AN - I'm back! It's been a while. Life is crazy. Anyway, I think my problem with this story is that I was letting chapters get too long, and therefore kind of overwhelming to write. So from now on, the chapters will probably be closer to 1,000-2,000 words instead of over 5,000. Hopefully that will make it easier for me to keep writing :)
Unfortunately, I don't own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson :(
"So may I introduce Professor Perseus and Professor Annabeth." Dumbledore's voice floated through the closed doors to the great hall.
"It's just Percy," I made sure my voice was loud enough to carry throughout the great hall, slightly annoyed. Why did he have to introduce me as Perseus? It made me sound stuffy.
The doors opened, and Annabeth and I were greeted with a thousand staring faces, all waiting to see what we would be like. Would we be scary? Would we be meek? Could they bully us into doing what they wanted when it came to homework? Would we take hundreds of house points without reason? I unmasked a bit of my power, and I felt Annabeth do the same beside me. The hall gave a collective shiver without even realising it, but I knew that everyone would recognize how powerful we were.
We approached the head table, where we were prepared to- WHAT THE FUCK?! Was that NEVILLE? And DRACO? What on earth were they doing here?
All thoughts of the speech I was about to give flew from my mind. "Hey everyone! We're really looking forward to teaching all of you, and ummm yeah." God I'm such a seaweed brain. I could feel Annabeth silently laughing beside me.
"The students who were chosen to help show us around the school because we were never students here can just meet us up at the head table after the feast," Annabeth said, "You already know who you are."
So she had noticed Neville and Draco too. That was a good cover for getting to talk to them. She's brilliant; I love her so much. And- ohhh this is what Hecate meant when she said we would see familiar faces. So that meant she knew they were here. They must have a purpose; was it to help fight against Voldy? But why would they be allowed to interfere when Annabeth and I weren't? And they seem to be pretty integrated into their houses; there's no way this was their first year.
Voices rose in hushed whispers as students tried to figure out who was chosen to help us. I saw Neville as pale as a sheet talking to the people around him. Ha, serves him right for not telling us where he was. Draco was holding himself together far better than Neville, but I could still tell he was shaken. If you didn't know him, you wouldn't be able to tell though. He wasn't talking to any of his housemates, even though they were trying to talk to him. That isn't the Draco I know: he never shuts up.
Food appeared in front of Annabeth and I, and the feast began. Not that we truly needed the food, but for appearances sake we ate some. It was alright, although I much prefer pizza. Poor Hogwarts students: they only ever get to eat British food (not that it's bad, but really, a year without pizza or hamburgers is a crime).
We introduced ourselves to all of the teachers, and they in turn met us. Professor McGonagall (or Minerva as she instructed we call her) immediately reminded me of Annabeth: super smart, someone to be taken seriously, and someone to fear the wrath of, but at the same time, someone who you could trust to have your back and who was truly kind and caring under a sharp exterior. She asked us questions about our curriculum which I let Annabeth answer because Gods knew she would do a better job at that than I. I wanted to make a good impression on these people because we would be working together all year.
Professor Flitwick (Fillius- Gods it's weird calling teachers by their first name) was an excitable little fellow who I knew I would get along with. I could already tell he had a mischievous streak going through him. He told me in great detail all about the Weasley twins: apparently they were the pranking enthusiasts of the school. I couldn't wait to meet them.
Annabeth and I took turns turning the food on our plates different colors (well she was turning them different colors; I always turned them back to blue). Soon enough, the meal disappeared, and platters of desserts appeared. I hadn't tried a lot of the dishes before, but they were certainly delicious.
Our plates were cleared, and Dumbledore stood up to make some announcements to the entire school: "Before you all have fallen asleep, I'll just remind you of a few quick rules. The Forbidden Forest is, as its name suggests, forbidden. Any students found there will face severe consequences. Mr. Filch would like to remind everyone that there is absolutely no magic to be used in the hallways, and that the list of banned items can be found in his office. I believe the number of banned items has reached 327. Quidditch tryouts for house teams will be scheduled by your team captains and head of house. I believe that's all I have for tonight, so good night. Off you all trot."
There was a swell of noise in the Hall as the students got up to head back to their dorms. I saw the prefects of each house calling the younger years to them. And huh, I guess Draco was a prefect. Interesting. His female partner was trying to get him to help the first years, but he was waving her off, distracted. I caught his eye and tried to nudge him to help her; just because he was meeting with Annabeth and I after this didn't mean his partner should have to do all the work by herself.
