Year 2: Triple the Trouble
Chapter 18: April 2013
"Are you still awake?" Victoire mumbled to her friends as she crawled out of bed and threw her robes back on.
"Yeah, I'm up," Brianna grumbled, rolling over.
"Come on, Kara, we have to get going," Victoire said, throwing one of her shoes at her sleepy friend. "We've already been late twice this month. Professor Brunwell isn't going to be too happy if it happens a third time."
"I'm coming," Kara muttered, pulling herself up, still half asleep.
It had been a long day for the girls. The night before, they'd been up late finishing a Herbology essay that had been due today that they'd kept putting off. Then they'd had to wake up extra early to use the after-hours potions lab for an assignment because they'd waited too long to book it and gottenWho stuck with the early morning slot. Now, they had to stay up late again, this time because it was Thursday and they had Astronomy class at midnight.
"They really ought to leave our first period free tomorrow," Brianna mumbled as the girls trooped down to the common room and through the portrait hole. "Then we could at least sleep in."
Victoire and Kara murmured their agreement. As they headed over to the Astronomy Tower, Victoire realized just how lucky they were to have Gryffindor Tower be up on the seventh floor with the Astronomy Tower. If they had to walk all the way up from the dungeons… well Victoire was pretty sure they would never make it to class on time.
"I see we're all feeling a little sleepy tonight," Professor Brunwell greeted them when they reached the top of the Astronomy Tower and took their seats all around the edges and began to set up their telescopes. "Don't worry, you'll all be wide awake soon enough."
The Astronomy Tower was designed very differently from any other classroom at Hogwarts. The room was circular, with desks and chairs laid out all along the circumference of the room. Professor Brunwell's desk sat in the middle of the room, and it was almost a full circle, save for the section where there was no desk which allowed him to go in and out.
According to Victoire's Aunts and Uncles, the Astronomy Tower used to look entirely different, but it had been refurbished after the Battle of Hogwarts, as had much of the school that had been destroyed during the fight.
"You'll notice that I've laid out your star charts from last week," Professor Brunwell said, gesturing to the desks around the room, which weren't flat like in normal classrooms, but upright like easels. "What I want you to do today is mark on your charts how far the various stars and planets that we've been charting have moved since last week. We're going to continue doing this for a few weeks, so make sure to keep your charts clean."
The students got to work, positioning their telescopes in the appropriate positions and pressing their eyes up to them to take a look at the sky. Astronomy was definitely not one of Victoire's favorite classes, but it was possible that was because she was always so exhausted when they had the class. It was too bad the class had to be held at night, or else more people might be interested enough to continue with it at N.E.W.T. level.
When the hour-long lesson was over, the second years packed up and made way for the third years who had class after them. Victoire was not looking forward to next year, when she would have to stay up even later for a 1AM Astronomy class.
The Gryffindors were almost back to the common room, when suddenly, Mr. Filch jumped out from behind a suit of armor, waving his hands triumphantly.
"I caught you!" he cried. "Students out of bed! Oh, you're all in for it now!"
"We had Astronomy class," Johnathan Cadwallader, one of the boys in their class, told him.
"Yeah," Cameron Philbrick said. "Doesn't the Headmistress give you a schedule for this sort of thing?"
"You're liars!" Mr. Filch exclaimed. "All of you! You're all little troublemakers, sneaking around after house. I'm taking you to see the Headmistress."
"Please," Victoire cried. "We're exhausted and we just want to sleep. Gryffindor Tower is right down the hall; can't we just go?"
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Filch cried. "Well I'm not letting you get away with anything else. Go on, we're going to see the Headmistress."
Groaning, the second years followed Mr. Filch down to the sixth floor to the stone gargoyle which guarded the entrance to the Headmistress' office.
"Tell the Headmistress I have some troublemakers that need punishment," Mr. Filch said to the gargoyle.
Everyone waited, and after a few minutes, the staircase began to move, spiralling upwards.
"Everyone get on," Mr. Filch insisted, waiting until the last of them had climbed onto the moving stairs before jumping on himself. He didn't want any of the stragglers running away while he wasn't looking.
