So, I was convinced to write the next chapter of this fic before my other ones, so I hope everyone enjoys this! Again, no pairings, except for the smallest hint of SuperMartian at the very end. I'd have had this up earlier, but I couldn't figure out what to name the chapters! It's so damn hard to do it.
To clarify, Mr. Smith is Red Tornado, Professor Curry is Aquaman, Professor Rina is Mera [we were trying to make up a name for her, and ended up with the wonderful pun of Mera Rina, which sounds like Marina] and Professor Adams is Captain Atom. The other Professors should be pretty clear as to who they are.
Also, to thank, I have veryberry [for Supey's line, and helping correct my midnight mistakes], mnemonical [for grammar and correcting silly mistakes], safirelv [for the punny name], and other visitors!
Only one more note to make, in regards to sorting and whatnot, you'll have to wait and see for everyone, I already sorted everyone out in my doc, I think it's nearly 30 people sorted [including those from the second season] So, if I got someone in a different house than you'd have guessed, sorry, but they're sticking to it!
Enjoy, and please leave a review!
The Shrieking Shack, an abandoned old house in Hogsmeade, was usually not a popular tourist destination, to the point where most students avoided approaching it, well, as much as they could have approached it, since the lot had a fence running around it. But for people like Conner Kent, the quiet was welcoming, in contrast to the chaos and noise of the Hogwarts grounds.
He had discovered the Shack one day while visiting Hogsmeade last year. He kept to himself mostly, head down, hands in robe pockets, and decided to walk to the Shack before returning to the school. There, he jumped over the rickety wooden fence, and walked to the shack, ignoring the many tales and folklores he had heard.
He avoided looking at the structure for as long as he could. He wasn't afraid exactly, but he had to admit the building was giving him chills. Once he stepped into the shadow of the shack, he finally looked up, and he had to admit that he gaped a bit. The house looked even more decrepit and intimidating closer up.
The woodwork was chipped in places, any colour long gone from it, and he was sure that if he ran his hand through the wall, he'd feel splinters and rough wood. The windows were all boarded up, and while that wood looked newer than the one in the shack, it was still pretty decayed, and didn't look too firm or sturdy.
That's why, when he reached the doorway that was also boarded up, he jinxed the nails off the wood pieces, prying them off. He turned the knob, but it wouldn't budge, even with spells, so he applied the blunt force of shoving the door with his upper arm and managed to push it open eventually.
The inside of the house wasn't in any better shape, dust and mold gathering all over the place. None of the furniture or sofas, the few there were, had any kind of protective covering, so the entire room seemed like it was covered in grey paint.
Of course, Conner knew some good cleaning spells here or there, from all his perusing of random books in the library. He really lived up to the Ravenclaw name, for despite his quietness in class, and unwillingness to answer questions, he was actually quite smart.
However, the spells only did a bare cleaning job. He frowned at the room around him, concluding that some of the dust was clearly stuck on, and he didn't want to waste all his efforts on cleaning it out. So, he decided to explore the house, that way he could decide whether this would be a good place to get some peace and quiet. At one moment, he was walking through the hallway of the main floor, and the floorboards seemed to make a different noise at one section, like a hollow noise.
So he did a strange tap dance on it, to make sure he wasn't hearing things, and sure enough, the sound on a square section of the floor had a dull thunk. He got down on a crouch, and wiped some dust off with his hand, revealing that the approximate hollow square was outlined, probably a trapdoor. Soon enough, he found there was a part by his feet that hid a flat handle which, under the dust, blended in perfectly with the rest of the floor.
He pulled on it, and the trapdoor gave in after a while, opening with a loud creak. He illuminated the entrance by pointing his lighted wand in that direction, and found that it was actually a tunnel. He decided to go inside the tunnel, and eventually came out at the base of the Whomping Willow. He also discovered that there was a knot at the base of the tree that, when pressed, froze the tree long enough for him to get out without attracting too much attention.
So, ever since then, Conner sneaked off with his satchel full of books, and spent hours there, and he was never disturbed.
