Chapter 19: Tessa Flitwick

I awoke the next day sometime in the afternoon. Admittedly, I'd been exhausted. Everything with Donnor Dalman and the detention had been so draining, and then Alex and I had been up pretty late talking.

Groggily, I stumbled into the shower to rinse off the last remnants of sleep. Though I loved sleeping in, I always felt so much more reluctant to wake up when I did. It was almost as if the sleep was clinging to my skin like dirt.

By the time I got out of the shower, I felt refreshed. I thought about heading to my office to do some work, but I really didn't have all that much to do, and it was such a nice day and I really didn't feel like staying cooped up in the castle all day. So instead, I headed downstairs and made my way outside to take a walk.

As I was passing by the Quidditch pitch, I noticed movement and decided to head over and see if Skye was up for some company. She had a little table set up on the side of the pitch near the broom shed and appeared to be polishing all the school brooms.

"Hey Skye," I greeted her. "What's going on?"

"Just making sure the school brooms are in the best condition possible," Skye replied. "There were a few issues during Tuesday's free fly, and I want to make sure today's goes smoothly. I'm almost done. I clipped all the stray twigs this morning, and now I'm just polishing them all up."

"And that'll make them easier to fly?" I inquired.

"Theoretically," Skye nodded. "I mean, it's mostly about the skill of the flier. But the students who have to borrow school brooms because they don't have any of their own tend not to be the best fliers anyway. I just want to avoid any unnecessary accidents."

I nodded and took a seat on a nearby bench, stretching out along it as I let the sun beat down on me.

"How often do you need to do that?" I wondered. No matter how seemingly insignificant, every new thing I learned about magic was fascinating to me. Though one could argue I was just making small talk, I was genuinely interested in what I was asking.

Skye shrugged. "More often than I do it, really," she admitted. "Probably should be doing it a few times a year. Really it depends on how often the broom is ridden, which is hard to track with the school brooms. It's not like the students have to sign them out like library books."

"Aren't you worried someone might steal a broom if you're not monitoring who's taking them?" I wondered.

"Not really," Skye replied. "These brooms aren't even close to being top of the line. They're old models, some of them don't even fly right anymore, and it's not like we're short on them anyway. We have old brooms donated by former students all the time."

"Hmm," I hummed. I didn't particularly care either way. If Skye didn't care about her brooms getting stolen, it wasn't any of my business. I had my own stuff to worry about.

"So, I guess you had your first night patrol last night?" Skye asked. "With Alex?"

"Yeah," I agreed. "It went good, I guess. Not as stressful as I thought it would be."

"I heard it went better than good," Skye said, her tone suggesting that there was more that she wasn't saying.

"What are you talking about?" I frowned. "It was fine. We patrolled, Alex showed me the ropes, and then it was over."

"That's not what I heard," Skye said in a sing-song-y voice.

"What exactly did you hear?" I asked, swinging my legs around and pushing myself into a sitting position to face my friend.

"Well…" Skye said, pausing as if to be dramatic. "I heard from Cam, who heard from Mark Brunwell – you know, the astronomy teacher – that he saw you leaving Alex's quarters late last night. And I mean really late."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Yeah, okay. Neither of us had to be up early, so after patrol we went back to his quarters and talked for a while," I admitted.

"Are you sure that's all you did?" Skye asked, waggling her eyebrows.

"What exactly are you implying?" I demanded, wishing that Skye would stop trying to be so mysterious.

"Look, it's no secret that the two of you are interested in each other," Skye said. "You've been flirting back and forth for weeks. So, I guess I'm just wondering, did anything… happen… last night?"

I suddenly got what Skye was implying and felt my face turn red.

"God, no, nothing happened last night," I assured her. "We just talked."

Skye gave me a look that said she didn't believe me.

"Really!" I insisted. "He made me some hot chocolate and we sat around in his living room."

Skye regarded me a moment longer and then let out a loud sigh. "Well if that's true… then how much longer are you going to wait?" she demanded.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You're obviously attracted to him. He's made it pretty clear that he's attracted to you. When are you going to do something about it?" Skye cried.

"I don't know," I muttered awkwardly. I'd been enjoying the little game Alex and I had been playing these past weeks a lot. I liked the little smiles, the winks, and the comments. The occasional brushes of fingers when we reached for the same thing or the way that my heart would sometimes jump a little when I saw him walk into a room. And while I wanted to see where things might go, I was afraid to take that step, in fear that I'd only end up losing what we had right now.

"Katie," Skye said gently, taking a seat next to me on the bench. "Look, I'm not trying to rush you into anything. You've had a really crazy month, and I'm sure you're still adjusting in a lot of ways. All I'm saying is that I think you and Alex would be really cute together. And I think you should go for it."

I smiled. "Alright Skye," I said. "I appreciate your support."

"Anytime," Skye grinned. "Now get off my pitch. Free fly's about to start."

