Countenance [1] Sirius Black's Daughter

iv- defence against the dark arts

"GOODNESS, NATALIE. That looks absolutely disguting." Aiden scrunched up his nose, at Natalie who was obnoxiously devouring her breakfast.

"What?" Natalie asked through mouthfuls of food, "I'm hungry! Go away!"

Aiden turned away from the girl, to face Jessica, "So, today's your first Defence Against the Dark Arts Lesson, huh? How did Remus look?"

"Nervous, for sure. He was trying to hide it. But I could clearly see it, I had to literally climb over the mountains of chocolate wrappers on the floor. He stress eats, you know." Jessica said.

"Yeah, I saw from that the first time I came to your house." Aiden grinned.

"He takes stress too much." Natalie said, chewing her mouth full of food as she did so.

"Yeah, he tends to do that a lot." Jessica said grimly, "Anyway, I wanted to be early to class, you guys want to come?"

"Later, let me finish my food first." Natalie said without hesitation.

"I'll come." Aiden said.

"Right then, let's get going."

"Shit." Jessica mumbled and indicated Aiden to turn the other way.

"Why?" Aiden wondered aloud.

"You idiot! Shut the hell up, he'll hear you!" Jessica hissed.

"Black, Blake." he said like a snake nearing its prey.

   Jessica groaned as she turned to face Professor Snape. He had an odd, twisted sort of smile on his face.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, maybe you didn't notice, Professor, but I kind of like go to this school, sooo." Jessica said, looking over his shoulder to the corridor, but Snape stood cemented to the ground before her and a panicked looking Aiden.

"Stay in your limits, Black." Snape managed through gritted teeth, "I'll take ten points off of Gryffindor for your cheek — and Black, tuck your shirt in, five points off for that. And, don't you have a class to attend to?"

"Yes, we do, actually." Jessica said, "We would appreciate if you could move out of our way, Professor."

"Which class do you have?.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Ah," a jeer found it's way to Snape's lips, "I'm guessing you'll enjoy that lesson, Black?"

"Quite right, Ptofessor. In fact, I'm already sure that he is going to be the best Professor we've ever had." Jessica smiled sweetly.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Snape sneered, "Good professors are available, and teach their students everyday. They don't miss out all of a suuden, once a month."

I clenched my fists, "I don't get what you mean, Professor. Surely, he must be an amazing Professor, if he managed to get the spot, teaching Defence m a job you've been after for years, the way I heard it. He must have a talent that you lack if he got the job and you didn't."

Snape glared at the black haired girl with intense loathing, "Detention on Friday, Black."

"Good morning students," Remus pleasantly greeted his students as he entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts clasroom.

"My name is Professor R.J Lupin, and I know most of you have an objection to the fact that I'm Miss Black's uncle —"

Jessica failed to suppress a snort upon hearing "Miss Black" from Remus' lips. It just seemed so foreign for him to say that. She turned deep red as everyone in the class looked at her and Remus give her a what-the-actual-heck-was-that look.

"Sorry." She apologised quietly.

"Well as I was saying, I am Miss Black's Uncle, but I can assure you, I am not a voucher for favouritism," He winked "Unless someone happens to be a total genious!"

There were scattered laughs among the classroom, which seemed to lighten Remus' face up a bit more.

"Now, back to our studies. Turn to page four of your textbooks. I wanted to start you off easy. This is not a topic that many of you might be unaware of, as they were fairly common in Wizard households. Our topic of today, is Ghouls."

   Jessica quickly skimmed through the page. She knew that Remus was likely to ask a few questions here and there, and she wanted to make sure she knew all the definitions.

"Ghouls commonly have green eye colours, and greyish green skin. They are slimy buckteethed, but are generally harmless. They resemble ogres, and their official magical classification is beasts. I want you all to be takin notes on all this."

"That's about the basics of the basics on the topic of Ghouls, other than this, does anyone have any points about Ghouls they'd like to share?"

My hand shot up into the air, along with an annoying Ravenclaw, Judith Clearwater, and Natalie, who playfully stuck her tongue out at me.

"Let's see, er, why don't you all have turns, one by one? Miss Denswood, you can go first." Remus said, referring to Natalie.

I saw a Ravenclaw nearby me mutter about how Remus only chose her to be first because she was my friend. I made a mental note to tell Fred and George to prank her mercilessly for the next week.

"Miss Black, why don't you go next?"

"Ghouls tend to live in the attics or barns of wizards and witches. They are relatively harmless creatures and are just seen as nuisances because of the noise they make. They are relatively dimwitted, and live off of bugs and other household pests. At most, they will groan and throw objects." I said, and took a seat.

Remus smiled at me, and told Judith do go next, who groaned and said that she wanted to state the fact that I just stated.

"Well, er, I guess you can try again next time?" Remus asked.

"But it's so unfair! She always does that, and it's so mean!" Judith whined like a ten year old.

"Unless you're assuming that I'm a skilled Legilimens there is no way I could simply read your mind, and state the answers you want to." Jessica said, "And anyway, even if I was a Legilemens, I would be able to see nothing in your mind, since the somewhat of a knowledge you'd have, would be tucked under layers of fat, idiocy and — "

"Miss Black, enough." Remus warned.

When no one except Remus was looking, Jessica stuck her tongue out to him, to which he rolled his eyes.

Jessica reminded Remus so much of Sirius, that he didn't know how long he could stand it before he'd crack.