Chapter Thirty-Two
Learning Restraint
By the weekend the weather had turned quite frosty, and Friday test scores in Potions were atypically low as the students began thinking about the upcoming Christmas holiday. Jennifer yearned to be spend some time updating her reviews for the upcoming mid-term tests, but she was too busy updating her research notes. When she arrived back at the Headmaster's Study, she found a note from Severus letting her know that he had taken Quintin to Alicia's. Jennifer frowned at her watch. Quintin was already at the studio and Severus was back at the Ministry. Jennifer checked the appointment journal and grabbed a quick sandwich. Then she went back to her sitting room to review last year's test, falling asleep in a chair half-way through.
The next day Jennifer was up bright and early so that she could set up the Potion Lab and start a potion for Sirius. It was ten minutes after it had begun to simmer that Sirius arrived.
"It's so quiet in here today... I got it. No Aurelius," Sirius said as he walked in. Jennifer shook her head at him. "Good morning. I take it the Auror Club is outside today. And in this cold air, no less!"
"It'll be good for them. At least, I'm sure that's what Aurelius would say," Jennifer said before pouring him his potion. "Last one of these I'll have to make, I think. Carnegie should be back any time now."
"You said that yesterday," Sirius reminded her, taking the offered potion and downing it. "This is my tenth day on this stuff, but I'll be glad to get off of it. I hate taking potions every day."
"Most people do," Jennifer agreed. There was a knock on the door.
"Is it safe to come in yet?" Remus asked, peering in.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Sirius wondered.
"Yes, come on in, Remus," Jennifer said with a smile. "How are you?"
"Better," Remus replied despite looking quite tired. "Just coffee today, I think."
"Right behind you, Remus," came the voice of John Carnegie. He stepped in carrying two coffee cups, one for Remus and one for himself.
"There you are, John. It's about time you got back," Sirius said. "You could have gotten here five minutes earlier, though, before I'd taken another one of those silly therapy potions."
"I suppose I could have," Carnegie said cheerfully. Sirius squinted at Jennifer.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Sirius accused her flatly.
"I'm sorry, Sirius, but I was advised that you had to be on the potion a minimum of ten days for it to have any lasting effect," Jennifer explained. "Although to be fair, you really ought to be on it longer, especially since we just recently started giving you something to help you sleep."
Sirius pulled out a large bulky key ring and held it out to John.
"I promised Severus I'd stay sober while I was keeper, which was why I agreed to taking those therapy potions. But John's back and I'm done with it. Maybe I don't want to be sober," Sirius snapped.
"Oh, come now, Sirius. You told me yourself that lately you've been feeling better than you have been for years," Remus reminded him.
"It's all the exercise. Do you know how often I had to go up and down those stairs?" Sirius rebutted.
"Oh, aye, he has a point," John said, getting an elbow jab from Remus. "But I also agree that is probably only part of the reason. Wouldn't that be right, Anna?" he called out the door.
"More than right," Anna agreed as she stepped in the room. She glanced behind with a frown, then reached out and tugged on someone's arm, dragging Conner into the office.
"You're ganging up on me," Sirius suddenly realized. "It's a conspiracy, isn't it? You're all trying to keep me on those damned things!"
"Not necessarily," Remus said calmly. "What we really want is for you to get better, Sirius, and to make sure you are getting the help you need to keep getting better. Your friends and family are willing to do whatever it takes to support your, but you have to agree to it yourself, just like you agreed to stay sober his last couple of weeks helping out the school."
"No, I'm done. I'm not staying on them and I'm also not seeing him about it, either," Sirius said, pointing accusingly at Conner while glaring at his wife. She gazed back at him in a way that was steely, resolute, and irritatingly Snapish, showing her own unwillingness to back down. "I'm not cooperating. I don't care what you do to try and convince me. I don't care if you do try to gang up on me. Nobody in this room is going to convince me to keep taking this dry therapy potion any longer!" Sirius declared stubbornly. Just then there was another knock on the door and Harry Potter stepped in.
"Hi," he greeted them, looking over at Sirius.
"Ah, shit," said Sirius, slumping in his chair.
