Summary: Azkabam escapees, politicians, dementors, divided loyalties, difficult questions and, soul mates? Things are getting complicated. Mentions of slash & 3soms. Violence and some language.
tag.0: Yup!
animiegirl1994: Dementors need to suffer.'nuff said.
Firehedgehog: Denile ain't just a river in egypt, but she'll get over it in a few chapters.
Holysinner5527: I like your use of really in relation to fictional being. What's the diffrent between frilly hugs and normal ones?
FEARMEfrancis: Harry is always the one not to piss off hun, he can sic Indigo on people.
mist shadow: Nah, that would give them too many allies at Hogwarts.
digisammiegirl: I apoligise for the slow updates! I WILL APOLIGISE TO THE WORLD! -ahem- sorry, recently read Fruits Baskets, Ritsu rocks. They'll sort themselves in a bit, and Sirius, well, I'm not sure how they'll handel Sirius. -shugs- We'll find out in a few chapters, ne?
FallenHope-Angel: Poor Goku indeed. Hope sheldon is better now.
Bureaucrats, Exorcises and DADA
An auror stood at either side of Hogwarts gates, and with them stood a pair wearing grey robes with deep hoods who seemed to have a layer of pale shadows streaming between them.
Dean stuck his head out of the carriage window and watched it with a mix of worry and fascination.
"Indigo, if I draw the runes can you work out what it does?"
"I can try."
The artist started drawing at a rate that was both impressive and rather odd to watch, while the other occupants of the carriage viewed him with a blend of interest and entertainment.
Well, most of the carriage. Neville was curled up against Indigo, still half asleep and unwilling to get up for anything short of a assassination attempt of a triple chocolate cheese cake.
They passed the gates, and Dean passed his sketch book across Yuki's lap to Indigo.
"Identification ward, linked to alarm system or possible an automated attack spell. I'm not sure which. It's complicated, and well made. I wouldn't want to have to break it in a hurry."
"You can break wards as well them?" murmured Harry with an odd little smile.
"Duh. Slytherin."
Hannah tipped her head, and then turned to Ron.
"Did that make any sense to you?"
"Not much. I think is a 'don't make a lock you can't pick' sort of them."
The Slytherins gave him faintly surprised looks.
"He understands how we think." muttered Flare.
"Most unexpected." added Yuki.
"We may have to kill him." sighed Millicent.
"No plottin' 'for witnesses."
Everyone fell into shocked silence at Neville's sleepy command, staring at him in blank astonishment.
"I'm almost completely certain that wasn't my fault." stated Indigo, more than a little surprised.
"Alas, my dear housemate is corrupted…"
Xxxxxxxx
There were aurors in the Great hall as well, tucked away in the corners, dressed in their battle robes and watching everyone carefully. Their robes were a deep, bloody red.
The Gryffindors puffed up and grinned, the Slytherins shifted ranks to keep their youngest members as far away from the law enforcers as possible. More interestingly, there were no new faces at the teachers table, and Snape looked extremely pissed off.
"Foreboding formations…"
It could have been a comment on the teachers, the aurors, the Slytherins, a cloud formation or something completely different that only she could see. Luna was, in her own disconnected sort of way, highly observant, but no-one was ever certain just what she was talking about.
It was both interesting and infuriating.
The 1st years filed in, the Hat sang and the sorting began.
"When do you think the Hat will give up on the song and just scream at us about unity instead?" asked Tracy softly.
"I'm waiting for it to break down and sob that no-one listens to it anymore." whispered Hazel. "Or just demand a bath. Possibly both."
"When was it last cleaned anyway?"
This slightly scary thought kept them occupied until Elizabeth Yeldon joined the Ravenclaws, and Dumbledore stood up and twinkled down at the hall in his best 'I'm your favourite old relation' way.
