Chapter Twenty-Three

Comparisons

One thing was certain; Serendipity Harriet Snape most decidedly enjoyed her brother's first Quidditch game much more than he did. She mimicked the crowd through every 'Rah!' and every "Boo!" She repeated every "Ouch!" and "AW" of sympathy pain and every "Ooo!" after witnessing a close call. She made "Woosh" noises when the brooms went by and said, "Boom!" with every Bludger hit, clapping excitedly and laughing at all the wrong places when someone spun out or nearly crashed into the rings.

Even having relatives on the Slytherin team didn't really help Quintin when Slytherin decided to demonstrate to Purple-Gold just how superior of a team they were. To his credit, Quintin did manage to make a few stops, even if some were ill-timed and a bit clumsy. The Chasers soon realized they were outmatched in both size and speed, not even attempting to steal the ball. Instead, they concentrated on making it across the Pitch during the returns. But with Eben as Keeper and Moira and Bonnibel controlling the Bludgers, they really didn't have a chance. Jay, Jack, and Cadha took advantage of Quintin's hesitation on the dives and the current Seeker, Ella Hauk, was both faster than Curt Darwin and much, much, bigger, making him look as if he was barely in motion as she shot across the Quidditch Pitch and swooped up to grab the Snitch.

Severus and Jennifer's shoulders finally relaxed, unable to hide their relief that nothing happened worse than a pair of splintered brooms and Pete getting to test the Space Lawn, coming out of the experience with nothing worse than bruised arms and a bruised ego. Serendipity clapped happily to make up for the fact that her parents were both slow to react and clapped after the fact.

"Woosh! Crash! Boom!" Serendipity chanted excitedly as they waited to exit the tower.

"For some reason, I think this one is going to be a lot more interested in playing Quidditch than Quintin is," Jennifer chuckled, having no luck at all at calming her down.

"As long as she doesn't fall out of any clock towers," Severus replied, and led them down the stairs. They arrived just in time to see Quintin standing with Jay and Jack, with Jay giving him an encouraging pat while Jack was speaking to him directly.

"Look, you're all first years, and on top of that, you have a big target on your back for being the new house," Jack explained. "Personally, I think you did great making the stops you did. You'll do better next year."

"I have no intention playing next year," Quintin said resolutely. Then the three of them had to deal with an enthusiastic toddler running over to them.

"So nice to see you three, such good sportsmanship," Jennifer said warmly. "You all played decidedly well!"

"Yes, but don't forget you do have school tomorrow, so don't stay up all night celebrating or tending your wounds, as the case may be," Severus suggested.

"Yes, we know. Come on, Jack, let's go join the others," Jay suggested.

"Quintin, did you want to accompany us, or are you going to join your team as well?" Severus inquired.

"I'll help you get Seren upstairs first," Quintin said, taking her hand.

"Such a good brother," Jennifer said proudly as they walked towards the doors. "I wonder what Jack meant by that remark, though, about you having a target on your back?"

"Oh, that. I guess it's because all of the other houses are pretty determined to trounce us no matter what sport we're playing," Quintin said. "It's a bit strange in a way. The other houses tend to ignore us entirely... in the corridors, class, everywhere except in sports. The only ones that talk to us are in the Order of the Owls or they're related."

"A rather encouraging response," Severus decided, taking Seren's other hand. Jennifer and Quintin gazed at him curiously.

"Do you really think so, Severus?" Jennifer asked.

"Consider what would have happened if the Sorting Hat had done this the year you first began teaching at Hogwarts, Jennifer," Severus ventured.

"The Sorting Hat would have never done such a thing. It would have put the students in terrible danger," Jennifer replied.

"Really?" Quintin frowned.

"Voldemort would have most decidedly seen a new house as a threat, or an attempt to weaken his power over the school. The students' families would have been in just as much danger as the first generation families had been, regardless of whose families they were," Severus replied.

"Yes, I'm afraid he's right," Jennifer agreed solemnly.

"Even in the years following, when I think of the level of bullying going on when your oldest siblings attended school, you would be in for a very rough time indeed. And to be perfectly honest, I have been bracing myself for bullying and harassment this year, considering that there are still students who are probably feeling quite threatened by this change in power structure," Severus warned.

