The Queen of Quills

Each step he took up the stairs were counted. This was going to be a long 20 minutes, the thought. Alex remained silent as they walked, the girl was talking non-stop. Merlin's beard, did she even breathe? He glanced at her from the side, one eyebrow raised. Nope, she wasn't breathing, just talking. Talking. Talking. Non stop. Talking.

Alex sighed, perhaps if he'd said no and ran away, he would have gotten away. Too late now. Or was it? He could just start running, turn into odd hallways, left right right left left, and run into the Room of Requirement. He could lose her, for sure. But before he knew it, they were in front of his classroom. Damn, too late. He plastered a thin smile on his face as he opened the door and gestured for her to go in.

"After you," he said bowing slightly. Maybe he could shut the door on her and lock her in, then he could run to Hogsmeade where she would never find him and blame it on Peeves playing tricks and locking people in. Instead of doing this, he walked in with her, leaving the door opened all the way. Alex would hit on the girl, but he worried that she would probably be clingy. A one night stand would turn into a life of nightmares. And she would probably tell the entire world! Dumbledore would fire him and he would never get a job anywhere. No. He pushed all notions away. A lay was not worth all that.

Gathering his students homework from the table against the wall, he stacked them on his desk. The pile was about a foot tall, all of the same homework from four different classes. He had assigned an essay about the difference in vampires and humans with a minimum of 8 pages. It was lengthy for sure, but he had written hundreds of pages on them- 8 pages was nothing compared to that. Now that he looked at the stack, he was beginning to regret it. Writing was one thing, but reading perhaps the same thing over and over was another.

He began to read the first one of the stack, his eyes looked over the paper to Rita Skeeter before looking back at the essay waiting for her first question. He figured the less he said, the better.

He watched the girl talk and the quill write rapidly across the paper. How brilliant, this girl truly was made for the media. Alexander was not immune to flattery. Behind the paper that blocked his face from view, he smiled widely. Yes, he was all those things, he had to agree. Someone finally saw how good he was, his pride over himself welled up. He forced his face back into a semi scowl, almost emotionless trying to read the paper. He moved the paper down and listened to her speak, she would be asking the question soon.

What was his favorite color?

Did he like school when he was younger?

What was his favorite subject?

When was he born?

What were his parents like growing up?

He leaned forward, setting the paper down on the table but looking down at it occassionally to read the next sentences. He looked back at her as he heard the question coming.

"So, tell me, how is it that you came to doing what you're doing now? What seduces a man to throw himself into the world of Ghouls and Vampires?!"

His heart stopped for a second as he heard the question, his body feeling as if it turned into stone. This was not the question he had expected. He grit his teeth together, his fingers tapped on the table. "Ahem," he cleared his throat as he picked the paper up again and skimmed over it. He could not tell her about how he really got started into non-human creatures. Which was that he'd met a vampire in a night club, become somewhat a groupie and got engaged to one who later broke his heart in half, chewed it up and spit it out, stomped on it and then popped a squat and pissed on it.

That was a private part of his life that not even Stasja or his parents knew. Of course, Dumbledore knew. But he had a feeling that the Headmaster would be keeping that to himself. He leaned back  on the seat and tried to make himself relax.

"I've always wanted to teach and find ghosts interesting creatures. Not alive but not really dead, in the terms that they are gone forever," he said finally as he picked up his quill and marked on the paper. "My parents guided me in the right direction, they were a great inspiration to me." Lies. "After I graduated I was offered a job here by Dumble- Professor Dumbledore." There, short, sweet, answered the questions and completely untrue, for the most part.

He moved the paper to the side and went on to the next. Hopefully her next question would be something like "What's your favorite band?" But he doubted it. The girl was better than that. Alex was impressed by her talent to ask the right questions to trully know someone. But he had to hold on to his life and keep it private. He would not let her get through to him and find out anything he did not want her to know.

Alex could not believe this girl. He should have followed his insticts and just got rid of her. But his need to be nice to students got the better of him. Reading through the paper, he made a few marks on the page. He had skimmed over the paper a few times, but didn't really know what it said. He only made a few grammar corrections and then wrote out a letter on top of the page. Moving on to the next paper, he tried to block out Rita. But she was so obnoxious with her questions, it anger Alex. He was usually not easy to anger, but Rita was doing it and doing it well.

He had to find a way of keeping his answers vague so she couldn't see through him. He was a private person and Rita was going to ruin it all. He nodded, letting her know that he was listening, but kept his head looking down at the next paper acting as if he was reading it. A million different answers went through his head, but trully what he wanted to do was curse her into oblivion and then go out for a drink at Hogsmeade.

