Chapter IX - Silence

"Dumbledore, you wanted to see me?" Maggie was being formal towards her uncle since she was a teacher. The room was darkened and he was taking pills, once again.

"Why are you taking muggle pills Uncle A?" Dumbledore looked at her while she sat down in front of him. Fawkes came towards her (he always did that when she was around). Dumbledore smiled at its gesture and changed the topic.

"Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy and Jean Marx from Ravenclaw will taking private lessons with you, so please, handle your schedule to be able to see all of them, agreed?"

Maggie was upset. Why Malfoy? She hated Malfoy, all the pride and contempt she could feel coming from Draco, she had felt it before, years ago. She did not want to be close from him, further more teach him.

"Do you think that's wise? He's the son of a Deadeater, wouldn't it be harmful? Look at the Sucubus the other day... I'm not-" Dumbledore looked at her with piercing eyes and she shut up.

"Why don't you like him? He is in fact the son of a former Deadeater, but Lucius has proven himself to be worthy of our trust." Maggie looked at him in shock. What was wrong with Dumbledore?

He could never be worthy of anyone's trust. Albus knew that perfectly well. "Besides Marie, he's not his father, I believe Draco can, in fact, surprise you." Maggie looked at him with disbelief. "He reminds me of your father in many ways. He bullies Gryffindors and is extremely proud of his pure blood ascendance, still I'm sure he will do the right thing when the time comes. He's learnt to be fair and though he is most of the time reckless, well" Maggie breated heavily, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

She got up thinking "Whatever" and walked towards her classroom.

***

"Have you picked the topic Hermione?" Neville was the one most excited about the DADA class, which was odd, the only class he had ever felt comfortable in was Herbology. They all looked at him with disbelief. "What?"

He started walking towards the class. Behind him, Harry was walking with a hangover and Ron, next to him, trying to talk him out of drinking. "You can't keep doing this to yourself, listen to me mate." But Harry wouldn't.

When everyone was in their desks, Maggie greeted them and gave the news. "As you might know by now, 4 of you will be taking your private lessons with me. We'll be focusing in attacks and defenses, which will be the first test you'll have to pass in order to get to the Auror Career next year." Everyone stood silent.

"The ones that would like uptrainings in different areas will be either with Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall." Maggie looked at Neville who was about to have a heart attack "Don't worry Nev, you and Harry are with me." Then she looked at Jean and Draco and told them the same. Draco was furious.

"Look Malfoy, when the class is over stay for a while, I need to have a word with you." He nooded, reluctantly.

"Now, have you picked the topics?" She had written down all of them in the blackboard, and started putting a bar next to every one that got a vote. Telekinesis training and Shimmering were the most popular ones.

Only 3 people were missing. Harry told her she'd like to be trained in Telekinesis, while Hermione whispered "Psicokinesis" without even looking at her. Maggie smiled at Neville, who was the last one to answer.

He got up and cleared his throat. Draco laughed at him but stopped when Maggie threatened him with detention. "You'll be spending the next 2 weekends with me and Potter, you want one more?"

Neville smiled at her. She made him feel comfortable with himself and the way he was. He was slowly gaining confidence. "Well, Professor Matthews, I know this is not in the list, but I was wondering how you healed me the other day, and if you could teach us that." He blushed a bit but started smiling when she told everyone that was a wonderful idea.

She gathered them in groups of four and started teaching them the basics of Healing. Grounding was the primary thing "No, under any circumstance, use your own energy to heal another. That will heal the person but might leave you unconscious for all time." When she was sure they all had learnt the basics of Grounding, she taught them how to lead energy.

She got Harry's right hand and apparated a knife. It was a nice athame, silver, double bladed, with a tiny blue stone in the hand. A second after that his hand was bleeding. "Heal him Hermione" Hermione looked at her surprised "You cut him! You're not supposed to do that to students!" Maggie looked at her and breathed out.

"For being one of the two brightest witches of your generation, you are extremely cautios you know?" Maggie then healed Harry's hand in a second and cut her own left hand.

Seamus Finnigan tried to heal her and was quite good, though it left her a scar. She cut it again, Jean Marx gave it a try, then Draco (who gave her a shock, having one himself). Draco looked right into her eyes, without contempt or despise, he was frightened. But not of her, just frightened. Then it was Harry's turn.

Harry just couldn't do it, furthermore, she started bleeding heavily. That was a side effect she didn't expect. Neville then put her hand in between his, like he had seen her do in the Quidditch Court.

Her hand was perfect and she was very proud of him. "Here you go, that's was perfect Neville! 20 points to Gryffindor, you're the only one who did it the right way! You watch people, keep doing that, you can learn a lot from a person just by seeing how they react to things" she said this last part looking right into Hermione's eyes.

Hermione had to find out what was this teacher about.

The class ended until that same afternoon, for the senior students starting this year had double shifts of Defense. This was the first time Defense against the Dark Arts was Neville's favorite subject. But Harry hated it.

***

"Draco please wait" Maggie closed the door of the Class, leaving him locked inside with her. "Look, I know we started with the wrong foot." He wasn't looking at her, he was looking down, nodding.

"I like this idea of teaching you as much as you do, still, is what Dumbledore wants" He looked at her eyes and then looked away. She knew something was wrong, something was definetly wrong since he tried to heal her.

"Are you allright?" He looked at her, trying to look proud and disrespectful. "Anything else Professor?" He said that almost spitting.

"Nope, that's all. We might learn from each other you know?" Draco walked away.

