The Conference: Hogsmeade
by Melvacaea
Loads of thanks to all my reviewers! I'm in a Favorites list! *dances her happy dance*
I really worked on making the chapters longer and I think I've succeeded!
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Chapter Nine: Hogsmeade
October 31st dawned with false cheer and Mara rolled out of bed on that Monday morning. With a scowl, she brushed her teeth and showered, dressing in a set of black and red robes. She entered the hallway, to be accosted by a Remus that still smelled of sex. She stepped back from him and heard him ask her who was her partner in escorting the fourth years to the Hogsmeade carriages.
She blinked and raised her eyebrows, curiosity in her eyes.
"I'm with Sally, so... oh, hold on." They arrived at a bulletin board and she checked.
HALLOWEEN HOGSMEADE VISIT CHAPERONES:
Third year: Professors Trelawney and McGonagall
Fourth year: Professors Snape and Alexandria
Fifth year: Professors Remus Lupin and Sprout
Sixth year: Professors Flitwick and Hagrid
Seventh year: Professors Oliver Wood (he was now the new Quidditch professor) and Marianna Wood (his wife, professor of Ancient Runes)
Mara stared at her name and the one next to it, feeling a sympathetic hand pat her shoulder. She threw her hands into the air, annoyed, and stomped off in the direction of Hogsmeade. A thought wormed its way into her head: You'd think that the elder years wouldn't need chaperones. The thought was dashed from her mind as she saw her group. The fourth years stood in a huddled group, looking scared. A brief examination confirmed that Snape wasn't there.
"Oh, do stop sniveling!" she snapped at them. "I'm not going to let him hex you!"
"It's wonderful to know you trust me so much, Professor."
She turned in horror to face Snape, a twitch in the corner of his lips, gone as soon as it had come. She cleared her throat.
"Figure of speech."
"For what?" He arched an eyebrow and Mara turned to the fourth years.
"Permission slips!" she said, easily ignoring his question. She head a snort from behind her as she collected the trembling papers. "You know the rules and --"
"Professor McGonagall has informed me that we might have to go over the rules again," Snape interjected smoothly. She listened in fascination as he assumed the role of the great, greasy bastard, intimidating the fourth years. When he stopped, she continued to stare in complete astonishment. "What exactly do you find so captivating about me, Professor Alexandria?"
She jolted from her reverie and her mind searched frantically for a reason. "Nothing about you," she said lamely as they herded the students through the gates. "Just... em, thinking." She tuned him out and ordered the fourth years to stay together. Once they were all safely shown to the carriages, Mara turned gratefully back to the castle. Her hope was short-lived.
"Unfortunately, we must wait until the end of the Hogsmeade trip to escort them back."
"Damn it all to hell!" she swore without thinking. He arched his eyebrows at her vehemence and she coughed self-consciously. "I should have brought my work with me." She lifted her wand. "Accio conference bag!"
She tapped her foot on the ground, her hands buried in the pockets of her light, red jacket. Then, her black bag came whizzing to a halt before her. Slipping it onto her shoulder, she walked into Hogsmeade and, after a check with a passing fifth year, found the Three Broomsticks.
"Do you want anything, dear?" She looked up into Rosemerta's friendly face and ordered a firewhisky before halting in the middle of her order and sighing.
"I suppose I can't drink alcohol now. Bah. Give me a butterbeer." When a chuckling Rosemerta slid the drink to her, she looked down into its amber depths with something like thinly veiled loathing. "I really need a stiff drink right now."
Running her hands through her hair, she took out a quill and ink and began to scribble in the margin of the document before her. Before she knew it, she was pulling out a scrap piece of paper and writing out part of the Transfiguration presentation.
A werewolf's transformation occurs from several factors. The moon's light hits any part of their skin and it triggers the nerves to change and expand to a werewolf's nerve formation. The chromosomes are jumbled and united and depleted to fit the amount in a normal wolf (amount?). When this happens, the chromosome reading changes and the physical appearance is distorted within the moment. (Chromosomes replenished with transformation to human form).
-If male: testosterone/sex drive hits peak (sex drive increased one week before full moon)
-If female: sex drive hits peak (sex drive increased three days before full moon)
Yanking on a tendril of her hair, she flipped through the documents and was surprised when someone sat down in front of her. She looked up into Remus' eyes and gave him a small smile.
"The other professors are coming now," he said smoothly, indicating that she should get rid of all the papers that littered the table. Mara arched an eyebrow.
"That's nice." She turned her gaze back to the document.
