The New Professor

"Raed Wolf."

A groan, "It's Flame.  Really now - how many times do I have to say that?"  Came the reply.  A sulky boy, black dyed hair and golden brown eyes glared up at the professor, "I mean, you hear it every year since I got to the school."

"And I will call you as Raed Wolf, Mister Wolf, until your name is legally changed."  The professor responded.  Of course, with a last name of Wolf, that was the end of the attendance roster.  The Professor turned around and tapped the board with his wand.  The first lesson of the new year.  Hogwarts had changed a lot…  Too much in the Hispoves' eyes.

And who were the Hispoves?  That would be Renaissance 'Parasel' Riddle, Lorelai 'Silver' Wolf and Raed 'Flame' Wolf.  When Silver and Flame transferred to Hogwarts in their third year life had changed for Renaissance.  She had been a loaner of types, not wanting to get close to people, preferring to outcast herself by playing tricks on others and having bubblegum pink hair.

Renaissance was dubbed Parasel when the twins realized she could speak parseltongue.  Her secretively bright personality shined with the Wolf twins, who just so happened to be werewolves.  Who would have thought a last name made so much sense?  But they were also orphans, so Parasel took the belief that they had changed their last names to match their shortcomings.

She, by the way, has already fallen asleep.  Potions was easily the most boring subject for her.  Her pink hair was propped up on her folded arms, her eyes that were normally the crest of her student house, were closed tightly.  After last night she didn't want to be in class, but it was the first day and Madame Pomfrey refused to let her skip.

Silver on the other hand was paying attention to the new professor.  Darius Silverwood.  Keeping personal and school separate, she knew that the fact he was also a werewolf would not help her continue to be an O student.  She would have to work just as hard as before, and even harder.  He was a far different personality type then their prior.  She brushed back her light brown hair, her gray eyes watching as he wrote down the new potion they would be learning.  It was an instant brew, which meant instant testing.

Flame however was more in the same boat as Parasel.  He hated, and believe me hate isn't a strong enough word for his emotion, potions.  Potions were simply the worst thing, in his opinion, but since he couldn't put 'Profession Quidditch Player' on the list of what he wanted to do when graduating, so he put down Auror… which meant he had to take potions.  And then to have Silverwood their professor?  In another world away from school he was already the ruler of werewolves, and personally he didn't want to see more of the grump then necessary.

The class was dismissed to start their potions.  Flame looked at Silver, giving her that 'I'm fucked' look before pulling out the ingredients on the board.  He wasn't a natural at potions, and even following the recipe something went wrong.  Not Neville wrong, he at least was better then his house-mate, but it still went wrong.  Right, so in goes the water, on goes the fire… Flame sighed, singing a muggle song as he did so.  It didn't matter if he was distracted - he was still bound to fail.

Parasel still hadn't woken up.  She grunted in her sleep as a fellow student poked her, "Nooo…pain…"  She grumbled and curled up in her chair.  They were witches and wizards, but still no cure to sever cramping?  That was bullocks in her opinion.  She had given a note to Silverwood saying she'd make up the lesson later that week, female problems.  Potions wasn't a natural thing for her, but it wasn't hard either.  It was like glorified cooking.  To put it simply: Flame was jealous of his sister and friend.

"In goes the lace wings… let them boil…"  Flame grumbled, looking at his text book, in the back where Silver had written notes to help make it easier.  Simple things, like when to add, how to add, and steps usually left out that were easy to assume with different ingredients.  On que his finely shredded mandrake root went in, and instead of it poofing a nice white color, it was red.  "Aw fuck."

"Next time, Mister Wolf, let your cauldron cool."  The professor was right behind him.

Flame winced, shivers racing through his body as he nodded, grumbling, "I'll keep that in mind."  He flipped to the instructions on the potion and wrote that down, his hand shaking from the sudden scare.  He waved his wand, the fire dimming down, and he stirred the potion quickly, trying to correct his mistake and let it cool.

"When you need to cool down a potion, use this…"  The professor pulled out some green leafy things, "It's cooling mint.  Usually harmless to a recipe, it will add a pleasant flavor as well as remedy heat."  He tore the cooling mint apart and dropped it in as Flame stirred.  Sure enough the red dimmed down and it steamed white.

"Thanks…"  Flame grumbled, not wanting the other's help.  He just wanted to fail, and get this class over and done with.  After all, lunch was next.  And to be honest, he couldn't wait.  His stomach grumbled even.  He looked at the next step, the spider eyes… It was a scoop.  He flipped back to Silver's notes, labeled measuring, and sighed, taking a scoop and then flipped to the ingredients notes.  Nothing specific with spider eyes, so he slowly shook them in, stirring as he went.

"Good."  Silverwood observed, crossing his arms as he watched the student.  "I see your sister wrote you notes."

Flame nodded, not feeling embarrassed like he should have, "My sister is brilliant.  If it weren't for Silver, I would have probably died by now."  He was proud that his younger twin was so amazing in his opinion.  She was smart, pretty and despite being a girl easy to understand most of the time.  She got him out of trouble, be it in class or outside with students, and he loved her.

