#keepingitprofessional

He knew you were a few years younger than him; you were just about to start your junior year and Remus was starting his second year of graduate school, which was a large portion of why he had been reluctant to speak to you when he had the chance. He thought you might think it was weird since he was a bit older, but now he had to worry about keeping his feelings in check due to the fact that relationships between TA’s and students were strictly forbidden according to the by-laws he had read and signed before accepting his position.

While Remus was straightening his tie in the bathroom for the 38th time, you were oblivious to the fact that he was going to be your TA, as well as to the fact that he was having heart palpitations just thinking about seeing you again after summer break.

He looked at himself in the mirror one last time and then walked straight into the lecture hall five minutes before class was scheduled to begin. He noticed you right away, your Y/H/C hair was tied up messily and, although most everyone else looked unamused to be in English class at 8:30am, you had a bright smile on your face and were eager to learn.

You instantly recognized Remus, or as your best friend Lily used to call him “psychology hottie”, and your smile widened when you realized that he was your TA. You were relieved that you were wrong after all the weeks you spent worrying over possibly having an unapproachable, harsh TA, and secretly, you were ecstatic to once again have a semester of class with Remus Lupin. Although, this time, the situation was a bit different.

As soon as the clock reached 8:30am, your professor stood and quickly introduced Remus to the class before delving into a lecture on the importance of close reading each text you were going to be assigned that semester.

While you diligently took notes, Remus had a hard time averting his eyes from you. He knew it was wrong, inappropriate, against the rules, and about ten other different things, but he just couldn’t help it.

Near the end of the lecture, your professor had allotted five minutes for Remus to introduce himself and explain to the class how he would be grading your assignments and would also be who you needed to see for questions about the class.

Remus shoved his hands in his pockets and tried his best to sound like an intelligent, confident young man, but as soon as he saw you smiling in his direction he seemed to forget how to speak intellectual, meaningful sentences.

“I..I’m uh…Remus. Remus Lupin. I’m a graduate student. I’m getting my Master’s in English, obviously, I mean this is an English class. My office is room um…well…I think it’s room 394 in the Humanities building, I’ll send an email to confirm that. I’m excited to get to know all of you! In a cool way, not in like an, “I have no friends so I’ll just buddy up to my students” way. Anyway, that’s it. Be gone, young scholars!”

Remus smacked a hand to his forehead as everyone scrambled to get out of their seats and then out the door. Young scholars? Get to know you in a cool way? Honestly, he thought he couldn’t have made a bigger fool of himself if he had tried.

He reached for his messenger bag and turned around to see you standing directly in front of him with a charming smile on your face.

“Hi, Remus! I don’t know if you remember me, but we had abnormal psychology last semester and I just wanted to say hello! I hope you weren’t too nervous for your first day; it’ll only get easier from now on! Honestly, I’m so glad you’re my TA, I feel like we both wanted to talk to each other last semester, but never really got the chance.”

Remus felt a bombardment of emotions all at once: excitement, fear, happiness, and disappointment. As much as he wanted to return your enthusiasm and tell you how happy he was to see you again, he knew that he had to put his feelings aside and be as professional as possible. If anything, overtly professional. He couldn’t let you, or anyone else, know how he felt if he wanted to keep his job.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you and I’d prefer if you called me Mr. Lupin. Don’t make it a habit of stopping me after class unless you need to ask me a question that pertains to this course.”