Author's Notes:
First of all, I'd like to thank brissygirl, who's been reading the series from the beginning over the last week or so. She pointed out a continuity mistake I made early in the Chamber of Secrets that, as soon as I can get the time to rectify I will be going back to do so.
Also, I'm sorry for the late hour of the chapter, I had some real world obligations and problems that made today difficult, but none of you are here for my excuses.
For your enjoyment,
Harry Potter, the Valerian, and the Prisoner of Azkaban's
Chapter Seven: Confrontation and Defense
Hagrid's position as a Professor is threatened days after receiving it, Lupin introduces a new creature, and the Gryffindors witness a tense confrontation between Ivory and Severus.
Days later, Draco was paired with Pansy in Potions by Severus, much to the rage of Ron, who believed that it was simply another way for the potions master to show favoritism for his Slytherins.
Pansy took great pleasure in utilizing Draco to pretty much do the potion they were working on, a Shrinking Solution, for her even though she'd been using her arm just fine for the last day and a half.
The situation was made worse when Draco didn't even appear upset by it, which didn't sit well with many of the other boys in their year.
Draco and Blaise were in a position, frequently, that Harry had only become familiar with the year before.
People were fickle.
Though Zabini was, technically, considered a gray family name, Blaise's mother had a reputation that had been passed down to her son even after her death. Though children didn't necessarily understand that reputation, they mirrored their parent's distaste for it all the same.
Similarly, the Malfoy family reputation had been seriously tarnished, when Lucius Malfoy had sided with Voldemort in the last wizarding war, to say nothing of the fact that, here at Hogwarts, Houses were everything, and Draco was raised to practically rule Slytherin.
Draco and Blaise were, for the most part, well-liked by Gryffindor, particularly the older years who were, as their time at the school approached an end, becoming aware that the Houses of Hogwarts didn't dictate the kind of person you were. But the younger years had whole weeks or months, where some sort of slight against Gryffindor on behalf of either of the Purebloods painted them in the light of 'Slytherins'.
Draco's kindness, no matter how minor, to a member of the 'rival' House, apparently meant that he was, in some way, a traitor to Gryffindor and his dormmates, Ron included, were making him aware of it, much to Harry and Neville's displeasure.
Arcana was even less impressed, particularly when they were leaving the class and Ron deliberately bumped Draco's arm as he was trying to pack Pansy's books into her bag for her.
"Ron!" Hermione cried, horrified.
The fifteen points are taken from Gryffindor for the act certainly didn't help his mood.
Harry helped to gather the few books that had tumbled to the floor, before running after Arcana, Fallen slipping silently after him.
Draco grit his teeth and didn't say a word to the redhead's retreating back.
XX
'Ronald Weasley,' the tiger rumbled, stalking after his departing charge. 'That was the most uncalled-for act I've seen out of you yet.'
"He doesn't even look upset about it!" Ron countered, stopping to glare at him. "She's the enemy!"
"You don't know enemy yet, boy, and she was one of his closest friends growing up, Weasley, not that it's any of your business," Fallen rumbled, stepping out of the shadows of the dungeons. "And simply because her physical wound may have healed, doesn't mean her mental one has."
"He barely scratched her!" Ron snapped, gesturing wildly toward the wall, the direction through which Buckbeak had been chained, truly chained, to the paddock near the Forbidden Forest while Hogwarts investigated the 'attack'.
"Not everyone can simply brush off traumatic events, Ron," Harry said quietly, glancing over his shoulder as the rest of the class began to trickle out. "I mean, we've probably been in too many of them over the last couple of years, but even I probably wouldn't be able to just brush off those talons coming toward my face."
Fallen took a menacing step toward the redhead, the sheer wrath the suddenly encompassed his form making Ron take several steps back and paling.
Arcana's eyes narrowed warningly.
"You touch him like that again, Weasley, and Arcana won't be able to help you," Fallen said quietly, and all the scarier for it. "Am I clear?"
Ron glared at the floor. "Yeah," he mumbled.
"What was that?" Fallen snapped.
Ron flinched. "Yes, sir."
Fallen snorted, clearly still displeased, before turning to Arcana.
