Term 10 - Lesson 1 - Noon Class

Okay, next class. Ryland took a deep breath. He'd made his way to the Great Hall for lunch, and hard as he tried he had not been able to eat anything that didn't contain meat. It was an obsession now, Ryland was obsessed with red meat. He'd made the House Elves cook him a steak, and he'd been aware of the glances a few students nearby gave him when he was in the Kitchen talking to the little creatures. Now that he was back in his classroom, he held a huge cup of coffee. That was another one of his new addictions, pure and black coffee. Taking a sip, he took waved his wand to erase the writing from the last class and wrote on it again. Then, he sat back on his chair, put his drink down, and tried to fix his hair because he knew it was probably a shitty mess. He'd forgotten to brush it in the morning.

On The Board:

Fifth-year. Grand. Super hard classwork which she would do awfully in. OWL exams which she would fail miserably. This wasn’t the year for all this shite. And Aoife didn’t know how well she could cope with it, or if she could cope at all. And while she knew that there were people who had it a lot worse than she did, namely the VanDerbergs, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for herself because she just felt sad. Really sad. And lazy. Really lazy. Not like getting out of bed, ever.

Still, she managed to drag herself out of bed at about eleven after the longest lie in she’d had for years, and get ready for her first class of the year, Care of Magical Creatures. Now she didn’t hate the class, but unfortunately it involved thinking, interacting with people like the new professor and a stupid trek down to the classroom. After a makeshift breakfast of some sweets she had leftover from the train journey, she left the dorm and her amazingly comfortable bed and started to go down the stairs. What was with stairs at Hogwarts? They were everywhere! Had nobody invented a magical elevator yet? She felt a bit more energetic after the sweets though, and was soon jogging along the corridors.

Aoife ended up being the first student in the classroom. This always happened nowadays, not like in her first-year when she would get detentions for being late for DADA. She smiled to herself. But then the smile was gone in an instant. Because she saw the geezer sitting behind the desk. No. Anyone but him. She thought she’d got rid of him when he left a couple of years ago. But no, he was back. Obviously he just couldn’t stay away from her. She was the only one he could have come back for, since his true love was gone too.

“NO!” she yelled, finding it a good way to unleash her anger. “BILL! WHY BILL?!” Without giving him a second glance, she walked to the back of the classroom, picked up a chair and - after considering throwing at him but deciding against it - turned it around, to sit facing the opposite way. She didn’t want to have to look at his hideous face. In a toddler-style tantrum, she sat there staring at the back wall, determined not to turn around and have to see his face.

Aislinn liked animals, so this was a class she was looking towards to for the whole morning. In fact, she'd gotten over her shyness a little through out the summer. She could now freely walk up to people and ask for help, and she could walk around the hallways with a smile to give to strangers. It was a big improvement, really. So, she walked in and immediately noticed the small girl sitting on a desk facing AWAY from the front of the class. 

With curious eyes, Aislinn realized it was Aoife. Now, she wasn't sure what to think of the girl. Brushing some stray hairs away from her face, Aislinn took one of the seats, turned it around like Aoife had done, and sat down next to the girl. "Hey." she gave the red-head a big smile. Girls had to be together, and whatever reason Aoife had for not wanting to face the right way, Aislinn had to be a friend.

Care of Magical Creatures. Hunter had mixed feelings about the class - he'd actually enjoyed it in the past, whenever the animals they learned about weren't too girly and majestic and shit. But now, it kind of seemed like a waste of time. Not as much of a waste as muggle studies and astronomy, since he found it at least half interesting, but still pretty much a waste. Hunter was really starting to wonder if he could somehow only take potions and maybe charms and still somehow manage to not be homeless when he got out of school. But probably not.

For some reason, Hunter was in a slightly less shitty mood as he made his way to the classroom. Maybe it was because he'd gotten a fly in at the quidditch pitch that morning, and had taken his frustration out on a couple of bludgers, and when he'd finished he was feeling a bit better. Enough that he was able to eat some and then head down to class. Maybe it was just eating that had done it - he'd been practically starving himself up until that point, because he just wasn't hungry. Having a full stomach for the first time in nearly two weeks was probably lifting his mood a bit.

