A/N: I need to thank Black Ice for pointing out another stupid spelling error. I will correct it as soon as I have the time. And thank you, and everyone else, for reading.



CHAPTER FIFTEEN: QUIDDITCH PRACTICE


Malcolm sat down for breakfast when the owls came flying in to deliver the mail. Ron Weasley made an excellent catch, saving his letter from going directly into the porridge. Malcolm smiled as an owl landed directly in front of him. A delicate scent of flowers arose from the letter it was holding in its beak.

[She finally answered.]

Malcolm carefully took the letter and offered some bacon to the owl which gratefully accepted. Courtesies completed, he opened the letter as quickly as he could.

"Its her," Ginny whispered to Hermione. "Malcolm wrote a letter and she wrote back."

"Gabrielle Delacour? The girl who dumped him for her old boyfriend?"

"The boy she went to see when she returned to Beauxbatons wasn't her boyfriend. It was her brother. Malcolm told me he wrote to apologize for not realizing his mistake."

Hermione smiled. "That was a wise move. She'll love him for it."

"Why did he apologize?" Neville asked. "It was her fault for not making things clear in the first place."

"Of course it was," Hermione answered. "And she probably realizes it. But since Malcolm wrote to her saying it was his fault, that lets Gabrielle admit her mistake without having to feel guilty about it.

Neville shook his head in confusion. "But shouldn't she feel guilty if she was wrong?"

"Not in a situation like this. Neville imagine if Ginny did something wrong and you told her to her face that she was wrong, how would she react?"

"She did, I did and she told me that I should find someone else if she's not good enough for me. We smoothed things out and we're still friends, but . . ."

Hermione was surprised at the news but took it in stride. "I'm sorry to hear that, and I won't ask what happened, but you can see the point. What you did was make Ginny feel that she owed you something. Friends can survive something like that, but not close friends. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Neville lied. "I've got to send a letter off before class. I 'll see you later." He rose from the table and left quickly, trying not to look back.

"I think he was lying. He doesn't really understand." Ginny smirked.

"It doesn't matter," Hermione said. "What happened between the two of you?"

"It wasn't any one thing," Ginny said.

"It always seems to be that way."

"YES," Malcolm shouted. "YES. YES. YES."

"She asked him to forgive her," Hermione said authoritatively.

"How can you tell," Ginny asked.

Ron scowled. "Hermione, could we please talk about something other than Malcolm and his girlfriends?" He paused, then added, "Ginny, how long were you going out with Neville?"

"Since last Hallowe'en," Ginny said. "Didn't you notice that we always sat together?"

"Yes, but . . ."

"Men," Ginny said in frustration, " and brothers are the worst of the lot." She and Ron exchanged looks. "Hermione, about the letter. How can you tell?"

*

"This class will come to order," Severus Snape said as he walked into the first year potions class. Twenty obedient and cheerful students looked at him expectantly. Forty curious eyes then turned toward Malcolm. Make that Thirty Eight curious eyes and Two furious eyes.

"What's he doing here?"

"Dewey, how nice of you to ask. For the rest of you, this is Malcolm. He is the older brother of the young man who asked the question. Malcolm will be my assistant in this class for the remainder of the year, as I an extremely busy with many things in school and outside of the school as well."

Severus smiled as the students watched Malcolm.

"Go ahead, Malcolm. You know the lesson plan for today."

"You want me to teach the class?" Malcolm asked, but Snape had already left the room.

[Great. The last thing I need right now is to be in authority. How do I handle this.]

The first years began to gather confidence as they smelled fear.

"Okay," Malcolm croaked as he found his voice. "Get out your parchment and quills."

Dewey snorted, as did several other students."

[They know I'm scared. What do I do?]

"What if we don't feel like it," one student said. Several others chimed in with comments. Then everyone paused when Malcolm smiled.

[I know what to do. Treat everyone of them as though they all were Dewey.]

"You," Malcolm said, as he pointed at the boy who made the remark. The boy stood up, still grinning. "You're in Gryffindor. I've seen you around. Because this is my first day, and because you are the first one I'm dealing with, and because you are in my own house, I'll be very generous. I'll only take one house point away. SIT DOWN. As for the rest of you, the next remark out of line, the next dirty look, the next time I feel like it, I'll do the same for you, except I'll add a zero. And I'll do this because, regardless of my size or age, I am your teacher, and if you don't learn, it will be because you are too stupid. Is anyone ready to lose ten points for their house? How about you, Dewey? No?" Malcolm frowned. "I told all of you to get out your parchments and quills."

Malcolm smiled as everyone rushed to do his bidding.

[This is fun. I think I want to be a teacher after I graduate.]

*

Albus walked up to where Severus Snape was watching the point levels for the various houses. "How is Malcolm doing?"

