Infamous | Fred Weasley x OC |

Chapter Four

Emmy joined me and Maddie at the Hufflepuff table that lunchtime. She'd sauntered over once she'd grabbed a sandwich from the Gryffindor table so as to not make a scene over eating food off another house's table. Once I had finished eating, I looked up across the great hall. I could see the twins and Lee sat huddled together at the Gryffindor table, probably scheming for their next prank. My view was suddenly blocked by a tall figure in Hufflepuff robes. I looked up.

"Oh hey, Kevin!"

Kevin had grown a lot over summer. Now he was in his fourth year he had really shot up.

"How are you?" I asked him as he was beaming, clearly ecstatic about something.

"I'm good. Really good! I just heard from the Hufflepuff quidditch captain that, because most of the team graduated last year, the chances are I'll make the team again this year."

"That's great news!" I said, genuinely happy for him. Kevin was the nicest guy I knew so of course, I was glad things were working out for him.

"You should try out too!"

"What?"

"You should try out too."

"Yes, I heard what you said. I'm just not sure that's a good idea." I responded, "I have no idea how to even play quidditch."

"But you watch the matches, right?" Kevin stated rather than asked, "And doesn't Emmy play for Gryffindor?"

"Yeah." I admitted, he was right on both accounts, "But that doesn't mean I can play." I quickly added to prevent him from saying 'I told you so'.

"Please, Allie. We only have six people who tried out, we just need one more person. Plus Hooch said you were a good flyer." Kevin argued, "Please!" He whined, really dragging out the word.

"Fine, I'll do it. But don't think me obeying your every wish is going to become a habit." I said. He winked as he walked away.

Great. What have I got myself into?

*

I always looked forward to Professor Lupin's lessons. He was by far the best defence against the dark arts teacher we've ever had. Lockhart was, well, Lockhart. Quirrell was an okay teacher if you ignore the part about harbouring You-Know-Who. And the professor we had in our first year, he was just weird. He was a shady dude. Emmy swears he had fangs. Sure, there was a rumour going around that he was actually a vampire but how true could that be? Actually, I'm not sure I want that answered. Professor Lupin was our first teacher who acted like a teacher. He actually taught us!

When we got to our defence against the dark arts lesson that morning, Maddie, Emmy and I arrived to find all the chairs and tables had been pushed back against the walls. Emmy looked thrilled as this could only mean one thing: a practical lesson. I heard Maddie sigh next to me. She didn't like practical lessons as much but only because it meant she had no desk to put her mountain of books on.

As per usual, the three of us had arrived early and stood around chatting while the rest of the class arrived. Lupin remained at the front of the class, leaning against his desk and keeping half an eye on us. That was another thing I liked about Professor Lupin. Although he was no doubt keeping an eye on us making sure we weren't messing around (he had quickly learnt that Emmy was more than capable of causing a scene), he mostly just let us get on with it. He seemed to understand that we were teenagers and teenagers were going to chat. Besides, it wasn't like we were as bad as the twins.

Once the rest of the class had arrived, Lupin began his lesson. We were going to work on counter curses again. We'd already had our theory lesson on them but, as Lupin said, if we need to defend ourselves, only learning the theory won't help.

"Gather round, class, gather round," Lupin called, waving us all over and getting us to stand in a circle around the empty space in the classroom, "Today we're going to be practising everything we've learnt about counter curses. Now you've all done excellently with last lesson's theory so we should have no problem with today's practical. We're going to start today's lesson with the leg-locker curse."

Emmy nudged me and smirked.

"Who do you think he's going to curse?" She whispered to me with a smirk. I rolled my eyes.

"It's going to be you if you don't stop talking," I whispered back but apparently too loudly.

"Miss Caswell," Lupin said and Emmy and I sprang apart, "Would you be so kind as to volunteer?"

After he'd called me out like that, I was in no place to disagree. I nodded with an anxious smile and pretended Emmy and I had definitely not been talking and stepped into the centre of the circle at Lupin's beckon.

"Now, not to worry Allie, I'll be using the curse on myself and you will demonstrate to the rest of the class how to execute the counter curse," He said, loud enough for the rest of the class to hear before adding softly so only I could hear, "You're homework was excellent so I have every faith you'll be able to perform the counter curse with no problem. Or else I'll have to hop down for dinner."

He laughed softly and I smiled too and gripped my wand, mentally preparing myself to actually cast a spell on a teacher.

"Ready?" He asked softly so he didn't humiliate me in front of the class. His warm hazel eyes gleamed as he smiled encouragingly. I nodded, "Locomotor mortis," He cast and his legs bound together.

I took a deep breath, my mind suddenly going blank, unable to recall the counter curse. Lupin nodded at me encouragingly and the counter curse suddenly came back to me.

With a flick of my wrist and a mumble of the incantation, Lupin's legs unbound. He took a big step just to prove to the rest of the class that I had done it successfully.

"Brilliant!" He exclaimed, clapping modestly, "Absolutely brilliant! Right," he said, rubbing his hands together, "Who wants to go next?"

Unsurprisingly, most of the class raised their hands, except for some sour faced Slytherins. Although I don't know why they didn't volunteer. This was the only chance they'd get to cast a spell on a teacher without getting detention.

*

The number of students who raised their hands certainly filled me with hope that I wasn't failing as a teacher. I waited for Allie to take her place back in the circle before choosing the next student. I couldn't help but watch her as she took her place next to Emelda Goldstein and Madeline Hewlett, the two girls she'd grown quite close to. I couldn't get over just how much she looked like her mother. The resemblance was only made stronger when she laughed at something Emelda had said to her and her eyes lit up, just like her mother's used to. She had the same light to them but her hazel eyes with those familiar flecks of green were the only difference she had to her mother. 

Her eyes were undeniably her father's.