Hunter pushed open the door to the classroom, somehow actually managing to show up early, and stepped inside. The moment his eyes took in the scene before him, the last of his anger and bitterness actually fell away, replaced by a wave of confusion. The first thing he noticed was the professor - he'd known they were getting a new one, but hadn't known who. But the man sitting at the desk, waiting to start class, was Ryland Malfoy! Ryland had always been decent to Hunter, and he found himself feeling somewhat glad that he hadn't dropped the class before giving it a chance. If Ryland was teaching, it would probably be cool. It was a bit ironic, really, that he was teaching a class about creatures when he was sort of one himself. Hunter was probably the only one left in the school who knew about Ryland's Lycanthropy, now that Lucy and Morgana were gone.

The second thing that he noticed was that he wasn't the first one there. Right in the back of the room, Aoife and Aislinn had already taken their seats. Only, for some unfathomable, probably stupid reason, they'd turned their chairs around and were facing the back away from the front. So they were basically staring straight at Hunter when he walked in. And despite everything - his anger and horrible mood and shit - he couldn't help the snort of amusement as he took it in. So, after giving Ryland a confused look and shrugging his shoulders, he grabbed the chair next to Aoife, spun it around, and joined the club. "So is this the new thing that the cool kids are doing now?" he asked, looking over at the two of them with what was almost a genuine grin.

Aoife stopped in the middle of her silent rage for a second. She was forgetting that the Bill geezer was a professor now. And that meant he could give her detention. Which she didn’t really care about. But he could take away POINTS! Oh well. There was no backing down and being a coward now that she had turned her chair round. At least if he had the NERVE to punish her, it only gave her more reason to hate him. She adjusted the teal beret she was wearing just for the sake of it and made herself comfortable. It was a nice classroom this. It was just a shame what an evil git the professor was.

The sound of the door opening echoed through the classroom, but she didn’t turn around - she didn’t care who it was. But then the person was walking towards her, from what she could hear. And she saw who it was. “Hi Aislinn!” she grinned back, still staring at the back wall. It was a bit weird when she decided to turn her chair around too, but the redhead was used to weirdness. And she had learned that it was better to just roll with it and not complicate things with a bunch of questions. Maybe she had started a new trend? Maybe Aislinn hated Bill too? Probably not, Aislinn liked people in general. Who cared? She had someone to support her in this campaign, and that was good.

Of course, it got even weirder when Hunter decided to come in and turn his chair around too. She had always heard him go on about how wonderful Ryland was, and he could probably understand why she was doing this, so it didn’t make much sense. Aoife shrugged. “Hi Hunter!” She rolled her eyes at his remark about cool kids. She was anything but cool. She was anti-cool. But even that sounded sort of cool. “Yeah, join us rebels at the back,” she smiled.

Bill? Ryland turned around to face Aoife, the only girl he’d ever hated enough to want her run over by a bus. He didn’t say anything when she turned the desk around to face the wall, he just made a note to take points off her. 10 points. That was good, the other students could easily make up for it. Right? Then came another girl, a Hufflepuff. Ryland smiled at her as she walked in, because she seemed nice and not anything like Aoife O’Donnell, until she joined the red head in her silly rebellion.

Then came Hunter, the one who knew things about Ryland that he really shouldn’t know. Thanks, Lucy. The boy did the same thing, turned his desk around to join the girls. Ryland was about done with their shit. He was here to teach them, or at least attempt to do so. Standing up, he glared at them while their backs were turned, trying to decide what he should do about this.

“Oh, I see how it is.” Ryland said, as casually as he could. He let them chat a little bit, do whatever shit they needed to do before getting serious. “You all have five seconds to turn those desks around of it’s 15 points off for each of you.” Now, he didn’t care about being rude. They were older and they could handle anything. He wasn’t going to baby them like he could with the first years.

Points taken off? Noooo. Aislin sighed, ignoring Hunter and Aoife for a bit, and left her desk. Walking towards the front row, she said, "I apologize for that, Professor Malfoy." She had never wanted to be in trouble, let alone on the first class. Feeling guitly and glancing back towards the Gryffindors, Aislinn hoped they would regain their common sense and do as the professor asked.