What was she supposed to do? Neville was feeling proud of himself and that was great, but Harry hated her... and Draco... what was wrong with Draco?

*** ***

"As you all know by now, this is a very unusual year at Hogwarts. The Quidditch Tournament should have started weeks ago, but it hasn't. There is no specific reason for it besides the fact that the Magical World has been through some radical changes last summer and so has this school. I'm glad to see progress on the Elder Students thanks to the kind help of Professor Matthews and the rest of the staff. I can only hope that the rest of the school year will be as gratifying as this first month." Dumbledore coughed a bit, Maggie gave him a glass of water and he went on. "Allright then, the Quidditch Tournament will start this weekend, so gather your teams. And since we have many things to party upon, the first Ball of the Year will take place in two weeks. So get ready and find your partners!" Dumbledore sat down and took his pill. Maggie got him some more water and kept asking him and Minerva what was going on, but she'd get no answer.

Maggie suspected the obvious, Dumbledore was very sick, but she couldn't quite figure out why he hadn't retired. It was meant to happen one day and everyone knew Minerva would be the Headmistress. It made no sense, he needed some rest.


"So, Harry, who's going to be on the team?" Ron was one excited Keeper. Harry had completaly forgotten he was the captain of the Quidditch team. He kept staring at the teacher's table and thinking on the private lessons they were getting. He just wanted the clock to work faster so he could get to the lesson they had that afternoon.

He knew in his heart she had feelings for him as well. He could see it in her eyes, could sense it whenever she came near him. "I'm not sure Ron, you pick the team." He kept playing with his food and the Gryffindors fear they'd lose the Quidditch Cup to Slytherin...

Neville was reading some of his notes and was carrying books, one was from Salem Witches. "Oh you have that book, I've been looking all over for it!" Hermione was determined to find anything that would give her a clue about the teacher. She had sneaked into Professor McGonagall's files and searched for any sign of Marie Matthews, but hadn't found anything.

"Well, I'm sorry Hermione, I'm doing a research on the way they perform magic, you can have it when I return it after the midterms." Hermione looked at him surprised. Ron asked what was all that about. Neville cleared his throat and told them that he was going to the Auror College next year and he wanted to be aware of his full potential. Then he got his books and walked away.

"I guess you're not the only one with a crush on the teacher Harry" Ron thought it'd be fun saying something like that, but Harry didn't take it that way. "Choose the team and let me know Ron, we'll meet for pratice on wednesday." He got up and walked away.

Hermione and Ron looked at each other. Things were so different between them.

"I'm sending a letter to your brother." Ron agreed with her. Marie was hiding something. Hermione thought of looking for Snape's file. "The Deadeater Trials files are public, we should be able to find something in Hogsmeade Courthouse." Ron wondered how they'd get there, but then he remembered the passages and Harry's cloak. "We can't take his cloak Hermione, we just can't, maybe she's just young. Why do you always have to think the worse?"

Hermione was very upset, she knew in her heart she was right. "Fine Ronald, I'll do it alone, as usual."

***

Harry went near the Forbidden Forest, where Marie had told him to go. He saw Draco cursing her and Marie putting a wall of blue light in front of her. His first instinct was running to help her, but then she realized they were just practising. Draco looked upset about the private lesson, but not as much as Marie.

"Allright Malfoy, you did good today. Remember to practice sneaking out and the right hook. I'm sure you'll find some Gryffindor to bully." Draco smiled at that last comment. She was a mudblood for sure, still she was cute and the only teacher under 30 they ever had. He decided to do some research on her as well.

Malfoy waved at Harry and said bye, which was odd, Malfoy would never assume he existed, unless he wanted to pick up a fight. Harry thought it might had to do with his father turning to their side in the end, or maybe Draco was changing. Either way, that wasn't important. Marie was looking at him.

"So Harry, been practising?" and she just hit him off guard and sent him away. "I guess not. Always on guard Harry, always!" She came closer to him to help him up but he cursed her away. She smiled "Good, I didn't see that coming."

She got up and they kept practising, she told him they were gonna get tested soon and that the test would be a piece of cake. "The other two are nightmares, but I'm sure Neville and you will pass them. You're my best students." They started cursing each other and avoiding eye contact, but somehow after a while they were very close from one another. She was making some notes on this handbook she had over a log and he came closer to her.

He was determined to kiss her, to show her how he felt. He didn't even think about getting expelled for making a pass at a teacher or the fact she might plain reject him. He knew in his heart she liked him.

She was sitting down in the floor and he sat right next to her and started mocking her handwriting. It was kind of messy, still, all lefties are messy. He started messing with her pen and she started laughing pushing him away and he started tickling her and she just didn't feel like stopping him.... just pretending she wanted him to stop.

After two minutes like that she was laying down on the grass, he was holding her hands above her head with one hand and tickling her with another. She looked right into his eyes and his powdy little lips and just wanted to petrify that moment and make it last forever. But she couldn't, it was too risky.

They stopped laughing and he kept looking right into her eyes and her sweet lips and was getting closer from her when she said "Harry stop it." He apologised and got up, helping her up as well.

She decided to finish the class early and went away. Harry stopped her and asked her to save him a dance "Oh, Harry, that's very sweet, but I'm a teacher, I can't dance with students at the Ball." She walked out. She was clear and concise. She was a teacher and he was a student. Nothing could change that, at least nothing she could do could change that.

Harry walked to the Lake and stared at the calmness of the water, regreting ever coming back to Hogwarts for his last year.