Chapter Seven

The Joys of Teaching

The first day of class went off without a hitch. In fact, it was so smooth that Jennifer was wondering when the other shoe was going to drop. She had back-to-back second years for her first two classes, so after a brief introduction, Jennifer decided to open Dark Creature Defense by borrowing Snape's familiar, Rasputin. The basilisk looked rather bored at being showcased, eyeing the students from a distorted glass eye as if wondering if any of them would make a good lunch. His good eye was annoyingly covered with an eye patch, and he rubbed up against Jennifer, hoping she would take it off.

"This is another good reason why you want to stay out of Snape's office without his permission, by the way," she told the class as she fixed the band around its head. Rasputin was far from happy and finally broke free from her grip, slipping to the floor as the students jumped onto their seats. "As you know, this particular species of basilisk can be caused by a reptile that has been hatched by a chicken, but share a common snake based hissing language, as does the common basilisk. This is obviously a lizard variety of basilisk, known as the monitor basilisk." Unconcerned over the student's reactions, he made himself comfortable under Jennifer's desk. "The first rule to defeating any dark creature," Jennifer said calmly, leaning on her desk, "is controlling your fear of them. To have access to all of your defenses, you need a clear mind, first and foremost. Now, I know we've worked with fear spells last year, but now it's time to move on to the real deal. I'm sure all of you are as enthusiastic and excited about that idea as I am," Jennifer said, grinning mischievously. The class – who looked at Jennifer then the basilisk and back - was not quite sure about the enthusiasm part, but they did have to admit that it was probably going to be exciting.

Her first class with Corey was just after lunch, and Corey was more than pleased about finally getting to sit in on one of Jennifer's classes, whispering to some of the other students that he had already met her. In fact, he was whispering with Taylor so much that Jennifer soon had to move him away from the Ravenclaw side of the room, putting him up towards the front to keep an eye on them. After that he kept fairly quiet, listening intently as she covered the different senses they had to use to detect evil, and frowned glumly when she handed out the assignment asking them to write a paragraph on each. Several of the students, including Corey, didn't look very enthusiastic about having homework already, reluctantly looking over the list in front of them.

The next morning in the staff room, Rolanda gestured for Jennifer to come sit with her, offering her a cup of coffee.

"I heard from Minerva you were going to help with Quidditch tryouts this year?" she inquired with a smile.

"If Minerva says I am, I am," Jennifer said with resignation and a smile. "Tomorrow morning, right?"

"Right. The captains do most of the real work, we just mainly make sure everyone behaves and nobody gets hurt. Oh, that reminds me. You won't believe what one of the first years said to me today. Mr. Willowby asked me what the point was to having Chasers. In fact, he didn't see any point to the Quaffle either; he said why bother doing anything when whoever gets the Snitch wins the game anyhow? He thinks the rules should be rewritten so that the goals are more points to make it more exciting." Jennifer couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well, it would make it more exciting," Jennifer admitted.

"That boy would change every rule in the book if he had a notion," Minerva said from where she stood near the door. "I ended up spending half of his class explaining goblin money to them because he wanted to know what was the point of learning Transfiguration if it couldn't make everyone rich."

"Well, he seemed to be doing all right in my class," Filius added from the end of the table, "Until I noticed he wasn't using his wand at all."

"I'm sorry, Filius. I should have warned you that he was a Focus Caster so you could have watched for that," Jennifer grinned.

"Quite all right. I think I got my point across in the end. He does seem to have his own mind on how to do things though, doesn't he?" Filius said.

Jennifer found out how right he was later that afternoon when she asked for assignments turned in. She glanced through them, reading a few answers here and there, and then frowned.

"Corey? You didn't turn in a paper?"

"Well, I hadn't quite finished it yet, so I was hoping you'd let me turn it in late," Corey said hesitantly. Jennifer blinked with surprise, and held her hand out until he showed her the paper. The answers were incomplete at best, and some weren't answered at all.

"Corey, I wasn't expecting perfect answers. All I was looking for was some idea of what you personally thought of as evil. I take it from this you have no opinion on these?" Jennifer asked sternly.