Laura was on the football pitch blowing up balloons when she saw someone fly in on a broom. She looked up curiously, since few people could fly that close to the castle without passing through the gate first.
"What do you suppose Harry is doing here?" she asked, watching as Harry went in.
"Oh, it's about a personal matter," Aurelius explained, shrugging as he tied off his balloon. "It's not like he really needs to come in the office at all on Saturdays unless there's a capture planned, especially with my Father watching the flag board that shift."
"I'm surprised your father is still going. He found the missing wizards, after all," Laura said, pulling out another balloon from the bag.
"Even if my father was the sort to leave us in the lurch like that, there's still a lot more for him to sort out. I wouldn't expect him to leave anytime soon," Aurelius said, counting the balloons they had. "Just a few more, Laura. I'll start putting faces on these."
"Right," Laura said, then blew up the next balloon.
"Once you're done, start putting the Relative-perspective charm on these for me. They should be showing up soon," Aurelius said, and Laura nodded, quickly finishing the rest of the balloons. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the students began wandering in in pairs, starting with Natalie and Garvan and going from there. They stood where the A group normally formed a line, chatting curiously about what the two Aurors were up to as the others slowly joined in, asking the same questions. By the time Aurelius and Laura were done, the students had assembled and the clock was striking the hour.
"As you can guess, we have a new game for you today," Aurelius announced, using his wand to corral the balloons together. They floated up as if anxious to get started, making different noises that reminded the students of the expressions of the faces drawn on the balloons. The grumpy-looking balloons grumbled noisily in gibberish grumbles, while the nervous-looking balloons made higher pitched quivering sounds. There are evil looking balloons, surprised balloons, angry balloons, and confused balloons, each one expressing their intended emotions as they jostled next to each other as if tied by invisible strings. "By now, you all should know a sharp spell and basic stun and levitation methods, correct?" he said, even the first years nodding at that. "This is a game that in some ways is similar to Cat and Mouse, only this time, you're all on your own, and it's the balloons who are the opponents... of course there's a catch," he said, glancing at Hope, who had her arms crossed.
"Each of these balloons has been charmed with a different personality... witches and wizards that you may sent out on a capture. Some of them are simply bystanders, or accused of something and are innocent. Some are pick pockets, parole offenders, or minor offenders that simply got caught up in a warrant that the LE office had trouble bringing in for various reasons. The majority of which aren't violent, although some of them will defend themselves if cornered. But some of them are angry, aggressive, or portray different dark wizards you might encounter. Some of them will undoubtedly try to harm you. In that case... and only in that case, you are to dispatch them using the sharp or deflate spell. Inside the balloon, there is a colored powder. If you are correct and it is someone that needed a stronger response to stop them, the color of the powder will be green, letting you know it was an appropriate response. However, if you mistakenly hit a balloon that you should be using stun and capture method, it will be red, and you'll be out of the game. If one of the violent balloons succeeds in zapping you, you are also out of the game," he explained. The students looked at each other, wondering what he meant by 'zapping.' "When you've stunned a balloon, levitate it into the starting area," he said, using his wand to chalk a circle where the balloons were floating now. "They won't wander back out. The game continues until either all the balloons are captured or only one of you is left standing. Auror Lupin will keep track of points just in case you manage to get all of the balloons put away. Does everyone understand?"
"Just in case? Doesn't sound like he's too optimistic of our chances," Garvan murmured to Natalie, who nodded at that. Hope raised her hand. Aurelius nodded to her.
"What if we stun and capture one of the aggressive ones?" Hope asked.
"That's perfectly acceptable," Aurelius said with a nod. "But fair warning, not all of the balloons may be as violent as they may seem. There are taunting balloons, joking balloons, and upset balloons that may behave like they're going to attack you, but actually wouldn't do it. Those are the trickiest to sort out, and I don't doubt it's going to prove the downfall of most students here. This is an exercise in restraint and making quick decisions," he explained. "Now, everyone spread out... the balloons will be released and take up the whole pitch, then you can go on my whistle. Good luck."
As they started to wander out onto the pitch, the balloons suddenly dropped, brushing up against the glass as they darted around. At first, they didn't look like they would fly at all, but finally they took to the sky.