They reached the top and entered the Headmistress' office. Headmistress McGonagall sat behind her desk, looking like she'd just been dragged out of bed, which most likely she had.
"Oh, not again!" she groaned when all of the second year Gryffindor students piled into her office. "Filch we've talked about this! Students are allowed to be out of bed for Astronomy Class!"
"No, these students weren't in any Astronomy Class!" Filch insisted. "They were roaming the halls like a bunch of hoodlums!"
"We were on our way back to Gryffindor Tower," Adrian Carter spoke up. "We just want to go to sleep."
"You may go," the Headmistress dismissed them all. "Mr. Filch, you stay. We need to have a little conversation."
The second years left the Headmistress' office and began making their way back up to the seventh floor.
"Filch has totally and completely lost his mind," Brianna muttered as they bypassed the Grand Staircase and took a hidden stairwell instead that provided a more direct path back to the dormitories.
"Tell me about it," Caitlin agreed. "He should really retire!"
"Yeah," Victoire agreed. "How old is he anyway?"
"He was here when my parents were in school, and that was back before the second wizarding war," Cameron said.
"I'm pretty sure he was here when my grandparents were in school, which was like, back during the first wizarding war," Victoire added.
"How old is he anyway?" Adrian asked.
"He must be in his seventies at least by now," Johnathan said. "Maybe even eighties."
"He couldn't be in his eighties!" Kara cried. "They wouldn't let him work still if he was that old."
"How old is Professor Binns?" Johnathan countered. "He still works here."
"Yeah, I guess," Kara shrugged. "But come on, eighty is pushing it, you have to admit it."
"Fine, then he's in his seventies," Johnathan allowed. "His late seventies, mind. Anyway, he should still be retired."
Everyone agreed. At this point, they had reached Gryffindor Tower and the Fat Lady did not look happy.
"And where did you lot go off to after class?" she wondered.
"Oh never you mind," Adrian said, muttering the password and forcing her to swing open for them.
The second years bid one another goodnight and went straight to bed, knowing that all too soon, their wand alarms would be waking them up for morning classes.
VvVvVvVvVvV
"Ugh, I'm exhausted," Victoire groaned when she awoke the next morning. "Can't we just skive off classes today and sleep?"
"Oh come on," Caitlin cried, throwing open the curtains to the window by her bed, causing the sun to shine right on Victoire's bed. "Don't be such a baby. Anyway, it's Friday, so you can sleep in as long as you want tomorrow."
"Ugh," Victoire rolled over and pulled the covers up over her head to block out the sun. Caitlin was so annoying in the morning. She always woke up extra early to get in her morning run around the castle, which meant that by the time Victoire had to wake up, she was already fully awake and bouncing off the walls.
Eventually, Victoire did wake up, and once she and Brianna had physically dragged Kara out of bed, they got ready for classes and slogged down to the Great Hall to eat some breakfast before their first period class, which just happened to be History of Magic. How she was going to stay away for that, Victoire wasn't sure, but she knew if she fell asleep, she might not wake up for the rest of the day.
Just as they were about to leave for class, Headmistress McGonagall stood and addressed the students.
"After careful deliberation and in depth discussion, it has been decided that Mr. Filch will be taking a step back from his duties as Hogwarts caretaker," she announced to roaring applause.
"We were right," Brianna said amidst the cheering. "He's retiring!"
"We have thought long and hard about this," Headmistress McGonagall continued. "Mr. Filch's duties will be restricted to daytime caretaking and hallway supervision, and in the coming days, we will be searching for someone new to take over Mr. Filch's nightly patrolling duties."
"Wait what?" Victoire spluttered, spitting out her pumpkin juice. "So he's not retiring?"
"In the interim," the Headmistress added, "your Professors will be increasing the length of their nightly patrols to cover the void left by Mr. Filch's absence. Therefore, please be on your best behaviour as the staff are likely to have a little less patience for pranks and general hijinks in the days to come. Thank you."
"I guess not," Kara muttered.
"They're seriously letting him stick around?" Victoire repeated, not believing it. "Even after last night?"
"Well they're not letting him patrol at night anymore, so at least there's that," Brianna pointed out.
"Yeah, I guess," Victoire shrugged.
