Chapter 10: Displacement Pt. 3

Hogwarts was a terrifying institution Madison realized on her tenth day, standing knee deep in a stair.

Terrifying.

A rattling began to shake her, the staircase was moving again and she hurriedly shut her eyes to avoid nausea. Salem had had its quirks. It had buckets full of them, mostly on the first floor in the form of glitter, but there she had started as a first year with 40 other excited, giggling, girls; she had caught on to the quirks in a friendly environment. Here she was doing her best to be just another fourth year. In classes she could keep up, but anytime she or her brothers had to get from place to place they were far behind.

When the staircase stopped moving she slowly peeked out through her squinting eyes. Two bodies were moving toward her. She opened her eyes the rest of the way and started when she realized who it was; the uncontrollable fourth year Gryffindor duo. One tall dark-skinned boy and his bright red headed compatriot.

She had been welcomed into her first few days of classes by a barrage of juvenile pranks, courtesy of them. Now thanks to a trick stair she could be, in every way possible, stuck at their mercy. Today though, they didn't seem to be even looking at her. Instead their heads were bent together scanning the pages of a clumsily folded Daily Prophet. She briefly considered that they could set her free, then wondered if it would be worth the trouble alerting them to her predicament.

Fred refolded the paper around to the rest of the article. He and James, like Madison, were very late for transfigurations, but this seemed more important. Three werewolves had turned up dead after the last full moon. The article was short on information and speculation was rampant. The whole ordeal had been shuttled off to the depths of Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who apparently made a vague statement about the possible use of illegal potions ingredients, then wandered back into their offices. Their Aunt Hermione, they knew would divulge nothing to them, so they were force to find out more from the paper.

The boys' eyes' didn't break away from the paper. They would have walked right past Madison had James not accidently bumped her shoulder on passing. She grumbled noticing he stepped right over the trick stair without thinking about it, but managed to hit her anyway. Both boys stepped back down over the step to gawk at her and her newest predicament.

"Please don't hurt me." She blurted out, exhausted and afraid she'd start to cry if they tried anything. She felt miserable and didn't want it to be any worse. James straightened himself up, Fred folded the paper and slipped it into a pocket within his robes.

The pair shared a look then they seemed to brighten with two terrifying, identical smiles.

"Madison Williamson." the dark skinned one stated. She didn't reply, but stared wordlessly into the vast hall, awaiting her fate.

"I see you've gotten yourself stuck in one of the classic Hogwarts first year traps." The red haired one followed up leaning against the banister almost haughtily. She still didn't dignify them with an answer.

"You of course know who we are?"

Madison mentally tabulated how hard it would be to get her wand out of her boot where she had unwisely stashed it. "I know who you are, you've been making my life miserable all week." She finally retorted. To Fred's defense he looked surprised. His attention turned to James and the two held an entire conversation presumably with their eyebrows.

James stepped away from the banister and Fred started talking "Well, as it turns out Madi, can I call you Madi?"

"No."

"Madi, we thought we were making you feel welcome." He peered at her for a moment.

"Come on, a few harmless pranks, makes you one of the gang." James added punching her shoulder lightly.

"Made me feel like an idiot." Madison grumbled under her breath thinking of the joke candy they had convinced a second year to give her. It was Adam-level joking, and she hadn't caught on until her ears had started steaming.

She was about to say something louder but before she knew it the boys had slipped under her shoulders and lifter her onto a higher stair.

They turned her around while Fred noted. "Transfiguration's this way."

"I had to cut gum out of my hair." Madison pointed out in reference to her first charms class.

"As we said, harmless."

"I could probably fix your hair" James added looking at her ratty ponytail intently. Madison did not feel comfortable letting James touch her hair or with being led to transfigurations, or even being talked to by them. She definitely was not happy about him suggesting there was something wrong with her hair, not now that her clothes were second hand and her brother had given her her latest haircut over a trashcan.