Until today.
Conner heard the loud ruckus that the trio made while entering the house through the trapdoor. He himself was on the second floor, overlooking the stairs, which was right beside the passage entrance, so he saw them stumble in. He wouldn't call himself subtle, but he felt like those three, at least the two younger kids, were about as subtle as a screeching Mandrake.
He hoped they would leave quickly, so he tried to get back to the room quietly, however, the floorboards creaked badly. It made such a sound, that it grabbed the boys' attention, so they went to investigate, while he went to hide.
Eventually, they found him, attacked him, and in no time, they defeated him. He at least hoped that they wouldn't question him, but the oldest boy of the trio had a prefect badge, so all hope for this hideout would soon be gone.
Then, the young twerp had to bring up his brother, and it got his blood boiling. He was mentally reciting quite a few choice spells that showed exactly how much he hated the great Minister for Magic. They considered him a Super Man, a hero for the people, keeping the magic world at peace, but he knew that was all a cover. The actual Clark Kent was ruthless and uncaring, and didn't give a damn about his family.
He had left home before Conner was even born, and never visited once. They had something like 17 years in between them, and once Ma and Pa Kent died 16 months ago, his only resort for a home was with Clark, at least until he became of legal age. The young teen had showed up at the lavish mansion in the middle of the night, carrying his suitcases, eyes still not dried up from all his crying, hoping that his estranged brother would take pity and become the support he needed.
Clark, ever the compassionate man, first thought he was a reporter, or a seller, so the yells about privacy and "do you know what time it is? Don't you people have any sense of anything!" did nothing to abate Conner's tears.
Eventually, he got his story out, and while Clark was shocked about his parents' death for a second, was not happy to have to house Conner. The next day, he tried to talk to various people at the Ministry about where he could leave Conner, and would've continued until he found a solution, had one person not asked "Wait, you don't want to keep the kid? He's your brother!"
Then, Clark was forced to begrudgingly accept his new ward, or risk losing people's vote and confidence for the upcoming elections.
While the whole story was playing out on his head, the three teens were looking at him expectantly, so, as calmly as he could, he retold the story, leaving out many parts of it. As much as he despised his brother, he knew that injuring Clark's career would do nothing for their relationship, the fragment that Conner hoped existed
Conner's explanation was cut short when the youngest piped up, "Sorry to cut the life-story short, but we should get going back to the castle, before we're given detention."
The red-haired teen groaned, uttering a complaint.
"Come on, we should best do as Dick says," the prefect stated, taking command.
"Yeah, come on, I know how we can evade the tree's trunks." Conner nodded, going towards the door.
"Can't we just pass by Hogsmeade?"
"Let me guess, you want to go by Honeydukes to get some snacks?" the boy named Dick asked. At an enthusiastic nod from the hyper kid with the goggles, Dick snorted. "Is there ever a time where you don't think about food, Wally?"
"When I'm eating?" He smiled sheepishly, getting curious glances from the other boys. "What! I'm a growing teen!"
"Are we waiting for something?" Conner was getting impatient, pushing past the prefect.
"Yeesh, someone's on a short fuse." Wally muttered.
"I wonder why. Maybe it's because you attacked him!" Dick whispered back.
Conner frowned, he did not like being talked about behind his back. "I heard that."
"Sorry dude, I didn't mean anything by it." Wally said, rubbing the back of his neck in guilt.
Conner shrugged, unsure of what to say, and turned back to the hallway, fidgeting with his askew clothes, trying to look somewhat presentable by the time they got back to Hogwarts.
They reached the trapdoor, and decided that Conner should go first, since he knew more about the place. The other three filed along after him, in the same order they came in. Dick fist, Wally afterwards, and Kaldur bringing in the rear.
They all lighted their wands, helping to illuminate the path. When they reached the entrance, they all pooled around the ladder, and Conner went up, holding his wand and the rungs. After he reached the top, the others followed.
Once there, they had a welcoming committee, in the form of Mr. Smith and Professor Curry. Both had scowls of varying degrees, but they were both with their arms crossed.