"Welcome, to another year at Hogwarts. To our new students, you should be aware that the forest is strictly out of bounds, and a few others would do well to remember that as well." He gave the Nutters a stern look, which made them grin. "Now, I'm sure you have all heard about the recent breakout-" murmurs filled the hall as everyone gave their neighbours their opinions, and many gave the Slytherins dirty looks. Dumbledore gestured for them to quiet down. "We have no reason to believe that Hogwarts will be a target! However, just to ensure your safety, the Ministry has provided additional security. The dementors will patrol the school boundaries at all times, and two auror teams have been assigned to patrol inside Hogwarts, and to accompany students on Hogwarts weekends. Also, as in the alarm caused by the escape we have been unable to find a suitable replacement for Professor Lockhart, myself and Auror Shacklebolt will be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts!"
A tall, bulky auror with sharp eyes and skin like coffee steeped into view at Dumbledore's gesture and nodded to the students, who greeted him with a blend of raucous cheering, polite applause and a sardonic slow handclap, barely audible under the rest of the noise.
The Snakes house treated the faintly disapproving look Dumbledore gave them with the contempt it deserved. The frowning Ravenclaws, who disapproved of hazing a teacher who hadn't already proven them self to be incompetent, were simply ignored.
"And, with the announcements out of the way, I invite you all to tuck in!"
The food popped into existence, and everyone began loading their plates, some with more enthusiasm then others.
"Oi! Wait a minute will you!"
One of the ward casters had slipped into the hall without anyone noticing and was now standing just behind an alarmed looking Professor Spout and giving off the distinct feeling that he, or she, was frowning.
"Unspeakable…" Dumbledore trailed off, expecting to be given a name and looking a tad put out when none was forthcoming. "Why are you disturbing the feast?"
"Someone's beaten up a dementor." snapped the hooded figure. "And that's just not on. No-one even knew the things could get hurt, how the hell are we supposed to fix them? Who did it?"
Neville, who could be almost disturbingly honest at times, very nearly owned up.
-Say a word and I am disowning you-
Neville's mouth snapped shut. Shacklebolt stepped a little farther into the room.
"An attack on a dementor is an attack on Ministry property. Confessing ensures that the entire thing can be dealt with quickly and cleanly. Make it easier on yourself."
-Indy…-
Not a word. They have nothing that links it to you. Don't draw attention to yourself; I don't want to tangle with the Unspeakables. They're not predictable.-
There was a long, uncomfortable silence.
"Fine. We'll do it the hard way."
Shacklebolt spoke very calmly, and the Unspeakable didn't say a word.
The fest was subdued.
Xxxxxxxxx
Indigo's daily quest for coffee hit an unexpected interruption the next morning.
"Guh..?"
The 5th year glared down at the blond Slytherin who had just walked into his chest, mouth in a nasty twist.
Indigo blinked up at him, not conscious enough to care why he had collided with the larger boy. The caffeine was in that direction, and everything else was irrelevant, including looming 5th years.
"Small hill…"
Indigo swayed past the youth, who was left with a stock of unspoken accusations, a bemused expression and the vague feeling that he had been insulted.
Xxxxxxxx
The 1st lesson of the 2nd year Slytherins and Huffelpuffs new term was History of Magic. The vast majority were already asleep on their desks, and the teacher hadn't even arrived yet. But two members of the class were far more awake then their slumped posture and half closed eyes would suggest.
Finally Bins floated in through the blackboard, following the same path he always took over the chair that hadn't been mover in decades, through the empty desk…
Where he stopped, breaking his routine. There was a faint cord of music, just on the edge of hearing, and Bins just vanished. Rather more dramatically, the desk caught fire a second later.
Alysandra looked at Eric. Eric looked at Alysandra. They smiled almost identical smiles of satisfaction, and the rest of the class finally woke up and freaked out.
Xxxxxxx
The Unspeakables were somewhere between irritation and amusement.
They had been about to go home, there was no real reason for them to stay and the heavy robes were itchy. And then someone, without anyone seeing or hearing them, had exorcised Hogwarts most boring professor, and they had been yank back to find out how.
They wanted to go home, but someone had exorcised Bins, and destroyed the ghosts ugly desk in the process and that was just bloody awesome.
"Hah!"
"Eh?"
"A lump of quartz!"