Neville hadn't gotten out of his seat. He was as frozen as a statue, almost as if he believed that if he didn't move, we would forget about him. Nice try, Neville. That only works with really, and I mean really, stupid monsters.
I'm kidding; that doesn't work with any monsters.
Finally, the Hall was almost entirely cleared out. We watched the last few stragglers trickle off to go to their respective common rooms, and then we were alone. Annabeth and I stood up and started walking towards the student's tables. Neville and Draco quickly stood up and hurried over to us, although it looked like they really didn't want to.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy, back from the dead," I tried to make myself sound as threateningly as possible, even though I didn't think I was particularly scary. It must have worked though because they turned paler than the ghosts who had been in the hall a few minutes ago.
Annabeth continued: "None of us knew what had happened to you. If we were lucky, we would see you for a day or two during the summer. We just had to go by Nico's sense to know that you were still alive and not mauled by monsters somewhere where we couldn't save you."
Oh shit she actually sounded angry. I was only joking. Note to self: never piss off Wise Girl.
"Do you know how worried you made your siblings? Katie sometimes wouldn't sleep for days, Neville. And Draco, Lacey wouldn't eat because she said her worry made her too nauseous."
Oh ok, Annabeth was joking too. Katie and Lacey were worried, but never to that extent.
Trembling, Draco began to speak: "Annabeth, I'm so sorry but-"
Annabeth cut him off: "I don't want to hear any excuses. What you two did was unforgivable. All I want to hear right now is the sound of you begging for forgiveness."
Draco and Neville looked at each other, unsure of what was happening. This was so out of character for Annabeth. I was having trouble keeping myself from bursting out laughing, and I could tell she was too.
Slowly Draco and Neville lowered themselves to the floor, and that was when I lost it. I laughed until my sides hurt, and Annabeth joined in too. Draco and Neville just looked confused.
"Oh gods, you should have seen the look on your faces. That was priceless. No sillies, we're not mad. We just missed you guys." I said once I had gathered myself. They visibly relaxed. Annabeth and I ran to them and gave each of them a hug. It really had been too long since we had seen them.
"So what are you doing here?" Annabeth asked.
Draco and Neville both opened their mouths to speak.
"One at a time please," she clarified.
Draco spoke: "As you probably already know, this is Hecate's little world, and she cares about it a ton. There's this evil dude named Voldemort, or Tom Riddle, who wants to destroy it. Well, he doesn't want to destroy it, but if he succeeds at his goals the world will be destroyed. We were sent here to stop that from happening without interfering too much."
Neville continued: "Yeah, since there was a prophecy, we couldn't be the ones to actually defeat Tom, so we were sent to watch over those who could, namely Harry Potter. I am supposed to be just one of his housemates who he likes and is friends with, but not best friends with."
"And I'm the antagonist in his rival house. It's honestly really fun. I was hoping that having a "rival" would encourage him to think and learn more, but really it only results in shouting matches. Oh well, it's still fun."
"You guys will have to fill us in on all that has happened over the years here so that we can be caught up," Annabeth said.
"Oh gods, do you have all night?" Draco quipped. "There's been a lot."
"How about just a condensed version then? You each get a minute to explain each year that you've been here."
Draco and Neville looked at each other. "Yeah okay, we can try," conceded Neville.
"I'll go first," said Draco. "Ok so if you go back to our first year it all starts on the Hogwarts Express when I barged into the compartment Potter was sharing with Ron Weasley and insulted Weasley implying that I was obviously far superior to him. I offered my hand to Harry, but he turned it down in favour of Weasley. Can't imagine why; I'm clearly better looking."
"And I 'lost' my toad on the train and asked for Hermione Granger's help finding it along with Harry's and Ron's."
"Hey, are you telling this story or am I? Anyway, we got to Hogwarts, and Potter, Weasley, Granger, and Neville were sorted into Gryffindor and I into Slytherin. The school year started, and the two boys seemed rather hopeless, but then Halloween happened. Someone let a troll into the castle, and we were supposed to go to our common rooms, but apparently Granger was in the bathroom when this was announced, and Potter and Weasley went looking for her, even though they didn't much care for her. The troll found them, they stopped the troll, and they've been inseparable ever since. How much time do I have left? Oh and I got Potter onto Gryffindor the quidditch team as a seeker, so he really ought to be a bit more grateful to me."
