Disclaimer: I do not own.
So, the other day I found out that Sirius had a birthday, and that it was today. Is that new? Or did I somehow miss it?
Chapter 10
The following day started off like any other Sunday in the castle. The majority of the students (even more so due to the rain) slept in and only came out for a late breakfast before returning to their common rooms until lunch. The only sign that something was off was Dumbledore's mood. He was quiet and there was a tinge of sadness emanating off of him.
McGonagall and Lupin shared a concerned look. Dumbledore's reaction to the stamping out of magic spoke of personal experience. And neither of them failed to notice the way the man practically fled from the room after dismissing Harry. But they were both smart enough not to push. Minerva, having shared a long friendship with him, knew Albus well enough to know she needed to let him come to her. Remus just followed her lead.
The second sign came at lunch. And much to Dumbledore's embarrassment he was one of the last too notice it. He had been so lost in his thoughts on Ariana that it only came to his attention when he noticed his staff whispering and shooting worried glances at the Gryffindor table. Looking over he immediately saw the reason for their concern.
The normally rambunctious table was unusually somber. Even the Weasley twins were subdued and sticking close to their siblings. The students were huddled in groups and picking at their food. Those that did speak did so lowly and seriously. A few even looked like they had been crying.
As the Great Hall slowly emptied of students Dumbledore turned to McGonagall, "I believe a staff meeting is in order. Although it is not mandatory I would, at the very least, like the Heads of House to attend."
Dumbledore was rubbing his temple; he felt a headache coming on. The staff meeting had been going on for over an hour now. And tempers were running thin. The first half hour had run smoothly enough. Sir Nicholas had attended at his request. He had checked in on the Gryffindors early in the morning and everyone had seemed to be in good cheer then. He had no idea what could have happened since then, but suggested that the students were perhaps in mourning.
What they could be mourning however was a mystery. They hadn't received any death notifications for family members. And a quick check in with the House-elves confirmed that no one's pet had died (although the young Weasley boy should keep an eye on his rat, he didn't look very well).
All the students were accounted for and none had visited the Hospital Wing for anything serious. And while the students could get very competitive, it was too early in the year for them to be worrying this much over a Quidditch match, and the same went for House points. Dumbledore even had the Dementors checked on, and none had left their post. They obviously still feared his wrath.
Minerva was quite upset that not one of her lions came to her with whatever the problem was. As Pomona comforted her, Severus had (unwisely, in Albus' opinion) spoken up, "Why would they? You're hardly the coddling type Minerva." (This had earned him twin glares from the witches.)
"And you are?" Remus asked in defense of his former Head of House.
"Why exactly are you here Lupin? This is hardly any of your concern. You're not a Head of House and you'll be gone by the end of the year. You may as well stay out of this," Severus sneered.
A chair scraping across the floor and a slap on the table had everyone looking at Aurora. "Excuse me! I'm not a Head of House either should I just leave as well?" This garnered support from others on the staff. After all they cared about the students as well.
"I'm sure Severus didn't it mean it that way," Remus said, surprising quite a few people with his defense of Snape. Then he looked Snape in the eyes, "Whatever your problem with me is Severus you should try to watch what you say or you'll end up saying something you don't mean."
That hit Snape like a slap to the face. It brought him right back to that day years ago when he lost his best friend because he couldn't hold his tongue. "My problem with you? Trying to play innocent Lupin?"
"Hardly, Severus. I know exactly what I did and didn't do. I just believe that things that happened twenty years ago should stay in the past. We've grown since then and what happened then is hardly relevant to what's happening now." He had hoped when he took this position that they could let bygones be bygones, but apparently not. All he could do was try to show him he means no disrespect. Unfortunately it never seems to work out.
"Oh really? And you think you've grown up so much since then? Care to explain your actions at the beginning of the year. Showing off to your students, trying to get them to like you." Snape said maliciously.
And that hurt more than Snape could possibly know. He could feel Moony's hackles rise. "I was not trying to show off Severus. And it's hardly my fault you've scared the boy so badly that his Boggart takes your form. I had no way of knowing that when he walked into the room and if you hadn't singled him out at the start of class I wouldn't have asked him to help demonstrate."
Meanwhile the professor's all sat back and watched, looking back and forth between the two as if it was a tennis match. They had all heard about the infamous Boggart incident, but gave it little thought. Albus was definitely regretting not getting the two of them together to discuss the situation like adults. Especially now that it was spilling over into a staff meeting. As much as he'd like for them to get it out of their system they had more important things to discuss.
"Enough," he cut through. "If you two wish to continue that particular conversation you can do so on your own time." And without giving either of them anymore attention he asked the room at large, "Now, aside from the Gryffindors have any of the other students come up to any of you over the weekend?"
After a short silence Filius piped up. "I hadn't thought of it before, but shortly before lunch Miss Clearwater came to my office. She asked if it would be okay to move the monthly Prefect meeting to today. I had originally thought that it was due to the upcoming game. But in light of the circumstances and her closeness to the oldest Weasley that may not be the reason."
Albus sighed. "That would imply this problem affects the whole school. One of us should sit in on the meeting to…"
A small cough alerted them to Sir Nicholas, who had left at some point during the argument. "If I may interject," he paused for the Headmaster's approval before continuing. "There is a small group of Gryffindors coming down the hallway. Perhaps it would be best to ask them? Those three always seem to know what is going on."