'The boy needs serious guidance, Arcana,' the General told him coolly. 'If he continues in the manner he is, he'll end up seriously hurt. Harry won't stand to be stuck between Ron and Draco forever, and if he keeps physically manhandling my charge when he does something that Ron deems 'un-Gryffindor-like', I'll hobble him.'
Arcana sighed as Fallen brushed past him.
'You have no idea the position you put me in with this behavior, do you, Ronald.'
Ron remained mutinously silent as he followed Arcana up to their next class.
XX
While half of their friends are arguing in the hall, Blaise and Neville stayed with Draco, putting up with Parkinson's distasteful glares as Draco handed her the Potions notes he'd taken for her, as well as her bag.
She thanked Draco coolly before leaving, though her expression was softer than her tone.
Draco hummed his agreement, smiling mildly at her.
"It seriously doesn't upset you that she's clearly milking that wound?" Neville asked, curiously but not unkindly.
Draco shrugged. "Pansy's never dealt well with blood, certainly not her own," he told him as he hefted his own bag and waved to Severus as they left. "It makes her shaky and queasy for days afterward, so doing the fine chopping, dicing, and stirring required for Potions isn't easy.
Blaise mirrored Draco's wave to the potions master. "Katelyn was telling us about the lawsuit," he told Draco.
Katelyn had been required to give up her seat to Draco when Severus had paired the two together, which meant that she took Draco's and was seated near Blaise, Neville, and Harry.
Draco glanced at Tarana and Yoko behind them. "Is that what Tarana snapped about?" he asked quietly.
Blaise shook his head. "Katelyn said something to Harry, I couldn't hear it."
"Something about revenge," Neville injected nervously. "She asked him if he wanted revenge."
"You boys should step lively," Tarana interrupted evenly, making no secret that she was listening to the three of them. "You're already behind."
XX
Harry stopped at the doors of the Great Hall, looking around with concern.
"Has anyone seen Hermione?" he asked, looking back at Ron, Fallen, and Arcana. "I could have sworn she was right behind me when I left the Potions classroom."
There was the sound of tearing fabric and Hermione's voice crying out, "Oh no!"
Harry glanced up at the others before they all ran back toward the stairs to the dungeons.
"Hermione, are you alright?" Harry asked, frowning at the sight of the girl kneeling on the ground, gathering her books together at the bottom of the staircase.
Her bag had split down the side.
Ron shook his head as he and Harry went down to help gather them. The bag itself was useless now, after all, not that anyone was surprised.
Despite them only having Defense Against the Dark Arts that afternoon, her bag had been stuffed with at least a dozen large, heavy books.
Ron flipped one over and frowned at it. "Hermione, why are you carrying all these around with you?" he asked her. "We don't even have some of these subjects today. Just Defense Against the Dark Arts after lunch."
"Oh, yes," Hermione said, vaguely, as she hopped back to her feet and climbed the stairs, where the two Valerians were watching her with amusement.
She flushed.
"I wonder what they've got for lunch," she said loudly. "I'm starving."
XX
After a tense lunch, where Ron and Draco refused to so much as look at one another, leaving their friends to try and hold separate conversations with them both, the group trekked up the marble staircase for Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Lupin was nowhere to be seen, but Ivory was sprawled across the wooden desk, tail flicking like a metronome, sharp blue eyes watching them get settled into their seats, take out their books, and look up at him expectantly.
"Now that you're all settled, at least I assume you're all here," Ivory said, getting to his paws and stretching. "Pack up and follow me, Professor Lupin," he said the title with a great deal of ironic amusement that went over the student's heads, "has a practical lesson planned. You'll need your wands and your guts, but little else."
With mixed emotions, the class repacked everything Ivory had just watched them all unpack and got to their feet, approaching the snow leopard where he waited by the open door.
"Got everything? Great, let's go."
Ivory didn't waste time dawdling and set a brisk pace that, had anyone known him a bit better, could have told them that he didn't much appreciate being used as a delivery service while Lupin finished up a few last-minute preparations.
Their destination is clearly several corridors away, and the irate grumbles were now turning into curious whispers as the Valerian led the class through the, now empty, halls.
Well, mostly empty.