The Ashwinder. Aislinn didn't know what thatwas, but she hoped it wasn't scary or dirty. Without thinking about it, she asked, "Sir, are we going to have class in the forest sometimes?" She knew, thanks to older students, that with the last Care of Magical Creatures the classes were often held outside actually meeting and caring for some of the creatures they studied in their books.

Ariel was lateish. She knew this, but it was minutes. Sure, her professor wouldn't withdraw points from her? Or he might. She didn't really know who it was. She took a deep breath as she found the right classroom and entered. And then she stopped dead. The professor was RYLAND?! The guy who'd given her the necklace she was currently wearing?! Or, he had technically given it to Darcy to give to her. It was nice though. But seriously?! Ariel had had a crush on him her first and second year. And now he was a professor. She was doomed to judge CoMC as her favorite class. But then she noticed how there was something wrong with the scene. Two people were sitting with their backs to the professor.

Aoife and him. Ariel grit her teeth and instantly looked away from him. A cold shiver went down her back, and she had to force herself forward so she wouldn't double over and heave for her breath and beg for him to become her friend again. She wanted him back. But she also knew that she couldn't forgive him for what he'd said to her without him apologizing. She walked straight past him, feeling weird for just being in the same room as him. When she sat down and gave a slight nod at Ryland, she suddenly wished she'd sat herself behind him, because now she only felt like he was watching her, ready to hurt her all over again. She was just sitting there, staring blindly into the blackboard in front of her, using all her muscles just to keep straight.

Oh, so he had decided to be a mean, tough professor? Well he had NO right to boss her about. He was still a moody teenager with no real qualifications for this job, she was guessing. Five seconds, huh? And what if she didn't? Oh, point deduction. For a moment, she considered turning around for the sake of the house cup, but then she remembered how many points she could earn in Charms and Muggle Studies. That would easily have Gryffindor win!

So Aoife stayed with her chair turned around, not giving a shit that Aislinn had decided to turn back around and apologise to Bill like a suck-up. That was her decision. And she didn't give a shit if Hunter turned around either - he probably would, and that was a good thing for Gryffindor. But this was about her pride and she would not let Gryffindoggy win. He didn't deserve respect from her, and she didn't plan on giving him any at all. "Oh well," she shrugged. Only fifteen points. There was that Charms project which she was going to earn FORTY for.

"Hi Ariel!" she greeted cheerfully when she saw the girl walk past them.

Apparently, Ryland wasn't amused by the direction that they were facing. Or was Hunter supposed to call him professor Malfoy now? As he got all serious and told them to turn around unless they wanted to lose fifteen points each, Hunter quickly decided that git was a more appropriate title. Aislinn turned her chair around pretty quickly after that. Aoife, predictably, did not. And Hunter might have, if Ryland hadn't said it the way he had. Hunter remembered Ryland as a pretty cool guy who wasn't nearly as bad as Aoife always thought he was. But if he was going to act like he was such an adult compared to them now, even though he'd literally just been a student not long ago, then Hunter would take back his high opinion of him. And he would also refuse to turn around, just out of principle.

But then, at the exact same time, Ariel entered the room. And any thought of Ryland was gone. Ariel. She walked straight past him, refusing to look at him, but he couldn't take his eyes off of her. It had been ages since they talked, and it was killing him to keep his distance from her. Aoife greeted her happily from beside him, because she was always obnoxiously oblivious to everything, and he wished he could do the same. But he remained silent.

And in the end, it was his gaze following her that turned him around to face the front, his eyes never leaving her as she sat down a few rows ahead of him. Every time he saw her, he was faced with this struggle - this horrible battle between staying away from her and begging her forgiveness. And he'd won the fight once again, but as always, he had to constantly beat the part of him that wanted to go to her into submission. It never stayed there on his own. Not the slightest bit amused by any aspect of the class anymore, Hunter leaned his head on his hand and released a sigh, suddenly just wishing that it was over.