From the Eyes of the Werewolf

(AN: Thanks to Thing1 and Durayan for helping me come up with the material for this chapter. If you aren't a Star Trek fan, you might not get the inside jokes, but I still hope it makes you laugh! I know I was giggling when I wrote it!)

Chapter Five

It Takes One to Know One

Sitting alone in his new office, Remus looked through file after file of student information. How he was ever going to learn all these names he simply didn't know. Lucky for him, being a new teacher, his classes were being assigned one house and year at a time. Today he would meet the fifth year students, who he discovered were far behind in preparation for their up coming O.W.L.S. Gryffindor would be the first house to meet the new teacher, and it made Remus slightly nervous.

He had decided to start the class on defenses used in dueling. From what he read about the Dueling Club that was started a few years ago, there hadn't been much practice in this area. Remus knew that to pass the O.W.L.S., a wizard was required to be able to properly defend himself in a duel. Some of the curses that would be thrown at these students were very complex and dangerous. The rumors he heard as a boy about tragedies that could happen during the testing still left him feeling a bit uneasy.

He could hear that students were filing into the room now. There were some excited screeches from a few girls out in the hallway followed by a boy's voice calling after them, "It's only a little baby! It doesn't even have teeth yet!" Remus rolled his eyes and got up from his desk to investigate the commotion, although he had a pretty good idea what and who was causing all the fuss.

As he exited his office and entered the classroom, he was greeted by a handful of students all huddled together, looking curiously at a jar being held by a boy Remus could only assume was Lee Jordan. A few of the girls gasped and started yelling at him to put it away. As Remus drew closer to the group, Lee tried to hide the jar behind his back as he flashed a supposedly innocent smile towards Remus. Not falling for it one bit, Remus walked around the boy's back and got his first look at the creature in the jar.

It was a baby Doxy, no bigger than an index finger, but still potentially dangerous. Remus shifted his eyes from the black, hairy creature to Lee and back to the jar.

"Professor Lupin, I can explain," started Lee. "I thought I'd bring this to class so that you could show us how to defend ourselves against them. I got it while I was out in..."

Holding a hand up to silence him, Remus said, "That's quite all right, Lee. I don't think I really want to know how you got a hold of it." Remus had known from experience that you never want to give too much information to a teacher. "Unfortunately, even though we will not be learning about them in class today, I'm going to have to take this away from you. Although not dangerous as a baby, an adult Doxy's bite is poisonous and therefore Doxies are most certainly off limits to students." He took the jar from Lee and placed it on his desk.

One by one, the students filled in and took their seats. Remus stood in front of his desk as they quieted down and directed their attention towards him. Remus felt his stomach give a small lurch as a pang of nervousness hit him. But he only smiled and began on his introduction.

"Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm Professor Lupin, and I'm quite honored to be here this year. I hope I can serve in this position as well as your past professors."

"I hope you can be better!" a girl sitting next to one of the twins said, causing her classmates to break out into laughter.

Remus leaned to the side to get a better look at her. "Judging from what I have read about your last two professors, I, too, hope I can do better. Thank you for the encouragement...eh...Miss Bell. Katie isn't it?"

She nodded and Remus thought it would be a good chance for him to run down the names of the students on the roster. He headed around to the back of his desk and pulled out his chair. From the corner of his eye, he noticed one Weasley twin elbow the other. A glance down at his seat explained the action. A large Wizzing Worm had been placed on it, just waiting for Remus to sit down on it. He smiled and thought to himself, Oh, this is going to be a fun class.

Cautiously, he removed the unwanted item from his seat and placed it on his desktop, next to the Doxy in the jar. He noticed the twins' mouths hung open and they exchanged confused glances. Without saying a word about it, Remus sat down and opened his book and began calling out names, memorizing as he went.

"Since I have already met Miss Bell and have established that she is indeed here, I will start with Miranda Hawk."

"Here, sir." A shy looking girl in the back raised her hand. Remus nodded at her.

"Dennis Henshaw?" A boy in the front waved a hand at him, but said nothing.

"Ah, Mr. Jordan," Remus looked over at him, "we've met as well. Pattie Pratling?"The name startled Remus a bit.

"Here," sounded a rather large-framed girl.

"Any relation to a Portia Pratling?" The image of the girl from his days at Hogwarts filled his mind. She wasn't really an unattractive girl, but she was bigger than most of the boys and not afraid to show her muscles.

"She's my Aunt," Pattie said, looking quite a bit like Portia.

"The next time you see her, be sure to tell her I said 'Hello.' John Rougechemise?"

Another shy student at the back raised his hand to confirm attendance. Remus knew he would have to get him and Miss Hawk out of their shells by the end of the year. "Alicia Spinnet?"

"That's me!" a pretty girl in front said with a wide grin.

"Which brings me to Mr. and Mr. Weasley." Looking over at the two grinning, identical faces Remus asked, "How will I ever tell you two apart?"

"I'm Fred, the good-looking one," the one on the right said.

"Yeah, and I'm George, the smart one," said the other.

"Well, that clears it up for me. And that leaves Wendy Zeiss." Remus looked at the last only remaining girl in the class, who was smiling back at him.