As he floated back through the wall Minerva couldn't help but groan. "Why is it always those three?"
Severus couldn't help the scathing glare he sent the students way when Dumbledore ushered Potter, Weasley and Granger in. The damn ghost was probably right though; those three were always right in the middle of everything. And it was probably their fault he was stuck in this room with the wolf. They even looked guilty. Granger was wringing her hands, Weasley was staring at the floor and Potter was avoiding eye contact. Snape's eyes narrowed, that wasn't completely true. The Potter brat made eye contact with the wolf before quickly looking away. Great. Just what he needed.
"You can stop looking so nervous," Remus gave them a reassuring smile. "You're not in trouble."
"Really?" Harry asked.
"Really. We just wanted to make sure everything's okay."
"What do you mean?" Harry was obviously the spokesperson of his group.
"Ah, well, it was rather obvious that something was wrong at lunch. Your table was very quiet. It had us worried," Dumbledore said.
"Oh. That. Um …"
"It was my fault Professor," Ron cut in. "I didn't mean to do it but they surprised me. I thought everyone knew. How was I supposed to know they didn't?" He babbled out.
"No, if anything it's my fault. I'm the one who asked. Maybe I shouldn't have." Harry said.
"How could we have possibly known? It's not something that people talk about every day. And as we just found out there are no books on it in the library." Hermione added.
"But still, I probably wasn't the best person to explain. I probably mucked it up," Ron scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"I thought you did a brilliant job," Harry beamed at him. And he really did believe that.
Hermione nodded enthusiastically, "I agree."
"I highly doubt that if he managed to depress the entire house," Snape was pleased to see that the proud blush Weasley had been sporting at his little friends praise was quickly turning into one of frustration. Maybe he could provoke them into detention.
"That's not what happened," Harry responded hotly.
Hermione, used to the arguments her boys and the Professor could get into quickly began an attempt to smooth things over. "Please sir, it had nothing to do with Ron's explanation. It was the subject that upset everyone."
"How about we start at the beginning. If you three wouldn't mind taking a seat," Dumbledore interjected while waving a hand at a sofa that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Oh, of course Professor," Hermione said, surprised at the sudden appearance of the sofa. "We had just gotten back from the library and I was reading a book for my Arithmancy class," she began, only to be interrupted.
" —I still don't understand how you're taking that class. It's at the same time as Divination and you've never missed one of those —"
"That's not important right now Ron." Harry rolled his eyes at them. At least Hermione had sense not to bicker in front of the professors. "Anyway, while I was reading the boys were finishing up their homework. And then Harry asked Ron…um…well, he um —"
Harry sighed, he really didn't want to have this conversation again. Once was enough. "I asked Ron what it means to stamp out someone's magic." He looked apologetically at Dumbledore. He knew it wasn't a topic the other man was comfortable with and didn't want him to get upset like last night.
"And I thought this was going to be like the whole Parselmouth thing again, so I looked to Hermione. I thought she would be able to explain it better than me, but she was giving Harry a funny look and uh —"
"And I told Harry to stop being ridiculous because you couldn't stamp out someone's magic. I didn't know, I swear or I wouldn't have said that. And…and Ron had this horrified look on his face," Hermione said sadly. She couldn't believe this kind of thing wasn't explained to them.
"It was around then that Fred and George came over. They started taking the mickey out on him until he told them what we were talking about. They got really quiet for a few minutes then called a House meeting." That kinda freaked Harry out. They weren't normally that serious.
"Percy started telling them off, for calling a House meeting —"
"They only get a free pass on two per term and they used them up already," Harry informed the staff.
"—but they dragged him into a corner and he went really pale and then had the Prefects round up the students." Hermione finished.
"And then the four of them started explaining it to us."
"I was surprised there were so many who didn't know. I can get Muggleborns not knowing, but some of the pure-bloods didn't know. Anyway we just told them what dad told us."
"And what did he tell you?"
"That people are scared of things they don't understand and sometimes that fear makes them do bad things. Sometimes Muggles hurt kids with magic because they can't control it. Sometimes they just tell them that magic is bad or evil and make the kid scared of it. Sometimes the kid tries to keep their magic from coming out. And that's not good for them because then when they get really upset too much uncontrolled magic comes out and that can hurt someone."
"Percy told us that it eventually gets to the point where the child is no longer capable or controlling their magic, even with a wand. And that when that happens there's a special ward in St. Mungo's that they get sent to. There is no cure so they end up spending the rest of their lives there with only supervised visits." Hermione was on the verge of tears again. It sounded like such a lonely existence for a child.
"Fred and George made sure everyone understood that it was a serious matter and that if they or anyone they knew was experiencing that — or any kind of abuse in general — they should tell someone." What Harry didn't say was that the twins had looked at him when they mentioned the abuse part.
"Thank you for telling us. I think perhaps this is a conversation all the Houses need."
"Percy said he was setting up a meeting with the Prefects to arrange that."
"A wonderful idea. You three may return to your activities."
The room fell into silence as the students scurried out. Dumbledore couldn't help the pride he was feeling at the way his students handled the situation. He needed to make sure the Weasley's received points for what they did today. But first he needed to finish this staff meeting.