"My friends and I don't tolerate bullying and never have. I won't let anyone bully them, and they don't let anyone bully me. I'd rather make friends anyway, I don't like fighting," Quintin said firmly.

"Up until now, you've been relatively sheltered and your world of experience has been quite contracted," Severus replied. "But as your world grows and you become more aware of those outside of your bubble, you are going to find that not everyone is going to mold to that belief. In fact, if it wasn't for how close you keep to those who are loyal to you, you would have already begun realizing that things aren't that easy. Just remember that when those conflicts start, you have plenty of advisors in this school to go to when you feel backed into a corner."

Quintin frowned at how certain his father was that it was only a matter of time before he got into a conflict that he couldn't run from or use his friends as a wall to get out of. He glanced at his mother, equally surprised when she thinking so as well. Her thoughts drifted to the little girl who made his friends bleat like sheep during the Spectral Ball, deciding to check the book in Hermione's office to see when to expect her.

"I'm not giving up," Quintin said firmly, waiting for his father to open the door. "I'm going to do everything I can to make as many friends as possible... by understanding their point of view, and making them see that they don't have to fight. There are better ways of solving problems."

"I remember when your brother Andrew used to say that. Because of those beliefs, he allowed the bullies to run his life and completely embarrassed himself and his family in an incident I personally won't get over," Severus said, Quintin looking up with a frown. "Promise me that you won't do the same thing, Quintin. Don't let your convictions enable those who want to humiliate you and give them permission to make you suffer. I don't think I could take watching that again," he admitted, picking Seren up so he could take her through the Doorlift.

"You do realize just how sincere that was, I hope," Jennifer asked Quintin.

"Yes, Mum," Quintin replied, and the two of them stepped through as well.

Not long after Seren was in the nursery, Quintin cut through his rooms over to the common room to see Jeremy pacing in front of the team while he gave them an over-the-top berating, the five students sitting there looking sheepish and downtrodden. Most of the other house members had tiptoed over to the research corner, attempting to get some last minute homework done for their Thursday classes.

"I know we're just first years, but that doesn't mean we can't make a better showing! I know they're looking at the extra games as easy wins, but we don't have to give it to them. Let's make them work for it!" Jeremy said in an effort to rally them. The Quidditch team, however, didn't really look very rallied. "Quintin? We have one more game in two weeks, the last one we'll have before spring. Can't we schedule a few more practices so we can be ready? We could put the research off for two more weeks, right?"

"No," Quintin said, immediately bursting his bubble. "Adding more practices at this point would waste valuable time for a game that we have no hope in winning without a major catastrophe. We play Ravenclaw next." There were groans from the team.

"Quintin's right, we have no hope in defeating Ravenclaw. Kendrick is the best Seeker in the entire school," Curt complained. "Not only that, but they have Rus Clemmons, who's a Truth Seeker, and Culver Maxen, who may as well be a Truth Seeker as good as his Legilimens training is. There is no way we could possibly come close. It's not worth wasting our time preparing for a match when we should be worrying about our homework and helping Quintin with the research, because I for one am right tired of being called Team Purple instead of a real name."

"Extra practice doesn't have to be a full team decision," Quintin replied quickly, seeing that Jeremy felt that the team was taking Quintin's side. "Jeremy, if you want to practice more, I'm sure there are others here that wouldn't mind practicing with you... including some who aren't on the team but want to be on the team next year," Quintin suggested.

"Oh, I want to go, Jeremy! I really want to make the team next year!" Oscar immediately spoke up from the students at the tables.

"Me too," Pippa said.

"I don't mind going as well," Libby offered. "I could use more practice before the game too."

Quintin smiled at that, making his way over to the homework table. Jeremy sighed and resignation as they discussed when they should meet up.

When Quintin met up with Ambrose in the library, Ambrose was in the Owl Room helping Boulderdash double-check the recent donations for the auction in case anything questionable came up.

"You would think that such an important headmaster in this history of school as Dusthorn would have more written about her," Quintin complained. "I haven't learned anything more than my original essay I did for History class. How come there's so little knowledge about her other than the painting itself?"

"I think you're looking in the wrong place, and for the wrong thing," Ambrose explained. "See, you're not going to find any book that talks about her family or background before she came to the school, because Caprica Dusthorn and Helga Hufflepuff intentionally hid it. Caprica was Half-Pooka, and in those days, that was considered one of the worst things you could be. But since she looked human, it wasn't hard for them to hide it."

