Sub Rosa

Chapter 1 – Rising to the Challenge

Kathryn Leblanc stood on platform 9 3/4, feeling the cold gray of London seeping into her. She was tall enough to see over the heads of most of the students and her eyes were busy assessing every detail of the platform and waiting train. Her hair, a dark chocolate brown, had been pulled severely into a bun, which she hoped made her look more scholarly and teacher-like. Teacher, bah, what did she know about teaching?

Voldemort had been killing Muggles and Muggle-borns all summer, Her grandmother had been welcoming British Muggle-borns to the estate for months. Everyone she knew was involved in the struggle to save lives and she was being shunted off to Hogwarts like so much excess baggage. She frowned and caught a glimpse of herself in the window of the gleaming red train.

Her skin was paler, even than it normally was, from her long illness and she leaned heavily on a slender black walking stick, while she surveyed the madness and confusion around her. She wore muggle style clothes, a charcoal gray suit, trousers and jacket, half covered by a simple black robe that she had tossed on after she crossed the barrier.

Her oval face, with the large chocolate eyes, a nose that was slightly too aristocratic, a perfect mouth and high cheekbones, was not so extraordinary that much note was taken of her. Her figure was lush, despite the sharp drop in her weight she had recently undergone, but was likewise unnoticeable under her robes. What was remarkable about her was how she simply blended into the crowd, drawing no notice from the people who swirled by obliviously.

All around her children bustled and hurried, while Kathryn began to limp slowly towards the train, her luggage reduced and tucked into her pocket. Most of her other things were already at the school, sent ahead by her boss, Madam Chanel, along with the lesson plans Kathryn had carefully crafted, despite her displeasure at being assigned this job.

She noted the flushed faces of the children, they all had to know what had been happening over the summer, what were they thinking about as they headed to school?

Now if only the Mediwizard would have released her from the hospital before yesterday, so that she could have had time to become acquainted with the school and staff beforehand, instead of at the last minute like this. Well, if wishes were horses, she would have two good legs and be back in the field. But that decision was Madam Chanel’s.

“Who I am going to terminate with extreme pleasure.” She muttered as she hauled herself aboard the train. The shock of her new assignment had worn off to be replaced with alternating bouts of bone deep weariness and white-hot rage. That after eighteen years of being the top Agent in America, she was reduced to teaching Expelliarmus to grubby teenagers was absolutely humiliating.

She dragged herself into a cabin and slumped back against the cushions disconsolate. Even if she couldn’t go out in the field anymore, surely she was still of use? She was an analyst as well as a field agent; surely they could have put her in a room with lots of files and at least made use of her mind, couldn’t they?

The door to her compartment opened and a soft hesitant voice drifted in.

“Pardon, but can we share? The other compartments are already full.” She turned her head and took in a group of teenagers in assorted garb and waved them forward, after all, she couldn’t possibly be made more miserable than she already was.

The voice belonged to a girl with more hair than head who settled across from Kathryn and flicked her eyes up and down in a very assessing manner. She had warm, intelligent brown eyes and a very English complexion that reminded Kathryn of fog and period movies.

“I’m Hermione Granger.” She announced and apparently having decided that Kathryn was safe enough, the girl stuck out her hand with an air of decision at odds with her age. Kathryn recognized her now, from her dossier picture, though with children a few years out of date made a big difference.

“Kathryn Leblanc, Your new Defense teacher.” She replied with a twitch of her lips. Professor Dumbledore had provided her with full dossiers on the previous professors, as well, so she could catalogue the expressions that passed across the children’s faces with great accuracy.

“Did Professor Dumbledore hire you?” Asked the boy who flopped down beside Kathryn. His black hair, green eyes and scar were familiar to her from her files, but the look of quiet anger was interesting.

