Woodgreen Academy Archive

Summary: Lunch means territory. Snape thinks he’s teaching retards. Ron is overprotective. Draco is a selective racist.

A/N: I was tossing between using the term ’soccer’ or ‘football’ but since Woodgreen is located in Hawaii which makes it an American academy, I stuck around with ’soccer’ and football will refer to the American football with hulking men wearing armor XD. But there’s rugby in this school as well.

————-

Class began at nine o’clock and for the next three hours, the halls of Woodgreen High were empty. The only interruption was the ten-minute window between two periods, marked by the dull ringing of a bell everyone loved to hate. In this slot, the doors would open and students would fill the halls only to disappear again after the second bell, signaling the start of the next class. The ten minutes often felt like an apparition to some innocent passersby due to the stark difference between the silent hallway and the sudden loud chattering of various voices only to fade again just as fast. It was assumed that ten minutes was all a person needed to get to one class to the next.

However, the lunch bell was very different. Its only rival was the last bell of the day, for dismissal. These two bells were the most beautiful sounds by popular belief. But, several students would insist that both loud ringing were different from each other. There was supposedly more life to the final bell.

In Woodgreen Prime, the lunch bell signaled food and play time. It was the happy hour for everybody, almost. Kids could be very antagonistic and vindictive unconsciously and it was unavoidable to have a few outcasts lost in corners or in shadowed areas. Nonetheless, casualty in Woodgreen Prime was relatively small mainly due to the active and friendly faculty that went out of their way to take care of the children.

In Woodgreen University, the lunch and dismissal bells were nonexistent. Each bell meant a new class and everyone was expected to have control over their own time. The grounds were different. The rules were different. The antagonism barely existed, unless it was between organizations (fraternities and sororities were long abolished but there were underground activities of this kind with common organizations as its façade). All in all, among these warriors on the college grounds of Woodgreen, it was every man for himself.

Woodgreen High, on the other hand, was a battlefield. It wasn’t about finding a place to eat as opposed to finding a good place to eat. Though the high school area was large enough to accommodate the four hundred hungry students, it wasn’t quite enough socially. There were various things to consider. Good view. Good seats. Accessibility to the food stalls. Good distance from groups A to Zs. Good this and good that. It was not rational.

And on the Glorified First Day, the tables, benches, trees and grasslands were free for conquest. The precious minutes after the lunch bell would begin a race to lay claim over a territory. Establishing a ‘home’ in vast open spaces was a phenomenon teachers from all levels stopped bothering to ponder over. Everyone had gone through it as early as their primary years and it only grew vicious the older people got as long as they were around school. The food court could be hazardous sometimes even the teachers had their own executive lounge and canteen to avoid being caught in the middle. Once in a while, some teacher would venture in the food court if only because there were more varieties of food there than the executive canteen.

The crossover was never pleasant for any teacher who preferred solitude, especially on this particular day. That was his mistake. He had forgotten.

Severus Snape scowled darkly. He should have known better than to risk the small trip but the exec canteen ran out of dessert and he refused to end a meal without the last course. He had very little quirks and he demanded from karma that what simple little pleasure he might crave for should be attainable. ‘Why is it that buying a slice of chocolate moose must become an exodus in itself?’ He mentally whined while keeping a straight face.

He mentally swore that he would never ever dismiss his class late again. To think today was also his first day in teaching in Woodgreen High and it wasn’t going well. Somehow, the high school was more retarded than his students from the primary department.

“Ah, Severus. I didn’t think I’d see you here.” Severus turned slightly to see a fellow teacher, Remus Lupin. Unfortunately, the other man had also been an old classmate from college as well. Since he had no intent on striking up conversations over old times, he replied with nothing.

“I wasn’t aware you’re the kind of person to willingly mingle amongst students, especially on breaks.” Remus smiled pleasantly and fell in line, carrying a plate with cheesecake. “How was the first day?”

Silently, Severus willed Remus to get the hint and just disappear. Unfortunately, he wasn’t born a psychic so he simply stepped forward and hoped the girl in front of him would hurry up and pay for her food. But fate was against him and the girl was taking her time counting her coins and looking in every pocket of her backpack for more. He could see Remus open his mouth for another mundane comment and before any word came out, Severus replied, “This is not my first day of teaching.”

“Of course,” Remus nodded, “but there’s a remarkable difference between these students and the ones from the primary department.”

Remus’ eyes twinkled and for a brief moment, Severus wondered if that was supposed to be funny. “Why are you here?”

“Cheesecake.” Remus lifted his plate for emphasis.

“What do you want from me?”

“You’re still hostile.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” The whole time Severus kept his eyes on the head of the girl but at this, he turned and glared.

Remus lifted his free hand up in a form of surrender and backed a step, trying to smile. “I heard you’ve decided to continue with your Ph.D.” He mentally sighed, ‘Evasive maneuvers 101.’

