Chapter 13
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, 2nd September 2011
"I got a message that we have to be at Albus's office," Sam told his brother.
Dean frowned. "Classes haven't started yet, are we already in trouble? Why does the big man want to see us?" he asked as they walked down the halls.
"I don't know, Jess just flew into the window this morning with a note saying to come to Albus's office and the words 'Sherbet Lemon' were written underneath it."
"Sherbet Lemon? What does that mean?"
"I don't know Dean. Maybe we need it for some reason."
"Whatever man, I just know that if we are in trouble for something, I'm blaming it on you."
They walked down the halls using the instructions that were on the slip of paper from Jess. They finally reached a golden statue of an eagle with its wings forming a halo. There was a path to the right and the left of the statue. Sam looked down at the paper and then looked down both paths and looked at the paper again.
"Come on Sherlock, where do we go next?" Dean asked in an irritated tone.
"I don't know man, it doesn't say." Sam scrutinized the paper again.
"Come on." Dean looked at his brother sceptically. "Let me see it."
Sam handed it to Dean with an aggravated sigh. "If you can figure it out, then be my guest."
Dean mumbled to himself as he read the note. "… When you come to the bronze eagle, walk up the staircase." He looked around. "Where is the staircase?"
"That's what I would like to know."
"Man, I'm really starting to hate these wizards. Everything has to be in code or riddles."
"A code?" Sam repeated his brother's words. Just out of curiosity he approached the statue, stepped inside and said, "Sherbet Lemon."
The floors started to shake and then the bronze eagle started to turn, and stairs began to form beneath Sam's feet. At the top of the staircase was a large wooden door with several carvings in it.
"I wonder if this door needs a password too," Dean asked sarcastically. "Open Sesame!" He waved his hands dramatically.
The door didn't budge. Sam sighed as he went to try the knob and the door swung inward.
"What?" Dean followed him inside. "If you can use Sherbet Lemon to make a magical staircase appear then it is perfectly within my rights to use Open Sesame on a door!"
They looked around the room. No one seemed to be in there, so they started to snoop.
"It looks like some pretty expensive things in here," Sam commented. "Why would they leave the door to a room like this unlocked?" He saw a vat of swirling liquid that was glowing and walked over to it.
"Isn't it obvious Sammy?" Dean smirked eyeing a bowl of black liquorice sitting on one of the tables. "They don't need locks and keys when they have awesome riddles and passwords like 'Sherbet Lemon'." Just as he went to grab some liquorice, they sprang to life and started biting his hand.
"Fuck, ow! What the hell man?" Dean pulled back his hand, and it was covered with tiny bite marks.
"Oh, I forgot to warn you about those Liquorice Snaps." A voice called to them. "They have a bite to them."
Sam and Dean turned to see Albus sitting at his desk.
"Yeah, no kidding…." Dean frowned.
"We're sorry Professor." Sam walked up the stairs. "The door was open and…."
Albus put up a hand to stop him. "It's quite alright Sam. A healthy dose of curiosity never hurt anyone."
"Obviously, you've never heard the phrase 'curiosity kills the cat'." Dean laughed.
"Dean." Sam chided him quietly. "He's our boss."
"Oh, Dean was only having some fun." Albus rose from his chair and walked over to the boys. "I don't mind in the slightest."
"You have a very interesting office if you don't mind me saying so." Sam went back to admiring the vat of glowing liquid.
"Thank you very much, though it's not all mine, several of these pieces were put in by the headmasters before me. But that there," Albus said pointing to the object of Sam's stare. "Is one of my most prized possessions."
"What is it?" Dean became interested in the vat himself. He resisted the urge to poke the liquid with his fingers to see if it felt as cool as it looked.
"It's called a Pensieve. I sometimes find that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind. I'm sure you know the feeling."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Dean sighed. "So, what does it do?"
"It's a magical instrument used to view memories. You just have to remember a certain memory and then…" He pulled out his wand and put it to his temple. Sam and Dean watched wide-eyed as his wand tip illuminated and, almost as if a glowing string was attached to it, it detached from his temple and hung loosely from the wand.
