The Panda Who Ate Students

The Panda Who Ate Students

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Chapter 5:

I Have a Giant Panda, a Bloodthirsty One

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Remus eyed his first class of the day. All the desks had mysteriously been moved to the back of the classroom, where the students now sat, huddled together for some safety, eyeing him fearfully. Second-years had never looked so young and childish in his eyes as they did that day.

The werewolf sighed. "Oh, for the love of Godric," he muttered. Then he said aloud, "What on Earth is this, children? I assure you, Danpa is perfectly harmless. He would never do anything bad to any of you."

'That's what you think,' thought the animal himself, casting him a death glare. Then, however, knowing that it wouldn't be only glares but something much more serious involving death that would come to him otherwise, he gave the students as cute a look as he just could. Which was, not very cute. Rather, he managed to barely look not too murderous or harmful. It was hopefully better than nothing, though.

With some effort, however, he finally managed to convince the children that Danpa wouldn't claw, slaughter, brutally murder, or eat any of them. But that was when The Question was brought up.

"Err... Professor?" asked one of the Hufflepuffs, Diana Rubik, rather shyly. "Did Danpa really eat Professor Snape? I mean, of course he would never harm us," she said hurriedly, "but I thought that maybe..."

"Well, Danpa most definitely doesn't have anything to do with Severus's disappearance," Remus lied right away. "I recall Severus saying something about doing research in Ireland. Maybe he just decided to leave without telling anybody -- he would do something like that. And Danpa's appearance was just some kind of a coincidence. Poor creature, though," he sighed. "Now it's got everyone's hatred on its shoulders."

Letting his gaze wander around the room, he finally picked one of the students who sat in the front row -- that was, more than half of the length of the classroom from him. This student, Marinella Crow, was one of the bravest Gryffindors on her year. Yes, she would surely be suitable for this little task.

"Miss Crow?" Remus asked kindly. "Would you maybe want to pet Danpa to prove that it's not a threat?" At this, Marinella fainted. Remus sighed. "Okay, who would want to do that?" After another glance over the group of deathly pale students, he asked then carefully, "Really, anyone? Come on now, kids..."

However, nobody volunteered. So, finally, Remus just sighed again, then sat on the floor next to the giant panda. Sinking his hands into the soft fur and petting the enormous animal gently, he said, "Okay, class. Turn to page forty-three and start reading. Then, tell me what..."

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Before lunch Remus had a sixth year Advanced DADA class, Slytherins and Ravenclaws. Although most Advanced classes included all four Houses, so many students had DADA that they were still divided into two classes. Eyeing the students warily, Remus now braced himself for what would come. It could not be said that this class was one of the easiest ones. Rather, it was nearer to a nightmare.

"As you can see, Danpa is not here," Remus said then. "He decided to take a little nap in my office." With this, he nodded towards the door behind him. Danpa was currently asleep there for all he knew.

"Well, that's good," said Martin Hobbes, a Slytherin, rather loudly. He obviously wanted to be heard. "One animal behind the teacher's desk is certainly enough, I would not want to tolerate another!"

Remus raised his eyebrow. "Please explain yourself, Mister Hobbes," he said smoothly, obviously forcing to keep his voice even. "I do not think I quite understood what you just said."

"And I think you understood it quite well... Professor," the boy said mockingly. "I think it's a real shame that we have to be taught by an animal. I mean, it's all fine and well with me if a half-human teaches Care of Magical Creatures, who cares about that anyway, but couldn't they have at least found us a proper teacher for this subject? I mean, Defence Against Dark Arts with a Dark creature for a teacher!"

Unfortunately to Martin, however, Danpa was not yet asleep. Instead, he was listening to everything happening in the class, his ear pressed against the door. And he heard very well what was said.

A low growl escaped his throat. Since when had his Slytherins been so disrespectful?

"Mister Hobbes, that is enough!" he heard Remus's annoyed tone from the classroom. "If you don't stop your childish behaviour right now and behave your age, I will --"

"What? Send me to my Head of House? Well, this may be news to you, wolf, but Snape's not here anymore. And I don't think he would punish me for this anyway. But you don't dare to even give me a detention, now do you? You're afraid that the Board of School Governors decide that maybe an animal is not the best possible choice for our teacher, aren't you?"

Now, that was quite enough. Respect for the teacher, boy, even if it is only Lupin! If you don't respect one teacher, you respect none of them! And you have to respect your teachers!

And with this in mind, Danpa hit the door with one paw. With great satisfaction he noted that the door simply fell off its hinges. The fearful faces of the students met his gaze all over the classroom. Hobbes looked especially pale and frightened. Well, he should.

Very well aware of the gazes on himself, Danpa slowly walked to the boy's desk. Then he raised one paw and dropped it heavily on the desk, which shook. Looking the boy right in the eye, he growled lowly in his throat. Hobbes paled even further and shivered. It was obvious that the boy was really frightened.

Quite satisfied with himself and his doings, Danpa now walked back to the front of the classroom. Then he lay down next to the desk, giving the students one last threatening glare before settling down to sleep.

There were no more animal comments during that lesson.

*

"Thank you," said Remus later -- it was lunch time, but, suspecting that nobody would like to see Danpa in the Great Hall, he had asked the house-elves to bring them both some food into his office. "It was nice, although not really necessary. I've always managed to deal with them just by myself."

Danpa gave him a long look, chewing bamboo all the time. Did he mean that this had happened before?

"Usually, a mention of you -- excuse me, Professor Snape -- is enough to make them shut up," Remus said cheerfully. "They know that you don't take disrespect lightly. However, it seems that now that their Head of House isn't present in his usual form, the Slytherins don't see any reason to respect me."

Danpa growled lightly. He maybe didn't like Lupin that much, but not a student of his should ever be disrespectful to anybody! And besides, his continued existence in the world of living was now pretty much dependant on the werewolf. Therefore, he was determined to put those Slytherins under line.

Hobbes was a difficult one, though. His father was one of the School Governors, and although he wasn't as bad as Malfoy had been, he was certainly bad enough. Knowing very well that Remus's position in the school was awkward at best, the Slytherin used it shamelessly on his advantage.

Well, bad habits exist just to be got rid of. And Danpa was determined to correct this particular bad habit.

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