Lestrange
“Miss López,
We urge you to please start sending us letters with every bit of information that you manage to get about the crimes. Three wizards were killed in the last four days, all of them were muggle born.
We are now following a clue, it could be false but it's everything we have for now. Apparently someone heard about a name: Rabastan Lestrange. It's curious since he was killed at the War in 1998, he was Rodolphus Lestrange's brother. But for all we know he may have had descendents we don't know about, it was common for dark wizards to keep their sons and daughters a secret during the dark times. Lestranges were known for their utterly loyalty to Tom Riddle.
I ask you to talk to Mr. Riddle about this, since it's part of his family after all.
Mía take care and inform us as soon as possible.
Ministry of Magic, Robert Collins”
The Lestrange family were well known not only in the UK but in France too. Some of them lived in Paris, they were all dark wizards back then. I didn't know that Mattheo was a Lestrange too, that meant that his mother was Bellatrix, so they were only a political family. I knew he was Black by what he told me about being cousins with Sirius, just didn't think about which was the Black that gave birth to him.
Mr. Collins urged me to answer as fast as possible, but I didn't have any relevant information about what was happening. It didn't feel right to knock on Mattheo´s door and ask him about it like that. “Hey, what about your political family? you know, Lestranges, do you know if they are leading a new revolution of pure blood morons?” Definitely not. I had to think of a way to bring that topic to the table in a casual conversation. But that had to wait, I had a day full of classes ahead.
I went to the Great Hall to have some coffee and a toast, it was a safe breakfast for me. I repeated the speech I was going to say in classes introducing myself for the whole twenty minutes that I was there. I heard a couple of professors giving their greetings and I remember being able to just nod or hum them back. I wasn't a morning person at all.
- Welcome back to Hogwarts! It's nice to see a full class, it was starting to get boring teaching DADA to the mannequins. - Some kids laughed, I had a full class of kids from second year. - My name is Mía López, and I'm your new DADA professor, but I'm sure you already guessed that by now. - I positioned myself in front of the dueling platform while looking at the students.- You already know what this subject is about, so I won't explain much more about it. All I ask for every one of you is to be sincere. Sincere about what you do, how you do it, and to ask me any doubts that you have in my class. Communication is key, little humans. What I want for today is that one by one, you stand at the dueling platform and show me what you learnt last year.
There were four classes of two hours each, which left my throat a little sore. I needed to use Sonorus for the next day. My voice has always been too low, so I needed a spell to stop talking too loud. Classes in Hogwarts were larger and fuller than what I was used to.
Another big difference were the TIMOs, they took them a year sooner here. Which meant more to teach in less time. Nothing impossible anyways.
Later that day I was walking alone, my classes finished right before dinner, so I had something to eat and headed back to my class. I needed to go back to my office to finish preparing the classes for the next day before going to my room.
- So professor López, how did the classes go today? - Mattheo startled me, he appeared at my side without me noticing. He was smiling, his eyes fully opened. He seemed genuinely happy about seeing me and I can say that the feeling was mutual.
- Great, kids love my subject, so that makes everything easier than I imagined.
- I envy you, kids don't enjoy Potions that much. - He pouted while walking backwards in front of me, so he was facing me.
- Potions is a boring subject, sorry. - I chuckled while passing him, so he had to walk faster to walk by my side.
- How dare you?!
He accompanied me to my office without saying much more. It was a nice silence. My mom always says “Si no tienes nada bueno que decir, no digas nada'', which means that you shouldn't open your mouth to talk if you don't have anything nice or interesting to say. And I lived by that phrase. Silence was something that I valued a lot, and being able to be with someone in silence, and be comfortable… I adored that. When we arrived at my office he put a chair next to mine, sat and grabbed his own stuff to write and work.
- Are you going to stay? - Don't get me wrong, I appreciated his company. Maybe I could talk about his family with him in that situation. I was just surprised he wanted to work by my side.
- Oh, sorry. I can go if you want. I just wanted some company and I thought of you but if you don't want to, it is obviously okay and I will go, I'm sorry. - He talked fast, grabbing his things and about to stand. He looked so defeated… I could feel my heart tearing a little by it.
