31st January, 1972
This morning, the Great Hall was abuzz with the news that all Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were cancelled. The boys and I exchanged ominous, but knowing glances.
"But why?" James asked Bilius, incredulously, "Not that I'm complaining about getting some time off, but… why's it been cancelled, do you know?"
Bilius shrugged, "Apparently Tutman's gone," he replied. "Don't know any details, though, mate. Sorry." He looked at Remus with meaningfully raised eyebrows, then turned and walked on down the table to join Derek and the other Quidditch team players.
"Obviously this has something to do with what happened last night," Sirius said, taking the words right out of my mouth. "Dumbledore must've found out what's gone on!"
"Wonder when we'll have a new Defense teacher." I wondered, staring up at the staff table.
"I hope whoever it is doesn't know about that essay Tutman assigned us last week, I haven't had time to finish it!" Peter said.
We ate quickly, then hurried out to the Entrance Hall, planning on waiting around until Dumbledore came out to inquire of him what happened with Tutman. But before Dumbledore got up from the staff table, Lucius Malfoy sauntered up from the dungeons for a late breakfast, his face looking a bit peaky. He glowered at us, "What're you doing, lurking about in the Entrance Hall?" he demanded, "Oughtn't you be in class?" Is that even a word?
Sirius' mouth twisted in a wicked smirk, "Well, it seems, Lucius, that our class has been cancelled due to the fact that Professor Tutman's been sent off by Dumbledore so you can't imperius him anymore. Or didn't you hear the news yet?"
James smirked too, and I gave Sirius a slick high-five.
Lucius' face didn't twitch in the least. He allowed us to have our moment of congratulations, and then, in a very calm voice, he replied, "Sent off by Dumbledore? Gracious, no. Professor Tutman had a family emergency, you see. Had to go home right away. Most inconvenient time, of course, with the accusations you lot have made… but you can't control emergencies, can you?"
"Apparently you can," I growled.
Lucius' mouth thinned into the tightest of smiles. "I'd watch myself, if I were you," he said, his voice low. He turned and started into the Great Hall, then stopped at the doorway, turning back, his eyes twinkling. "Actually… you know what, I'll have five points each from Gryffindor for your cheeky attitudes, Stratford and Black. It would do you some good to learn some respect."
I growled in frustration as Lucius disappeared into the Hall, and Sirius muttered something quite rude and colourful.
"Now, now," Remus said, shaking his head, "No need for language like that."
We hung around in the Entrance Hall a bit longer, despite Lucius' explanation for Tutman's disappearance, until Professor McGonagall came out and sent us to the common room. "But we aren't causing any trouble here," argued James.
"And all the more likely you are not to start if you're where you ought to be!" she said, waving us off up the stairs.
We laid about in the common room with our homework by the fire, though not much homework got done except by Remus, whose nose seemed quite firmly planted in his Charms book no matter how frequently James and I tried to distract him by zooming bewitched objects about his head, claiming to be practising the spell.
"You had that spell down by the second week of school," Remus said, catching a zooming quill from midair. "Perhaps you should practise another one."
I grinned and snickered at his sass.
Sirius was laying on his back on the floor, his feet up on the chair beside Peter, who was nervously muttering to himself as he scribbled notes from his Astronomy book. "I can't believe Lucius is going to get away with it," he said for what seemed like the hundredth time since we'd settled in. He was staring at the fire, his mouth twisted in a scowl
"Dumbledore is smart," Remus said, tossing the captured quill back to me, "I'm sure he knows what's going on more than we do."
"Yeah, couldn't be more obvious the only reason Tutman's left is because Malfoy's made him go so he can get out of being caught," I agreed.
Sirius was still frowning, "I s'pose," he sighed.
1st February, 1972
The rumours had spread all over the school about where Tutman had gone, explaining the teacher's absence with everything from a nasty case of Dragon Pox to a death in his family back in Egypt. Bilius came into the common room tonight chuckling to himself. "You lot hear the latest?" he asked, as we were working on a diagram for Herbology. "Apparently, Tutman's gone and joined a rock band." A smirk danced on his mouth.
"A rock band?" James scoffed, "What's he want to go and do that for?"
"Dunno," replied Bilius with a grin, "But that's what this crazy Ravenclaw bloke's been passing 'round all day."
Derek rolled his eyes, having come over with Bilius to talk to us, "Can't trust a damned thing Xeno says," he inserted, "Bloody mental, that one is." He smirked, then ducked around Bilius to go talk to Alice and Lily, who'd just come in the door behind him.
Bilius shrugged, "Just as likely as any other reason that's gone 'round." He smirked and tipped an imaginary hat to us, before turning to join Derek with the others.