—

“Hey, isn’t that Snape? Never figured I’d see him here of all places. Only teachers I see going here are the Onizuka types. Don’t they get a fancier place?” Ginny Weasley tilted her head, watching her former professor from her primary years.

Next to her was Harry Potter who made a face upon seeing the man. “Ugh, why couldn’t he have transferred here when I already graduated? He’s teaching Chem and he dismissed us late. I say he’s bullying me. Again.”

She laughed. “Is Ron in that class, too?”

“Yes. He’s going to try and transfer, I bet. But since Snape’s going to be teaching every Chem class anyway, Ron’s likely just transferring for a different time. He loves lunch too much to have it cut short everyday. Where do we sit?” Harry craned his neck, standing on his toes to look around the cafeteria for a large table for his friends.

Ginny, brash as ever probably more so than her brother, pulled an empty chair and stood on it to have a better view. Of course, the nearby male population looked up on instinct. A girl in a skirt would always be a girl in a skirt and it helped that the redhead wasn’t a sore for the eyes either.

“Hmm… the place is packed. We have better chances of finding a table outside. I got out late, too, so I wasn’t able to reserve a place. Do you see any of the guys?” She crossed her arms and glared at the cafeteria, oblivious of the unwanted attention she was starting to gather around her.

Harry tried to protect the dignity of his best friend’s sister, if only to save his own hide if Ron heard about it later. “Where is Ron, anyway?” He muttered to himself, trying to glare at the boys looking up at Ginny to no avail. He didn’t have the same menacing aura as the Weasley pack.

“WHAT are you all looking at?! Back to your food! Hey you, you pervert! That’s my sister!”

“Ah.” Harry couldn’t help but smile when he saw Ron stomping his way through the sea of people, far more effective in the glaring department because of his larger build.

Ron dropped his backpack on the floor as soon as he arrived and grabbed Ginny by the waist. He lifted her off the chair effortlessly and glared at everyone around them including Harry before landing the full intensity of it at his very own sister.

“I knew that skirt was too short!”

“Okay, okay, enough already!” Ginny snorted and tried to push her overprotective brother off her. “And it’s not that short! I was just trying to look for a place. It’s not my fault you all arrived late. Now we don’t have a place to sit and I refuse to be a nomad for the rest of the year.”

“Whatever, Ginny.” Ron let her go and picked up his bag. But he wasn’t done on glaring yet. He zeroed in on his best friend next, “Why didn’t you stop her from doing something so stupid?”

In the background, Ginny gave an indignant snarl at Ron, which was ignored.

“My hands are full, if you haven’t noticed.” Harry rolled his eyes and raised his tray that had both his and Ginny’s food. Ron had left him earlier while he tried to find Hermione. “Where’s Hermione?”

“Buying food. I just saw Ginny all the way from where I was so I came here.” He snorted and shot the younger Weasley a displeased look. “Anyway, let’s look for a table. Maybe Dean and the others got off early from their class.”

Ron took Harry’s bag and dragged Ginny to walk in front of him as they made their way outside the crowded cafeteria.

“Honestly. When you’re around, no boy wants to talk to me,” Ginny muttered as she was ushered by her self-appointed bodyguard. She tried to smile apologetically at the next boy who scampered away as soon as Ron shoved her to keep moving again.

“And no guy should.”

She threw her hands up and walked faster to gain a good distance away from the Big Brother.

“Don’t start.” Ron scowled when he heard his best friend snigger.

Once they were outside, they saw their friends had indeed managed to grab a place. Two tables were pulled together and all their bags had been dumped on several chairs to reserve the space for the rest of their friends who were obviously late. The only thing left to do was to keep showing up in this same space for the next week or two so the rest of the population would know that this area was taken.

“Hah, not bad!” Ron grinned as he unceremoniously tossed his and Harry’s backpacks over the pile of bags. He looked around their lunch table and appreciated the tree that provided a cool shade from the sun. His good mood turned sour as soon as he saw who the table next to them belonged to. “No other place?”

“Hey, one minute it was ‘not bad’ and then we’ll move?” Dean snorted then shrugged. “Everyone was late today so nobody’s been able to manage to grab last year’s table. Too bad, though. I liked that view better. We can’t see who’s coming and going from the caf here.”

“Why? You already have someone to stalk?” Seamus laughed as he was shoved off the chair he was on. He was silently grateful for the grass that softened his fall.

“Next thing you know, this side of the caf will be known as the prefect side because all the prefects are here.” Harry took a glance at the other table next to theirs. It, too, had two tables pulled together and if it weren’t for those two extra tables, the distance would be closer. ‘The wider it is, the better,’ He thought.

