An American Professor

Erin was not a morning person, and Mondays were the worst for her. She awoke to brilliant sunlight streaming into her room beating her right in the face. Rolling onto her side to stretch, she was jolted awake. Sirius was in bed with her, it hadn’t been a dream. That must also mean the stuff with Charlie had really happened the day before. Great, what a Monday this is already starting out to be!

Sirius was still sleeping soundly, so Erin carefully extracted herself from the bed. Violet, who’d been sleeping between them stretched lazily and asked, “Mew?”

“Shh,” Erin told her and watched as the kitten adjusted her position and went back to sleep. Erin silently pulled clothes from her wardrobe and changed in the bathroom hastily. When she re-entered the bedchambers once more before leaving, she found Sirius sitting up in the bed as if waiting for her.

“Trying to sneak out without saying good-bye?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I have classes to teach.”

“I know.” An awkward silence fell between them.

“Well,” Erin began, but couldn’t finish.

“Indeed,” he answered with a smile.

“I’m not sure what I should do about breakfast for you.”

“I’ll manage, just get going.”

“Alright, alright. Oh, Sirius, can Harry know you’re here? I think he’d really like to see you.”

“I want to see him, too. Yes, I suppose he can know.”

“Ok, I’ll arrange it. Will you be here after dinner? I’ll bring him by.”

“That’s fine.”

“Ok, well, have a good day. Get some rest.” She edged to the door.

“Yes, ma’am.” Erin laughed at his mock salute and left the room.

Arriving at the Great Hall, she found Snape and Flitwick in a heated conversation. Erin plopped into her seat, putting a halt to the conversation by putting up her hands to each side and stating flatly, “It is far too early on a blasted Monday morning for such an intense discussion. Back to your corners.” Seeing their surprised and blank faces, she added, “finish it later.”

“You’re certainly in a stellar mood,” Snape observed dryly.

“Bite me,” she snapped, then added, “I’m having a bad day.”

“It’s only eight thirty,” Flitwick twittered.

Sighing exasperatedly, Erin grabbed a piece of toast and snapped, “Fine, then I’m having a bad year!” With a final irritated glance to him and to Snape, she stormed out of the Great Hall to her classroom.

The day seemed to drag on forever, she found herself being easily distracted. Her lessons lacked their usual enthusiasm, and Erin vowed to make a better effort the following day. She kept putting off talking to Dumbledore all day.Following dinner, at which she’d used the opportunity to filch some food for Sirius, and apologize to Snape and Flitwick for her awful attitude that morning, she approached Dumbledore.

Taking the seat next to him, Erin put her hand on his arm, and he turned to look at her. “Professor, I have a problem.”

“What's wrong, Erin?”

Taking a deep breath, Erin said in a rush, “I’ve been thinking about it for days, but I just can’t figure out how I saw through the Polyjuice on Thursday, but I couldn’t do it when Wormtail pretended to be Charlie. I’m driving myself nuts, do you have any idea?”

Dumbledore patted her hand reassuringly before speaking, “Erin, I will admit, that I am not sure why you were able to see through Wormtail when he pretended to be Severus, but not when he was Mr. Weasley. I have a few theories, but no my dear, I don’t know why it worked one time and not another. Therefore, I must urge you to be very careful at all times, as you cannot be sure that this new ability will work every time.”

Still feeling very unsatisfied with the answer, Erin nodded and thanked Dumbledore before heading to the door. As she was walking through it, she remembered that Harry had wanted to speak with her the previous day. Looking around she spotted him next to Ron and Hermione just ahead of her.

Hurrying over to them she asked, “Harry, do you still want to talk?”

“If it’s not too much trouble.”

“Of course it isn’t.” He waved good-bye to the other two and Erin led him to her office, offered him a chair, and proceeded to ask him what was going on.

“I need some advice.” Erin blanched, what kind of advice could she possibly hope to give him?

“And you’re sure I’m the best person for this, uh, advice?”

“No, but I think so.”

“Well, ok, then, shoot.”

Harry stared at the ground and said, “I need to talk to you about girls.”

