Come What May

Chapter II

The New Defense Teachers

Take me for what I am

Who I was meant to be

And if you give a damn,

Take me, baby, or leave me!

“Take Me For What I Am” RENT

Roma took a deep breath and stepped through the seemingly solid barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. When she opened her yes she saw a long, scarlet steam engine pulled into Platform 9 3/4. She released the breath that she had been unknowingly holding.

The Platform was nearly empty, and, as Roma looked at a clock, she suddenly realized why: The train didn’t leave for another hour. Roma looked from the public clock on the wall to her watch on her wrist. It read 3:23 a. m. That was the time it was in California. She yawned and boarded the train.                            

After moving from compartment to compartment, she finally settled on the very last one. She stretched out lengthwise on the soft cushions and began to drift off to sleep, dreaming of full moons...and wolves...

* * *

Remus Lupin looked around the crowded Platform, smiling sadly. Many students greeted him happily, with nervous smiles. Some students gave him cold glares and scowls. Remus tried to ignore the Slytherins and boarded the train.

He couldn’t seem to find a compartment that wasn’t completely filled.. Finally, after the umpteenth filled seats, he came to the very last one, which was occupied by one solitary figure, who looked very familiar...

“R-Roma?” he whispered disbelievingly. After eight years, had she finally come back...?

* * *

Somewhere in her state of sleep Roma heard a voice say her name shakily. She tried to ignore it and began to drift off into a deeper sleep when she recognized the voice. She sat bolt upright.

“Remus?!” she said, looking at him as though he were a ghost. A ghost that she didn’t exactly want to see. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

“Well, I could ask you the same question but, since you asked first, I’m going to be one of the Defense teachers this year,” he said calmly, still looking at her as though he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “What are you doing here?”

Roma didn’t even hear him ask her the question; her brain was still trying to process what he had said. She abruptly stood up, anger boiling in her veins.

“He didn’t tell me...” she growled menacingly, hardly noticing Remus’ questioning stare. She turned on her heel and strode out of the compartment, as quickly as she could without running.

* * *

Remus stood, still stunned by the fact that Roma was...here. After she left, he stayed for a second, frozen in time, until he realized where Roma was going as he heard her echoing shout reach his sensitive ears from down the corridor...He followed her at a near sprint.

“Roma-wait!”

* * *

“DUMBLEDORE!” Roma yelled as she reached the door to the prefect compartment where she knew he was introducing the new prefects to their duties. She opened the door and slammed it behind her with a BAM!

Sprout, Snape, Flitwick, and McGonagall looked both surprised and annoyed at the interruption. Dumbledore, however, looked rather amused; his blue eyes were twinkling innocently behind his half-moon glasses.

“Hello, Roma. What can I help you with?” he said calmly, as though they were having a simple chat. For some reason this fired up Roma’s already hot-headed temper.

“Oh, don’t give me that, you old coot!” Roma fumed. Several audible gasps were heard in the room. Dumbledore continued to smile innocently as the door to the large compartment opened and Remus came in, wheezing.

“You did not tell me that he-” Roma pointed to Remus would be working here this year!”

* * *

Harry and Hermione sat nervously next to Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbot, the Hufflepuff prefects, listening to the Headmaster talk, when suddenly the speech was interrupted by a shout from the corridor and a tall, young woman entered the compartment, looking livid.

She had long, light brown hair and greenish-gold eyes. She was wearing muggle clothes: jeans and a plain green shirt. She was very pretty, and looked to be about twenty-eight.

Her face was tinted pink with rage. She was glaring at Dumbledore accusingly. The heads or houses were all looking at her in shock and anger, but she took no notice.

The door opened again and Remus Lupin entered, looking like he’d just run a marathon.

The young woman began shouting, pointing at Remus.

* * *

“Well, you never asked,” Dumbledore said mildly, shrugging his shoulders as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Roma...please...don’t overreact,” Remus said, panting slightly as he caught his breath.