"Well maybe he doesn't like you because at his first quidditch match someone tried to kill him. Actually, he's almost died a couple times cause of quidditch now that I think about it. Someone should really do something about that."
"Hey, I still have a couple seconds left. But Neville's right. Someone did curse Harry's broom at his first quidditch match. He still won the game though, so who cares? Fast forward a few months, and Harry and co. were trying to smuggle a dragon out of the castle for that large man, Hagrid. Why Hagrid had a dragon is beyond me. And why he decided to trust three eleven year olds with it is also beyond me. Does no one here care about the safety of the children?"
"Draco, we go to a summer camp where they had literal children fight against ancient all-powerful beings. We should be looking up to Hogwarts for keeping most of the students uninvolved," Annabeth interjected.
"Fair point. But anyway, I decided to go after them to watch because it was hilarious, and Neville came along to stop me from doing anything too stupid. We were all caught, well except for Ron cause he had to go to the hospital wing earlier that day for some reason, and they sent us to the Forbidden Forest for detention. Again, why they thought that was a good idea is beyond me. Like 'oh yes do not go here because it is highly dangerous, but if you break the rules then you must go in there because that makes perfect sense.' It was so stupid. Anyways, we ran into some centaurs who were nowhere near as friendly as Chiron, but also nothing like the party ponies, and then we saw Voldemort drinking the blood of a unicorn. It was all very creepy. The one nice centaur gave us a ride back to Hagrid, and I tried not to think about the incident again. It wasn't that I was so creeped out by Voldemort but seeing the death of such an innocent was heartbreaking."
"Okay, my turn now," Neville leapt at the chance to start talking. "So I took on the persona of someone who is a bit slow in everything. Well, except for in herbology since I doubt I could ever hide my skill in that. But I've mostly been watching from the background."
"Yeah, and trying to get us all killed in potions," Draco snorted.
"Hey, you've gotta admit it's kinda fun. Plus I'm learning loads. I now know 1,001 different ways not to combine ingredients. Anyways, Draco covered a lot of the important things up until the end of the year when shit got crazy. So it turned out that Dumbledore was hiding the Philosopher's Stone under the castle for reasons that I don't understand. He knew Voldemort wasn't gone, and he knew that he would go after the Stone, and yet he still hid it in a building filled with school children."
"I mean, to be fair, it turns out that Quirrell was actually totally able to break in and out of Gringotts without anyone catching him. So it makes sense that he wanted to remove it from there. But honestly, he should've just placed it under the fidelius if he wanted it to be really safe. But oh well," Draco added his thoughts.
"What part of my turn do you not get? So Harry and co. decided that it was absolutely up to them to stop the evil mad man from getting the immortality machine, I tried to stop them, it didn't work, and then something happened that got them a ton of points and Gryffindor won the house cup."
"So unfair," Draco added.
"I mean not really. You guys were only ahead due to Snape's blatant favouritism. Honestly the points system needs a total revamping. No one should be able to dock points because someone is 'breathing too loudly.'"
"I guess I can give you that. So that's the end of first year. Second year things got a bit more dangerous for the rest of the school. My father slipped a cursed notebook to Ginny Weasley. It somehow possessed her and caused her to open Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. My father never actually explained to me how it worked. But anyway, a giant snake that could petrify/kill spent the year slithering around the pipes and freezing people (mostly muggleborns). So that wasn't great. The teachers put a shit ton of restrictions on where we could go and when we could be in the halls which was annoying, but like, I also get it. My father also managed to get Dumbledore removed by the school board through a combination of bribery and blackmail. It didn't stick though, obviously."
"Towards the end of the year, there was a message saying 'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever' which was creepy, and the professors were going to shut down the entire school. 'Her skeleton' ended up being Ginny, which we know cause Harry and Ron managed to find the Chamber of Secrets and rescue her. Oh, and Lockhart was somehow involved in all of this? Not sure how, and he can't tell since he's now a babbling mess with no memory." Neville finished out the year.
"Wait, who's Lockhart?" I asked, confused.
"Oh, he was our defence teacher. Absolutely awful. And probably a complete fraud. If he's done even half of the stuff he claims in his books I'll snap my wand." Draco sounded frustrated.
"Yeah he literally taught us nothing in the entire year. One of the questions on a test he gave us was 'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?'" Neville added.
