AN: This one is not beta'ed, as normal. If you see something that you think needs to be corrected, please PM me. Thanks! Ree
Venting and Plotting
Minerva walked a tight circle about Filius' office, her three companions understanding her ire, but knowing there was nothing they could do.
"A tournament here? They want to bring students from other schools here?" She couldn't help but spat out her questions.
Pomona nodded slowly as she added in her own questions. "Where are they going to house the extra students? Our dorms are full, and I can't quite see them taking up in a classroom."
Minerva turned quickly to face them, her eyes wide with a realization. "Class size! We are going to have even more students in our rooms."
Filius leaned forward, his voice calming. "They at least won't have the house rivalry that our students have."
"No, the entire school will see them as rivals. They might even succeed in banding our students together as a united front against them." Severus' eyes glowed with contained amusement as he watched Pomona and Minerva get even more worried.
"Not helping, Severus." Filius caught the amused look and rolled his eyes. "Of course, it was your intention not to help, wasn't it?"
Severus leaned over to pick up a biscuit. "We might as well be prepared for the worst. I did add a bit of a … silver lining to my predictions."
Minerva dropped to her seat and stared at Severus. "You are right. The entire school is going to be against them. They are going to be our halls, in our classes, eating in the Great Hall... we are going to have to watch their backs. Make sure that our worst troublemakers don't go overboard."
Pomona wrung her hands slightly even as she sighed lightly in relief. "Most of those troublemakers are in your house, Minerva. Yours and Severus'. The Weasley Twins and Jordon... they are going to have to be told to keep it calm. Severus, that group of sixth years – Blackwater, Minnieweather, and their silent companion we all know they have but don't know their name – they need to keep their heads down. The elves are still cleaning the dungeon halls they decided to color green and yellow last week."
Three of them smiled and one's lips twitched at that memory. The group hadn't worked in a popular section of the dungeon, the halls they were colored were typically only travelled by Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, but they had done a thorough job. Some sections were done as an abstract, others painted scenes, but one thing was the same – not even the doors had been spared the touch of color, much less the floor and ceiling.
Severus raised an eyebrow before nodding. "I will talk to my two. I still believe our third in that group is a member of your house, Pomona."
"I'll talk to my entire house, especially the fifth, sixth and seventh years."
"It won't change the fact our classes are going to be larger. Our NEWT classes at that!" Minerva tapped the arm of her chair repeatedly, her brain obviously attempting to work out the dynamics. "And we will have no idea of their levels, what they've done, or anything. Yes, they are supposed to be the best of the school, but they may be really good in some things and really bad at others." Shooting a look at Severus, she continued. "That is going to be dangerous in your class. You only accept the best of the best into your NEWTs classes, but they...who knows what their criteria is. You could end up with someone who could barely make an Acceptable on their OWL. It is the same with all of us."
Filius inched back from Severus as the scowl on his face became more pronounced. It wasn't until the scowl faded and a tiny smile curved his lips that the little Charms Professor thought of his own NEWT classes and the chaos it was about to become.
Severus leaned forward, letting his smile stay. "We shall give them a quick test. Nothing insulting, just to know what they already understand so we don't bore them in our classes."
"And if they do horribly, Severus? What do we do with them then?" Pomona reached for her scotch as she waited for his answer, positive it was something they could all use.
"I, personally, will assign members of my NEWTs classes to help them. It will give my students a chance to learn the typical mistakes made to the potions they think of as easy as well as getting them to think of ways to correct those mistakes. Of course, I shall offer a remedial potions class to those who are so abysmal I cannot allow them to waste my students' time that they need to work on their own creations." Severus watched as the contemplative look covered the other three faces.
Minerva nodded. "That is a solid plan. Does anyone have an idea what we can do about the school rivalry?"
They all shook their head, and Severus said, "Maybe Potter and his companions will provide us with some pull with them. The other two school might decide to hero worship the boy and the rest of our school follow suit as normal. It will give them common ground." He stopped speaking when a speculative gleam appeared in Minerva's eyes. "Not that I would suggest bartering on his fame. Personally, I think we should just continue as we normally do. We handle the rivalry between the houses well, this would only be a small difference in it."
Filius focused on Pomona. "Back to your original question. Where are we going to house the extra students? I am sure we can split them up into the dorms. It might help with the school rivalry."
Minerva shook her head. "No, they are bringing their own accommodations. Albus said so when I talked to him earlier."
"You talked to Albus?" Filius leaned forward, his expression intent. "Did he have any answers for our questions?"
"No, he said they would be coming October thirtieth, they would be joining our students for all the classes that were the same or close to their current schedules, and that we will be having a ball." Minerva stopped, her eyes widening. "I forgot the Yule Ball. It is a tradition with this competition. We are going to have all the students here over the entire Holiday because of this."
"What? They aren't going home for the Holiday? Our holiday?" The words were ripped out of the other three. Even Severus' eyes had widened in disbelief.
Nodding slowly, Minerva spoke, her voice barely a whisper caught on the edge of a sob. "Our holiday. We will be spending it making sure our students can dance and chaperoning a large dance."
All four friends sat staring into space watching their free time vanish.
Severus was the first to pull himself out of his dismay. Crossing the room, he rested a hand on Minerva's shoulder. In a calm, soothing tone, he spoke so that everyone could hear him. "You must embrace your Inner Albus." He took in the shocked faces before he continued. "We must all embrace our Inner Albus. Once we do that, we will make it through."
Filius frowned. "Offer everyone sweets, tea, and wear outlandish robes?"
Everyone one, even Severus, snorted a laugh at that half truth.
"Hide in our office and do paperwork until we have to make an appearance at the High Table?" Pomona smiled slightly at the idea of hiding in one of her greenhouses.
"Taking on the Board of Governors and the Ministry to convince them Albus was right, this is not the time to be doing this?" Minerva added in an attempt to defend all the work that Albus did.
All four shuddered at that thought, knowing Minerva was right. Pomona and Filius had tried to make light of Albus' job, but they knew he had worked tirelessly all summer and the end of last school year to put an end to this tournament, or at the very least have it at one of the other schools.
She then looked up at Severus. "Given the last three years, I really don't want to know what this can bring."
Squeezing Minerva's shoulder lightly, Severus let it go as he spoke. "We will face it the same way we've always done, but with a touch of Albus. We shall appear calm and unruffled, like always while manoeuvring everything so we can have some time off, just like Albus attempts to manoeuvre people and events. I would suggest that we refrain from his more signature trademarks."
Severus nodded towards Filius and Pomona and they nodded back. He then walked over to the table and retrieved his glass. Turning to look at the other three, he continued. "NEWT classes - we will just have to deal with. Rivalries - those are so common place I almost doubt we will break a sweat handling the new ones that pop up. Troublemakers – they are in every school and at least our two main groups do not harm other students. Potter and his crew – we are used to this and will keep working around the fallout that happens when he appears."
He took a sip of his drink before swirling it, watching the liquid move while mentally rating its viscosity. "The thing that will affect us, that will be detrimental to our second term and our students, will be the loss of our holiday time. I know as Head of Houses, we are used to staying here and watching the remnants of our students that remain, but we always have time that we can escape. A time where we can do whatever we want without the threat of interruption."
Severus looked into their eyes and smiled. "I say we act like Albus and schedule our free time. We can work it out amongst ourselves who will get what time free. We will then all take turns handling that person's responsibilities.
Smiles slowly started to form on their faces, echoing Severus'.
Minerva looked over at Filius. "We need a calendar so we can plot this out."
Filius headed for his desk and produced one. Soon all four were choosing dates and making plans.