Their trip took them past the staff room, where Severus was headed to during a free period.
He gave the group a disdainful once over, before focusing on Ivory.
"As usual," he drawled unkindly. "Trouble in the hallway. I assume you've got reason to be trekking through the corridors, Valerian?"
Ivory gave him a sharp grin that didn't make it to his eyes. "Do you?" he asked in return.
Severus' eyes narrowed dangerously on the cat, particularly as the whispers got louder. He cast cold black eyes over the assembled students and they abruptly fell silent.
His lip curled. "A bit of advice, Ivory, for Professor Lupin. He shouldn't give Longbottom too much responsibility. He's a danger to himself and those around him." Severus turned back to Ivory. "Though I suppose you would know all about that, wouldn't you?"
Neville flinched, remembering the rather nasty smelling smoke that had emanated from his and Blaise's potion before Blaise had jumped in to save it.
Arcana and Tarana were swiftly moving from the middle of the pack of students, toward where Severus and Ivory were having a far too public confrontation, considering the details.
"I'll inform Remus to use him as an assistant then, simply to piss you off," Ivory countered easily, tail swaying. "I'm sure he can judge the boy's skills for himself. A sense of humor, after all, doesn't make him an idiot."
"Ivory," Tarana snapped viciously.
Ivory tilted his head, tail freezing, to look at the approaching, and livid, Queen.
'It's just Snivellus,' Ivory protested.
Tarana threw her head back, her entire body going liquid, more warning than if she'd tensed. 'The days of me standing on the sidelines while you bully Severus Snape are over, Ivory,' she said coldly.
Fallen slipped around Severus, close enough that, if he had been so inclined, Severus could have put his hand between his ears. 'I've warned you before about that nickname, Ivory,' the wolf rumbled. 'Are you looking to lose your tail?'
Ivory took a half-step back and lowered his head slightly, glancing between the General and his sister, curious as to at what point Severus Snape had earned such powerful backing from his family.
"I think it's time to continue on, Ivory," Arcana said, breaking the tension between the group. "I'm sure Remus is wondering where you've gotten to with his students and this confrontation was never something they should have witnessed in the first place. It's too personal for you both."
Ivory looked at Tarana, Severus, and Fallen once more before shaking his head and turning down the corridor.
Tarana and Fallen remained, flanking Severus.
"I've been handling the Marauders on my own for years," Severus said stiffly after the last student had passed them by. "Your assistance wasn't required."
"No, it wasn't," Tarana agreed easily. "But I've promised you, no matter what happens going forward, that you'll have the backing of my people, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let Ivory make a liar out of me, simply because he's gotten away with being an ass when he's damn well grown enough to know better."
Fallen nudged the potions master. "I've never let that nickname pass Ivory's lips in the past," he reminded the man. "I've no interest in starting now, even if you're powerful enough to do so on your own now."
Severus didn't say anything, though neither of the Valerians expected him to.
Though they were sure that the man believed in their backing, it obviously made him uncomfortable, Tarana's support in particular, which only furthered the guilt of the Queen.
She'd spent over a decade allowing James, Sirius, and Ivory to do far more than simply call him nasty names, after all.
XX
Tarana and Fallen spent another few minutes with Severus but, eventually, they returned to their charges.
The classroom was more office-like than study-appropriate, as there were no desks or tables, only a large cupboard pressed close to the farthest wall.
Ivory stood toward one corner, while Remus stood in the other with his wand held loosely in one hand.
Before the open cupboard, stood Parvati Patil with her wand trained on a mummy, arms stretched out and reaching for her.
"Riddikulus," the girl cried, and the mummy suddenly tripped over an unraveling bandage, which tangled itself around its feet and tipped it forward.
Fallen sidestepped the decayed head as it rolled off, giving it a look of disgust, as he and Tarana turned away from the front of the classroom, toward where the rest of the Valerians were lounging, as far back from the class and what Fallen was sure to be a boggart, a creature that reveled and fed on the fears of others, changing its shape to terrify its prey.
Lupin called Seamus forward before the head had finished rolling, and with a sharp crack, the mummy had become a woman-like creature with floor-length black hair and green-tinged skin – a banshee – who opened her mouth just as Seamus raised his wand and shouted the spell that forced the boggart to change shape, turning her low, unearthly wail into a raspy croak as the banshee lost her voice.
