Lupa | Teddy Lupin

Chapter 2- A Quick Meeting

    Teddy and Maddie's group of friends were an odd bunch. For example, not one of them had a natural hair colour. The closest to natural was either Maddie's bright to dark red ombré or Victoire's platinum-silver blonde hair. Teddy and Emily were metamorphosis, so they could choose any hair colour, but they never chose a 'normal' hair colour. Meelee had peach coloured hair with streaks of neon orange and Sophia had pastel pink hair. Robbie's hair was a combination of lemon yellow and a mango yellow colour, Adam's was half lime and half pine green. Arabella had turquoise hair with white highlights, making it look like the ocean- Bella loved surfing. Maya had cobalt blue hair which was long enough to reach the bottom of the astronomy tower and Andrew's hair was light purple. Lillian had bright purple hair, styled in an afro, which she inherited from her African mother. Jack's hair was a very light pink, so light it normally looked white and to contrast it Xander's hair was dark blue, so dark it looked black sometimes. Finally, Hunter's hair was half black and half copper so when the lot of them walked into the Great Hall for lunch together on the first weekend of school, it was quite a scene.
Of course, they had not always been like this. In fact, most of them had only dyed their hair for the first time one or two months previous- Maddie, Teddy and Emily were the only ones used to rocking unnatural hair colours. So when the group (minus Maddie, due to the side effects of the full moon) strolled through the corridors for the first time that year, Professor McGonagall had almost had a heart attack.
The group were used to doing each others' hair, but this weekend they were taking it to a new level- they had practically bought a whole hair dye store, not to mention what to most people would be a lifetime worth of conditioner. They had organised to do this huge get together every three months- September, December, March and June. So they all had their hair dye or dyes of choice, some hair scissors, hair brushes and a heck of a lot of dying equipment.
The autumn breeze was fresh and crisp as they all went to sit out on the grass by the lake. The first step of this new operation was to cut their hair. The people who preferred doing this job were Maddie, Sophia, Bella, Jack and Adam. The next part of the plan was to dye each others' hair. Teddy, Emily, Xander, Robbie and Lillian did this job, making sure their friends hair was all to standards, including their own hair. Finally, once the dye had been rinsed, Victoire, Meelee, Hunter, Andrew and Maya braided their friends hair and somehow they managed to do all of this by lunch.
"How on earth do you get my hair so soft?" Maddie kept running her hand through her new bright red bob. Teddy tapped his nose and Maddie rolled her eyes. He slung his arm around her shoulders.
    "How do you feel Mads?"
"Brilliant?" She gave him a quizzical look, eyeing all of their friends around them. The group of friends turned the corner and almost instantly heard a yell. They stopped and look around to see their headmistress standing in front of them.
"Now what exactly wrong with natural hair?" She sighed in exasperation, looking back and forth between the group. She eyed all of them until she looked over at the far side of the group, where Emily was rapidly changing her colour from brown to blonde to red to black and back to blonde again. She flashed the elderly woman a smile. The professor sighed. "Oh, Miss Pilrick, could please join me in my office?" The professor proposed unexpectedly.
   Of course Maddie nodded, by as she walked down the corridor she turned and made an comical anxious face at her friends, making them all laugh.

   When Maddie walked into the professor's office she sat down stiffly, trying to cover up a groan. The professor looked down at the girl, concern clouding her eyes.
   "Miss Pilrick, how are you feeling?" She asked, the girl's stiffness not going unnoticed. Maddie knew the professor was not referring to the general day but to the most recent full moon.
   "I'm recovering, thank you professor." She responded politely. All of a sudden the office door opened and a ruffled looking Professor Lupin entered. When he smiled at Maddie, his smile reached his eyes, even through he stressed and tired appearance. Professor McGonagall stood up.
   "Professor Lupin." She nodded and indicated to the wooden and red cushion next to Maddie. He quickly walked over to sit down. Maddie's attention was then returned to the headmistress as she spoke again. "Now Ms Pilrick, you may be wondering why we have asked you up here today?" She looked at Maddie through her stern, but not cold gaze. Maddie nodded even more stiffly then she had sat down. She had a nasty cut and bruise on the back of her neck. She pressed her lips, which were still a little swollen together. Sympathy melted into Minerva's eyes.        
   "Well Ms Pilrick, as I am sure you are very aware, you have your O.W.Ls next year. The next two years of school are going to be the most stressful years of your life so far.
   In addition to that Madam Pomfrey has informed me that your monthly transformations are getting progressively worse as you get older. When you were in your first year, you had cuts and bruises. No doubt that they were unbelievably serious, even for a werewolf, but in your most recent transformation you managed to dislocate your own shoulder." Professor McGonagall looked on to the girl. She nodded at what the professor, and as she did the professor realised what she had just informed the student wasn't the most useful.
   Maddie was looking down to the ground, her elbow rested on her knee which was crossed and her fingers on her lower lip. As the professor described her recent transformation out loud she felt an odd tingle in her nose as an anxious wave took over her. For the first time this day Professor Lupin cleared his throat before opening his mouth to speak.
   "Now Maddie, you know we only want to help you." He said, looking her directly in the eye. Maddie swallowed. "And of course you are the smartest witch in your year- I'm sure you've memorised your textbooks and probably some OWL textbooks at this point?" He asked. When she nodded and blushed a bit Remus chuckled a little. "Our original solution was to have you do some of your exams this year. However when we proposed this to the Ministry, they refused to let you in your... condition, do exams at any other time different to your year group. So our only real solution is to ask you to sit the exams like any other student in the school. Do you think you would be able to handle the stress?" The professor asked with a kind expression. Before Maddie could answer Professor McGonagall spoke up again.
   "Of course we'll try to provide as much assistance as possible. I remember when Professor Lupin took his OWLS at your age, so of course his help should be extremely valuable to you. Oh Merlin's beard I've just made myself sound old..." The woman laughed, and Maddie and Remus joined. Maddie got up to leave.
   "Thank you so much professors." Maddie said and smiled before leaving the office.
   "Poor thing." Remus sighed. Minerva eyed him carefully.
   "Do you think she'll be able the stress, Remus? I seem to remember you struggling immensely. And of course you had your friends to support you." She stopped abruptly as both fell silent in the memory and good deeds of James, Sirius and even Peter. Remus' eyes sparkled.
   "I think she should tell her friends. Of course it is hard with so many of them, but it her decision." He replied, trying to stop his voice from wavering. The two stood in a comfortable silence for a while, Professor McGonagall resting a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Have you thought about asking your son or Victoire Weasley about their friend?" Both professors jumped out of their skin as a third voice joined their conversation. They looked up to none other than Albus Dumbledore smiling down on them, his blue eyes twinkling. When they shook their heads, he spoke again. "Ah, well my dear Minerva and Remus, sometimes it can be just as heard for the secret bearers as for the owner. Along with that, the keepers can often come up with a plausible solution."

A/N- Hey guys, I hope your enjoying the book so far! I just needed to ask a question- do you prefer chapters this length, longer (like the last chapter which was twice as long) or shorter (like the prologue)?
Luv ya!