7th February, 1972
By now, the talk around the school was that Dumbledore had found a replacement for Tutman to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, at least until Tutman's personal matters were in order and he could return to Hogwarts. However, there had been no formal introduction at dinner the night before, so no one was sure who this new teacher would be. Not even Bilius had a clue, despite being a prefect, and there were no new members at the staff table, filling the recently vacated seat in the morning at breakfast. "Maybe it's just McGonagall or somebody stepping in," suggested Derek over his bowl of oats in the morning.
"McGonagall?" laughed Peter, "What's McGonagall know about Defense Against the Dark Arts? Transfiguration's got nothing to do with that!"
"Doesn't mean she's not bloody brilliant," answered Bilius, looking 'round at Peter, "McGonagall could probably teach every subject under this roof single-handedly if she wanted to."
Peter looked abashed.
"You lot will be the first class to actually know what's going on with the Defense teacher," Derek said, waving at the five of us, and nodding towards Lily down the other end of the table. "You'll have to report back, let us know what's what."
"That's right!" Sirius said, quite excitedly. "Brilliant!"
Eager to be the first class to find out, the five of us rushed through our breakfasts and ran up the stairs to the classroom, breathless as we reached the corridor. We'd even beat Lily there for the first time in the whole term. We clustered around the door and I pressed my ear against it to see if there was any sort of preparation going on inside.
"Do you hear anything?" James asked.
"Not a bloody thing," I replied, keeping pressed firmly against the door.
Lily came up after a few minutes, trailed by Alice Bell, who was headed to Charms first but was hoping for a glance at the new teacher, and they stood at the end of the hall, talking.
Peter and Sirius listened against the door, too, crouching below me. "I don't hear anything either," Peter announced.
"And you bloody won't if you keep yammering," Sirius snapped rudely.
There was a gasp of surprise from Lily and Alice at the end of the hall. I looked up just as a youngish-looking man with wild blond hair and an eye patch came around the corner, breezing by the two girls with long, old-fashioned robes that flew behind him as he walked with a fast gait. He nudged Sirius, Peter and I, and we jumped back from the door as the man came closer, eying us with his one good eye, and pushed open the door.
We looked at each other in apprehension.
"Well? Are you coming in or are you starting a club out in the hallway?" called a rough voice from within.
The man had been breaking the chalk that lined the lip of the blackboard, snapping the pieces into little nubs and making a pile of them at one end. Now that we were all in and seated, he cleared his throat, dusted off his hands, and turned around. He looked us over, a frown on his face. His uncovered eye roved over us quickly, then zeroed in on Remus. "You're Lyall Lupin's kid," he said. It wasn't really a question, but Remus nodded. The man's eye swivelled then to Sirius. "And you. You're one of the Black boys."
"Yes, sir," Sirius said.
"Well then. Your parents must be… very proud, I'm sure," he mused. Then, with a nod, and not another word on the topic of identities, he turned away, walking across the room to the open windows. He seemed lost in a daydream as he stood there for several long moments, his arms folded across his chest, fingers rapping against his elbow. We looked at one another uncomfortably as he seemed to have forgotten we were there are all. Then, suddenly, still staring outside, he quietly muttered, "Constant vigilance."
I could tell the others were just as confused as I was by the expressions on their faces.
The man took another long moment of staring out at the grounds before turning back to face us. "Write that down," he said. He magicked the shutters closed on the window and with a click a little brass hook held them fast. "CONSTANT vigilance." He roared the first word.
There was a hurried scratching of our quills on parchment. I underlined the phrase twice to remind myself of the emphasis the man had put into the words.
"What's the best way to deflect Dark Magic? By expecting it. Always. Knowing at any moment you could fall prey to it. These are dark times, dark arts are being practised all around. Your defenses are useless unless you are prepared and ready to face them. Keep your eyes shut… you're dead." The man walked swiftly back across the room to the chalkboard, snatched the chalk from where it hovered in front of the board and scrawled messily CONSTANT VIGILANCE across the slate. He circled it. "Everyone asks me how I have done it, staying alive in a job I've got, and this…" he rapped the board with his knuckles, "... is the only difference between myself and any other wizard. Anyone who does not stay constantly upon his toes is apt to fall prey to the wizard that calls himself the Dark Lord and his followers. You're likely to be killed. Cursed! Fed poison! Blasted to bits! Plenty of ways to end up dead."
I was leaning back in my chair, eyes wide. His roughness was startling and his attitude terrifying. The way he was making it, there were dangers all around, lurking in the very corridors of Hogwarts… I thought of Lucius Malfoy and the mirror with Voldemort and I shuddered.
Remus timidly raised his hand.
"What?" the man asked gruffly.
Remus looked like he'd swallowed a toad. "It's just um, please sir… who exactly are you?"