"Something you wish to explain?" Professor Curry asked the four teens.
"My apologies, sir, we were merely exploring." Kaldur took charge of the situation, hoping to not get any of them in trouble.
"Exploring?" Smith, the caretaker of Hogwarts, was always in a sour mood. He hardly showed emotions except for anger and distaste, and seemed to lack understanding of human culture, something which many students commented on, among other things. However, having excellent hearing, he usually got the wonderful chance to often put those mocking students in detention
"Yeah, we're allowed to do that, aren't we?" Conner spoke up, crossing his own arms, and putting on a matching scowl.
"Not," Professor Curry intoned, cutting across any other responses the teens were prepared to use. "Outside Hogwarts grounds. To the best of my knowledge, that path doesn't stay within it, does it?"
"Ye-" Wally was prepared to straight-faced lie to them, but Kaldur did not agree with that idea.
"No, it does not."
"Where does it lead to?" Smith asked, eyeing the tunnel as though it were evil.
By now, Dick thought that they were in enough trouble as it was. If they gave away the location, they'd certainly block it, "We didn't see, it was too long, and blocked. Anyway, we're kinda hungry, can we go now?"
Smith snorted. "You wish. You boys are headed straight to your head of houses. It'll be detention for you all!"
The teens groaned, even Conner. They started to utter complaints, this was unfair, and unnecessary.
"Enough." Professor Curry raised his voice, getting the others to simmer down. "Your head of houses will determine that. Furthermore, you will no longer use this tunnel, am I clear?"
"Yes sir." Kaldur, Dick and Wally both mumbled out their responses, while Conner looked away, keeping quiet.
"Very well, now, you'll all follow Mr. Smith to your heads' offices, and I expect you to all change before heading to dinner." With a swish of his cloak, Professor Curry was gone, off to his hut by the lake.
Arthur Curry taught Care of Magical Creatures, and was usually quite friendly, when you didn't get on his wrong side. He was also quite a lover of botany, especially sea plants, and that's what led to his close relationship to Professor Rina, and their eventual marriage a few months ago. Professor Curry also took on an apprentice to help out in his classes for the first years, and for the past year, Kaldur had the role, and the latter hoped that this expedition wouldn't damage his position.
Mr. Smith started walking back to the castle, and the boys had no choice but to follow.
"Why should we let them tell us where we can or can't explore?" Conner mumbled.
Kaldur sighed. "Because the rules of the castle-"
"I know the rules, I just don't think they're fair.." Conner's brows knitted together, muttering more to his chest, rather than his newfound companions.
"Cheer up Conner!" Dick smirked, "Detention can be fun! How do you think I met Wally?"
Wally gave a hearty laugh. "Dude, do you remember Professor Adam's face!"
"Hard to forget, then again, we did explode half of his cabinet full of potion ingredients, he really wasn't feeling the aster."
"Aster?" Conner asked, looking at the youngest teen.
"Yeah! See, if disaster is when things are going wrong, so aster is when things are going right! So if you're feeling the aster..."
Wally rolled his eyes, having heard this explanation many times before, but he was also grinning, people were always staring at Dick strangely after he started explaining his crazy logic towards words, and Conner was no different. Wally laughed, "Dude, you're the only person I know who does this."
"Of course not! muggle neologists also make new words!"
"Forget I said anything." Wally had no idea what a neologist could be, and he wasn't sure he was up to hearing the explanation. When Wally got hungry, the only thing on his mind was the feast that awaited him.
They continue following Smith through the hallways, and many whispered when they saw the four students being paraded for detention. They weren't too surprised to see Wally and Dick there, since the two were quite the troublemakers, but a prefect getting detention was a new thing, as was the tall Ravenclaw kid, who no one knew , so they couldn't quite understand how he came to be involved with this.
They finally stopped in front of Professor Queen's office, which was really just his classroom desk, as he did not have his own private office. This was Wally's stop.
When they entered the classroom, they found the head of Hufflepuff house poring over a book, scribbling on parchment paper. He looked up as Mr. Smith and the four students came in.