"Well, sometimes you can't sense evil at all until it's too late, so not answering is it's own answer, isn't it?" Corey suggested.

"Corey, we're studying the ways we can sense them, not the ways we can't."

"Professor Craw? How come we have to study them at all?" Corey asked. Jennifer blinked at him, but it was an honest question.

"Because if you can sense evil, you can do something about it. And unfortunately, being a wizard there are a lot of dark creatures and entities out there that will do you harm just for being what you are. So, we teach you to protect yourselves from that."

"But that's what I don't get. Wouldn't it be a lot easier for an evil creature to go after non-magic people… Muggles, I mean, since they don't know any magic and can't protect themselves at all? It seems like they'd be much easier targets." Corey said.

"Well, sometimes they do attack Muggles, unfortunately, but from a Muggle perspective, you probably have never heard of it because it was covered up by us to protect them from knowing such things exist."

"But, Professor, that's where I'm getting confused," Corey said. "Yesterday, you told us that the key to defeating the dark arts is knowledge. If that's so, how come the Muggles aren't ever told about them? It can't be to protect them; they're getting caught unawares. It'd have to be to protect us somehow," he said, looking thoughtful.

The entire class was looking at Corey at that point, including Jennifer, who had no idea how to answer that. She'd never really looked at it that way before. She noticed an empty silence setting in as he looked at her expectantly, and Jennifer quickly untied her tongue.

"Well, it's an interesting line of questioning, Corey Willowby, but this class is on teaching you how to defend yourself, not on magic philosophy. So, you are losing five points from Gryffindor for not finishing your assignment, and five more every day you don't turn it in after today. I expect you should try to make some effort at getting it done," she said, handing him back his paper. Corey looked at her in surprise, taking the paper back as she headed up to the front of the class to teach about sensing dark magic by smell. Was this the same person he'd met over the summer, he wondered skeptically?

After the last class period as Jennifer was stacking her books, there was a knock at the door and she looked over to see Hermione standing there, smiling.

"Hi, Hermione, what's up?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could talk to Madam Pince for me? See, I was going to get out a couple of books on item hexing from the restricted section to study on before class, but Madam Pince says she doesn't see any reason to give them out to me yet since I haven't even had the class yet…" Jennifer chuckled.

"All right, all right, Hermione. Don't you ever stop reading? Even my Ravenclaw students don't seem as enthusiastic about reading ahead as you do. Hang on a moment, and I'll walk you down there."

"Oh, it's no trouble, Professor, I can just…"

"It's all right, I wanted to chat with Madam Pince a moment anyhow," Jennifer assured her, wondering why Hermione didn't want her to go with her. Jennifer threw her books in her office so they could head out. "So how's Ron doing? All recovered, now?"

"Yes, he's doing much better," Hermione nodded, looking straight forward. "They are really sorry about what happened."

"Yes, I'm sure they are, and they're going be even sorrier when they find out who their detentions will be with this weekend," Jennifer decided as they turned down the back corridor.

"Who is it? I won't tell," Hermione coaxed, but Jennifer knew better than that.

"You will tell, but then, they'll know soon enough anyhow. Snape has Harry, and I think Trelawney has Ron." Hermione made a face.

"Well, I know I shouldn't feel sorry for them, so I won't," Hermione said. "But I am glad it isn't me," she added. Jennifer grinned at her as they slipped into the library, walking up to the desk.

"I've given permission to Hermione to study ahead if she likes, and we're covering advanced items in a few weeks." Jennifer told Irma, who frowned at Hermione.

"Oh, very well, then," Irma said, putting her duster down as Hermione hurried towards the back to get her books. Anna, who was sitting at a table reading out of a large tome, waved at Hermione as she passed and they spoke a moment before Hermione returned with her books. "Oh, Jennifer, I thought you would be interested to know that my sister was really appreciative of the way you fixed up the Haven's Bluff cottage."

"Oh really? I'm glad she liked it," Jennifer said, suddenly interested. "In fact, I'm hoping that she'll let me rent it next year too?"

"Ah, well, actually, now that it's all cleaned up and all she's put it up on the market, since she really never uses it. The property value went up now that there's a wizard student next door, you know."

