The man wouldn’t blink for her.
She stared up into his green eyes, fighting the tempting urge to close her eyelids. The man had willpower, and she would be the first to ever admit that“ besides maybe her mother, of course.
Tabitha finally gave up and closed her eyes forcefully for a second before opening them back up. Her father stared back at her, a triumphant smirk on his face. She scowled at him; he may have won the battle, but the war was not yet over.
“Tab, love...” Harry Potter began before stopping suddenly and raked a hand through his dark hair. “Tabitha Kate, I owed McGon- I mean, Minerva a favor. Your professor is out, and when Minerva asked me if I would substitute, I couldn’t say no. It’s only for a few weeks.”
“Didn’t you think of us before you said yes?” Tabby asked hotly. “Or did you just agree as soon as McGonagall asked you?”
Harry sighed and looked at his daughter. “Of course your mother and I discussed it through, but in the end we decided I should go for it. I owe the headmistress a favor, and I can spend more time with my children.”
“Aw, Daddy!” she cried. “Don’t go into the spending-time-with-my-children thing again, please? I mean, do you know how awkward it’s going to be for us? And Chris gets picked on enough as it is....”
“I’m not going to be around all the time.” Harry’s tone turned into disapproval. “Just Apparate to and from work every day. Unlike Minerva, I don’t plan on ever staying the night here.” His tone changed quickly to sadness. “Are you really that ashamed of me, Tabby Cat?”
She narrowed her eyes. She knew this game“ she was the master. Laying on the guilt. He twisted his face so it resembled what she assumed was supposed to be sorrow, but Tabby didn’t buy it for a second. Knowing full well that her father secretly enjoyed the little spats they sometimes had (something to do with how he raised his children to be fighters), Tabby crossed her arms and glared, preparing her eyes for another staring contest.
Harry lost the sad expression. “You get that look from your mother, don’t you?”
His daughter prepared herself to shoot back an icy reply, but the door to the classroom shot open, and Trent and Chris marched purposefully in. Tabby could see Darren out in the hall looking anxious. She gave him a brief smile, causing him to turn an interesting shade of cherry red that reminded her of the lipstick her Aunt Fleur sometimes wore.
The door shut and Darren’s face disappeared behind the solid block of wood. “Father,” Trent said calmly, “care to explain, please?”
Trenton stood straight and tall, and it shocked Tabitha how much he had grown. He was eye-level with their father now, and while the resemblance was striking, Trent had too much of the Weasley roundness in his face. Actually, once he was older, Tabby had a feeling Chris would look more like Harry than Trent did. Edward didn’t resemble his father much; besides the hair, he was a male version of his mother. Tabby was a happy mix of both parents, and for Juliana it was too early to decide, but she had her father’s narrow face.
“I’ve done a lot of explaining already, son.” Their father sighed. “It’s not permanent. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I am only here for three weeks. I won’t even be spending the night, but walking to and from Hogsmeade every day to Apparate back home.
Trent looked slightly peeved, but didn’t answer. The children stood obediently in a straight line in front of Harry’s desk, behind which he now sat. “So....” Chris suddenly looked excited. “Are you really going to be our professor, Dad?” Harry nodded and Chris grinned. “Lovely. This is one class I don’t need to worry about failing.”
“As if you’d fail this class anyway,” Tabby stated at the same time their father intoned, “Now, now! Don’t think you’ll be getting off easy. I’ll be just as hard on you as the other students, and in their presence you will call me ‘Professor,’ understood?”
His children were shocked. “So we have to deal with you and we don’t even get any benefits?” Tabitha complained. “Bloody hell.”
Harry shrugged it off happily. “Don’t swear, Tabitha. And you can blame your predicament on your headmistress. She’s the violent cheater here, not me.”
“Now what’s that supposed to mean?” Trent asked before they were hurried out of the room.
“So your father is really going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?” Darren seemed as amazed by it as the Potter children were. His curly sandy blonde hair stood on end and his blue eyes were excited.
“Yes, he is.” Trent scowled at his mate, stirring the food on his plate around with his fork. “Don’t see why you’re so excited. He’s already told us that he’s not going easy on his own children, so don’t think he’ll be soft on you.”
Darren waved a hand in dismissal. “No, no. That’s not it,” he said around a mouthful of potatoes.
“What’s not it?” Tabby had plopped down on the same bench Trenton was sitting on at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.
Swallowing his bite first (which was a first for him“ usually he didn’t mind speaking with his mouth full of partially-chewed food), Darren answered, “Just talking about the new professor.”
Tabby made to reply but Trent interrupted. “What were you saying? About why you were so excited?”
“Oh, right.” Darren took a quick sip of his pumpkin juice before continuing. “Just saying, it’s nothing special to you that he’s working here now. You’re his children, and used to being around him.” He smiled crookedly in the adorable way he had. Tabby had a sudden urge to touch that dimple of his right under his right eye. “A lot of students here are excited to be taught by him. He defeated the Dark Lord, you know, and he’s a mighty powerful wizard.”
