Chapter 36: Aimlessness

Danny and Rocky

Daniel Dawson's hope was starting to dwindle. He had dreamed of becoming an Auror for something like nine years. And now he was starting his sixth at the school. Six years of being a guard, and no sign of getting out. No sign of even a raise. He sent an application into MACUSA every year on the dot, but it seemed like someone up there was either completely cold, or completely oblivious.

Doing laps around the school for his job gave Danny a way to work off some of that restless energy. He was almost twenty-eight! He should be doing something with his life by now! Danny's wand itched to cast spells at bigger prey than eleven-year-old know-it-alls. It wasn't as if there was anything real to guard against up here in the mountains of Massachusetts. Not unless you counted the Obscurus, which was a pretty big deal when you thought about it. But even that he could almost forget about it sometimes.

Ravina told him that he just needed to be patient, that circumstances would offer up new opportunities whether we looked for them or not. But that wasn't really fair. She was naturally patient. When she had told him so long ago that she sometimes wished she could escape Ilvermorny, he had braced himself for her to announce one day that she had found a better position at some exciting, urban organization with a handsome boss and a self-typing typewriter. But Ravina didn't abandon people like that. He'd never had a friend like her. She was there for the Danny who was unsure, who was restless, who said or did the wrong thing almost every time they were together.

When Danny thought back to the other girls he had courted briefly in the latter years of school, it felt like a different thing entirely. It was like he and the girl had both been playing, having fun, trying to be the suavest or most impressive version of themselves that they could manage. And it had been fun. But he never would have told those girls about the time when he had been so afraid to take a Defense Against the Dark Arts test that he had snuck into the Potions master's office and stolen a strain of dragon pox to infect himself with. Ravina didn't laugh at him or tell him how stupid that was. She just said, "Did you get out of the test?"

Danny laughed. He didn't do that around many people because the Aurors he saw around cities were always straight-faced as a board, and he always tried to imitate them. "Yeah. I also got sent to the hospital for a month. Dragon Pox is not the same as the twenty-four-hour flu."

Ravina had chuckled with him, "Daddy isn't that scary, is he?"

And that had been before he had told her he loved her for the first time. Before they had started courting in earnest. Before he had told her so many more things that even his best friend, Rafael Valadez didn't know about. And she could empathize so much more than what he realized.

There was one thing he hadn't told her though. "I'm waiting for the right time. I think she's still too defensive about Credence to forgive something like that." he had explained when Rafael had cornered him about it.

"¡Híjole! That kind of 'right time' never comes around when you think about it like that."

To Danny, never-coming-around sounded just fine.

Dawson knew he was in trouble when Professor Hodges tried to make small talk with him at the Wampus vs. Puckwudgie Quidditch game.

It wasn't so much 'small talk' the way most people think of it. Usually those conversations have something to do with the weather, or your job, or the stylishness of your wordrobe.

"So," Professor Hodges said to Danny, as the guard stood watching the students file onto the bleachers and making sure no one caught anything on fire, "You want to marry my daughter."

Danny tried very, very hard not to choke or let his eyes bulge like he just had swallowed boiling coffee. "Sir?" he asked, but it came out as more of a squeak. This wouldn't do. He'd known this conversation was coming, he just didn't know that he would have to do it on the fly. Don't mess this up, Dawson.

"Sir," he repeated, in a much lower voice. "I know you were never the biggest fan of our relationship, especially of me. Of me courting your daughter that is. But I promise you that I will do my very best to –"

"Here we go…" the professor sighed, looking up at the gray clouds which paved the sky today.

"Excuse me?"

"Dawson, I have two daughters already married. I have had two men before you saying the exact same words that you are about to say. So, let's just skip to the point, shall we?"

Danny opened his mouth, thought about that statement for a second, and closed it again. He should have known that Professor Hodges would never let him go through a conversation on his own terms.

The old man was continuing: "I never had a problem with your personality or your blood status or your conduct the way some fathers might have. So, I suppose I should dry up and stop complaining. It is obvious you have loved her for a long time."

Danny wasn't sure if he was allowed to speak yet, but he said anyway, "Sir, with all due respect, I was under the impression last year that you didn't… didn't like me, especially in a relationship with your daughter."

"I never said I didn't like you," Professor Hodges said, lowering his voice, as some First years were starting to watch them curiously. "I did not like your aimlessness, and I still don't. You have all the dreams and drive to make a racehorse nervous, Dawson, but you cannot seem to run a few steps without stopping to look back."

Danny couldn't say anything this time. How did the man do it? See right through you like you were made of glass and then give you a description of yourself that you never would have been able to come up with on your own. And he always doled it out in black-coffee form – no sugar. Their conversation at the end of last school year had been enough to make Danny avoid this interaction for six months.

"It is not that you are a bad person or have been a disappointing employee, Dawson," the professor continued, "which has made me start to wonder if I have been making a mountain out of a molehill. You obviously are very attached to her. After the trial two summers ago, she would hardly look at you, and yet you somehow won her affection. You oversleep some days and can't seem to figure out how to comb your hair, but honestly I think she could do you some good in those areas."

Danny tried to look past the personal jab to the hopeful feeling that was starting to rise up at the direction the professor's words were heading. Unconsciously, he swept a hand through his spikey, blonde hair.

"You have shown something in the past year that I did not recognize the last time I talked to you about this; this drive, this passion for my daughter. I can see it, too, in your attempts to become an Auror. Up on the stand, at the trial, I thought I saw something of a spark, and I have been keeping my eye on you ever since. Anyway, I am not afraid of you losing interest or the two of you starving to death once you are together."

Danny's ears perked at this. "Oh, thank-you, sir. That's… actually pretty much what I was planning on saying to you – only you said it better."

"Yes, your oratory could still use some work," Professor Hodges said, "And you can start with this: if I am going to be your father-in-law anytime soon I suppose you might as well start calling me Rocky."

Danny really did choke this time. Rocky? Roc…ky – no. No, the word did not sound right standing next to this professor who could make a grown man's knees shake. "I… don't think I can… sir," he stammered.

"Well, we'll work on that."

Danny and Professor Hodges stood in awkward silence for a few minutes, watching as the Wampus and Puckwudgie Quidditch teams marched out onto the squishy turf, waving at their fans in the crowd who were going wild now that the match was about to start. Danny's eyes suddenly widened, but he couldn't say what he was thinking for a few seconds until the noise level got a bit under control.

"Professor Hodges," he began, hoping he didn't sound as dumb as he felt. "Did you just… give me your blessing?"

Rocky's eyes again raised to the sky.

A/N: So, you have to keep in mind that a lot of time has passed since the last chapter in the Danny-and-Ravina-saga. I was intentional about the word 'courting' as opposed to 'dating' because in the 1910s, 'dating' as an idea or a word had a very negative context. By the way, the Quidditch game being described here is the same one as in the previous chapter; the last one before Christmas break in December. Please review!