"I had barely left the room when he began taking away house points." Severus smiled. "From Gryffindor. Unfortunately, it was only one point, and he hasn't taken any more away."

Albus smiled. "Perhaps that is because he only needed to take one point to make his point."

"Albus, you ruined my day by telling me that."

*

"Remember, Dewey. If anybody asks, it's my broom."

Dewey sighed. He had been told this hundreds of times already. Malcolm handed the broom to his younger brother, and Dewey gratefully began to leave the Great Hall.

"Hi, Dewey," Hermione said politely. "How are you enjoying school."

"It's a lot better than I expected. I almost like it. How do you like my new broom. Malcolm got it for me."

"But first years aren't allowed to have brooms."

"I know. I have to keep it in Malcolm's dorm, and I have to tell everyone it's really his."

Hermione smiled politely as Ron came up.

"Hi, Dewey. I'm sorry you ended up in Slytherin. I hope things aren't too horrible for you."

"Slytherin is great," Dewey said enthusiastically. "Draco makes it a point to be nice to me, but that's because I promised to tell his mom everything he does."

"I should have thought of that," Ron quipped and Hermione politely laughed.

"Do you know what the best part is? Malcolm isn't there. I go back to the common room and he isn't there. I wake up in the morning and he isn't there. And when I come to the Great Hall and he is there, he has to sit all the way on the other side of the room. Slytherin is great."

Dewey walked off happily, as Ron said wistfully, "Hermione, for a second I actually wished I was in Slytherin."

Hermione politely told him to stop being stupid.

*

"This is the tryouts for Gryffindor. We are looking for a new Keeper, and we will look at anybody who wants to try for that position."

Angelina Johnson looked surprised when three candidates stepped up. Ron Weasley was no surprise. Dennis Creevey wasn't that much of a surprise, but Angelina knew that he would rather be a chaser. The third candidate was a surprise by any standard.

"Dewey? What are you doing here? First Years aren't even allowed to fly brooms without special permission, which you don't have . . ."

"Yes, I do. Madame Hooch said I could fly for the tryouts."

"That's beside the point, anyway. You're in Slytherin. You can't play for our team. It's against the rules."

"It's not against the rules to try out," Dewey said emphatically.

"It's an excuse to fly his new broom," Dennis pointed out, and Angelina laughed.

*

"Hi," Malcolm said as the second year girl came into the classroom.

"Hi," the girl said, carefully. "I'm sorry to cause all of these problems."

"I have to be here anyway," Malcolm said. "Because of all the problems I caused."

"We heard how you treated the first-years in Potions Class. You were almost as bad as Snape, except . . ." The girl had a confused look on her face.

"Except that the first years like Snape," Malcolm finished. I don't know why either, but I had to treat them like that. They hated me because of who I wasn't. It was the only way I could keep control."

The girl looked relieved. "Then you're not going to yell at me?"

"No, why would I yell? I'm only going to tutor you in Transfiguration. So, what seems to be your biggest problem?"

"I don't understand."

"What aspect of the course confuses you the most?"

"I DON'T understand."

"Look, you're taking Transfiguration, Right?"

"Yes."

"Why were you sent here?"

"I've already told you twice. I don't understand."

"That's stupid. What's so hard to understand? It's Transfiguration. You change one thing to another thing."

"How?"

"By magic. You wave your wand and think of what you want to do."

"But it doesn't work. I always think about doing the spell but it never works properly. And quit yelling at me. I don't like being called stupid."

"I didn't mean it like that. You took it the wrong way." Malcolm fumed then caught his breath. "Fine. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it. But your problem is stupid. I'm surprised nobody caught it. It's that obvious."

"It is?"

"Yeah, you told me. You keep thinking about the spell and that's wrong. You should be thinking about what you want the spell to do instead of how well you perform the spell. You should concentrate on the intent and not the procedure. Watch this." Malcolm transformed into an owl and flew around the classroom, then landed as himself.

"That was amazing to watch from close up," the girl said with a small grin.

"I can teach you the spell in five minutes, but I can't teach you to do that," Malcolm said. "When I transform I don't even think about the spell. I think about being the owl. That's what you're doing wrong. The spell is to help focus your mind, and that's true for any subject. In Transfiguration, you have to think as clearly as you can about what you want the object you're changing to become. Try this spell. Change the cup into a plate."

The girl concentrated and waved her wand. "It worked," she said happily. "I knew what I wanted, and it worked."

"I like the pattern," Malcolm said. "Now change it back."

The girl hesitated, but succeeded on her second effort. She tried several spells with varying degrees of success and Malcolm told her they were finished for the day. As the girl happily left, EJ walked into the classroom.

"How is your tutoring?"

"It's a joke," Malcolm complained. "That girl is here because she couldn't figure out how to cast a spell properly. The boy before her had this fixation about changing animals into inanimate objects and other things. And Dewey stopped by and told me that the Giant Squid says I need to control my temper."