"How are classes going?" Fred asked brushing some invisible dust off her shoulder as they got off the nightmare staircases.

"Fine."

"You passing all your classes?" Madison looked at them suspiciously.

"What about your brother, how's he doing in potions?" James continued. Madison blinked at him, confused.

"Who, Jeff?"

"That's the one." Fred stated. "We heard about the thing."

Madison rolled her eyes. "If you're talking about the 'melting some of his nails off thing', he's fine, and it's not like it matters if we pass."

"Melting his fingers off" James said with a whistle. "Sounds like he could use some help. . ."

"Why would you even care?" Madison demanded. She stopped walking and the boys stepped ahead of her and turned to explain.

"We wanted to offer to tutor him." James said shrugging.

Madison rolled her eyes, disbelieving their desire to do a good deed.

"You see, we've racked up quite a bit of well. . ."

"Detention debt."

"and we wanted to give back. We just thought"

"helping would be the best way to get back on"

"some of our teacher's good graces."

Madison's eyes pinged back and forth between the two. Nothing about this felt remotely okay.

"We're late for class" she noted sidestepping whatever answer they wanted. She tried to walk through them, still not 100% sure she even knew where the transfigurations class was, but she was stopped by two sets of hands.

"Are you gonna ask your brother if he needs a tutor?"

"No!" she was met with twin stares as she stumbled backward.

"Why would I trust you two?" she demanded.

"Come on, it's just a little help in a potions class."

Madison stared at both of the boys in turn. She calculated what she knew about them with what she suspected was true. They were noisy in the common room, tricksters in the classrooms. They always had a witty response to everything, and they always did surprisingly well in their classes. They played Quidditch, and didn't believe in taking off their muddy shoes before coming back into the common room. One of them was Harry's kid but she couldn't remember if Harry's wife was a red-head or black, which seemed like something she would have picked up on. There were a lot of relatives running around the day they met the Potter family. It didn't really matter, these two were cousins, idiots and pranksters. And they were most definitely up to something. The question was: did she want to find out what it was? If she, or Jeff, for that matter got in trouble it's not like it would matter, they weren't long for this school. At least she still hoped they weren't long for this school. If it was some elaborate prank she would catch on before they got her. What was the harm?

"Why do you want my brother? There's got to be someone else at this school who's failing potions." James and Fred discussed something silently and Madison could feel the hair on her arms stand up. Then they looked at her.

"you're both new here."

"we thought you could use the extra help."

"Hey, if you want, we can help you out too." Fred added with an attempt at a charming smile.

"Like getting to classes, and stuff."

Madison silently went over their proposition. She most certainly didn't want their help with anything. "I want you to leave me alone."

They held another eye discussion then, "Deal. So you'll check with your brother about tutoring, so we can get on a teacher's good side, and we'll leave you to flounder hopelessly from class to class." Fred clarified.

Madison nodded. "Exactly." Then she broke through their double barrier and began to walk down the hall.

"So you'll ask him." One of them called after her.

"I'll ask."

"Transfigurations class is this way though." The other called. Madison's face began to burn beat red, but she slowly turned and followed them, a good twenty paces behind, to transfigurations.

The sunset was lackluster, orange and barely tinting the edge of the sky behind rocky hills. On the other side even the town looked underwhelming. Hogsmeade, Asher thought, should have been bigger, busier. From his spot on the edge of the Longbottom's roof he could just see the streets and some shops and the surrounding countryside that he was just now coming to grips with.

Each day was a comforting pattern. Hannah would stop in after breakfast was served at the Leaky Cauldron. She trusted Asher to everything in the house and he watched Roe and Madison most of the day. Neville walked or apparated to the edge of Hogwarts each morning. Upon arriving at the house Ashing had stared for several minutes at the faraway hill where the school rose like a sentinel above a sparkling lake and the village below. He hadn't asked if he could go up there, yet. He knew Harry had spent several days securing the house and he didn't want to leave the safezone that had been painstakingly put in place.