"Hey I wonder who this new person will be," Kara said excitedly.
"Whoever it is, I just hope they aren't as strict as Filch," Brianna said as they made they way up to History of Magic.
VvVvVvVvVvV
"Truth or dare?" Kara asked Brianna a few nights later.
"Truth," Brianna said.
"Did you steal my green sweater when you went home for Easter?" Kara demanded.
"Sorry," Brianna apologized sheepishly.
"Well can I at least have it back?" Kara asked.
"I might have left it at home," Brianna admitted. "But I'll totally bring it back with me in September."
Kara rolled her eyes. "You'd better," she warned.
"Victoire, truth or dare?" Brianna asked.
"Truth," Victoire chose.
"If you had to pick one," Brianna said. "Would you rather spend the rest of your life in Professor Binns' class, or be forced to play for the HolyHead Harpies?"
"Professor Binns, hands down," Victoire said. "At least I can sleep in his class."
Brianna laughed.
"Alright Kara, truth or dare?" Victoire asked.
"Truth," Kara said.
"Was it really a house elf that found and washed Caitlin's lucky sock, or did you throw it down the laundry chute?" Victoire demanded.
"Alright fine, I threw it down the laundry chute," Kara admitted. "But it reeked. Something had to be done."
"On behalf of both Victoire and I, and also probably Raina too, I just want to say thank you," Brianna said, placing a hand over her heart dramatically.
"Alright…. Victoire, truth or dare?" Kara asked.
"Dare," Victoire chose, deciding to shake things up a bit.
"I dare you to go down to the Great Hall and get my Charms textbook," Kara declared. "I accidentally forgot it there at dinner."
"You've just been waiting for someone to pick dare all night, haven't you?" Brianna asked.
"Maybe," Kara admitted.
"This isn't a dare, it's a chore!" Victoire cried. "And it's after hours; I can't leave the tower."
"That's what makes it a good dare," Kara smiled. "Don't get caught!"
Glaring unhappily at her friends, Victoire stood up and reluctantly made her way over to the portrait hole, pushing it open and stepping out before a prefect or someone noticed what she was doing.
"Hey! You shouldn't be out at this hour!" The Fat Lady accused her. "Get back inside!"
"I'll be right back," Victoire assured her. "I just have to grab a book for a friend."
Victoire hurried down the Grand Staircase, making sure to miss all the trick stairs. She wouldn't have anyone to help pull her out if she got stuck after all. A couple times, she had to hurry to hide in one of the corridors when she heard prefects doing their patrols, but she managed to make it to the Great Hall without getting caught.
Just like she'd said, Kara's Charms textbook was sitting innocently on the bench of the Gryffindor Table where they'd eaten dinner. Victoire hurried forward, grabbing it, and then turning around to go back up to the common room.
"Did you know curfew was forty-five minutes ago?" a man she'd never seen before asked, standing in the doorway of the Hall. "It looks like someone's been breaking the rules."
"Who are you?" Victoire asked nervously. "How did you get in here?"
"It doesn't matter who I am," the strange man said. "If you were up in your dorms, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."
"My friends know where I am," Victoire warned nervously. "One scream from me and they'll all come running."
"Your friends are back in Gryffindor Tower," the man informed her. "Nobody's coming to save you."
"I don't know what you want from me," Victoire said, her voice shaking now. "But whatever it is, someone'll stop you. There's Professors and prefects patrolling the halls as we speak. I bet someone's scheduled to check on the Great Hall pretty soon too."
"That would be me," the man said.
"Huh?" Victoire asked, confused. She'd thought the man was here to kidnap her or something.
"My name is Mr. Clarke," the man said. "I'm testing out the night patrol job to see if I'd be a good fit."
"Oh," Victoire said, realization and relief flooding through her. "Phew, I thought you were an intruder or something."
"Don't be so relieved," he said. "I'm taking you up to the Headmistress' office."
"What?" Victoire cried in indignation. "What did I do?"
"You're wandering the halls at night, remember?" Mr. Clarke said.
"Oh yeah," Victoire remembered. "But actually Sir, I have a really good explanation for that, so if I could just – "
"I don't want to hear it," Mr. Clarke said. "Go on, march."