EJ listened to Malcolm's frustrated wail in silence, then commented. "The Giant Squid may be right. You did bring this on yourself."

Malcolm sighed. "It isn't really that bad. I did such a great job with my Potions class, Snape said he might even let me give out detentions."

"That's the spirit, Malcolm. If it's good for you it must be good for everyone."

"Are you making fun of me?"

"Never." EJ's grin told Malcolm that he was lying.

*

Angelina called Dewey over. "I wanted to tell you that you didn't make the team."

"I know, but it was fun. Thanks for letting me try out."

"You're welcome, Dewey, but don't let the word get out, or all the first years will try out just as an excuse to fly their brooms."

"Okay,"

Dewey happily watched as the Gryffindor team left the pitch and the Ravenclaw team took their place.

Cho Chang looked down in surprise. "You're Malcolm's brother."

"I came to try out for the Ravenclaw team."

"But you're not in Ravenclaw."

"But I can still try out."

"I saw you flying around with the Gryffindors. Did they let you try out?"

"Yeah, but I didn't make the team."

"And you can't make the Ravenclaw team. I can't let you try out." She smiled as Dewey pouted. "Besides, we have the same team as last year. No one is trying out."

"Then why are you here?"

"Cho Chang smiled. "Its our first chance to fly our brooms since the summer holiday. And why did you want to try out?"

"I have a new broom and I haven't got bored with it yet."

"First broom?" Dewey nodded. Cho winked and said, "It's really Malcolm's broom, isn't it." Dewey nodded again. "If you can stay out of our way, you can fly around the pitch, but the first time there's a problem, you're gone. Understood?"

Dewey's reply was to mount his broom and fly away.

"That's one happy first year," the Keeper said. "I'm surprised you're letting him do that. He is Slytherin after all."

Cho smiled. "I was thinking of the song the Sorting Hat sang. How the houses should stick together. I decided to be nice to each and every Slytherin until they do something to make me dislike them. I'll take them one at a time."

The Keeper laughed. "All Seventy Slytherins?"

Cho laughed as well. "I'm already down to Fifty Two. Not bad for the first week."

*

"I'm free," Malcolm said as he walked to the Gryffindor Tower. "Nothing to do until tomorrow morning except sleep."

"I'm happy for you," Harry Potter said from behind.

"Oh, hi. I thought you would be at Quidditch practice."

"Detention. With Umbridge."

"Why don't you walk out on her. I did."

"I don't have your connections," Harry said harshly. "I heard your UNCLE put in a good word for you with the Minister. That's why you're still here."

[I guess this would be the wrong time to ask to be friends.]

"You hate me for that? Malcolm the human house elf? I get to stay but any teacher, ANY teacher can take my free time away without a reason. It's not fun to still be here."

Harry smirked. "It's not fun for me. Why did they put you in Gryffindor anyway? Your brother is in Slytherin. Your cousin is in Slytherin. Why not you?"

"Because," Malcolm said, but Harry was already walking away.

[What's his problem?]

*

"Good Morning, Ralph."

"Good morning, Francis. Did you decide what you're going to do?"

"Yeah. It was tempting, but I decided to pass. I don't know what I'll be doing next year, much less ten years from now. I mean, six months ago I was sitting in my room at the Academy. I never imagined this."

Ralph shrugged his shoulders. "It was worth a try, but I'll still be explaining things to you as we work together. You can always decide later if you want to learn."

"Thanks, Ralph. What do you want me to do today?"

"A friend of mine is visiting and wants to be shown around, Would you like to be the tour guide? Just show her the woods that are still here and those caves on the reservation. She'll like those."

"She? Is she a shaman, too?"

"Hardly," Ralph said with a grin. "She's a Yeti."

*

"What happened," Madam Pomfrey asked.

"He was trying out for the Hufflepuff team when he collided with one of the hoops." Susan Bones looked nervous. "Is he hurt badly?"

"Nothing too serious. He'll have to stay the night, but he'll be up and around for breakfast." Madam Pomfrey paused. "Why was a Slytherin first year trying out for the Hufflepuff team?"

"He's cute when he pouts."

"Well, now he can't try out for the only team he could play for," Madame Pomfrey said crossly. "Thanks to you."

"He wasn't very good," Susan pointed out.

*

"Malcolm?" Dewey said as he woke up. "What happened? Where am I?"

"You hit one of the hoops. You're in the infirmary. I had to waste the entire night watching you. I could have been in bed."

I'm sorry I caused you any trouble," Dewey said crossly, and rolled over to go back to sleep.

[Great. He is going to be fine. Now I can go to bed.]

"Malcolm,"Dewey said softly. "Thanks."

"For what?" Malcolm hissed. "You're my brother. Mom would kill me if I didn't check up on you." He paused as he left the infirmary. "Good night, Dewey."