"In trouble again, eh Mr. West?" Oliver Queen was quite the laid-back guy, he now found the mischievous troublemaker's adventures quite entertaining, but for all the good sport Professor Queen could be, he still held a firm hand with punishments.
"You can certainly say that. These four pests went exploring under the Whomping Willow. They found a tunnel there." Smith was ecstatic at having caught another of what he liked to call "pests", annoying students who thought they could get away with anything.
"Huh, I wasn't even aware there was a tunnel. But anyway, I think one week of detention will be enough for you. I believe Professor Jones needed some help with some new pets for transfiguration he recently acquired. You can start tomorrow morning." With that, he dismissed them, and went back to studying whatever book he was reading.
He taught Muggle Studies, a subject that didn't make him too popular with the more obnoxious students, but he tried to make the class interesting. One time, he dressed up as Robin Hood, a famous muggle literature character, and made all the students laugh at how ridiculous he was being.
The four went back out, and once again they went, single file, towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. They entered the empty classroom, and made their way to the front, before climbing the short stairs, and waited while Smith knocked on the door.
"Come in." A female voice responded.
They all went in, the four students looking around at the office they had never entered before. Not even Conner, and this was supposedly his head of house.
"What's going on?" Professor Lance spoke from her desk, resting her elbows on her desk, knuckles providing support for her chin.
Mr. Smith cleared his throat, and set out to enlighten the Ravenclaw Head.
She eyed the students, not understanding what this had to do with her. Then, she spotted the Ravenclaw tie on the tall brooding one, and recognized him as one of her quieter students. "Mr. Kent, is it?"
"Yeah?" Conner looked up, his expression not wavering.
"You hardly participate in class, and yet, it's quite a daring move to go out and break the rules."
Conner gave a shrug. He didn't feel like having to explain to everyone why he did what he did. "I was only looking for some quiet."
"Well then. How about this. I'm looking for an assistant to help clean the class after some lessons, so you can help me out then."
Smith was baffled. "No detention?"
Professor Lance sighed, and turned to the caretaker. "What did the other Heads say?"
"Professor Queen gave his student a week with Professor Jones."
"Very well, he did say he needed help, so you can join him, on top of your new assistant position." With that, their conversation was over, and they left the Professor to continue her work
Afterwards, they headed to Professor Prince's office, who told both Kaldur and Dick that they too would be helping out the Transfiguration Professor for the next week.
The visit was short and curt, since the Deputy Head had much more important things to be doing.
They all breathed a sigh of relief once the visiting parade was over.
"Why do I have to be an assistant on top of getting detention?" Conner huffed, not happy with the arrangement at all.
"It can actually be quite fun," Kaldur explained. "I've had many wonderful experiences with helping out Professor Curry."
"Are you two also assistants?" Conner looked at the two younger teens.
They both shook their heads. "We're too young," Wally replied, "Though I am hoping that I get the spot for Apparation assistant next year, I hear it's a blast!"
Conner nodded absentmindedly, turning back to the others. "So, we meet up tomorrow to help out?"
"Yep." Dick nodded, and then added, "Also, you might want to wear casual muggle clothes, usually these jobs end up getting your clothes dirty, and if we're dealing with new animals, you can bet they make a mess."
"Alright, I'll think of something." Conner then turned and went towards his common room to change and get ready for dinner.
"Not exactly the life of the party, but he seems like a cool guy," Wally concluded, once he was really sure he was out of earshot.
"Agreed, though he seems to be battling some inner turmoil."
"Well, I suppose if his brother's neglecting him, he must feel pretty distraught." Dick concluded, not sure how that must feel like. He understood the loss of parents, but Bruce had always been a great father figure to him, he couldn't imagine him being a bad father.
"Alright, we can continue talking about this or, we can go get changed, and go to dinner!" Wally's one track mind had clearly set out on a destination, and with a wave, he ran off towards his own common room.
"No running in the hallways!" Kaldur called out after him.