We all nodded, glad he had the courage to ask the question.
"The name is Alastor Moody," said the man, "I am an Auror of the Ministry of Magic… a dark wizard catcher," he added.
"An Auror!" James lit up.
"Brilliant!" I whispered.
Sirius was staring down at his book.
"Have you caught many dark wizards before?" Peter questioned in a squeaky voice.
Alastor Moody looked at Peter for a long, withering moment. Peter's face grew red as Moody stared. After a moment, Moody turned away. "I've caught my share," he murmured.
I began to get excited, and my voice was eager, "Is that what happened to your eye?"
Lily and Remus, who sat on either side of me, gave me a horrified expression at my question. But thankfully, instead of seeming offended, Moody laughed and pointed at me. "You. I like you." Moody made his way 'round the big desk, still cluttered with things that belonged to Professor Tutman. Moody's eye made its way over the assortment of things that had been left behind.
"Thanks," I said with a blush.
Moody had gone back to the blackboard and started writing on it as he spoke, key words from what he was saying, creating a sort of mish-mosh of words on the board. "Your trust is a precious thing," he explained, "It must be earned, not even freely. You can never know who might be the one who is working for the enemy." He underlined the word enemy twice. "Could be anybody. And don't think you're safe, just because you're in school. Sometimes it is when you are safest that you are most at risk! Yes…" he said slowly, "Even at Hogwarts."
"So you know about Professor Tutman, then," Sirius said. "Dumbledore's told you what happened."
Moody looked back up at the six of us first years slowly.
"What happened?" Lily whispered to me, "What's he on about?"
But I was staring, transfixed, up at Alastor Moody, too awestruck to answer.
"Moody studied us for a moment. "What do you lot know about Tutman?" he questioned.
"You mean besides the fact that he's been imperiused?" Sirius asked.
Moody put down his chalk and walked over to Sirius' desk, leaning down to look into his eyes. Sirius stared back at Moody's one eye with just as much intensity as the teacher was looking into his two.
"Have you taken Malfoy in yet?" Sirius pressed.
Moody's mouth curved into a smirk at last as he drew away from Sirius' face, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "You're a nosey one then, aren't you?" he asked.
Sirius shrugged.
Moody mused to himself. "Of course you've an invested interest, being Malfoy's your cousin."
"I don't care about Malfoy," Sirius spat, annoyed. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Sir," in a much more respectful tone, "I care about dark arts being… defended against, I guess. And Malfoy's loaded with them."
"I see," said Moody. "I imagine you'd be rather good at spotting dark magic… given who your father is."
We all turned to stare at Sirius, well all of us except for James. He kept his eyes trained on the desktop in front of him.
"I imagine so, sir," Sirius said.
Moody's smirk grew. "Did the house of Black leave a poor taste in your mouth, boy?" he asked, but the question was not taunting, but more of a quiet pride.
"Yes, sir," Sirius answered. "Quite poor."
Moody was back at the chalkboard. "I care about the Dark Arts being defended against, too," he grumbled, taking up the chalk once more. "That's why I'm here. I'm taking care of things. Investigating. And today, I'm filling in for your teacher, who should've been more vigilant." He rapped the board with his knuckles again by the words CONSTANT VIGILANCE. "If he had been, he'd still be here. Keep that in mind." Moody turned and started writing again. "Now first thing's first… to know your enemy… I know you're only first years and the Ministry wouldn't want you to be knowin' too much, but I say to hell with the Ministry and what they want…" On the board, Moody had written out Lord Voldemort, Dark Lord, He Who Must Not Be Named, You-Know-Who. He waved his wand at the list. "The darkest wizard of our time… You-Know-Who."
Lily raised a hand.
"Evans?"
"Why did you include He Who Must Not Be Named and You-Know-Who has his names? Why not just call him by his actual name?" she questioned.
"Because," Moody replied, "These are titles he has given himself. To call him by those names are to give those names power, to acknowledge their authenticity. Deny him the right of being named as he wishes and you are defying him as well! Names are a mighty powerful thing, Miss Evans. You-Know-Who knows that and he has vested quite a lot of power in the one he claims as his own. We do not give him the dignity of it."
It made sense, what Moody had said, but to me it seemed that You-Know-Who sounded much more frightening than Voldemort.
"Now, who here can tell me what a Death Eater is?" Moody scrawled the word across the chalkboard as he spoke, launching us into a comprehensive lesson on the current state of the dark regime…
"Blimey, that was brilliant!" said James wistfully later, when we'd gotten out of class. "Being taught Defense by a real Auror!" He was grinning from ear to ear. "You know, if I don't become a Quidditch player when I grow up, I might fancy a job in Magical Law Enforcement, like Moody."