*

On Monday morning the sun came up bright and cheerful, thus making itself Malcolm's mortal enemy of the day. He dress, dragged himself down to the Great Hall and proceeded to eat breakfast. Happily he had no mail, and did not have to pause as he slowly recovered from the weekend.

[Okay, it was a stupid idea. I should have never even bothered about the letter.]

Malcolm looked up to see Professor McGonagall standing across from him. "Professor Dumbledore wishes to talk to you at your earliest convenience. I told him you would be in his office in twenty minutes."

[The letter did come! It worked!]

Seventeen minutes later Malcolm was happily ensconced in a chair in the headmaster's office. Dumbledore was not pleased.

"I received this letter from the Ministry today. Apparently, the Social Welfare office was told that your parents are intending to adopt your house elf, Nob. How did they ever get such a preposterous idea."

"I told them, Sir."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in response. "And why would you do such a stupid thing?"

[That is a good question.]

"It's hard to explain . . ."

"Please try. I have too many important things to do to have something like this hanging over my head."

"Well, it started when we were showing Nob some of our old pictures, you know, photographs."

"But your house was destroyed as well as everything in it. You had a garage and that was destroyed as well. How did your photograph albums survive."

"Reese buried them in the backyard the last time we had relatives come over. You see . . ."

Dumbledore waved his hand. "You need not explain that, Malcolm. I will assume that Reese had a reason."

[Yeah. You know what happens when you assume.]

". . . so them and the fireworks were the only things to survive the explosion, but Dewey said that the police confiscated the fireworks."

[I hate when he looks at me like that.]

"Anyway, we were showing Nob the album, and I pointed to a picture and said 'that's me when I was your age'. Then Nob went Poof and appeared just like me in the picture."

"What do you mean when you said 'Nob went Poof'?"

"I guess that's poor English. Then Nob said, 'Poof', and appeared the same as I did in the picture."

[He's giving me that look again.]

Dumbledore nodded. "I remember seeing Nob. Please go on."

"Well, Nob hasn't changed back, and I don't think he will. Mom is even sending him to school with the regular kids. That's when my Dad gave me the talk about family and staying together, and I would know what to do. I didn't understand most of it, but that's because it's my dad, but he kept mentioning adoption and Nob and that he may be the last chance for a perfect son, and don't mention it in front of Nob. Plus, Mom keeps telling Nob he's one of the family, and he fits right in. They actually expected me to figure out how to do this."

"Malcolm, what they want is not legal. A house elf does not fall under muggle law. Such an adoption would not stand up in any wizarding court."

"It doesn't have to, Professor. All of that is just for show. To muggles, Nob appears human, therefore he is human. The adoption papers are signed and everyone without magic accepts that he is a part of our family. I did that because my mom won't accept it otherwise. Since she's a muggle, muggle law is what matters."

Albus shook his head. "You forget, Malcolm, that muggle law does not apply in this case."

"It does if Nob is human."

"But Nob only appears to be human. He is still an elf."

"What you see is what you get."

"We are arguing in circles, Malcolm. I can do nothing in this matter except inform you of what I have been told. There will be an inquiry by the Ministry, and it is probable that Nob will be taken away from your family because they are irresponsible." Dumbledore paused. "Why are you smiling?"

"When is the hearing?"

"In three days. The responsible family members will have to appear."

"Then it will only be me," Malcolm said happily.

Dumbledore frowned. "I know I am not going to like this, but why are you the only one responsible?"

"I forged the letter of inquiry from the Social Welfare Office."

"Ah, and that is how you managed to have a copy to show David Winter when you tracked him down in Washington."

"Yes, Sir, but his letter had a slight alteration. The letter to my folks made it seem that they were going to put Nob someplace else. The copy I gave Mr. Winter implied that they needed confirmation that Nob should stay where he is. I was worried that it might not work, but the letter from the American government was sent exactly as I had requested. It confirmed that the steps taken were already approved but couldn't be completed because of the necessary relocation of . . ."

"Malcolm, you need not be so technical. I understand your point. You lied to everyone you could so that the adoption would be approved without any delay. And now I assume you are about to give me the evidence that proves that you are the responsible party."

Malcolm cheerfully handed over an envelope. Dumbledore took the envelope and glanced at the pages inside. He sealed the envelope and wrote a note. The note attached, he gave it to a waiting owl.

"The ministry will shortly be aware of what you did, Malcolm. And may I say that it was interesting having you here as a student. Once you have your hearing it is doubtful you will ever set foot in this school again. You may go."

"Professor?"

"Did I forget something?"

"Nob isn't a house elf."

"Perhaps we should send you directly to St. Mungo's."

"I bet you I can prove it."

[I always like the way he smiles.]

"Go ahead, Malcolm. Prove it."

"I can't prove it here. I can only prove it at my hearing."

"And what would you like to wager?"