"Move the papers, Mara. They're going to sit with us."
"They can just go sit somewhere else. I'm working."
"Today is a day for fun and relaxation and gossip, Mara! Come on!"
"Remus, I'm not going to finish on time. I need these next five hours to do all I can."
"Oh, please, Mara? Please? Come on, you're being a workaholic! You're being a... a third year Hermione!"
"REMUS!" The whole bar quieted and she flashed them an apologetic look. She lowered her voice. "I am doing this for you. In case you forget, you broke through my little selfish barrier and forced me to come down here. I have Charms plans to revise with your wife, I have staff meetings to attend in your wife's place, and I have a conference to finish. I haven't even found the pictures for the projector. Get off my back."
Remus blinked, taken aback, and his cousin picked up a document and turned him off. He watched her pick up the butterbeer and sip at it, scribbling a sentence. Then, he watched her look in an annoyed manner at the teachers that were coming in and standing next to the table to sit.
"Bring up another table, will you please, Hagrid?" McGonagall asked the giant loudly.
Slamming the mug onto the table, a vastly annoyed look set upon her features, she scooped up her papers and dumped them into her bag. She walked out of the restaurant after paying Rosemerta, not bothering to stay for the change.
"What's eating her goat?" Hagrid asked Remus, who shrugged and set about to be relaxed and happy with the rest of the staff that was there.
****
Mara, on the other hand, was in a foul mood as she leaned against the wall of a store. She then found the Hog's Head Inn and entered it, approaching the bartender.
"Oh to hell with it all," she muttered under her breath. "Can I have a firewhisky?"
"Not a good idea to be drinking while still on duty," someone said breezily behind her. She bit back a groan and paid for the whiskey, taking off into the last table, in the dark corner. "Do you ever listen to a voice of reason?"
"Not really. Now if all you're here for is to annoy the daylights out of me, get the hell out. I have work to do."
She sipped at the whiskey, taking out her papers and spreading them before her in neat piles. Transfiguration, Charms, Defense, Herbology, Divination... where were the Astronomy papers? She shuffled through her folder, taking out some maps, and she began to trace red lines, measuring the distance between the stars on the map.
"It looks very interesting." She heard him sit across from her in the booth and she grit her teeth together, eyes focused on the map. If he was trying to be sarcastic, he was failing miserably. "May I?"
She looked up at him in surprise. "May you what?"
"Read your notes." He waved his hand over the several piles of parchment and she shrugged.
"Beware of bad grammar, abbreviations, and incomplete thoughts. These are just notes. I haven't composed the full text yet. Oh. Oh, no. The bibliography. Ah..."
"I'm sure you can do it later."
He picked up a paper from the Herbology section and began to read it with lazy interest. She watched him reach for another parchment while finishing that one and his index finger run over the words. Amazed that he hadn't spoken to her about the Potions part, she shrugged and continued to write her part. It stayed like that, in companionable silence, her writing and flipping through pages, him reading what she wrote.
****
It was when Snape commented that they should go and collect the students that she came back to life. She had become engrossed in an Astronomy chart that she was meticulously measuring and tracing. He amazed her once more by helping her put away the papers.
"You're very knowledgeable in Charms," she heard him say. She gave him a tiny smile.
"It was my best class."
"Which was your worst?" He cast her a glance and watched her grin fiendishly.
"Divination. I -- ahem -- didn't have the aura," she said loftily in a perfect imitation of Trelawney, even though she hadn't taken classes at Hogwarts. She saw him smirk as they arrived at the carriages. "Fourth years! Fourth years, start packing up and getting over here!"
They ushered the fourteen-year-olds into the carriages, both of the them looking around uneasily. There was something in the air... When Dumbledore swept down, they both received a nasty feeling in their stomach.
"Ah. Headmaster."
"Severus, Mara!" he beamed. "I find it my duty to inform you of the Halloween dance. It was announced last night while both of you were grumbling away in the dungeons."
"Is it obligatory?" Mara asked quickly.
"Yes, except for the Lupins. I hope to see you there at seven. Oh, and it's a masque."
Mara scowled at the Headmaster's retreating back. "I don't believe this."
"What's not to believe? It's Albus."
"I have nothing to wear," she explained as she entered the carriage. She saw the amused look on his face as he followed.
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Hm, I'm having fun. Lots of it. You know the drill! Hope you liked it! (I did make it longer, see? *is proud*)
-Mel
This story archived at: Occlumency
http://occlumency.sycophanthex.com/viewstory.php?sid=2578