"Yes, Stasja is wonderful, isn't she?" he said with a glued on smile. He had tried to keep the fact that he had a sister as a student in the school. Simply because he did not want others to think he would play favorites or let her get away with certain things. Alex tried to get as much distance as he could from Stasja during school hours. They only met from time to time at Hogsmeade for dinner to catch up. Though very close, they both understood the conflicts that could arise from being brother and sister. His mind wandered back to his sister when she was first born. She was powerful, but at first they thought she was a squib. It was not until she went into St. Petersburg for school that they found out she was a real full pledged witch. Which was a relief to everyone. Having a squib in the family would certainly ruin them. Her wand had chosen right, they were perfect together. It took her a while to learn spells, longer than most students. But when she learned them, they were more powerful than anyone could imagine. She had learned bombarda maxima a year back after five months of trying to learn it. It was supposed to just explode a wall, but when Stasja mastered it, the whole right wing of their house exploded. That was three rooms, completely obliterated into bits. Their parents were very proud, to say the least.

Ritas words repeated in Alex's head as he tried to find ways around them. He knew that Stasja did not speak about their family much, in Stasja's eyes they had a wonderful childhood. Rita must have been getting her information elsewhere. He would have to find out where and make it stop, whoever it was. Adding the paper to the stack, he moved to the next one in line.

He ignored her other questions and moved on to the last one. "You should definitely continue to further you education, Ms. Skeeter. Going to a university is a great experience, mine was certainly good. All the classes, getting to live in a school much like this. Learning should be enjoyable and it doesn't matter if you're smart. All you have to do is apply yourself."

Good. He had evaded her questions, for now. Alex had underestimated the student, a mistake he would never make again.

Continuing to read the papers, he went through them marking each one, putting down little notes as the girl spoke to her. He was not going to lose this fight, no, specially not against a student. He looked up at her from time to time with a smile on his face as he went from one paper to the next. Her next question was clear and Alex wondered if she already knew the answer and just wanted him to say it, or she had no idea of his whereabouts for two years.

Nodding his head, he smiled, "Oh those two years were some good times!" he said with a feigned laugh. Refilling his ink pot, he rummaged for a new quill. "After I left the University I wanted to live my life before settling down to teach. You know teachers only get the summer off to go and do things, such as take vacations. Well you know I was still young and not ready to be truly too serious in my work as a teacher," he continued to ramble about nothing important and of course, all lies. "So I traveled the world! You must do it one day, Ms. Skeeter, before you get too old. Learning about different cultures both muggle and in the wizarding world."

There, he had given her an answer. A dishonest one, but more or less true. He had traveled for a while, as a nomad, as a vagrant, a homeless man. Until he settled to become homeless in England. But she would not know that. He would kill her before she printed that out for everyone to see. His other life, his secret life, was for him and him alone. Looking at his watch, a smile twitched on his lips.

"OH! Wow look at the time," he said gleefully, "I had such a lovely time with our interview, Ms. Skeeter but it looks like your 20 minutes are up."

As he rushed down the hall, he heard something behind him. Looking back quickly, he saw that Rita Skeeter had fallen down into a clump in the hallway. He almost stopped to help her up, but he could not risk her going back to her questions. He had to leave, get away from her as fast as possible. Turning back around, he continued to walk and then began to slow as soon as he was sure that there was enough space between him and Rita Skeeter. What an abnoxious little student! He made a mental note to avoid her from now on. Rita Skeeter was dangerous.

A female voice shook him out of his thoughts. Turning his head, he saw Professor Madison Walker, the Ancient Ruins professor. The Ravenclaw Alumni had snuck up behind him. How did she do that? Shaking his head, he slowed down even more to a normal pace.

"Oh, yes, of course," he said looking down at his briefcase to make sure that no papers were sticking out. Thankfully he did as he caught sight of one of the locks that didn't click in. Lifting it up, he locked it into place before it could burst open and send the papers flying everywhere.

"How are you on this fine day, Professor?" he said keeping a professional manner in between them. Professor Walker was the type to follow the rules. Alex concluded that she and Professor McGonagall were both in a competition to see how had a bigger stick up their ass. But besides from being altogether too strict, Professor Walker seemed to be a good hearted person. She was gorgeous that's for sure, with Veela in her genes, Alex found it hard to look away everytime he caught sight of her.