IN THE GARDEN
Finishing her Head Girl duties for the evening, Hermione slipped into the library for a bit of light reading before heading back to the dorms. As she came out again, Hermione could just make out the new professor walking down one of the corridors. Hermione was puzzled, however, when she noticed
a large shadow moving alongside that of the new professor.
Suddenly, a loud cursing erupted along with a loud and low rumbling sound. The first sound was Snape, of course; but Hermione could not place the rumble, although it seemed oddly familiar. Hermione heard a voice sneer something about "dangerous and diabolical creature"; and then she heard a scathing retort addressed to "a Mister Vlad."
She could not hear all of what the new professor was saying in response, and she had to wonder if perhaps a Mister Vlad was somehow present with the two, making the rumbling sound. She hadn't time to listen for more, as she hurried back to the common room before Snape turned the corner and deducted a life time of points from Gryffindor for her hallway loitering.
~*~
All evening the common rooms were buzzing over the new Professor and her charms. Pansy was no more pleased then Hermione, hearing the boys of her house talking ceaselessly about the sexy raven haired beauty. Pansy rolled her eyes in disgust while Draco and his goons drooled over the charms-tress' "finer points," especially as the hormone laden lads tended to use rather crude terms.
Hermione, through her ever diligent efforts, had discovered only four paragraphs about the semester assignment for charms class, and that was in the restricted section of the library. The pages talked of an enlightened culture of humans who spent 12 hours a day in body form and 12 in purely energy form. The information also discussed tablets that described how this people could will their thoughts and memories into highly efficient electrical conductors such as exotic metals, glasses, and crystals. Little else was known about the race.
She started to tell Ron and Harry the evening before what she had learned over the summer about what to expect in the ruins of the ancient garden, but they had hushed her.
"I want to explore this garden completely without prejudicial knowledge gleaned from mere books," Ron told her, delighting that his deliberate pronunciation of "mere" had slightly annoyed her. He enjoyed playfully teasing her, cognizant as he was of the tremendous importance she placed on writing and on the great pride she took in being only the second seventh year student ever to gain unfettered access to the entire forbidden section of the library.
"I think Ron is right," Harry agreed, "The purpose of meeting in the ruins is so that we can charm any knowledge of this lost race out of the walls and wells and other stones. I don't want anything to interfere with my receiving that knowledge."
"Well," Hermione, who was somewhat dismissive of the power of charms to recover ancient knowledge left imprinted on stones, began, "I put a lot more trust in the scribes and scholars who worked so hard to preserve this ancient lore than in any person who tries to charm knowledge from the rocks. Although, if they were male rocks, I have little doubt she would succeed in learning just about everything about this lost race and the garden they built."
Ron and Harry just rolled their eyes at each other and continued to talk about the new Professor.
"What is her name again?" questioned an excited Ron.
"Professor Silverbough, Cataria Silverbough is what the class description says," answered Harry.
Ron was leaning over Harry's shoulder and staring at the non-magical photo of the Professor that was printed on the class sheet. The photo was a black and white head shot of the Professor as she leaned against what looked to be a lattice full of honeysuckle twining thickly between slats of white wood. The dark contrasting texture of the medium of black and white photography gave
a striking image of both the woman and the flowers behind her.
Her eyes were almond shaped and accentuated by high cheek bones. Her nose was small, more or less button-sized; and her lips were curled slightly upward, as if she was preparing to tell a naughty joke. Her overall face expression reminded Hermione of Crookshanks just after he had captured a mouse, an effect that made Hermione wonder what secrets Cataria possessed but might never reveal to her class. She had captured the hearts of all the boys, but many non-magic females coul do that. Hermione sensed, though, that something more than mere hormonal hexes were a part of this woman's arsenal and so actually began looking forward to the charms class.
"What else does her biography say?" asked Ron. By now he was leaning into Harry so hard that Harry felt squashed into the side of the couch.
"Here Ron, why don't you read it to us," Harry suggested as he came forth with a loud sigh.
"Whoa, it says here that she is quite the athlete. She never played Quidditch, but she is a master of something called 'combat yoga." Ron surmised.
Hermione pointed to the next phrase while she wrinkled her nose. "It says here that she is also quite fond of eating steaks cooked rare," Hermione noted, her new found enthusiasm for the latest charms professor waning a bit, "Honestly, whoever had a passion so much meat?"
Immediately the three friends conceived of an answer to Hermione's ill- posed question. Although smiles flickered across Ron's and Harry's faces, nobody pulled the answer off its shelf in the air.
"Look at this here," Harry pointed back to the sheet in an effort to change the subject, "It says that she is able to charm all sorts of animals and insects, from bees to big buck deer that roam the river bottom land along some stream called the Brazos. Apparently this is a river that flows to the south of Houston."
