Blood of the Moon {Remus Lupin}

Chapter 47

Me: Is a proud Gryffindor

Also me: Verbally destroys Gryffindor any chance I get :)

Auriga couldn't hear what had been said, but she knew something had been, because she could see her little brother's mouth moving all the way down on the pitch. The next thing she knew, the Weasley twins had been on top of him, and Potter had been trying to intervene, and she'd jumped up from her seat, along with McGonagall, who had been a few rows in front.

Now Auriga was leaving the hospital wing, leaving Draco with his Slytherin friends, a Ministry letter clutched in her hand, and was heading down to McGonagall's office. As much as she admired the severity of the Transfiguration Professor, she wasn't sure she'd quite be able to imprint the consequences in terms of the Ministry reaction. That was up to Auriga.

McGonagall's voice bellowed the whole way down the corridor, and there were two Ravenclaw second years standing wide-eyed outside and listening to every word. "To your common room, now," Auriga snapped, still seething with rage. "And five points from Ravenclaw." The pair hurried off just as Auriga reached the doorway.

"Have you any idea what you've-" McGonagall was saying, but all four of them - McGonagall, the twins and Potter - looked up upon her arrival. She shut the door carefully and deliberately behind her, and Potter attempted not to shiver. Good. That would make this whole thing a lot more impactful.

"Now," said Auriga, "I trust none of this conversation will ever leave this room." The three boys nodded.

"Of course," said McGonagall stiffly. "But I have the situation handled."

"While that may be so," said Auriga, careful to keep her voice sinister, "I'm afraid I must inform you of a few...facts. I understand that as an emotionally involved party, it would be unprofessional of me to intervene, so your fate remains with your head of house."

"Why wouldn't it?" asked McGonagall, her eyes narrowing.

"The Minister has sent me a letter," said Auriga, indicating the parchment in her hand, "Explaining that I have jurisdiction over the student punishments at Hogwarts." Everybody frowned, and she didn't blame them. "You should be aware, Weasleys, that your father's position at the Ministry is not a popular one, and as a result, you're at a disadvantage. Potter, your position at the Ministry is even more unpopular. If word got back to my higher-ups that I missed the opportunity to expel the three of you, I wouldn't just lose my job. I would most likely disappear for a good few years. Is that understood?" The three of them nodded. "And Potter, I understand you were only intervening-"

"Was he?" Ah yes, the others didn't know about his current relationship status. He looked at her, his eyes full of some sort of plea.

"Yes, Minerva," said Auriga, "It seems that some students are capable of restraint." She headed to the exit and surveyed the room once more. "I'll see the three of you on Monday. And don't ever do anything like this again, or I will be very limited with what I can do for you."

*****

Soon enough, the snow arrived at Hogwarts, and Auriga became infinitely more cheerful. Winter at Hogwarts was her favourite - even better than autumn, where all she wanted to do was spend her afternoons by a window reading a book with a cup of tea, listening to the rain beating the windows outside. Now she got to do that when it snowed heavily, and take long strolls in the grounds when the sky was clear and the air was fresh.

It was one such evening when Auriga peered out her office window and saw - to her great surprise - that the groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures professor had begun occupying his hut, no...house...again. This was evident from the column of smoke billowing from his chimney. She sighed and put the cap on her ink bottle. She was going to have to investigate this, or Fudge would have her head.

She'd just secured her thickest, fur-lined cloak on and pulled the matching cap over her ears when there was a knock at her door. Auriga opened it and peered out into the corridor - it was long past the student's ten o'clock curfew, so who could it be? To her further surprise Dumbledore stood there, also wrapped in a thick winter cloak, except his was plum and lined cheap-looking golden fur, and also adorned with tiny golden dots. He looked very...extravagant.

"Ah, Auriga," he said, smiling pleasantly, "I assume you were planning on taking the same trek as I?"

"As me," Auriga corrected. "I saw that Professor Hagrid has returned from wherever he's been," she added, scowling, "And the Minister will want to know where that is, so I thought I'd help him come up with a story that might actually hold up."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, Hagrid would have trouble doing that on his own." He paused for a moment. "Between you and I, he's been visiting the giants in the Alps."

"Giants?" asked Auriga, her eyes growing wide. "Well...he simply must tell me about that! It's one of the few magical languages I never learned. Mainly due to the lack of native speakers available to converse with-" She caught herself rambling and stopped.

Dumbledore chuckled again. "Well, I thought perhaps I could join you on your journey? Maybe offer a bridge between the two of you? You do, after all, come from very different backgrounds."

"The nature of my history and line of work means that that is often so," said Auriga, closing the door behind her and setting off. Despite her never giving verbal confirmation, Dumbledore strode alongside her anyway.

"How are you finding your time here?" he asked, remaining cheerful as ever.

"Oh, I suppose it's alright," she said. "I must say, it seems rather absurd that you don't keep a strict curriculum with a post that fluctuates so frequently." Dumbledore opened his mouth to respond, but Auriga stopped him at the sight of three pairs of footprints in the snow. "Is Hagrid particularly well-acquainted with any of the students here?"

"I've found he's very popular with most of them," said Dumbledore. "However, as it's after curfew, I'm sure it's only a few staff members out for a stroll. I seem to recall Pomona saying something about harvesting the moonflowers tonight."

Auriga doubted this very much, given that the greenhouses were round the other side of the castle, they found the footprints led right the way to Hagrid's door, and that voices could clearly be heard from inside. She threw a pointed look the headmaster's way, which was ignored as he knocked on the door.

They were welcomed in by Hagrid, who beamed at Dumbledore, and glanced nervously and repeatedly at Auriga. She smiled, which only seemed to make him more nervous. "Why are there three mugs of tea?" she asked, peering around. "And a smashed one on the floor?"

"Oh...er..." said Hagrid, glancing into a corner. "I was thirsty."

Auriga looked to Dumbledore, who her parents had told her was an accomplished legillimens, and saw him peering into the same corner. "Were you a Gryffindor, Hagrid?" she asked.

"Er...yeah, I was," he said with a frown. That explained quite a lot. After all, they were the most stupidly obvious house. She walked carefully over to the corner, peering round. Clearly, whoever was visiting was under some form of invisibility cloak, so she picked her wand from her pocket, and summoned an invisibility cloak.

A silvery material found its way into her hand, revealing Potter, Granger, and Ron Weasley, looking rather sheepish. "Merlin's beard, Potter!" Auriga exclaimed in exasperation. "What did I say about me expelling you?"

"Not to push you too far," Potter mumbled.

"So what, may I ask, are you doing outside your common room, well after curfew?"

"Obviously, we were visiting Hagrid," said Potter. Auriga was too astounded to take points for sarcasm, so she just raised her eyebrows in the classic teacher look she'd learned. "Sorry," he muttered.

"We'll head back now," said Granger, handing the two boys their cloaks.

"No, you won't," said Auriga. "I'm not letting you walk back to the castle yourselves, sit back down." They obliged. "I'll escort you back after we're done here. And you're all in detention. Wednesday night, my classroom." Dumbledore was looking rather smug.