"Ah…"
Quartz held magic well, and released it cleanly on command. The pair inspected the stone, and cast a spell, and old one invented by a lunatic who had, though he hadn't known it, created the ultimate tool for any insurance company. It meant, very simply, 'show me what you were' and it worked brilliantly.
An image, colourless but sharp, formed above the stone. A flat disk, wooden by the looks of it, and heavily carved with small runes, spiralling inwards to the stone set in its centre. They recognised sections of the rune work, and it made the two Unspeakables grin at each other.
"A pre-made exorcism, primed to react to any ghost."
"That's beautiful. One of the kids must have planted it."
"Where did they get the thing? I've only seen five in my entire career."
"Don't ask me love, I don't know the design. I've never seen one with an automatic self destruct either."
"The maker must have been covering their tracks. It's a wicked prank though; I wish I'd thought of it while I was here. Would have made school so much more interesting."
"Preaching to the choir. The trails dead though, no-one here has the skill to make that, I doubt even the runes teacher could the design is to alien to her normal works. Unless there's enough magic left in that rock to trace the charger…"
"There isn't."
"Well, there's no point in us staying here, is there? Let's go home Jenny."
"I concur. But you're explaining this to Dumbles."
"…Damn."
Xxxxxxxx
He had tried, really tried to get the severity of the situation across, but the fact of the matter was that no-one had liked Bins, and everyone hated dementors.
Dumbledore curled a lip, the expression strange on his face, as the sounds of the castle wide party drifted though his office again. Well, almost castle wide, the dungeons held none of the frivolity.
It was a fine state of affairs wasn't it? Over five hundred children in this school and it was only the darklings, the shadow children, who understood the danger this mysterious exorcist could be. Was it really any wonder that the wizzarding world was so set in its' ways, so backwards compared to the muggel one? The only people who thought things through were the inbreed and frequently insane remnants of a bygone era. Utterly absurd.
But why did this have to happen now? There could be no worst time for it, there was no-one who could take over the lessons currently at Hogwarts, not after the fates of the last two teachers he had hired. The History of Magic course might have to be cancelled, and the Board of Governors would throw a fit about that.
This couldn't have caused more trouble if it had been planned to.
Now he thought about it, it probably had been.
Xxxxxxxx
Kingsley Shacklebolt was, in no particular order, a mediocre cook, a staunch supporter of the Light, a damn good auror, an skilled autocrat and an ex-Ravenclaw. He was not, never had been and had no desire to become a teacher.
And yet here he was, standing in front of a load of thirteen year olds who expected him to teach them something. Well, the Huffelpuffs expected him to teach them something. The Slytherins looked like they were considering making a run for it, or murdering him. It was hard to tell with that lot.
"Alright brats, this all of you?"
They gave him some odd looks, glanced around and then one from each house nodded.
"Good. I can't be bothered to do the register everyday so if someone is absent for any reason tell me, or don't. Whatever. I was told you've been taught about zombies, vampires, banshees, physical self defence and all the crap Lockhart wrote about?"
Actual attendance of Lockhart's lessons was very low." said a Slytherin girl, straight backed, cold eyed and eyed by Miss Bones with a certain nervous tension. He'd best keep the two apart as much as he could, gods knew what the Slytherin had done to earn that look but he didn't want to exasperate the situation.
"Well, good. I'll be continuing along the same lines as Professor Houton, Professor Dumbledore will be instructing you on dangerous magical creatures. Any questions?"
A Huffelpuff, the Longbottom boy, raised his hand.
"Ask."
"How do ya define dangerous magical creatures?"
"Anything that tries to eat me kid."
Another hand was raised, this one chocolate coloured and attached to a Slytherin boy. Kingsley hesitated for a moment, and then nodded.
"What about cannibals?"
Things like that, questions just like that, was why everyone found Slytherins so damn creepy. That was why the Snakes house scared the hell out of everyone.
"…Why do you ask?"
"Well, I have these cousins on Haiti who could sort of take offence- Oh don't look at me like that!" he glared at the horrified masses. "They aren't head hunters or anything! They only eat people they're related to, it's a sign of respect!"