"That's so gross." Dean grimaced.
"This is what a memory looks like." Albus held up the glowing wispy string for them both to see. "Then you simply drop the memory into the Pensieve."
He tapped the wand over the top of the Pensive and the string detached itself from the wand and dropped into the swirling liquid.
"Then you just lean over the pensive, and you can view the memory." Sam leaned over the Pensieve intrigued by it, forcing Dean to join him, who didn't want to get near brain juices. They couldn't see anything, so they looked back at Albus, but he wasn't there.
"Where'd he go?" Dean looked around alarmed. Other than Albus disappearing, the room looked undisturbed.
"I don't know." Sam looked towards the door, and he was shocked to see himself stepping through the door.
"What?" Dean followed him inside. "If you can use Sherbet Lemon to make a magical staircase appear then it is perfectly within my rights to use Open Sesame on a door!"
"Sam? What am I looking at?" Dean's voice raised in pitch as he watched himself walking across the room. "This is trippy man…."
"Maybe this is what Albus saw when we came in."
"Isn't it obvious Sammy? They don't need locks and keys when they have awesome riddles and passwords like 'Sherbet Lemon'."
"Oh, no! Man don't do it!" Dean tried to stop himself from getting bitten, but he just phased through himself.
"What the-" Dean looked down, and he was stuck in the middle of the table. "It's like we're ghosts or something."
"Ow! What the hell man?"
Then their vision went blurry, and they came back to the present, Albus smiled at them.
"That's amazing!" Sam said with a smile spreading across his face. "That would be amazing to use in our class. It's hard to explain things we have seen without showing the students what they look like."
"I think it's kind of creepy myself," Dean commented. "But it would be useful."
"You wouldn't happen to have a spare lying around somewhere?" Sam asked.
"Unfortunately, I do not, but I could let you borrow this one. I will send it to the Demonology classroom in a moment. I will need it back in the evenings though," Albus patted Sam on the shoulder.
"Thank you," Sam smiled.
"So, Headmaster, what did you want to talk to us about?" Dean asked.
"What are you talking about Dean?"
"The note?" Dean pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to Albus. "Our owl brought this note to us. Didn't you see it?"
"Hmm." Albus pondered over the small piece of paper. "I'm sorry, but this seems to be a mistake. I didn't send this letter to you; I think someone is playing a practical joke on you." He chuckled as he handed the paper back to them.
"Of course, sir, we have to go," Sam bowed his head as he walked to the door.
"Catch ya later Merlin!" Dean winked and clicked his tongue. They walked out.
"Good luck on your first day!" They heard Albus call after them.
"Well, that was just weird." Dean stuck his hands in his jacket pockets.
"Tell me about it," Sam replied. "And stop clowning around…. We're teachers now, we have to act like it."
Around two hours passed. Sam and Dean ate breakfast in the Great Hall without much drama. The schedules were handed out by each Head of House as they got up to leave.
"So, we're teaching about Wendigos?" Dean asked. Sam nodded.
"Yeah, we have the sixth-years first," Sam said, looking at a piece of parchment. "I think we should show them the memory of our last hunt with one," Sam said. Dean whistled.
"Our last hunt with one was when we were looking for Dad," the elder Winchester answered.
"I know. I think it's better if they see for themselves," Sam pointed out. They walked up the moving staircases. "The classroom is on the second floor, along with Muggle Studies." Dean snorted in amusement. They went inside and waited. Soon, the students began to file in and sit down.
Some were wearing red and black robes, some green, and black. The chatter stopped immediately as they walked to the top of the class. Sam and Dean noticed that the Pensieve lay at the front of the large room.
"Shut it," Dean said easily, causing the few that were muttering to quieten, he smirked.
"As you all know, this is Demonology. Here, you'll study things that would make your skin crawl. You'll train to fight these creatures, how to kill them, and most importantly, how to stay alive," Sam began. He noticed that all eyes were locked on him.
