At the beginning of the year, Allie was no one
Now she's infamous
**
Until her eleventh birthday, Allie didn't believe in magic. How could she when her mother had died when she was barely two and her father had never been around. Her life wasn't ver...
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I wasn't surprised to find that the three of us had got to defence against the dark arts early and I was definitely not surprised in the slightest that it was because Maddie had wanted to be there early. She had this thing where she had to be early. Emmy maintained it was because she was paranoid about being late. Maddie protested that she just didn't like being late. Who's to say who was right.
"What do we reckon then?" Emmy asked as we all took seats in the back of the class. All of us were watching Professor Lupin as he did some last-minute prep, "Think he's gonna last the year?"
"He looks normal," I shrugged, "So he'll definitely outdo Lockhart."
"I thought Lockhart was alright," Maddie said, taking out all her books and setting them in a stack on the desk, earning an eyebrow raise from Emmy.
"That's only because you read ahead and basically taught yourself." I quipped, gesturing to her stack of books as evidence, "The rest of us learnt nothing."
"You think he'll actually make a good teacher though? He looks a bit...homeless."
"Emmy!" I hissed, elbowing her and hoping Lupin didn't hear. He looked up at us and caught my eye. I had to look away in case he had heard. Emmy didn't seem to be embarrassed as she was still laughing.
"I think he'll be alright," I whispered to the others.
*
When I accepted the defence against the dark arts post, Dumbledore had given me several rolls of parchment with a register of students' names for each class I was teaching. They had certainly helped but seeing the rolls upon rolls of parchment did fill me with a dread that I would never remember my students' names. I had around 10 minutes before the first lesson with the fourth years was due to start so would use that time to hunt out the fourth year register and skim over the names.
I sat at the back of the room, perched on the desk and unrolled the parchment. I wasn't expecting it to unroll quite so far...I was never going to remember all of these names. I skimmed through the list- Katie Bell...Cho Chang- and then I saw her name. Caswell... No. It couldn't be.
In my confusion and, dare I say, panic, I stood up, clutching the parchment tighter and bringing it closer to my face in case my eyes had played some cruel trick on me. But no, there it was, written plain as day: Caswell. A name I hadn't seen written, or even heard, in years. A name I thought had died with its possessor, along with the rest of my old friends. Caswell...it couldn't be her.
I was awakened from my thoughts when the first of my students arrived. Three girls entered the room. There was still 5 minutes to go before the lesson officially started but I wasn't going to turn them away for arriving slightly early. They filed in and took the three seats at the back of the class, glancing my way occasionally, but otherwise keeping themselves to themselves. I shook my head, trying to clear my mind of that name and all the memories it brought back with it. I folded the parchment and put it back away in a draw in the desk and looked up at the first members of the class I would meet. And then I saw her.