Ok that sounded really bad. Thank the gods Annabeth and I were here. Wait, we are the gods. Oh well, whatever. Not important. Moving on.
"So the summer before our third year the news broke that mass murderer Sirius Black had escaped from prison. Naturally the wizarding world went crazy. No one had ever escaped from Azkaban before, and Black was one of the most hated people there. Gryffindor golden boy turned death eater. Killed twelve muggles too. Draco, please don't state your theory," Neville frowned at Draco.
"I'm gonna state it. Ok, so when Black escaped, I naturally wanted to do research on him. The Malfoy family and Black family have strong connections, and if Narcissa was my real mother we would have even stronger blood ties. The thing is, there is no record of Black ever having any trial, public or private. There isn't anything stating 'sorry these records are not open for anyone to see.' They just don't exist. My theory is that Black was never actually formally charged for the crimes accused of him. The ministry just threw him in prison because he came from a dark family and needed to look like they were doing something productive."
"But that doesn't mean he's innocent. It just means that the correct process probably wasn't followed. Why would he appear in the third year Gryffindor dorms with a knife if he was innocent?" Neville debated.
"I'm not saying he's innocent. I'm just saying he might be. Come on, why would James Potter's best friend, Harry Potter's godfather turn dark with absolutely no warning? From everything I can find the two never had a falling out, and Black was quite outspoken in his stance against Voldemort's forces. Oh, and by the way, did you know no one ever told Harry that Black was his godfather? I couldn't believe it! Why does Dumbledore insist on keeping him in the dark?"
"Draco could have a point, Neville. It is weird. Especially with the lack of trial," Annabeth added to the conversation. "But please, continue with what happened in your third year."
"Well, with the ministry freaking out, Fudge decided that the most sensible thing to do would be to station dementors around the school. Dementors are the beings that guard Azkaban, and they are the most miserable creatures to exist. They actively suck out people's ability to feel happiness, and if left unchecked, they will actually suck out your soul. Awful. Harry had a particularly adverse reaction to them. He fully fainted. Not particularly shocking given the shit he's had to deal with over the years. And he should never have had to be near one. That was a failing on the school's part." Draco started.
"That year was weird. I can't really tell what was happening other than Harry learning a Patronus somehow. That is a tricky piece of magic. I suppose Professor Lupin must have helped him somehow. Great man."
"You only like him cause he helped you to create an image of Snape in full drag."
"Exactly. Great man."
"But yeah, nothing much happened as far as I can tell. I guess it's kinda interesting that Lupin turned out to be a werewolf. But he never hurt anyone so even that is kinda boring."
"Fourth year is when shit started getting crazy. At the beginning of the year, Dumbledore announced that Hogwarts would be hosting the Triwizard Tournament for the first time in years. Just to be clear, this is a competition that was shut down due to its death count. And of course, Harry got himself involved. Well, he didn't get himself involved. It turns out that a death eater who everyone thought was dead was pretending to be Mad Eye Moody who was supposed to be our defence against the dark arts teacher. He entered Harry's name into the competition." Neville started the events of fourth year.
"So first Harry had to face a dragon and steal its golden egg. He somehow managed to outfly the dragon to distract it long enough to grab the egg from its nest. It really is a pity that he'll have to fight in a war cause that kid was born to play quidditch. The second task was kinda boring for the spectators, although I'm sure it was terrifying for the participants. A loved one for each of the champions was placed under the lake and the contestants only had an hour to bring them back. Harry came back last, but he brought two people back instead of one, so the judges still gave him tons of points. Going into the third and final task, Harry and Cedric (the other Hogwarts champion) were tied." Draco continued the story.
"The final task was a maze with the winner's trophy in the middle. Whoever got there first would win. Harry and Cedric got a head start for being in first, and they ended up getting to the cup at the same time. We watched them debate from the stands, and then they grabbed the cup together. We were expecting them to appear right in front of us then, both holding the cup, but instead they disappeared entirely. We sat there waiting for a while until all of a sudden Harry reappeared with the cup, looking considerably worse for the wear, holding onto Cedric's dead body, shouting that Voldemort had returned." Draco shuddered.
"Oh gods," Annabeth breathed.
"Anyways, Dumbledore believed him, Fudge didn't, and now we're seeing the aftermath." Draco finished.
"Well that was quite a story," I stood up. "But I still cannot believe that this is where you've been disappearing off to all these years."
"Right of course, cause we obviously can't have a life outside of camp,"" Draco joked.