Nonetheless he wanted to see the others, hear from them. It had been a little over a week, but it felt like a month. His brain ran away from him every second with thoughts about what they might be doing, how they were. None of them had figured out quiet yet how to use Owl Post, but he was optimistic Hannah would tell him tomorrow if he asked. The day they were still at the Leaky Cauldron he had managed to sneak away and find a place from which to mail Adam's short letter to Tabitha. He wanted to tell his brother of his success. He contemplated sending a paper airplane to the school, but those things weren't particularly bright, or sturdy.

Behind him the dormer window creaked and ground open. He had closed it behind him to keep the house warm, and to keep people from figuring out where he was. He hadn't considered that a disappearing child might send them into a panic. When he left both the adults were engaged in making cookies with the younger two in a desperate, last ditch, effort to get them to cheer up. He wasn't sure they knew what they were doing, but they were trying, and that meant something.

"Hey." A pair of jeaned legs wearily crouched down to his level. Ashing grinned imagining Neville squeezing through the window to get onto the roof. He had suspected Hannah had come up, but got the legend himself. The older man sat down the rest of the way when he wasn't automatically shunned, and let his legs flop over the edge of the roof.

Ashing didn't say anything, instead he twisted the toothpick he was chewing on around in his mouth. The night was bringing a chill into the unusually warm September day as he looked out over the distance. He heard the sound of a bottle hissing open and glanced to see what it was. Neville was holding a second bottle of butterbeer out to him. Asher took it, but didn't open it.

"There is a plant." Neville started out of the silence. Asher drew in a deep breath. Neville seemed to consider what he was doing, but continued nonetheless. "It grows mostly here in Europe. It's amazing. Small and grows in huge patches. Two floppy little leaves. It can cover a field if there's nothing too threatening around. Wakles particularly like to eat it." Ashing looked back at Neville expectantly, an eyebrow raised. "It's good for a lot of potions, tastes bitter, but it's filling if you're ever lost in a field of it without any actual food." He paused. This sounded like something Neville had said several times before. It was rehearsed but Ashing didn't stop him. "What's most amazing about this plant though, is what happens when you uproot it and transplant it." Neville gave Ashing an important professor-making-a-statement look then continued. "It grows three times its normal size, becomes something bigger, better, potions made with it are stronger, and if you wait long enough a flower blooms the size of my hand, bright red and yellow." Neville held out his hand so Asher could get an idea of how spectacular the flower was. The man waited a second for Ashing to speak, both staring at each other knowing the ridiculousness of the moment. "Think about it." Neville finally said with a wink and a quirked smile, taking a swig from his bottle.

"Oh I am." Ashing remarked and Neville spat some of the bottle contents back over the side of the roof in sudden laughter.

When he calmed down Neville grinned hopelessly. "Oh well, it works for the terrified first years. I don't do 18-year-old life crises, they're out of my pay-grade."

"It's not a crisis." Ashing tried to say without sounding depressed.

"Well it's not nothing." Neville corrected. Ashing popped the lid off his butterbeer and took a drink. The rest of the light was leaving the sky. Stars were winking into existence. In the windows of houses and shops there was the sudden flickering of candle light.

"Here, here's something interesting." Neville tried again. He leaned into Asher and pointed back toward the outskirts of the downtown area. "You see that building?" Asher slunk into Neville to see where, exactly, he was pointing.

"The crooked blue one?" Asher asked, seeing several possibilities.

"Next to it."

"Oh, yeah."

"That is the Hogs Head Inn. Home of the." Neville started to explain.

"First meeting of Dumbledore's Army." Ashing cut in, surprised at himself for not noticing it sooner. Somehow his brain hadn't quiet plugged in all of that information. Despite everything he hadn't quite believed this was the real Hogsmeade. It looked so different in the books.

Neville moved his finger. "And that's the old Shrieking Shack." Ashing was fully tuned into the conversation now. "You heard of Zonkos or Honeydukes?" Neville asked. Ashing was looking around for other important markers, but not remembering any. He shook his head dumbly.