"This class is no joke. This is serious, life or death is the price you'll pay. If you screw up, someone could die. You have to keep focused. Believe you me, you'll see Voldemort-" the class flinched. "-as a cakewalk compared to what you're all going to learn in this class."
"Take it, easy Dean," Sam cautioned. "Rein it in a bit."
"They gotta know," Dean shrugged, he cleared his throat before addressing the class again.
"Kay, today, we're going to be studying Wendigos. Anyone know what that is?" A hand shot up, and he recognized Hermione Granger from the Order meeting.
"Name?" Sam asked, out of formality.
"Hermione Granger sir," she answered.
"Okay, what's a Wendigo then?" Sam asked.
"A Wendigo is a creature that was once human but was transformed into an immortal evil spirit when it took up the practice of cannibalism.," she answered.
"Exactly." Sam nodded.
The students started murmuring to themselves. "Cannibalism…?" one of them questioned quietly.
"Wendigos used to be humans who turned to cannibalism and eventually turned into a supernatural creature because of it." Dean continued. Many students looked slightly revolted.
"Take out your books everyone and go to page 173," he said, and everyone got their books opened as the ruffling of material and swishing of paper sounded through the room.
Sam opened Supernatural Beasts and Defence. He rifled through it and found the chapter on Wendigos.
"Wendigos are believed to live in the northern woods of Minnesota and in the north-central regions of Canada. Kenora, Ontario, Canada, has been given the title of Wendigo Capital of the World by many. Sightings of the creature in this area have continued well into the new millennium.
Wendigos are generally rumoured to be gigantic spirits, over fifteen feet tall, lanky and with glowing eyes, long yellowed fangs, terrible claws and overly long tongues. Sometimes they are said to have a sallow, yellowish skin; other times they are described as being matted with hair. The Wendigo's full powers have never been recorded. The creature excels at stealth and is a near-perfect hunter, knowing and using every inch of its territory — caves, hills, trees, and bushes. Some stories say that Wendigos can control the weather through the use of dark magic," he read.
"Wendigos are powerful sons of b-" Dean began, but Sam gave him a sharp look.
"As my brother so politely put it, Wendigos are powerful. They have supernatural strength, speed, and are immortal. They have claws, and can imitate human voices to lure people in," Sam explained. He continued on, writing down notes on the chalkboard. The student's followed, scribbling on parchment dutifully.
The students were sitting uncomfortably, reading along with the brothers, the only other sounds to be heard were the frantic scribbling of the students trying to transcribe every word that Dean and Sam were saying.
"Now we think that the best way for you to learn about them is to experience an attack first-hand." Dean continued.
The pale blond kid from the train raised his hand.
"Yes?" Sam asked.
"If these things come from your country, then how are we supposed to see one in person? And isn't it dangerous to 'experience an attack first-hand.'?" he sneered. Dean was about to tell the kid off, but Sam restrained him. "Little spoiled rich…." Dean muttered under his breath.
"Um…." Sam pretended to look for Malfoy's name, again out of formality. "Mr Malfoy, to answer your question, the headmaster has allowed us to borrow a Pensieve. Also, monsters live all over the world. Not just America, they're just seen more often in our country."
The students started whispering amongst themselves one look from Dean silenced them all.
"A Pensieve allows us to show you memories from our pasts, showing you all the things that we will be discussing without anyone getting harmed by the thing itself."
"Sam, I think your memory of the Wendigo is better than mine, I came in at the tail end, so why don't we use your memory of it?"
"Alright, that's OK with me." Sam addressed the students. "This will take some time to set up, so read the rest of the chapter about Wendigo's while we get things started."
They started reading and Sam pulled out his wand.
"Well, here goes nothing." Sam put the wand up to his temple, concentrated on the memory of the Wendigo, and started pulling the wand away from his temple.
"That's still gross," Dean commented as Sam stared in amazement.
"Shut up, you just wanted me to go first because you are afraid of it."
"Yea, well, it's…" Dean couldn't come up with a good reason, so he just let it drop. "Oh, forget it, just get that oversized glow-worm into the pot and get to cookin' already."