"Draco, we all know you technically have a life outside of camp; we were just under the impression that it was mostly spent looking in a mirror and fixing your hair," Annabeth teased. Children of Aphrodite were so easy to poke at.
"Oh shut up; I could totally kick your asses if I wanted to," Draco sneered, trying to look threatening. It didn't work.
Neville snorted, "In your dreams."
I couldn't resist joining in: "Oh Draco, don't bother. We wouldn't want one of your hairs to get out of place." But I sobered up quickly: "And I assume this means you haven't heard what the Council forced upon us?"
"Well I wouldn't exactly say they entirely forced us; I mean we technically had a choice. It was just an impossible one," Annabeth corrected me "They called us to them, and told us-"
A thud from outside the doors to the Great Hall sounded, and we all froze. Was someone trying to spy on us?
"Wait, there's someone outside the door," Neville spoke up. "We should probably move somewhere less open."
"You're right; let's go back to Percy and my quarters. We can continue this there. Lead the way Draco, Neville." Annabeth motioned towards the door.
"You really mean to tell us that you couldn't find your way there on your own?" Draco complained.
"Well sure, but it's more fun to make you two work for us," I teased.
We headed out the door and down the corridor. I could tell someone was there, but no one was visible. I decided not to worry about it; they certainly hadn't been there long, and it wasn't like we had said anything incriminating.
Annabeth moved the conversation towards Hogwarts as a school: "So what classes are the best here? What isn't working? Is this a good school at all?"
"Well I mean, you already know that Defence is very hit or miss. Well really one hit and three misses. But transfiguration and charms are both quite good," Neville answered.
Draco agreed: "Yeah both McGonagall and Flitwick are knowledgeable in their subjects and actually know how to teach children. Snape may be a genius when it comes to potions, but he can't teach others to save his life. And the textbook doesn't explain much; you have to go on your own to the library to find supplementary materials to have even a chance of understanding what is happening."
"Ok, but the worst teacher here by far is Binns."
"Oh yeah, FUCK Binns."
"He absolutely cannot teach."
"Not in any way shape or form. It's ridiculous. Why does Dumbledore let him teach? Why does the board keep him here?"
"I think he has tenure."
"Ok but he's dead. There has to be a rule against that."
I interjected: "Wait he's dead? You have a dead person teaching you? Is he like a ghost? Or a zombie? Or something else all together?"
"He's a ghost," explained Neville. "And he should not be here. Literally everyone sleeps through his classes. He only teaches about the Goblin wars, and from a very wizarding point of view. You can literally learn more from the textbook than from him. And the only people to have passed the History OWL in the past eighty years haven't gone on to take the NEWTS. The only magical British historian alive is Bathilda Bagshot, and she's on death's door. It's insane."
"Oh my word, that is terrible," Annabeth looked offended at the idea of a teacher that awful. "History is such an important subject. How can we grow from our past mistakes if we never learn what they are?"
"That's what I say!" shouted Draco. "But even then I won't be taking a History NEWT because I just can't stand the class."
"Couldn't you self-study?" Annabeth asked.
"Nah, no time. NEWT years become ridiculous with the amount of work teachers give."
We had arrived at our quarters. "Well now that we have some privacy, we can share our news. So when Annabeth and I went through Tartarus, we were exposed to a lot. Too much. We started 'unlocking' powers that we were never supposed to access. We were becoming too powerful for our mortal bodies. If we continued on, we would be dead within a month."
"Wait, but then how-" Draco tried to speak.
"We aren't finished," Annabeth spoke over him. "The gods called us up to mount Olympus where they offered us a choice: accept immortality or die. We are still here, so guess which one we picked."
"Oh."
"My."
"Gods," Draco and Neville breathed together. They immediately sunk into a deep bow.
"Oh, no, you guys don't have to do that," Annabeth laughed. "We're still your friends. Just with some extra powers."
"Yeah please don't make this weird."
The boys did not move.
"Guys seriously, stop bowing," Annabeth looked vaguely annoyed.
They must have heard the danger in her voice because they scrambled to their feet.
"I don't see why we can't bow, it feels like the right thing to do," Draco whined.
"Because its fucking weird," I chuckled. "Seriously, we aren't used to it. We just want to be Annabeth and Percy, not gods. Let us keep a sense of normalcy."
Neville grinned. "Ok, fine. But still. Very cool." The end of his statement was muffled by a yawn.