The horrified masses, of which Kingsley was one, continued to look horrified. Longbottom turned to Lestrange nephew, his golden eyes –is the boy a werewolf?- huge.
"It's traditional, or cultural." The blond, who defiantly wasn't one of the horrified masses, shrugged. "I don't get it either, but they aren't hurting anyone so whatever."
"Okay, but I ain't eating anyone."
"Nobody expects you to."
This seemed to be enough for Longbottom, but most of the horrified masses still looked pretty freaked out.
A tall Slytherin girl sighed.
"Did you have to mention your cannibalistic relations Flare? This will be all over the school by this evening."
"I just don't want my relatives called creatures, however, disturbing their funeral rites may be."
"Er, funerals?"
"Well yes, clearly." The boy, Flare, gave the pale Huffelpuff girl a look of utmost scorn. "They aren't eating people just for kicks you know."
No, they hadn't known that. But they were extremely glad to find out.
"Right, if we could get on with the lesson now…"
Xxxxxxx
"Good morning students."
"Good morning Professor Dumbledore."
Ah, it was so nice to return to the classroom, he'd forgotten the rush. But here, the worshipful expressions of Gryffindors for a hero and Ravenclaws for a bastion of knowledge, Granger already looking a little bit frazzled. It was wonderful to see it again, to feel the power of a room blindly trusting his every word.
"This year I shall be instructing you on defence against dangerous magical creatures. We shall start small, grindelows and the like, and then work our way up to the more dangerous ones. Are ther any questions before we begin?"
Harry raised a hand.
Dumbledore wasn't entirely pleased by that, life would be so much simpler if the boy were of a less inquiring mind, or better still if he kept that depth of curiosity but were less intelligent. It had taken him weeks to convince Molly that he had no prior knowledge of Tom's horocrux or her possessed daughter and that Riddle had simply been his own term for the perpetrator of the attacks. All because Harry, blasted boy, had been stupid enough, or brilliant enough to ask that one question. Cynical enough to suspect.
The whole thing had put him far behind schedule, and he couldn't quite release his ire at the cause of the problem. But, he had a role to play, and nodded encouragingly at his difficult, infuriating, disobedient tool.
"Will methods to drive off dementors be covered sir?"
Well, at least one of his predictions for the year was accurate, he had known Harry would loath the dementors. They dredged up bad memories, and the boy should have plenty of those. Reliving them whenever he got too close to one of those horrible things should keep him sufficiently distracted for the year, just encase the escapees fell short of expectations.
"Not for quite some time I'm afraid. The spells to drive off dementors require a great deal of power and focus. Attempting them when you're too young can cause damage." Utter nonsense, but they didn't know that, and couldn't prove it otherwise. "And I remind you all that, however disturbing they may be, the dementors are here for your protection. There is no reason to fear them."
Another lie. Dementors were creatures of the very darkest magic, soul devouring things born of necromancy. Their loyalties were untested and uncertain and their minds, if they had them, were quite different from that of a human. They were untrustworthy, and beyond his control. Beyond anyone's control.
The children didn't need to know that either. Let them think the creatures were safe. Let the inevitable turning off allegiances, when the dementors rallied around the Dark Lord as all the dark creatures would, come as a shock and feel like a betrayal.
Harry sighed. The brat would undoubtedly spend all his free time over the next few days in the library. He wouldn't find anything, and hopefully wouldn't think to ask Lupin for a week or two.
The werewolf would tell him about the Patronus charm as soon as Harry asked. The damn moon mad furball, he always had been too smart to be really useful, fortunately his condition kept him side-lined, kept him weak enough to be no danger.
"Any other questions?"
No-one said anything, so he began. Water pests this week, names and characteristics, maybe two weeks, no need to rush them after all.
It would be quite irrational for any teacher to complain of an attentive student, but Ronald focus was a tad disquieting. Wasn't the boy normally rather relaxed?
Next time, if the plan holds: Letters and the Re-distribution of Fan-Ghouls