Chapter 34
Theo watched Blaise's eyes shine with excitement as he watched the Mudblood Granger run from the Hall. "What are you planning?" he whispered to his friend as the sound of the closing doors echoed around the room.
"I have sent a compulsion to the Mudblood to copy her memories of her interactions with Dumbledore and send them to the reporter who wrote the article on him," Blaise smirked at the boy. "She's resisting beautifully, just as Tobias said she would. Now I can finally have some fun with her. Let's see how defiant she is after a day with me being in her head." Blaise grinned wolfishly.
Theo shuddered. Luna may be the best of them at torture, but Blaise was a very close second. If his victim had been anyone but Granger, Theo would have felt for them.
Tobias bounced over to the teacher's table after breakfast with Draco not far behind him.
"Professor Snape?" he asked politely, "What potions are we doing this week?"
"I am doing a theory lesson during our single lesson and we are brewing antidotes in our doubles. I have been trying to think of something you can do in my office during those times."
"When are your double lessons?" Minerva asked.
"Mondays after breakfast and last thing Fridays," Tobias and Draco chorused.
"I think I may have an alternative solution for the two of you," Minerva smirked, "at least for Mondays. I have my fifth year Gryffindor/Raven claw class first up on Mondays followed by my sixth years. Tobias can sit in on that lesson and do either homework or anything else he feels like doing – as long as it is quiet."
"I have room in my class on Friday afternoons, Severus," Filious squeaked, giggling slightly when all four people in the discussion jumped. "I have my NEWT class after my sixth years on Fridays and he can do the same in my class as he does in Minerva's."
Severus looked between the two of them thoughtfully. "That is a good idea to be honest," he murmured. "We are getting to the point where it is far too dangerous for Tobias to be near the classroom with the potions we are doing."
"What would I do though?" Tobias asked. "I like doing my assignments with The Pack, same with homework. I have no books I'm willing to read because they're all boring and Pateras won't send me any more due to him not wanting me to over work," Tobias pouted while Draco drew him into his side, chuckling softly.
"I can always see if Argus is willing to start giving you some of his files to go through. Actually … for this week and the next, I will see if he can show you his way of filing. If you can show him an easier, faster or better way of doing so, then teach him and set it up, then you can start going through his paperwork," Severus suggested.
Draco groaned. "Not more paperwork!"
"Oh stop being such a baby about it, Drakontas," Tobias laughed. "I happen to like paperwork. It's the best thing to do when you want information. No one expects the Clerk or Secretary to know, see or understand anything that's going on and the don't expect for you to be able to listen and write at the same time.
"
Draco and Severus laughed softly.
"So you agree?"
"Yes, it'll be fun! Not only will I get his detention records, but also all the maintenance records for Hogwarts, all the monetary expenditure, staff records, applications – basically everything about the school from day one to now – and as Founder's Heir, I can challenge every single change that has been made if I can give examples of wrong doings and I have Kit's help with that."
Severus and Minerva smiled at the teen and nodded at him. "You should get to class," Severus stated, mock sternly. "I hear the Professor is a mean bastard to students who are late."
"Not really," Tobias teased, ignoring Draco's attempts at silencing him. "He's really just an over grown kitty-cat, or at least he purrs like one." Then he ran, laughing, out of the Hall, followed by Draco who shot an apologetic look towards his godfather.
Severus hid his burning face I the table with a groan. He knew he shouldn't have gotten up today.
Ron glared at the two Slytherins that just ran into the potions lab. Everything was their fault. He would have been better off if he had never met that small dark-haired boy who he'd been assured was easily manipulated.
"So now, not only are you the Slytherin's slut, you also slept with half the people in the Wizengamot so the greasy bastard could get off, huh?" he spat as his ex-friend passed him on the way to the front of the room. "I bet the bastard you're carrying isn't even that gits." He turned to Draco with a smug grin on his face at the rage he saw swirling in the freaky silver-green eyes. "How does it feel knowing he'll never carry your spawn due to others getting to him first?"
Tobias stepped back and rubbed his whole body across Draco's front, instantly calming the blonde who immediately wrapped his arms protectively around his husband's waist, hands flared across the slight bulge that could be felt but not seen.