"You guys look exhausted; you should head up to bed."
The boys protested Annabeth's statement, but one quick glare had them scrambling for the door. She's scary when she wants to be.
We were alone at last. I gave my wife a quick peck before she went to get ready for bed. We may not have needed to sleep in the traditional sense, but it still helped us to go through the motions. Plus we didn't wake up exhausted the next morning, no matter how little sleep we got, which was a plus.
I moved to follow her, but stopped in my tracks.
I had an idea.
Was it a good idea? Who knows.
But it was an idea nonetheless.
I was gonna do it. No one could stop me.
Well, Annabeth could stop me.
But I wasn't gonna tell her.
"Hey Wise Girl, I'm going to go wander around the castle. I feel a bit restless."
"Ok, I love you. Don't get into too much trouble. Have fun!"
She didn't suspect a thing. I began to wander, looking for a ghost. Didn't matter which one.
There! A shimmery gleam caught my eye, going around a bend in the hallway.
"Hey! Hey! Ghost! Wait up!" I rounded the corner to find a short, fat ghost of a man in full monk's robes.
"Oh hello Professor Percy," the man said with a smile, "How can I help you this fine evening?"
"I was actually looking for another ghost, Professor Binns, and I was hoping you would know how to find him."
"The area where he rests isn't exactly accessible…"
"That's not really a problem for me."
"Oh of course, it wouldn't be. How silly of me to forget. Well, you'll have to go to his classroom which is on the fourth floor, and then go through a couple sets of walls. He'll be dozing back there."
I thanked the ghost, and started walking there. I was going to solve the History of Magic problem at Hogwarts once and for all.
"Hello, Cuthbert Binns."
If ghosts could jump, Professor Binns would've been miles into the air. As it was, he did a sort of wooshy, swirly thing around the room.
"Who? Wha-? Huh? Oh, hello Professor Perseus," by the end of his statement, he had fallen into the most monotone voice I had ever heard.
"Do you know who my cousin is?"
"No, why would I know who that is? And whatever are you doing here?"
"His name is Nico Di Angelo."
"I'm sure I don't know - oh, wait. I do know that name. Why do I know that name? Was he by chance a general in the last goblin war?"
"Nope. Guess Again."
"Di Angelo… Di Ange - the Ghost King. Why is that coming to my head? The Ghost King. Did ghosts fight in the last goblin war?"
Did Binns not realize he was a ghost? That could explain a lot.
"My cousin seeks out souls who have tried to escape death. Those who have remained in this world for too long. And you should be scared."
"Scared? Why would I be-" He seemed to notice his own body (Or lack thereof) for the first time. "Oh dear. What has happened to me? Are you doing this? Am I a-?"
"A ghost? Yes. And you have avoided my uncle's kingdom for far too long. It is time for you to leave this place. Give the children the chance to have the education they deserve."
"Well, of course. You're right. How silly of me. I will be leaving you now. Please, give your family my deepest apologies." With that, he slowly dissipated, until there was nothing left.
Well, that took care of that. Time to share my triumph with Annabeth.
"Wise Girl! Guess what I just did!"
"Did you meet the giant squid who lives in the lake?"
"There's a giant - well, never mind. No! I just fixed Hogwarts' History of Magic Problem!" I smiled proudly.
"You did what?"
"Yeah, I threatened Binns with Nico, and he's gone now. So now he won't be teaching that awful class anymore!"
Annabeth looked mad. Why did she look mad? What did I do?
"You idiot! You absolute Seaweed Brain! Please please please consult with me before doing drastic things like that!"
"Ok… uhhh… that's not the reaction I was expecting. I'm sure you're correct for reasons I can't think of, but would you like to explain them to me?"
"Ok, listen while I talk this through. Draco and Neville said that no one wanted to take the History of Magic NEWTS due to Binns poor teaching style. Because of that there is no one from Britain qualified to teach the course. Binns was the only one. Therefore, Dumbledore isn't going to be able to find a replacement professor for the school year. This the worst possible thing that could be happening, because if Dumbledore can't find a teacher, then the Ministry gets to appoint their choice of teacher. Because there isn't anyone qualified, they're going to appoint whatever lackey they would like who is going to wreak havoc on this school. All because you kicked Binns out. Do you see why this is a problem?!"
Oh.
Well then.
Shit.
Well, that's it. Hopefully see you again in sooner than a year. Let me know what you think!