I looked over to see that a group of students were headed down to the pitch and realized that it was even later than I'd thought. And while I didn't have all that much work to do, I still had some, and I was quickly running out of time. So, I said goodbye to Skye and headed back up to the castle and to my office on the third floor to prep for my last classes of the week. I had the sixth years tomorrow morning, and then the fourth and seventh years in the afternoon.

I started with my sixth-year lesson plan. For our first topic of the year, we would be talking about typical household muggle medicines like Tylenol and Advil. I decided for their first assignment, I would set an essay comparing these everyday muggle medicines to their magical counterparts. I had read up on various forms of magical medicinal practices and felt I had a strong enough grasp on them to properly grade these essays.

Just as I was wrapping up my sixth-year stuff and thinking about getting started on my seventh-year lesson, a knock at my door caused me to pause.

The door opened before I could invite the knocker in, and suddenly Tessa Flitwick was barging into my office in a frenzy.

"What makes you think you have any right to discipline my students?" she demanded, slamming her fist on the edge of my desk.

I jumped a little in surprise, both at the intensity of her entrance and demeanour and the fist slamming.

"I'm sorry, but what's going on?" I asked, timidly.

"I was just speaking with Donnor Dalman. You know he's in Ravenclaw, right?" she demanded.

I nodded. "I'm aware of his house," I confirmed.

"Oh, well good," Tessa said condescendingly. "And you're also aware that I'm the Head of Ravenclaw, correct?"

I nodded. "Yes, I think everyone knows that," I replied.

"Well then why in Merlin's name would you punish him without consulting with me first?" Tessa demanded. "He says you made him sit detention."

"I did," I said, standing up so that Tessa and I were on the same level. "He was insubordinate in class. He talked back to me and refused to follow my classroom rules. So, I gave him detention."

"You should have left his punishment up to me," Tessa insisted. "I'm his Head of House, not you."

"No," I said. "But I am his teacher and have every right to dole out punishment for his misbehaving while in my classroom."

I wasn't going to let Tessa bully me. I knew my rights, and as a teacher, I had every right to punish Donnor Dalman as I saw fit. It was none of Tessa's business what went on in my class.

"Do you realize what you've done?" Tessa demanded. "Do you even know who Donnor Dalman is?"

"He's a student who needed to learn that if he's going to take my class, he's going to have to play by my rules," I insisted. "I won't have the students walking all over me because I'm a muggle. I'm still their teacher and have just as much authority as any other teacher here. Tell me, if it had been Hannah, or Mark, or Andromeda that had given Donnor detention, would you be standing in their office right now yelling at them?"

"That's not the point," Tessa insisted.

"I think it is the point," I retorted. "You think because I'm a muggle that I don't have the same authority that you have. I've seen the way you look at me in the staff room, or at the staff table in the Great Hall. You don't think I belong here. Trust me, it's not lost on me that I've been here for a month and you still haven't tried to have a real conversation with me. And that's fine, I don't really care. But I'm as much a teacher as anyone else here, and I won't have you treat me like anything less."

Tessa opened her mouth and then closed it again, and I silently rejoiced for having rendered her temporarily speechless.

"Look," Tessa finally spoke. "It's not that I don't like you. I mean, I don't, but that's not the issue. My issue is that you've been in this world for a month, and you're acting like you already know everything. And you don't. There's a lot you don't know, and there's a lot that's going on outside the walls of this castle in the greater wizarding world that you couldn't even wrap your brain around if I tried to explain it. So, I just think it would be best if you minded your own business, taught your little class, and left the disciplining to the adults. Okay?"

"I don't think so," I said, my own rage level rising fast. Just because I was new to this world didn't mean I was an idiot. I'd learned a lot over the past month, and I was willing to go on learning everything I needed to. And to act like somehow punishing Donnor Dalman had anything to do with wizarding politics or whatever… Donnor's detention had been solely based on his actions in my classroom and had nothing to do with Tessa or anybody else. "Look, if you have a problem with me, you can take it up with Headmaster Slinkhard. Until then, I'm going to have to ask you to get out of my office."

There was no point continuing the argument with Tessa, because it was clear we weren't going to come to any kind of understanding today. So, I figured I would just end things before they got out of hand.

"I think I will be speaking with the Headmaster," Tessa declared. "Silas and I go way back. I'm sure he'll see my side of things. It was nice knowing you, Katie."

I rolled my eyes. Her use of the Headmaster's first name was such a clear attempt to unsettle me. She wanted me to think she and he were friends, and that because of that he'd side with her over me. But I knew that Headmaster Slinkhard would be objective in this matter, and that he would back me here just as he backed me with Donnor. Or at least, I hoped so.

I tried to go back to my lesson plans but found that I was much too distracted to focus. I considered going by the Great Hall for a bite to eat, as it was dinnertime, but decided against it. I didn't want to see Tessa right now, and she might be there. I thought about going by the staff room, but again, I didn't want to go anywhere I might run into Tessa.

Finally, I decided to go down to the village. As a teacher, I was allowed to come and go between the castle and the village as I pleased, provided I wasn't scheduled to be supervising anything, which I wasn't. And I needed to get out of the castle.