"I may like acting the part of a slut in the privacy of my own rooms, Weasley, but it's always and forever for one man and one man only. The Wizengamot cleared Professor Snape because he was innocent – not because someone slept with them. Also, the room is spelled so any vote cast by a member who has taken a bribe is null and void, resulting in the guilty party being dishonourably dismissed from his or her position in the voting body."
"Did you learn that while looking for a way to bribe them?" Ron sneered, not noticing the potions master leaning on the door frame, seemingly relaxed.
"No, I learnt it in History of Magic – Year three, Semester Two, Term Four, two and a half weeks before the final exam. Anyone who pays attention would know that."
Various voices from students in Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin made sounds of agreement at the statement.
"As for your statement that MY child is a bastard – conceived out of wed-lock – and that Draco is not the Father, can assure you that both Draco and myself were judged to be virgins at the time of our bonding by magic herself. Even you should know that magic counts someone as a virgin until they WILLINGLY give themselves to someone."
People in the class that caught onto what wasn't said stared at the dark-haired teen with horror. They couldn't believe what they were hearing – who would do that to Harry Potter of all people?
"Not to mention that if either Draco or I were to have an affair then neither of us will survive. The bond we have will kill us both in punishment – The instigator for being unfaithful and the partner for not being all that the instigator needed. I can also assure you that this child was not the product of rape as the bond would prevent that type of event occurring now that it is in place. So, my child is not a bastard and was sired by my husband the night of our bonding, blessed by The Mother and The Father from the very beginning."
Tobias leaned back into Draco, his eyes half-closing. "Your words of poison are worthless to us, so please stop polluting the air, it is necessary for humanities survival." Tobias turned and kissed Draco smack-bang on the mouth before leading him to the seats at the front of the classroom.
Severus waited until Ronald Weasley had processed what he had seen and heard and had raised his wand in retaliation [a solid ten minutes after the fact mind you] before slamming the door closed and stalking to his usual position.
"Wands away, parchment and quills out!" he barked. "Weasley, just what in the nine levels of Hell do you think you are doing? I said 'wands away' not 'point them threateningly towards the nearest pregnant person'." He stood between the wand and his godson. "Now WEASLEY!" he roared when the idiotic red-head just blinked at him. He smirked as the boy moved to comply and stalked the rest of the way. "I was going to allow you time to read and summarise the chapter on antidotes and cures but instead, thanks to Mr Weasley's inability to follow simple instructions, you will instead be doing a test on the subject instead. No books or parchment on the desks, only your quill will be. You have until the end of this lesson to complete it," he stated as he sent the papers out wandlessly. "If you haven't answered at least three-quarters of the paper it will be an automatic fail. You get marks for correct answers and for deductive reasoning so you can get some marks even if you get the wrong answer. You do not get marks for putting your name on the paper. You may start now."
Severus sat as the scratching of quills on parchment filled his room. Gods he loved his life at the moment … or he had until a certain black-haired green-silver eyed teen somehow started to purr as Draco's right hand stroked soothing circles on his left.
Hermione sat at her desk, looking at the book before her while trying to keep her hands from shaking. All throughout the day her memories would surface. First it had been just the memories of talks with the Headmaster which she learned to accept or ignore, but then the memories started to alternate between the pride her parents had of her, followed by their disappointment in her actions and their last words to her before she left after Christmas.
Then the memories of Ron came and they almost broke her heart. She honestly loved the red-head and being forced to stay away from him was agonizing. If it had just been her parents who had forbidden her access to him, she would have stayed with him, despite her parent's wishes, but her Father had sent a letter to her Head of House telling her about the conversation and the punishment they had installed while asked for her help to keep Hermione separated from the hot-headed red-head. It stung when McGonagall had replied to her parents stating that she had already placed a restriction on both her wayward students and the castle's magic would aid in their separation.
She braced herself as she felt another memory surface. It was one of her, Harry and Ron from the previous year. For the first time in months, Harry hadn't had a detention with Umbridge over the weekend and the three of them had taken a food basket out to the lake for a picnic. It had been a day of fun, of laughter, of kinship. It had been the first time that Harry had told her and Ron how much they meant to him. For the first time he had an honest, open face not at all clouded with secrets or uncertainty. She smiled softly at the memory before it changed to another one.
