Title: It Was James's Fault, Professor
Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel
Pairings: None in particular.
Story Summary: Post-DH, so you have been warned! Rose and Albus get pulled into the headmistress' office to explain their actions. Sequel of sorts to "The Next Morning."
Setting: Post-Deathly Hallows. Rose and Albus are in their first year, most likely near the end of it. Takes place a few months after the last chapter of DH.
Author notes:
Here's a sequel to "The Next Morning." Wow! I only wrote the other this morning, and already I have a second fic! Harry's family must have really gotten into my head.
I'm afraid Neville's tattoo isn't mentioned in this; it didn't fit in the story. Sorry.
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IT WAS JAMES'S FAULT, PROFESSOR
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Rose and Albus sat morosely in front of the headmistress' desk, waiting for the full weight of her wrath to fall upon them.
"Well." Minerva McGonagall regarded them with a piercing eye. "What have you got to say for yourselves?"
The two exchanged looks, but went back to staring at the top of her desk. The piercing quality of her gaze increased a little.
"What about you, Mr Potter?"
Albus and Rose looked at each other. Albus sighed and began to explain.
"It was all James's fault, professor," he began. "I've been here nearly a year now, and it's always James, James, James, and I'm just his little brother. Everyone's always,
'Oh, James Potter! He's a prankster alright isn't he?' or 'James is so funny!' and telling me, 'geez you're quiet, aren't you? I thought Potters were supposed to be trouble.'
And honestly professor, I could have put up with that, but then James started too.
'You're so boring Albus. Teacher's pet, never playing pranks, always obeying rules… you're nearly as bad as Uncle Percy. I guess it's up to me to keep up the family reputation!' "
"It is a reputation your family could well do without," Minerva said tartly. Albus shifted uncomfortably.
"I guess so. But I got so sick of it that I decided I would do something, something so beyond James's level that he'd have to leave me alone, and maybe people would stop thinking of me as just his little brother. And I knew I couldn't do it all by myself, so I asked Rose for help."
Rose squirmed.
"Albus told me what he was going to do, so I said I'd help him," she admitted with a blush. "I thought that it might help me too. I mean, everyone says to me, 'you're just like your mother' and then going 'only her marks were a bit better' like I'm some kind of inferior copy. It's maddening, professor, honestly, and extremely damaging to an adolescent psyche."
Minerva almost snorted. Rose, with her small, slim build and thick strawberry-blonde hair might not have looked very like her mother, but she certainly sounded like her.
"I see."
"So when Albus came to me I thought that this was an opportunity to show that I wasn't just like my mother but nonetheless just as smart. I mean, she might have brewed Polyjuice when she was about my age, yeah, but could she have done this?"
The headmistress kept her countenance as unsmiling as stone, but inside she was beginning to feel amused.
-
"That explains why you did it perhaps, but what I would like to know is how."
"Oh, that's easy, professor," Rose jumped in before Albus could do more than open his mouth. He shut it again, looking resigned. "Because a few years ago Mum got to go through Professor Dumbledore's papers when she was helping the Unspeakables with that thing with the Wizengamot, you remember? And of course she took copious notes, because she always does, and afterwards when everything was sorted out she took them home and filed them in her study and just left them there."
Oh dear, Minerva thought to herself. Knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I do hope Hermione puts a lock on her study door after this.
"It was really simple, when I went home for Christmas I copied all of Mum's notes and worked out what we'd need for the activation, and when we got back Albus and I worked on it."
Albus saw that he was finally being offered a chance to get a word in.
"It was mostly stuff about Germanic runes and symbolic objects of power and all that," he said. "Rose worked out that we'd definitely need an anchor to reinforce the second set of runes, especially the Norse ones, and with the number of times we'd be doing the spell a central anchor would be best, so she got Uncle Bill to send her a ward casting stone by explaining that she'd been doing research on wards and wanted to actually get a look at one."
"After that," Rose struck in, "it was simply a matter of choosing the appropriate solstice and actually casting the spell."
"So we picked a night and then went around and cast it everywhere," Albus concluded.
"I tried to do it but wasn't strong enough, so Albus took over and made me the one who knew all the locations instead," Rose added. There was a short silence.
"Honestly professor, it was just a prank," Albus said in a small voice.
"We didn't mean to cause all that trouble," Rose agreed in an equally small voice. "We left leaflets outside all the common rooms as soon as we realised and we had a free period to do it."
-
Minerva leaned back and closed her eyes. She looked as though she were gathering patience when in fact she was trying not to laugh.
"Very well," she said finally, "taking all the facts into account I thin we shall rule out expulsion or suspension." Their faces shone with relief. "However, I am taking fifty points each from Gryffindor, and giving you a week's detention. I also expect you to write to your parents and give them a full and accurate account of your conduct, understood?" Minerva looked at them sternly, well aware that with the exception of Hermione, their parents would be more amused than anything else.
"Yes Professor McGonagall," they chorused, slumping in relief.
"Good," she said dryly. "You may now return to your common rooms where I expect you will not cause any more trouble than you have already, is that clear?"
Once they had scrambled from her office, relieved that their punishments weren't more dire, Minerva finally allowed herself to smile.
Perhaps she had been a bit lenient on them. But not even the Gryffindor Trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione could have done what these two had, and she was secretly quite proud.
Besides, she had to admit, to herself at least, that hiding every single lavatory in the school bar the ones in the teacher's quarters with the Fidelus ward really was rather funny.
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AN:
I like Albus, one because he looks like Harry, two because I like his name better than James, and three I liked the little of his personality that we got to see in DH.
Rose I like because I can write her as a cross between Hermione and Ron: a sort of intelligent, mischievous bookworm with a love of Quidditch. Of course, the fact that she shares the name of my absolute favourite "Doctor Who" companion only helps.
I should probably add that the Fidelusing the toilets idea is one I have seen in a couple of places, but I thought it was somewhat amusing and the perfect prank for a couple of ambitious first years desperate to prove themselves and distinguish themselves from the other members of their families.
And yeah, I'm well aware that the explanatory sentences Rose and Albus speak are rather long, and overly full of commas, but if you ever listen to precocious children speaking on a technical matter – or even an overexcited adult person speaking on a technical matter (cough geeks cough) – that is exactly the way they speak.