Closing the roster, Remus stood up and began the prepared lesson. "I thought it would be to your benefit to learn how to block curses. I am aware that some of you participated in a Dueling Club for a short time last year. But, I would venture a guess that your skills are not up to standard if you want to pass your O.W.L.s at the end of the year. So, today you will be taking notes and reading somewhat on types of defense techniques. Then, over the term, we will be putting them into use."

The class opened their bags and started removing books, parchment, and quills. There was a slight hum of chatter, but as Remus stepped up to the board, it stopped. Only one voice was heard, that of Mr. Henshaw, asking to borrow a quill. To his surprise, Remus saw Fred hand Dennis his extra quill.

Walking over to the students, Remus continued his lecture without missing a beat. "When dueling, it is impossible to know what curse your opponent will use. Several curses have their own blocking spells, but for the time being, we will deal with the strategies that will work for all curses."

By this time, Remus was standing next to Dennis, who was poised and ready to take notes with the borrowed quill. Removing the quill from his hand, Remus handed him one of his own quills to use. There was puzzlement on the boy's faces, but he didn't ask questions. Fred furrowed his brow at Remus, but Remus just went on with the lesson, placing the quill, which was enchanted to squirt ink up at the user's face upon writing, on top of the Wizzing Worm, next to the Doxy on his desk.

"If you would open your books up to page 314, the first counter-spell I would like to discuss is referred to as the Mirrari Incantatum. Can anyone tell me why this spell is useful in dueling?"

Alicia raised her hand. "It reflects a curse being directed towards you, and send it back at the other person."

"Correct." Turning his back on the class, Remus wrote the words for the charm on the board while saying them out loud for the class to hear. "Ego deflectere tu viscosusium. Yes, it's a mouthful, but well worth the effort."

Remus noticed George holding out a very fine looking wand. It appeared to be brand new. "Professor Lupin, could you demonstrate it for us?" The innocent look on his face told Remus not to trust this wand.

"I will be happy to, George." Remus took the expensive looking wand from the boy and added it to the growing collection mounting on his desk. Turning around to face the class he added, "But not today. We'll save demonstration for another day." Fred and George stared at Remus with wide eyes.

"The other charm I think you will find useful is the Doubling Charm. Mr. Rouguechemise, can you describe what it entails?"

Surprised at being called on, John's face went red and his voice was soft when he spoke. "Doesn't it make you appear to be in two places at once?"

"It does indeed. Very nicely put." He rounded his desk and wrote on the board again. "The spell we use to create this effect is Decepto Picardus, and much easier to say, I might add." He turned back around, giving a slight pull on his front to straighten out his robe, just in time to see Fred passing a small object over to George.

Remus walked over to stand between them. "Both of these charms will help you immensely on your O.W.L.s. Not only will you need to know how to perform them, but also the history behind them and where they originated from." Remus reached down and removed the dungbomb from George's hand. "For the rest of the class period, please read up to page 320, taking notes in preparation for a quiz over the material the next time we meet." The dungbomb was added to the stack of tricks. "I will be wandering the room to observe your progress."

The class did as they were instructed and soon all that was heard was the scribbling of quills on parchment and the turning of pages. Remus looked over the shoulders of his students, correcting notes as he saw errors here and there and answering individual questions as they arose.

As the class neared an end, Remus heard a shuffling sound coming from over near Fred's desk. Casually working his way over to him, he paused at the student's side, took out his wand, and snuffed the lit wick of the Filibuster Firework. Making no comment to Fred, Remus removed the item and placed it with the other confiscated items on his desk.

A few minutes later, the bell sounded and the students began packing up their bags to leave. Remus smiled at them as they left, pleased that things went so well. Fred, George, and Lee lagged behind, sour expressions on their faces.

"Ah, boys, a moment please. I'd like to have a word about these rather interesting items I've been collecting all period."

"Yes, sir," all three boys chorused. Their heads almost bowed in preparation for the points that would be removed or the detention they were about to receive.

"It may benefit you better if you bring real wands, real quills, and books to class in the future. I noticed that you forgot your book today, George."

"What? Oh, er, yeah, see it wouldn't...er."

"Fit in your bag?" Remus raised an eyebrow at him. "I understand completely."

After passing a look to his twin, Fred said, "Professor Lupin, I have to ask, how did you know? I mean, we can usually get away with at least one trick in a class, especially if it's a new teacher. But you seemed to know what was coming the whole time. How did you do it?"

Scratching at the back of his neck, Remus answered with, "Let's just say it takes one to know one." He gave them a bright smile, and they smiled back. "Now, I believe you have Potions next? As I don't want to spoil any more of your fun, I will return all of these items to you...except the Doxy Mr. Jordan, that stays." With total surprise, the boys gathered up the Wizzing Worm, Spitting Quill, Fake Wand, Dungbomb, and Filibuster Firework and headed out into the hall. Remus shook his head as he heard Lee say as he left, "Professor Lupin sure is cool!"

All alone in the empty classroom, Remus said to himself, "If only I could see the look on Severus' face when that dungbomb goes off."