. It was rainy out and I saw the window begin to freeze over. I had read about this phenomenon somewhere, I just couldn't remember where. I was hopeless because I had no idea why this was happening.

A few seconds later, I saw a black figure outside the compartment. All happy thoughts that I had ever experienced escaped my imagination. The figure pulled open the compartment door without even touching the frame. It started moving toward Harry, and I heard a sucking sound coming from the gaping hole in its face.

I was preoccupied trying to figure out what to do to help my best friend, and I didn't realize the man in the corner had gotten up and preformed a spell. A white, glowing light shot out of the end of his wand and warded off the black figure. He quickly bent down to check Harry when the monster had disappeared.

"What was that?" I asked, shocked.

"A dementor" He answered, quickly. "He's unconscious. We will have to wait for him to wake up." He rummaged in his trunk for a minute and emerged with a bar of chocolate. He split it up and handed a piece to Ron, and then to me. "Here, eat this, it will help with the sorrow." He took a piece for himself and stuck it in his mouth; he chewed it slowly, looking down at Harry's pain-scrunched face. Several minutes of silence had passed when Harry finally came to. The tall man already had a square of chocolate ready for him.

Harry took it and said, "Thanks."

The tall man with light brown hair stood up from Harry's side and announced that he was going to visit the conductor and try and find out what just happened on the train. He left the compartment swiftly and left the three of us in the small area, stunned.

"Who was that?" Ron asked.

I took a quick look around the room and noticed his trunk on the shelf above the seat. "Remus J. Lupin." I stated matter-of-factly.

"How on earth..." Ron complained. I gestured to the trunk and watched his realization.

I don't necessarily like being a know-it-all, but I don't like when people are unobservant and oblivious to what is going on around them. My two best friends happen to be guilty of these two things, and it is unfortunate, but I like to believe I get through to them sometimes.

Lupin returned and told us that everything was fine and the train should be back on track in no time at all. He also determined that he would not be finishing the journey in the compartment with us, and grabbed his trunk and dragged it out of the car with him.

That night, after taking the self-drawn carriages, we piled into the Great Hall, and I looked up at the teacher's table, mostly to see who would be taking the Defense Against the Dark Arts position this year, due to the fact that Lockhart went loopy the year previous.

What I saw shocked me. It was the man from the train. It was Remus Lupin. In this light, I could see that his hair had a straight copper color, and he had pretty intense dark circles under his eyes. However, he wasn't unattractive. In fact, if I were a few years older, I wouldn't have hesitated to go after the man.

It was then, and only then, that I wondered why he had taken the train, instead of apparating, or coming on an earlier date, like most of the other professors did.

He caught me staring at him and gave me a little grin. A knowing grin. I looked away quickly and sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Ron.

"What was that about?" Ron asked, hunched over his place. I could just tell he was desperate for the sorting ceremony to be over and for food to arrive on his plate.

"Nothing, Ronald." I said, taking one last glance at the front table, where the grungy man was avidly talking with Professor Trelawney. I smiled and looked back to Harry, who was sitting across the table from me. He gave me a look and a raised eyebrow before McGonagall opened the Great Hall doors and led in the scared-looking first years.

The Sorting Hat was sitting on a stool up front, and McGonagall glided to the front of the room, while the incoming students looked wondrously up at the ceiling and around the hall at the returning witches and wizards. I could just remember what it was like to be in their position, but it seemed like so long ago that the three of us had stepped in those doors ourselves.

McGonagall stood in front and cleared her throat before announcing the first student, "Misty Abbott." A small, strawberry blond girl shuffles up to the front of the group and up the four steps to the stool. The scene looked familiar. Her sister, Hannah, had done the same thing three years previous. The hat rested on Misty's head for a few seconds before shouting, "RAVENCLAW!" She jumped as the hat's voice raised, and the Ravenclaw table erupted with applause as they gained the first student of the evening.

To be honest, I zoned out after the first sorting. It is the same every single year. Students join a house. Woop-dee-doo. I clapped when appropriate, and I glared at the twins and Ron whenever they booed at someone who was sorted into Slytherin. It just wasn't right. They weren't bad people for being sorted into that house. Slytherin did not equal evil. After the ceremony was done, Dumbledore gave his start of term speech. He welcomed all the new students, welcomed all the returning students back. He told us that the Forbidden Forest was prohibited, just as any other year. However, we all knew that it was all bologna; almost all punishments were carried out in the forest, under advisement of Hagrid. He also told us that Hagrid would be taking over for Professor Grubbly-Plank as the Care of Magical Creatures instructor. There is no better fit in my opinion. After Hagrid's introduction, Dumbledore gestured to the other end of the table, where Remus Lupin was sitting. He introduced him as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, and asked us to be kind to him in the following year.

I stole a glance up at him, and found him looking at me. He was trying to avoid eye contact with people; I could tell he was embarrassed by the attention Dumbledore put on him. I could see a small blush on his cheeks, and I smiled slightly up at him. He quickly looked away from me and continued looking at the headmaster.

Dumbledore finished up his speech and invited the food onto the table. I gingerly took some potatoes and meatloaf, while Harry and Ron loaded their plates with everything under the sun. I shook my head at them and poked around at my food. For some reason, I really wasn't hungry, but that was something I could deal with in the morning.