"Wow," Ron's enthusiasm, which it seemed unlikely would be able to get much stronger than the seemingly full throttle operation it had exhibited, suddenly appeared to grow, "Look at the vehicle she is fond of driving. Even though it is not a magical car, it is magnificent!"
He pointed to another photo which showed Cataria leaning against a great fashionable car of the roaring 1920's, a marvelous machine called the Duesenberg.
"This car had the harmonious beauty of engineering brilliance and sheer beauty of line that elevated automobiles into an art form", quoted the charming Professor," Ron continued reading, as ever charmed.
"Why does she want to go out into an old garden when she could be driving about the world in such a magnificent car," Ron wondered."I think she probably has the car charmed," Hermione's interest began to grow again, "I wonder if she charmed the impressive motor from the antique that came with the car."
"I think she is looking forward to enchanting things even more ancient than the motor car," Harry suggested, "The brochure says we will be working with the runes carved on the gates that describe charms and secrets of the past. I wonder what she will have those old stone gates doing before are done. We may find them walking into a meeting of Magick historians, testifying about their vanished culture." As Harry was trying to stifle a giggle as he read this, they busted out laughing together.
"I can just see the credits on the books now," Hermione grinned at the thought, "As told to Dr. Silverbough by the Ancient Gates of Hogsmede Garden."
"I just can't wait to see her show up in the Garden for class in her car," Ron began dreaming, "Maybe, if the Gates get out of line, she will do some of her combat yoga on them."
The three friends laughed a little to see such a sight in their minds' eyes.
The last paragraph of the write-up on the professor had revealed the larger purpose of the class: studying a culture that might have been capable of standing up to a dark wizard as powerful as Voldemort. Hermione began pouring forth kind words almost immediately, as she relished the idea of doing something that might be as important as breaking the Nazi code had been in the Second World War.
Harry and Ron were also delighted that their efforts in the charms class could help the war effort.
So, with a war to win and an enchanting female to please, Hermione felt sure that her chums would field their strongest performance to date. Not a bad way to end an illustrious career as a Hogwarts student, in the company of good friends whose dedication to a class would finally begin to rival hers.
"Well, we don't have long to wait," Harry reminded them, "The first day of class is tomorrow, in the Garden."
*************************************************************
The Duesenberg is the fabulously fancy car seen many times photographed with Clark Gable.
Finishing her Head Girl duties for the evening, Hermione slipped into the library for a bit of light reading before heading back to the dorms. As she came out again, Hermione could just make out the new professor walking down one of the corridors. Hermione was puzzled, however, when she noticed
a large shadow moving alongside that of the new professor.
Suddenly, a loud cursing erupted along with a loud and low rumbling sound. The first sound was Snape, of course; but Hermione could not place the rumble, although it seemed oddly familiar. Hermione heard a voice sneer something about "dangerous and diabolical creature"; and then she heard a scathing retort addressed to "a Mister Vlad."
She could not hear all of what the new professor was saying in response, and she had to wonder if perhaps a Mister Vlad was somehow present with the two, making the rumbling sound. She hadn't time to listen for more, as she hurried back to the common room before Snape turned the corner and deducted a life time of points from Gryffindor for her hallway loitering.
~*~
All evening the common rooms were buzzing over the new Professor and her charms. Pansy was no more pleased then Hermione, hearing the boys of her house talking ceaselessly about the sexy raven haired beauty. Pansy rolled her eyes in disgust while Draco and his goons drooled over the charms-tress' "finer points," especially as the hormone laden lads tended to use rather crude terms.
Hermione, through her ever diligent efforts, had discovered only four paragraphs about the semester assignment for charms class, and that was in the restricted section of the library. The pages talked of an enlightened culture of humans who spent 12 hours a day in body form and 12 in purely energy form. The information also discussed tablets that described how this people could will their thoughts and memories into highly efficient electrical conductors such as exotic metals, glasses, and crystals. Little else was known about the race.
She started to tell Ron and Harry the evening before what she had learned over the summer about what to expect in the ruins of the ancient garden, but they had hushed her.
"I want to explore this garden completely without prejudicial knowledge gleaned from mere books," Ron told her, delighting that his deliberate pronunciation of "mere" had slightly annoyed her. He enjoyed playfully teasing her, cognizant as he was of the tremendous importance she placed on writing and on the great pride she took in being only the second seventh year student ever to gain unfettered access to the entire forbidden section of the library.
"I think Ron is right," Harry agreed, "The purpose of meeting in the ruins is so that we can charm any knowledge of this lost race out of the walls and wells and other stones. I don't want anything to interfere with my receiving that knowledge."