With a few more minutes all the students had finished the chapter and were looking at Sam and Dean expectantly.
"OK, I'm going to give you guys a set-up for the memory that we are about to show you." Sam addressed them. "A man went missing, and we went to investigate."
"That's the first rule of hunting, get intel and check the facts," Dean interrupted.
Sam just looked at Dean without continuing.
"What?" Then it dawned on Dean, "Oh I'm sorry, was I interrupting your boring narrative?"
A few of the students giggled quietly. Sam frowned and continued. "The second thing about hunting is letting your source of information do the asking first. For instance, in this particular case, we pretended to be hikers planning a trip into Blackwater Ridge."
"Ties into the third rule: Lie," Dean smirked. "It comes with the territory of the job to tell white lies now and then. But we were caught in our lie, sometimes that happens, but sometimes it's a good thing because it leads us to who we need to talk to."
"We asked about the man that went missing. He told us that he would be due home in a few days, so it wasn't technically a missing person's report yet." Dean said.
"So, we talked to the girl, to get more information. We told her that we were with Park Services and that we wanted to ask her some questions."
Dean took over again. "Another occupational hazard is the fact that you have to make a lot of fake I.D.s"
"We tried to explain it in human terms like he just simply forgot to check in, but she shot them all down."
"Part four is collecting information and looking for patterns. We found out two other hikers had gone missing. In some cases, you have to go back further in the history of the place to find a pattern. We found out that this particular culprit attacks every twenty-three years, like clockwork."
"We came across the lone survivor of one of these attacks. When we approached him about it, he was wary, but we got him to trust us. He said that it moved too fast to identify it. It came at night, unlocked the door to his cabin and killed his parents, dragging them off into the night."
"He also showed us the parting gift that the creature gave him." Dean's face turned grim. "He had three long scars running from his neck down into his chest."
The student's faces contorted with uneasiness.
"We thought at first that it could have been a Skinwalker or a black dog, both of which we will be discussing later."
"So now we move to step five: hunting." Sam began again. "We gathered our guns, fresh with everything from silver and iron bullets, down to rock salt shells. We met up with the girl, her other brother, and a guide that she hired."
"Yea, and what a brilliant idea that turned out to be," Dean muttered.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Eventually we found the missing man's campsite. It was torn apart, and blood was everywhere. The guide automatically classified it as a grizzly attack. I spotted a clue that the others didn't see; that the bodies were dragged away from the campsite, ruling out Skinwalkers and black dogs."
Dean picked up the story. "Then a voice called out, luring us away from the camp-site where all the other's gear was stashed. We couldn't find anything and went back to find that the gear was missing. It wanted us to be cut off so that we couldn't call for help."
"I looked at our Dad's journal again," Sam continued. "I found what I was looking for." He pulled out the book in question and flipped to the dog-eared page. "'Wendigos are known to have large claws, big enough to leave the scars on our only eyewitness, and it can mimic a human voice,' like it did to lure us away from camp, and they are perfect hunters good by day, unbelievable by night."
"So, we move to step six: protection. There are several ways to protect yourself other than using a gun." Dean remarked. "Things such as signs and symbols ward off certain supernatural beings; in this case, it was Anasazi symbols. Wendigos can't cross over them."
"So now that you have the backstory we are going to proceed into the memory. Everyone, get into a single file line and follow me into the Pensieve, Dean is going to be the last one in, so we can make sure that everyone makes it in OK."
The students approached the front of the classroom and formed a single file line. Sam leaned over into the Pensieve and disappeared, and the other students followed accordingly. Malfoy and his cronies were the last to go in, followed closely behind by Dean.
The next thing Dean knew he was back in Blackwater, except this time there were two Dean's, two Sam's and a whole group of sixth-year students. What could possibly go wrong? He thought to himself.
"Now please remember that this is a memory, we are more like ghosts in this place, no one can see you or hear you. So, don't be afraid, nothing is going to hurt you." Sam reassured them.