Erin was so shocked that she tried very hard not to laugh, but made a sound like a person choking, which she tried in vain to cover with a cough. “I repeat, you’re sure I’m the best person for this advice?” Erin shrugged her shoulders when he didn’t answer, and continued, “Well, this is a pretty broad topic, Harry. What exactly do you want to know about girls?”

He shuffled his feet and continued to stare at the ground, “Well, I need to know how you can tell if a girl likes you.”

“Any particular reason for the interest?” Erin asked fishing for details. And shouldn’t a fifteen year old boy know when a girl likes him? And then answering her own question, hell, men twice his age can’t tell when a woman is interested in him, what am I thinking?

“Kind of. There’s a girl I like, and I’d like to tell her,” he trailed off.

“Say no more. I understand. It’s a calculated risk. You like her, but you don’t want to be rejected, so you want to know if she feels the same about you before you tell her how you feel. Everyone feels that way at some point in time. Well, almost everyone,” she corrected herself.

“So, how can you tell?” he pressed.

“Well, I’ve found that unless the girl gives blatant hints, guys are oblivious. Actually, even when the hints are blatant guys are oblivious. Either they don’t notice, or they excuse the signals away. Your best bet would be to go with your gut, but you’ll second-guess that, everyone always does. So I think that you should just go ahead and tell me, that way I can be on the look out for you.” Erin knew she had been rambling, but shrugged it off awaiting Harry’s answer.

“I don’t know,” he hesitated.

“If you don’t want to tell me outright, then I could guess, and I’m sure I will be able to tell by your reaction.” He remained silent, so Erin took that as a yes, and decided to press on, and asked, “Hermione?”

“Eeew, no, she’s like my sister, gross.”

“Right, ok, Parvati?” He shook his head, “Hannah Abbott?” Harry’s face frowned, “Ok, that’s a no. Lavender?”

“No.”

“Cho?”

“Last year.”

“Ahh. Hmm, Ginny?” Harry blushed, but remained silent. Erin looked at him worriedly, “Ron’s sister?! Oh, shit.”

“I know,” he said glumly.

“Well, no wonder you don’t want to take a chance, why take the chance on getting beaten up by your best friend if you’re not actually certain his little sister likes you,” but from what I saw Saturday, it isn’t much of leap, she added silently. “Well, Harry, why don’t you let me watch, and I’ll let you know.” He nodded in ascent. “Now, I have some good news for you.” She’d piqued his curiosity. “Snuffles is here,” she whispered.

Harry looked around the office, “Where?”

Erin chuckled and whispered, “He’s not in here. He’s in my room.” Harry raised his eyebrows, and Erin blushed. “It’s not like that,” she hissed. He just smiled back, and she knew that he wasn’t buying it. “Do you want to see him or not?” she asked exasperatedly.

“I do.”

“Fine.” Erin led Harry to her rooms. She checked the hallway for other people before letting him in. Sirius wasn’t in the sitting room, and Erin motioned for Harry to stay put while she checked the other rooms. She found Sirius sitting by her window gazing at the crimson sky his expression sorrowful.

“Sirius?”

He turned quickly and the sadness faded slightly, but Erin could still see it in his eyes, “Hey.”

“Harry’s in the other room. He’s anxious to see you.” Sirius nodded and left the room. I’ll just give them their privacy, she decided. She had planned on running that evening as she’d missed it the night before, but decided to spend the evening studying.

Erin took the seat vacated by Sirius and began to stare blankly at her Transfiguration text. She waved her wand at the matchbox and turned it into a hedgehog. Giggling she flicked her wrist and changed it back. She’d actually been through the whole book, and was quite anxious to move to the next one. Sighing she flipped through her Charms text. Violet jumped up to sit beside her and the two snuggled for a few moments before Violet curled up next to Erin to go to sleep.

Leaning back, Erin stared outside. It was dark now and a frost was beginning to form on the grounds. Erin shivered in spite of herself. The only snow she’d even seen had been on TV and in the movies, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to say that much longer. Listening closely, she could not hear any voices coming from the other room. Of course, she realized they’d been talking quietly to start. I wonder if Harry’s asking Sirius about sex, she thought with a giggle.

Oh, grow up, Erin, she scolded and turned back to studying. She was interrupted a few minutes later when Sirius entered the room saying, “Harry said good night.”

