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Chapter 11 "The Life of Hogwart's Best Loved Professor"
It was, Tracey reflected, rather amazing what happened when she transformed into Alecto Carrow. Not the physical part, though she supposed it was also a miracle that her pretty face could turn into that ugly mug. But in general she became…almost invisible. Well, partially invisible. When she stumbled past professor McGonagall, the area around her one eye swollen like some grotesque pink tennis ball, it was as if she wasn't even there. She swore she could have run into the woman and she still would have not acknowledged her presence.
Madame Pomfrey could not actually outright ignore her but she did seem to be very busy the moment Alecto needed some salve. So Tracey left the hospital wing, aware that her mere presence had caused terror to run through the minds of those present. This was the last thing she needed right now. Instead she walked back to Alecto Carrow's quarters. And nearly got hexed along the way. She almost retaliated too…it was a reflex. A Slytherin always retaliates. But this was a third year. And she was the most loved professor in Hogwart's….
Truth be told, Tracey had never actually been unpopular. Well, firstly because Slytherins tended to bond quickly against all other houses. There were rarely complete outcasts. Even if someone was a mudblood…well, on those rare occasions the saying went that "You might be a mudblood but you are our mudblood". Secondly, she was not an unpleasant person to spend time with. Which meant that she'd been quite unprepared for the onslaught of malice that sent her in the corridors.
Luckily enough once they'd taken over the dwellings of professor Carrow, Draco had done a few things to assure they were more private than before. So that, say, a group of haphazard students could not gain entry into them with force. And Blaise took one look at her eye before wordlessly producing a jar of healing salve. All in all they decided to count this a success, since at least after the short detention they had the whole weekend free to focus on more important issues. Such as the fast-approaching Monday.
Now, if our little mutineers had been even remotely lucky, they might have gotten a slow start to their week. Say, some unfortunate fristies. Easy to scare and unlikely to cause trouble. Unfortunately though, someone seemed to have it out for the conspirators, since instead they had the perfect storm first thing Monday morning – seventh year Gryffindors and seventh year Slytherins.
After much deliberation, which at times got rather heated, it was decided that the honour to appear before such a bunch would befall Millicent. Simply because Millicent was the most likely to face the Gryffindor idiocy and not start breathing fire. That and the Ravenclaw ladies had the pleasure of having to appear before Amycus Carrow in his class. And that was the one class you didn't want to be cutting, even if it involved curses of dubious morality.
Well, Millicent wasn't happy about it. Not one bit. But here she stood, waiting for the seventh years to gather, and anxiously waited for the ultimate test. They came in groups. That's the way everyone traveled now. Either you needed an alibi or you needed help if anyone decided to have some fun hexing you.
Still, at least the numbers of the Gryffindors were against them. Obviously the Golden Trio was missing. Dean Thomas had wisely not shown up for the year either. Which on the boys side left Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom. On the girls side it was a bit better. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had both stayed. So had Elsa Selwyn, a pureblood and a member of the sacred twenty eight. The fifth girl their year had been one Annabeth Andrews. A muggle-born who, Millicent hoped dearly, had not shown up because she had had the good sense to flee during summer.
So, five brave lions. What awaits them in the snake pit? There had not been one muggle-born in their year when Millicent was sorted, which meant that all of them had stayed. There was Crabbe and Goyle, Nott and Draco and Blaise on the boys side and on the girls side Daphne, Pansy, Tracey. So it was all in all eight against five. Where at least three of the eight were jerks. Millicent hadn't made up her mind about Goyle. She didn't know if Draco had approached him either.
Millicent took a breath and saw Tracey send her an encouraging smile from the back where she could not be seen. She was setting next to Draco, trying to keep an eye on the room. Other than that the Gryffs and Slytherins were on separate sides either trying to ignore each other or sending ugly glares at each other. Well, at least no hexes were flying.
"Right, wands away ladies and gentlemen. Today we shall be speaking about muggle technology." It wasn't exactly the topic they would have wanted. But that was the thing they had to teach and last thing they needed was for Amycus to start using those two braincells he had.
"Who can tell me about the state of muggle technology?"
Pansy Parkinson raised her hand with an arrogant smile. "I've heard they still live in mud huts."
They've invented a thousand ways to use electricity to their benefit you ignorant slug. Millicent took a deep breath. That was of course not in the official textbook. She believed the official textbook said that the muggle world was stagnant and far behind the enlightened pure-blood society.
"Indeed, that is not far from the truth." It was surprisingly easy to lie. Perhaps because she was thinking about Alecto Carrow stuck in a trunk. "Their society is by far not as advanced as ours. One would think even without magic they would have developed but it seems instead they are happy being stagnant in brutish and low society." It wasn't even what Alecto's notes had indicated she had wanted to say. It was nowhere near as cruel. Still she could see Seamus Finnigan shuffle in his seat and give a glare.
Still, acting completely oblivious she went on to describe the basics of technology. Frankly it made her surprised that Alecto would even teach the muggles had invented the wheel. She'd watched Monty Python once at Tracey's request and would not have been surprised if Alecto thought the muggles were all in the dark middle ages gathering mud.
"Filthy animals!" declared Pansy as Millicent described dry toilets. She raised her eyes from the book.
"Liar!" It was Finnigan. Of course, he was a half-blood after all. The boy was positively red-faced.
"Thank you for that outburst. Sit down, mister Finnigan." She glared at the boy but registered carefully that the boy was perilously close to drawing a wand.
Thankfully Draco chose to cut in and shook his head using that same bored and disgusted tone:"I heard that their weaponry is a bit more advanced. What is this gone-powder?"
"Ah, yes. Gun-powder." Millicent took a breath. "The muggles are quite well-versed in war. Gun-powder is used in their long-distance weapons." She proceeded into a lecture on guns and bullets.
At least Pansy for a moment seemed immersed in new info. And it was certainly a less dangerous terrain that dry toilets…Even Finnigan's beet-red face was slowly turning back to normal.
That is until…"Surely some pellets are no match against a killing curse!" stated Nott, clearly having not listened to a word Millicent had said.
"I'd like to see you say the killing curse with your head blown clean off," hissed Elsa. Unusally full of fight and apparently having had a closer relationship to the resident muggle-borns in her house than previously thought.
"Well, won't a protego take care of that simply? Or you could just heal it. It is merely a tiny hole after all!" stated Nott confidently.
"I'd love-"
"Miss Selwyn, that's quite enough." Millicent took a deep breath. "But mister Nott, I believe in this case miss Selwyn has a point. While they might be simply little pellets of metal, they can do a surprising amount of damage in the right place. And while a protego might prove effective, it won't help if a muggle sneaks up on you. Now while miss Selwyn is not entirely correct, as I am not sure if a regular gun could "blow someones head clean off", there is hardly reason to underestimate one's enemies."
Nott seemed to want to say something more but just then a knock came on the door and a small Ravenclaw girl slipped in. "I am sorry, professor Carrow, but I have a message for you. From the headmaster. He wants to see you immediately!"