"She's selling it?" Jennifer said, her face fallen.

"Yes, for twenty five hundred I think it is, of course it's the land too, even though it's not big of a house. You know, if you're interested, she'd probably give you first go at it," Irma added. Jennifer also noted that there'd be a share in it for Irma as well. Hermione set her books on the table as Jennifer thought things over. Jennifer hadn't ever had that much money at one time in her life. She could always get into the vault, she thought, but was it really worth it? As much as she loved the little house, she knew Severus didn't care for it. And it wasn't as if she wasn't going to see Corey now that he was going to school.

"No, no thanks, that's all right," Jennifer sighed. "But thank your sister all the same… Hermione? What's this?" Jennifer suddenly glanced at the books Hermione had on the table, pulling out a book entitled; Solutions from Solutions, Dark Potions Revealed.

"Oh!" Hermione said, acting surprised. "Must have been put back in the wrong section. I'll take it back," she insisted apologetically, but Jennifer snagged it away. It was not surprising to her to find Cat's Breath listed in the spell list; she'd seen the book before.

"Actually, I think I am going to check it out," Jennifer said, smiling at Irma. Irma was eyeing Hermione suspiciously, scouring over the other books to make sure everything was in order. Thanking them, Hermione headed towards the Great Hall for dinner but Jennifer was quick to catch up.

"Just a moment, Hermione," Jennifer said, causing the girl to pause. "Look, I know what you're after, but trust me when I say that there's already someone looking into where the potions came from." Hermione looked over at Jennifer thoughtfully.

"You don't think Pettigrew was capable of making them either, do you?" Hermione asked.

"No, but regardless, I'm sure we can handle finding out about it, okay? This is your last year, Hermione, and if you still want to finish the top of your class, you'd better be more concerned about your schoolwork. You don't want anyone passing you up, do you?"

"Professor Craw, sometimes there are more important things than finishing first," Hermione said and walked away. Jennifer looked after her in complete shock. There was little doubt now that Hermione was not going to let this go.

Glancing at her watch, Jennifer went down to the dungeons, knocking twice before entering Severus' office. She hesitated when she opened the door and saw that Remus was there as well, but Severus noticed her and gestured for her to come on in.

"Something smells unusually vile," Jennifer couldn't help but to comment, peering at the cauldron on the fire before grinning sympathetically at Remus.

"Try having to drink it," Remus grunted, then smiled weakly at her.

"Anything in particular you needed to see me about?" Severus asked, suddenly irritated as he watched the awkward exchange of greetings between them.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry," Jennifer said, putting the tome down in front of him. "I caught Hermione trying to sneak this out of the library. I thought it might interest you."

"So, Sherlock and the three Watsons are at it again, are they," Severus scowled. "That's just what we need right now."

"Pretty much what I was thinking. Trying to discourage them just makes it worse, too," Jennifer sighed. "Can't you talk to Harry? You have him all day Sunday. Maybe…"

"Oh, he is definitely not going to listen to me, especially once he finds out what I have in store for him for his detention. Not that he ever listens to me, anyway. You have Harry duty tomorrow, why don't you talk to him?"

"He doesn't listen to me either, not on stuff like this," Jennifer muttered.

"Why don't you just let them?" Remus suggested, earning glares in both directions. "They're going to keep it up no matter what you do, and so long as you keep an eye on them, perhaps they can uncover something we've missed? They've done it in the past."

"Yes, and nearly gotten people killed because of it," Severus snapped, "as I'm sure you well know."

"They've saved a few too," Remus pointed out.

"Remus, after what they pulled the other day, I'm not too inclined to trust their judgment at the moment," Jennifer said. "Besides, they're still Hogwarts students and our responsibility. The last thing we need is to have to stop everything and go after them because they decided it was all right for them to break the rules again."

"I couldn't have put it better myself," Severus agreed. Remus looked between them.

"Have it your way," Remus shrugged at last, shaking his head at them, "but don't be surprised when despite all your best efforts Harry Potter and his friends come charging in the nick of time to save you."

"Or bury us," Severus grunted, handing Remus his potion.