Chapter Ten

Scheduling

"Absolutely not."

"How come?" Elijah demanded.

James sighed. "You know why the Shrieking Shack exists? It was built so that a werewolf child could come to school at Hogwarts and still have a safe place to be once a month. For the entire seven years he was there, the Shack was his, and nobody ever went in except the friends that he invited there. Since then, the Shrieking Shack has traditionally had one person who makes the decisions on who comes and goes and knows about the Shack. And ever since Teddy graduated, that one person is me. So until I graduate from Hogwarts, I have the right to decide whether someone should be allowed to enter. And when I do graduate, either Al or Rose is going to be my heir. I haven't decided yet."

"But this is important -" Courtney attempted.

"I get that. I do. But, frankly, if you want to teach your classmates important stuff they need to know because the professor is terrible at her job, do it in the Room of Requirement like everyone else."

"Huh." Elijah thought for a moment. "That might actually work."

"So why exactly does it have to be secret?" Albus asked.

"Somehow, I doubt Karanna would really approve of an entire group existing because of her incompetence," Courtney replied.

"You really think that'll work?" Lynne asked.

She, Courtney, and Albus were in the Great Hall. Courtney had just told her friends what they were planning on doing in the Room of Requirement.

"Yeah. Elijah knows plenty about Muggles, so he'll be able to teach stuff that Karanna would never cover - stuff that's not even in the book." A sea of images appeared in Courtney's mind - images of doctors like the ones her father visited, of spacecraft built entirely by Muggles breaking free of the atmosphere, of computers so advanced they could be confused for living people, of the books about a totally different magical world that Lynne loved so much. The triumphs and beauties of Muggle society, a notion that Karanna would probably laugh at.

"I'm in," Albus said. "I can talk to Granddad. He's the country's leading expert on Muggles."

His words reminded Courtney that there was even more going on than Muggle Studies. Albus's grandfather. Arthur Weasley. The wizard suspected by the upper class purebloods for giving information to the Light.

"So should this just be for people taking Muggle Studies, or for everyone?" Lynne questioned.

"Well, I was hoping you'd be there," Courtney told her. "And others like Rose and Natalya and Scorpius and Brent. People we trust. And they can bring in the people they trust and as long as everyone who really wants to learn is there, we don't have to worry about Karanna."

"Let's start with just the eight of us for now," Albus suggested. "Two from each House. Then we can bring in more people once everything is clear."

Courtney started thinking about who she would trust not to tell the professor about this. Willow and Dekka, definitely. Polaris… less so. Then again, she was a pureblood, so she probably needed the Muggle lessons more than anyone in Hufflepuff.

"I'll tell Rose about this," Albus offered.

"I'll work out a schedule of when we can do this," Lynne added. "Of course, I'll need someone from each House to give me the class schedules."

"I can give you Hufflepuff's schedule," Courtney said. "Let's meet up by the Room of Requirement with a Gryffindor and a Slytherin tonight."

"We need a quiet place where we can freely work," Rose told the wall.

The familiar door to the Room of Requirement appeared before them. Rose opened the door… and a group of three sixth-years started to walk out. One of them was carrying an owl that was gradually changing colours from blue to yellow.

"Oh," one of them said awkwardly. "Uh… pretend you didn't see us." The sixth-years hurried away, with mutters of "I told you others might be there!"

"What was that?" Courtney wondered.

Lynne shrugged. "It's not like we're the only people in Hogwarts who use the Room. It's a big school and not everyone is, well… you know…"

"A Hufflepuff," Scorpius finished.

Courtney tried objecting to that, but could not think of anything in particular to say. So she glared at him to get her point across. With nothing else to say, Courtney, Lynne, Rose, and Scorpius walked through the doorway.

A decent-sized table sat in the center of the Room. The walls contained rows of parchment and quills. Balls of orange light hovered around the Room, illuminating but not blinding, not even when Courtney looked directly at them.

"I brought Beans, if anyone wants," Lynne said.

"Aw, that's my job," Courtney joked. "Thanks."

"Sweet. I'm cool with that," Rose accepted.

"Thanks," Scorpius said. "But I kind of want to focus on the scheduling."

Lynne took a parchment and a quill from the wall. Each of the others placed their copy of the House schedule on the table.

"Okay, so I've figured out that Astronomy and Potions are the farthest classrooms from the Room of Requirement," Lynne told the others. "It looks like… Thursday is the next day that none of the third-years, in any House, will have either of those classes. So we'll schedule the first meeting for Thursday. Anyone have an issue with that?"

Courtney said nothing. Neither did Scorpius. Rose did a few mental calculations, then shook her head.

Lynne drew a vertical line and wrote "Thursday" at the top. Down the line, on the left side, she labelled several times, from midnight to midnight in thirty minute increments.

"I doubt we'll be meeting here that late, but we should still look over the whole day," she explained. She looked at the Ravenclaw schedule to see when her classes were. Then she crossed off those times from the list. Then she took Courtney's schedule and repeated that. Then Rose's, then Scorpius's. "Okay, so none of us have any classes from four to five… unless there's any electives at that time. Anyone?" A pause. "Perfect. So we can meet up between those times. I'll tell Brent, you guys tell Albus, Elijah, and Natalya."

"You know, these schedules only apply to third-years," Scorpius pointed out. "Once we take in James, or really any of the older students, all of their classes will be at different times. The times will have to be adjusted. A lot."

"We can cross that bridge when we get to it," Rose told him. "For now, this is perfect."

Des focused on the target and pointed his wand. "Glacius!" he shouted. A light blue beam shot from his wand. In a second, the target was encased in a layer of ice and a goofy yet triumphant smile appeared on his face.

Due to a lack of targets and no way to get more on short notice, Professor Torrindale had assigned each of the students into eighteen groups of two to practice the Freezing Charm. Courtney was partnered with Desmond. A few targets down, Elijah was working with Flo.

Des stepped aside so Courtney could have her turn. She looked at the target. "Glacius!"

The practice was going relatively smoothly. The only issue anyone had with this spell was ten minutes prior when Henry had stressed the second syllable rather than the first, temporarily making his target flash bright colours. By this point, however, Professor Torrindale had fixed it and every student was having consistent success with the charm.

"What I wanna know is, you know how ice is kinda really cold water?" Des said to Courtney. "So does the spell just make ice, like a colder Aguamenti, or does it make coldness and the ice is just a side-effect?"

"I think it just makes the ice," Courtney replied. "Then again, I know the air has water in it, so… I guess it could go either way."

He smiled. "I'm going to find out."

He spent the remainder of the class smiling, but he never actually shared his plan for figuring out the Freezing Charm.

When class ended, the students left. Courtney saw Albus approaching quickly.

"Courtney," he said in a loud whisper. "We need you at the Room of Requirement immediately."

"But I have Transfiguration really soon-"

"James said he'd take care of it. Or that he took care of it, if you know what I mean. Trust me, it's urgent. Something's seriously wrong."