Chapter Text
1st September 1993
Solana kept her eyes closed as she listened to the birds singing through the open window, a soft breeze drifted past her as she stroked her fiancé’s arm that was wrapped around her.
“Morning,” he whispered, his voice still raw from his sleep.
She smiled as she brushed her hand through his dark brown curls. “Good morning.”
He mumbled next to her, “I don’t want to get up,”
Solana agreed, she turned towards the clock “It’s fine we’ve got time– fuck! Gus I’m going to be late!”
“What! I set the alarm!” Gus said, sitting up, in that time Solana had run into the bathroom, and turned the shower on.
“Oh, I’m always late on the first day!” Solana groaned, she glanced in the mirror, the bright red A. D etched into her skin was visible again, covering the letters with her hand she called out to Gus. “Can you pass my wand, please?” she asked, sticking her other hand out of the door. He did and moments later the letters faded until the next time the cloaking charm wore off.
She jumped into the shower and hurriedly washed herself as she internally groaned about her time keeping.
“Trains only just left, Lan,” Gus reassured her, but she shook her head.
“Minerva wanted us there early for the staff meeting and oh!” she groaned again, “I didn’t clean my office, which means it's going to be a mess,” she sighed, running around her room grabbing her clothes and throwing them on the bed.
“That’s because your amazing, super hot fiancé bought you flowers on your last day of term–” Gus smiled, enchantedly.
“When I was supposed to be cleaning–”
He pouted. “I bet your mouldy tea has been lonely the past six weeks,”
“Gus, you’re not making me feel better,” Solana sighed.
“I’m sorry, peach.” He apologised, his Boston accent was never subtle, he had changed from his pyjamas which consisted of his boxer shorts.
Solana straightened out her cloak, then shoved her hair together and clipped it up. “How do I look?”
“I wouldn’t mind getting detention–”
“Gus!”
He gave a small chuckle, “You look fine, Lan, I don’t know why you’re so worried, you’ve been working at Hogwarts for five years now.”
“It’s not just that,” Solana sighed, slightly.
All summer her cousin had been in the newspaper, and word travels fast amongst the wizards and witches which meant that the entire school would know all about it.
“Hey,” Gus said, walking towards her and cupping her cheek. “You’re going to be fine, also just give the kids detention with Filch if they cause you any trouble.”
Solana nodded, “Good point, okay I’m ready.”
Gus picked up his cloak and walked towards the door, stopping abruptly as she cleared her throat. He looked at her, and she nodded towards the window.
“Oh, come on!” Gus groaned.
“You know Rosmerta’s rules,” Solana told him.
“You’ve told her we’re engaged right? Like we’re going to be married which means we can at least stay the night with each other.”
“Rosmerta says no men are allowed to stay the night, that’s an issue that you’ll have to bring up with her,” Solana said, opening the window. “When I finally get the job that I actually applied for we’ll hopefully be able to buy somewhere, and you can stay the night permanently.”
“No word on the new defence teacher?” Gus asked, as he climbed out of the window, standing on the ledge outside.
“Nothing, Minerva knows who it is, but she’s very good at keeping a secret.” Solana told him, “Mind the tulips, Ros said they were flattened the other day.”
“Oh I wonder who that was,” Gus rolled his eyes sarcastically. “You home tonight?”
“Nah, I’ll stay at the school, tomorrow night? My lesson finishes at Midnight though, so I’ll be back around one, sneak in again, Ros is on the closing shift.” Solana said, kissing him as he nodded.
“See you tomorrow night,” he said, lowering from the window.
Solana looked around her small flat then left for the school, she had to speak to Donald, the Honeyduke’s owner, to use the passageway as she didn’t want to have a bad interaction with the Dementors since Sirius had escaped.
She had read that they could sense the connection between families.
“Late again, Professor,” Minerva said, narrowing her eyes as she walked into the Great Hall.
“No, I was just…” Solana began, but she knew that she would be able to see through her lie. “Yeah,”
“It’s fine, Pomona and Poppy are both late as well, seems like they’ve had a little walk to the greenhouse,”
“Ooh,” Solana said, turning around.
“You shouldn’t be influenced by those two,” Minerva called out, “Be back in half an hour and bring them both as well,”
Solana nodded and headed down to the greenhouse, she heard the two laughing from inside. “You two didn’t even wait for me,”
“Well you’ve finally made it!” Pomona Sprout said.
“You’re over an hour late, Solana, we couldn’t wait–” Poppy told her, shaking her head.
Solana rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “You potheads,” but she held her hand out to Pomona who had a blunt in her hand and passed it to her.
“Poppy brought the snacks,”
“Ugh, Pops, you’re amazing,” Solana said, sifting through the bag of treats, then pulled a frown.
“Here,” Poppy said, throwing a bag of cockroach clusters towards her.
Solana grinned, opening the bag, “Oh I’ve missed this, do the students have to come back?”
“I second that,” Pomona said, leaning back in her chair.