"Creative," Ivory commented, amused.
By this point, the boggart was seriously confused, rather the point of the exercise, Fallen imagined because it was always best to face a boggart with more than one person, as it couldn't adequately scare two people with the same fear.
It cycled through several different appearances rapidly, with apparently no rhyme or reason, likely reading the room but unable to pick a form as Seamus stepped back, grinning widely at both his success and Ivory's rather unique praise.
"It's confused," Remus shouted over the rising laughter and sense of excitement in the air as each successful attempt bolstered the anticipation of those that had yet to take a turn. "Dean!"
Fallen circled the Valerians so he sat beside Blaise and Draco, neither of whom appeared all that eager to step forward and try their hand at the creature.
It didn't surprise him.
Blaise's greatest fear was losing Yoko, and he'd come very close to that end over the summer. It wasn't likely that he was prepared to look at that image again, at least not so soon after it had happened.
Draco was likewise aware of what his greatest fear was and Fallen didn't need to guess it. But to see Narcissa Malfoy appear before her son wasn't something either one of them wanted to happen in front of so many witnesses.
A bloody hand turned into a giant spider – an Acromantula – that nearly didn't fit into the classroom with them, as Ron stepped forward.
There were several seconds where the menacing clicking noise filled the tense silence and Arcana took a half-step forward. Before he could mentally call out to his charge, however, Ron broke himself free of his frozen state and snapped the spell out sharply.
The legs of the Acromantula disappeared and the massive body rolled across the floor.
Tarana tilted her head when it came to a stop before Harry.
She was rather surprised to find her charge among those that were trying their hand against a creature that took the shape of one's darkest fears, considering how much mental, emotional, and – despite her best efforts – physical damage had been done to him over the years.
Strange as it was for a guardian of her nature, she was almost eager to see which of his many potential fears was his greatest, and not only so that she could work to try and fix it.
Before the boggart could truly fixate on Harry, however, Remus had stepped between them.
"Remus," Ivory growled, stepping toward his charge.
The boggart was already changing, however, though it was clearly confused because, first, it was a massive, blood-stained black dog with mad gray eyes and a foaming mouth, then it was a floating silver orb.
Remus stared, transfixed, at the orb for several tense seconds, where the Valerians – except Ivory, who after his initial step forward didn't acknowledge Remus facing off against a boggart in any way – to slowly inch forward, spreading out slightly as though they expected a serious threat to suddenly appear out of the boggart.
"Riddikulus," Remus said lazily.
Instead of turning into something else, the boggart turned into several whiffs of smoke, with dissipated into the air.
"Well," Fallen drawled into the silence. "While I applaud your methods, I rather wish that this was how the first Care of Magical Creatures class had taken place."
Remus ducked his head, smiling slightly. "Dark Creatures are rather a specialty of mine," he admitted, before turning his attention fully on the class.
Neither the Valerians nor the professor acknowledged the fact that they'd all treated that odd, glowing orb with nearly as much caution as they did one another.
XX
As the class is leaving, everyone is enthusing about how it was easily the best class they've had in the last three years.
Everyone except Draco, whose analytical mind was running.
It wasn't often that the Valerians reacted en-mass to a threat within the school walls unless it was another Valerian.
He couldn't see Lupin knowing about any strange and powerful devices off Valeria, especially one that looked like a glowing crystal ball.
"What was that?" He asked Fallen, looking down at the General.
Fallen tilted his head. 'Hm?'
"The glowing thing that the lot of you and Lupin were so afraid of. Is it something from Valeria?"
'That's none of your concern, Draco,' Fallen told him flatly.
"But the way you all reacted, it's got to be dangerous, doesn't it? But how did Lupin find out about it? Did he come across it in America?"
'Draco, this isn't something for you to worry over, nor is it your place to pick at it. Drop it. It's none of your business.'
Draco grit his teeth.
Fine.
If none of you will tell me, I'll have to figure it out on my own.
Fallen, as though reading his charge's mind, rolled his eyes heavenward as though praying for patience.