“Your point?” Tabby still didn’t catch on to what was so thrilling about it. Darren turned to her and abruptly turned a light shade of pink, as if just now remembering to be embarrassed around her.
“Well, Tab,” Darren said smoothly. “A lot of people here are excited to have the most powerful wizard in the Wizarding world teaching them.”
Trent and Tabby looked at each other in surprise. Darren had a point. To them, he was just their father, but to others he was a great and powerful man not to be messed with. “Well, I better get to class.” Tabby got up, her stomach lurching at the thought of a double period of History of Magic. She kissed Trent on the cheek and walked towards the door.
“Hold on!” Darren called. “I’ll go with you.” He had to run to catch up to her. “Potions next. The dungeon is on the way,” he muttered when Tabby raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“Okay, I don’t care,” she responded brightly, digging in her pocket for a hair tie. Her hair was getting long again, and it had a nasty habit of clinging to her face. Trent had yelled at her about it in Quidditch practice several times, and she had to trade a chocolate frog to Helen Deedle, from Ravenclaw, for a piece of ribbon.
Darren watched her intently, studying her face. Tabby immediately felt self-conscious, and ducked her head slightly. He had been looking at her that way for the whole year, and only now was Tabby starting to be embarrassed.
“Hey, Tabby.” Darren stopped and grabbed her hand to pause her. Tabby was amazed at how big his hand was compared to hers, even with her long, spidery fingers. “I was thinking....” He ducked his head, copying her. “Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me? The next trip is next weekend.”
Not expecting this, she replied, without really thinking, “Um... sure.”
He beamed at her. “Great. Lovely.” He smiled at her, and Tabby did her best to force a smile onto her face. “I’d better get to Potions.” He kissed her hand before dropping it. “See you later tonight!”
Tabby’s hand burned from where his lips made contact with her skin.
“See! Told you he fancied you!” Nikki snickered triumphantly. She was pleased with the new development between Darren and Tabitha, as was the entire Gryffindor tower, it seemed.
Tabby had many mixed-feelings about the whole thing. She really liked Darren, and there was no doubt he was good-looking, but did she really feel about him in that special way? There was the sudden urge to touch his dimple in the Great Hall, but other than that she never really thought about him in a way other than a good friend.
“I dunno, Nick.” She sighed, staring out the window. Quidditch practice was cancelled due to violent storms, and lightning flashed in the distance. Only pretending to be doing homework, Nikki and Tabitha say cozily on the rug in front of the fire, Gareth dozing soundly next to them. (He had become an almost constant presence lately, and Tabby found she really quite liked him. Plus, with Quinn not being around after the fight, they needed someone to overlook their homework.) Winter was coming and with it came a chill that froze the whole castle. “I mean, I like Darren, I really do. But do I fancy him?” She bit her bottom lip.
“Don’t worry about it, love,” Nikki replied reassuringly. “Your father married his best mate’s little sister, and look at how well that ordeal turned out. Besides, Darren only looks at you with adoration and affection. Give him a chance, Tab. Maybe you’ll find that he can be really sweet.”
Tabitha felt herself flush. “I think you read too many romance novels, Nikki,” she giggled, but her mind wasn’t really on the upcoming Hogsmeade trip. She was thinking of her tutor, who had been treating her coolly lately. They didn’t usually act like the best of mates in public, but they’d nod at each other if seen in the corridors. It was like Decimus had been going to great lengths to ignore her. She assumed her knew about Darren, but why he was handling it so badly was a mystery.
Just then Darren and Trent came through the portrait hole, laughing at some unknown joke. Darren made a beeline for Tabitha once he saw her and sat down on the rug with them. Trent sat in the nearest chair, a book open in front of his nose.
Her eldest brother surprisingly had not been upset when he found out Darren and Tabby were Hogwarts’ newest couple. He hadn’t said a word about it, and whenever they were together he hid his face behind some prop, as he was doing now. Chris had seemingly taken a page from his brother and was acting the same way.
“Nasty weather, isn’t it?” Darren asked conversationally. He only ever reached out for Tabby’s hand or kissed her cheek when Trent wasn’t around. He kept his hands pointedly in his lap, clasped together as if in prayer.
“Yes, it’s horrible,” Tabby had to agree. “The team won’t benefit from this at all, unfortunately. We’re losing practice hours, and our first game is coming up.”
Gareth awoke and his head shot up. Yawning, he looked at the time. “Tabs, aren’t you s’posed to be in the Astronomy tower?” He groped for an imaginary pillow and settled back down to fall back asleep. Nikki stared at him, surprised.
“Oh!” Tabby exclaimed. She had completely forgotten about her and Decimus’ tutoring session. “Gotta go.” If she ran, hopefully she could still make it.
AN~ Summer’s coming, so hopefully updates will be quicker now. Chapter’s dedicated to Disappearance_26 for the longest review I have ever received and to NikkiSue, for being my SBBC buddy and for being such a lovely author.
As always, thanks to Mari for catching all my typos and getting this chapter back to me so quickly.