“I third that,” Poppy relaxed back in her chair. “Rolanda’s got flying first thing in the morning, and I’ve told her she can’t have any broken bones otherwise she’s buying all my drinks Friday night.”
Solana sat back as well as she took a hit from the blunt. It wasn’t as strong as usual, but the three couldn’t get as high as they would like to because they were responsible adults.
“Have you heard anything about the new defence teacher yet?” Solana asked.
“Nothing, even Filius has been trying to get a hint, but there was nothing,” Pomona said, shaking her head.
Poppy chuckled slightly and Solana narrowed her eyes.
“You know?”
The mediwitch smiled triumphantly.
“You’re kidding, who is it?” Solana asked.
“I’ve been told to not say anything, but you both know him. He’s on the train with the students as we speak.”
“He’s on the train?” Solana furrowed her brows.
“I couldn’t think of anything worse,” Pomona shook her head.
“We’re allowed on the train? Also, him? So it’s a guy?” Solana rolled her eyes, remembering the previous year with Gilderoy Lockhart. “If he’s anything like that buffoon I’m going to have to quit,”
“You and Gilderoy made such a cute couple on Valentines, with your matching robes–”
“That was against the code of conduct, and he should have been reprimanded for changing the colour of my robes,” Solana shook her head. “Do you know how many Cupid trolls he sent to my office? I’m sure one of them is still hiding under my desk–” she rolled her eyes again. “Shit, I haven’t cleaned my office yet.”
“Make sure you do, I heard the elves talking about a mouldy tea earlier.” Poppy said, taking the blunt off Solana.
“I’ll do that later,” she leant her head back and closed her eyes as she waited for the time to pass.
☀︎︎︎
Astronomy was Solana’s least favourite subject at school, in fact she had stopped taking it in Third year hoping to never look up at the night sky constellations, but when she applied for the role of defence against the dark arts five years ago and didn’t get through the only other job opening was Astronomy.
So she took it.
As she walked into her office the ceiling was painted with constellations that glistened in the sunlight, she sighed looking at her desk. The small piles she was supposed to sort out six weeks ago.
She pulled her wand from her robe and with a wave everything was put away. She would be lost without magic.
She checked the time, there was still enough time before dinner so she headed up to her private quarters that she was entitled to since the rest of the faculty would have day lessons Solana was able to sleep there rather than the actual staff sleeping quarters where she had been told that the beds are very uncomfortable.
The house elves had changed the bed and dusted off the bedside table, where a picture of her and Gus moments after he had proposed was sitting. She picked it up, smiling softly.
She had been expecting it, Gus was terrible at keeping secrets. They had met when they both worked at Illvermony in 1987, Solana was the Defence against the dark arts professor and he was the Charms professor. He was terrible at keeping his crush a secret, and she finally asked him out seeing as he was too scared to, and they had been going out ever since.
He asked her to marry him in the Spring, and she couldn’t say no.
She placed the frame back on the stand, leaning back on the bed, yawning. She still had a few hours until the welcoming feast so closed her eyes… just for a few moments.
☀︎︎︎
Solana looked at the time jumping up, her timekeeping had gotten really bad lately.
She was ten minutes late for the welcoming feast, which in her head wasn’t that bad because now she didn’t have to sit through the entire sorting.
She reclipped her hair and straightened out her robes again.
Cursing as she ran out of her office, narrowly avoiding a rogue water balloon that Peeves was chucking about in the corridors, she made her way into the Great Hall, taking the empty seat between Poppy and Filius.
“You’re late again,” Poppy shook her head.
“Did I miss anything?” Solana whispered.
Filius nodded. “I finally know who the defence teacher is,”
Solana looked down the table, but she couldn’t see past Hagrid. “Who is it?”
“You’ll find out when Albus announces him,” Poppy said, shushing her.
Solana sat back in her seat, still trying to catch a peak but it was no use.
Her stomach growled loudly just as the sorting ended, she sipped on her water waiting for the feast, which she had been looking forward to since the last one.
Finally, Albus stood up and began his beginning of the year speech, and then he introduced the new Defence against the darks arts teacher, Solana was still mad that she hadn’t got it for the fifth time now so she would be holding a grudge against this one just like she did with all the others.
“I would like to introduce our new Hogwarts Professor. Professor R.J Lupin,”
Solana’s heart skipped a beat as she saw him stand up, catching eyes with his familiar warm brown ones.
He gave her a small nod, then faced the students.
Solana looked over at Poppy who avoided her stare.
“You couldn’t have given me a warning?” her voice was sharp.
“He didn’t want you to know.”
Solana looked back at Remus, anger rising in her as he sat down.
She hadn’t seen him since they broke up twelve years ago and she really didn’t want to see him, especially right now.
Elizabeth Olsen
as
Solana Lune
Andrew Garfield
as
Remus Lupin
Jonah Hauer-King
as
Augustus 'Gus' Gallagher
