Chapter 23: Disciplinarian

I felt my entire body seize up. I couldn't move. My arms glued themselves to my sides, my legs glued themselves to each other. I lost my balance, and since I couldn't move, was unable to regain it and went crashing into the ground. I couldn't even attempt to cushion my fall by throwing out my hands because I was paralyzed.

"Now look what you've done!" the second boy cried while the first boy stood still and white-faced.

I was still completely aware of everything that was going on around me, and strangely I could still move my eyes within their sockets, even if I couldn't move my head. So, I could see the first boy staring down at me with regret and fear. I could see the second boy shaking his head. And finally, I could see Alex appear on the scene, his face red with fury as he took in what he was seeing.

"What's going on here?" he demanded, looking between the two boys.

As he asked this, he produced his wand and wordlessly undid whatever spell had been cast on me. I felt my muscles relax and I began to move them slowly, testing them out before trying anything as crazy as standing up.

"It wasn't my fault!" the first boy insisted. "She just ran in front of my wand!"

"He started the duel," the second boy insisted. "I was only defending myself."

At this point, I was able to pick myself up off the floor and I moved so that I was next to Alex instead of behind him.

"I was on my way to the teacher's lounge when I came across these two having a dispute," I explained. "The dispute quickly turned into a duel, and I tried to step in to end things. Unfortunately, I stepped in at the wrong moment and was hit by some stray magic."

Though the two boys should absolutely be punished for duelling in the halls, which I knew was against the rules, I didn't want the first boy to get in extra trouble for hexing a teacher. It was my own fault for stepping into the middle of a duel. I should have known better. Even in a nonmagical fistfight, stepping in the middle was never a good idea.

Alex looked from the two boys to me and then back to them again. "Twenty points from each Gryffindor and Slytherin for duelling in the halls," he declared. "And the next time Professor Harris tells you to stop something, I expect you to stop."

The two boys looked appropriately shame-faced and took off in the direction of the Grand Staircase, eager to get away before they received any worse punishment.

Once they were gone, Alex immediately turned to me.

"Are you alright?" he asked in concern.

I nodded. "I'm fine," I assured him. "Just a little stiff. I shouldn't have got between them like that. I wasn't thinking."

"It was the first duel you'd seen," Alex said in understanding. "Now you'll know better for next time."

We began to walk in the direction of the teacher's lounge.

"What were they fighting about anyway?" Alex wondered.

I shrugged. "It sounded like they were fighting over a girl," I said. "Except the second boy – that is, the Slytherin boy – didn't seem interested in her at all. The Gryffindor one was just jealous that they were doing a project together. It was all very overexaggerated."

Alex nodded. "Now might be a good time to explain to you about Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry," he said, pushing the door to the teacher's lounge open.

The only other people in the lounge were Andromeda Tonks and Mark Stern, who were having their own conversation and barely paid us any attention when we entered.

"Alright," I said readily, taking a seat in one of the more comfortable chairs as my joints were still sore from the paralysis magic.

Alex launched into a detailed account of the very antagonistic history between Gryffindors and Slytherins, which it seemed had begun hundreds of years ago, but had reached a peak during the second wizarding war. It was fascinating, and gave me a lot to think about with regards to my own classes and the students I had in them.

As Alex wrapped up, Cameron appeared in the doorway of the lounge looking scandalized.

"I heard Katie got cursed!" he cried. As his eyes landed on me, his expression turned to one of confusion with a hint of disappointment. "Which obvious isn't true since you're sitting right there. Damn fourth years and their gossip."

"I did get cursed actually," I spoke up. "Well, I don't know if it was really a curse, but I was briefly paralysed."

"Full Bond-Bind," Alex filled in the detail that I was missing. "She was trying to diffuse a duel in the hallway."

"Ah," Cameron nodded in understanding as he joined us. "Well good for you, Katie."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. "I'm a teacher. It's my job, even if I wasn't technically on hall patrol. Or would you have expected me to run screaming in the other direction at the sight of magic?"

"I didn't – that's not what I – "

I sighed. "It's fine, never mind," I muttered. I had to stop being so oversensitive about being a muggle. The fact was that I was one, and because of that, things would be different for me than other teachers. "Oh, and Alex, next time, I can dock points myself thank you very much."

"Of course," Alex said immediately. "I didn't mean to undermine you; I'm just so used to dealing with misbehaving students."

I nodded in satisfaction. As long as they both recognized that I was equally as capable.

I had my second night patrol the following night, and to my dismay, I discovered that it was with Tessa. We met outside Mr. Clarke's office and she sneered at me.

"So I guess I'll be doing all the work tonight," she said with an audible sigh.

"I'm perfectly capable of supervising the halls, thank you very much," I returned.

I hadn't sought out to create an enemy of Tessa Flitwick. In fact, I'd have liked it very much if I could just get along with all the other teachers. But she seemed adamant on treating me like a pebble in her shoe, and I couldn't just ignore that and pretend everything was fine.

"I can't believe they let you do patrols at night," Tessa rolled her eyes. "Anyone could get away with anything and you'd have no idea they were even out of bed."

I crossed my arms. "I'll have you know; I broke up a fight between a couple of seventh years yesterday," I said.

"I did hear about that actually," Tessa replied. "My students told me that you jumped in the middle of a wizard's duel and got hit with a full body-bind. Amateur move."