Sam and the young boy were searching for the trail that would take them to the Wendigo's lair. They found a trail of peanut M&M's that they thought Dean had left behind for them to follow. And they eventually found it: an abandoned mine.
Sam shined a torch ahead of them. From the depths of the mine, the Wendigo's growl could be heard. Sam pulled the boy against the wall and covered his mouth before he could scream. The Wendigo turned down a different tunnel, and they kept going down the tunnel that it had come from. There was a weak spot in the floorboards and the boys fell through the floor, landing in a pile of discarded bones. The young boy started to freak out and Sam tried to calm him down. Then they spotted Dean and the girl hanging by their wrists from the ceiling.
"Dean!" Sam rushed to his brother.
"Haley, wake up!" the boy went to untie his sister.
"Dean!" Sam started to shake him, and he slowly opened his eyes. "Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah," Dean replied.
"Haley, Haley wake up!" The boy tried again to get his sister to wake up.
Eventually, they get them down and put them on the ground.
"You sure you're alright?" Sam noticed that Dean was making painful noises and contorting his face in pain.
"Yeah. Where is he?" Dean asked.
"He's gone for now."
Haley noticed her older brother hanging and started crying. They desperately tried to wake him up and cut him down. He eventually woke up but was very weak. Dean spotted the stolen supplies and picked up some flare guns.
"Those'll work," Sam commented as Dean tossed him one.
They headed down the tunnel towards the exit, Dean and Sam in the lead with the flare guns and the girl with her brothers in the back. The Wendigo's growling sounded through the air.
"Looks like someone's home for supper," Dean remarked.
"We'll never outrun it." The girl said, looking to her older brother who was limping and leaning on his siblings for support.
Dean looked at the siblings, then at Sam. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Alright listen to me. Stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here." Dean told them.
"What are you going to do?" The girl asked him.
Dean winked at her, turned and started running and yelling. "Chow time, you freaky bastard!"
"Classy, as always, Dean," Sam remarked.
"Thank you," Dean smirked victoriously.
"All right come on! Hurry!" Sam led them down the tunnel. But soon they were confronted with the Wendigo's growling. Sam pointed the gun at it and said, "Get him out of here!"
"Sam, no." The girl insisted.
"Go! Go! Go!" He urged them.
They took off running towards the sunlight.
"Come on. Come on." He muttered as he waited for the Wendigo to appear. He heard the growl again and turned to see the Wendigo right in his face. He shot it and missed, then ran towards the exit. He caught up with the others at the end of the tunnel with the Wendigo right behind them. "Get behind me." He told the others.
The Wendigo approached them, taking its time. It didn't see Dean come up from behind.
"Hey!" Dean yelled to get its attention. As it turned, Dean fired his flare gun at the Wendigo's stomach, the flare went off and the Wendigo went up in flames. "Not bad, huh?" and he grinned.
The scene went blurry, and then they were back in the classroom, the students were gathered at the front of the classroom with an odd mixture of awe and shock on their faces.
"After that, we got the siblings back to the ranger's station, and they called the police. We told the kids to lie to the police, otherwise, they would have been sent to the patty-wagon for being loons," Dean told the group, attempting to use English slang.
"That pretty much sums it up." Sam sighed. "I know it's a lot to absorb in one sitting, but you get the idea that this stuff is serious."
"And Wendigos are one of the easier things we have faced," Dean remarked.
"Well, I think that's enough for today." Sam addressed the group. "For homework tonight, write down the six steps to finding a supernatural monster and how to spot a Wendigo from the patterns we described. Next class is on Thursday at 2 pm. Meet us on the Quidditch Pitch."
"We are going to be training tomorrow," Dean explained.
The whole class murmured in confusion and went back to their desks, except for Hermione, who smiled brightly and ran back to her desk as if she wanted to start this assignment straight away.
"She strikes me as your type, Sammy," Dean commented as she walked out with the rest of the class. "Nerdy and obnoxious."
Sam cleared his throat and rolled his eyes at Dean. "I think as far as first classes go that was pretty good." Dean sniffed and started putting away his stuff. "Wait till training day. Then it's open season."