"Was it worse than being Muggle born?" Quintin asked darkly, remembering what Icarus had said.

"Yes it was, because they were considered incredibly bad luck. Back then, they believed that misfortune followed them all their lives, and that it affected everyone around them," Ambrose explained.

"Sort of like how Leu once thought he was bad luck?" Quintin asked.

"In a way, yes," Ambrose replied. "Have you covered Pookas in your classes yet?" he asked, and Quintin shook his head. "They're originally from Tir Na Nog... a Fae creature from the deepest part of the Forest of the Sidhe that can become any living creature they choose with a thought. In their natural habit, they go from place to place, changing from birds to beasts, even different types of Fae, and they have magic that allows them to communicate with everything they've shape-changed into. They're also adapted to mate in any form. Typically, the male changes into the female's preferred form, but it can happen the other way around too. Generally, however, it's the male that's the pursuer, driven by instinct to find a perfect mate. But here on this side of the portal, there aren't all that many of them, and the few that are here can be very spread out. Because of that, they don't really look for other Pookas to be their mates anymore. Instead, they take a preferred form and find mate in that species, be it human, deer, cat, troll... you name it. So, a Half-Pooka's other half could be just about any creature you can think of. Because they can do that, they used to be considered evil abominations, and since they're so good at disguising themselves and never reveal their true form, it's considered extremely unlucky to get seduced to by one. And, it was common belief that bad luck was passed on to the child," he explained, finishing the list and setting it aside. "I think it's likely that was further strengthened by the fact that Half-Pookas have a lot of Wild Magic that's often really hard to control. It's likely that untrained children probably display a lot of crazy magic. But at some point, Helga became aware of a girl with a special gift for medicinal herbs and sought her out. After seeing Caprica's strength with magic, Hufflepuff took her in as an apprentice to help nurture her natural interest in healing and magical plants and their properties."

"Do you have any books that say all of that?" Quintin asked.

"Um, well, I can find a book on Pookas and Half-Pookas easily enough, and if you need Caprica's birthday, there's a journal in the Hufflepuff Common room that Hufflepuff wrote, talking about her apprentice and her promise in healing properties in plants," Ambrose replied. "As for confirming she's Half-Pooka, that came from her painting. Since she was attempting to hide her past, you won't find any mention of it in any of Dusthorn's text books. All she ever wrote down was her work."

"Just like O'Laren then," Quintin said with a sigh.

"Exactly alike. They never wrote about anything personal at all, that knowledge comes only from their paintings and a few mentions in Janus Craw's journals," Ambrose confirmed.

"Oh. Perhaps I should look at those, then?" Quintin asked.

"Not yet. Don't forget that you promised you would go in a certain order," Ambrose reminded him, getting up. "Let's go get the books in the main library first, and I'll write a note to Professor Scribe about the Hufflepuff book. Did you want me to get you any of the books Dusthorn wrote on Healing Herbs?" he asked.

"I've checked one of them out already," Quintin said, following him out. "I don't suppose she wrote anything other than in Herbology and Healing Potions?"

"Well, there is one other book, but it's a bit cumbersome. You might want to get a book cart," Ambrose suggested.

"Why do I need a cart?" Quintin asked curiously.

"Because it's the original copy of Hogwarts School of Wizardry Rules and Regulations," Ambrose explained. Staring at him for a moment, Quintin wisely took his advice and went to get a book cart.

If Jeremy thought his Quidditch training session was a challenge, it was nothing compared to what he stepped into the common room after classes. There were giant tomes on one of the study tables that were so big that they took up more than half of the table.

"What in the world are you doing? Are those Gideon Bibles or old Websters?" Jeremy asked, gawking at them incredulously.

"These are the school's rulebooks," Quintin said, and Jeremy's jaw dropped. "This tome here is the current rulebook, and this is a copy of one of the originals," he explained.

"How come the original is so much bigger?" Jeremy asked, stepping closer.

"Because it's handwritten," Quintin explained. "It has about half the rules that the current one does, really. And there is a forward section," he added, flipping to the front of the book. "Basically, Caprica is explaining that this book is a consolidation of the rules put in place for the school by the four founders, along with rules added on by the faculty council to provide guidance for 'future masters of the school and its students.'"