Erin looked at him carefully. His curly hair was slightly ruffled and his face was weary. Uh oh, maybe I was right. “Did you two argue about something?”

“No, it’s just, well, he’s interested in girls.”

Erin fought to keep a straight face and asked innocently, “And you’d rather he was interested in boys?”

“No! I mean, it’s just that he’s so young.”

“Please, he’s fifteen. What were you doing when you were fifteen?”

Sirius blushed, “Well, uh, I, that’s not the point! What were you doing at fifteen?”

Erin smiled calmly, she’d anticipated this question, “This isn’t about me, it’s about Harry.”

“I know that, that’s the whole damn problem,” Sirius sighed deeply, “ I just wish his father were still alive.”

Silence hung in the air for several moments before Erin cleared her throat and asked, “So, what did you tell him?”

He looked up with an evil smile, “I can’t tell you that, it’s a guy secret. No woman can ever know that!”

Erin laughed, “Well, excuse me for asking. Are you hungry, by the way? I brought some food.”

“No, Dobby made sure I ate.”

Feeling her panic rise, she asked, “He knows you’re here? Is it safe?”

“A house elf never reveals his employer’s/master’s secret. I’ll be just fine.”

“Ok, if you’re sure.”

“I am. So, what are you doing?”

“Studying, but I’ve read these through already. I don’t feel like studying.” She pushed her books aside and looking at him again, asked, “So, do you want to talk about your surveillance work?”

“Nope, can’t, and I don’t like thinking about it when I’m not doing it.”

“Ok, well, hmm, what do you want to do?”

An evil glint came in his eye. Erin stood and put her hands on her hips, “Wipe that smirk off your face this instant.”

“What?” he asked feigning innocence.

“You know perfectly well what.” She tried to think of something completely boring, “Well, I could rearrange my sock drawer.”

“Yes, because that would be just fascinating.”

“I’m out of ideas, and yours are unacceptable, so…” she trailed off and resumed staring at him. He returned the stare. When it became too uncomfortable to bear, Erin broke the eye contact and decided to escape into the sitting room. Sitting on the plush sofa, she curled her legs underneath her.

Sirius joined her after a few moments. He sat at the other end of the sofa, and the conversation flowed easily. They chatted about everything but Sirius’ assignments and Erin’s abduction. The conversation was light and easy, a welcome relief for Erin. After a while, Erin began to notice that each time she stared at the fire, Sirius would inch closer. At this point, he was only sitting about three inches from her.

Turning her head to look at him, she saw that he was already staring at her. Feeling the all too familiar stirring in her stomach, Erin looked down and saw he’d laced his fingers through her own. Raising her head, she looked into his ice blue eyes and saw his intentions loud and clear.

Her body was screaming, ‘Just kiss him!’ Her mind felt cloudy; she wasn’t sure what to do. Her mind was trying to say, ‘Do you think this is really a good idea?’, but the message was lost as Sirius leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. A fire seemed to spark at her lips and race through her body as she leaned into his kiss to deepen it. As she moved closer into his embrace parting her lips under his, a loud, “Ahem!” interrupted them.

Groaning, Sirius pulled away and Erin did the same. Her lips still tingled from the passionate kiss and her body burned where he’d touched her. Dumbledore’s head was floating in her fireplace, and his eyes were definitely not twinkling. “I need to see you in my office, Sirius, now.” That said, he vanished.

Sirius jumped to his feet to gather his belongings. “A bit like being called to the principle’s office, huh?” she quipped.

“Erin, this is serious.”

Erin felt as if an icicle had stabbed into her heart, “Don’t you think I know that?”

He’d finished gathering his belongings and stood in front of her. “I don’t want to leave like this.”

“Then don’t go.”

“You know I have to.”

She nodded feeling the lump forming in her throat. “I know. Please promise me you’ll be careful.”

He nodded and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. He pulled back, kissed her on the forehead, and whispered, “See you soon,” and changed into a dog.

“Bye,” she echoed and watched him race from the room. She waited for him to leave before allowing the tears to spill down her cheeks. Burying her head in the couch cushions she let out a high-pitched wail that could have woken the dead before crying herself to sleep.