"Well," Hermione, who was somewhat dismissive of the power of charms to recover ancient knowledge left imprinted on stones, began, "I put a lot more trust in the scribes and scholars who worked so hard to preserve this ancient lore than in any person who tries to charm knowledge from the rocks. Although, if they were male rocks, I have little doubt she would succeed in learning just about everything about this lost race and the garden they built."
Ron and Harry just rolled their eyes at each other and continued to talk about the new Professor.
"What is her name again?" questioned an excited Ron.
"Professor Silverbough, Cataria Silverbough is what the class description says," answered Harry.
Ron was leaning over Harry's shoulder and staring at the non-magical photo of the Professor that was printed on the class sheet. The photo was a black and white head shot of the Professor as she leaned against what looked to be a lattice full of honeysuckle twining thickly between slats of white wood. The dark contrasting texture of the medium of black and white photography gave
a striking image of both the woman and the flowers behind her.
Her eyes were almond shaped and accentuated by high cheek bones. Her nose was small, more or less button-sized; and her lips were curled slightly upward, as if she was preparing to tell a naughty joke. Her overall face expression reminded Hermione of Crookshanks just after he had captured a mouse, an effect that made Hermione wonder what secrets Cataria possessed but might never reveal to her class. She had captured the hearts of all the boys, but many non-magic females coul do that. Hermione sensed, though, that something more than mere hormonal hexes were a part of this woman's arsenal and so actually began looking forward to the charms class.
"What else does her biography say?" asked Ron. By now he was leaning into Harry so hard that Harry felt squashed into the side of the couch.
"Here Ron, why don't you read it to us," Harry suggested as he came forth with a loud sigh.
"Whoa, it says here that she is quite the athlete. She never played Quidditch, but she is a master of something called 'combat yoga." Ron surmised.
Hermione pointed to the next phrase while she wrinkled her nose. "It says here that she is also quite fond of eating steaks cooked rare," Hermione noted, her new found enthusiasm for the latest charms professor waning a bit, "Honestly, whoever had a passion so much meat?"
Immediately the three friends conceived of an answer to Hermione's ill- posed question. Although smiles flickered across Ron's and Harry's faces, nobody pulled the answer off its shelf in the air.
"Look at this here," Harry pointed back to the sheet in an effort to change the subject, "It says that she is able to charm all sorts of animals and insects, from bees to big buck deer that roam the river bottom land along some stream called the Brazos. Apparently this is a river that flows to the south of Houston."
"Wow," Ron's enthusiasm, which it seemed unlikely would be able to get much stronger than the seemingly full throttle operation it had exhibited, suddenly appeared to grow, "Look at the vehicle she is fond of driving. Even though it is not a magical car, it is magnificent!"
He pointed to another photo which showed Cataria leaning against a great fashionable car of the roaring 1920's, a marvelous machine called the Duesenberg.
"This car had the harmonious beauty of engineering brilliance and sheer beauty of line that elevated automobiles into an art form", quoted the charming Professor," Ron continued reading, as ever charmed.
"Why does she want to go out into an old garden when she could be driving about the world in such a magnificent car," Ron wondered."I think she probably has the car charmed," Hermione's interest began to grow again, "I wonder if she charmed the impressive motor from the antique that came with the car."
"I think she is looking forward to enchanting things even more ancient than the motor car," Harry suggested, "The brochure says we will be working with the runes carved on the gates that describe charms and secrets of the past. I wonder what she will have those old stone gates doing before are done. We may find them walking into a meeting of Magick historians, testifying about their vanished culture." As Harry was trying to stifle a giggle as he read this, they busted out laughing together.
"I can just see the credits on the books now," Hermione grinned at the thought, "As told to Dr. Silverbough by the Ancient Gates of Hogsmede Garden."
"I just can't wait to see her show up in the Garden for class in her car," Ron began dreaming, "Maybe, if the Gates get out of line, she will do some of her combat yoga on them."
The three friends laughed a little to see such a sight in their minds' eyes.
The last paragraph of the write-up on the professor had revealed the larger purpose of the class: studying a culture that might have been capable of standing up to a dark wizard as powerful as Voldemort. Hermione began pouring forth kind words almost immediately, as she relished the idea of doing something that might be as important as breaking the Nazi code had been in the Second World War.
Harry and Ron were also delighted that their efforts in the charms class could help the war effort.
So, with a war to win and an enchanting female to please, Hermione felt sure that her chums would field their strongest performance to date. Not a bad way to end an illustrious career as a Hogwarts student, in the company of good friends whose dedication to a class would finally begin to rival hers.
"Well, we don't have long to wait," Harry reminded them, "The first day of class is tomorrow, in the Garden."
*************************************************************
The Duesenberg is the fabulously fancy car seen many times photographed with Clark Gable.