Substitute at Hogwarts
JUst a little authors note this chapter is NOT DIRECTLY AFTER THE BANISHED AND THE FORGOTTEN SORRY IF I CONFUSED YOU!!!
" Just got out of jail, Longbottoms are in St. Mungo's, and Peter is STILL missing!" muttered Thomas as he walked along a long, student-filled corridor.
" James, PLEASE explain to me why were supposed to teach here?" Thomas's voice had been steadily growing more annoyed since his arrival at Hogwarts.
Both him and James were dressed in their best robes; James was sporting an elegant forest green robe that seemed to glitter in the light, and Thomas was wearing his sparkling silver robe, the same one he had worn on his date with Dagger.
" Because Dumbledore's ran out of substitutes for Peter," said James sleepily. Neither him nor Thomas had gotten much sleep that night, due to that they were both at St. Mungo's watching over the Longbottoms. He rubbed his droopy eyes lazily, not caring that he had accidentally knocked what appeared to be one of the first years over. " No one wants the…the…the…"
" …Job," finished Thomas as James continued to yawn loudly. " You've told me this before but WHY don't they want the job?"
" Because they think it's jinxed: in the past five years Hogwarts has had over twenty different dark arts teachers, and each one either got sacked, quit, or worse," said James. He took another huge yawn, this time making sure not to hit any of the passing-by students.
" James, I'm a you-know-what," began Thomas as he looked into James's eyes, and with a lazy nod Thomas knew James had understood that you-know-what had meant demon. James yawned widely again, and could sense a long excuse on why Thomas shouldn't teach coming. "…I've lived for four hundred and forty two years, and for 300 of those years I've been fighting. I'm a warrior James, NOT a teacher."
" Fine, then why don't you be a student?" suggested James sarcastically, silently laughing to himself at the thought of Thomas going to school at his age.
" Right," said Thomas, laughing at the thought as well," there's an idea—WAIT! That IS an idea!" Thomas smiled with glee, and seemed to have been overcome with a new sense of energy from the suggestion.
" No," said James flatly.
" C'mon, James! It'd be fun! Well, fun for us, probably not as fun for the children…" said Thomas as he drifted off into his imagination, rubbing his chin as he began think of ideas.
" I said NO, T.K., and that's it. We're supposed to be teaching them how to duel today, and you'd probably put half the kids into a coma by just disarming them!" said James forcefully.
" So…?" muttered Thomas with his face pointed downward, sign to James the he knew he was right. "But…but…I wouldn't go hard on 'em…"
" That's not. The POINT. Even in your weakest state you could still do serious damage!" said James, " How would we explain it to the parents?" James began to act as though he was speaking to a parent. " Hello ma'am, sorry to bother you, but we regret to inform you that your son is in an irreversible coma because a four hundred and thirty seven—"
" Four hundred and forty two," corrected Thomas.
"—Year old man that looks sixteen decided to be a student for a day and accidentally cursed your son into oblivion. Have a nice day, and when you come to pick your son up please take note that he no longer possesses any HANDS!" finished James, adding emphasis on the word 'hands'.
" When have I ever cut someone's hand off?!" cried Thomas, amazed that James could even try to convict him of any such thing.
" You didn't cut them off, but remember Celsus?"
" OH COME ON, JAMES! You KNOW he deserved that!'
" Minerva's fingers?"
" PURELY ACCIDENTAL, I WOULD NEVER—"
" Lily's arms?"
There was a slight pause in Thomas's rebuttal.
" Ok, that one was on purpose, but you had to admit it was funny…" said Thomas rather hesitantly.
" FUNNY?! SHE'S. MY. WIFE!" said an outraged James.
" Well, I fixed it, didn't I?" said Thomas hopefully.
" YES. YOU DID…and I'm grateful for that," James's voice had calmed down dramatically, but rose just as quickly when he saw Thomas trying not to laugh in the corner of his eye. He stepped out in front of him, causing Thomas to stop in his tracks. " IT WASN'T FUNNY!" yelled James, scaring several passing-by first and second years.
" Sirius thought it was…" murmured Thomas.
" SO?! Do you know what that does to you? TO LOSE BOTH OF YOUR ARMS?!" roared James. It was Thomas this time that stepped out in front of James, and his dark brown eyes had their ice-cold vice grip upon James.