“Don’t overreact?” Roma repeated, rounding on him. “You, Remus Lupin, are the last person who should be talking about overreacting. And this is your fault, too! You didn’t write to tell me you’d be teaching-”

“Well, I didn’t know either!” he shouted back, beginning to have one of the rare instances where he lost control. “No one told me; it’s not like you were the only one left in the dark!”

Before Roma could say anything back, Dumbledore interrupted.

“Stop. You two have no choice but to work here this year. I suggest you put your pasts behind you and go back to your compartment. Now,” he added with a note of finality in his voice.

Roma glared heatedly at Dumbledore before stomping away.

Remus sputtered, at a loss for words for a second. He looked around the room.

“Er...sorry about that,” he finally said apologetically, with a weak smile. “She can be a bit...um, temperamental, sometimes.’

“Not at all, Remus,” Dumbledore said with a wave of a hand.

Remus turned and followed Roma down the hall to their compartment. Roma sat down and promptly began banging her head on the window. She continued for nearly fifteen minutes before Remus interrupted her.    

“So...you’re-er-the new Dueling Defense professor?” he asked tentatively. Roma looked up at him. She sighed deeply before answering.

“Yes. McGonagall visited me about a week ago and...” she stopped, searching for the right word.

“Er...asked...?” Remus offered timidly, careful not to provoke her hot temper again. Roma glared at him.

“Try challenged. She practically dared me to come,’ Roma sibilated, her voice saturated with bitterness. She stared out the window for a second before continuing in a lighter tone. “You know how I can’t pass up a dare.”

Remus nodded unconsciously, before freezing. No, he didn’t know. He hardly knew her at all. He should have been there for her...all those times she must have needed him...all those times she must’ve cried. He shook his head, clearing it. Roma didn’t cry, he knew that. She simply wasn’t capable of shedding a tear, even when she had found out what she had become... Even after that fateful night...

“So, you’re the new Defense teacher this year,” Roma said. It wasn’t as much of a question as a statement; an accusation. Nevertheless, whatever it was, it had the result of snapping Remus out of his reverie.

“Yes,” he affirmed. He tore his eyes from the passing hills and mountains and back to her. “I am. I, unlike you, have been going by my real name, you know. Everyone calls me ‘Professor Lupin’ or ‘Lupin’ or ‘that damned werewolf’, in Snape’s case.”

“Snape?” Roma said, sounding both surprised and revolted. “He teaches here? What subject? Wait, don’t tell me, let me guess...um...Is it...Potions! I’m right, aren’t I? Yes! I am triumphant! Anyways, feel free to continue berating me for using an alias.” She said all of this without taking a breath as Remus tried in vain to answer her queries.

“Right...er...continuing, then,” Remus said uncertainly. “What name are you going to go by at Hogwarts?”

“Hmm...hadn’t really thought about it...until now, that is. I was actually thinking of going by my real name, but you working here changes everything,” she replied thoughtfully.

“No, you were seriously thinking of using your real name? What a change that would be!” Remus exclaimed in mock surprise. “What a concept, I mean! It’s simply unheard of!”

“Tala.. Yes, I will be referred to Professor Roma Tala,” she concluded, ignoring Remus’ caustic remark.

“Tala, hmm? Interesting, where’d you come up with that? You may want to inform Dumbledore of this month’s assumed name before he announces you as Professor-”

“Er...sorry to interrupt, but do you mind if we sit here?” a girl with bushy brown hair said before he could finish the sentence. Behind her stood a tall, lanky boy with vibrant red hair and another, smaller boy with messy black hair. The boy with black hair had spectacles that could hardly conceal his brilliant green eyes. He looked very familiar...

“Certainly, Hermione,” Remus replied, smiling broadly. The three sat down, Hermione by the redhead, who was obviously a Weasley, and the bespectacled boy by the remaining window. The Weasley edged slightly closer to Hermione. Remus noticed this and raised his eyebrows, looking meaningfully at the other boy, who rolled his eyes and smiled mischievously.