Harry tied down to a hospital bed while she, the Headmaster, Ron and Madam Pomphrey welded the cuffs to his wrists, ankles and neck. Harry's screams as he writhed in pain on the same bed as a potions scalpel coated in some smoking substance was used to cut runes deep into his flesh over and over again. The soft whimpering as he asked why over and over again and the slowly encroaching betrayal that had filled his eyes as she told him sternly that it was all for the best, and the dead look in his eyes as the Headmaster told him that he was now safe enough for his relatives to handle while the menagerie of animals he called family all had mad glints in their eyes as she and Ron told them his magic had been bound, making it safer for them to be around their nephew.
She let out a soft sob as the memory ended, feeling tears roll down her cheeks. She ran from the classroom as the next memory started – watching a news bulletin about a triple homicide occurring in Surrey, discovering it was Harry's family and blaming it on him with questioning it – not even when the neighbours reported the begging, the pleading and the screams that came from the house at all hours of the day and even though they called the police nothing was done.
She reached the nearest bathroom only just in time to empty her stomach of the food she had managed to stomach at both breakfast and lunch. She vaguely noticed that no one had followed her from the class to make sure she was fine and she dissolved into heart-broken sobs as she realised that if she had protested his treatment or had told someone what was happening, that harry would have followed her just to make sure she was alright. She spent the next three hours sitting on the bathroom floor crying her eyes out and not one person came looking for her.
The Pack nodded at Madam Pince as they entered the library before splitting up and heading to the shelves that held their strongest subjects. After half an hour all eleven of them returned with four or five books each, waiting patiently for their turn at being addressed by the Librarian
"Excuse me, Madam Pince," Tobias stated almost hesitantly. I hope you don't mind me asking, but why isn't there an area of the library set aside for groups wanting to work together?"
Madam Pince turned and glared at the boy, but he just retuned her look with one of slight confusion and curiosity
"We have to find either an empty room or blank spot of ground outside to study because three of our members aren't of Slytherin House and there isn't anywhere else set up for a group. We don't work separately because each of us tutors at least three others in our strongest subjects," Tobias frowned slightly, fiddling with the hem of his left sleeve. "Also Remus told me that while he was at school, the library had a list of students willing to tutor people in specific classes. I remember walking in here in my first week and feeling completely lost and out of depth."
We used to have group desks set up for tutoring purposes," the stern woman answered in a surprisingly soft voice. "Teachers would assign the top students of each year to give up one weekend a month to help the strugglers of the classes. If a student couldn't make the time – like for instance they were the top student in another subject – they could request a one-on-one meeting with either the teacher or the tutor so they could get the help they needed. That was stopped when Dippit became Headmaster at the insistence of our current Headmaster."
She sighed, eye focused on the distant past. "He said that it was more of a hindrance than a help – that the students with higher marks should be allowed to shine rather than forced to aid those too lazy to do the work themselves. Dippit agreed – after all, Dumbledore was one of those very students, so he should know.
"Over the years there were some teachers who would ask their top students if they would mind volunteering a little f their time to tutor some of the younger students, but once more, it got cancelled by the new Headmaster. He put in new desks which separated the students from each other, so it was uncomfortable for them to work together to improve themselves. Then he started cancelling the school maps and subject guide books and eventually he stopped supplying new resources to the library so even though there are new magics being created every day around the world, we – the staff – cannot teach it to the students because we have no information on them."
"Thank you for answering ma'am," Tobias bowed slightly. "I have been wondering that for nearly two years now-ever since the tournament. I made a few friends from both schools and they told me about their systems for tutoring."
For the first time in nearly three generations, Madam Pince smiled at the student.
"Thank you for asking, now, whose books haven't been recorded?"
Lucius shook his head in amusement as he read Draco's weekly letter. It seemed like Tobias wasn't too far gone in his hormones that he was throwing things yet. It seemed to him that his son had lucked out on that front. The elder blonde man sighed heavily. He wished that his son and son-in-law could be removed from under the old coot's thumb, but until the NEW results came through, but were stuck there. It didn't mean he had to like it though.