" I've lost more than you can ever imagine," whispered Thomas eerily, as though there was some big secret he had not yet revealed to James.
" The point is your not doing magic, your too powerful…" began James, trying to calm himself and change the subject at the same time.
" FINE! But I'm STILL going to act like a student, I just wont do any magic!" spat a thoroughly irritated Thomas.
They did not speak to each other until they finally emerged into the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom, where they found the students desks empty and two grown wizards sitting on what appeared to be the teacher's desk with their backs to them. Both were draped in pitch-black robes, yet on the left the man's robes were substantially patchier than the man's on the right. Neither of the men had taken any note of James and Thomas's entry.
James coughed slightly, adjusted his robes, and spoke in the most business-like manner he could muster. " Excuse me," he once again coughed, but quickly picked up from where he left off, "…sorry to bother you, but, may I help you?"
Thomas suppressed an overwhelming urge to laugh as James shot a scorching look at him. He began to look for a comfortable seat in the student section, and chose one in the middle row on the right side.
" Excuse me…"
" We heard you the first time, James," said the man on the left as he turned around.
" Remus?! What in Merlin's Beard are YOU doing here?" cried James as he walked over to greet his best mate.
" We're here to help you two teach," said Sirius, the man on the right, who was now looking over the class schedule. " Looks like things haven't changed since we left, eh, James?" he added with a smirk, still flipping through the schedule.
" Just to let you know I'm going to be acting like a student for the fifth and sixth years, alright?" said Thomas nonchalantly.
Both Remus and Sirius laughed.
" So, what've we got?" asked James as he shot a reproachful look at Thomas while he approached the schedule Sirius was observing.
" Full day, by the looks of it. By year we've got fifths, then firsts, second, fourths, thirds, sixths, and then finally sevenths," answered Sirius while scanning the book, " Oh yeah, Dumbledore said to watch out for Bachton and Cobnog."
" Fifth years?" asked James, who had now taken seat in the plush teachers chair.
" Yep," replied Sirius, " though he also said they aren't nearly as bad as we were." Sirius had a kind of affectionate, memorable look on his face as he grinned at Lupin.
" Don't look at me like that. You know for a fact that ninety percent of the time it was you and James fooling around, not me," said Lupin as he twirled his wand in his fingers. " I was merely that 'young, innocent boy without a single Knut to his name',"
Everyone laughed at this, including Thomas, who had no idea what they were talking about.
After about ten minutes the fifth years began to arrive, half of them dressed in brilliant gold and black robes and some in green and black robes. None of them even glanced at Thomas, until a tall, dark haired individual wearing green and black finally approached him.
" You're sitting in my seat," said the Slytherin rudely, and James, sensing a fight brewing, tried to call the class to attention.
" Alright class, I am…"
" I said, your sitting in my seat," said the Slytherin again, obviously not caring that he had interrupted James.
" Actually you didn't say that, you said 'your in my seat', also I'm not seeing your name on it," said Thomas, pretending to be searching for the boy's name.
" Your right, but I do see it on YOU!" the boy flicked his wand upward and the words 'Bachton' wrote themselves in dark red letters upon Thomas's face.
Thomas did not jump up and curse Bachton as James had expected, instead he turned his face to Bachton and grinned at him. Unless James was mistaken, and he was quite sure that he wasn't, he saw a hint of pride in Thomas's eyes. The entire class was silent, everyone's breath held in suspense, waiting for the next move in the to-be duel. When Thomas spoke his voice was not full of anger, but full of concentrated patience.
" You know what, I'll give you three choices: A. you can sit down somewhere else or ask one of the teachers to conjure a chair for you, B. I can write both of our names in fire in midair and then charm to strangle you, or C. I could break that glass window right there and jinx the broken pieces to cut into your skin and cut all of your veins and arteries."
The arrogant grin that had accompanied Bachton's face had slowly turned into a horrified expression, and it seemed to seep through the class like Garroting Gas, for each of the students seemed to have been strangled with the same look of horror due to what Thomas had proposed. Yet there was one boy who actually laughed at this, and once he returned form his giggling feet he turned to face Bachton.