Seamus straightened up and brushed the grass off his clothes. He wore a thoughtful frown as he looked at the other table where Crabbe and Goyle were loudly laughing over something but haven’t touched their food yet. “On the good note, that means we don’t have to worry about showing up early everyday this week to maintain claim. People see Malfoy and Parkinson over there then Ron and Hermione over here, they’ll assume it’s already off the market. Joy to knowing people in power.”

“I still have to buy food,” Ron groaned all of a sudden, already thinking about the long queue.

“No need but you owe me,” Neville piped up as he approached the table carrying two sets of meals. Dean removed a few bags and tossed it to the other pile while Neville set his tray.

Ron brightened at that. Then, Hermione came up a few seconds later, and Ron did the same of clearing up space for her.

“I heard that, Seamus. Just because we’re prefects doesn’t mean we’ll do you favors.” Hermione frowned at him.

“You maybe but Ron here is our very very dear friend…” And to prove the point, Seamus hugged Ron, pursing his lips and making kissing sounds. “You love us, Ronnie, right? Right?”

“Ugh.”

Even Hermione had to laugh at how hard Ron was trying to get rid of the leech trying to kiss him.

—-

“So, who thinks Ronald likes boys?” Luna bent closer to the table and whispered, wide-eyed.

“You’re kidding!” Lavender gasped. She hurriedly tied her hair and straightened, “But I dated him!”

“So he likes girls, too.” Myrtle rolled her dark eyes. “But what prompted that comment, Luna?”

Luna just smiled, “I saw Seamus try and kiss him.”

“That doesn’t mean he likes boys that way.” Lavender frowned as she began eating. “Besides, Seamus is like that. As if you haven’t seen enough boys here to be so…” She waved her fork trying to find the words but couldn’t.

“Well, he certainly didn’t look too uncomfortable.”

“They’re good friends.”

“Don’t tell me you still like him after he dumped you for Hermione. I still think that was pretty cruel. Who’d have thought Weasley had it in him to be that heartless.”

“Please, people.” Lavender sighed, giving her friends a tired look. The topic somehow never got old and she found it annoying that what happened two years ago could keep haunting her. “Besides, we’re still good friends.”

“So weird!” That was Hannah who had kept silent all this time.

“Was the sex that good?”

At this, even the passerby slowed down unnoticeably.

Lavender sputtered and choked on the shrimp she had been chewing on. Her eyes watery, it took a while for her to regain her breath. “We were fifteen!”

“Oh my god, so you really did it! Where?” Myrtle gasped, eyes threatening to leave its sockets.

Indignant, “Myrtle!” Lavender was red-faced, looking around the nearby tables and hoping no one heard. This was by far the most embarrassing conversation she’d ever had over the infamous break up that labeled Weasley as The Jerk from when they were in their sophomore year.

And yet somehow being The Jerk elevated Weasley’s status in the dating field among the guys, particularly when he got together with Hermione Granger. It was very odd, especially when Lavender herself had a number of guys come her way when she was the one who was dumped. She would never understand how boys think.

“Well, you know. We never really had the chance to ask about that.” Luna tried to placate Lavender who was starting to look murderous. “It’s not like you two hid the fact that you’re both horny.”

“It’s been years. Let’s talk about something else! Did you see the new German prof? He looks so young.”

The rest of the girls looked like they didn’t want to leave the subject of sex but eventually gave in favor of their youngest professor yet. “Alphonse Heidrich. You know, he looks exactly like Alphonse Elric except maybe the eyes and hair since the Elric kid started growing his hair long last year.”

“You think they’re brothers? Twins, maybe? I don’t think Heidrich is that young… isn’t the Elric boy a junior with his brother?”

Lavender was glad there was something else to talk about. She could do without another Weasley thread on the first day of school. She should really get over that and start dating again.

Shifting her eyes, she saw the topic of their conversation over at the end of the cafeteria. The Elric brothers were quite popular in their school because of their GPA. The only reason both boys were not in the list of candidates for the honor roll was their delinquency records. More often than not, it was the older Elric who got in trouble and the younger one would share the blame trying to cover up for his loud brother’s shortcomings.

“Oooh look, he’s eating with the Elric brothers. Maybe they are related after all,” she commented after seeing the German professor join the two blonds.

“I noticed there are too many blonds in this school.” Myrtle frowned. Her blond friends turned to look at her with raised eyebrows and she coughed. “What?”

—

“My goodness, Ron’s not a virgin! And I thought he was shy.” That was Pansy’s first greeting as soon as she arrived at their table.

“And we are interested because…” Terry Boot looked bored. He just arrived and currently shooting glares at both Crabbe and Goyle to remove their hulking bags and give him space.

“Because nothing. On to better things: I saw Snape and he’s teaching in high school now. For once I regret not having Potter and Weasley in our Chem. Snape hates them.”