Roma realized who he was right at the moment he smiled that devious grin; she remembered another boy who would look just like that when he was about to crack a joke or play a prank on somebody. This boy was James and Lily Potters’ son. This boy was Harry Potter.

Roma’s eyes opened wide in recognition. She looked at Remus, who was staring carefully at her, trying to decipher reaction was. He grinned wolfishly at the look on her face.

She raised one eyebrow questioningly at him and he nodded in confirmation. Harry and Hermione looked between them bewilderedly, but neither of them said anything. Suddenly Remus looked embarrassed, as though he’d forgotten something, which, incidentally, happened to be his manners.

“Oh! I’m sorry, this is Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter, three of my students. They are in...is it fifth year now?” Remus asked, turning to Harry, who nodded. “Yes, well, Harry, Ron, Hermione, this is-”

“Roma,” Harry and Hermione said in unison. Remus, Ron, and Roma (A/N: Sorry for the RRR thing going here) looked at them in surprise.

Hermione and Harry Harry both grinned sheepishly and pointed to the large, silver badges on their robes, which were engraved with extravagantly decorated ‘P’s.

“Oh, um...sorry about that...” Roma replied, blushing. Remus chuckled while Ron, who hadn’t been in the Prefect compartment, stared at them all with a fixed, perplexed look.

“Yes, well, anyways, this is Roma...Antony, my-”

“Acquaintance,” Roma interjected through gritted teeth, shooting a warning glare at Remus.

“Right,” Remus said slowly, staring hard at Roma through narrowed eyes. “Acquaintance. Anyways, congratulations on being made prefects, you two. I’m sure they would have made Ron one but there can only be two prefects per house. Lily and I were the prefects for Gryffindor when we were at school.”

“My dad wasn’t a prefect?” Harry asked, surprised. Remus covered his mouth to stop from laughing while Roma turned her giggle into a coughing fit.

“N-no way! Not James!” Roma gasped out.

“Although you apparently don’t have to be a prefect to become the Head Boy, because he and Lils were Head Boy and Girl. First time the student Heads came from the same house in over half a century, too,” Remus said once he pulled himself together.

“You knew my dad?” Harry asked, his eyes wide, turning to Roma. She sighed; she hadn’t meant for everyone to know that she knew a lot of people here quiet personally, but had slipped up.

“Yes,” she finally admitted. “Never met Sirius Black or Pettigrew.” She spat the word like it was a vile substance. “But I did know Lily and James..”

Hermione, Ron, and Harry all looked at her, surprised. Did she know that Peter Pettigrew was alive? Did she know that Sirius was innocent? It certainly seemed that way. Suddenly, Hermione spoke up.

“How did you know James and Lily?”

“Huh?” Roma said, confused. Hermione took a deep breath before continuing, which was a sure sign that she had a lot to say.

“ How could you have known them when they were at school? You weren’t in the same year as them; I know the names of all the students who went to school in their year. Did you go to Hogwarts? I don’t recall your name on any of the lists of students that attended the seven years that the Marauders went to school. Furthermore, you look younger that Professor Lupin here- no offense, Professor- and your accent is American. Pacific coast, to be precise.’ She stopped to catch her breath and looked around at all of the shocked and impressed faces staring at her. Finally, Ron broke the silence.

“How do you know all that?” he asked quietly, obviously amazed that she would research all of that information, let alone memorize it.

“In third year, when you two were shunning me.” Harry and Ron looked at each other guiltily. “I had nothing better to do so, between visits with Hagrid, studying, homework, and researching for Buckbeak’s trial I read up on Hogwarts in the library,” Hermione said smugly.

The other four gaped at her. No wonder she was the top in all of her classes, save potions.

“Well, you are correct. I didn’t attend Hogwarts. I went to Sacramento School of Sorcery, in California, USA. I met James and Lily just before their wedding, and I had heard all about them from...” Roma glanced at Remus. “Er...friends in Britain who were students at Hogwarts.”

“Hmm,” Hermione said, looking skeptical. She pursed her lips and didn’t press for more information. She knew Roma was hiding something, and she was going to find out what it was.