Grumbling about getting caught, Victoire climbed back up to the sixth floor with Mr. Clarke and went all the way up to Headmistress' McGonagall's office. It was the second time she was there in less than a week, but unfortunately this time, she was in trouble.
"Ah, Miss Weasley," the Headmistress said when she entered. "You've met Mr. Clarke I see."
"Yeah," Victoire mumbled.
"This one was wandering around the Great Hall after hours," Mr. Clarke said. "She claims to have a good excuse."
The Headmistress looked at Victoire expectantly.
"It was a dare," Victoire admitted.
The Headmistress shook her head. "Victoire I'm very disappointed in you. I'm going to take ten points for being out past curfew, and another ten points for doing a dare when you knew it was against the rules."
Victoire hung her head. "Sorry Headmistress," she said.
"As for you Mr. Clarke," she continued. "If you do choose to stay on, there's no need to march students to my office every time you find them misbehaving. You have the authority to dock points yourself, and it you deem them troublesome enough to warrant a detention, you can simply take them to see their Heads of House."
"Of course, Headmistress," Mr. Clarke said.
"Alright, now make sure Victoire gets back to Gryffindor Tower without any more detours, and then you can continue your patrols," she said. "We'll talk in the morning."
When Victoire got back to the common room, she dropped the book in Kara's lap and threw herself into her armchair in frustration.
"I hope you're happy," she muttered. "That textbook cost Gryffindor twenty points."
"You got caught?" Brianna exclaimed.
"Yeah, by some guy named Mr. Clarke," Victoire confirmed. "He's trying out the night patrol job to see if he likes it."
"How did he seem?" Kara asked.
"We definitely don't want him to stay," Victoire assured her. "For one thing he already hates me, and for another, he's even stricter than Mr. Filch. He wouldn't even let me explain about the dare before he had me up in the Headmistress' office."
"He took you to the Headmistress' office?" Brianna gasped. "What happened."
"She docked twenty points," Victoire shrugged. "But I already told you that."
The next morning at breakfast, the first thing Victoire noticed when she walked into the Great Hall was Mr. Clarke sitting right next to the Headmistress at the staff table.
"That's him," Victoire pointed.
"Do you think this means he's decided to take the job?" Brianna wondered. "Since he's up at the staff table and all?"
"I don't know," Victoire shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."
It was only minutes later that Professor McGonagall stood to address the student body again. "I have an announcement to make before you all leave to go to your classes," she said. "I would like to introduce you all to Mr. Clarke, your new night patrolman. He was an Auror for ten years, but took an early retirement due to an injury to his leg. We're extremely lucky to have him join our team, and I hope you'll all be on your best behaviour and not give him too much trouble."
There was a smattering of applause through the Hall, but mostly, people were just seizing up the new guy.
"Ex-Auror, huh?" Kara commented as they made their way to Transfiguration. "That doesn't sound too good for us."
"It's not," Victoire agreed.
"Ah, Miss Weasley," Mr. Clarke started the girls as they moved into the Entrance Hall. "So nice to see you in the daylight."
"How did you – weren't you just up there with – What?" Victoire spluttered, confused as to how Mr. Clarke had gotten down there so fast.
"Auror training," Mr. Clarke explained. "I used to work with your Uncle."
"Great," Victoire said, hoping he wasn't still in contact with Uncle Harry. She didn't need word of her nighttime wanderings spreading through her family.
"Well I suppose I'll be seeing you around," Mr. Clarke said. "Or rather, I hope I won't be seeing you around."
"Right," Victoire said. "Well I've got to get going," she said, sidestepping away. "Congratulations on the new job."
As she and her friends hurried off to Transfiguration, Victoire could only hope she never had to deal with Mr. Clarke again.
"You were right," Brianna agreed. "He's super creepy."
"Do you think he's doing it on purpose?" Kara asked.
"What do you mean?" Brianna asked.
"You know, trying to freak us out to keep us in line? Make us think he's this crazy scary guy when he's really just a younger version of Filch?"
"I don't know," Brianna shrugged.
"What I do know," Victoire said as they took their seats. "Is that I don't even want to be out after curfew again."