A/N Three chapters this week.

Chapter Six

Troublemakers

"Feel free to shut the door, Jennifer," Wind said with a smile. "Would you care to have lunch with me? I think you'll find it is something that will agree with your picky tastes." Jennifer chuckled at him, closing the door.

"Well, it'd have to be pretty good," Jennifer joked. Wind smiled knowingly at her and then pulled out a picnic basket from behind his desk. Jennifer stared at him. "Why, that looks like Sagittari's picnic basket!"

"It is," Wind agreed. "And I am glad he didn't charge by the mile," he teased. "Actually, Arcadia Portkeyed over and dropped this off for you. It was something I arranged with Sagittari as a sort of reward for actually showing up at Whitebridge, considering all of the misgivings you and Severus were having over you coming here."

"Well, I can definitely say I am still having my misgivings, especially after that meeting to be perfectly honest," Jennifer informed him.

"Yes, I thought you might be," Wind admitted, unstrapping the basket. "Thus, why I was so prepared for you today. Please have a seat at the table. I'll open the blinds so we can look out on the garden," he offered, pulling them back and then setting the basket next to them so they could help themselves as they liked.

"Well, first thing is first. Did you really sneak me into this school by intentionally leaving out my maiden name?" Jennifer asked accusingly.

"It isn't my fault that the board didn't do their homework. Perhaps if they thought to collect Chocolate Frog cards, that ploy might not have worked either," Wind mused. Jennifer chuckled and shook her head. "Technically, however, I am the one who makes the final decision on hiring staff, but I did want to make sure that you were safely here with a signed contract just in case they decided to protest it," Wind said.

"Just in case?" Jennifer asked dubiously.

"One always hopes for the best," Wind said with a smile. "Besides, only a quarter of them are old enough to remember you, and there's only one person other than Rosemary that has a reason to remember you vividly."

"Steve Mason, yes, Lavender just warned me," Jennifer said with a sigh. Wind chuckled at that. "Of course, that was decades ago. Surely he's changed quite a deal since he was a boy."

"Yes, he has. Instead of a spoiled child of the most influential family in town, he is the spoiled head of the family," Wind replied. Jennifer cringed at that. "But no matter. Don't worry about the board, that is my affair, and despite the board's makeup at the moment, they no longer have as much influence as they did back in your student days. And as their influence has waned, mine has grown. They can't force me out even if they want to at this point, so no matter what happens, don't worry about that. But I am interested in what you have in mind for your Items classes."

"Have in mind? From the sounds of it, not much at all, considering the testing schedule I was given today. I mean, of course I give out OWLS and NEWT tests every year to fifth and seventh years, so I do know the importance of some sort of measurement. But those sorts of tests should be assessments of what a student knows, not just tests to see how well they studied to take the test. I know I've only been here a couple of days, so forgive me for asking, but if the students are busy jumping from assessment to assessment throughout the entire school year, when exactly are they ever going to learn anything?" Jennifer asked. Wind smiled knowingly at that.

"I didn't ask you here to be another test giver, Jennifer. I asked you here to teach," Wind said. "The whole idea behind a professor exchange is just that... to exchange ideas. As such, you're allowed a great deal of liberties as to how you conduct your classes. Jennifer, you taught Defense before you taught Potions at Hogwarts, did you not?"

"Yes, for three years, why?" Jennifer asked.

"Then tell me, in your opinion, what is the best way to get out of an endless trap?" he inquired. Jennifer thought about it for a moment.

"To not step into it in the first place, I suppose," Jennifer answered.

"And then?" Wind prompted. He reached over and pushed her spectacles up when they started sliding down, forcing to think it out on her own. But after a moment, she smiled.

"To disarm it while standing outside of it," Jennifer replied. Wind smiled at her again.

"Yes, exactly," Wind said with a nod of approval. "This assessment trap was of our own making, Jennifer. It is insidious because it was filled with good intentions... to hold ourselves accountable, and one's students as well. But one can never be at one's best while stuck in a trap, Jennifer. A songbird may sing in a cage, but it cannot use its wings, or find a mate, or learn to feed and care for itself in such a place. My own arm and foot are caught in this trap, despite my attempts to stay out of it. The irony of this little trap, Jennifer, is that good little students and good little teachers eagerly get caught inside it because they want to do what's best. They are told that this cage is where they must reside; the world is too dangerous a place, and risks are not worth taking. By willingly walking into the cage, no one gets into trouble. After all, if they don't go inside, they might be punished, ridiculed, dismissed, oh, what trouble one might get into if one isn't obedient! So how could I get myself and my school out of such a trap, I wondered, when all of the good little teachers and students are already inside of it? But as I pondered this, I had a visit from a fellow headmaster, his wife, and good doctor. And this garden, the wonder that it is, and that fellow headmaster, with his own thoughts and concerns, made the solution very clear to me that day. It was not an ideal student or teacher that I required at all. What I truly needed was a troublemaker," Wind explained, Jennifer smiling with exasperation at that. "So you see, Jennifer, you have a special job while you are here. First, you must stay out of the trap. Second, you must spring the trap and rescue whoever you can on your own. Third, you must help me escape, so that we may get the rest out together. So what do you think? Are you up to the task?"

"Easily," Jennifer said, seeing things in a new light now. "After all, I have very little to lose by helping you, and plenty to gain if I do."

"Thus the reason I needed someone outside of the trap to begin with," Wind agreed.

"Then I suppose you've got yourself a troublemaker," Jennifer agreed with a grin. Wind patted her shoulder like he once used to and offered up a piece of the baklava as a reward.