"None of the history books tell about the most important parts of Hogsmeade then!" He said, feigning annoyance. "Probably better that way, means more chocolate for us. Honeydukes is right there, a chocolate shop." Ashing nodded "and Zonkos is there, it's a joke shop."

"I won't tell Adam about that then." Ashing mumbled. Neville gave a knowing nod. "The Three Broomsticks?" Ashing prompted. Neville pointed to the old pub on the main strip. Ashing glanced around at his new surroundings, suddenly in awe.

"We'll take you all into town sometime. We might need to get someone from the ministry to go with us. Harry seems a bit skittish about your safety."

"Can't fathom why." Ashing added still looking around. His eyes eventually rested on the hills on the edge of town.

"What's that?" One hilltop in particular had caught his interest earlier that night. Winds appeared to be trying to uproot some trees and blow away anything in its path. Dust and leaves appeared in swirls despite the calm weather everywhere else.

"Oh that." Neville stared for a moment, looking like he was trying to make a decision. "Well they say, actually. It's crazy." He paused trying to get his words sorted out.

"They say that's where the last bit of Voldemort's soul went to be sucked away to the afterlife. The winds are just a remnant of the fight to pull him away from this earth." Ashing did a double take; he had never even heard that folktale.

"It's ridiculous. Local lore." The older man added. "It's probably just a spell gone wrong or very strange local weather pattern. But it started up after he disappeared so obviously it's him." He tried explaining.

"Weird though." Ashing noted. Neville agreed with a nod, then a shrug.

"Hey your brother was in my class today." Neville interjected.

"Really, what did he do?" Asher asked, jumping to conclusions from Neville's earlier comment.

"Well actually." Neville paused looking a bit grumpily into the distance. "He crumpled up a Flarian leaf and threw it at my baby Geiser sprouts. Quite of few of the poor things panicked and started spewing water everywhere, they were very unhappy, and I had to take points from Gryffindor."

"Is that bad?"

"It's less than the detention I should have given him." Neville explained. Asher grimaced. Adam could be a handful of trouble, but not usually in a classroom.

"Sorry."

"Kids'll be kids. He's under 18 so I think I can still figure out how to deal with him."

"No one's managed that so far."

"You do a pretty impressive job." Neville complimented. "Not only with Adam, obviously, I meant with the little ones. It's impressive. . . You said you want to be a teacher?"

"Yeah, high school, History of Magic if I can swing it."

"I think you can. At any rate you would have to be better than the ghost at Hogwarts who's been teaching long enough that he is history." Neville said with a short laugh.

"Sounds awful."

"Boring and awful."

"Anything I can do about Adam?" Ashing asked after a short pause in the conversation.

Neville sighed. "Probably not. I thought I'd just let him sulk for awhile." Ashing nodded and took another drink of his butterbeer.

"How about Jeff and Madi?"

"Impressive students. Salem's a good school. Jeff's a bit spacey, but can get his work done. I think being around Ravenclaw kids is good for him."

Ashing nodded again, and they settled into a quite silence, finishing their drinks and watching the stars brighten above them.

"So you won't mind sticking around here a little longer?" Neville queried eventually.

"I don't mind too much, just." Ashing shrugged. "How long does it take for them to catch a couple of potions dealers, or dark wizards or whatever?" Neville stared at Ashing ruefully, and Asher got what he was getting at. With a sigh he answered himself "decades, I know." It took so long to catch Voldemort. This seemed like significantly less of a problem, but in this case it wasn't who it was, but how many, and where. "I just thought it wouldn't be my life on hold." Ashing said pointedly. He read about history, other's putting their lives on the line, putting their lives on hold. He just wasn't supposed to be doing it.

"Sometimes you don't have a choice." Neville explained looking into the night sky a bit lost.

"You're all right though." Neville was brave enough to ask after a moment.

"I'm all right."