“Yes, he did.” They all relaxed and the redhead, who had taken the place beside Hermione, stared at her with undisguised interest. He was freckled, snub nosed and looked like he would get better with age and maturity.
Beside him sat a girl near his own age, with the same bloodlines stamped across her face and hair, and an expression of intense curiosity. Next to Harry was a vague-looking young blonde woman with a newspaper
clutched to her chest and a pudgy young man with just the beginnings of strength in his face.

“You’re an American aren’t you?” It was almost accusatory the way the redhead boy said it.

“Yes, but I am not a host for evil, A charlatan, a werewolf, a polyjuiced death eater or a Ministry toady.” She rattled it off with a twitch to her lips that made the kids grin.

“Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom.” Harry announced, pointing at each in turn. When he got to Neville she smiled and reached around Harry to shake his hand. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Harry’s pleasure that she didn’t single him out, an interesting response.

Mr. Longbottom, I know your parents, they are two of the best Aurors England has ever produced.” The boy, who looked startlingly like his father with his soft features and gentle eyes, looked back at her as though he would cry. The rest of the group stared at her.

“How do you know the Longbottoms?” Hermione asked sharply.

“Because, before my accident, I was an Auror.” No need to tell these kids what division she was in, that was still classified information.

“What happened?” Neville clapped his hands over his mouth as the words slipped out, but Kathryn only grinned back at him.

“Your dad used to do that too.” She chuckled at the familiar gesture and sobered as Neville stared at her. “I was bitten by a Naga.”

The compartment gasped as six pairs of teenage eyes stared at her in shock.

“You’re lucky to be alive, Naga are very dangerous. Their venom is a neurotoxin and very fast acting.”
Hermione said that all in one breath and with an expression of awe that made Kathryn want to laugh.

“I can see that you will require very little teaching on my part, Miss Granger. Yes, I am lucky to be alive.” The last half was said with amusement as Hermione colored up from the praise.

“I thought Naga were extinct.” Harry asked from beside her.

“Well, close to it, there are maybe four or five left in the world, but considering that they are forty foot long, highly intelligent and venomous, we keep close tabs on them.”

“I imagine so. If I knew there was a forty foot long snake around I would probably want to know exactly where it was as well.” Ron muttered, impressed.

The food trolley rattled up to the door right then and Kathryn was quickly forgotten in the rush for sweets. She took the opportunity to study them covertly, using her interest in the contents of the trolley as her excuse.

Harry Potter was quite unlike his files. She wondered who had been in charge of his psychological profile, because they had bungled it quite seriously. One look into those intense green eyes was enough to tell her the boy was grieving and filled with rage. Whoever thought he was handling his godfather’s death well had misread him badly.

Hermione also had been unstimstimated, in Kathryn’s opinion, those eyes missed little and her book learning and bossy manner did not hide her grim determination and analytical mind.

Ron, she thought had been best diagnosed, loyal, friendly, tactless, oblivious to the finer shadings of human interaction and almost painfully eager, she would have work to do to keep him alive. There was, however, a genuine charisma there, an aura of likeability that made it hard to dismiss him.

Ginny, Luna and Neville were equally complex individuals, each with different strengths and weaknesses, teaching them defense would be challenging. Ginny had a streak of darkness in her, a hint of stubborn willfulness, that concerned Kathryn, while Neville seemed so very fragile, yet determined. Luna, on the other hand, was a bit of an enigma and Kathryn was intrigued by the puzzle in spite of herself.

Suddenly, the idea of teaching these adolescents was not quite so unpalatable. She studied their interactions from beneath her eyelashes as she nibbled on a biscuit. This could be interesting. In fact, perhaps she would stay Madam Chanel’s execution for a while, till she decided how bad it really was.

After all, it had been a long time since she had felt like she had a real challenge and teaching teenagers was definitely going to be that.

“What other creatures are out there like the Naga, you know, things people don’t think exist anymore.” Harry asked from around a chocolate frog. They spent the rest of the train ride discussing the forgotten beasts of elder days.