Asher hurried upstairs and knocked on the door. It swung open, letting him in. He shut the door firmly and hurried over to an elaborate wall filled with Wizardnet devices; many of which had been built by Frank Byrd himself.

"How's the dossier coming?" Asher asked, grabbing a wizard-crafted artisan beer out of the ice box.

"Challenging as all hell, to be honest. I'm having to piece stuff together from all sorts of strange sources and I don't know just how accurate any of it is," Frank admitted. "It's a shame that our version of computer technology is decades behind Muggle technology. I mean, it's understandable, I know, considering we had to develop our devices from scratch to try and copy their electronics. They have microchips that don't have to worry about magical conflicts that different properties of materials can have, or worry about nearby magic sources influencing them."

"True, but we don't have to worry about plugging our devices in or paying for WIFI either," Asher ventured.

"Yes, but that wasn't the point I was getting at," Frank said. "Here in the U.S., businesses, banks, public services, and records at the Department of Wizard Affairs have been slowly converting files to the Wizardnet for quite some time now, and the wizard network has a very healthy consumer market. But the European, Asia Minor, and British Councils have been very reluctant to enter the computer age, citing security risks as the main reason," Frank explained. "They don't see the need for them, since their system works 'as is.' Just like they don't see the point of cars since there are so many different forms of transportation available to Wizards that are cheaper and faster. In general, they only use motor vehicles for things like buses where they have to transport large groups."

"Well, they have a point. I prefer to Key or Apparate when I can," Asher shrugged. "But you can't use brooms here outside of designated areas, after all. It's too dangerous with all of the air traffic, not to mention those damned drones."

"Don't remind me. I still have a scar from the one that ran into me when I was trying to fly to Cedar Point for a date," Frank said. "The worst part of the whole thing was that I missed the date."

"Stella Thrush," Asher remembered getting distracted for a moment. "She was a piece of work."

"She sure was," Frank agreed. "Shame that she moved away after she realized we knew each other."

"It's just as well. We found out all we needed to know about her to complete her dossier anyway, right?" Asher pointed out with a smile.

"True," Frank said. Then he leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "Take a look at that."

"Oh, it's a Chocolate Frog card... that's definitely her, isn't it?" Asher said, pulling a chair over to the Wizard Computer. "Check out that dress... she looks a bit thinner when that was taken, too. She has more of a figure now. When was this, five years ago?"

"Is that your guess?" Frank inquired, but Asher had leaned in to read the card.

"'Jennifer Corsiva Craw: Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Currently entering her second year at Hogwarts, Jennifer Craw has already earned a claim to fame last year leading a herd of Unicorns to a victory against the Azkaban Dementor Revolt. Jennifer joined the staff after teaching Item and Potion Creation Theory at Beauxbatons. She enjoys giving cooking tips, riding winged horses, and looking in mirrors.' Asher read. "So she was a Defense teacher as well as Items and Potions? And does that bit about leading a herd of Unicorns mean she was riding on one of them? If so, I think I'm in love," Asher decided.

"Well, considering that this card is in the first Hogwarts series, you might consider the fact that she's old enough to be your mother. In fact, if the dates are right, she's almost old enough to be my grandmother," Frank said. Asher stared at him.

"Well, maybe she's this witch's daughter or a granddaughter or something, although I admit it'd be an uncanny resemblance," Asher said.

"If I'm right and this is the same witch as the one that's teaching here, she has both daughters and granddaughters," Frank said. "She's also married," he added, looking through the card collector's site for the next listing.

"I love a witch with experience," Asher commented.

"A witch with eight kids," Frank added.

"And apparently enjoys the experience," Asher added in awe.

"Asher, I'm serious," Frank said, pulling up another card. "This is from the Destruction Against the Dark Lord series, three years later." Asher gazed at the picture.

"Okay, here she looks closer to what she does now, doesn't she? Hips and all," Asher said, then read the name. "Jennifer Craw Snape? As in... that Snape? Headmaster Snape who saved us all from colliding with a parallel universe Snape?"

"Yep. She's his wife," Frank said.

"That girl downstairs? Surely if they're related at all, she's a daughter or something," Asher said.

"Let me show you her card from last year," Frank suggested, searching the card collection for a moment before finally finding it in the Alchemist series. "Actually, there's two with her in it, one by herself and one with her Lycanthropy team."

"Can you pull up both individual cards at once? This one and that last one you showed me?" Asher asked. Frank turned on another screen, then put the two cards side by side. They both gazed at her individual cards for a long time. "No doubt about it... that is her. It looks identical to the way she looks right now."

"That is one hot granny," Frank agreed. "Do you think she's Half-Fae or something? Maybe Half Bear Spirit, like Wind claims he is?" he added with a chuckle.

"Well, who are her parents?" Asher asked.

"I don't know. I'll see if any local newspapers are on the Wiznet and start pulling up entries for the last few years and see what I can find out. Considering the work she did with Lycanthropy potions, I'm sure it's mentioned in the news somewhere," Frank said.

"Great," Asher said. "In the meantime, tomorrow I'm going to see what I can find out about why she's teaching here and why she's using her maiden name."

"Good idea, just make sure you're subtle about it. We don't want her to go complaining to Wind if she decides we're harassing her or something," Frank warned.

"I'll just ask Lav then," Asher decided as he walked to the door.

"Sure, that'll be better," Frank said dubiously, watching Asher go before turning his attention back to his Wizard Computer.