Wally braked, and turned back to glare jokingly at the prefect, before walking at a brisk pace to his common room.
"Come on, we're not in any better shape." Dick nudged Kaldur, and they both went up to their common rooms, the smell wafting from the kitchens reached them even there, and that was enough motivation to get them moving.
==The Next day
Dick and Kaldur had agreed that they'd wait for each other in the common room, before setting out to detention, so that's why the former was sitting in one of the comfy chairs by the fireplace, waiting.
When Kaldur showed up, he was pinning his badge to his jacket.
They were both wearing casual clothes, as Dick had recommended the night before, Kaldur was wearing gray jeans, sandals, and a turtleneck jacket, aqua blue in colour except for the sleeves and shoulders, which were a darker shade of aqua.
"Dude, it's not that cold out." Dick smirked. He himself was only wearing black jeans, a green hoodie, and a thin black jacket, sunglasses in his pocket.
Kaldur shook his head, heading for the Fat Lady's portrait. "It's actually quite thin, and very comfortable."
"If you say so, Kal."
"Hey Dick!"
Dick looked up, trying to find the source of the voice, and found Billy Batson, an enthusiastic first year, who looked too small for his robe walking towards them. Although he had recently turned 11, at first glance, you'd think he was 8 or 9, at best.
"Hey Billy! Just had breakfast?"
"Yep, met another first year too! His name is Jaime." Just then, a little boy showed up behind Billy. He had short cropped hair, charcoal in colour, his skin was a light tan, in contrast to Billy's pale white, and his brown eyes were looking at the slightly older kid in awe. He at least fit his robe a bit better.
"Hey Jaime, how are you?" Dick grinned.
"I'm doing pretty good." He had a bit of an accent, potentially Spanish, from what Dick could tell.
Before their conversation could go any further, Kaldur cleared his throat, "Detention?"
"Oh right." Dick winced, and before he joined Kaldur, speeding up his pace, he called back, "Bye Billy! And nice to meet you Jaime!"
They headed down towards the Transfiguration classroom, where Wally was already waiting.
"Finally! Thought you guys would never get here." Wally too, had donned muggle clothes, grey jeans with a yellow long sleeved shirt, which he had haphazardly added a red button-up t-shirt which was of course, unbuttoned.
"So, where's Conner?" Dick asked.
"Here." Conner really went for simple. Blue jeans, and a black shirt with a red outline of a diamond-esque shape smack in the middle, was the attire he was sporting.
"Now, we just need to wait for the prof!" Dick concluded.
"We better not be working with monkeys...I hate monkeys," Conner mumbled.
Some minutes later, Professor Jones arrived, but he wasn't alone. A pretty Hufflepuff student was with him. She, unlike the boys, was wearing her robes and uniform. She had auburn hair that went past her shoulders, and hazel eyes that twinkled when she smiled.
"Meet my assistant, Miss. Morse. She'll be helping you with your tasks throughout the week." Professor Jones left the five to chat while he went to find the keys to his classroom.
"Hi! I'm Megan Morse!" She waved at them, a smile plastered on her face. She then looked at Wally suspiciously, and asked "Aren't you also a Hufflepuff?"
Wally nodded brightly, and winked at her."Yes I am! Name's Wally West, and there's Dick and Kal, and Mr. Grumpy by the corner is Conner."
Dick and Kaldur made gestures of recognition when Wally mentioned them, except for Conner, who had actually not advanced from where he originally stood, and didn't try to approach the group.
"Hey, come on Conner!" Dick called out to him, waving him over.
Megan looked over to him, and as he begrudgingly decided to approach her, she smiled and said, "I like your t-shirt."
So, as you can tell, I did pull inspiration from the eps, this one was mostly Fireworks!
I'm not entirely sure if the future chapters will be like this as well, I'll probably pulls bits and pieces that I think were important in their team bonding, and continue from there!
Next to be updated will be Notches! I might do something for Wally/Artemis week [which was actually last week] but I'm not sure.
Anyway! Thank you to everyone for reading, and please review on the way out!
Hezpeller