Sirius, Remus and I agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "Wonder how he lost his eye, though," Peter said in a trembling voice, "Must've been something dark if they couldn't fix it at St. Mungo's!"
"Could they magic an eye back at St. Mungo's?" I wondered aloud.
"I'd be afraid I'd end up losing my eyes, too," Peter shivered.
Sirius' voice was low with passion, "I wouldn't be worried about things like that. I'd love to put some of the dark wizards behind bars. Ones who really deserve it…" He didn't say it out loud, but I wondered for a moment if he was referring to his parents. "It's about justice. About what's right."
Lily chimed in, "I think you'd be good at it."
We all looked at her in surprise. Usually, as we walked from one classroom to another, she stayed quiet and didn't speak. Well, unless it was to scold us for making fun of somebody or to say something we'd been joking about was stupid. She never, ever had just spoken to one of the boys to say something that wasn't a criticism… especially not to Sirius… and yet here she was complimenting him. Sirius had stopped dead in his tracks, the rest of us halting only a few steps away from him. Lily took a moment to realise the others had stopped and turned back.
"You," Sirius said, "Why...Evans...Did you just say something nice to me?"
Lily blushed, "Oh...shut up, Black," she demanded, and hurried off ahead of us.
Q&A:
Mariposita25 says, "Wow! I'm surprised more people haven't favorited this story! And...WOW! You published this less than a month ago, good work! You already have over 60,000 words! I'm utterly impressed. As a writer (not a fanfic one), I know how hard it is to find time, and, admittedly, motivation to write, and you do it with so much detail! I love it! This has really inspired me, and I thoroughly enjoy reading your story. Amazing! Thank you!"
Um, well, holy crap your words are so kind. I'm so pleased that an actual original content and not fanfictiony author likes this story! But I don't want you thinking I'm over here like Alexander Hamilton just writing nonstop. The reason the updates are so long and so frequent is that this story has been in the works for a little under a year. I published the first chapter when I was around 80% done writing the entirety of first year (and there's roughly 20 or so chapters left of first year by the way, so I actually published the first chapter when I was around this point in the story). The reason I waited so long was because I like consistent updates in my fanfics, so the way I go about it is that during the morning/early afternoon I proofread and tweak each chapter, which takes about thirty minutes. Then I upload it and write out the Q&A things which takes roughly another half an hour. I've published this story on (obviously), as well as AO3 and Quotev, so I'd say I write a couple hundred words between the three platforms' questions. Obviously, you see my answers here aren't as nearly as polished as the story itself, because I write how I speak when it comes to Q&As. But yeah, the only reason I update once a day is because I've technically already written what I've published! At this point in time I've written about 10-15 chapters of year two, but also I've made a drastic decision that is going to change the way two characters interact with one another (long story short I wanted to make one ship but I changed my mind and am making it a completely different ship), so I might take about a week hiatus between year one and two to clean that up a bit more.
Also, in terms of finding time to write, I've been "lucky" enough to have loads of time at my hands because of being in Quaratine, as I've mentioned in previous chapters. It's both a blessing and a curse, because I've not only gotten a lot of writing done, but I've also done a bunch of art. Ok small plug time, if you want to check out my art account (Where I'll likely make fan art of this story in the future), it's unlikelymarten on instagram! My name isn't marten, but my patronus is a pine marten so I made it a pun of that lol! Wow, okay, I feel like I definitely write wayyy too much for these, I hope you guys don't mind!
MyBeewing says "First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to respond to the reviews! Second, it's unfair! Now I'm wondering what will happen to Harry and how! *crosses arms and pouts* Otherwise, I sympathise with you, quarantine can be really boring :( Filch's character always makes me crack up because every time he catches a student, he's practically shouting with glee at the idea of assigning a punishment. In all the books. His hobby must be designing new forms of torture for students who get caught :) Wonderful chapter (as always), we're advancing the plot, now. Hope you update soon!
Don't mind, me, I'm always eternally screaming when I read all of your reviews. I like responding to things like this, because I truly feel it's important for writers (especially fanfiction ones) to have communication with readers. I feel like I don't want to be the authoritarian of the story, and I always like to hear suggestions of things (in fact, I'm considering a certain ship because of a reader's suggestion/headcanon/something else I dunno). You guys have fresh perspectives of what you're reading, as opposed to me who, I'm sure, can get a bit jaded and rush through certain things because I've reread the same chapter 50 times in a row to get it just right.
Also, while I try to make the main cast as realistic as possible, there's just some characters I HAVE to make cartoony. It's my duty! And Filch is definitely one of them :)
Thanks guys, for your sweet sweet reviews 3
Jedigirl18 (fun fact, the jedi part of my name is because that's my dog's name!)