"Huh... that almost sounds like she put that in there in case someone questioned their legitimacy," Jeremy said thoughtfully, looking it over.

"What makes you say that?" Quintin asked curiously.

"Think about what we've learned so far from both O'Lauren and that class we had with Professor Ravenclaw about just how bad the politics were at the time," Jeremy said seriously. "I think she wrote that so everyone knew that she wasn't the one who had made the rules; she was just formalizing them."

"You know what? I think you're right," Quintin realized, nodding at him. "Mr. Tinker told me that Professor Dusthorn had to keep the fact that she was Half-Pooka a secret from everyone, because they ostracized them for being bad luck. So, she might have put that in there just in case anybody ever found out about it and tried to condemn the rules because she wrote them."

"Well, she still has books in the library that are in her name, right?" Libby Martin pointed out. "I guess that means nobody ever found out."

"I'm sure they didn't. If they had, someone would have hidden the fact that she was appointed Headmaster," Quintin decided.

"What's this council thing they're speaking of? The school board maybe?" Jeremy guessed.

"Oh, I saw that mentioned in Hogwarts, a History," Pippa offered. "During the first two centuries that the school was running, there was a council made up of the faculty, the members of which were strictly controlled," she explained. "See, the faculty used to consist of exactly three teachers that graduated from each house and three from outside of the school... plus the Headmaster or Headmistress, making sixteen altogether. If a teacher from Slytherin left, for example, they'd always be replaced by another Slytherin. It was a way to make sure that none of the houses views were slighted in any way."

"I see. It was a way to try and stem off the infighting," Jeremy said with a nod.

"Eventually the Headmasters started to hate the restrictions, and they finally broke up the council in favor of a council of advisors made up of alumni," Pippa explained. "Apparently, the advisory council didn't have any true power; the Headmasters of that era could do what they liked regardless of their advice. That lasted until the Ministry of Magic was formed, who wanted to have a say of their own on where the education system was going, so the board of governors was established. They're in charge of insuring student safety, budget oversight, and that sort of thing."

"That's what we have now," Quintin explained.

"Got it," Jeremy said. "So when did they change that bit having equal teachers and all of that?"

"There's no mention of it past the thirteenth century, so I'm guessing that rule was taken out at the same time as the advisory council was put in place," Pippa replied.

"Still, the damage was done, wasn't it?" Quintin murmured.

"What damage?" Libby asked.

"Even if we don't know all of the details yet, we know from what we've learned so far that Slytherin had an obsessive nature with purist ideals, just like we know that Voldemort, his heir, used those ideals to justify a lot of what he was doing," Quintin said, glancing around the table. "When Slytherin died, he still had a lot of students and followers that were loyal to him... so much so that they built that elaborate tomb for him in the forest. They must have blamed Icarus for everything and labeled Slytherin as a victim of Ick's madness. If they had thought of Slytherin as a criminal, the body would have been thrown in a ditch or on a pyre or something. But people still revered him," Quintin pointed out. "His influence was so strong even after his death that Dusthorn had no way of fighting it."

"So he became a martyr of sorts," Jeremy concluded.

"If Dusthorn had even tried to condemn Slytherin for his deeds, she would probably have been removed from her post or even murdered by one of his loyalists," Quintin conjectured. "Keeping a faculty council with equal say and giving them so control over what the headmaster could and couldn't do was a political move, to keep them from questioning her right to be there. Since the other three founders appointed Dusthorn into the position, she knew that the council members from Slytherin couldn't force her out. But at the same time, they were guaranteed seats at the table, so she couldn't force them out either."

"I bet it wasn't her job preservation or safety that she was worried about," Pippa said, flipping through the Hogwarts, A History Addendum. "I think Dusthorn was worried about the school falling apart. Why else would she have spent so much time on this thing?" she asked, gesturing towards the Hogwarts rulebook.

"True. This is not the labor of someone who doesn't care," Jeremy agreed. "In fact, I get hand cramps just looking at the thing."

"They probably had some sort of Dictation Charms back then too, you know," Libby pointed out.

"Don't throw off the image! Jeez," Jeremy said. Libby rolled her eyes at him and then focused on Quintin as he compared them.