Chapter Text
Felix walks into the Black Eagles classroom and ignores the confused whispers that only multiply when he goes behind Annette’s desk. He drops the lesson notes she’d given to him earlier and then grunts a grumpy “good morning” that suggests his morning isn’t good at all. He crosses his arms when he gets no immediate reply, which prompts a round of frantic greetings.
“Um, Professor Hugo, why are you here—”
Annette’s house leader shoves her classmate and asks loudly and much more delicately, “Where is Professor Dominic today, Professor Hugo?”
“Sick,” Felix answers. “I’ll be taking over for the next few days.”
She’d given him her favourite notebook that had all of her notes and lesson plans before falling back into bed with a sleepy, miserable farewell. Felix was reluctant to leave her, but Manuela had already given her the tonic to help relieve her sickness. There wasn’t anything Felix could do but assure her that her precious house and her precious students were in arguably good hands.
“Oh dear!” gasps one girl. “I hope she’s okay.”
“She’s fine.”
“But I should make her soup!“
“That’s a great idea!”
“Let’s do it—“
“Does Professor Dominic let you guys chat so much during class?” Felix wonders, going mostly ignored by the students. Apparently their adoration for their professor outweighed their fear for their swords instructor turned substitute teacher.
“Professor Dominic never gets sick.”
“Yes, and even when she does, she heals herself.”
“Which is really cool by the way.”
Felix sighs. At least seven minutes have passed full of nothing but questions about his presence and general adoration for Annette. While Felix can certainly get behind the latter, Annette would be annoyed if her class fell behind in their studies.
“Well, Professor Dominic is going to be sick for the next several months considering she’s pregnant so—”
Naturally, that wasn’t the right thing to say, since that only leads to more questions. When Felix finally gets them to shut up, Annette’s house leader takes a deep breath and glares at him.
“Professor Hugo,” she begins, her voice cracking over his name, “you have to take responsibility.”
Felix snarls that they’re already married thank you very much and promises that the next person to say something not related to today’s lesson will be cleaning out the stables for the rest of the school year.