"What was all that about?" Natalie asked Garvan, who was nearby.
"Mr. Gamban! If I catch either of you helping one another, I'll bench you both," Aurelius warned, making certain that it was loud enough that everyone knew teaming up wasn't going to be tolerated.
"Yes, Auror Snape," Garvan replied and made a point to take the opposite side of the pitch from Natalie. He had already figured out what the balloons were doing from the clue that Auror Snape had given earlier. The balloons had a static electricity attack that was probably quite uncomfortable, although relatively harmless. This exercise was going to test two skills... the ability to recognize the enemy's intentions, but also to respond without hesitation. Garvan was fairly sure that it wouldn't take long before the balloons 'thinned out' the contestants.
Sure enough, just moments after the whistle blew, one of the second years was benched as a dark wizard balloon attacked and left them yelping with pain. Garvan noticed it dipping down to the grass again. So there was one clue, at least, Garvan realized. The aggressive balloons would have to resupply their charge. But as balloons began coming at him in random directions, would he have a chance to notice it? Garvan decided that Hope had the right idea in stunning and moving all of them; it would be a lot quicker than attempting to figure out which was which.
He bagged an upset balloon first, and then a frantic balloon. He was fairly sure that there was probably a point scale, although Aurelius didn't mention it. It seemed to him that bagging an 'innocent bystander' balloon was probably worth a lot less than a suspicious balloon. He stunned the suspicious balloon and let the bystander balloon to wander by to be taken by someone else. Then he went for an angry balloon next. A surprised balloon that zoomed past him was caught by Hope, who seemed to be grabbing everything instead of picking and choosing.
Just then, Garvan heard and yelp. He looked over in time to see Chuck was on the ground, but not fast enough to tell which of the balloons had done it; all of the balloons seemed to be bobbing in and out of the crowd. Chuck's expression revealed just how much that zap must have hurt as he slowly got to his feet and went over to the bench. Hope had noticed the attack as well, and was moving in his direction in an attempt to find that one that did it. While Garvan was busy stunning a seedy-looking balloon, a puff of red powder went up in the middle of the pack.
"Hope! Bench!" Aurelius called out, then turned his attention elsewhere. Hope shuffled out off the field looking annoyed.
"It's not my fault! That balloon wouldn't stun, and then it hid behind that other one!" she shouted.
"Making excuses doesn't help you when you're out in the field," Aurelius snapped, pointing her to the bench before turning his attention back to the others.
The majority of students had heard Hope's complaint and checked themselves, glancing at each other before taking a more serious stance. This wasn't solely about separating from the guilty and the not-guilty balloons, Garvan realized. It was also about separating weaker balloons from those who might prove to be more of a challenge to catch.
Natalie was on the move across the field. She had not lost sight of the one that her sister had trouble with, and had her wand poised to deflate the sinister-looking balloon the moment it was clear of the crowd. But as she ran up and she took what she thought had been a clear shot, it ducked behind an innocent bystander balloon and she deflated it instead. A poof of red powder went up in the air.
"Oh, damn!" Natalie exclaimed with frustration.
"Bench, Nat, and watch you language," Aurelius warned her.
"I've heard regular Aurors say much worse," she retorted in irritation.
"You're not one yet. Bench," Aurelius said again, pointing her to the stands, and she stomped off.
As more of the club went down, Garvan picked up the pace, realizing that whoever was left standing at the end was going to be outnumbered by balloons. The more that were pinned when that happened, the less trouble they were going to have.
He took out the joking balloons, taunting balloons, and frightened balloons first, since they were the ones along with the angry balloon that seemed to be moving around at a quicker pace than the others. He was so busy concentrating on getting them out of the way that he didn't realize he had already become the last wizard standing. A glance up at the bench after catching the last frightened balloon had cued him in to the fact. He took a breath and looked around. Even though there was a lot less movement than their had been, there was still a great deal of balloons. Despite that, none of them were coming after him. Instead, they were simply mulling about in a non-hostile manor. Garvan knew that the one that had taken out the Willowbys was probably still in the group. In fact, it was probably the only balloon left that he had to worry about.
Well, if I can't find him, maybe I can disarm him, Garvan thought, then pointed just above the group of balloons.