"Yes, she is very smart, but I'm sure you can be too."  Silverwood replied smiling.

Flame rolled his eyes, "Yeah… right."  He grumbled and waited until the potion turned yellow.  Now he had to add the fermented daisy sprouts… pouring the mushy blend in slowly the potion smoked, and he gagged, not expecting that.  It caused him to drop in the whole container, which then lead to more smoke as the potion popped and fizzed.  Covering his mouth with his robe he groaned, pouring in water to dilute it, as was the next step anyways, and used the ladle to fish out the now destroyed container.  "Great, it's ruined."

"Yes… it is."  Silverwood shook his head and patted Flame on the shoulder, "We'll try again later."  And with that he walked away to observe other works.

Flame gawked at him, Silver appearing next to him as she looked at his potion, "It's okay brother.  You should have turned the heat up when adding the fermented daisy."  She took his quill and wrote that down, "It's a new ingredient, and I didn't think we'd be using it or else I would have written it…"  She looked at her notes, "I did write it down.  You got nervous, huh?"

"The damn professor was standing over my shoulder.  Doesn't he know I suck at this?  Really, come on."  Flame crossed his arms defiant, "Can I leave yet?"

Silver shook her head, looking up at him with her big gray eyes, "No, you can't.  We still have to hand in our potions, mine is simmering, most of the class is.  Let's see if we can fix this… it's not the first time something foreign has gone into your potion."  She smiled at her brother and rummaged through the notes.

"I don't want to fix it Sil.  I never do."  Flame groaned,  knowing that she was going to teach him anyways.

"Plastic, here we go.  So when we have melted plastic in a potion we can either see if it can be removed,"  She looked at the partially dissolved container, "Or put in a cancelling agent.  Here, we will use bezoar."  Silver rummaged through his items and pulled out the bottle, "It helps fight poisons, which the melted plastic would be considered one…"  She dropped in the small stone and watched the potion swirl.  She stirred it and the potion went back to the suggested honey color.

"Oh goody."  Flame sighed, and looked at it.  "You save the day again."  He smiled at her, no longer sarcastic and picked up the fireweed honey, "Warmed, right?"

"Right."  Silver smiled at him and patted him on the back, her wand flicking to increase the heat a bit.  She watched him drizzle it in, stirring as he went.  After the cup was emptied she waited a few moments, "See how it's just starting to do the ripple of a near boil?  That's when you turn it down,"  She flicked her wrist the fire dieing to mere embers and ash, "And you can clean up.  It'll be ready in the next ten minutes.  Speaking of which, I need to check mine…"  She wrote down the added information and then dashed off.

Flame scowled, and cleaned his desk off.  Silverwood returned to look at his potion and smiled, "Miss Wolf help you again?"  Flame didn't respond, he instead put his stuff away, vanishing it to his bedroom in anger, rinsing and cleaning his utensils as needed.  "Mister Wolf?"

Flame twitched, "Yeah, Silver helped me."

"Why are you two, and Miss Riddle, so insistent on nicknames?"

That question caught Flame off guard.  He turned and looked at the professor, his eyes narrowed.  "Silver and I were named by our father.  So was Parasel.  Our families aren't exactly the caring kind, sir.  These names we gave ourselves, to and from those that actually care about us."  He turned away, angry, without meaning to be, "I'm busy professor."

Silverwood raised an eyebrow.  With Flame's desk empty and potion near completion he wasn't busy at all.  But, he shrugged, "I'll be in anticipation to see what your potion turns out to be like."  And with that he turned away, collecting what was already bottled from other students.

Flame scowled, wanting to punch something, his anger getting the best of him.  He grabbed the last bottle on his desk, already labeled for this class, and filled the bottle.  He vanished the rest of the contents to his cauldron and pulled up his messenger bag.  Where did Silverwood get the idea he could ask about their personal life?  He slammed the bottle on the professor's desk as the bell sounded and was the first out the door.  Why did he have to act like he was even interested?  Who gave a shit?  As far as the students there were concerned he and Silver were orphans, and that was the way they kept it.

Why admit that their father was a rapist?  A child molester?  An abuser?  While being ruler of the court he was one face, and on the other he used his children and put them down.  Silver had killed their mother in child birth, the only blood relation that probably cared about them was taken away by a freak accident.  Flame had found himself in the Great Hall before he knew it, and was sitting at the usual spot, head in his arms.  He shouldn't let it bother him, but something about what just occurred irked him.  He wasn't even hungry anymore.

Maybe he was on his boy period?

Yeah, that was it - he was just sensitive right now because Parasel started and Silver would soon.  That had to be it.  The three of them always got grumpy together.  In a week life would be normal again.  Flame kept telling himself that as he forced himself to grab some bangers and mashed potatoes with gravy.  He also took some macaroni and cheese, fresh bread, his normal basically: everything in reach.  But, as he ate, nothing had any taste.  When the two girls showed up none of them really talked, Parasel wanting to cry and go to sleep, and Silver was looking over the school book for charms.  Again.

Flame scowled, that's right, in a week they'd be normal again, and plotting a way to set off fireworks in the professor's lounge.