’Trust Draco to kill gossip about Weasley.’ Pansy scowled then focused on their next topic. “And I saw Snape talking with Lupin at the cashier. The animosity continues, apparently. I still don’t know the story behind that.”

“Must you know every single story behind things?” That was Millicient Bulstrode who arrived with her tray. She glared at her original seat that now had a small stack of bags.

“I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t know.” Pansy just smiled and helped the other girl make space. She didn’t want to deal with an angry Millicent especially when the huge girl’s ‘playful slap’ meant having a black and blue shoulder for a day.

Theodore and Blaise arrived last, completing their small group. Considering their numbers, they really didn’t need two tables but they preferred chairs over floors for their bags and so they needed more space. Besides, as if anyone in their right mind would want to argue with anybody in this particular group.

Then again, people from their batch weren’t known to have sensible minds.

“Are you sure there aren’t any more tables elsewhere?” Blaise blanched after he saw the group on the other table. He had nothing against Potter’s group of friends. In truth, he was on pretty good terms with some of them. But he had no appreciation of being stuck in staring and glaring matches between that camp and this camp and it had already begun because Draco finally noticed, for the first time, who was sitting over there — and glaring right back at him.

“Why must Potter and Weasley be joined at the hips? As if seeing Weasley wasn’t bad enough, there’s Potter over there as well. And then Granger. And then another Weasley! It’s the whole pack of crass mixed blood peasants.”

“In this new world, racism isn’t exactly smiled upon, Draco dear.” Pansy snorted and Blaise agreed, strategically taking his seat right across Draco and obstructing the view.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Draco’s lineage is somehow connected with Hitler’s. That attitude seems to be hereditary.” Theodore smirked and Draco shot him a look.

“Look who’s talking. Your family’s as dirty as mine if we’re talking racism, if not more.”

Millicient waved her fork to get their attention, “I don’t think Draco’s a real racist. I mean, he has no problems with Blaise here. No offense, Blaise.” She grinned upon seeing the boy cock his eyebrow at her. “If anything, Draco’s a selective racist. If the person involved is somehow linked to someone we all know whose name starts with a W and ends with a –ly. Strangely enough, Weasley’s an English bloke through and through.”

“Your point, Millicient?” Draco’s voice dropped to menacing.

“My point is… want to join the Judo club?” She smiled all of a sudden and everyone around the table blinked at the sudden shift of topic.

“It’d help you vent excessive frustration.” She shoved in the piece of meat she had been waving around in her mouth. “You have a lot of it.”

“No. I have no excessive frustration.” Draco started cutting his steak, the sound of his knife viciously scraping against the plate. “Besides, I’ve been in the soccer team for three years straight and I don’t care if Potter,” he spat the name, “is the captain. That should’ve been a vote and not appointed. Stupid coach is so biased.”

His friends chose not to say anything. Harry Potter was a star player in Woodgreen’s soccer team. If Draco hadn’t been a key player himself, they knew he would’ve been kicked off a long time ago if forced to choose between the two.

“When’s tryout by the way?” Blaise looked up from his food. “Think Marcus will still play?”

“I don’t think the coach will let him. Doesn’t matter if he’s good with what he does when he doesn’t meet the minimum GPA.” Draco shrugged, “Besides, I remember seeing a memorandum to assign him a mentor this year because he’s a repeater.” He looked at Pansy for confirmation on that piece of news.

She nodded. “I’ve read that memorandum. Still have to find him one, though. Nobody’s offering a hand and I refuse to be his tutor. I doubt even Grang — Hermione wants to volunteer.” She was still finding it hard to be on first name basis with the girl. Weasley’s name was easier on the tongue by comparison and she had been teasing the redhead for a while now so she was used to calling him ‘Ron’. But she had to agree with what the girl said during breakfast. ’Hermione it is, then.’

Draco chose to ignore the slip. He wasn’t comfortable with the deal on closing the gaps between the Granger-Weasley camp and him. “As for the tryouts, ideal time is next week. The prefects still have to meet with the captains for other teams to decide on the matter so tryout schedules won’t overlap with other sports.” Draco looked at Blaise then, “Why? Joining?”

“Not sure yet. Rugby’s pretty fun.”

“And bloody.” Theodore wasn’t one for sports. He never joined one unless it was a requirement for their PE.

“Still fun.”

“Drag Weasley along when you do join rugby.” Draco nodded, his eyes determined. “I don’t want him in my team.”

“He did great last year.” Blaise raised an eyebrow, remembering how the whole Weasley Is Our King chant backfired at Draco.

“He practically dragged us all the way down before the semi-finals. We could’ve been eliminated that early into the season. It was a fluke that he started doing well halfway into the tournament.” Draco crossed his arms, brows furrowing in memory. “It’s my final year. I want a glorious exit with my best games even if it meant dealing with a captain like Potter.”