"Caligo!" Garvan cast, and a spray of mist burst out of his wand, covering the balloons and even causing a bit of fog to form. It also dampened the ground underneath them, and he made a point to increase the circle, so that if any of the balloons moved out of the pack it would have to go out of his way to find dry grass. Sure enough, it was only a few seconds later that a balloon darted out in an attempt to get its static charge back, which had been nullified in the damp air. But Garvan was ready this time.
"Deflate!" Garvan cast, hitting the balloon and causing the air to let out. Once it was down to only a tiny bubble, he levitated it into the cage while Natalie and her siblings cheered in appreciation.
"All right, time," Aurelius said, gathering up the remaining balloons and glancing at Laura, who nodded to him.
"The best score was Gamban with fifty-seven points, followed by Natalie Willowby with thirty seven – that last flub cost you a lot," he added when she saw her brooding expression. "The remaining were in the middle of the pack. Chuck and Hope Willowby, you two could have done better, and as such, you can help Laura clean up. The rest of you are dismissed."
It wasn't long before Garvan wandered over.
"Did I leave any?" Garvan asked.
"Two," Aurelius replied. "But you managed to disarm them before they could do anything. I wouldn't try that spell when you get to formal training, though. You'll find the balloons pack more punch. They don't even use static," he warned.
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks Auror Snape," Garvan said. "But should you have even told me that?"
"Maybe not," Aurelius said with a shrug. "But you remind me of some of what I went through in school, and you're going to have it tough enough becoming an Auror as it is, so why add to it?"
"Thanks," Garvan said, Aurelius giving him an expressionless nod before walking towards the others taking down balloons. But Garvan found himself wondering about his words after the fact, and made a note to ask Maurice about it later.
"That sucked," Hope declared as she helped inflate the balloons and Chuck worked to gather them up and put them back in the bag. "I'm never going to become an Auror at this rate!"
"It's just a game," Chuck reminded her.
"True, but it's an important one," Laura said. "And it's a game we often play during training days. For the record, it's not my favorite game either, but it's meant to be hard. Restraint is an important part of being an Auror."
"Yes, but how do you keep from hesitating?" Chuck asked.
"Or using too little force when the only thing that'll take it down is something lethal," Hope added, brooding.
"You're asking the wrong questions," Aurelius snapped. He had come up behind them, listening to the conversation. The three of them looked up at his serious expression. "How about asking yourself how you'd feel if you had really killed an innocent person who had become a shield for a dark wizard like what happened to you, Hope?"
"Probably pretty rotten," Hope admitted.
"It's more than rotten. It's something that never leaves you... from the moment it happens until the day you die," Aurelius said sternly. "This game is one of many ways we use to try to minimize those sorts of mistakes. Another reason is so you can learn how not to let your emotions to get the better of you, especially fear and anger, because they can cloud your judgment."
"Yeah, we talk about that a lot in defense class," Chuck said, attempting to parry the lecture.
"Maybe, but you Willowbys especially have a tendency of letting your emotions get the better of you," Aurelius said. He glanced over at Hope, who met his gaze defiantly. "If you want to be effective Aurors, you will have to find a way to tame that, and then you'll have to maintain it. As hard as that is to learn that lesson going in, for some Aurors, attempting to maintain the indifference gets harder and harder with each passing year. If any of you find yourselves feeling that way, I hope that you have the sense to get out of the profession before it's too late."
"That's not going to happen," Hope scoffed.
"Yes, that's what they all say," Aurelius shrugged.
Laura frowned at that, feeling uncomfortable and wondering if he was saying that for their benefit or hers. No, she was starting to get paranoid, she reasoned. The fact that she had a recent conversation about Harry on making sure she was maintaining her impartiality was still fresh on her mind. It had stung thinking that he might not trust her, just as much as when she had been benched at the start of the year. They had all had missteps and had all been benched from time to time, including Aurelius, she recalled. She mentally attempted to brush away those stings, although it was hard considering the game they had been playing that day. She had been so good at it when she had first joined; the last couple of training days, she had been the first out. She was going to have to try harder, she thought to herself. She didn't want to lose her edge out in the field.
