Life as I Knew It

Chapter 12--Professor Figg

After Zahara was gone, Pansy went about settling into her room. It was a small, barren room. It contained only a twin size bed, a wardrobe, and a small night table. There was an even smaller bathroom off the side, which was fairly disgusting with its grimy walls and cracked mirror. She knew why these teacher's quarters had fallen into disuse. She could not imagine that the others could possibly be this bad; otherwise, why would anyone teach here?

Pansy saw her trunk in the corner. She went about unpacking in the hopes of making the room more homey. Her robes barely fit in the small wardrobe, and the rest of her clothes would have to stay in the trunk. When she had finished unpacking, she looked around. Somehow, having her shoes lined up next to the wardrobe had not gone very far in improving the atmosphere of the room. In the next few days, she would be able to do things about her room. She was quite handy with the cleaning spells needed in the bathroom, and she was fairly sure she knew how to expand the wardrobe. With the library down the hall, she was positive she would even be able to find spells to transfigure the bed and fix the mirror. She was just too tired to do any of that magic that night.

Despite everything, Pansy was not going to complain about her room. Yes, it was completely cut off from the rest of her house, and the other houses, really. And yes, it was small and depressing, but there were worse alternatives. It even had a nice little window. This was all she had right now, and Pansy was going to make the best of it.

Pansy settled onto her bed. All alone, in the utter quietness of her room, she realized for the first time that she had no idea what she was supposed to do to fix the world. She was full of big plans and great hope, but what was she supposed to do with any of that? She knew that she needed to see Dumbledore again.

The next morning at breakfast, Pansy received her new schedule. Her first class was to be N.E.W.T Defence Against the Dark Arts, which was odd to her because she had only received an Acceptable in that subject. However, Professor Dumbledore had created her schedule personally, so she decided not to question it.

When she got to the Defence classroom, Pansy tried to find a place to sit. Hermione was sitting with Harry and Ron, which was to be expected. Daphne was sitting with Tracey and Morag. Draco's table was also full, but Pansy would not have asked to sit with him anyway. Up to that point, Draco had been the one to seek her out, and Pansy was determined to make sure that was always the case. She did not want any reason for Moonshyne to be able to rationally think that Pansy was throwing herself at him.

Pansy finally settled on asking to sit with Zahara and Padma Patil. After all, she liked Zahara at least as much as she liked anyone else. Pansy had been a prefect with Padma for the previous two years, and in that time she had never been given a reason to dislike the girl, other than the fact that she was naturally pretty. Padma was no prettier than she had been in the past, so Pansy was no longer going to hold that against her either. The girls quickly agreed to allow Pansy to sit with them, and she took a seat in the empty chair.

As always, there was an unfamiliar face at the front of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. The new teacher did not introduce herself, but launched into an introductory speech. Pansy quietly asked Zahara who the professor was.

"Arabella Figg," Zahara whispered back. "She is supposed to be a Squib."

Pansy did not bother to ask how Zahara knew this or what she meant by "supposed to be." It seemed to Pansy that nobody was supposed to be a Squib; it just kind of happened that way sometimes. How was it that a Squib was teaching at Hogwarts anyway?

Professor Figg suddenly stopped her lecture. "I'm sorry, I see that there is a new face in the class. I didn't mean to ignore you, dear. Please stand so the class can greet you. What is your name?"

Pansy reluctantly stood and said her name. Professor Figg's remark led her to believe that the woman had been teaching Defence for longer than just this year, which was not done anymore. Upon hearing her name, Figg faltered slightly.

Later in the class, Professor Figg attempted to demonstrate a bit of advanced magic, but she failed. This did not surprise Pansy if the woman was a Squib. On her third try though, she was able to successfully cast the spell. Pansy looked around to see if this success surprised anyone else. It did not seem to, so Pansy figured that was what Zahara meant.

As she was looking around, Pansy saw that Daphne was once again staring at her. Their eyes met, and Daphne raised her eyebrows. Pansy quickly looked away, but she was sure that Daphne knew more than she was letting on.