"That could have happened to anyone," I insisted. "If the students had stopped duelling when I told them to – "

"I also heard you had to be rescued by Alex Campbell," Tessa continued. "That must have been humiliating. And I bet it was a huge inconvenience for him as well."

"It was not!" I exclaimed. "And if I hadn't been there, he still would have had to break up the fight. Besides, he didn't mind. We're friends."

"You just keep telling yourself that," Tessa said with a smirk, pushing open the door to Mr. Clarke's office and stepping inside.

Though Alex and I had walked the same route the first night so that he could show me the ropes, now that I was trained in night patrols, Tessa and I were presented with different routes to walk. I was immensely grateful that I hadn't had Tessa for my first night patrol.

My route was long, but straightforward. I took the parchment and set out immediately, not bothering to wait for Tessa to get hers.

The first hour of my patrol was exceptionally boring. I searched everywhere I could think of, but didn't find any students wandering illicitly or loitering where they shouldn't be. As I began my second hour, I switched from patrolling the lower floors to patrolling some of the higher floors. It seemed that Mr. Clarke wanted me to pop by a number of the seventh-floor towers and thoroughly search them. It was too bad there were no escalators at Hogwarts, because it was going to mean a lot of stairs.

As I climbed the stairs of what had once been the divination tower, but was now just another abandoned classroom since divination was no longer an elective that was offered at Hogwarts, I heard noise coming from above.

I figured it could just be rats scampering around. After all, the divination tower was never used anymore and was probably full of dust and cobwebs and supplies that hadn't been used for years. But I was on patrol, so I had to go up and check it out.

I pushed the trapdoor open and peeked into the classroom.

I hadn't actually been up here before. I'd passed by the bottom of the tower, and the other teachers had told me about the old divination classroom, but there had never been any reason to go exploring in what now amounted to a forgotten storeroom. The room was circular, as could be expected of a tower. There were boxes all over, the contents spilling out of many. I saw lots of different colored pillows, decks of cards, crystal balls, and numerous tea sets littering the room, among other things. The desks were piled up on one side of the room and a large sheet lay on the floor next to them. It looked like the sheet had originally been on top of the desks, but had since fallen off.

I could hear the noise more clearly now, and I knew immediately that it wasn't coming from rats. I felt my face heat up as I realized what I had walked in on, and it went even redder when I realized that I now had to interrupt it.

I cleared my throat as loudly as I could, and spoke in as loud and confident voice as I could muster.

"Curfew was over an hour ago."

At my words, there was instant silence and I continued to stand where I was, half out of the trapdoor and half still standing on the ladder that led up to the tower. I definitely didn't want to move any further into the room quite yet, but I couldn't go backwards either.

"I know you're in there. You can either come out, or I can come in and find you. I think we'd both prefer it if you chose to go with the first."

There was another moment of silence, and then the sounds of two people getting up and making themselves presentable before stepping out from behind some boxes with sheepish expressions on their faces.

I was surprised when I realized that I recognized the two students. It was Philip Longman and Kate Sparks, from my fifth-year class. Alex had warned me about them. He'd advised me to separate them in class since they were dating and apparently couldn't pay attention when around each other. I now realized that they were even more difficult than that.

I stepped down the ladder onto the landing at the top of the spiralling staircase to give them both space to step down as well. When they joined me on solid ground, I placed my hands on my hips and affixed them with my best 'you're in trouble' glare.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" I demanded.

"We're sorry, Professor Harris," Philip said, looking at the floor. Kate stood slightly behind him, also refusing to make eye contact. Both looked flushed and disheveled, and I tried not to think about what I'd just interrupted and focus on the breaking of curfew. "But it's difficult. We both have dormmates, and there are always people in the common room. When are we supposed to – "

"Do not finish that sentence," I ordered, putting up a hand as my ears screamed uncomfortably. "I don't care what you do in your personal lives, but it is way past curfew and you are most definitely not in Gryffindor Tower right now."

Both students looked appropriately ashamed, and I was relieved I didn't have a couple of defiant Gryffindor lovers to deal with at least.

"Ten points from Gryffindor each," I decided. "And if I ever catch you out together past curfew again, it'll be more than that. Now come on, I've got to escort you back to your house."

The walk back to Gryffindor Tower was extremely awkward. I made each of them walk on either side of me, and they kept looking across me at each other with that starry-eyed expression that you have when you're a teenager and in love.

We reached their common room without incident, and I waited until they were safely inside to continue my patrol.

By the time my three-hour patrol was finished, I was exhausted. I submitted my report to Mr. Clarke, detailing the incident with the two students I'd caught in the divination tower and headed back to my quarters, ready to crash. Though I didn't have to be at breakfast to supervise, I did have my third-year class first thing, so I wouldn't be able to sleep in the following morning.

I realized that as awkward and uncomfortable as the encounter had been, I was proud of myself. I'd handled the situation professionally, and had successfully disciplined the students involved. Twenty house points wasn't a whole lot in the way of punishment, but I sensed that the humiliation of being caught by a teacher would go a long way to preventing a repeat of tonight.

I was really starting to feel it now. This job wasn't hypothetical anymore. This past week had been crazy and hectic, but I could finally say it with a straight face. It wasn't the job I'd thought I'd wanted, but it was the job I'd taken. I was a teacher.