- No no, it's completely okay, please stay. I was just asking. Stay. - I whispered that last word and smiled at him. He visibly relaxed and let out a little breath. He even made a little dance with his hands while smiling. Cute.
We spent a couple of hours working on our own stuff. Sometimes we talked a little about a student in particular that got my attention, and he described him to me. He also warned me about a couple of students that were known for causing trouble. And described to me the other group of students that needed some kind of adaptation in the methods because of any neurodivergence, I had a lot of work ahead. Anyway, I knew trying to do all the work in one day wouldn't be the best option, since the first days were full of easy stuff, easy explanations and more of a “remember the lasts years” classes, I could have everything sorted out for the following week without pulling an all nighter.
When the candles were almost consumed, Mattheo closed his books and looked at me.
- I think it's time to stop working for today, we should go have some rest. - I closed my own books and looked at him. I was pretty sure I looked as tired as he did. Tired teary eyes, full eyebags and hair a little messy for being busy the whole day.
- Yes, at least you should. You look awfully tired.
- I could say the same about you, honey. You look like you could fall asleep right here. - I stuck out my tongue at him while closing my eyes.
- Nothing you can prove. - He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly while chuckling slowly. Fuck his fucking chuckles. Honestly. Fuck.
- Are you up to another cup of coffee in front of the chimney like last night? - I was immensely tired, but I still needed to talk to him.
- Sure, I need some caffeine to sleep well tonight. - He then stopped his steps and turned to face me. He had a funny face with his mouth completely opened.
- Caffeine to sleep. What is wrong with your brain?
- My psychologist asks herself the same question. - We laughed too loud at that. Some paintings started to shush us and scold us for being too loud at night. They were no fun at all.
Once we arrived at the living room, cups on Mattheo´s hands thanks to Coby, I sensed something was different. The couch was still in the same place, chimney lighted, the little table with a bowl that contained a couple of treats… I was trying to sense what was different but I couldn't point it out. We sat on the couch, I was cross legged on one side while Mattheo was on the opposite side so we could face each other.
- You should tell me more about yourself, I barely know you are a professor and Spanish. I feel like this friendship isn't balanced. - He then sipped his cup while looking at me and raising one eyebrow. I tried to hide my blushed face behind the cup while drinking. Why was he so flirting coded?
- Well, there isn't much more about me. I´m 25, I was born in the north of Spain, my parents are muggles so I didn't know anything related to magic until I was ten years old. I absolutely despise rats, but love spiders as much. - He wrinkled his nose while looking at me like I was mad.- They are cute, don't look at me like that. Everything in my life is pretty normal, really. You are the interesting one out of the two of us.
- Let me doubt that, you are an expert on almost everything that interests you. That makes you the more interesting person in this room. - I was out of words at that, maybe I info dumped too much when we talked about my interests. I had been trying to control that side of me for years but well. - I enjoy listening to you talk about everything, it's soothing. - I wanted to marry him.
- Changing the topic because you are starting to make me shy. - He laughed and his eyes looked straight into mine, playful. - Mr. Collins sent me a letter.
- He is a chaser I swear. - His whole demeanor changed, he was mad now. His brows totally furrowed.
- He said that the murders were escalating quickly. And wanted me to ask you about it. Not that he thinks that you are behind them, at least I don't think so. But he heard the name of Rabastan Lestrange. - He nodded then, and stayed silent for some seconds, completely pensative.
- He was my mother's brother in law. But he is dead.
- Exactly. Mr.Collins thinks that maybe he had a son or a daughter that he didn't register.
- I don't know. - He finished his cup and let it rest on the table. - I never heard of any of that. I think I have never been in touch with any Lestrange. I am a bastard after all. My mother fucked my father while being married to Rodolphus Lestrange, I am not welcomed there. - He then smiled at me, he was back at being the serene flirt he was a couple of minutes early. - Tell Robert to write to me the next time he wants to ask me something. He seems afraid of me, that makes him look like an idiot. And tell him that if he writes to you with the excuse of talking about me, just so he can talk to you, he is a coward. He needs to grow a pair. But I have to give him credit for something.
- About what? - I was completely, utterly, totally, entirely blushed. My face was so red that it looked like I had a second degree burn.
- He has good taste. - He moved his face a little towards me. I then realized what was different in the room: the couch was smaller than the prior day.